Long overdue update

Hey all you patient people.  I have been meaning to sit down and update this since, well forever.  I have so much to share.  Grace is doing wonderful.  She has taken off full speed ahead with the walking and acts like she has been doing it forever.  She is picking up signs everyday, though she doesn't always use them appropriately, we'll get there.  She has gained 2 1/2 pounds and 1 inch in a month.  She is happy when she wakes up, and she is sleeping more soundly through the night.  Her personality is blossoming.  She is so happy and busy, its like she was made for our family.  I know God picked just the right kid for our household.  She has been to the pediatrician twice, as well as the Ear, Nose and Throat doctor, and the plastic surgeon.  She is healthy with concerns only arising from her cleft lip and palate.  We will be going in for surgery Dec. 7th at 7:30 in the morning, and she will be having her lip sewn up as well as tubes put in her ears.  It is common for cleft babies to have trouble with their ears, so she needs the tubes to help her begin hearing better.  I am not looking forward to surgery, or to the stay in the hospital, but we knew what we were getting into.
I have been asked a lot about the rest of the kids and how they are adjusting.  I just want everyone to know, they are acting like they just got a new sibling.  In their amazing and loving minds, it doesn't matter that Grace came from China instead of my tummy.  They love her, and over love her, just like they would any sibling.  Ainsley has taken on the role of big sister and embraced it.  I have to tame her sometimes.  The boys love playing with her and keeping her out of trouble.  Brandt is so grown up and mature about everything.  Holden is loving and caring.  Wyatt felt she was stealing a bit of his attention, but loves her anyway.  It has gone amazingly smoothly.
I must say, it has been through prayer that this has been just an amazing process.  God has walked through it all with us.  He prepared Grace for us and us for her.  She was meant to be in our family, even though I am heart broken over the mother that left her at the entrance to the hospital.  If people ask, I tell them it has been an amazing journey.  I must remind myself to also say, it hasn't been easy.  It has been very hard and emotional, and expensive and exhausting, but it has been amazing to see the hand of God on the entire process.  He has been faithful to see us through the process and to bring our baby home.  There is a Tobymac Christmas song that has the verse from James in it "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows"  I start tearing up every time I hear it because Grace is no longer an orphan.  She is our daughter and she has a mom and dad and siblings that love her and accept her as a Kelly.
I will go now and chase some kids.  Maybe clean a room or two.  Blessings in this Holiday season, and maybe it won't be so long next time before I sit down to blog.

Our advancing daughter

So, it has only been about 3 weeks since we returned to the US with our new daughter.  We returned and expected her to begin to develop and catch up with her peers, but we weren't prepared for how quickly it would happen.  Let me just say, when we got her, we felt she had the development of a seven month old.  She would sit, but not really play and not move around at all.  She showed very little emotion, other than screaming and crying, and she was uncomfortable being held.  I have to write this all down, because I will not remember this for long.  She is advancing at lightning speed.  Mike and I joke about how we like instant gratification.  Well, she is advancing so quickly, we are rewarded daily with how much she is learning.  To look at her today, you can almost picture her as a 21 month old.  I am going to outline some of the progress we are making, more for me to remember, because I don't ever want to forget how much God is doing in this precious child's life.  It took a week for us to see her first beautiful smile.  We now see it all the time.  She smiles in response to family and friends, and when she is enjoying a fun toy, or being entertained by one of the pets.  Her smile lights up her whole face.  When we got her, she screamed in the bath.  She hated being in there.  The last bath we gave her, she didn't cry at all.  She enjoys having water poured over her head and she likes to splash.  When we got her, she hated cars or any vehicle that moved.  She screamed so hard a couple times, she threw up.  Now she fusses when we strap her in, but calms down and enjoys the ride.  She enjoys watching her siblings and she also sometimes even falls asleep.  When we got her, she did not move.  We didn't think she was capable of crawling and we expected it to be months before she did.  Well, the day of her first pediatricians appointment, 4 days after we got home, she crawled after her sister, then Monday of this week, she decided to start walking.  Awesome moment.  She was playing with Mike and I during Ainsley's gymnastics class, when we decided to send her back and forth between us.  She was so reluctant to put weight on her legs, but we convinced her she could, and all of a sudden she was walking.  For two days now, she has taken off.  She is a walker.  She still gets very nervous, but she is learning.  We now hear her babble constantly.  I had to take her out of the kids' assembly today, because she was being a little chatter box.  I know my Sunday's with her in service with us are numbered.  I am praising God, because she was silent except for when she cried the first couple weeks we had her and now we hear her all the time.  She says a word that sounds like hi when she waves, she looks at us when we call her name, and she knows who mommy and daddy are if you ask her.

Grace walking video

The walking thing caught me off guard.   I was expecting at least a month of wobbles before she was really walking, but I really think she wants to catch up and chase her siblings around.  She loves them. It is so sweet.  We are thankful she is walking now, and not in a month, because we are hoping to have her first surgery on her lip in about a month.  I would love for her to be solid on her feet without the constant worry of her falling and splitting her newly sealed lip open.  We are preparing for some hard times around her surgery.  It is a pretty complicated procedure to get all the muscles realigned and the tissues where they belong, then recovery, hoping it stays sealed with no infection and that she starts eating again quickly.  She is tiny.  We know she had only gained about 1 pound in the 9 months from her medical exam last Dec. to the day we got her.  She has a lot of catch up to do.  She has no reserves to call on if she isn't eating constantly.  We are hoping this month, while we are waiting for her surgery date, she will fill in some, so she has some extra energy and weight to rely on while she is recovering.  The doctors feel she is healthy enough for the surgery, but it would be nice if she was eating well before the procedure.  There are so many other things she has learned, I am already forgetting.  She is feeding herself and chewing, she is playing with toys, and interacting with her family.  All of this is new.  She is amazing and a testament to what God can do, and what love is capable of.  We are blessed by her and blessed by this journey.

 Crawling

 Pumpkin patch

 Pumpkin carving

 Our ladybug

 On our way to Hooray Candy at the church

Preview of family pictures 2012

The rest of the fam is doing great.  We celebrated Halloween at our church party, and by carving pumpkins.  We attended a couple of end of the season soccer games.  We started basketball season.  We are getting excited about seeing family over the Thanksgiving holiday.  We are looking forward to everyone meeting our new addition.  Life continues, and we are adjusting to life with 5.