Reactions and Details

As we have started to share our good news with friends and family, I have been amazed at what a warm welcome our announcement has received. Not that we were expecting people to be rude; but in all honestly, we received a lot of less-than-enthusiastic responses after we announced we started the journey for Pudding. I wrongly assumed that our news about #5 would be met with a similar response. Of course we have received the standard "Are you guys crazy??" question, but most people have been genuinely happy for us and can't wait to meet Sprout. Most family members haven't even seemed too surprised by our news. I've only received two negative responses which, ironically enough, were preceded by "You are such a good mother with an amazing family, but...". If they believe I'm such a good mother then why would they think that Stu or I would make a decision that would be bad for our family? Instead of getting defensive, I've just smiled and said our entire family was very excited about our newest addition and we were doing what feels right to us. The older I get the more I realize that I need to focus on what makes me (and my family) happy and not worry about what others may think. Living in a small town makes that a little difficult at times, but I'm working on it.
Many of you had questions about our little Sprout that I didn't include in the last post.
Sprout turned two-years-old the week of Christmas; Stu is none-too-happy about another Christmas birthday (mine is the week before) but I'm so happy I'll have somebody else with whom to celebrate our "birthday month"! This means she is nine months younger than HotDog and sixteen months younger than Pudding. Yikes! I can't even imagine how busy I'll be with three young toddlers. Amazingly, due to their birthdays they could all be in different grades (though it looks more and more likely that we will be holding Pudding back a year which will put him in the same grade as HD).
Also, our little Sprout is waiting for us in Shanghai. I am SO excited about getting to travel to Shanghai. Stu and I both agreed after Pudding's adoption trip that we would love to visit China again and Shanghai would be our first stop. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that we would be traveling there to pick up our daughter! With Pudding being from Beijing and Sprout waiting for us in Shanghai, I'm a little disappointed that we don't get to see the rural areas of China; we will just have to save that part of sight-seeing when we make a heritage tour when the children are older.
Many of you have asked about Sprout's health. Just like Pudding, we found her on a waiting child list. After talking to our pediatrician, we were open to a wide variety of special needs but thought we would probably pursue another child with heart disease/defect (like Pudding). However, Sprout's special need is one we never even considered; she has an underdeveloped thyroid. That's it. When we found Sprout's file, I was sure that there was something else in her medicals because her special need seemed so minor. But a thyroid defect seems to be her only medical issue. She will be on thyroid medication for the rest of her life and she will have to get a monthly blood draw to check her hormone levels. But it is completely manageable and she should be able to live a long, healthy life.
I'm hoping to send another care package to our cutie soon and am keeping my fingers crossed we will receive and updated picture of her. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a baby picture of our little Sprout.