Lauren and family

I wish I had started this blog a few years ago. I have forgotten so much about what Lauren was like when she was one, two and three years old. It is hard to remember what she liked at what age and what she could do. Time passes so quickly and it all seems to blur together after while.

Lauren and I have been a family since August 2004. She was just over one years old when she was handed to me. She is from China. She is the joy of my life. When I adopted Lauren she was so little and was so scared. She only weighed about 17 pounds. She could not walk, crawl, or even hold her own bottle. I think that if I hadn't feel t so scared myself, I would have been much more worried about her. I remember all the people who said "they catch up really fast" or "within a few months she will be where she should be". That is not always true. It took about 2 years for her to finally catch up. By the time she turned three she was a "normal" 3 year old. I think that deep down I was a little happy that she was delayed. I wanted to see her first steps (I just didn't think it would be when she was over 20 months old.) I wanted to hold her and feed her a bottle. I got to do all of that and I am thankful that I did. She will be my only child and I wanted to see everything about her.

Now she is 4 1/2 years old and she is a great little girl. I am so lucky to be her mom. The picture at the bottom was taken in January 2008. She is holding her Christmas Kitty. She loves animals. I don't! In fact I lived quite happily without animals in my life for many many years. But I have a daughter that LOVES animals. She is not a doll girl but a stuffed animal girl. Ever since she could talk she has been asking for a pet. I promised her one when she turned 5. Santa decided to surprise her about 6 months early with a kitty for Christmas. (Boy, I must really love this little girl!)

Lauren is watched each day by my sister. It is a wonderful arrangement and one that came as a surprise to me. When I was planning on adopting Lauren I was looking into daycare centers. When my sister found out she was a little upset and asked why she could not watch her. So for the past almost 4 years Lauren has gone to her aunt and uncle's house each morning. My sister has 3 children and they love Lauren. That might not be true all the time for her 8 year old male cousin (G). G and Lauren fight like brother and sister at times and then they play together so sweet at other times. The other 2 cousins are 2 females. B is 11 years old. B is a free spirit and Lauren just adores her. Lauren wants to do whatever B does. B will do things with Lauren but then she gets tired of her and wants her to leave her alone. E is 13 years old and she just loves Lauren. E tries so hard for Lauren to love her and want to hang out with her. I think that Lauren sees her more like another "mother". It upsets E so much that Lauren prefers B over her. It is a little strange because E is so much nicer and does so much more with Lauren then B. But Lauren still wants to be with B more. The third picture is the girls from this Christmas.

Lauren has another female cousin (S). S will be 2 in a few months. Lauren loves to be the big cousin. S is my brother and his wife's first child. I hope they have more because I love that Lauren has a lot of cousins. Since she is an only child having cousins is the next best thing to brothers and sisters. I have another sister that lives out of state. She is married and has 3 boys (ST, J and D.) ST is the oldest and he is turning 16 next month. J and E are about two weeks apart and D and B are about 3 weeks apart. They usually visit all of us in the Spring over Easter. Lauren had a grandfather but he passed away last September. He lived with my sister for the last 8 years of his life. So Lauren got to see him everyday. It feels strange not to have him around. He was sick the last year of his life but he was there and there times when he had good days. My mother passed away when ST was just 1. It is sad because my mom wanted to be a grandmother so bad. She would in her glory with all of these kids now. The second picture is of Lauren and S. The first picture is of all the cousins from last Easter. That is Lauren's family.