Today was adoption day in the eyes of the Chinese Government. In our eyes it occurred the minute we saw her. I was concerned about taking her back to the place where we first received her and seeing her caregiver after such a short period of time. But it seemed to help her. When her caregiver walked in her face just lit up. We saw the cutest smile and great dimples. The caregiver had her sing for us and it was precious. She also told us, thru an interpreter, about her surgery, done thru a donation by a local businessman, and about her development. We got this on video and think it will be special to Joy one day. When the caregiver said goodbye, Joy said goodbye and that was it. No tears and she walked out with us more confident than yesterday.
After adoption day, we came back to the room and felt it was best to hangout at the hotel for a few days so she can get use to these foreigners that keep staring at her and trying to steal hugs and kisses. Its so wonderful to see a 4 year olds world open up for the first time. We took her to see the fish in lobby and she loved it. She had a smile on her face and after a little while started saying fish and making a fish sound/motion with her mouth. It was so so so adorable.
The biggest development of the day – in my eyes anyway – was when she started wanting only me to hold her hand. I know this isn’t a competition but it is a good sign that she is seeing that I’m the mom and will take care of her. She also wanted me to hold her when we were walking back from the fish pond which was a big step.
She enjoys so many things like bubbles, coloring, playdough, beads, and seems to be very patient when she doesn’t know how something works, but keeps trying till she figures it out. She seems very smart to us and is very calm. This could be from all the changes in her life but she just seems to take things at a slower pace than her little sister, who is a little spit fire and wants to conquer her world in one day .
Enjoy the pictures, I think you can tell by them that she is doing much better today.
