Our Family, Our Joy: One Year Home

Wow........has it really been a year?? It doesn't seem that long ago that we were all in China, but yet it seems that Lily has always been with us. Our little girl has changed so much in the year that she's been home. From a shy, timid little girl who seemed even younger than her years, to a talkative, bright girl with a little bit of attitude! :) And by "talkative", I mean she talks all the time! She's our question girl.....always asking questions, most of which don't require an answer. "why am I sitting in this chair and Tyler is sitting in that chair?", "why did I say please and thank you and Michael didn't?"

Although she still wakes up a lot at night, we rarely see a night terror and she's much easier to calm. She is also having less tantrums. She's a perfectionist and can get upset if she doesn't do something right or if she's corrected, because of her behavior. Sometimes the 'upset', can escalate into a full blown tantrum, but she's really beginning to learn to control her emotions at a more age appropriate level. We're so proud of how much she's learning and how far she's come.

As for her health, for those who don't know, she was listed as a special needs child because of kidney stones. They were discovered when she was 5 months old and we suspect melamine poisoning. The Chinese milk scandal erupted in 2008 when infant formula in China was found laced with melamine (a substance used in plastics), to cause the milk to appear to have a higher protein content. The melamine can cause kidney stones as well as kidney damage. A number of infants in China lost their lives due to acute kidney failure. We had Lily tested when we brought her home, and although there was a stone in each kidney, the kidneys themselves were not damaged. She was retested again in June. After a healthy diet and pleanty of liquids, one stone has completely dissolved, and the other is greatly reduced in size!! We are so happy, and our hope is that the remaining stone will be gone by this time next year.

Lily is such a joy to our family! She loves her brothers, and has become quite good at telling them what to do!

The first 3 pictures were taken a year ago in China