One Month!

Hello All and belated Merry Christmas,
Tomorrow it will have been a month since Mary and I met Marie Ling in a sparcely decorated office at the Civil Affairs Office in Xi'an, China! A month! I can hardly believe it. I have been tired so much of the month, a lot of it seems to run together. Though most days it seems we take two steps forward and one step back, in the big picture our little lady is making progress.

Our first week home was really an excercise in survival. We were all tired as it took Marie Ling over a week to sleep through the night. Additionally, our days felt as if they were endurance tests. Marie Ling had to explore everything, test everything and challenge everyone. Fortunately, I had two snow days, Mike had one and Matthias and Magdalena were off Thursday and Friday. Friday we ventured to the eye doctor with a man from China who is a visiting teacher at Nativity School here in town. Kyle was most helpful; sadly, our little one was only partially cooperative. We did manage to get  a prescription and ordered glasses. One week after arriving home we recieved a nice present in the form of two silly girls dancing and giggling in Magdalena's room while Dad caught the whole thing on tape, so no one could deny it had happened!

Week two started with a very long visit to the International Adoption Center at our own Cincinnati Children's Hospital. We met with a nurse, a social worker, an occupational therapist, a nurse practitioner and the doctor! Fortunately, an interpreterwas with us during the whole process and we checked our girl from head to toe! As anticipated, she is developmentally not quite up to her age level, yet she shows great aptitude for learning and for being incredibly flexible! She is healthy and strong. She and I returned to the hospital on Tuesday for a few x-rays and some bloodwork. Thank God and "all ye mothers in heaven" she was cooperative for both!

Marie Ling has now had four English lessons. Since the service we hired and the teacher are unaccustomed to working with strong willed eight year olds, the lessons have been less than 100% successful. Nonetheless, we do think Marie Ling is understanding more and more English. Of course, she understands more than she speaks and we use our hand held translator for giving direct information about where we are going or what something is used for. She lacks the patience to look long at a book or use flashcards cards of any sort though I have tried many! We picked up her new glasses on the 23rd and she did seem a bit awestruck for a while. Most of the time she is willing to keep the glasses on her face. I just hope they survive her active and less than gentle manner!

On Christmas Eve Marie Ling shared in her first liturgy with us! We went to St. Xavier for their family mass which was much less crowed and much shorter than our parish liturgies would have been. We went prepared with coloring books, snacks, etc. and were surprised and grateful at how well she did. She even sat with Magdalena and our friend Len while Mike, Matthias and participated in the procession and the recessional.

On Christmas Day and again on the 26th we drove up and back to Springfield to spend time with my family. Considering that there were 23 people in the house whom she had never met, Marie Ling did very well. We avoided all out meltdowns and no one would say she was shy or intimidated by the situation. More often we had to stop her from running and remind her to use a quiet voice. There will be no wallflowers at the Meyer house!

Friends and family have showered Marie Ling with presents. For the most part, each time there was gift giving she waited patiently for her turn and said thank you for each gift she received. This is all rather astounding given that at the orphanage clothes and toys were all communal property. She did pile her things neatly away from others and was sure to take everything of hers to her room right away. I think most of us would do the same had we never had things of our own before. I just hope that the generosity of the holidays have not created a monster of expectation.

We are slowly creating boundaries, establishing relationships, building vocabulary and learning manners appropriate to American culture. A couple of nights ago, Marie Ling asked for Mike to lie down with her at bedtime and today she asked repeatedly for Magdalena to go out for a bike ride with her and Dad. She squeals in delight when Matthias gives her piggyback rides. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as this family building is bound to be a long process. More soon.
Michelle