Day 6 - Nanchang - progress....

8:55 p.m.

It's hard to believe we've had our girl for over 24 hours, and it's amazing to us, the transformation that is already taking place. She is lying over there now, doing her playful little "ahhh ahhh" sounds, seeming as content as can be. To say she was beside herself, when we got her, is an understatement. And she has cried and cried and cried some more. But she is also realizing that we 5 are not leaving her, and I'm pretty convinced that she is starting to believe she might really like us.


I was thinking she might make a few baby steps towards accepting us today, but in fact, she has made long strides. It has been precious. She woke up this morning, after sleeping all night, and within several minutes decided it was time to smile at me. We were surprised and thrilled! It was so much fun to see that silly little curve of her mouth as I kissed her sweet feet. Last night's bottle was given with her turned away from me, facing outward, after much prodding. With her last bottle of this evening, she was cradled in my arms leaning towards me, looking straight into my eyes. Good signs of attachment.

On bottles and feeding: our guide brought us some Chinese formula and cereal last night, since we were given nothing by the orphanage caretakers. Often, families will receive at least a packet of the formula the child has been taking. Not us. She has taken her formula and cereal mixture well from her bottle; we haven't been successful at getting her to take any solid food at all. But that will come.

Our "aahh aaah" happy sounds have turned into full-blown fussiness..... but I will try to finish this post. We are slowly forcing her to be comforted by us. It is much easier to lay her down and let her work it out, but we want her to know that WE can console her. She does fight and pull away from us, but it's getting better. She is able to be consoled by both Bill and me, but not all the time. She does love to be carried by him facing outward, checking out her world.

The boys have slowly inched their way in. Well, Eli has come crashing in, but is that a surprise? She truly has responded beautifully to them. By this evening, Jacob was getting a nearly belly-laugh out of her. And not an hour later, she was mocking Eli doing gorilla chest-beating and even letting out a little yelp. Too funny. Seth is approaching her in a very cautious manner, but she already looks at him as if she trusts and knows him. Bill had planned to download a few short video pieces, but the last couple of days got the best of him, and he is snoozing. Maybe tomorrow.

Developmentally, she of course, seems delayed. I believe that as the days pass and she continues to spread her wings with us, the real picture will unfold. She is already proving us wrong in a few areas. For instance, a bit earlier in the evening I was sharing with another mom that Ahna absolutely freaks when we try to stand her up. She was "making us think" that she has very little leg strength; when we put our hands on her torso and try to put her in a standing position, she would visibly shake and look terrified and instantly start to cry. Well, tonight in her little crib, she, after much work, pulled herself to a standing position. She had NO IDEA what to do with herself once there, but she did it. She does roll from stomach to back and back to stomach easily, and can also put herself in a sitting position from lying down. And she scoots on her belly to get around. She's only done that once, but she was moving pretty well. Another thing I've noticed is that she doesn't sit up straight. She was probably in some type of seat most of the time, when she wasn't in a crib, so she has an extreme "slumpy" torso. When she's sitting on the bed playing, she'll almost fold her body halfway down, with her head hanging, as well. It makes holding her even a challenge, 'cause she's not "helping" at all; she just wants to slump down.

Her fine motor skills will need some attention. We can't get her to grasp anything at all, whether it's a Gerber snack with the pincher postion, or picking up a toy. Grace, who is our dear friends' 9-month old daughter, plans to show Anha "the ropes." :-) Ahna scratches at everything, mostly using her thumb and forefinger. When she's fussing, she crosses two of her fingers (photo below) and sucks her thumb (happy, Aunt Becki?:-) And she'll sit forever and just stare at her crossed fingers; and she plays with her feet as if she just loves them: twirls and twirls them at the ankle, uses them to try and get something closer to her... it seems pretty clear to us that she was not exposed to playing with toys.


As you can see from the pictures, she is a healthy size! I'm thinking she weighs at least 20 pounds; her 12-18 month clothes are fitting perfectly. And she looks so adorable in them!! Tomorrow I plan to practice putting a bow in her hair, but if she doesn't like it, we'll skip it. Hannah, she will have "your" outfit on, tomorrow, and we'll get lots of pictures!

It is now 10:50p.m., since I was distracted quite a few times once I started trying to type this. I know this post is more like reading a nurse's chart on a patient's progress, but I hope it gives you some insight into how things are going here with our Precious Ahna. Speaking of her name: we have been using her Chinese name, since she responds to it..... we say "Yi Nan" and she looks straight at us. We plan to slowly work her new name in with it somehow, over the next several days.

More tomorrow on the events of today, here in this capitol of the Jiangxi Province of China, Nanchang. (prounounced Nan - chung) Thankfully, after a busy start, it was a much more laid back kind of day. I think all the families here, needed that.

Let me continue to tell you that we appreciate your thoughts and prayers and comments. They mean so much. And while I can't respond to all your kind messages while here, I will try to do so once we are back home.

Isaiah 25:1 "Oh Lord, You are my God; I will exalt You and praise Your name, for in perfect faithfulness You have done marvelous things, things planned long ago."

Here are more pretty baby pictures for today