Gotcha Day!

One year ago today, AP joined our family. We got up early that day and made the drive (C thought were driving through a zoo) from Bishkek to Tokmok.

When we walked in the main room of the orphanage, all the workers were busy. We were left to look around and we were drawn to AP immediately. She was laying in the big playpen with all of her little friends. She looked right up at us. One of the caregivers then went to her and pointed to her as if to ask "this one?". We agreed and took her in her arms and she has been with us ever since. She was so weak and tiny then. She was ten, almost eleven, months old. She weighed almost 15 pounds and couldn't sit up yet. She hated trying to sit up and even acted like it hurt. She was so used to laying down most of the time. Even then she was a little fighter. Her strong-willed personality showed through right from the very beginning. (this is a crazy pic of me, but it shows how tiny AP was)

This is my blog entry from 1 year ago today from the blog we kept while travelling.

"We are here and all accounted for! There is so much to say that I don't even know where to begin. Let's see...somewhere between Nashville and Chicago I developed pink eye! But, by divine intervention, our flight landed in the same terminal that housed the Univ of Chicago Med Ctr clinic. I was able to walk in, see a doc, confirm that I very much had pink eye, get meds, and move on. We made it just in time to board our flight to Istanbul. I knew that pink eye would more than likely spread through all of us and I didn't want to leave the US without eye drops. Anyway, the rest of our flights were smooth sailing. Turkish Air was really nice. They gave C a backpack full of little activities and we all got slippers and toiletries, much nicer than I expected. We met the the other family in Turkey. We all made it to our hotel in Bishkek at about 3 am on Sunday. Our trip to the orphanage was first, so we had to be at b'fast by 8. We slept (or pretended to) for about 3 hours, then we were up. We left at 9 to go to AP's orphanage. It was about an hour drive, not too bad. We passed so many animals along the way that C asked if we were at a zoo. We finally got to the orphanage and when we walked in the staff were distracted and we picked our girl out right away. She seemed so happy to see us, although we know now that she is just a happy baby. She also thinks that A is funny looking. All he has to do is look at her and she starts laughing. She is smaller than we expected, but most of the 9 month clothes are fitting. She is starting to grow hair. Basically, she is a beautiful little princess. She stays in bed throughout the night, but she woke up about on the hour. I think this is mostly b/c we don't have the best sleeping arrangements quite yet. C has been such a trooper! He is a great big brother. The hardest part for him has been adjusting to the time difference. I think he has told me that he was sleepy a million times. We are all sleepy. Right now both the angels are asleep, I hope they stay in sync like that. AP can crawl and is into everything. We almost lost our entire dinner last night when she decided she needed the tablecloth. Ok, I am rambling and paying by the minute to update everyone. We are all here and happy, kind of healthy. Did I mention that C got pink eye too? I'll try to update again soon."

Here we are 1 year later. We had a low key little party at our house tonight to celebrate her special day. Ironically, or sadly, I was wearing the same shirt today that I was wearing 1 year ago!

This is AP saying "TahDAh and jumping off the coffee table! We ordered a cake that said "Happy Gotcha Day AP". Hubs and I got her a little jewelry to celebrate. Our girl loves her bling!