The hosptial hurldle...

We successfully navigated the hospital visit today (necessary for Ivy's VISA), despite some language barriers along the way. Our cab driver dropped us off at the wrong part of the huge hospital complex... and that stumped us for a bit, until a very kind (and thank God, English speaking) man came to our rescue. The hospital visit consisted of a few examinations and some shots. I had read on another family's blog that the shots were harder on Mama than they were on the kid... totally true. I had to pass her off to Brian because I didn't want my energy to upset her. She was a trooper, as usual and went to sleep soon after it was over. We enjoyed a beautiful taxi ride through the city on the way back to our lodging and plotted a walk to a nearby cafe for lunch.

After lunch, though, poor little Ivy seemed to wake up to the fact that she'd had some shots, and started to fret. It was a long afternoon of us taking turns comforting her, until she finally conked out about 45 minutes ago. It made us so sad to see her sad little face, and hear her sad little (sometimes big !!!) whimper. We're hoping that the memory of the shots fade into her dreams and that tomorow is more enjoyable for her.

At the same time, though, I enjoyed comforting her, rocking her fragile body until I felt her grow heavy with sleep. It was a nice afternoon of reading, and listening to the Ivy playlist on the Ipod speakers.

Tomorow is the interview with the officer at the embassy, and hopefully we will pick up the visa later in the afternoon. It will be another long day for Ivy, but an important one. It seems like our process with her has been a series of goals to attain, submitting our paperwork, our album arriving in Japan, getting news of our match, waiting for travel, waiting for placement, waiting for embassy approval... etc. the next goal after we get home will be to wait for our court date and for the adoption to become final. I guess life is full of those goals, though, for all of us. They won't stop when she becomes ours officially in the eyes of the law... we are dreaming up all kinds of goals for her every day now, as we make plans for her future. Will she play soccer? Where will she go to school?(Brian says Stanford...) What kind of a musical instrument will she learn, the piano with those graceful fingers?

So the only pictures I have for today are us in our outfits for the hospital visit, one rare quiet moment this afternoon when she wore herself out.... and an attempt of night photography with my unsophisticated camera with the aid of a tripod.

Sleep well, friends in the other time zones...