Katie Day 3 - Better

Day 3 was strategy day.

Objective...
find ways to help Katie not cry.

Strategy 1: Food

On the advice of the Clarks we went looking for cheetos. None to be found. So, we used whatever else we could find. In the orphanage Katie was fed a food called congee. Which is kinda like rice cereal, but really watered down. We stocked up on the stuff. Whenever Katie began to cry, we gave her food; congee, bananas, yogurt, egg noodle soup, french fries, etc. She really is more like an 8 month old when it comes to food. Srategy one worked quite well. She would litteraly go from screaming to quiet when food was presented. We'll deal with the food addiction issues later on in life. For now...less crying = good.

Stragegy 2: On the move

We decided to get out of the hotel room. We decided if she was going to cry, we might as well see some stuff around Guangzhou. It is a beautiful place. So, we strapped her into Heather's baby wrap thingamajiggy whatsacallit and wlaked around Guangzhou. When we were out and about, she was fine. In the hotel, better, but still fussy.

Strategy 3: Drugs

During one of Katie's screaming sessions I happened to look in her mouth. Her gums on both sides were very red and swollen. The darn kid is teething. We kept her dosed up on tylenol regularly with some pretty good results.

Strategy 4: Go to sleep

Strategies 1-3 ranged from mildly to wildly successful (see strategy 1). Strategy 4 was a miserable failure (although not as bad as day 2). The little girl has an opinion. At bed time, she let her opinion be known...loudly. We strated bed time at 7:30, we acheived sleep at 9:30. Then she slept without a peep all night. Between 7:30 and 9:30 she screamed like a banshee. At one point, we did an experiment. We picked her up out of her crib which did nothing to console her. We walked out of the hotel room with her. As soon as we were out the door she stopped screaming instantly. We then knnew that she was just not fond of the sleep idea and there was nothing else wrong with her. We went back into the room, put her in the crib, rubbed her back while she was screaming and eventually she relented. There will be a new strategy this evening.

Overall, the day was much better. However, Heather was exhausted at the end of it all because she is the only one Katie will be held by, fed by, comforted by, etc. If Heather leaves the room, Katie cries. This is a good thing. But it is hard on Heather. I, on the other hand, am getting a lot of reading done in between logistical support. Sometimes I have to hold the book in front of my face so that Katie won't cry from looking at me. She did let me feed her some banana in the car. I had to take a nap after that...I was worn out.

Lastly, we recieved the official certificate of adoption yesterday and have completed all of the paperwork and processing for China. Katie is officially ours according to China. We will spend the rest of our time here making her a U.S. citizen.

Thanks all for the prayers and comments, it is good to here from all of you. Thanks for being part of the journey.