Aids & Adjustments

The hearing aid is going to be the death of me.  Seriously.

Such a tiny little thing, so expensive and SO important.  And it has become the thing I have had to worry about the most since I've been here.

The first day here, of course, it got knocked off while we were crossing a busy street, and run over by a taxi.  I can't believe it still worked after that.

Then the next day, she lost it in the van.  It took us several minutes to find it.

So we asked for a sewing kit downstairs and I tethered it with some thread and a safety pin.  I figured at least if it got knocked off it wouldn't fall to the ground.

Then last night we ventured out to find McDonald's.  Alaina was riding on Ethan's shoulders and he went under some low-hanging branches.  One of them scraped her, cut the tether, and knocked the hearing aid off.  We searched for several minutes in the dark under the feet of the thousands of people walking the street before we found it.  It had lost both its cover and its battery.  Miraculously, we found the cover a moment later.  It is looking even worse than it did when it had its run-in with the taxi.

I'm getting really paranoid about it.  I need to find a better way to hook it to her.  She needs it, but I'm reluctant to let her wear it when we are out and about.

Please pray for me and for proteciton for the hearing aid!

Meanwhile, Maia is starting to understand what it means to be in our family.  We have had some moments of defiance from her where she stomps her little feet and crosses her arms and refuses to do what we say.

She is very attached to me and won't go anywhere without holding my hand.  She wants to sit right next to me and do whatever I am doing.  She has not been so enchanted with Darryl, however.  She is frightened of him.  When he gets near she runs away.  It's hard for him but we understand.  She will come to understand that he can be trusted.  He is thinking about shaving his beard as he thinks maybe it is frightening to her.  I'm hoping he doesn't have to, but I am willing if it will help.

It must be so hard to be eight years old and have to leave everything you have ever known.  The ayi who brought her to us said that she understood what it meant to be adopted and that she had agreed to it, but how much can you really understand something like that when you are so young?

Please pray for her.  She has a lot to learn and it is obvious we will have a lot of medical issues to deal with when we get home.  She is in for a long road.

I don't have any pictures to share today as all we did was shop at Wal-Mart and hang out in the room.  Tomorrow we are going to a famous pagoda and we will likely have lots of pictures then.  I'm not sure whether or not Alaina will be wearing her hearing aid.