Saturday, November 15, 2008

WOW! What happened to our kid?


I dont know what happened or how? I am going to err on the conservative side and give God the credit but we woke up today with a new kid! The last two days we have seen small signs of this child...but today we had a mile long list of FIRSTS!

On the daddy front, he has become a pretty cool guy. Molly spent well over an hour and a half playing alone with him in the play room here in the White Swan hotel while I was up on the ninth floor filling out paperwork. Rob is picking her up and we even had some hand holding today which is normally reserved for me. What gives? On the communication side of the house Rob and I are in AWE! She is signing back and forth to us and copying our signs. Today she actually gave Rob the sign for "toilet" and so he took her to the bathroom. Once there she signed it again and well...was a happy camper. She is voicing more and more. I said the word MORE and gave her the sign and she signed MORE and said "mooooooorrrrrrr" so there is definitely some hearing going on. She is now signing MOMMY and giving me the sign for mom and is signing dad. She is not making the "da" sound..but she mimmicks me with her mouth. She loves to sign "flower" and she LOVES to wave and BLOW KISSES! Yes...can you believe that? Blow kisses? She is signing "what" to me quite often and holds up her finger to me to signify "wait!". When she runs into the hallway she will give me the quiet sign to show me that she is not going to scream down the hall anymore. She is shaking her head NO when she doesn't want anything and also gives the sign for all done.






This transformation is great...but not without its pitfalls. We have witnessed a total of FOUR temper tantrums...nothing major but there is some de-programming ahead for her in the future. I kind of assumed that it would be anything goes during the trip and then we would lower the boom once we got home. Fortunately her tantrums at not getting what she wants has afforded us the opportunity to start treating her just like we do our boys. The honeymoon is over now kid! You have showed us your hand! Our biggest challenge is the sudden running away in the wrong direction and it is difficult to stop a little girl who really cant hear you unless you run after and stop her...which I had to do several times today.

Funny thing today. After she woke up from her nap she handed me her hearing aids. I put the first one in, turned it on, and said "hello". She turned toward me, smiled and started clapping! Guess that one is working!



Today we did all the final paperwork for Molly's immigration to the country, took her VISA photo, and had her medical exam. All were accomplished before lunch. Tomorrow we will spend half a day touring with the other Living Hope Families that are here and then spend some time hanging around this massive hotel. Monday we will await the phone call from Judy, our facilitator, who will take our paperwork to the Consulate, Tuesday is the final visa interview and swearing in and we all know what Wednesday is!


This picture was taken in front of the fish pond in our hotel. When she saw me take out my camera she held up her finger signifing "wait", turned around and got in this pose and waited for me to take the picture! She is now a camera hog!

She loves the bow in her hair and will point to the top of her head when it needs adjusting. She will also stare at herself in the mirror and sign "Beautiful" when she has her bow. The sweetest sign is flower though. We had given her a combination of her first name and the sign for GIFT as her name sign but may need to change it to flower because it is soooo freaking cute!

This transformation has been nothing short of a miracle and while it is completely out of my comfort zone to parent a toddler that Im not completely 100 percent in control of and cant lecture until we are both blue in the face when they mess up, we are finding our way. Thank you God! This was a much answered prayer...well, everything but the tantrums..but who am I to split hairs.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am simply....there are no words....just tears of joy streaming down my cheeks. Im so happy and I love you all so much. Hurry up and get home. All the Thomas send their love . xoxo mare

Unknown said...

All reports are 'fubulous.'

Wait until Molly meets her Uncle Ron.

I'll, of course, be her favorite.

rt

Unknown said...

I am so glad to see little Molly. I went on vacation to Mexico and thouhgt about you guys several times and prayed for you. I can't wait till you have her at home. She's beautiful and I love that smile.

bluelou00 said...

we are so happy for you and your family.
i just re-lived our whole experience thru your words.
thank you for sharing..

lou and linda

Katherine said...

When I read your blog ,I almost cry~~
Molly is turned to be a very happy girl in Guangzhou and she loves her JunRen Rob father.
Blessing Molly.
Blessing your sweet family.
I miss you all!!!