Wow, not sure where to begin. We are back in this fabulous United States of America now & I are so thankful. When we landed last week in Newark, I just cried. We got to travel back on the plane with 3 other families so it was bitter sweet getting to Newark & having to all go our seperate ways...but our family had very little time to get through customs & catch our next flight, so it was extremely stressful. We got to our connecting flight to Houston & walked straight on the plane. Faith did a fabulous job on traveling...never a peep or a whine...which is much more than I can say for the other 3 Willis family members. We were pretty whiney. This would be the time that my precious Nana would ask if we wanted any cheese with that "wine" we had going. :)
We spent our first night back in the US in Houston. We all went to bed completely wiped out around 11:00ish...thinking this timing was great, we had been traveling for well over 24 hours with no sleep...we ALL woke up, wide awake at 4:00AM, I finally gave in & turned on cartoons at 5:00. I am not a fan of jet lag. It has not really been an issue again for the girls thankfully. Faith is adjusting just beautifully. I can not even begin to tell you how amazed we are at God's handy work. He could never have placed a more perfect child in our family. She fits us in everyway possible. We have had no issues with her at all. The language barrier is there, and it will be wonderful when we can really have conversations with her that she understands. But we all talk to her as if she understands us & she does the same. She got in the car today so bubbly & excited & said "Mommy, @$%#^!&!@*!(....she went on & on and then just sat back smiling as if she had just told me how great her day was & she was happy to share it with me & then sat back content with sharing. Very precious!
We decided to go ahead and enroll her in school today...I had a peace about doing it until I got there & began to leave & she grabbed my hand & cried for the very first time since "Gottcha Day". Then my heart broke. I stayed for about 30 more minutes & her teacher was just precious & I knew she would be fine. When I got there to pick her up I do not think I have ever seen her so happy. To see me, yes, but also that she had had a great time & she was just bouncing around.
Emily & Jeff have been teaching her to ride a bike in the park out back & we really thought that it would take awhile, especially judging from the way she rode the 1st day. But the 2nd day she was riding on her own, no training wheels at all! She does have a few issues with stopping, so Jeff & Em get their workouts running beside her or trying to beat her to the bushes or fence before she plows through them. :) I am sure it would be a great workout for me as well, but i don't want to deprive them of this time with her...heeheehee. I am the cheer leader from the sidelines.
The first day we got home, she was so precious, she just started exploring the house, opening doors, closets, figuring out what was what. When friends & family came to meet her, she would take some by the hand & lead them to her room. We made sure we knew where she was all the time because she loves to push buttons on things & this house has plenty of buttons to push on...so one time she disappeared & I went looking for her. Her door was closed, so i didn't think she was in there, but I peeked in anyway & she was sitting in her rocking chair jsut rocking & looking around. Just wanted to be inside her head & know what was going on. Can only imagine! she has never seemed scared, she can be quiet at tiems & then other times is a chatter box. But you can always see that her little wheels are turning as she is taking it all in. Just a little spounge. My favorite thing that she says right now is "are you hungry" when she is hungry...guess that must be the phrase we use & then food always follows. She does tend to repeat it often just to make sure she is heard. :) She is eating pretty good...lots of noodles, hard boiled eggs, scrambled eggs, oatmeal & tons of fruit. I bought 2 large things of strawberries & they were gone in 2 days as well as grapes. So happy she likes them!
She also loves Rusty, our dog. She is often heard running around the house chsing after him hollering "no Rusty, come here" Loves having the upper hand I am sure. Rusty is a good sport chasing the balls she throws, although releasing them back to her is not something he is fond of doing. But he just may run off the few extra pounds he put on while he was vacationing at Grandma & Grandpas this last month. :) He enjoys their Pooch Palace.