Unsolicited Love

Last week was a rough week for our little girl. I'm pretty sure it was mostly to do with seeing her friends from the orphanage last weekend. While I'm so glad that she has friends from Ethiopia who live so close, seeing them last weekend really seemed to throw her for a loop. In the future, I think these reunions will go a lot smoother and be very beneficial for her. Right now, however, it seemed to be a reminder of a painful past and probably created some uncertainty about the future. As much as I tried to explain the situation, she seemed quite bewildered by it. In the days that followed seeing her friends, we saw a lot of regression. There were days that it felt like we were starting over from the beginning. It was a frustrating and painful week for her and for Brandon and I. There was a lot of grieving going on. If you've never had to watch your child REALLY grieve, I hope you never do. It is so hard to watch. And really, there was nothing I could do but stay near her and rub her back once in a while. She didn't want to be consoled until after she calmed down. Of course all I wanted to do was hold her close and take her pain away. It was rough. :(

I am happy to say that today was so much better. She was like a different girl today. I feel like we saw more of her true personality today than ever before. She was happy and silly. She played really well with Dylan. She used her words more than ever before. She sang, and danced, and clapped. And the best part of the whole day was how affectionate she was. I received so many unsolicited hugs, kisses, and "Eh-wuh-de-shah-loh's" (I love you) today. My heart is just about to burst! Even Dylan got in on the action. Aubree yelled, "Eh-wuh-de-shah-loh Dylan!" as he was headed to his room at bedtime. These are the moments that make the hard days and weeks worth while. I'm really hoping this is just the beginning of a very good week.