Her hands drawing a picture for us. 💗
Today was the day. We met our daughter and Tisetso met his sister. It was a lot less fanfare than when we met Tisetso, which was okay by us. We pulled up to the house and there she was—standing at the door waiting for us. It was a bit rainy so we ran inside and she had her brightest, shyest smile on. We got high fives as a greeting and then we were off getting the tour with her as our tour guide.
One of her friends drew us a family portrait (L–R: Heidi, Brian, Tisetso, and our daughter)
We got to spend almost the whole day with her and her friends. The morning was spent coloring and using stickers to make lovely pictures. One of the girls even drew our family (see above). It was fun as we spent the time asking random questions such as favorite color, food, snack, subject, etc. It gave our shy daughter a chance to speak without having to be at the center of attention, which would have possibly made her uncomfortable. At one point, she put a sticker of a present on her paper and when I asked what was inside, she said, “Clothes and a dollie.” My heart melted.
After drawing and lunch, we headed upstairs for the TV room / lounge area. The girls all wanted to watch The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl which was a real…treat… It was rough. Brian and I were left to sit on bean bag chairs and the movie was so bad. (How bad was it?) I contemplated taking a nap, but worried I’d snore and alert all the girls to the fact I wasn’t paying attention. I also stayed off my phone as much as possible. It was difficult.
After 93 long minutes, the movie ended, and so did my trial. (Ha!) We headed back downstairs to begin the most difficult game of memory match of my life. The game was based off of a show called Sparkle & Shine, I think, and all of the characters look the same except for different hair colors. But sometimes the same hair color girl would have a slight variation of pose. To add to the fun, the lines of the game kept getting mixed up into a big random pile, so I couldn’t ever remember where something was. To top it all off, we were playing with a bunch of cheaters—our daughter included! When the game had taken too long for their liking, the girls flipped all of the cards over and began a free-for-all to get matches. It was hilarious!
We ended the day by watching an episode of Teen Titans Go! during which, our daughter came out of her shell and started really showing herself to be a funny and silly kid who loves her friends. When we said goodbye, we promised to come back tomorrow and she said that would be alright. Success!
Headed back to the flat after a long but fantastic day
We’re now home and processing our day. It was so different from our first day with Tisetso, and yet similar in many ways. You’re strangers who are also family. You’re expected to hit it off and be great right away. Thankfully, we were able to make good connections with her today. Tomorrow will be different as all her friends go back to school (they’ve been on a week-long autumn break here), so we will have her to ourselves. We are excited and nervous to see how it will go.
Please continue to pray that new and lasting bonds would form between her and us. We love her so much and want her to love us just as much, but know these things take time. We are excited to see what tomorrow brings.