Emma

This is my Emma.  She came to us just after turning 3 years old.  She is spunky and immediately bonded to my husband.  Not so much with me at first.  I'll admit that was hard, but I was happy to see that she at least bonded to my husband.  She loves her Daddy!  She was pretty defiant with me off and on, but would listen to him more.  Nevertheless, I didn't give up.  We adopted her just before she turned 5 and that is when everything started to turn around with her and I.  Her Pre-K teacher said it best..."I think she just needed to know that everything that you had been telling her was the truth."  She was happy to finally have her forever family and she started letting me in more and more.  She doesn't trust easily and takes a while to warm up, but once she does she is very loyal.  It's been hard sometimes to watch her struggle with learning and she has some social struggles.  Her teachers are concerned that she doesn't maintain friendships all that easily.  She has 2 friends in our neighborhood and she maintains those.

She is my little helper around the house, she loves to help clean, she likes to help cook, she likes to look after her little sister...although we are still working on "I'm the sister, not the momma."  She struggles a lot with learning challenges and also has ADHD, so we are constantly advocating for her and how is best to help her.  Overall she tries really hard.  She loves to sing and has a beautiful voice.  She was in choir last year and loved it!  Maybe I can get her to sing for me on camera tomorrow and I can upload a video of her tomorrow for Veteran's Day.  Love you my Emmy girl!

I took her out to eat at IHOP here in this picture.  She was doing her school work, chores, reading, and homework, and helping aorund the house all without having to asked or reminded, so I thought she deserved a breakfast out with just Mom.  We both enjoyed it and then went off to the bookstore to find some new books to read.  So happy that she is finally starting to enjoy reading!

I will get to Chapter 3 of Own Your Life tomorrow...I must go nap again.  I apologize!