March 28th

I've let too much slip here on the ol' blog—Got some catching up to do!  This blog is more for our girl than anything (although it's been tremendous to have had the encouragement and following of our friends and family). This momma is terrible at keeping journals and so the blog has given us a place to record our journey with a little needed accountability.   We can now print a book for Mae of this past year's posts... yay!!

So here's our day, celebrating March 28th...

Our first stop was to go to the CCAI office (our adoption agency) and give the women there a hug!

next  stop aquarium! 

 

Mae never asks for anything, but today she grew very fond of this Beluga Whale.  It has become "baby" and she asks to have him with her all throughout the day, and sleeps with baby every night (almost a month later and this is still the case!)

The second part of the celebrating was with our family.  And it was so wonderful...

 I made the little panda purse for Mae.  Cody and I were really excited to give it to her... anything girly is a big hit with our girl.

 We filled it with sunglasses, mirror and brush, and other odds and ends that every purse should have (:

 We didn't get any good pictures of all the decorations that we hung... but there were Chinese lanterns and streamers and of course BALLOONS! Our kitchen was very colorful and it made Mae so happy.  She pointed at everything and yelled "SEEEEE"  when anyone new came through the door.

Mae and her Nonna

Momma, Mae and proud Boppy

 Hugs for Aunt Mer

 We got a special cake from the Asian market and it was DE-licious!

Fun Uncle Jon

I love this picture (:

 As a family, we watched the video of the day Mae was placed in our arms.  None of us had seen this video and it was so special to share with Mae.  She sat in her daddy's lap and loved seeing herself on the TV.

 This was a fun day but also very emotional for Cody and me.  We realize all that had to happen to have Mae be our daughter.  Here's a crazy thought... Mae has spent 365 days with us now, but she had 595 days in China before we knew her.  Her little life as a baby is unusual and filled with mystery.  All I know is that God has written her story and knows her every breath on this earth.  What a mighty God we serve!!

Gotcha Day - ONE year with our girl!

It's our "Gotcha Day" as they call it. This day, one year ago, a baby girl was put into our arms that would forever be ours. I remember all the thoughts that ran through my head on that morning... We woke up early with excitement and in awe that the day had finally come. I thought we'd be more nervous but instead there was such a peace in the moments before we saw her, before we knew who our daughter was. In all those months leading up to this I had sleepless nights, praying to Jesus to protect and comfort her. In all those months I longed to have her in my arms but never did I understand the love that we both felt as our girl was placed in our arms. There is nothing like that... And that love has somehow grown over this past year.
This past year we have watched Mae grow from our little baby girl to a beautiful and spunky toddler. She is a person I know she would not have been had she stayed in China. She is so much like us, she is without a doubt meant to be ours. She has a joy that radiates from her. She wakes up each morning jumping up and down and shouting "yay!". (she did not get this from either of us, I only wish I saw each new day this way... seeing things through the eyes of Mae). She dances almost everywhere and always thinks of sharing her snack. If I put her coat on, she wants to make sure I put my coat on, if I take her shoes off, she wants my shoes off too. I don't think this was taught to her, in her world before us... I think this is just her. She is an undeniable gift everyday. We have our bad days. Mae cries. She sometimes chooses to do things her own way without listening and she can tire me out at times with whining... I love it all.  All of her is precious and there is not a moment that I don't praise God for making me this child's mother.

Here's a little bit of what Mae's doing these days:
She says "no please"  very sweetly but expressing her disinterest.
We recently got her a sand table... it is her favorite place to be in the afternoon.
She LOVES bath and bubbles and could stay in there all day.
She calls Griffin "baby dawg".
If you ask her how old she is she will say "two" but then tell you she is "five" with her eyebrows raised, just to see your response.  I find that Mae will make a joke every chance she can get.
She loves watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and everyone in the room must join her in the "hotdog dance".  It is something else to watch her dance this dance, singing "hotdawg".

These are a few of my favorite things...

tea parties

sifting sand

dress up with friends

being mommy's little buddy

make up... she loves it!

"eyes"

"toes"

"ears"

being baby's mommy

and her "dada"

Mae & Mommy Mini Trip

Cody has had to be out of town on business a lot more now, with his new job. We love that he has a great job that he enjoys but don't like being away from him. It has really been an adjustment going from a job where he pretty much worked from home, to one where he travels.

Cody had to go on an extra long, two-week trip to North Carolina, so Mae and I drove to Greenville, SC this weekend to meet him half-way.   Mae was an absolute angel the whole trip.

 

I made Maebelle a sweet little dress the night before we left to wear to see her daddy.  I love it on her.  She looks so great in bright colors.

front

back

We arrived 30 minutes ahead of Cody... This is Mae patiently waiting on her daddy. 

 

It was wonderful to have a refill for 24 hours. 

 

We walked around downtown Greenville.  It is really a pretty city, with so much charm.

 

Mae and her daddy have a special kind of love. 

  

We got our kisses and hugs and drove back, just the two of us.  Sad to say goodbye but Griffin was happy to see us!

Having my little girl sure makes Cody being gone a lot easier... and Skype. (:  Mae gives her dada kisses on the computer every night.

A Bad Day.

 Last Wednesday we had a bad day... you see Griffin has lymphoma (a type of cancer) and has been having chemo treatments every couple of weeks.  (That's bad all by itself!) Wednesday we had to bring him in first thing in the morning.  Since Mae sleeps past 9:00 most days, I had no choice but to put her straight in the car, in her pjs and hand her a waffle to go (:  She's always happy when we have Grif along for the ride.  We got to the vet and someone came to take Griffin away... Mae was not okay with that and she completely fell apart.  It was heartbreaking, she didn't want to leave her dog.  She was crying, "Mommy, please don't go", stretching her little arms out towards the doors to the clinic.  PITIFUL!

I felt so badly for her.  We were close by her Nonna's house so I asked her if she wanted to go see her.  She said yes, of course, and so we stopped in for a quick visit...

Poor baby was happily playing tea party when she tripped and fell into their glass coffee table.  It is something that's replayed in my head a hundred times.  She cut her eye and was screaming and bleeding.    We drove her to the doctor to see if she needed stitches... and she did ):  She was so scared and screamed louder than I've heard her scream.  They asked me to hold her down, so I got up on the cot with her and laid down on her.  It was awful, she was so scared.  Hearing her scream was the worst thing I've had to hear.

She got a lollipop, and a strawberry baby smoothie... soon she was back to her happy self.  And after her nap we went to her very favorite place, the Humpus Bumpus book store and then went back to the vet to go get her dog.  She was very happy to see him and Griffin got a good report from the doctor.  So far he's done well on the chemo.

The next couple of days her eye was pretty swollen.

But that didn't keep her from having a fancy day. (This was all her doing.)

On Monday, we had to go back to have the stitches removed .  She has a black and blue eye now that looks like she got into my eyeshadow.

She screamed and cried again... I think she was even more afraid because last time hurt, but it went quick.  Her doctor gave her another strawberry smoothie

 

and she was ready to get out of there!

We went to get a balloon afterward, which made her a very happy girl.  

I hope these were her last stitches!

Sweet Video

Josh Kelley and Katherine Heigl just debuted the song Naleigh Moon, as a tribute to their adopted baby girl. It's a sweet song from a daddy that loves his girl. It is precious watching Naleigh in their home movies of her... I couldn't help posting it.  Mae likes watching this video too, hope you enjoy!