The weather was perfect 77 degrees F. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Carly became a permanent part of our family! We are so happy to have this finalized! We have been so blessed to have Carly in our family and are a more complete family with her.
Carly is adjusting very well and her English is really coming along! Sometimes she has trouble with her F's and V's but she is getting it. One day, she was in a hurry and wanted to wear her flip-flops. She said to me," Mom, can I wear my slip-slops today?!" It was the cutest thing ever!! All in all when she takes her time speaking, she gets it!
Carly is really learning what being a sibling is all about! At times, that has been a challenge, but the other kids have been willing to be patient and teach her and also correct her when needed. Kristina and Carly share a room and they have worked that out well. She likes to clean! I love it when we get in our "cleaning mode" and we get a lot done!
We have been able to spend a lot of time with our extended families and that has been a great privilege! She has gotten to know her family pretty well and seems to have a sense of loyalty to them. It touches my heart that she identifies herself as a PART of that family!
She has a sinful nature as we all do, but she is teachable and is eager to learn, learn, learn! We are having fun doing "family stuff". She loves shopping! :) So life is good!

It's been 4 months since we got Carly home. She is adjusting so well! Since the last post, Carly has lost 4 teeth and her "big" ones are coming in.

She had an Adoption party at our church and was completely overwhelmed to have so many people welcome her. It was a wonderful time for her and for us too! We have a great church family! :)

Carly is learning to ride her bike with the help of her brothers. She'll get it. She is asking about camping and can hardly wait for the weather to get warmer so that we can go. She totally likes the outdoors and is so happy to see that in Minnesota we get warm weather too!! She looked at the grass and said, " It's GREEN!!!" She has been such a trouper in that she has not complained about the cold. We all went sledding a few times this winter and she liked that alot.

We found out today that Carly's adoption finalization will be on May 12. That is Zach's birthday too! We are very excited to get to the final step and make Carly a part of the Witte family permanently!! She has added much joy to our family! We are so thankful to God that He has entrusted her to us!

Winter in Minnesota

Carly is doing so well! She enjoys helping with the cooking, cleaning, and being involved in just everyday things. She likes to plays card games and go shopping.

She is adjusting to the climate change though the cold is not her favorite part. She does like the snow. Carly is very much part of the family as she is more comfortable with all of us!
She loves to go to church and has met some nice friends there. Everyone has been so nice to her and has made her feel very welcome!
She asks when her friend, Anamika, is coming to Minnesota and looks forward to her coming. We are ready for Christmas and are so excited to experience our first Christmas together!

Here we are with Rajeev on our last day in India. It was a very relaxing day as Rajeev took us to a nice park where we could eat, rest and the kids could play on the playground. This was also the final day of our visa work. Rajeev knew exactly what to do and everything went very smoothly!

We are home safely and are feeling a bit tired but very happy to have Carly home with us! She really has added to our family some spice! We love her so much and are learning something new about her everyday. She seems to understand more each day and is trying new words. We even got her to say UUFFDA. Imagine a Norwegian/Indian! She says it like I've never heard it said! Thank-you for all your support these past days when we were in India. We have enjoyed hearing from you all!

Love to all,
Dawn

Hi Everyone!
This will be our last blog until we get home. We will leave tonight. The visa work went well and everything has gone sooo smoothly. Thank-you for all your prayers and blog comments. We are very happy to see you all soon.

To IFS Families: Rajeev is the MAN! When you travel, just trust what he tells you and do it. He knows what he is doing. We are all very fortunate to have him to work with IFS!

Hi Everyone,
We thought that Carly was rather quiet, but we found out today that she is not. Somebody put 12 1/2 rupees (a quarter) in her and she's been going ever since! She is now is watching cartoons with the boys. She will certainly hold her own with the boys. Today we went shopping and we bought her a punjabi. She has learned all our names and has added some too. Austin is also known as "Austin Monkey"!!! Or just " Monkey". She is very lively, and full of giggles. LOTS of giggles. We leave tomorrow night for USA. YAY! We look forward to seeing you all very soon. We are going to CDT this weekend and are very excited to see the performance! We are praying for you all as you are working very hard!
Love to All!
Dawn

This monkey tried to grab Carly's leg! And she screamed and ran away laughing. Naughty monkey.

Rajeev and Renu with us at Pizza Hut. Yum!