HOME TWO MONTHS TODAY

I can't believe that we have been home two months today. It has been a whirlwind. It has been an amazing two months. Where has the time gone? Sophie has come a long way and still has a long way to go. When we got home with her she had scabies, Giardia, was breaking out in rashes and hives all over her body. She was sick and had fluid in both ears. She was malnourished and had failure to thrive. She was only a little over 16 pounds at two years one month old. She is wearing anywhere from 3-6 month size clothes and is starting to get into some 6-12 and 9 months clothes now. She is such a little peanut. The poor things was a mess and would not eat. She is still not eating very well. She would only take water and rice or congee and some drinkable yogurt. She would gag on almost everything else. I now have her on pediasure with some whole milk in it, but she doesn't even get through 8oz a day. She is eating better now but still has a long way to go. She had terrible night terrors, some of which are still happening. The first two weeks she would wake up at night and I would bring her in bed with us and she would sleep on my chest. That didn't last to long. She would wake up at night kicking, screaming, hitting me and crying. That's when we found out that they were night terrors and to just let her work through them. Eventually she wouldn't let me put her to bed or get her in the middle of the night. Erik is the only one that can do that. She wouldn't even want me to get her out of the crib. It has gotten a little easier, but she still wants Erik. I know in time it will change. On top of all that she is a very happy, sweet, funny and fun to play with child. We fell very lucky to have her. She is a very active child and gets into everything. You have to stay on top of her all of the time. We enjoy her so much even though she is exhausting. Here are a few pictures from the first day until today. She really has changed. She is a little survivor.

WE ARE HOME!

Just want to let everyone know that we are home. YEAH! I am so sorry that it was so difficult to post while in China. I felt a lot of stress not keeping up with the blog. I am planning on doing the whole trip on catch up posts. So please stay tuned. It was a long trip. We left Guangzhou 8:00am China time Thurs. morning ( which was 8:00 Wed. night USA time) and got home here 11:45 pm Thurs night. I am still up because the girls thing it is still China time Fri. afternoon at 4:00 pm (which is 4:00 am Fri. a here) To say the least, it has been a long two days and I have had no sleep. The flight was kind of hard with Sophie. She did great in one way, but I had to stay awake to make sure that she didn't fall off the seat. She is quite the mover in her sleep. Well, I am going to try and go to bed before the sun rises. I have to be up because Katie and Ed close on their house tomorrow. I am so excited for them. I will keep you posted.

LAST DAY IN NANCHANG

Today is our last day in Nanchang and I am sitting here writing this while everyone is sleeping Hopefully long enough so that I can write this. We have done so much since arriving in China.I am going to start off from when we left home. We woke on Thurs. morning at 3:00 am a week ago. We got to the airport just in time.They even told us sternly, that we should have been here an hour early for an international flight. OUCH! We got our hands smacked. We ran to catch our flight. We made it and got to Dulles safely . We had a five hour layover which was going to be terrible, but our friend Jim took care of us once again (thanks Jim) We were able to wait the whole time in the United executive club We could have breakfast and just hang out there until it was time for our flight to leave. It was finally time for us to board our plane. I couldn't believe that we were going to China for a second time. Most people don't even get the opportunity to get there once on a life time and I was lucky enough to be going again. While we were waiting, a couple came up to us and asked if we were going to China for an adoption. We said yes. They were to and they just so happened to be with our agency. They were one of our travel mates. It turns out that they are from Miami. We did spend time in Beijing with them. They flew to Guangzhou and we flew to Nanchang. We finally got on the plane and found our seats. we were greeted by the flight attendants and then the captain, They wanted to congratulate us on our adoption. They knew about us because of Jim. We were hoping that we would get bumped to business class. we waited in our seats and fond out that the flight was delayed due to the new computer system for United. Well, the wait went into 2 hours. We were still hoping that we would get moved, but it started looking less and less likely and the plane was going to take off soon. At the last minute Erik saw the flight attendant heading our way waving at him, She came up to us and said that she could move us. I could not tell you how excited we were. It was really tight in the back and I couldn't imagine flying the whole flight back there. Even though we did it before. We moved up and Erik stopped in business class and the flight attendant kept going. She moved us to first class. OMG! we couldn't believe it with Emma. Holy cow! what a treat that was (THANKS AGAIN JIM!) How can we ever thank him enough. What a great flight it was. They really do take care of you in first class. It was great, because when I got Emma ready for bed, we could lay her bed down and let her sleep. I got her ready around 8:30 and I think she feel asleep around 9:00 and slept the rest of the flight. I had to wake her up a little before we landed. It was a long flight, but made very comfortable, Our whole journey ended up being over 31 hours before we arrive at our hotel in Beijing. We got to the hotel and got settled in our room and tried to go to sleep. We had to be up and going first thing in the morning. I woke at 3:00am China time, which is a 13 hour difference our time. Plenty of time to get ready for The Great Wall! So, our first day was touring The Great Wall and the Olympic Village. I was so excited because we were going to a different spot on the Great Wall this time. There was so much more that you could climb and walk on this side. It is such an amazing site to see. Erik, Emma and I proceeded to climb and walk for over two miles and not one complaint out of Emma. She was just amazing.. I am so proud of her. The views from this side were breath taking. You could see for ever. It was very cold and extremely windy, at some point I had to hold onto Emma, because I thought she was going to blow away. You did have to hold on sometimes. We climbed the wall with the couple that we meet in the airport. It was a really nice time. When we were done, we got on the bus and went to a local restaurant for lunch It was really good. Down stairs from the restaurant was a jade store. It was like a really nice jewelry store that we have here. I didn't buy anything knowing that we could get it cheaper else where. After lunch we were headed for the Olympic village. It was really nice walking around there knowing that almost four years ago it was a bustling, very crowed place. You could only imagine how crowed it was. It is a very big place. We went back to the hotel and settled in for the night. The next day was a very busy day. We were going to Tienanmen Square, The Forbidden City and then we were going to Hutong for lunch in a locals home, followed by a rickshaw ride. Houtong is probably one of my favorite places to see in Beijing. Lunch was amazing in the locals home. It was a very tiny home in the village. Just two very tiny rooms. One was where they cooked and the other was there sitting room. Up stairs (we didn't get to see) had two bedrooms. The amazing thing is, they are so very proud of their homes. They lived in one of the bigger homes and it has been in their family for over 150 years. We could not imagine or even think of living this way. But, as I said, they are very proud people. From there we went on the rickshaw tour of Hutong. I just love seeing how they all live and appreciating what we have herein the states. Learning about the history of Hutong is just so interesting. From there, we were off to the airport to head for Nanchang. We arrived in Nanchang late that night. When the plane landed, a whole wave of emotions came over me. It was very unexpected. You would think that these emotions were for Sophie, but, they were feelings that I felt when the plane landed in the same place we flew for Emma. We were bringing her back home. It was very emotional to know when we arrived in this airport a little over 3 1/2 years ago that we would be back getting another child from the same province. To be continued....

SOPHIE UPDATE!

I woke up yesterday morning to finally have gotten an update on Sophie that I have waited over three weeks for. I was so excited to finally see more pictures of her. She is just so cute. I love her already. She is such a little thing. She weighs 16 1/2 pounds and is 28.3 inches tall at two years old. I wanted to send a care package with a cake for her Birthday on the 17 of Feb. But it took so long and I didn't know if she ever got the cake until yesterday. She did and it was a beautiful cake. So here is Sophie!

ALL PACKED

Well, I finally finished. I'm packed and they are all under 44 pounds. I can't believe that we are leaving tomorrow. It's been almost 6 months since we got Sophie's referral. It sure has been a long wait. It is so different this time around. I just can't wait to finally meet this little girl. I am sure that it is going to be a difficult transition for her, as she has been in foster care since she was four months old. My heart aches knowing that we are taking her away from the only family that she has ever known. We should be getting Sophie on Mon. but there is a chance that we will be getting her Sun. night China time, Sun. morning US time. I really hope that we get her on Mon. It will just be crazy flying into Nanchang Sun. night, getting to the hotel and then getting Sophie. So here is our Itinerary: 3/8 Thursday Depart US 3/9 Fri. arrive Beijing 3/10 Sat. Tour The Great Wall and Birds Nest 3/11 Sun. half day sightseeing Tienanmen Square, Forbidden City In the afternoon fly to Nanchang 3/12 SOPHIE DAY! 3/12-13 Adoption paper work 3/14 Sightseeing Teng Wang Pavilion 3/15 Free day. Hopefully this will be the day we get to take Emma back to her orphanage 3/16 Free morning, receive Sophie's passport and then fly to Guangzhou 3/17 Visa and physicals 3/19 Visa interview and Oath. Half day sightseeing 3/20 Get Visa's 3/22 Leave Guangzhou and head home.

ONE MORE SLEEP!

One more sleep to China! Emma got up this morning and took off one more chain. Only one left and then we go!

I can't believe that we are leaving tomorrow.

How many more sleeps?

Emma wanted to know how much longer it was going to be before we went to China. So, I decided to make a paper chain with her so that she could see how many more sleeps it would be before we go to China. She was very excited and now the first thing she does in the morning when she comes down, is take off one more chain. She is getting very excited. Lets just hope that she will still be excited with the long plane ride. I think that she will do fine ( fingers crossed) because she is a really good traveler.

INTRODUCING SOPHIE MEI

Now that I am starting a new blog, I would like to introduce Sophie Mei Li Qin. She just turned two years old Feb. 17. She is from Pingxiang City CWI, Jiangxi Province, China. She is currently in foster care. She has been there since she was four months old. At least that it what we were told. She is 17 1/2 pounds and 28" tall at the last update. Just a little peanut. Almost like her sister Emma when we got her. Emma was 19 pounds and 29 inches when we got her at 21 months old. By the way, Emma and Sophie are from the same Province. We are going to try and take Emma back to her orphanage for a visit while we are in Jiangxi. We got her referral two days after Katie's wedding. September 28 about 10:00 at night. We were shocked. It came to us by email. We quickly had her files reviewed by the right Dr's and got some updated video on her. After going through everything, we knew that she was the right little girl for us. We were soon immersed in paperwork trying to get everything done as quickly as possible. I really wanted to have her home before she turned two. All of the paperwork that needed to be done was done and sent before the Chinese New Year. We thought that we would get our TA before the New Year, but we think that something held it up. Oh well, nothing we can do about it now. We are leaving for China March 8th and returning March 22nd. We hope that you all will follow our travel back to China. Can't wait.

HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY SOPHIE!

Today is Sophie's 2nd Birthday. I so wish that we could have traveled so that we could have shared her 2nd birthday together. Soon enough! We're coming Sophie! We got our TA yesterday, which was Sophie's actual birthday China time. We will be traveling March 8th and return home on the 22nd. We have our CA on Tuesday th 20th. I can't wait to meet yo and bring you home. HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIE! We already love you.