A year ago today we finalized Lil Bit's adoption. It was a crazy day with having to drive all the way to San Antonio to be at court and realizing we forgot all our paperwork at home. Talk about panic!! But we made it in plenty of time to have lunch with some of our extended family, finalize the adoption and completed our little family.
While she is too little to remember today, I do want to start a tradition of celebrating her adoption day with something small every year. She got a fridge dj (a learning radio toy) as a present and we went out to dinner. She loved the alfredo shells and breadsticks at Olive Garden and was amazingly well behaved.
I let her have the crayons and the children's menu for the first time. She did attempt to color with them before she started trying to shove them down her throat. It was very cute. My favorite part of dinner was watching daddy watch her. He just looks at her with such amazement and wonder. I feel so good about the job I've done while he was gone when I see him appreciating her cuteness and intelligence.
She was feeding herself and drinking milk out of a straw all by herself. I gave her a breadstick. She didn't really understand how to take a bite, but figured out how to tear off pieces and eat it. We shared a cheesecake, which she loved. I finally couldn't eat another bite, but it was phenomenal. She was adorable and very good for her age. She was also entertaining the sweet elderly couple behind us. They were eating her up.
I have spent most of the day feeling pretty rotten from the cold that Chad brought home from Iraq. Honestly, I feel so horrible that I can barely function. But I wanted to take some time to recognize that today was a special day. I am so happy that we got to spend it as a family. I just wish the boys could have been here with us. I didn't take any pictures, but we made it a point to do something special even though she won't remember it.
I worry about how she will process being adopted emotionally as she gets older. I worry that she won't consider us her "real" parents. I worry that she will feel like we love her less or she isn't really part of our family. I've made it a point to introduce the idea that she is adopted from day one. I don't want the fact that she is adopted to ever be a surprise. I want the truth to be something Lil Bit just knows.
I can't control how she feels about being adopted. Her feelings will be her own, but I can present her the facts in such a way that she knows how special her story is, how much God meant her to be a part of our family, how incredibly much she is loved. I want her to know that being adopted, chosen, makes her special. Hopefully today is just the first of many days we can celebrate making Lil Bit our forever daughter as a family.
While she is too little to remember today, I do want to start a tradition of celebrating her adoption day with something small every year. She got a fridge dj (a learning radio toy) as a present and we went out to dinner. She loved the alfredo shells and breadsticks at Olive Garden and was amazingly well behaved.
I let her have the crayons and the children's menu for the first time. She did attempt to color with them before she started trying to shove them down her throat. It was very cute. My favorite part of dinner was watching daddy watch her. He just looks at her with such amazement and wonder. I feel so good about the job I've done while he was gone when I see him appreciating her cuteness and intelligence.
She was feeding herself and drinking milk out of a straw all by herself. I gave her a breadstick. She didn't really understand how to take a bite, but figured out how to tear off pieces and eat it. We shared a cheesecake, which she loved. I finally couldn't eat another bite, but it was phenomenal. She was adorable and very good for her age. She was also entertaining the sweet elderly couple behind us. They were eating her up.
I have spent most of the day feeling pretty rotten from the cold that Chad brought home from Iraq. Honestly, I feel so horrible that I can barely function. But I wanted to take some time to recognize that today was a special day. I am so happy that we got to spend it as a family. I just wish the boys could have been here with us. I didn't take any pictures, but we made it a point to do something special even though she won't remember it.
I worry about how she will process being adopted emotionally as she gets older. I worry that she won't consider us her "real" parents. I worry that she will feel like we love her less or she isn't really part of our family. I've made it a point to introduce the idea that she is adopted from day one. I don't want the fact that she is adopted to ever be a surprise. I want the truth to be something Lil Bit just knows.
I can't control how she feels about being adopted. Her feelings will be her own, but I can present her the facts in such a way that she knows how special her story is, how much God meant her to be a part of our family, how incredibly much she is loved. I want her to know that being adopted, chosen, makes her special. Hopefully today is just the first of many days we can celebrate making Lil Bit our forever daughter as a family.
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