Things at home were getting a lot better, Lily was adjusting, both to the house and to me. She didn't seem to hate me as much anymore. We got along just fine. I got plenty of hugs and cuddles, but definitely not as much as Gabe.

We were busy people now, taking care of Lily wasn't easy. She was still quite confused and not acting like herself. She didn't quite know what to do with herself or what life with us was like. She'd ask us if she was allowed to go to her library or if she was allowed to use the washroom. I was trying to reach a point where she knew she was allowed to do whatever she wanted as long as it wasn't something dangerous.

She would eat strawberries for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I let her. But Gabe and I were working on making sure her diet didn't consist only of strawberries. We were also at a point where Lily wouldn't sleep in her room. She didn't even try. She preferred taking over our bed and ending up either on top of me or her father. I personally didn't mind letting her sleep in our bed, but Gabe wasn't ok with it. He missed the cuddling and the making out that we used to do before Lily started occupying the majority of the bed.

On top of all that, the spontaneous sobbing was a little bit of a shock. She would just run to Gabe every now and then in tears. There was no particular reason, I think it was either bad memories or just her being a little ball of jumbled up emotions. She was still adapting to this new lifestyle she had with us and she got overwhelmed very easily. She was already very moody, I couldn't imagine what she'd be like when she became a teenager.

Gabe and I made sure that the communication between us was absolutely on point. He did an amazing job of keeping me sane even after Lily took away pieces of my sanity. She threw a lot of tantrums, but not just with me, they also happened with Gabe. It wasn't that she was trying to be difficult or trying to get her way in everything. It was just her struggling to adapt. Which is why Gabe and I sat down together one day and decided that we needed to focus on Lily and making her comfortable and that we needed to delay the wedding.

"She needs a lot of attention, we're barely even able to have five minutes alone at this point." Gabe sighed.

"Yeah... I don't think we can get married for a while." I sighed.

"Definitely not July, maybe august?" Gabe asked.

"Maybe..." I sighed.

"Ok, I honestly don't care when we get married, Ava. As long as it happens as soon as possible." He told me.

"I love you." I said to him.

"I love you too, baby. That's why I'll leave the decision of the wedding date to you. Ok?" He said.

"Why me?" I asked.

"Because... you're better at decision making... whenever you feel it's the time, come to me and we'll decide together." He said to me. "What's your diagnosis, Doc?"

"Is that your new way of asking me how I feel about things?" I laughed.

"Yes." He chuckled. "So.... What's your diagnosis, Doc?"

"My diagnosis.... Uhm... I like your suggestion. Let's just take things slow... once Lily is used to me and she's completely settled down... maybe we can reopen the topic of wedding planning." I explained.

We had been planning on a wedding in July, but I didn't think I could handle taking care of Lily and planning a wedding at the same time. I needed some time to just strengthen my little family and take care of my little girl. She was my daughter, even if she didn't consider me a mother yet. Maybe one day we'd get there with each other. I definitely hoped she'd accept me as her mother sooner rather than later, but she could take all the time she needed for that.

I knew that things were progressing when I woke up one morning when Gabe was meant to be taking her to a meeting with some social workers to see how she was doing with us. She was sitting beside me in bed, poking me.

"Hey, baby. What's going on?" I asked her, rubbing my eyes.

"My hair." She said to me, her long black hair falling over her shoulder onto my face.

"What's going on with your pretty hair?" I asked her, tucking it behind her ear.

"I don't want Daddy to do it. I want you to do it for me." She said.

"Aren't you and Daddy going to be late for your meeting, Angel?" I asked her.

"Please? I want you to do it. Daddy doesn't know how." She told me, bouncing up and down on the bed.

"Alright, can you hand me the hairbrush over there?" I asked her, pointing to my brush.

She ran over to the vanity and grabbed my hairbrush. She then plopped down in front of me in the bed and smiled. I brushed the tangles out of her strawberry scented hair and then I leaned forward and kissed her cheek.

"Do you want me to braid your hair away from this pretty face?" I asked her.

"Can you do the pretty one that was in your hair at the fair?" She asked me.

"Which one was it?" I asked her.

"It was a braid but the hair was still falling through it." She explained.

"Oh, I remember." I smiled, beginning a waterfall braid and hearing Gabe call out to her.

"Lily, baby! Hurry up! We're gonna be late." He said to her from the front door.

"Wait, Daddy! I need my hair to be pretty!" She yelled back to him.

I heard him chuckle and I smiled at her.

Once I was done she got up on her knees and she kissed me on my cheek.

"Thank you! It's pretty!" She giggled, running off.

"Wait, Lily." I said.

She turned around, looking at me with her wide eyes.

"Make sure to take the white shoes we bought the day before yesterday, those are the prettiest with this hair and this outfit." I said to her.

She giggled and nodded, running off to do exactly what I said.

She even came back to me with a white bow and asked me to put it in her hair. I put it in her hair and that earned me a big hug and another kiss. Then off she was with her Dad. I was able to fall asleep again after that and I didn't wake up until I heard Lily's sobs again after three hours.

"Baby, I didn't know how." Gabe said desperately.

Lily came running into the room in tears and she climbed into my lap.

"What's wrong, Darling?" I asked her.

"Daddy didn't put the bow in properly when it fell out." She cried.

"Aw, it's ok." I said, taking the bow and fixing it's position so that it looked pretty again and so that it wasn't poking her head like it was before.

She wiped away her tears and turned back again to face me.

"All better?" I asked her.

She nodded with a smile and curled up in my arms.

"How was the meeting?" I asked her.

"It was good. They just asked me how you guys were." Lily told me. "I told them how it was hard when I was still scared but you guys were nice and you made me feel happy."

"You feel happy now?" I asked her, kissing her forehead.

"Yeah. You and Daddy take care of me and you aren't mean." She said.

"I'm happy that you're happy." I smiled.

"Can we go somewhere?" She asked me.

"Where do you want to go?" I asked her.

"I don't know. But me and you can match." She said to me.

"That'll be fun... we can go have a picnic and take some pictures together, what do you think?" I asked her.

"Yeah. And Daddy can make the food." She giggled.

"Sounds like a plan." I said, putting my hand out for a high-five.

"Can we make Daddy wear his white shirt and his jeans?" She asked me.

"Of course." I chuckled.

"But I don't know if I have a white dress." I said to her.

"No, I made Daddy take me shopping so I could get you a pretty dress like mine." She told me.

"Really?" I asked her.

"Yeah. I'll go get it." She told me, running off to go get the dress she bought me.

I honestly couldn't have had a better morning. My baby was finally accepting me and I was living for it.

Gabe walked in with the two bags and Lily ran past him and tugged on the shirt I was wearing. It was Gabe's shirt, and it was very comfortable.

Gabe walked over and wrapped his arm around me, kissing me and putting the bags down.

"Look, this is the dress!" Lily smiled, pulling the pretty dress out of the bag. "And I bought you shoes."

I smiled seeing that everything matched her little outfit pretty well. The white sneakers were identical to hers and the dress was really similar. I did my hair to match hers and I ended up having to shave my legs. But in the end, she walked over to me with a little white bow and put it in my hair for me.

"Let's go! It's picture time! Daddy is dressed to match us too!" Lily giggled, pulling us both out to the car.

"We have to take the pretty car!" She said, running towards my car.

I laughed and off we were in my car. I was ready to go on this picnic, even though Lily forgot that we needed food. Gabriel ordered food from angels and we picked it up on the way.

We took lots of pictures together there, they were pretty amazing pictures. I put them in the album that I got on my birthday. When we got home, Lily insisted that I brush out her hair and that she brush out mine. We told the rest of the family about how we wanted to delay our wedding plans until we settled down with Lily properly. I didn't know when that would be, but I was willing to wait. Lily was a handful and Gabe and I barely had time to kiss and cuddle let alone plan a wedding.

Honestly, after the first few difficult days with Lily, we all fell into this happy state. All three of us were happy even though we were a little overwhelmed. I was happier than ever now that Lily was really letting me in and Gabe couldn't be happier. Lily on the other hand was either giggling or crying. But usually the crying was an easy fix. Like when Daddy put a bow in the wrong way and all I had to do was fix it. Or when Cornelius was sad and all we had to do was cuddle with him.

Another thing was Cornelius. She took that elephant everywhere, but she took special care not to let any bit of dirt get on him. I saw how sensitive and sweet she was, but I also saw how crazy she could be. The mischievous side of Lily started to come out. I witnessed her starting a water fight with her father, drawing a butterfly on his forehead. She also stuck stickers all over his face while he was taking a nap one day.

She craved attention and comfort and she was also a little troublemaker at heart. I couldn't wait for her to finally let me in so we could have lots and lots of fun together. Even if that meant driving her father insane and then needing to suck up to him later.