Thankful

I am thankful
Words will never be able to describe my gratitude this year for all my blessings. God has been so so so good. I have been blessed with a wonderful husband who is developing into a most wonderful wonderful daddy. AND of course this year I have been blessed (WE HAVE BEEN BLESSED) with our most wonderful angel, Lacie. This is what I (mommy) am thankful for this year and years to follow:

At 13 months old, Lacie is now an official walker. She stumbled along taking more and more steps at a time since my last post until Nov. 18. On that day she got up and walked across her room, out her door, TURNED and walked down the hall. I would say that she is now officially walking – although she is still walking like she is drunk and still falls on her behind often if she tries to move faster than she can. When she is “running” she really has the same pace, but her facial expressions are more animated and her arms actually move faster – like she is trying to get somewhere faster with her arms. She is so darn cute.

She has cut two more teeth and I do not know when. We have moved to a “big girl” toothbrush and as she was “brushing” her own teeth I stuck my finger in to feel around her gums and there were two teeth further back on the sides. When the heck did those come in? It might explain a few of the sleepless nights we have had lately.

Just this past week she began to feed herself. Ok Ok – she was already doing that awhile back. But really – she began to feed herself with a spoon. She is funny. She looses a little around her cheeks and nose and bib and tray but she actually hits her mouth more than she does not. She is eating yogurt and cereal from a spoon. Sometimes if she is struggling, I will load the spoon and just set it down. She will then pick it up and stick it in her mouth. We are so proud.

One new thing she is doing now is stacking her own blocks. Of course she would prefer I stack them and she knock them down, however when I encourage her she will pick up a block and rest it on another. Good girl!

Our good sleeping habits are weakening. She has struggled since I have returned to work and it is showing more in her sleep habits than anyway else. She is struggling when I put her down and then usually waking up 4 hours later for a middle of the night 2-3 hour time with mommy. We never leave her room and we always keep it dark but she finds comfort in my arms and I find four hours sleep draining, and well – not healthy for either of us. So we are beginning to try new methods and will see what happens. So, typically I have rocked her and let her fall asleep in my arms and then I put her down to sleep. But, typically -recently typically- she wakes up and cries – she does not want to be put down. I have continued to rock her till she stays asleep when I put her down. This has taken hours at night and the middle of the night. The last two days I have rocked her, given her a bottle and once she fell asleep and I go to put her down I have said to her about three times, “mommy loves you and daddy loves you and Jesus loves you and you are ok.” She has been crying – and crying herself to sleep – but she is sleeping. And so did we. Please know that this has broken my heart and I sat and cried each time. I pray that it begins to work in the next few days – that the time get shorter for her to fall asleep because I will have to once again start tweaking my efforts and right now I do not have energy to tweak them.

A few weeks ago we had a very small reunion with two families we traveled to China with. Our daughters are days apart in age and we began our families together. It was so good to see them, to catch up with friends we now call family and to see our darling girls together. For China adoptions, it is tradition to get the baby’s group photos on the red sofa in the White Swan Hotel before leaving for home. It was amazing to find that our friends had a red sofa at their parent’s home in Wilmore – and we were able to recapture the moment with our girls four months older. Here are pics of our girls in China – and our girls now. It was interesting to look back at the pic in china and discover that the girls were next to each other then as well – just not in the same order. Amazing how different they are now.

We are also thankful this Thanksgiving season for our friends and family. Love and hugs to our family and friends everywhere – all over the U.S. and also in China

Vonda and John and Lacie