April 3, 2010 - We've been home a year!

We can hardly believe a year has passed since we landed on US soil with Mikenna. It has been quite a journey over these last 12 months. Mikenna has made great strides but still has some big steps to conquer. She loves McDonald's, singing and being sung to, playing with bubbles, reading books, going to nursery at church, and eating just about anything that is put in front of her. She continues to amaze us at how smart she is. I took her to be tested thru the school district, and she tested within normal limits for a child that was born here in the US. So, she will not need any early intervention for speech or hearing. She loves being with her big sisters and demanding their attention. (Most of the time they give it to her.) She keeps us laughing at her little comments that clearly shows she has 4 older sisters and her mannerisms are really cute. The 4 older girls give her so much love and attention. We are still the 'novelty' at most places like restaurants or soccer games for 2 reasons: we have 5 beautiful girls and the youngest is Chinese. We get a lot of people either starring at us or actually asking if Mikenna is ours. (One person even asked me if Mikenna was Chinese-UM, I didn't quite know how to answer her with out making her feel stupid!) Mikenna, Paul and I went to counseling to help her bond more with Paul. We went for about 4 months and it helped a lot. She now will let Paul hold her, get things for her and even cuddle with him but she still does not allow him to put her to sleep or she does not like being left with him alone. We are still working on the trust factor with men in her life. We are also working on getting her to sleep in her own room with Meriah and Madissen. She sleeps in that bed for nap but not at night time. It has been a long year with a little person sleeping right next to us. We know it wont last forever but we both thought she would of been in her room by now. Mikenna still goes to a lot of soccer games and she loves it because she is outside- her favorite place! Mikenna has made a lot of friends with either the daycare kids or 2 other kids that have been adopted, one from Nanning, China (where Mikenna came from) and Haiti. Adoption is a wonderful gift and we have been so blessed by having Mikenna in our lives. At times, it has been stressful and then other times she makes it all worth while. Adoption has changed our lives forever- what a gift it has been to our family. Our girls have begged us to adopt again- we have responded that our family is complete. I have no doubt that one of our girls or maybe all of them, will adopt a child once they are married. I could go on and on about how adoption was a wonderful choice for our family but I'll spare you all of that. Please keep praying for Mikenna and her trust in Paul and other men and that she will grow into a beautiful young lady that loves the Lord. What more could Paul and I want for her life? This has been our first year with Mikenna and what a wonderful journey! Praise God!

March 24th, 2010 - Gotcha Day

This is Mikenna's Gotcha Day. One year ago, Paul and I laid eyes on our 5th daughter for the first time. Wow! Time has flown bye! We thought it would be fun to celebrate Mikenna's Gotcha Day with friends and family. We had an open house for her and 45 friends and family showed up to help celebrate Mikenna's special day. For those of you that are wondering what a Gotcha Day is and why we would celebrate it, let me explain. For kids that are adopted(either domestically or internationally), often times the families do not receive their children on the day they were born. So, Gotcha Day is the day that the child is joined with their forever family. Mikenna was a bit overwhelmed at first by all the people and I'm not sure she understood why everyone was here but she warmed up after awhile and had fun with all the kids that came. I had our dining room table covered with her clothes and shoes that she came to us wearing that first day, of course the green soccer ball that she carried throughout China, all the things we bought in China, her pictures while in China and since being home, and a lot of books about China or adoption. We also had all our pictures scrolling on the T.V. for people to see our pictures of the beautiful country where Mikenna was born. It was quite an evening of sharing our journey with friends and family. Happy Gotcha Day to all our adoptive family that traveled with us to China!