Another Visit with Shira!

It's been exactly two months since our last visit with Shira and it is clear that she has continued to thrive under the loving care of her foster parents. She adores them and has formed strong bonds with them (which is both wonderful and very hard to see). She cried when they left today--at 9 months old "stranger" anxiety has already set in. However, after a few hours of cheering her up with toys, songs and snuggles in the sling, she seemed to be content again. In fact, by evening she "kissed" me on the cheek several times (open mouth with two sharp teeth!!) and gave me several large grins! She took a nap in her sling, played in the "adoption" lounge with other infants, had several bottles and is now fast asleep (see photo). New developments include rolling over, sitting up completely independently, moving from sitting to stomach and lots more! Her foster mother told me that she was "almost" crawling. Well, she crawled in earnest in the adoption lounge today toward a toy she wanted. It could be that she was ready to crawl, but hadn't done it yet because she is carried a large percentage of the time, which is customary here. The good news is that now I can claim that I saw her very first "crawl!!" :)

I am a single mom on this trip, as Liat is in Ecuador with my parents and Daniel and Merav are at home. So, I should sign off and get some sleep because I will be the only parent on duty for the next few days and Shira does not like being put down on the floor, in the crib or in the stroller (so much for schlepping the stroller down to Central America!). Don't get me wrong--I'm not complaining--I am thrilled to hold her 24/7, as I have a lot of missed time to make up for!



Feel free to post questions if there's anything you want to know about sweet baby Shira, if you have a message you'd like me to give to her, or if you just want me to give her a kiss from you!

Signing Off,
Julie