The New Normal

Well, I am very excited to announce that we have been home for one month! And I'm even more excited to say that life is getting easier! I no longer feel like we're recovering from travel and adoption . . . I feel like we're settling into our "new normal."

I also realized a big OOPS in my posting. Thanksgiving Day was our one-month anniversary of adopting Tabitha, and I didn't mention it! On October 26th, we signed the papers and were given an official certificate saying that she's ours. Such a special thing to be thankful for this year. And the best part is, I'm finally coming out of the "fog" and actually feeling thankful!

This past week or so has been much better. Tabitha's sleep is improving, and her tantrums are diminishing. Not gone of course, but more like a typical 2-year-old rather than the outrageous ones we had been experiencing. We haven't had to go to any doctors appointments for her since the strep throat, and that's been a nice break. She seems to be settling into her new life pretty well, and I'm feeling more attached to her.

Tabitha's no longer afraid of Shadow and even tolerates her being around while we're eating (without attempting to kill her with dirty looks). The catheter is no big deal now--she even tries to help! She also plays with her dolls and isn't afraid of them anymore. (But if you try to tuck a furry friend or doll in to sleep with her she violently throws it on the floor. I guess she doesn't want to share her bed!) She holds her silverware like an American adult--we can't figure out how she learned that since Chinese adults usually use either chopsticks or spoons with a different handgrip. She also continues her favorite pasttime that we first discovered in China . . . she loves to stack papers into neat little piles. She also loves to write with pen and pencil on them, but heaven help anyone who tried to give her crayons and a coloring book. I guess that's seriously beneath her dignity! I still have little success on doing her hair, but I guess I'll keep learning. She's picking up new words and learning a little bit of sign language VERY quickly. She also falls asleep faster than any child I've ever seen (as long as she's not having a temper tantrum at bedtime). If we let her hold onto one of our fingers she'll be instantly asleep in less than 2 minutes. It's really quite precious. She definitely knows who Mommy and Daddy are now, and has started to prefer us to strangers. Yay!! She does do fine in the nursery though, so Heath and I were able to relax during the church service this past week.

Heath and I might even be able to go on a real date next weekend. (Tabitha doesn't have to be cathed at night, so if we go out at bedtime we can stay out late!) Ethan and Jesse are still treating her pretty well, but you can definitely tell they're all siblings now--complete with the squabbles and tattling and all.

So, as we move on with life, this will conclude my posts with the label "adoption." From now on, it'll just be LIFE!