Home Sweet Home

What a wonderful thing to be HOME again...our beds, the ability to do a week's worth of laundry AND dry it in 5 hours, being able to pet our dog and cat, ice water, to see all of our wonderful friends that we missed, to hug grampa and gramma again, to drive to the store whenever we want. Wow, we sure take a lot less for granted now!

When we got home, it was time for a tour of our house. We saved the best for last, a surprise for all of us. My amazing friends (Robin, Jill, Sheri) had completely decorated Gianna's room for us while we were gone. We walked in and saw Minnie and butterflies amidst the violet background (remember her name Ibolya means Violet?), which happen to be two of her favorite things. She had to go in and explore every drawer and nook and cranny, and was so happy that this was all hers. What a blessing :)

 Chalkboard dresser with English & Hungarian labels!

 Timberly and Rhonda - artists behind the door sign

 

Everyone asks us: "How is she adjusting?" 
I can honestly say that she is fitting in perfectly with us. She likes it (and lets me) fix her hair and paint her nails and dress her up, and helps me cook and clean. She loves it when "Appa" tickles her, and now says "Tickle me" at every opportunity. Her and Monkey are still the best of buds, doing everything together. The first day home, they raided the dress up clothes and we had Mario and Batgirl running around the house rescuing the cat and saving the world from the dog. 

And of course her favorite things are the Princess dresses, given to us from a dear friend. You can tell from her eyes and her smile that she really feels like a beautiful princess when she wears this. That's the one biggest difference I see in her, in contrast to the first days when we met her - her eyes have just seemed to 'light up' and come alive as she explores her new world.

 
We caught them holding hands when they were watching a movie. Monkey is so protective of her, and she just gravitates to him. They usually want to play together, and I always catch Monkey teaching her new things and coaching her on English words. It's just too cute for words, really. 

Everything is new for her. Life is so fun when you think about someone experiencing everyday things for the first time, and seeing her eyes light up. Escalators, elevators, airplanes, fish, electronic toys, flip flops, baths, sweet potatoes, sparkly toothpaste, shopping cart cars, talking on the phone...it's like Christmas morning when something new comes along! 

The third day we were back we made a short road trip across town to Gramma and Grampa's house. She was pretty shy, but grampa started being silly with her and playing peek-a-boo and the giggles started escaping her mouth. Since then we've been there once more, and she seems to really like them.

 We have made a couple of visits to our friend's house, the Cravens as well. They are the kid's Godparents and are the other house that we want her to feel comfortable in. The second time we went she ran downstairs with little Elsie to play (the first time she's really been out of our sight), and seemed to have a wonderful time.

We are hitting school hard now that we are back, with a checklist for each one to get done for the day. We are working on letters and numbers and animals, along with English phrases with Gianna, and she makes progress every day. They also have their chores like making their bed, brushing teeth, trash, switching out the dishwasher, feeding the pets, and putting away laundry...and she loves to help out with anything. Today we made cookies, carrot cake muffins, and rice krispy bars and the kids both helped out.

So - does that answer your question? She's adjusting remarkably well, fits in perfectly with our family (not to mention looks like us - bonus!), and we really have no problems with her at all. God is good, and it's abundantly clear that He had her picked out for us right from the start. 

By the way - THANK YOU to everyone who followed our adventure. We had over 4,500 page hits in about 2 months! It was good to know that people cared enough to read, not to mention all the other countless blessings you all showered us with. I'll continue to blog sporadically if something big happens...like Grampa John and Gramma Tere coming to visit next week.

Szia!