Bad Chinese makes for sticky situations ~ Sara

Yesterday was Dr. appt day.  Li Lin loved her gifts bearing nurse, Lisa, and was very happy to let the doctor look at her.  After failed attempts to yield blood by our friendly pediatrician we were impressed how well she handled the appointment.  I am thankful the doctor is being very thorough and checking her for anything and everything that could have been missed along the way.  Most importantly, she is getting us a referral to the cleft clinic at Sick Kids where Li Lin's needs relative to the cleft can be assessed and treated.  Li Lin has a fistula (hole) from just behind her teeth to her nose on the left side of her mouth.  We are guessing the medical team at Sick Kids will want to repair that relatively soon to aid in her speech.   The fall would be our preference but we will see what happens. 

Today Li Lin asked me about her "ye ye" and "nai nai" again (foster grandparents) and said she wanted to know where they were after I inadvertantly mispronouced the Chinese name of the pleasant goat cartoon.  I accidentally asked her if she wanted to watch grandpa and not "ya ya" as she calls it.   I explained as best I could to a three year old that they are in China.  I asked her if she wanted to see pictures of grandma and little foster brother. (Unfortunately we were never given a pic of the foster grandpa) Bracing myself for a sobbing child, I brought out the precious pink album the director had so kindly given us.

She went through the book skipping over pictures of her as an infant, pointed out pictures of her friend, Yang yang,  and stopped at the beautiful picture taken of her and her foster grandma and little foster brother.  She beamed ear to ear and said, "nai nai, didi (little brother)".  There were no tears from her, she was just happy to see their faces again.  She asked again where they were, I told her again, and she closed up the book, put it back into it's case, and  handed it to me.  I asked me if she wanted me to put this in her room.  She smiled happily, then quickly ran over to the DVD player to try to turn on the pleasant goat cartoon.  As I climbed the stairs to her room to put the book away for safe keeping, it was my turn to shed a few tears for a child who has lost so much but is so accepting of these losses.  Please keep praying.