It is amazing how much a child can change. One month ago today we received this little boy that would be our son. I guess I should say we were blessed by God himself to be chosen to be his parents. What an amazing experience to adopt a child. We've done it 3 times and each time it was a little different.
With Lindze we were inexperienced in adopting much less international adopting and in parenting so it had all kinds of firsts. We were brought to a building with 8 other families and we saw these nannies carrying these little girls around and we waited for our names to be called so we could be "presented" with our new daughters. Our name was called and we were holding this rather shocked one year old. It was absolutely surreal because in those few minutes we became a family of three just like that. Lindze was and is a complete joy to parent. I could not have asked for a better child as my "first".
With Gabriel 4 years later it is a totally different story but the main gist of it is that we brought home this very tiny 6 week old and can I tell you how different it is to receive a 6 week old versus a one year old. All I can say is many sleepless nights but what a Godsend to be given the opportunity to actually parent a little baby. This is something I never thought I would experience in our pursuit of a family through adoption. Out of nowhere we became a family of four. Gabe is growing so fast and even though some days he really really tries my patience, I love everything about him. You never know what he is going to say or do. He is another one of my true blessings.
Now with Dane 12 families were loaded on a bus and taken to a building where we all waited for different vehicles to arrive from different cities with all of our kids. Most all of the kids arrived before Dane got there. You see they had to drive 4 hours from Nanyang in order to bring him and one other little girl. We were standing around watching and all of a sudden they brought in this tiny little boy bundled in 5 layers of clothing and then we heard Dang Jin Wei and they just put him in our arms. His shock was written all over his face but he was so bundled he couldn't fight us. We had to sign guardianship papers and then we were taken back to the hotel. Boom family of five just like that.
So in one month Dane calls me "ma ma" and Tom "da da". He says "bye", "bah bah". He sign languages "more" when he is eating. He has rolled over twice and has learned to finger feed himself. He actually took a few sips from a bottle the other day without me squeezing it in. All in all he is making strides everyday. I cannot wait to see where he is a year from now because I know he is going to keep amazing us everyday. So anyway Happy One Month Anniversary to our peanut Dane. We love you!!!!!!!!!
