One year ago today...

...we got our Little Lucy. I signed the papers and the social worker put Lucy in my arms. And Lucy wailed. WAILED! For nearly 2 days. She drank nasty formula and smelled like kimchi for weeks.

When we first got her home to NC, she wanted little to do with anyone. She hated her baths, was terrified of strangers, and bit us all with her 6 tiny teeth. Lucy would cry "Ohma" for ~45 min every time we put her in her crib to sleep. She had a distant look in her eye, as if to protect herself from us foreigners. She was scared. We were scared.

Now, Lucy calls me 'Mambo'. Her favorite word is 'Julie' and 'No-wa!' and knows each dog by name (which is more than I can say for Cameron. But whatever.) Lucy thinks she can swim and cries like hell when we get her out of the pool. She puts on her own shoes when she sees everyone getting ready. She eats EVERY food known to man. (She's part Italian with her love of spaghetti and cheese.) And whever her siblings do, she's going to do it too, damn it! She pushes her brother off my lap to claim me as hers. And she adores Jackie's 'mothering'.

I'm grateful every day that her birth mother gave her up for adoption. And that her foster mom loved her as her own. I can't believe it's already been a year. And it's only been a year. And I can't wait to see what the next year together brings.

Then...

...and now.

p.s. no comments on the fuzzy pictures. We went outside tonight and it's like 90 degrees with 95 percent humidity and my camera fogged up. Much to my dismay.