Green Tea and Grits: One Year Ago, We Met You Sweet Girl

One year ago today, six families walked into the Civil Affairs office in Zhengzhou, Henan and met their new sons and daughters for the first time. Anna and her friend H, came in late. All the other kids were already there when we arrived. When the girls got to the office, I remember hearing "An, Bi Yun" and I looked up and there was this toddler girl, with pony tails dressed all in a puffy purple jacket with matching pants. Her nanny handed her over and she began to wail. If you watch our video (see Anna's Travel Blog in the sidebar), it sounds like I'm frustrated after we couldn't get her to stop when I yelled at David to "go get the Cheerios". One of the other kids had taken them across the room. I was just annoyed at David that he couldn't find them :-). After Cheerios and some Apple Juice (thank you, Sara for the apple juice tip), she calmed down enough to just have that deer in headlights look. Once we got back to the hotel, she passed out. I think she was thinking it was all a bad dream and when she woke up, she'd be back to all that was familiar with her. Over the next two weeks she opened up a bit more. I was scared stiff about flying home by myself with her (David left early) and my prayers were answered as she was an AWESOME traveller (and still is) and great travel buddy. It took her four months to totally open up and show us her true personality, but it was worth the wait. Here are a few things we've accomplished this year:

Met the entire extended family at my brother's wedding
Started PT and graduated in about 8 weeks - she is very motivated
Expanded her vocabulary from three words (more, mama, dada) to over 150
Has been to Ohio twice for two treatments on her arm
Went to the beach for the first time
Started School
Celebrated her first Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas with her Forever Family
Met Santa and didn't cry or freak out
Turned two
Went from calling me "mama" to "mommy"~ and I melted
Took about 9 months to actually like daddy, but now thinks he's great
Learned the phrases "Go Away" and "No Way" and uses them often
Was Baptized
Went from hating baths, to actually enjoying them and wanting to stay in FOREVER
Went to the Zoo with our travel buddies from Raleigh
Went to Old Salem with our travel buddies from Raleigh
Learned how to say "I don't like it" but it comes out "I like it" and she wags her finger at you when she says it
Can spot a "W" or an "O" anywhere (where that came from, we don't know, but she's a smartie)
Won over her older brother and sister who love her insanely
Won over her mommy and daddy who love her even more insanely

Things about Miss A that we love

She loves to dance in the car and actually can bop her head to the beat of a song
Will always put her hands up when she hears the words "put your hands up" in a song
Loves to tells us "No," "No Way," "Go Away," or "Uh, uh"
Puts her hands on her hips when she is in her diaper only and says "naked"
Loves to put undies on the outside of her pants
Will tell you she has a "boogie man" if she has stuff in her nose
Will say "Hi" or "Bye" to anyone she meets...she's very friendly
She will tell you "bye, bye" and wave when you put her down for the night
Will tell you "I lub oo" for I love you
Is super flexible and can get into the oddest positions
Loves her carbs
Loves to look at books, but won't let you actually read them
Is the BEST sleeper
Still hates baby dolls, but seems to tolerate Barbi@s
Loves to put her water bottle in her baby stroller and take it for a walk
Loves to hang out with her brother and sister and do whatever they are doing...even if it's naughty
Gives plenty of hugs and kisses

I could go on and on. We are so blessed to have Anna in our family. She is a total joy and was so worth the wait. I hope we meet her expectations of what a family is. We love her dearly and have made forever friends with our travel mates. They are our extended family and we see each other's children as our child's cousins.

It still only feels like yesterday that we were freezing our buns off at the Forbidden City and shopping for squeaky shoes in Guangzhou. It has been a fantastic year and we are looking forward to the rest of our lives with our Anna.

Here are a few pictures as we walk down memory lane over the past year.