Six Month Anniversary

Six months ago TODAY, we met our beautiful Shaling (Long Sha Ling) for the first time when he had our Gotcha Day. On Gotcha Day, we got custody of Shaling, but didn't get to complete the adoption until the next day, because China requires a 24-hour "harmonious period" during which the child and the family are supposed to get to know each other.

Here is our guide, Connie, walking Shaling over to her new family:


Shaling with Mom:


Shaling with Dad:


Shaling with her new brother:


One of the ironic things I remember about that day is that when we ate supper at Lucy's, Shaling ordered pizza and though I asked the waitress to make it clear she could have whatever she wanted, she insisted on pizza. At the time, we were impressed that she liked American cuisine, but realized later that she was only trying to impress us, because she definitely shuns pizza now.

We were absolutely overwhelmed with emotions that day -- thrilled and relieved that we didn't get a screamer. Heck, she didn't shed a tear. The girl's bravery still amazes me. As I recall that day, I'm also so very proud of Preston. He was working so hard at making her feel welcome to the family and teaching her as much as he could. He was so happy to finally have his sister and it didn't bother him a bit that all of the attention was revolving around her. No, in fact he was intensely contributing to that attention.

Here are a couple of pictures of the two of them in their pajamas that first night, playing their DSIs (with Preston's guidance, it took her less than 5 minutes to learn how to use it):



I remember the pleasantly surprising feeling when she calmly and firmly relied on me to help her take a bath that very first evening. She thoroughly enjoyed that bath. As I understand it, they simply bathed out of a bucket at the orphanage. I shared a king-sized bed with the two kids that night. She squeezed uptight against me and fell asleep almost immediately, overwhelmed with emotional and physical exhaustion from that special day.

I giggle a bit now when I remember how impressed we were with the number of English words she knew, but considering how far we've come, her "starter knowledge" was just a drop in the bucket. On a recent Sunday, she was even reading the comics in the paper during our drive home from church and lunch. When we arrived home, she was not finished, so she spread the paper out on my car and continued reading. I took a brief video of it with my phone:

Shaling Reads the Comics from Amy Reynolds on Vimeo.

Shaling's friend, Ma MeiXin (now called Natalie) also had her Gotcha Day that day. The girls are good friends. Natalie, who now lives in Florida, was adopted by Carl & Kim. She has two older brothers, Matt & Andrew.

Here is a picture of Shaling & Natalie together that happy & exciting day:


Here is Natalie getting to know her mother & brothers (Carl was finishing paperwork in the other room. This photo is courtesy of Shaling, after she had grabbed my camera and took nearly 100 pictures.):


Happy 6-Month Gotcha Day Anniversary, Shaling & Natalie. You've come a long way! Your families are both so blessed to have you.