Officially a mom now...

Yes, I officially became a mom to Emily on January 29th but there are some initiations that babies put you through that make you "official" to them.

• I had a string of drool running from my shoulder to Emily's face and hands today... nearly a 12 inch stretch!
• I have changed my share of stinky diapers on a squirmy little girl... who likes to try to put her socked foot into the aforementioned dirty diaper before it's completely off of her.
• I have picked my daughter's nose. (Ew! Gross!)
• I have learned that Emily gets fussy if she doesn't get her food as quickly as she'd like.
• I have learned that Emily gets fussy if she has a wet diaper.
• I have lost any semblance of a living room - it's been taken over by baby "stuff".
• The amount of laundry I have to do has doubled... all from a tiny, 14 pound baby girl!

Aside from those fun things, there are even better things that make the gross, nasty, and otherwise less than exciting parts so worth it:
• I love watching Tom play with her in the evenings and they look into each other's eyes and share laughs.
• I love seeing the huge smile and bright eyes on Emily's face when I wake her up in the morning.
• I love snuggling with Emily during our 6am bottle and cherish those quiet morning moments.
• I love playing peek-a-boo with Emily and it makes her giggle.
• I love the feeling of Emily's hands on mine as I give her a bottle and the feel of her hands caressing my necks or shoulder as I rock her to sleep.
• I love watching her roll ALL over the living room... knowing that a little over a month ago she couldn't even roll over.
• I love watching the proud look she gets on her face when she stands up as I hold onto her waist.
• I love to hear her coo and giggle over the baby monitor while she plays in her crib waiting for me to come get her.
• I love watching her learn something new every day.

There are so many things I love about this kid that I just can't write them all out. Even though we've worked and waited for this moment for nearly 2 1/2 years it has been so very much worth the wait. We have been so blessed - EVEN during the times when the requirements for our paperwork/dossier kept changing. We were so blessed to have friends and family (and perfect strangers) praying for us all the while. Those prayers were answered and we met "our" Emily in God's perfect timing. We were totally taken care of while we were in Kazakhstan and we had so many prayers answered. We could "feel" the prayers being sent up for us and we were so at peace during what could have and "should" have been a stressful time for us.

We are so thankful to ALL of you that have continued to keep us in your thoughts and prayers. Please keep them coming! Emily still has a way to go to get caught up developmentally but we have no reason to doubt that she won't catch up quickly. She was born approx. 10 weeks premature and was in a babyhouse (orphanage) for the first 8 months of her life. We recently contacted "Help Me Grow", a state agency in our county, and will be scheduled to have her evaluated soon so that we might know what kind of therapy/rehabilitation she is going to need.

We are SO blessed!