Happy 1st Gotcha Day Laikyn 5/21

On this day last year, A kicking, screaming Mingzhu was placed in my arms. I loved her deeply through those first difficult moments and within minutes I was able to see a transformation take place as she calmed and began to respond to my hand running by rubbing my hand back. Still shaky, she accepted a treat from me and began to look at me. Soon we were playing together in the office play area. It was like a dream and as I look at her today, I'm still seeing that transformation happening. We've had a wonderful first year together but it
hasn't been without struggles. Like a butterfly emerging from the cocoon, the struggles of sleep disturbances and medical issues have made us stronger as a family. We have also created many beautiful memories over this first year together, watching her embrace all of the things she has never experienced like church, family trips, movie theaters, picnics, parties and holiday traditions. Her language is still coming along. She can almost always tell what she is wanting to say and get close enough that we can figure it out. In the car the other day, she kept repeating, "Bubba Himmy". We finally figured it was Bubba Hit me and she was so excited that Korbin got in trouble. Later she got a bottom swat for something and that turned into a half hour of reporting, "daddy himmy". Love that girl! Today we made sure we watched our China video with her. Nothing new since she watches them almost daily anyway. The plan is to celebrate by taking her to do a special activity and a fun restaurant over the next day or two.

5-23 We were able to celebrate today ! We started with a trip to Evansvilee Red Robin where Laikyn got a balloon, one of her favorites! Next we went over to the Build a Bear store where she picked out a kitty cat to stuff. I predicted that one as she always gets excited when she sees cats. We also had to put the sound in it since she is so good at saying meow. She gave the heart a loving kiss before putting it into her kitty. I asked what his name was and she said, "Meow"! Not sure why I didn't think of that one. We ended with a trip to the Orange Leaf in Evansville just to see how it compared to our store. It was a long day with only a short car nap, but she did great. I'm sure she had no idea what this gotcha day was all about, but I'm sure she will come to love it as much as big sis does. Poor Korbin was mad all day because he doesn't have a Gotcha day.