4 Weeks since Gotcha Day

As I sit here to write my long overdue blog I am blown away that Sha has been with us 4 weeks.  It feels like so much longer but that is in a good way.  Mainly because of how much she has changed in the 4 weeks.  Her English continues to improve daily although she puts up a fantastic battle when we work on it in the mornings.  She also puts up a fantastic battle when it comes to changing clothes in morning:).

Her and I are still struggling a bit with bonding since we have been home. I am confident it is because she is stuck with me all day and I am the one making her do the things she doesn't like (make her bed, work on English...get dressed:). We do have some good moments though.  One was at my friend Amanda's house. She had a gingerbread house party and invited us.  When we got there Sha quickly saw all 2 and 3 year old and became very quiet.  She wanted nothing to do with me at the party.  At one point we gathered around the table to make the houses, she kept pushing me away which tugged at my heart. I left her at the table for about 3 seconds to get my camera in the other room and when I got back she said " You....stay" and pointed at the ground.  Yes that was a "melt" if you can believe it.

She is very excited about Santa and knows how many days till he comes. She also knows he comes down the chimney and will "only" come if she is sleeping:) 

So much has happened since my last blog I don't even know where to begin.  So in my usual fashion, I'll list our highlights:

• The biggest excitement has been that Sha met Shushu Colin, Ayi Cheryl and NaiNai Viv. She absolutely fell in love with Colin who is terrific with her. They instantly bonded. We celebrated an early xmas with lots of fun toys from all three of them, they were very generous. Barbie and the EasyBake oven were the big hits:)
• My very talented sister in law Cheryl put together this amazing scrapbook of our blogs in China.  I think I have read it about 25 times now.  I can't begin to describe what a beautiful gift it was, she is the best!
• The other big excitement is that Sha has two new friends who she gets along great with and the best part about it, they are our dear friends children.  Quinn and Caroline are my friends Aaron and Christine's children.  We have known them now for 12 years, they are good friends and neighbors so we are just thrilled our children got along so great.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that Sha is in Quinn's 3rd grade class which is looking like she may be.
• We got our Xmas tree up and Sha found ours and Jack's Santa hat and she can't get enough of Jack in it....poor Jack:)