Happy Anniversary

One year ago today I met Valerie and Henry. It was at breakfast, they were at the table next to me. (Ingrid had come the previous afternoon with her foster parents, but she didn't stay overnight that first day, she only stayed like 2 hours.) I remember being so excited that they had good plantains and black beans at breakfast, so I was excited because I had a toasted roll with leftover beans for breakfast like every day when I lived in Mexico. The waiter asked if I wanted my coffee "americano," which simply meant if I wanted milk with it. Funny how I can remember the specifics of what I ate last year, but I can barely remember this past Saturday. (Oh, yeah, I remember. That was the day from craft hell.)

After breakfast I went back up to my room to get ready more for Ingrid. Her foster family was coming for lunch, and then Ingrid was going to be staying with me. Ingrid, the foster mom, the foster sister, and one of the family's biological daughters arrived first at like 12:30, and the other biological daughter arrived with the dad a little later. I remember when Ingrid first saw me, she ran to me and jumped into my arms. The foster sister (only 2 years old) kept looking at me strange, like she knew she didn't know who I was but she didn't understand why everyone else was hugging and kissing me hello. I sat next to Ingrid. We all had the buffet. The foster mom picked out Ingrid's food, because she said she knew what Ingrid liked to eat. (She didn't eat a lot, just some soup and a little bit of chicken, but she did enjoy her cake for dessert. The foster sister, on the other hand, ate a lot. She even had seconds! The family called her "la gordita," which sounds really mean but it's a term of endearment.) The biological daughters asked me a lot of questions about what Ingrid's life will be like in America, about school and playing and the house (they had seen the pictures). The foster mom asked me about the snow and how the car is able to start when it's that cold. (I'm so spoiled, only ever had new cars that I purchased. The longest I've ever kept a car is 7 years, never even reached 100,000 miles.) After lunch, the fosters left and Ingrid stayed with me. She was excited to stay.

First thing we did was went up to the room where she checked out all of her clothes. I picked a bathing suit for her (I bought three!), the one with the little hula skirt because I thought it was just so cute. And Valerie had told me it was kind of cold in the pool and I wanted a picture of Ingrid in that suit in case she decided the pool was too cold to go in again. We got to the pool, and who was there but Angel, Kaitlyn, Zoe, and Polka Dot! Ingrid had a hard time with the pool because she wanted to show me her swimming but the pool wasn't really meant for 4 year olds. There was either the baby pool (too shallow for my big girl) or the adult pool (no way for her to stand on her own). Plus, she hated the hula skirt. We stayed at the pool less than half an hour.

Back to the room. She picked out her own outfit, I had gotten her like ten outfits and the first one she chose herself was the pink Yankees outfit. I think it's because it had the most pink, but lets just say it's because it said "Yankees." :-) Back down to the lobby, we were waiting to exchange money and I saw Valerie again. I introduced her to Ingrid (because when we talked during breakfast I was childless). Valerie said, "Oh, you're Waiting for Ingrid?" She had read my blog, and I thought that was just the coolest thing ever.

Ingrid and I played in the room, we colored, we did bubbles, and she took two baths. During the second bath, she wanted me to take pictures because she was having so much fun in a real bathtub! We did bubbles in the bath, she had a bubble bath but wanted me to blow bubbles also because that's what the foster mother called a bubble bath (burbujas = bubbles). We went back down to the restaurant for dinner. Ingrid got chicken fingers (deditos de pollo) and fries. She tried to show me her food to make me laugh, so I told her we were going to pretend we're elegant ladies having dinner (damas elegantes). Ingrid would say, Yo soy una dama elegante, and then show me all of her food in her mouth and giggle. Yes, she was definitely a little parentified in the way she took care of Karen, but she was happily still just a four year old.

After dinner we watched TV and colored some more. She did not want to go to sleep! At one point, she asked me to watch TV. She said, "Quiero ver tele" (I want to watch TV), and I said, "Pues, yo quiero dormir" (well, I want to sleep). She's so smart! She said, "Tu duermes y yo miro tele" (You sleep and I'll watch TV). Eventually I just picked her up and walked her around the room for a few minutes, rocking her. She put her head on my shoulder and fell asleep. A four year old, I got to rock her to sleep. Adopting an older child, I didn't think I'd get that chance, but I did.

* * * * * * * * * *
Good news, Betsy. The "fire" is back.