Well, I was finally able to take Ally home today. She came into the room all matter of fact, carrying some clothes that I had left at the orphan home, like she was returning them to me. She was very good, she allowed me to change her into some new clothes and she waited with the translator while I went and photographed a couple of children for the agency. We had asked earlier and the director allowed us to photograph two girls that are awaiting parents. I will be sending them off to Cradle as soon as I return home. We left the orphan home with no fanfare or farewell. She wasn’t allowed to see her classmates before leaving because they stated it was too stressful for the children, so we said our farewells to the director and the doctor and we left, and that was it.
We returned to the hotel rather than any site seeing today, it will be easier if I am alone with her for a little while just to try to get her to trust me before I take her out. She was more interested in the food in the room than anything and immediately ate a granola type bar (they gave it to me on the airplane) and then dug into a bag of cheerios. She is having difficulty with the sippy cup because she doesn’t understand to suck the juice from the cup so I am working with her on that, if she doesn’t get it quickly then I will just take the lid off and go from there. She seems to be doing well though, she was very distressed in the car, not because of the car but I believe because of the situation. She was doing the self rocking on my lap trying to comfort herself so I just cuddled with her and tried to reassure her that it would be okay. It is going to be interesting for nap trying to get her to lay down, she is very wound up. I may take her for a walk in a little while, we will see how she does.
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Well, nap time proved to be a little bit of a challenge. Once I got her lying down she finally fell asleep but she was very disagreeable about the entire situation. We walked a round the hotel and she enjoyed that, she was particularly mystified about the elevator. I am not positive what to do for dinner – she has been eating non-stop since we got to the hotel. She is afraid that if she doesn’t eat everything right now then it will be gone rather than just saving it. I am trying to reassure her that it will still be there by leaving everything alone when she sleeps, but my neat – freak attitude is having to struggle with this. Our daughter sucks her thumb when she is sleeping which explains the tooth problem. I have never seen her suck her thumb before but she does when she sleeps.
Getting her to use the big potty also proved to be a challenge. She was terrified of it. I finally convinced her to sit on it and hold on and she used the potty but I am glad we bought her a little potty at home, it will be a constant battle otherwise. Well, I am going to take her out in the stroller and see how it goes. This will be the first time for her in a stroller so I imagine she isn’t going to be overly pleased about the idea, but we will try it out and then I will have to figure out what to do for dinner.
