Life's Joys... And Tears

It's hard to believe we have been home for a month already! The time has just flown by! Austin is all caught up with his classes and football season ends next week. Kailey seems happy at her new school and has already made a bunch of new friends in 8th grade. She is very helpful to me after school to keep Kaitlyn occupied while I finish up work in my classsroom. Kaitlyn continues to do very well in school and has so many friends. She is known throughout the school across several grade levels. It's so cute to be walking with her and every-other kid we come across says hi to her and wants to talk to her. The other kids are very facinated with her and want to be apart of teaching her things. She is very receptive to this and loves the attention she's getting! She is a very outgoing, friendly, smiley, funny, bubbly kid that likes to be in the center of all the action!! All her teachers say she is doing amazing and is catching on super fast. Kaitlyn mostly speaks in chopped English phrases now and we all play a lot of what looks like "Charades" when we communicate. We truly understand most of what she says and vice versa. There has only been a few times where we can't figure out what she's trying to say. We have learned more Mandarin words as well, so that helps too. Thanks Coleen for the DVD!

Kaitlyn's Arizona birth certificates came in the mail this week as well as her Certificate of Citizenship! We will pursue getting her social security card this week.

This has also been a week of emotions from Kaitlyn. As she continues to adjust, she has grown increasingly attached to Ma Ma and cries her heart out when I leave to go anywhere without her. She's going through some separation anxiety issues that have escalated over the last week. I continually reasure her I love her and will be back soon. It's hard because we just don't know much about the last ten years of her life and what she has been through. However, she started to tell me things about her "Lanzhou Ma Ma", (her foster mom for the past 2 or so years) just within the last few days. I know her Lanzhou Ma Ma didn't like coffee, but likes tea. I know she has a green couch. I know there was only a Ma Ma and no Ba Ba. She had her do a lot of housework and didn't make her brush her teeth at night. It is unclear whether there were other children in the house. I also know she had yucky feet and "bad" shoes! Over the course of an hour, Kaitlyn continued to tell me more, and then sobbed in my arms saying, "Lanzhou Ma Ma bad" and gave a thumbs down. It just broke my heart. Please pray for Kaitlyn as she works through this and for us to help her with God's love and healing power. She is safe now and has a forever family that will love her for the rest of her life!