It is Spring and our family is enjoying all that Spring has to
offer! We celebrated Tia’s 2nd birthday in March. She just had a
ball at her party. We fed our guests Chinese food from a local
Asian Restaurant. It was fun to eat with chopsticks and Tia
LOVED the Chinese LoMein. I think she enjoyed the birthday cake
even more. She looked like a sweet little angel in her white
birthday dress. It was fun to see how she seemed to understand
that the party was to celebrate her life! She was charming
everyone and all smiles for the evening.
Easter is Shawn’s favorite time of year. Having Tia with us this
year made things extra special. Shelby could not resist
purchasing matching Easter dresses for the girls. It was so fun
to see Kassidy’s excitement as she wore her dress that matched
her little sis. We enjoyed egg hunts and precious time with
family. Experiencing adoption makes you appreciate your loved
ones so much… not that we didn’t before, it’s just different.
We had Tia evaluated by our county’s Early Intervention program.
At this time she will not be receiving any therapy services. She
did really well for the evaluation and her speech is starting to
progress. She’s saying a new word or two every day. Physically
she has gotten so much stronger and she seems so different than
the little girl we brought home three months ago. Tia is very
busy and active. She likes to swing and climb. She likes to put
her pants, shoes and socks on herself (when time permits). She
really seems to enjoy helping with projects. She helped bake
banana bread for the first time and LOVED licking the bowl. I’m
sure she’ll be ready to help the next time.
We have been enjoying attending Kassidy’s soccer games and Tia
has learned to say “GO! GO! GO!”. She really enjoys being out
and about with us at various activities. She now enjoys playing
on the trampoline and sliding board in our backyard. It took Tia
quite a long time to warm up to our dog, Snickers. They are
finally friends and Snickers is so glad because Tia feeds her
lots of treats.
As Tia becomes more comfortable with us we are starting to see
some two-year old behavior s. She’s starting to make her
opinions known and has the occasional temper tantrum. She also
loves to do anything and everything that involves Kassidy.
Kassidy has been such a great big sister and we are so proud of
her for being such a good role model for Tia.
We’ve been home from China for twelve weeks now. Every day we
are humbled by the blessing that Tia is to our family. She is
such a joy! Having two daughters is so much fun. I remember how
difficult it was when we were waiting for our referral. God knew
Tia was going to be our daughter. It was so hard to wait for His
provision. Only God could design such a wonderful outcome!
