Sunday was a day of travel

On Sunday we had to wake up really early to get to the air port to fly to Hyderabad.  We woke our little one up at 4:15.  I knew what to do when she first got up to brighten her day… brush her teeth.  🙂

Scott and prayed really hard for her today.  This would be a day of lots of transitioning again.  Her first time on an air plane, leaving the hotel we had been in together, and arriving in a new place.

This girl is tough as nails.  Not one tear today, on a day I would have totally expected breakdowns.

She did great at the airport and on the plane. She thought all of the little bumps of turbulence were funny, and she was all into getting the free snacks!

We had a layover in Mumbai, and caught the final flight to Hyderabad.  There were several groups of Indian women along the way that were fascinated with us.  I used the term Goad Liya (adopted in Hindi)  my friend Sarah in Mumbai said it translates from one lap to another.  When I tell people that term they get all excited and then ask if I speak Hindi, to which I reply No.  

And then they just chat and chat and chat away in Hindi and I know they are talking about us, because they look at us as they talk.  Most always though, one lady will stop and look at Lyla and touch her face and say she is one blessed baby by God.  Not sure we are thinking about the same God, but indeed she is blessed, as are her parents!

First plane ride….she is a champ!

  

Here we are in Hyderabad.  She enjoyed being toted around in the luggage carts!  Of course was driving her around like she was in a race car, just like he would all of other kids.  She loved it, and kept wanting more!

The airport in Hyderabad is really nice, and the scenery around the air port is beautiful.  Lots of greenery and beautiful palm trees.

Each day with her, we begin to see more of her personality.  She is so much like our other kids.  On the first day, we thought….Wow, we are actually going to have one child that sits still and is very quiet. Ha!  What were we thinking, that was just first day jitters!  She is very active, silly, mischievous, and talkative. She is also She chats away in her Gujarati language, and we have no clue what she is saying.  But she just keeps on chatting. 🙂

Speaking of communication…I have heard a statistic before that says something like communication is 90% body language, and 10% verbal. (I may not be quoting that exactly right)  But I think it is so true.  We are pretty much understanding each other.  She has not spoken one word of English, but she knows what we are asking her to do, and we can understand when she is needing something.

The orphanage taught her a sign to signal she has to use the restroom.  It looks like she is signing the letter “i” in ASL.  The potty and potty training is a whole other post on its own.

To tell you a little bit about her silliness and her mischievous side, I will leave you with this story.

While in the car from the air port to our new hotel in Hyderabad, a gigantic Indian version of a wasp flew in our car.  Scott and I jumped and started leaning forward to get away from the bug.  Lyla burst into laughter she thought it was hysterical that we were scared of the bug.  She waited a few seconds, and then tapped Scott and pointed to the air to indicate the bug was right beside him…so he jumped and swatted again, but there was no bug.  She had tricked him.  She laughed the hardest I have seen her yet.    She was quite full of herself that afternoon.

We arrived at our new hotel.  It is not quite as nice as our former place in Ahmedabad, but it is very clean, and the service and staff are wonderful.  Oh, and the food is superb!  I keep on saying the food is great everywhere, but this is the best food we have had so far.

We all crashed and took a long nap in the afternoon, we skipped dinner and just had some snacks in the room, and crashed again for the night.  Monday was a big day ahead with the hospital and all!