Tarik

(Posted by Shannon for Reed and Lee Ann)

First let me say thank you to all of you for your interest in our journey. At times we have felt a little lonely and isolated and knowing that you all have been reading our blog has really helped, and getting you that info has almost been a form of therapy. We cannot see our blog, or even post on it, but my sister has been kind enough to email us your comments – they have meant more than you know.

It seems like we have been posting about everything but Tarik lately so we thought we would catch you up on who this little girl is. If you are more interested in the African part of this blog, please forgive us for a moment while we act like parents.

Right now we are calling her Tarikwa (her full name) because that is what she knows. In fact, if we say even her full name with an American accent she barely responds, so we are walking around saying her name in the best African accent we can muster (with a rolled R and all).

In many ways she is like a six-month old. She is definitely about that size and has about that much energy (much of her first eight months were spent in a crib). She is really playful, but peters out fast. She takes “snuggle” breaks about every ten minutes of playtime. Everyday she gets more curious, energetic, and loud. We have become good friends with the one American here at the guesthouse; this morning he said he could tell a difference in her between yesterday and today! We hope she doesn’t cover too much ground too soon because our sixteen hours on a single plane will be easier if she has the energy of a six-month old.

This girl loves to cuddle. She always wants to be held (mostly by Lee Ann) and sleeps best right next to us. She typically starts out in her crib but usually gets hungry or scared somewhere along the way and stays in bed with us for the rest of the night. Every morning she will spend as much as an hour just lying around in bed with us after she has woken up. She just can’t get enough of physical touch. To comfort herself, she sucks her left thumb (upside down) and puts her right hand up beside her head.

At the orphanage she was only taking a bottle and some soupy cereal. Since being with us she has already taken to eating some mashed potatoes and even some rice. Like I said before, it’s kind of like we got a six-month old on Monday but to her, a day is like a month of development.

Speaking of development, this morning she waved for the first time, to a waitress named Leah. There is a restaurant attached to the guesthouse and we have gotten to know all the different workers well – but this wave was a real first.

Yesterday (Thursday), she said “Momma” for the first time. She has been able to say the word before but it was yesterday that she actually used it. Of course, until this week there was no need to! I don’t have to tell you how much this meant to Lee Ann. That is her first and only word thus far and if she is like any of our other girls she will figure out a way to say several other things before she gets around to “Daddy.”

She has a several things that you might say are her favorite things to do…

-- She loves to be held by Lee Ann and reach out for me only to withdraw at the last moment.

-- Anytime she is crawling, she wants me to “chase” her around the room.

-- Much to the chagrin of our waiters, house cleaners, and her parents, her favorite thing to do is shred Kleenex tissues.

-- And she loves to clap her hands – the phrase is ach-om-chew-ee in Amharic. (We cannot thank our Ethiopian friends in Kansas City enough for teaching us some phrases like that.)

One strange little thing she does is she can somehow gag herself. She did it a lot every time we were at the orphanage but not as much when it is just us. We have decided that in the orphanage they must do this as a little game to get the children to cough up all their mucus. Any kid that comes from any orphanage usually has pretty bad sinus stuff going on – this is why they always have their mouths open in the pictures (they can’t breathe their little noses). Even though it is very strange and sad to see her gag, it is another example of the good care she has received.

Not being able to travel the city has been annoying at times, but we are so thankful that we have had several days of just getting to know our little Tarik. She is a delight to know and we cannot wait to get her back home and integrate her into the life and family we love so much.