Savananh Turns 6: A Retrospect

Tomorrow my first child, my baby as it turns out, turns 6 years old and once again my two children will be the same age for the next 7 1/2 months (give or take 2 days). How time does fly.

I will never forget what I was thinking on March 17, 2005, on what turned out to be my daughter's first birthday. Referrals were coming in from China and friends were celebrating seeing their children's faces for the first time. I was thrilled for them, but at the same time felt crushed. Our dossier was logged in just a few days short of the cut off for the month of September, causing us to receive our referral in April with a large number of the families who had been logged in during October 2004. I was working that night and thought that leaving for the mall a little early would help, retail therapy can sometimes work wonders. I bought a lovely floral spring-like purse at Old Navy. Nothing extraordinary, but somehow the green and turquoise print seemed hopeful and soothed my soul for the moment.

Her second birthday was her first official birthday party, and really the first time we realized that she's not much of a cake girl. Looking back at the pictures of her eating, the ice cream is going away but the cake remained untouched.

Savannah turned 3 in 2007 and we did something a little different for Savannah's birthday that year. My youngest niece and Savannah have birthday's three weeks apart (the girls are 1 year apart in age) and we decided to do a Groovy Girl themed combined birthday celebration for the girls. I'm not sure who had more fun with the theme - the mom's for creating the most mis-matched Groovy Girl outfits or the girls and their cousin Caleb (who is 5 weeks older than Savannah) for feeling so dressed up. Regardless, it was a fun way to celebrate Savannah's first "kid birthday party."

When it came time to actually celebrate her birthday with her friends from her Toddler pre-school class, I embraced my first chance to make birthday cupcakes by channeling my inner Martha Stewart (sans staff of course). Thank goodness Peeps come in a plethora of colors!

Savannah turned 4 and celebrated her birthday at my parents house, hosting a "Princess Tea Party" for her friends, who all came dressed up like various princesses.



















March 17, 2009: Savannah turned 5. She'd celebrated her birthday with friends the Saturday before her birthday with an ice skating party at the Sportsplex and she loved sharing ice skating with her friends.

Tonight at dinner Savannah asked a very poignant question on a topic that isn't off-limits, it just took me by surprise because I don't really remember bringing it up before. My guess is that her line of thinking came from talking about Baden's birth date given to him by officials at his orphanage. The conversation went like this:

S: Does my family know my real birth date?

Me: Do you mean us?

S: No, my real parents.

Me: We are your real parents just like you are our real daughter.

S: I know that Mom. I mean my birth-parents in China. Do they know my real birth date?

Me: Yes, they do. I can also tell you that the doctor I spoke with (an adoption pediatric specialist) when we received your referral felt very confident that March 17th is your birth date because of how old you were when you were found.

S: Oh. Okay.

Right now simple answers and conversations seem to help her understand, though knowing how her mind works the bigger questions will come sooner than later.