Christmas Morning Mayhem

Let the unwrapping begin!

Aaaaah! Daddy is attacked by a gigantic T-rex!! T-rex is Jason's gift, but he is a hit with all the kids! I have never seen such a BIG dinosaur toy. So glad we decided to get it-- it was kind of an after thought.

Seriously, Mother...what exactly is going on around here today?

Jason is explaining the finer points of his new toy.

We think Sarah likes her kitchen!

Tried to get a shot of all the kids. You can see how excited Jason and Sarah were to sit for the picture. Pure torture, right? :)

We had a very nice Christmas this year. It was extra special to have Sarah home with us!!! It still doesn't seem quite real that she is actually here! (I know that sounds strange, but it's kind of true.)

Amid all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we are especially grateful for our many blessings, and for the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We hope you all find love, peace and happiness with your families and loved ones during this special time. Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

My good friend Ferrill made this very festive banner and background for my blog! What a great Christmas gift! Thank you, Ferrill!!!

Oh, Christmas Tree...

Sarah: "Can I have that?"

Sarah: "I need to adjust this ornament."

Jason: "Here, let me help you."

Smile!

Future Ballerina (or Shoe Love, Part 2)

Sarah is showing us first position with her favorite shoes and a tutu that she puts on herself! Maybe she'll like dancing and gymnastics-- she certainly is an agile little girl!

Either that or she'll be a mountain climber-- her climbing skills are spectacular! :) She climbs everything-- you'd think after four boys nothing would surprise me... but she is full of surprises! Busy, climbing surprises! :)

We have been home for a month now. The time has really flown by! It feels like Sarah has been a part of our family forever-- the transition for her and for us has been pretty smooth. We are grateful for the loving care she received from New Day Foster Home and her sweet foster parents.

We love her so much! She is a precious, sweet child and she's OURS! Such a BIG miracle in such a little girl!

Shoe Love

Sarah loves shoes. She loves to try on shoes at the store...

and likes to try on her brothers' shoes throughout the day...

then she clomps through the house to show me her new shoes!

(And, yes... that is a vacuum cleaner cord strung across the tile!)

I'm having a crash course in learning to do little girl's hair. This was probably my first attempt at pigtails. I'm getting a little faster at it-- the hardest part for me is getting the parts straight!

I have to do Sarah's hair while she eats breakfast. Otherwise it's a lost cause! She is not fond of sitting still and only tolerates having her hair messed with if she is occupied... so we have found a morning routine that works!

Our Beautiful Girl!

Happy Birthday!

Our sweet Jason boy is now three years old. Jason's due date was Christmas Day, but my water broke three weeks early and he still weighed in at a healthy 8 lbs, 4 oz!
Jason is my cuddly boy and is happy most of the time. He is very observant and already knows most of his alphabet, which is somewhat surprising, because we really didn't teach him any of it!
He always has lots to say and makes us smile.
We love you, little man! (To which Jason would reply, "I'm not a little man, I'm a big boy!")

Christmas Pictures, Take 1

Watch Jason (red sweater) and Sarah in these shots! Also notice the "bunched up" dress in the first couple!

Jason: "Is she still here?" :)

Sarah: "What's up there?"

Sarah: "What's down here?"

Jason: "I AM smiling, Mom!"

Hey, wait! This one might be a keeper. Whoops! The princess is done with the photo shoot.

Been busy...

This girl can eat! Her appetite has really increased and she is eating a wider variety of foods all the time. This is a relief to me, as I was worried about her eating habits. Her latest favorite food-- corn on the cob!

After the bath! We bought Sarah several cute footed pajamas so she stays warmer at night. She is a very active sleeper and the covers don't stay on for long.

It seems like we just got home and Thanksgiving is here! This past week has been very busy with hoilday stuff and getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a nice Thanksgiving with Grandma and Granddad P. and Dean and Nancy. Why I didn't take pictures of everyone, I honestly don't know. :)

We are going to try to get some Christmas card photos of the kids done this week. Should be interesting, trying to get five kids to look at the camera and smile at the same time!

Sarah is doing very well, and amazes us all with her spunky personality and sweet smile! We love this little girl very much!

The Wagon Incident

Sarah has been pretty clingy to her mommy this week, although today she has played a little more independently. I don't mind the "clingyness" and I understand why, but sometimes it's hard to get anything done! :) But that's OK.
So on Wednesday evening I was trying to catch up on a few chores and the boys asked if they could play with her in the front yard. I was relieved she wanted to go outside with them, so off they went.
A few minutes later Justin came running into the house with a crying Sarah. Oh, no. Apparently they were playing with her in the wagon and she toppled out of it... onto the driveway. She didn't cry very long and was ready to play again in a few minutes, but now she has a nice "road rash" on one of her cheeks and the side of her nose. Lovely. Just in time for Thanksgiving family pictures, right?
The culprits felt very sorry (it really was an accident), but I still couldn't stop from telling them, "Just wait til your dad gets home!"
And to add to my embarrassment as an "unfit parent", I had to take her to the doc on Thursday morning.
"Oh, no.. what happened?" he asked.
So I gave him the gory details. And he laughed and said, "Oh, she'll be fine, just put neosporin on it."
And Sarah promptly grinned and waved bye bye to him. I'm sure she was happy she didn't get any more shots!
Anyway, Sarah's face looks a little better every day. Sigh. So this is why I haven't posted pictures much this week! :) Probably I will get brave and post some soon!

Home Sweet Home (pictures)!

We are home (late Friday night)! Dave and I look very travel weary-- but Sarah is ready for the party!

Not sure about this car seat business!

Thanks Nicole for the signs! We are so happy to be home!
Jason is a big brother! And he is really BIG compared to Sarah! Playing the piano with Evan and Logan.

Um, did I mention she likes to climb? The stairs are no problem-- both up and down.

Today she climbed up the entire slide! It's about 8 feet long.

And slid right down! And yes, this seems pretty amazing for a 19 month old! I think we're in for a wild ride with this little cutie! ;)

Great Wall of China

We drove for about an hour in the taxi through some small villages in the mountains. Then we hop out of the car and get on one of these!! A ski lift! I couldn't believe it. I guess I thought we would just walk up to the wall. I didn't realize the wall was on the mountain tops, which makes sense, of course. We actually took this picture on the way back down, so this is why it's darker than the rest. By the time we left it was getting dark and it was COLD and foggy.

Here is Ike. The man should run marathons! He's not much taller than me, but he can really move FAST. He knew we were pressed for time and wanted to make sure we got some pictures before it got too dark, so he moved even faster than normal. It was a work out, for sure!

How incredible is this? The building behind us is a watch tower, and you can see them spaced out along the wall. The watch towers were where the soldiers lived. I can't imagine how cold those buildings must have been in the winter. The holes along the sides of the wall and on the tops of the towers were for shooting arrows.

It's hard to get a shot that gives you an idea of the vastness of the wall. It just goes on and on and on, all along the mountain tops. It truly is an amazing wonder of the world. It was very foggy, and the mountains were beautiful.

This is one of the little "arrow shooting" holes along the wall.

Just a neat picture of the mountains through an opening in the wall.

This is inside one of the watch towers.

Another shot of the different watch towers.

One last great picture! Sarah was a trooper, of course. She really liked the ski lift and laughed and giggled all the way back down the mountain. She is very wiggly when she's excited, so I had a death grip on her and Dave kept saying, "Do you have her? Do you have her?" because she was so wiggly!

P.S. Wanted to get these last China pictures posted today, will try to post some homecoming pictures tomorrow. For some reason blogger is really slow tonight.

So we stood on the Great Wall on Friday afternoon, flew 12 hours, crossed the International Date Line, arrived at LAX on Friday afternoon, and slept in our own bed on Friday night, MST. How's that for a busy Friday??? :)

Last picture of Ike helping us at the Beijing airport. The terminal is huge and very cool. Sarah is very photogenic and likes to see the picture in the camera window after it is taken. She is sitting in the luggage cart. It was the perfect size for her. :)

Home Sweet Home!

We made it!!! Seven flights (total) and over 24 hours of travel time, we are home!!! The flights were all fine. Sarah slept for about an hour on the Guangzhou to Beijing flight and amost the entire Beijing to LAX flight (the flight was 12 hours). This was definitely an answer to prayer! :)

It was WONDERFUL to see the boys and grandparents waiting for us at the airport. We missed them all so much. At the airport, Jason was pretty mad at us and was crying when he saw us, but this morning he gave us big hugs and told us he loves us, so I think we're forgiven! :) And he looks huge to us and is so much heavier than we remember-- we haven't been picking up a 35 lb toddler for 2 weeks. Sarah is light as a feather compared to Jason.

Back to the travel story-- it was just a quick flight from LA to home. It was nice to be in LA again. We had Cinnabons and MILK! It was the first milk we'd had in two weeks (there was a milk scare not too long ago in China--pretty sure it would have been fine to drink milk there, but were advised not to.) We didn't get sick at all in China and we ate a lot of different kinds of food in a lot of different places. And we had ice cream, too-- so we obviously didn't worry too much about the milk issue. :)

Will post pictures tomorrow. But here's the coolest thing. We had a six hour lay over in Beijing, which is a LONG time with a toddler in tow, so we called Ike and he met us at the airport and took us to the Great Wall! It was AMAZING! But more about that tomorrow!

The two biggest blessings on our trip (besides our sweet Sarah, of course!!) were New Day Foster Home and Ike. New Day is just amazing and Sarah was so loved and cared for by the staff and her foster parents. It is completely obvious that her foster parents adored her. Sarah is coping very well with this huge transition in her life. She is a brave and trusting little girl. This is not to say that there aren't difficult moments (she is a very determined toddler!), but we are not dealing with more difficult issues that some adoptive families face.

And Ike was also a great guide and friend. He was very kind and patient with us and and so sweet with Sarah. He gave her a special cup as a keepsake when we said goodbye to him at the airport and told us to come back to China soon! We are so glad we got to see him again in Beijing!

We would love to go back-- someday. But it's not in the cards for a while. We would like to take Sarah back when she's older.

OK, so my sleep cycle is all messed up. But we'll get back to normal at some point. Sarah fits right in with the boys and their noise and chaos. Today she was chasing Jason all around the kitchen and she lets the older boys pick her up and show her around. They are pretty smitten with her, and so is her Daddy, by the way! She already has him wrapped around her little finger! I think from Day 1!

More tomorrow-- pictures of our homecoming and the Wall!

Day 12-- US Consulate visit

Today (Thursday) we went to the U.S. consulate building to have the swearing in ceremony and to pick up the "all important" brown consulate envelope that has Sarah's visa. The room was full today (close to 40 families representing 26 states) with families from all over the U.S. who have come to China to bring home a child.
It was great to see all those kids today and know that they are all going home to loving families. It was a heart warming and touching experience. Just amazing. That basically sums up this entire trip.
Are we ready to go home? YES!!! Am I glad I came? Absolutely.
No pictures today (sorry). Need to get ready for bed. Tomorrow is going to be a marathon day. We will be traveling for 24 hours by the time we touch down at home. We are a little worried about Sarah on the flights, but hopefully she'll sleep thru the long one from Beijing to LAX. Please pray that all will go smoothly for us tomorrow. Thanks for all your comments and support!
Grandma and Grandpa W-- please remember Sarah's car seat. I'm sure she'll love her car seat. (NOT!) She thinks that her place is my lap in any vehicle, and we have yet to see seat belts here! So this should make for an interesting ride home. Ear plugs, perhaps? :) Hope not.

Day 11-- Consulate appt and free time

Here we are outside the Italian restaurant where we ate dinner one night. It was very good. So, just in case you were wondering-- it was an Italian restaurant (La Dolce Vita) in a Chinese city with Chinese waitresses who were serving American customers!

Sarah is very agile and flexible. She can climb just about everything. Hmmm. Should be interesting at home. The boys weren't big climbers.

Can you tell she is full of life and personality? She also folds her arms like this when we tell her "no", except then her expression isn't quite as happy! ;) When the Chinese ask us what province she is from and we say Jiangxi, they say, "Oh, she's a spicy girl!" And she is! Sweet and a little spicy! :)

I see a lot of this side of Sarah as I trail her to keep up! Do you see the little boy on the bench? She kept going up to him to say hello! She's not shy-- which will also be a change for us from the boys!Running toward the camera.

Playing at the park with the locals. She climbs right up the slide like a pro!

The island we are staying on is very popular for wedding photography because of the beautiful old trees and buildings. We have seen wedding couples every day since we've been here.

On Wednesday morning we had our consulate appointment, but we didn't actually go to the consulate. Our agency went with our paperwork and we stayed in our hotel room for 30 minutes in case the consulate had any questions for us. We weren't called, so the rest of the day was free to do what we wanted!

We spent some time shopping and just enjoying the weather. I have to tell you about shopping here. It is not my favorite thing to do partly because it takes a lot of energy to bargain with the shopkeepers! But I am starting to enjoy it more. The shopkeepers follow you around and try to sell you just about everything! :)

We have decided there is a definite "learning curve" with figuring out how to bargain effectively. We are doing much better now and usually end up getting the price down to around half the original estimate. Today I was pretty proud of us because we got Sarah 2 more pairs of squeaky shoes for about $6.00 USD total.

That's about all the Wednesday news. Today (Thursday) we are actually going to the US Consulate to have a "swearing in" ceremony. Then we will get Sarah's visa packet to take with us back to the U.S.

P.S. Amy-- thanks for the tip about Jennifer's Place. She is very nice and her prices have been the most reasonable of all the stores.