Meeting our Daughter Maya!

Approximately 3 years after making our decision to adopt we were going to meet our potential daughter-to-be at 10:00am. I had a hard time deciding what to bring in my bag of toys. We decided on the doll, ball, and crayons. We also brought the chocolates and coffees that we brought for the people that have taken care of Maya. Breakfast was okay - it was kind of a mix between the dutch breakfasts and an american continental breakfast, with some eastern european dishes thrown in. We found enough.


First, we met with the orphanage director and the social worker from the county. They asked us some questions about us, why we wanted to adopt, etc. Then they gave us some background on Maya. I won't share all of the information here since it is really her private medical information. However, she will most likely be shy, need encouragement in new situations, and will be scared around loud noises. -----Then off to meet Maya. Since she was so shy around people she didn't know, we asked to be able to see her in her normal environment before she met us. It was an unusual request and they didn't know how to do that without letting a few bio moms that were there see us, or us see the other kids. So it didn't quite work out.


They decided we should meet in the room she goes to for physical therapy since she is very comfortable in that room. What a sweetie. She was indeed very shy, but she really enjoyed playing ball and showing us the different things in the room that she liked to do. It was wonderful to have our translator and the county social worker there since they helped with the language issues. This is a picture of Maya on the first day we met her, playing with her new doll that they helped her name Mimi.


After a little bit we got to go outside and play in the back yard. She was really quiet and timid, but boy did she hold on to your hand and not let go. Our translator and the social worker were so good and breaking the ice with little kids. They kept asking her if it was okay to hold her hand and waited for her to say yes. There was a little table outside that she wanted to sit at. Before sitting down they would ask if it was okay to sit next to her. She told the social worker no, then yes she could sit at the chair leaving one in between. You could barely hear her talking she was mostly whispering. You just had to wonder how scary all of this was for her. We were able to communicate directly by helping her play with her doll. You can see her doll playing ball in the picture below.

After we started to play ball she opened up a bit, but the only word we really heard her say was "tak" and "ne". She went in for lunch around noon and then a nap. We could come back at 2:00 to play with her until 5:00.