Editor Note: This article is the first in a series of stories written by parents who look back on their first year home from China and reflect on their expectations about adopting a child from China. 

by Amy Hauser

On July 22, 2002 we met our daughter, thirteen-month-old Rose Yuan Hauser. We spent two amazing weeks together in China. From the moment we met her, we knew she was a happy and healthy baby girl. 

The two weeks in China were over before we knew it. Family and friends greeted us at the airport when we finally returned home. Rose handled the fanfare extremely well considering all three of us were, of course, exhausted. In my excitement to introduce our new daughter to everyone we knew, I had planned Rose's baptism complete with a reception for Sunday, just two days after we'd arrived home. I had no idea how drained we all would be. The baptism was lovely and our family and friends were thrilled to meet Rose but Leif and I resembled zombies by the time Sunday evening came around and poor Leif had to go back to work Monday morning. 

We had read about the many issues facing new families once they were home from China. Thankfully, attachment seemed to be going very well for us. In fact, Rose attached to me right away. It took a while for her to warm up to Leif but soon it was obvious she knew we were her parents. Our challenge seemed to be in the area of sleep. Based on our first night together, we thought putting Rose to bed would be a piece of cake. Boy were we wrong. While still in China, she did not want to go to bed and would stand up in the crib crying to get out. We resorted to doing laps around the hotel until she fell asleep in her stroller. Once home we rocked her to sleep then put her in her crib. Unfortunately she would wake up about an hour later screaming her head off. Although I had sworn I would never do it, we brought her in bed with us. This seemed to be the only way we could all get a good night's sleep. A year later, Rose still sleeps in our bed. We are all used to it but hope to transfer her to a big girl bed this summer. We'll see how that goes.

Rose has changed so much in the past year. Not only has she bonded to us, her parents, but also she has become very close with both sets of grandparents. We happen to live right behind my parents so she sees them daily. She has also made friends with kids in the neighborhood. When she hears them playing outside she stands at the door yelling, "Kids! Kids! Rosie, outside!" Because she is an only child we try to expose her to other children as often as we can. Rose has been taking gymnastics at the YMCA since last October. It has been a great way for her to develop motor skills as well as social skills. We also participate in a playgroup made up of other families with children from China. Rose enjoys playing with the girls and I love visiting with the other moms. We are lucky to have as friends a family who is also from Wuhan. Being with them feels like a special way to stay connected to Chinese culture.

It has been incredible watching Rose grow this year. In addition to physically growing, her cognitive and language skills have really developed. As a speech-language pathologist, I paid special attention to her language development. She was not really speaking when we first brought her home, so I taught her several signs from American Sign Language to help her communicate. We started with "more" then added "cookie," "me," "music," "help," and "stop." Rather than cry or whine for things, Rose was able to use her signs to tell us what she wanted. This cut down on a lot of frustration not only for Rose but for us, too. Soon she starting verbalizing and by about 19 months she had over 50 words. Now at age two, she puts two and three words together. It is so exciting to hear her say new words every day.

It is so hard to believe we have been a family for a year now. Time has never gone by this fast. If I could say one thing to waiting families it would be this: while Leif and I were waiting for Rose, my friend Jan (also the mother of a daughter from China) promised that as soon as we saw our daughter's picture, the pain and anxiety we were feeling would vanish. She was absolutely right. The moment we saw Rose's beautiful little face, we knew our prayers were being answered. Soon we were on our way to China for the adventure of a lifetime.