Mikenna is 3 !!!

I can not believe that our little Mikenna that we went over to get in China in March is now 3! She has definitely lost the baby look and is well into the toddler stage. We looked at baby pictures of her(that the orphanage gave to us) and Mikenna would laugh at how her hair would stand straight up when she was a baby. I cherish those few pictures that I have.
It also has been an emotional time for me(Lori). I again thought of her birth mom and wondered if she was thinking about Mikenna and wondered what happened to her daughter. As Paul said a few days ago, if they (her birth parents) had been able to see her now, they would never had given her up. She is such a bundle of joy and I know in the bottom of my heart that God has great plans for Mikenna and she was meant to be in our family. The joy we have is her birth parents saddness of not knowing what happened to their precious daughter.
Then I also think of her foster mom, a year ago she celebrated Mikenna's 2nd birthday with her knowing that would be her last one. I know that she is missing Mikenna because of Jane our rep in China keeps us informed. I do send pictures to Jane so pass on to her foster mom. Being a foster mom takes a lot of love and courage because a foster parent gives all their love and knows that that child will eventually leave their home for the child's forever family. I don't have enough words for the gratitude I now have for Mikenna's foster mom. She loved her so much. We know this because Mikenna loves us so much and that is a reflection of what she was shown in China before she came to our family.
I will post pictures of our birthday girl so everyone can see how big and beautiful she is! Keep praying for our little one!

A lot has happened since Halloween

My girls have been telling me that it is time for me to update the blog. So, here it goes... Thanksgiving: we celebrated Thanksgiving up in MN with Paul's sister, husband and 3 daughters. Mikenna had fun meeting Veronica who is just a few weeks younger than herself and then the twins who were 6 months old. We all had fun just hanging out with one another. Two weeks later, our niece got married and Mikenna loved the dance floor. Veronica and Mikenna entertained some of us through dinner as they danced the night away. They were very cute! Mikenna, in her very pretty dress was trying to do the "worm" for everyone. After the wedding we set up our Christmas tree... I'm sure she was trying to figure out why we had a tree in the house. Anyway, Christmas was a bit mellow this year since she had never experienced Christmas in China. She was happy to get the presents but not as excited as I had thought because she had no reference point to gear her experience on. We went to the zoo on Christmas Day as a family. Mikenna had never been to a zoo so she was very interested in all the animals that we saw. I had told her that her birthday was after Jesus' birthday so after Christmas, she thought her birthday would be coming. Little did she understand that she needed to wait until the end of January.
Mikenna's speech is coming along great. I think she has been immursed in the language so much that she really should not have any problems. We are having her tested thru the school district in March to see if she qualifies for early intervention for speech and hearing(just to make sure). So, we'll see what comes from that.
In January, Mikenna and Lori had the wonderful opportunity to meet another little girl(Anna) and her mom. Anna was adopted from the same town as Mikenna. Anna is 2 years old and Mikenna would say,"My new friend, Anna" whenever she would talk about our visit. We hope to continue to get the girls together for play dates. We now know 2 little girls from Nanning, China. The other little girl is a relative of mine that adopted Ella about 7 months before we got Mikenna. We plan on visiting Ella and her family in June out in CO. We are SO excited!
Mikenna also made another new friend, Dave. Dave's family has been in the adoption process a long time and they were waiting for Haiti to give them court dates. Well, the earthquake hit and God allowed many miracles to happen last week and Dave and his family were united. It was SO amazing to see God's hand in every step of the way. All 26 orphans were not hurt in the earthquake and all 26 were able to get their visas approved to come to the US. So, we went over on Sunday and spent some time with Dave and his family. It was a very emotional week for the Malley family but God is faithful. All our children are wonderful blessings!