The Baby Breininger Blog

Welcome friends! In 2007 we started this blog to share the status of our adoption process. After an excrutiatingly long wait, we travelled to Haiti in June 2009 and brought our girl home on July 15. Now this blog is a place for us to share pictures and videos, give updates and brag about how wonderful she is. Enjoy!

Thursday, August 20, 2009

The Budding Musician

You saw Maya playing the organ in the Baptism pictures, but did you know she can also play the beaters?

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Homecoming Video

I'm just now starting to be able to sort through pictures and videos to post things, so to your left you'll see a few Baptism shots (more to come) and here's the Homecoming video from the airport. We were thrilled to have Sean's brother and sister-in-law pick us up AND videotape our arrival. Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Life With Maya

Hi friends!

We're on week three of life in Minnesota with Maya and things are going well! We just had her Baptism last Sunday and had 14 relatives and friends travel from all over to be here. It was a really wonderful weekend full of loving Maya. She had a beautiful white and pink dress for Sunday, which she kept showing off to the cat, and matching beads in her hair. The Baptism was beautiful with Sean's brother and sister-in-law singing, and my dad both at the organ and doing the Baptism. The Pastor from our church said something like, "Aside from waiting for our Lord, no other wait has been so anticipated or so long as the wait for this little girl!"

Aside from the Baptism my favorite moments of the weekend were when all of the adults ranging in age from 25-94 joined in singing "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Twinkle Twinkle" because those are Maya and her cousin Owen's favorite songs. It was also so fun to watch Maya and Owen interact. Once she got over the not wanting to share all of her new toys with him, they were good buddies.

Maya continues to adjust well and we're more convinced each day that she's smarter than the average tot (not that we're biased!). Her English is remarkable and she blows us away each day with new phrases that she's picked up like, "big muscles!" She's got all of the body parts, animals, and colors down as well as many kinds of transportation and food. She's even putting sentences together like, "This is a yellow book." She seems to crave new words and spends lots of time asking what things are. My favorite was the night when she sat with the answering machine pushing buttons over and over again and repeating in a very American sounding voice, "Answer On. Answer off."

She's handling the crowds pretty well. Our house has been full of visitors from the moment we arrived home and on the few occasions that it's just us, she often looks at the door and says, "Friends?"

The one struggle we've had has been sleeping as we've been slowly moving to our own bedroom and having her sleep in her bedroom by herself. We're trying to channel SuperNanny as we put her to bed each night and get up with her multiple times. You never realize how important sleep is to your daily functioning until you don't have it! Things in this area are improving though and she's learning to put herself to sleep slowly but surely.

Aside from adjusting well and being oh so smart, Maya also has a personality that's larger than life. She has a wonderful sense of humor and loves to play tricks, sneak up on people, and make crazy faces.

I've had requests for more pictures and am working on it. Our laptop is in the shop so I haven't been able to download pics or videos since we got home. Billions of pics were taken this weekend and when I get some from the fam I'll post some new ones.

We continue to be in shock about this adorable little blessing that has joined our lives. She is more than we could have ever asked for and we are so grateful for each moment with her. We are also grateful for the enormous outpouring of love from all of you. Thank you!