Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Be warned this is long-

Ok, I meant to post 1 month from Gotcha day and Easter so I will tell you all about it now. Last week we went to the International adoption clinic in Birmingham. Anna saw a team of physicians. she got a great report- developmentally she is right on target for her age.
She is a little under weight but had gained a pound since we got her. We learned more about her bonding and attachment.
She is very friendly to strangers, our friends and our neighbors, which we didn't realize was a bad thing. We are trying to
teach her she needs to depend on Mom and Dad, to trust us and not seek out others. (you wouldn't want your little one to
be overly friendly to a stranger and neither do we). She does need ear tubes and we plan to have that done here at home.
Overall we were pleased with her evaluation. She is very attached to mama and is learning more about dada. She loves to play with
Mike and the boys. She is really picking up our language- she can say mama, dada, more, water- comes out wa, up, down, Matt
Efan (Ethan) Mimi, Grammy, papa, no no, yes, milk, anna, nitenite, bye bye, ut oh, scram cat. She even repeated have a good day yesterday.
Wow!
The boys are having fun playing and teaching her new things and even teasing her!! Oh how that drives me crazy. Brotherly love.

We had a wonderful Easter weekend. My sister in law and nephew came to see us a few days before Easter. We enjoyed our visit!
Easter day we had family here for an egg hunt and a nice meal. Great day! Praise the Lord. He is Risen. Thank you Jesus. I am reminded every day - it was hard for Jesus to be obedient to His calling- to die for our sins even though he was blameless. When I start thinking something is too hard for me to do, get through. I just think of the cross. Thankful Jesus didn't think it was too hard.

I want to again thank all our friends and family for continuing to pray for our family as we are grafted and bonded together. God is kniting our family together day by day. Some days are easier than others, lots of laughs, smiles and new adventures for us, but we also have some tears, anger and frustration from learning about each other. I am learning to talk more to my kids and explain why things happen. Like why Anna cries when she thinks we are going to take something from her. It's funny she will whimper right before she cries and the boys say here she goes!! They know when she is about to cry over something. Sometimes it's just lack of understanding and our language.
Oh how I love all the kiddos! I will post a picture from Easter. I'll say its not the best but best I could get.