Happy Gotcha Day

One Year.  It has been one year since a beautiful, brown eyed baby was placed into my arms half-way across the world.  It was a moment and a Christmas that I will never forget.  I can hardly believe sometimes that it even happened.  This precious child that God has allowed us to raise has been all that I prayed for and more.  God knew exactly what David and I needed and gave her to us at the time that He knew was perfect for us.  We may have missed celebrating Christmas with our families last year, but God was making us a family in a communist country where Christian Christmas music was being played.  We were reminded of God's love as we celebrated Jesus' birthday in China while accepting our own baby into our family.

In so many ways, it seems that Amelia has always been with us.  I can hardly imagine our lives without her.  She was a piece that was missing from our home, and we didn't even know it.  God knew it when He placed adoption on our hearts and guided us through the adoption process and long wait.  How blessed we are and how happy we are that we listened to Him!   

Amelia has changed so much over the past year.  She was a developmentally delayed baby when we first held her and now she is a normal two-year-old toddler who stays in constant motion and has the occasional two-year-old fit.  We have experienced so many "firsts" with her even though we missed the first 18-months of Amelia's life.  Words to describe my child would be intelligent, determined, serious, and busy!  At times, she is even spicy!  In China, girls from Chongqing are known as being spicy, and Amelia definitely fits this at times!  Sleep is still an issue for Amelia, but we hope that one day she will sleep through every night.  Amelia is in love with Bailey, kitty cats, Hello Kitty, Kai-Lan, letters, numbers, and shapes.  She enjoys pushing her baby in the stroller, driving her pink car, having tea parties, and shopping at Target and Costco.  School is something she tolerates because Amelia would rather stay home with Mommy or go shopping.  She enjoys "reading" books, but it is hard to have her sit still long enough to go through an entire one at one sitting if you are reading the entire book to her.  She prefers to point out things in the picture and describe what is happening or in other words, tell her own story.  Amelia enjoys eating most everything, but she is beginning to have an opinion about what she would like and wants to choose it herself.

This Christmas will be vastly different from last year.  Last year, we were standing in a government office in Chongqing, China, taking an oath to love and care for Amelia.  This year, we will wake up Christmas morning to see the wonder and delight in Amelia's eyes as she sees a filled stocking and gifts from Santa.  We will visit family and friends to exchange gifts, and Amelia will actually get to be a part of this.  I am so excited to share my favorite holiday with her!  We will honor and celebrate Gotcha Day the night of December 23rd each year.  There are a few reasons for this: 

1.  It is officially December 24th in China when we actually celebrated our original Gotcha Day.
2.  We celebrate Christmas with out of town family on Christmas Eve and attend church that night.  We want Gotcha Day and Christmas to be seen as two different special events that happen to occur at the same time.
3.  Amelia should always know that Gotcha Day was one of the best days of our lives, and our family is special because of it.  It should be honored as a separate event with gifts and Chinese food.

Tonight, we will eat Chinese and tell Amelia the story of how we became a family.  She loves to hear this story, especially the part where we flew on an airplane all the way to China to get her and bring her home.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support throughout our adoption process and the time transitioning into our forever family.  This was a fabulous year for us, and we look forward to many more!  Happy Gotcha Day, Amelia!  Mommy and Daddy love you more than you will ever know!

The Polar Express

Way back in July, I ordered tickets to take Amelia on the Polar Express (technically North Pole Express) train ride in Calera.  We scheduled it for this afternoon, because I thought it would be a great way to spend my birthday.  Amelia has been so excited about riding the train.  For the past week, she has asked us "Mommy happy train ride?", "Daddy happy train ride too?", "Amelia happy train ride yea!", "Poppy happy train ride?", "Paw Paw happy train ride, too?".  Needless to say, she wanted everyone to be happy about riding the train.  Unfortunately, Aunt Sue, Uncle Leo, Ella, and Elijah were not able to come with us.  Ella and Elijah have been sick, and it was best for them to stay out of the cold weather.  We really missed them! 

Amelia had THE BEST TIME on the train ride!  She loved riding it, but she did NOT like when the conductor, the elves, or Santa and Mrs. Claus visited.  She cried when the conductor picked her up for a picture and clung to me or David when any of the others came close to her.  She did great with the Santa at the mall, but Amelia did NOT want this Santa near her.  When it came time for the train's return to the station, Amelia said "No thank you Mommy car" and refused to put her coat on.  She wanted "more train ride".  David has now decided that we should take the train to New Orleans so that Amelia can have a much longer ride. :)

Tickets in hand

Paw Paw and Amelia wait for the train

Big Hugs

Our train car

Still waiting to board

The conductor punches our tickets.

All Aboard!

Amelia is SUPER excited to be able to ride the train!

She tried several seats.

The conductor REALLY wanted to hold Amelia for a picture, but she said "NO THANK YOU!"

She cried and said that Mommy's lap was best.

Happy now that the conductor left us alone.

Amelia, Paw Paw, and Poppy

Checking out the North Pole

Not sure about the elves

Amelia didn't realize that Santa and Mrs. Claus were behind us.  She shook her head and said "NO!" when Mrs. Claus started talking to her.

Are they bringing cookies?!?!

YES THEY ARE!!!!

Amelia does NOT like chocolate milk, so we brought her a juice box instead.

Cookies are so good!

The elves delivered Amelia a present, but she didn't want it. :(

Bye Bye North Pole!

All of the above photos were taken with the new Nikon DSLR camera that David gave me for my birthday.  I wanted one before we went to China last year, but David didn't want us to carry around something so big and bulky.  I guess he was right, but I really love playing around with my new camera and all of the features.  Unfortunately, I realized once we left the train that I didn't get a family photo.  I don't know what my problem is with forgetting this everywhere we go.  I have got to get better about taking a picture of all three of us.

Decorating the Gingerbread House

While Amelia and I were in Costco a couple of weeks ago, I spotted a kit for decorating a gingerbread house.  The kit came with icing, candy, and a gingerbread house that was already built.  It seemed like the perfect project for Amelia.  All we had to do was add candy and a chimney.  I pulled the kit out tonight, and we got to work.  It was hard for Amelia to understand that the candy was not to eat.  We were decorating the house with it.  She was able to slip a few pieces of candy in her mouth that "fell" off the house.  Amelia's decorating was outstanding!  She would point to where she wanted to put her candy, and I would squeeze royal icing on it.  There were some times when I "suggested" where she put things like when I squeezed dots all over the roof and told Amelia to put whatever on them.  She had a great time and was very excited about her house.
 

Can you tell Amelia has candy in her mouth?

Amelia started laughing when I told her not to eat any more candy. :)

Did that fall off the house?  I better eat it...

Front

Side: I find it very interesting that Amelia chose ALL yellow gumdrops to go down the side of the house.

Back

Other Side: Again - Amelia used all of the pink gumdrops in a row.