Chloe's Personality

Chloe seems to have a way with entertaining people.  I'm not sure if it is because we forgot how cute toddlers are to be around or if there is something different about her.  Her personality seems to shine more and more each day.  She is still pretty quiet and apprehensive in new surroundings, but when she starts to feel comfortable, watch out.  She has a laugh and a smile that are contagious.  Anyone that spends a little time with her falls in love with her.  I love to watch her tell a story.  Despite the fact that she still is unable to say many words, she has an amazing gift of communication.  The other night she fell off a chair and hit her head.  When she tells that story she makes the cutest face and hits her head with her hand and says bonk.  Then she points to the floor and then she pretends to cry.  It is amazing how expressive she is.  Her speech continues to progress by leaps and bounds.  Every day it seems like she is doing more word approximations.  I'm amazed.  I'm sure there will be a time soon when we will wonder if she will ever be quiet.
 
We have really been working on the potty training and now she mostly goes in underwear.  When I started to get serious with this, I would give her 2 M&M's (one for being dry and one for going on the potty) as a treat.  When she goes, she points to the cabinet and says treat, then she holds up two fingers and says two.  A few weeks ago Kevin's parents were watching her and Chloe told Carolyn she got three treats and held up three fingers.  Carolyn of course gave her three.  She is so smart.  She knows three is more than two and she had just the right person to try it out on.  Now she asks for three and occasionally five, but I am more of a stickler and stick to the 2!

Chloe does things that Caleb never did.  The other day I had baked some cookies.  Chloe loves cookies.  I gave her one along with the rest of the family.  Then she asked for another.  I gave her another half.  Then I needed to get ready so I went back to the bedroom.  Next thing I know Kevin is asking me if I gave her another cookie.  I said no.  We went into the kitchen and she had pulled a chair to the counter, climbed up and helped herself to another cookie.  She has also pulled the chair to the door and tried to unlock it and go out.  She is quite clever and we have to keep our eyes on her all the time. 

One of her cute new things is "taking someone's nose off"  She takes her hand up to your nose and then puts her thumb between her index and middle finger like it is your nose.  She has to concentrate so hard to put her thumb in the right place.  It is so funny and the first time she did it to me I laughed so hard.  I had never seen her do it before and I had no idea where she learned it.  Thanks to Kevin for that adorable trick.
 
Every year since Caleb was a baby we have taken family photos in the bluebonnets.  It was fun this year to have Chloe be a part of it.  Here are a couple pictures from that and some recent ones I took of her.

My sweeties

The Family

Chloe concentrating on putting her thumb in the right place to show the nose she just took off

How adorable is that?

Posing for the camera

Picking the flowers

So happy

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today we were matched with Chloe!  What an amazingly exciting day.  I was at work when I received the email from our adoption agency.  The subject line of the email said in capital letters CALL A HELPING HAND ADOPTION AGENCY ASAP!  My heart rate soared and the excitement built as I clicked on the email that told us we were matched with a child and to call the office as soon as possible.  I think that may be the best email I have ever received.  I was in such disbelief as I listened to our case worker tell me about Chloe.  Here we had waited for almost 4 years and within a few minutes my life was drastically changed forever.  I had tried to call Kevin at that moment and kept getting voicemail.  I just kept calling and calling hoping eventually he would pick up so I could share the news.  He called back a few minutes after my call with the agency.  He told me that he had been on a business call and when he saw that I kept calling over and over, he had to tell the person that there must be something important because his wife had called repeatedly that he was going to have to call him back.  Little did he know what I was about to spring on him!  Caleb was equally excited.  He was finally going to be a big brother.  The emotions of that day were overwhelming.  It was hard to believe that there was a beautiful little girl with big brown eyes on the other side of the world that would be ours forever.  I wonder what they told her if anything on April 26th last year.  Did she know she was going to have a forever family?  Did she know she would have a Mom and Dad and big brother who would love her?  I hope so.  Now fast forward to today.  So many things have happened in her little life. She met us.  She moved half way around the world.  She has had surgery (now twice since she just had another set of ear tubes placed).  She has adjusted to a new way of life.  And she is flourishing.  April 26, 2011 changed our hearts and our lives forever.   Praise God!

The first picture we got of Chloe with our referral on April 26, 2011

Chloe now