a first birthday for a 4 year old

Today is Maya's happy day and she has loved every minute of it! I'll fill in the details of the day after I upload the celebration photos. For now, I just want to write about what a special little girl we have. She experienced an entire year more of neglect than her brother, which we have seen the impacts of in her fears. When she first came into our lives, she was afraid of everything...loud noises, men, animals, new environments, water, new foods, cars, toothbrushes, elevators, swings, jumping...so many things! She was afraid of tons of little things like when we came inside and took off her new shoes, she was afraid that she would never get them back. Now, less than 4 months later, it is truly amazing to think about how far she has come and what a resilient little person she is. She has faced her fears square in the face, and learned to enjoy many of them. She loves car rides and elevators and escalators and swimming and swinging and playing in the bathtub. She eats very well now and will try new foods. In the beginning she couldn't sit on my lap and listen to a story, or play interactively with the other kids, or watch a movie. Now she can do all these things for short periods of time.

She started out, of course, speaking only Russian and talking constantly. Then she moved to Russian with some single words of English, and then she started talking in her own version of English. Imagine how you would sound if you didn't know a language, but were trying to mimic the way it sounded to you. That is what she was doing. She was matching our intonations and repeating what the English language sounded like to her. She doesn't do this anymore. Now she speaks all in English, with an occasional Russian word popping up every other day or so. She still talks constantly and repeats everything around her. She often gets herself in trouble with her siblings when she is repeating something mommy has told them to do. They don't like hearing her tell them to eat or go potty or clean up, for some reason. :)

She is passionate about music! The only movies she wants to watch are Dora and the Wiggles, because they have so much music she can dance to. She does her piano practice every day just like her big sister and her mommy (although lately mine hasn't been daily for some reason). She loves books and toys that play songs. This morning after watching a Dora episode, she went around the house singing a line from one of its songs, "Shake your body, like a crab!"

Maya loves to look at books, play with puzzles, play catch with a bean bag, sing songs and play duck, duck, goose. She is always playing with dolls, and I find baby dolls tucked into bed all over the house. Even Tristan will do as a substitute, if he is willing to obey when she tells him to lay down so she can tuck him in and sing to him. She absolutely loves to look pretty. What little girl doesn't? Dressing up with her sisters, or for that matter, simply getting dressed for the day, gives me the opportunity to tell her how beautiful she is, and when I do she absolutely radiates happiness in every direction. She also radiates this joy when I have her be my helper. She begs for this! She can empty the silverware from the dishwasher and put them in mostly the right spots. She loves to help me make sandwiches, set the table, unload laundry from the dryer, get diapers for Alex, and lately get tissues for everybody's runny noses.

Although Maya still takes her naps in a playpen in the study, she is now, finally, sleeping in her beautiful bed in the girl's room at night. Before Maya falls asleep for her naps, she always takes all her clothes off and puts them on again. I'm not sure why, but I know she does because they are almost always inside out and backwards when I wake her up. :) While I am writing this, I just remembered how at the orphanage they would strip the kids down to their underwear or diaper for their naps, maybe that's why. I always wake all four little munchkins up from their naps around 3:30, if they are not already awake. That way they go down well at bedtime. Today when I went in to get Maya, the soft light from the window was shining on her face and she looked so peaceful and angelic. The image wrapped itself around my heart.

As time goes on, Maya has shown more sweet little signs of affection. I absolutely love it when she gives me a hug or just a quick caress on my arm. Today she went over and kissed the top of Alex's head when we were playing a birthday game. Nothing warms a mother's heart more than affection between her children! Lately she will spontaneously come up to me and say, "I want a kiss." It is the best!

As it is the eve of Thanksgiving, it is wholly appropriate (like I need an excuse) for me to express how grateful I am for Maya. She is becoming ever more precious to me as the days go by. I love her strong spirit and gentle heart and the way her whole body responds when she feels joy. I am so blessed to be her mommy.

Our earliest photo of Maya. She is about 17 months old here.

Moscow City is a blind region, and we weren't planning on getting any referral photos before we traveled to meet our "sibling group," but they ended up sending us this one. I believe she was just over 3 here. I thought the lace on her dress looked like little angel wings. :)

This is Maya at the orphanage when we were trying to show her how to pedal.

This is Maya's passport photo from our 2nd trip in July. She was terrified! It was her first time taking a short little car ride out of the orphanage with us to the passport office. They put this little sweater on her when they found out she was having her photo taken--even though it was hot outside.

My spunky, beautiful 4 year old!