smile and a laugh!

Today has been a tiring one! Whew! I am drinking Airborne as I type because my body is feeling rundown.

It was a tiring day for good and yucky reasons. We started off our time with Selah "yucky". When they brought her into the music room she screamed! and I mean screamed! I was trying to hold her to console her and she wanted nothing to do with it. She was thrashing, arching her back and trying to run for the door. (What we later found out, is that she doesn't like the music room anymore). She did this for a good 10 minutes....

Anyway, the Director came in and consoled her. It is still sad for me that I am her Mom and can't console her yet. Its hard. It will come with time. I know. But, its still hard now.

Sooo, the Director calms her down with a boatload of Russian words. And then directs me to come with her. We walk down the hallway and the Director is so sweet, she was telling me to hold one of Selah's hands as she held the other. And then scooted us out the door to play outside.  Selah started to warm up, but not quite yet. We were met outside with a bunch of other children that are her age. And let me tell you, I CAN'T get those sweet little children out of my mind! They were ALL so beautiful. The caregivers kept telling them that I was "sveta's mama" and I felt bad they were saying that to them, because these sweet children may never be adopted due to the system. Oh my heart went out to these precious children.  Shane came out later and one boy ran up to him and said, "Papa?"..... *sigh*  If only we could adopt them all!

Anyway, Selah started noticing the other children all around me and started getting more curious. AND the caregivers kept telling her to go with Mama. (They are all so encouraging of us, which is so nice).

Then , I asked Selah if she wanted to get on this little bike thing and she came. I pushed her in it for awhile until I no longer could remain in the bent over position any longer. :)

Then, I held her hand and took over to the playground. Huge step that she let me take her away from the caregivers and the other children.  I put her in the plastic slide and she would slide and then I would lift her up into the air before she hit the bottom. Ok, this was THE BEST THING I HAVE DONE WITH HER, because SHE FINALLY gave us a huge smile!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is huge because we have never got a smile from her, last year we had to tickle her to get a smile!  She has a beautiful, beautiful smile! And gorgeous teeth!   So I did this, of course, for as long as my back could handle it. (Which is probably why I had to pop 2 advils and drink some airborne!)

Then, it gets even better!!!! We play this ball thing with Shane and she ends up LAUGHING!  And I mean chuckling! Shane and I literally thought we had died and gone to heaven. If only you all know how much we have been waiting for a smile, nonetheless a LAUGH!  We were having a blast and didn't want it to end!

I kept asking for kisses in Russian and she would come to me and stick her cheek out for me to kiss it. :) We did that MANY times, because Mama is soooo high maintenance with that.   Shane asked for a kiss and she came and stuck her cheek to him, but then wiped his kiss off her face. LOL..... It made us crack up!

We brought her in and tried to bring her to that music room again for lunch and again she would have nothing to do with it and started thrashing and screaming.....we think the caregivers and Director understand now that she just doesn't like that room!  They put us in another room and she was just fine.

So, the time started off really hard. But, ended beautifully!!!!!!!  We are hoping for the same tomorrow.

Happy Election Day!