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Sunday, January 3, 2010
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What a year 2009 has been. We took time over our holiday to reflect on what 2009 brought us and all that we have to be thankful for. We started 2009 wondering if our adoption would ever occur, but never lost hope and faith. By the end of February we were matched with Tong Min Yan, who is now our Lillianne. By May 2009, we traveled to the far land of China to receive Lilli and become a family.

It is truly hard to believe that we have been home for over 7 months. Lilli has grown and changed so much. Bits of her personality continue to emerge each month as her language development grows. What was once a quiet toddler, immersed in a culture and language unfamiliar to her, is now a loving, talkative, content, and very happy little girl. She talks constantly and has a huge vocabulary. She counts to 11 by herself and knows all of the main colors. She is now talking in 2 to 4 word sentences—it is so fun to listen to her! She also is attempting to sing her ABC’s. The best is when she sits on the potty and sings her version of the ABC’s—“M, P, A, O, T…etc” or whatever order comes to her mind—it is so cute. She is also trying to say her name, which sounds like “yi-ye”.

Lilli has had so many firsts this holiday season, starting with Halloween. She really got the hang of things after going to a few houses and getting treats for her basket. The funniest highlight was when she saw a little boy dressed as Elmo—she just stopped in her tracks, pointed at him, started giggling like Elmo—she began following him as she was star-struck and thought he was the “real thing”! Next we were onto Thanksgiving—she was a little overwhelmed by all the family that was there, but quickly warmed up when she saw her cousins. She has become “one of the pack” as she is so content and happy to play with everyone—it’s moments like these that it seems like she has been a part of our family forever. Thanksgiving was also the day that “Baba” suddenly turned into “Daddy”. We think she heard her cousins saying “Mommy” and “Daddy”, and she definitely wants to fit in.

Next, we were onto Christmas. She saw Santa and was in awe of him. She wanted no part of sitting on his lap, so she stood next to him and just stared at him. As we were saying bye-bye to Santa she said “Ho, Ho, Ho” which was one of many cute phrases that we got her to say. Others include: “Happy Turkey Day, Gobble, Gobble”, Airy Hismas (Merry Christmas), and most recently “Happy New Year”. Speaking of Christmas, she was a little overwhelmed by all the presents and by about the second one, she looked at me and with a new toy in hand, shook her head and said, “All done Mommy, all done”.

The last of Lilli’s 2009 “firsts” was snow. When the first snowfall hit the ground she said “Eeewww”, as if the ground was dirty. When she made her first footprint in the snow, she said “Uh-oh”, as if she did something wrong. Once she saw her neighbor friend playing in the snow she realized it was fun and loved Daddy pulling her in the sled.

We are fortunate that Lilli does great in church. She used to get upset if anyone sat too close to us but that has changed. During Christmas Eve mass, we were crammed in the pews like sardines and she was as happy as can be. She was flirting with what I thought to be the people right behind us, and when I turned to look to see why she was so smiley, I found that she had captured about 4 rows of people giggling and making faces back at her. It was quite the moment!

Lilli has such a gracious and wonderful personality. The best is when she suddenly drops what she is doing and runs to us to give us a big kiss. Her smile can light up a room and her laughter is contagious. She is so beautiful, inside and out. While we will never know her biological mother or father, we believe that there is a strong genetic link to personality—and we can confidently say what wonderful people they must be to have such a wonderful child as Lilli.

We know that not all adoption stories end up happy. Our story is one of the happy ones, and for this we are blessed. This is not to say that there haven’t been rough spots. Looking back at the beginning of our journey and now understanding Lilli’s personality, we know that most of her tantrums were language and adoption related. Sure, she has her “two-year-old-moments” but overall she is a very good girl. I’m sure we will encounter bumps in the road at certain points, but we also know that our love in each other and our faith will get us through. Faith and love got us through all the rough times waiting for Lilli, and when we were finally matched, we knew that her grandpa was watching over her from above. Throughout this past year there have been so many signs and reminders of him since this journey began back in February. It has taught us that you must always have faith and to just believe.

Our New Year’s wish is for continued health, happiness, and love for our family and friends. Thanks again to all of you who have supported us this year and followed our journey. Until next time, Happy 2010!

Breakfast anyone?

Look at my cool snowball!

Kissing Rudolph

Loving my Christmas stroller

Beautiful

My very own rocking chair

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