AP Adoption Day

Two years ago today we met our feisty little pumpkin. Words cannot describe how much she has grown, changed, and learned over the last 2 years. She is so very different from the infant-like 10 month old that we met that day. But, in some ways she is so much the same. Her spunky personality was with her even in the attention-starved environment that she came from. She has been opinionated from Day 1. In the videos that we saw of her at 5 months old, she was throwing a full out fit when our facilitator tried to put her down. She is still very much that way. She is a strong-willed determined little girl. That will be such an asset for her. It does make parenting her very interesting, but I would not change her a bit. She truly is an amazing little girl, as is her older brother. I can hardly remember life without her. She is such a blessing to our little family. I posted this last year, but here is an excerpt from our travel journal on the day that we met...

"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."

I don't have any pictures of that day, and most of you that have been reading this for a while know why. Our camera was stolen out of the diaper bag that we were wearing while in Almaty. But I get to take pictures of her every day! Here are the many faces of AP two years after joining her forever family...

Last night we made cupcakes together for her to share with her friends today.

AP blessing her cupcakes at church tonight :) Then passing them out to her friends.

A little cuddle time with daddy before bed.