What a month it has been! Cecelia has been to her pediatrician's for a check-up and now weighs 20 lbs! So exciting! She has also cut four new teeth since we returned home. Unfortunately she has also had three ear infections since we have been home...this is apparently part of the cleft issue, and should clear up once she has her surgery.
Cecelia has a little play group of girls who all came from China. We have gotten together a few times for the girls to play. Her friends include Carly, Meilyn, Lia, and Sofia. They have such a great time together. It will be so important in the future for these girls to have a peer group of friends from China. We feel it is so important that her little play group is top priority for us and especially for her!
We have also been to two Chinese New Year celebrations. Our agency hosted one and the other was hosted by the Chinese School of Syracuse. Cecelia did fairly well at the first one, which was the one hosted by the agency. We have noticed that she does get very anxious when she is around a large group off children from China. I wonder what goes through her little mind... The second New Year celebration was very different than the first. It was a show of the adults and children who go to the Chinese school. There was singing, dancing, storytelling, and instrument playing. It was wonderful! After the show, we enjoyed traditional food that is served at Chinese New Year...oranges, dumplings, fried tofu, sesame cakes, and a few more items that I do not know the names for. It was delicious! There were also games and activities for the older children. It is definately something that we will look forward to in the future. Our hope is for Cecelia to be able to take a Chinese dance class or a Mandarin language class when she is older.
Cecelia's birthday is on the 17th of this month. She will be two years old! One of the oddest things about the adoption process is that it indeed did feel as though we adopted an infant...but an infant who grew so rapidly that suddenly she is two! Cecelia has gone from a baby who could hardly sit up without falling...to a two year old who carries a chair to each room so that she can climb up and explore...and all this in just 8 weeks! It seems as though she has been with us forever!
Cecelia shares a birthday with her gramma! That is one of the red threads of our journey! The Chinese believe that a baby is born with invisible red threads connecting him/her to all the people she will meet in life. We believe that this was one of the first red threads we saw on our journey to Cecelia! Another red thread occurred when we received our acceptance letter from China. It was dated April 29th, which is the birthday of my mom's only sister, Aunt Mari, who also happens to be my godmother! Another example of a red thread occurred when we received our date for our travel meeting at the agency. John and I and our children had cared for my grandmother in our home for almost 7 years, until she passed away of Alzheimer's disease in August of 2006. And guess whose birthday our travel meeting was on!!!...my gramma's; the 16th of July! We have many more examples of this red thread which twisted and turned from our little baby, even before we knew her, right into the folds of our family! This world we live in is an amazing place!
Cecelia's favorite activities all have to do with housework! Give this girl a dustcloth and she will dust a room for an hour!...She loves to fill and empty the dishwasher, carry things to the table for supper, water the plants(she would happily water plants for hours!), and vacuum.
We are going to be traveling to our house in Vermont this week so Cecelia will experience her first long car ride. It will be interesting to see how she does on that 5 hour trip! Unfortunately the reason for our trip is because our house there was burglarized and ransacked. We received a call from the state police about it last weekend...we love to go Vermont but not for this reason!
As long as the house is ok, it is ok. Pray for good weather and a good trip for Cecelia!
Enjoy the pictures. It is difficult to get a good shot of Cecelia as she is such a moving target at the moment. As soon as she sees a camera she runs toward it! But we tried... Cecelia was blessed with two special dresses to celebrate Chinese New Year in. Our friends, the Beckers , gave her the gorgeous purple dress and Erin and Evan gave her the beautiful gold and pink one! Thank you both!
We received word today that Cecelia will have her next surgery on the 30th of December..this one will build a soft palate for her...the surgeon did tell us that this will be a "real" surgery...since the hard palate surgery this summer was scary enough, I am chosing not to think too much about that statement. This works perfectly for us as I have the week before off and the week after off. Our prayer for Cecelia is that she learns to use this palate very quickly and her ability to communicate with people outside our family improves. She is as smart as a whip and knows the words for everything, but since she can't physically make certain sounds - g,c,k,s,b,d,p (anything that requires a complete gumline or anything gutteral or anything that requires a build-up of pressure), she substitutes an "m" for these. It makes a lot of sense once you know what she is trying to say...but is difficult for someone not used to her speech. 
