3 months ago today . . .

. . .Dave and I woke up in Nanjing, China. After a quick walk in the city, we came back to our hotel room to get ready to go to the Civil Affairs office to meet Marley. My head was spinning with so many emotions, some which were in direct conflict with others. The questions that ran through my head jumped from "Will she let me hold her right away?" to "Do we have enough wipes in the bag?" to "What if the boys never forgive us for bringing home a sister who they will have to share our attention with?" Nervous energy brought one question back to my mind over and over . . . "What have we gotten ourselves into?" Dave was his usual cool cucumber self, thank goodness or we may have never made it down to the lobby to meet our translator and driver that day!

And then there we were, in the Nanjing Civil Affairs office, and there she was. Covered in sweat, wearing a soaking wet diaper under four layers of clothes and that silly Goldilocks hat. And she was beautiful.




As cliche as it sounds, it is hard to believe that she has only been with us three months now. She has changed and grown in so many ways in this short span of time, and our little family has done the same. I feel awe and pride when I watch Keller and Casey interact with her. They play with her, entertain her, feed her, protect her. She is truly their little sister, no matter how she came to join our family. My love for Dave has found a new depth as I've watched him be not only a father, but a "Daddy" to this tiny girl who was a stranger to him just three months ago.

I imagine that if the nannies from Marley's orphanage were to see her today, they would not believe the changes in her. She walks, runs, climbs the stairs (sticks her hands in the toilet, dumps the food out of the pantry, scatters DVDs around the house). She uses five signs regularly, says "Hi", says "Mama" (yells with/at the boys, screams in carpool line, says "Uh oh" when she throws her cup on the floor for the hundredth time). She brushes her teeth, brushes her hair, tries to put her socks on (uses other people's toothbrushes, sneezes and plays with the mess, poops far too often for a child her size). She has gone from dependent infant to naughty toddler so quickly! She had an evaluation last week for early intervention services. In the two months since her last evaluation, she has made amazing gains of: 5 months in Expressive Language, 7 months in Receptive Language, 3 months in Fine Motor Skills and 5 months in Gross Motor Skills. She is on-track for her Social/Emotional development. Those gains don't even account for all the skills she perfected during the first month she was with us.

Marley's 3 month 'gotcha' anniversary pics:


This is Marley's swimsuit from her little friend Charlie who was adopted from China in October. They had their first playdate last week. He's a cutie with the most adorable chubby cheeks. I can't believe I managed to forget to get my camera out while he was here :( Next time!

You know she's thinking "What kind of crazy place is this?"


I love her smile!


Is it all sunshine and rainbows? No, of course not. I've logged far too many miles shuttling Marley around to a bazillion doctor's appointments. Dave has had to take full advantage of the flexibility of working from a home office, which means he helps tremendously on days when I need to be somewhere with one or two kiddos and the remaining little Huffman(s) need him. It also means he needs to spend a lot of late nights staring at his laptop when the rest of the house is asleep. Keller has been dealing with some social anxiety issues (go figure--the bubbly, funny, confident kid who is absolutely unafraid to pass gas in front of strangers has social anxiety!) All three kids have had their share of winter illnesses and I've gotten flat-out dog tired more days than I care to remember. But our crazy, busy, loud house was not always perfect before, either, and what we have all gained by bringing Marley onboard our Ship of Fools is immeasurable. The best part is that we're only three months into this. We've barely scratched the surface on all that is yet to come for our motley little crew.

Here are a couple other random shots from the past week. . .

My brave kids (and their buddy) at the Super Pet Expo:


Casey found this turtle when we were hiking this morning:

If only Keller could wander the woods freely day in and day out. . .

Casey gets his fashion tips from Napoleon Dynamite:

Keller's creativity led to an interesting discussion on the topic of 'counterfeit money.' He's such a funny kid.