It's Hope's Birthday!

Today is Hope's birthday. Today she is 7 years old. Unfortunately for Hope, she has no clue that today is her birthday. One reason is Hope has no clue when her birthday is. It has never been celebrated before, so it isn't something she counts down to. The other reason that Hope has no clue that her birthday is today is because she looked like this on Wednesday.

When we first got Hope it didn't take long for us to realize that she needed to have her tonsils removed. She snored like a 220 pound man.....I know this because I already listen to one of those. She also made a horrible sound when she swallowed liquid. It was the sound of her gulping to try and get the liquid around her tonsils. To us it was like fingernails on the chalkboard. She appeared to also have sleep apnea, as she never fell into a deep sleep. When we learned of the extensive dental work that needed to be done, I asked if it would be possible to do it while she was under for the tonsils. We were blessed to have our preferred ENT make a special trip to the hospital to do her surgery, and then our pediatric dentist stepped in to do his part. She is doing better than we expected, but she is not her smiley little self.

Don't worry, we had a party for her. We just celebrated on Monday. She planned her own party. She didn't hesitate when she asked for a Barbie party. She told me exactly who she wanted to attend too. She wanted pizza, her favorite food since coming to America. So, we followed all her instructions and gave her the party of her dreams.

She doesn't like cake, and is not a huge fan of ice cream cakes, so I was at a bit of a loss as to what to make for her. I brain stormed with my good friend Kim at lunch and she suggested this. It is a rice krispie treat covered with icing and melted chocolate. We also made brownies so people would have an option. She was ready to get the cake over with so she could move onto gifts.

This probably seems like the most insignificant gift that she got, but really it is the most special. This gift is from Hunter. While Hunter can be such a pest of a big brother, his heart is so in love with his new sister. Hunter has to go to tutoring because of his continual struggles at school. He earns tokens at tutoring and gets to buy things from the store with his tokens. As soon as he saw the Barbie bucket was in the store, he started intently trying to collect enough tokens to buy this for Hope. I have seen some of the cool things in the store, so I am impressed that he sacrificed something for himself, just to make her smile.

Hope racked up the Barbie gifts and got some other great stuff too. Her smiles were huge with each gift. We then had one last surprise for her......

....a Barbie bike. She was so thrilled to get this. She started asking us for a bike when we were in China. We would pass them and she would be so animated, and give us the "please" look and say "NaNa's?" We would repeatedly say, "No, not now."

I don't think I have ever had more fun watching a child at a birthday party. She was overly animated and oh so excited. It is precious to watch a child take in every moment of something they have only dreamed about. I missed catching the best part of the night. She had been saying that she wanted to sing and she wanted everyone else to dance. I almost forgot about it, but remembered at the last minute. She got up and sang the Barbie girl song and her siblings and I danced. I can not tell you how blessed I am to be this special little girl's mom....it just doesn't get any better than this.