Day 8 - First full day together

Victoria did very well today and so did we! :)  She experienced many new things including morning cuddles with a mama and a daddy, solid foods and Hanoi's crazy traffic.

Trying banana for the first time

Exploring the Old Quarter of Hanoi

We are learning a lot about our little girl and doing all that we can to love her and bond together.  Her skin is starting to look a little bit better but there are still many bites and bumps.  She seems to be pretty content though.  There is one sad behaviour that has resulted from her institutional care that makes me cry.  We've discovered that she rocks herself back and forth periodically to self-soothe.  This is not uncommon for children in institutional care who do not get the nurturing love they need to develop.  She has learned to depend on herself for comfort since she has not had a consistent caregiver to attend to her needs.  I'm sure she rocked herself to sleep many nights.  I wish I was there to hold her those nights.  I hate that she had to experience such loneliness at such a young age.  What torment!  It makes me sick in my stomach to think of all the children who have no one to care for them tonight.  I'm just happy there is one less orphan and am so grateful that God would spare Victoria from such a dreadful environment.  I know it will take time for Victoria to rely on us for love and comfort.  We are going to work very hard to develop a strong bond.

The good news is that she now cries whenever I'm more than two feet away from her.  I can't even go to the bathroom without her bursting into tears.  I'm so happy for this.  She is bonding already.  What a blessing!  I tried to get a picture of her in front of the Christmas tree but she was upset that I put her down.  So we took a picture together instead.  I'll cherish this photo forever because I think this is the first moment when Victoria wanted me to be her mom.

We finished off the night with room service again, this time mashed potatoes and pumpkin.  We also had some bare skin time.  I don't think she had much bare skin time in the orphanage because she was fascinated with her belly button.  It was really cute watching her play with her tummy and her toes!  I love her!

Such a cute giggle.  Watch the video clip.