Hi Everyone--
Today, we celebrate 23 months with our beautiful little girl!! I continue to marvel at how much that she fits so well into our family, how much that she has grown and developed, and how very, very easily that we have bonded. Two years ago at this time, I was anxiously awaiting our travel plans, dealing with the delay due to a massive snow storm on the East Coast and hoping that everything would work out with timing for traveling to China and for my conference in St. Louis. I should never have worried-- God had everything under control-- and still does!!
Twenty-three months ago, we put everything on hold and focused on coaxing our 13 month old baby to smile, eat, sleep, and stand. Today, she's well integrated into the daily blur of our lives. She always wants to know where we're going, who we're going to see, and what we're going to do. As the little sister, she's most often along for the ride as we go to Emmy's basketball games, pick Chelsea up from track practice, or drop the older girls at dance or school. However, she's now the one that gets "dropped" at pre-school on two mornings per week. We're careful to let her know who will be retrieving her and when, and, although she enjoys the experience, she eagerly probes to make sure that Mommy or Daddy will come and get her at the end of the morning.
As Emmy attended a school dance (and sold concessions as a student council member) and Chelsea Meagan went to dance class, Roger and I took Ellie-Kate to dinner at the China buffet and then to the indoor playground in the mall. As she jumped off of objects in the playground, laughing and rolling on the ground, I recalled how hard that it was for her to even sit up after we held her for the first time. Because she was delayed physically, we got to watch as she stood for the first time, crawled for the first time, walked for the first time. Thinking about her effortless movement around the playground tonight, I praise God for allowing us to see all of those firsts AND, most importantly, for allowing her to catch up and to heal so quickly. The little girl with her hips out of place and a hole in her heart can now dribble a basketball better than others years older and dash across a room. If people didn't know, they would never realize that she had been labeled as a "special needs" baby with issues that sounded quite scary on paper.
Thank you, God, for the gift of Ellie-Kate! I think that the month between February 23 and March 23 will always be a time of special reflection for me as I celebrate the precious miracles that happened to allow our safe travel to China and as I praise the addition of this amazing girl into our family.
Hope all is well with everyone! Thanks for caring about our family :)
Christie
