Reality

Our sweet girl has slept amazing the past two nights but our day started early with her crying at 5:30am, Dan was able to calm her down and I made her a bottle. She feel back asleep and woke up again crying at 7:30am. I tried to calm her down  and took awhile. The reality of her grief was setting in for her. The reality of parenting a precious 2 year old that I can't communicate with is setting in. The reality of not knowing what she likes and doesn't like is setting in. My heart hurts when she is sad. We opted out of the full day tour arranged for us today and laid low in the hotel room and around the hotel. We took her for a stroller ride to a nearby park called Green Lake Park, it reminds me of Central Park in NY. Its gorgeous, lots of trees, water where you can ride boats and fun little rides. We went to lunch and headed back to the hotel. Brooklyn and Dan took a nap. The older boys and I headed out to Starbucks. We decided to take a journey to Walmart by ourselves. We even managed to buy a pair of shoes for Brooklyn since the ones I bought are all too small ;-( She has some seriously long toes. haha
The boys are I were pretty proud of ourselves.

We came back to the room and Brooklyn was crying again after waking up form her nap. So hard to tell what she wants. We just give her lots of love and some extra snacks.. ;-) Dan decided to go for a walk with Daniel and give us some alone time. I was so excited to do something I have been dreaming about for years!!! Paint her nails.. I got the nail polish out and she looked down at her hands. She clearly knew what it was. I made Nathan take a picture of me painting her nails. She loved it and kept looking down at her hands. A moment I will cherish for sure.

She still seemed to be sad most of the day so we took back to the park. We got her out of the stroller and tried to run with her and she perked up. She began to smile again. We ran into another family at the park that adopted a little boy from the same orphanage and had dinner with them. She really enjoyed having some food that was familiar. They had a belated birthday cake for their little boy and we celebrated with them. She definitely remembers what cake is. It was so cute to watch her interact with the her friends from her orphanage.

Praying for a great nights sleep and a fresh new day tomorrow filled with lots of smiles from our sweet girl! Tomorrow which is Friday for us, we fly to Guangzhou for 6 days. I hear the internet is better there. Lets hope so! For those of you that took the time to write us notes, I have been reading them every morning and I can't express my deepest appreciation for them. They have encouraged me and reminded me how blessed we truly are!  So thank you!!!

A friend sent this to me and it really spoke to me again.

"For he will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will cover you with his feathers,. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection."

Lots of love!