On Monday when I arrived at the Care Center Sifan& Abdi were getting ready to go to an embassy appointment. Sifan did not want to stay and they did not know how long it would be before she left so we asked the nanny if we could take her to the Notool guest house to wait. She made a call and said we could go. At the guest house we changed her clothes because the snap up crotch pants were coming unsnapped and showing the world her underwear. She had on a 9 months shirt and 24 months pants. So we changed her into a 5T that was a bit snug but looked much more comfortable than what she was wearing. She LOVED the pink pants! In fact she is in LOVE with anything pink and outright rejects anything that is not pink. After about an hour someone came to pick her up to take her to her appointment along with Abdi. She let me peek at Sifan’s passport and I laughed out loud when I read that her birth date was August 28, 2006…..2 years old…..for sure she is the biggest 2 year old in existence at about 50lbs! Also Sifan’s name is spelled Sefan on her passport. That is really common in ET since E & I are so close in sound. I am not sure which spelling we will use when we readopt and change her name. She likes to be called Sefo (See-fo) and Sefany (See -fan-ee).
While Sifan was gone Meg & I headed to the Hilton to try to get on the internet and when we arrived they said that the internet was down so we came home and Abdi and Sifan were waiting here for us. We took lots of pictures for Abdi’s mom at home in the US. Unfortunately Sifan didn’t like that fact that I was paying attention to Abdi…who is crazy cute btw. She started to try to take toys away from him and hit him. So I had to make a point to not pay any attention to him at all. We stayed most of the day …about 5 hours with us at the guest house before I called a cab to take Sifan back to the Care center and he came along.
When we arrived Sifan showed the nannies her photo album and named each person for them…in hind sight I should have left immediately while she was distracted but I waited and then she jumped in my arms. The nannies tried to take her from me but she was not having it. She kicked and screamed and I bawled because it was so wrong. I couldn’t handle it as she screamed in terror and bawled as they tried to rip her from my arms. I just walked away with her clinging to my chest feverishly as I tried to regain composure. The head nanny tried to give her some bread from her own purse and she would not take it so they nanny had to pry her from my body and Sifan desperately grabbed for my pants and the nanny had to pry her hands off of them. I later heard that she bit the nanny and broke the skin. I ran out bawling. I immediately called my husband frantic and crying to ask him to contact Agitu to see if she would allow me to stay with Sifan at New flower since other adoptive families were there. She said she would call and beg the doctor and gave T his phone number to call too. Basically the Dr would not let Torrey get a word in edgewise and the Dr. hung up on him. Torrey called me back and I was still sobbing hysterically over having Sifan ripped from my arms and I asked him to call Agitu to see if she would change the rate for the Notool guest house back to the more reasonable price. I went to sleep a mess and Torrey called me in the middle of the night here to say that Agitu said she would talk to the Notool director about the price change. She tried to tell him that the new price was reasonable and he tried to point out that I am paying $40 a night for a place that has internet, a generator, a large courtyard for the kids to play in, tp always stocked and water always on hand and I only have to pay $10 a day for food and $15 for a taxi back and forth to the care Center. Torrey and I talked and we knew that we had to move no matter what and hoped the BFAS would do the right thing and add back the 1 person rate for Notool of $80. I went back to sleep resolved to never let anyone rip Sifan from my arms again.