Day 6 Getting to Know You

During the wait for any adoption, you cherish the updates you can receive. Many people get little to nothing so we knew how blessed we were to receive so many pictures and even a few videos while we waited. The description of her personality, however, comes from the orphanage and presumably the people that know her the best. We received a lot of feedback that she was shy, oh so shy. Ummm, can we say something got lost in the translation. This girl is FULL of personality that is bubbling over. We haven't given her the chance to interact with others outside our family too much so perhaps there is another side we haven't seen yet. Perhaps our ongoing prayers for her to receive the love we have to offer have been answered. And the reality is that perhaps she feels she is on show and must prove her cuteness so we will desire her. The truth is probably somewhere in between.

She is oh so capable. We have been meeting her needs but last night I gave her the chance to put on her pajama top. Liam cracked us up when he watched her get her shirt on alone...he went yelling for Jenna to tell her Kinley put it on all by herself. She is meticulous when feeding herself. She uses her fork to push the food onto her spoon and then eats without spilling a drop. We are gradually giving her new things as she does have some food allergies. Oh poor Steve, she is allergic to seafood and they say she doesn't like fish. He has struck out finding someone to share a seafood or fish dinner with in our home. Her vocabulary is amazing as are her fine motor skills. She can belt out a tune like a star. She can run and skip and has this little gallop thing she does when she and Liam are racing for the hotel door. Too cute. My guess is that she hasn't played on the floor much. If you notice the picture where she and Liam broke into the Silly Bandz (meant for the kids in the SWI)you can see she is sitting just like Liam. A sign of core weakness. Although she can climb up the slide she couldn't keep herself upright coming down. Typical orphanage delays that we had known to expect. She was in preschool (the Sunshine Academy) around 5 hours a day so imagine they sat in chairs more than on the floor. In any case, playtime for her will be the best therapy!

We had to wake the princess up around 8:30 in the morning. Liam couldn't stand that she was still sleeping and kept begging to wake her up. I think these two may like each other! After breakfast, we walked about half an hour to get to this great park. We wandered around for a while until we found the kids area with a great playground and also some rides. We had limited time so stuck with the playground promising the kids we would be back to go on the rides. We stopped on the way back to try to get carryout for Kinley and Liam. We gave Liam the choice of Subway or fried rice and he picked fried rice. I think he might be appreciating the food here more than we realized?? Poor Steve and Jenna couldn't convey what they wanted to order in this restaurant where NO one spoke English while I waited outside with the kids. Our guide has written it out for us for next time :) and we ordered lunch from the hotel restaurant. Steve, Jenna and I are just eating from our rations from home for our lunches.

Liam took a short nap while Kinlely layed in her bed talking to herself for about 45 minutes. Lauren, you may have met your match <3 We only had one official appointment today and that was to get Kinley's mug shot. Pretty uneventful. Afterwards, we ventured out for a great Mexican dinner. I am proud of how we are venturing out of the hotel much more than our last trip. The looks we receive are priceless. It is this look from whoever is pushing the strollers to the child in the stroller and back to the person pushing the stroller. The rest of our time in the hotel room was spent letting the kids play. It is sweet as the parallel play we saw early on has been replaced with playing together. Priceless. Tomorrow we are going to visit Kinley's orphanage. I am not thinking I will do a blog post about that day but am looking very forward to getting some pictures and hopefully videos for some other families who are waiting. Enjoy the pics!!