Another update...

We got another sleepless night last night. The matress is like sleeping on concrete, and the noise outside 24hrs a day is insane. At night its cars honking, auto rickshaws speeding past and dogs barking, and come morning its the pidgeons, hundreds of which seem to have made their home right outside our window.

Vijay picked us up at 10am this morning and already had Rashid with her. He was very excited to see us and gave big kisses and hugs. We held hands all the way to our first stop which was Vijays office. As soon as the car stopped her was out of his seatbelt and onto my knee. Once we started up again I put him in the middle seat and we did a lot more hand-holding, and then counted each others fingers. He counted to 10 in perfect English, and it seems his new favourite word is "Happy". Vijay and the attorney went to the Passport Office to try to get Rashids passport expedited, and apparently it will be ready tomorrow. After that we dropped Vijay off back at her office and we ventured out with Sorrento (our driver) to do some sightseeing. First stop was the Presidents House and Parliament buildings where our driver sweet-talked a security guard into letting us out for photos. (Vijay had already warned us that photos were not allowed there). We snapped a couple of great photos and then headed off to India Gate. Rashid recognised India Gate right away and was very excited to get out. Looking around there was a lot harder and people were constantly trying to sell us stuff and asking for money. We did give a few rupees to the guy who had the monkeys and in return he had the monkey get on my head. Rashid was not overly impressed but did snuggle in for a quick photo. Next to him was a snake charmer which was really cool, and he offered to have us sit with the snake for a photo. Rashid was absolutely terrified of that snake and wasn't going anywhere it. He didn't want me going anywhere near it either, so we gave that a miss. In his mind it wasn't one bit cool...not even from a distance. We bought 4 books of postcards which he just loved, and he was perfectly happy in the car telling us all about each photo. That was easily the most we've heard him say since we've been here, even if we couldnt understand the majority of it. Already if he points at something and says the word in Hindi, and we say it in English, he'll try to repeat it.

We joined Vijay again for lunch and it was great food! Rashid ate well and got icecream as a treat which he loved. I had a bunch of candy in my bag and when I produced candy for him I got a spontaneous kiss!! (Definitely taking candy again tomorrow!). We dropped Rashid back at the orphanage as he was super-tired. Vijay is swinging between us being able to bring him back to the hotel either tomorrow night or on Wednesday. Our driver took us to the Lotus Temple, but unfortunately it was closed, so we'll try that again another day. We did get to see it from a short distance. A family outside were all waving and smiling at me, so I wound down the window and gave the kids lots of candy. After that I showed them my camera and they all smiled and posed happily for a photo. The people here are so proud and so gracious.

Tomorrow we get picked up at 10am again and then we go get Rashid and plan to hit some markets for some shopping. Tomorrow at 4pm we meet Vijay and go to collect his passport, which will hopefully be all ready to go!

We are having the time of our lives here .... The long wait to be with him was more than worth it!