As was evident from the photos, our time at Civil Affairs, meeting Sarah, was very difficult and very traumatic for her. That is the reality of international adoption of a toddler for many people. However, over the course of the evening, the transformation in her was incredible. She has been having fun with us now. She was incredible at dinner! Bedtime went very well. I was right next to her and rubbed her back. She was asleep in less than 5 minutes. And she has slept soundly all night (and I can not say the same about that for myself!)
Bathtime (before dinner) was traumatic. I had Rupert put his bathing suit on and get in the tub with her. I knew washing her hair would be traumatic and it would be better for me to do that for her. She did calm down eventually. After dinner, when we got back to the room, Rupert took his polo shirt off to put an undershirt on just in the hotel room and Sarah freaked out hysterically crying. Clearly she thought he was going to make her take a bath again. Later, she had a messy BM and I decided to put her in the tub to make sure she got really clean. She took one look at Rupert and got right in the tub, clearly showing him - I CAN DO THIS MYSELF!
Today we meet our guide (Alexa) at (9:30 am) to go back to Civil Affairs to legally adopt Sarah. Hopefully returning to the same building as yesterday (minus the orphanage staff) will go alright. It should only take about an hour, and then once we are back in our hotel room we will attempt to go outside with her. It may be too overwhelming for her, but we will at least try.
Some things I want to share:
- She was NOT wearing the butterfly dress! She was wearing a t-shirt and pants I had sent her (with butterflies on them). Those were 18 months and clearly a bit snug.
- She looks very tiny, but her height is pretty good. The 24 month dresses we brought barely go past her bottom.
- She ate egg, rice, and NOODLES (LOVED THEM) at dinner. Like Aaron, I doubt she had much or any meat at the orphanage, and not a lot of chewing was necessary (probably foods were very, very soft and boiled down).
- She's very, very smart. Even with the language barrier, she is understanding a lot of our directions.
- She is very observant, watches us carefully, and imitates us. For example, she learned to take her shoes off when entering the hotel room for the first time, and did so when we came home from dinner, as soon as she saw me doing so. We played a few different games with the beach ball in our hotel room and she was able to copy what we were doing.
- She's extremely focused. We've seen that with the stacking cups and other toys.
- She is doing a lot of THINKING.
- She is covered with bug bites (mosquitoes). All over her legs she has fresh ones and there are marks from old ones all over her legs too.
- She cries very easily. Since being back in the hotel room, we have been able to console her, thank goodness.
- She is in need of some hair styling! Melissa, get ready for your next client! When she came to us, she had 2 pigtails, with 4 rubberbands in each. They were so tightly done that I feared we would have to cut them out. Luckily, on the van ride back to our hotel, she was distracted by the scenery and I was able to get them out. We will be sticking to barrettes in, in the days to come!
- She has very good hand/eye coordination.
- She sat on my lap the first 10 minutes of dinner, and then was easily convinced to sit in the high chair beside me. And ate a great dinner.
- She LOVES the toys we have shown her so far.
- She learns fast. When it was time to go to dinner, I had her put her toys in her little Minnie Mouse backpack and she became hysterical. I realized she had no idea the backpack was coming to dinner, and feared they were being taken away. So I took the toys back out and she carried them. I carried the Minnie Mouse backpack to dinner. When dinner was over, I picked up the backpack and unzipped it, held it towards her, and she put all her toys in it. When we got back to the room she took them out and put them on the couch to play with.
- She is making excellent eye contact, has fed us treats (Cheerios), and when we pick her up, she is not limp or trying not to touch us. She holds on tightly to us. We've had a few smiles.
- As with Aaron, I think Bao'an did NOT prepare her at all for meeting us. Everything from our care package we sent her looked exactly as it had when we sent it - tags still on.
- She loves dresses and having her hair styled. I'm awful at the hairstyling! Clearly I'll need some lessons.
- The young woman who brought Sarah from the orphanage in the van was the same one who brought Aaron in 2010. We recognized each other right away. She came right out (before she brought Sarah out) and asked about "Bao Xin Sheng" (Aaron). Here is a photo of us with her.
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