We met in the Civil Affairs building at 10am, but Jia Wen had not yet arrived. Another family was waiting in the same room, so I asked some questions and found that their son was also from the Shenyang orphanage. In fact, I had a photo of their son that I showed them and promised to email to them. We ended up waiting until about 10:30 or later before we heard that the children had arrived. The little boy (also age 3) let out a cry when he saw his family and Jia Wen then followed his lead. When I came around the room to her, she was very frightened, screaming, clutching her nanny. After the nanny set her down, I crouched down near her with Maimie. She was very upset and shook her head no with the tears still coming. It was quite some time before she ate the candy offered to her and the stuffed pig. She then took stickers from me, and still would not let me touch her. Finally, it was time to have our family photo taken. The nanny took her to the area to be photographed while Steve and I sat on the stools. They plopped her on my lap and cajoled her with one of the princess stickers we brought. She allowed me to hold her finally without screaming or crying. In a few minutes, we were told it was time to go. Before leaving, the kids started feeding her the cheerios we brought. Let's just say it's good to know she can be bribed with food.
She quietly sat on my lap in the van on the way back to the hotel. She would not respond to our Chinese or Grace's Chinese at first, but I could tell she was understanding us. She feels like a cinder block. She may be as heavy as Maimie already. She had a lot of layers, too, though. Our driver said yesterday it was -13 degrees and tomorrow it is predicted to get to -24 degrees. So, needless to say, we are pretty much thankful to stay in the hotel just to stay reasonably warm.
Once in the hotel room, Jia Wen sat on the bed with us. She ate cheerios, put stickers on the front of her sweater and on everyone's face. She looked through a picture book and tried to imitate the words as I read them to her. We taught her to sign "more" and she tried to say it as well. Then we got out a photo album with photos of her and her friends and surroundings at the orphanage. She got very excited and started telling us who the photos were. She called many of the little boys ge ge , which is chinese for brother. It was so sweet. She started pointing to photos of herself and saying Jia Wen. I'm not sure what was up with the report that she was unable to speak, but I'm confident she will be speaking after some speech therapy.
She has fed me cheerios, lets me kiss her, etc. She is equally at ease with all of the kids and has been playing with them all afternoon. She spilled water on her shirt and I debated as to whether she would be okay with having her shirt changed. I grabbed the one that matches the shirt Maimie has on today and showed it to her. She let me put it on her and just smiled and smiled. Now she is offering hugs to all of us.
I guess overall, even though the start was a little rocky, God is so good. We are very encouraged.
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