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Tuesday, July 14, 2009
HOME FOR EIGHT MONTHS

Eight months ago we arrived home with a four year old little girl who traveled halfway around the world to become part of our family. That is not the same little girl who lives at our house today. That frightened, defiant little girl who didn’t know how to give kisses and was more like a two year old in most areas of her development has blossomed into the most joyful, affectionate child we could have ever hoped to have. Over the past eight months she has continued to amaze us with her willingness to learn and her ability to adapt. I can’t begin to imagine how difficult it would be to suddenly be swept away from all you have ever known and thrust into a situation where you have absolutely no prior knowledge and language to deal with your new environment. Yet she has embraced every opportunity she has been given up to this point with absolute enthusiasm and her incredible joy for life is obvious each and every day. Suddenly it is as if she wants to make up for all of the knowledge and experiences she has missed out on up to this point in her life, and she wants to know everything there is to know and learn everything there is to learn.

She will sit at the table or computer for an hour or two at a time working on academic tasks most kids would avoid, simply because she enjoys doing it. She flips through picture dictionaries daily naming the words she knows and asking for the names of the ones she doesn’t know. Over the summer she has mastered all of her colors, shapes, and letter sounds and is on the verge of sounding out words. I hear her on the monitor at night long after I’ve put her to bed, singing songs, counting to 100 and talking to herself, usually about what she has done that day or naming family members and friends. It is amazing to think that eight short months ago she didn’t even know that different people HAD different names, she simply called them all Mama. She is still not completely caught up to her peers, but oh, how far she has come.

This past month brought more firsts for Maili, including Father’s day and her first Fourth of July celebration, complete with fireworks. Due to her extreme fear of thunderstorms, we had anticipated that she may be a little frightened of the noise when the fireworks started. However, she was absolutely spellbound throughout the entire show, and when it was over she said “I want MORE fwinkle stars, PLEASE!” We explained that they were called fireworks and they were all gone and she sighed and seemed to accept that, saying “ok, more firetrucks, TOMORROW.” She was very disappointed the next day when that didn’t happen.

Another first for her this month was when Holt went away to church camp for a week, followed by a week at scout camp. She rode with me to drop Holt off at camp several hours away and then we left for the long drive home. All the way home she asked about him, and then many times a day for the rest of the week. We would tell her he was gone to camp and that he would be back but I don’t think she understood. All she saw was that we took him with his bags to a place where there were lots of other kids and then we drove away and left him there. I can only imagine what was going through her mind, perhaps she thought we had abandoned him at some sort of orphanage to wait for his new family to pick him up. Her relief was obvious when she finally saw him again at the end of the week; she ran to him a greeted him with a big hug and wouldn’t let go of his hand for awhile. When he left again for the other camp she was fine, telling me that he was gone to camp and that he would be home in 4 nite nites. I guess she realized that he would come home after all.

One thing that has not changed much since Maili came home has been her enormous appetite. For such a skinny little thing, that girl can EAT! She has gained 9 lbs and 4 inches since coming home and her feet have grown two sizes. Unfortunately, I don’t think her waist has grown at all, which makes it difficult to find clothes to fit at times. The other day she had eaten lunch at home and then we went into town to run some errands. Upon passing a fast food restaurant, she immediately began campaigning for a hamburger and French fries. When I reminded her of all the food she had just eaten, she grinned and exclaimed “ Maili MeiMei HUNGRY girl!” Can’t argue with that..

Pure joy

Big brothers are cool

Life is good

Our family

Celebrating the Fourth of July

Bathing beauty Greeting Holt when he returned from camp Finally her hair is growing out Wading in the creek
Happy girl	Look, Mom, I can pick her up

Waiting for the fireworks

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