Today, we legally finalized our adoption. Mia Isabelle Lynch is our daughter, now and forever! It hasn’t even been a full 24 hours since our family of 3 became 4, but already we feel like we’ve been together so much longer! Mia is beginning to warm up to me, with easy smiles, and a willingness to hold my hand. She still prefers Chris or Sydney, but we are making slow but steady progress. I am taking everyone’s kind advice to be patient, and doing my best to wait for her to come to me. As difficult as this is for me (all I want to do is cuddle, kiss and hug her!), I know it is more difficult for her. She’s been hurt in ways I cannot comprehend – twice. Her biological mother abandoned her, and now, even though she has been prepared as best as she could for this, it must feel like she’s been abandoned again by her ‘aunties’ from the orphanage. And it must have been difficult for those women, too. Clearly, they loved her, and cared for her extremely well. She is talkative, social, and beautifully mannered. She takes great pride in her hand washing abilities, which she likes to do all the way up to her elbows. It’s really more of a surgical scrub than a typical hand wash, but hey, I’m not complaining. She has willingly eaten whatever we have put in front of her. She carefully brushes her own teeth. If she wasn’t so tiny, and liable to fall into the toilet, she could do that independently, too. Her nickname at the orphanage was Aiyu (pronounced eye-yuh), and when we cheer her on for doing something we want her to do, she will say, “Aiyu, good girl!”. Yes, yes, Aiyu is such a good girl! I am forever thankful to the aunties for the love they have given, and the strong foundation they have laid, for the benefit of our family. A family they don’t even know, and will likely never see again. It is evident that she has been prepared, as she was so quick to recognize us, and brought with her the little photo book we had sent to her so many months ago. She knows the book by heart, and it is worn from use. The aunties also gave us another unexpected gift. They gave us two small photo albums with pictures of Mia at different stages, beginning as an infant through present day. These photos were the first thing she wanted to show Chris, who she is calling Baba (pronounced Bah-bah) which is Mandarin for Daddy. She is proud of those photos, as she should be. Those memories are priceless, irreplaceable, and for them, I owe the aunties a debt of gratitude.
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Lisa LynchLisa is a world traveling mom that took the ultimate adventure Archives
December 2012
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