READY FOR FIRST CHRISTMAS

Six Months Already

It's hard to believe that six months ago today we landed in China ready to make Katie part of our family. The adoption process is definitely a leap of faith. We went into this trying to prepare ourselves for major grieving, possible undisclosed health issues, developmental issues, etc. All I can say is that our God is so good. Katie has been an absolute joy. It is so obvious that she was loved by her foster family very much. They taught this little angel how to love and be loved. I stay in contact with the foster family via e-mail and they really appreciate it. They said they miss her very much. We found Katie's file on our agency's waiting children list. This is a list of children with minor special needs. We had never even considered cleft lip/cleft palate before but when we saw her picture, we knew she was meant to be ours. We then had to prepare ourselves for speech therapy, possible hearing loss due to ear infections and all the other issues related to cleft. This little one has been nothing but healthy. Her major issue when we got home was her teeth which didn't have anything to do with her cleft situation. She has to have six cavities filled, two partial root canals and two crowns. She felt so much better when her mouth didn't hurt anymore. The Cleft Team in Cincinnati, Ohio examined her in July and said the doctors in China did a wonderful job on her surgeries. She won't need anything else for about two more years when she will need her bone graft in her gum line. Of course braces will be in her future but they are in Marie's too. Katie is growing very fast. She already is wearing size six (Marie is nine and wears size seven). It brings me such joy to see the special bonding between Marie and Katie. They really watch out for one another. They play all of the time. I asked Jim the other night "what did Marie do before Katie?" Jim and I are so happy with our family. We went to Katie's first parent/teacher conference for Kindergarten last week. She received all S's (the best you can get in Kindergarten) and the teacher said she is doing wonderful. She also sees an ESL (English as Second Language) teacher twice a week with four other children from her school. The teacher said she will be ready to graduate Katie out in February before the others since she is doing so well. Her ability to learn English has just amazed everyone she has met. We attribute this to her big sister talking to her all of the time. Katie is a very smart little girl. She is also in Cheer America with her big sister. They have cheer lessons once a week and have already marched in one parade with another coming up here in Sidney this month. Then there will be a competition. She enjoyed Halloween and dressed up as a bride. She has talked about dressing as a bride for a long time. Now that is over, she is talking more and more about Christmas. This is so exciting to think this will be her first Christmas and she is five years old. I can't wait!!

Katie starts Kindergarten!

We've been working hard with Katie all summer to get her ready for Kindergarten. This child has just amazed us. She has learned so much in just three months--like I said, it's just amazing. We truly believe that she has lost her Chinese language unfortunately. This child has switched from speaking ALOT of Chinese when we first got her and singing songs in Chinese to speaking sentences in English. She is not fluent by no means but her English vocabulary is increasing daily. I took her to her school several times and she met her teacher and seem very ready to begin school. She said the night before school started though, "I'm a little scaryed." Remember that is how she says that she is scared. When I went in to wake them for school and said today is the day, she started crying and said she was scared. This lasted for a few minutes and then she was fine. She got right on the bus with big sister leading the way. Marie said Katie did fine until they got close to Marie's school and she knew Marie had to get off the bus and she had to stay on. Marie said Katie started crying hard--so hard her face was red. Marie felt so bad for her sister that she also began to cry. I met Katie at her school a half hour later and she got off the bus and was fine. She said just "Mom I cried a littled when Marie got off the bus.". She walked right into her classroom and seemed very comfortable there. She has a good friend in her class that was also adopted from China. We are good friends with the family. Katie got off the bus after an hour ride by herself and said "Kindergarten is fun!" Thanks Goodness!!! I read Marie's homewook paper from fourth grade after this day and the question was "Would you like to attend a one room school house and if so why?" Marie answered "Yes so that I could be with my sister." This just really touched my heart. There were several other questions and every answer had Marie's sister somewhere in there. One of my favorite pictures is the one where Marie is holding her hand and heading out to the bus--SISTERS!!!

Three Months Since Gotcha Day!

Boy it's hard to believe that tomorrow, August 9, it will be three months since Katie walked into our hotel room and entered our lives. We are one of the very fortunate families to have had such an easy transition. Looking back at her Gotcha Day pictures, we can see how scared she was, but she was so brave. She is doing absolutely wonderful and her English is coming along great. She will be starting Kindergarten in just two more weeks. She is nervous about this since big sister goes to a different school this year. Yesterday I took her to her school and we walked around and she saw her classroom. This made her feel much better. In the last month, Katie had major dental work done (six cavities filled, two partial root canals, and two crowns). Thank goodness they put her under so she doesn't remember any of the work that was being done. She also had her cleft team appointment in Cincinnati Childrens Hospital. This went wonderful. The doctors said she will not need her bone graft in her gum line for about two more years. The doctors could not believe how well she was speaking English after only being home eight weeks. The speech pathologist said her speech was wonderful but she has just a little nasal sound on her S words. She is going to retest her in six months. We've also been in touch with Katie's foster family. They somehow got ahold of our name and address and had sent us a package in June for Katie's birthday. I then in turn wrote a letter to them and sent with many pictures of Katie's birthday party. Just this week, we received another letter from them. They are so happy for Katie. It is obvious they loved her and cared for her very much. We now have their address, phone number and guess what--they even have an e-mail address they sent. Now I can e-mail pictures to them. The girls are getting a long so much better. I really saw a turning point at around two months. They rarely fight now. In the first month, Katie would get upset about not getting her way and would cross her arms and pout and cry but I haven't seen her do that in a long time. She is still a little cautious around Daddy. I think it's because he is big and has a deep voice. Here is a little girl who used to be very nervous riding her bike or hated getting splashed in the face in the swimminig pool. Now she rides her bike just fine all by herself and practically lives under water in the pool! The company where Jim works sent the employees and families down to Kings Island (an amuzement park) three weeks ago. She had a ball riding the rides. About two weeks ago she stopped needing Mommy to lay with her until she went to sleep. It's a wonderful feeling knowing she trusts us. Just in the last week she has started calling me Mother. It is really cute. We were at an anniversary party with a lot of people and I walked away from her thinking she was with her sister. I heard her calling "Mother, Mother". I went over and she said, "Mother where were you? I was calling Mother! Mother! and I was scaryed" (that is how she says scared) She is just too darn cute I tell you. We have sure been blessed with a wonderful child. I am so thankful for our entire family.

Katie's 5th Birthday Party

We had Katie's birthday party on Saturday and she had a lot of fun. She received so many nice presents. She continues to do just absolutely wonderful. People cannot hardly believe it. She is speaking more and more English every day. Marie and Katie are also getting along much better now. We've been home six weeks now. Katie never threw temper tantrums but would have several crying spells with her arms crossed when she didn't get her way. This hardly occurs anymore.

A Month Since Gotcha Day

It's really hard to believe that it has been an entire month since Katie walked into our hotel room. She is really thriving in her new family. Katie has definitely attached herself to me. I have not been anywhere without her for a month now. I need to start getting her used to me leaving for awhile so she can see mommy leaves/mommy returns. She is not rejecting Jim but is a little more reserved around him. When he's not around though, she is always asking where daddy is. She said her first whole sentence in English this week. When Jim went back to work at lunchtime on Thursday, she said, "Mom, Daddy gave Katie a kiss." She is saying new words in English every day. She still calls Marie Jie Jie (big sister) unless she is mad at her and then it's a loud "MARIE!" She doesn't speak much in Chinese anymore already. However, when she is by herself in the bathtub playing, I'll hear her speaking Chinese. I've had friends tell me it's hard going from one child to two and I can see what they mean. My energy is totally spent by the end of the day. Mommy has definitely been the entertainment for both girls since we've been home. It's been a blessing to be able to be home with them for awhile. I only have one more week though and then back to work. Katie eats almost anything we give her. It was funny the other night we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant. I asked her what she wanted and she said "cheeseburger". We all laughed at that. We put up a small pool for the girls and she is loving it. Next week we have to take her to the dentist on Wednesday to get her cavity filled and then she has her immunizations for Kindergarten on Thursday. It will be a rough couple of days for her.

Home a Week

It's hard to believe we've been home a week today. The jet lag was terrible though and it has taken us almost the entire week to get on a normal schedule. Last night the girls went to bed at 9 p.m. and woke up at 6 a.m. today. This is quite an accomplishment. They even let me sleep until 6:30! Katie feels very comfortable at home. She does get nervous any time I tell her it's time to go bye-bye when we are getting ready to run an errand. I believe she thinks we're going to take her somewhere and leave her. She is getting used to American food and last night we went to the root beer stand where she had a hot dog with cheese, french fries and a root beer. We did take her to our favorite Chinese restaurant this week to meet our friend David. David told her in Chinese that he was our friend and she smiled. He asked her if she liked her new family, and she said yes. Katie is a very loving, sweet little girl. We have not had one temper tantrum but several little pouting/crying spells which is normal for a four year old. This little one absolutely loves to sing. She has a Barbie doll (one of Marie's) that sings a couple short tunes and she almost has it down word for word. She is saying quite a few words in English. She'll say "all done" when she's finished eating, asks for a "banana", "I love you", "hello", "good-bye", "Care Bear movie", "push me Mom" for the swing set, etc. She is picking up the language very fast. She loves to be pushed on the swing set. She has come up with several hand motions to let me know what she wants if I do not understand. One of the sweetest ones is when she wants me to lay with her when it's time for a nap or bedtime. She'll point to herself, then me and then put her hands together next to her face to say me, you, sleep. Marie has been much better with sharing once we got home. The first day they were running about giggling Marie said, "this is what I've been waiting for--a sister to play with". Although this morning they got off to a rough start argruing over the baby Care Bears. We're all getting used to the new family dynamics--even the dog and cats. Jim's trying to get used to the increased noise level since Katie can get quite loud. We're working on the screaming (she only does this when she is excited--not mad). She had her doctor's appointment yesterday for her first examination. She weighs 37 3/4 lbs. and is 43 1/2" tall. Marie was 40 3/4" tall at the same age. Katie has long fingers and toes. She doesn't show any orphanage behavoriors like Marie did even though they both spent the first 1 1/2 years in an orphanage. She gets along very well with our Lab and our two cats. She loves yelling at the dog and Jim said Buddy will need to learn Chinese so he knows what he's getting yelled at for. All in all things are going wonderful as we learn to be a family of four.

WE'RE HOME

After a very long couple of days traveling, we are home safely. Thank you all for your prayers. I truly believe Katie recognized the house when we pulled up from the picture album I had sent previously. She smiled at the house. She went through the entire house checking everything out. She loved seeing her pictures throughout the house. She seems so happy to be here. I am still in awe at her wonderful transition. She had been with her foster family for 3 1/2 years. They did an excellent job getting her prepared for the big change in her life. Her Aunt Carol picked us up at the airport last night around 6:30 p.m. and when we got to the house our friends Lucia and Alycia were here decorating with signs and balloons. Katie had been wanting me to sleep with her every night. Last night, however, she crawled into her bunk bed with her new bear that the Murphys gave her, kissed the bear goodnight and went to sleep (without me). At 3:30 a.m. this morning--guess what? We're all up. It will probably take another week to get use to the time change again. Since I didn't get to post before we left, I'll back up here a little. On Friday we had to check out of our hotel at noon since we were leaving that night on the train. We then sat in the hotel lobby for two hours. It was so hot outside and we had finished all of our shopping. Katie was running around the lobby and fell and hit her head pretty hard on the floor. This put a stop to her running. We then met up with about 100 other people and all got on three big buses for the US Consulate. We had to raise our hand to swear our paperwork was correct and received Katie's VISA to enter the US. We then rode for about a hour back to the hotel and grabbed a bite to eat. We were told we would have a shuttle take us to the train station, but instead we were thrown into a small taxi and rode the 45 minutes practically on top of each other. The taxi driver left us off at the train station and we thought---now what? Our guide had went with the other family also taking the train. Thankfully, someone came and helped us get where we needed to go. This was very stressful. The train ride itself wasn't bad, but getting there and then from the station to the hotel was not any fun. We wish we would have paid more and just flown from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. We also now wish we would have paid the additional fee and stayed at the White Swan instead of The Victory. The flight home we were on the airplane a total of 16 hours. The girls both did great. Had just a couple small crying spells from Katie, but I thought she was a trooper. She probably thought--man all these people do are get on airplanes, trains, buses, vans, taxis and change hotels all of the time. Those two weeks felt like a month. The best part is we're done and we're all four home safe and we've been blessed with another wonderful child from China. I do have to say I had tears in my ears when we took off from Guanzhou and said good-bye to China. Katie had a sad look on her face and my heart went out to her. I know we are doing the best for her, but it is so hard to think she was leaving everything she knew. We hope everyone enjoyed the blog and appreciate you traveling along with us.

Consulate Appointment Day

Our consulate appointment was today at the US Embassy. Our guide took all of our paperwork, money, Katie's passport, etc. to the appointment for us. We had to call her at noon, and then she told us everything was OK. The next step will be for all of the families to go to the US Embassy tomorrow at 2:30 and raise our hands and swear that all of the information is correct. We then get Katie's VISA to enter the U.S. We're at the point in the trip where everyone is tired and so very very ready to go home. Marie said what she misses most is her 2% milk to drink. She drinks milk about 95% of the time at home and hates the whole milk here. I miss having ice cold drinks. All drinks are basically room temperature here. We miss brushing our teeth in our regular water instead of always trying to remember to use bottle water (at least in this hotel we have a faucet just for brushing). We joined the Perry's and ate lunch at Lucy's and then took the kids to the park to play. After Katie's nap, we took the girls swimming again. Tonight we had a hard time deciding where to eat. We're at the point where Chinese food just doesn't sound good and we're getting tired of Lucy's. We ended up eating at the hotel restaurant. Let me see if I can describe this experience. First it took forever to get our food and the kids were starving. Then they forgot to even put in Marie's order. Jim was impressed when he saw a woman carrying a bottle of insecticide into the kitchen. I kept hearing a popping sound and then we figured out what it was. There was a large bug zapper inside the restaurant (we were not eating outdoors keep in mind). I told Jim we've really eaten in some interesting places over the years. Well tomorrow is our last day in China. We take our luggage to the consulate with us at 2:30 and we'll be there until 4:30-5:00. We then go to the train station and we'll try to catch an earlier train to Hong Kong. If not, we'll leave at 8:15 p.m. on the train and spend a night in Hong Kong. This will be our seventh hotel in two weeks. Please keep us in your prayers for safe travels all the way home. I can't wait to see what Katie thinks of her new home, pets, and family and friends. We appreciate everyone's comments during our trip. We just love reading them. I'm so tired I feel like it will take a month to recoup. We have been so blessed during this trip that Katie adjusted to us wonderfully and is a fantastic loving little girl. Our friends here with us are adopting a five year old boy that is HIGH energy. I told them today that God knew they had the energy to parent him. I know they will also be glad to get home.

Second day in Guangzhou

Boy Guangzhou makes Florida feel cool. It is very hot and humid here. This is the Guangdong Province which is Marie's province. Marie's town though is a six hour train ride so we will not be visiting Maoming. Katie had her medical exam and everything was fine with her. I wish I had my camcorder though because it was total caos and we only have five families in our travel group. We first went to the first room and they checked her ears and mouth. This was the first time we got a good look inside her mouth. She definitely has a cavity. They then weighed her and checked her height and temperature. Then a woman doctor checked her all over and she was done. With kids running around, no one understanding where to go, etc. it got a little crazy and somehow we ended up last. We did some shopping around the island today which was fun. Marie wanted to go swimming real bad so after dinner, I took the girls to the roof top pool. You can see by the pictures, Katie had a ball. We're pretty sure this was probably her first time in a pool. Marie had fun too. Going to the restroom in China is always an adventure. Marie made a comment after using a squatty potty for about the 20th time since we've been here, "I'm sure glad we live in the United States." I can't believe the number of these squatty potties we've come across this time. Then there's no toilet paper (that's why I packed my own). A lot of times there's no hand soap and no towels. It's hard to believe that we've had a Katie a week now. I've listed some of the things we've learned about her below:

She likes to drink water, orange juice, Coke and yogurt milk.

She likes hard boiled eggs, bacon, watermellon, pizza, cheeseburgers with ketchup, ramen noodles, broccoli, ice cream and basically anything sweet.

She loves chewing gum.

She loves to sing and skip.

She is very talkative and can get quite loud at times.

She likes to sleep with her mama (at least until she falls asleep)

She takes a nap around noon or 1 p.m.

She wears size 5 in clothes and I'm guessing size 10 in shoes.

You can tell she was basically an only child like Marie so we've had frequent bickering of just about anything from who has more leaves they tore off a bush to who can give a little boy back his sunglasses. I sure hope this lessens as times goes on.

She sure can pout when she wants to get her way.

She knew how to curtsey (not sure if I spelled that right) in a dress. This is after I told her she needed to stop pulling her dress up.

She can write her numbers up to around 14 and can count in English to 10 so far.

She can also say her ABCs in English.

She's taught me the Chinese words for when she has to go potty (#1 and #2) and when she is done eating.

Her surgery on her lip was done so well that most people don't even realize she had a cleft lip when she was born. Her speech is also pretty clear.

She loves to play with her telephone that makes noise or basically anything with noise (Jim loves that part, ha!)

She can color inside the lines very well and loves to draw on her magnadoodle like her sister.

She loves holding her sister's hand in public and has been very well behaved.

Lastly, I truly believe she loves her new family. It feels like we've always been a family and we're just on vacation (if you want to call this a vacation). This is a hard trip. After eight years, I had forgotten just how hard it is. We are all so ready to get home and back into a normal routine. Won't be long now.

We're in Guangzhou

Well we made it down to Guangzhou at 4 p.m. today. This is where we finalize the US portion of the adoption and get Katie's VISA to the US. We started out around 9:45 a.m. and went to the Jinan airport. We were there for three hours because our guide Christina had a 12:15 flight back to Beijing. We spent three hours in a sauna--at least that is what it felt like. I felt like I was wringing wet by the time we got on the airplane. Katie sat by the window on her first airplane flight and the take off didn't seem to phase her. She slept most of the flight but on the descend, her ears were bothering her and she cried a little. Funny thing happened--OK Jim really didn't think it was funny but our friends, Gary and Vicki, let us borrow and little alarm you can clip on your child and then if they are lost, they can pull the alarm and you can find them. We tried this on Marie in Beijing because there were so many people, but twice when she was playing, the plug came out and the alarm went off--quite embarrassing. So Jim had me put it in the suitcase. Someone the plug must had fallen out because when we picked up the suitcase in Jinan, our suitcase had the alarm going off. We walked quite a ways like this and then Jim opened the suitcase and it was REALLY loud. Of course I had so much stuff in there we couldn't find it at first and then had a hard time finding the plug to make it stop. Vicki, you'll probably be hearing from Jim and about this (ha!). Anyway, it's great to be here. For our family and friends this is a little island that is full of adoptive families and lots and little shops, restaurants, etc. We met up with several other families from our agency and we all ate dinner at Lucy's Restaurant. Katie is quite the eater. She ate almost her whole large cheeseburger. We then went for icecream. On the way back, Jim wanted to stop at the grocery to pick up some things so I took the girls and walked back by ourselves. We were on the other side of the island. After making one wrong turn, I finally found our hotel. We waited and waited for Jim to return. A couple of ladies from our agency came by for a visit. FINALLY here comes Jim wringing with sweat. He got lost! What a day we've had. I know I'm exhausted. We're heading to bed now. Katie always wants her Mama to sleep with her and guess what--so does Marie. So I end up sleeping between two girls in a bed that is slightly larger than a twin until they are asleep and then a sneek out. Tomorrow is Katie's medical exam and VISA photo day--both requirements for the US part of the adoption.

Last day in Jinan

Today we went with the Perry family to visit Liam's orphanage here in Jinan. We got to see much more than we did at Katie's Qingdao orphanage since Qingdao said they were under rennovations. We visited several rooms, and I was doing fine until we visited the 3-7 year olds. Seeing all of those little children staring at you really tore my heart up. I had tears in my eyes and left the room. We met a teenage girl (deaf) who actually grew up in the orphanage and now works there. My heart went out to her. I cannot begin to imagine growing up without a mom and dad but I know thousands and thousands of children do. We also met a 10 year old girl with severe burns on her first. Her American family is due to arrive next month for her. She said she is very happy about getting a family. We were all worried about Liam (the Perry's four year old son) since he came directly to them from the orphanage. When the guide told him where we were going, he got all tensed up. I also worried about Marie and Katie but everyone did fine and it was a very nice and clean orphanage. The only thing that bothered me was the orphanage workers teasing Liam first about staying with them and then they teased Katie about staying there. I picked her up right away after she sternly told them, "Bu Yao!" (NO!) and hid behind me. We then drove for what seemed like hours around Jinan to find the place for the Perry's to get Liam's passport (we got Katie's in Qingdao). They received it 15 minutes before the place closed. To celebrate we ate at Pizza Hut (yeah!!!) We believe this was Katie's first pizza and boy did she eat well. Marie did too after she got over one of her jealous spells. Please continue to pray for Marie. This has been a big adjustment for her. She said I treat Katie like a baby and she wants to be treated like a baby. Now we're back in our room and I'm trying to pack up this disaster of a room (clothes, toys, food, etc. everywhere). We all meet at 9:45 a.m. tomorrow to head to the airport. We fly down to Guangzhou (2 1/2 hr. flight) at 1:20 p.m. so we could get there around 4 p.m. We're really looking forward to being around many many more American families.

Jinan--relaxing day

It was nice having a day yesterday to just relax and let the girls play. The four of us took a walk to a very large park here in Jinan. It's not like a park back home with playground equipment, but there are many people walking around and it has restaurants and stores underneath the park. We found McDonalds!!! Back home I could live without McDonalds but here it has been so refreshing to have American food. Last night we ate dinner with the Perry family here in the hotel at a Japanese steak house. This was the first time Jim and I ate Japanese food. After being so sick for two days earlier this week (or last week--I've lost track of my days), I skipped the raw fish. Jim actually tried it, but I think it will be his last time. I attached a picture of Marie eating beef tongue. She liked it and so did I. Katie ate well too. This little girl loves vegetables so we'll be eating healthy when we get home. She is still fighting her bad cold. I mixed the dry antibiotic with the proper amount of water. I was then to give her 1 1/2 tsp. the first day and 1 tsp the next four days. Well today is only day three and after today, we'll be out. Jim just went over and said good morning to her and she repeated back "good morning". Marie got to talk to her Aunt Carol last night and I believe that helped her. Katie is a very happy little girl always singing and skipping. It's like she has just been waiting on us for a long time. Not sure what we have planned for today. Tomorrow we fly down to Guangzhou and we'll be around many more Americans. Here in Jinan they rarely have any other nationalities. We get stared at every where we go. It's funny--they look at the girls and then look at us and look at the girls again. They just can't figure out what these Americans are doing with two little girls from China. We finally were able to buy Katie some capri pants. The size 4 pants I brought were too short. She will definitely be wearing size 5. We also bought her some new tennis shoes. She has big feet! I have a feeling this little one will grow up to be tall. She is also not skinny. She told Marie she thought her big sister was skinny (how funny).

Qingdao sightseeing day

Our guide rented a taxi driver to give us a tour around Qingdao. I was thinking it was going to be maybe a two hour tour. We spent six hours in the back of a taxi. We did get to see a lot of beautiful sights around Qingdao but once we were in the mountains, it seems like we spent hours in there. Needless to say, we were all ready to get out of that taxi. Qingdao is absolutely beautiful. It is like night and day compared to Jinan. Qingdao has beautiful beaches and mountains. You can tell the people who live in Qingdao are wealthier people. We had received many pictures from Katie's foster family and they answered a list of questions I had sent last September. They mentioned she loves to play outdoors (and then shopping). She wanted to play in the sand so bad so the taxi driver left us spend a little time at the beach. While the girls played in the sand, I watched the locals gather up sea weed (to be cooked later). Things are going so well with Katie. Our guide told her what her American name is last night and asked if she liked it and she said yes. We had up to this point been calling her Meng Meng (pronounced Mung Mung--her nickname), but she now knows it is Katie. She just amazes me. She is very well behaved--we have had no meltdowns yet. Just some some arguments with the girls fighting over things. That sure didn't take long. I believe Marie is having a harder time sharing us than Katie has getting used to us. Katie starting repeating words in English yesterday. Her pronounciation if very good. I really do not think she'll need speech therapy but we'll see. Here I was thinking she might need pull ups, sippy cup, stroller, etc. like some of the children at this age here, but I'm telling you this little girl is developmentally right up with other five year olds. We had our pastor pray with us before we left for China, and I keep thinking of something he said. He asked the Lord to truly amaze Jim and I at how well things will go. God is good. We told our guide we wanted a day to ourselves today. The girls are playing with their bubbles now. They did not have time to play yesterday except for the beach. They were real troopers riding that much in a cramped taxi. It was Jim and I whining and ready to climb the walls yesterday. I believe Katie and myself are both feeling better. I have her on the antibiotics and my stomach sickness is gone and I'm starting to get my voice back. Keep the prayers going.

Qingdao visit

Sorry it's taken so long to post. I couldn't access the blog last night when we got back to our hotel. Where do I begin since the last post. I believe I mentioned I was sick from a Chinese meal that I had Wednesday night. Well that lasted over 24 hours. We went to the hotel restaurant Thursday night for dinner and I could not eat a thing, Marie was crying (first jelously moment--Mom broke Katie's roll in half and I didn't break hers type of thing), Katie wouldn't eat. So Jim ended up eating alone. Yesterday I couldn't eat breakfast (I told everyone I would probably lose wait over here) but by the time we all got on the train around 9 a.m. I was finally feeling better. The train ride was great. It was an European train that they just started 22 days ago. It had great comfortable seats and it was fast--got us to Qingdao in 2 hours vs. 3-4 hrs. We then went to the Notary's office to finish the paperwork. This then made everything official. I was a day too early celebrating before. We left there and went to the Qingdao SWI (orphanage). We met two of the directors (men) and the assistant director (woman) was there. She is the one who brought Katie to us. The orphanage was very clean and they were remodeling. They have 150 children there and then 200 placed in foster care. We probably only saw 20 or less in the three rooms we were allowed to go in and they were all under 2 years old. They said they normally keep the children from infant to little older (1 1/2) to evaluate them. If no serious issues, they place them in foster care so they can have a family experience. To the three families that I had carried gifts, the orphanage has them and will get them delivered. All of your children were with the foster families so we did not get to see them. The orphanage people wanted to take us out to dinner for a celebration. This was a perfect pre-birthday party for Jim. Of course, I ate very little since I really wasn't craving Chinese food. They even brought out a big cake for him. They were such fun people and we all laughed so much. It's amazing how you can communication when you don't speak the same language. When we got back though, poor little Katie had a rough night. She had been coughing and it got worse last night. She was so congested. I was up with her most of the night. She threw up all over herself in bed and I had to give her a bath in the middle of the night and have Housekeeping come change the bed. I called the doctor from Cincinnati Childrens Medical Center and she told me to start her on the antibiotic that I brought and to double her cough medicine. This finally knocked her out and she and Marie are still sleeping (8 a.m.) I just got up myself. Normally we have been getting up around 4:30 a.m. When I spoke to the doctor on the phone, she said "you sound terrible yourself". I've lost my voice pretty much. I know it's been crazy. One week down and one to go. The orphanage people are planning to take us sightseeing today around Qingdao and then we return to Jinan tonight on the train. That will be our fifth time checking into a hotel which hasn't been a whole lot of fun. I thank the Lord though that Katie has adjusted so well to us. I can't imagine if she was struggling with it and her and I being sick on top of that. Well today (Saturday) is Jim and my sister Carol's birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAROL).

She's Officially Ours!

I could not have asked for Katie's transition to go any better. She has not cried one time since they brought her. The orphanage assistant director said she did cry for her foster parents on the train ride but by the time they arrived in Jinan three hours later, she asked them if she was still in China. They said yes and she wanted to know when she would get on the big plane. As soon as she arrived last night, she gave us all a hug. Today we finalized the adoption at the Civil Affairs Office. This little girl will definitely be going to Kindergarten next year. I had told everyone I would wait and see where she was developmentally, etc. She is very very smart and will talk and talk. It won't be long for this little one to pick up English. Katie (we're calling her Feng Meng at the time being) and Marie act like they've always been sisters. It is amazing. They are in the bathroom taking a bubble bath together now laughing and singing. She was so very well taken care of and prepared for our arrival. She is wearing size 4 but it looks like not for long. They brought her in the dress I had sent in our December care package. I had also brought Marie's just in case so Marie hurried and put hers on too. The shoes we brought (Alycia's old ones) are too small. You would not believe how tall the people are in Shangdong Province. Some of the men are taller than Jim and Lance (the Perry family). Katie is very well behaved. We will not be meeting the foster family since the orphanage said it was too hard on them and her when she left. I cannot begin to imagine the pain. They sent a wonderful photo alumn of their family and Feng Meng's time with them. She has a big foster brother and he gave her a necklace she wears under her shirts. She calls me Mama a lot and Jim Baba (which means daddy). She will go to each of us and no one is being rejected. Although Miss Marie definitely gets most of the attention. Katie has a cough but it's not too bad. They said she had a cold. This morning I woke up sicker than a dog after eating Chinese at a local Jinan restaurant. Nothing like starting out your first full day with your new daughter and feeling so sick. We got checked into our new hotel this afternoon. Boy is it nice. Anyone traveling to Jinan, I would recommend the Sofitel Hotel. Only problem is that we're hungry and can't find any American food for lunch. We're having Pizza Hut for dinner tonight. Me and Chinese food will not be meeting again in the near future. Tomorrow morning we head out to Qingdao to the Notary portion of the adoption and we'll visit the orphanage and spend the night there (fourth hotel) and then back to Jinan on Saturday. Hope you enjoy the pictures. I posted a couple more of the first time she got to our hotel room last night.