Gotcha-the sequel

Here she is one year ago, when Annie set off to China to bring us back our girl. Unlike Luke, she was not full of unpleasant medical surprises, and she greeted her new mother with a chipper "Ni Hao, Mama!" Her move into our family was seamless and fairly uneventful as monumental events go.



Until she came home. We use lots of words to describe her like whirlwind, tornado, thunderclap. Mostly related to noise. She's a talker. She picked up English so fast it made the fact that every one of us (save Luke) has studied a foreign language and still cannot speak it seem pretty laughable. She comments on everything, "Look Mama leaf", "Lilah burp", "Lilah Schoolbus." "Lukie Sleeping." Almost like there is an ongoing narration of our lives at all times. In one moment when Lilah was rattling on about Lord knows what, Anne said to her, "Lilah, you don't understand, we are a quiet family!" Lilah briefly looked at her then carried on with the ongoing narrative. In my mind, she said "correction Mama, we were a quiet family."

Everyone is aware of her accomplishments, little girl over comes lack of feet and still does ballet, swims and rides a bike. Honestly, to her, I think these are inconsequential. I truly believe she does not recognize that some would say she has a disability. She attacks life with the enthusiasm of any 3 year old.

Okay, she attacks life with the enthusiasm of any naughty three year old. She is defiant, the closer she gets to naptime and bedtime. Mostly whenever her parents are around. Her teachers think she is wonderful, but we are horrified when Mama comes to read and she won't sit criss cross applesauce in circle time. Or when daddy comes to watch ballet and instead of trying to practice leaps she tries to stand on her head. Ballet teacher also reports she is much better when we are not watching. So, I guess she's still working on her place in the world. She's smart enough to have existential crises at age 3. She believes whole-heartedly that she belongs to Mama and Lukey belongs to Daddy (perhaps due to her Mama being the one to go to China to get her, hard to think about how things like these affect children).

Lilah is so many things, smart, challenging, inquisitive, frustrating, hilarious, brave, infuriating, adorable. She makes us alternately thrilled and crazy, like our two biological children were capable of doing. Maybe that's her gift. She keeps us guessing, she keeps us on our toes, and she treats us like her parents. Happy Gotcha day to our baby girl.


Lilah's cute 3 yr. old class. She is small but mighty, a giant amongst three year olds (feel free to insert your own short joke here).