Boy, we’re sorry it has taken so long to post an update! We have been so busy and enjoying every moment with Grace that we haven’t taken the time to write in our blog. I’ll go back in time to fill you in on some of the things that have been going on.

Thanksgiving was so much fun! We went to my parents to celebrate. Grace met my Aunt Connie and Uncle Sam and a bunch of cousins for the first time. She did so well, especially considering all the new people she was meeting and sleeping at my parent’s house. Here is a picture of Grace with some of her cousins.

Grace was baptized on December 14. We had her baptized at my church where I grew up. It was absolutely beautiful! The whole church has been so supportive of us since we began our adoption journey. It was perfect to have my church family a part of this celebration! Here is a picture that Greg took of Grace when we got back to my parent’s house after her baptism. Isn’t she beautiful!!!!

Christmas was so much fun! While she loved the presents, the bows, paper, and boxes seemed to be the biggest hits! I had two weeks off for the holidays and a bonus Snow Day gave me some extra time. Greg had the week between Christmas and New Year’s off too. It was so nice to spend all that time together. We celebrated Christmas at my parents and then Greg’s family came to our house after Christmas. We had our family photos taken for the holidays. They turned out so good. Here is one of our favorites.

One of Grace's favorite presents that she got for Christmas was the sled that Uncle Darrin got her. It's a tiny little sled with a seatbelt and wide bottom just for little ones. She absolutely loves getting pulled around in the snow. This is probably no surprise, since she liked the wagon so much. This is just like a little red wagon for the snow! She likes to scoop up snow with her mitten as she goes along, and then bring it up to her mouth and eat it! She winds up with snow all over her face and just laughs.

Our last blog entry said that Grace was starting to take a few steps by herself. It’s about two months later and she's walking everywhere now! It seems just overnight she made the decision that she would rather walk than crawl. Of course, she fell down a lot at first, but seems to get better every day. It's so much fun to see her learning so many things and trying out her new independence.

I’ve been so concerned about Grace’s language development. I’ve spoken to our speech therapist at school. She tells me not to worry. Riiiight! She told me to work on things like “Uh Oh” so we’ve been doing that. And sure enough, she’s starting to say it, or at least something pretty close. So her first word seems to be Uh Oh. She also says “num” when she likes what she is eating. I know, it may not be a real a word but it has meaning, so it’s good enough for me. She also says “bye bye” but Greg has yet to hear it so I don’t think he believes me. But her daycare provider says she heard it too, so I have a witness!

She’s still very small for her age. She’s 16 months now, but only wears 12 month clothes. But at her 15 month checkup, she was finally on the charts for both height and weight. We haven’t found much that she won’t eat, so that is helping her to gain weight. Her favorite foods seem to be peas and bananas, but she hasn’t met a fruit or vegetable that she won’t eat yet.

Sleep has been a little rough lately. Grace usually wakes up two or three times each night. Luckily, she usually goes right back to sleep, but there have been some nights where we’re up with her for two or three hours at a time. With three new molars in the last week, we think we may know why she’s restless, although they don’t seem to bother her during the day at all. Last night she slept through the whole night though, so maybe things are looking up! Yay!

I think that should bring you all up to date. We’ll try not to wait so long between posts next time. Thanks again for visiting our blog. Take care.