Learning New Things Each Day

Just a quick post this morning, as Lilly is actually still sleeping and it is past 6am! Woohoo!!

Yesterday felt like a small turning point, as Lilly allowed me to be the one to soothe and comfort her on Saturday night, rather than demanding Daddy through the night. SHe was up frequently (every 60-90 minutes from about 10pm through 4:30am). By 4:30 am it was clear she was DONE with sleeping for the night, so I got up with her and we had a nice breakfast and some good one-on-one play time. I felt as if she was starting to accept and trust me, a good feeling that far outweighs the feeling of fatigue at having so little solid sleep.

Lilly seemed to really enjoy church. I stayed with her in the nursery during the Sunday School hour so she could play and see the other children (took her into a 2-year-old room as she is so very tiny), and then into "big church" for the worship service. SHe really enjoyed the praise and worship time, swinging and swaying and clapping to the music, sometimes letting me hold her, sometimes standing on the pew between us and rocking to the beat. During the speaking, she was really content to stand between us and play with color wonder markers on the pew between us. Midway through she needed to go potty, and--as she was wearing her squeaky shoes and I didnm't want to be disruptive--we went outside to admire the pretty flowers and soak up some sunshine through the res tof the service. SHe did really well with all the attention and greetings, and starting waving hello more consistently as people waved hello to her.

SHe has added a few more words to her English vocabulary, under the tutelage of Tad the golden retriever: In addition to "no," "come," "sit," and "Tad," she now also says "eat" and we think she is starting to say "more."

SHe got to meet many neighbors and friends after church yesterday, as we spent time outside in the beautiful sunshine. She seemed enthralled with all the neighborhood kids, and was sad when Jared, Anna, and their friends Zack and Katie rode by her on their bikes to go play and left her behind. She started following them, her squeaky shoes squeaking just as quickly as they could go. WHen I finally scooped her up to bring her back in she was clearly not happy to bave been left out of the fun. She also seems taken by our little neighbor friends, Emilie and Claire Callender, who are closer to her size (though Claire, whom I used to think of as very tiny, seems monstrous next to littly Lilly!)

The best news of all is that not only did she take a decent nap yesterday with a minimal amount of fussing, she also is having an excellent night's sleep. She fought bedtime again last night, preferring to fall asleep basically standing up leaning on the living room couch as we read her stories. Tom tried to pick her up once she had started to doze off and put her into bed, and she immediately froze up and started screaming. So we spent a good bit of time allowing her to relax again and he finally was able to get her into bed and peacefully asleep. She was up once at about 2am, so my first stretch of 4-hours' sleep felt SOOO good! I was up with her a little while, and, unlike Saturday night, she was back to wanting baba to hold her and was pushing me away as I tried to cuddle her and sing and pray over her. So Tom came to the rescue and got her settled again. I was able to go back to bed shortly after 2am, and when I got up at 5a,. she was still asleep! And I can still hear the sweet sounds of her deep sleepy breathing on the monitor as I type at 6:30am. So it is a good night's rest for all of us.

Tom is off to work already, and today I will take Lilly to base to get her entered as a dependant and registered at the hospital. I can then make her first appointment. I also have som epost-adoption paperwork to get to, sending some documents to our agency and applying for a US birth certificate and social security number. So, I begin afresh with to do lists.

Jared and ANna are thrilled to be on spring break, and I hope we can find some fun things to do while they're home, not filling our entire time with post-adoption paperwork and medical appointments!

MOre photos and video to come...stay tuned. Thanks for reading!