Shortly after I published the last post, Maria and I were eating breakfast when Gloria came in and said "we are going to the hogar in 30 minutes and we can stay for two hours". Oh my gosh!!! I wasn't ready! I still had on my nasty clothes from yesterday, hadn't brushed my hair (or my teeth) and had no way of doing that since I didn't have my luggage.....no deodorant (and it's hot here) but oh well.........we were going! Gloria got us permission to come and visit and then to return first thing Monday morning just to deliver the stockings.
The visit was wonderful! The kids are beautiful (including one very special snotty nosed little girl) and they are just starving for attention! I would guess there were between 40 and 50 kids from age 4 and down outside playing when we arrived and just 4 women trying to be care giver, referee, booboo soother and play partner. An impossible task! They do their best but the odds are a little overwhelming. It took Maria a few minutes to adjust to being mobbed by so many little ones but soon she was right in there playing and having a good time. She didn't recognize Nola so I had to point her out. We had had several talks about not being able to spend all of our time with Nola so as not to call attention to our relationship with her. Maria was great! She talked with Nola for a few minutes, I got a few quick snapshots, then she came over to me and said softly "we have to bring baby Nola home soon momma". I had to hold back the tears (not an easy task for me). The time went by much too fast and we had to leave. As we walked out, Nola was eating a bowl of pasta of some sort and when we walked past, she offered me a handful. I wish I had had my camera out at that point, but I didn't.
She had on mismatched shoes. She wasn't very clean but she is talking quite a bit and played very well with the other kids. As hard as it was to see her like that, I wouldn't trade those two hours for anything.
Now for news on our case. Thursday, I went straight from the airport to PGN. What an experience! Mayra took me in, talked to all the right people and after several hours, they finally found our file. It was in a stack of files that "no one is checking on" said the PGN official who finally found it. He said if the lawyer doesn't come to check on the case, the file sits with nothing done. They work on cases that people push them to work on first. He told me the judge had ordered them to try to locate family who may want Nola. He said if the investigation is finished and they find no family, our lawyer could ask to get the court date moved up. The investigation has to be finished and it hasn't been started yet, thanks to my lawyer who isn't doing anything with our case. To say I was unhappy was a severe understatement! Today at 3:00 I'm supposed to meet with a different lawyer and see what he can do to help us. We'll see how that goes.
Please keep praying! This process is so hard on these poor children! Little Kinsey is having a very hard time this trip. She wasn't feeling well, which didn't help the situation, but the longer this process drags on, the harder it is on her and all of the children. We have to pray them home!!!
I'll try to post after speaking with the lawyer.
A job well done!!
