My how time flies when you are having fun. Are we having fun yet? :-)
Olivia has changed tremendously over this past year. She has gained 11 pounds and grown 6 inches. She sometimes tells us, �oweee legs, oweee arms.� With that much growing we�re sure her little body does hurt. Yet even with all that growth, she is in the 25th percentile in height, and the 95th percentile in weight.
Over this past year we have watched her learn to walk, talk, drink from a big girl cup, color, eat with a fork and spoon, put on her shoes and socks, comb her hair, learn the word �NO,� eat every vegetable that you put in front of her, love yogurt, count to 10, enjoy playing with toys, ride her tricycle, say the ABC�s with the exception of L M N and S, and best of all say those three little words that every parent longs to hear, �I love you!�
She has taught us that it�s ok if the laundry is not done or folded every week. If the dishes aren�t washed right after a meal, that�s ok too. Splashing water in the bathtub is so much fun, throwing the ball and having Draco bring it back is just great, and that the things we thought were so important in our lives before really weren�t that important after all!
She has a smile that lights up the room from the minute she wakes up in the morning until she goes to sleep at night. She thinks that everything is �mine!� When something is not as it should be she will quickly pick it up, clean it up, sweep it up, anything so there is not a mess (toys are a different story though). �I do Mommy/Daddy� is now heard quite often in our house.
She squeals, laughs, and runs to me yelling, �Mommy, Mommy� every day when I pick her up at daycare, as if she has not seen me in a hundred years. Then she races Draco to the door in the evenings to meet Daddy when he comes home from work and wants everything out of his pockets right now so she can see if there is piggy food (change)!
We have had many sleepless nights and many nights with a lot of sleep. We still have not figured out all of what makes her tick and we wonder if we ever will. But that�s ok because she is everything and more to us.
As we come to the end of our first year as a family of three we have so many things to be grateful and thankful for, so much to treasure, and so much to look forward to.
We thought that we had it all when we were married seven years ago, but little did we know how a small Chinese girl from BengBu would take our lives and hearts, turn them inside out and bring us to a place of feeling complete. Not many people in this world can say that they have been blessed with a miracle - WE CAN!
To everyone who has followed us on this journey of a lifetime, we thank you for your support and special thoughts you have sent our way. To our families and friends - May God bless you and your families with as much love and laughter as he has brought to ours.
Enjoy the pictures,
Roger, Ranata, and Olivia
