I am thankful for...infertility

I thought I should jump on the bandwagon and list what I am thankful for this holiday. Infertility might seem like a strange thing to list, but what am I if not different?  Many people struggle with this diagnosis on a daily basis.  They often do so in silence. At one point, you could count Amy and me among that number.  Not anymore.

*Hold your horses.  We are not pregnant.*

You can't count us among that number because we don't struggle with it anymore.  Without infertility we would likely not have this lovely young lady in our life.  

Many people long to hold a biological baby in their arms and I do not begrudge them for that.  Not at all.  What I can say is I cannot think of any greater blessing on this earth than to have Natalie Xue Er Hill in our life.  So, on this Thanksgiving, an American holiday that Natalie sees solely as yet another opportunity to run around like crazy with her cousins, I am thankful for failure.  In this National Adoption Month, I am thankful for CCAI, for China opening their borders to this process, for having enough money to pursue our dreams, for a birth mom who (for reasons we will never know) decided she couldn't do it and made a choice tougher than I ever want to know, and most of all, I am thankful for Natalie.

Transitions

Seriously? This is the best we can do? Apologies for the total neglect of the blog. At least those of you on that old social networking site have seen some updates. Here are some of the last few months’ highlights.

Natalie mastered a flip on her own this summer!

Family Day. Lets' start with the most important one. We celebrated two years with Natalie on August 2. The time is flying by, and I can’t believe that the little peanut we brought home wearing size 12 and 18 months wears mostly size 4 now! Check out what a difference two years makes and compare the photos of her on the swing. The recent one was taken on our Family Day. Lately she’s been telling us that she’s glad she has a family. Sweetheart, we’re so glad too.

swing 2010

swing 2012

Dexter. We weren’t looking for a new cat just yet (and I’m fairly certain our calico was just fine being an only cat), but we crossed paths with Dexter and couldn’t pass up giving this little guy a home. Having a nine-week-old kitten and a three-year-old was interesting for a while, but she’s learned to be gentle and he’s big enough now to know when to cut and run. She enjoys using her doctor kit to check his heart and blood pressure, even giving him shots when needed.

Dexter with Adeline making nice for a change

Soccer. Sometime between spring soccer and fall soccer season, it just clicked for Natalie and she began to understand the point of the game. She really enjoyed fall soccer (despite the fact that four out of their six games were at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday mornings—really?), scoring a record six goals during her second game (“I want to score six more!”). We are proud of her efforts and are especially glad there was no “Ring Around the Rosie” on the soccer field this time out. Well, maybe a little of that at practice, but not during games.

Huddle with Coach Baba

Halloween. Like most children, Natalie is enjoying Halloween a little more each year. We hit up our families for treats and then headed to a trunk or treat celebration. Natalie was über excited about the bounce house there, but she barely made it inside before we heard her cries. The other kids actually bounce in there. Yikes! She’s tried to enjoy bounce houses twice this year, with the same result. Our little bumblebee had a “vintage” pumpkin (the one I used as a kid) full of candy, along with a banana and an orange that her grandparents added along with goodies from their candy stash. Most kids like to gorge themselves on their sugar-laden treats, but what do you suppose Natalie chose? One sucker and an orange. This is the same child who, given the choice between broccoli and french fries at a restaurant, actually chose broccoli. Gotta love her.

More pictures for the road...

We get this look a lot.