So today is the day… We are officially a family of four! We went to the ministry in the afternoon to sign the paperwork and received the adoption decree making Sandeep a Hastings-Kimball! We now introduce to you Sandeep Mathis Hastings-Kimball! With little fanfare, we then we went off to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs again to try to start on Sandeep’s travel documents but we were unsuccessful. We were told to come back on Monday.
Things here have been pretty uneventful otherwise, which we have to say, we are kind of happy about. Everyone seems to be feeling pretty good and we have been doing a lot of waiting for phone calls and playing with the few toys we have. Our days of late have consisted of getting up and having breakfast, playing, nap time, playing, lunch and hoping for a phone call to tell us that we are going to do something. If we are lucky, we get out for an hour or two and then back for afternoon nap, play, dinner, bath, then bed. We have not been able to really do anything “touristy” since information seems to be on a very need to know basis and apparently we don’t need to know. This makes it difficult to try to plan anything at all. We don’t think it’s anyone’s fault, it’s just the way of life here.
With regards to food, I never thought I’d say I am sick of Indian or Chinese food but I am certainly sick of crappy Indian and Chinese food. We are doing quite a bit of day dreaming of home… food, tv, our own bed. Alisha and I are now experts on lions, snakes and insects since the only english tv channels we get are Animal Planet and Discovery. Somehow it doesn’t seem to be the same Discovery Channel we have at home since I haven’t seen a single home remodel, car overhaul or tattoo since we got here! Oh well, guess we’ll stick to the animals.
We are really looking forward to finally having the children experience home with lots of toys and plenty of space. Moving them beyond a 6 x 10 play area will dramatically expand their horizons. Even with the few toys and small play space, Shanti and Sandeep are being very creative. It is great to seethem making up their own little games to amuse themselves – and us. We wish we could understand what they are saying to each other. They have little conversations in Nepali where they are plainly setting up rules for their games. It’s really adorable to watch. We have learned how to do somersaults and play ring-around-the-rosy. Dressing up in mommy and daddy’s shoes is daily event complete with salutations of namaste, bye-bye, tah tah and salam. We are getting better at clean up, especially when we know that food is coming.
Saturday is the one day off a week here so we know nothing will be happening tomorrow. We hoping maybe tomorrow to get out and do a little something. We heard there is a zoo not far away so stay tuned.