Gotcha Moment with Jiliang
1) At the Store - she was quiet and not very happy looking
2) Watching the computer on the bed - her Gotcha moment
* she is so smart! she learned how to hit the space bar and mouse to replay the video over and over. Everytime she got close to the end of the video she would hit the mouse or keyboard.
3) Her new doll
** I only show you the photo's of sorrow #3 - so that you can appreciate the depths of her trust in me...she took a huge leap of faith in opening up to me. I had to earn her smiles !!
1) First Time Smiling (I cried when she smiled) :-)
2) She is showing off her artwork
3) She will love to do art with T.J. on his easel !! I am soooo excited !!
(it was so worth the wait to see her smile)
Warming up and the smiles get bigger and bigger!!
Sorry it took so long to get these out. I didn't have a chance to send them during the day and was going to wait until she went to bed. Then, I fell asleep. I woke up at 2:00 a.m. and decided to it then. It has taken me a while to write this and try to upload the pictures. However, I am having trouble uploading pictures here, due to the internet connection. I took over a hundred pictures. I wanted to upload them to am going to upload them to Snapfish to post pictures and videos, but may not be able to do that until I get home. Let me send out this message first and then I will send pictures next. She is a doll!
In the beginning, she grieved and rejected me for about 6 hours and wanted to leave me for every Chinese person she saw. She did not speak, just a soft whimpering grieving cry. She is a food hoarder. Presently, it is 2:43 here and she is sleeping. I wanted to write, post and send pictures earlier, but have not had a chance. Once she turned into a smiling, happy child, she was wound up and I could not get her to sleep until 10:00 p.m. China time. So much for her 8:00 bedtime.
She had a bald head and an unclosed fontanelle, both of which concern me for her sake. However, both are things that I knew about and that Scott and I are both okay with. I don't know why her head is bald. It is possible that she may have had a recent procedure or IV fluids in her head, would would explain the two round red marks on her thorax and the red spot on her head (it looks like a possible IV injection site). However, we are open to the fact that she may have a bald spot from her birthmark. Either way, she is so beautiful to me and Scott.
She turned into an active, smiling, happy child and a little mischievous too. This happened after 4 p.m. and I got her at 10 a.m. I will place a post for you to post. Here are a few pictures. She is beautiful and I am in love with her. She likes me now too, but it was not love at first sight for her towards me. LOL. At least I was prepared for that. Her nanny was not there, and she was very attached to the other caretakers and director. The director emphasized that she was very "smart", and he is very correct. They spent a lot of time with her and I could tell that she was attached to them and they truly loved her and wanted the best life for her. They left a pretty green sweater for her, and it was a security sweater for a long time. I think that her nanny may have given it to her. Her actually nanny was not there. I don't know why, but she did know the other people well. If her actual nanny had been there, I don't know how I would have gotten her out of there.
After getting her at the Civil Affairs office, our guide, Fred, took us to the Chinese Supermarket. It was neat, and they had two floors and an escalator where you drove the carts up. Certain things in the store are consigned, like the fruit, certain cereals, jewelry, souveniers. You have to pay for them separately. When we got to the checkout line. I would never have known. I kept asking her which things she liked and she just accepted each thing and put it in the back of the cart. It was a very neat store and played Chinese New Year music throughout the store.
She had several layers of clothes on. She was sad to see "Uncle Fred" leave the hotel. She was sweating from head to toe. Slowly, I peeled each layer away. She was most reluctant to let go of her red shoes. I gave her a bubble bath, and she didn't mind. She washed her little self with a washcloth. I brushed her hair and she liked the Panda barrettes at first and wanted all 4 in her hair, but they barely stayed in. Then, she pulled them all out and put on her red snowhat. It was a sad moment for me, because I realized that she has been taught to cover up her bald spot, even though she may not know why. I don't know how to deal with that if her hair doesn't grow back, because I think she is the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, bald spot and all, and I don't want her to develop a complex. At the same time, I don't want her to get stares. As a parent, I need to learn the best way to parent and love her in that aspect.
When we got back, I showed her some bubbles and she learned to blow bubbles really quick. Unfortunately, the bubbles were cheap Valentine knock-outs, and don't work when they get halfway empty, but she is not easily discouraged. I found that she LOVES coloring. Afterwards, we went back to coloring. I started to watch her Gotcha video. She heard the nannies talking and leaned over to watch. I downloaded it for her.
Also, around 1:00 we ordered room service. The girl could not take my order over the phone, because she spoke very little English. She was so sweet and sent a staff member to personally take my order. Jiliang was sad when the attendant left. Then, she started to color and seemed a little more content. However, when the attendant brought the food, Jiliang when she walked out the door. She tried to open the door to leave with her. She didn't want to eat the dumplings or rice that I bought her. They were wonderfully palatable to me while she chose to color!
She became very sad, especially when I folded her coat. She thought I was throwing her coat away! She cried and grieved. I lost it and I cried, because it was heartbreaking to see her grieve. At one point, I held her and I could feel her heart racing. It was scary. Luckily, that was short-lived. I showed her the video of her Gotcha Day. She was comforted by seeing her nannies. She yawned and yawned, and it was around her normal nap time. I laid the laptop in the bed. She laid down and watched, but did not fall asleep. I wanted to sleep. :) Then, she continued to eat these orange cookie-crackers. I was afraid they would make her sick. She was still grieving, and she ate each one slowly. Then, I made her put them on the nightstand. She didn't like that. She was clinging to them, because it was her security blanket, so to speak. She understood. Every time she would finish a cookie, she would cry, and I would give her another, one at a time. She got over that.
I tried to fold her clothes later in the evening, and she didn't know what I was touching them for, and cried and clutched them. Especially her shoes and green sweater.
She recognized my husband and son in different pictures. She was looking at a photo of T.J. and said, "Ji Ji" and I rejoiced thinking that was her nickname. Then, she said, "Baba" for all Scott's pictures and Ji Ji for all of T.J.'s pictures. She said "Baba" on the phone to Scott, which about made him melt. He can't wait to meet her! "Can you come home sooner?" he asked.
Suddenly, she came out of her shell. She grabbed the bubbles and SMILED. I got it on camera. She smiled more, she giggled! She kissed her Ling dollie that speaks Chinese. She colored. She blew bubbles out the window and laughed and hammed it up while I took photos. When I didn't take photos, she nudged my camera to say, "Get a picture of this!"
I tear up writing this, because I feel so unbelievable happy that she found happiness. When you see her sorrow, it brings deep joy and privelege to see her elation. She even picked up the phone to pretend to play phone and I wondered if she was trying to call "Baba" Scott, because it was right after we got off the phone with him. By the way, she was all smiles on the phone with you, Scott.
The rest of the evening was spent playing, blowing more bubbles, investigating food in the room. She peeled about 4 oranges herself. Each time, she would give me half of the peeled orange. She likes bananas too. However, she didn't like the banana chips I bought. She LOVES chocolate. She put my Dove chocolates in her Panda sweater pocket and gave me an equal amount. I am not sure if that was intentional or not.
We went for a walk in the hotel and investigated each floor. She stayed near me. At one point, I thought she was going to race me, so I started to run and play, and she thought that I was going to run out of her sight and fear struck her face.
She opened up a lot and is speaking a LOT of Chinese. I thought she was quiet. :) She is a sweet, wonderful, active, mischievious, SMART girl. She picks up things very quickly. If I demonstrate something once, she will do it. She understands so much. She absolutely LOVES her Chinese Ling doll. Thank you Katherine St.
Clair!!!!!! She loves to hear me talk in Chinese! After she warmed up to me, she was elaborating on what the doll said in Chinese, very fluently. She looked at wait and waited for me to speak the Chinese words and would prompt me to do so each time. I wonder if she is thinking, "Okay now, you are going to learn MY language."
She is such a joy. She has so much personality, love, tenderness and MISCHIEVIOUSNESS. She will fit right in with her big brother, T.J. He is the king of mischieviousness.
One more thing (although there are so many things I could write about her and about today), the ophanage staff took pictures on one of the disposable cameras - approximately 17 pictures. They gave me a receipt for the cake and I thanked them. They said that they told her she was being adopted and explained it to her, and also show her our pictures. They explained that she was getting a big brother and that he was looking forward to meeting her.
I will write more as soon as I can. Please know that we are both very well. Please pray for her safety and smooth travels. Please know that I feel very safe here in China. We will be going back to the Civil Affairs Office in the morning to finalize some adoption paperwork for China's side. I will also be telling them that I want to keep her. It seems a little silly, because I adore her, but that is the procedure. When she sees her orphanage staff tomorrow, she may grieve some more. I can handle that, although I pray that she copes well for her sake. I can't imagine her grief. On Wednesday, which is the day after tomorrow, we will be sight-seeing in Nanjing.
Thank you and God Bless You All!!!!
With Love,
Jill :)
