Breaking News: Today was the first time that Abigail let Daddy in!!!

Yes, today was wonderful in that Abbie really started to warm up to me. It didn’t begin that way though. In fact, the 30 or so minutes that it took Erin to get showered and dressed for the day (she’d probably say it took 20 minutes, but c’mon, let’s be real :^) were tough on our girl. She screamed the whole time. I tried everything, but nothing worked even when I did it to myself to try to get a laugh. The good thing about this was that I knew Erin was seen as security for her. The sad thing was that I knew she probably wondered if Erin was coming back.

Erin did and we moved into our day, which was completely free as we had no official appointments. This being the case, we had plenty of time to work with Abigail and her relationship with yours truly. She woke up in a cranky mood from her nap, which didn’t start things off too well but after an initial inconsolable period, she warmed up to Erin just fine. That was about 1pm. From that point until about 5pm we just all played on the bed. At first, I just watched, moving nearer or farther away depending on Abbie’s cues. Eventually, though, I began to interact. This was completely upon her initiative initially, but later I was able to be more active in the process. By the end of this time period, Erin was able to walk out of sight and Abbie was just fine. That was a great moment for us because we know that she is starting to trust at a deeper level!

As far as her development, Abigail appears to be doing fairly well, all things considered. She’s a hefty 28 pounds and barely fits into her 18 month-old clothes. This is good as she’s developing nicely from a growth point of view. What’s even better is that we are seeing her become more and more active the more she trusts us and gets used to this new environment. On our first day together she didn’t move at all. Yesterday, she moved just a little bit but still seemed very passive and almost rubbery. And today…well she was crawling all over us and even walking with assistance!!! Quite a change! If we get bored enough we may do a developmental assessment, but we’ll see (how geeky is that???)

In other news we reviewed some official documents that arrived today from the PRC (People’s Republic of China – don’t I sound local? :^). They included Abigail’s abandonment certificate, our approval to adopt, and her birth certificate (which just says she was born on the day she was abandoned). We were told to double check these very carefully as the US Consulate will deny her a Visa if any of these documents need to be corrected. So, we both scoured them and they appear to be correct down to every detail, so far as we can tell on the English translation side of things.

Perhaps the hardest part of the day for us was getting a great update on Jackson. It seems odd to write that last sentence, but it’s true. We are so glad that he’s doing well and we wouldn’t want to miss out on any of the updates, but we miss him so and these remind us of that. I know that it’s important for us to be here for Abigail and that we couldn’t have done what we did today with her if Jackson was with us…but…sometimes the heart doesn’t follow the rational to its conclusion. We did hear that he loves to see the pictures every day so that brings a smile to my face as I write this.

Again, thanks for all your prayers. I’ve posted a few of today’s pictures for you below, my favorite is first, of course (and with any luck I might be in a frame or two tomorrow – that is if Abbie continues to trust me long enough for Erin to take a picture).

Enjoy…

We miss you all and are getting close to the half-way point in our trip!!!

My favorite shot of the day…both my girls look so happy!!! (Makes my heart sing.)

Close enough to see her tiny dimples (just like you Jackson…must run in the family)!

Hadn’t had a profile yet, so here one is. This is the first toy she played with after separating from a Nannie. Now she’s back to it, but this time on the lap of her forever-mom!

Keeping her hair-do the way she likes it (seems to bug her right now to have it other ways).

Walking with assistance for the first time today.

Pigtail motion… (so I got a little bored and decided to go time lapse on this frame. Just wish I had a tripod).