Namaste, Out the Road Blog

Hi, All,

I arrived safe and sound in Katmandu about 10 hours ago. It was a long trip, as usual, but it went by about as fast as you could expect and the service and level of comfort on Thai Airways were better than on the other carriers I've flown here. The flight to KTM was on time and arrived with all my baggage, so I'm quite happy with that outcome.

Upon my arrival, I checked-in at my hotel and then went to Children's Home (which is about a 20 minute walk from my hotel) to see my little Ellie Garima! She is doing really well -- growing into a tiny, fiesty, incredibly alert little girl who sometimes seems demanding (she's very vocal, for instance, when one of the other kids takes a toy away that she thinks is hers), but at the same time she is very loving and has a good sense of humor. She's now walking quite steadily and I'm told that she's very fast -- for instance, if they inadvertently leave the door to the nursery open she's out and up the stairs in a flash. I'm so proud of her spirit! For a child raised in an orphanage, where the kids have to get used to sharing or sometimes with doing without, she's unusually strong. Her only "defect" (I put it in quotes because I can't quite think of my little baby as having any defects at all) is that she's not a very good eater -- at least not with Mommy. I managed to get maybe 5 teaspoons of her dinner in her mouth. She was just very distracted by everything else going on in the room and seemed really indifferent to her dinner. I'm so grateful for the skill of Neru, the head didi ("didi" means "big sister" in Nepali and it's what they call the caregivers), who I asked to take over the dinner task after my failed effort and she managed to persist in getting the entire bowl of food in my little Ellie Garima's mouth -- playingly, sneakily, quickly -- it took Neru's full bag of tricks, but she managed to do it.

One thing that was really striking on this first day of my visit is that my little Ellie Garima actually seemed to remember me from
the last visit. I don't know if it's true memory or the fact that she has seen photos of me many times since my last visit (I left photo albums with her and also sent her photos as part of her birthday card in August). In any event, she showed none of the initial shyness with me that she showed last time -- and once I picked her up I was hard pressed to put her down again, both for my own sake (I love holding her) and also because she would usually protest if I tried to put her down. So, we were quite attached to each other from the very start and she seemed to be upset when I went to say bye-bye at the end of the afternoon. Fortunately, as I was leaving and she was starting to cry, the wonderful Neru took her (along with another child who was already on her lap) and she calmed down quickly. It's wonderful that she has such loving relationships with her caregivers, since I can't be with her fulltime yet. I don't want to do anything that will interfere with that.

At the orphanage today I met in person two other moms who are adopting through my same agency and who are also here visiting
their children. We've been in touch many times by email, but it was really nice to see them in person. I hope to meet a lot of the other adoptive parents who are on what we call the "extended stay plan" in Kathmandu. They're basically living here indefinitely until they can bring their kids home. The KTM- based parents have been really pivotal to the advocacy work we've been doing in my group, Waiting Parents Nepal, so it will be great to meet them in person after so many weeks of emails and Skype calls.

Well, I am now in the hotel again and just got some room service delivered and got the wifi working in my room, so all is well -- except that I'm drunk with exhaustion. I came into this trip already sleep deprived due to a very busy week spent finalizing my packing and arrangements at home for my absence. I think I may have gotten a few nods of sleep on the flights, but not many.

So, it's now been over 48 hours since I had any real sleep and over a week since I had a really good, long night's sleep. I think this bed's going to feel like heaven tonight!

Hope you're all well in your respective homes -- I'll be in touch again soon!

Love,
PA

An article from the Media for Freedom website.

Namaste,

I am writing to ask for support from this community –
particularly those of you in the U.S. - in an urgent, new WPN
letter-writing/call-in/email campaign. As you probably know, no new
inter-country adoptions (ICAs) have been approved in Nepal since
mid-February 2007 and ICAs have been under official suspension in
Nepal since May 2007. Immediate action is now critical if the 440+
pending inter-country adoptions in Nepal, which were commenced months
or years before this suspension, have any chance to be finalized in
2007.

Please contact your elected national officials and your embassies or
consular offices in Nepal to let them know that:

* Our government officials and embassies should use all means possible
to immediately convey to the Prime Minister of Nepal that the
suspension of these nearly-completed adoptions in Nepal must be lifted
now. Resolving this situation on an urgent basis should be a top
diplomatic priority for all our governments in their dealings with Nepal.

* In light of the growing political instability in Nepal, now more
than ever our governments must immediately escalate this matter to the
Prime Minister for his personal intervention to help the waiting
families. We strongly support the important peace process in Nepal,
but we fear that it may be faltering and that Nepal may soon return to
a state of warfare. It is critical that the Nepali Prime Minister act
with all due haste to address the humanitarian issue of the in-process
adoptions.

* The recent withdrawal of Minister Bishwokarma, the Maoist head of
the Nepali Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare, presents a
critical opportunity for Nepali Prime Minister Koirala to lift the
suspension of inter-country adoptions and to resume the processing of
the 440+ pending adoptions without any further delay. (It was
Minister Bishwokarma who had unilaterally imposed the suspension.)

Please also remind your government and embassy officials that the
plight of the waiting parents has now been recognized by an
international group of concerned citizens. The WPN petition now has
over 4200 signatures from all over the world:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Waiting_Parents_Nepal/

Please, make a call or send a letter or email to again add your voice
in support of the waiting families. Many thanks in advance for your
continued support in helping us bring our children home soon!

Patti Arias

P.S. Here's some important contact information for U.S.-based waiting
families:

U.S. Embassy
Panipokhari
P.O. Box 295
Kathmandu, Nepal
Tel: (+977-1) 441 1179
Fax: (+977-1) 441 9963
Email: adoptionsnepal at state dot gov
Attention: Ambassador Nancy Powell

U.S. Senator Contact Info:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Patti is traveling to Nepal again to visit with Ellie. I will be posting her emails and photo as I receive them. Keep her in your thoughts and prayers as she sets out on yet another leg of this great adventure.