My Adoption Diary: Month one thoughts...

My adoption dairy.  Month One! 

Our first hike! 

Happy Girl!

Little Miss and her new cousin are only 8 days apart!

first time helping Daddy bring in wood

 I wanted to go back and post these now that our waiting time is over and "Little Miss"  is legally ours forever.  I hope that something in one of these posts might help someone else consider going on the faith journey of adoption!  My prayer for years was that our adoption using the public social services system (that gets a very bad rap) might go smoothly and wonderfully so that many others would take the plunge to choose a child out of the system.  It did, so here I can testify to God's faithfulness and say without hesitation that adopting from "the system" is not always a nightmare. 

These are some of my thoughts on our first month together with sister--

Little Miss let Jeb rock her last night and it was sweet, sweet time with me there cuddling next to them on the floor and watching big brother learn how to be a daddy one day.

I can't believe that she has slept through the night every night here.  I am forever grateful to my child's first parents who loved her, nurtured her, and were attune to her every need (as evidenced in a mountain of paper work I have).  Her first parents were/are simply amazing people that really challenge me to be a better parent myself.   I KNOW they did a good job b/c she can attach so well and so quickly to us and to her new grandparents and family members.  She takes on new tasks (like sleeping in a strange bed) with great gusto like swimming at the pool, jumping on the trampoline, chasing chickens, petting goats, and going on hikes in backpacks.  She has very little fear, which is somewhat her nature I can tell, but also her great upbringing thus far.

Little Miss is saying, "I love you" spontaneously without us saying it first and ALWAYS after we say it (it was not like this a month ago).

Little Miss is POTTY-TRAINED!  I hope no-regression is in store!  I don't know why, but I think potty-training is one of my gifts-ha!

Little Miss knows many animals that she didn't know, all her animal sounds, and is learning some odd body parts like elbows and shoulders these days.  She is starting on colors and shapes...so far we know Blue for Blues Clues and pink b/c most everything for girls is PINK! Where is the purple folks?  That is my fav color and what could be wrong with red for girls....there is just a bit too much pink for me and I always thought I liked pink?

We did have a day with 10 time -outs, but hey, who's counting?  She is what every little toddler is...testing us to see if we will let her take over or if we are going to be in charge!  I am continually reminded to do more teaching than real discipline at this point.  I feel like I am a full-time teacher ..we don't throw things in the toilet, we don't throw things down the stairs, we don't throw things at other people, we don't unroll whole rolls of paper/boxes of tissues, we don't tear books, we give hugs, we don't throw things down the dryer vent, we don't hit, we don't pinch, we don't yell and demand (so happy that she now says cups please vs. MY CUP MY CUP MY CUP while screaming), we sit in a car seat and not scream, we are gentle with animals, as you can see there is some teaching going on!  Still, amazingly, we have had no biting and no hitting of parents?!!!  Hooray!

Not much is sweeter than when my boys flock to her when she wakes up...and seeing her warm up to this idea rather than shy from it.