Defending The Fatherless

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

SWEET CAROLINE

I HAVE TO INTERRUPT THE ADOPTION/TOG POSTS FOR A VERY IMPORTANT BIRTHDAY MESSAGE. OUR SWEET CAROLINE HAS TURNED 5!!!! (CAN'T BELIEVE SHE'S THAT OLD)

Caroline was born 5 years ago ON Memorial Day. We had been at the beach for the weekend and actually ended up driving from the beach to the hospital for her early arrival (she wasn't due until June 19th). That girl has had a mind of her own ever since :-)

Her birthday happened to be the morning after we arrived home with Rahel. I had already wrapped her presents, planned her birthday meals and scheduled a day of fun with me at the cupcake shop and nail salon.

My mom joined us and Caroline shared her pedicure.

Then it was time for ice cream sundaes at home with the family (I think Rahel thinks we eat cake and ice cream everyday-we had a "welcome" home cake the day she arrived, brownie sudaes on Caroline's birthday and cupcakes at our friend's house the next day for Memorial day).

It was a special day for our special girl.

Happy Birthday Caroline!!!

A MEMORABLE MEMORIAL DAY

Memorial Day 2011 was full of family fun and memories. The kids are loving having Rahel home. She has taken a particular liking to Caroline which I was a little surprised by. I thought she would tend to gravitate towards Hermela as they are closer in age, but she absolutely loves Caroline (not that she doesn't like Hermela-she's actually kind to everyone). She carries Caroline around and is always giving her attention which is just what she needs, so it works out pretty nicely for everyone.

First time down the slide (this was day 3 home-she wouldn't go down earlier).

She's a little silly :-)

She seems to be adjusting pretty well to everything. I'm always wondering what she is thinking. It's so different bringing home an older child because she definitely knows what's going on, but she can't really express any thoughts or feeling yet. I can't wait for her English to pick up so that she is able to tell me what she thinks about everything (or maybe I can-hmmm). She is pretty easy going so far, seems happy and is very smart. She knows all of her colors, shapes, letters and sounds, numbers, simple addition and subtraction and is even reading sentences in English. I actually think she understands a whole lot of English because when she does speaks in English, it is usually in short sentences, not just one word questions or answers. Pretty impressive as she didn't speak any English 14 weeks ago when we visited for court.

We thought it might be a good idea to introduce her to water and bathing suits on Sunday as we knew we were going to take her swimming on Monday. She LOVED it!