7 Months

I know I say it every time, but 7 months...REALLY??!!!  The time goes by so fast!  I so wish I had a pause button to slow down the days.  You are growing and changing and learning new things all the time and I don't want to miss any little detail.

1.  You are talking all the time.  I swear you don't stop talking all the way home from daycare any more and we love it!!  We still don't understand any of what you are saying, but you clearly know exactly what your saying.  Our famous words are still, "use your words, Ava".  You are able to tell us with your words or by pointing what you want most of the time.  Your communication is coming along.  But you still go to the automatic whining first until our reminder.  We are so impressed with your communication progress over the last month.

2.  You LOVE Madagascar...in fact I think it might be an obsession by this point!!  We try to trick you by putting in other movies, but you always figure us out.  At least you are willing to watch 1, 2, or 3.  But I'm pretty certain we've watched them a bazillion times!!  Seriously, you even know some of the lines ahead of the characters saying them :)

3.  You still love daycare, your teachers and classmates.  They love you too.  I love how they all say good bye to you at the end of the day and you blow all your teachers kisses everyday.  You bring home cool crafts daily and I know you are learning a lot.

4.  Biting continues to be an issue at daycare.  However (knock on wood) you have gone two weeks now without an incident.  Let's hope we are on a streak!!  Mama and Baba have started making you share toys at home as well to hopefully get you more used to sharing.  I have also had some good cousin and neighbor time lately in which you've had to share.  Like I said, hopefully we're on a roll!

5.  You continue to be a good eater, but you definitely have your favorites and are much pickier than you were in the beginning.  You reached the 30 pound mark this last month!!  You love applesauce, apples, chicken strips, yogurt, icecream, popcorn, and veggie sticks.
6.  Your dog, Jack went to Heaven last week.  You have looked for him a couple of times and will randomly say his name.  We all miss him and our home is so different without him.  We are thankful our house is filled with noise thanks to you.
7.  You went to your first KState football game (in fact your first 3 football games) during the last month.  You have so much fun clapping and cheering, watching people, dancing, and eating game food.  You've also made quite the friends with people we sit by.  The older couple who has sat next to us for a couple years has brought you a new toy to two games!!
8.  Books are still a favorite pastime.  It's not uncommon for you to have 10 books out at a time, all open.  You will read them to yourself, but really like to have books read to you.  Some of them you have memorized and know what we are going to say even before we say it.  We love that you love to read.  As a family, we usually spend at least an hour reading on a nightly basis.
9.  You outgrew your small blowup bathtub and are "swimming" in the big bathtub nightly for bath time.  We were going to buy a new blowup tub so that we didn't have to use a lot of water for bath time but you loved the big tub so much we didn't think we could get away with it!!  You dump out all your toys and draw on the tub walls for about 30 minutes every night.  The other part of bath time that you love is brushing your teeth.  Ok, maybe not really brushing but at least chewing on your toothbrush.

10.  You have a laugh and smile that will brighten any room.  You are seriously the happiest little girl I have ever known and I am so proud to call you my daughter.   

Our Beloved Jack

Sweet Ava, this last week has been one of the toughest we've gone through as a family.  Our beloved dog Jack went to Heaven on September 10th. Jack became very sick with a relapse of a bacterial infection that he had fought last summer.  I am writing this blog because we know you are too young to remember what good friends you were and we want you to always know how much you loved each other. 

In the beginning, it was not love at first sight between you two.  Jack was used to being the only child in the house for 9 years before you came home. He was not happy about sharing his time and parents with you; however, he quickly came around.  We think you won him over when he discovered that he ate pretty well if he stood under your high chair.  And for several months before he passed, you ranked higher than we did in his eyes.  He loved you so much!  He was so excited to see you when you'd come home from daycare every day.  He'd run right past us to get to you and give you a hundred kisses.  Jack was a silly dog who would gather up his loved ones belongings while we were out for the day and leave an article of clothing or a toy in each of the spots where he had slept in that day.  We'd often come home to articles from each of us on the landing and in the library chair.  I think this habit was just a comfort to him to have his loved ones smells close by while he slept during the day.  A reminder to him that we were coming home at the end of the day.  

Jack was very protective of you. He was always right by our side when we went to check in on you while you were sleeping.  As soon as Jack heard you on the monitor in the morning or in the middle of the night, he was in your room checking on you.  He was often the first one there. In the mornings he loved going in when we went into your room to get you out of bed.  He knew he could get in lots of kisses while you were getting your diaper changed. 

While riding in the car, he'd sit or lay right next to you. You'd often share snacks with him or he'd occasionally steal them from you. We loved looking into the back seat and seeing you petting Jack as he sat next to you.

Jack joined us for nightly story time and dance time. We went on so many walks and runs together. You loved "walking" Jack by holding onto the leash from your stroller. We also spent many afternoons hiking around the lake and creek in our neighborhood.  You both enjoyed swimming at the lake together and neither one of you ever wanted to leave.  You also spent a lot of time in the back yard throwing the ball and having Jack run and get it.  He never quite got the bringing it back part though, so that would make you mad at times :)  Jack was so much more than a dog in our family...he was our first baby and your big brother. 

God's timing continues to amaze me.  Jack was our companion and helped us through the tough years while we were waiting for you and your brother or sister who is still in China.  We don't know what we would have done without Jack during those years. And now, we keep saying how could we ever handle this loss if we didn't have our sweet daughter, Ava at home and your sibling in our hearts. We would have loved to have Jack for many more years, but given we almost lost him last year we will be thankful for every moment we were allowed.  

Thank you for giving us a reason to smile and laugh over the last week.   Thank you for sharing your stuffed animals to cuddle with.  Thank you for all the hugs and kisses. You may not fully understand, but you have a big heart and know something is wrong.  On the drive home from daycare late last week you started saying "Jack, Jack, Jack".  I simply told you that Jack was in Heaven and can still hear you, so talk to him all you want. Because I know he wants to hear your voice. I'm sure he misses you as much as we miss him. 

Ava, this is your baba. Jack was our first and only "kid" for 9 years. For many of those years, I thought our family was complete; however, your mama wanted to expand our family. For awhile, I was hesitant; however, she kept pursuing and eventually I saw how much better our family could be if I let someone else in. It all started when I saw your first pictures at the time of referral. I started loving you immediately and continued to love you more and more each day. You won me over right away and over the last almost seven months since I first held you in my arms, my love for you continues to grow on a daily basis. As I told you the day after Jack passed away, "you wiggled your way into my heart and the hole that Jack left is considerably smaller because of you". You will never know how much you helped me during this time, but I know it was considerable!  I love you so much, Ava and can't imagine life without you. 

Officially in Process Again!!

We are so excited to announce that we are officially in process to adopt baby number 2 into our family!!  We met with our social worker yesterday, September 4th for our official home study.  The timing was perfect and we were able to include our 6 month post placement visit for Ava and our first home study visit for baby all at the same time!!

So what this means is that our first round of paperwork is done and results of clearances from the state were mailed back to Holt.  As we all know anything that has to go through government and state offices can take much longer than we'd like :)  Our social worker will now write up our home study, which is a report all about us including information about our childhood, our extended families, financial information, and information about the age/sex/medical conditions we are open to considering for adoption.  As we did last time, we are not picking boy or girl.  And we are leaving the medical conditions fairly open, as we did last time.  We truly feel that God has a child already picked out for our family and we know that He is completely in control of matching our family with that child.

Another First For Ava

Ava went to her first KState football game!!  This was definitely one of those things on my "I can't wait to take Ava here" list.  I've been dreaming of taking my child to KState football games for so long.  For us KState Football not only means cheering on our favorite team but it always means time with family, tradition, tailgating, eating, games, weekends in Manhattan, and lots of great memories.  

Ava did really well at her first game.  We went a couple hours early to tailgate with family.  It was a HOT first game with temperatures near 100 degrees.  So we all huddled in the shade as best as we could.  Ava didn't seem too bothered by the heat though.  And luckily it was an evening game, so shortly after kickoff the sun went down.  Ava loved the dancing and clapping and cheering during the game.  She went back and forth between her grandparents, uncle, and us for entertainment.  Ava and I made a couple trips down to the grassy hill to let her run around for a while but both times she cried and threw a fit the whole way down...she did not want to leave!!  But she clearly needed some room to run around.   After the game we enjoyed some fireworks and then she was asleep within 2 minutes of being in her carseat.  

 

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!