Bonding, Attachment, Discipline—We are off to a Good Start

A lot of you have prayed for the progression of the paperwork, and our lawyer told us today that everything is moving along very well, so thanks for the prayer on that end.

We wanted to share a video with you that we shot today.  I just happened to be walking up to JuJu and had my camera rolling and she was talking to Little.  It is a good shot of her personality.  She is VERY strong-willed, and we are dealing with some survivalist mentality.  She will slap, punch, and totally defy our authority.  It is good that we are in this place that is more familiar to her while we go through this time of breaking her will.  The language barrier makes it especially hard, but it is already working, and she is responding.  We are committed to it and have no doubts that the Lord will wear her down.  If you know Little or Me, the stubbornness JuJu brings to the family is nothing new to this party!  I am actually enjoying the challenge of showing her strong love that is consistent, but with discipline.

Elliot (Mo as I am calling him) is so young that he is happy to be eating and cooing.  He did stay awake for 6 hours last night as his body is dealing with the strong meds we have him on to remove parasites and infection.  Pray for his continued strengthening physically.  Juliet, on the other hand, is as healthy as any four year old I have ever seen.  That is a blessing.

The language barrier is posing problems, as she is very fluent in Lugandan, which is her native tongue.  The doctors say she speaks at a high-level vocabulary and is pretty intelligent.  So we have the added struggle of that.  She speaks rapidly AT us when we are putting her in bed, and I am certain she is not saying real nice things.  But she is all girl, trying her best to manipulate me, especially with her big eyes and big smile.  She will rattle off a string of Lugandan, then smile and me and say “Daddy girl?”  It is pretty funny.

Thanks again for all of the prayer.  Keep it coming.