Travel Journal - We're Home!

Hey Everyone We are HOME!! 

Let me tell you that the reuniting with the boys was marvelous, and they have taken Taya into their hearts totally. It is just amazing to see the love our family has for her and her love for us. Our transition into home life was very difficult. Not that Taya was unhappy, in fact she is perfect in every way. She never cries unless she is tired or hungry, and is very content playing in whatever area I am working in. If I have spent too much time wrapped up in my own thing, she lets me know by tugging on my leg and then I know it is play time. She absolutely loves to have me read books to her and as soon as I sit down and hold a book she crawls over to me and pops up right onto my lap to be read to!! She is scooting on her bottom all over the place at a very good pace and easily pulls herself up on everything.&nb! sp; She also has conqurered the flight of steps all the way to the top. Coming down is another issue! Sometimes she has caught herself standing up for a few seconds on her own and then remembers she has never done that and sits down quick. Too funny! She is really beginning to understand when we talk to her. She knows where the fish is, where the light is, where is mommy,daddy,dustin,jonah,she can say "duck" (it's in a picture she likes to point to in our bedroom) Imagine telling her someday her first word was duck!! ( : Her grandpa Oberloh will like that!! Those juicy kisses are still coming and the hugs are just huggable!! She has brightened up our lives to an extent that can't be explained!! The Lord's guidance on this is/was remarkable!! We did go through 2 weeks that were really difficult with the sleep issue. Her times were all mixed up, and I did not get anywhere near a full nights sleep for at least 8-9 days.! Two hours was the most I got at one time, and the nights consisted of a child that was very mixed up, and I take a big part of the blame in that. The reason is because we right away began putting her in her crib to go to sleep. She absolutely didn't like that. When it got to the point of "What do we do?", we did the one thing that we really didn't want to do, and that was put her in our bed with us. Her sleeping got better, but it was no where near a regular night's sleep, and we needed something else. Well, I talked to a friend of mine, Shelly, who is soon to be traveling to China to get her own daughter. She informed me that she read that Chinese people many times all sleep in one room together since space is so little. We decided to pull the port a bed into our room, just like she slept with us in China, and try that. Well, it worked, and we were down to only 2-3 times up a night. After much work, she is now falling asleep in her own crib and sleeping a full 11 hours through the night. She is a very restless sleeper, and having her sleeping a little bit away from me where we can't hear every move and noise has been so much better. The last 4 nights she has slept completely through the night!! Praise the Lord!! She is so darn cute!! ( : Taya has also already attended 8 hockey games to cheer on her brothers, and is going to go with us to our first tournament this weekend for an overnight. Transition to a little toddler into a home that was totally mobile was quite an adjustment!! Not bad, but just having to rethink how things are going to be done needed to be rethought and adjusted!! You just don't go into the laundry room/dog's domain to do laundry without thinking about how to keep Taya away from mauling them!! She absolutely loves them, and they are very good with her. Our family is looking forward to Christmas time although I haven't begun to do the shopping and the only thing up we have is the tree!! When will we get everything done?? This trip of a lifetime was highlighted this last Sunday with Taya being baptized at our church. Being a 1 year old she was very active while being baptized, but the look she gave the minister as he put the water on her head was quite interesting. She was looking at him like "what do you think you are doing?".!!! He also held her for our benediction at the end and she just stared at him as he held his hands up to bless the church family!! So cute!! We are excited to teach Taya about the Lord and the unbelievable love He has for us!! Once again, thank you for all of the emails and well wishes. If you happen to just check the site over some other time, drop us another email. We would love to hear from you. Or, if there is someone out there that is interested in possibly adopting a child I would be more than willing to correspond with you. My personal email is myoberloh@yahoo.com. We have a beautiful daughter, and we thank the Lord with all our hearts!!

Dana, Amy, Dustin, Jonah, and Sweetheart Taya ( :