She said "milk"

It happened. Katie said milk. It took being home a year but she finally said milk. Prior to this it was always gilk. Or then it became "my almond gilk". We knew she could say the m sound as she was saying my, mommy, mama, mine, moo, etc. I joked with Kiya that the day Katie said milk we would have a party. Reality is she said it at bedtime so we did a little dance in the hallway and gave high fives all around.

I know this seems silly but to us it was just another sign of just how far Katie has come in the last year. She is really very smart and is adjusting well. Sure she has her two year old irrational moments but as her language has progressed those moments are not as often.

On top of saying milk she is also saying Mickey Mouse instead of the Gickey Bouse. Yet another little step in her language development. She is stringing more and more words together and it is easier to understand her. I have been told that she isn't that far behind children her age who grew up hearing English. Big sigh of relief.

As an adoptive parent especially of a toddler you feel this pressure to get them caught up to their peers all the while making sure the build a secure attachment to you as their parents. And then since we are talking about two year olds there is the debate of is it toddler related behavior or adoption related...or a combo of both.

For a long time Katie was sweet but reserved and sometimes angry. She had this little wall around herself to protect herself or so it seemed. She would only get so close and only show so much affection.

In the last couple of months, the wall has crumbled. She is so sweet and snuggly. She loves to give hugs and kisses and she genuinely seems really really happy. She seems to have really settled in and is enjoying life. At first she got really possessive of me. She started saying "my mommy" and making sure everyone around her knew it. She got a little clingy with me and was never far from my side. Almost like she was testing to make sure I wasn't going to leave.

Over this last year I have learned a lot about my sweet Katie Kat. She is smart and stubborn, silly and serious, a daredevil and cautious.  She is for sure complex and has given me a run for my money but she is truly amazing.

Sure we are still trying to sort out her food issues. She has been gluten free since January and gluten and dairy free since April. Eliminating gluten seemed to help at first but then wasn't as much so we went dairy free and limited fruit. Things seemed maybe a little better and then they weren't again. We see a specialist next week to figure out what to do. We don't believe she has an allergy as we aren't seeing hives, eczema, trouble breathing, etc. but something is not sitting well with her.

It is hard to believe sometimes that this little girl found her way to our family. We started the process to adopt a second child in November of 2009. We left the Ethiopia program in March of 2011. July of 2011 we saw her sweet face in an email even after we thought for sure that we would be having a little boy. 6 days shy of the new adoption laws going in to effect in South Korea and we got our Emigration Permission. Finally after 13 plus months of waiting we brought our sweet girl home.

I have always been a firm believer in everything happens for a reason and God has a plan for everyone. So it may have taken three years, a program switch, a gender surprise and an efficient Korean ministry process, but our family was finally complete. She is a perfect fit. She is a little spark that just keeps on going. I couldn't imagine loving her anymore than I already do and I feel very blessed to be the mom to two wonderful and very different little girls.