Transitions

It is 11pm and everyone is asleep but me (Cherie). I just got Faith down. She goes back and forth between being happy and playing to being sad and crying. She is pretty insecure. When we walked into the government office this morning she cried. It seems like she's afraid we're going to leave her somewhere. She cries a good bit. That's okay, because I cry a good bit, too. I really want to come home because I miss Christian and Gracie like crazy.

Tonight at dinner (I say that like we actually ate something) the waitresses were talking to Faith as usual and she kind of gave them a little sour look, said something, and they laughed. I asked what she said and they told me, "I don't want to play with you." They can't understand everything she says because the people from Fuzhou speak a different dialect of Mandarin than the people from Nanchang, but they can understand a little.

We tackled brushing her teeth for what I know was the first time. It was easy to see that she had no idea what we were doing and that no one had ever brushed her teeth before. She has 2 cavities that I can see.

She has to have shoes on at all times. We try to take her shoes off and she hates it. She must never have walked around in bare feet before. Also, I think one of my biggest challenges is going to be switching her to a western style toilet!! She is completely potty trained, but on a... you guessed it... squat potty. So we will struggle with that when we get home because the toddler potty the hotel put in our bathroom is NOT western style. Oh joy!

Watching her eat is an amazing thing. Mitchell said, "You know it makes me sad watching her eat." If you have ever seen any TV commercials for groups like "Feed the Children," or something like that, and seen children eating... that's what she reminds us of. She puts her chin clear down on her bowl and shovels her food in while holding her other hand underneath to make sure nothing drops. When the bowl is empty she keeps scraping it and then scrapes her chin with her spoon and puts that in her mouth, too. Then she picks up her bowl and licks the rice off that was stuck on the sides. She eats Congee, which is like watery white rice, and everything else I give her - little vegetables, bread bites, little potatoes. She puts everything in the congee and eats it like a soup in the manner I described. She would just keep eating and eating if I would let her, but I don't want her to get sick. We said, "And to think, we throw leftover food down the disposal!"

At 9am tomorrow (9pm Tuesday for you) Mitch and Mitchell are leaving to visit the orphanage. It is a 2 hour drive and Matthew and I are going to stay here with the baby. We feel that if she sees the building she will think we are taking her back, so we thought it best not to take her.

Miss you all. We are making a list of all the things we want to eat when we get home - like pizza and Ritchey's ice cream and salad and chips and ....well....ANYTHING!!! And I want to hold my kids!

Love you!