Waking up happy

For the first month and a half, Amanda would wake up crying. The afternoon nap was particularly hard since I think she was a bit disorientated to where she was. I think she was grieving the loss of what she had left behind. Most days after she woke from her afternoon nap, I would cringe knowing there was an hour of crying and temper tantrums to come. Unless we would be able to get outside (which she loves now), there was no distracting her. Now, she wakes up like this:




She is one happy camper. She will talk to herself to go to sleep and when waking. I no longer cringe when I go to get her. All is well in the world. Brett and I think finally, she feels safe and loved.

Now, just because I have some more pictures, here you go...

She really is a diva at heart. I thought the red sweater would be too warm, but she insisted. She kept feeling the fuzzy fabric and picked out the shoes to complete the outfit. She loves looking pretty and dressing in cute clothes.




This is why little kids draw people with such long legs. That's all they see when they look up.

She ate peas!

Yes - Amanda has had her first taste of peas where she didn't turn them down just because they were green. She actually opened her mouth and let them come in! Now, she wasn't thrilled with the whole experience and I think she would rather have gotten those peas out (she tried, but I tried harder). I've been teaching her to put her spoon over her mouth to show that she shouldn't spit stuff out. She ate a bowl full of mushed peas. Hooray! Then, to top off the eating miracle, she ate vegetable/beef soup pureed. And she didn't even flinch! Brett said it was a "God sighting" for him. That's a moment when the Kingdom of God shows up in our ordinary lives.

Now, for those that are thinking - isn't this child 2 1/2 and shouldn't she be over all this stuff with trying new foods? Well, according to her sheets from the orphanage, she was eating rice porridge, noodles, bananas, cookies, cake, and apples (which we highly doubt). There were no vegetables in her diet and not much variety. The first time I even attempted anything with color, I had to hide it. The first time I attempted green, she wouldn't even open up and turned her head. So, variety in her diet is a big step. If she would just eat what we eat, I wouldn't have to double cook - meal for us - meal for her...This is huge!

The smell of fear

I listened to a woman this week who was talking about her adoption of older boys and during the talk, she mentioned that fear can make your body smell differently. I asked her if it was musty - kinda like an old attic. Yes. The way I know is that Amanda smelled like that when she came. I have never smelled that before and attributed it to her parasite. Apparently, it was fear. Thank God she no longer smells like that, but it really makes me understand a bit more what she has really gone through.

Growin' and a changin'

This weekend Nana and Papa (Brett's parents) came for a little visit. We were wondering if Amanda remembered her Papa from their time in China. After all that he went through to help get her here, we HOPED she remembered. She did. She saw him and went right to him wanting to be picked up.



Not surprising is that the little finger she had her Papa wound around is still in working order.

She also found out her Nana is pretty cool also.



She's dancing in this picture. For some reason, she dances with her arms up like that and tilts her head from side to side. When she's down on the ground, she does more of a hip wiggle, but when she's being held, it's all about the arms.




And, when you watch your family play Wii bowling, it's pretty funny to hear the pins knock down.



Finally, just to prove to all of us that she is growing used to life outdoors and all things associated with it, she decided to pet not one but two DOGS. Real life actual dogs. She not only got close to them, but she TOUCHED them! My husband knew I wouldn't quite believe him, so he got a picture:




A final blog detail. A few of you have commented how the comment section doesn't work. I think I have fixed that, so feel free to leave a comment.

Beth

Big changes in 5 weeks

Remember this little waif of a girl?



When she came to our home, she weighed just over 20 lbs. She didn't eat much and her muscle tone was a little on the floppy side. She couldn't walk down our driveway because of the slope and she ran looking a little bowlegged. She was scared of every stuffed animal we had.

After five weeks, she has gained 3 1/2 pounds and while she is limited in her food choices, she eats a lot of them. She can almost run down the driveway and stuffed animals are now seen (most of the time) as the snuggly, cuddly things they were meant to be:



Honestly, she looks huge in this picture to me:



She is working on saying words like "up" and "mama" and is learning how to baby sign for some others. She is learning to cuddle and not wiggle so much. She is a lot more verbal and knows how to get her way. She has wormed her way into our family and she is here to stay.

I won a food war!

Since coming home, Amanda has decided that she really only want to eat a limited number of food items. She'll eat anything noodles, rice congee, steamed eggs, 2 vegetables, 1 fruit, and graham crackers. So, when she decided her only fruit was no longer a thing to be desired, I put my foot down. I want to increase food items, not decrease. So, we had a showdown. I went into her room and gave her a banana slice. Then, to distract her when she was eating it (so she wouldn't spit it out), we did the happy banana dance - "yay, I'm eating bananas - whoo hooo, whoo hooo". It worked.

People see her in church and in public and comment on what a pleasant child she is. She is. She has a lot of personality and an overall sunny disposition until she wants something. Then the behaviour she's learned in the orphanage comes out. Basically, whoever can cry the longest, the hardest, and the loudest gets their way. So today when she wanted her brother's car that he was playing with, she put on big tantrum girl. She's slowly learning that while she may be the only little girl around, she will not be given everything she wants. After all, spoiled princesses grow into spoiled queens and THAT is not a pretty sight.

A final happiness. Last week, we taught her how to say "mama". I know she would say it and not realize what it meant. In the past few days, she's gotten it. She looks at me with a sparkle in her eye and a smile on her face and says "mama". While I have made a decision to be her mama since the day I knew she was ours, she has finally chosen to make me her mama. I can't say what joy that brings to me. It helps me realize what God feels a bit. He had chosen me from the foundation of the world. The day I chose to make Him my Daddy made His heart sing and the angels rejoice. Mama - how could one little word make all the other stuff seem so small?