Today's Highlights:
- Seeing Michella's face light up briefly a few times today. First when she saw our cat Fia this morning and greeted her with an "oi!" and a waving hand. Second when I put a new pink headband on her head and showed her in the mirror. She liked it.
- Michella communicating with us, albeit non-verbally. She makes it clear when she's done eating or if she wants to hold the spoon and feed herself or when she is done playing or when all she wants to do is be cuddled by mommy.
- I am learning some of her non-verbal cues and thereby am able to respond to meet her needs before the situation suddenly becomes a stressful crisis for her. A few times today I was able to grab her and pick her up just as she was about to lie down face-down on the ground (we've seen her do this a few times when she gets overwhelmed).
- Seeing Michella play with blocks, do a little coloring with crayons and fork spaghetti into her mouth by herself.
- Having LOTS of cuddle time with Michella today. We did a lot of sweating together. I am getting to know the top of her head quite well.
- Having a glass of wine with Andrey after putting Michella to bed. He was amazing today! Among many other helpful Daddy duties, he went grocery shopping and made us a delicious dinner tonight. He amazes me with his patience and compassion for Michella, especially in the face of her not wanting to be cared by him yet. Andrey reminded me today that the first character of love listed in 1 Corinthians 13 is patience. Love is patient...
- Changing two to the smelliest diaper bomb blowouts in one day
- When Michella woke up this morning before us, she stood up and apparently walked around to Andrey's side of the bed. Andrey woke up just as she was approaching him. He sat up and said, "Good morning, Michella." She responded by suddenly flopping her body down on the floor face down. The sound of her body landing on the floor woke me up.
- Seeing Michella mistake our neighbor's care giver with someone she must know from the orphanage. We watched her face get all excited and smile huge when she saw this woman approaching her and even began to reach for her only to suddenly pull back and frown realizing the woman wasn't who she thought she was. Oh the poor little sweetie!
7 comments:
First of all, I am praising God for providing you with such a wonderful husband. I always knew Andrey would be a great father. What more could you want than a husband/father that demonstrates "love is patient...".
My heart breaks for Michella when I see the sadness in her eyes. I know that these last few days have been so traumatic for her. I will pray for her to experience the security of knowing your unconditional love. Then maybe with each day there will be peace, joy and laughter in place of the sadness and fear.
I'm so proud of you and Andrey. Michella is so blessed to have y'all as her mommy and daddy.
And we're praising God along with you and all the others, for this miracle in your lives, Jen and Andrey. We've followed your posts and have been so blessed to read and observe how remarkably well you all are handling this. Your wise love for beautiful little Michella will soon take care of this time of adjustment. She will yet "...arise and call you blessed". Proverbs 31:28
I read this and cried the entire time. I am praising God for His goodness! I am so thankful to have this glimpse into these precious first moments with Michella. It is wonderful to see such a strong mother daughter bond form so quickly! We will continue to be praying for this time of transition. Much love to your family.
Andrey & Jen - what amazing pictures and words. We are so, so excited for you all and can't wait to meet your daughter some day!
I don't know you but I wish I did. You are an inspiration to me. I cry with happiness as I read your blog. I'm on the phone with my sister as she's reading your blog, she is crying too! Thank you for sharing! You have a beautiful family :-) oxox God bless you all.
Oh Jen, I read this a couple times a day:) I love that you sweat a lot together and that Andrey pointed out that love is patient, what a fabulous example of that. We've been praying for you, andrey, and `shella' as Koen calls her:)
Jen and Andrey!
I'm finally caught up reading all of the wonderful things you've put on here in the last few days. I am so happy for you, there just aren't words for it. I will continue to pray for you and for Michella. I admire and love your compassion for her sweet heart. I imagine that right now, it must be really hard in some ways, and obviously incredibly joyful in others. At once holding the heartache and the joy can be so hard, but you're obviously doing a wonderful job of it.
Thinking of you,
Melissa
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