Addison Altynai Bilyeu

What a great day!!!! We got to meet, hold, feed and kiss our precious, tiny baby girl. I am still in disbelief at how wonderful she is and that if everything goes as planned that she will be our daughter forever! Her name is going to be Addison Altynai Bilyeu and we think it fits her well. They call her by her given name, Altynai - which means "gold like". As for her first name, we want everyone to know that we had never planned on all the kids names starting with "A". It just happened that way. Craig also wants me to let you know that we are not lazy and didn't just stop at "A" in the baby name book. It has been one of my favorite names for a while and Craig loved it too so that settled it. We tried for a while to find a non-A name but none felt right so Addison it is.

When we got to the orphanage Addison was in the front room of the baby house. She was wide awake and they had her all dolled up for us. She smelled like baby shampoo and was in an adorable little outfit. She stayed awake for the entire two hour visit, except about 5 minutes, and boy is she alert and aware of her environment. She loves her pacifier and feeds like a champ! After her bottle, she was content without the paci and did some great cooing with us. Oh my goodness, she is sweet. She has thin brown hair, semi-almond shaped eyes that look like they are going to be brown, a tiny little mouth, and long fingers and toes. She was dressed from head to toe so I don't know about her birthday suit but from what I can tell so far she looks very healthy and vigorous. I was able to get a good hip exam and it is normal so we can cross the hip concerns off the list. I should be able to get a complete exam on her before I go but I certainly was not going to push that today although I don't think that the staff would have cared. I am not worried though she looks great! Yeah!!!!

The orphanage itself was as I expected thanks to having followed other parents blogs on their trips to Tokmok. I was very pleased with the orphanage staff too. They seems very attentive to the babies and she responded well to their voices. The two main rooms that she is in are very bright and there are lots of toys. There are 2 separate baby rooms that seem to have about 10 babies a piece. One sleeping room with the cribs and one with the play area. Very interesting experience to say the least. Most of the babies look very healthy although there are several that are clearly not thriving and two with hydrocephalus that are in dire need of a neurosurgeon. It sure made me grateful for the medical care that we provide in the States. Oh, if you could just take all of them home.

Well, that is enough for now. We are going to venture out for dinner and a stroll in Kyrgyzstan! Wow, that is not something that you say everyday.