Grief Comes in Many Forms

Today was a little bit of a difficult day. We knew to expect these days. These are the very days Jeremy and I were talking about when we said that the language barrier was not our biggest concern. We watched Selah as she was dealing with some immense grief. There was nothing we could do but prove to her we were here and she was safe. She was practically silent.

We met with another Lifeline family and they invited us to ride the cable cars with them. Each family got a taxi outside of our hotel and we arrived alive and unharmed at the attraction!

What a sweet family they were. They, like us, now have six children. They brought their sweet daughter from the US with them and she has been fighting a cold for a few days. We had such a great time just chatting with them. Their new daughter radiates beauty!

We had to leave a little early and tried to hail a cab. One private driver offered to take us back to our hotel for 80RMB. Selah said, "No!" and walked away. She walked out into the street and hailed a cab for us, told the driver where to go and got in the cab. We were quite astonished! 

She does not like compliments. We thanked her and she finally smiled. Our daughter has some street smarts! That was definitely not the first time she had done this.

Jeremy spent some time this afternoon using the translating program on his iPad. He was asking Selah some questions. He found out that she has been to church, she has heard of Jesus, and knows that he died on a cross. We were stunned yet thrilled! 

This evening we took the girls by taxi to Shamian Island. We ate at Lucy's! It was yummy. We have noticed that Selah is not eating Chinese food. She is refusing to use chopsticks. This is not uncommon but still hard to watch her struggle so much.

While shopping this evening I was specifically looking for a few things for Selah. I cannot give her the option because she will say she does not want anything. We bought her a few things and when we walked out of the store she came over to me and in her very quiet voice and said, "Thank you." I grinned from ear to ear. That was so sweet. 

As we came back to our empty hotel room she beat us all to the door and stood there and rang the doorbell then grinned! I think that is a little of her personality peeking through.

I wish she knew she is safe and loved. But we have to prove that to her. The language barrier is there but do not be fooled, she can understand a lot! We thought she was not understanding much then she walked past Jeremy yesterday and as plain as day said, "I have to go to the bathroom first." We know now that we already have a child well on her way to fluency in three languages.

This adoption thing is hard stuff. We knew that going in and now we are watching a beautiful flower begin to bloom. This is the beginning of her forever. We pray that she accepts Jesus.