What a difference a night makes!

Yesterday we had our embassy appointment so all of Lucia’s paperwork is now en route to the Philippines for her Visa to be sent back.  We met with our attorney early in the morning since we were all up anyway….

Let’s just say the first night of Lucia being with us was, um, very loud.   The thing about adoption is that mixed with the happiness there is a lot with of sadness.  Watching the birthmom make this selfless decision for her baby is heartbreaking.  Watching and hearing your baby go through their own grieving is also heartbreaking.  Lucia cried throughout our first night together.  Cried.  A. Lot.   Matt and I took turns trying all the tricks.  Esmé slept like a champ through all of it. 

We tried every possible known technique and some not so known (like the things we made up).  It was part sleep deprivation, part just our way of coping but at one point during the night I was laughing so hard at Matt I couldn’t breathe.   

Giving up on sleep we spent the day prepping for the embassy, getting a few last needed documents and went on to the afternoon embassy appointment.  It took a good portion of the day once we got through all of it.  We came back to the hotel with one of the other adoptive families here, stopping at the one coffee shop on the island on the way back.  We had dinner and decided to try to go to bed early since we were gearing up for another tough night.

BUT – night two was incredible!  Lucia was sleeping by 8:00, and we decided we should try to sleep early too so I think Matt and I were asleep by 9 thinking we’d only get an hour or two.  But the first time we heard anything was at 2:00 and Lucia took a bottle and in a half hour was back to sleep!  The other 3 of us were up early and ready and Lucia was still sleeping at 9.  That is 12 hours with just a ½ hour awake for a bottle.   (thanks Cold play lullaby CD!!!  A favorite of Esmé’s when she was a baby too!).

Esmé sure is chatty in the middle of the night.  She woke up during that 2:00 bottle and literally talked for the entire ½ hour.  It was hilarious.  She covered everything from telling me a random story about avocados to things she remembers doing as a baby.  She was good company and as soon as Lucia was back in bed, Esmé was done with her stories and went back to sleep as well.

Today we spent time with our birthmom and her auntie, shopped some of the handicraft stores and walked around.  Dinner was really fun tonight as we chatted with a few yachties and hung out of course at the Tide T able. 

The other cool thing is how many of the waitresses are the same and remember us as well.

Now that we are through all adoption related appointments we will start the fun plans like a trip to Laura Beach and couple of visits to outer islands.

Esmé is still doing great as a big sis.  She loves Lucia so much and is so good with her.