One More Thing...

To all my friends and family ~

Well, we've been home a week now and for the most part are over our jetlag and starting to get into the swing of Christmas. I realize now that in my extremely tired state of being, I closed this blog up a little too early. I don't know if anyone else will read this, but just in case, I have a couple more things I wanted to share.

First, because I know how my friends in the adoption world are (even if I don't know you personally, if you're on this journey, we're friends), we love to read blogs of other families who are traveling and share in their experience thru their blogs. After following a family for over two weeks, it's almost like you know them, even if you don't, and it's for these people that I wanted to add one more post. I want you to know that even though little Sophia chose to bond with her Daddy in China and really didn't want much to do with me there, she is doing so much better now. She willing comes to me, pulls me by the hand to her rocking chair at night to put her to bed, gives lots of kisses and smiles to me... I was prepared for it to take weeks, so I'm just thrilled that it's happening so quickly. She is so precious to us! It's very common for children to bond with one parent at a time (it's just too much to process to bond with both at once), so don't be scared if this happens to you. It just takes them time to deal with everything that's changing in their lives and to figure out that they can trust you.

Second, I have been absolutely amazed at how many people have told me in the past week that they are sorry I'm ending this blog. Really! That's makes me laugh, but it also made me rethink blogging. It's definitely too time consuming to keep up with daily, or even every other day, but since we have so many friends and family members who live so far away from us, perhaps blogging really is a good way to keep up with what's going on around here. I mean really, my kids are awesome and who am I to keep them all to myself? ;-) So, after the first of the year, I will start a new blog that will continue chronicling the journey we're on. I may not post but once a week or so, but I'm sure no one minds.

We have been so honored to learn that our story has touched others - at least one family has decided to adopt because of reading our story, others are considering a special needs adoption now (Sophia was born with a hole in her heart which, fortunately, closed on it's own and she's now just fine!), and some are even sponsoring Starfish babies after learning about the amazing foster home Sophia lived in. How awesome is that? There are over 143 million orphans in the world - maybe one of them belongs in your family? There are some amazing kids out there! If you have any questions about where to get started, please get in touch with me!

I'll post once more here in a couple of weeks letting you know how to find the new blog. Until then, Merry Christmas and best wishes for a wonderful New Year to each of you!

Karee & Family