No Expectations-

I just wanted to share briefly how we are doing and a little of the journey it has been for us now that we have precious Shiloh home.  Travis and I talked about it and we both felt the same going to China, while we prayed for our daughter and loved her in the sense of a far away picture, we both had not necessarily developed a deep love for her as our daughter that some do prior to meeting their daughters/sons.  So anyway, we realized that everyone processes things differently and that even we might do the same, but at least in this aspect we were the same.  So I wondered how it would be for me, would it be love at first site, would it take long, just what would it be like...because it is different for everyone.  So I will say for me, after the first day and each day after my love for her has only grown more and more and I am thankful!  In caring for her needs, in trying to understand and sympathize what she might be thinking and feeling, my heart has been(and I pray will stay) filled with compassion for her.  I do admit in China, it was pretty surreal, in the matter of minutes this precious girl is our daughter, I did have to remind myself, she's ours, she is really our daughter.  It was a truly amazing feeling and thankful that God saw fit for our family to adopt internationally....so now that we are home, things are going better, or beyond any expectations we could have had.  I have told plenty of people, you expect the worst, but do hope for the best with the transition and while we are only 3 weeks in so far we have been blessed beyond anything we could hope for.  Shiloh, sleeps like a champ, see she was always destined to be a Williams.  Now the getting to sleep has been one of our battles, as she always had an adult sleep with her, but we have been working on this with her and she is doing better every night and it helps that she now has her big sis to sleep with too!

She also was afraid of baths, which caused a little drama but as of the last two no tears were shed these are great victories!  She has been to the doctor quite a bit, had x-rays which she hated, and apparently has really little veins(well she is very petite-doesn't get that from her mama:)  but overall has done extremely well.  She loves stickers so that usually makes it all better in the end.

So far health wise they have only found that she has something called pectus carinatum, which is a deformity of the chest, which the doctor said will either get better as she gets older or worse, so we are praying it will get better.  Regardless it would be helped by surgery if she ever needed it.  She has a couple more appointments, but things are looking good and she's gaining weight too so that's good!  She loves to mimic what we say, so this is really good to help her learn english, she is a bright little girl, we have no doubt she will pick it up quick.  Well thanks for caring and praying, will post more of the holidays and life soon!