Progress

Lydia went on her first school field trip today to the zoo. I was lucky enough to be able to request that she be in a group with a friend who is also a parent in the class. That gave me piece of mind for the day. She was also nice enough to call and leave me a great message about how wonderful it was and how good Lydia had been. She said Lydia wanted to stay longer at all the exhibits and was asking what each animal was called. I'm kind of sad to have missed her first trip to the zoo but it sounds like she'll be more than happy to go another time as well. I'm so glad things went well there and that she had such a good time.

We had a little bit of progress tonight - I think, I hope - with our current phase. For the most part, the whole day went well until the very end when it was bedtime. We were working through it with talking (instead of anything physical - yeah!) and she started in saying, "I don't like..." Usually what follows when she gets going is "...this family - this not my family!" etc. But, today she threw both Lalie and I for a loop. She said, "I don't like...this family from." We couldn't understand that so I thought it was the same message as usual, so I started in with my, "I'm sorry but you're stuck with this family and you'll always be a part of this family." She said, "No, I like this family - just not where from." As we talked further she got across that she likes this family but wishes we were in Ethiopia. Now that's big progress! I feel like we moved up a notch tonight. I told her I was sad that she had to leave Ethiopia too and that I know it is so hard to come here to America where everything is so different.

Now, if only I can get someone to translate the Amharic word she yells at Lalie and I when she is really mad. I'm guessing it's not a sweet thing. :-)