Small Miracle!

Yesterday a small miracle occurred. Evie actually wanted me to hold her most of the evening. She went to me right before we were going to the store and stayed in my arms the entire time. She was sooo sweet. It was so nice to actually comfort my child for the first time and not have her scream like a banshee when I'm within 5 feet of her. This morning it was back to the usual though, screamed like she saw the devil himself as soon as she opened her eyes and looked at me beside her. It's really cool that I elicit such emotion from my child, I should feel privileged, not every parent can say that there child literally runs screaming from them for no apparent reason. (I'm hoping everyone gets the sarcasm and humor in the above statement). We went into the salon today to cut Jaili's hair (oh yea, btw she looks ADORABLE, little aline haircut) Anywho, Evie did really well then too. She again wanted me to hold her. One of the clients of a friend that I work with was asking questions about Evie and goes "Wow, so you've had her for almost 3 weeks and she is already so attached and adjusted" I laughed hysterically and told her she had no idea, she was seeing a rare moment with Evie and I at the time. This evening was lots of fun with Evie too. For about another 2 hours I was screamed at because I had the audacity to change her diaper and then try to soothe her while Shane was mowing the lawn. I did have a little victory with it though. She called me momma and gave me a kiss right before I handed her to Shane (she refuses to call me momma 99.9% of the time, everything except me is momma to her). I can not explain the sense of happiness I felt when she looked at me and said momma. I have to admit my competitive side was there too and I secretly (or not so secret)wanted to do a dance and sing... I won, I won, Ha HA HA I WON!!!.....this round. ( you also have to envision a 4th graders voice proudly singing this at the top of her lungs)...yep that's me. I'm not too proud to admit it. That little girl truly amazes me by her stubbornness and I have to say I admire her for it. You go girl! She's a fighter and I Love that about her. Not at all fun for me right now but she will need that fire as she gets older. She will have things to overcome and with the tenacity that she shows she will have no problem accomplishing anything. She is one funny, spicy, stubborn kid and I'm happy to say that she is all ours. God has blessed is with 2 very different yet perfectly wonderful children. Jaili has a sweetness and gentleness that would melt even the hardest heart and Evie has such passion and fire (so far) that you know nothing will stop her when she sets her mind to it.

On a side note, here are some of the few things that I 've learned so far about having a sight impaired child:

1. You get hit A LOT. Depth perception is not great so when she's excited and the arms flail about. You need to be on guard so you don't lose an eye.
2.  Don't freak out about the minor bumps. She hits her head on EVERYTHING. She bends down to look at something, comes up and crack right on the head.
3. Not to gasp at every bump or fall. She runs into walls quite a bit right now, bounces and then goes about her way.  She is one tough cookie.
4. There is no containing things in containers. Every item (food, toys, etc) that we try to put in little bowls or containers all get dumped out. She can't see things clearly unless they are about 3 in from her face so EVERYTHING gets dumped out and examined. Needless to say our dog is really happy.

There's also more but I'm tired and going to bed. Ok not going to bed but stopping to write so I can focus all my attention on Bear Gryls right now, the drool is beginning to pool. : )

On a serious note my heart breaks for Evie everyday. I can only imagine the kind of pain that she has been experiencing through out this entire process. It has been extremely difficult on all of us, especially Evie. I know God will heal her heart. I pray that she is comforted and she knows how much all of us truly love her. Continued prayers would be very appreciated it.

We are home

So I apologize for not posting sooner. I was having issues in China. Everytime I tried to send a post to blogger it kept saying file to large (not matter how big it was). Anywho, Evie is doing better. We measure time now in small moments instead of days. We had several good moments in China. Mostly screaming at me but a few great things that kept me going. She let me hold her while only screaming for a a while and then settling down. She also kind of gave up while I carried her in the ergo (screamed for about 30-45 min) and then fell asleep. She also let out some anger and bit and pinched me...seemed to make her feel better and me in pain (only alittle bit though). She also screams incessantly upon waking when she looks at me. It's AWESOME!!!
She has been significantly better since we have gotten home though. Although she still prefers Shane  A LOT, I'm able to hold her more  without constant screaming and she has given me about 5 spontaneous kisses. Last night, though she still screams when looking at me, put her bum against me while she was trying to go to sleep. She also babbles constantly now and seems to be much happier since we have gotten home. She is a little clown, loves to get reactions from people. She also adores singing, which is adorable. Jaili has taken the big sister role very seriously, helping with everything. She is a little mommy.
We went to Hong Kong disneyland on the way home, which was so much fun. I'm really glad to be home without people taking pictures of Evie and us. It was ridiculous the entire time we were in China. We could not stop for more than 10 seconds without having a swarm of people around us, picking Evie up and taking constant pictures. It got very annoying. People were very nice, but come on. I felt like we were the sideshow. People would literally pass Evie along to have their picture taken with her. At disneyland I had to hide in the shadows on the side of a building with Evie in the stroller while Shane, Jaili and Shannon were in the bathroom, just so I wouldn't be bothered by people.
Needless to say we are extremely glad to be home. I'll post more later. We have family here and I need to go be social. Post more pictures later.

Angel

We have our baby girl #2

I'm so sorry i haven't posted earlier, but it has been an extremely rough transition. We received Evie (yes we changed her name, she just wasn't a June. Now it's Evie June)on Sunday at 5:00 she was smelly and very poopy. We found out that she had been picked up directly from her foster families house and drove 2 hours to us. Needless to say we had quite and upset little girl. She was quite attached to her foster mother so she has no desire for me to be around her. It's been very hard the past few days. So difficult in fact that I called our agency to talk to them about if we had made a horrible mistake in doing this adoption. Evie cried almost non-stop (unless Shane was able to hold her) for 3 days. Not just a little sweet cry but a full on howler monkey scream. It was enough to make anyone want  to jump out a window. She doesn't like me to touch her, let alone hold her. We are making ant size progress each day, which is good. Today we've had alittle more progress. She actually touched me on her own and when I pointed to her and said Evie, then pointed to myself and said Mommy then I pointed to my lips and said kiss and she kissed me on her own. Which is a big step.  Shane and I were also quite surprised to see how small she is. She is behind developmentally. She is more like an 11 month old in almost every way. She weighs 16 lbs and is sooo tiny ( We put 6-12 month pants on her today and they fell right off). She is walking but does not know how to crawl or move around when you lay her on her back. She doesn't have much language either. She can say 3 words (mama, baba and ayi..auntie in Chinese) She is already getting more language and skills down. She points to Jaili and says Jei Jei (big sister in Chinese) and is babbling more and more. We still have a very cranky baby when daddy gets more than 5 ft away, which honestly can weigh on your nerves alot. Evie is very sweet and adorable though. My feelings of attachement for her are growing everyday. I'm just waiting for her to come to me. Trying to win her over one ant step at a time. I fed her part of a ding dong yesterday so she would associate mommy with sweet things.  I've been the only one to feed her, while Shane holds her so she can see that I provide the essentials for her. Everyday we see a little more comfort with us and not as much of a  scared little kitten. (thanks Tonya for the analogy). I will post more later. Keep Evie and the rest of our family in your prayers. oh and Jaili girl has been absolutely amazing in all of this. So helpful and considerate. It's hard on her also but she keeps trying to make more and more steps with baby sister also. Evie actually really likes Jaili. It bothers Jaili though that Evie has problems with me as of yet. I let her know that Evie is scared right now but she will come around.

In the seattle airport!

So I'm testing the emailing to blog to sedefi e how well this is going to work while we are in China! We are just 45 min away from hoping on our plane from seattle to Tokyo to Beijing!!!! Jaili did awesome on our way from Portland to Seattle. She LOVES the plane. Not afraid of anything, even asked if we could parachute out of the plane sometime....I'm envisioning her giving me a heart attack by the time she is 18 with her dare devil ways. I love it though. She definatly has her own thing going on. I'm so proud of that little one. She is beyond excited about getting baby sister. Only a few more days and we will be a family of 4! Very awesome this day is finally here. I'll post more with pictures when we are in China. Angel www.journeytojaili.blogspot.com