Settling in...

Well... It's been nearly a week and a half and we are FINALLY settling in. Cuyler walks around the house counting: "1,2,3...4" We are finally a family, Mama! He loves his little sister to death, even though she gets most of the attention. Sometimes he feels a bit left out, and he has learned to tell us when he needs extra hugs or he feels like he isn't getting enough lovin. It is so cute.

Ginger is finally bonding to me, and smiles and giggles and laughs and plays all day with her Mama. I no longer have to wait until she is asleep to curl her little hand around my finger and watch her sleep and feel her breath. She reaches for me now and when she wakes up in the morning and sees my face she smiles instead of hanging her little head and sobbing. What a sweet relief!

Her body has finally settled into the new time zone, as evidenced by the fact that she finally pooed in the morning instead of at night! Yaaaaay! Major hurdle jumped! She sleeps all night, and last night was the first night she slept the entire night in her crib, rather than coming in to bed with me around 4:00 am. We work in shifts: David puts her down and when he comes to bed at 10 or 11, I am on call, and go in when she cries around midnight to pat her back to sleep.

I don't think we could possibly ask for a smoother transition, really. Ginger fits in like she has been here all along. She is amazingly adaptive and easy going. Except when she doesn't get her way, in which case she puts up quite a fuss. We will be forever grateful to her foster family, who so clearly took such wonderful care of her. She is a happy, engaged, spirited and bright little baby girl.

I still cannot believe it when I settle into the big bed in our room every evening and read stories to my childREN. We have waited so long for this, and it is so worth the wait. It brings tears to my eyese to see my son so tender and sweet with her. First thing in the morning he runs into her room to "check" on her, and he and I lie in bed and wait for her to wake up.

Tomorrow is her big Dr's check up , and that will be very telling. At least one of the babies in our group has been diagnosed with Hep B. Apparetnly 73% of the population in HGinger's provine have Hep. So.... We will see.

Ooops- I think my little princess is waking from her nap. So I need to get her up, give her a snack, and then we will go pick up brother at pre-school and spend the rest of the day at the park. yeah, yeah, life sucks!