Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Busy Busy Life
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Fun Firsts
Friday, December 26, 2008
Another Homecoming
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas
Wishing you and your family a very MERRY CHRISTMAS! I can't imagine ours being merrier than it is this year. We are truly truly blessed. God has given us the gifts of all of our children and we are so very grateful. However, nothing compares to the gift He gave us so many years ago on this very special day. Happy Birthday Jesus!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Back in the Groove
Monday, December 22, 2008
Looking Good
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Baby Jetlag Stinks
The problem then came around lunch time when both girls did not want to wake up from their naps. Shelby was miserable and would not stay awake. I took her and Faith to her friends house to play to just try and get her awake. Then we went to the grocery store where Shelby looked like she was drunk sitting up in the racecar cart. She just could not stay awake any longer and was OUT at 6PM!
So that brings us to now...12AM...AWAKE :( Faith is awake too and Shelby has now managed to wake up Travis too. It is going to be a really long night and day I can tell. Hoping to get back to sleep soon after maybe a snack and maybe with some pharmeceutical help ;)
Here is a little clip of my angel baby doing a little dance to a Christmas song at Waffle house yesterday. Too Cute!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Surprise From Work
My boss was kind enough to send me this video clip from our company Christmas Party that I unfortunately had to miss while I was gone. Guess what...I got Employee of the Year!! YEAH! This comes with some needed extra $$$$ plus an extra week's vacation...sssaaaawweeeeeeettttt! Sorry I missed the celebrations, but I was excited to get this special surprise video from everyone. I do really love my job and actually missed seeing everyone at the annual party. So this was definitely a welcome sight :)
We Are HOME
Well after an unexpected 4 hour delay in Detroit due to snow and ice, we are finally home! We landed in ATL last night around 10PM. There were lots of heart warming faces there ready to welcome us home. Coming up the escalator to see everyone was such a wonderful experience. It is such a reminder of how much our family was missed and loved :)
It was definitely a LONG journey home, but we are here. The kids did great on the trip home-all of them. We had no troubles from the kids or anything on the flights except of course the torturous long flights. Once we landed in Detroit in the snow and ice, we wound up in a big mess at the airport that had us waiting for our luggage for 2 hours. So of course we then missed our ATL flight along with everyone else at the airport who also missed their connecting flights, so we then had to wait another long hour in a line to rebook our next flight home. They said that the luggage door on the plane was frozen shut and that was the delay. Not really sure about that considering that about 3 other flights were delayed in the luggage department too. Oh well it worked out and fortunately for us our children were wonderful during the fiasco. The girls slept the whole time in the stroller and the boys dealt with it.
Just to make our trip home a little dramatic, we LOST Travis at the Detroit airport! Yes, LOST!! Sheila and the kids and I were around the corner from the gate CJ was sitting at. We were playing with some toys when Travis wanted to go get his iPod from his dad. I said OK since it was just next door. Well 10-15 minutes later when Travis didn't return, Sheila went over to CJ and realized Travis never made to him. Panic set in and CJ was off and searching as was I. Sheila went to the desk to report him gone, and they immediately said that they had Travis all the way at the OTHER END of the airport! He had just kept walking the entire time he was missing down the long airport and then he finally stopped and told someone he was lost :(. Thank goodness he was smart enough to do that and he gave him his name and my cell phone number! By this point, security was already in route and CJ ran to meet Travis who was scared to death-poor kid. Obviously lesson learned is no matter how tired one is, don't ever let one of your kids out of sight at a busy airport!!
Needless to say, it was the longest Friday in history for us. But we did it and we are home and we are super blessed to be a completed family of 6. I know Sheila was THRILLED to be united with Scott and her family as it was definitely a long hard trip for her to be away from them for so long. I am grateful for their sacrifices and not sure how we are going to make it now without her help with the baby. I guess I am "on my own" now as a mom to 4! Good thing I don't go back to work for another 5 weeks so I can get it all figured out ;)
This was truly a great trip to China and we are so blessed to have been chosen to take this journey to our daughter. We owe it all to God and our so fortunate that he blessed this trip the entire time and brought us home safe and sound :)
“For this child I prayed,and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him.”~ I Samuel 1:2
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Last Day in China!
Here are some pics from the spice market last night and some from today at the consulate and then some are of our baby girl actually eating something solid...ice cream! She is obviously a STRAIGHT :)
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Only 2 More Sleeps Left
We have had another leisure type day here. Only 2 more sleeps until we get to board the plane that will take us from Guangzhou to Tokyo, then we will board another plane from Tokyo to Detroit, then finally we will get on the last plane in Detroit to bring us to home sweet home in Atlanta. We should be arriving in Atlanta at 5:40Pm on Friday night on Northwest Airlines Inc - Flight NW 0469. We can't wait to see Chris and Kim and Michael and any other familiar faces at the top of the escalator!
Here is a video from church the other day. You should notice the familiar Chrismas carol song in the video. It was very neat to see everyone there to hear about Jesus. We went to the English/Chinese service so when the preacher would speak, then a translator would then repeat in English. For the songs, they would sing one in Chinese and then the next in English. They even had a big screen with the words on it. So the Chinese have even moved up in technology and don't have hymnals ;) It was a neat experience for sure.
Today Sheila and I and the girls ventured back down to the nail salon. We went the other day and Sheila had her eyebrows shaped for only 5 yuan. That would be about 75 cents! So we knew a pedicure would be reasonably priced. So we went today and Sheila and I both got pedicures and Shelby had her fingernails and her toes painted. Everything combined was 100 yuan ($15 bucks for all 3 of us)! Shelby even received the "special" nail coloring in multi-colors :0
The baby feels better today and she is definately getting more and more attached to me-YEAH! Last night she didn't want to sleep in her crib and only wanted to sleep beside me in the big bed. It made for a restless night for me, but a closer step for us to bond I believe. Faith still won't eat anything solid. She will barely eat congee anymore and she won't touch the baby food anymore either. She still loves the baby puff cereal though and she will eat some baby Chinese wafer cookie things. Other than that she just wants formula and Wahaha in a baby bottle. We will definately have to work on her eating issues at home. Maybe some of Nana's Chicken and Dumplins will straighten her right up!
Bullet Style Again
- Faith had a rough night due to the effects from the shots.
- She has run a fever off and on all day. She just feels yucky.
- This is a picture of Sheila baby-sitting
- Sheila and I spent the day shopping with Ann again
- We went to some places that were creepy...but CHEAP
- I think everything is Made in China ;)
- We bought lots of cool stuff
- Shelby wanted to stay with her daddy today instead of going shopping with mom-a first!
- Shelby and CJ are growing closer than ever during this trip
- Shelby still loves on her sister constantly and takes good "care" of her
- Shelby freaks out if she witnesses me forcing medicine down her baby
- Sheila is truly a born shopper
- I don't think Sheila would ever be "done" shopping!
- Faith went shopping with me and Sheila today in the pouch
- CJ did well with the other 3 kids all day
- I have obviously had way too many Big Macs in China since today I needed size XXXL in a traditional Chinese blazer for myself
- Chinese people are way too skinny ;)
- We had Lucy's again tonight.
- I was brave a tried the "burrito". Note to others... it's Not really a burrito
- Lucy's broccoli is good and an actual green vegetable you can eat in China
- Our official consulate appointment is tomorrow
- I am wiped out from a long shopping day
- We don't have anything planned out to do tomorrow
- Faith is the sweetest and biggest baby in China!
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Hague Rules Stink
Well I realize you non-adoption world people don't really understand, but I am putting this out there for all the others. HAGUE rules stink for the babies!! My sweet and happy little girl cried her little heart today at the medical appointment.
Since she is a Hague baby she has to be completely current on her immunizations before she is allowed to enter the US. So she had to get 5 shots today all at once. One in each leg and then 2 in one arm and 1 in the other arm. And trust me they aren't too gentle with the babies either. It was bad enough that they had to have 2 doctors examining her heart as they wanted to make sure that I understood she still has a heart murmur. I told them I already knew that and then they seemed Ok to complete the paperwork. Faith cried and cried and cried like we have never heard her cry :( It was so sad.
I gave her some Tylenol before we left for the shots, and then had a full body ready for her afterwards. She was wiped out after all of that and went right to sleep sucking the bottle. We then finished up the paperwork with our guide and paid the rest of our adoption monies. Oh and by the way if you are a Hague case be prepared to fork over some extra $$ for the required shots. The shots were $50USD each! Crazy. I had to dig into my shopping funds for those and my poor baby had to suffer with them-NOT FUN!
I realized that Shelby wore the exact same outfit as Faith had on today for her medical appointment last year. Too funny! Faith is just a big as Shelby was last year. Faith weighed in today at 21 pounds...big baby as everyone keeps pointing out to me. I happen to just LOVE my big baby :) Here are the 2 side by side on their medical appointment days in China. What sweet memories both of my girls are going to be able to share a lifetime full of :)
Also, if you notice there were no other adoptive families at the doctor today. That goes to show you how much adoptions have slowed down from China. Notice in the pics from Shelby's appointment last year that the place was packed and last year we used to always see a line outside of the clinic. This year, they literally had to turn the lights on for us when we arrived at the room marked for international adopted children. So strange at the dramatic difference.
Sheila and I spent the day with Ann from www.redthreadchina.com shopping-YEAH! We took the girls and had a great time. We are even going again tomorrow afternoon. CJ hung out with the boys and had a lazy day on the island. We are about to go to the park for the 800th time it seems. We sure are ready to come home!!
Pictures Pictures Pictures
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Short and Sweet
Sorry but don't have much time to blog as I have a hot date with a foot massage again! We are eating ramen noodles in the room for dinner, did Subway for lunch, so that we could have room in the budget for more foot massages :)
I will just have to leave you checking the blog all day until I get a chance to post pics ;)
Pics from the Park
Laundromat-Not
We did our laundry today at Lady Bug store because it was the closest to the hotel. We already had a price list from Susan's Place that was marked "45% off", so we just handed them the price list and asked them to match the price. Worked out great. The total for all 6 of us came to $50 for a week's worth of clothes. Not exactly a bargain by my standards, but we were all out of clothes. I only brought 2 outfits for the baby that were 12-18 months and everything else I brought is too small. She is definitely ready to just move on into Shelby's clothes from last year that are 18 months. Love it as I already have lots of those :)
I am going to need to get a walker or one of those stationary play thingy for Faith when we get home. She loves to be in the walker and it keeps her happy and upright and out of all the stuff in the hotel room. I have a feeling she may be walking soon though, so I imagine that peace of being "confined" will be short lived ;)
We went to the Children's Amusement Park today and blew about $50 on the kids. It was fun, but I believe it was a little over priced if you ask me. The kids had a great time and we stopped afterwards by a fruit stand for some more of those yummy little oranges. I ate the whole bag today which was 10 Yuan ($1.75) worth. It was really about 20 of them. I can't seem to stop when I start :)
At least it was oranges and not chocolate bars I guess ;) I will have to post pics of the park later as it is on the other computer. I am currently using the free computer in the room at the moment. Sheila has the laptop in her room so she can call home frequently. The trip is getting to her to be away from her family for so long. I imagine it is pretty tough and getting tougher by the day. I told her today it is kind of like she is on that Trading Spouses show but at least she doesn't have to go live with a weird family. Then I really had to rethink that statement! She is having a good time and is certainly a big help, so I am very grateful to her and her family for the sacrifices made in order for her to be here with us!
We are about to retire for the evening. We spent the afternoon on the island just hanging out and playing at the park. We had KFC for lunch and Lucy's for dinner. I think I have gained at least 10 pounds already and we still have a week to go! We are going to go to church here on the island tomorrow and I am very excited about that. I can't wait to witness Chinese Christians worshipping our Lord Jesus Christ. He is wonderful no matter what country you live in!!
Friday, December 12, 2008
More on Baby Faith
Mexican Memories
Note to all who come after me... Pack and bring Taco Bell taco sauce with you to China!! I am thinking if I could at least have that to add to the food I could make an octopus stick taste like a burrito :)
How many more days until I can eat a taco again?!?
Touring Day
Today we started the morning off at the toy market and then we toured the Chen House. We went there last year so it really wasn't that big of a deal this year. We had our guide drop us off at the market place where we ventured out from McDonalds and had...Pizza Hut for lunch! It was really good and tasted very much like home. We had ice cream later as you saw from the pics below.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Day 5 or 6 or 7 or 8
Or Whatever day today is! Boy it sure is hard to keep track of what day it is around here when you aren't going to work and your days and nights are backwards than they normally are. I thought I would do this post in honor of the boys' school mates back home. I know the teachers are watching the blog, so hopefully they can put some of these "cool" pics up for the kids in their classes. (Teachers: You can click on a picture to blow it up for the class to see)
Caleb and Travis miss all their friends, but honestly they don't really miss school :)