Rui likes tootsie pops and Joe

Our access to Internet and some Internet pages has been sporadic and frustrating.  I'll try to send pics later, but here's an update anyway.

Rui was pretty sad the first day.  Her little body was limp and she knew things were permanently different.  It sounds silly, but we would get excited when she accepted a tootsie pop. 

The tootsie pop continues to be our secret weapon.  She is rarely without a sucker in most of our pictures.  All the required photos for our adoption certificate, we had to remove the sucker.  The photo for the passport, we had to remove the sucker.  The family photo of her passport, we had to remove the sucker.  So, you see how it is.  We also got excited when she started to put froot loops in her mouth by herself because she had yet to do ANYTHING for herself She won't even take the tootsie stick out of her mouth when she's done!).  We'll put a french fry in her mouth and it will just stay there, half in, half out.  When you're not looking, the fry will disappear and with NO help of her hands!  So you see, these little changes make us very euphoric!

She definitely loves big, bad Joe.  I think she likes how loud he is and he seems to be able to make her laugh a little.  He's a lot more comfy to lean on too. 


She will say our names (when Joe asks her), Papa, Mama, Bubba, and Air-reeee.


She gets upset in any of our hotel rooms.  She prefers distraction and the noises of outside.


She definitely likes to push elevator buttons and she has 3 big oversize rings on her fingers.  They are too big to stay on very good, but she manages to keep track of them.  The necklace on the other hand...well, she won't be wearing it anytime soon.


We get lots of stares from people.  They see us all together and they know the whole story already.  Some people want to talk to her and me, but of course my Chinese is a little rusty:)


Not only is Joe a hit with Rui, but also the locals.  One day our cab driver's trunk wouldn't close.  About 8 other cab drivers were there waiting in the same spot to attract customers.  They all watched as Joe tried to fix it.  Of course he did fix it and the success was met with thunderous applause from ALL the cab drivers!  Hilarious!


That's not all.  We were walking to dinner the other night and a huge bus (filled with women only) had stopped to take a few pictures.  One woman having her picture taken, was trying to get Joe in the photo with her.  Little did she know she didn't need to be sneaky about it.  Joe jumped right in, put his arm around her and once again, THUNDEROUS APPLAUSE!!!  More HILARIOUSNESS!!!


We'll try to get some pics up soon.  It's harder to do here than at home.


Melissa