Merry Christmas Song from Third Day

This song has a hanky alert.



Luci and I have been watching her China videos over and over again for months now. The "China Videos" are videos of her meeting us in China and several days of that journey. We've seen them so many times that we have every movement memorized. Luci loves to have "Mommy pretend you are me and say what I'm thinking!"

So I do--mostly things like, "I love that kid (JT) with the orange hair and no teeth! He has as many teeth as I do!" (JT was missing his two front teeth on that trip.)

and

"Why does that man with the toothbrush on his lip (mustache) keep kissing me? He's nice, but wow, he tickles!"

I noticed things from these videos that I was too busy or too enamored of this little girl to notice while it was going on 5-and-a-half years ago, when Luci was 9 1/2 months old. Like, Luci's eyebrows all knitted up during our first meeting. How those eyebrows relaxed over the next two days.

How we were supposed to go in alphabetical order (we are "W" so we would be last) but the Willinghams just pressed on and got to the babies first (sorry, Lanes and Beardens! I can mean my apology now, but I sure didn't mind being first that day.).

How upset one of the other girls was at the hand-over, and how the third girl didn't look at her parents (at least not on the video that we have) during that first meeting.

How Luci looked me in the eyes as we talked to her in the lobby of the hotel that first few minutes. How she looked at each of us, in the eyes and how she continued to do that as the days went on. Even when I fed Luci her first bottle, she looked at me, eye-to-eye. Very unusual for these babies, according to the International Adoption Clinic.

How calm Luci seemed in our first meeting, but those eyebrows--she knew something was going on. How she was so silent in the lobby but once we got her up to the room, she babbled. (Oh how I love hearing that baby voice!)

How she really did not cry there in China, and how even-tempered she was (she still is, but she will let us know when she's upset!).

How lovely she was (still is), and her happy nature shows through.

How excited the boys were to see her, and how they jockeyed for attention with her. (Bryan had all sorts of comments on the video--he was our designated camera man; and JT showed off some gymnastics tricks that he'd practiced for his new little sister.)

How selfish I was in not wanting anyone else to hold her--the boys and John just had to wait. :)

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Here are some photos from the first dvd. These have never been shown on the blog before. I can't get the videos to transfer to my computer; once I get Bryan to figure it out, I'll post one or two.