Thankful for Shared Paths

Emily and I knew we'd become good friends when we became acquainted and realized how much our lives have paralleled each other over the last few years. Just one of these parallels was both getting matched with our daughters last October. With the hard wait, paperwork headaches, travel issues, and intricacies of adoptive parenting, I've been thankful to have someone who is walking the same path. I am also grateful that Grace will grow up having a friend who has not only been adopted as well, but who also shares the same birth country and heritage. I can see them as 6-year-olds confiding in each other as they perhaps struggle to understand their history or rejoice in having families who love them. I can only imagine how their similarities will create a strong bond of friendship.Carter getting some love from Emily.Carter enjoyed watching the girls play on Friday. His buddy Britton (Lia Kate's big brother) was at Mother's Day Out.He finally realized that Grace and Lia Kate look somewhat similar. On Friday afternoon, he pointed at Grace, looked at me with a sly smile, and said "Lia Kate." I explained to him that the girls are both Chinese, and so they do have some similarities. It just made me laugh that he observed that. Grace is finally keeping her bows in. In fact, after her bath tonight, she handed me a bow and insisted I put it in her hair. But it's still hard to keep her bangs from slipping out of the clip and into her eyes. This week has been a bit harder in that Carter is a little less enamored with Grace and a lot more aggressive and territorial. But I've also heard that's normal behavior when a first child gains a sibling. He still lights up when he sees her in the morning, or when we pick him up from school. And there are times that he has been very patient and calm when Grace has pulled his hair or bitten his arm. It's hard to explain to a 2-year-old that his sister hasn't yet earned these actions are wrong.

Grace still loves to eat. But she's gone from eating anything before her to being a tad finicky. By the end of the day, I have no clue what to feed her! Occasionally, she just wants to hold the food or throw it to Jackson. I suppose it's comforting to simply have the food in front of her.

We got back test results this past week from a hair analysis on Carter. The lab results provide more information than a blood test. They basically show the levels of minerals in Carter's system. He pretty much was low on everything except potassium. (The kid LOVES bananas.) Let's just say that he's getting another diet overhaul. And it's got this mama overwhelmed.

More details to come on all that soon.