Wow, we have now been home for 12 weeks. That's 3 months! Sometimes I have to keep reminding myself that's not very long and give myself a break. Other times it feels like a lifetime! Flower is doing so well. I have followed a couple of blogs of those that traveled at the same time we did to pick up their children of similar age. We have done things so very different from some and very similar to others. I can only hope that what we have chosen to do in these critical months is in the best thing for Flower's future. Sometimes you won't know until they are older. Some parents are just now, after being home three months, allowing other people, besides the two of them, to hold their new child. This promotes the attachment with the parents and child and so forth. I wonder if we were willing to pass on some of those things because Flower came from such a loving foster home. We definitely had supportive families who would have happily followed any decision we made concerning her well being and have never been pushy. We originally weren't going to allow anyone to hold her for several weeks. We then made the decision to take her out, the day after we got home, to all of our families homes separately. That made for a long day but allowed them to watch her and see that she was real. All of them did so well in respecting her space and not overwhelming her with hugs and kisses. We sat her on their laps for a family photo right before we left and then she gave squeezes to everyone she felt comfortable with. We made around 10 visits that day. We then stayed home for 2 weeks and worked on 'us'. We didn't see too many people and just enjoyed our new little family. We sort of went from there and followed our gut. We may not know for some time if we made the right decisions for her. I'm comfortable with how things have progressed, however, and hope we don't have regrets later knowing the choices we made will make all the difference in her life! She is such a special little person and I am so excited to watch her life unfold. She has such an ability to charm anyone she comes in contact with.
There is just something about that girl I tell ya'. I am in awe that we were chosen to be her parents. I feel so blessed. Here's hoping the next three months continue to go smoothly. Some of the really cute things she does right now are making hand signs like 'i love you', 'hang loose', 'all right' and 'rock on' while saying the appropriate thing energetically. She will go from one to the other as fast as she can. Our elevator door closes brutally fast in the apartment complex and once it starts closing it doesn't stop. Although it doesn't hurt, it just sits against you. However, being a small child, it pushes her over or knocks her down. So every time it stops on the appropriate floor I say, 'get ready, get set, GO!' and she runs out quick. Now she says it herself. The other day she was helping me do laundry and she would stand along one wall and say, 'set, GO!' with enthusiasm and then run to the other side of the room, over and over. Whenever we ask her to do something she responds with a hearty, 'O-tay!' while moving her arm in front of her. She pretty much says most words now and just talks non stop. If KG and I are having a conversation, in the car for example, she sits in her seat talking louder then us with rambling words just spewing out constantly! She also does this if I'm on the phone, which doesn't work so well when it's business. She just wants so badly to be part of the conversation. She still absolutely loves music and dances any chance she gets. She has quite the rhythm. She loves shapes and colors right now. She has several toys that require her to put shapes into the matching holes. She can do them all by herself and is so proud. She'll say, 'where's the square', turn the toy to find the hole and then say, 'here it is'. Whenever we run after her like we're going to tickle her she looks up at us and says, 'get you?' with a big smile. We always say, 'I'm gonna get you' when we go to tickle her. She has a tool bench toy that she uses a screw driver to turn the pieces. She turns around, after accomplishing this, and says, 'round' while moving her arm around in a circular motion. She gets so excited when she is able to do something! In closing, every night when we put her to bed she says, 'night night' to each of her cousins. Her crib is right below black and white photos of each of my nieces and nephews. She'll lay in bed and go through the list as she's winding down. That's a lot of names for a little girl to remember. They are Lauren, Torta, RoRo, Zach, Spencer, Kassidee, Ashton, Lektra, Adam, Rina, Serena, Justice, Journey and Lorelai. She has them all memorized and will run through them over and over. We are having so much fun with her!
Wow, we have now been home for 12 weeks. That's 3 months! Sometimes I have to keep reminding myself that's not very long and give myself a break. Other times it feels like a lifetime! Flower is doing so well. I have followed a couple of blogs of those that traveled at the same time we did to pick up their children of similar age. We have done things so very different from some and very similar to others. I can only hope that what we have chosen to do in these critical months is in the best thing for Flower's future. Sometimes you won't know until they are older. Some parents are just now, after being home three months, allowing other people, besides the two of them, to hold their new child. This promotes the attachment with the parents and child and so forth. I wonder if we were willing to pass on some of those things because Flower came from such a loving foster home. We definitely had supportive families who would have happily followed any decision we made concerning her well being and have never been pushy. We originally weren't going to allow anyone to hold her for several weeks. We then made the decision to take her out, the day after we got home, to all of our families homes separately. That made for a long day but allowed them to watch her and see that she was real. All of them did so well in respecting her space and not overwhelming her with hugs and kisses. We sat her on their laps for a family photo right before we left and then she gave squeezes to everyone she felt comfortable with. We made around 10 visits that day. We then stayed home for 2 weeks and worked on 'us'. We didn't see too many people and just enjoyed our new little family. We sort of went from there and followed our gut. We may not know for some time if we made the right decisions for her. I'm comfortable with how things have progressed, however, and hope we don't have regrets later knowing the choices we made will make all the difference in her life! She is such a special little person and I am so excited to watch her life unfold. She has such an ability to charm anyone she comes in contact with. 
There is just something about that girl I tell ya'. I am in awe that we were chosen to be her parents. I feel so blessed. Here's hoping the next three months continue to go smoothly. Some of the really cute things she does right now are making hand signs like 'i love you', 'hang loose', 'all right' and 'rock on' while saying the appropriate thing energetically. She will go from one to the other as fast as she can. Our elevator door closes brutally fast in the apartment complex and once it starts closing it doesn't stop. Although it doesn't hurt, it just sits against you. However, being a small child, it pushes her over or knocks her down. So every time it stops on the appropriate floor I say, 'get ready, get set, GO!' and she runs out quick. Now she says it herself. The other day she was helping me do laundry and she would stand along one wall and say, 'set, GO!' with enthusiasm and then run to the other side of the room, over and over. Whenever we ask her to do something she responds with a hearty, 'O-tay!' while moving her arm in front of her. She pretty much says most words now and just talks non stop. If KG and I are having a conversation, in the car for example, she sits in her seat talking louder then us with rambling words just spewing out constantly! She also does this if I'm on the phone, which doesn't work so well when it's business. She just wants so badly to be part of the conversation. She still absolutely loves music and dances any chance she gets. She has quite the rhythm. She loves shapes and colors right now. She has several toys that require her to put shapes into the matching holes. She can do them all by herself and is so proud. She'll say, 'where's the square', turn the toy to find the hole and then say, 'here it is'. Whenever we run after her like we're going to tickle her she looks up at us and says, 'get you?' with a big smile. We always say, 'I'm gonna get you' when we go to tickle her. She has a tool bench toy that she uses a screw driver to turn the pieces. She turns around, after accomplishing this, and says, 'round' while moving her arm around in a circular motion. She gets so excited when she is able to do something! In closing, every night when we put her to bed she says, 'night night' to each of her cousins. Her crib is right below black and white photos of each of my nieces and nephews. She'll lay in bed and go through the list as she's winding down. That's a lot of names for a little girl to remember. They are Lauren, Torta, RoRo, Zach, Spencer, Kassidee, Ashton, Lektra, Adam, Rina, Serena, Justice, Journey and Lorelai. She has them all memorized and will run through them over and over. We are having so much fun with her!
2 comments:
You guys are doing great with Flower! She just seems to be so adjusted and is doing great. And you're right-she does bring a smile to anyone's face. She is such a sweet little person and you and KG are wonderful parents to her. I'm happy to be able to be a small part of your lives to watch this all unfold. Have a good trip!
She is so adorable and you are doing a good job. Trust your gut and don't worry about what others are doing, she will turn out just fine.
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