Welcome Andrea!!

Andrea finally came home to us last Sunday! The past week has been full of fun family stuff as she timed her arrival perfectly with Tad's vacation week. Her whole foster family brought her here from Pittsburgh, where she's been living with them for the past year and a half or so. With Andrea, they were a family of eight children so the large family thing is already old hat to Andrea. We shared pizza together, chatted, the kids played and Andrea got some of her things unpacked and into drawers in her new room. Then her foster family went home a family of 7 children and left us as a family with twelve (counting the tiniest one still in the womb).

This week has been a fast and smooth adjustment for her. By Wednesday she was beginning to call us Mom and Dad, by today the names are sealed. She loves to play with Tali and she and Ruth and Miriam have really hit it off - which is good because they have to share a room with one another for..well, probably a long time to come. She fits right in at Miriam's and Philip's level of functioning and we see lots of issues and circumstances that look awfully familiar. It's nice to be experienced parents bringing in a child with Andrea's challenges as opposed to the naive and new parents we were when Philip came off the plane all those years ago. We feel very equipped this time around with our experience, skills, resources and expectations. Parenting her is satisfying, natural. She is a good fit.

Welcome Home Andrea! We are looking forward to building a life time of memories with you!