Happy Anniversary Makena! You have been part of our family (officially) for a month. Sometimes it seems like it was all a big dream that we spent 2 weeks in China until of course I hear my daughter yell "Mama" all over the house. Is it possible that she we have been together for a month already? All that time waiting, preparing, praying, anticipating something we couldn't really believe until it happened and now it's our new normal life.
Our trip to China was an adventure. While it was happening it often felt very frustrating and claustrophobic in the hotel rooms and always interesting communicating. While in X'ain where we got Makena, Pat and I often struggled. Very little people spoke English. It is not a very touristy place so they do not speak English as commonly as in other areas of China. Once when Pat was asking the hotel front desk if they had complimentary baby strollers they ended up telling us where we could go roller skating:) It was moments like this that I just had to laugh, there really wasn't much else to do. It was cold and very hazy from all the smog so we spent a lot time all "cozy" in our hotel room. It definetly gave us time to bond.
After a week we flew to Guangzhou where the US Consulate was located. All the families welcomed the change of scenery. Guangzhou was much more westernized. Most of the staff at the hotel spoke English. The weather there was in the 70's and we finally were able to see blue skies. What a mood lifter!! There we visited parks and a zoo.
Looking back the trip wasn't as bad as it seemed while we were there. Such is most things in life though.
We are in our third week home and settling into our new life and routine. I am currently home with Makena until I return to work in April. Makena has adjusted very well to her new world. It is amazing how well she has done. Seeing how well she has done has really opened my eyes to how much I have struggled. The first week at home is practically a blurr. It was rough and honestly left us questioning what in the world we were thinking. I mean we had it pretty easy right? But all good things are worth working on. The jet lag , the lack of sleep due to Makena struggling with her new sleeping arrangements and time zone and the overwhelming amount of emotions that came tumbling down on me was a bit more than I could handle. Luckily my mom stayed with us the first week and helped us through it, and thankfully for Pat and mine's relationship and our ability to be very open and honest with one another about all we were thinking and feeling helped a lot. I have learned that I am much more selfish than I realized. A fact I am not very proud of:(
The past two weeks have been much better. Makena seems to understand us very well. She is able to follow most our instructions. It is nothing short of miraculous really. The hardest part is that she is 3 1/2 years old so she is pretty fluent in Chinese which we of course are not. She is learning more and more everyday but it is certainly an obstacle to maneuver around. If someone looked in on our household on any given day it would probably be pretty comical. One day we probably won't hardly remember Makena not speaking English but for now she sure can rattle off quite a bit of Chinese and we are just like sorry babe, we don't know what you are saying. As frustrating as that can be she sure seems to handle it well.
Cameron is adjusting to having a little sister quite well. He has had to get used to someone coming in on playtime with Daddy but overall he has been amazing. It is sweet to see how proud he is when he see or hears Makena do something new. Makena just thinks Cameron is the bomb. She thinks most everything he does is hilarious and wants to do everything he does.
So in short this new family of ours is far from perfect but we are learning and growing everyday. God put us all together at precisely the right time and will no doubt continue to guide us in every way.
We have been so blessed with the out pouring of prayers and support we have gotten from family and friends. We cherish them all and ask for continued prayers!
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