Forever Family Day - One Year Together!

One year ago yesterday, Katherine Joy Huihui was in my arms for the first time.
Big, somber brown eyes - she just searched mine and I can imagine she was thinking, "what in the world is this?" She saw a photo album with pictures of us once but I am sure she didn't know what was happening when she was driven 4+ hours with one of the orpanage workers to a strange building. All she had in the world was a small photo album with pictures of herself and the clothes she was wearing.
She was led in by the hand into a room where four couples were and two babies with some nannies were there already. Suddenly, this big smiling blindingly white lady was talking to her and holding her and showing her toys. What a weird thing...now they keep saying "Mama and Baba."

She cried just once and was very solemn and quiet. She wasn't upset when the orphanage worker left. The orphanage worker was just quickly gone and didn't seem too terribly concerned either. She fell asleep on my shoulder and when she woke up we were leaving down the elevator for the van. As we waited, I showed her flowers - fresh cut and beautiful in a big vase in the lobby of the government building. I smiled and showed her the flowers and let her smell them. Then I got the first smile - she liked flowers. After that - ANY time we were in the hotel lobby or anywhere that there were plants or flowers. She would get so excited and point and stop and show me flowers. So, we first bonded over flowers.

The last few days we have spent quite a lot of time doing family things. Late one night we were sleeping together (I know, I know...but they are only little so short a period of time) she rolled over and beamed at me and said, "I wush you Mama."
The first time she said it without being prompted. She is such a great kid. We love her very much.

On Friday, I received a nice email from a gentleman who had adopted a little girl from the same orphanage as Katie. They had visited the orphanage a month or two before we were there. I had left a message on their blog some time ago and he had just received it and was so kind to email me back. They hadn't gotten a lot of photos of Maonan but sent me just a few. Amazingly, the one they took of their daughter's crib has a little girl lying down with another baby sitting up in the crib next to it. The little girl lying down is Katie Hui. She looks hot and bored.
I'm glad she came home not long after this.

We spent yesterday in KC with the Clarkson family and the Smith family. The youngest member of the Smith family was adopted from MaoNan - Katie's orphanage.
The youngest member of the Clarkson family was there in that room meeting her Mom one year ago yesterday as well. We had a WONDERFUL time. Seeing these two wonderful families and sharing stories and memories was priceless. The kids had a BLAST. They played and ate and had so much fun. Thank you, Janet, for hosting us and for being such a wonderful friend.

So now we are in the last few weeks of the school year and headed into the summer. Everyone is doing well (exept Alex's bad cold) and happy to be able to swim again soon. We all went swimming in the hotel pool on Friday and they LOVED it.

I am a very, very blessed Mama with THREE wonderful children. (and a great husband)

Happy Mother's Day to everyone.

Lori