This photo was taken before the visit to the Buddhist Temple (see below). I can definitely see a difference now, it's not just wishful thinking. This is the last of Theo's Going Back to Visit the Orphanage entries. I'll follow up with pictures of the actual temple. -- RD
I'll focus on Li Mei and happier news: she's blossoming before our eyes. It's like watching a child go from one to two in fast-forward, as her walking becomes more confident (and adventurous) each day. Rachel can see her filling out (my theory is that it's all the food loading her down) and she's starting to ask for things and protest when she's not getting what she wants. She does less stimming (if you've seen an autistic child rocking back and forth you know what I mean) and more active play and investigation. And she's making eye contact, a very good sign both for family-bonding and her own vision -- maybe she can see better than we thought at first?
Last night the boys sacked out early, and Rachel and Cindy went out for a junk food fix (KFC is big here), so my job was to get Li Mei to sleep. Good plan, but not her plan, and when I didn't give her enough walking and bouncing she sat on my belly and jumped up and down to show what she wanted. Two year old brain, one year old body. (Sleepy dad.)
We have two more days in TaiYuan; today we'll visit the famous local temple, and maybe find something more active for the boys to do. Tomorrow is the last round of local paperwork (we hope) before we can apply for her passport; if all goes well we leave for GuanZhou on Tuesday.
..Theo
No comments:
Post a Comment