Ladybug has arrived

It is not easy to put all your feelings into words, because it is so difficult to describe what we are feeling.

After nearly six years of waiting for our promise..... she is finally home. Her name is Čereni, it is the Romani word for star. 

I did not write anything previously because I was still in waiting.... and this was tough because you never know when this waiting will end.  When they phoned us to tell us we can go and pick her up the next week, you want to believe it but are to scared to put it down on paper, and then suddenly the day came... and you still can't believe it.

The whole family left early on the 14th of December to go and meet our new family member, but everything felt so unreal. Even as I look back on it now it still seems unreal that I am the mother of 4 children now.  I still can't believe she is finally here and she belongs to us now.

First look at our new little girl

With mommy

With daddy

Her first gift - a monkey

It was so surreal when they came in with her at the orphanage and said- give her to her mother......  As I was taking her in my arms I could not stop smiling, and thinking... is this for real... My first reaction was that she looks like she could be family.

We have been adjusting slowly, the whole family is sick and this makes it a bit more tricky to really adjust well, but she is doing great. She sleeps through the night and is starting to eat a little better. We still need to really find out what she likes and what not.  

She is very small for her age, she is 18 months old but are the size of a 12 month old.  She crawls but does not stand or walk yet. She only makes some sounds but even her sounds are improving very fast.

So here is the new van Niekerk family.......

Our new family