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Caleb is such a great big brother…he never yells or gets impatient with Alyssa and treats her like a princess. She of course, uses this to her full advantage. Dylan and Alyssa fight like cats and dogs and yell at each other ALL the time. In their quiet moments, though, Dylan will read books to Alyssa and get her breakfast ready for her and does many nice things for her. They are both hot tempered and both think their ways are the ONLY ways. (Probably get that from their father! Hee Hee!) It is so hard to not think of the other children left in China and in countries all over the world without moms and dads. There are times I sit back and watch Alyssa with her brothers or watch Chris play with her and love her and I just fall apart knowing there are so many more children who need families. All children are challenging and we face different challenges with Alyssa because of her start in life but the joy and blessing we feel every day with her is so incredible. Every single child deserves to know they are the most cherished and loved by someone, that their every little need and accomplishments mean the world to someone. All children are such precious gifts from God! Tammy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| January
2, 2006 New Year Update …. |
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Happy New Year! WOW, we can’t believe it’s been almost a year since our Gotcha Day with Alyssa. We finally held Alyssa in our arms last January 24th for the first time. We have had so many wonderful times and happy memories over the last year. We were able to celebrate Alyssa’s 2nd birthday with her, spend our first Christmas together and most importantly watch her grow into a terrific, happy, little girl! Alyssa’s birthday was on October 25 (only one day after her brother, Dylan’s) and she had a ball! We had a little party with a few of her playgroup friends and then we had a big family party in the evening. Dylan turned 7 the day before so Alyssa was able to catch on very quickly to the whole “gift” thing. She woke up on the morning of her birthday and yelled, “HAPPY!” to herself. It was really cute. Now every time she sees a candle lit or a cake she starts singing Happy Birthday. I went back to teaching in September and Alyssa started going to a private home for childcare. A great friend of mine, Megan, looks after Alyssa and we are so thankful for her. She really helped make the transition easier for me as I knew and trusted her so much. It still took about 4 months before Alyssa didn’t cry when we dropped her off. Now she’s happy as can be to go to “Mee Mee’s” and play with all her little friends. Chris
is teaching his computer classes, still doing his computer
writing and fixing computers on the side. He’s
also still singing in Ninth Hour (they’re even
thinking of doing a 3rd CD so stay tuned!) You can
visit their site at www.9th-hour.com – hopefully
it’s been updated recently!
Caleb and Dylan are back in the swing of things at school – both are still in French Immersion – and both boys are playing hockey again this year. Because they are so close in age they are now on the same hockey team. This has worked out great for us as we only have 2-3 games per week rather than 6! Alyssa LOVES to go to the games (I think she just likes the canteen food) and cheer the boys on. The boys play early Saturday mornings and she’s raring to go, yelling “BOYS, HOCKEY!”. For those who have been following along our site but don’t know us personally, Nathan was living with us last year (our foster son) but he turned 16 this past summer and is now back living with his mom. We still get to see him lots as he lives fairly close to us. The boys definitely miss him as he lived with us for almost 7 years. We had a blast this Christmas with Alyssa and the boys!! It was so much fun to watch the kids on Christmas morning!!! The boys ripped through their stuff but Alyssa was much more subdued about the whole thing. Sometimes she acts so grown up, it’s scary! My parents came from Nova Scotia to visit and we were able to spend time with Chris’ parents as well so it was nice to have family around. Chris and I are thrilled with how well things are going with Alyssa but there are some things we are surprised by. We thought after a year she would have been less clingy and a lot more comfortable when we leave but this is not so … We still hardly leave her at night time with a babysitter because she gets very upset. She’s not as bad if Caleb and Dylan are with her. When I’m here in the house she still cries if I’m on a different level of the house than her. She’s still very much a “momma’s girl”, too. She is MUCH better when we visit people, though. After ½ hour or so she will get down and play and laugh and interact with the people there. We went to a family party yesterday and there were about 35 people there. For the first hour she would only stay at my side but after that she was running wild!! She is doing so well with her talking and is incredibly smart. Chris and I can’t believe how well she listens to “logic” and “reasoning” and she’s only turned 2! When she’s throwing a fit we can explain it away and she actually seems to get it and stops crying. These little girls are so intelligent! Even after a year, we are still amazed everyday by her and what a wonderful little girl she is. I can’t say enough about how great Caleb, Dylan and Nathan have been with Alyssa. Even when she’s a pesky little sister, they are still so sweet to her. She loves to crawl into their beds for storytime at night and give them hugs before bed. It’s too cute! Everyday I am so overcome with gratitude for this little girl. God certainly answered our prayers and gives us the strength everyday with her! Have
a Happy New Year everyone!!!! Stay tuned for more updates in the
next few months! :) |
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