2nd week home

 

 

I must say that I have a great boss. He is a wonderful man, brilliant, and becoming a good friend at the same time. He treated me to lunch today at P.F. Chang's. I told him I couldn't remember the last time I ate Chinese food so I was excited to go. :)  Anyway, after finishing the meal, I received the above fortune in my fortune cookie. Never full of any real fortune, I find fortune cookies to be silly. After studying the comment, I must say that there is some truth to the phrase. Only, I would insist that Camellia's testimony has touched the lives of more people in the past 4 weeks than I ever have in all my 38 years! The counts on this blog site prove this! I am simply blessed that God chose me to be her Daddy! What an amazing girl, what an amazing story, and God's not finished with her yet! I'm confident that he will continue his work in her until Christ's return.  It's amazing to witness this girl transform through the Grace that God gave us. Just more proof that God has a purpose for every life in this world. Now I just pray that I can complete my task as her earthly father and teach her about her heavenly Father.

Two weeks home and one month from Gotcha Day! I'd love to say we are all settled in and doing just fine but things take time. Overall, Camellia is doing great and exceeding my expectations. So in order to give everyone an idea of how she is adjusting, I will outline some of her strengths and weaknesses during this transition.
She is a genuine sweetheart. She greets you with a smile, blowing of kisses, hugs, and is really turing into a happy little girl. She's lovable and likes to show us affection. She spent the night tonight falling asleep trying to blow me kisses. She also appears to have quite the funny personality. She enjoys making faces at us to make us laugh and especially likes making faces at herself in the mirror. She loves to dress up in Pink and Lavendar and is suprising to me as she really loves Girly Girly things just like her sister Chloe.

 

At the same time, she gets along great with her brothers. She loves to do what they do. So if they are playing Nerf guns, going outside, playing with cars, she is right there!

 

 

 

Its hard to talk ill about your own child. You love them unconditionally so even though there are struggles, I would never want her to think I am angry with her. We simply have 4 years of living in an orphanage to overcome. That being said, I will share her struggles because I know some who read this blog are considering adoption themselves. She still struggles with sleeping, eating, sharing, and playing.

Bedtime is now down to between 40 and 60 minutes for her to fall asleep. All while someone is in the room holding her hand, rubbing her back, and telling her night, night. This is nice when she's being sweet, not so nice when she's having a bad day.

Meal time is interesting. She eats well, but eats as fast as she can. When she is especially hungry, she shakes and will grasp at any food she can reach. Even when she is full, she will get upset if you clear her plate. We've found that we simply clear the table, leave her plate for last and she will finally let go of the plate.

She loves to get into stuff, tear it apart and leave the mess for someone else to clean up later (just like any 4 year old). She does a lot of watching, or destruction of her siblings toys (They are SO patient with her, it's such a blessing). We are finding that she likes to run about, play with blocks, and go outside. Its so different than the other 3 kids because as parents of a child from infancy, you learn all of their likes, dislikes, and temperment at the same time they learn the same about you.

 Tantrums are a little better in that, we know that she throws them when she's hungry, sad, tired, buckled into anything, is told no, or doesn't get her way. They seem to be better as she is beginning to realize that the Tantrum isn't yielding her expected outcome.

 

 

Through it all, Nicki and I are continually blessed. Camellia now holds our hands, bows her little head and closes her eyes when we pray at dinner. She loves to dance to music, and is trusting us a little more every day. We recently found that she already knows the song Ring around the Rosy. She loves to play this with Chloe. Kind of amazing that this little song made it half way around the world. But she holds hands, walks in a circle and falls to the ground when you sing, "All Fall Down!"

So we are trying to get back to normal in the household. We pretty much wrote off hunting this year as there is just too much going on. Chloe was very unhappy as deer steaks are her favorite. Jack was unhappy as he, like his dad, had the outdoor bug. We were managing just fine until Jack brought the following picture back from the trail camera in the back yard. He (and his dad) were amazed to find such a big deer in the back yard.

So the next day, in spite of the rainstorm, we sat up in our new 2 person tree stand. No luck yet...

But its only a matter of time before he gets his first buck! We walked back in the house after a few hours of hunting to find Chloe run up into my arms give me a big hug and tell me I'm the best Daddy in the world. Upon asking why, she said; "Because you are trying to get me deer steaks for my birthday!" She then told me, "Daddy, I would really like a deer mounted in my bedroom but I don't think Mommy would like that."

Camellia likes to dress up, but she seems to have a hard time standing still for a photo.  But when she does smile for a picture, it lights up her whole face!

 

Looking forward to Christmas!