Happy Gotcha Day, Calli Faith!

One year ago today we held our sweet Calli Faith, Xiao Fei, for the first time. A whole year! I've been spending time re-reading blog posts from the past year and I am just amazed at all that has happened in a year. Calli has changed so much. Our family has changed so much. And in all of it, we have seen God's faithful hand in so many ways. We are overwhelmed with thankfulness.

One year ago today, Li Xiao Fei was an orphan. She didn't know it, but she had a mom and dad waiting for her, she had two big sisters just bursting to love on her and squeeze her, she had grandparents who already loved her just like they love her sisters, and she had so many friends praying for her, helping bring her home, and waiting excitedly to meet her. We held her on April 7, and on April 8th she was ours forever. No longer an orphan. Finally a Dane.

One year ago today, we were amazed at her bravery. She was so brave. Her face was always so serious and we could tell there was so much going on behind her big, brown eyes. But she let us care for her. She fell asleep on Randy every night. And she even let this crazy lady strap her to me in the carrier, sometimes. Those days were so hard for both Randy and me, but we knew we could at least be as brave as our little Fei Fei was being.

She has adjusted so well. She just loves her sisters and loves to do whatever they are doing. She's super strong-willed and so persistent - such the two and a half year old. She's potty trained, during the day and at night as well! Her language is exploding, and even though they aren't very clear, she has a normal amount of words and phrases for a child her age. She goes to school! She loves going to church, getting mints, and running to find her Baba after class. And she is a mama's girl. She started off only wanting Randy, but that changed quickly after we got home and now I'm the one she wants. I get to rock her before bed every night, and we have a very specific bedtime routine that HAS to be followed (she's a little OCD). Every time I rock her, though, I'm still overwhelmed at how she became ours, how God placed her in our family, and how she allows us to love her. She's pretty amazing.

We've mentioned on the blog before about how thankful we have been for honest friends who shared their struggles authentically with us. We want to do the same. This year has been HARD. And Calli has done such a wonderful job of adjusting! Even still, adjusting to having three girls, walking through medical appointments and surgeries, learning to be patient with Calli, and just figuring out being a family of five has been a lot. We were tired. We took a wonderful trip over spring break just the two of us and were able to talk about the first ten years of our marriage, and especially this last year, and dream about what's next. God has been so faithful to be strong in our weakness. I have learned more this year about how God's grace is sufficient for me and how I can boast in my weaknesses. I recognize my need for Him more than ever, and I'm learning that that is such a sweet place to be.

Calli Faith, we are crazy in love with you. In some ways we can't believe you've only been here one year because we just feel like you've been part of us forever. We look forward to all the years to come and praise God for placing you in our family one year ago today. We love you, sweet girl!!

Just some blog posts I've enjoyed reading back through:

When we met for the first time
Visiting her orphanage
Getting to meet the family who adopted the baby we didn't
The good, the bad, and the ugly
Coming home
Mother's Day
Lip surgery
Palate surgery
6 months home

One Year Referral-versary!

Today is our one year referral-versary! One year ago today, we received the call that we had been matched with Li Xiao Fei, and that we had 48 hours to accept her referral. We saw her face for the first time, read her file, and knew right away that she was ours and we were hers. Here is a blog post about that day, and then one from when we got our pre-approval. It was a big day in our family and one that is worth celebrating and remembering! Here is the first picture we ever saw of our Calli Faith.

 

 

One year ago today, we read things like Li Xiao Fei “is a quiet and lovely child.” Today we know that she is not quiet at all, but is more than lovely to us!

 

One year ago today, we read things like Li Xiao Fei “has sound sleep, good appetite, and not choosy food.” Today we know that she does in fact sleep well, loves to eat more than almost anything, and that while she started out eating anything and everything, she has started to grow a little “choosy.” We take that as a sign that she is gaining trust, knows she will always have enough to eat, and is developing new tastes.

 

 

One year ago today, we read things like Li Xiao Fei “likes to be cuddled.” We loved that detail so much, and especially loved that someone was actually cuddling her. Today, we are very thankful that she has easily allowed us to be the ones to cuddle her, and we love the time we spend holding her, after waiting so long for her to be in our arms.

 

One year ago today, we read things like Li Xiao Fei’s “language development is delayed,” but that she “can shake her head to refuse things she does not like.” Today we know that while her language is delayed, due mostly to her cleft, we have absolutely no problem communicating, either way. We know what she wants and she very much understands every single thing we say. We are amazed with how quickly she understood English, we are thankful for her speech therapy, and for all the amazing medical care we have had access to for her.

 

One year ago today, we read things like Li Xiao Fei “does not like to stay alone,” “likes getting along with others,” and “has a ready smile.” Today we know that she loves her friends, loves being with her family, and has the most beautiful smile in the world. Her personality is so fun and she just fits into our family perfectly. She is definitely one of us!

One year ago today, we saw her picture, read her file, and knew right away she was our baby. We are so excited to be celebrating our first Thanksgiving with her home with us, and we are amazed at the way God placed her in our family.

Calli's 6 Month Forever Family Day!

6 months ago (yesterday), Calli became a part of our family forever! This was our first picture after she was officially ours.

 

6 months feels like it has flown by! We have been so busy adjusting to being a family of 5, helping Calli transition into our family and our home, celebrating birthdays, having surgeries, procedures, doctor's appointments, and speech therapies. It has been a whirlwind!

She is doing so, so well! She is very attached to her mama - which I love! She loves wrestling with her daddy and loves for him to tickle her. When he stops, she asks for more! She loves playing with her sisters and wants to do everything they do. Cooper and Calli are either best friends or...not so best friends. :) Being just a year apart is really fun sometimes and not fun other times. She gets so excited when Kendall gets home from school and Kendall can pretty much do anything with her and she loves it. We just love these three precious girls.

She's still sleeping all night (most nights) and eating well. She doesn't have to have quite as many snacks throughout the day. She's drinking from a straw now! Her speech is progressing - we know what she is trying to say a lot of the time and she knows what we are saying all the time. We have started speech therapy and will increase this now that we are post-palate surgery.

We went for her post-op appointment for her tubes with the ENT and she passed her hearing test! She did not pass it before her surgery, because she had so much fluid in her ears. He said she looks great and he doesn't need to see her for 6 months! Yesterday was her follow up with our cleft doctor, Dr. T, and he was impressed with how her palate and her lip are continuing to heal! He said her scar looks great and that her palate is great! Next step is to have a meeting with the whole cleft team, to especially focus on letting the speech specialist meet with her. He said he wants to be aggressive with that, but that she also still needs more time for her palate muscles to heal and relax, so we scheduled that for 6 months from now. It's so nice to have a break from all the surgeries, procedures, and appointments!

I get to be the one to rock Calli before bed every night. Randy tries, but she still chooses me to be the one to put her to bed. Every single night, I am overwhelmed by the wonder of how she became ours and how we became hers. This sweet little girl that did not come from my body lays against my chest, snuggles her head into my neck, and completely relaxes and trusts me. It's amazing to me! I'm amazed that I get to be the one to be her mama. This has been an awesome 6 months, and we can't wait to see what the next 6 months hold!

Calli's Second Birthday!

I just realized I never posted about Calli's birthday on this blog! Here is the original post from her and Cooper's combined birthday party.

 

Cooper has been so excited "for August 31st." She has been saying the date of her birthday for a couple of months now and it's so cute the way she says it. I have it on video somewhere. We figured Calli would be happy with whatever Cooper picked for the birthday party, so a couple of months ago I asked Cooper what she would like. She has been obsessed with school buses for awhile now, so she immediately said she wanted a school bus party! So funny. So, I looked around online and, turns out, there have been lots of people that have had school bus parties - except all the ones I saw were for boys. Oh well. Our little Cooper loves school buses. So that's what we did!

We love that it's in summer, and that we get to have a swimming party outside. We just can't ever plan on that in February for Kendall's birthdays. So we planned on a splash party, in the front yard, on their actual birthday, August 31st.

This was my favorite part. Randy and I have been working on it for several weeks now, trying to get most of it ready before Calli's surgery a couple of weeks ago. We made it out of foam insulation board, and it was perfect for kids to take pictures behind!

 Cooper originally was saying that everyone should wear yellow to her school bus party, so Granny bought the girls bright yellow swimsuits. They were adorable!

We had lots of family drive all the way down for the party! Pops and Kiki, Great Granny and Aunt Auggie came down and stayed in a beach house all weekend, Granny and Papas came, and Gigi and Peeps brought Aunt Val and Dohe, Gracie, Evy and Oliver. Randy's two aunts also came, Kathy and Brenda, along with Brenda's husband Wayne, and his cousins Kaity, Keelie, Emily, Kyle and their three, Maelie, Lorelai and Laine. We had lots of family here and it was so fun!

Lots of sweet friends came, too, to help us celebrate! We are so thankful for the awesome community God has placed us in and we love all our friends so much! 

I loved the school bus cakes the girls had! Cooper was so very excited about these. We even had cupcakes with stop signs on them, which is her other very special thing!

 We sang Happy Birthday to the girls separately. Cooper was pretty shy, but Calli just sat and looked around at everyone, taking it all in. Sweet girl - we loved celebrating her first birthday with us!!

 

 

Cooper was pretty excited about opening presents this year. Calli even got into it a little bit!

 Our sweet friends, Amber and Garrett let us borrow their awesome water slide for the party! It was perfect for the age of the kids we had and they just loved it.  

When the party was over, Calli asked Granny for a little more cake. Of course!

 

 We love celebrating these girls and having parties! Happy school bus party, Cooper and Calli!!