18 months

My big girls weight is 20 pounds 9 ounces 4th percentile, her head is 46.5cm 48th percentile, and her length is 29 3/4 inches which is 6th percentile.

I honestly can't believe Ella is closer to 2 than 1. She is doing phenominal. Her level of understanding is easily above level. She has great communication skills. She knows TONS of words, but many of them sound similar. Usually situationally I can fiqure out what she is getting at. Esecially since she mixes sign language with spoken language and then adds her own gestures. It is amazing how much development I see in her language every single day.

She is WALKING! Recently she just decided she would, so she did. She actually rarely walks and prefers to run. She can also climb pretty much anything.

She loves singing. Up until recently "Wheels in the bus" and "If your happy and you know it", but now she is slightly obsessed with Santa. She loves "Up on the housetop", "Frosty the snoman", and "Santa clause is coming to town."

She still likes playing with babies and trucks the most. She also likes tv. Bo On The Go and Elmo are the favorites.

Less than a year between

Someone stole my precious baby and replaced her with a darling little girl! Perhaps it was Santa!

Pain of adoption

Adoption is painful. I don't know that I could have understood the emotional complexity of adopting before having actually been there. I read a quote that "in a perfect world there would be no adoption". This is true. I am proud to have a gorgeous, wonderful daughter that happens to be adopted. However there is a flip-side to every coin. For me to have my love, someone elses had to be taken. For my family to be created another had to be torn apart. It is hard for me to not think about this. I wonder on a daily basis if her birth-family thinks about her, misses her, or if they regret their decision. I wonder if in several years she will be contacted by her siblings, or the parents that she never knew. Will she hate them? Will she feel like they "gave" her away? At the same time what is my role in the situation. I want more than anything to tell her she was loved and worshiped and she is missed every single second of every single day and have it be true, but is it the truth? The truth is I don't know. There are allot of questions she will someday ask that I simply don't have the answer to. Of course there will also be questions I know the answer to, but may not want to share. There is not instruction book for life after YOUR adoption. Figuring it out will be a guessing game. I just hope I guess right!

National Adoption Month

I just signed up for a blog challenge! The challenge is write a few blog posts this month with a focus on adoption. Keep checking back!

*also know that much of my journey to my adoption is documented under a different blog. www.meandmylittle4.blogspot.com feel free to pop over and read posts from over there is you are interested!