Jacie has been home for 2 1/2 years. She was adopted from the Special Needs Chinese Adoption Program at the age of 8 years old. She is learning and growing in her forever family~



Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Way Too Cool

It seems incredible that we are almost to the end of our seventh week at home with Jacie (Sunday). She just seems to fit in our family...makes it feel like it has been forever.


 

Today Jacie and I tackled the deep, dark hole she calls a bedroom. She asked all day yesterday for me to help her clean her room. What she really meant was, "Mom, come upstairs and clean my room while I look at books on the floor." Yeah, that's about how it went. She and I needed to sort her clothes though. I had bought some clothes at garage sales of various sizes, not knowing hers and we needed to go through and 'pass on' the ones that were to small, big or that she didn't like. There were several size 5 items that we got rid of and ended up making a great big pile in the middle of the floor.


 

I kept calling it the bye-bye pile. Each item that went on I would say, "Too small (or big), Jacie no like...etc. etc." We got to the end of our endeavor and I started to box up the items...


 

Yeah, you guessed it...she began to cry and pull items out of the piles. "No, bye-bye..." she said with huge tears. Wow did I feel like a heel. All of the items that were in the to go pile were already here when she got here. I was very surprised at her reaction. I thought that we were 'on the same page.' Nope. Not even in the same ballpark.


 

Suffice it to say, we did not get rid of anything...Yeah for an overly full house. Eventually when communication clears up, we will be able to figure out this little issue and perhaps lighten the load.


 

Her growth spurt continues. Tonight Bart and I looked at some pictures of her from China. She looks so different. Of course, in China her hair was much shorter (they cut it all off the morning that she left). People still call her a boy routinely. Just yesterday, she was wearing a green John Deere shirt, white shorts with flowers stitched on them in pinks and teal and pink sandals. A lady came up to me and said, "Can you bring your little boy here?" After the fit she threw about being called a baby, I am glad that she didn't understand this conversation. We would still be hearing about it...


 

Anyway, back to the growth spurt. She out ate me at dinner tonight. She doesn't stuff it in her face drastically fast, just eats a lot. Three pieces of sweet corn, over half a grilled chicken breast w/ hot sauce and rice chips. I was impressed with the three pieces of corn...I can't do that. Luckily, she likes healthy food...well and potato chips by the canister (if we let her.)


 

Her manners are not always the best but they could be much worse. She tends to eat with her mouth open and smacks her lips a lot. So it's kind of like having vocal entertain while eating...Okay, not so much but the only times I really notice it is when we are out. At home I think I am a little more laid back. I have not done anything to try to correct her though. Again, when language clears up, so will these trivial issues.


 

When language isn't an issue, she will probably pick up some of the things without any words. She will catch on quickly I am sure. She is definitely right on. There is no major issues cognitively. She does write her name now and a couple of the letters are backward...so we will see if that clears up naturally. Jared is dyslexic so it won't be something that we can't work with. I know that she needs her eyes tested, in China our guide (who was with us during medical) said her eyes were, "Not so good..." Unfortunately, Jacie doesn't know the letters, shapes or numbers well enough to take a test yet. Soon I hope.


 

Tonight, I heard her yelling, "Ma..come outside...watch." It just so happened that I was elbow deep in freezing sweet corn so I leaned out the window and said, "What?"


 

She smiled really big (from the front of the 4-wheeler) and said, "Watch."


 

Her Ba had taught her how to drive the four wheeler and she was quite proud. She was giving her Ba a ride. "Too cool," she said.


 

I agree with her, this experience with all of its ups and downs is way too cool...Angie

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