Monday, October 15, 2007

Monday -- What a Difference a Week Makes

We've had another good day, though I sure want to go home. I feel like I have been in China forever, and want to have a big plate of spaghetti or bowl of stew! And bread--I don't eat that much bread at home, but it sure sounds good now. I sure miss my kiddos, and it is very nice to have the web cam and yahoo messenger to be able to talk to them and see them. They are doing great--better than I thought they would.

MinMin really likes to see them on the web cam. The first few days she stayed away from the camera, and didn't want to look at it, either. Now she eagerly looks to see who we are talking to. She shyly said Ni hao to the kids today. She also got to talk to Molly, my folks' Chinese high school student border, and was surprised to hear that someone at home speaks Chinese. That was really good for her. She also loves to see and his family on the web cam---she seems to think he might not be bad for a big brother.

Nancy met us this morning at 9:30, and we headed back to the clothing market we went to the other day. Since I thought we were going to be in Guangzhou and Shenzhen the whole trip I brought clothes for hot weather, not for the cool of Guilin. And I guess that I didn't really think about it being cool in Beijing. So, we thought we may as well go out and find some jackets. I could sure tell that MinMin is feeling more comfortable with us....she was some picky shopper today! It was pretty funny! I thought that we would get her another long sleeved shirt to go with the sweats that we got the other day....she turned her little nose up at most everything, until I just went ahead and bought the one she seemed most interested in. Then there was a simple, warm jacket that was cheap, and we thought it would be great for Beijing. No thanks, she said, she didn't like heavy clothes. Nancy explained to her that that was because she was from a warm place, but we were taking her to Beijing, and it would be cold. Well......ok then. She kept looking at a windbreaker jacket, navy blue, in a number of stores--she really wanted one of those. It wasn't very practical for now, but it was less than $3, so I got her one. We then found another sweat suit that she liked, but they didn't have it in her size, so we looked around for another, encouraged because it was really pretty in black and pink. The funny thing was that she felt everything, and most things were turned down right away because she didn't like the feel of it. Hmmmmm.....did she learn that from Lancy? We finally did find a nice one in navy and light blue. Richard tried to get her to choose a pair of jeans, but she said, no, she didn't like jeans. I had Nancy ask her, and she said she has never had any jeans. We let that slide for now, but I predict that she'll be wearing jeans in no time.

From there we went back to the silk factory, where I filled the order my sister gave me. Now we have an extra duffel bag full of quilts. Richard and MinMin are headed out soon to see if they can buy a large suitcase with wheels. That would be much easier to handle. I brought the duffel, thinking we would buy some things in Beijing and just put them on the plane, but now we have to get these things on 2 train rides still.

Nancy asked if we would be interested in trying out a duck hotpot lunch. Well...not really, but to be polite we said sure. It turned out that it was really quite good. MinMin really likes to eat, especially rice, and eats three or more bowls of it. She also eats lots of veggies. She did pretty well on the duck, too. The meat was very tasty--if you could find meat among the bones. It seems to me that they take the bird, remove the breast meat, then chop up everything else. To eat it you have to pick the little bits of meat off of the bones. As picky an eater as I am, I did enjoy the duck--even when I thought I wouldn't. As usual, we were the only foreigners in this little restaurant. We seem to find those kind of places a lot.

Tomorrow we are going to hire a van and take a ride out to Longsheng, where there are many rice terraces. Nancy thought we might enjoy this, since we have already been to Yongshuo. She has been great with us. She says that we are no longer clients, but friends and family.

When I look back over this past week, I am just amazed. A week ago we were sitting in a hotel room with a grieving girl, the wailing being heard throughout the hotel, wondering what we had done. Through the prayers of many, we have a different girl now. She is enjoying herself, smiles and laughs (but not on camera yet). She is still quiet much of the time, but of course, much of that has to do with the language difference. I know that there are many hard times ahead still, but we have seen the sweet, respectful, happy girl underneath, and are confident that with time she will be just fine. She still prefers Richard, but she at least doesn't get up and move away if I come to close. She is thoughtful...this afternoon when I laid down to take a nap, she got up and closed the curtains so it would be dark in the room. She loves to be the one to push the elevator buttons, or turn the lights on and off. She is doing great.

Keep praying....there are still many changes ahead for her.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Starla,
It is so good to hear that you all are doing better. I'm happy to hear MinMin likes talking to the kids. Too bad you can't stay in MO a bit longer with Molly to help interpret, but she will learn English quickly enough I suppose, when she has to figure out how to communicate. From the looks of her bags, it seems like she is learning to shop. Your girls are good at that, so Mandy can teach her what she hasn't learned already. Love you guys. Hope to talk to you one day this week.

Love you all!

Anonymous said...

Hey mom and dad. Sounds like things are going pretty good. Today in PT we had to do a four mile run, BUT it was raining out. When everyone ran out the door to start, I decided to just walk into the gym and ride a bike for a while, nice and dry. :)
Now I have four classes to go to. Talk to you later. Love you,
AJK

Kate said...

It is such a joy to see that things are settling down for you all. We will continue to pray for your family... as well as celebrate the blessings!

Thank you so much for sharing your journey.

Kate
(AH)

Anonymous said...

Oh, I'm so glad to hear that there is progress going on. Yes, you have a long road to go on this one, but I'm sure you will both win out. Talked with Judy this morning (Monday) and they were at McDonalds with the kids playing on the equipment. Taylor wanted to go to Sam's Club! Both the kids sounded like they were having fun. They do love shopping. Love Peggy

Charlotte said...

Love to hear all the updates ! She is such a sweet girl, she is going to be a wonderful big sister and daughter ! Can't wait to see you come home ! Are you going to Missouri first ? Wish we could go see you ! Found out today I might be leaving for 18 days !!! with 21 days til gotcha !!!

Charlotte
www.rachaeljanew.blogspot.com