A New Year Begins

Hello, everyone! I hope that you had as enjoyable a holiday season as we did. While it was hectic with a close on the new house December 7, followed by 5 days of frantic painting, followed by 4 days of unpacking our furniture and then moving into the new house, we got it done. We got a Christmas tree up, stockings in place and even a birthday cake for Jesus. It was all more than worth it to see Leena's face on Christmas morning when she saw her toys under the tree. With each gift she would let out a big sign and exclaim "ahhhh" with such joy and happiness that words don't do it justice. It was simply magical. Even as I was assisting Santa in the acquisition of her gifts, I remember feeling so elated that I finally had a baby to buy gifts for; that this moment had finally arrived. I was one of those other women I'd spent a lifetime watching from the sidelines. Instead of just buying gifts as an Aunty or friend or sister, I now bought gifts as a Mom. Whew! What a rush!

Leena, of course, got tons of things and she seems to like them all. Her favorites are her stuffed puppy dog that talks, her cookie match game, her table and chairs, her ball popper, ALL her many books, her music CDs and....I'm sure there are more, but my head spins to think of it all. Each day she moves from one thing to another, sometimes going back to the pre-Christmas toys or something altogether different like mixing cups!

One of my very favorite gifts was a mother-daughter pendant from my step-daughter. I cried like an idiot when I opened it. My DH did another wonderful job getting me everything on my list and a few extra surprises, to boot. He got some standards (socks, books....) and gift certificates to cooking school (a hobby he's always wanted to pursue). Now that he has a normal job, with normal hours, he will hopefully have "me time" to go and pursue this passion.

The holiday would have been a complete success but for one incident: Leena fell down the stairs at my folks, which nearly caused me to go into shock. Never in my life to I want to witness or live through anything like that again. For the first several nights afterwards, I couldn't close my eyes without seeing her tumbling down the steps again and again. Horrible, traumatic, scary, nauseating....a gamut of emotions runs through you at that moment and you think, "I can't handle this stuff." By God's grace she was absolutely fine and had no injuries, other than a good scare. (Well, not that good since she was tyring to climb the stairs again not too long afterwards.) I was shaken to my core on that one and I hope and pray I don't have to go through it again. I now lock not only our basement door, but any door leading to it. I don't even like using steps myself! Everyone has told me this is normal and will happen, but it didn't help. I spent the next two days apologizing to Leena for failing her as a Mother. (With any luck she won't remember this and blackmail me with it in her teen years.)

Well, I've got to run as Daddy is watching Pumpkin as I write this and may be running out of will power...she has that effect on us. She is still the joy of our lives, exhausting as she can be, and Leena continues to prompt our thoughts of how very, very blessed we are to have gotten this one special child. She couldn't have been a more perfect fit if we'd chosen her ourselves.

I hope you all have a joyous and healthy New Year full of wonderful times.