Kristina and Maia talk about adoption

Kristina told me about her bedtime conversation with Maia.
She said that Maia said she loved her even more than her Kazakh mother because her Kazakh mother had been too busy to take care of her.
She said that she was glad that we had gotten there, that there had been four other couples but they had gotten babies.
"Babies are all cute,yeah?" Maia had said, as she often did.
We wondered, when Kristina recounted this to me, if Maia has memories of being considered by other couples. It was true that others had passed on her because of the ear.
"Don't give me away," Maia said.
"Maia, we worked so hard to get you, we're not going to give you away. You were an expensive baby," Kristina said, teasing her.
She wanted to know how much she had cost.
"Maia, we didn't buy you like a piece of candy."
How did she get that idea, Kristina wanted to know.
I told her about a time that Maia had raised the issue in the kitchen--about a year and a half ago.
"How do you get them?" she had wanted to know. She was talking about adopted babies.
"Do you buy them?"
We just got back this past weekend from Maia's third operation. She has a real ear now, if a little flat and swollen. I lost my USB cable on the trip, or I would put up pics. I've ordered another one, and will put up pics when it gets in.
John, Monday, June 14, 2010