Today’s visit with Mikaela was not quite what we were hoping for. Meghan is feeling much better, but we decided that she would stay home one more day. Gabriela stayed home with her, and Greg, Josiah and I set off for the orphanage. Once we got there, Greg took Josiah out to the playground and I went back to get Mikaela. When I got to her little room, the nannies made me understand that I needed to sit and wait for the doctor to come talk to me. This doctor speaks some English, and with a little patience, she can usually communicate anything she needs to. Once she arrived, she told me that Mikaela was doing better, but still had a little cough and was still receiving treatment. Because of that, it was important not to let her get too warm. She said that I needed to leave Mikaela in the stroller and not hold her at all today. She said there were two reasons for this. First, she would stay cooler in the stroller. Secondly, the doctor said being held made her “excited” and she acted out being happy. Then she said something like, “when children (she always uses the plural form to refer to Mikaela; I think she can’t remember the world child) come back – very sad. Not excited. Want mama, want mama, want mama.” Then she pretended to cry. From what we can tell, Mikaela must be getting cranky after our visits and giving them some trouble, so they don’t want us holding her right now. This was very disappointing to me, but I just kept trying to remind myself to be thankful to see her at all. I was able to take her out to the playground, so Josiah got to see her, but we couldn’t hold her at all today. She was very pleasant and played well in her stroller for the whole visit. It was so hard not to hold her, but she seemed happy to see us, and interacted well with us through the visit.  We are hoping that they will let us hold her again soon, but we don’t know what to expect.

Please pray that no one else will get sick, and that Meghan is truly over her sickness now. Also pray that they will let us take Mikaela to our apartment soon (maybe Monday???), and that we will be able to hold her again.