With our second adoption, we had Amanda escorted from Korea. Since all we had to do was drive to the airport to pick her up (which was very surreal), we did not have any of the travel stresses that we had with our first adoption. However, I was very nervous about the fact that we were adopting a toddler. I had read all of the toddler adoption books and got myself good and nervous the night before she arrived. I wanted to be prepared for "worst case", but reading about "worst case" scared the heck out of me!

I knew that Amanda had been very spoiled in Korea and had a very loving foster family. The poor little girl didn't know that she was an orphan (and was only a very short period of time away from being institutionalized), and I knew she must be terribly confused as to why this stranger was flying her all the way around the world and giving her to some people she didn't know. I really expected the worst.

On top of that, we were "artificial twinning" Amanda with Maggie. Amanda is three months older than Maggie but was born two months prematurely, so they are really close to being the same age. At that point, Maggie was our only daughter. She was the only granddaughter on both sides of the family. She was, as one may say, a tad bit, spoiled. I really worried how she would deal with having an instant "twin" to share the limelight with (and all of her pink stuff).

At the airport, I got special permission to meet the plane at the gate (they would only let one of us go), but half way to the gate I saw Amanda and her escort coming our way. I kneeled down in front of her to say hi and picked her up, and she quickly wiggled back down. She wasn't scared or upset, just seemed to want to be down (can't blame her after that horribly long flight she had been on.)

She conceded to hold my hand, and then the next time I tried to pick her up she let me carry her. When we got out to where Josh and the kids were waiting, she became very animated and enjoyed meeting and playing with the kids. She bopped Nathan in the head with a balloon and cracked up laughing, and after an initial hug, stuck to Maggie's side like glue. My fears dissolved by the minute.

And yet while it was clear that Amanda was going to fit right in to our family and do well, we still had some hurdles and challenges ahead of us.

Continued in my next post.