The Most Stubborn - Ana Angelica

After losing Joey in October 1999 we laid low for a couple of years before we decided to adopt again. I contacted Tree of Life Adoption Agency and told them we were interested in adopting a little girl with cleft lip/palate. The agency sent us two pictures of waiting children in Romania. One was a little 6 year old girl that looked so sad, the oter an infant with dark hair, with unrepaired lip and palate. I showed the pictures to Jerry and he immediately picked our little Ana the 6 year old girl. Her adoption was much quicker than Mindy's and Jerry and his mom traveled to Romania in July 2001 to bring our little girl home. When she came off the plane she took one look at Andy, pulled her ears out to imatate large and pointed to Andy implying that he had large ears. Andy then suggested we take her back! But of course we did not and it soon became very apparent that she had a very stubborn streak in her little personality. We would try to teach her english words to which she would say NO then repeat what we had just said in english in Romanian. We would say Ana Angelica Gibbons and she would say NO Ana Angelica Moise! Ana had been spoiled by a family in Romania that would take her to their home on occasion for holidays, weekends, etc. and she spoke of her Nasu and Nasa (Godparents)often. They even surprised us on Ana's first birthday in the US by phoning to talk to her. By then she had forgotten how to speak Romanian but could still understand it. They would ask her questions in Romanian and she would answer in English, the peoples son would translate for them. Now Ana is 16 or will be Dec. 30, and she is still stubborn and sassy, she still has a very dry sense of humor and enjoys shocking her brothers when they least expect. Ana is a beautiful young lady but does not appear to see herself in that light. She is much more athletic then her sisters Mindy and Marina and much more maternal and therefore a big help to me when it comes to watching her younger brothers and sister, and of course they adore her too. Ana is simply amazing, everyone who meets her loves her and wishes they could take her home, but she is mine and her daddy's girl and we don't share.