Grace was 11 months old on the 4th of July. With everything going on I forgot to post it! I can not believe she will be one year old soon. That just blows my mind. She has been home with us now for 3 months. We feel she is well bonded to her family and we've allowed others to hold her. "If she will let them". That is a big IF. It usually takes a while for her to warm up to someone she has not spent much time with. This is a good thing! I'm glad in the beginning, we read up more on bonding with an adopted child, and stuck to our "holding rule". I believe it has helped her tremendously to learn she can trust us and know that we are not going anywhere....that we are mom and dad forever and ever. Although some family members had a very hard time with this "thing" we were doing...as if it was something horrible for them. Sadly,it was just a matter of them being uneducated on this extremely important issue. We did what was best for the health of Grace, and that is something I will never regret, no matter who decided to get offended! This is a site I found very helpful on bonding and attachment.http://www.a4everfamily.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=92&Itemid=90 It was extremely helpful for us putting up some bounderies.
On another note, Grace has adjusted beautifully. She is finally sleeping through the night (if in her own bed). The car rides are getting better, but I can't say they are fun. She is so close to walking. She will take a few steps away from furniture to go to us or a toy then sits down as if she realizes "oh my, I'm standing on my own, I better sit". Her personality is amazing, funny,beautiful, and very charming. She climbs things like no other child I have ever seen before. Maybe she will climb mountains when she is older! She eats anything we give her and loves "big people" food best. She is very ticklish, she babbles all the time now, she says and signs many words, she loves the puppy and kitties. She is very loving and hugs and kisses all the time. She loves to play with her Korean baby doll. She is a baby on the go all the time. We do not know what we did without her, and we are all so happy she is with us now. We are gearing up for her One Year Birthday Celebration! I am doing my homework on putting together a first year Korean Birthday. Any ideas out there would be helpful too :-) Thank you Lord, for blessing us with this sweet precious baby Gracie. Help us and guide us each day, help us to be great mentors for our children, help us to raise them up to know you and have a passionate relationship with you deep in their hearts!
4 comments:
She is seriously SO gorgeous! Thanks for posting about the "not holding" stuff - we have talked a lot about this and plan to do that when Matthew comes home...but I think it will be hard. We have already talked to our families about it and while they don't like it, they understand and support us in it since we believe it is best to give him some time to bond. I think I'm actually more worried about explaining it to people who aren't so close to us - the ones who come up and automatically want to take the baby out of your hands! I look forward to reading that info you posted - thanks!
It's so helpful having someone who is going through all this stuff just a little bit ahead of me!!!
Wow, Gracie is growing and learning and doing so much! Time certainly does fly by....I can't believe she's been home 3 months already!!!
Great Update. She is beautiful-so happy for your family.
I can't believe she is already 11 months!!!! She is so cute. Praying we get the call soon.
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