Life returns to normal- A New Normal

Each day we spend with her, is it really possible to love someone more!  She continues to bring joy to our household.  Yes there are moments of chaos, we have four children.  And yes today we drove to school instead of the school bus because we could not get ready in time, but life is so joyful with this little spirit in our house.  She makes us laugh but has begun to form bonds with each of us in different ways.  I know it has been hard for some of you who want to see her and meet her but the best thing is to keep her "cocooned" with our family as much as possible until she knows who her family unit is.  Last night the sweetest bonding moment occurred between Jackson and Huahua.    Many of you know this adoption was first sparked because of our lessons learned through Jackson's leg lengthening process.  We trust God fully and he walks us through this.  But I held back the tears as Huahua pulled up her shirt and showed Jackson her scarred chest.  She spoke so fluently in Chinese about it (I so wished I knew what she said!)
Then Jackson pulled up his shorts and showed his scars on his leg.  This is huge for him.  This is his story and he guards it with a balance of embarassment and pride, but only shares with those he trusts.  Love and trust with such a unique perspective; they will only share with one another.

 It's probably too early to tell, but I think she might be interested in the medical field.  She is always giving the dog shots and IV's.  It's a good thing he is so tolerant and faithful.  Bubba maybe at some level knows he too was adopted---  He was found abandoned on the streets of Cedar Rapids, Iowa about 4 years ago and thanks to a rescue organization was saved from certain death at the pound.

She and Jordan have cleaned out the pots and pans.  When I need to cook something, we locate the cooking supplies in the living room behind the chair.  Never mind the girls do have their own kitchen upstairs.  Maybe I'll try cooking on their playset!

Grandma has been shopping for us mostly, except we needed a quick stop before a Doctor appointment- M & M's.  She loved the little carts.  No ear infection for her, but she has a continual cold since we adopted her.  The Dr said her lungs sounded okay, but she is always fighting something.  We have appointments scheduled for our regular peds doc and heart specialist soon.

She has taken a liking to the meow, meow, as she calls them.  They are quite large cats, but that does stop her from trying to pick them up!

We were able to get outside to play during the few moments of less frigid air.  She went sledding down the big hill once and then preferred to watch the other kids or just slide down on her butt.  

Huahua loves her Jordan.  She looks for her during the day and I have to remind her she is at school.  When the bus arrives home, it is sheer excitement- like Christmas! Huahua wants Jordan to dress her up and just play girlie things with her.  Here they broke out the play dough.

 Did I say this before--I forgot how much a two year old is like a tornado in your house!  Amazing enough the mess is trumped by sweetness, giggles and lots of new memories.
I said to Ryan this phase will pass too--and he reminded me then they turn into hurricanes!

Oh Well, I guess we dance in the rain then with our mess :)

We ventured out to Woodman's (big grocery store) yesterday and there are so many new concepts an adopted child from an orphanage will learn.  The idea to wait for food to cook on the stove was hard for her.  She thought once the food is in sight, we eat.  She learned "just a minute" real quickly.  She did eat her way through the grocery store though!  Yesterday, as I tried to put her in the cart she did a split with her legs.    It was the cutest thing.  We just laughed at each other!  So we filled an entire cart full and one nice lady commented we should probably leave soon because our cart was so full! (She didn't know how long it's been!)  Anyway as the cashier unpacked the cart, Huahua looked at him with a scowl, like why are you taking all our things?  Really if you did not understand what was going on, you too probably would have thought this guy was taking everything we had just picked out and throwing it at the lady standing over there and she's putting it in her bags too!

Sometimes I really wish I could explain to her in the moment what was going on, but she is so smart and is learning many words every day!  She was happy when we got home and pushed all the bags into the kitchen and all our items reappeared!