I know after that last post, many of you have been wondering how things have been going.  It was a hard post for me to write and actually hit "publish" on but I am so glad I did.  I've wanted to be truthful from the beginning but sometimes the truth is hard to put out there. And I never ever want to give the impression that things are going terrible here.  I was trying to give you a look inside a moment of our lives right now.  And that moment was tough.  Really tough.  But the thing is, it was a moment in the grand scheme of life.  And we've had many "moments" since then.  Some good and some not so good.  Grief is a real thing for a child that has been in an orphanage.  For a child that has never felt the love of a father or a mother.  Not having someone to hold them when they fell or been there in the middle of the night when they were scared.  I can tell you honestly though that I wouldn't trade this transition.  In all of it's difficulties and amazingness.  You know why?  Because it's her transition.  It's what she needs to go through.  And we willingly walk through that because we love her. 

But I want to say THANK YOU!  Thank you for the love that you have shown us.  Thank you for the emails that you sent telling us your stories.  The support has been completely overwhelming.  Thank you for loving us & for loving Alina even though many of you have not met her yet. 

So today marks the day that one month ago we became a forever family!  I can't believe the changes that have taken place in just one month. 

Our social worker came for our first post placement visit (we will have to have these for the next 5 years).  She asked what one word we would use to describe Alina and without hesitation, I said, "joyful."  This little girl is so full of life that even when she brushes her teeth, she has a little dance to go with it.  She laughs a lot and makes us laugh too.  She is still parroting us quite a bit but put her first sentence together the other week.  "Baba (daddy), Sasha pooted."  Now if that doesn't tell you something about her personality, I don't know what will.  ;)  I wrote her name on the chalkboard the other day & said, "Alina".  She took the chalk from me, drew some lines on the chalkboard and said, "Mama."  She is growing and changing so much from the first day we met her.  She is opening up to us.  She is learning to love and to accept love.  What an incredible gift!