Catching up

Date: 8/24/2007
It has been a few months since our last update, so I thought I would add a little note. Addie Mei has turned three and is so much fun, most of the time. She is three after all. She had a great time with lots of friends over for a pool party and cake and ice cream. She also got to go spend a week and a half with me on vacation in beautiful MI!! We met up with some friends from here at Lake MI and spent 13 hours at the beach. It was a blast!!!We have joined the world of food allergies. We have come to know that Addie Mei is allergic to milk, eggs, bananas, and corn. It is limiting, but we can make it through. She loves soy milk, so we are doing OK with this.She starts preschool next month and I am so excited to see how she is going to blossom!! I know she will love it and I hope it will help her speech and her social skills with boys. She is very timid around them!All else is well. She is a happy sweet little blessing.

One Year Anniversary

Date: 3/12/2007
It is hard to believe that it has been a year already since I first held my precious little girl. I have watched her intently all day today and yesterday just absorbing everything she has learned in such a short period of time. She has gone through so much in the last year and I am so proud of her!!I sat and watched every minute of her "Gotcha Day" video last night and was so caught up in the emotions I was feeling on that day. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a person of few words. As I watched the video, it occured to me that I had so little to say as I held Adeline for the first time. I just cried and prayed over her. I was oblivious to what was going on around me until I watched it on the video. I was in a world all to myself and my daughter. My dear friend captured every moment on the video and I will forever cherish the gift she gave me in this memory.I can go on and on about everything she has learned this past year, but I won't. You can read past postings for that. I just want to thank every one of you that have supported us in our journey to each other and with each other. I couldn't do this alone and your prayers and encouragement have meant the world to Adeline and I. God has carried us in His hands every step of the way and has used you as His vessels.If you have been blessed by this little girl, please post a message on her guest book. I am going to save these for her to have one day and I would love for her to know how God has used her to touch so many lives. I will only update periodically now as we have made it to a great milestone in our journey. Thank you for joining us!!God Bless,Tamie and Addie Mei

Nearing One Year

Date: 2/17/2007
Addie Mei and I are nearing our one year anniversary of Gotcha Day. I am amazed at how quickly the time has gone by. She is doing so much more than I ever thought she would in only one year. God has blessed me beyond anything I could have imagined with this precious child. I am of course somewhat biased, but she is perfect! Her personality is so sweet and she is so flexible. She loves to snuggle and give hugs away. I am so excited to see how she grows and develops. I pray everyday that I can help her become a confident, sweet, caring and loving young woman. God has her and I in His hands. Precious one is waking up. The picture is of her in the outfit I made for the Chinese New Year.

Tamie and Addie Mei

10 months

Date: 1/12/2007
Today marks our 10 month anniversary as being a family. We always do something special on the 12th of the month, and tonight we went to a basketball game at my school. We had a great time.Christmas was wonderful! Addie Mei was so excited to wake up and see all of the presents under the tree! She just shook her arms and proclaimed "PRESENTS!!!!" It was a riot to see her expression. It helped that we had our family Christmas on Saturday night. She knew that those pretty boxes has fun surprises in them! She definately made out!! We were able to stay in the house all day and Adeline just played all day long with her new toys. We had out family pictures taken with the entire family. It was our first official family picture. The pictures turned out great. I will post one once I have the CD. We were able to get a great picture of Addie Mei on a rocking horse. It was an unplanned picture, but it turned out perfect!!We continue to do well. Adeline is learning so many new things. Her speech is coming. She is delayed in this, but it is coming. She tries talking all the time. Words are becoming more clear everyday.One of the cutest things I have observed is watching her put her baby dolls to bed. She holds the dolly close while she rocks her back and forth. She "sings" to her and then places her in the doll bed. She then kneels down next to the bed and prays with her dolly, leans over and gives her a kiss. Melts my heart every time!!! She loves to go to church. I pray everyday for her little heart to love God and serve Him her whole life!!Who hope you had a great start to the New Year!! May 2007 bring wonderful joy to your family.

Fall Fun

Date: 10/26/2006
This is my favorite time of the year!!!! It is made all that more special because I get the special honor of sharing it with my daughter. She also loves to be outside, so we have a lot of fun doing so! We went to the pumpkin patch and had a riot!! She is so determined to do anything, it is fun to watch. There is nothing this little girl will not try. She rode a pony, climbed a HUGE haystack, tried to carry every pumkin she touched, it was too funny!We also had our first fun in the leaves! I did not know what she would think of playing in the leaves, because she does not like to be messy or dirty. She jumped right in though! Occassionally I would have to rescue her mittens from the sticking leaves, but it was all good.She is developing great! She gets stronger everyday. Her speech is coming slowly, but she is talking much more. Only a select few can actually understand her though. She has graduated from all of her therapies except speech and dietician. She is still quite a bit underweight, so we are keeping a close eye on this. All is else perfect!!I was just talking with her the other night while she was sitting on the edge of her bed. We were talking about all the things she has learned to do in the last 7 1/2 months. I just started to cry as I told her how amazing she is. I know I would not handle everything that she has had to go through as well as she has. God has truely guided her through all of this.I am so excited abuot sharing our first Christmas together!! It is fun establishing our own family traditions all fresh and new! I will keep some of my own, but we also will develop our own special traditions.Thanks for checking in on us from time to time!

9 months together

Date: 12/12/2006
Wow how time flies when you are having fun! Nine months ago today, my baby girl wa splaced in my arms. I rememeber the agonizing wait to finally be able to go to CHina and get her, I am sure you all do too :o) It seems so long ago now. Thes elast nine months have flown by.Addie Mei is doing wonderfully!! She is so sweet and fun to be around. Of course, I have to think that, but many people tell me the same thing, so it must be true. She is talking a lot more now. This is both good and bad, as she is very clear on her "NO!" Terrible two's are upon us.Some good news on her development is that we no longer have to thicken any of her drinks. After 9 months of adding thickener to all liquids to make it thick enough so she could swallow it into her stomach not her lungs, she is cleared to drink free liquids. Please pray that she has truely overcome the aspirating!! This will give her a lot more freedom in her daily life!!! We had a pretty exiting last couple of weeks. Long story short, Addie Mei developed a bad case of bronchitis on Thanksgiving Day with a temp of 103.3 and a week later developed a double ear infection. Thankfully the worst of all of it hit over the weekends, and I did not have to take any time off from work!!We are so excited about Christmas coming up!! She had so much fun decorating her Christmas tree in her room. She really likes the lights and she wants them on as she is going to sleep. We got to hang our first family ornament and it was very special. I found a perfect one at Hallmark that says "Our First Christmas Together." It is perfect. Addie Mei hung it on the tree and I helped a bit.We hope you al lhave a wonderful Chrismtas and enjoy every minute of time with your families!!!God Bless,Tamie and Addie Mei

6 months together

Date: 9/12/2006
I can't believe that is has been six months already since my precious little girl has been in my arms. It seems like just yesterday we were landing in Guangzhou with so much nervous anxiety I thought I was going to pass out. But is was 6 months ago. SO much has changed for us in that time, all for the better!!We went out for a special Chinese dinner tonight. I found this wonderful Chinese restaurant close by, and it was GREAT!!! They spoke to Addie Mei in CHinese and she seemed to like it. The staff seemed to like it that I was asking her to speak Chinese back to them. Our hostess was from Guangzhou. That was neat to meet someone from her province who spoke Cantanese.Addie Mei continues to do well. She has swung a new direction in her friendliness. She does not meet a stranger. I mean that she will love on anyone she meets. I am a little aware of this and keeping my eye on it as I know this can be a sign of attachment issues, but she is doing great with me. She is so freindly and loving, it touches my heart. She is such a sensitive little girl. We saw a boy in the store who was crying, and she went up to him and rubbed his back and said "Shhhhh." How sweet!!! We did not know this boy, nor had she ever seen him before. She just didn't like him crying. It brought me to tears to see how tenderhearted she is. She is growing like a weed. She has grown 3.5 inches since we have been home. I am already retiring some of her 18 month jumers, as her little legs are too long. No high waters on my little one. She has only gained 2.5 pounds, but she is so close to registering on the growth charts!! She does FINALLY register on the Southern Chinese girls growth chart for weight. She is in the 25th percentile for height on both American and Chinese. She will be on the tall thin side I suppose.Her language is coming along. She has speech therapy once a week and it seems to be helping. She jabbers a lot more and also really tries to mimic me. She seems to understand everything I say to her. She follows directions very well, or at least as well as any two year old will. The rest of her development seems to be progressing very quickly. I am actually going to look into stopping her physical and occupational therapies, and decreasing her developmental therapy to once a month. I do want to keep speech at once a week for now.Addie Mei has been so wonderful and flexible through this time. She has been such a blessing to me. Pray for us as we have some daycare changes coming up. More change for Addie Mei. I am sure she will handle it well!!!!Blessings,Tamie