Gotcha Day!

Whew – getting time to update this is going to be more difficult than I expected! I have a busy, curious little five year old girl with me who is quite intrigued at the view of a laptop : ) So, this is a quick update as I wake up randomly at 1:00 a.m. – I think I am very  sensitive to any little noise she makes, but she IS asleep : )

I finally made it to the transition home around 2:15 yesterday afternoon to pick Annaliese up! She did not say much, but she was definitely excited that I was there! She ran up, all smiles, and literally looked over my shoulder as if to say, “hey, where’s that other guy??” She seemed okay with it, though, and our translator was able to explain that daddy was at home and she would see him soon.

For me, the whole day was much more difficult than I expected. I was exhausted from no sleep after arriving around7:30 a.m., more sad than I expected that Jonathan is back home, and nervous that I could not do this “mom stuff” well enough. I was beginning to feel like I made a mistake…until I saw her and we spent the remainder of the day together : ) The attachment & bonding has definitely begun and I undoubtedly feel that Jonathan & I made the best decision for her!

She was very curious and was into EVERTYTHING at the guesthouse. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. – if you have not baby proofed yet, you may start to work on that! I literally mean everything – it is all so new to her and she doesn’t know what it is used for, how it smells, how it tastes, etc. until she checks it out : ) I think I have everything up high, now, though!

We read all sorts of books and played together last evening until it was time for bed. She loves to sing – she sings me songs and I have begun to teach her some of our’s (her favorite is twinkle, twinkle little star). Bedtime was a bit of a struggle, but she fell asleep around 9:30 p.m. I thought that was pretty good under the circumstances. I think tomorrow will be an even better day with us both rested.

Please continue to pray. This is definitely going well, but will be more exhausting than I realized : ) She is precious, though, and every minute is worth it : )