Settling Into Being a Mom in Kathmandu

I've resigned myself to the fact that I live in Kathmandu.  Someone asked me today, "do you live in Kathmandu?", and I found myself saying 'yes' and really meaning it.  I know it's temporary, but for all practical purposes, I do in fact, live here.  Weird.

It's been a super busy past week.  Since receiving an RFE I have been diligently and thoroughly researching my best options for dealing with getting the information I need.  As of yesterday I have hired someone in Nepal who is very qualified to conduct my field investigation, and as you know, have also hired an extremely wonderful Lawyer in the States to tell me what I need, and who will put it all together. That feels really good.  A little of stress is relieved knowing that I have done the best I can.  Thanks to everyone's donations I am actually able to do this.  Wow.  How grateful I feel.  No, I don't know how long any of this is going to take.  I truly don't.

Someone asked me recently  how Pukar and I communicate?  At first, with only him speaking Nepali and me only speaking English it was difficult, somehow we managed somehow to make it work.  But as time has passed, I know way more Nepali, and he is  constantly asking me, "mommy ke ho?" (What's this/that?)... and we name things everywhere we go, repeating words and phrases over and over.  At first it was only nouns but we have started moving into a few verbs, colors, and numbers.  Kids this age are fast at learning and whip smart.  He grabs my hand to show me things, or to lead me places when I don't get it.  Hearing him talk is so cute... the little hippo that he calls "happy' and sometimes 'hippy', or hearing him say 'dinosaur' (wow, 3 syllables) or the way he loves to start taking off his clothes the moment I say 'bath' or the way he names everything, 'Pukar's car, Pukar's owee, Pukar's plane" as he points to himself.   We both use body language is we don't know the word.  Pretty cute.  We are good at making each other laugh and great and showing affection.  And wow, check this out...he just sneezed and said, "bless you".  I'm telling you....soooo cute!!!  And for the record, he just started showing interest in books, so now we can read at night which helps immensely on vocabulary.

When I first got him I thought, what on earth am I going to do with myself 24/7 with a little kid by my side.  Now I go to bed at night and can't wait for morning so I can see his little face again.  We have so much fun together, and he is happier, it seems, day by day.  His face is so much more animated and bright than when I look back at the photos of him in the orphanage, which have this almost hollow, sad look to them.  It's amazing.

Living with DeeDee and Bina is super great.  We are a good team.  Imagine living on the other side of the planet with a total stranger and her kid.  It's like some kind of international mom exchange student dorm situation...but lucky for us it works.  I love our new place...everything except the ants. We seem to have an insane amount of tiny ants that appear for no reason.  Of course the best part of all is the fabulous view!!! :-)))

I know you probably wonder what I do all day, but I'm telling you we seem to be super busy... today I had to meet my in country rep to try to get some more documents, then lunch, then needing to get a few things for the house, then home to nap, then I need to find a fax machine and photocopier, and more food, and then whew, tired... and it seems everyday there are tons of little things to do.  And everything takes FOREVER.  For instance, it took me two fax shops, four tries, 20 minutes of walking in traffic, and a lot of standing around to send two faxes.  This morning I called my bank to talk about my cashcard and it took about 3 minutes.  I ended the call with "wow, I love America".  In Nepal that would have took me half a day...and I'm not kidding.

That's the update !!!!  Miss you all...Jenni & Pukar