Things that go bump in the night

Last night, as I was writing the previous post, Nina lay in bed with Lillian and a faint, but constant chatter could be heard the entire time.  As I climbed into bed with them, I realized that Lillian was up and down, playing with her doll and seemingly miles from sleep.  Unfortunately, that was not the case for Nina and I.  As we trailed off to sleep, we heard a fairly substantial "thump" and knew immediately that she had fallen off the bed.  The only question was "on what body part had she landed?"  As the lights came on, we saw that she had fallen face first and the tip of her nose showed the wear.  This, in conjunction with the healing insect bite under her eye left her looking like she had just finished 15 rounds with Manny Pacquiao,

"Yeah, but you should see the other guy"

 It was not the look we were hoping for with the consulate appointment this morning.  However, a little bruising wasn't going to keep us from our appointed rounds. The consulate was housed an aging low-rise office building.  Once within its dedicated area, we passed through two minor security checkpoints into a waiting room with about 10 other families - most of whom we recognized from the hotel, though none were from our agency.

We sat in the dark room, which contained some playthings, for about 15 minutes when an American voice came over the loud speaker from a man behind a bank teller-type window.  He described the process and asked all the adoptive parents to rise and raise their right hands.  We swore or affirmed that all of the information contained in our materials was true to the best of our knowledge.  Then they began calling families by name to come to the windows for review.  We were among the first families called.  We stood as a clerk reviewed our paperwork.  She handed several documents back and told us we were done.  A relief. Tomorrow, our representative will pick up Lillian's visa and we will be good to go for our Friday flight.

We returned to the hotel for a little play time.  Lillian is quite attached to a doll we purchased yesterday.  It goes by the name "Baby."

Lillian feeding Baby

 Then we went down for a swim.  Lillian continues to get a little more comfortable in the water each day.

Then, nap time.

For dinner, we followed the concierge's recommendation for a Cantonese restaurant.  I suspect he would not have recommended it, had he seen me with the kids when I asked, as it was a little too fancy.  In the same mall, there was a Malaysian restaurant that seemed a little more our speed.

Before noodles.

During noodles.

I will spare you the "after noodles" picture. 

You may notice that Lillian wore some fabulous dresses today.  Nina is having a good time dressing a girl!