Answered Prayers

Since I last wrote, we travelled to New Delhi and had Evelyn’s visa medical appointment. We asked you to pray that Evelyn would not have to have the three-day test and the doctor approved of doing just the one-day regular medical exam!! That means we do not have to take Evelyn to the doctor three days in a row and she doesn’t have to fast every morning until the test!! We will work with the U of M Adoption Medicine Clinic when we return home to confirm all her needs, but we are so grateful to not have to make her go through the tests while we are still such a fresh family. Thank you for praying!! 

Despite the great news of the morning, the rest of our Monday was pretty hard. We wanted to get Evelyn an early lunch since she had not had breakfast, but we misjudged Indian lunch time and places nearby weren’t open. Then when we finally ordered we didn’t get what we expected. We recovered from lunch and got Evelyn down for a nap in the hotel room, during which David went out to begin the process of securing our exit visas. She had been such a sure sleeper at nap time we thought this plan would work. Instead, she woke up after a short while to find Dave gone and just me and cried for an hour. The whole time she had to have a visual on the door and was reaching her arms toward it. When Dave finally returned, she collapsed on his shoulder in exhausted relief and slept another hour. I was ready to do the same.  So you can see that her connection to me has not yet taken much improvement. Today she was resistant to nap and after struggling for a bit, Dave asked me to take a turn. After just five minutes with me she readily returned to David and fell fast asleep. I guess she weighed her options and thought sleeping for Dad would be better than being held by Mom. We can tell that some of the importance of our time cocooning at home will be to make sure she is comfortable with me and will receive food from me. (She refuses most food unless it’s offered from David.) 

Without the medical test this morning, we decided to brave an outing to the India Gate. After all, there was “only” a 30% chance of rain, it was “only” 95 and “only” felt like 105 with the humidity. Call us crazy, but like I had practiced with Kira before we came here, we did our “India walk” and brought water. I observed from previous trips that Indians walk very slowly, unlike Minnesotans. Where in Minnesota we are almost always cold and therefore walk fast, walking at an Indian pace avoids breaking out in any more sweat than necessary. This is a tricky pace to keep when you are eager to get away from the dozens of people trying to sell you toys and charge you to take your picture. We left the Gate, its gardens, and its children’s play park after a while and got pizza and ice cream nearby. If you’re curious how we’re getting around, we’re primarily using Ubers which are ridiculously affordable, abundantly available, and have many safety protocols built in to ensure you’re entering the right vehicle and can track the route as you go. 

With Evelyn down for a nap, we feel like today has been thus far successful. Or at least, less emotionally draining. Tomorrow we will go first thing in the morning to the U.S. Embassy for Evelyn’s visa interview. It feels so good to be checking things off and knowing home is not so far off.