Hope: One Less: Day 5

We had a minor setback last night (maybe the honeymoon is over?). She went to bed just fine but when I tried to crawl in bed with her at 10:15ish, she started crying and was hysterical for about an hour. I'm not sure if I startled her or if it was a continuation of the dog trauma. It is also possible that she is finally missing her caretakers and friends at her orphanage. Chris and I both tried to comfort her, but she wanted up and out of bed like she was looking for the dog. It took a while but we eventually got her calmed down. The kitchen was the magic trick (maybe she is most comfortable there). We gave her some benadryl in hopes that it would help her to sleep better. After 11:00, she decided she was hungry (which was consistent with poor eating all day) so although it was maybe not the brightest idea, we let her eat. She wanted congee. She had four bowls. The first two bowls, she sat on my lap and I had to spoon feed her. The second two bowls she ate on her own. I had washed both of her cups and she was adamant, she wanted the Frozen one in the kitchen and she put the Minnie Mouse one back in the bathroom for when she brushes her teeth. It is funny to me that she remembered where each one was before I washed them. Finally, got her down to sleep but we are going to have two tired girls today. She was extremely restless all night, tossing, turning, moaning. We plan to talk to the lead chaperone by phone today to see if we can get to the bottom of it.

Due to our short night, we had to wake her at 9:00 and ran around like crazy to get ready and get out of the house for our 10:00 vision appointment. Chris left early to take the dog back to his mom's at least for today. She had scrambled eggs for breakfast and we headed to Dr. Darcy Duzan's office for her vision appointment. They weren't able to auto-refract her because she would not keep her eyes in one place long enough for them to take any pictures. Darcy started the exam but realized it was going to be too difficult unless we dilated her pupils. So she put the drops in and we went back to the waiting room to play while they worked. She was quite a ham and kept trying on the display glasses. Luckily, the exam went well and it turns out her eyes are currently fine. She basically has no visual abnormalities in her eyes and Dr Duzan felt like with a +1.50 sphere with minimal or no measurable astigmatism no glasses are necessary at this point. Good news!! Chris left to go to Effingham to work for the day, and she and I went to my office for a little while so I could do a few things. She sat and colored, ate her goldfish, and did great considering how long we were there. Then we ventured to the grocery store and we survived. She sat in the front of the cart like a trooper. She picked out a few things: vanilla yogurt, Sunny D, and apple cinnamon muffin mix.

Lunch was quite an assortment including the vanilla yogurt (she made some funny faces but still ate all of it), fried rice, chinese noodles, and some apple. She barely tried the Sunny D and her face said it was a big fat no. Afterwards, we called Emily, the lead chaperone/translator so we could determine why she was so upset last night. Emily also told her that the dog was okay and would not hurt her. She listened, shook her head no once, but never spoke to Emily. Guess we will wait and see what happens when we bring the dog back. She was ready for her nap so I tucked her into bed and left the room. I was so impressed; she fell asleep all on her own.

Chris came home from work to a newly awoken crabby little girl. She was still in a fog but soon became more of her silly self. We Facetimed with two friends with speak Mandarin. She did not take much interest must she did listen and they tried to explain that the dog is okay and will not hurt her. We had some orange chicken and white rice for dinner prior to heading in to get better acquainted with our dog who spent the day at Nana's house. This process was going very well including having the ability to sit on the sectional together until Smitty came home from work. The dog started barking as the garage door went up and tears of deep rooted fear started rolling down our sweet girl's cheeks. Knowing that only more chaos was to come we packed up and headed home with the dog staying at Nana's for another night. By the time we stopped at the grocery store and ran by my office, some goldfish and the front seat of the car seemed to calm her. Once I was done at the office, she had to get back in her carseat. We got home and Chris gave her a bath for the first time. I worked on straightening up the house. [Chris: She did at some point throw a wave of water into the air basically drenching me and because of the commotion Kelsey appeared to provide parental support. We laughed as we watched her say "No No No" while shaking her finger as I am sure she sees us do 200 times a day.] We had a sweet moment as we were finishing up after bath. I pointed to myself and she said "mama" and then I pointed to Chris and she "bahbah (which is Chinese for dad)." This was the first time she had referred to him with that title. We read a couple of books. One was about dogs and I was trying to teach her to say dog and that a dog says woof. We also read a book about helping and she recognized a little girl in a grocery cart. She got excited since she had that experience earlier in the day. Thought all was going well and she was down to sleep but about 9:30, Chris heard her crying in her room. We got her calmed down and appears we are repeating last night's saga (sans dog) as we are now eating Chinese noodles (bowl #2). Good thing she is cute!

Chris: Tomorrow is a new day which I am sure will bring lots of funny moments and a few scary ones as we are taking her to see Dr. Brian Hastings for a dental cleaning and exam. I am not sure he knows what he has gotten himself into. Her teeth are not in good shape. One of the other families said their host child had *11 cavities*. A big shout out to everyone who has helped medically so far: Dr. Leihfeit, Dr. Duzan, and Dr. Hastings. We don't know what else to say but thank you! Your generosity to support Kelsey and I in our mission to find this little girl a forever home is greatly appreciated!