4 months today

Today marks our 4 month anniversary of being a family of 5. My how our lives have changed - upside down, inside out and everything in between! I keep saying that I can't believe how time is flying by but the details of China seem to be getting fuzzier as the days pass. I've at least managed to put the bad details out of the forefront. I can finally say we've completely recovered from our various diseases - even Paul - finally!

Halle continues to thrive. She is quite the character. Her personality continues to evolve. She seems very happy to be a part of our family. I often wonder how much she remembers or thinks about her life before us. She doesn't seem to do as much jibber-jabbering in Chinese as she used to. I'm not sure if it because she is able to express herself in English or she is starting to forget her Chinese. It is probably a combination. It still makes me sad that she won't have any memory of her early life. We have 2 pictures of her from when she was a baby but that's not much. I've been reading articles written by adult adoptees and they often were quite troubled by their missing holes or missing branches from their family trees. I'm so thankful that Halle is doing so wonderfully now but I'm trying to be cautions and keeping an eye out for any attachment/abandonment issues.

Okay, on to the happier issues. Halle's vocabulary is great. I'm assuming she has close to 100 words now. Her favorite at the moment are "mine" and "no" courtesy of her favorite big brother. Can't blame that on the Whites like we did with Sami ;) She knows many body parts and animals. I've been working with her on colors but we haven't been to successful yet. She knows "O" and "H" as far as letters but that is it.

We bought her a cute little bike this weekend. It's a little too cold outside to use it much but Paul has taken her out a few times. She seems to like it. She is also starting to use the trampoline a little more now too - I guess we just had to take down the protective netting to get her interested in it!

February was a blur for me. I had 2 really big projects to work on. While it was nice to be working (and earning) it was a little more than I would prefer. Luckily Grandma was available and helped out with Halle a ton! Halle has really taken to Grandma and didn't seem bothered in the least when I had to go work.

Sami continues working hard toward her goal of playing soccer in college. She is practicing with her team twice a week and lifting several days a week at the Y. She just got her first ACT test scores back and is pleased with a 25. She has some kind of soccer preview this weekend where coaches are coming from around the state to watch girls scrimmage. We're not sure what to expect from this. Her exciting thing is her first official college visit next weekend. We are going to Ohio Northern. We will be meeting with the financial aid people, someone from the school of nursing and the soccer coach. She is very interested in this college but unfortunately it is VERY expensive. Bottom line is that the soccer coach is going to have to dig very deep with scholarship money in order for her to attend there.

Jacob is between sports now. He finished his club volleyball yesterday - thank goodness! We learned our lesson about making him do something that he doesn't want to do. He starts club soccer and school volleyball next week; not too much of a break. School doesn't seem to be his favorite thing this year. He is already counting the days/weeks until school is out for the summer.