Twenty Months Old

Sorry I haven’t updated my journaling much lately, I figured that through the pictures you could probably get a good idea of what we have been up to lately. Myah continues to amaze us on a daily basis. She is sure full of sunshine. She is really developing her own personality and isn’t afraid to express her opinions about things. Her favorite “new” thing to say is “no”. She says it so matter of factly that we just have to laugh. She shakes her head no and changes the subject really quickly when we ask her to do something that she isn’t really keen on doing, like going to bed. Although I can’t even complain in that department, she does and always has gone to bed very easily for us. She likes to be in bed at 7:00 pm and will sleep till 7:00am. We are blessed! She has really taken a liking to playing with her dolls. She is quite a good “mommy”. She likes cheering Dayton on at his basketball games every Saturday. She doesn’t like to sit for long so it can get interesting trying to keep her occupied, the first game she threw my cell phone onto the court and last game she spilled all of her goldfish crackers right by Dayton’s coach. She has an infectious smile, she loves to smile at everyone. She warms our hearts when she says our names to people and pats at her chest as to say “they are mine”. We continue to praise God every day for the gift of Myah in our lives. She has such an old soul and feels like she has been a part of our family forever. She loves to give us kisses and after she gives one she has to go around to all of us and make sure we all get one, two, three and four… it becomes a game. She is really starting to love books, her favorite is 8 Silly Monkeys ( I am sure you know the story,… one fell off and bumped his head…. Mama called the Dr….) today I asked her what does a monkey say and she started waving her finger and said “NO NO”. I had to laugh. She loves to imitate animal sounds. We have been enjoying this winter, we really haven’t been outside much due to no snow and then when we finally do get it the temps are way too cold to take her out in it. It has been so nice just staying home inside and getting to bond with her. She is now running everywhere and getting into everything still. I really have to watch her every move. She is just full of curiosity. She loves to explore every drawer, every button and every room. We took her to the Chinese New Year festival put on by the FCC (families with Chinese children) group last weekend. I was so glad that we did this. I hate to admit that sometimes I forget about her heritage in the day to day life, but seeing the older girls and realizing that they do enjoy celebrating the traditional holidays, it made me more aware of the importance of keeping Myah’s Chinese heritage in her life and hopefully in her heart. I found a great Chinese market the other day and I purchased some special candy and items that are traditionally eaten during their new year. The ladies in there were telling me how lucky Myah is to have been adopted by American parents and I once again had to say that we were the lucky ones. I also learned that it is tradition for the parents to give their children money in red envelopes for the holiday. They also told me that it is considered a time of “renewal”, they get all new clothes, they wear nothing old, get haircuts ( don’t think I will be doing that), and light firecrackers at midnight. So I did get Myah a new outfit and I had bought some red envelopes while we were in her Province so I will make sure she gets her money too. I just really feel the need to keep that part of her past alive. It is the least I can do. The Chinese New Year starts on the 18th of February this year. This is our 8th month of sharing our lives with our little girl and it seems like I am getting more and more sentimental when I look back on all that we went through to get Myah. Our adoption is truly a miracle from start to finish. God truly had his hand in every step of the way. I want to start a journal section of things that I don’t want to forget that have happened before during and after our journey. Look for this section soon, it is more for my sake so that I can share as many memories as possible with Myah in the future. I seem to have short term memory loss lately so this will be a good place for me to jot down things as they pop into my head! Ahh the life of a mom! We want to say a special hello to Grandma Schultz as she is on a journey across the U.S. with Aunt Julie, I know she checks this and we want to let her know how much we miss her! We would also like to say thank you for still showing an interest in our lives, I am not sure how much longer we will keep up with this site, it sure is an easy way for our family and friends who all live away from us to get their "Myah fix" as they call it. We have loved sharing our experience with many families that are in the adoption process and have been honored to be asked to speak at another information meeting for AAI. We also were asked to submit our "story" for our agency's website. We really don't think that we are anything special, but if there is anything that we can do to let couples know that their dreams of a family can be a reality, we will do it!