Gotta Have Faith and Daniel: December 2012

Happy Holidays! How in the world is Christmas less than one week away? I feel like I blinked my eyes on Halloween and now here we are. Whew! What a busy time it's been. We're a bit late with our monthly photo, but as you can see below, Faith is now 11 months old. Well actually she's really almost a year old. Let me repeat that because I barely believe it myself. Faith will be one year old in less than 3 weeks. And ironically exactly one year ago today Randy & I received an email from our social worker asking if we'd like to be considered for a potential birth mom they were meeting with later that week. I still remember every moment of that day like it just happened yesterday. Randy claims he knew the moment we got that email that she was our daughter. And now here we are one year later with the most beautiful and amazing almost one year old daughter. Wow! All day I kept staring at Faith and just smiling or picking her up for an extra hug and kiss. Life truly is amazing and we try very hard not to take for granted how blessed we are.

Now, onto what you're really interested in hearing about. Faith! It's hard to even put into words the personality that this girl has. She is so sweet, is constantly busy, wants to touch EVERYTHING, is very independent, and has a lot to say all the time. Thank goodness we finally have our living room back - floor and all - because she is not only crawling, walking (by holding onto things) and standing on her own, but she also decided this week that she would teach herself how to climb the stairs. And boy is she quick. I can't get enough of watching her learn new things. One day she is standing at the bottom of the steps trying to lift her leg and getting frustrated when she can't get up. And the next day she figures out how to get onto the bottom step. By the third day she is literally flying up to the top. That gate we ordered should be here tomorrow - thank goodness!

We've been busy as usual - unfortunately mostly with house projects like painting & laying flooring, but we did sneak in some family time. Faith got to meet Santa last weekend and to our surprise she didn't shed a tear. She was fascinated with him and sat on his lap content just staring at his face. We could barely get her attention for a picture and she wouldn't even look away long enough to crack a smile for us (which as you know is very unusual for her). She was mesmerized! And then a few days later, she got a letter from Santa in the mail! We also spent an evening in Annapolis for the Eastport Yacht Club's annual Parade of Lights. They decorate all of the sailboats and parade them around the harbor. It was beautiful and we got lucky with a warn night to spend outside. Plus we just love Annapolis so it might be a new family tradition!

The highlight of the month was getting to have a visit with Faith's birth family. We saw her birth mother, her sister (who is 4) and her grandmother for a great visit at our adoption agency. We spent a couple of hours exchanging presents, stories, pictures and hugs. It's always such an emotional roller coaster and we're all pretty exhausted afterwards, but we are very lucky to be able to spend time together.

Let's see, what else is new? Faith has four teeth, lots more hair (enough for bows finally), and eats everything you put in front of her (as long as she can pick it up herself). Just this past weekend she mastered raising her arms for "So Big!" She talks constantly and can clearly say a few words (dada, done, hi, yeah), but most of the time we're just guessing at what she's saying. We're teaching her some sign language too and she's starting to pick up on "help", "more" and "all done". We are desperately trying to get her to understand the word no. Actually we're pretty sure she knows what the word means when we say it, but little miss independent already likes to push the limits by trying it over and over and over again. She's also mastered the pouty lip and the I'm up to no good grin already. I can feel my gray hair forming as I type this. But for every deep breath I have to take each day (and trust me some days there are many) I wouldn't trade a second for the joy that she brings to our world. Especially after such a horrific event last week in Connecticut. I don't have words to describe my complex thoughts and feelings on what happened there, but I can say that I'm more thankful than ever for every second of every day (even the hard ones) as we are reminded that life is so short and so precious.

We are counting the days and hours to our first Christmas as a family and will be sure to post lots of pictures. There's lots of wrapping, baking, cleaning and packing to be done in that short time, but thankfully no more shopping. That part is all done as Faith would say. We have plans to see much of our extended family over the next week so it's going to be a busy time, but we're looking forward to every minute and will write again when we can.

Much Love and Merry Christmas!

The Groves