More winter fun!

It's a small world afterall...

Friends we have known for years recently returned home from India where they adopted two girls from Bal Asha! Maureen and Carol and big sister Olivia, live in our neighboring town and welcomed Manisha and Anita to their family in January! Andrew saw Anita and Manisha when we were at Bal Asha and we are so thrilled that they are FINALLY here. They had a very long process and we are so thrilled that it is now over. What a special connection Leah, Manisha and Anita will always share!

WinterKids ski big mountains, advocate for outdoor activity - Bangor Daily News

WinterKids ski big mountains, advocate for outdoor activity - Bangor Daily News

Look at me being a blogger again...

So much for me not blogging- I am back on the bandwagon! Today Leah had her "end of the semester celebration" for the pre-school she attended at Hampden Academy. The program was adorable! The children sang a song, had an ice cream party, we got to watch a video of clips of all of the great activities they did this semester and then each child was called up front to receive their award! It has been such a great first "school" experience for Leah. Luckily they will have another 8 week block of it from March to May so she is not done with her school friends yet!

The significance of skiing...

Leah learned how to ski this weekend. Sure many 3 year olds and younger do it all of the time, so why so significant to us? Well as Andrew and I were riding up the chair lift alone this weekend we both reflected on how 3 years ago we would go skiing to distract ourselves from waiting for a referral and "enjoy" the alone time while we had it to do things like ski, 2 years ago we would go skiing to distract ourselves from waiting for guardianship and wondering when we would get to travel to India. Last year, we barely went skiing because we would not yet leave Leah overnight or hardly for a long afternoon as she had only been ours for less than a year. And now, here we are, this year taking our daughter to Sugarloaf and teaching her how to ski. We truly dreamed of this for years when we would see other adorable kids on the slopes and could only hope one day we would have a family to do that with ourselves.

Some people have big reflection moments on birthdays, or "gotcha days" or anniversaries of referrals. We have them on chairlifts.

The last piece of the significance did not occur to us until we were on our way home after the long weekend. Leah was born with bilateral club feet. When we accepted her referral we were not even sure she would be walking "normal" by age 3 let alone running, skipping and now skiing. Amazing.

Leah is 3!

Leah went trick or treating to her new cousin Baby Zach's house...

Her witch costume for her school Halloween party

Leah and one of her many friends at the Diwali festival

Leah turned 3 this week! She also celebrated Halloween and Diwali so it seems late October and early November are always going to be crazy in our household. We also celebrate the milestone that she has now been home 18 months, the same amount of time she lived at Bal Asha. She continues to amaze us each and every day, after her birthday Andrew and I were both talking and saying what a true miracle and gift she really is and how we do need to remember to always keep discussing India with her and that she is adopted only because it truly never crosses our mind. She is ours totally and completely and we often forget we haven't always been with her.

She is still extremely tiny for her age but her new pediatrician (who is from India) is not concerned at all. She is growing on her own curve and the pediatrician said it is pretty hard to make up for poor prenatal care, being born premature and having poor nutrition for the first 18 months of her life.

She is talking up a storm, not as much as the average 3 year old, but again, our new pediatrician stresses that she is bilingual and based on that she is doing great. She now knows almost her entire alphabet, all of her colors and can count to 10 so we think she is on the right track. She has started going to a "pre-school" at the local High School where I used to teach, 2 mornings a week for 2 hours at a time. The students in a child development class run the "school" and there are more high school kids than 3 and 4 year olds so the teacher student ratio is ideal!

Her feet seem great to us, unless she is wearing cheap shoes ( a great reason for Mom to shop for cute shoes then). She has her 3 year check up with her orthopedic surgeon later this month so we will see what he says. Anyone who watches her run around though would not believe she was born with club feet. We think she is making up for lost time!

Well, there you have it, what's new in Leah's world. We are still figuring out what we are going to do in regards to expanding our family. It is official that it did not work out for Bennett Krutin and there have been a lot of changes with adoption in India so we are weighing our options. We are in no hurry to make a decision and are just cherishing our time with Leah as we have learned it goes too quickly.

One Year

May 11, 2009

Bal Asha Orphanage

Mumbai, India

May 11, 2010
Taste of India
Bangor, Maine U.S.A.

One year has passed... it is absolutely amazing. We thought May 11, 2009 was the happiest day of our life, but really each day since has made us happier and happier. One year has never passed so quickly ( I only wish the years of waiting for Leah had passed this fast)! Leah Aasawari Harmon has made our lives more fulfilled than we ever could have imagined. We are so blessed to call her daughter and for her to call us Momma and Daddy.

This is going to be our last blog post, or at the very least much rarer than they have been. We are now just a "regular" family and we don't have all that much to post- most of the "firsts" have been done and now we just start living! If you want to keep in touch feel free to email us or both Andrew or I are on facebook and it is much easier for us to put pictures on there.

Thanks for following our journey to Leah and the first year home with her...