1 Year of Lyla!

One year ago today, we arrived home from South Korea as a family of five.  Happy Family Day to our sweet L!  While a year has passed so quickly, the growth and progress you've made on so many fronts is astounding.  You are such a blessing to our family.  We can't imagine life without you.  We love you so much.

Then (1st meeting at foster parents' home) . . .

Now (with her Family Day present - a doggie, of course!). Believe it or not, she's smiling in this picture (her version of "cheese"), though it looks like she is in pain!

I had every intention of posting daily this week, recapping day-by-day our trip to Korea.  However, I've been very ill all week and haven't been able to get around to it.  I am going to try to do some flash back posts this coming week.

1 Year TC-iversary and An All Star

One year ago today, we got "the call" that L was ready to come home.  It was a Monday morning.  When you are in the adoption process, the weekends are always so hard because everything is closed = no news.  You always look forward to Monday when there is hope that good news may arrive.  L made her embassy appearance the previous Thursday, and I knew our travel call (TC) would come in a matter of days after that.  So Monday morning, I called the DC visa status number as soon as I returned home from dropping B off at preschool, but there was nothing new in the system - her P3 (Packet 3 - the package that the Korean agency must return to the US Consulate to apply for the visa) had not yet been returned and no visa interview was scheduled yet.  I was SO BUMMED.  I know it sounds counter intuitive, but those final days before your TC are the hardest.  It is as if your whole life is moving in slow motion and you literally can't focus on anything else except for "the call" - when will it come?  I got off of the phone with visa status and started writing a very pathetic "whoa is me" blog post when the phone rang - caller id:  Spence Chapin New York - our adoption agency!.  Four days later we were headed for Seoul, South Korea!  We happened upon the picture above the other day when going through some adoption paperwork.  It is an extra picture from L's visa application that the immigration officer gave us when she opened up our sealed package at the airport.  I figured it fitting to post today.  How cute is this?

In other news, we have an All Star in the family!  C was chosen to represent our division in an All Star basketball tournament this past weekend.  His team won their division on Saturday and then went on to win the league championship on Sunday!  It was an exciting couple of games and C played very well in both.  We are very proud of our little guy!  Here is C (middle) with two of his buds after winning the championship game on Sunday evening.

Words, Words, Words!!

Not much time to post these days.  Our house is undergoing a major renovation and the entire first floor is a construction zone.  We are living out of the basement at the moment, which is challenging to say the least, especially with a 20 month old.  And we are experiencing a whole new level of "family togetherness" ;-).  The basement is usually the boys' domain, so we've invaded their space.  It no longer works to tell them to "take it to the basement" when they are getting rambunctious because everyone is already in the basement....together.  ;-0  I'm actually starting to get used to balls flying over my head and having to dodge hockey sticks on my way to and fro.

Anyway, I digress....the real point of this post is just to document L's speech progression, and boy is she progressing.  She is talking - both actual words and babbling/chatter - a lot more now.  She is saying so many new words these days.  Some new words that she says consistently:  apple, bubbles, hot, ouch (owww), eye.  She is also making progress with her "m" sound, so her "moo" now longer sounds the same as "baa", for instance.  We have also been working on the "ooo" sound in "shoe" - she still just says "shhh" for shoes, but can do "oooo" and "shh" independently, so I'm hoping she'll put the two together soon.

Sorry, no pictures today.  The main computer where we upload is hard to get to at the moment, so it may be a while before I can post pics.