Out with the Old, In with the New

The cooler breeze is flowing through my house as I sit down to write.  I have been cleaning out closets and hoping for autumn.  I go through these seasons when I feel the need to "purge" the house, and that is just what I have been feeling lately.  Out with the Old...  (The possibility of moving to a new apartment might also be incentive to cut back on "stuff.")

We have gotten back down to a slower pace of life after a long and eventful summer.  Taylor is doing pretty good.   I think that she just probably continues to feel more and more at home here.  She has a stubborn streak--but don't we all? I think she fits in pretty well.  :-)

(There are also some pictures here of Autumn's birthday party.  It was a small party.  We told her she could invite just a couple of people.  She had a blast and was super excited about her Frozen cake.)

Last week we went to see Taylor's orphanage.  Certainly she doesn't remember the place, she wasn't there but just the first couple months of her life, and then she was moved to the foster home.  The orphanage was very surprising for me.  I don't know what I expected.  I guess I expected it to be overcrowded and hectic, but it was just the opposite.  Of course there are more kids there than anyone would want there to be, but the facility was very nice and clean.  Most special was that the nannies were very sweet and you could tell that there was a genuine love for those kids.  We are so thankful for how well our little one was taken care of.  We will never know all of the circumstances of how Taylor ended up there, but we do know that God was with Taylor--always.  We know that fact from God's Word, but it is also evident in the many ways that she was cared for before she was placed in our arms.

We are enjoying a two week holiday from teaching, and it feels nice to have a break.  We have some things on the agenda, but for the most part it is pretty laid-back.  We are already preparing for our trip back to the states.  We are getting our physicals, dental check-ups, booster shots, etc.  There is a lot to do to prepare, and there will be a lot to do once we get to the states.

We are looking forward to going back.  There are some new family members that we haven't met, and there are a lot of "old" family members that we haven't seen in a while.  :-)  We can't wait for all of the hugs that we have missed these past 2.5 years.  We also might be craving....I don't know...Mexican food!  There are lots of things to stock-up on while we are back.     ....In with the New.

Timing Is Everything

In the days leading up to the adoption being finalized, I just had this little feeling that something crazy was going to happen.  You know how when you get your kids all dressed up for a picture and you just have this feeling that they are going to get dirty somehow or that their hair is going to get all messed up ....  that is the kind of feeling that I had.  You know what I mean...when you work really hard at something but you just have this feeling that after all of your hard work...something might go terribly wrong.... Well...

It was an awesome feeling to get that email that said "Gotcha Day" was going to be August 10.   In some ways it seemed like we had been waiting forever for this day and in other ways it seemed like it went by kinda fast.  From the time that we were matched with Taylor until now has been a very quick process after all of the "waiting time" that we have had overall.  From the date of that recent email about Travel Approval until "Gotcha Day" was about 10 days time. 

I wanted to make sure that Taylor had the cutest bow and a really sweet dress.  The kids and I picked out gifts to give her so that she would have something to hold onto from this day.  I wanted everything to be perfect.  :-)

But still I had this feeling....  Honestly, I didn't think too much about the feeling but it would pop into my head every once in a while. 

We have had a very busy schedule this summer, and this past weekend was our last time to work before the Big Day.  The weekend was packed with last minute meetings and classes to finish before we headed out. 

On Friday night, we sat down with three other families at our center for a dinner get-together.  Taylor had been begging me for more food, but I knew that she had already eaten way too much.  She had also already gotten down from the table, and we have a rule in our house that after you get down you can't ask for more.  Anyways, she kept begging, but I kept my ground and continued to tell her "no."  Once when I had my back turned, she reached up as far as she could to try and get something off of the table to eat.  I quickly saw her just as the table was about to lose its balance, and I told her "no."  She usually is pretty obedient, but less than 5 minutes later she did it again.  But this time unfortunately I didn't see anything until it was too late. 

That round, glass table came tumbling over.  Taylor fell on the ground, and the table fell on top of her...with food and plastic cups and bowls also falling to the ground.  I know that I screamed!  My first sight of her was that she was lying on the ground with the glass table under her chin (thankfully the table did not break).  And I screamed, "Oh my goodness...it's on her neck!!!"  Joel quickly scooped her up and took her into the next room.  He was reassuring me that she was ok and that she was a tough girl.  But then I saw it.  I gasped and frightened Joel with my shocked face.  This Momma was in tears and was in panic-mode.  If you have read any of my previous posts about other accidents in our home--this one was no different.  I don't handle these things very well.  I think if Joel was not around when these things happened, my adrenaline would kick in and I would be able to take care of things--I hope.

Taylor had the ugliest looking black eye.  In fact, I couldn't see much of her eye because it was swelling up fast.  Here it was Friday night...with a Gotcha Day of Monday morning.  I looked at Joel and said..."I knew this was going to happen!!!"  Honestly I was worried.  Joel thought I was worried about how the pictures were going to look, but that was the last thing on my list.  I was worried about what people were going to think when she had been in our care.  Of course it was an accident, but you still can't control how people think of things. (The picture below was taken the day before "Gotcha Day".)

We have many things to be thankful for.  1.  Praise the Lord--the table didn't fall right on her eye.. or on her nose... or on her teeth...or on her neck.  It fell about an inch under the eye.  Things could have been very serious, but the damage was very minimal.  2.  There were other families there to console me and to back us up if someone had any questions about the incident.  3.  No one questioned us.  Every time that someone asked about her eye and we told them that she had a falling accident--they all completely understood. (The pictures below were on "Gotcha Day")

She is starting to look much better now, but all of her adoption papers and her American visa are going to have this cute racoon picture.  We will forever remember that night and how God took care of everything.

We are so blessed to call her "our daughter".  Really we had already been telling local people here that she was our daughter, but now we can say it and know that she 100% is our daughter FOREVER!  We can't wait for all of you to meet her and for her to meet you.  I have another feeling that... God is going to use her in a very mighty way, and that is my prayer for her.  I can't wait to say to Joel again, "I knew this was going to happen"...but with a completely different look on my face. 
  

 (I think that Stephen might be thinking, "Help!!!  Now I have TWO sisters!")

Summer Camp

Our center is running an English Summer Camp this week, so things have been busy.  Even leading up to this week, there was a lot of planning going on.  I have been going every morning, but this morning I thought I would let Joel go and get some "American time."  There are several volunteers here and it is always refreshing getting to speak English at a normal speed.  :-)  The two oldest kids have also been going each day.  Autumn has been sitting in on the classes (she has been having lots of fun with her American teachers), and Isaac has been my assistant.  There is really not much to do though because there are a lot of volunteers and they are doing a really great job.

Stephen and Taylor have been staying home with Daddy, but today I get the joy of being home with these two precious kiddos.  Stephen is always making us smile--he is quite the character.  He especially loves dancing for us...just to be silly.  If we didn't have Stephen we would have to find a new outlet for entertainment.  :-)

Taylor continues to amaze us.  She came to us speaking only a couple of words--though we could tell that she understood a lot.  Now she is up to about 15+ words and she seems to understand just about everything we tell her to do (in both languages).  She went through a little stubborn phase of just really not liking the phrase "no," but we can tell that she is getting a lot better.  She has been "all smiles" the last couple of days.  It is amazing how fast kids pick up a language.

We received all of our paperwork from the states and now we are just awaiting "travel approval" which means that our adoption should be final sometime in August.  We are super excited about that.  We can't wait for everything to be official. 

These pictures are from earlier this month when we took the kids to visit some friends near the beach, and the other pictures are from this morning in our apartment complex.
 

Blessed... 35 Days

It is hard to believe that it was just a month ago that we went to pick up Taylor.  It is already getting difficult to remember what it was like before she came.  Again, day by day we see more and more of her personality.  Surprising to the locals, she has already adapted to our taste buds--she especially likes ICE CREAM and COOKIES!  She also likes cold drinks (cold milk)--which is not something our local friends would let her drink.

Every morning when Stephen wakes up, he first wants to come in and cuddle with Mommy and then after about 10 minutes he wants to go wake up Taylor (even though I tell him we should never wake a sleeping baby).  Usually his excitement in the hall wakes her up.  :-)  They are starting to play together now--Isaac has discovered that she loves playing cars.

We have given Isaac and Autumn a babysitting job.  When Joel and I teach on the weekends, sometimes our classes overlap a little.  Sometimes we just need a little of our "off time" to prepare lessons or talk to parents in the center.  So, they are responsible for Taylor and Stephen during that time.  They are learning a lot about responsibility and even how to manage money (giving, saving, and spending).  They are enjoying it.

This past week we took two days to travel to an amusement park just a couple of hours away--it houses the largest aquarium in the world.  We had a lot of fun.  Autumn showed her adventurous side--like her Daddy and Isaac showed that he is much more like me.  His favorite thing was the 5D theater.  We got a lot of sun but thankfully managed not to get any sunburns.

We are still praying that Taylor's adoption papers can be finalized in the next few months so that we can stay on track to go to the states in December.  And it looks like we will celebrate Taylor's 2nd birthday there before we come back home in February. 

More At Home

Taylor has been with us for 3 weeks now, and she is fitting in well.  We are seeing more and more of what we believe is her true personality.  The first name she learned was "CoCo"--our dog.  She calls us by our Chinese names--because she was taught those before she came.  She calls us--Mama; Baba; JieJie (big sister); and Gege (big brother).  She is understanding some English--very simple things, but she still doesn't speak a whole lot.  It will come.  ;-)

All the kids are enjoying her, even though she and Stephen have some power struggles--LOL.  He seems to take the title "big brother" a bit too seriously.  He thinks he needs to tell her how to obey, and she doesn't like that very much.  We are working on it.  They do play and have fun together too.

A few weeks ago the kids used their very hard-earned money to pay their half of a XBOX 360, and we have been getting a lot of exercise ever since.  All of our games are "Kinect" which means the kids have to move around to play (no controller needed).  It has been a great way to spend family time together on rainy days.  Even Stephen gets into the action.

We are still praying that the adoption can be finalized soon.  There is some paperwork that got delayed but needs to go through ASAP.  There are certain deadlines that have to be met at this point, so we really need prayers that things get finished on time.  I don't even understand it all myself, I just know that when things get sent to us now we have to scan/email or mail them back immediately.  So it is a little stressful to think about.  (I try not to think about it--I don't do good with stress.)

If all goes according to plan we will come back to the states for a visit December 21-February 21 (our last day to see friends will be the 14th).  We have a lot to do in a short amount of time--doctor visits, additional adoption/citizenship processing, "fellowship" visits, etc.  We are looking forward to it, but it is going to be a whirlwind I can already tell.  We hope to see you all, but we also won't be able to do a lot of traveling because of all of our non-negotiable appointments.  That last week we will probably take a  few days of  vacation with our family of 6 because we have found that we are really tired at the end of America trips, and the rest of the week will be with extended family.  It should be refreshing, right?  It is hard getting back on a plane and coming back to "work" when we are so worn out.  I think that we need that week of solitude.  :-)  So if you live far away and want to come see us, let's try to plan it towards the beginning of our trip.

So save up your Chick-fil-A  left-over packets of sauce and your left-over Taco Bell packets (my favorite thing to bring back to Chin@).  I am hoping to bring back a gallon-sized zip-loc bag full.  :-)

Catching On...

Taylor has been with us a week today, and things are much different today than a week ago.  On day one, she was a little timid and cried off and on.  By that night she was jumping in the bed.  :-)  The week has been very sweet and she now knows who we all are.  We have gone out a couple of times and she really clings to us--which is a great sign.  That means that she trusts us and is bonding with our family.  She won't let anyone else hold her.

We have seen much more of her personality, and she really just fits right in.  Check out this video of how silly she is.  This is a game that we all play sometimes with Stephen, but tonight we let Taylor be the leader.  When Stephen was the leader she didn't want to play, but when she was the leader--she really got into it.



About 30 minutes after this video, I got my biggest surprise yet.  I leaned in to give her a kiss, and she kissed me first.  My heart melted.  Then she gave kisses to Isaac and Joel--but she is playing hard to get with Stephen and Autumn.  (You can see in this picture how much bigger Stephen is than Taylor.)

Today she had a fever and was a little whiny throughout the day and slept more than usual.  But after a little bit of tylenol, she perked up again.  We are praying that she and Stephen will both feel better tomorrow.  He started feeling sick after his nap today too.

 We are so thankful for how well Taylor is adjusting.  Please keep praying for us and our paperwork and that all will get finished in time.  We can't wait to officially call her ours.  :-)

Day By Day

Each day seems to bring more progress.  Today Taylor was just as active, but today she is finally over the fear of our very innocent poodle.  Yesterday she did not want to even look at him, but today she didn't mind him the least.  I don't know what happened overnight, but it was definitely a surprise today.

She woke up at about the same time after another restful night.  We went out and celebrated a late Mother's Day because we weren't able to do anything on the day-of.  We went to the mall and ate lunch.  We could tell that the young'ns were getting tired, so we came home after that and a few of us took a nap (me included).

Then of course we had dinner and then Stephen and Taylor took a bath.  She was not too excited about  bedtime tonight.  I like to think it is because she doesn't want to be separated from us--but I can't say that for sure.  Autumn stayed in the room and read a book to herself just so that Taylor wasn't alone, but she didn't go to sleep until I had Autumn leave the room later. 

I realize these posts are a little boring, but I just want to remember what her first week was like.  Thank you for all of your prayers.  I don't think we could have asked for a smoother transition than what we have experienced so far.  We are amazed at how great she is doing.