Together Forever

Two posts in one day!

Happy Birthday Little Miss!

Christmas Eve was Maya's Birthday, I am now the momma to a three year old Taiwanese Princess!

Maya is so much fun! She definitely thinks she is the one in charge and she is not afraid to tell you that she is. She is stubborn, sly, silly, shy at times, and oh so smart! Right now she speaks in full sentences, pretends to read, cooks you anything you would like...pretend rice and broccoli are her favorites to cook, loves to sing, count, dance. She is one loved little girly. Her latest accomplishment is that she is finally potty trained!! YAAAHOOO!

I can tell it is going to get harder and harder to separate Christmas Eve and Maya's Birthday as she gets older. This year I tried really hard to have everything ready for Christmas Eve the day before so we could concentrate on our girl for the first part of the day. To celebrate the boys and I braved the mall and took her to Build-a-Bear. She loved it! Meet "Pinky" the bear.

After B-A-B we let her and Jake take a spin on the Carousel and she loved that...there was plenty of jumping up and down and little girl squeals of delight as she went round and round.

After the Mall (which we were in and out of in less than an hour!) we came home and she got to decorate some sugar cookies with her boys while mom got everything ready for Christmas Eve. After all our guests had arrived we quickly took a few more minutes to celebrate our baby girl with her Princess cake and presents.

Then Maya got the starring roll as Mary for our very irreverent reenactment of the Nativity...here she is on her trusted donkey aka Tanner, and directing angel traffic with Jake posing as Joseph.

All in all it was a very fun filled full day of celebrating Maya and the birth of our Savior.

As usual, I had mixed emotions during the days that led up to Maya's birthday, I spent the 23rd which is the 24th in Taiwan thinking of her birth family off and on and feeling so extremely grateful for their part in making Maya a part of our family. I hope her birth family and especially her birth mother know of our love for them. I am sure it was a bitter sweet day for her birth mom and thinking back to the day she placed Maya in my arms I am so grateful that I got to look into her eyes to witness her love for the little girl I now call my own. Despite the language barrier and extreme emotions that day I know from that one moment when our eyes locked that we both know how much this little girl is loved.

Happy Birthday baby girl!