Orphanage Visit and Na Update

Jaida eating nuggets at KFC.

Jaida and Daddy at the Anhui Museum.

Jaida and Daddy blowing bubbles. Trying to still break the ice very very slowly.

A common sight when Daddy attempts to hold Jaida! Poor Daddy!

Jaida at the Hefei Zoo.

Jaida coloring with her new coloring book and toys.

Well, as you can probably tell I am not getting to post nearly as much as I had hoped for so I am going to try and get a little bit done while she is busy playing in the room and not needing Mama. The main thing I want to say is we are definitely one blessed Mama and Baba! This little girl is amazing, much like our other three children!

She has really opened up the past two days and is coming out of her shell. We have learned a few things about her personality that I will share with you...Just as we thought from previous pictures, she is very inquisitive and curious. She is also full of energy, independent, happy, giggles and laughs a lot. She is now talking and singing to us in Chinese and is beginning to understand a lot of English with us talking to her all the time. We are still calling her by her Chinese name, but will begin to incorporate her English name with her Chinese name now so she begins to recognize that as well.

She is very slowly warming up to Daddy, which is somewhat discouraging for him as he hasn't hardly been able to hold his little girl since we got her. Anytime he gets close to her, she cries and pulls away. From our orphanage visit, we did learn from the orphanage Director that it took Jaida quite awhile to warm up to her foster father a year ago when she moved in with them and now she is quite smitten with him. The director also mentioned that it is quite typical since there are not very many males at the orphanage. So, we know it is just a matter of time for her to warm up to Shon. Once a day we practice with Shon holding her and it is such a hoot because it is just a major screaming fest. I will post a picture of this today so you can see what I mean. We just keep telling ourselves, this too shall pass and she will be just as smitten with Daddy as Daddy is with her! Shon keeps saying, she'll warm up to me when she figures out who she needs to go to, to get what she wants, i.e. clothes, money, car, etc!

We went to visit her orphanage yesterday and it went very well. As you can probably imagine, this was a very emotional event, but a necessary event in Jaida's life. It provides a sense of closure for her and for the orphanage staff, nannies, and foster parents. Na ran right up to her foster Mom to be held, but had no problem coming right back to Mama! The most difficult part of the visit was when Na's foster father held out his arms and Jaida went running to him. That pretty much put a sword through Shon's heart. On our visit, we go to tour the orphanage grounds, Jaida's home including her bedroom, and her classroom. It was wonderful to be able to get so much video and so many pictures for her to have as she gets older. We played with the other children on the playground and of course passed out bags of candy. They can never get enough of that!

We also took pictures of many of the waiting children whose parents will be traveling for them soon. If you are one of those families, I want to let you know that I have not forgotten about you, we just have been having a challenge with getting the pictures uploaded to the AFH photo group so I may just post some on our blog for you to see until I can get that accomplished.

Upon finishing our orphanage visit, the director gives each family a bag that includes some very special items. Jaida was given a Jade necklace with a Chinese dragon on it for her to wear when she gets older. China is the largest place in the world that mines Jade, so it is very popular to buy Jade from this country. She also received a Chinese mask, representative of the Peking Opera.

But the most treasured gift of all is a bound journal that contains at least bi-monthly journal entries about everything Na ever did in her two years of life at the orphanage and pictures to go with it, as well as, several sets of fingerprints and footprints that show her growth over the months. So, we have all the important facts about the things we missed out on in her life, such as when she got her first tooth, when she started crawling and walking, what she looked like before her cleft lip surgery, and what she looked like shortly thereafter. It contains the story of her life...you couldn't ask for a bigger blessing than this. Of course, it is in Chinese so we will have to have it translated for her. Our guide did translate several entries for us, so we could have an idea of what some of the entries had to say about her. That is another blessing...our guide has been amazing and will be a friend forever!

Our days in Hefei have come to an end and we will be heading to Guangzhou in the morning for another fun filled 6 nights--of course, I say that jokingly as we can't wait to come home to our kids and the good ole' USA where we don't have to eat noodles and rice for breakfast!

While in Hefei we have enjoyed some sightseeing to the Hefei Zoo, the Anhui Museum of History, and a lot of shopping down many busy streets. We had KFC for dinner last night...Yum, yum! Well, I am going for now. We will see you in Guangzhou. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Oh and so you know, this post has only taken me about 3 hours to finish as little miss Jaida has been very busy and is now down for a nap!