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Both girls are obsessed with iPhone games


Today I am thankful for today being the day of Annie's Giving and Receiving Ceremony. For those of you unfamiliar with the Vietnam adoption process, this is the day that the child is "given" to you in the eyes of the Vietnamese government. This is the day that she was with us from then on.

I can remember the day very clearly. We were still a little off on our time change and I didn't really sleep at all the night before. I actually blogged at 4 am Vietnam time and Lucy was up by 4:30. We had to meet in the hotel lobby at 6 am, so it was fine that we were all up so early. We drove from the hotel to the Hoi An orphanage where we picked up the orphanage director and a baby and young girl that were being adopted by travel mates of ours. There were 3 of us with babies from Que Son and we had to wait out the 1.5 hour drive because our babies would meet up in Tam Ky at the G&R. It was yucky weather. A bad storm had blown in that stayed the rest of the time we were in Danang. I had of course left a short sleeve onesie and dress for Annie to wear when we visited the orphanage. I knew that the nannies would not like this and just as I had hoped, they sent her in a sweater and socks so that she would have some keepsakes like Lucy did from the orphanage.

Lucy did not have her best morning that day. She was very tired and just acting like a 2 year old. She was fussing and crying during most of the G&R so I was out in the hall with her until it was our turn, at which point she did settle down. Thank goodness. She was wild again after our turn, so I really wasn't in the G&R room very much. Both girls napped on the ride home. We pretty quickly gave Annie a bath because she was so stinky from spit up.

Honestly, at this point, we thought that Annie was going to be a breeze. She didn't fuss at all. She napped well. She was happy during bath and she ate well. The first night she only woke up one time and Justin put her on his chest and she slept there the rest of the night peacefully. I remember going to breakfast the next morning feeling great. I bragged on how awesome she did all day and night. Oh me oh my, we were in for a BIG surprise in the next couple of days when all hell broke loose.

For everyone that read Annie's travel blog, I just want to take a moment and thank all of you that took time to leave me the most awesome comments while we traveled. I am not kidding when I say that they got me through that trip when things went south. I would sit at the computer every night and read them and just cry my eyes out over all that was happening and all of the love and support that I got from people reading the blog. So honestly, thank you so much.

Developmentally, Annie is still playing catch up in some areas. She still struggles with her hands and she has very little arm strength. She spends a lot of therapy working on things like pulling toys apart because she really can't do things like this. Her arms have always been so weak, and the fact that she basically skipped crawling didn't help this at all. We tried so hardly to make her crawl, but she just wouldn't really do it. She is a great walker though and her legs seemed to catch right up once we got her the therapy she needs. She is still in OT. Her mouth is still has extremely low tone. You guys obviously see that she is wearing a bib all of the time. She drools like no one you have ever seen. It is like she is just unaware of her mouth all together a lot of the time. We do different things with her mouth to work on her becoming more aware, and they are helping, but very, very slowly. I will not miss the drool at all one day. It is just so much and she is constantly wet!!

I have been sharing a lot lately about Annie and her story. Sometimes I fear that I am way oversharing, but I just want adoptive parents and prospective adoptive parents to know what it can be like. It is certainly not all roses. We are so fortunate that Annie became so accepting and loving of us so quickly. Given her circumstances, we could have had a much more difficult road than we did. And it was not easy. But I will say it over and over again, it was all worth it and I would have gone through much, much worse if it had meant that we got to be a part of Annie's family. She was, and still is, worth every tear, every sleepless night, every frustration, and every worry that we all went through together.

Is she completely over everything? I definitely don't think so. One day soon I will write extensively about how I view her attachment and the work that we still have to do and are currently doing. Her past still rears its ugly head every once in a while and you can just see it in her eyes and hear it in her scream that the scars are still there. But she is awesome. And she has made so much more progress quicker than any of could have ever imagined. And I am sitting here with huge tears in my eyes thinking of all that she has overcome in her 19 months of life and just how she has done it. By giggling, loving, and smiling the biggest smile of all time with her whole little body and soul. She is such an inspiration to me and I hope that by sharing her story, she will let other people be inspired. She is a determined little girl.







Look at her skin. All of those scars are completely gone and she has the softest, most gorgeous skin you could ever imagine.










She couldn't resist giving us a few of these. We knew she was going to be so smiley, and we were right.