The curse is broken

With both of our previous adoptions, the second day was awful!  During the first, our boy screamed and ran around like a crazy child the entire day.  It was so stressful and depressing that I didn't even blog about the day.  I really just wanted to forget it.  With the second, we were out on the playground as the bus to school rolled in.  Our boy LOVED going to school and was majorly ticked off that he was not able to go.  He was screaming and flailing so I sat down on the step with him on my  lap.  He proceeded to  bang his head and made contact with my forehead.  I truly believe he gave me a minor concussion that day.  We ended up leaving early that day because he would not settle down.

So today, we were prepared for the "curse of the 2nd day."  We were pleasantly surprised.  J was in the social worker's arms when we got there and seemed very sleepy.  She wanted nothing to do with us for about a half an hour.  Again, the social worker moved us over to the couch and Z gave us his phone with Angry Birds pulled up.  J was transferred to my lap and I tried to use her finger to play the game.  She let me do it a couple times but then had enough.  As the social worker went to give Z back his phone, J turned her body and put her arms around me and buried her head in my neck.  In less than 10 minutes, she was sound asleep.  I cannot tell you how content my heart was to snuggle that little girl.  She even stayed asleep as I moved her into the bedroom.  I knew that it probably wasn't a great idea to let her sleep that much, but I couldn't bear to wake her up.  A few minutes later, Hubby came into the room and I handed her off to him.  She woke up (barely) but didn't fuss at being in Daddy's arms. I know I look sad in this picture, but really I wasn't.  I was so focused on rubbing her back and humming to her.

We went out into the living room again and I was told that we should go back to the bedroom and change her clothes.  She had been wearing a white sweat suit outfit that turned out to be her pajamas.  We had a bit of a battle of wills over changing her clothes.  She kept saying, "NE!" when I would try to take her shirt off so I would stop.  I did not want to get her upset, but eventually, I realized that I needed to show her that her "ne" wouldn't always work.  She whined a bit, but we got her pj's off. :)  I also changed her diaper and she giggled the entire time  I guess that might have had to do with the fact that since she had a bare belly, I couldn't help but tickle it. So, in the end, the clothes changing didn't turn out too bad.    

Just a couple minutes after I changed her, they said we needed to change her clothes again because we were going out.  They dress her in what looks like boys' clothes (they are probably hand me downs from their grandson) but when she goes out, they put her in girlie stuff.  Z found out there was a park/pedestrian area close to the house.  I thought she would be nervous about going but she was excited even when she looked back and saw we were going without the foster family.  We were a bit surprised that she didn't mind the car seat because she had never been in one before today.  She was busy looking at everything.

She did not want to walk...this girlie is all about being carried!  I absolutely love that she desires to be close.  I know that my arms will hate me because, even though she isn't too heavy, carrying her for long isn't easy.  Half of the walk around the area, I carried her.  Then I put  her in Daddy's arms to see what she would do.  She snuggled right in and was happy being close to him too.  She holds on tight to our shirt whenever she is cuddling. 

 

An interesting thing we walked by today was a secondary school.  Z said the name of the school was Nikola Tesla school.  Being a goofy American, I had to take a picture of the sign.  I am thankful that there wasn't a group of kids outside or they would have laughed at me.  :) 

 

 

When we arrived back at the foster home, the mother and her daughter were busy preparing lunch.  I was not prepared for that.  It was a three course meal!  The creamy chicken soup and bread was delicious.  I was encouraged to take seconds and did so, not realizing there was more food to come.  After the soup, they brought out pork cutlets, cevapi (kind of like a sausage link), and mashed potatoes.  When I finished, they tried to have me feed J, but she wanted nothing to do with the potatoes.  She knew that Baba had made pancakes (crepes) and that's what she wanted for lunch.  Let me tell you, that girl has good taste!  Those crepes were amazing!  They were filled with apricot jam and I had to stop myself after eating two of them.  The platter that I had brought the banana bread on yesterday was filled with crepes and handed to me as I left. :) 

 

All in all, we were there 4 and a half hours today.  As we were getting ready to leave, Z asked J if we could come back tomorrow.  She responded, "Yes, that would be good."   (in her language obviously)  So, I guess I can safely say that the curse of the 2nd day has been broken.  We did have a couple meltdowns (sobbing, huge tears, overall distress) but she calmed relatively quickly.  Nobody could pinpoint what started it.  But, as a wonderful friend pointed out, she is under a good deal of stress and confusion.  SHE probably doesn't know why she was crying.  With every experience we have together, we are getting closer to having her with us forever!