Time flies when you're having fun

It's been a while since my last post. We've been pretty busy around here, and I am hoping things settle down a bit before I have to go back to work. We've figured out the day care situation, so that Holly doesn't have to go to a day care or babysitter. Our schedules will rotate around each other to some degree, and when they don't, Mindy will be home, so, we're all set.

Holly will have a difficult time getting used to Mama being gone so much, but, at least she won't have the stress of having to be with strangers not in her own home where things are familiar. The language barrier still exists, but, for us, it's not as much of a challenge, as we know her so well that there have only been a few times lately that we couldn't decipher what she was trying to tell us or what she was feeling. One of those times was yesterday morning.

Tim went into the girls room to get Myleigh up for school, and both girls were still sound asleep. When he was moving around the room, Holly woke up, and immediately started to cry, as if she had been having a nightmare. He picked her up and tried to figure out what was wrong, but, she just sobbed and sobbed. He made breakfast for both of them, but, she wouldn't eat. She just cried. I took her and Myleigh up to brush their teeth, and she really didn't want to cooperate, but, relented. I tried to figure out if she wasn't feeling well, or if she hurt somewhere, but, that wasn't easy, since she just wanted to cry. No fever, no wincing if I picked her up or touched her arms legs, or tummy, no sign of obvious illness. So, there was just one thing left to try.

I put in the Chinese DVD we had gotten at the Trustmart in Guangzhou of a children's performance group singing and dancing to celebrate Chinese New Year, into my laptop, and sat her on my chair at the table. She immediately quieted and just sat for about an hour watching without moving. I gave her some cherrios, no milk, in a bowl, and she munched on them while she watched quietly. After a bit, she started to interact with us, and smile. She was slowly back to her old cheery self, and asked to watch some of the other DVD's in Chinese, and then lost interest and started to shadow me again. She even helped me to let the dogs out of their crates, which is huge for her since it involves going down into the basement which is a fear of hers since it's where the dogs are kept and even though our basement is finished and like the rest of the house, it's still a basement, underground, so, not something she likes to do.

The rest of the day she was happy as a clam. All I can figure out is that she was grieving and wanting her foster grandparents, and was frustrated that she couldn't tell us, because she couldn't talk to us, so, the Chinese being sung and spoken was soothing and gave her a chance to at least hear words she knows and listen to songs she is familiar with. It's like calling home.