2 Months!!!

The publishing of this post is 2 months to the day since Camellia landed into our family from China. Since landing, she has experienced so many changes that I am surprised she hasn't been completely overwhelmed with it all. Landing, adjusting to the jet lag, doctors' visits, social worker visit, Thanksgiving... That was week one! From there we celebrated Mommy's birthday, Christmas parties, meeting the family, Christmas day, Santa, Jingle, SNOW, Snowmen, New Years, Daddy's obsessive hunting endeavors, and our first trip back to church as a family. All while Camellia has learned more and more every day. While she learns about us, we learn about this special little girl as we watch her personality blossom.So at 2 months I will start with a Then and Now picture...

This was Camellia just minutes after landing at the airport.

This is Camellia after 2 months with us.

Camellia is bursting with personality!

Picking up where we left off from the last blog post, she didn't speak a word of English when I met her. Now she understands quite a bit, doesn't speak it too much but it is obvious she knows what we are saying. For example, if I say it's time to eat, she'll run to the kitchen and sit at the table. If we say wash your hands, or bath time, she knows what to do. Chloe was in the other room yesterday and asked for the tissue box. Camellia ran into the kitchen, grabbed the tissues and brought them to her. So she's comprehending quite a bit!

She loves to dance, sing, gets jealous of the other kids when Nicki or I interact with them. All while her personality keeps coming out. Her siblings think she is the funniest child. Camellia seems to get really wired in the evening. Chloe jokes that it is because we feed her after dark!

 

Camellia's experience with snow was quite an adventure. She enjoyed the snow, but it took her quite a while to adjust to the cold temperature. After being outside in the snow, she wanted to go out every day after.

 However, we did learn that Camellia suffers from Chionoandrophobia, which is a fear of snowmen. 

We learned of this fear when the boys decided to make Camellia her first snowman. They constructed a little snowman on the back deck looking into the window. Every day until the snowman melted she would not go into the dining room where the snowman would peer into the room. Even now a picture of a snowman in a book or on a decoration scares her. 

So lets talk about Christmas! What a wonderful time it was to celebrate the birth of our Savior for the first time with the whole family together! I felt like Camellia missed out on the first few years, so this one was going to be special! We kept the day special by staying home with just the 6 of us. We took our time getting up in the morning, enjoyed breakfast, and then opened presents. 

Breakfast was quite interesting. The kids all decided not to look at any of the gifts or even go in the room with the tree as to not be too surprised from Santa until after breakfast. So as seen in the video below, I asked Chloe to help with breakfast by getting the milk out of the refrigerator. 

As you noticed, Chloe LOVES venison probably as much or more than Camellia loves noodles. In fact, venison filet is her favorite meal and she always makes her Daddy ration enough of the filet so we can enjoy it for her birthday. Unfortunately, I was in China during deer season this year so by Christmas, I had not harvested any deer. Luckily Santa realized this and left Chloe a very special present. After the video finished, Chloe indicated that the package was probably reindeer. She even said that the package was either a reindeer that couldn't fly, OR probably Dasher or Dancer because they are old since they drove Santa's sleigh when Daddy was a kid. 

The living room looked like a postcard picture after Santa left.

 

Camellia was overwhelmed with the presents but she absolutely loved opening gifts. Santa was smart enough to put Camellia's gifts in the center of the room and place the rest of the kids under the tree so everyone could control the chaos.

Being gone in China for over 2 weeks and then home another week upon my return, I was running out of vacation time. Fortunately, the office closes between Christmas and New Years Day so I was able to be home. We spent the remainder of the time relaxing and enjoying our time together as a family. I managed to do a few projects around the house. Such as hang a new light in the breakfast nook of the kitchen and remodel the mud room of the house. New Years Eve, we relaxed and enjoyed our annual New Years Eve fondue dinner.

 Camellia thought this was a wonderful dinner. Primarily because of all the variety of dipping sauces she was able to use. Then for New Years Day, we spent the day playing games together. 

 Finally,  Daddy's obsessive hunting addiction got the best of him and the boys and I were able to harvest a nice little buck. The girls were excited as both girls absolutely love venison. I have even managed to make Asian dishes out of the venison that Camellia really liked. 

Last weekend was our first trip back to church as a family. It was great to see our church family and friends. We took Camellia up on stage during the kids' services and introduced her to the group. She loved the microphone and was quite the little ham saying, "Hi" and "Bye" to the group. She did well sitting with us at service and she even wanted to go on stage during the main service.

So at 2 months home, we all have learned so much about God's love.  We are blessed more and more every day.