Thursday, March 10, 2011
HAPPY 9th BIRTHDAY, ANNALYN!

Hello everyone! We have been home now right at 4 months. I'm sorry it has taken me this long to do an update but things have been pretty busy around here. First I want to say that Annalyn is such a huge blessing in our lives. She is so happy and has the best personality. Overall, it has been an easy transition for us. It feels like she has always been here and I cannot imagine life without her. Physically, she has already made huge trides. Everyone that met her when we first got home and that see her now are amazed at how much better she can move around. She wants to try to do everything. She loves to hula hoop, roller skate, ride her bicycle (therapy-tryke), play softball, go bowling, play in the snow and she is excited about swimming this summer. She is quite amazing. School is going well. She is now reading in English (The fat cat sat on a mat.) She now completely speaks to us in English. We were watching the video from China last week and it was weird to hear her speaking all Chinese. LOL  It is truly amazing how much she has learned in only 4 short months.

Gwendolyn loves having a sister. It is so cute to watch them play Barbies and Princesses together. For the most part, they get along really well with each other. They are both very girlie which helps a ton. Anthony loves having her here. Their favorite thing to do together is playing the Wii. Annalyn is very patient with him most of the time. Me, I love having 3 kids! I love to pinch and kiss her beautiful Wuhan cheeks. I love teaching her school and cheering her on when she gets it right. I love to tell her that I love her and I will always be her Mommy forever and ever and ever. She loves to play with Mike and aggravate him. She loves Grandmama and Grandaddy and Maw Maw! She is always sad that she was not able to meet her Paw Paw. But she likes looking at his pictures. We tell her that he would have loved her so much and she really seems to like that.

She has had a lot of firsts since her arrival in America. Her first Thanksgiving, first Christmas, first Zoo Light Safari, first carousel ride, first wagon ride, first time to play in the snow, first circus, first Southern Gospel Concert - Talley Trio, first bike ride, and first birthday party. Christmas was wonderful! We had a white Christmas for the first time in about 25 years. It was beautiful!

I guess the biggest thing that has happened in the last 4 months has been when we found her best friend from China the week of January 13. This is what I wrote that day:

I am posting this thanks to my good friend Tena George that reminded me that God is in the details. On Sunday and Sunday night, we had a snow/ice storm and were stuck inside for Monday and Tuesday with no school for Anthony. On Tuesday, Annalyn was looking at one of her books that we bought her in China. It had Chinese and English words for each picture. She was looking at a page with different kinds of flowers on them and the name of each flower in Chinese and English. She pointed to the Lily and said to me over and over again, “Mommy I like this one. Soooo pretty. I like this one.” I told her that I had Lilies in my wedding and she seems excited about that. She said that she wanted some lilies. She liked them 900. That is her way of saying that she likes something very much. She went on and on and on about the lilies. That night, I received an email from GWCA. It was just a newsletter highlighting a few children. So I went to GWCA waiting child list and just scrolled through the children. Annalyn always wants to know what I am doing on the computer. She said “What’s that?” So I scrolled down to her picture and told her that the children in blue were the ones that have families. She seemed excited and started frantically looking for someone. I asked her who she was looking for. She was looking for the little girl that was in her photo album from the orphanage. We called my friend, Audrey, and she told her that she lived next door to the little girl and they were such close friends that they called each other big sister. They played together every week and apparently the foster mom’s were also best friends. She told Audrey that the girl was adopted by an American family before she was but could not tell us when. Also, she told Audrey that she was 10 years old and missing her left hand. So I got Audrey to help me figure out how to spell her Chinese name in letters (Wu Guo An) so that I could send out an email to look for her. That night, I sent an email to the Wuhan yahoo group and the limb difference group. I thought I would start there and pray that the American family was on the Wuhan group list. The next day after we arrived home from our homeschool PE class, I had an email from the American family. The little girl’s American name is …. Lily! She wanted to Skype Annalyn right away. She was adopted in Aug and Annalyn in Nov. She could speak English very well because she had been in the states for 5 months. She wanted to speak English with Annalyn, but Annalyn didn’t know enough English to talk to her. They looked at each other and said hi and then Annalyn ran off and Lily seemed embarrassed. I know that it was very hard for them to see each other. It was probably hard to process. So Lily’s American mama, Cyndi, and I talked for over an hour. She is a wonderful Christian lady. We have so much in common. We hit it off right away. They live in Toledo, Ohio which is about 11 hours from here. We are both determined to get the girls together. Just a side note: Lily's foster mom asked Annalyn's foster mom to make Lily's American family the cell phone holders. So Lily's family has the very same kind of cell phone holders that we have. Pretty cool!

The second most exciting thing was Annalyn's 9th birthday party. She has never had a birthday party or a birthday cake. I have never seen a girl so happy about her birthday party. She wanted a sleepover party so we had about 4 other girls to join our girls for a girlie night all the way. She had a Hello Kitty birthday party and cake. They had a wedding and a beauty contest. It was quite a night.

I hope you enjoy a few photos from that last 4 months. We are so thankful to everyone for their warm welcomes to Annalyn. She loves America! She told me a few weeks ago that when she grows up she wants to have a house in America.

We are so thankful to our Lord and Saviour for bringing this sweet little girl into our lives. What a blessing!