Whew! What a day this has been. The girls both slept until after 7 am, which was nice. Amelie woke up quietly, in fact because she is so scared she does everything quietly. We played a little and Amelie stayed very wrapped in herself, had her body closed off and not really looking at any of us. I was feeling good because all of the MSG had worked its way out of my system and I declared that I would not be taking any more chances on this trip, even if it meant plain white rice, noodles and Oreos for the rest of the trip. We headed down to breakfast and she perked up a little because she really likes to eat. We decided to go straight over to the store to find some noodles I could heat up with the boiling water from the hot pot and a baby bathtub for Amelie. We had also decided that we would put Amelie in the carrier with Mike facing forward so that she could get used to him. We put her in there and she started screaming her head off. It was like Gotcha all over again. TOP.OF.HER.LUNGS. Tears were free flowing and we just headed out with her screaming. She calmed down and we walked up the street to the store and by then she had mellowed out and her curiosity got the better of her. We did our shopping and found a bath tub that we will give to Tony when we leave. I am sure he will be able to find a use for it.
Once we got back to the room and we unbuckled Amelie from the carrier she went crazy again. Screaming and screaming. Once she calmed down I decided that it was time for a bath. We had her Gotcha day clothes sent out to be cleaned since quite a bit of the stuff I brought didn’t fit her – did I mention she has chunky baby legs? And I was able to wash her hair in the sink the first night, but she really needed a bath. She thought that was great fun and splashing around and started to make little noises. Then it was Nadia’s turn for the tub which was hilarious since she is so tall, it looked like a basketball player trying to get in Yugo, but she was determined to take a bath in there like Amelie. While we were in the bathroom, Amelie was on the bed with Mike and she really freaked out again when he moved her a little further up on the bed. Hysterical screaming just because he touched her. It was so, so, so sad. We read everything we needed to read and knew that something like this might happen, but when you are living it out, it’s horribly sad and painful for your heart. Mike and I know that God is sovereign and that He is watching over us and means for us to be a family, but that doesn’t change how bad it can hurt in the moment. The heartbreaking part of the morning was that she was just so terrified of Mike.
We got her down for a nap and spent some time in the other room just playing with Nadia and giving her some much needed attention. She is having a hard time understanding why Amelie won’t just play with her or why she is still upset or why she cries about Mike. Tony was picking us up at 2:30 to head back to the notary so we bundled up and headed downstairs. We read over everything in English to confirm it was correct. A good thing about that was that we got a bit more information about Amelie’s abandonment details. After the notary Tony said he was going to take us to a park to walk around. We strapped Amelie back in the carrier and thank goodness this time it was just a small whimper. The park has a little lake and a water park and a small amusement park. You could tell that in the spring and summer it would be very beautiful. We saw people flying kites, playing poker, feeding pigeons and rollerblading along with lots of people just out taking walks. They also had quite a few sculptures around the park that I snapped photos of.
We were quite the sensation once again. I was saying “ni hao” to the children and they would get all embarrassed and then say “ni hao” back. We walked all through there and then Nadia wanted to ride the plane.
After the park we went into Dico’s chicken place for the girls to play on the inside playground where it was a little warmer. Both girls had a lot of fun and the kids and parents in there just didn’t know what to think of us.
We went back to the hotel for about an hour and then Tony came to pick us up for dinner. I have no idea what the name of the place was, but Tony arranged for us to have a private room that basically had a table for 6 in it. We let Tony do the ordering and he said, “No mono sodium” That made us laugh, but he was so worried and said that he worried about it all night. He did call us yesterday evening to see if I needed a doctor, but Mike just told him again that all we could do was wait it out. The food was incredible!!!! We have been longing for such good food in the last couple of days because no one speaks English anywhere and it’s very hard to convey what you need. We had a spicy cold beef, fried rice, eggplant (unbelievably good), steamed eggs and pork balls. The girls both loved the pork and Amelie was turning down all the other stuff and wanted me to keep shoveling in the pork. We headed back to the hotel and got jammies on and then watched part of “My Neighbor Totoro”. Amelie really opened up with us a little more and even played a little game with Nadia. She still seemed confused, but she was a lot more relaxed and curious.
It’s very hard to see her just be silent. She said something to me while she was in the bathtub and she said something to Nadia while they were playing, but 99% of the time she is completely silent. She is very intelligent though and is already starting to mimic somethings that Nadia does. But she seems to stop the second she notices that we are watching. Our day did end a bit up, but after the regression of the morning we are all quite worn out. It was the hardest on Mike today and very emotionally draining. I wish I could make Amelie see that he is just the best dad ever, but for now we pray and ask God to comfort her and let her know that we love her so much.
