Tuesday, September 18, 2007
What an amazing little girl.
Things are going amazingly well, considering how much Nola is
grieving for her foster family, the only family she's ever known
in her short life. We have learned that her grieving happens
intensely around sleeping times. We're pretty sure she slept
with her foster mom or grandma. Her naptime was pretty rough
yesterday and, for some silly reason, I thought that would have
been it for the day. Boy was I wrong. Our poor little girl had a
pretty tough time of it as we were all going to bed last night
(in the same bed). So so sad. Our hearts break for her and for
her foster family, who obviously loved her very much. We learned
she has strong lungs and an even stronger spirit.
Now, have I mentioned that our girl can eat? Hooooo doggies....
It's a good thing they got a breakfast buffet at this joint.
This morning she ate some banana, a whole bowl of congee, some
streaky bacon and some Canadian-style bacon, about half of my
omelet, some watermelon...you get the picture. We're gonna call
her The Refrigerator. Not because she's as big as one, but
because she could probably eat everything in one. Either that or
Hoover. And about her cleft palate...well, it doesn't seem to
slow her down at all. We actually haven't been able to look up
in there to see the extent of the cleft, but she drinks fine out
of all sorts of sippy and bottle paraphernalia, with no liquids
coming out of her nose.
She's definitely into Mama at this stage. We don't know how much
she was actually around men before we came into her life, so
that's probably the main factor. We just have to remember all of
the stuff we read about parent preference at this stage. I have
no doubt she'll be Daddy's little girl in no time. But in the
meantime....she's calling me Mama. Me. Mama.
Today our guide took us to the Qianling Shan Park and Hongfu Si,
a Buddhist monastery. I carried Nola in the Ergo (totally rockin'
carrier by the way) and we strolled through the grounds and the
several temples. We bought incense and Eric prayed at three
temples and lit three sticks of incense at each. At one temple a
woman gave Nola a banana and at another temple a monk gave Nola
an apple. Our guide informed us that "only the cleverest of
babies will get one of Buddha's fruits"...and she got two. Heh.
We also went to a calligraphy studio, where the very talented
calligrapher wrote a beautiful poem for Nola and we bought the
scroll. I'll get a better translation, but he wrote that not
even the strongest wind and rain will break her amazing spirit.
There were monkeys at the Park, which Nola loved, and an
interesting man that danced for us, which Nola wasn't quite sure
of (ditto).
She's pulling at my hand now. I've gotta go run up and down the
hallway.
|
A poem for Nola
Beautiful downtown Guiyang
Little Sweetie
Papa saying a prayer at the Buddhist Temple |
