It's cherry icee on your face while you watch your brother's football game and learn to yell "Go Wiley!"

 It's dressing up in the bumble bee costume Mommy intended to keep until Halloween but just couldn't wait once we got the box open!

 It's eating my Easter eggs while the rest of you crazies put paint and stickers on them.  What are you thinking??

 It's getting to wear my pretty new dress the next day!  Plus we got to hunt all over the yard for plastic eggs.  Jarod kept steeling mine...I'm still not happy about that!

It's meeting my mommy for the first time 6 months ago and being really scared.  She tried to be nice to me, but she was a stranger and I started to cry.  Mommy tried walking with me, bouncing me, offering me a snack & a toy, but I just cried anyway.  Finally Daddy came over and I decided to give him a try.  He was pretty good.

 I got to ride on his lap every time we went somewhere on the bus.  This was the morning we had just met and although I did like him better than mommy, I was still not a happy camper.

 Finally we got home and I started to settle in.  This particular day I was getting my way for an entire evening just to get a good picture of my crazy cute self.

One year ago tomorrow I was subbing in Mrs. Wilson's music class at our local elementary school.  The morning flew by and before I knew it, it was time for my lunch break.  I checked my cell phone and had several missed calls and texts, several from Steve, which is unusual for a day when he knows I'm working at school.  Several of the missed calls were also from our adoption agency.  The last text from Steve was in all caps and said "WE'RE MATCHED"


Our dossier had been sent to China on August 27th.  We knew there was a new special needs list coming out Sunday night, September 19th, but we didn't expect to be matched yet.  When your dossier goes to China, you have to wait to receive your Log In Date (LID).  As of the Friday before we hadn't been notified that our dossier had been logged in yet, which meant we wouldn't be matched from the September list.


Little did we know, our fabulous agency was working behind the scenes on our behalf.  The agency director had contacted their China staff and asked them to contact the CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs...they've changed names now, but then that's what it was) to request our log in date because of the pending list.  They found our we were logged in that day, September 19th, just in time to be matched off the list that came out that night.


I spent my lunch time that day on the phone with Steve and our agency, trying to get as much information as I could in what little time I had.  Steve had received an email at work with a file for us to review.  It included medical information, as well as several pictures.  The first thing he said was, "Oh honey, she's cute!"  And I responded that we weren't supposed to look at the pictures until we had gone through the medical file with a fine tooth comb!  Too late. He looked at the pictures first.  I'm not able to receive email when I sub at school, so I had to wait until the end of the day to rush home and look over all the information.  And that was the first day I ever saw this sweet face...
We met this amazing little girl almost 6 months ago.  She has changed so much - and she has changed us.  She's smart and funny and sassy and independent.  I love every single thing about her.  I'm so blessed to be her mommy.

These are the days I know I'll want to look back and remember - even if it doesn't feel that way in the middle of it all!  It's been forever since I've blogged...welcome to life with a 2 year old! 


I can't believe our summer is almost over and school is starting in just over a week!  Here's how we've spent the last 4 months:

• Everyone had a great end to their school year.  Chloe Grace worked very hard in first grade and finished the year finally reading on grade level - so proud of her perseverance!

• Jarod and Madison had only a week off when school ended and then started strength and conditioning camp through the school district.  They went Mon-Thurs mornings for 2 hours from mid June until the end of July.

• Jason and Madison went to summer camp the week after July 4th.  The older three kids have all been going since they turned 9 and LOVE it!  Madison sang Carrie Underwood's "Inside Your Heaven" Thursday evening at the camp talent show.  She did so great.  She's been taking voice lessons for the last year and is showing such amazing growth!  Jason only showered twice the entire week and didn't brush his teeth at all...I guess that's part of the fun for a 10 year old boy when he's away from home for an entire week!

• Jarod went to camp the week after Jason and Madison.  It was his first year at senior camp (it's divided with junior campers age 9-13 and senior campers 14-18).  He had a great time!  The camp is held just outside Austin, about 30 minutes from our house.  His friends from Dallas all come here for this camp, so he always looks forward to camp week.

• Madison attended a volleyball camp for 2 days (4 hours each day) at the end of July.  The camp was actually 3 days long, but she had strep and missed the first day.  She loved it!  She played volleyball at our local YMCA this spring for the first time.  Her coach was wonderful and taught her so much over the course of the season.  She plans to try out for the school volleyball team.

• Jarod went to football camp for 4 days (3 hours each morning) during the first week of August.  He played football at school last fall for the first time and really liked it.  His position last year was defensive tackle.  He hopes to be on the offensive line this year, but he won't know for certain what position he'll play until they start practicing next week.

• Sophia has grown by leaps and bounds!  She's getting taller and gaining weight.  Her hair has grown so much since we met her!  Her English is astounding & she's talking as well or better than 2 1/2 year olds that have been exposed to English their entire life.  She loves to sing.  She has an amazing memory and doesn't forget a thing!  And the child is LOUD!  She has 2 volumes, loud and louder!  She's incredibly sweet and has definitely changed all our lives in such a short time.

• Two of our kiddos have summer birthdays - Jarod turned 14 in June and Chloe Grace turned 8 in July.  Jarod had two friends over to go to the movies and spend the night.  Chloe Grace asked for Oreo cheesecake for her birthday.  I bought one of those Jello No-Bake mixes and we crushed Oreo cookies to add to the cheesecake filling.  We decided to make mini-cheesecakes in muffin cups.  We only added the crushed Oreo cookies to about 2/3 of the filling, we left the rest plain because not everyone in our family likes chocolate.....ahem....Jarod....Anyway, Chloe Grace ended up not liking the Oreo cheesecake and eating the plain ones with Jarod!  But she had lots of fun helping me make them.  I'm not always as patient as I should be when the kids want to help me in the kitchen because the mess drives me crazy!  I took a deep breath and determined to let her do as much as she could and she loved it!

• We all trekked up to Irving for Westside's youth lectures the last weekend of July.  The lessons were so good & the singing was amazing...the 3 hour ride each way, not so much!  We left at lunch time on Friday & grabbed burgers on the way out of town.  Sophia ate and then slept most of the trip there, so it wasn't so bad.  She woke up about 15 minutes or so before we got to our hotel & had to go to the bathroom.  Although she's been doing pretty well not wetting her pants, I didn't want to have an accident in the car so I put her in a Pull-Up.  She cried and cried that she had to go potty.  Finally I told Steve to just stop in a mostly empty parking lot.  Guess it's a good thing she was used to using a squatty-potty in China 'cause in the parking lot it was!!  The last 20 minutes of the drive home late Saturday afternoon was brutal!  We left Irving a little before 4 pm.  Sophia fell asleep almost right away until about 20 minutes from home.  Then she cried that she wanted to go home and begged to get out of the car seat.  We were all relieved to get home & out of the car!

• All the school supplies are purchased.  Everyone has new shoes and a new first-day-of-school outfit... although Steve tells me all the time that boys don't wear "outfits" ;)  Next week I *plan* to have everyone start getting to bed earlier.  While I detest early mornings, I am looking forward to the routine the school year provides.

That's been our crazy life these last few months!  Hopefully when school starts I'll have time to update the blog more often....yeah, right!!

We've been home from China for 2 1/2 weeks.  Getting home was an adventure!  We thought we'd have to really run once we got off the plane in Detroit from Hong Kong because our connection to Austin was scheduled to leave an hour and 40 minutes after we landed.  We had to get through immigration, have a CDC consult, get our checked luggage, go through customs, recheck our luggage, go through security and run across the airport to our gate in under 2 hours.  Once we got through security & found an information monitor, we realized our flight to Austin had been delayed 2 hours.  Good...we don't have to run.  We get to the gate, wait an hour, change gates, wait another hour, change gates again - then we're told they've over-sold the flight.  They've also had to change the plane they were flying to Austin...to a smaller one, which means in addition to over-selling the flight, there are about 15 fewer seats on this plane than the one they thought they were going to use when they sold the flight. So we got bumped from our flight and had to spend the night in Detroit.  I'm sure Detroit is a fine place, but I did not want to spend the night in Detroit, I wanted to go home!  We had friends and family planning to meet us and our sweet girl at the airport in Austin on Friday, NOT Saturday!!  Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.

We gathered our vouchers from Delta, took the shuttle to the hotel and reluctantly spent the night in Detroit.  We were on the first flight to Austin Saturday morning and arrived at ABIA around 11:30 am.  We left our checked luggage on Friday's flight to Austin, so it was waiting for us in the Delta office as soon as we got off the plane...bonus not having to wait at the baggage claim.

As soon as Sophia saw Chloe Grace, she reached out to her and wanted her.  It was very sweet and made Chloe Grace feel very special.  Jet lag nearly killed us the first week.  After almost a week we were all adjusted and sleeping well.

We had to have a CDC consult at immigration in Detroit because Sophia had a positive tb skin test in China.  They told us then to follow up with our local health department.  We were home 5 days when I got a call from our health department.  Their recommendation was for Sophia to do a 9 month anti-tb treatment because we just can't be certain at this point that her positive skin test was the result of the BCG vaccine she received in China.  It could be, I think it is, but it could also be that she has latent tb and we can't do the blood test to check for that until she's 5.  The person I spoke to at the health department said that's really a long time to put off treatment and then have the blood test result be positive for ltb.  I immediately called our family doctor, who had just examined Sophia the day before.  He consulted with another doctor in the office and they both agreed that if it was their child, they'd do the meds.  I was not happy!  But, I understand the reason why.  So we started INH, an anti-tb drug therapy that will take 9 months on Friday, April 15th.

While we were at the health department for the initial ltb visit on Thursday, the 14th, Sophia received the shots she needed.  That night she slept poorly and ran a fever.  I thought it was from the shots & gave her some Advil.  The next day she seemed very congested and started with a very runny nose.  She ran a fever on and off all weekend.  Monday morning it was up to 103 - the highest it had been.  I called the doctor & they got her in Monday morning...diagnosis - ear infection.  Today was the second full day on the antibiotic.  She seemed to feel so much better already!

One morning after I got Sophia dressed, I left her pj's on the blue couch.  She found them a little while later and put the pants on her head.  She thought it was the funniest thing ever!  Every time she sees this picture she cracks up at herself!

Life with Sophia is wonderful!  She doesn't sit still for a minute - and by the end of the day, I'm tired!  She's silly, busy, sweet, independent, happy and completely lovable!  She's just about the best thing ever....but I'm pretty sure I've said that about all my kids :)  She's really fallen into place here.  Everything about her fits.  She belongs.  I can't imagine our lives without that sweet girl!

My dear sweet Sophia,

I want to remember these first days with you.  We've only known each other less than 2 weeks, but we've both grown so much.  The morning we met for the very first time you were not a happy camper!  You were scared and wanted absolutely nothing to do with me!  For the first time, we had a child that clearly preferred daddy over mommy and you were very firm about that!  I couldn't even look at you without you crying! 

Over the next few days, you slowly began to let your guard down.  I helped you take a bath, which you LOVED!  I handed out cookies and cherry candy without regard to the fact that dinner time was very soon :)  By the time you had been our daughter for a very short week, you and I were making some big progress! 

You are beginning to trust us.  You want the three of us to always be together & you don't like it when you can't see one of us. You are sweet and silly and stubborn and independent and even a little naughty ;)  I love the way your eyes disappear when you laugh.  I love that your laughter is so contagious.  I love every single thing about you, sweet girl.  I'm looking forward to getting home where you will fit right in to our busy, crazy life!  This journey we're on is just beginning, little one.

I love you,

Mommy

Enjoying a drink after walking around & playing

Learning how to work the bubble gun

I think she's got it!

Sophia had a hard time sharing her bubbles

Blowing bubbles at daddy

Sophia's tb skin test measured 17 mm (10 mm is the allowable reaction).  We had to have a chest x-ray which was fine.  In the morning we have our Consulate appointment at 10 am.  We'll leave the hotel around 8:30.  Thank you so much for all your prayers for our sweet Sophia!

This afternoon we went to the White Swan Hotel to take our infamous Red Couch photos.  Unfortunately, it was just before lunch & the girls were hungry and not very cooperative.  We did manage a couple of good pictures.


Yesterday and today have been better for Sophia and me.  She fell off the bed this morning & bumped her head on the chair that's at the desk.  She started crying & let me pick her up and console her.  Today after the red couch pictures we did some shopping.  She was so tired.  She let me carry her back to the bus and fell asleep in my lap while we were waiting for the rest of our group.

Tomorrow we go back to the medical clinic for the girls to have their tb skin tests looked at.  The other 2 girls' arms look great, but Sophia's looks awful.  They'll almost surely require us to have a chest x-ray done tomorrow.  From some of the reading I've done online, children that have a positive skin test and a negative chest x-ray most of the time are put on a 9 MONTH course of antibiotics once they get home.  As long as her chest x-ray is clear, we're still good to go.  If it's not, from what I've read she'll be required to do a cough test that takes 6-8 weeks to get the results.  My understanding is if her chest x-ray is positive, she'll have to have a clear cough smear before she'd be allowed into the US.  I don't even want to think about that possibility.

After the medical exams tomorrow we'll finish up our shopping on Shamian Island and head to the wholesale pearl market.   Woo hoo!!

We packed up Friday morning to be ready to leave the hotel in Wuhan at 10:30.  Sophia got upset and cried when I started packing.  She didn't like her stuff being packed away.  I'm sure it was scary for her.  We stopped to pick up her passport and headed to the train station.

The bullet train is a high speed train that travels about 200 miles per hour.  It took us 3 hours and 15 minutes to get to Guangzhou.  The train was very nice.  We had first class tickets, which gave us a little more room at our seat.  It was a very smooth ride.  We left Wuhan at 2pm and got in to Guangzhou at 5:15 pm, so it was daylight and we got to see the country side as we traveled.  It was what you think of China looking like - rural country side, rice paddies, small villages, farmers plowing with oxen.  The only draw back to the train ride was we had to manage all our luggage ourselves on and off the train.  I don't know how to pack light.  I try, really, I do.  But it's just not possible!  So we had 2 large rolling suitcases, 1 medium rolling suitcase, a carry-on sized rolling bag, a duffel bag, 2 backpacks and a diaper bag.  Plus, our squawling 2 year old.  I brought an Ergo carrier with me - I had grand visions of wearing my baby all over China.  Monday arrived the child who hates me & the Ergo hadn't left the suitcase until the train ride.  We had too much luggage to manage for Steve to be able to hold Sophia.  So I put on the Ergo, we strapped her in it and she started to scream, kick, lean back, flail all about & try to hit me in the face.  Not a pretty sight.

The Wuhan train station

The first class train car

Most of the bags fit on the overhead shelf - everything except the 2 large suitcases.  There was a little space behind the last row of seats where our travel-mates stored their large bags (they have 4 adults, a teenager & a 10 yr old - that's a lot of luggage!)  The 2 seats across from us were empty for the first part of the ride, so we just stuck our bags there.  At the Changsha stop a man got on with a ticket for one of the seats our luggage was occupying.  Steve moved the bags in front of us, blocking most of our foot room.  The gentleman sat on the aisle and said we could put the bags back next to the window on his side.  One of them blocked his seat a little bit & Steve tried to take it back.  The man said, "It's ok, I'm a little man."  He was very nice about it.

Sophia fell asleep about half an hour into the train ride.  When Steve had to move our luggage in Changsha, he put her in my lap.  I was afraid she'd wake up and scream, but she slept for quite a while longer.  She woke up about 40 minutes before we arrived in Guangzhou.

Asleep on the bullet train

The China Hotel is very nice.  The bed is so comfortable!  In both Hong Kong and Wuhan the beds were like sleeping on plywood.  It is a little on the small side.  And there's this strange window separating the bathroom from the bedroom.  I guess it's to make it feel bigger.  The window has an electric shade you can lower by pressing a button in the bathroom.  It was convenient when we got in Friday night - Sophia wanted to take a bath so I put her in the tub to play while I unpacked.  With the window I could watch her from the bedroom and unpack at the same time :)

The China Hotel (from their website)

Playing in the bathtub while I unpacked

View of the bathroom from our bedroom

View of the bedroom from our bathroom

The third family in our travel group arrived in late last night from their daughter's province.  They are also adopting their 5th child.  They have 3 boys and 1 girl at home.  Their daughter they picked up last week is exactly the same age Chloe Grace was when we came to China to pick her up.

We met everyone in the hotel lobby at 9 am this morning.  We loaded the bus and headed over to Shamian Island for the girls to have their medical exam and a TB test.  Everything went well.  Since Sophia already doesn't prefer me (that's putting it mildly :), Steve got to hold her while they were doing all the medical stuff.  She did fine during the ear/mouth exam.  During the physical she did ok until they undressed her.  She didn't like that at all!  Height and weight went fine.  I didn't ask how tall she is, but she's 11 kg - 24 pounds.  The 2T dress she has on today is too big.  Then it was time for the TB test.  It's given by syringe, just a little bubble under the skin on her left forearm.  She started crying as soon as she saw the needle.  Steve held her while they did the shot - I pulled out the cherry candy as soon as it was over :)

We did a little shopping and had lunch at Lucy's.  The stores on Shamian Island have changed some since we were here last.  They've done a lot of construction and upgrading.  There's a store on the island called "Jennifer's Place".  Here's the picture of me outside my place in 2008.

My old place

 Here's a picture of my place now:

My new and improved place :)

The weather is so tropical here, the island is beautiful.  Lots of flowers, plants and trees

Then we came back to the hotel for a nap!  Tonight we're meeting everyone for dinner at the hotel's steakhouse.  It's supposed to be one of the best in GZ (according to the hotel staff ;)

After her nap with mommy - giver of cookies, cherry candy, drinkable yogurt and baths - all good things in 2 yr old world.