We are starting to see a little more of the real Hannah. She is a happy girl who loves to “read”, play, and color. Her coloring is pretty surprising for a new 3 year old. She holds the crayon correctly and tries to color inside the lines. Of course, she can’t really do it yet, but it isn’t just the random scribbling that you would expect. She also draws parallel lines. How funny! Our little ones tend to draw circles first. She loves to give us things in the room – cookies, books, brushes, our shoes, our clothes, etc. She is also quite the princess, as our Chinese guide calls her. She probably hasn’t had boundaries as she was the oldest and favorite girl of the baby orphanage. When we set boundaries, she fights and fights until she finally resigns. It is easy for us to tell when she is crying out of fear and grief and when she is just throwing a tantrum. The fearful cry is much different, and there is no kicking and bucking. It is more of a low wimpering cry. The tantrum is just like the classic 14-month-old tantrum that we have witnessed so many times before. I told Hannah that she picked the wrong mom to fight – I’ve been there, done that. We’re winning little battles all the time. Once the battle is won, she is compliant and fun and happy.
Last night, she did not want to go to sleep again. I decided to just sit holding her on her little mattress while she wailed away. I’m sure the other hotel guests think we’re killing her. Her screams are ear piercing. I’ll probably have hearing damage by the time this is all over. After an hour of screaming mixed with periods of calm, she let me put her head down on my shoulder in bed with me. That in itself was a miracle as we hadn’t seen her lie down flat yet. Within minutes she was asleep. She slept the entire night. Praise God! Sleep makes everything more bearable.
Today we played a lot together in the room. She is great when it is just the 3 of us. She has learned to accept our room as “home” and recognizes the hotel lobby with a smile when we come in. We went out to explore a local market off the island. As soon as we got there, she started to panic. This was not the tantrum cry, but the fearful cry. We’re not sure if it was just overwhelming to her or if she was scared of all the Chinese faces that reminded her of the orphanage. Whatever it was, she would not let go of me and we didn’t get to explore for too long. It was HOT and HUMID and not fun carrying a scared 3 year-old everywhere. We decided to just go back to our hotel – the Victory. It was much better. We did have afternoon tea (a big meal, actually) with our adoption group at the White Swan. That was fun. She did very well. She stayed in the stroller the whole way there without making a fuss. She walked and held my hand while we shopped on the island afterwards. That was the result of an earlier battle in the middle of the sidewalk where she did not want to walk and threw a big fit in the middle of everyone. I just stopped, knelt down to her level, held her, and waited until she stopped screeching. It is very hard to do that here. It seems like the local folks are unaccustomed to such discipline. Oh well, I’m pretty hard-headed, you know. Anyway, I won that battle and she walked holding my hand later in the day. Nap time was another challenge that resulted in Hannah taking a nap. Doesn’t this sound like I am such a meanie? I know. But we are really seeing fruit. She is loving and smiling and helpful and starting to like us. She just has a stubborn streak that is going to test limits. She’ll be a typical McBryde after all.
Right now she is singing something in Chinese as she is coloring. To think that just 72 hours ago she was so scared and sad that she couldn’t talk or sleep is a testimony of God’s grace in this journey.
No comments:
Post a Comment