time

i remember one time in haiti having a conversation with mike smith about time.  pretty much everywhere you went, there were people just sitting around.  literally doing nothing.  hanging out with their thoughts.  mike said something to the effect of ‘gives new meaning to killing time.’  here, i can relate.  i realize how many minutes are in a day.  at home, the minutes fly!  here they plod along, but it is funny how you settle in a hotel routine sort of way.  it involves eating and swimming.  and eating and swimming.  and the next day?  eating and swimming :)  oh!  today we got really crazy and added in shooting nerf bullets at each other by standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window 20 stories up.  the excitement just never stops in the hotel life :)

i think it is compounded because the few weeks before adoption travel, you become a crazy woman.  just ask the husband:)  and then you get on the plane and sit.  screeching halt!

on to way more important things – hannah.  she is doing so stinking great!  back to the first two paragraphs … i think that is also part of the reason why being here seems weird.  it is like she has been my daughter for a long time already.  in just two short days, we’ve leaped into familiar territory.  i know, i know!  we’ve only just begun.  but seriously, she feels natural, comfortable.

today, i chose my first battle with her.  over a silly chicken nugget.  our family policy is pretty much you don’t leave food.  eat it and move on.  well, she made it clear that she wasn’t eating more than one.  i let sarah eat two and she still told me “no” to the last one.  a child telling the parent “no” never sits well :) and i decide that we should clear the table of everything but the nugget.  lydia remembers her three-hour confrontation with broccoli casserole when she’d only been home about a week.  that girl sat at the table that day for three hours.  so lydia is remembering this and asks “are we really going to sit here for three hours?”  i said, “i hope not, but we might.”  hannah tells me ‘no’ again and i tap the giant box of fake barbie stuff she’d just bought with her own money.  i tell her in words she didn’t understand one bit, but she caught my drift because she stuffed the nugget in her mouth and ate it.  i said ‘good girl’, handed her the barbie box, and we were on our way.  smart girl :)  when she isn’t happy about something, she does a little growl of defiance.  we’ll be working on that one next :)

she’s cute as a bug.  not sure what it is about her, but she is endearing for sure.  maybe it is the way she says ‘mommy’.  maybe it’s 100 things all wrapped up.  it is interesting because her blind eye is just part of who she is.  i can’t imagine her any other way.

sam, sarah, and lydia are such blessings …. they are good travelers and helpers.  they’ve been great with hannah.  i credit them with the easy transition.  well, i obviously credit God and His amazing little helpers known as siblings :)

there is another holt family here, julie and brian.  we adore them!  first adoption, seasoned, but young parents of three kids back home.  we walked the city with them last night and the fellowship was just awesome.  ever had people that you just instantly really, really like?  i know you have; they are like that.  we ended up at an outdoor park (silly people if you are thinking nature, trees, animals, fresh air!!!)  we are in china!  a park means lots and lots and lots of concrete and lots and lots and lots of people :)  but they do fun things like have bright lights in circles under the ground, guys flying incredible kites incredibly high in the air, and people blowing giant bubbles everywhere.  a little kid (and big kid) paradise, chinese style :)

signing off because i’m just sure it is time to eat or swim!  or maybe we’ll get really adventuresome and play cards or something :)  love from nanchang.