I will explain this part after I run through our not-so-exhilarating day.
It was Sunday here, but not what we are used to experiencing on Sunday’s at home. At breakfast, the attendees of this trade show here still had their name tags on and going to whatever meetings they are having in GZ. As I ran early this morning, the streets on the other side of the island were similar to any other rush-hour traffic that we experience Monday-Friday each week. This was one of the many reasons we are itching to start heading back home now…..and it is obvious that many other families are ready to get everything wrapped up to “head to the house” as well. (As Luke told GDaddy yesterday, “We came to get our little sister. We have her now, so let’s just go home.” Love that sweet guy!)
It was Sunday here, but not what we are used to experiencing on Sunday’s at home. At breakfast, the attendees of this trade show here still had their name tags on and going to whatever meetings they are having in GZ. As I ran early this morning, the streets on the other side of the island were similar to any other rush-hour traffic that we experience Monday-Friday each week. This was one of the many reasons we are itching to start heading back home now…..and it is obvious that many other families are ready to get everything wrapped up to “head to the house” as well. (As Luke told GDaddy yesterday, “We came to get our little sister. We have her now, so let’s just go home.” Love that sweet guy!)
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| Who is eating a healthier breakfast? |
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| She can put away some food. |
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| Mary Beth at breakfast |
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| What do two fingers mean? |
After breakfast we were scheduled to have the famous “red couch picture” with all of the babies. Jenn and Debbie left breakfast early to try and hit the stores across the street for a deal on some of these silk dresses for the girls, but realized it was not worth the effort, as they could get a better deal somewhere else. After 15 minutes of waiting for all 18+ families to get to the lobby, we confirmed that it was not worth it either. It was one crying fest for 2-3 minutes while parents struggled to wrench little arms away to place them on a couch next to another crying baby for a picture that would “live forever in their hearts”…..not! After a bunch of clicks from cameras in front of the couch, people started grabbing up all the babies before we brought the 2nd floor down for all the crying. Mary Beth did ok though, even though she cannot be seen in the picture. But I hid behind the couch, while she latched hold of my thumb, just to make sure I was still there.
After that attempt, we all went to the mezzanine to get a huge family shot of the GWCA families that had traveled this week to adopt. We have met so many neat families from across the world that have such interesting adoption journeys and struggles and success stories with their adopted children. Our hearts go out to the many right now that are not sleeping or struggling with grieving and detachment issues. Some families are enjoying the few minutes of peace each day when their little ones get so tired of screaming while they are gearing up for the next round……and they never know when it is going to hit. I would love to keep up with these families, as we know that when the bond occurs, it will be a tremendous blessing for all the family. We have been truly blessed in that Mary Beth has not had any of those issues – yet. But as GDaddy and I have discussed many times in the past 6 days, we know something of her past is hidden deep in her brain, and that it will eventually need to come out. We hope that we can show her our Father’s love in our love with her to know that she is forever with us and loved by us.
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| big ge ge is the coolest |
We spent the afternoon swimming in the very cool pool. My older bones were not crazy about getting in that cold water. But I had six little arms (Lauren, Mary Beth and Jessica) pulling me in the water, and it was hard to turn them down for the fun.
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STOP is not in my vocabulary
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| 2 sweet friends |
The evening was spent with Papa John’s Pizza (and yes, it tastes like home!) in the hallway with the Freeland’s and some street shopping before turning in for the night.
Tomorrow is our appointment at the US Consulate, which this whole trip is based on this date. Our GWCA guide spent much of the afternoon gathering and completing our paperwork to make sure that each of us had everything we needed before presenting it to the Consulate in the morning. Our appointed time was 9:30, which we assumed would be an actual appointment in front of someone. But it is actually that our guide will take everyone’s paperwork to the consulate at 8:30 to make sure that all the paperwork is ok. They need one person to hang out in the room from 8:30 until around 10:00 to make sure that if we receive a call for questions that someone was there to answer the question. If we do not get a phone call, then all is well. Interesting…..but we will take it. If all goes well, all the parents will go to the Consulate’s office tomorrow at 2:30 pm to say as a group that we will be the best parents as possible to this child and leave. Sounds like that will work. I will let you know how it goes.
I know that our Father gives me a snippet of His message each day to give me encouragement. I got that message late tonight, as we were getting off the elevator on our floor.
I have really been impressed that Mary Beth has gotten so much more confident in showing her arm in public – a much improved confidence over a 6-day period. She now wears short sleeves, a bathing suit and is not afraid to let others see her use it actively in public. Today as we were playing in the pool, she was letting me and Luke hold her right hand and left elbow to help her jump up and down steps. I had the privilege of holding her left elbow as she jumped. And to be honest, it was a weird feeling in her arm. You could tell it was not like the upper portion of her right arm, as it was very soft and felt brittle. It was like she had the skin to make a complete arm, yet did not have the bone structure to complete it. This may be common for those with ABS, especially in the younger years.
We have also noticed that Mary Beth is very particular when she takes care of her left arm. When we have her wash her hands, she will completely douse her left arm in soap to make sure it is as clean (or cleaner) than her right hand. I cannot figure it out…..as we are used to watching the boys wash their hands with one on the faucet as the other makes a swipe across the stream of water to show that they are “wet”. What makes (or has made) her be so protective of her arm when she either takes care of it or uses it to do something, which she does very well? We look forward to learning more about her peculiarities as we get closer to having real conversations with her. As of now, when she wants to tell us off or tell us what she thinks, she rattles off something in Chinese – knowing that we do not have a clue what she is saying.
I did feel very bad about her arm tonight before dinner. The other girls were doing the game where they will climb up your legs while holding your hands and then flip over and land on their feet. Mary Beth was not about to not do that – hand or no hand. So I encouraged it and had Lauren show her how to use her feet to climb up my legs and torso. However, something went badly wrong, as her left arm twisted wrong, and she went down quickly and was crying. Actually as I picked her up, she could not catch her breath, she was crying so hard. I knew that I hurt her and felt about 6 inches tall. Fortunately, after about 30seconds of crying, she hopped back down on the floor and wanted to start flipping again. Resilient! (And I did redeem myself to do it correctly the next time!) But as I watched her arm over the next few minutes, I saw some red marks show up on the outside of it that looked like little blood blisters. They looked bad, and when she put some hand cleanser on that part of her arm, it was obvious it hurt. Nice dad moment, right!!! It reminds me that she will grow up tough in our family, but we still need to be careful in how we handle it while her little body forms.
As we were getting off the elevator for the final time tonight, two ladies popped on, with one holding a little boy in her arms. The other lady immediately spoke up and said, “Look! She has a magic arm too!!” Magic arm…..never thought of it that way. (The way the Chinese adults look at her, it is obvious they do not see it as magical.) But this new mom obviously sees that her little boy – which has the same exact “blessing” on his left arm as Mary Beth – as having an arm that will create lots of magic in his life. We also look forward to seeing what gifts she has been given with her talents that she has been given by her Father.
We also see WeiWei’s arm as magical in that if she had not been born with this beautiful, tender, magical arm, we would not be here now – teaching her to love, seeing her jump, laugh and smile, and watching her sleep peacefully as I write. We hope to encourage her to be strong in her gifts and not see them as something to be ashamed of.
I have really been impressed that Mary Beth has gotten so much more confident in showing her arm in public – a much improved confidence over a 6-day period. She now wears short sleeves, a bathing suit and is not afraid to let others see her use it actively in public. Today as we were playing in the pool, she was letting me and Luke hold her right hand and left elbow to help her jump up and down steps. I had the privilege of holding her left elbow as she jumped. And to be honest, it was a weird feeling in her arm. You could tell it was not like the upper portion of her right arm, as it was very soft and felt brittle. It was like she had the skin to make a complete arm, yet did not have the bone structure to complete it. This may be common for those with ABS, especially in the younger years.
We have also noticed that Mary Beth is very particular when she takes care of her left arm. When we have her wash her hands, she will completely douse her left arm in soap to make sure it is as clean (or cleaner) than her right hand. I cannot figure it out…..as we are used to watching the boys wash their hands with one on the faucet as the other makes a swipe across the stream of water to show that they are “wet”. What makes (or has made) her be so protective of her arm when she either takes care of it or uses it to do something, which she does very well? We look forward to learning more about her peculiarities as we get closer to having real conversations with her. As of now, when she wants to tell us off or tell us what she thinks, she rattles off something in Chinese – knowing that we do not have a clue what she is saying.
I did feel very bad about her arm tonight before dinner. The other girls were doing the game where they will climb up your legs while holding your hands and then flip over and land on their feet. Mary Beth was not about to not do that – hand or no hand. So I encouraged it and had Lauren show her how to use her feet to climb up my legs and torso. However, something went badly wrong, as her left arm twisted wrong, and she went down quickly and was crying. Actually as I picked her up, she could not catch her breath, she was crying so hard. I knew that I hurt her and felt about 6 inches tall. Fortunately, after about 30seconds of crying, she hopped back down on the floor and wanted to start flipping again. Resilient! (And I did redeem myself to do it correctly the next time!) But as I watched her arm over the next few minutes, I saw some red marks show up on the outside of it that looked like little blood blisters. They looked bad, and when she put some hand cleanser on that part of her arm, it was obvious it hurt. Nice dad moment, right!!! It reminds me that she will grow up tough in our family, but we still need to be careful in how we handle it while her little body forms.
As we were getting off the elevator for the final time tonight, two ladies popped on, with one holding a little boy in her arms. The other lady immediately spoke up and said, “Look! She has a magic arm too!!” Magic arm…..never thought of it that way. (The way the Chinese adults look at her, it is obvious they do not see it as magical.) But this new mom obviously sees that her little boy – which has the same exact “blessing” on his left arm as Mary Beth – as having an arm that will create lots of magic in his life. We also look forward to seeing what gifts she has been given with her talents that she has been given by her Father.
We also see WeiWei’s arm as magical in that if she had not been born with this beautiful, tender, magical arm, we would not be here now – teaching her to love, seeing her jump, laugh and smile, and watching her sleep peacefully as I write. We hope to encourage her to be strong in her gifts and not see them as something to be ashamed of.
May we all go back to the promise and comfort written to each of us in Psalm 139:13-14.
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