"Is that your daughter? Can I comb her hair?"

Yesterday Brad took Loreli to the coffee shop early in the morning since they were both up. He came home with a big grin on his face.

He was walking into the coffee shop with Loreli in tow and a woman stopped him with, “Is that your daughter?” he said yes. Her response was, “Can I comb her hair?”

HAAAAAAAA!!!

Brad said he told her, “Oh..., yeah..., well we just got up and came to the coffee shop without doing anything to her hair this morning.”

And SHE said, “Oh honey, that’s not just from this morning.”

CANNOT STOP LAUGHING!

She gave Brad her card AND took his name and number.

“Your wife is going to kill me.”

Brad told her I would be thrilled to talk to her. Gladys called and we set up an appointment for the afternoon.

Loreli and Onya waiting for Gladys. She was SO excited!

 I just LOVED her! But Loreli put on some serious sass with her. I was horrified by her behavior but Gladys took it in stride. After Loreli informed her that she had nothing at all in her room I told her we were doing a Family Intervention Program and just a little about it. Somehow, someway, Gladys completely understood what it was and why we were doing it. I’ve never had an experience where someone knew what was going on with Loreli without me explaining it. During the two hours she was using the combing iron on Loreli’s hair to straighten it she talked to Loreli. Asked her questions and clearly (and rightly) only believed 25% of what Loreli told her. She told her how she needed to act and why. She told her to be grateful for all that she had. She said, “This girl needs a strong black woman in her life.” I agree!

I think I've figured out WHY Loreli has always had such a hard time with me doing her hair! The adult has total control of the kid with a hank of hair in her hands lol  LOVE GLADYS!

Gladys was born in rural Georgia on a farm with no running water or electricity. She has great stories and a lot of knowledge. She works on 4 other adopted girl’s hair in our area. It’s obvious she was raised strictly and she takes her role as the strong black woman seriously!

At one point she told Loreli in her Georgia accent, “You need to treat your family with respect. You know, they could send you right back to Ethiopia.”

I tried not to gasp out loud. I said, “But we never would.”

But apparently it was the right thing for Gladys to say because Loreli finally spoke the truth and said, “She (pointing to me) always says that she wouldn't but I don’t believe her.”

Gladys hugged her close and said, “You will someday.”

It was like a 2 hour therapy session :-) 

At one point Loreli was going on in her strange way, nose in the air, eyes closed (I told her at the start of this program that was no longer allowed but she was in full swing crazy yesterday), saying, “I’M going to have a mansion AND a chauffeur AND a huge pool AND a thousand horses!”

Gladys said, “What about your family? Would you give up one of those things in order to have your family in your life?”

Loreli said she would give up all the horses to have her family. Gladys said, “What about friends? Would you give up one of those things in order to have friends in your life?”

Loreli said, “No.”

Ah well, at least she agreed she wanted her family. That’s progress. 

I just showed Loreli the video of yesterday and told her I was really disappointed with her behavior with Gladys. She had the good sense to look embarrassed. I said, "You are learning how to behave with us and I expect that you will treat Gladys and all adults with the same respect."

Her response?

"Yes ma'am." 

:-)  We shall see.

This morning I did double french braids in her hair--cute cute cute!: