Today

Today represents exactly one month since we took a trip to Qingyuan to begin a new journey.  Laila has made amazing progress in such a short time.  When I visited her for the first time in the orphanage, only her sadness prevailed.  It was what drew me to her, her deep emotion and yearning for something more. 

I can barely recognize that she is the same child today.  Affection, food, sleep, and attention to her needs has transformed her.  She is inspiring.  She is spunky.  She is wonderful.  She quite demands and expects the fulfillment of her needs and even her whims.  While I have no intention of raising a spoiled child, seeing the desire and the requirement to be spoiled come from within this little child who was such a short time ago so defeated is amazing. 

 Her joyful spirit, her affection for and attachment to us, and her little fits of self-assertion capture us and require our full admiration and devotion.  Her physical weaknesses are barely recognizable.  Everyday she improves leaps and bounds.  She started sitting up within two weeks of coming home.  She is now strong enough for us to hold her up in the air without her body folding in half.  She is beginning to stand a few seconds at a time on her legs, where they previously curled under her.  She can reach her arms over her head and hold things in her hands, where they previously hung limp.  She says a few English words and understands many more.  Her favorite thing (she just started this week) is to point and say, "This" to everything she sees from the moment she wakes up.  She finds it especially useful when she wants a certain toy or food or drink.

We are thrilled to have her as part of our family, for now, as our foster child, and we hope to make her a permanent member of our family.