Monday, August 20, 2007

She is Potty Trained!!!!

Hey there... am pretty exhausted after a sleepless night - hoping to catch up tonight.
My little one is finally asleep - she must have had a late night schedule - so looks like we need to work on her getting to bed earlier.
Well how do i start this tiring, emotional and exhausting day....?
We headed down before 3:30 PM to meet David our guide. He was there waiting for us so we headed right for the van and loaded up, Kaitlyn helping with Taylor's bag and Reagan with her bunny, I with the camera and cheerios, scott with the paperwork.
We drove for a while to some government offices where we saw a bunch of families some we recognized heading out with their new children, we hurried past them up an elevator to a flr i don't remember and started video - we went down a hall to a large open room full of chairs and families waiting. There was one women who had older daughters who was visiting china and had received permission to watch the experience for the benefit of her daughters who were adopted years ago in China.

Then we sat anxiously waiting... the kids had mixed emotions. kaitlyn had just woken up from her nap and was not sure how to handle it all. Reagan was eager and ready to serve and of course eat cheerio's to his new sister. But soon the wait caused restlessness and it was just hard on them.
Finally we were one of the first families to receive our child - we were at the back of the room, so waited as they brought her past the other waiting families to us.
There she stood this tiny little girl in a red and white striped top and pink shorts, quiet, shy and i am sure scared. We did not know what to do, I quickly tried to comfort her, but she just stood there, I almost cried - poor thing, with so many people and the noise of all these families meeting their little ones with their children and babies crying all over, but at the same time we are in our own world taking all this in with Taylor. We had a quick lesson on how to say her name and i think i have mastered it with full butchering it, but at least she responds LOL
Reagan came to the rescue with the cheerios and i had some baby dried banana's which she quickly took ownership of the bag and never let go!
Scott took pictures and handled questions as i slowly coached her into my lap. She started to warm up to me and we realized she had got all our gifts and mail. She had so much stuff - we were shocked since this was a first for us. I had three photo albums and two camera's to develop. She had barbie obviously from Lisa's sister for her birthday with clothes and two very nice outfits from them too. We have the birthday photos too.
Here is this precious little girl sitting in my lap. When we first saw her, her arm was pretty lifeless, so we were not sure what to think, but she was ours and we would do the best we could. I was and still am a bit scared on how to hold her since she has no muscle and i fear I'll crush her little side. Later on we learned she as we thought uses the hand and arm well - it is pretty twisted and probably as we feared nothing can be done for her - but she'll manage.
She is 3, but developmentally she is not like Reagan and Kaitlyn were. She is much younger, but will quickly pick up. Glad I brought a mix of clothes but figured well she is mostly 24m, but the 2T do fit, but with only bone on the left side the clothes fall off her shoulder... so maybe redesigning her wardrobe when we get back.
Poor kid was not wearing underwear, but is potty trained and was one of our first lessons when we got back to the hotel. I think we got that one covered YA!
By the time we were in the van heading back, the kids were acting up with all the emotions and attention on Taylor - so Scott had his hands full as I just tried to learn about our newest addition.
We headed back to our room where we got a movie going for the kids and Scott and David went over plans.
I changed Taylor into clothes that fit a bit better and made her look more like a little girl. She sat on the bed and already motioned for me to sit beside her, then did this for Kaitlyn, so she was warming up to us. She did have a 5 min cry once we got into the room, I think it just all hit her suddenly and the poor thing had to mourn all that had transpired. I just held her tightly soothing her.
After that she was done and joined the kids to plan and soon was trying to copy them. Kaitlyn was falling into the role of big sister and Reagan was into his movie.
But within about 15 mins. they were all watching his shark movie and Taylor was pointing to the sharks and talking away. Have been told she learned Mandarine, which is great since we have a cd in english and mandarine for the kids.
Later we decided it was dinner time and to play it safe just went downstairs where we were pretty much the only guests so had three waiters serving us. Which was very helpful.
We pulled out a highchair, and soon all three were in them since jealousy was on the rise. We split some noodles and rice dish for the kids to eat - well I was not sure how Taylor would do?
She I think has been mostly fed, but she finally after a while was feeding herself, but thought it was more fun to drop her food on the floor in hopes we would laugh. One of the waitresses helped a great deal in feeding Taylor from time to time. Then we saw the gorging - she will just take a huge spoonful of rice and pack it in, chew and then spit it out a few times I thought she was going to get sick... I am sure we will see this a few more times over the next few days. We were told she mostly drank water, so I am sure the food was also limited.
Well then Kaitlyn told me she had to go potty bad, so I took her to the bathroom. Scott told me when i returned that Taylor saw this and before anyone realized she was up and out of the high chair running after me. So I guess we have connected. So will have to watch out for this in the future.
Later on we gave the girls a bath, we were told she did notlike baths but this is from a year ago when they said she was naughty :-)
She had a blast in the water, but again saw 2 year old behaviour and a lot of firsts.
She kept wanting to stand, and once slipped and bumped her head lightly, but was fine. She does want to copy the kids and later i think she will be fine, but i don't think she is ready for some of the climbing they do... I guess we'll know more at the park in the next few days.
I had a hard time getting her to bed, and was rocking her, she was trying to imitate my singing and sign along. She is already trying to copy some words and I give it by the end of the wk she'll have about 5 words. She already gave me a kiss back - so in many ways i think she'll do fine and catch up quickly and fatten up like the other two have. Kaitlyn looks so big next to her, and dark - Taylor has been indoors most of the time.
Well the first leg of our journey has come to an end - now the forever family journey has just begun. The adventure of discovering who this little girl is just begining to unfold, and we begin to watch the wonders of this precious child blossum before our eyes into a beautiful little girl, who will bring us much joy and happiness.... of course I am beginning to see, a lot of jokes on her parents with her sibblings LOL
Will try to post a couple of photo's - we are tired, I am the only one up and we have a full day tomorrow.
Thanks again for all your support, love and prayers - this definitly has been our biggest adoption journey so far.
God Bless, Scott, Lavonne, Reagan, Kaitlyn and now Taylor :-)

7 comments:

Mark and Lori said...

Wonderful! God is good and we are so glad that you have your daughter in your arms! Keep up with the newsy blogs so we can learn from your experience. Hope to see you home soon so we can have another Small World reunion over here on the west side. Lori, Mark and McKaden

Lesa and Samuel said...

SO so so happy for your family and Taylor! Love reading and seeing the pictures!
Lesa

Jill K. said...

Lavonne and family,
I am so happy for all of you. Taylor is beautiful and looks like she fits right in. I love the pictures of the kids. They all look so happy. What an amazing experience for them to be a part of.
Jill :)

vicki alberti said...

Taylor is beautiful and tiny!! Following your journey has brought back many memories to me. I just love the pictures!!

Best wishes,

Vicki

Starla said...

How great to read about your Family Day! Sounds like things are off to a good start. Trust that things continue to go well!
Blessings, Starla

Kelly said...

I'm so excited for you and your family. I keep checking(and re-checking) your blog to see if you've added anything new. I just can't get enough. It almost feels like I'm tagging along on this journey with you and your family. Taylor is PERFECT and is a wonderful addition to your already perfect family.

I can't hardly wait until you are back at work so you can share more of the stories of your journey with me.

Kelly

tiffany said...

Wow! She is beautiful and everyone looks great together. Thank you for sharing these special moments!
:) Tiffany