One month since gotcha day

Today marks one month since Mrs. Tan came out of the elevator and around the corner into a large room of the Shenyang Civil Affairs building holding a very frightened little girl in a pink coat and snow pants.  At that moment, Shen Jia Wen's forever family had waited for 40 minutes (and over 14 months) to get their first glimpse of little Shen Jia Wen in person.  

 

The 30+ minutes that followed were filled with crying, screaming, fear, and lots of tears.  Little Shen Jia Wen's entire life was turning upside down.  Everything that she knew was changing.  

One month later, that little girl is still a bit baffled at times by how her life has changed.  She still grieves her former life, friends, teachers, and foster family.  She still struggles to communicate her needs and wants.  But she is trying.

 Saidie is now signing and attempting to say with some degree of accuracy: potty, drink, eat, more, bath, banana, apple, cheese, nap, up, book, thank you, help.  She says several other words in English as well and knows each of our names.  Saidie recognizes each person's place at the table, and when I'm doing laundry she can identify to whom several articles of clothing belong.  

Saidie is helping to put her clean clothes in her dresser, fold wash cloths, and put dirty clothes in the hamper.  She has become much sweeter and is rarely aggressive now.  Saidie laughs and teases and plays and sings and dances.  And sometimes she cries, gets upset, stiffens when held, and shrugs when uncomfortable....but much less often than before. 

This morning was a difficult morning for little Miss Saidie.  Earlier in the week her dentist appointment revealed 3 teeth with yellow soft spots perhaps due to maternal fever or infection while Saidie's teeth formed in utero.  Today we went back to the dentist for filing and capping of the worst of the affected teeth.  Not gonna sugarcoat it...

It. 

Was. 

Hideous.
  
Hard to sit by and watch without being able to grab up my baby and hug away the fear.  She was screaming, crying, writhing around, kicking. Worst of all was not being able to explain to her what was happening or why.  Her reaction was actually similar to gotcha day.  Poor baby.  Not lookin' forward to putting the poor thing through it again for the other two teeth eventually. 
We finished our morning at the mall on the little riding machines.  I think I went through about $10 in quarters so the girls could ride the ice cream truck, the circus wagon, the rollercoaster, etc.  But it was so worth it since it made for two of the sweetest little Chinese smiles you ever did see.  

Saidie's bracelets from the dentist