Happy Birthday, Miranda!

Our day started off with lots of spitting.  That’s right, spitting!  Thandokuhle had to provide a sputum sample for TB testing.  She wasn’t allowed to eat before providing the sample so we went to the lab as soon as they opened.  We arrived and the lab technician demonstrated how to cough deeply and then spit in a cup.  Thandokuhle made no response.  She wouldn’t talk and she certainly wouldn’t spit.  I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that this was NOT going to work.  We asked Miranda and Grandpa to come in the room so everyone could demonstrate coughing and spitting.  And still there was no response from Thandokuhle.  We coaxed, we encouraged, we cajoled.  Finally, on the count of three we all coughed and Thandokuhle did too.  Then she spit in the cup and out came the tiniest drop of liquid possible – definitely not enough for a sample.  We tried a few more times and from each cough we got a tiny, tiny drop.  The technician felt our pain and went to check to see if there was enough sputum.  There wasn’t.  The technician gave Thandokuhle some water.  She gave Miranda her own sample jar so Miranda could demonstrate.  We all showed Thandokuhle how to spit.  The technician left the room so Thandokuhle would relax.  We all coughed, we all spit.  Miranda really got the hang of coughing and spitting.  Finally, Thandokuhle started copying Miranda and we all cheered her on.  After many, many tries there was enough spit in the jar for the sample.  She did it!!  Now, we have to repeat the process two more days in a row…

Today is Miranda’s birthday and to celebrate we visited the Cheetah Outreach which is a conservation program that supports cheetahs.  This program breeds sheep dogs to protect flocks of sheep from cheetahs which in turn prevents farmers from killing cheetahs that attack their flocks. We learned a lot about cheetahs and other predators.  The best part is that Miranda, Thandokuhle, and I had the chance to pet a cheetah.  The cheetah was named Ebony and it was a captive bred cheetah.  This organization does a lot of educational programs in schools about cheetahs and the cheetahs are trained to be around people.  In fact, the cheetah purred the entire time we were petting it.  Miranda was very excited that she got to pet a cheetah for her birthday!

Miranda also wanted to go out to lunch for her birthday.  I chose a local pizza restaurant with good ratings for her birthday.  After driving through two different shopping plazas we finally found it, only to see a handwritten note in the window that said  “Pizzamaker is overseas on holiday.  Restaurant is closed”.  Thanks to the gps we found another nearby pizza restaurant.  We drove there only to find that it didn’t open until 5pm.  Who would have thought that lunch could be so complicated! With that we gave up on pizza and went to a little café across the street.  The food and service were good and we were just happy it was open.

On the way home today there was lots of discussion (and practice) in the backseat about spitting.  I believe that I will come to regret that we had to teach Thandokuhle how to spit.

We continued the celebration of Miranda’s birthday with balloons and cupcakes at dinner and a few small gifts.  She was very happy with her South African birthday!

On the other hand, I will say that I lacked patience with Thandokuhle at times today.  She definitely has the defiance of a 3 year old and she will fight to not obey.  Today’s frustrating moment was about her shoes.  After lunch we stopped at the grocery store to buy cupcakes for Miranda’s birthday.  When I got Thandokuhle out of the grocery cart one of her shoes came off.  I wanted to put her shoe back on and she said “no”.  She became a writhing, squirming, kicking, hitting machine lying on the sidewalk as I tried to jam her shoe on.  When I finally succeeded with that one she laughingly kicked off her other shoe and we repeated the process.  I was not a happy mama.  However, as soon as her shoes were on Thandokuhle started crying because she knew she had not been listening.  So, I had to carry her to the car which meant she really didn’t need her shoes on anyway!  What an adjustment!  She is going through a huge transition, learning a new language, and interacting with a new family all at an age characterized by testing the limits.  Praying for patience…