She's a giggle-puss!

It's been an eventful 2 days! Yesterday we went to La Casa in the late morning. What a place! Not much to look at- not much has changed decor-wise since the '70's probably. But, the hearts of those who work there...beautiful. They care so much about Karen and by connection, us. Karen was transferred to La Casa in December when we expressed interest in adopting her, but you'd think she'd been there since she was an infant.

There was a lot of excitement...workers coming in and out...a little boy who returned for a visit after his adoption taking our pictures to show to Karen while she dressed. The director met with us and translated for us the verbal report from the psychologist. We asked to meet with her teacher too. Everyone had wonderful things to say about Karen, and gave us great information about her.

Soon, Karen came in. She was shy but came up to us right away. Unfortunately the language is a challenge. I do wish I'd been able to learn more. She was very quiet at first, but is warming up nicely. Joel got the ball rolling by hitting balloons around the room with her. Since yesterday, we have seen a happy girl- good natured, laughing and acting silly. She is also showing us a good sense of humor! She actually teases us too- we know this from her facial expressions because we don't always know what she is saying! Google Translate helps, and Merwyn has a background in Spanish.

The not so fun part is that she came to us with lice. La Casa said she was clear last week, but they saw it yesterday morning. I purchased some products from Rapunzels before we left and spent a couple hours (you read that right) coming through her hair while she watched Frozen in Spanish. I'm not very good at it, clearly. We discovered a company that comes to you for a lice check and had them here today. Good thing- I did a terrible job! Hoping we got it all, but will need to do con't checks. Karen was a trooper though. Maybe it's experience, but she sat and was patient.

As you know, we're not posting her face since this is frowned upon here and we don't want to do anything that will cause difficulty. This picture though, I can share!

Here we are waiting outside our hotel.

One last Joelism before I go to bed....Yesterday while waiting for Karen, Joel told our in-country rep that when he went to sleep the night before, it felt to him like Christmas was the next day. I think our boy is happy!

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. They mean a lot!