Her first Thanksgiving and More!

 

 

The days were warm leading up to Thanksgiving which gave her many chances to play with her favorite activity outside... sidewalk chalk.

Inside favorites... throwing books, boxes, dolls, tuperware, her brothers legos, and really anything!



She loves to lay on the floor, especially concrete.  At Target or Costco she smiles away when she can lay on her stomach and put her head on the hard floor.  Perhaps some memories of the orphanage?

Ingrid got a tutu



We needed to put a little "tuck" in the skirt so it could stay up!

Ingrid loves her milk.... lots of fat so she can gain weight.  She is up to 19 pounds!!

 



The boys were off for a few days around Thanksgiving and couldn't wait to play with her. 



Oskar and Ingrid play bowling with a lemon.  She doesn't seem to mind the sweat smell from her brother after a hockey game!



Ike loves to play chase with her



Noah attempts to tell her a joke.  Guessing she doesn't get it. 

Bjorn shows her fun computer games

The more hugs from their sister the happier the boys are!



 She is getting to know her grandparents too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving day was filled with new things for Ingrid... a walk in the cold morning...

She is not too sure about this part of Thanksgiving.

 

Then off to Grammie's house where over 40 relatives were excited to meet her!

There was a Talent Show after eating turkey.  Some played the violin and the piano, some sang songs, juggled, and some burped the ABC's.  Ingrid however, decided to show off a special talent.  She had just learned to go from sitting to standing and she loved it when people clapped for her.  Here is her video....

What fun we all had watching her. There were tears of joy and thankfulness.  There were tears of laughter since she would have coninued performing her new skill if Matt didn't scoop her up after 5 straight minutes.  And then it hit again.  Overwhelming gratitude.  Our little Ingrid was home.  Not just home with the seven of us in the Anderson family, but home with both sets of grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles, great aunts and great uncles- all who love and adore her and have been praying for her.  What a homecoming! Oh how this little girl is loved!

 

 

 

 

We had to be careful not to overwhlem her too much, so we ended the day on a good note.  She learned to say "night-night", and wave goodbye.

 However, when we got home she got a second wind.  Perhaps it was the Pilgrim Marshmallow Cookies or Acorn cookies made out of Hershey Kisses.... time for bubbles and playing!

 Squeals of delight!

Putting off going to bed.

 Swinging her arms with carefree exhaustion!

Finally begging to go to bed!

 

We will never forget this first Thanksgiving with Ingrid!

 

Big moves and attachment growing!

Ingrid can go all the way from laying down to standing up now!  She is so proud and we clap and squeal every time she does it.  We cannot believe in just a month how much she has learned to do.  She is squatting all the time and building those little muscles so we will put away the "Brazilian Butt-Lift" DVD we had ordered.  (Just kidding).  She is busy, busy, wonderfully busy!

 Stacking, unstacking, chucking

She just stood up from sitting- so proud!!!

Ingrid found cookies and a sucker in her bag and enjoyed a "sweet" breakfast!

She is thinking she can get away with just about anything!

It is SO hard to say "no" to these eyes asking for another cookie!!!

 Ice cream is a new favorite!

 

Oskar wrestles with her on the floor at the Eden Prairie Mall

She loves being outside!!

Busy at sidewalk chalk

Eating the chalk too


There are times when Ingrid is scared and gives us the same blank look she gave us in China.  Perhaps it is a survival or coping response to all that is going on.  We tried to take a family picture at a photography studio.  She froze when the photographer tried to hold her.  From that point on her eyes were glossed over and distant.  She never cried and we didn't realize the impact some of these new experiences have on her until we saw the photo proofs and so those sweet, dear, sad, scared eyes.  We realize although she is making progress in leaps and bounds, she is still so fragile.  So we will hold her and stay with her and sleep with her for as long as it takes.  We are her family forever and we are blessed to be able to call her our child! 

We love you, little Ingrid!
xoxoxxo

 

Our Halloween Cupcake!

Everyone thought Ingrid should be a princess for her first Halloween.  She liked the sparkles in the crown.... but preferred to wear it backwards.

We decided she would be better as a cupcake!
At first she wasn't too sure of all of this trick or treat, costume thing... the two big brothers were dressed as Samuri Warriors wearing the silk robes they bought in China, big brother Ike was dressed as a crazy clown-Nacho Libre mask-Santa hat guy, and Oskar was a wild football player.  She looked interested, but scared.

The boys helped her see that it was all about CANDY and she started to warm up...

 

Soon she was helping herself to the candy stash!

We took the little cupcake outside to sit on pumpkins and trick or treat.

 

 

After a few hours of meeting old and new neighbors... it was time for a bath since her favorite baby-bottle-sucker was all over!

Now the sugar was fully absorbed and "weeeeeeee", what a night she had!  Playing and laughing at 10:00 pm- what a great thing this candy night!

 

Oh my!  The next morning she kept pointing to her cupcake outfit.  Does she think she gets to do this every day?!

I love cupcakes

I love candy

I Love You
xoxoxxo
Ingrid Xinling

Good News and Firsts!

     Last week it was heavy on our hearts that the boy in Ingrid's orphanage was not receiving the medical attention he needed.  There were many little boys that should be adopted and seeing them pulled deep at our hearts, our minds, our souls, our conscience.  As parents we know that a child should be loved and cared for.  That is basic.  This child, however, had his heart surgery at the same time Ingrid did, but the caretakers told us he turned "blue" and  did not feel the surgery worked.  We knew the orphanage itself could do very little to get him another surgery, and there were very few others that would be walking through the orphanage to see this little guy.  A verse that kept coming to us, (the same verse that kept our path towards Ingrid) is from Proverbs 24:12 "Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do.  God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act."  We needed to do something.  We called our agency and left a message.  Through some tears and perhaps a desperate tone of voice we asked them if there was anything that could be done for this 2 year old boy through the agency to advocate for him, or through us to raise money to get him the medical attention he needed.  
    During the time we were still in China the agency was asked to come and view some children from the Jiangxi province (ironically out of all the provinces all over China, that was the little province we were in to get Ingrid)!  The goal was for our agency to sponsor and advocate for children who were waiting to be adopted.  Most of them would be older, and would "age-out" soon which means they can never be adopted.  Some of them had translation for their medical need that was not correct.  For a month the agency could "highlight" these 9 children (mostly boys), taking video, updating their medical reports, pictures, etc.  After that month they'd have to go back to the big shared list where again they could get lost in the shuffle. 
     The same day we left the message pleading for this little guy, the agency sent out an email to all of their clients throughout the country.  We could not believe it.  This little sunshine was on the list! This was all happening before we made the call and while we were still in China!  Oh how we pray that God will direct a family to adopt him!  We are so thankful for our chance to bring Ingrid home and know the family who could bring him home would be blessed beyond what they could every know.  His videos look great and pictures and praying this happens fast to get him surgery!
     That's our good news! 
     Ingrid's firsts.... so fun to see her eyes light up with foods and sounds and sights and smells!  What a joyful little girl!

First time at a Pumpkin Patch:

First time at a park, on a trike, playing (eating) with sidewalk chalk, and rolling pumpkins:

We took this of ourselves

I've been told....

I was told that friends only saw 2 pictures from the last post.  If you push the "read more" at the bottom of each post it gives many more pictures.  Guess I'm too long-winded for a one-page blog post! 

Two weeks home!

What a joy to have little Ingrid home! Each day there are so many new things for her to experience and for us to learn about her!  She loves to be held and kissed, cuddled, tickled, fed, and rocked.  We had 18 months of not being able to do that for her, so we are pouring it on thick around here!

Ingrid has been to our favorite pediatrician and all reports show she is healthy!! They feel she was fed some descent food - no nutritional deficiencies like we expected.  However, she  is underweight- due to not getting enough volume of food to eat.  We are offering as many calories as possible! We do know that she will be a more petite little one based on the region she came from, but 16 pounds at 18 months is pretty small.  She is eating up a storm... her favorite foods are roast beef, pork, and hamburger.  Interesting foods for this sweet little girl!