Life with Tulah: Day One

Tulah slept wonderfully her first night with us. In fact, we had to wake her up so that we would be ready to start our busy day! When she woke, bless her heart, it was like she had to re-live all that grief she tried to cry out the night before. While she didn't scream or cry much at first, she was very serious and very sad. She would not eat or drink for us and still didn't have any interest in her mama. Thankfully, she did still let her baba comfort her.

First breakfast with mama and baba..... not going to eat though;(

After breakfast, which she still would not eat, we went out to our van and headed out for the day. We quickly learned that she did not like to ride in a car!! She cried the whole way. Our first stop took us to the civil affairs office to complete some paperwork. It was a small, dirty and very hot office and my sweet girl did not like it in there one bit. We tried desperately to distract her with toys, juice and crackers, but nada.... not a gonna happen. She was mad. And then, to make things way worse, in walks in one of her nannies. I tried to shift her from her sight, but she saw her and really wanted her. She of course, did not make eye contact with Tulah, and did all the things she was supposed to I'm sure, but it was really hard for Tulah to have to see her again.

A very hot, tired, and sad little girl

She was very worried that she had not eaten, so she wanted to hold her and try to get her to eat. I reluctantly let her and she did manage to get her to eat a few little cheeze its (already a Hatley for sure)!! After that paperwork was finished, she did present us with a gift made by the children of the orphanage along with a photo album. This was very sweet and a treasure to have. Some of the photos were from the time Tulah was with a foster mom and I had never seen any photos of her from that time in her life.

Once we arrived back to the hotel, Michael decided that he should run out to Wal-Mart and pick up a few things. Up unto this point, she still had not really wanted anything to do with me. But, I distracted her and he left, and guess what.... we very slowly started getting to know one another and she had the best time sorting M&M's and Skittles. This was the very first time that she had even attempted any kind of playing, so I considered this a MAJOR breakthough. I even got her to drink a little more juice.

That trip to Wal-Mart was a major success. Michael brought back Pepsi Max for me (the only thing close to a diet soda here in Nanning), several Cup-O-Noodles and a beautiful, pink stroller. Before the night was over, Tulah had eaten half a cup of noodles and we had taken her on a long stroll around the hotel in her new stroller.... AND SHE LOVED IT!!!! This has been a much needed break for Michael's arms!!

Later that night, she got to play with her very first baby doll! Thank you Drammy!!!

Every day, Tulah is learning to trust us more. For the first time in her life, she has a forever mama and baba..... and we are not going anywhere!!!

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you"

John 14:18