"The Baby...How She Get Out?"

Snowy weekends make me feel all snuggly. That is what I have been doing all evening. Jacie has been snuggled up next to me 'reading' the Visual Chinese/American Dictionary. She is quite fascinated with it. Especially the part that shows all of the internal organs of the male and female bodies...and I mean all...

'This one (pointing to the cervix) is where this one goes (pointing to the baby.)"

"Oh, I see."

I tried to not volunteer too much information because I really did not want to get in a full blown discussion about the 'birds and bees' with a semi-English speaking child on a Saturday night. I know it...you think that I am a coward. I would have to agree. Don't worry, I couldn't dissuade her.

"The baby...How she get out?"

I replied, "Her mama push."

"Like go to the pathroom...?" Seriously...this is the exact conversation. I struggle with how to explain even simple thing to Jacie because she is a child with an eight year old brain and a toddler's reactions and experience and now tonight we are going to tackle child birth...

After I gave her a semi-affirmative, "Yeah, kinda."

She replied, "That hurt."

Pretty much sums up the story of child birth to me. She then moved on to the male anatomy section so I was saved from further child birth talk. I think that I would have preferred the latter...

Who writes these books anyway...? I had never looked too deeply into the book to realize the detail. If you know what I mean...

She is doing well. I do think that she has a lot of pain in her feet. We went to the gym to play soccer and raquetball today and she was quite tired and perhaps a little depressed when we left. Bart and I think that it was a lot of work for her and she cannot run very well. It really bothers her that she can't keep up. I do think that part of the reason that she doesn't run well is that her lungs are not being fully used. She sat for most of her life in an orphanage. It will take a couple of years even for her to 'catch up' physically.

She is constantly running out of school work she is able to understand. This is the fourth set of kindergarten books that she has went through since October.

The coolest thing is that she is starting to go through her things and get rid of excess. I love it. She brings me one or two items a week that she is ready to pass on. She has so much stuff...this is a step in the right direction. I am happy that she feels comfortable enough to know that her needs (and many of her wants) will be met. To me that shows some emotional stability and that is one of our most fervent desires for her life...that she will know without a shadow of a doubt that she is one of us and will be taken care of at all costs.

I am truly blessed to be walking this journey with the people I am walking with.

~CP