Our First Forever Family Day

May is a month of celebrations for us. One year ago, on May 9, 2007, we met Maiya at her orphanage in Vung Tau, Vietnam. I can't even remember how small she was - barely 12 lbs. at 5 1/2 months. All I remember is she was the baby who came out all smiles & ready to check out the world, and that hasn't changed after a year. Here's a short video of her one year ago....(and it really is short since of course we didn't have a charged video camera on this important day!!).

A few days later on May 14, 2007, we made the long trek back to Vung Tau from HoChiMinh City in the pouring rain to make it official - and she legally became our daughter forever, although she had stolen our hearts from the minute we saw her picture two months before.

The year has flown by and it's hard to believe, especially after a freezing cold long weekend, that this time last year we were sweltering in the heat of rainy season in Vietnam. On our Forever Family Day we looked back over the pictures from our trip and it brought back so many memories of little things that we had seen and experienced - both the good & the stressful! We can't wait until Maiya is older to take her back to see the beautiful country where she was born.

She is almost 18 months old now, and is running around like crazy. She is trying to say new words every day & rarely stops "talking". She also thinks she is extremely funny right now - she'll rhyme off a big spiel and then look at us and laugh and laugh, as if what she said was the funniest thing in the world. Too bad we can't understand it! She is also very into saying the sounds that animals make, as she demonstrates in the next video - she is definitely a little monkey!

Lots of changes over the last couple of months - I started back to work in March teaching a Multiple Exceptionalities class, Brett's been busy with work & flies out to Vancouver this week, then Omaha in July. The big news is that we sold our condo in Toronto & bought a house in Kitchener. We're looking forward to having a back yard for Maiya to run wild in & hopefully burn off some energy - and Brett is looking forward to having a bbq! We get the house in 2 weeks & move mid-June, so things will be busy!! So the next post will likely be later in June with pics of Maiya in the new house!

Here's a couple more pics to tide you over until then - Maiya at 17 months & still full of smiles:o)

Oh Canada....

After months of waiting, Maiya was shocked to hear the day had finally come....

she was indeed Canada's newest, #1 CITIZEN!!

The official citizenship papers arrived on March 31st, 2008 and we were all very excited! Of course we had to go outside and wave our Canada flags to celebrate...

And as a true Canadian, she decided that since the Leafs were out of the playoffs, she might as well get her "hockey hair" cut off to celebrate the end of the hockey season.Now that she's 17 months old, she has decided she better start practicing up for her driver's license...

...and when she's not busy driving, she's just hanging around waiting for the spring showers to end and summer to begin.
Stay tuned for our next post which will celebrate our first "Forever Family Day" - the year anniversary of Maiya's adoption on May 14, 2007. Time flies when you're having fun!