Three Weeks Home and One Month Together!

Yesterday marked 3 weeks home from China and one month from the day we met the girls for the first time in Nanning.  Time sure flies!   We have seen more growth this week.

We took a picture of the girls at church last Sunday- they were both wearing dresses my aunt had bought for me when I was a little girl. :)  

Macie wouldn't crack a smile no matter what we tried to do!

Macie is actually really enjoying the bath now.  I've even seen her float around in there like a fish/mermaid, like her other two sisters do.   That's HUGE!   I've come to realize that there may be more than one reason we are seeing so much seriousness from Macie.  Of course the changes have been huge and this may be a part of how she grieves, but I think there is more.  I started thinking about when we'd see her come out of her shell and see that silly side when we were in China and it was almost always when we were out and about on an adventure.   For more than one reason (bonding, weather, etc) we haven't been out and about and adventuring a whole lot.  It's been good for us to stay in our little cozy house together as much as possible- kind of a theme of what's to come for the next 3-4 months of winter, but I think it's part of why we are seeing this serious side and not the fun-loving side to Macie's personality.  She gets pretty excited when we get her coat to go drop off or pick up kids or go to church.  I think our girl likes to be out and about and go on adventures. I really don't think she did that much in her foster family.   And Macie's signing is amazing.  She is SO eager to learn, bringing her photo album or a book she's pulled off one of our many books shelves over to us.  She's watching her hands as she signs and is really meticulous.  We are still working on matching what sign goes to what object, but that will come.  The fact that she is wanting to learn, copying, and remembering signs we have taught her is awesome!   We also started working on potty training a little bit the past couple days.  We've had some accidents, but she's doing pretty good overall. I think she'll be able to be trained pretty quickly and I think her pre-school teacher will be happy to have one child in the class come in already potty-trained. :)

She's got Rick's glasses on. Our little serious smarty with her laptop and backpack. ;) 

I am curious if she is going to end up in glasses or needing an eye surgery.  We definitely know that her eye issue is what is affecting her delay in gross motor skills and her balance, causing her to fall down easily and run into things constantly.  We are anxious to find out on the 18th what it is and what we need to do about it.

Checking out what they got in their stocking for St. Nick's, a tradition passed on from Rick's side of the family.

These girls' favorite snacks seem to be cuties/Halos and Goldfish crackers. :)

Maeleigh (by the way...it sounds like MAY-LEE....we've heard a lot of interesting pronunciations the past week or so, so I figured I'd get that out there) is continuing to do very well adjusting.  The hardest part is getting her and Rowan to get along.  One minute they are laughing and loving on each other and the next they are in a battle.  And they sure are a lot a like- we are seeing a lot of monkey see, monkey do here in this house! ;)

Caught her!  She likes to turn her face when I try to take her picture! :)

Now Rowan is doing it too.

See!!!  Monkey see...monkey do!

I forgot to mention in my last update that we really appreciated your prayers last week for the girls' first doctor and dentist appointments.  The doctor appointments went way better than I expected. Both girls did great there (no shots might have helped).  The next day we visited the dentist and I was prepared for worst case scenario in how they'd do and in the report we might get.   Maeleigh went first and I was surprised that she actually screamed and was a bit terrified for a good part of the cleaning.  She had some orange stuff on her teeth that I had not noticed before. It was hard to get off, but the hygienist did get most of it off.  She had no cavities...yay!   Then it was Macie's turn. I thought she'd have a very hard time and she surprised me.  She did great for the most part- only got a little scared once.  They hygienist got most of the black/brown spots off her teeth---they look so clean and nice now.  And get this...she had NO cavities! I was completely blown away and shocked.  They said that sometimes that stuff actually protects the teeth in a weird way and that it can come from eating soft foods and not a lot of hard foods like we might here.  I cannot tell you how awesome it was to hear that both girls had no cavities at this time.  SUCH a surprise and a relief!  Thank you to all who prayed...we felt it!

We haven't had as much going on this week, but we are very busy preparing for Christmas and a crazy week of birthdays.  Lena and Jayce have birthdays this weekend and then mine is next week. I'm glad I'm the last one because I tend to get the leftovers of one or both of the cakes combined. ;)  

Happy one month girls!!  You are so loved!!