Saturday,
February 9,
2008
I can’t believe we have been home almost 3 months. I
remember reading that on other people’s blogs once they
got home and thought, “I can’t wait until we are no longer
waiting”!
Madeline continues to amaze us. She is such a special
little girl and is the love of our family. We have all
fallen in love with her; her smirk, her laugh, her stare
down, her joy, how she loves her night night pillow, how
she always says Hmmm? And “da” (for that). One of our
favorites is her Daddy teaching her to say Da Da. He would
point at his chest and say Da Da. Soon she started doing
that and he was moved to tears. A few days later she
started pointing to her chest, my chest, John David’s
chest etc and saying Da Da. It has really been so cute. So
anyway we are all now Da Da :)
We have celebrated many first’s with Madeline even though
we missed the first 9 ˝ months of her life, her first
Thanksgiving, Christmas and birthday. She has changed so
much already since Thanksgiving. She took her first steps
right before her birthday. She is now walking more than
she is crawling and is so proud of herself. She is just so
happy.
I truly had no idea how this adoption would affect us.
Adoption is a beautiful gift from God just as the
biological birth of your child is. I rock Madeline at
night and am so overcome with my love for this child and
the “rightness” of her place in our family. That can only
come from God and his leading us to have her. We are so
very thankful that He did. We have definitely had our
adjustment periods but it is not due to her, but us :)
One of the best things has been watching our other
children with her. A baby in the house tends to make all
your own selfishness go out the window as you care for
her. It has been good for John David to have to wait a
minute for Mom, he has done so well and has not shown any
jealousy. The other kids always take time to play with her
and bond with her. She loves all of them. She gets to see
Allie the least since she is away at school, but always
puts her hands on her head when she talks to her since
Allie taught her that trick :)
It is always hard for us as sinners to grasp that the
world does not revolve around us, but that God’s desire is
for us to give up of ourselves to give to others in our
lives. Madeline has taught us that this leap of faith to
go and get her has been just as much for us as for her. We
are so blessed to have her and are thankful that God had
mercy upon us in making this such a wonderful experience.
Thank you for following our journey to our baby
Madeline!!!! |
My favorite picture,
she is so proud of standing in the tub
Madeline and her brothers and sisters with Santa, and yes I did
make the teenagers go:)
Another favorite
Christmas morning |
