One Year Home

OK, the last post I wrote actually was meant to be a draft and somehow it got published before I could finish it...oh well.  If it seemed "unfinished" it was;)  Anyway, I am a day late but I have to remember to share that Avah has been home for one year on June 21st.  If you are wondering how she is doing, let me share (and shamelessly brag) about our Little Big Girl...also, I need to update for Avah's sweet fostermom who visits my blog nearly every day!:)

I simply cannot believe how well she is doing.

1.  She has attached 99% (attachment is always a process) but she completely loves her family.  She and her siblings never (seriously) fight.  She does not cause them problems or try to annoy them.  K and K both have superb tolerance for her on her especially chatty nights when they are trying to watch TV and Avah can't stop squealing with Daddy.  As I mentioned earlier, Kacie helps take care of Avah all the time.  In fact, right now both girls are sleeping together in Avah's bed. 

2.  She is super smart.  She is already writing letters (her favorite is "A") and she knows all her shapes and colors.  She listens almost always the first time, and will immediately go "brush her teeth" or "go to bed" as soon as we mention it.  She is always one step ahead of us on this:)  K and K are usually one step behind;)

3.  She LOVES kids.  One of her new favorite little people is our neighbor, Will.  He is almost 18 months old and she loves to go out and play with him in the evenings.  She can harldy get out the door fast enough and runs full speed to his house! Will has stayed at our house during the day last week and Avah would always try to hold his hands and lead him around.  They loved to "cook" together and play on the slide.  Avah is always thinking of others, she will always bring a child a toy to play with whether it be at my house or even in public.  We were at Wonderscope (kid museum) and she overheard a little girl saying she didn't have a bucket to carry balls in...Avah immediately began running around the room, looking for a bucket to give to the little girl.  She is just so kind and empathetic.  She reminds me so much of how Kacie was at that age. 

4.  She sleeps all night.  We are just lucky with this.  It is nothing that we did, it just goes along with Avah being so obedient.  If she wakes in the night I will just go in and get her back on the pillow straight and then walk out again.  This rarely happens but is an easy fix if it does. 

5.  While she loves kids, she does not let adults into her life very easily.  It takes her a very long time to develop any kind of trust with adults.  Some of her favorite adults are:  Ms. Lindsey, her speech therapist, Kyla and Bu-Sung (both my good friends and we see them at TKD classes twice a week).  And, of course, Omi might just be her very favorite (my mom).  She can get quite silly when Omi is around.  When these few adults are around, Avah LOVES to play with them.  Forget Mommy!  She loves the attention of her grown up friends.

6.  She is such a rule follower (still!) and although she would rather not hold hands in a store, you better believe she is quick to grab my hand at the parking lot:)  She is still a little duck and follows me everywhere, just like she did at the airport in Korea a year ago so I have no worries about her not staying with me. 

7.  She is mostly potty trained.  Her cue that she uses when she has to go potty is she comes up to me and simply says, "Mama" and just takes my hand.  I say mostly because she is almost always dry through the night but still at times, wakes up wet. 

8.  Speech is still a struggle, but, she is doing so much better.  There are some sounds, that she is just not able to make due to the appraxia.  She repeats what I say and can say 1000s of words:)  For example, I'll tell her, "put your shoes on, Avah".  She will say back to me, "Put my shoes on, Mama?" as she puts on her shoes.  SHe does this with nearly everything I tell her.  She will repeat it back to me, in a question like form.  Some of my favorite things or phrases she says are:  after asking her where anything is, she says, "I doe know?".  "Where are you?...Dere y are", "O-day" (for okay), "Ce Ce did it" (for whenever Kacie does something wrong or questionable), "I did it", "Here Mama" (whenever she gives me anything) and so many more.  She uses pronouns very well and uses "mine" and "yours" correctly.  It sill amazes me how fast she learned English.  She listens to books and understands stories and laughs at  appropriate times (with TV too)

9.  TV is another funny thing with her!  She LOVES America's Funniest Home Videos show and between her and Kaden laughing, Ryan and I can barely breathe!  They are both so funny!  Avah just loves to laugh!  She watches TV now more than ever and she looks for any excuse to laugh which of course, makes me laugh too because her laugh is so genuine.  Her favorite TV character is Dora.

10.  And, finally, the anxiety.  It is still a part of who she is.  It doesn't always show though but it is still a challenge.  The only time she is a challenge is when she is anxious.  The anxiety just doesn't go away, she has to go through a whole cycle of anxiousness starting from just being mildly uncomfortable to a full blown screaming fit to usually get herself under control.  However, this can take hours:(  It is very hard to do playdates because she is too worried about the adults that I know but that she doesn't know well enough.  She cannot just "loosen up" and have fun with the kids.  We rarely see her anxious anymore but that is just because we are in the kind of situations that make her anxious. She will be tested in July, we will be heading to Korea Camp where she really struggled last year.  I am hoping this year she will have more fun.

So, that is my Avah update for now.  It has been a year and the pain of wanting her home is almost gone.  I don't feel the anger of the wait as much as I used to, I am just so relieved that she is home.  She completes us so completely and we are so blessed with our three Korean miracles and we try to enjoy every moment. 

Sisters meeting for the first time

She still looks cute in yellow!

The morning after we got her...she ate watermelon for breakfast but would not get out of her stroller

waiting for the Eastern driver, Avah and Kacie running around the hotel lobby

I forget what made her cry here:( 

playing in the play area at the Korean airport

she would follow Kacie everywhere

Kaden was not quite sure what to think, neither did we...she could cry at any moment:(

watching pororo the penguin after eating on the plane

one of the times she sat in her own chair on the airplane

K and K loving every minute of the long flight and being spoiled with their movies and games

Daddy did this to welcome us home!!

Ce Ce and Avah, beginning their journey together as we leave our hotel in Korea