Day 2

Things were a little better today.  Throughout the day Hannah got more comfortable with being with us and being in our room.  She started to play with some of the toys we brought her.  She would allow Eric to play blocks with her on the floor.  We went to the Civil Affairs office to finalize the adoption.  She is legally ours now.  It was unceremonious – basically answering the same questions that we had previously answered to two other people.  She did very well there.  We all thought that going back to the very same room of such trauma the day before would be hard, but all the children did fine.  We met a Christian couple from Jacksonville, FL who were adopting a little girl with several special needs.  He is a youth pastor and she grew up in Peachtree City.  What a small world but I shouldn’t be surprised. God brings his children together no matter where we are to comfort and encourage each other.  We hope to get together with them for more fellowship soon.

 

Hannah is still pretty clingy to Mom, only letting us put her in the stroller some of the time.  I used the baby sling to carry her all afternoon yesterday and this morning, but she is just too heavy to keep that up for the whole time.  When Eric picks her up she screams, so Daddy carrying her isn’t working yet either.  Let’s hope that will change, too, because we’d rather have her in contact with our bodies as much as possible, but my back and arms are just not strong enough to carry her 24/7.

 

It seems nights are our biggest problem.  She does not want to go to sleep.  Crying inconsolably.  We got a crib in our room hoping that would be more familiar to her.  She lurched herself over the edge and Eric caught her before she crashed headlong onto the floor.  That was my cue that the crib was not the solution.  We took the tiny crib mattress out and laid it on the floor next to our bed.  We are in a Japanese style room so our mattress is on the floor, too.  We are right next to her.  She doesn’t know how to fall asleep in bed, or at least she isn’t showing us that yet.  She always has to fall asleep sitting in our laps while we are on the computer.  Eric tried a couple times to transfer her into bed, but she would wake right up again.  Finally we both lay down and put her on her little mattress and she eventually fell asleep.  We all got 4 hours of sleep – praise the Lord – but now we are up again.  I am blogging with her on my lap.  She has just cried for 35 minutes and has now stopped.  Maybe we’ll get back to bed soon.

 

I was humming Great is thy Faithfulness to her to try to get her to stop crying.  It didn’t work, but it ministered to me.  God is helping us.  Today is better than yesterday.  I trust tomorrow will be better still.  I know she is experiencing a lot of grief, a necessary part of adoption.  With a little sleep on board, I hope I’ll be better able to help her through it.