Today, for the most part, we had a low-key day hanging out at the hotel and just bonding with Emmanuella. (we were only gone for about 2 hours this morning as we went to the Bethany offices to get all of our original documents and go over everything for our interview tomorrow) Emmanuella is always with us on this trip so it's a bit more exhausting - we are always "on" with intentional parenting. That's something we haven't really experienced in many years! Plus, it's so hard to know how to parent her right now when we are away from home and really have no sort of "normal". Do we correct certain behaviors or just let them slide for awhile, etc.? For the most part, we let them slide and just try to correct big things, but I can see she is already testing us. If I say "no" to something or say "please don't do that", she will sometimes do it again purposefully. She is a smart little girl so I am sure she is testing the waters to see what we will do. I don't think it will take too long before she figures out that we are pretty consistent and our no means no. She is so fiercely independant and I am a mom that pretty much has done most things for my kids so it is hard to decipher her good independence vs. letting us help her as a type of bonding & attachment. In so many ways I love that she wants to do so many things on her own, but she also needs to learn that we will provide for her needs and she can trust that we will help her. It's hard to know what is right but we'll figure it out as we learn more about each other. We definitely saw again today that when she is tired she completely shuts down. Luckily, we could get her to take a nap today - she didn't wake up any happier but it only took 15 minutes or so and she was talking to us again. We had a small glimpse today of how hard this is going to be for all of us, just getting used to a new child in the house that does nearly everything differently than we do. (this will not be easy for our other 3 kids either who are pretty set in their ways!)
The day contained a whole lot of coloring, puzzles, doing the Barbie's hair, drawing/sketching, some iPad games, more coloring and a bath that gets the whole bathroom wet. :) We ended our day Facetiming with the kids back in Oostburg and Emmanuella seemed to understand it better tonight and she was excited to see them again.
We ate our meals at the hotel today and for supper she finally ordered Banku and Okra Stew ... one of her supposed favorites but she never ordered it before on our first trip. I gave it a try. I cannot imagine having a whole softball sized helping of it like she had - it is just like eating sweet bread dough, it must sit like a rock! She polished it off though and ate nearly all of the stew with it. (you dip the banku in the stew to eat it and then she ate the meat out of the stew) Her mood greatly improved after having some food in her belly also!
Our bodies have not yet adjusted to the time change and we are having trouble falling asleep at night. (Greg fell asleep with E around 9:00 but woke up by 10:00 and we couldn't get back to sleep until after 1am - it doesn't help that we are sharing our queen bed with a 6 year old - I don't know how cosleeping families do that!) We need to get up very early tomorrow morning to make it to the Embassy in time for our 7:30am interview. From what we have heard, we have permission to come at 7:30am, but that just gets us in the doors and you wait to be called up to the desk for your interview. We should be out of there by 11:00am or so and then we plan to head over to Andy & Katie's since they are very close to the Embassy and we will have lunch together with them. At least we'll have one piece of the puzzle answered tomorrow, whether or not we pass our interview will determine if we are heading home on Wednesday night or rescheduling flights and waiting for a visa! Please say a prayer that our answers and documents will be sufficient and we will pass this interview tomorrow - whether or not we bring our little girl home on this trip will be determined at it.
For those who are wondering about how Greg's foot is doing - it was pretty swollen & sore after the flight since he couldn't elevate it at all for nearly 36 hours, but it has returned back to just the swelling it had before and has remained stable since then. (it hasn't gotten worse so that is fine by us!) It's still not back to normal, but he's a trooper ... even though he forgot to pack his sandals and only has his tennis shoes along. :) Now he's coming down with a cold though. :(
So, prayers are appreciated and if you wake up between 2:30am & 7:00am say a prayer because we are probably at the Embassy trying to pass our interview! Thanks!
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