We've spent some time down at the pool this week. On Tuesday we took Tarah down with her life jacket in tow. We started out sitting on the side of the pool with our feet in the water. Tarah was ok with this baby step toward the pool. We then brought her over to the steps to see if she might venture in. She was good with sitting on the steps at first. She had a keen eye on what Shawn, Eli and I were doing.
We asked if she wanted her life jacket and she said no at first. She decided to let me hold her and walk around the pool, but I could tell she was still nervous. As we made it around the pool and back to the steps she was starting to get a little more comfortable. Eli was showing her how to blow bubbles in the water, so she gave that a try and thought it was funny. We asked again if she wanted her life jacket. Shawn even tried to pretend to put it on. While she thought it was funny she still wasn't going for it. We placed it on the water in front of her on the steps and showed her you could lay your head on it and it still floats. While intrigued she still didn't want it on. It took Eli pretending to put it on for her to finally decide to give it a try.
Once in the water she seemed to enjoy it. She tested out blowing in the water a few more times. At one point a family with two girls were in the water and they were jumping off the side of the pool together. (They have been at the hotel for two weeks waiting on passports for their daughters.) Each of the girls counted to ten and then jumped excitedly into their father's arms. Tarah was watching their every move and decided she was totally in for this. She asked me to lift her out of the pool on the side. We counted to ten and she jumped into my arms. She thought it was pretty fun and decided she needed to jump into Eli's arms too. She counted to ten again (both times combining 7 and 8). She seems to have a competitive spirit. It will serve her well in the future.
By Wednesday the hairstyle that they did at the orphanage was starting to get fuzzy. I decided I would take it out and give hair maintenance a try. Taking it out of her braids and washing it I realized she has more hair than you would expect. It is a bit uneven on the bottom, so putting it back in cleanly was a bit of a challenge. I also didn't bring edging gel, so the style didn't come out clean and polished as I had hoped. It will take lots of practice. Thankfully I have a connection to a Haitian woman at home and she is going to help me. Thank you, Lord!
I am so thankful to see that Tarah seems to be grasping what it is to be part of a family. She seemed to show favor to me last May and seemed a bit protective of me...to the point she was not nice to Shawn when he would try to show me affection. I was a bit nervous that she would do the same thing on this trip with both Shawn and Eli.That would have been really hard to work through. Thankfully, she has shown all of us affection and has not even flinched when we show eachother affection. Again, thank you, Lord!!
Shawn and I chuckled the other night because Eli finally has someone that he can ACTUALLY hide on. Since he was little he has always tried to be stealthy and hide on us. To this day we come home and sometimes he tries to hide so that he can try to jump us. We always laugh and tell him he should never go into a field where he needs to be stealth because he isn't very good at it. I guess we can modify that to say, if it is a field that involves hiding on 6 year olds he is all good!! He and Tarah played a bit of hide and seek in our room. It was a joy to hear the giggles, screams and laughter. We also told him he finally has someone that will laugh at his silly jokes. Ha!! She may not understand them but she laughs...maybe that is why she laughs. :)
We are still feeling so blessed that the trip is going well. The only real challenge that we are having is that Tarah is having some discomfort in her leg, which had open wounds when we picked her up. We don't have anything here to really help her, so we are trying to take care of them the best we can. Just a couple more days and all of the things that we take for granted at home will be at our fingertips. We are all ready!
Speaking of ready, a representative from the orphanage stopped by the hotel today to drop off our travel authorization. It is called an exit letter and it notifies Haitian immigration that we have final approval to leave the country with Tarah. We were by the pool when Junior found us. He shook our hands and gave Tarah a kiss on the cheek. She said hello to him and continued on with what she was doing. She happily interacted woth all of us as he joined us for water and a snack. When it was time for him to leave she waved and said bye-bye. This moment did my heart good. To me it reaffirmed that she is comfortable and happy with us. Junior is someone that Tarah would be familiar with because he is at the orphanage often. I was thankful that she was not sad to see him leave or, better yet, asking him to take her back with him. She was pretty non-chalaunt about the fact that he was there. I am again feeling thankful that she is doing so well. This is not to say that we won't have challenges ahead. I fully expect them. It is just nice to be able to enjoy this part of the transition. ❤
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