Our little girl is finally smiling!

After nearly a week of terrible grieving, our little girl has finally opened up!  Thank you so much for all the prayers!  Not surprisingly, Caleb was the first to get her to smile.  Then the combination of Caleb and Malachi along with Joshua finally got her playing around a little (before she had pretty much done nothing but cry and scream for her foster family).  Eventually she broke out of her shell and we finally got to see our precious little girl's true personality.  My, oh my, this little girl is a spunky one!  She is every bit as spicy as the extremely spicy food her province is known for - she is my spicy Guizhou gal!  She most definitely is not a quiet little girl who wants to sit around playing with dolls, and she easily holds her own with the boys.  Her smile is adorable, her laugh is irresistible.  She is very mischievous, and I'm sure she will be quite a handful on her own.  The combination of her running with two little boys will definitely keep me busy, especially with two teenagers also!

Micaelyn still wakes up in the night crying for the foster family and refuses to go back to sleep so the nights are hard, but at least the days are not so bad now.  (Ernie gets to sleep in the other room, so at least he gets more sleep.) Also, before she kept trying to leave the hotel room (and since she had figured out how to unlock the deadbolt we were having to keep constant guard of the door both day and night).  Over the last day she has been getting her shoes on and bag packed but not opening the door quite as much.  Last night after she put her shoes on I took them off and hid all her shoes.  I also hid her bag she likes to carry everywhere.  Another thing she started doing right after we got her was saying she needed to use the bathroom (that was another phrase I figured out pretty quickly!).  In the middle of the night she'll say she needs to go, then after I let her go less than 5 minutes later she wants to go again.  It is a very difficult battle because on the one hand I think she is playing games with me, trying to be in control, and I have to win that battle.  On the other hand, it's hard to say no when your child is crying to go to the bathroom.  Not only is that akin to denying her basic necessities (toilet), how can I ever be completely sure she really doesn't need to go again?  Last night after she woke up I let her go, but I finally held my ground and completely refused to let her go again.  She refused to get back in bed, and since I didn't want her to bother Caleb I let her lay on the ground but made her lay right next to me so I could hold her down (not forcefully, I just wasn't letting her get up given her habit of trying to leave the room).  For 2 hours she kept trying to get up and I would lay her back down.  She cried, she screamed, and when it was finally morning she fell asleep for a few more minutes before getting up for good.  She was very happy and playful for a few hours, but now she looks exhausted and is cranky again.  I greatly hope she starts sleeping through the night soon!

Yesterday we had the medical exam for the visas.  What a nightmare that was!  The power was out in the building, and it felt like it was at least 100 degrees inside the building.  We had thought it was so hot outside when we were walking there, but after being in there for so long when we walked out of the building it actually felt cool outside after being trapped inside with no A/C.  Because of the conditions the kids didn't get their shots yet - they will get them when we go back to get the TB test read on Monday.  Micaelyn did NOT like the TB test, so I'm sure getting a pile of shots will be quite traumatic for her.  Please pray that doesn't set us back with her.

After the medical exams we had lunch at the infamous Cow & Bridge Thai restaurant that seems so popular with adoptive families.  I hate to say it, but it was a huge letdown to us.  We had had really high hopes for a wonderful lunch given how much we love Thai food, and we were terribly disappointed.  I know we are greatly biased when it comes to Thai food since my in-laws own an excellent Thai restaurant (Ernie's step-mom is from Thailand), but honestly we get better Thai food in Pigeon Forge right outside the Smoky Mountains.  Hopefully soon we'll be able to make a trip to San Antonio to let the kids see their grandparents and fill ourselves up with some awesome spring rolls and Thai food.

Ernie is doing a lot better and didn't even need any medicine to get over his sickness.  I have been taking antibiotics for several day now and seem to finally be improving, though I'm far from over it.  I think I spent half my childhood with bronchitis, so I guess it's not surprising.  Unfortunately, the pink eye is still quite obvious.  We have had places to go every day, and I have to wear my contacts to be able to see which prevents me from putting the drops in as often as I need to.  At least with Micaelyn waking me up during the night it's no problem to keep up with the drops every 4 hours through the night!

We are very ready to come home.  We were told by our adoption agency to plan extra days at the end of the trip in case something didn't work out, so instead of flying home on the 17th like we could we don't get to fly home until the 20th.  As soon as we arrived the staff here started asking us why we are not going home as soon as we get the visas.  They were shocked we were told to stay a few extra days and said that was completely unnecessary as they had worked so hard to get things expedited for us.  We are more than a little annoyed that we are having to spend so much extra money and time here (which means more time away from work for Ernie and more time away from Christina and our home for all of us) when it was completely unnecessary.  Had we not been told to leave some extra time at the end of the trip we could be flying home next Friday.  Needless to say, we aren't too pleased with our agency for that.

I'll post pictures soon.  We are trying to let Joshua have a lot of time on the computer since there is really nothing else for him to do when we are sitting around in the hotel room, and Ernie has to use it sometimes as well so it's a challenge to find time to post. We are going to go out walking for awhile so they can clean our rooms, and after we come back I'll get the newest pictures downloaded and posted.  Now that I finally have some of Micaelyn's adorable smile I am eager to post them!