I wasn't able to paste my Word journal entries into this blog for some reason, so I'll paste pictures into it and write details in my captions.
There's a little story I haven't told you about a sweet baby named Amna. She's the reason we were joined with Amani.
We met Mrs. Edhi on Friday, gave her my paperwork, and requested a baby girl. She was discouraging. She asked me to fill out an application, give it to her, return to the US and wait for a call from her. Kiran and I looked at each other in disbelief. We both plead my case...that I had taken a year off of work to adopt from Mrs. Edhi, that I wasn't leaving until the adoption was complete, that this was my mission and I would wait as long as necessary.
We left the center with the intention of returning on Monday to check in and reiterate our interest. But on Sunday night, we received a call from Almas, Mrs. Edhi's assistant. She said that Mrs. Edhi needed our help at Aga Khan Hospital where she was with a baby that had been thrown in the trash by her parents and then bitten by a dog. Someone had found the baby in the trash in a small town and called the Edhi Foundation. They promptly rescued her and flew her to the hospital in Karachi.
We didn't know how we could help or why we were needed, but raced over to Aga Khan Hospital anyway. We knew that Mrs. Edhi was impressed that Kiran is a nurse at Aga Khan Hospital and that maybe she needed someone to interpret results or help with the transfer of the baby from Emergency to the NICU.
When we arrived, we saw the little one with gauze over one side of her face and part of her lips. She looked well other than her injury. She was breathing well with solid vitals and looked healthy. We shortly ran into Mrs. Edhi in the waiting room.
She told us that the hospital wanted to transfer the baby to another hospital since there were no beds available in the NICU. Kiran and I went to the NICU and spoke with some nurses. They confirmed this but said there was a possibility of a bed in a day or two. I suddenly got an idea - I called Farzana and Al-Karim, adoptive parents who whome I had spoken numerous times regarding my visit to Karach. They were Americans like me who were working for the Aga Khan Hospital for a contracted term.
What do you know but Al-Karim turned out to be a head honcho at the hospital - I think he's the Cheif Management Officer or CEO or something. He told me he'd speak with the best doctor he knew and do his best to arrange for something.
We were at the hospital for several hours when finally, we got word that the little one, named Amna Edhi by Mrs. Edhi for the sake of hospital records, was being transfered to the NICU by midnight. Our hours spent with Mrs. Edhi included much discussion and warmth. She was grateful that we had been able to help her...so Kiran took a chance and asked the question that was first and foremost on our minds - "When will you make Anita a mom?" Mrs. Edhi replied, "Insha Allah (God willing) shortly."
While driving home, we both felt a sense of happiness about the coming of my very own little one. I told Kiran I thought it would happen within 2 weeks. She guessed it would happen within 2 days.
It happened the very next day!
Here's a photo of little Amna taken a week ago (there is a video on www.dropshots.com/mrsanita too for those of you that are interested).
Here's a picture of my cousin Kiran, my angel.
These are some pics that were taken in a studio on Eid (October 1) 2008. My gift to the kids we live with was to get a portrait taken of them with Amani. Then I quickly asked the photographer to snap one of mom and baby (but baby was tiny then and didn't really know what was going on...she was only 3 weeks old at the time!)
