By God's grace I can say that today was a day of small battles won, lots of giggles, smiles, and I think good progress in the bonding department. The day began at 4:30 am with Mercy standing at the foot of our bed, giving me "the stare"...then the glance to the stairs to indicate her desire to go to the kitchen for food. I asked her to use words and she was stone faced and distant...not wanting to raise the roof with everyone else sleeping, I brought her downstairs. She relented and whispered her usual,"Meat...pease"(please). As we sat there in the dark silence, I must admit my heart was filled with doubts..."Is this what attachment disorder looks like?...Will she ever open up and soften? Is our family forever changed in a negative way? When will life seem normal again?"....then God in His mercy did something...Mercy began to talk..so much so that I had pen and paper in hand to write down much of what she was telling me...usually she was answering my questions, other times she was just rambling. At one point I asked her if she read Bible stories at AOH and who she knew from the Bible...she told me, " Jesu...he make fishes, bread , wate"...I asked her if she knew what He did for her and she said,"he die on da cro fo my si"(ie:He died on the cross for my sins) That is how Liberian english sounds...ending consonants are dropped and it is a challenge to keep up with her when she speaks quickly....often I ask her to repeat it and she very dramtically says,"I sa....."
This girl has spunk and a determined spirit and I am really enjoying the challenge of trying to figure her out!! She is testing limits continually-giggles as she is doing it at times and flaps her arms in defiance like a chicken at other obstinate moments (I told her no more "chickie arms" allowed) ...honestly, I thought we had dealt with strong willed children before but the Lord was really just preparing us for these 2 feisty Liberians :)We had a couple of show downs today where she was drawing the line in the sand, so to speak and we let her know she was NOT getting her way...by God's grace, she chose to obey and we of course congratulated her obedience... the victory was short lived only to find her testing a few minutes later. Over time, I am praying she grows weary before we do and realizes boundaries are a good thing:) Today she accidentally stepped on B3's foot and she told her she was sorry without prompting...this was huge as I've read that empathy is not a typical trait of Liberian children.
Our cute little Odesco with the button nose woke up happy this morning...he is saying please and thankyou more unprompted and we had wonderful giggle filled playtime this morning in the back yard. This am when he was gearing up for another meltdown on the floor, we made the decision to pick him up in a bear hug while I rocked him in the glider...eventually he softened and relaxed to the point of falling asleep...later when it happened again, the loud crying lasted only 10 or 15 minutes and he was playful/smiling again. The most significant thing is he was smiling as I smooched his chubby cheeks...laughing as I showed him what butterfly and eskimo kisses were and absolutely hysterical while letting me give him belly busters. Usually he would just push away our attempts to show him love in this playful way.
So, small baby steps today but feeling the kindness of God breathing new life in my doubt-filled heart.
Tomorrow I am solo as Daddy has to go to work...we have to go to the doctors to get the TB test looked at but we can sit in the waiting room watching the video on the big screen...a nurse will come out to meet us. You can bet I will be well supplied in meat should the need arise:) So, if you are reading this, please pray that both children get in their carseats and don't blow our eardrums on the way...also pray that they will have short term memory loss and forget the trauma of the doctor's visit 2 days ago :) Seriously, pray that I would choose to avail myself of every drop of God's amazing grace ...and that I would give Him glory in the process.
Thanks for checking in!!
More pictures in the days to come, I promise!!
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