A restful weekend

This weekend, my husband and I decided to have a little getaway, to rest and relax. We found a very good deal at a local hotel, and decided to have a weekend away from, phones, people, and all busyness. So, we are just goofing off, watching some movies, reading, and being together.

Interestingly enough, in our attempt to "getaway", we have met or "run into" a number of interesting people. Two very interesting people that I met were an American lady and her newly adopted 5 year old daughter from this country. (I guess international adoption is happening more and more in many countries, this one no exception.) They are staying at the same hotel as us. We first met them down at the hotel's main restaurant..... Anne came to get her new little daughter by herself.... speaking nothing beyond "hello" of the local language. Her little daughter speaks no english. So, Anne came, took care of some paper work, took her back to the hotel, and just like that, they are family.

Now, they do have to do a couple more things before leaving the country, but pretty soon they'll be back in the states, going on with their new life together. I had a bright idea that maybe I could help with things a little by giving Anne a list of some helpful words that she could use to communicate. Like, "tired?", "hungry?", "I love you", etc... so I did just that. It was so much fun to be helpful with the little language ability I have.

I think that Anne quite appreciated the list when I delivered it to her room. I also think that she was in need of some english speaking company after being with this new little person in a foreign country by herself for a good 4 or 5 days. We had a good visit and she told me all about how things had been for her in the whole adoption process. She was very thrilled about her new little one, but at the same time, it's a big decision to suddenly have a new child, and to go to a foreign land to get her. An adventure yes, but also an intense experience.

I found Anne to be a lovely person, even though I just met her. What I enjoyed the very most though was little Emma...her new little daughter. It was amazing that, though everything that was familiar to her was being taken away, she was so happy, and adjusting very quickly. You could tell that despite the language barrier, there was quite a bond formed already between mother and daughter, Emma was radiantly happy with her new mom.

It is a little sad that Emma will likely lose all of her native language, as I don't think her mom knows anyone right now who speaks her language who could speak it with her. It's a little sad to lose that, but at the same time, she is gaining a loving family, and that's more important.

A whole new journey has just begun for that little girl. Part of that journey will be learning english. It was kinda neat that I got her to say one of her first english words ... I taught her to say "Banana"!

It's pretty amazing also how much they communicated to each other without any common words. It seemed that the little girl could let her needs be known quite well. (she is smart) Her need to go to the bathroom, hunger, etc.... and it was very easy to read the delight in her. Although a quieter little girl, she was quite giddy when I was visiting them. Smiling, laughing and giggling. You could tell she was basking in all the one on one attention. She was very happy to be held by her mom. She also wanted to show me all kinds of things, pictures, and papers, a few new toys....etc... Her mom showed me a new outfit that she bought for her (as the little girl is very small for her age, all the clothes that Anne brought with her were way too big.) Emma pointed to the outfit and then pointed to herself. She was really cute.

So, that was kind of a fun part to the day today. Now we are just kicking back. Relaxing. It's nice. My husband is watching a movie that I've never heard of before. It's a Disney channel type movie.

That's all for now!