Wednesday, May 28th

Meiting likes to paint.

She wrote her name.

She tried to write Mama, Baba, family but wasn't sure how. I love that she tried!

The famous sneakers!

Posing at the hotel.

We are settling in as a family. Mei is learning to communicate with us using sign language and the use of a few words. Other than that she continues to speak to us in Chinese. She can say Mama, Baba, hello, thank you, your welcome, bubbles, water, eyes, nose, mouth, hair and a few more. She has learned these words in the last 2 days. She is very affectionate and will hug and kiss me all day. She is hugging Jeff more and will give him the occasional kiss. I don't believe she had much contact with men. She is trying to figure him out. She likes to keep the room neat and will constantly keep cleaning and fixing it (it is very small so it gets messy quickly). She has the backpack I brought her with some art supplies, Leapster, and small baby doll. She informed Dennis that she does not like baby dolls. Barbie dolls are fine, just not BABY dolls. She doesn't know what to do with it. She loves the Leapster and is learning the names of shapes. She spent some time today painting ans writing. She drew us a picture and wrote some Chinese symbols. Dennis told us she was trying to write something about Mama, Baba, and family but did not know the correct character to use. I attached the picture so you can see her Chinese writing and the picture she draws over and over. She is very small and seems a bit behind developmentally. She acts very much like a 5 or 6 year old. She has moments where she is testing the limits, but for the most part she is very manageable. She is very active and barely sits still for a moment. She also loves Coke which she will get in moderation since it only makes her more hyper. Note to Granny "hide the Coke". Today we went shopping for a while and after about 2 hours she was shutting down. She gets very overstimulated with crowds and activity. We are trying to help her regulate this by only keeping her in overstimulating environments for a short time followed by a longer periods of quiet activity. It will need to be this way until she can learn to self regulate. We have had Dennis speak to her about her manners, not yelling, using inside voices and my personal favorite, sticking out her tongue. She has responded well to this and is trying to learn what is appropriate. The is often the case of children who are brought up in an orphanage. The strong survive and the weak do not. She is very protective of her THINGS and does not like us to touch them without her help. She still isn't sure we won't take them away so she guards them with her life. This will pass in time. She enjoys playing with Jeff and he can get her to laugh so hard. Tonight she discovered she liked Baba to carry her around when yesterday she would not even let him pick her up. She is a loving, grateful, and a thoughtful little girl. She is constantly picking up Jeff's backpack and fixing it for him(she also scolds him in Chinese for leaving it laying around). It is very cute to hear her scold Jeff and Dennis. We realized today that the only thing better than light up sneakers is a pair of light up sandals. She even got excited about the socks we bought her. It is very humbling to witness a child experience so many "firsts" with such appreciation when we take these same things for granted daily. It makes me want to cry when she gets so excited over socks because it really puts things in perspective. She has really touched our lives in such a special way.
Note: Thank you to all who have sent us a personal email. We LOVE to get them. We have found that we cannot respond due to technical difficulties. Please keep the emails coming because it makes us feel closer to home.
2nd Note: Dennis took us to an AWESOME chinese restaurant. The food was incredible! Luckily we did not judge the restaurant on its appearance.