tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7491557387675182912024-02-19T20:08:40.818-06:00Tuma Adoption JourneySarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-38276265090791320842017-04-02T00:19:00.001-05:002017-04-02T00:19:51.919-05:00Brave or stupid?- day 17Sorry no blogging for the last couple of days. We are in Hong Kong! And we've only been at the hotel late and figuring out the internet was too much work so I put it off until this morning. So I will play a little catch up.<br />
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Friday, we pretty much just spent the day packing up. Our guide gave us Charlotte's passport <i>with </i>her U.S. visa, which is the last thing we needed to leave. We were catching a 5:30 Hong Kong train so we and another family checked out around 4:00 and took our shuttle to the train station. The train was pretty drama free and kind of fun. It was about a two hour ride and it was such a smooth ride that Charlotte had no motion sickness. We had about an hour drive to our hotel and our guide pointed out a lot of things in Hong Kong, which was pretty awesome but hard to see in the dark. Our hotel is connected to the airport so it's super convenient but not the best room for a family of 6. There are three small beds and a crib. Erik slept on the floor, Ethan and Liana are floppers so they each got their own bed, and Ella and I shared a bed. Not the best situation but we only had to sleep here for two nights.<br />
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We woke up pretty late on Saturday, ate breakfast, and caught a cab to DISNEYLAND!!! I told you we are Disnerds! When we told other adoptive families that we were going to stay an extra day in Hong Kong so that we could go to Disneyland, they thought we were nuts! One mom even said, "I don't know if you're brave or stupid!" Thaaaanks. Whatever though, we know what we can handle and we've done a lot with these kids, I don't think a day in Disneyland is going to break us! So we did it. And it was awesome! I'm not saying it was easy all of the time but it was worth it and we had a blast!<br />
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We learned really quick that Hong Kong Disney is awesome for parents who want to ride the rides but have a little kid. They let you all go in, then one parent sits out with the kid, the other parent rides, gets off the ride, you switch and the other parent gets right on! Easiest rider switch ever! So we did as many fun rides as we could! Charlotte's first ride was It's a Small World and she sat there looking around at everything with the biggest eyes ever! The big kids got to train to be Jedi and fight Darth Vader. Liana did an amazing job fighting him and the whole crowd cheered! It was so great! Charlotte loved Mickey's PhilharMagic, which is a 4D movie that is adorable and fun. She was so caught up in the show, she didn't even try to mess with her 3D glasses that I was holding onto her tiny face! She really had a great time at Disneyland and I think she is well on her way to becoming a Disnerd like the rest of us! She started out the day dressed as Minnie Mouse and ended up dressed as Cinderella. She was just precious! We were able to stay until closing, which was only at 8:30 so not super late. Then we drug our tired and sore bodies back to the taxis and back to the hotel.<br />
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Now, here we are at the hotel, mostly packed up and ready to go HOME!!!! 17 days is a long time! We are time traveling because our flight leaves at 2:30 pm and we fly directly to DFW and arrive at 4:30 pm, after 15ish hours. So weird! Alright, Erik is putting the pressure on so I'll post some pics and go.<br />
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The kids with our awesome guide, John. He offered to let Ethan stay for an extra week and then ship him home. Haha</div>
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Hong Kong Disneyland!!!</div>
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She wanted toys. BAD!</div>
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They had "Easter eggs" all over the park</div>
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Ella was a lovely princess Jedi</div>
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I had no idea what an awesome Jedi Liana would be!</div>
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Using "The Force"</div>
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Charlotte on "It's a Small World"</div>
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Cinderella!!! And do you see my amazing leggings?!</div>
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These shoes gave Liana blisters so she switched to flip flops but at least we got a pic!</div>
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Toy Story Land</div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Beauty and the Beast</div>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-40587269328603091922017-03-30T07:51:00.000-05:002017-03-30T07:52:32.925-05:00Photo shoot and shopping- day 14We're leaving Guangzhou tomorrow and I am ready! Today, we got the kids dressed in their Chinese silk outfits and took them to the playground area on the hotel roof to take pictures of them like we did last time when we adopted Liana. It was actually busy there, which was super annoying because it is never busy. Charlotte was not thrilled with this idea and we couldn't get a smile out of her. We did our best, that's all I can say.<br />
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After Charlotte's nap, we decided to take the subway to a mall. It wasn't bad. They had this store called Uniqlo that I discovered when I wandered around Disney Springs on Erik's and my Disney trip. The best part is they have great super soft Disney shirts for cheap. I actually found shirts for me and Ella for around $3-4 each! So, of course, we bought a bunch of Disney shirts. Have I mentioned we're Disnerds? You'll see....<br />
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Anyways, after wandering the mall for a while, we went back to the hotel, ate some dinner, I put Charlotte to bed while Erik and the kids ran to McDonald's to bring back some ice cream for us (sorry Charlotte) and that was basically it. I'm looking forward to getting to Hong Kong tomorrow!<br />
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If you look closely, we're wearing matching leggings and her shirt says, "Together at Last"</div>
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She looks so itty bitty here next to her siblings!</div>
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Uhh, sounds creepy more than comforting...</div>
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<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-68391377657419256022017-03-29T06:51:00.001-05:002017-03-29T06:53:56.142-05:00Done!- day 13Today, we had our Consulate Appointment at the U.S. Consulate. This appointment is what the entire trip revolves around. So we basically go in, get a number, when our number is called, they look at our paperwork, make sure it's all there, we sit wait, they have a little meeting and then have us take an oath, we sit, they call each family up, have a little interview, look at paperwork again, stamp it "approved" and we're done! Like, really done, with everything for reals! No more meetings, no more appointments, no more paperwork. DONE! We do have to wait 48 hours for Charlotte's visa to be issued, which sucks because it was always 24 hours until just this month. So we will hang out for another couple of days in Guangzhou before we can leave. Then we will take a train to Hong Kong, spend one day there and fly out the next day.<br />
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After we came back from the Consulate Appointment, we rested for a while and then went out to try and find a nearby temple that we had heard of. It was only about a mile away so we walked and just when you think there is no way something beautiful is going to pop up, there it is! It was amazing! It is called Liurong Temple, or Temple of Six Banyan Trees. It is a little strange taking pictures there because people are also there to worship but it's okay as long as you don't take pictures when inside the temple.<br />
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On our way back from the temple, we picked up some pizza and headed back to our room for dinner. We are getting tired and I think we're feeling more and more ready to get home now. I didn't really allow myself to feel homesick until I knew we were getting close to time to go home. It must be close enough to time to go home because I'm feeling homesick tonight. I miss the doggies and the kitties and I'm looking forward to getting back into a normal routine and bringing Charlotte to her home. Soon!<br />
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We aren't allowed to take pictures or even have any kind of electronics at the Consulate so no pictures there although our guide took one that he will send us outside the consulate. So here are pics of the temple.<br />
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One of the banyan trees</div>
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<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-63339040915904518202017-03-28T09:19:00.000-05:002017-03-29T06:55:39.990-05:00Cruisin'- day 12We slept in this morning and it was lovely! Erik has been playing musical beds lately because his back has been killing him. Here is the set up in our room: in one room is a king size bed and the crib for Charlotte, the other room has a couch that Liana sleeps on, a portable bed for Ella, and we bought a blow up mattress for Ethan. There are also two bathrooms, one in our room with a bath and a shower and the other in the kids' room with just a toilet. It's pretty wonderful that we can shut the door and have the kids in a different room, however, Erik's back is not loving the bed in our room so he has tried switching with Liana but the couch is small and it didn't help. Then he tried switching with Ethan and his back did fine on the air mattress one night but not the next night. He has been working out semi regularly while we're here because that helps a lot but it hasn't helped enough. Not sure who will be sleeping with me tonight but I don't care, as long as they don't keep me or Charlotte awake!<br />
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So while Erik was working out this morning, the kids and I went to the outdoor play area and Charlotte actually played this time! She went straight for the play set and climbed in and even followed Ethan in the climb through tunnel. This doesn't sound like much but it shows a lot of growth for her because the last time we tried it, she just paced around, curious but too nervous to actually play. As she shows her personality more and more, we can see that she has a great sense of humor. She LOVES when she makes someone laugh and looks all pleased with herself. Erik said she likes "physical comedy" and it is so true! This is why the kids are falling all over themselves to get a giggle out of her.<br />
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Tonight, we went on the Pearl River Cruise. We missed out on it last time because they cancelled it due to rain in the forecast that didn't end up happening. So we were really glad to have another chance because we had heard that it is a lot of fun. The kids were thrilled when they saw the ship because the front is shaped like a dragon. Ethan was dancing and singing, "We're going on a pirate ship, we're going on a pirate ship!" It was just an hour cruise up the Pearl River and back but it was beautiful! There are a lot of amazing buildings all lit up and they have the bridges lit up. The weather was perfect and we all loved it!<br />
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She is using her voice more and more. I was worried for a while because she never said a thing or made any noises with her mouth unless she cried or laughed until the day I first heard her say "mama." I asked the director of the orphanage and she said that she is a very quiet girl and I wasn't sure if she was saying that "mama" was her only word or not. Luckily, I was reassured by a lot of parents on a Facebook group I'm on who have also adopted children with cleft lip/cleft palates that their children didn't speak much for a while either. So we might not have many words until after her palate is repaired. Her palate has a very large cleft although I haven't had a lot of chances to see it yet. She is making more and more sounds the more comfortable that she gets with us so we'll see what she's capable of as time goes on and we will obviously have her first palate surgery as soon as we can after being home a bit.<br />
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Well, we have an early morning tomorrow so I will get to the pics!<br />
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An accurate depiction of how she felt about me taking pictures </div>
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Prettiest piggies</div>
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The many expressions of Charlotte</div>
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Our "pirate ship"</div>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-42133602370540875422017-03-27T07:32:00.001-05:002017-03-27T07:32:47.373-05:00Pandamonium- day 11We woke up nice and early this morning so that we could eat at the amazing breakfast buffet before we met up with a bunch of other Holt families in the lobby to go to the Chimelong Safari Park. The drive to the safari park take close to an hour and we had a lot of kids with motion sickness on our bus. 3 or 4 kids got sick, including Charlotte, on the bus. Guess who chose to sit by each other instead of sitting by Mommy and Charlotte on the way home? Everybody.<div>
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Anyhoo, we got to the safari park and got straight into line for...well, a safari. We rode on these train looking things to see the animals and Charlotte loved it! Thank God! I was worried she might get sick again but it was in open air and that made all the difference. She didn't care about the animals one little bit but she loved the ride.</div>
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After the safari, we ditched our guide and walked around the rest of the park. Ethan was thrilled that the first part was a Dinosaur Trail with all of these animatronic dinosaurs. He acted like a little know it all because he, Daddy and Ella had run through the rain to see it the last time we came 4 years ago while the rest of our group waited in a gift shop. Never mind, he was only 2 then, he acted like he remembered it all. What a goofball! Of course, the most important part of the safari park was the PANDAS!! Apparently, this park holds the only living panda triplets. It's a BIG deal and they play it up big time. The pandas were very cool because pandas always are. The park was fun but exhausting! The drive home was very quiet and I think all of the kids were too busy sleeping to throw up.</div>
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Charlotte was so good at the safari park! She opens up to us more and more every day. She has her times where she avoids me but I'm also the one she wants for comfort. Always. She only wants Mommy when she's tired or grumpy, which is fine by me! But she loves all of the kids and she loves her Daddy too! She is showing some sass more and more, thinking she's funny. It's too cute when she gets in one of her silly moods. But then she also kind of stands around avoiding eye contact with any of us other times. She definitely has a long ways to go but she's come a long way already. I know this has to be so confusing and crazy to her but she's tough like her big sis, Liana, and she will make it through.</div>
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I don't think they're dead...?</div>
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Sorry Buddy, don't think that's going to work.</div>
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Apparently we really like the "scared" pose</div>
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This is the face she made when she drank Sprite</div>
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She slept through the pandas! :-(</div>
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She's passed out here too but I put her in the picture anyway. Haha</div>
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The triplets...one...</div>
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two and three</div>
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Silly girl making silly faces at Ella</div>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-47344219928109119412017-03-26T08:02:00.001-05:002017-03-28T02:44:14.341-05:00Liu Hua Hu- day 10Poor Charlotte had a rough night. Here's what our routine has become: first, I change her into her jammies, turn off the lights, cradle her in my arms and give her a bottle, when she finishes it she climbs up to laying on my chest until she falls asleep, then I try to put her down in the crib, she wakes up and rolls to her tummy, begins to fuss, then I pat her back until she falls back asleep if I'm lucky, or I pick her back up, cuddle with her til she falls asleep and try again. She must have thought it was hilarious the first night when I put her into her crib while awake and she just quietly went to sleep, no drama. Fooled me into hoping it would always be that way! Hahaha! Well last night, for some reason, she could not calm down while we cuddled so I finally tried just putting her in her crib. She wasn't sure about it and I tried patting her back until I gave up. She was actually okay about it but just kept moving and rustling around. Finally, after forever, she fell asleep but then she woke up and coughed in the middle of the night for a really long time. She never fussed so I left her until she fell back asleep but I felt so bad that she couldn't stop coughing. Luckily, our guide, John, is amazing and said that he would pick up some Robitussin for us because he had to stop by the pharmacy anyways. Let's hope it helps.<br />
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After breakfast, we went to Liu Hua Hu Park. It is beautiful and you could probably spend the whole day there. It has a little amusement park and a nice playground and a path around the lake. While Liana was riding a go-kart, a little girl approached me to ask if she could take a picture with me. Of course, I said yes and of course, she wanted a picture with Ethan and Ella too. They were super sweet and gave me a rose. Then, by gesturing to the woman's phone, they asked if I was on WeChat (which is kind of like Skype) so I showed her my info and she took a picture of it and later sent me a message with the pictures that she had taken. So very sweet!<br />
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Charlotte looked so itty bitty at the playground! Seeing her next to other toddlers just made me realize how teeny she is! She is such a precious little doll!<br />
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The kids talked Erik into swimming again. Ethan had a strong desire to help Erik with his strokes. Charlotte and I sat in a chair and enjoyed from the sidelines.<br />
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After swimming and baths, we went out to dinner at the same Cantonese restaurant that we went to a few days ago, this time with a big group of fellow Holt families. Our guide said that there would be two tables: the amateurs and the pros and he had already decided that we would sit at the pros table since we all ate well the first time. So he surprised us with rice with eel in it! Surprisingly it wasn't bad! Liana <i>loved </i>it! They have a couple of tanks of eels right there for you to choose from if you want to. And other animals too. Slightly horrifying. Charlotte lost her mind on the walk home. I don't know if she just hates Cantonese food or what? Just kidding, she actually ate well tonight but I just don't think evenings are the time for her to be out and about. But no worries, we came back and shared some chocolate and giggles and she is already out for the count.<br />
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Now for a whole lot of pictures...<br />
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Pics that the woman sent me on WeChat</div>
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Not having too much success but trying to have a conversation</div>
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Nice shot, Daddy! Look at those beautiful eyes!</div>
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Look at the tail!</div>
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The delectable items in tanks at the restaurant</div>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-76764104575400064992017-03-25T06:16:00.001-05:002017-03-25T06:24:44.091-05:00Toy Mall insanity- day 9Today, we braved the subway with the family that we met in Beijing who also adopted from Harmony House and went to what everyone calls the "Toy Mall". I'm not sure what the actual name of the mall is or why people call it the toy mall because it has a whole lot of stuff besides toys. It's 9 stories high and full of booths with anything from toys, to drones, to ceramics, to just all kinds of random things. And it's all dirt cheap! So how could you not go?<br />
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We wandered around and mostly found things for the kids, of course. Ethan got a ginormous thing of Star Wars Legos, or Star Wnrs Lepin (haha), and a stuffed dinosaur, Ella got a stuffed cat and a bunny purse, and Liana got a microphone for singing karaoke (God help us) and a stuffed lucky cat. I got Charlotte some squeaky pigs (which she promptly threw on the floor, her funnest game) for the bath in hopes that she'll take a bath without me and a bunny that I can hang on the carrier so she has something to fiddle with while she's in it. The family we were hanging out with adopted the cutest little 4 year old girl and she and Ethan have taken a shine to each other. He makes her laugh. Imagine that. Together, they are trouble because they're both so cute and energetic! Ethan said she gave him 2 kisses and he seemed quite pleased, saying, "I've only been kissed by family members before!" Maybe when they're in their 20's.... Hahaha!<br />
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After we made it back to our hotel, we ate McDonald's. Yes, again, don't judge us too harshly! Charlotte went down for a long nap, which is great because she is still sick and seems a bit out of it today. She also took a little nap in the carrier while we were shopping today.<br />
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In case you're wondering about the sibling dynamic, Charlotte has gotten all of her siblings wrapped around her little finger. She is the boss and a perfect baby of the family! It's fun because there is a good 4 1/2 years age difference between Charlotte and Liana so they all look huge compared to her, even Liana! They are so cute, doing everything they can to make her smile. Ethan gets attention from her by being loud and goofy. Liana gets attention from her by being quiet and willing to share anything with her that Charlotte grabs. She is an absolute angel. Charlotte grabs her tablet and Liana shows her how to use it. Charlotte grabs her camera and Liana helps her take a selfie. Ella gets cuddles and walks. Charlotte likes to climb up on Ella's bed, which is by the tv and she ends up on Ella's lap, cuddling. Ella also lets her lead her all over the room, even climbing under the desk. Of course, all of this will change when we get home and the novelty wears off but at this point, I am loving the sweetness! They treat her so well!<br />
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Charlotte is itty bitty. I weighed her and she is only 19 lbs! And she will be 2 in 2 weeks! This is 2 lbs lighter than I was told and I'm sure that she was probably weighed with clothes on. They layer these kids in tons of clothes! On the airplane from Beijing to Guangzhou, Charlotte was sweating so I took her sweatshirt off and under was a long sleeved shirt and I had also been handed a coat that I refused to put on her because she gets super hot in the carrier, which I used in the airport. She ended up getting sick all over her clothes on the plane and under her pants, I found <i>another </i>pair of pants, quilted pants, and this was on a day that was going to be in the high 60's in Beijing! I'm sure her nannies would be wringing their hands over the way I'm dressing her in one layer! I haven't been scolded by any grannies yet but I've heard that happens sometimes if they think you aren't dressing them warm enough.<br />
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The face of a parent on day 9 in China?!</div>
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Who doesn't love Star Wnrs?! and Lepin??</div>
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Tim, I took this picture for Taylor. Ella said, "Taylor would love this place!"</div>
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She's actually cuddling something soft! She usually throws them to the ground</div>
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The kids' scores from the "toy mall"</div>
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Enjoying a steamed bun</div>
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Lounging in the Executive Lounge. That's right...we're big time. Ha!</div>
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<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-71190929527097657252017-03-24T06:13:00.000-05:002017-03-25T03:19:43.183-05:00Lazy day- day 8This morning Charlotte had to go to a medical clinic to make sure she doesn't bring any horrible diseases to the U.S. I decided to go by myself with Charlotte to the appointment so we wouldn't have to drag the other three kids with us. She was a very good girl at the appointment. There are three stations that you have to go to: ENT, nurse, and general. During the nurse's station, they weighed her and checked her height. This was the only time she cried because they made her lay down where I couldn't be right by her. The good part was, she was so upset, she was hanging onto a part of the table and wouldn't let go until I went to grab her and she reached for me and calmed down right away. In the waiting room, while we waited for the other families to finish, she was downright charming. She was smiling and started saying, "mama!" which we had never heard her say, except on video chat a while ago. She has been to shy with us to use her voice but she said it over and over and over today and it was adorable!<br />
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After the appointment, we came back to the hotel and Erik and Ethan ran next door to grab McDonald's for lunch. Charlotte had her first Happy Meal and she loved it! She has started coughing today and she felt warm to me so I took her temperature and it was 101.7. Poor wee thing. Luckily, she went down for a good nap and seemed to feel a little better when she woke up. Hopefully she will get better quickly!<br />
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With Charlotte being sick and the rest of us feeling lazy, we decided to take it easy and just hang out at the hotel. The kids have all been amazing on this trip! I am so glad that they are here with us! They adore Charlotte! I know this will change but none of them have shown any jealousy toward her yet. They have more energy than we would like at times *coughEthancough* but they are mostly happy and up for whatever we're doing for the day. We are almost done with our appointments but they have done really well at all of them, with the help from their tablets. Thank God for tablets!<br />
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She's looking at me like, "Mama, rescue me!"</div>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-18288532829305760322017-03-23T07:43:00.001-05:002017-03-25T03:18:48.651-05:00Shopping on Shamian- day 7Today was a new day and Charlotte was wonderful! She was full of smiles very quickly after she got up. We had a very busy day because we went to Shamian Island. Shamian Island is very European and a favorite for adoptive families to visit and shop at. We had to take the subway because of being a family of 6, it is hard to get a cab that will accept us. It was a fun experience though, especially since I wasn't the one trying to navigate it! When we got there, we realized how intensely humid it was. You could actually see it in the air! So although the temperature only probably got to 80 degrees, it felt super hot and we were sweating. We walked around and took the obligatory pictures with statues and caused a ruckus as we became celebrities again with cameras pointed at us from every direction. We went to the park that Ella remembers dancing at last time as a man took pictures of her. Now, in the U.S. that would be creepy but here, it's just normal if you're blond, especially if you're a kid. So the kids played, Ella danced, and even Charlotte had fun! It was really cool around the park because there were people playing instruments and singing, couples dancing, and there were men (not young men!) playing hacky sack, or whatever it's called here. I love how you can just come upon a group of people doing Thai Chi or dancing or singing, it's just happening everywhere and not for money, just for fun!<br />
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After the park, we went shopping! There are amazing little shops all over Shamian that sell Chinese silk outfits, fans, tea sets, anything you could want so we bought all of the kids Chinese outfits, and a bunch of Gotcha Day gifts for Charlotte for all of her Gotchaversaries, including a chop, which is a stamp with your name carved on it, that they carved for us while we waited! After that, we drug our tired selves back on the subway to get back to the hotel.</div>
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Later, we went swimming and then dinner and now here we are hanging out in our room again. Charlotte is happy and smiling tonight, which is wonderful after last night! We just have to take it day by day, knowing that just because she's rejecting you one day, doesn't mean she will be the next day and just because you're her favorite today, doesn't mean you won't just make her tear up every time you come near her tomorrow. She does seem to be more and more comfortable with us each day so I really hope that she's beginning to open up her heart to us! She is a very lovable little girl!</div>
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Crazy paparazzi!</div>
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Basically every adoptive family attempts to take a picture of their child with these statues. It's rarely successful ;-)</div>
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Liana did better this time than she did 4 1/2 years ago! lol</div>
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This is about as close as Charlotte was willing to get. Look how cuddly she is! She's a little koala!</div>
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Too much cuteness!</div>
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So pretty</div>
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They have so much fun together!</div>
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Fishing with a net. We saw him catch a big one!</div>
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Ella being Ella <3</div>
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She cuddles me so tightly</div>
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Silly Daddy!</div>
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My handsome son</div>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-43707416262731087632017-03-22T19:15:00.001-05:002017-03-22T19:16:24.689-05:00Grieving- day 6<i>Wrote this last night but the internet stopped working so posted this morning.</i><br />
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Today wasn't a very exciting day so I didn't get many pictures. It was raining most of the day so we didn't have as many options for fun things to do. Erik wanted to work out in the hotel gym (insane, right?!) so the kids and I went to the little playroom for a while. After that, Ella, Charlotte and I went to Starbucks for a little bonding while Erik and the "twins" did a little workout in the room because Ethan was super ticked that he was too young to go to the gym with Erik. Charlotte continues to love sweets so we got macaroons at Starbucks and they were a huge hit!<br />
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In the afternoon, we had to go to the police station to apply for Charlotte's passport. It was oddly fun but only because Charlotte was in an amazing mood for some unknown reason while we were there. I was wearing her in the carrier and she was just being silly and smiling tons. I could get giggles out of her if I tickled her face with my hair, gave her tiny kisses all over her face, or gave her zerberts. She has to be in the right mood and she was. She would stick her tongue out, purse her lips or
make some silly face and I'd copy her and she'd giggle. So stinking cute!<br />
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Tonight, our guide wanted to take us to a local Cantonese
restaurant. He didn't expect the kids to like very much because apparently most
kids from families like ours have ended up eating white rice with soy sauce but
our kids surprised him by loving<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>everything</i>!
I was so proud of them! I have to say, they are all amazing about being
adventurous and trying new things! They might not like everything but they're
super open to trying everything and I love them for it!<o:p></o:p></div>
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During dinner, Charlotte was not herself and wasn't really eating
much. She was just kind of slumped in her chair, staring away from us. She
usually eats everything really well but not at all tonight. Then, she started
squirming so I got her out of her chair because she was about to fall out.
Then, she screamed. And screamed. I was so embarrassed because everyone was
just staring at me. I took her out of the restaurant because she was not going
to stop anytime soon. Outside, everyone looked at me like I was a
kidnapper. It was awful. She was trying to squirm and get away from me and I
didn't know what to do so I just walked around, trying to keep her from falling
out of my arms. Eventually, she stopped squirming and just continued to wail. After she stopped fighting me, I started to feel sad for her because I knew that she was grieving. She
was missing Harmony House and everyone in it. It is so hard. I know that
we will get through this and that she will eventually love us but right now,
she misses her nanny and her friends and I'm the one that took her from them.
Poor baby finally cried herself out and fell asleep and we all walked back to
the hotel, in the rain. It's not easy being an adoptive mom when your
child is pushing you away because you're the woman. They call the nannies
"mama" so how is she supposed to understand what "mama"
means and that I'm not another nanny? We have a long road ahead of us.
I know that grieving is a healthy sign because it means that she was attached
to someone and that is a sign that she is capable of attaching to us. In the mean time, please pray for her little heart to heal and open up to us and pray for us as it hurts our hearts when she rejects us. Most of the day, she does well but she is very serious most of the time. Her happy moments are wonderful and precious but she has a long way to go. Nights seem to be the hardest, which makes sense because she is exhausted and just wants what is familiar. Poor little girl. </div>
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Now for the pics...</div>
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Starbucks date</div>
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Haha! I didn't even know about this one</div>
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Walking to the Cantonese restaurant in the rain</div>
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Sweet, exhausted baby and frenzied, exhausted mama after grief</div>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-74925143128829958382017-03-21T07:28:00.000-05:002017-03-21T07:28:55.006-05:00Tuma, Party of 6- Day 5Today, we went back to the Civil Affairs office to finalize the adoption. It was pretty uneventful, just some paperwork and a couple of simple interviews and boom, she's a Tuma! We came back to the hotel and played for a while at the hotel playground. Charlotte just paced and paced and paced with a very serious expression on her face. The kids were hilarious! Ethan accidentally fell down in front of Charlotte and she smiled for the first time. So then all three big kids were racing around "falling" in front of Charlotte to make her smile. It was so adorable. They just love her so much!<br />
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After her nap, we went to the pool. I was able to get her to come in the pool with me and she seemed to enjoy it. She just splashed her hands and watched the kids be crazy.<br />
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I'm feeling pretty sleepy so I'm going to keep this short and just add lots of pics!<br />
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-55781227952149535622017-03-20T09:51:00.001-05:002017-03-20T09:51:43.872-05:00Gotcha again- day 4So normally a family would receive their child directly from the orphanage (usually on a Monday) at a Civil Affairs office in their province. Charlotte's province is Guangdong province and the adoptions happen in Guangzhou. We were able to meet and "get" Charlotte early because of the foster home that she was in and their relationship with Holt. Early on, we were told that we had the option to fly to Beijing and get to meet her there on a Saturday, get her on Sunday and fly with her to Guangzhou and they asked us if we would like to do this. Um, yeah! But we still had to go through the motions in for some odd reason of pretending we hadn't met her and having our "gotcha" moment at Civil Affairs. Today, we drove to the Civil Affairs office, met with the director of the orphanage (not the foster home) and handed her to her, they went up the elevator, we waited, then we went up the elevator. We went into a room where families meet their new children and sat there for a little while, then they came into the room with Charlotte, and they handed her over. Strange but whatever, I'll go through the motions. We even took pictures like this was something special but it was pretty silly. It was neat, however, watching other families meeting their children for the first time. Since we weren't stressed about meeting our child for the first time, I could really watch others have their moment and it was beautiful. So many nervous and excited parents. Many children cried, some didn't, but it was such a wonderful sight. I was a little nervous that Charlotte would actually cry when they handed her back to us but she was already crying when they came out. I think the director said she hurt her foot? Not sure, she doesn't speak very much English and I don't speak a word of Cantonese. Anyways, she came to me crying but I was able to comfort her quickly and that was that. Tomorrow is actually a big day because it is the day we finalize the adoption. They give you 24 hours with your child to make the decision that you really do want to adopt them. It's sad but sometimes families do back out after that 24 hours. Anyways, tomorrow will be a big and wonderful day!<br />
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After our "gotcha", we went to the store for a few things. I have never in my life seen a store that insanely busy. And I'm a Black Friday kinda gal. It was nuts! Luckily our guide was with us to help us find our way through the maze to get the things we needed. While we were in line to check out, a woman was smiling as she watched Ethan goofing off with Charlotte, doing anything for a smile. She gave me two thumbs up. Then, she pointed at all four of our kids to ask if they were all ours and I nodded and she gave me two thumbs up and a big smile again. Then she petted Ella's hair and said, "beautiful". I love the culture here. It is strange and things happen that you would find rude in America, like people shoving in front of you, but it's just the way it is here. They don't mean it to be rude, it's just how things are so I'm not bothered by it like I would be in the U.S. I've had so many lovely experiences with people in China who don't speak the same language as me but find a way to get their point across. I love China and I'm so happy that I do because I'm raising two daughters who I want to be proud of their heritage and it makes it easy to tell them wonderful things about China when we've had such wonderful interactions and experiences here.<br />
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As for Charlotte today, she has had moments of being very happy and smiling or laughing at silly things and moments of being frozen like a little scared statue. When I attempted to put her down for a nap she sobbed and I grabbed her out of the crib and walked her around until she cried herself to sleep and slept cuddled up with me. She gave poor Ella a hard time and cried several times when Ella picked her up. No idea why as Ella had picked her up earlier and carried her all the way from our hotel room to our shuttle and held her the entire way to the Civil Affairs office. Poor Ella was in tears, feeling rejected but I got them coloring together at the end of the evening and they ended up playing a silly game that made no sense but was led by a 1 year old and Ella was pretty happy with that. I think Charlotte is starting to realize this whole thing may be a permanent change and starting to grieve the life and people that she has always known. It's such a huge change, I can only imagine how she's feeling. She went to bed well tonight and I'm praying that she will sleep well and have a better day with her biggest sis tomorrow.<br />
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I had a sad mishap with my phone when I was taking a bath with Charlotte last night and it took a swim. I thought it was fine but it started acting weird so it is now sitting in a bowl of rice. The point of all of this is, we got very few pictures today. :-( We'll get more tomorrow, I promise! Here are the few we got...<br />
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<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-67731198168691857052017-03-19T09:35:00.000-05:002017-03-19T09:35:07.829-05:00Gotcha Charlotte Jing Yi! Day 3Today was the day we actually got Charlotte! After breakfast, we checked out and Lily picked us up and took us to Harmony House where we picked up Charlotte and headed to the airport. I was nervous that she would be upset to go with us since last night ended on a sour note but, although she wasn't exactly thrilled to see us, she didn't cry. So we drove to the airport and said our goodbyes to the amazing Lily. For some reason while we were at the airport, Charlotte got all happy while I was toting her around in her carrier and just started smiling and kicking her feet. It was my first time seeing her smile and show her personality and it was precious! A little later, I was trying to get her to eat some lunch and she froze up and wouldn't eat. Erik had gotten us some Snickers bars from a vending machine for our lunch because we didn't have time for anything else before we boarded our plane so I gave her a little piece of chocolate and she smiled really big and gave me a huge hug!!! After that, she ate her lunch just fine. So apparently she likes sweets! I was nervous about the flight because we had no idea how she would do on the plane but she was a perfect angel! I was stuck sitting between two men because our seats weren't all together so I was worried about her crying the whole flight but she didn't cry once. She just sat there playing with my watch and looking at her little photo album that we sent her. She also loved my phone (of course) and loved looking at herself on it. I would face the camera toward her and she would smile. One time she dropped my phone on the ground on accident and laughed! Such an adorable laugh! Then she had to keep dropping it and laughing because she is a toddler, after all. Not that I minded.<br />
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After our flight and drive to our hotel, we just played in our room the rest of the evening. The kids all just adore her! She has three siblings fighting over her attention. She was dragging Ella all over the room by her finger. She colored with Liana. Ethan keeps petting her head and calling her "cutie". They adore her and are all just doting on her.<br />
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She had gotten sick on the plane big time so I wanted to give her a bath. She was very scared of taking a bath so I think she probably has never had a bath like that before. So I just got in the tub with her and she did fine but stayed on my lap. She loved splashing the water so I'm sure she'll be a water baby before we know it. I hope so or she'll never survive summers in Texas!<br />
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I just gave her a bottle and put her to bed. She went down to bed like the little angel she is and it is just the most amazing feeling having her here with us! I can't even begin to explain how surreal it is to actually have her with us! I'm in tears just thinking about it! She is just the most amazing little thing and I'm so excited to have her in our family. We are so lucky to get to be her parents!!<br />
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Charlotte with her nanny</div>
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For keeps this time!</div>
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Harmony House</div>
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Proud jie jie (big sister)</div>
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Ge ge (big brother) is just dying to make her laugh!</div>
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The newest jie jie with her mei mei (little sister)</div>
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Her first selfie</div>
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Caught her smiling!</div>
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Reading a book and playing with Baba. She looks so tiny sitting with him!</div>
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Leading big sis everywhere</div>
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How cute are these two?!</div>
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Our four!</div>
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After bath. So tiny!</div>
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Her expression kills me!</div>
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Cuddles with big sis</div>
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<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-33949898836372248272017-03-18T10:14:00.002-05:002017-03-18T10:14:43.390-05:00Sightseeing with someone special! day 2I will start off with the shocking news that we all slept well last night! What?! I woke up around 3:30 and assumed I was done but was actually pretty happy with that. After reading a while, however, I fell back asleep until Erik woke us up at 7. Beautiful, blissful sleep...ahhh. Anyhoo, so Lily (the director of the foster home) met us and another family at 7:30 to go sightseeing but before we went, we got to go to Harmony House and pick up Charlotte and the other little girl being adopted by the other family so they could come with us!!! She was very standoffish when we met her but after a bit, when we started to head out, she let me pick her up. She is itty bitty and beautiful! So off we went to see The Great Wall of China!!! It was pretty amazing...and exhausting! I carried Charlotte in a carrier and I will just go ahead and blame it on her extra whopping 21 lbs that I felt like I was going to die by the end. But I'm getting ahead of myself. We got to ride a chairlift type thing to get to the wall and then a toboggan on the way down! Well, Charlotte and I were forced to ride the chairlift back down but Erik and the kids had a blast riding the toboggans down this crazy, windy track! The wall...is great! I don't know if pictures will do it justice but it was amazing! The stairs are crazy, steep in some parts, short and tiny in others, and completely tilted in some places. Ethan, of all people, was scared of being so high up! I couldn't believe it! Never in my life, would I have thought he would be the one to be afraid! It was so cool and so big and so EXHAUSTING! I've heard before that climbing the steps is quite a challenge and it really is! <div>
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After the Great Wall, we drove to the Summer Palace. It was also amazing but super crowded and by this point in the day, we were all pretty done. It is beautiful there though and there were a lot beautiful things to take pictures of. We hadn't had lunch when we got there (around 4) so we bought some hot dogs on a stick. They were the worst! Erik, Ella and I threw ours away after a couple of bites. Ethan and Liana ate theirs just fine and claimed to like them. Weirdos. So we were all super tired and the kids were grumpy at the Summer Palace <i>until</i> one person asked to take a selfie with Ella and Ethan and then all insanity ensued. A crowd gathered around and our blond kids were the biggest hit there! They loved every second of it, the little freaks! Unfortunately, a few people forced me in on the action because apparently I'm blond <i>enough</i>. After we were done at the Summer Palace, we headed back. It doesn't sound like a long day really but every drive took forever and we didn't get back until around 7:30. Charlotte, who was stoic the entire day, lost it about 30 minutes before we got back to Harmony House and nothing would calm her down. Poor baby was exhausted, probably starving because she wouldn't eat or drink much, and fed up with these crazy strangers who call themselves family taking her all over everywhere! She also gets very carsick, poor wee thing. So she was very glad to get back to Harmony House and back to her nanny. And we were pretty ecstatic to get back to our hotel! </div>
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I will have write more about Charlotte later. Today, she was very much like Liana was when we toted her around China, quiet and very serious, so we haven't really learned much about her personality. I mean, what an insane way to get to know your new family! She was such a doll baby though! Oh my word, so precious!!!</div>
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Okay, now to the pics...</div>
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Yesterday</div>
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This is inside our hotel</div>
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She's tolerating me but really wants away!</div>
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Charlotte's crib</div>
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The girls</div>
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Riding the chairlift up</div>
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The Great Wall</div>
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The Summer Palace</div>
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This craziness just cracks me up!</div>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-55348967532544203252017-03-17T08:54:00.000-05:002017-03-17T08:54:40.610-05:00Beijing- day 1Well, we made it to Beijing! I'm so exhausted so I'm going to keep this short and no pics. We haven't seen anything pic worthy yet anyways. The flight(s) went well besides the fact that we were on the flight from Detroit to Beijing for 14 hours. I really hate that flight! The kids were really good and we ended up with an empty seat by one of us, which was amazing! I started out by it and Erik ended up by it. It's really weird because we boarded our flight at 1:30 pm on 3/16 and ended up in Beijing at 3:30 pm on 3/17 but we traveled with the sun so we didn't get one minute of night. We didn't get to our hotel until after 7 and then the director of Charlotte's foster home took us to a really real authentic Chinese place for dinner which was amazing! Okay, so I have been awake except for periods of dozing for over 48 hours because of not being able to sleep the night before we left so I am DONE! Big day tomorrow so I WILL get on here and get some pics up!Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-65017012797379730092017-03-15T22:00:00.002-05:002017-03-15T22:00:43.273-05:00Lots of news!<i>I wrote this blog post a week and a half ago but never got around to posting it because I was trying some pictures on here. Long story short, I never got around to it and we are leaving for China tomorrow!!! I will try and post every day. I know I've been terrible about it lately but I really want to remember everything about our trip so I will really try!</i><br />
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Long time, no blog! I actually started a post a while ago and then just never finished and now that I'm back, none of it applies because a ton has happened since then! So I scrapped the whole thing. So here we go...we got our LOA (Letter of Approval) from China to adopt Miss Charlotte!!! As I have said before, we waited a whopping 106 days for our LOA for Liana and I couldn't help but feel like we would have a long wait again. The wait for LOA was really short when we first started this adoption but, of course, the second we start the process, the waits grew. BUT, we were actually really lucky this time and only waited 48 days!!! We found out that China had given us our approval on January 9th, which just happened to be the day before Erik and I headed on our first ever (well, my first ever) trip away from the kids! Erik was going to a conference for work in Orlando and staying in a resort at Disney World so I couldn't resist joining him <i>this </i>time! We decided to give this to each other as our Christmas gifts to each other because we are both Disney obsessed and Erik knew that he wouldn't visit the parks without me. We also knew that this was our last chance on a "just us" trip for a very long time with our littlest one joining our family shortly. I had been praying that we would get our LOA before we went on our trip because I knew that otherwise I would be stressing about it the entire trip. I was shocked and so thankful that it actually happened! We didn't receive the actual piece of paper until the day before we flew home but just knowing that it had been issued was amazing!! So we were able to enjoy an amazing kid free trip to Disney World! I know, we are the <i>worst parents ever!</i> But it was worth it. ;-) We would normally take the kids with us but they are going to already be missing too much school when we take them to China so we didn't feel <i>too</i> bad. I mean, how many kids get to go to China?! Twice!! So, whatever, we confessed we actually went to Disney World <i>after</i> we came home and showered them with gifts. They forgave us. :-) Especially because they got to spend that time with Grammy (my mom) who they adore! Erik and I got to visit Epcot one evening for free because the whole conference was going to a dessert banquet in this special area on it's own little island for the fireworks show! It was AMAZING!!! The next day, after he got off a little early, we went to Hollywood Studios and got to meet Kylo Ren and Chewie! Then the last day, we got to Magic Kingdom in time for the rope drop and stayed until The Kiss Goodnight when it closed. We were definitely feeling our age as we limped to catch the shuttle to our hotel. Holy smokes! But, what an amazing time!!<br />
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Back to the adoption. After receiving our LOA, we applied to USCIS for our I-800. Sound familiar? We applied for our I-800a before the LOA. The I-800a is approval to adopt a child from another country (China, obviously, for us) and the I-800 is the approval to adopt your specific child. They just needed to make sure that Charlotte matches up with what we were approved for in our home study, basically. After a major slowdown in I-800 approvals, we got very lucky and received our approval in just 14 days! Thank you, Jesus!!!<br />
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So, after our I-800 approval, there were a few other steps that, honestly I don't even really understand all of it BUT I do know that Travel Approval (TA) is the LAST step and we were extremely lucky and got Travel Approval yesterday which was only a 3 day wait! And then today, we got confirmation that Consulate Appointment (CA) will be 3/29 which is what our entire trip revolves around SO...we're going to China in THIRTEEN DAYS!!!! Oh my gosh!!!! Baby girl, we're coming!!! I can't believe we are actually going to make it to Charlotte in March, which was always my hope! God has definitely been behind all of this! We have had a lot of luck in things going quickly for us and, thank the Lord, or we never would have made it! So we will get to bring Charlotte home before she has her birthday! I am so happy that we will get to celebrate her birthday WITH her!<br />
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Here is our itinerary:<br />
3/16- Fly to Detroit, then Beijing<br />
3/17- Arrive in Beijing<br />
3/18- Tour Great Wall and Summer Palace<br />
3/19- Get Charlotte!!! Fly to Guangzhou<br />
3/20- Official Gotcha<br />
3/21- Adoption day!!<br />
3/23- Apply for passport<br />
3/25- Visa paperwork check and medical appointment<br />
3/29- Visa appointment and oath taking ceremony<br />
3/31- Visa pick-up/ train to Hong Kong<br />
4/1- Hong Kong Disney!<br />
4/2- Fly home<br />
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<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-61324208516157790902016-11-24T17:50:00.000-06:002016-11-25T20:47:27.292-06:00LIDHappy Thanksgiving! We have had a great week! Yesterday, I found out that we have a LID (login date) for our dossier of 11/22. This is great because this means that we are officially in our LOA (Letter of Approval) wait. The LOA is basically China saying that yes, they agree that we are a good family for this child. Our LOA wait for Liana was insanely long. We had to wait a whopping 106 days so we are really hoping for a short wait this time around. Apparently it has gotten a lot quicker since our last adoption. Average back then was probably around 70 days. The average wait now is around 45-50 days. Fingers crossed and prayers said that we have a short wait this time!<br />
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Last night, we got to video chat with Charlotte again! Ethan and Liana got to do it with us this time and it was a lot of fun! She mostly just stared at us again but the director of the foster home did get her giggling at one point. She has the cutest giggle ever! She also had her pointing to us on the screen when she would ask her which one of us was her mama, baba (dad), gege (big brother), or jie jie (big sister) and she would get it right! I think she's a smarty! We also learned that sucks her fingers. I love thumb suckers! They're so cute! The director said that we can video chat every week that we can so that Charlotte can get to know us!! I can't even believe how lucky we are! She is the sweetest lady ever and Charlotte clearly loves her!<br />
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Here are some screen shots from our chat:<br />
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<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-35339837481502645742016-11-18T20:31:00.001-06:002016-11-18T20:31:49.356-06:00DTC!!!The paper chase is officially over! We are DOSSIER TO CHINA!!! I got an email from Holt this evening to let us know that our dossier was sent to China today and it is such a relief! I am always nervous that there will be a problem with a document but it's official, our dossier is DONE! I'm feeling pretty proud too because we got it all done in four months, which is two months faster than last time! It's a lot easier the second time around since you know what you're doing and it's not nearly as overwhelming. We celebrated by going to Chuck E. Cheese. Just kidding, we only went there because the kids' school was having a fundraiser. I would definitely have chosen a different way to celebrate. 😜<br />
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So this list is on Liana's part of the blog but that was ages ago so here is the list of documents in the dossier:</div>
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Family Information Form</div>
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Application Letter</div>
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Birth Certificate- husband</div>
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Birth Certificate- wife</div>
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Marriage Certificate</div>
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Employment Letter- husband</div>
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Employment Letter- wife (or homemaker letter for me)</div>
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Certificate of Financial Status</div>
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Certificate of General Physical Examination- husband</div>
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Certificate of General Physical Examination- wife</div>
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Police Clearance- husband</div>
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Police Clearance- wife</div>
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Adoption Study (aka home study)</div>
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3 Letters of Reference</div>
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Passport Page- husband</div>
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Passport Page- wife</div>
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I-797</div>
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Various photographs of our home and our family</div>
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And most of these had to be notarized, certified at the secretary of state, and authenticated at the Chinese consulate. Sooo glad it's done!</div>
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Here's a picture of our copy of the dossier</div>
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And here is the cutie that makes it all worth it</div>
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<img src="webkit-fake-url://f98af841-d3a3-4fd1-b6d3-38f959cb00bc/imagejpeg" />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-27105379405420992112016-11-10T10:30:00.000-06:002016-11-10T11:08:21.151-06:00Road trip with myselfThings are cruising right along. On Monday, our dossier, minus the I-797 (the I-800A approval), which we were still waiting on, was delivered to Holt. Happily, we also received our I-797 in the mail so I quickly got it notarized. Then on Tuesday, I took a road trip down to the Secretary of State in Austin to get it certified. This little trip saved us some time because if I had sent it in the mail, I would have gotten it back in about a week. I have never been to Austin before so it was kind of fun to go. I also hadn't been on any kind of a long drive by myself probably since before having kids! It was nice to be in the car by myself, for the first few hours, then it got old really quick! It only took about 5 minutes to get the document certified and the Secretary of State building was right across from the State Capitol so I took a little walk around it on my way back to the car. It was really pretty and I was so excited to be <i>almost</i> done! On my way back to Fort Worth, I found a FedEx and made some copies and then sent our freshly certified I-797 off to our courier in Houston to be taken to the Chinese consulate to be authenticated. It is being dropped off today and we paid to have it expedited so it should back in the mail tomorrow and back in our hands on Saturday. Then we'll get it to Holt by Monday morning, as long as all of this goes as planned. This is the <i>last part </i>of the dossier!!! I can't believe we're almost done with our dossier! I feel like once I know that our dossier has been sent to China I will be able to relax. But...then there's waiting for a log-in date, and then waiting for our LOA, and then our I-800 and then...well, you get the point. But it's such a HUGE step, and it is the bulk of <i>our </i>part being done! I can't wait!<br />
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Last cerification, done!</div>
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Texas State Capitol</div>
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Had to stop at Buc-ee's! </div>
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If you're from Texas, you know about Buc-ee's</div>
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Had to bring home gifts ;-)</div>
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Got a lovely surprise that night and received one of the cutest pictures I've ever seen!</div>
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Charlotte is 4th from the bottom</div>
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On the way home from school, Ethan found a ladybug! </div>
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Ladybugs are a symbol of good luck in China adoptions</div>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-61767788464127396012016-10-25T14:36:00.000-05:002016-10-25T14:36:12.368-05:00Little bitty pretty oneToday was a very productive day! We received our fingerprint appointment notice from USCIS yesterday. The appointment was for 11/3 but people often walk in and ask if they can get their appointment early so that's what we did today. My excuse was that the appointment time was for 8:00 which is too close to when I drop the kids off at school. My real reason was that I want to get to my baby ASAP! They allowed it and now we wait for the approval and pray that it comes really quickly. The other thing that happened is that we received our dossier documents that I sent to Austin to be certified at the Secretary of State, so I did a quick turn around and sent them off to a courier in Houston, who will take them to the Chinese consulate to be authenticated. I'm a bundle of nervous energy. I go between being absolutely thrilled that we're nearing the end of working on our dossier and being extremely tense that it is out of my hands. I'm mostly both...super excited and super tense! I'm praying that God will protect every single precious piece of that dossier! If only Charlotte had any idea how hard we are working to get her home!<br />
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Last week, I asked the director of Charlotte's foster home how big she is. Well, she's not...big, that is. She is teeny tiny! She is about 28 inches and 18 lbs. Her big brother, Ethan, is always off the growth charts because he's so big. Well, Little Miss is off the charts tiny! She's not even on the charts! The good news is, she's proportionate and is growing consistently. She's just a little bitty thing! Oh my word, all of the clothes I have been buying are way too big! It's so hard for me to buy smaller sizes than her age! I can't quite comprehend this. Ella and Ethan always wore larger sizes than their age...like at age 2, Ella was in a 3 and Ethan was in a 4/5! Liana has always worn about the right size for her age, maybe a bit smaller. I'm probably still buying clothes that will be too big but they're smaller now. Of course when we received the update on her size, we also received some adorable pictures! So here they are:<br />
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Jammies!</div>
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<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-13222920010895465202016-10-06T16:23:00.000-05:002016-10-06T16:23:09.905-05:00Getting there!I'm feeling pretty excited today! Since we had to wait so long for our social worker to write up our home study, I started feeling frustrated. The wait for our adoption agency to approve home studies has been 2-3 weeks lately so I settled in for the wait but 6 days into our wait, BOOM! APPROVED! Thank you, Holt!!! I think they might have made us a priority because we're under a deadline. Because we are already matched, we have 6 months from when we submitted our LOI (Letter of Intent) to having our dossier in China and logged in. It's just a guess but I think they probably prioritize the families who are under this deadline since we have no time to waste. Who knows?! Maybe we just got lucky! So our social service agency had to sign it and notarize it and it got to us today. As soon as it got here, I packed it up with our I-800A application and some other documents that needed to be included, and a decent sized check, and shipped it off to USCIS. It will be there tomorrow and then we will wait for fingerprint appointments to come in the mail. <br />
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In the meantime, we are doing really well on our dossier! Today, we ran down to the police department to get clearance letters stating that we have no criminal record. We already had to do an FBI background check and get fingerprinted for our home study. And then we will be fingerprinted again for our I-800A so we will have had some form of a background check four different times! Oye! Good thing we have nothing to hide! We will hopefully get the rest of the documents for our dossier finished and notarized in the next couple of days so I can send them off to be certified and then off again to be authenticated. I want to get all of the dossier minus the I-797 (which is actually the approval of the I-800A) completely finished and waiting at Holt so that I can put a rush on the I-797 when it gets here to get it certified, authenticated and together with the rest of our documents at Holt. Can you tell I'm in a rush to get to Charlotte?!<br />
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On a cute note, Ella is always finding every chance she can to tell people that <i>she </i>is adopting a little girl from China. :-) She told me that in writing class, they have to write about something that they are looking forward to and she said, "I'm going to write about Charlotte so that my teacher and whole class will know that I'm adopting Charlotte!" Oh my gosh, I love her! <br />
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I'm just going to randomly post pictures of Charlotte on here. We have a bunch so instead posting a ton at once, I'll share some in each post to make it more fun. Here is today's dose of cuteness. :-)<br />
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And from our video chat</div>
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<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-84722676802557467482016-09-23T11:56:00.000-05:002016-09-23T11:56:23.335-05:00Paper Pregnant<img alt="Image result for china ultrasound pic" class="mainImage accessible nofocus" data-bm="74" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_sSLUCh5kyFs/S5CpwWvuoII/AAAAAAAAA_Q/h462AIHFoXI/s400/China+Ultrasound+pic.jpg" tabindex="0" title="View source image" /><br />
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Some people refer to adoption as being "paper pregnant". I guess I will take that term. We're definitely "expecting" but in a much different way than through a pregnancy. Ugh, the paperwork. Yeah, paper pregnant fits.<br />
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We are currently waiting for our home study to be approved. Our social worker just emailed it to our social service agency who will approve it and then email it to our adoption agency who will also need to approve it. Once it has been approved by Holt, it will be signed, notarized, and sent to us. Then we will send it off to USCIS with our I-800a application and wait for a fingerprint appointment. This is all for US Immigration to approve us adopting, basically. So anyways, those are the next steps. While we wait on this, we will be finishing up all of our paperwork for our dossier, getting everything notarized, sent to the state capital to be certified, and then sent off to the Chinese embassy in Houston to be authenticated. Got all that?! ;-) Ah yes, the paper chase. Such fun! Ha.<br />
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In the meantime, we are super blessed in where our little girl is. She is living in a group foster home and because it isn't her orphanage, we are able to be in contact with the director of the foster home and she is just wonderful! We are able to ask her questions about Charlotte whenever we want to, ask for pictures, and even VIDEO CHAT! We have gotten so many more pictures in the short time we've known about her than we did of Liana the entire wait. And this last Monday, we were able to video chat with her! It was AMAZING!!! She stared at us like, "Who are these weird looking people and what are they so excited about?!" It was so wonderful to see her precious little face! She walked around the home with the director as they showed us where she sleeps and the play room filled with toys and her friends. In almost all of her pictures, she is on the floor playing or walking around. It is clear, she isn't stuck in a walker or a crib all day. She is actually able to be a kid and play! It's fantastic! I couldn't ask for a better situation for her while she waits to join her family! <br />
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I had said in my last post that I would talk about how the kids reacted to us adopting Charlotte. Well, before we knew we were going to move forward with adopting, while I was just obsessing over her picture, Liana saw me looking at the picture and commented on the "cute baby". Then, I saw her looking at her own hair like she was comparing it to Charlotte's and I could tell she was thinking, <i>hey, same color!</i> Then she said something about Charlotte's skin being a different color and I told her that yes, it's paler but hers was the same way when she was little, before we adopted her because she wasn't out in the sunshine all the time back then. Then we talked about how they both have pretty, brown, almond shaped eyes. It was cute to see her thinking,<i> that's someone who looks a bit like me.</i> When we told the kids about her, we were still at South Padre and we showed them her picture and told them we were going to adopt her. They were sooooo excited! Ethan was so cute because after a few minutes, he had this realization that he would be the only boy with THREE sisters and he kind of groaned and said, "I'll be the only boy!" He wasn't really upset though. A few weeks later, I had to take the kids for well visits at the doctor and told them that we would have some papers filled out by the doctor for the adoption to say that they were all healthy enough to have another sibling join the family. Ethan said, "Thank you, Mommy, for letting us adopt Charlotte!" My heart melted! Sweet, sweet boy! <3 Liana is very happy that she will have a Chinese sister and tells everyone that we are going to China! Her teachers keep asking me about it because she tells them we're going this weekend...every weekend. :-D Silly girl. Ella is thrilled about Charlotte and just can't wait to go and get her! She likes to text her friends pictures of Charlotte, in true tween fashion. ;-)<br />
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Overall, things are going great and we are so pleased to be back on the adoption road with all of it's twists and turns because we know that this sweet face will be waiting at the end for us:<br />
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<br />Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-72426631463117153852016-08-24T13:25:00.000-05:002016-08-24T14:37:30.522-05:00HUGE NEWS!It has been soooo long since I have written a post on here, I'm not sure I remember how to do this! But, we have HUGE NEWS so I need to get my mad blogging skills back! What? What, you ask, is the huge news?! Well...we're ADOPTING AGAIN!!! I know, we're crazy, and I never dreamed that we'd be adopting again. Well, on our good days, maybe the possibility popped into my head but I usually quickly abandoned that thought as things were really tough for a really, really long time. While you can't exactly have an oops adoption like you can have a surprise pregnancy, I think this one is as close as we could come. So how did this all come about? Well, we saw her face and just...that was it. I have an account on Rainbow Kids, which is a website to advocate for children who need families. I still receive emails from Rainbow Kids with photos of children and I usually delete the emails before I even look but occasionally I look at them, out of curiosity. So I looked at this one email and there she was, this adorable little girl in China. I had to log in to my account to learn more about her and when I did, I saw that this almost 15 month old little cutie was listed with Holt, who was our adoption agency for Liana. Well, of course, we love Holt so this had me even more interested but adoption wasn't on our radar, at all, so I casually showed Erik her picture and then tried to forget. Buuut, the next day, I, again casually, emailed Holt for more information. I confessed to Erik and then anxiously tried to gauge his reaction to this. He was amazingly calm about the whole thing. Typical. We're seriously opposites in a lot of ways. No wonder I love him so much! So we waited to hear back from Holt. It was a Sunday so we had to wait until Monday. They emailed me back telling me to call them if I wanted more information. So I did and had a great talk with one of the China staff. We had to apply but didn't have to pay the application fee (yet) to get access to this little one's file if we were really only wanting to find out about this specific child. We were ONLY interested in this child and if it didn't work out with her, I didn't know that we would be moving forward with adopting at all. So they let us apply and we received her file. There were more pictures and a lot of information (way more than we had ever received for Liana) and even one video. I quickly contacted a doctor at an international adoption clinic to review the file for us. It was too late for me. I was a goner. Erik, being the more sensible one, did the best he could to keep my feet on the ground and make me wait for the call from the doctor before telling Holt that we wanted to move forward with adopting her. Ugh. So we waited. Luckily, he was able to call us the next evening and he was reassuring about what he learned from her file. She has a number of special needs, including a repaired cleft lip, unrepaired cleft palate, a PFO (minor hole in her heart which was one of Liana's special needs), and an extra finger on one hand. We didn't learn anything unexpected from his review so we knew that we were ready to give Holt the go ahead. When I had first spoken with the staff on the phone about her file, I was told that if there were more families interested in adopting her, a decision would be made by the matching team. On the one hand, we have access to world renowned medical specialists for all of this little one's special needs, we are an experienced adoptive family, and we have experience dealing with special needs. But on the other hand, they also take into account how far along families are in the adoption process and we were at step zero. I heard back from Holt that they were pleased that we wanted to move forward with adopting her and they sent us a questionnaire to fill out about our family and, basically what we know about adoption, and how children are affected by having been institutionalized, etc. They said that they would use it to make a decision in their matching meeting on Monday. In the middle of this crazy week, by the way, we went on vacation. We, luckily, took our computer, realizing that now we were in the middle of (maybe) beginning another adoption. So, while everyone else slept, I filled out the questionnaire in great (probably too great) detail. We were staying at a water park and on Monday, I was nervous that we would miss the phone call so I bought a waterproof case/necklace thing so that I could carry my phone while we played at the water park. I got the call while I was riding on an inner tube on the lazy river so I baled off and trudged up "river" to a set of stairs leading out of the water. Of course, I missed the call. So I called back but got their voicemail. ARGH!!! I told Erik to keep having fun with the kids while I waited for them to call back. After waiting a while, we gave up and headed back to the hotel and THEN the phone rang while we were walking back so I sat off in a quiet corner and finally was told that by unanimous decision, they chose US to be her family!!! Okay, we were the only family in the running, but still! So, after this ridiculously long and probably boring to anyone but me (and my mom...ha!) story, here it is, the exciting part...introducing our newest (soon to be) daughter, Charlotte Jing Yi!<br />
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She is 16 months old and isn't she precious?! I have heard some adoptive parents say that they saw their child on a photo listing and they just knew. I never really believed that that could happen to me because, I mean, if you look at those photo listings, the kiddos are so adorable, how can you just fall in love with one?? But, it did happen to us. There was just something about Charlotte that just, I don't know how to explain it, she just got into my heart and I couldn't get her out of my head. And Erik was on board almost as instantly as me. I think he was struck by her just like I was! That face! That smile! Those eyes!!! I still can't explain that feeling exactly, I'm still so shocked myself!<br />
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So we jumped into the adoption process head first and we are doing really well! We have all of the paperwork for our home study done and had our first home visit on Monday. We have our next one next Tuesday and Erik doesn't even have to be here for it. Our social worker is so great! Sadly, we have a different social worker than last time but we love her already. She said that she will be able to get our home study written up early in September!! We are well on our way in our paper chase for the dossier too. It's going faster this time around because, well, we've done this before. It's overwhelming again, but not nearly as much as the first time around! I'm super anxious, just like last time. I don't think that goes away. It's so exciting starting the process being matched with a child but it also makes you more anxious to get there ASAP!!! She's waiting for us! Well, I think that is more than anyone felt like reading for the first post. Sorry for all of the details of the process. It's probably boring but someday Charlotte will read this and I won't remember every exciting detail of that first crazy week of learning about her. I want her to know the whole story! :-) So, the blog is waking up after a long hibernation and I will write more soon about the kids' reactions and share more pictures! But for now, I'll leave you with just one more. Aww... :-)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9GPvjwZSHmzxYHZCcK0Of7HsPwcrQ9nMrQMon6ELtnY32PqclR0zKfpHVD98WKf0R48bR_GTydkojPJ7sxqdG4FW-7K4RxtV99kxTtoWv4BLEaAsMBY6pR4lBFKPcsPBsddxBVXz0E0qB/s1600/IMG_20160220_162341.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9GPvjwZSHmzxYHZCcK0Of7HsPwcrQ9nMrQMon6ELtnY32PqclR0zKfpHVD98WKf0R48bR_GTydkojPJ7sxqdG4FW-7K4RxtV99kxTtoWv4BLEaAsMBY6pR4lBFKPcsPBsddxBVXz0E0qB/s320/IMG_20160220_162341.jpg" width="179" /></a>Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-77631214918047415802013-11-10T13:31:00.000-06:002013-11-10T13:31:33.077-06:00Long time, no writeI have been dismally failing at the blog lately. I'm just done, I think. I always only planned on doing this until Liana had been with us for one year but then she had her surgery coming up and I wanted to cover that. This is, after all, Liana's story and that was a pretty big deal for a teeny, tiny girl. So, since her surgery, a month ago, she has done really well. She came home a couple of days after her surgery and just jumped back in to playing like nothing had happened. Honestly, I was so exhausted and she was so energetic, I was beginning to wonder which of us had the surgery. It was a little rough in the beginning because she couldn't have any food for a while. We had been told that she could have soft things, like small pasta, but we quickly learned that she could not. First attempt at macaroni and cheese led to her retching in a restaurant, which was very scary for her and us. We knew that she was okay but she didn't know what was happening and it scared her. So we were back to liquids for quite a while. Having the nissen fundoplication, her esophagus is tighter than the normal esophagus. She can't burp or throw up. That's just how it is. But right after surgery, it's swollen, of course, and much tighter and, as her surgeon explained to us, being her second time having this surgery, it was even more swollen so it took a while for that swelling to go down. But gradually it did. She had to learn to take smaller bites and to chew, chew, chew her food. We can tell when things start to get stuck in there. She doesn't panic anymore, just waits and drinks something and waits some more. When the food is down, she shrugs her shoulders and smiles and moves on with eating her food a little more carefully. She can be such a tough girl. She is our little drama queen a lot of the time, who will cry over nothing and we will tell her to shake it off, and she does. But, I swear, when it comes to the big things, she is so tough! Erik called it her survivor side and I think that is a perfect way to explain it. She handles the things that would be tough for anyone with such amazing strength. It's just in her, this survivor side. Some people have it and some people don't. Liana just does. She's been through a lot in her tiny life, things that most of us can't even imagine having to go through. Yet she smiles through it all! Life can be rough and has been for this little one but she handles it with such strength. It's amazing how you see qualities in your children that you admire and want to learn from yourself! I have seen qualities in all of my kids that I would love to have myself! They are amazing little people who teach me things every day!<br />
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Spoiled by family! Thank you Uncle Tim and Auntie Carri!!</div>
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Thank you Grammy and Papa!</div>
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Going home!</div>
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Back at home and ready for fun!</div>
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Special gifts for all of the kids! Thank you Char and Wes!</div>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-749155738767518291.post-48064083063179431822013-10-10T14:20:00.003-05:002013-10-11T09:26:23.521-05:00Surgery and the day afterLiana's surgery was yesterday. We woke up bright and early and rushed over to the hospital, with Ella and Ethan in tow. As we waited, Liana was her super friendly self, teasing and calling everyone who came into the room "baby." Silly girl! Her surgery took about 2 1/2 hours and it went really well! This surgery usually takes about an hour or so but the doctor had warned us that it would take longer since it was her second one. It's just a bit more complicated. He was able to do it laproscopically, which was a relief. Liana was pretty sore and tired yesterday. She wanted nothing to do with anyone, except for family. She cried any time the nurses came near her and gave her doctor the stink eye when he came to visit. Any time she cried, her oxygen levels went down but she never had to be given any oxygen because she always calmed down once the nurses left. Her poor little throat was so sore from having a breathing tube during her surgery. She wasn't able to drink anything but she could have ice chips, which was an amazing relief! She did manage to sit up and even walk a little yesterday! The amazing girl even managed to let us know when she needed to use the potty and sometimes even walked to it herself! I was afraid to pick her up until she cried and cried, "Mommy" over and over and her oxygen levels got really low but when I picked her up, she calmed down right away and back up went her levels. It made me so happy that I can be there for her but it also made me so sad, again, that the first time she had this surgery, she had no mama to take care of her. She had to be by my side most of the day, preferably in my arms. It melted my heart. She would get so sad if I even tried to sit on the couch and if I went to the bathroom, forget it!<br />
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Today has been fantastic! She woke up in a great mood! When the cleaning lady came in this morning, Liana started smiling and being silly and called her "baby." Oh boy, this girl is such a tease! The nurses today were warned by last night's nurses that she is afraid of them but today's nurses have seen none of it! She is smiley and chatty and playing peek-a-boo with them. She's a totally different child! She also got to play! It is good for her to walk because she needs to get the air out of her tummy and walking helps so we walked to the playroom this morning and she hopped right on a big wheel and started scooting all around! I could hardly keep up with her as I drug her IV all around the play room. We had to keep telling her to slow down! She is now on a liquid diet and has had some apple juice and a popsicle. Later, she might even get to have some pudding or a milkshake! If she continues to do well and not have any issues with her diet, she may even get to go home tomorrow!!! So far, so good! She's been unhooked from the machine that monitored her heart rate and oxygen levels and hopefully will be taken off of the IV soon. The doctor even told the nurses to not check her vitals at night so we can actually get some sleep, bless him! <br />
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I am just amazed at the strength of our little girl! I had no idea that she would be riding a big wheel less than 24 hours after having surgery! I can't believe how she's back to being her charming, sweet and spunky self so soon!! This experience is just reminding me all over again how blessed we are to be her family! I am so happy to get to be the mama to this wonderful child!<br />
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Being silly before surgery</div>
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Poor, sleepy girl</div>
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She did manage to smile for me after she got her ice chips (and some morphine)!</div>
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Battle wounds- 4 in all, 1 in her belly button. Ouch!</div>
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Play time!</div>
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"Though she be but little, she is fierce" -William Shakespeare</div>
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Sarahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08942982761815037209noreply@blogger.com0