A Princess Born of India: July 2011

Zoobilee 2011 - Pat and I went out to the adult event,

but the girls wanted to dress up in their special Indian clothes too.

Summer, for lack of a better word, given the state of the weather, is in full swing. This is the time of the year when every weekend square on my desk calendar has at least three items penciled in and to spy even one empty square of pure white during the week is rare. I love this time of year; filled to capacity with activity which finds all four of us falling into bed each night exhausted, full and usually with dirty feet. Well, all but Treya who still prizes her very own pair of shoes.

In the midst of flitting here and there, Devi still finds ample time to contemplate the darnedest things. While driving to a recent family reunion she asked, “Mommy, are you going to heaven soon?” “No, I will be around for a long long time. I will probably still be here long after you get married and have your own babies”. Pausing, she asked, “Daddy are you going to heaven soon?” Daddy chuckled a “no” back. Without missing a beat she said, “Well, are you sure daddy? You’re getting pretty old!”

While on our way to some other function, we passed a stone church that must have looked like a castle to Devi. She asked about the church a bit and as soon as she heard that our good friends Di Anna and Tim were married there, her decision was firm. That church is where she plans to get married. I asked if she had a groom in mind, to which she quickly responded, “I am marrying Rowan.” I asked, “Has he asked you to be his bride?” With a furrowed brow she responded, “No, not yet, but he will and it is going to be a love marriage, momma, not the other kind”. When I asked, “How do you know it is going to be a love marriage?” She quickly retorted, “Because I love him!” Well, of course, how dim could I be? ;)

Devi has also started to become very aware of her own story. While I was braiding her hair one night, she told me that she thought she should not live here, but should move to India. When I asked why she said that she wanted to keep all the babies company that she lived with at ISRC. I had to explain that none of them live in India anymore. She thought about that awhile and said that she thought the ayahs might miss her, because she thinks she misses them. I assured her that I was certain that they probably do miss her because they loved her very much, but they understood that their job was only to take care of her until daddy and I could come for her. Then she asked why her birth mother did not stay there with her until we came for her. I don’t know how she knew that Jhuma did not live there, but I explained that it was a home for babies, not birth mothers which seemed to satisfy that thought.

She is also obsessed at times with the whole idea of India’s impoverished. We’ve had lots of conversation about how she would like to give the money in her piggy bank to kids in India. She often asks if she lived in India would she be tapping on the windows of idling cars at stop lights asking for money like the kids she saw when we were there. The driving thought behind this isn’t her concern for food, but rather a home. She would like to buy all the children a home.

A family day at the zoo. Feeding the budgies!

Treya’s verbal skills are improving all the time, but we still find ourselves asking her multiple times what she is talking about. She uses the same utterance to mean many things and it is only through inflection that we figure out what she is saying. Take “bip” for instance...for her it means lip, zip - as in zip my coat please, the tip of something like a rough fingernail or a tiny bite. When ordering her own meal while dining out, something that we make our children do, she usually orders titen bips.. You guessed it...chicken strips! Our job is to figure out what she needs or wants from the one or two words, before she gets frustrated and starts yelling BIP at us. Again, how dim could I be? ;)

While on the subject of food, let me just say that someday I would love to visit Hidden Valley Ranch. I need to find out what it is that is put into that dressing that makes kids love it so much. Devi recently chose carrots dipped in ranch over Oreo cookies. Yes, you heard me right. Treya would love nothing more than to dip her fingers as a method of consuming the irresistible and creamy condiment, or better yet, dip the Oreos! In any case she will continue to bip, bip, bip, which when said three times in quick succession means, none other than dip, dip, dip!

Fourth of July was spent with friends at the Freedom Fair.
Here the girls watch the airshow overhead and wave their
flag when a plane flies past.

Fun at the Jazz Festival

Today is Treya’s 2 and a HALF year birthday. That means she has been home 6 months, which is very hard to comprehend. We had a small celebration with a half sized cake - her first time to blow out candles. I must admit that I feel incredibly guilty for not throwing her a welcome home party of some sort, but realize given the severity of her shyness in the beginning, it would have been more for me than her. We've begun the finalization process, so most likely will celebrate her home coming with the legalization of the adoption, which seems rather fitting.

Face painting at the Jazz Festival

A break in the rain prompted this impromptu and first picnic dinner of the summer

Finally, the result of wearing Treya's corrective shoes has added two new accomplishments. She has learned to run and now understands the concept and attempts to JUMP, although she is not quite able to get both feet off the ground at the same time yet. She also has started swimming lessons, and just like Devi has taken to water like a guppy. A natural, her rotund little belly has bolstered her confidence at floating on both her stomach and back, while poor Dev must still keep all her long and lean body parts moving or she will begin to sink.