Smiles all around!

On some days, you look for baby steps of progress. Other days are breakthroughs. Today was an amazing day where we saw a whole new side of Kate! When we were tucking her in bed for the night, Dawn said it well: “those last two hours were like a dream.” Kate was playing, laughing, smiling, and even talking a little. It took us both by surprise, and it made our hearts leap!

Here’s a quick run-down of today’s progress: I mentioned previously that she smiled a bit while I was gone doing paperwork after breakfast. Then we visited the Temple of Chen, and Kate agreed to walk around the temple. So far, she has whimpered almost every time Dawn would put her down in a public place. She showed a bit of independence as she would venture off [10 ft away from our hand] to explore. We were at the temple & its gift shop for a very long time, so the walking was a huge relief. At lunch she sat in her own chair. This afternoon, we visited the clinic for her official medical exam. She did great through the whole ordeal, which included a shot to test for TB. You’d think after not having a nap all day and going through a physical, she’d be wiped out. But when we got back to the hotel, she turned into the Friday night party girl. Her favorite game was Dawn’s “fish in the box”, where you stuff fish finger puppets in a long box, shake it up, and scream as they come flying out. Real fancy. But Kate loved it. It seemed that she smiled almost non-stop for 90 minutes while we played with her.

I’m sure part of her earlier sadness was because she had bronchitis [and is still recovering]. But I think the big part is grieving amidst the transition, and that will probably continue at some level for a long time. Tonight we were trying to enjoy the moment and keep riding the wave, not wanting it to end and not knowing how often she would act like that. We’ll see what tomorrow will bring. Thanks so much for all your prayers!