This little peanut girl, Miss Gracie Faith is loved so much by all of us and in return, she loves us too. However, she's been with her forever family for almost 4 months (hard to believe) and she has yet to refer to either CJ or me as daddy/mama. Of course, this is not a big deal at all, we have learned bonding and attachment takes time and we're so stinkin grateful our baby is healing that calling us daddy/mama, well, it doesn't matter. There have been a handful of times she has called me mama and then would put her hand over her mouth as if she scolded herself and I have a feeling she's so afraid to call me mama as it would mean (to her) that her China mama isn't her mama anymore. This breaks my heart as we never want her to feel she has to choose. So I asked Madelyn if she would mind telling her (in mandarin) not to worry about calling me mama that we would figure something else out. So she did and that was that...Until Thursday! We were all out in the pool and little miss needed to show me her latest and greatest trick in the pool. Well, as you can imagine with four girls swimming my eyes are all over the place watching every one's latest and greatest moves so little miss had to wait a minute (which tends to be hard for a 6 1/2 year old), well, she got impatient and said "Hey Mimi"! EVERYONE stopped! I found myself tearing up and laughing at the same time. It truly never bothered me that when she needed me she would usually just say "um, I need..." But to actually hear her call me by name did something to my mother's heart. I was something to her.
By now, she had walked out of the pool to come near me as we were all laughing. I picked up my teeny baby girl, hugged her and told her how much I loved her and how much I loved being her Mimi. So there is it! I'm mama, mom or mommy to Trevor, Madelyn, Rachel and Linzhi Rose and I'm Mimi to little Gracie Faith and that's perfect for this Mama/mimi. So what a about CJ? Well, Little miss was so excited she finally figured out what to call me that I asked her what in the world should we call dada? (because she has a China baba too so she will not call CJ baba, daddy or dada)... SO, CJ is Papa and we laugh about it because it seems as if we're grandparents! I had a friend that called her grandparents Mimi and Papa. And little miss? Well, she loves finally having names for us and she will call out to us many times as she can and we answer as if it's always been this way. And the other kiddos? Well, Linzhi Rose thought it would be funny to call me Mimi and I looked at her and asked...Do you really want to call me by that name? She replied...Maybe once in awhile. :)
<>< God is Good! <><
1 comment:
That is great that she has names for you and CJ. It is funny, because my hubby and I are Mimi and Papa to our 18 mo old grandson, except he is calling us Bah-poo and Mae-mae.
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