I cannot believe that 3 months ago today we met our little Hannah for the first time. Honestly it feels much longer than 3 months, and it's also starting to feel like she's been in our lives forever.
We are blown away every day at how well she has adjusted to so much so quickly. She is one smart little cookie this one, which is probably part of the reason she has adjusted so well.
The other thing that amazes us every day is just how well she has adjusted to life in general...this we know comes from the amazing care she was given from her foster family while in China. She does not seem to be delayed in any way, matter of fact she is more on the over-achiever list in some categories. This is not the normal for most children being adopted at age 2. We are SO VERY THANKFUL!
Here is a list of things Hannah is now doing that she was not when we brought her home 2 1/2 months ago.
1) She sleeps!!! Every night, all night, and when she wakes she is happy.
2) She finally refers to herself as Hannah...this just happened a couple of weeks ago. She would respond to her new name but would not even attempt to call herself by it until recently...I think she was just so confused.
3) She has more English words than we can count now. She is even putting 2 and sometimes 3 words together. Our favorite words is when one of us is leaving or going to bed...she will tell you, "La You" (love you) all by herself...so darn cute! Her new favorite word is, "Awesome"...and she knows how to use it too.
4) Hannah and her brothers are fully siblings in every way now. Right down to the sibling arguments and tattle telling. Yep, she can already tattle tell with every bit of drama and emotion her little body can conger up. You can only understand about 2 words of her blabbering jumble (like the person's name who offended her), the rest is dramatically acted out in a complete replay of the event (it sounds like she is cussing you out in Chinese...then again, maybe she is...who would really know since we failed our one and only Chinese class). This is really hard to not laugh at...sorry, but I have never seen a barely 2 year old in a one man play before. We usually completely understand what happened even though we never saw a thing. All I got to say is in the future if we play charades as a family I get Hannah on my team...we'll win every time hands down! Nonetheless, she has fully embraced them as brothers.
This is her after she let them put bows in her hair...and I mean every bow they could find. Sweet girl just sat there and let them.
And then she posed for pictures...
and lots of them.
But I sure am glad they thought to capture the moment!
5) She prays. This is the sweetest thing. I don't think she gets who we are praying to yet (matter of fact at Christmas she called the little baby Jesus in her nativity scene "Baby G.") but just watching her and listening to her will melt your spiritual heart.
She's thanking God for her blanket...AWWWW!
6) She FINALLY will let us read books to her. She would let you read all day if you let her. The first couple of months she had some control issues and would not let anyone touch "her" book.
7) She is off formula...Yea! We still have the bottle to conquer, but she now drinks almond milk.
8) She cheers everyday when we drive up to pick up the boys from school, "Yea Mark and Charles", or when we drive into our driveway, "Yea home", or especially when Daddy comes home (or comes back in from checking the mail...I swear he does this on purpose), "Yea Daddy's home". Sadly, mommy is usually with her so I don't get as many cheers. :( But hey, I did survive the Texas law I had to sign requiring me to be with the internationally adopted child every minute of every day for the first 8 weeks...that was not fun...thank you Texas.
9) Since the day she turned 2 she has been going tee tee and even poo poo on the potty. She is not consistent with it yet therefore she is still in diapers...and I have no plans to push that yet, but when she asks to go I will be happy to take her. She is going to kill me for this next picture one day!
10) She doesn't (knock on wood) have any more melt downs...just 2 year old tantrums, and she's REALLY good at them...ugh!
11) She pulls her hair out less...still working on that one.
12) She is cleaner than both my boys put together at the table and in the bathroom. Really, the girl is just a clean freak. I even heard one of the boys say, "It's good that we have Hannah cause she can clean up our rooms now"...don't worry, I dealt with that attitude. ;o)
13) She attends her own Sunday School class at church now...that means Charlie and I attend our own class and church once again...thank you Jesus!
14) She ventures through the house and plays alone (sometimes) while I'm cooking now. She use to sit on my feet...literally, right on my feet.
15) She loves camping and being outside (however she is a lot like her mommy when it comes to sleeping in a camper...we'd much rather be at home in our own beds).
She also loves sports and can even say the word "Touchdown". This is her playing football with her brothers.
She wants to be just like them.
Everyone wants to know how her 1st Christmas went...well, let's just say I'm kind of glad it's over. I think it was all just a little too confusing to her. She did great through it all but the poor girl just didn't really know what it was all about. Can't say I blame her...When you go from seeing a dressed up Christmas cow, to a clown, to Santa all within 3 hours of each other it's got to leave one very confused.
Sorry, no picture of the clown. :(
However, it was a sweet time together as a new family of 5. It was during this time that things finally started to feel more normal for all of us. Since we've been back from China we have had one thing after another, so it was really nice for Charlie to have some time off, the boys to be out of school, and for all of us to be in our own home finding our new normal...yea, we finally found it!
It's been a long hard 3ish months, but it has all been so worth it. We'd do it all over again in a heart beat...who knows, maybe we will.?.?
Happy New Year Peep's...It's gonna be a great one!!!
