Chloe

Chloe is doing great and much better than I had ever even anticipated. She seems to be warming up to us more and more and every few hours more of her personality is showing. She will mimic what you do. We brought some puppets and Caleb was playing with her and she took a puppet and put it on her hand and was playing like Caleb was. She has great fine motor skills. She can feed herself independently. A funny thing she does is after she takes a bite she holds her hand out for me to wipe it clean. I guess they encouraged good hygiene at the orphanage. We started teaching her a couple baby sign language things yesterday. By the afternoon yesterday she was already doing the sign for more when she was asking for more food! Today we started milk and by dinner she was using it for her milk. I am absolutely amazed. She also seems potty trained. They really work on toilet training starting at one year of age here. She has barely wet a diaper and is dry throughout the night. I was getting a little worried and Kevin said why don’t you put her on the toilet and I did and she went. She did it again this evening.

We went to the Chinese market today to buy a stroller. Chloe was not a huge fan of the stroller and cried a bit when we put her in it. We went back to the park this afternoon and had to stop numerous times because she started crying and wanted out. By the time we finished at the park, we walked back to the hotel and did not have to stop once. Then tonight when we got back from dinner, she went to the stroller and wanted to get in and go for a ride, so Caleb pushed her up and down the hallway! New experiences for her are frightening, but just like this she adapts well and then enjoys it.

She is also starting to move more. At first all she did was sit. Yesterday she started to crawl into my lap and move a little. Today I thought I would see if she could walk. So I stood her up and held her hands and she could walk assisted. She even took a couple steps unassisted at the park. She is so funny because you can tell she is so proud of herself. She just smiles and giggles when she is doing something new. Tonight she walked from dinner, up the elevator, down the hall to our room while holding onto mine and Caleb’s hand. She even started kicking a ball. Again you could tell she was so proud of her accomplishments.

As I said before, we are turning a lot of heads given Caleb’s blond hair and blue eyes and it seems every day people stop and want to talk to us or take his picture. Sometimes they talk to us and we have no clue what they are saying. But you can also tell by body language and such when people are talking about you even if you do not understand the language. In the elevator yesterday there were some ladies talking about Chloe’s cleft lip. Many people stare and point to their lip. Today at the park I am not exaggerating when a group of about 15 or 20 people gathered around her staring at her and talking about her lip. I’m not sure if they are not use to seeing children with disabilities since many are abandoned and put into orphanages or what. I’m not sure if what they are saying is good or bad, just interesting that they make such a big deal about it. We had a man come up to us on the street today and tell us his son had the same problem and they got it fixed and it looked great.

This evening she has started to kiss us on the lips. It is so sweet. I don’t know if she’s ever kissed anyone before, but I am overwhelmed with the love she is showing for us already. But then it makes me feel a little sad. I am sad for her birth mom and dad. She is a great outgoing little girl that seems full of personality and love and they are missing out. When I think about that it brings me to tears. I know they did what they thought was best for her but as a mother it breaks my heart that they will never get to know her. I know God has an awesome plan for this little girl. I am excited to see how the next hours, days and years unfold.