Ah, Love...

Today marks one week with our sweet and spicy Mina.

I am amazed at how far we've come in seven short days.

We've gone from scared cries to giggly smiles.

I can't begin to explain how incredible it's been to watch her blossom this week.

Miraculous. 

Today we went shopping with Ann at Red Thread. She's the one we used to send Mina care packages while we waited. She was awesome! We took a taxi and drove quite a ways away from our hotel. She knew exactly where to go to get some nice, authentic souvenirs. She was hard-core with bartering and would just walk out of shops if they weren't budging on their price. I shudder to think of the money we would have spent had it not been for her!

Here's Miss Mina at the pearl market...

 Hand-picked, hand-strung pearls for our precious daughter to wear on her wedding day.

Don't want to show more pics from our shopping day...it would ruin some surprises! :)

To give a little update on how our girl is doing...

She is still my constant companion -- of all the families here adopting, I think she's the only one who will not sit in a high chair during meals. Must be in my lap at all times. I'm completely fine with it even though she swipes most of the food off my plate... 

She still will not let Daniel hold her, but she's getting better about other things. For instance, she'll now eat something he offers her, and she'll play with him on the floor for a little bit. Tonight while I was giving her a bath, she kept calling out "BABA!" (that's Daddy in Chinese) at him and smiling. I think it won't be long before she finally caves and lets him scoop her up.

Putting her to bed is one of my favorite times of day.

She is just so darn happy!

I say a prayer, sing her a song, and then we have the sweetest little time together.

She'll be jabbering to me while rubbing my cheek...ah, makes me melt.

Then she gets tickled about who knows what and just giggles and giggles.

I'm now convinced sound machines should really offer the "baby giggles" option in addition to the rain, waterfall, rain forest  and white noise features.

I only know how to say three things in Chinese: Hi, Thank you, and I love you.

So, when she's starting to get really sleepy, we give Eskimo kisses and I tell her over and over in English and Chinese I love you, Mina...I love you, Mina...

Tonight right as she was about to drift off to sleep, she took out her pacifier, said "Mama" and gave me a big slobbery kiss.

It was the most precious thing in the world.

She is doing so well, especially considering everything in her little world has completely and drastically changed.

I am in awe of her.

She is absolutely incredible.

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Daniel update: He woke up feeling back to normal self, but this evening around the same time as yesterday he started running a 100+ temperature again. Please continue to lift him up and pray that whatever is causing this would go away for good!