Baby love

I am so in love with our little baby.

Only she's not so little anymore! Well, physically she may still be pretty small (although she is almost 16 lbs.!), but she's suddenly this quickly-developing baby in a teeny, tiny body. She's now sitting up and is very, very close to crawling. While she's been mobile for a while now (she can get clear across the room on her own pretty quickly, alternating between back-scooting, rolling, and basically dragging herself on her tummy), this week she's been getting up on all fours...and then she's just not sure what to do from there!

She smiles so much, basically every time we make eye contact. And her laughter! There's just nothing like it in the whole world.

And I can't leave out those big, brown eyes. They go right through me.

I'm guessing she's just days away from saying "da-da". She's now babbling using a lot of consonants and tonight it sounded like she said "hey, baby!" We know she didn't mean to, obviously, but we both heard it!

And today I swear she recognized Ryan when he came on T.V. She was in her car seat facing the screen when, all of a sudden, she let out this totally wild scream, practically jumping out of the seat. I wasn't paying attention so I looked up when I heard her to see what was going on and I saw him. We're not entirely sure it wasn't a coincidence, but she does know his face and voice, so who knows?! And it thrilled her daddy when I told him :)

I love this little girl with all my heart. I love her sweaty hair, her sleepy eyes in the morning, the way she chews on her bottle, how much she loves her excersaucer, and the way she looks for her daddy when he leaves the room and lights up when she spots him again. I even like the smell of her spit-up when it's on my clothes (should I not admit that??).

I couldn't possibly love her more if she grew in my womb.

She will always be my first miracle and the one who healed my heart. I hesitate to even admit that because I know adoption doesn't typically erase infertility sadness and I surely didn't expect it would for me. But this emotional healing, our second miracle, was another surprise God had in store for us.

Then came our third miracle in as many months, a physical healing and baby #2. And it made me love her even more (which I didn't know was possible).

I thank God every day for my beautiful girl, who is sleeping at me feet as I type this. She'll always be the one who made me a mother and changed my life forever.