Monday evening with Lei

Our first day with Lei went very well. After we left the place where we got the kids, we went to lunch and then shopping. I had asked to go because I wanted to buy a few things like coloring books, markers and snacks. I had brought a couple of crafty things for us to do but thought we might need a couple more. We had fun at lunch with all three families. Lei definitely seemed to have fun. I thought it would be fun to shop for her, but she really didn't want much. I would point at something and she would say "No, " firmly. She did let me buy her a pink Disn@y princess backpack, a pencil case and a tiny set of animal figurines. We went back to the hotel and relaxed for an hour or so. Everything seemed fine, so I got on my computer to download all of the pictures we had taken. She came over and started looking at the pictures and saw the ones of her saying goodbye to the people from her orphanage. Suddenly she started crying. At first it was a few quiet tears and then she was sobbing. It was awful. I held her on my lap and asked Ray to call our guide so she could tell him what she needed. After speaking to him for a few minutes she calmed down. He explained that she was frustrated that we couldn't communicate and that she wanted slippers. I remembered that she had pointed to slippers when we were shopping, but we hadn't seen ones for children so we hadn't gotten them. So we all headed out to find some slippers.
We looked around the local malls for about two hours and could not find any slippers. Lei knew exactly what she was looking for and didn't want to settle for anything less. We did find two simple black hair bands that she let us buy, but that was it. We finally had to stop to get dinner at a food court inside a mall next to our hotel. We ran into one of the other families that is here adopting a little seven year old boy and had dinner with them. I brought Lei over to get ice cream after dinner, but once she heard how much it was, she wouldn't take one. Suddenly, she let me know she wanted to go back downstairs to the mall, so she and I left. She held my arm and pulled me (nicely) to the place she wanted to go. We went right back to a little store that sold cr@cs and chose a pink pair. I guess she figured that was as close to slippers as we were going to get. We went back to the hotel and few minutes later and got ready for bed. I showed her the pajamas we brought and she chose the pair she wanted to wear. She wanted me to come into the bathroom with her to help her get ready for bed. I showed her her toothbrush, the bottle of water and how she couldn't drink the tap water, and she took a quick shower. She happily pulled out the slippers and wore them the five feet from the bathroom to her bed. We watched tv for a little whie and then I turned it off and we went to bed. We were worried that she would get sad again, but she was fine.