Odds and Ends

What else....

The Hard Stuff

Eating, sleeping, they are so basic.  So essential.  And our daughter didn't know how to do them  now. She cried for plateful after plateful, needed a roll to carry and nurse after each meal, and we let her, because she needed to know she would never be hungry with us.  Part of our training prepared us for this, but watching a child that small eat that much in one sitting...is scary and heartbreaking!  God sent encouragement in other parents in the group who had already walked this road and were walking it now.  Slowly, Vivienne began to trust us for her food.  Mealtimes were still quite the event, but she ate amounts I could wrap my head around.  We had a honeymoon period with sleep at first, and then she began to cry and cry at night, until she slept from exhaustion.  Our daughter did not know what waking would bring if she allowed herself to sleep.  She did not know we would be there when she woke up.  Everyone Vivienne knew before was gone.  It all changed suddenly.  She walked into a room with a nanny, and walked out with her new parents.  Her routine was different every day with our itinerary, we looked different, we sounded different, and we did everything differently!  There were doctors and a blood draw, and lots of waiting around.  I am shocked that this baby sweetly helped her new mama get her dressed every day, with no idea what would happen next.  Small wonder she had trouble sleeping!  With time, that changed too, and she cried for shorter periods, and her cries became more toddler "I don't want to miss out" cries.  Now, during times of greater stress, we see a pick up, but we also have come incredibly far, and we rejoice in the progress we've made in this marathon!

The Random Story

One day, we went to lunch with another family, and it began to sprinkle as we were leaving the restaurant.  Thinking we would rush back to our cozy hotel rooms before the storm broke, we took off....WRONG!  So there is rain, there are storms, and then there are the kinds of storms you KNOW you should not be out in.  Vivienne clung to Michael and buried her head (and thus cemented her association with him as her safe place in the rain forever!), my shoe floated away so many times I actually considered walking barefoot through the streets there, we were soaked to our skin, our eyes burned and we literally held on to each other pressing into this thing!  Michael literally could only see out of one eye, I was truly blinded, and only because no one else was dumb enough to be out in this thing did we avoid getting hit crossing the busy street to our hotel.  As we walked up the stairs we saw....teens totally filming our drenched selves!!!  We needed to be wrung out we were so soaked, but we walked to the elevator, which thankfully was in the same wing we entered, and I literally had everyone in the shower room in under a minute!  Whatever that was, I wanted it off us all! Wow.  I'm pretty familiar with big weather, but that is the biggest weather I've been in, outside of hurricanes (when you're oh inside).  Those rains can come fast, we learned....after...!

The Amazing Adventure

In China, we learned that:

Vivienne loves music and will bob her head in perfect rhythm with her eyes wide open. 

 She is funny!  

She loves white, pale pink, and bright yellow.  

She can seriously down some watermelon!  

She is brave, curious, and outgoing.  

She is quite opinionated about her clothes and shoes! 

 At the beginning she loved bows.  By the end....bows were a no go, but it was adorable while it lasted!

She loves her mama and daddy, and she is learning she does not have to pick just one of us.  

She is not afraid of animals, which is common...she loves them!  

She worries about anyone who is sad.  

She likes to brush her teeth and pretend to do her hair and make-up with mama.

She loves her Ergo.

She is really smart.  Really, not as a new parent.  I think we are in trouble!

She will never....ever...play poker ;-)  When she feels something, it's all over her whole little body!  

She wants to know the "rules" of her new life and is making quite the little study of them.  

She manages to be both Miss Personality and incredibly sweet.  

We were beyond exhausted by the end of our trip, but flooded with joy and excitement that we would be coming home with this precious and vibrant little girl!