WILD WOMAN! There is no other way to describe this baby girl of ours. As we look back on the last several days, we now know that she was seriously grieving. When we first got Abby Kate, she didn't want to leave my arms. If I let her down for even a second, she'd start screaming. I had to hold her at dinner while I ate. Slowly we moved to her letting me put her on the bed beside me as long as my arm was around her. She started to sit in the high chair at dinner if I would hold her hand or put my arm around her. We made great progress the day she actually rode in the stroller. But I still had to be holding her hand. Brian was 'allowed' (by AK) to hold her some as she began to warm up to him. Then yesterday it happened. It was like a light switch. We put her on the floor while I began to work on organizing our stuff for packing. I was surprised when she didn't start crying. She just started crawling around and walking around the room holding onto the bed and other furniture. Giggles and smiles followed. She was so active we couldn't keep up. A totally different child. This went on for about 2 hours. No crying, no clinging, just playing and having a great time. Now we are seeing her true personality. And she is a wild one! I thought Caleb was a handful, but he has nothing on her! She is now all over the place. And she's tough, too! She banged into stuff so many times and didn't even flinch.
Another big change has been nap time. Before, we would just lay her down and she'd quietly drift off to sleep. We thought, "Man! This is easy!" Then the light switch went off and reality hit. Now we put her in the crib and it's a three ring circus in there for the next hour. She doesn't cry, but she stands up, jumps in the crib, squeals, laughs, rolls around, bangs her head on the side, and jabbers. Oh my goodness, it's funny to watch. There is no end to her energy.
Now, here's where that is not a good thing. Flying. We left Nanchang today for Guangzhou. The flight was just over an hour. Let me just say, I have no idea how we're going to make it home. She did NOT like the fact that she couldn't go all over the plane. She was screaming and squirming the whole flight. And of course, she fell asleep about 30 seconds before we landed. So PLEASE start praying now for our trip home. Pray that she'll somehow be calm and not so uncontrollable. The longest flight is overnight China-time, so pray she'll get LOTS of sleep on that flight. And pray for our patience and endurance as we care for her.
Our hotel here, the Garden Hotel, is unbelievable. It is the nicest hotel I've ever seen. We have a suite with a living room and a bedroom. That's SO nice because we can put her down and not feel like we can't make a peep. The city is beautiful and much more like a metropolitan city. We can tell it's going to be a lot of fun to be here over the next few days. Nanchang was nice, but we realize now that it is very "old" China. There's not much that's modern or progressive there. We were stared at constantly because everything there was SO traditional, so we really stuck out. We've already noticed here in Guangzhou that people don't really even look at us. There's also a huge diversity of people here because of all the foreign consulate offices here. We really enjoyed learning about Abby Kate's hometown, but this new city will be a nice change and another great way to experience China.
Tomorrow we get her medical exam done. I'm anxious to get that since she's still struggling with what seems to be an upper respiratory infection. Hopefully we'll get some answers and/or medicine. Well, my eyes are crossing I'm so tired. So I guess that's all for tonight. :)
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