Little "Z" Day!

Both of us are writing this one! We picked up Zaleeya/Pratima this afternoon, after a nervous night and morning. We had a nice quiet breakfast at the hotel, and then we headed off in our hired car to the orphanage. We met with Mrs. Roy the woman who has run the Orphanage for the last 20 years. She is a truly wonderful person and we could tell that all the women who worked there, love the children very much.

We were expecting to go in and see Zaleeya/Pratima after finishing our paperwork which took about 45 minutes, however one of the Ayahs (caretakers) brought her in to see us instead. We were totally caught by suprise (in a good way) and finally set our eyes on the daughter we've been waiting for for so long. She was a scared at first which was expected, and clinged to her Ayah while we got a little closer. She went to Zeena for a bit, then Azeem and then the chaos began of taking pictures. We were taking photos and videos of all the waiting children, and since we are one of the first few families traveling after a long break we had a LOT to take! The children were all super adorable- hopefully we did ok for all the Dillon families waiting for their children.

We handed Zaleeya/Pratima back to her caretakers for another hour while we rode with Ms Roy to the other facility where the special needs children are taken care of. I must admit, this was a tougher part of the day. Those children there definately seemed to need a lot of love and care.

Then we headed back to pick up Zaleeya/Pratima for good. Luckily she had fallen asleep while we were gone which made her a lot more mellow for the car ride home. She rested on mommy's chest for the ride. Since then we've managed 2 diaper changes and a yummy banana/milk meal. She is taller than we expected- very long and skinny arms and legs! She is obviously very traumatized and upset and crying a lot. We hope this will subside in time. I think we are all a bit shellshocked! We are feeling very sad for her as we know she misses her ayahs.

That's all for now. Hopefully we'll get some pics up of her smiling soon!