"Mommy, I Luw uuu..."

Susan Keller Photography

The photographs in this blog were taken by our neighbor Susan Keller, who has provided her professional talents and skills to photograph Bela for her first year home.

Exactly one month ago today, we were in India at the orphanage where we picked up Bela. It's hard to believe, but time does fly!! The first few weeks were really difficult and it was hard to imagine that just a few weeks later it would feel like Bela has been our daughter for years! Bela has been feeling much more comfortable around my family and Ryan's family - especially his mom. Grandma is referred to as "muna" now and she seems happy when she see her. Bela has progressed so amazingly well in her language and association skills just in the last week or so. While she has a lot of catching up to do with language, she said "mommy i luw uuu" today - I just about melted!!!! She apparently learned that from one of her stuffed animal toys. She is also learning thank you and yummy, yummy, yummy. She is also eating without fussing too much - although she's not always hungry at the same time every day. She has been sleeping mostly on her own - occasionally she wakes in the middle of the night to see Ryan but once she does, she is asleep again.

Bela also saw an endocrinologist today - we were really pleased with the doctor and the entire office staff and how they treated Bela. The doctor was equally impressed with the all the paperwork and testing the orphanage did for Bela. The doctor indicated that they orphanage did all the testing she would have done - wow!! That was very reassuring for us too since it was entirely up to the orphanage to conduct the necessary testing. Unfortunately though, I get to take Bela for another blood test. When I heard that, my mouth dropped since I immediately had flash backs of our first blood drawing experience where it took 2 adults to hold her down! Ugh!!   Bela is also dancing a lot more these days - nodding her head back and forth and today she even stomped her feet up and down to John Mayer, Greenday and Jack Johnson. Her clean streak is still with her - picking up her shoes and putting them in the closet. We put a slide set in our backyard that another neighbor gave us and she seems to really enjoy playing on that - diving head first down the slide!

Only 30 days ago we picked up Bela and she seems to be a totally different person - full of joy, love and energy! My grandmother said it best when she said all she needed was a little love from her mom and dad! We are so blessed!