Meet our sweetheart!

Crying

Waiting.

The kids live upstairs. We were not invited up. I first saw her as she descended the stairs on the right.

Oh, happy day!

Here are pictures from today beginning with Tom gazing at Dora the Explorer while we waited for this long labor to be over. Then onto the fruit stand with Meenal where we bought tiny bananas and big apples for the orphans.

Note: I'm a novice blogger, so I can't seem to get the picks in the right order. What you see is the orphanage in kind of an industrial section of Pune. Tom was fascinated with all the cows walking around. Apparently, they don't belong to anyone. They just roam. Not sure how they get fed in the city...they are quite plump.

We had a ceremony where we were painted on our foreheads and given spoonfulls of sugar crystals. yummy!

Varsha seems really serious in the pics, but it turns out she was only serious until we were ready to go get in the taxi. I think she was nervous we would leave her. She smiled and waved to her friends as we were leaving and suddenly came alive.

I pointed to her and said "Varsha", then I pointed to myself and said "Mommy", then I pointed to Tom and before I could say anything she smiled and said "Papa". So, that's that. She owns him now. He informed that he is papa, not daddy. She named him. Later, he asked her my name and she said "mommy". I'm in love. Clearly, Tom is too.

As far as her age. I would say five at the most. We'll let the pediatrician figure it out with a bone-age x-ray.

love, M (and Tom)