Yesterday in the mail, we received a priceless package. Many pictures of Molly's foster family by themself and with Molly. Many answers to questions we had about the first year of Molly's life and a letter for Molly from her foster mother (still to be translated).
About two weeks ago, I was contacted by a girl named Julie. She said she had information about He Mei Bo (Molly) and she wanted me to contact her privately. Of course, I contacted her very quickly and she informed me that Molly's foster family was inquiring about her. At first, I was not sure this was legit but as I investigated it in more detail, I felt like it was all above board. There is a man in Nanchang, China who knew Molly's foster mother and he contacted Julie and then she contacted me. This information is confidential so it had to be handled under the table because the orphanage does not want the foster family information shared with anyone. We cooresponded with Bruce and WaLa - our package arrived yesterday.
In the photos, you can tell Molly was really loved by her foster family. In several photos, she is smiling brightly and the family is smiling watching her and in one family photo, the father is holding Molly's hand. One of the questions I had for the foster mother was when did Molly go to her home and when did she leave. Evidently, Molly arrived to their home in late March and left in late November. Unfortunately, we were told that Molly went into foster care in May and left in October. I feel much better knowing she went to their home shortly after she was found on March 10th and shortly before our forever family day, 11/30/03. I am still a little confused as to why Molly had such attachment issues but it does not matter at this point because we believe Molly is completely healed from those issues.
My day yesterday was filled with mixed emotions. On one hand, I was thrilled to know that Molly had been so well taken care of and loved and to have this information was priceless. On the other hand, I was so sad that I missed out on those first precious 10 months of her life. When I looked at the photos of this mysterious family in China holding my baby and playing with her, I was so envious that they had this time with her and I was here in the U.S. dreaming of doing the same thing. At times yesterday I felt heartbroken and I guess before I saw these people, it was not as real so it was easy to push it out of my head. I know this will pass and I am so so grateful to have this information for Molly as she grows up and has questions about her first year of life. We might possibly visit them when we travel to pick up Molly but not sure if Molly will be old enough - we will have to discuss this in great detail and it may be logistically not possible. We do have their contact information so we can keep them updated with information on Molly in the future.
What an interesting day filled with so many different emotions.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Saturday, January 19, 2008
HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET MOLLY!!!!
Well tomorrow is our sweet Molly's 5th birthday. I cannot get my head around the fact that she will be 5 years old. I will probably be blogging 5 years from now and saying the exact same thing. Time flys when you are having fun!!!!
Molly at 5: So full of life, joyful, bright, funny, brilliant intellectually, social, energized, SECURE, great imagination, artistic - pure pure joy.
Yesterday, I went to Lake Hills (Molly's school) to celebrate her birthday at her school with her friends. For each year that Molly is, she circled the sun in a ceremony while Ms. Val read
what I had written about her, it was beautiful. She also shared photos of each year with her teachers & friends. Besides a few boys acting off and Ms. Val needing to be very stern, it went off without a hitch except when it was time for me to go. Molly as usual did not want me to leave and both of our hearts were breaking. I explained to Molly that it was very fun to celebrate these things but Mommy had to go back to work. Finally, Molly was brave enough to turn around and walk out on the playground. Her head was hanging low and she was starting to cry. Her friend Reese was standing next to her as was Ms. Val with her arm on Molly's shoulder. She was really upset and turned around and went to the door and watched me leave while she was crying and waving to me. As I got in my car, I was again heartbroken and was quickly trying to figure out how I could get out of work for the afternoon. I went to the office and said I needed to work out of my house the rest of the afternoon. I went back to LH's and Molly was so so so excited. She kept saying "thank you Mama". She said "I think I love you more than Daddy". We had a wonderful afternoon putting her party favors together and going for a walk - the afternoon was a treasure.
Today her party at Tulsa World of Gymnastics was so much fun. All morning, Molly kept saying how much longer until my party - she was so excited. In fact, I asked her if she was excited and she said "I am so excited, it is freakin me out". When she and I went to pick up her balloons, she was thrilled. When she saw the big bunch of balloons at the store, she was smiling and covering her mouth and said "thank you Mommy, thank you". She said as we got in the car, "I love you Mommy, I think I am the luckiest girl in the world". I said "I am the luckiest Mommy and we are the luckiest family". At her party, all of the kids loved running around and jumping on all of the equipment. Everyone genuinely seemed to be so happy to be at Molly's party. When she opened her gifts, there were so many thoughtful presents such as the yoga mat from Julian. It was a wonderful day in every single way.
Tomorrow, we will celebrate with my mom and sister. What a wonderful life we have and an incredible 5 years with Molly. We are savouring every single second of every day because we cannot get yesterday back and she is growing so fast before our eyes. Happy Birthday my sweet girl, Mommy loves you so deeply.
Molly at 5: So full of life, joyful, bright, funny, brilliant intellectually, social, energized, SECURE, great imagination, artistic - pure pure joy.
Yesterday, I went to Lake Hills (Molly's school) to celebrate her birthday at her school with her friends. For each year that Molly is, she circled the sun in a ceremony while Ms. Val read
what I had written about her, it was beautiful. She also shared photos of each year with her teachers & friends. Besides a few boys acting off and Ms. Val needing to be very stern, it went off without a hitch except when it was time for me to go. Molly as usual did not want me to leave and both of our hearts were breaking. I explained to Molly that it was very fun to celebrate these things but Mommy had to go back to work. Finally, Molly was brave enough to turn around and walk out on the playground. Her head was hanging low and she was starting to cry. Her friend Reese was standing next to her as was Ms. Val with her arm on Molly's shoulder. She was really upset and turned around and went to the door and watched me leave while she was crying and waving to me. As I got in my car, I was again heartbroken and was quickly trying to figure out how I could get out of work for the afternoon. I went to the office and said I needed to work out of my house the rest of the afternoon. I went back to LH's and Molly was so so so excited. She kept saying "thank you Mama". She said "I think I love you more than Daddy". We had a wonderful afternoon putting her party favors together and going for a walk - the afternoon was a treasure.
Today her party at Tulsa World of Gymnastics was so much fun. All morning, Molly kept saying how much longer until my party - she was so excited. In fact, I asked her if she was excited and she said "I am so excited, it is freakin me out". When she and I went to pick up her balloons, she was thrilled. When she saw the big bunch of balloons at the store, she was smiling and covering her mouth and said "thank you Mommy, thank you". She said as we got in the car, "I love you Mommy, I think I am the luckiest girl in the world". I said "I am the luckiest Mommy and we are the luckiest family". At her party, all of the kids loved running around and jumping on all of the equipment. Everyone genuinely seemed to be so happy to be at Molly's party. When she opened her gifts, there were so many thoughtful presents such as the yoga mat from Julian. It was a wonderful day in every single way.
Tomorrow, we will celebrate with my mom and sister. What a wonderful life we have and an incredible 5 years with Molly. We are savouring every single second of every day because we cannot get yesterday back and she is growing so fast before our eyes. Happy Birthday my sweet girl, Mommy loves you so deeply.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Saturday, January 5th, 2008
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How exciting a brand new year. I love this time because it is filled with hope and anticipation of what the new year will bring. We are hoping this year will bring success for Paulie in finishing nursing school in December as stress free as possible. For myself, I want to continue my weight loss journey by staying on track with Weight Watchers and continuing to embrace the program and continue to see the pounds drop. Also, we hope we get to see our sweet Maggie's face by the end of the year. If we don't, we know it won't be much longer into 2009. Molly has been so patient and I hope for her, she gets to see her baby sister sooner rather than later. Most importantly, we so hope we all stay very healthy and feel great every day we wake up and thankful to be able to put two feet on the ground and live each day to the fullest.
How exciting a brand new year. I love this time because it is filled with hope and anticipation of what the new year will bring. We are hoping this year will bring success for Paulie in finishing nursing school in December as stress free as possible. For myself, I want to continue my weight loss journey by staying on track with Weight Watchers and continuing to embrace the program and continue to see the pounds drop. Also, we hope we get to see our sweet Maggie's face by the end of the year. If we don't, we know it won't be much longer into 2009. Molly has been so patient and I hope for her, she gets to see her baby sister sooner rather than later. Most importantly, we so hope we all stay very healthy and feel great every day we wake up and thankful to be able to put two feet on the ground and live each day to the fullest.
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