A Couple Of New Pictures

I still haven't worked out the camera thing yet but I do have a couple of pictures to share. Auntie Andrea and Uncle Rob (my very dear friends) gave Grace and I a gift certificate to have her pictures taken. We had the photos done on Tuesday and I have to say, they're pretty spectacular. She was a little hesitant at first but then her cousin Jacob, who came along for moral support, started singing and dancing for her and that just turned the smiles on. The black and white dress is her Christmas dress and the other dress is one I bought in Ethiopia. She wore it to the coffee ceremony and I just thought it would be great to have a formal picture in it as well. I had to pin the dress as it's still too big on her but I am thrilled with how the pictures turned out.

This one I had done in a black and white and framed and matted. It's positively gorgeous and I should be able to pick it up tomorrow.

We had early intervention out on Monday and it was a great experience. There were three clinicians and they were all really great. Grace does qualify for services for fine and gross motor skills as she measured at a 6 month level. I should hear in the next week or so about scheduling the sessions. Overall, they were quite impressed with her and it was amazing to see how far she has come in the past month. The baby who toppled over when I sat her up can now sit up by herself for over 2 minutes. Quite a big improvement. One of the ladies was working with Grace and she held her hand up and Grace slapped it and she laughed and said, it's like she's trying to high five me. And I said, she is high fiving you. Her cousin Nate taught that to her and if she sees an open hand she'll slap it. When I told Nate he was very impressed that she remembered what he taught her.

Tomorrow we're going to attempt to go to Social Security to get her a social security card. I will have to update the paperwork and do a name change once the adoption is final but I don't want to wait until all of that happens before we get the card. I'd rather just do the update.

The other night I was sitting on the couch giving Grace her bedtime bottle. She often likes to take breaks while eating so I had her standing up on my leg and she was facing me and she broke into a big toothless grin and planted a sloppy kiss on my lips and then snuggled into my shoulder. If feelings could be described in dollars then this was a trillion dollar feeling. All we were doing was sitting on the couch playing and making noises at each other and yet there was such a sense of joy surrounding us and it was like she felt it too. I always had a soft heart but motherhood has turned me into a giant mushball and I couldn't be happier.

I know that my blog sounds full of sunshine and lollipops, and for those of you who know me well, it's not usually who I am. There are hard parts of parenting like when your underweight daughter doesn't want to eat and you don't know how else to coax her into doing it. Or when she wails and it's not a hungry, wet or sick cry or when you feel like you're supposed to know to do something and then realize it never occurred to you. I know that I could still be in the honeymoon phase and I know it's going to get a lot harder and it's all going to be on me. Yet, I feel like I'm ready to handle whatever comes our way. I can't ever recall feeling that way before, but then again, I can't recall having ever been this happy before.