I need to wrap up my little mini-series of posts on meeting our children and our early days together, and all that I have left (for now) is Miss Belane. Since I have already written a ton about meeting her and our early days together (see below), I thought I would share some of the behaviors she had that were challenging, and some of the things that pleasantly surprised us.

Happy surprises in our early days with Belane:

- She liked me! Although I treasured the memories of the first time I had met Belane and spent time with her, I knew that she had surely forgotten that day. I also knew that she was fairly shy, and was at an age common for stranger anxiety. I was deeply in love with her and so anxious to be with her again, but kept reminding myself that I would be a stranger to her. However when we got to AHOPE and got out of the taxi, she came running out of the front door and jumped into my arms (I think a lot of that had to do with the photo album we had sent and the nannies getting her excited for "Mom" to come). She stayed wrapped around my neck as we left, and promptly fell asleep in my lap. It was heavenly.

- She was not afraid of Josh. This was a big one for us. Amanda had been completely terrified of Josh. He could not hold her, touch her, talk to her or get too close for the first two weeks, or else Amanda would start to shake. It was tough, and we were really nervous that Belane would follow suit. But, although she preferred me, she was never scared of him, and she warmed up to him very quickly (and now has him wrapped around her tiny little finger).

- She was not a picky eater. We had heard so many adoptive parents talk about their kids being terribly picky eaters, and I was a little worried about being in a hotel with a child who was picky about what she ate. In our first hours together with Belane, we ordered lunch at our hotel. I ordered a cheeseburger and fries and Josh ordered injera and wat. She claimed my enormous burger for herself, and ate a good amount of it. Then she had some of the Ethiopian food. She has been a good eater since then and has never been picky.

- She was a good sleeper from early on. Along with the eating "horror stories" that you hear often from new adoptive parents, stories about children refusing to sleep, or sleeping very restlessly are also very common. Once we got her to sleep, she slept well all night long with waking up, and I even got her to successfully take a decent nap each afternoon as well.

- She loved her siblings right away, and jumped right in to play with them. I was worried she would be overwhelmed after all of our one on one time in Ethiopia, and I was worried she would have trouble "sharing" me with the other kids, but she always seemed to "get" that they were her brothers and sisters.

In my next post I will share some of the struggles, both unexpected and expected, that we had in our early days with Belane.



Day One with Belane Part One
Day One With Belane Part Two
Day One with Belane Part Three
Day One With Belane Part Four