It's hard to believe that six months ago today we landed in China ready to make Katie part of our family. The adoption process is definitely a leap of faith. We went into this trying to prepare ourselves for major grieving, possible undisclosed health issues, developmental issues, etc. All I can say is that our God is so good. Katie has been an absolute joy. It is so obvious that she was loved by her foster family very much. They taught this little angel how to love and be loved. I stay in contact with the foster family via e-mail and they really appreciate it. They said they miss her very much. We found Katie's file on our agency's waiting children list. This is a list of children with minor special needs. We had never even considered cleft lip/cleft palate before but when we saw her picture, we knew she was meant to be ours. We then had to prepare ourselves for speech therapy, possible hearing loss due to ear infections and all the other issues related to cleft. This little one has been nothing but healthy. Her major issue when we got home was her teeth which didn't have anything to do with her cleft situation. She has to have six cavities filled, two partial root canals and two crowns. She felt so much better when her mouth didn't hurt anymore. The Cleft Team in Cincinnati, Ohio examined her in July and said the doctors in China did a wonderful job on her surgeries. She won't need anything else for about two more years when she will need her bone graft in her gum line. Of course braces will be in her future but they are in Marie's too. Katie is growing very fast. She already is wearing size six (Marie is nine and wears size seven). It brings me such joy to see the special bonding between Marie and Katie. They really watch out for one another. They play all of the time. I asked Jim the other night "what did Marie do before Katie?" Jim and I are so happy with our family. We went to Katie's first parent/teacher conference for Kindergarten last week. She received all S's (the best you can get in Kindergarten) and the teacher said she is doing wonderful. She also sees an ESL (English as Second Language) teacher twice a week with four other children from her school. The teacher said she will be ready to graduate Katie out in February before the others since she is doing so well. Her ability to learn English has just amazed everyone she has met. We attribute this to her big sister talking to her all of the time. Katie is a very smart little girl. She is also in Cheer America with her big sister. They have cheer lessons once a week and have already marched in one parade with another coming up here in Sidney this month. Then there will be a competition. She enjoyed Halloween and dressed up as a bride. She has talked about dressing as a bride for a long time. Now that is over, she is talking more and more about Christmas. This is so exciting to think this will be her first Christmas and she is five years old. I can't wait!!
