Arabella is 11 months old today!

Arabella is 11 months old today! It was exactly 7 months ago today that I got the call that they had a referral of a 4 month old baby girl. My life hasn't been the same since. I know that all my family and friends think it is crazy that it takes this long to adopt internationally, but I am so fortunate. My case is one of the fastest my attorney has seen lately. Many are still stuck in PGN, some since last year. Pray daily for all the babies to make it home soon to their forever families. No news on the DNA yet, it didn't make it to the lab in the US today as I had thought it would. Please pray that it gets there tomorrow and that the testing goes quickly and smoothly. We are almost to the end, but each step is still stressful. I am so anxious to get home and just be a normal family. I love being here with Bella in her native country, but I miss my husband so much and Bella needs her daddy!

I also have to go about getting help to get my classroom ready for the fall with me not being there. Kindergarten launch day is coming up on July 31st, and it has to be ready by then. I had hoped to be home for that, but the last few steps have taken a few days longer than anticipated so it will be cutting it close (to be home in time). School starts the week after that and I will be taking the first month of school off with Bella, but I still have to have everything ready for my substitue and all the lessons planned. I can't access anything from my school computer to get things ready from here, so I can't do any of it until I get home. Then I won't want to leave Bella and spend all that time away from her to do it. I am sure Grandma Charlene will watch her for me while I go to school to prepare, but I don't want to leave her until I have to.

Bella is so much fun. As you can see in the above picture, she is crawling everywhere. She now has 2 teeth on the top to go with the 2 she already had on the bottom. She is starting to pull up on the furniture and is finally interested in "practicing" her walking by us holding her hands. Before this week, she just stomped her feet or danced when we tried. Now she is putting one foot in front of the other to try to walk. She is saying all kinds of new sounds. She says: dada, mama, baba, and this week it sounds like she is saying yeah, yeah, yeah. Mom says it sounds like she is singing a Beatles song. She waves bye-bye and claps her hands a lot. She eats almost anything we give her. She reaches for you to pick her up and motions with her hands to come to her or give her something. She smiles really big to say thank you for something. She loves shoes, but not to wear. She loves to chew on them, yuck! Needless to say, at the end of the day we are tired from keeping up with her. Well, keep praying for the DNA and a quick embassy appointment. I can't wait for you all to meet my sweet darling! Love and blessings, Tonya