Just chillin'

Today was a chill out day. The morning started off great. We had breakfast with Ryan and Jada. Gianna was in rare form. She actually got down off of Dan's lap and started playing with Jada. She was reaching for Ryan to touch him. You have to take a look at the pictures to believe she was actually running and laughing. After breakfast we took her to a local mall to get some new outfits. Later, she took a nap, threw a few tantrums, then we went to the Old Quarter in the afternoon with Jada and her parents. The Old Quarter is a very busy marketplace, what you would imagine old Asia to be like. It started pouring down rain, but luckily we had an umbrella. Still I got covered in sewage-mud, gross. After dinner tonight we went to the kids playroom at the hotel. We met a couple that has 6 kids, 4 adopted. They just adopted a 3 year old from the south. Ahn was very lively and a little aggressive. They had her for over 2 weeks now and are set to return to the States tomorrow. She reassured me that Gianna's withdrawn behavior and bonding to the father but not the mother is perfectly natural. She suggested I just stay in the room, doing my own thing while Gianna and Bố play. Eventually she will come around and wonder why I am not playing with them. Tonight we tried it out and eventually she threw a plastic shovel my way. I guess this is progress. Thanks lady from Connecticut with six kids, you really reassured me that this is totally normal for institutionalized children and not my fault! As I am sitting here typing, Gianna is watching Tom and Jerry, playing with Dan's chest hairs that are sticking out of his shirt. I tell her Bố is a trâu (water buffalo).

Tomorrow morning Gianna's passport should be ready if all went well (wink wink) with our application on Friday. Then around lunch time we go to the SOS International Clinic for her doctor appointment. They can hopefully look at her scabies and see if its getting better or needs another dose of medication. The doctors there speak English and see a ton of adopted kids with many diseases and problems.