Some of the "Bad Stuff"

Well, I wrote on February 28 about Shaling's battle of wills with us. We experienced something similar, but much larger, while in Florida last Friday. I don't think I want to share all of the details publicly, but suffice it to say that I think a combination of homesickness for familiar food, a strong desire to be able to speak with someone in Mandarin, an excruciatingly long wait for lunch, a disappointment that we were heading home to Illinois, and getting disciplined all combined for a major breakdown. She spent a couple of hours grieving and rejecting all of us. The good news is that by that evening, she was back to snuggling with us, smiling, and having fun.

Overall, I believe she is happy here (or at least not unhappy), but I don't believe it is home for her yet. She smiles and plays a lot. She loves school and loves playing volleyball through the local youth sports association. She interacts well with kids in our neighborhood. Did I mention -- she smiles a LOT. However, when probed by Chinese-speaking people about whether she likes it here, she always tells them no. If you think about it, that answer is not all that surprising. She hasn't even been here 3 months and though she has done great at forging relationships and even better at learning English (though we have a long ways to go), her entire world has been turned upside down. She is obviously not miserable. I would describe it more as homesick.

On another front, we did go see Dr. Huang, the Ear, Nose, & Throat specialist, yesterday. After cleaning out and examining her right ear (where she has had the persistent ear infections), he prescribed Ciprodex ear drops. He says she has a LARGE hole in her ear drum. He will see her again on April 18, but he suspects she is going to need surgery to repair it. He also suspects she has a history of ear infections and that in the past the ear infections never healed properly, causing the large hole.

Though Shaling didn't care for the ear cleaning, she took it very well and I think she appreciated getting to talk in Chinese with the doctor.

I'll have more positive things to report after this weekend as she will be going to her first baseball game on Saturday and she will be baptized on Sunday.