Leaving Home

Eva spoke to Wu Yi through Skype earlier this week.  She wanted to pack right afterwards to go and visit.  I managed to get her back to bed instead, but in the morning she stuffed her backpack with all of her new worldly possessions (not her clothes) and used three other small bags for those things that wouldn't fit.  This is not the first time she has done this.

She doesn't haul them to the door or to the car, but it's pretty obvious that she thinks she should be embarking on a trip somewhere.  I wonder just how temporary she views her stay with us as being.  I think she came to America with a vague understanding of adoption but with the more exciting promise that she would be in the same land as her friend. 

There are other times when she is very disturbed by the idea of any of us being left while the rest of the family goes someplace.

Today her father had a couple of "oscopies" which turned out fine, but when we were waiting in the hospital room for him, she clearly motioned that he should change into a johnnie (and she thought that was funny), lie down on the bed, have an i.v. inserted into his inner elbow, and scream from the pain.  So she obviously remembers having surgery.  She was having quite a few laughs about it, but I've found that she can "wind up" quickly when she's being silly and that it's very hard for her to come back down without her feeling scolded or viewing me as a party-pooper. 

Today was no different and yet very different.  When I told her that we had to leave, she instantly began crying.  Like her brother, she cries silently.  Her whole body goes limp and her eyes fill with tears and she makes not a single sound.  She cried the whole 20-30 minute drive to our next appointment.  Eventually she believed me that we were not leave her father there, and when we returned to get him later, she was giddy with relief and excitement.

Adopted children just give leaving home a whole new meaning.