Not sure what she was trying to write, but it looks important!
We
have now been home for about 10 days and are getting settled into Central time
and our usual routines of school and work.
It was a little rough the first few days that Nanette was home alone
with Olivia, as she likely had not been alone for quite some time. At the orphanage, there are kids everywhere
all the time! Everyday we are learning
more about each other. Consider Olivia’s
perspective—she has arrived in a new country where everything is different:
food tastes different, things smell different, everything looks different, the
language sounds different…there are very few things here that are familiar to
her. Thankfully, she is very comfortable
around us, or should I say the other kids.
She definitely likes the other kids more than us right now, but I
suppose that is to be expected. However,
we are making progress and she has come to expect us to take care of her needs:
bath, food, clothes, etc.
We
arrived home on a Wednesday and she literally did not leave the house until
Monday. Since then, we have taken her
out to the store, to pick the other kids up from school, and a few other
places. We had a breakthrough when she
wanted to go with Scott to drop Bryce off at basketball practices. We’re not sure if she wanted to go with Scott
or Bryce, but either way it was a good sign.
We have also learned that she fits right in with the other females in
the house—in that she is NOT a morning person!
She usually wakes up a little groggy and takes some time to get warmed
up to everyone. However, the flip side
is at night, she is usually in a good mood and likes to have fun. Overall, we are making progress albeit
slow.
To
address some of the common questions we get:
1. Language—she is learning English and seems to
understand a lot of basic things that we ask her. We do not get a lot of words spoken back to
us, but she does say our names, the dog’s name, and she is saying some other
words here and there. Interestingly, a good friend gave us a DVD with some
children’s songs all in Chinese and she seems to love it—smiling, singing, and
laughing. However, she doesn’t sing when
we look at her…if we leave the room or ignore her, she will sing away.
2. Sleep—she and Elise share a room and they are
both doing well. We had a rough first 4-5 days, but she has settled into a
routine and is now sleeping in her own bed, through the night without any
issues.
3. Eating—she is very picky about what she eats and
could probably eat ramen noodles 3 times/day.
However, we are trying to get her on some healthy food so we are
limiting the ramen noodles to once/day!
Olivia will eat fruit and we have some Chinese snacks like seaweed and
fish flavored crackers, so these can tie her over while we find other foods. We
have been encouraged that she is starting eat more protein. Nanette made some congee (rice porridge) and
she does like this with some meat or tofu.
She is slowly getting accustomed to the food. For comparison, when we were in China and
eating their food all the time, our kids really didn’t care for it and wanted
“American” food by about the 3rd or 4th day. So we have tried to make foods that she
likes, add tons of salt, and hopefully that makes her feel more comfortable!
Very sweet girl, however, she won't do this if she knows we're filming.
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