One Year Ago...

I was home, enjoying a day off.  I had lunch with a good friend and enjoyed catching her up on our adoption story...telling her that we could be matched with our child at any time.  I remember the feeling of being cautiously excited that we could be in the next round of match calls.  So excited that it could finally be us but cautiously guarding my heart from disappointment.

And then at 2pm in the afternoon, the call came...it was our social worker calling to tell us that we had been matched with a 13 month old baby girl in Shanghai.  I remember saying "a girl??!!!" because we had been preparing for a baby boy all along.  I was so excited!!  I would have been elated with a boy or girl but what Mama doesn't want a daughter?!!!  Our social worker told me just a little info and then asked if I wanted her to email us her packet.  "Yes, send it!!  She sounds perfect!"  I immediately called Matt and told him to get right home, we had some important pictures and information to look at.  I remember thinking he was taking forever to get home.  It was all I could do to wait for him.  When he finally got home we hugged for a long time, crying...we were about to see our daughter for the first time.   Once we opened the email, we couldn't believe our eyes...she was beautiful and absolutely perfect.  We read over her info so many times and just stared at her picture.  She was real and she was going to be ours.

After the news set in a little we started making phone calls to family and close friends.  It was so fun to call with such great news, finally.  Everyone was so excited but calling my mom to tell her the news had to be one of the best phone calls I ever made.  She was at work and when I told her she was going to be a grandma she started running around her office, yelling "I'm going to be a grandma!!"  

What a year it has been...a year with so many blessings.  I can't believe how life has changed in the last year...we waited the 6 months before we could travel to meet Ava and used the time to finish up paperwork and prepare, we spent almost 3 weeks in China meeting our beautiful baby girl for the first time and getting to know each other, since we've been home there have been so many first experiences for our family and we are loving every moment and taking advantage of every minute together.   And now we are waiting to start our dossier to grow our family by another baby. Who would have thought a year could change us so much.   We are so thankful for all that Jesus has blessed us with and pray He continues to guide our family as we continue to grow and learn.

Ava Tian we love you so much and our love continues to grow every day.  Thank you for bringing us so much joy.  We can't imagine life without your smile and laugh.  We can't imagine life without all you have taught us.  We can't imagine life without watching Madagascar 5,000 times.  We can't imagine life without dancing in the evening.  We can't imagine life without your hugs and kisses.  We can't imagine life without you running around our house.  We can't imagine life without you pulling out all your books and movies.  We love you so much for giving us a chance to love you and be your Mama and Baba.

Home Study Paperwork is In!!

Step one is done and in the mail for baby 2!!  We finished up our home study paperwork right before we left for vacation and put it in the mail.  We made our goal so now our 6 month post placement visit from our social worker will also be used for our home study. Love that!!!  For the most part all of the paperwork had to be redone. We were able to reuse or just reprint some of our previous paperwork. The 15 page questionnaire was different this time including lots of questions about parenting so far and plans for integrating another child into our family.  Fingerprints and background checks are done. The paperwork was definitely easier to work through this time since we knew what to except and how to process through most of it.  It gives me butterflies of excitement knowing that we have another little one in China who will definitely fit perfectly into our family.  Baby, we are so excited to meet you.  We are already praying for you and preparing for you.  We can't wait to have you exactly where you are meant to be...home.  Love you Baby!!

Half Year!

We've reached 6 months...half a year as a family.  We couldn't be happier together!  We've a lot together and are all growing more comfortable in our roles. Ava continues to show us how resilient and strong she really is.  She also continues to grow and change.

Ava's Six Month List:

1.  You are talking more and more all the time. Just in the last week "no" has been heard and understood numerous times by you!  You are also using some of your words more consistently including more, thank you, baba, mama, jack, wa wa (water), pappy, good girl or boy, lau lau, nai nai, wow, whoa.  You mimic us all the time and will also tell lots of your own stories.  I'm sure we will be understanding those stories more in the next couple months. 

2.  You know lots of animals and animal sounds.  This something I had forgotten mention in any of my last updates. But I'd guess you've known some animal sounds for at least two months.  But this month you have started to identify animals in books, magazines, and on the tv.  Some of the animals you know are cow, duck, chicken, goat, sheep, horse, lion, tiger, bear, elephant.  

3.  You are learning the alphabet and love singing and listening to the alphabet song.  You can get to about F on your own. Mama and baba will also say the alphabet slowing and have you copy what we say. You also really like that activity.  We love to observe you learning more all the time.  

4.  You are learning shapes. One of your favorite toys is the red ball that you put the shapes into. You can now do that all by yourself.  You are also able to correctly identify: square, triangle, and circle.  

5.  We have seen more emotions from you lately.  We have always noticed your joyful laugh and upset cry. But recently we have seen some signs of feelings of sadness.  The first time we noticed it was when we went leaving the lake house and you had to say goodbye to your grandparents and uncle.  You had just spent the week with them and clearly understood that these goodbye hugs were different than other hugs you'd gotten all week. 

6. You are still loving daycare and so are we!  You are learning so much and your teachers do a great job of balancing fun and learning.  You have had an issue with biting other kids occasionally. Your teachers continue to reassure us that it is just a phase and you will grow out of it.  But with your language still coming along this is a way you can express "I'm not sharing". We know you'll learn and are so thankful you have teachers who we trust to appropriately discipline in times like these. 

7.  We went on our first family summer vacation this last month. We went to Table Rock Lake and met Lau Lau, Pappy, and Uncle there.  It was a perfect first family vacation because we could be laid back at the house and head out on the lake or swim whenever we wanted.  It was so fun watching you enjoy tubing, swimming, and just being outside. The same reasons mama and baba love the lake too!

8.  You are no longer wanting to be rocked at bedtime *tears*. As soon as we get out of the bathtub you are trying to climb into your bed already. You have to have Violet to go to bed and normally play with her for about 30-45 minutes before you fall asleep.  We now go and take Violet out of your bed after you fall asleep because you have rolled over her in the middle of the night waking us all up!! LOL

9.  Your eating is hit or miss. You are always willing to eat applesauce, yogurt, veggie sticks, salmon, corn on the cob, ice cream, and mandarin oranges.  Most of the time you will eat turkey lunch meat, cheese sticks, hamburger, chicken, eggs, apples, bananas, and many other things. All depends on you mood ;). Overall you are a really good eater.

10.  We have officially retired your high chair. You have decided that you no longer need a high chair and can sit at the table with mama and baba.  You seem to eat better out of the high chair so we went for it.  Hoping your baby brother or sister can use some of this stuff you grew out of so quickly. 

Every month we can feel and sense our love for you growing stronger. Just when we think we can't love you any more our hearts grow again.  You are learning quickly and sometimes we feel like you are too smart for us. You are definitely going to give us a run for our money as you grow and we can't wait (well, we can...don't grow too quickly)!  You are going to be such a wonderful sister to your new sibling.  You have so much to teach them already!!  Love you to the moon and back baby girl!