After reading all of the comments to yesterday’s post, I am left feeling a little guilty. I had not intended to sound so sad! On the contrary, while Mia has had her moments of grief, we have seen many more moments of joy. I am amazed and grateful for her resilience, her ability and willingness to bounce back and move forward. After the stress of returning to the Civil Affairs Office yesterday morning, we came back to the hotel, and Sydney and Chris went off to frolic in the swimming pool, while Mia crashed – and slept for a good three hours. When she awoke, she was cheerful, happy and FULL of energy! We walked down to a nearby park and playground, and had a great time running and playing. This morning brought the breakthrough I have been waiting for. As we were on our way to breakfast, Mia reached her arms up to me, wanting to be picked up! I was so excited about this, I almost burst into tears. Finally, my patience has been rewarded! Today, I am the object of her attention. She is looking at me, following me everywhere, and calling me Mama, all with a huge smile upon her face! When she looked up at me a few minutes ago and said “Wo ai ni” (pronounced whoa-eye-knee), which is Mandarin for I love you, I felt like I could fly . . . And as if that weren’t enough, her language skills are astounding. We started with the sign language videos, to give her a quick and easy bridge from her native language to English. She picked up the signs right away, but isn’t at all interested in using them. Instead, she has become a parrot – repeating many of our words as we use them, with a clarity I would never have imagined she could produce so quickly. What’s been even more surprising is her ability to remember these new words, and use them correctly in new situations. She is curious about EVERYTHING. Like a tiny Chinese tornado, she spins around the room, getting into everything. The highlight of the day so far was a morning shoe shopping trip! The shoes Mia was wearing when she arrived are at least one size too big. We were unable to find a store close to the hotel that carried children’s things, so we had to take a twenty minute taxi ride to the nearest shopping center. I have never seen a little girl get so excited with such a simple thing. When she put on her new shoes, she beamed from ear to ear. And Sydney says: I really like having a sister, and she is way fun to play with, but I feel like Mia is getting all of my mom’s attention today, and I don’t really like it.
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Lisa LynchLisa is a world traveling mom that took the ultimate adventure Archives
December 2012
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