How's it going?

That is a question we get asked a lot, so I thought I should do an update to let you all know how it's going so far. I must say we are quite surprised how well it IS going. Anna is adjusting pretty good as far as we can tell. 

She fits right in here too! She is right in there with the boys. She can be quite the card and they just love her to bits. 

Introducing her to the fine things of life, movies and chips. 

Learning how much fun playdo is! 

Exploring the City Park for the first time

He's such a good big brother 

She was a little hesitant, but she did it and loved it. 

Can you say bed hog?? 

One afternoon I was talking on the phone and she climbed on my lap. She had her feet up by my chin. I guess she got tired and rested her head on her feet and then fell asleep like that. How could that possibly be comfortable?? 

Anna gets very excited when it's time to pick up the boys. She has to put her backpack on (she also has to put it on when dropping them off) 

The sad thing is, this girl can not stay awake in the van to see them. It's a five minute drive to school and she's asleep by the time we get there. 

She loves bath time! She's gone from not knowing what to do in a bathtub (even scared to sit down) to loving every minute of it. 

She does not like to be cold. Wind especially is not her friend. 

We've been putting Dylan and Anna to bed together in our bed at night and then moving them when we go to bed. They both love it. She loves snuggling up to him and he loves singing to her. It's so cute and precious. We laughed quite hard while taking these pictures because what you don't hear is her heavy breathing and loud snoring onto his face.

She's very good at pretend play which is a great thing! 

This was yesterday on the way to Bellingham 

And this was on the way home to pick up the boys. Costco receipt still tightly being held in her hand. 

I must say it is harder to blog being home. Just not much time to get it done or there is something else to do. I write a lot of blog posts in my head when I'm driving. I guess that doesn't really do any good though. 

We are having baptism this Sunday morning. What a blessing!! We can't imagine life without Anna. God choose her before we even knew who she was. He knew all along that we were the family for her. I shudder to think about the What Ifs. What if we had listened to our fears and doubts? We look at her every night and we can't believe she is here. She is safe, she is loved, she is chosen. Our lives were not brought together by fate or good fortune and luck, but by God who takes the broken and turns it into something beautiful.  That's it, that's all. 

 

Sunday

Sunday morning we all ooohhh'd and ahhhh'd over how cute Anna looked! She  was quite excited to wear such a pretty dress and she loved her boots. 

Love these little people! I am honored to be their mom. The boys were arguing over who got to be beside her for this picture. They also all begged to be the one to sit beside her in church. It's so awesome how they all love her so much. 

She did really well in church. I don't think Tyler (who got to sit beside her)  heard a thing though as he was admiring her pretty much the whole service. :) 

After church it was a little overwhelming for her. So many people. She cried (screamed and kicked) the van ride home and for about 30min at home. She fell asleep crying. She had a good nap and her and I stayed home in the afternoon. She felt much better when she woke up.  She definitely does better when she is at home. We know it will get better, we just have to give her time. 

I love this girly girl!! 

Doctor Day

Today we headed out to Seattle with Anna. She had an appointment with our International Adoption Dr., Dr. Bledsoe. She was the one that looked at Anna's file when we first got it. She consulted with specialists and we then had a phone conference with her. This was last year. We also contacted her when we were in China, when we found out about Anna's back. Now we saw her for our post-adoption appointment today. After all the emails back and forth and talking on the phone it was nice to finally meet her. 

Anna slept most of the way there and thankfully woke up in a good mood. The waiting room was fun because it just looked like a big play area! Then this nice nurse came over and said Hi and asked us to follow her. She talked very sweetly to Anna. Anna was starting to act a little leary about it all. 

She commented on Anna's nice shoes and asked if she could take them off to measure her. She seemed to know what to do because she backed right up. 

She is almost 3 feet tall!! Next she got to stand on a whole bunch of stickers so they could weigh her

Almost 30lbs! 

Then we headed to the "room" and that's when she figured out just where we were. She saw the room and that chin starting shaking and the tears started coming. The nurse tried to check Anna's hearing but she was too upset so she just left it till she calmed down. After she left us to wait for the Dr, we had time to bribe um I mean calm Anna down 

We waited for a good 35min (lots of time to read all the books in the room) apparently there was a little girl that needed to be brought by ambulance to the hospital. Our Dr apologized but we know these things cannot be helped. 

She's a really great Dr! She first just talked to us for quite a while, just asking how it was going, how Anna was adjusting, how we were adjusting. She asked about her eating, drinking and sleeping. Certain behavior issues were talked about. She then started to slowly try to win Anna over. She wasn't falling for it though. She got a teddy bear and showed Anna on the bear what she was going to do. We also had an interpreter in the room with us. But she did not like being checked over

After the exam was over she did calm down and she even gave Dr. Bledsoe a high five at the end of the visit. All in all, we spent probably a good hour with the Dr. She said that it looks and sounds to her that Anna is adjusting very well. She said that she was happy that when she was upset she turned to me for comfort. She said that was a very good sign of attachment. She also commented on how sharp and "with it" she is. She said Anna appears to be healthy, though perhaps a bit anemic. She went over all the tests that she ordered. Lots of bloodwork and stool samples. She will be having her bloodwork done at Children's hospital when we go there for her other appointment. Hopefully it won't be too traumatic for her.....:(  She will also be needing a MRI, I'm not sure though when that will happen. Our next appointment will be at Seattle Children's Hospital to see a team of Dermatologists and Plastic Surgeons. Hopefully in the next week. We are so very thankful that Anna is doing so well especially considering everything she has been through. We also found out today that our Anna had Surgery in July and didn't leave the hospital till Sept!! Three months she was in the hospital!! I just can't even talk about it.....

Anna was happy to be home again with her awesome jie jie's (big brothers) 

Yesterday was also a big day for Anna. Her first time going to church!! More about that later........