I am a day late posting here, but did send a one month anniversary hello to our travel mates on our travel website yesterday. I know it is hard to believe but on July 20th, 2009 our lives were forever changed with the arrival of Chen Yu Heng, now known as Elizabeth Grace MacDonald. As I type this I can not believe one month has passed already. In some respects it seems like yesterday and in other respects it seems like a lifetime ago.
I have stated here before that I was strangely calm the morning of "gotcha" day. I think my craziness the week before lead to some down time the morning of July 20th. We were to get our babies at 11 am and due to traffic we were still sitting on the bus at 11 am and is was more like 11:10 or 11:15 when we finally arrived at the civil affairs office. Then there was just one tiny elevator for everyone to ride up and there was no way all of us were fitting in so a few of us had to wait for the 2nd elevator to arrive. At the time, we did not know that our babies were already in the room waiting on us or I would have found the stairs or just scaled the outside of the building! When we finally arrived in the room there was Elizabeth just sitting in a nanny's lap just looking around and taking it all in. I remember thinking to myself 2 things: she is very pale, and her eyes do not look very bright. Then when the nanny stood up and handed her to us then I thought "wow she is tiny" and "holy crap this is what we have been waiting for!" We talked softly to her and just walked slowly around the room. There was alot of commotion with babies being handed off, some that went willingly and others that went not so willingly. And then before you know it (it was really like 20-30 minutes later) our guide, XiXi, is saying ok guys it is time to get back on the bus.
We rode the 30 minutes back to the hotel and Elizabeth checked out the curtains, seat covers and everything else in our vicinity. Now to be honest, I can't remember if she fell asleep on me during the bus ride or not. I know I posted about it on "gotcha" day but now I have to go back and read the post to jog my memory. I do know she was asleep some in the hotel room but I just can't remember if when we walked in the room she was asleep or not. Isn't that funny that from just one month ago I can't remember that detail????
Well fast forward one month + 1 day and we have a precious little angel that just makes me smile everytime I look at her. She is a total people person, very outgoing, very inquisitive, pays attention to everything, is a number one imitator of anything, loves music, now loves to eat and has even started sleeping alot better! She has been sleeping from 8-10 hours each nite with only a slight whimper somewhere in the very early morning and then right back to sleep, takes a definite afternoon nap from 1-2 hours and sometimes a morning nap too. She would have a morning nap more but we seem to do errands at this time more so than in the afternoon. Since we live in Florida I try to plan activities around the afternoon thunderstorms. I have been caught a couple of times since being home with her when the rain started, and believe me, it is not fun trying to get us out of a store, wrangle an umbrella, get her in the car, then buckled in her carseat and then me in as well. Very quickly I learned you just go out in the morning so you don't have to go out in the afternoon!!!
Patrick and I have said frequently over the last few weeks that this little girl is not the same one they handed us in that small hot room on July 20th. She has really come out of her shell. We really can not remember what life was like before we hard her. Somehow the days were always filled with activities and things to do, but I never had the sense of accomplishment that I have now at the end of the day. Our girl is crawling and walking around on furniture and our hands, but has not taken that brave first step just yet. In some ways I am dreading her walking. To me it seems like she is no longer a baby once she starts to walk. I also know that we had better get to the babyproofing as well, because as stated many times before she is VERY inquisitive and will stop at nothing to investigate what ever it is she is after. She does respond to no, but does not remember from day to day what things she is to stay away from!
Our dog has adjusted well, and thank goodness, Elizabeth loves him and loves to look at him and try to pet him. Often times I look over at her and she is waving at him. One morning last week he was panting and she was trying to pull his tongue. He didn't seem to mind, but she never was able to get his tongue either!!! We keep her away from him while he is eating and playing with one of the "serious" toys. He definitely does not like it when she cries (and I mean really cry not just whimpering and fussing that babies do) and will go back to his doggie bed in our bedroom when she is really cranked up. Other than that, they seem to have come to an understanding that they both live her now and this is just going to have to work. We are grateful for that because Grady was #1 around here for a long time and was already rescued by us. I think he might have had alot of turmoil in his life before we got him and then once we had him our very first vet appointment revealed he had heart worms. He had been through alot by the time he settled in with us and we really did not want him to have to start fresh some place else because of issues with Elizabeth.
Our journey to Elizabeth was long and hard and as Patrick says "the end justifies the means." We both said all along that God had a plan for us and when he said it was time it would be time and the most perfect child of all would be placed in our family. You know what-it is true. She is the most perfect child for our family and we could not have asked for a better gift. She is a miracle in more ways than one. There were many dark days and nites that we never thought we would be able to live our dream of having a family the one day in May, 2009 that phone call came that has changed our lives forever. But the real miracle was July 20th, 2009 when she was placed in our arms and is now home, forever!
Just take a look at this adorable angel-how could you not love that!! Until next time...............
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