Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Sorry to keep you waiting for an update since we’ve returned home! Life with our new little Holke has kept us very busy!

We were greeted at the airport with signs, balloons, and smiles from our parents, brothers/sisters, nieces/nephews, two of my cousins, and then my ‘aunt/uncle’ Wallace’s:) It was the perfect homecoming after traveling over 24 hours! We were so glad to be home and with our family and for them to finally see our Caiya in person! Caiya handled all the commotion pretty well. She clung to me as expected, but was great with everyone as we made introductions. She was particularly interested in watching my youngest niece and two nephews run around.

In the nine days we’ve been home, we have been slowly introducing Caiya to family and trying to establish routines, with getting back on our home time schedule as priority. Surprisingly, Caiya did the best out of all of us! She was asleep by 8pm and up by 5am, and a nap right after lunch. The rest of us were pretty groggy for about a week. Caiya and I have been sick this week, too. Caiya was at the doctor twice. Friday, she finally got an antibiotic. She has double ear infection, ran a fever for four days, and has had a cough since Gotcha Day! The medicine is doing its work because today, she is doing much better :) Today, I got an antibiotic too! Hopefully, the sick germs are leaving our house now!

After three weeks, Caiya now calls me ‘mama’ and Jeremy ‘daddy’ when she wants our attention. She is warming up to E, too. She calls him ‘ge-ge (guh-guh)’ which means big brother. She is a sponge, trying to use the words we are trying to teach her. She says ‘thank you,’ ‘bye-bye,’ ‘I love mama / daddy / ge-ge,’ all on her own without prompts, now.

She loves to play dolls. We had an American Girl, Asian Bitty Baby for her and she has been dragging it all over the house. She feeds it, puts it to sleep, and even puts it in the back of her push along Gator! So, for her birthday, Jeremy and I got her the Asian Bitty Twins. She is having a blast with them!

Caiya will play with anything we give her. She is content doing just about anything, but she prefers to be busy and moving about! She is so funny and can be quite loud at times. If she doesn’t get her way, you’ll hear about it through screaming and stomping for up to 40 minutes! She loves music and to dance. She is the perfect fit for this family!

We are all still learning so much about each other. Each day is filled with new experiences. Ethan is doing pretty well with it all. He does not like to share attention, though, and that is pretty tough for him. He’ll get used it. We all did when we were little and a new sibling came home. :)

We go to IA City on Friday for post-adoption evaluation as well as to see the pediatric cardiologist. We are hoping for continued good news and progress for Caiya’s health.

I will post again in a week or two, so check back!




“Home, is where our story begins.”
~Unknown