Monday, August 13, 2007

Delaney's First Adoption Day/Top Ten "Mom" List











One year ago (Aug 8th) a judge in Kemerovo, in a downstairs courtroom with a “jail cell” in it, officially made me the Happiest Mommy in the world!! I cannot believe it has been a year…it still all seems surreal….from the time they brought this beautiful child with two tiny pig tails sticking out of the top of her head in to me, to last night, when she licked me on the leg and said, “Mommy’s yummy! I like Mommy…LUUUV you Mommy!” And I never thought I’d travel to Siberia twice in my life!

Someone at work asked me what I like best about being a mom, and I said EVERYTHING! I have never been so tired and so happy. What really makes me feel the best in my heart is knowing how happy she is! We celebrated our first Adoption Day/Family Day by making a heart shaped cake and opening up some presents. While I was videotaping her opening up her cards I asked her where her family is and she immediately pointed to me, then my mom then herself and said, “MommyDelaneyGrandma family…” “…and Pamp-pa and Auntie!” (she calls my dad’s girlfriend Auntie). I always want to cry when she says she wants to go home and we drive up to the house and she says, “Delaney’s house, right there!” Last night we were looking at the photo book I left with her on trip one and she looked at the picture of the house and said, “My house, that’s my home!”

We also went to a water park that’s just for small kids and she loved it! When we came home, I gave her turtle sand box and she spent the rest of the day making “sandcastles!” Although I have yet to actually see one, they are mostly just mounds of sand…he he!
She just acts like she has always been here, always in charge! He he! She was walking around telling me Happy Adoption Day, and my boss called it the “Mama-versary”. Well, you’ve all heard a lot of stories about Little Missy, so I came up with a top ten list: “What I have learned my first year as a Mommy!” Here are some pics of our little celebration, I took pictures at the water park with a waterproof and will put them on my blog when I develop them. She was so disappointed she could not go on the bigger slides, that little 2 year old daredevil !! The picture in the pink dress is from trip one, the picture in the jeans outfit is from Gotcha Day, she loves that outfit and always says, "that's cute!" and she loved her light up sneakers, too! Gotcha Day was also the day my baby discovered shoe-shopping! I have been paying for that all year....that child loves shoes! I bought the green dress on a trip to Scotland when I was 5 months into the dossier, those portraits were in March. I thank God every single day for how lucky I am to be this wonderful person's Mommy! (and wonder, "what have I done?" when she tries to put lipstick on the cat!)

Top Ten Things I Have Learn as a Mom ~ Year One
10. Anything you SAY can and will be repeated!
9. Babyproofing? HA!!!!
8. Any toy or object can and will be used as something other than it's original purpose!
7. Cats don't like to drink from a sippy cup.
6. Anything you DO can and will be repeated!
5. Two year olds like to lock doors.
4. Every word to every Wiggles song, every word to every Ralph song, the entire Sound of Music score, the entire score to Mary Poppins, every note to the Jeopardy theme, and all the words to Three Dog Night's "Joy to the World".
3. Broccoli has excellent trajectory.
2. A bath can bide you enough time to make a phone call or have a glass of wine!
1. No matter how it is said, whined, shouted, screamed, yelled, whimpered, whispered....."Mommy" is the sweetest word in the world!!!!!