Lexi was placed in our arms in China. It's surreal to believe that it's already been 2 months. We also have been home 7 weeks as of tonight. Wow! Time just flies. The funny thing is that it is hard to imagine life without Lexi. It feels as if we have known her forever. We fall more in love with her everyday. I know that not every moment has been easy nor will the next ... for however long... be. But I find comfort in knowing that every day gets easier. She is very clingy with us and after being without a child in the house for so long, it is different and sometimes difficult. I'm sure she is still adjusting to us as well. Everyday I wonder if she thinks of us as parents or babysitters. At two months into our journey with her home, I find myself realizing that no amount of preparing for an International Adoption really prepares you. You dream of how the experience will be and think you'll instantly bond and all you need is love. But the truth is IT IS HARD WORK! You work every day to to make things work and no two days are the same. But in the end the rewards are so incredibly amazing! A smile here, a quirky little thing she does, the utterance of new words... the list goes on and on!
So Happy LJ Day to us! 2 months and still moving forward! When I think of the little scared Koala bear placed in our arms verses the now outgoing very demanding strong willed child we now occupy our home with, I'd much rather see the latter.
I love...
her precious smile,
her frog face (which comes less and less these days).
how she tries to sing when we play "Down By the Bay"'
how she runs to us both when we come home,
how she gives open mouth kisses (working on that!),
how excited she gets when she gets to put on her shoes,
how she smiles when you put a bow, hat or sunglasses on her head,
how she giggles when I give her kisses,
how she loves to play peek-a-boo,
how she makes the exact sound I make while hugging her giving her sugars,
her sweet voice,
how she says "night, night" and then sleeps all night!,
the way she says "PaPa" and points at my Dad's picture,
how she mimics so much of everything we do,
how she can BLOW her nose at 15 months!,
how she waves hi and bye and blows kisses,
.... there are so many things but these are favorites. I now find myself boring people at work telling them of the silly things she does. (which some will be future posts here AS I HAVE PICTURES... BUT am too tired to do all that tonight!)
So... tired as I am, I couldn't miss posting SOMETHING pictures or not on this special day. We are bonding and falling more in love with each other and becoming more of a family every day. Like I said earlier... it's a process and not one that occurs the second you get the baby. It's something we work for because we know of the rewards that we recieve. I'm trying to be honest and open to what we are going through because I think everyone who goes through this should know ahead of time... and hopefully if we are honest, open, and share our feelings we can help others be prepared. We love Lexi so much and our love grows deeper every day but there is an adjustment period and we are as normal as you can get. We have weekly conversations with our post adoption counselor and are so thankful for the support. I just feel that I need to share these things with anyone who comes across our blog so that those who follow in the IA path will be more prepared. I guess that is the teacher in me. I hope our experience and me sharing can help someone else somewhere down the road.
So with this... I can go to bed and enjoy the last few moments of our Happy LJ Day!
4 comments:
Never bored with LJ stories!
Wanda and Geoff, Being truthful about this process is critical because it's the real thing, isn't it? There's nothing that you write about that would make me raise an eyebrow...We, too, talk about the tough times (and truthfully, only in snippets) because that's what life is all about. Congratulations on 2 months! Monica
What Melissa said.
(And you can tell us the unhappy stuff, too - we've got your back, sweetie.)
Stacey
Monica, Stacey, and Melissa,
... blowing you kisses! Thanks for understanding. I was just thinking today how much the statement "I love you more and more everyday" makes sense to me for the first time. This is the same with Lexi. We loved the "idea" of her during the wait, and now we love her and our love grows more everyday. Sure it is not the fairy tale dream but it is our story and we just hope and pray the end will be fabulous! It's not always easy. Just this morning, I called my mom for support as Lexi played both of us... if Mommy says no... Daddy may not... then if Daddy says no... maybe Mommy will not and as long as there is both Mommy and Daddy in the house, one of them should hold me. We worked with her all day listening to her fake cry and silly attention getters all day and FINALLY about 20 minutes before bedtime, she finally decided that she could occupy herself for a few minutes with her babydoll and babydoll stroller. By this point, I was like.. "she can stay up as long as she wants as long as she is playing alone!!" I was short lived as she was very tired but truth is we waited ALL day for that little moment!
Raising a child IS hard work! Simply put!
Glad to have you all watching our back!
Wanda
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