Bonding and Birthdays

On the eve eve of our family birthday, I'm feeling sort of reflective.  But oddly enough, it's a swirl of emotions about our first babies in China, and our newest chickie here.

We prayed and prayed about attachment and bonding before we ever left for China.  We wanted our girls to be loved so much that they'd transfer that bonding to us.  Well, having twins, we got a little of both types of reactions.  I often joke that Abby had the reaction of, "Oh!  YOU'RE Mama and Baba!  Where have you been all my life?"  Seriously.  One Cheer*io and she was hooked on us.  (And we were hooked on her too.)

Laney?  Well, she didn't like us.  It took her a while to warm up to us.  And by a while, I mean...like 20 bags of Cheer*ios later.  Heh.  Even today, we're working on bonding.  But I'm thankful we have come so far.

Then, there's S.  I feel like we're somewhere in the middle.  She can be silly and affectionate (as in, sit on me if I'm layinug on the floor...NO personal space.)  Or, she can be distant and stand-offish.  Like, tonight, I kind of snapped at her during homework.  After she got out of the shower, I went in to apologize.  I told her I wanted to give her a hug.  She was like, "No.  It's fine.  I don't want a hug anyone."  I won't lie, my feelings were hurt.  She hugs my mom, and others! 

But I have to step back and remember:
A.  She's 11.
B.  She's emotional. 
C.  I had just snapped at her.
D.  We're still settling into our new normal.
E.  It's totally uncool to hug.
F.  Any other thoughts?

So other tween moms...tell me everything is normal.  Yes, I'm the QUEEN of OVERANALYZING!  So it's ok if you tell me that too!  Hehehe.

Ok, last request...since our Family Birthday is coming up, do you have any good ideas for how we can celebrate?  We can't until Saturday because Tony has a meeting, but we want to do something fun!  Three years ago we became a family!    Any ideas?

HAPPY 2nd FAMILY BIRTHDAY TO US!

For the actual website link (and pictures!) from two years ago today, click here!


But here is the text, from that day. There isn't much, we were so tired and overwhelmed.  I'll add more thoughts tomorrow...on Thankful Thursday!  Just know we feel SO blessed.  So very, very blessed.


Sunday, November 18, 2007
FAMILY DAY!

Ok all, we have the GIRLS!!!!

We are EXHAUSTED and have had them for only four hours now...

More details later, but all is going well. They are extremely smart little girls. They already know how to use the TV remote and we quickly bonded by using Cheerios. They quickly found the music channel. And were dancing….

They love the stacking cups (Thank you Lynn !!!!!!).

Tomorrow is a big day of government appointments. Hopefully their current good mood will last through tomorrow’s long day.

Please pray that we can get them to sleep. They are running full speed ahead right now!!!

I know the pics show them in non-matching clothes, but right now, we DON’T care. LuLa has the Anna Day motif with her pretty shoes, diaper and shirt. She doesn’t want to wear any other clothes. Lu Mei was wearing most of the clothes that she arrived with…(at the time of the photos).

Ok, hopefully more details will come tomorrow. Sorry for the short post. Please keep praying that they continue to bond and all goes well tomorrow and the next week and a half!!

Stay tuned…




Do you remember our family day, two years ago today?
 

Two Years Ago Today...

...we left for China.  Here is what we wrote on our travel site once we landed in Beijing.   (We plan to update that site this week, for our two year family birthday!  The update is LONG overdue!)

This is in the kitchen at the crack of dawn after no sleep!  We were READY to go!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Well, we're here (Beijing). I still cannot believe this is happening!!

We did not sleep Tuesday night and left our house Wednesday morning at 4:00 am to go to the airport. It is now approximately 10:45 am Indiana time Thursday (11:45 PM Thursday in Beijing). We arrived at our hotel about 45 minutes ago. It is a very nice place. It has a huge bathroom with an awesome shower. The main room has a big flat panel TV with TV stations that speak English!! It is late here so not much is open, but there is a "Power House" across the street (probably not associated with my favorite Power House Restaurant back home).

We had a good trip. Almost 30 hours in airports and on airplanes, and it got old real quick. We met some neat people in Minneapolis, including another adoptive family (from another adoption agency) adopting a 10 month old. We may see her and her family again in Guangzhou at the hotel. We met some missionaries going to the Philippines for three years and a nice older couple just traveling places they have never been. They are touring Asia via a cruise.

We have much more to share, but with no sleep for two days now (except for come cat naps on the plane) is really getting to us. But, we just wanted to let you know we were here!! Tomorrow we'll be doing some touring so you'll want to stay tuned!!!



At the time of this writing, we only have 2 full days left before we meet the girls! GOD IS GOOD!
 

 
You can check out our travel site for additional pictures too...At this point, the anticipation is building!