Wednesday, May 23, 2007

I found a volunteer in Babies orphanage!

Oh I just LOVE the power of the internet! I found a dr that is volunteering with a group for 4 months there. She was at Paisley's orphanage a couple of months ago and went back again for a day a couple of weeks ago. I will post her comments about our little sunshine below. I had received a picture of her from a family that was adopting with our agency and it is a CLASSIC photo of her and her Nanny, or they call them Mothers. BUT I was so worried about her because her eye was all red and swollen! They said it looked better and they thought it was from a bug bite. So the Dr volunteer commented on it below.

"I saw your little girl yesterday and she is so big. She's looking really well except for a couple of infected mosquito bites on her head. It's been raining here all weekend so the mosquitos are really bad. The mothers are putting cream on it and I'm sure that they'll be better in a couple of days.
She's teething at the moment I think because she's drooling lots and wants to chew on anything that comes near her mouth. She's also a bit grizzly at the moment but normally is very happy (The volunteers here have nicknamed her 'Happy Buddha"). You'll need to bring quite large clothes with you when you come. She is wearing 9-12 month clothes at the moment.
She's not really sitting or standing at the moment and can't crawl yet. She's got really good head control and can roll over and reach for things. I expect she'll start sitting better soon.
The mothers aren't too keen on us taking photos of the babies (they are worried that you will think that they are ugly and not want them anymore) but I did find one from a couple of months ago of your little girl. We'll try to take a photo secretly of her in the next little while. I managed to get some of the others but not her. The orphanage did say that they have taken some photos more recently and will send them onto you. I'll put the photos that I have up onto shutterfly in the next day or so and send you the link (the files are fairly large and not easy to email).
We asked the mothers if they needed anything and they said that formula and nappies are the two big things that they always need. Both of these are easy to get here in Vietnam and cost about the same as at home. They have recently got a big donation of clothes so don't really need any of them and are fairly well stocked with medicines at the moment. They also have a very good collection of toys for the older kids but some books for us to read to them would be nice. Her eye definitely wasn't that red when we saw her yesterday so it must have been a bite or something that got better.
I'm trying to guess her weight and I'm not very good at that but to give you an idea she's about the same size as a lot of the babies that are crawling already so I'd say about 8 mth size or so. The top that she had on was definitely for a 9-12 month according to the label and it wasn't too big on her. I suppose the babies here are smaller than the babies at home so she probably is more like a big six month baby would be in America or England. She really is quite heavy when you pick her up, I'd have to guess about 7-8 kg in weight (about twice a new born baby)."

Isn't that the most precious thing to get in an email? "Happy Buddha"! I love it! That's my girl! Cannot wait to squeeze and love on all that baby fat!

No news yet on travel but I'm guessing it will be in June. Just a hunch. They keep saying we'll get short travel notice so be prepared. I just bought a few more things today and have most of what I need. Just need to get a bit more organized and mainly get things organized with my business. Love that paperwork!

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