Tiny Dancer

Abigail excited at home before class

Tonight was Abigail's first combo ballet-tap-gymnastics class.  She prepped by watching YouTube videos of Broadway show-stopper tap numbers and scenes from The Nutcracker and Swan Lake.  She was psyched. She was ready to go.  She shed her Spiderman t-shirt and running shorts today after school and slid into her pink uniform without complaint.  She allowed me to "pony" her hair without whining.  She packed her ballet shoes, tap shoes, and water bottle into her brand new Superman "pack pack."  Then she arrived at the studio and stood still as a statue for 30 minutes, joined the kids to rummage through their own bags, change shoes, and stood still as a statue for 30 more minutes!  No amount of gentle teachers kneeling at eye level or excited bouncing kids grabbing her hands and trying to drag her into the action could convince her to move. She got a little more excited with the gymnastics portion.  Surprisingly, in the car on the way home when I asked "what was your favorite part" Abigail enthusiastically replied "the ballet!"

Miss Statue, with the flower in the back
so she didn't have to look at it.
She accepted the pink but drew the line at flowers.

Abigail on the bar.

She flew down the balance beam.

Dossier or Deathly Hallows?

Did you ever wonder about the adoption "paper chase"?
Here is a visual for you: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows on the left, our completed dossier on the right.

Keep your fingers crossed for a match by February: we'd love to travel before next school year, and in above-freezing temperatures this time around!!  I cannot express how much we would LOVE to get to travel during summer break so we can really enjoy our time in China and take in some of Hong Kong on the way home.  Since our home study delayed us 9 weeks (incompetent, inept.....), it would not surprise us if we have to travel 1-2 months into the new school year!!

At least this part is done.  Now we just sit back and wait!

Bike Buddies

We got a bike buddy for Abigail.  Well, and for me.  It is fun biking with her this way, though I am afraid she isn't getting as much exercise as when she rides her tricycle.  But on the other hand, it doesn't require bucketfuls of patience to take her to the neighborhood playground when she rides this instead of a vehicle that maxes out on a 4-inch pedal revolution.  

First Day of Junior Kindergarten!!

Our big girl started Junior Kindergarten this morning.  She has been excited for weeks, although we know she was a little nervous because we would find her asleep in our bed in the evening after she was tucked into hers or because she would ask questions about it or because we would say "In Junior Kindergarten, you will have to do X thing by yourself" and she would reply "I don't want to talk about that right now."  But we also know she was excited because she has been asking "do I go to school today??" for the past few weeks and when we drive past the building in the car, she always wants to point it out and have us stop and drive around the back to see the playground things.  I can't wait until she gets home and we find out how she does!

(And let me tell you, next week, when she gets to ride on her first bus and go on her first field trip, when someone else is driving my baby around in a bus on a field trip away from school everyone will need to be asking me how  I  am doing!!!)

One Week Past Surgery

Abigail playing with her cousin
the weekend before her surgery

One week ago, we were at Children's National for Abigail's lip and nose reconstruction surgery.
She had an initial surgery sometime between 5 months old and 8 months old when she was in China and, although it was done by an American surgeon who was on a mission trip there, it was a functional fix but not an aesthetic one.  Our amazing surgeon at Children's National said he does similar trips and often gets only about 20-25 minutes per cleft kid, but in America, he spends 3 hours on such a surgery to do A+ work.  

Two nights before her surgery, Abigail
was wound up at bed time and insisted
I take a picture of her.

The goal of last week was to give Abigail some symmetry to her already adorable and beautiful face.  I'm not going to blog the details or post pics until her stitches are out in order to protect Abigail's privacy.  (However, if any other parents of CL/CP kids are going to be facing a reconstruction surgery, please feel free to PM me.)

So it has been a long week, but kids are so resilient and Abigail is doing great.  Kids just go through things way more easily than adults do, I think.  Abigail is so brave and spunky.  I have been so proud of her this past week.

Happy Match Day!

Happy Match Day Abigail!

In July 2010, Larry and I mailed our dossier to our agency and then went to Pittsburgh with my brother Jim and sister-in-law Steph where we joined up with my Dad to bicycle ride from Pittsburgh to Washington DC, an adventure item on my Dad's bucket list that we were loathe to let him do alone.  The 2 days on the Great Allegheny Passage Trail was pretty great biking (as far as biking goes), but after 2 days on the C&O Towpath we were all feeling tired and ready to be done.  Then on July 21st, in a hotel room in Harper's Ferry, West Virginia, as the 5 of us filled ourselves with take-out pizza and free iced coffee, we got a phone call from our agency.  The woman on the line asked why we had not responded to the child's file we were sent weeks ago since it was about to be sent back.  I told her that we never received such a file.  (We had received a very flippant voice mail about 10 days earlier saying "This is so-and-so from CCAI.  Call me back when you get a chance" but all returned calls went straight to her vacation voice mail.)



A few minutes later we were all staring at the tiny pictures on Larry's ipod of our daughter.  
I didn't sleep that night.  I don't know if it was all the coffee or my new daughter!

Wordless Wednesday: Giraffe Feeding