Secret Treasure

I have been trying to help Sweetpea connect the dots about her past so that we can step towards the future together. In order to do this we need to tell the story of who she is from the beginning. The part of the story before she was in the institute will remain a mystery for a long time, perhaps permanently. Yet she lived for 3 years in China and we have not one shred of visual evidence to show her about that part of her life.

I have done some sleuthing, in my spare time, and have been greatly rewarded. I have found 2 absolute pictures of her before she joined her first family. I have also run across a few people who saw her during her adoption and wrote about it. If I can track them down they might also have more photos of her when they look at their collection from their trip. Then there is the icing on the cake, someone references that they have a video clip of babies and lists her name as one of the babies shown! I am waiting with great anticipation to hear back from her to see if we can get a copy of that video.

These are wonderful treasures to begin building her story and to treasure for her lifetime. I am so grateful that there is something to find. I hope there is much more. The other discovery is that many people cared deeply about her when she was in China. They were trying valiantly to find a family for her. I am so grateful to these people who showed her care and concern during her life there.

I showed Sweetpea the treasures today, along with many pictures of the general facilities. She was in absolute denial that the 2 toddler pictures were her. She kept saying to me, "You not telling the truth!" I don't know where she is in her thought processes about all this. She was not distressed by appearance but interested, curious but closed to the idea. Perhaps she did not like the way she looked in the pictures, a lot of the little ones have that response to their institutional photos. My other buttons call themselves boys when they see the standard short crop hair cut on themselves and all the other kids. It just doesn't jell with the internal image they now hold of themselves. I wonder if this is what Sweetpea is struggling with as well.

The day overall was a rough one as I woke up to find my oldest button in need of a visit to the doctor. After that excursion it was an uphill battle to get the day off to any good start. By mid day I had a major migraine and rested on the couch where I could keep an eye on the little buttons and try to keep the din down to a dull roar. I was very blessed when the doorbell rang and one of the many friends who keep blessing me arrived with a piping hot dinner. God is soooo gracious to me. I cannot be thankful enough for His tender mercies to me.