Always Have Hope: Long Overdue Update

I can’t believe it has been over three months since my last blog post. I used to (when I had more free time, pre-Hadley) follow along and read several adoption blogs and once the families were home with their new little one I was always disappointed that there were not many updates. Well, now I know why. When you add a new child into the family in takes up a lot of time. This is true when I had my biological girls, but adding a newborn is easy. They sleep a lot throughout the day and there is still time to get things done while they are napping. Adding a busy, opinionated toddler is a whole other story. Adoption brings a lot of additional challenges that are much more emotionally and physically draining and there is not much time left in the day for blogging. So I apologize to all the Hadley fans out there who have been wondering how she is doing. She is doing great!

Hadley the night we met her, January 6 and four and a half months later on her first lake weekend, May 24. What a difference love, good food and vitamins can make!

Hadley's Certificate of Citizenship came in the mail several months after coming home. She is paperwork official!

A lot has happened in the last three months since my last update! Hadley has continued to blossom and grow before our eyes. She continues to amaze us everyday. She started walking around mid-April. She now can walk very fast, is much sturdier and her balance is improving. She still is challenged on uneven surfaces (the grass) and falls down a lot, but is making awesome progress. She has finally mastered going down the stairs (backwards, on her belly) so we don’t have to worry with baby gates or the basement doors left open, which is a welcomed change. She has even figured out how to climb things and is regularly sitting or standing on the coffee table or playroom bench.

Some of Hadley's first steps

Back in May we took a family vacation to my grandparent’s beach house in Hilton Head, South Carolina. I was worried about the car ride with the girls (ages 1,2, and 3) and it would be Hadley’s first time sleeping in a different place since coming home from China. She did great and continues to easily adapt to any situation we throw her into. The car ride was as good as we could expect with three little ones. They were restless but did great. There was minimal crying, a little bit of sleeping, and lots of snacks, movies and toys to attempt to distract them. Hadley fell asleep every night and stayed asleep in the pack and play and only needed a few minutes of extra snuggles and reassurance at bedtime. Both Hadley and Isla were not huge fans of the sand or the waves. They were both fairly nervous about the waves but loved playing in the water that had pooled on the beach during the low tide. They got more and more comfortable in the sand and by the end of the week were really enjoying themselves. Hadley and Isla (ages 21 and 28 months at the time) had a very special moment that I will remember forever. It was the first time I really saw the bond that I have longed for them to have since we received Hadley’s referral and knew they would be so close in age. Hadley was standing at the edge of the water and wanted to walk out into it but was not confident enough to attempt to walk through the uneven, wet sand. (It was a shallow pool of water, only a few inches deep and I was constantly watching from about 20 feet away, don’t worry). Isla saw Hadley standing there, desiring to walk through the water, so she took her hands and helped her walk out into the water. She was so sweet and carefully held Hadley’s hands and slowly walked her out into the water. At one point Hadley lost her balance and fell onto her bottom. Isla attempted to help her back up but was unable to pull Hadley back up on her feet so she sat down next to her. The two of them sat together in the water, playing and talking for several minutes. Every now and then Isla would get up, walk a few feet away to do something else. Hadley would cry out for her and Isla would rush back to be at her little sister’s side. It made me so happy and proud of my girls and I knew this was the first of many special moments these two would share.

At the playground in Hilton Head

First day at the beach. Once over the initial fear of the sand and water, she loved it!

My sweet girls playing in the water!

She was an old pro by our second day at the beach.

This is how we roll in Hilton Head. I wish we had bikes and trailers at home. The girls loved it!

Higginbotham's do Hilton Head!

Storm's a brewin'

Sweet Isla helping her baby sister walk through the water.

Hadley's down

Isla helps her up

Hadley's down again so Isla joins her to keep her company

Examining a starfish. Can you tell how interested Hadley was? She was going in for a very close look!

I was interested to see what Hadley was going to think of swimming in the pool. As you all may remember for about the first month that Hadley was with us she was TERRIFIED of taking a bath. She was not even comfortable putting her hands under the faucet in the kitchen sink. I would assume that she was not bathed in a tub in China because she was very uncomfortable sitting in shallow water or with the sensation of water being dumped down her back. We took baths with her for the first month or so until one days she just got over her fear and has loved the water ever since. I was unsure how she was going to feel about the swimming pool and was worried she was going to be equally terrified. It turns out she had the opposite reaction. She LOVES the pool and can’t get enough of jumping off the side, going under the water or being thrown up in the air and then dropped into the water. She did great in the pool on vacation and has continued in the pool back home. She is a wild woman and has impressed everyone at the pool because she looks too young to be as comfortable as she is in the water. If only these people could have seen her in the bath tub 5 months ago. Then they would really be impressed.

In June we celebrated Olivia’s 4^th birthday. It typical fashion we went all out and threw a big pirate themed party, complete with a jumpy that we rented for the day. They kids all had a blast and Hadley did great playing with the other kids, allowing other adults to hold her and playing independently during the party (rather than insisting on being held by Aaron or I).

Happy 4th Birthday Pirate Livi!

The summer has been hot so far but that hasn’t stopped us from getting out and about and enjoying a lot of fun activities. I am not the type of person to stay home, even if it means going out solo with three little ones. It is usually a production to see me out and about and I know people stare and talk about us, but we are generally having a good time. We usually roll with the double stroller and one of the kids strapped to me in the Ergo. It turns out the older two enjoy riding in the Ergo just as much, if not more than Hadley, so they will often ride on my back while Hadley enjoys a ride in the stroller. It is inevitable that several things will be knocked off of store shelves or displays, someone will cry, everyone will have to poop and at least three people will make the comment that I have my hands full on every outing we take. It doesn’t stop us from having a good time andI have quickly learned where you are and are not welcome with three little kids. I now know to only visit places that are accessible with a double stroller, have a family friendly bathroom and are willing to help carry a tray, grab a highchair or happily clean up our milk spill. We have spent many days at the zoo and the pool, visited a local farm to pick strawberries, been to gymnastics class, many indoor and outdoor playgrounds around town, enjoyed story time at the library, and on a special trip to the Louisville Science Center where we learned all about growing watermelons. We even got to watch a cool watermelon movie at IMAX. You can imagine how the girl's first movie theater experience went. Fortunately, for everyone involved, the movie was rather short. We will not be attempting an more movies anytime soon.

Hadley has also enjoyed her first trip to the lake and first boat ride, first carousel ride, first popsicle, first icecream cone, and many other things that summer brings. On Father’s Day we had Hadley dedicated at Southeast Christian Church. This is something we got to do with Olivia and Isla when they were infants so I am glad we also got to share this special experience with Hadley too.

First popsicle!

Sensory play (pea gravel in the sandbox)

First carousel ride at the zoo

Olivia's first and last day of preschool in the 3 year old class

Isla's first and last day of parents day out. She's not a baby any more.

Our best attempt at a family photo for our six month post adoption visit. We didn't have a single family photo since coming home (aside from the ones we used in our one month post adoption visit). We panicked the night before and this was the best we could get. Hadley insists on doing this face and saying "cheese" in all her pictures now.