Greetings from our family to yours! Our Christmas holiday was sweet and special - for the first time ever we had a little princess running around the house, all caught up in the excitement of Christmas. We baked Christmas cookies, visited Santa (not the most positive experience) and simply delighted in watching our daughter's eyes light up over the lights and sparkle on the tree.
Angelina will be two the end of this month, and we are amazed how much she's grown and changed since we came home last March. I was recently reflecting about all we went through to adopt Angelina. All of the tests (how many tb tests must a person take?), paperwork, money spent, traveling and anxiety that we went through for the approx. 14 month long adoption process. While we were in the throws of the process, the adoption defined us; it was all we talked about and all we thought about. We shared what we were going through with everyone we met - regardless of whether that person wanted to know or not.
Now, only 10 short months later, that experience seems like a world away. The three of us are tight; we are indeed a family. When we meet people, or talk about our daughter, we no longer feel compelled to volunteer information about the journey we went on to become a family. And while we are extremely proud of how we became a family, and of our daughter's Russian heritage, we now feel it is no one's business but ours. I guess we are developing our own identity as a family; no longer singularly defined by our adoption experience. We are a family. Period. It is awesome.
I wonder how many of my fellow ap's feel the same way?
I hope my friends in the blogsphere (you know who you are) had a wonderful, blessed holiday. I read your blogs often, but for some reason, am no longer permitted by Blogger to leave comments on your blogs (OMG! HOW FRUSTRATING!). If any of you know how to overcome that problem, please - do tell!
Best wishes to you and yours for a blessed New Year,
Eric & Kathryn
