Little Miss Personality

Here are a few shots from yesterday and today. Lilly checks out Tad through the safety of the glass door (she thought it was funny that her underwear kept falling down--the smallest ones they make fall off of her!).

Finally got a bow in that hair!


Here she is wearing her mixing bowl hat, and playing with the little number cards my friend Cindy gave her--she loves them. Any kind of little card--business card, junk mail flyers, tags from clothing--she has to have them! So the little flash cards are a hit!

Here she is checking out the hat selection at Target. She seems to enjoy shopping in America!

Wow, what a difference a day at home makes!! Little Lillian is now starting to really open up and show us who she really is. She has been a busy, active, funny, and mostly happy little girl! Here are a few highlights:

• Praise God, she seems to really like Tad!! At first a little unsure of him, she now enjoys giving him treats and telling him to sit and eat. If he gets too close, she backs up against a wall (for stability, I suspect), and tells him "no, no!" Tad so far is her best English teacher, as he has helped her learn her first 4 English words: "No!" "Sit!" "Tad" and "Come."









• Praise God, Tad seems to sense that she is small and fragile and has been amazingly gentle and subdued with her. It may be that he is completely worn out after 2 weeks of playing with his puppy friend, Kona! (thanks, Laura! He is wiped out!)


• Lilly has learned how to wave bye bye, something she showed no inclination to do in China.


• Lilly smiles and giggles so much now!


• Lilly has started to occasionally call me "Mama." My heart nearly bursts when I hear that one. Not often enough, yet, but it's coming along.


• Lilly has discovered the kitchen cabinets, and decided to wear a mixing bowl as a hat this morning.


• She knew just what to do with the little potty we bought her yesterday (no more standing and holding her over toilets, yay!) and even used it unannounced and unassisted today. Now if we could just get her bowels and bladder trained to make it through the night!


• Lilly seems to be done hoarding food. She refused to eat the snack I gave her before her nap today, opting instead to mix the dry cheerios into the small bowl of applesauce and offer it to me. No, thanks.


• Lilly has shown us the many ways she is much more physically mobile and agile than we had realized in China. Now that she is in a much bigger space, she is showing us she can climb, get up and down from standing to sitting to standing again, and so much more.

I know we have many challenges ahead, both in the immediate future and in the long term. Here are some of them, in no particular order:

• Uninterrupted sleep would be so good. Please pray that she will soon get her schedule on track, get her bowels and bladder to cooperate and not need to potty at night, and not see her bed as a bad place. It seems to be the place that she most fights, and seems to go into her "bubble" the most when near her bed.



• We have much to do in the way of medical treatment for Lilly. Initial appointments with her family practictioner, immunizations, MRI and X-rays, and the consultations to decide on a treatment plan all loom ahead. As I research her congenital scoliosis more and more, I know we have a lot ahead of us to help her get straightened out. And we may have to deal with other internal issues--such as possible lost lung capacity--that have resulted from her deformity.


• I need peace and hope as we progress in our bonds and attachment with Lilly. She still prefers her baba, and I sometimes feel rejected. I am a grown up, and I love her the same, but I pray that she learns to accept me and trust me completely. It may be that she was so closely attached to her foster mama that it is hard for her to accept me at this point. Pray that she will soon.


• As Tom goes back to work next week, I anticipate it may be hard for this daddy's girl (and for her mama). Pray that Tom would have the energy to get back in the groove at work (with his now increased responsibilities) and that Lilly and I would bond all the more with daddy not home.


• Pray that Jared and Anna would continue on their fast track to overcoming jet lag, that Anna could make great strides in completing all her school work (Jared finished his in China; Anna is having a much harder time getting to it all, and it's hard for her to focus and hard for me to help her when Lilly is awake).