First Famliversary

well, not really.

She's been here almost 2 years now, but this weekend was the 1 year anniversary of finalization of her adoption.

To celebrate, we gave her some choices of what she'd like for us to do.  She decided a trip to Atlanta would be fun and a once in a lifetime thing, because we "go to the beach all the time".

That struck our funny bone, since Atlanta is not much further and we don't go to the beach all the time.

We let her invite BFF to go with us.  Not sure I'd take 2 teens to a big city again before they grow up a little more emotionally, but overall it was a fun trip.

We got down there Friday (and both girls skipped school for the day) and went to Skyview and rode the ferris wheel (both me and kiddo's favorite part of the trip).

Saturday was insanely packed.  We went to World of Coca-Cola, Georgia Aquarium, Centennial Olympic Park, an attempt to go shopping and just in general had a packed day.  The aquarium was cool, but insanely packed. I was really worried that kiddo would struggle with it and I'm sure she did, but she did a good job managing her emotions and getting it done.

Sunday, her BFF wanted to shop on the way home and she agreed.  We went to a Flea Market and then Tanger Outlet. The Flea Market was crazy busy and had some trigger profiled people and we could see kiddo getting a little quiet and not interested in yoshi's or headphones, clear indicator that we needed to get out quick.  We got out and she visibly relaxed and no backlash.

We stopped at Fuddruckers and it was crazy busy there too so we ate outside.  Again, a little agitation when she saw the crowd and heard the noise, but calmed down after we moved outside.

Overall, I'm so super impressed with how well our kiddo did.

BFF, on the other hand, drove us a little nuts.

When we got ready to go shopping, she started flirting with the valet guy.

When we were at a traffic light, she started to go and we stopped her from walking across. A weird conversation took place on why the lights were the color they were and she said "Oh, that's because only white people can cross here" Yes, in Atlanta. We were so upset with her and she didn't get it.  She thought because she has an AA dad and an AA boyfriend, that it was okay to say it. We had to explain that the crowd near us has no idea of her history and that it wasn't intended to be racist and that it's a racist comment even if not intended, because of the perception and how dangerous it was.

She was visibly agitated at leaving the flea market so quick and didn't realize kiddo was struggling.

She led her away from us a couple times.

We had to lay down some rules and she got frustrated that we wouldn't let them walk around the hotel unattended to cool down, but after all that, no way could we be sure she'd be careful and safe.

Better safe than sorry.

Overall though, we all had a fun time. The girls were spoiled rotten.  We enjoyed our adventures and looking forward to more adventures.

When we got home, our baby said "I'm so glad to be HOME!!"

There is nothing better than hearing your struggling daughter say HOME and realize she means right here!!

Healing daily and continuously.

Love that kid!!