Ten Months Old and First Swim

Our Lacie bug turned ten months on the 13^th. Ohhhh how time flies. I saw photos this weekend for the first time that my mom took as she dropped us off at the airport on July 9^th, when we left to go get Lacie and also photos of when she picked us up at the airport on July 24^th. I also looked back at our photos from July 13^th, our “forever day.” She has changed so much in just a month. It is amazing how much. Yesterday for the first time she began saying ma ma ma ma ma ma ma. Of course it touched my heart but I also realize that is just a chant to her. She has progressed to that and naa naa naa naa naa. Before that her sounds and words were daa daa daa daa. She also said, day day day and duh, and a-bah and Buh! She growls like a lion when she is wanting me to feed her faster than I am and sometimes she scrunches her nose and does a sniffing sound if I am not moving the spoon to her mouth fast enough. Lacie also now responds to “Lacie” and that sort of made me feel a little bit of loss for her – that she no longer appears to respond to her first and only name for nine months (SuMan or ManMan). I know for her, she has a good new life but sometimes I still wonder if she had a choice in her life at that age, what her thoughts would be. What would her conditions be? What would she have to say about it all? I feel more now today than any day before that she is OUR daughter. For a while I felt like I would wake up and it would be all a sweet dream, but that is fading. As Lacie becomes more real to me as my permanent child I hope that I am becoming more real to her as her permanent mommy and John her permanent Daddy, because we are a forever family. She was meant to be our daughter and she brightens our hearts and lives each moment we are with her. We love her so much. BTW – another sweet thing she does: when I pick her up in the morning after she has slept all night and sometimes later in the day when she is a little tired, she will pat my shoulders and bury her face in my neck, like “ahhhh – you are here and I missed you.”

We finally got some photos of Lacie with her dogs. They really like her and seem to be protective of her. They stay near – but also keep their distance – just in case she may try something, they could get away if they needed to. Our family is complete now – with our wonderful four legged children and now our most beautiful and wonderful and forever prayed for two legged child.

My sister and nephew came in from Chicago to meet Lacie and are staying a long weekend. It is wonderful to see them. Robin was so sweet and bought Lacie some clothes to grow into. They are so cute. I think she loves having a girl to love on and spoil. In my family we have all boys until Lacie joined our family. Jonathan, my 12 year old nephew took to Lacie and she took to him so fast. As I have said, she loves children – and although he is almost a teen-ager and not officially a “child” any longer, Lacie still knows that he is not an adult. I was very impressed also with Jonathan and how much he seemed to know how to hold her and play with her and to take care of her. I guess you could say that I am so very proud of both of my very wonderful nephews for accepting her and loving Lacie so fast and so eagerly. The two of them have been the highlights of my life for so long – and I wondered what it would be like to share them and have them share me and so on. We all are handling this very maturely.

Robin and Jonathan got a room at the Embassy Suites. Lacie and I went for a visit and took our swim suits. It was her first swim and her first time in her pretty and stylish swim suit. Lacie just LOVED the pool. She squealed with delight and kicked her feet and was in no way scared. She loves baths, so it did not surprise me. Robin and Jonathan and I all took turns “swimming” with her. Of course it always warms my heart when someone else has her that she turns looking for me, and she also and most times holds her hands out to me for me to take her back. It also makes me proud of her that she is friendly enough to go and be loved on by her cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles. They all love her.

Attached are photos of Lacie with her dogs (Jonah and Misty) and in her swim suit and of course more of these fun photos can be found in our photo album. Let me know if you can’t get to our photo album.

Love and hugs to all our family and friends at home, China and everywhere!

Vonda and John and Lacie