Speaking of babies, we went to another orphanage yesterday that had babies, many of them abandoned and available for adoption – it's not a huge orphanage, but the baby room had what – 15 or so. We held babies, fed babies, rocked babies and played with some of the slightly older ones. There was a little one – Gloria – who was the oldest of the bunch at 9 months old. I actually remember her from September, isn't that amazing? She was 3 months old then and was a very alert, aware baby. Her mother had died – in childbirth, I think, but she still had family involved – the father. I found out today that his parental rights have been terminated for being sexually inappropriate with her. Oh yuck. The social welfare workers told me that they expected she would soon be available for adoption. She is an unusually engaging little sprite. Alina just LOVED playing with her. It really was cute to see (and no, I couldn't take pictures there either! I'll need to start a new category like Erin and Mary, and have the “unphotographed” moments.)

Anyway, Alina had a bunch of bracelets on her arms and the baby loved to grab them. Alina took off a couple and gave them to Gloria, but she wanted all of them – such a girl, already. She pulled at Alina's necklace, the strings on her shirt, her bracelets, her hair – it was fun to watch. She also went to the other babies and kept patting them and touching them, which prompted the workers to keep moving her so she wouldn't bother them. :) Alina could not resist squeezing her cute little cheeks, which got Gloria to smile. She also made her laugh by rubbing her back really fast – the baby just grinned and laughed every time Alina did that. Alina kept exclaiming “Oh, she's SO cute!” She told the workers today that SHE would adopt her if she could. I just know she will be a lovely, wonderful blessing to whatever family she is in.

While we were there, a Zambian woman was just finishing her visit – she is also adopting and chose the only newborn boy. That is SO wonderful! I am so glad that domestic adoption is occurring here as well – I still believe that the “best” option is for babies to stay with their biological families, then next best is to be adopted by people from their same country and background as the child, then finally by families from other countries. Don't get me wrong – I don't think my kids are “second-best”, but I know that my family is second-best for them in many ways. I also think our family – or any other loving, willing family - is way, WAY better than growing up in an orphanage, or dying of malaria or diarrhea before you're 5, or sleeping in a police jail cell at age 5 or 6 or being abused at under a year old (or over a year old, for that matter), or, or, or. . . . . I love adoption and I love to see families being built by adoption (but I'm sure you all couldn't guess that about me. . . .)