Last year at this time I was longing to know my child. I had been sure that we would be celebrating our referral with family over the holidays, but a few weeks before Christmas our first match fell though. It was a lonely Christmas, not to mention the two of us got snowed in on Christmas day. Now a year later we are a family of three, exactly how we were meant to be. I am still amazed by the way God knit our little family together. This was definitely worth the wait!
The one year old is almost as big as the three year old.
Liya got a sled for Christmas from my parents. As you can see Liya loved her sled and being out in the snow and cold. In fact, she loved it so much that she took the longest nap of her life (3 hours 10 minutes!, ordinary = 1 hour 20 minutes) afterward and even took her nap 1.5 hours earlier than usual.
Our little girl turned one (a week and a day ago)! We had our first first birthday party at my family's house. I had planned on writing a bit more for this birthday blog, but alas, here are a few birthday photos instead.
This is a horrible photo. The cake looked better in person. Travis and I and my mom and sister modeled farm animals out of fondant. Lots of work but they were cute!
In case you were wondering, the sheep were my creation.
She pretty much only ate the cream cheese frosting.
She's not all sugar. She's quite a bit spice too :) I'm afraid we've hit the "terrible twos" a bit early. For the last month or so she has been perfecting her tantrum skills. From the squirming limp noodle in our arms to the flailing on the ground and most recently the stomping around. We have to try hard not to laugh at her antics, but it really is quite hilarious at times. In this video I don't even know what provoked the tantrum, possibly a result of telling her daddy was coming home soon and she didn't see him when she looked out the window.
We have had this play house from Liya's cousin stored in our basement for a while. Travis brought it upstairs today thinking that she was probably too young for it, but it would be fun to see what she thinks of it. The sheer joy and excitement it brought her was hilarious! I don't think we've ever seen her quite this happy. Squealing, laughing, talking, and lots of smiles :)
I can finally say it's official, we now have a walker on our hands. Liya started walking across our living room last Tuesday and hasn't stopped since! Liya basically went from not walking to walking across the living room one day. After she took her first ten steps that I captured on video, she quit attempting to walk or even stand by herself, though she mastered the art of walking while holding onto someone's finger and running while holding onto the furniture/walls. It is so astonishing to see how much her walking improves each day now. Just this evening she walked from our couch to the bathroom without falling down, probably 30 or so steps. She pretty much can get to wherever she wants by walking now. Amazing how fast that happened!
And here's a video for grandpa :)
I think these are the only pictures we have of her really smiling (not goober smile) so I had to post them!
It has been three months since we first set foot in Ethiopia so I thought it appropriate to start blogging about our trip.
Monday May 24-
Our day started out early in Dubai. A short flight later we landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It was all very surreal. I couldn't believe we were just a mere few hours from meeting our daughter. We were greeted at the airport by Travis N.(Gladney staff) and our driver Yaftahe around 11:30am. Travis N. asked us if we wanted to meet Ephrata today or wait until the next day. Of course we said today, as soon as possible! We had to wait until Matt and Eryn arrived at our guesthouse for Travis N. to bring both little girls to us. Upon arriving at Bejoe's guesthouse we were greeted by Mark and Heidi and their boys. So fun! I couldn't believe that we were actually there. I'd seen so many pictures from other people's trips and now it was finally our turn.
At 2:30 we met our sweet Ephrata. She wasn't quite sure what to make of us at first. She looked a bit dazed and confused but didn't seem to mind us too much until little Lucy started crying. Ephrata soon joined in in sympathy cries. I was walking around with her trying to get her to calm down when all of a sudden I felt something warm go running down my front. She had had a diaper explosion and it was everywhere. And I do mean EVERYWHERE. I ran her down to our room while she cried even harder. I really had no idea what to do. We were both a mess and I couldn't put her down to grab anything. I was able to get a very small changing pad and lay it on the bed. Then I found out she was wearing a pull-up and not a diaper! Of course pulling it off meant smearing poop all down her legs. Now I had a naked screaming baby covered in poop and I was also covered in poop. A baby wipe wasn't going to help that mess so I decided she needed a bath. I was in a bit of a panic as I had no idea how to hold a screaming poop covered baby, run a bath, and find the bath supplies. I couldn't figure out why Travis (husband) hadn't come to my aid when he heard the inconsolable crying. I ran into the courtyard with my dirty, naked, screaming child and yelled for him. Luckily he was just coming down to see what was taking me so long. It turns out they couldn't hear a thing from where they were all sitting upstairs. We gave Ephrata a quick and not so thorough bath because she was still crying and we couldn't get any warm water (poor baby!). Finally after the bath she calmed down and we were able to pacify her by letting her chomp on our fingers. I felt so bad for her. What a traumatic introduction to her new family! After we went back upstairs to get the necessary info from Travis N. we played with her for a bit and then gave her a bottle. We all crashed for the next 4 hours and woke up at 8pm.
