Forever Family, Four years, Five Years Old

Referral Photo~June 2004

Elise Christine Feng Wells celebrated her fifth birthday on February 2, 2009. I decided that she should have a nice party to commemorate this particular birthday. I also figured that she would be able to handle the social situation even though she still tends to completely shut down when she gets in front of people she doesn't know.

So on February 2, I got to go to preschool and be the Teacher's helper for class. Elise got to wear a special birthday hat and everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her. Much to my surprise, she buried her head in my shoulder and would not look at anyone while they were singing. She was fine for the rest of the morning~such an odd bird.

Then we headed to the grocery to pick up the cake~time for the disasters to begin. Well, they didn't make the cake, that's right! I actually had the forethought to order a cake a week in advance and it was going to be Diego! Elise even picked it out. But no Diego cake, they didn't make it. I was crushed! So we headed down to the Cupcake Factory and see what they had. Well, since I needed the cake that night for the party, we had limited choices. Again, I let Elise pick the cake and she choose "cats". I was shocked. I thought that she would pick the monkey since she was born in the year of the monkey. Nope, nothing doing! So we ordered the cake and told Daddy to pick it up on the way to the 5 p.m. party at Bananas!

At around 1 p.m., the snow started to fly at a rate of an inch an hour. Yep, that's right. At 3:30, they weather service was calling for a weather advisor and asking everyone to stay home. Bananas called me and asked me what we wanted to no since the weather was bad and getting worse by the hour. I told them I was coming!!! At the time, we had Amelia's surgery scheduled for February 11th and this was the only opportunity that we had to get the party in before the surgery. If I rescheduled, then Amelia would be in the spica cast and not able to enjoy the party (this all happened before she got sick and the surgery was cancelled). So at 3:45p.m. we loaded up the car and head to Bananas which is about 7 miles from our house. It took me 1 hour 30 minutes to get there, but I got there. The roads were horrible...creeping along, if moving at all. I had to change direction one time since cars were not going down steep hills. But I put Black Betty in 4~HI and off I went with two toddlers in tow. We invited a few close friends and they were all able to make the party too. I was surprised because it was just horrible outside. Steve got there really late with the cake, but he made it in time. We had the entire inflatable room to ourselves since there weren't any other people crazy enough to go out in the horrible weather. We had a great time running, jumping, climbing and bouncing. Then we enjoyed pizza, cake and popcorn and left at 7 p.m. By then, the roads were much better and we made it home in 20 minutes. It was great fun and Elise was so grateful for all of her friends coming to the party.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

March 9th is our Gotcha Day~Elise Christine Feng Wells has been our daughter for four years now. It's hard to believe that the little girl that we picked up in china that was so quiet and frail is the vivacious, gregarious and silly little five year old that has completely changed all of our lives. I look at her sometimes and thank God that He allows me to be her mother. I thank Him for all that we went through to get to her~all the pain and heartache and then sheer joy.

She loves stuffed animals and sleeps with at least five of them. But her personal favorite is Maggie the Manatee and Maggie goes to school every day in Elise's school bag. She loves to have a story read to her and will attempt to read them with you. She never walks, but hops, skips or jumps everywhere she goes. Her favorite color is pink, her favorite food is mac and cheese & strawberries, her favorite book changes weekly because she loves them all. Currently, her favorite toy is the Ponyville. She plays "dress up everyday", but would rather be Mowgli from the Jungle Book since he only wears underwear! She would wear her flip flops in the snow if I would let her. Dora is still a favorite, but she is starting to enjoy Cinderella and Ariel. Tia Bella is her very best friend, but she has a crush on Jake at school. I want to remember all these little things because before long, she'll be 16 and I'll wonder what happened to all that sweetness ;-).

I find it hard to believe that she will enter kindergarten in the fall. It's killing me, but she is more than ready for it.

To think that it was just four years ago that I held this black haired beauty and gazed into her chocolate brown eyes for the first time. Four years ago that I watched her sleeping in a crib in China with one eye partially open amazed that I had become a mother again. Four years ago that I watched her attempt to crawl, hold a book for the first time, feel leather, hold a baby doll or her very own blanket. Four yours ago, that I watched her sit on a bed a rock herself for comfort (that only ever happened once). Four years ago that she became my daughter and we became a family of five....for awhile.

Happy Birthday, Happy Gotcha Day, Happy Adoption Day Elise Christine Feng Wells. I love you more than you could ever know!

Love,

Mama