2nd post of Gotcha Day!

"Now to him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen!"
Eph. 3:20-21


When we prepared mentally for this day, we greatly underestimated what God is able to do when we walk in faith with Him.  We had ourselves geared up for a very difficult day and instead were met with a joyful one.  We were prepared for trying stress and instead found peaceful simplicity.  We were ready for a fearful child and instead met a brave and trusting one.  We spent the whole day ready and waiting for the tables to turn and for the fits to begin, but they never did.  We are still keeping a very realistic perspective about this, and do expect that at some point we will see her begin to act out.  But what a blessing to have had such a peaceful start with her today.


She was quiet at first, and while we had our guide she would talk and respond more to the guide in Chinese than to us.  But our guide left us for the day by around 11:30am I think - after showing us around the area near our hotel and after helping us settle some things at the hotel.  We expected maybe after the guide left that was when we would see the behavior explosion since her only link to the Chinese language would have then left.  But still, she was ok.  Quiet and reserved, but willing to interact.  So we played for a while in the room - mostly with her straw cup which she absolutely loves.  That simple straw sippy cup got us our first interactive smiles and even giggles.  

Fruit Loops - YUM!

She loves this cup!  Even in the car on the way back to the hotel from the orphanage, it made her smile to see the straw pop up and down!

Happy Lydia - or Ting Ting as we are calling her for now

Fascinated with the straw!

She also likes the snack cup.  She opened a pack of fruit snacks and then thought it was a better idea to pour them into the snack cup!

After a while we decided we should go get some lunch.  We walked down a street that our guide had showed us and braved a local place.  If we didn't stand out before around here, we sure do now!  We've been called movie stars more than once, and now we have a Chinese girl with us!  Lunch was a big success - local food that was actually very good, and little Lydia who eagerly gobbled up everything we put in front of her and willingly accepted seconds and thirds.


We came back to the hotel and hoped there would be some sort of naptime, since the orphanage told us that she naps everyday from 12-2pm.  No such luck for us though - she was way too interested in all of the fun things we have here for her to possibly want anything to do with sleep!  So instead, we played.  Played, interacted, smiled, and even laughed.  We tried out some Chinese phrases - which we apparently were butchering since she would just look at us like we were nuts!  Although we did get some help from a simple Chinese language program for adoptive parents and that helped us get a couple of responses from her to our primitive Chinese.  It was REALLY fun when I finally said one phrase well enough that she looked at me in recognition and nodded in response!  She also practiced English words, believe it or not!  I about fell over when she first imitated an English word that Jim said - which happened to be "silly" - in response to looking at a picture of Grace and Mary Emma making faces!  She quickly moved on to imitating the words "Grace" and "Mary Emma".  She loves to look at pictures over and over.  She spots Jim in pictures every time and says "Ba-ba", and will also spot me most of the time and say "ma ma."  She points to both Grace and Mary Emma and wants us to say their names so she can repeat them.  

She likes the aqua-doodle coloring pages with the water pen.  We haven't tried crayons and coloring yet - maybe tomorrow.  We were keeping it simple today so as not to overwhelm her.

An introduction to the ipad!  She belly laughed at Angry Birds!  And she figured out how to play in no time!

I don't know who taught this girl to smile for the camera, but all I have to do is pull it out and she flashes a big cheezer!

So we literally played all afternoon, and worked on the blog post of course - which she was on my lap for most of!  She loves the computer so if either of us sit down at it, she wants to be on our lap.  

Right after I finished the blog post we decided it was time for dinner, so we went downstairs and ate at the buffet in the hotel.  What a precious experience to watch a child eat at a buffet who is used to eating at an orphanage.  This smiley, interactive child suddenly gets quite quiet and serious when she sits down at a table.  And then she digs in.  Anything we put on her plate.  And in fact, Jim was holding her as we went through this buffet line and I was putting food on her plate.  Every metal lid that we opened just to see what was inside, she pointed to each type of food inside that pan, and wanted it on her plate!  We finally decided we'd better stop opening lids to see what was in the pan because she wanted each kind of thing on her plate!  She ate amazingly well, in fact we had to purposefully control her portions to keep them appropriate for her size.  We had been warned by some other adoptive families that sometimes these kids won't stop on their own, and can just eat until they get sick.  So we made sure to let her have more, but tried to keep it reasonable for a three year old.  Even at that she ate more than either of us at both meals.  Absolutely precious to watch.  

Ate everything we gave her for dinner, plus a plate of watermelon, which we were told is her favorite fruit.

I like this one because it shows how little she is at that big table

We discovered too that she likes when Jim carries her - she smiles and looks up at the ceiling which is so close!

After dinner, we came back to the room and decided to attempt a bath to get her out of her clothes - which she had not yet been willing to remove despite having many layers on.  She would go potty just fine, but pull all the layers back up when she was done.  She wouldn't let us take off her sweater or anything even though she had layers underneath it - including, by the way, thick quilted long johns underneath her tights, which were underneath her skirt!  So bathtime - yeah, huge success doesn't begin to describe it!  As soon as we said the Chinese phrase for "take a bath", she headed into the bathroom, pointed to the tub, and when I nodded she started taking off the clothes!  Then it took us a minute to get her to realize she could sit down in the tub, but once she did, the fun began!  Stacking cups in the water and a monkey puppet washcloth, and she was pouring, squealing and belly laughing the whole time!  The only little brief protest was when I rinsed her hair with the shower nozzle.  But that was very brief.  And that was after she had already attempted to help scrub her own hair, and then promptly grabbed one of the plastic cups she was playing with and dumped it over her own head several times to try to rinse her hair.  This is one amazingly capable three year old.  

Bathtime fun!

In her pj's after bathtime, swinging her strings of beads!

After bathtime, we were finally able to get on Skype so Grace, Mary Emma, Nana and Papa could all see her and she could see them.  We had waited all day to have it be not in the middle of the night anymore back home!  What fun for our family to see and hear her, especially to hear her attempting to say words already!


So after Skype, the only things left were brushing teeth and bedtime.  Brushing teeth was again a non-issue...SHE pretty much showed US how to do it!  So then we were down to bedtime.  She was still shaking her head no when we would say the Chinese phrase for "go to bed."  But we called her over to her bed, turned the lights mostly out, and laid down on our bed too.  Two minutes and she was out.  Now she is breathing heavily over there - sometimes even snoring!

I can't fathom how this day went so well except to give God the glory for bringing this all to pass.  I hope she sleeps well all night, but again I'm trying to keep a very realistic perspective and be prepared for anything.  And thus, I too need to get some sleep just in case the night turns long.  Thank you ALL for your prayers - I have absolutely NO doubt that they were responsible for our amazing first day.  Keep it up - as you go through your day today, remember we are sleeping here and say a prayer for a peaceful night.  


Much love from us,

and 

Oh - I almost forgot!  I had to come back and add this after posting...

3 things we are most thankful for...


1.  that kids are still kids, even with a language barrier
2.  for people who can speak both Chinese and English!
3.  for the simple trust of a precious child - Lydia QianTing