"Make Friends"

Good morning, blogging world. I don't have the luxury now to blog daily; because today is a free day, I awoke early before Sophie so I could get in a post......she just woke up and is between us!! LOL Oh, well! I love having her near; although, she is not showing me any affection on her own yet.

Joy, our tour guide who is w/ us every day, says that Sophie's shunning is very normal.

sophie brrrrrrother, sister, bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb

She just typed this above....cool.

We are making progress. She will allow me to help her w daily needs~ brushing teeth, bathing ( she loves when I put lotion on her~ yeah!), getting dressed, public potty needs and eating. The rest of the fam has been great about making sure that I care for her in these specific ways. It would be easy for them to do it, but they always defer to me and I'm grateful. She's even coming to ask me for food and not hoarding anything at all!!! That's such an evidence of grace!

I thought we had made some head way at the pool, but after the 2nd day, she wouldn't come to me. I decided that w/a potentially dangerous situation, I wouldn't make the pool a battle ground. Last night, she played w/ Ellie and Shane in the water; I asked her if she would jump to me one time and she agreed.....progress!

As I was saying above, Joy has seen this a lot. She said it could take many months~ but she said it will happen. I'm thankful that she has bonded like glue to Todd, Ellie, and Shane b/c when we get home Todd goes to work on Monday and the kids get into the school grind, she and I will become well acquainted! She encouraged me to keep "make friends" ( there's no verb conjugation in the Chinese language)~ it's fun to be the one to give candy, ice-cream and great snacks. (She loves packaged dried, shredded fish! You go girl!)

She does much better w/ me in the room in the evenings after the kids leave. So we've cut our family times a little short so she and I can have some time before bed. ( We're together all day, every day so it's no biggie for the kids!)

We've been doing nails, stickers, drawing and last night she taught me to count to ten in Chinese. It was sooo cute; tonight I'd like Todd to video tape it while she's unaware. If she knows I'm in a picture or video tape, she completely shuts down. She also won't take a pic w/ me individually; all the family pics you see, the four of them get posed, then I jump in the end so she'll smile....

Yesterday, I introduced her to Satsuma lotion~ she LOVED it and I caught her sneaking it in the bathroom last night. Todd will have to buy stock in The Body Shop.

She's had quite a few tumbles, but after each laughs when others would cry. No one has ever made a big deal about boo-boos w/ her. When she hurt her knee, I put a Dora the Explorer band-aid on her and she even let me give mommy kisses. The next day, when we were all playing an intense game of balloon toss, Shane accidentally elbowed my knee really hard; I went thru the roof! Play stopped and after her shock of seeing me hurt, she got a band-aid for me. She wouldn't put it on me or even give it to me, but the seed had been planted! Smile.

This isn't a great pic, but it's of she and I doing nails after her bath! The other is the first time, since day one, she would hold my hand and not pull away! Whoo Hoo! (Oh, she did let me hug her when we put her to bed on day 4.)

I'm so grateful that God has prepared me for this little girl; I can wait for her to turn her love toward me. I remember many, many years that I was hostile to God and He continued to love me with an everlasting love! I'm in it for the long haul! I love, love, love her soo much!!! ( And how could I not, she is soo darned cute!)

I'll try to post again later today; it's a free day! We're still in bed, but will work out, go shopping w/ Denise and see our travel group! Thanks for your continued prayers!