Life with Lia

2012 Begins!

2012-01-16T12:09:00.000-08:00

Two weeks into the New Year and Lia has already come down with, and overcome another cold. All it took was two days back at preschool and she was down for a week, but thankfully she has now bounced back and we can (hopefully) get back into our pre-holiday routine - just in time for Chinese New Year next week!

Lia's Christmas extended way beyond December 25th. She continued to receive gifts and cards well into the new year. Needless to say, this little girl is well-loved and doted on by many friends and family near and far! Thank you so much to everyone who helped make our holiday special...

Another package from Grandma Wall...Tinkerbelle jammies - YAY!

Loving her oversized Unicorn pillow pet...

Those eyes - is this kid gorgeous or what???
This was after a long day at preschool...and with a cold coming on...

First snow in Seattle this year!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T19:15:00.000-08:00

First time visiting Santa!

Christmas Eve fun

Our happy girl on Christmas morning...

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Halloween, Birthday, and Preschool!

2011-11-15T15:30:00.000-08:00

So much activity to catch up on over the past couple of weeks! No wonder I can't find time to blog...

First of all, Lia celebrated her second Halloween with us and this year dressed up as "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast. She decided on this costume a couple months ago and I was glad she didn't end up changing her mind at the last minute. She understood and was able to say "trick or treat" (or "rick or ree" as she says it). We were pleasantly surprised that the small town where we now live celebrates Halloween in a BIG way! They close off a six block radius of main street for three hours and all the businesses stay open late to give out candy to the kids. Some businesses even do group-themed costumes. It seems like the entire population turned out for this event. I'd never seen so many folks in town at once! My parents, sister, and uncle Dave all joined Steve, Lia and I for trick or treating. It was a fun night.

Next up? Lia's 3rd Birthday, which we celebrated last Saturday. She again wanted to wear her Belle costume, but this time the theme was (again, her decision) "Purple, Princess, Pony" (her three favorite things currently). The party was a great success with lots of extended family and friends present for her big day.

The biggest moment (for me) was watching her blow out her own birthday candles. Redirecting air flow to her mouth (from her nose) has been a big goal in speech therapy the past several months, so it was awesome to see her blow air with enough force to extinguish those three candles.

After the big party, we were lucky enough to have won tickets (for the second year in a row!) to see Yo Gabba Gabba Live, so we headed downtown and took in the big show. Needless to say, we had a very tired little girl by the end of the night...

Last (but definitely not least), Lia started preschool on Monday! This was a big deal because she had to be three in order to qualify for the school's early preschool program, which is communication-intensive and integrates kids with speech and hearing deficits into the same classroom with "typically developing" three year olds. During her time there (3 days/week, 2.5 hrs/day), she will also receive two half-hour sessions of one-on-one speech therapy with the therapist she has been seeing the past four weeks (who we love!) All in all, a terrific situation for us. We are so happy to have found this program in our local community!

Definitely a busy and exciting few weeks around here, with only more to come as she gets used to school, and the big holiday season just around the corner. She's already excited everytime she sees Santa and his "ponies" (reindeer). "Rudolph, the red-nosed PONY..."

Fall is Upon Us

2011-10-15T11:48:00.003-07:00

We are coming up on a big season for our family. For us, this includes Halloween, Lia's Birthday, Thanksgiving, and of course Christmas and New Year's...all within the span of two months...Zoinks!

It seems like it's been forever since I found the time to blog. Things have been super busy at work and lately many days I feel like - although I'm only paid to work part-time - I'm really not doing a good job at either my job or being a mommy. I guess all moms feel this way. If I could only clone myself...or have more hours in the day. *sigh*

As I mentioned, Lia's 3rd birthday is quickly coming upon us and people have been asking me whats she's currently "into"... Let me tell you, she's very opinionated! We still have three purple tutu dresses in high rotation, now joined by a pair of purple fairy wings, and a purple princess tiara (which are usually paired with purple rubber rainboots!) She goes around the house collecting purple items and carrying them around together in her purple Halloween candy basket. We go to restaurants and she pulls the purple crayon out of every kids cup or box of crayons and asks me to put it in the diaperbag for safekeeping. She only wants a purple blanket on her bed, and picks the purple Fruit Loops out of her cereal and hands the rest to me. Do you see a theme here?

She has specifically requested a "Purple Pony Princess Party" for her birthday. In addition to the color purple, My Pretty Pony and Disney Princesses are her favorite things on earth (even better when they come in purple!). Unicorns are also high on her list. It seems Mickey and Tinkerbell are now considered "for babies" and she has moved on from those previously beloved characters... Lia also has developed an affinity for "kitties". She likes to crawl around on the floor and play kitty and "meow" to us. She loves visiting grandma's kitty (when it will cooperate and let itself be seen!)

All this said, she shocked the heck out of me when we started talking about Halloween and she said she wanted to be "Belle" from Beauty & the Beast. WHAT??? She's never seen "Beauty and the Beast"...but more importantly, Belle wears a yellow dress, not purple!!! But over and over again she has confirmed that Belle is who she wants to be. I asked her if she wanted to be Belle because Belle has brown hair like Lia. She said, "no, brown hair like mama." That made this mama's heart sing! So Belle she will be...

We've made several visits to Seattle Children's Hospital over the past month to get Lia set up with all her new specialists on this side of the mountains. All the providers we've visited have been wonderful. We learned that our girl currently weighs a whoppin 28 lbs. and is now 3 feet tall! Long and thin for sure, but healthy and while still picky with food, she is eating more now than she was in the past. Her blood and liver tests all came back with the normal range.

We had a six-hour marathon "cleft team" evaluation last Monday. The majority of the news we received was good, and it was great to get a second opinion on what we'd already heard from our providers in Spokane. Lia's hearing checked out the same, with very minor conductive hearing loss in her left ear, and normal hearing in her right ear. We were disappointed to learn that her palate does have tiny hole in it again, at the very top of the arch (right where it happened last time), but this one is much smaller, it's barely the size of a tip of a pen, so the doctors aren't going to worry about repairing it for now. The ENT does have some concern about the amount of air coming out of her nose when she talks, and believes an endoscopy and possible p-flap surgery may be required in the future to close the gap at the back of her throat, but we all agreed to let her work through speech therapy for another year before we decide whether that is really necessary. So as long as her ear tubes stay put, we *should* be able to go surgery-free this year! YAY.

After eight weeks in transition, we finally got Lia started in speech therapy again, and I couldn't be happier. We saw a speech therapist at the hospital, who was terrific, but we were really hoping to find someone closer to home (since it's at least an hour commute for us each way to the hospital). I was so pleased to find out that our local elementary school has a great speech therapist we can see 2x/week right now while Lia is still 2, and then once she turns 3 next month, she will qualify for the school's early preschool 3x/week and her speech sessions will be built-in to her mornings at preschool! As it turns out, the speech therapist recently moved back to Washington from the Denver area too and we had actually worked in some of the same professional circles there, so that was a great "sign" for me that I was making the right decision about all of this. Another YAY.

We were able to visit the preschool classroom one day when the students weren't there. Lia got to look around the room, meet the teacher, and play with some of the toys. Since then we've been going to the school for her speech sessions (in the therapy office), she has been exposed to all the kids running around, the school bell, and all the other action a K-5 school has going on a daily basis. One thing I love about the small town where we live, is that there is a dad (or teacher?) that stands out front of the school while the kids are arriving, playing bluegrass on his banjo and greeting everyone. It makes for such a happy, welcoming atmosphere. You can't help but smile. Again, all this just makes me feel really good about the decision we made to move and to live in this town.

In other news, my sister Tracy finished up chemo a few weeks ago, and her tests have come back clear from cancer, so that is awesome news! As you can see from the photo at left, Lia loves her Aunt Tracy.

Also, Steve and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary together last weekend. Time flies...sort of? In some ways it feels like we've known each other much longer than five years. Same with Lia. She's only been home 13 months, but it's hard to remember life before she was in our lives. I feel so lucky to have both of these amazing people in my life. Very blessed.

I almost forgot to mention...Lia had a blast going on her very first carousel ride last month! My friend Megan came to town and we all trekked to the Western Washington State Fair for a few hours of fun. Lia got to see real horses and ponies, and visit the animals in the petting zoo... She had her first cotton candy, and took a ride on a mini choo-choo train - but the merry-go-round was definitely the biggest hit! Each time she picked out a white horse (with a purple saddle of course!) She rode it six times in all. Thank goodness Steve was willing to go round and round in circles over and over again in the heat of the day, because just going on it once made this motion-sick mama kind of dizzy. :)

Getting Adjusted

2011-09-20T14:49:00.000-07:00

It's been almost a month since I last blogged. Where is the time going??? We believed that our move west would simplify our lives (closer to family, work, smaller house, smaller community) - but I just feel like we've been even busier! Of course, the first few weeks post-move are always a mess, and even moreso with a toddler. Then there is job of getting all Lia's medical records transferred and set up with new doctors, which in itself could be a full-time job. Dealing with insurance companies, state agencies, and billing depts. to obtain the right referrals in the right sequence, and to the right new doc's and therapists. I'm still wading my way through it all. We are getting closer on having her back in speech therapy (she's now gone seven weeks without), and we have initial meetings set up with all the various cleft "team" doctors she needs to see, since in October she will be six months post-surgery from her last palate repair.

We have also made a little bit of time for fun. I have been lucky to become part of the larger group of "Starfish Families" on Facebook. All of us have children adopted from the Starfish Foster Home in Xi'an. Through this group I learned that one of Lia's foster brothers was recently placed with a family in Vancouver B.C. It so happened that his family was coming down to Seattle for the annual Dragonboat Races, so we were able to meet up with them for awhile one recent afternoon:

Proud mamas and their "Starfish"

Lia scooping up sand with River's sandal!

Then I had the awesome opportunity to finally meet a friend of mine from the "adoption blog" world. Kim and I started the China adoption process around the same time back in 2006. Kim lives in Tennessee, and went on to adopt her daughter from Kazakhstan in 2009, and of course we brought Lia home in 2010. How fun that Kim and her daughter were out in Seattle for a family wedding, and we were able to meet up with our girls for dinner one night! It is almost surreal, when you see these children in person. The hopes and dreams of a family-fulfilled. It was also very cute to see Lia interact with Kim's daughter, (who is 7). Lia is generally shy around kids her own age, but she really warmed up and had fun that night with a friend who was a little bit older.

Lia continues to come out of her shell more and more. She is using more words (especially the word "NO"). She is starting to learn how to spit when brushing her teeth, and she helped me in the kitchen for the first time making brownies the other night! We've been going to the local library storytimes, and while it's much smaller than the group we had in Spokane, this seems to work better for Lia. She is more engaged in the books, and also more willing to participate in the silly songs and dancing. We are back at square one on potty-training. She really is just not that interested - at all - right now. She is not motivated by stickers or M&M's or "big girl" panties...so I figure I'll let that slide for a bit and try again in a few weeks. I'm definitely ready to be done with diapers, but as the doctors and others have told me, there's no point in pushing her if she's not ready. Here are some more pics of her many "firsts"...

First shoulder ride with Daddy

First Princess Nightgown

First pony ride at the grocery store

Some Pics of our New Place

2011-08-28T11:05:00.000-07:00

We made the move back to western Washington a couple weeks ago. We are finally starting to get organized and unpacked. Moving is such a hassle - ugh. But overall, we are very happy that we made the move. Lia loves the new house! Rather than "growing pains", we have experienced some "shrinking pains" since we downsized quite a bit for this move. This house is half the square feet of our house in eastern WA, but it has an open layout, and we are making it work. The views of the surrounding wooded ravine and towering evergreens are beautiful, and we are just five minutes from the shores of Puget Sound. This town has a slower pace of life, and we appreciate that, but the city is also only 20 minutes away, which allows us the best of both worlds. We feel very blessed to be living here, and the weather has been beautiful...

Our American Citizen...One Year Ago & Today!

2011-08-27T13:33:00.002-07:00

A year ago today, our plane from China landed in Seattle and Lia officially became an American citizen. My, how our sweet baby girl has grown and changed in the past year! Last September we had a developmental assessment done. At the time, Lia was 22 mos. old and her only word was "mama". Her hearing was 85% blocked, and she came in at a 17 mos. old level for gross and fine motor skills. Yesterday we had a second assessment, and our lively, chatty, 33 mos. old is now doing things that many 3 yr olds can't do! The only area where she is behind is speech (which we will continue to work on in the coming years). You've come a long way baby - WE LOVE YOU!

Lia's first time at a local park...one year ago tomorrow!

...and in our backyard on her very own swing - TODAY!

Our First Family Day!

2011-08-17T12:15:00.001-07:00

Lia: Then and Now

We successfully got moved across the state last weekend, and now we just have a huge mess of boxes on our hands. With all the craziness, I didn't have a chance to blog about our first Family Day on Monday. We DID celebrate (Chinese dinner with Grandma & Grandpa). It was low-key and perfect. Lia doesn't really "get it" yet, but it was certainly important for us to mark the occasion. She was just thrilled with the Disney Princess balloon that grandpa brought for her. :)

A lot of adoptive families celebrate "Gotcha Day", but I deliberately chose the term "Family Day". Mainly, because our "gotcha" moment in Xi'an wasn't really something to celebrate. Of course we will always remember that moment, but it was intense and upsetting for Lia and for us... She was terrified, sad, and screaming, and we were nervous and worried and sad for her. Not exactly a moment you want to "celebrate" for all time...

The term "Family Day" just makes more sense for us. It is the day we became a family...and that IS definitely something to celebrate!

Yep! It's Happening Again...

2011-08-10T16:03:00.000-07:00

That's right, we're on the move again! For those who have been following this blog since the very beginning (Nov. 2006) - this will be my sixth move in five years...*sigh*. This time however, it's not because of a job. It's just a quality of life issue. While we've enjoyed our three years in eastern Washington, we are ready to head back to the west side of the state. My job is headquartered there (although I'll still be working part-time from home for the most part), and Steve is able to run his consulting business from anywhere - so given that our current landlord decided to sell the house we've been leasing, we had to make the decision to move to another house here in town, or move back closer to family and friends on the west side of the state.

It was not an easy decision. Moving is always expensive, and because all of Lia's medical providers are here, the thought of setting up new relationships with all new doctors and therapists was daunting. But with the help of some great contacts here in town, I've been able to make connections on the west side which I feel will be good for Lia. We were also sad about leaving our local friends who traveled with us to China last year, but we hope they will visit us at our new home so our girls (and we!) can stay connected.

I was a bit worried about how Lia would handle all the hustle and bustle around the house. Packing and moving boxes, various rooms and surroundings changing...but she has not seemed the least bit stressed about it. We've told her that we are moving to a new house - mama, daddy, Lia, the dogs - and all her toys, and her bed, and our TV and all the food, etc. and she seems OK with it so far. I'm not sure she really understands it yet, but so far, so good.

I think I've had the hardest time with all of it. I don't like feeling "pushed" out of my home, especially my daughter's first home with us. I also took a nasty fall while packing last week and ended up at the ER! Let this be a lesson to you all - never underestimate the damage that can be done by slipping onto your bathroom floor. A sprained ankle, bruised tailbone, and big bump on the head later...UGH! It could have been a lot worse, and I am thankful that it wasn't, but I am still sore 10 days later...

In better health news, at Lia's visit to her ENT last week, her palate was looking really good (still 100% closed) and her audiology tests came positive as well. Her right ear appears to have perfect hearing, while her left still shows a little bit of impairment (but not too far outside the "normal" range). Hooray!

We also finished our final 12-month post-placement report with our social worker two weeks ago. This fulfills our final requirement with the Chinese government. I was thrilled to send along four terrific photos of our happy, smiling girl for the government adoption officials to see. It's hard to believe that one year ago today we were boarding a plane to China!

Splish Splashing Away!

2011-07-17T21:53:00.000-07:00

Way up here in the Northwest, we've had a cool summer thus far. Too cold for an unheated pool anyway. We bought a kiddie pool for Lia last summer before we left for China, but by the time we got home it was September and the weather was already cooling down. So we were happy to bring it out this weekend, our first truly warm weekend this year - and Lia loved it!

Summer 2011 - July 4th

2011-07-10T11:56:00.001-07:00

Last week we packed the car and headed west to spend the holiday weekend with my parents at their beautiful island home. An anonymous donor on the island funded a spectacular fireworks show over the marina, which just happens to be located in front of their house. So we all had "front row" comfortable seats on their deck for the show!

You couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather on Independence Day in the Pacific Northwest. I remember MANY Fourths growing up as a kid that were rainy and/or cold and cloudy... But with sunshine and temps in the 70s, we really had a perfect weekend this year.

Sunset on the marina

View of Mt. Rainier from the island

We had wondered how Lia would react to the fireworks...and whether our sensitive and sometimes over-stimulated little girl might get scared and I had been prepared to take her in the house, turn up some music and wait it out. But we needn't have worried. She was completely enthralled by all the "pretties" and "boom booms" lighting up the night sky. Of course Lia always enjoys spending time with grandparents who dote on her:

Her first picnic in the park with Grandma

Waiting for the fireworks to begin with Grandpa

We also had the chance to visit with Lia's great grandma, great aunt & uncle, and "aunt" KC (my cousin):

The car trip went better this time than in the past. We rigged up a DVD player in the backseat with all of Lia's favorite cartoons, and also provided some "surprise" snacks and toys (such as a "travel" magna doodle sketch board - which was a HUGE hit!) So she kept busy or slept the entire trip.

Really fun this time around, was that Lia was awake for the ferry ride to my parents' house. When we traveled in December, it was dark both times we rode the ferry and she slept through it. This time she was wide awake and loving every minute of it. We parked the car and walked up to the deck where she could watch the seagulls following the boat and feel the wind whip through her hair. We had a blast!

Our Barking, Swinging, Singing Princess!

2011-06-26T14:51:00.003-07:00

Lia is going thru a stage where she wants to wear her "Ni Hao Kai-Lan" purple tutu dress. Every. Single. Day. Never mind the fact that she has a closet full of adorable clothes that have been gifted to her over the past several years. Nope, the $5.99 Walmart Kai-Lan dress it is. Everyday. God forbid when laundry day comes around and the purple dress goes in the wash...it's not a pretty sight. There are tears. So if you look at my photos here and on Facebook and notice that she always seems to be wearing the same outfit. You are not mistaken.

This week Lia went to the park and actually enjoyed the toddler swing for the first time. The last few times we have tried it, she was very nervous, and would start to whine as soon as we got any real motion going. This week she got going fast enough to feel the wind in her hair, and she loved it!

Lia also decided that a good accompanyment to her purple tutu dress is a pink feathered princess tiara. So that was pretty much the get-up everywhere we went this weekend...Starbuck's, grocery store, Dollar Tree, Texas Roadhouse, Lake Coeur d'Alene, IHOP, etc. People stop and say to her, "How cute, is it your birthday sweetie?" and we tell them no, she just likes wearing this outfit. A few of them give me the stink-eye - like I'm indulging her "diva" behavior. And maybe I am. It's certainly not worth a power struggle in my opinion. I know I don't pressure my little girl to be a "princess". We don't call her Princess, we don't play Princess, and we really don't watch any Princess movies (since they all have scary parts). God knows I am not a girly-girl type! I'm lucky to remember to run a brush thru my hair and put on some lip gloss most days... But right now she is definitely attracted to all things girly. If it's purple or pink, and sparkles or glitters, then it's okay with Lia.

Another interesting habit she's picked up over the past week, has been crawling around on the floor, following us around and pretending to be a dog. Tongue out, panting away... This seems to disturb our real dogs more than it bothers Steve or I...again, no biggie. Lia's an only-child. I'm glad to see her using her imagination!

We also continue to have daily "concerts" in our home. TV talent shows such as "America's Got Talent" and "The Glee Project", have spawned a performer! She grabs the flexible light from our portable lap desk, and uses it as a microphone, dragging it around the room as she belts out her tunes, uses hand gestures, and throwing her head back and closing her eyes on the big notes - it's hilarious! Once she is finished and we start clapping, she stops to take a bow...what a ham! Steve caught some of it on video the other night:

Summertime!

2011-06-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

Our big 2.5 year old girl has grown almost an inch, and gained 7 oz. over the past month! Lia is now almost 37 inches tall. We are still trying to reach that elusive 26 lb. weight mark, however we'll take what we can get. Lia no longer wears a bib or sits in a high chair to eat (except at restaurants). She now sits in her "big girl chair" (booster seat) at the dinner table with us:

We are finally getting to enjoy some summer-like temperatures here in the Northwest. Lia loves to be outdoors and look at all the flowers. Every day she asks her daddy to cut some fresh lilacs so she can "smell" them. So we've been spending time relaxing on our back patio and grilling all sorts of new foods for her to try.

Since being out of arm restraints and back on a normal diet, Lia has really been packing in the protein! She now loves chicken nuggets and tenders, shrimp, sausage, hot dogs, scrambled eggs w/cheese, etc. She even ate several green beans one night (that was a first!) We always offer her green veggies, but she'd never actually tried them (w/out immediately spitting them out) before...

Lia saw her first hot air balloon in the sky last week. She has always loved balloons, and to see one so high up in the sky really blew her mind. Everywhere we drove she kept looking for it and pointing to it.

She also tried her hand at karaoke for the first time last weekend. Our neighborhood block party was held at the home of the family who had the machine. We were outside chatting, when I realized I wasn't sure where Lia had gone. We went inside to check on her and there she was, mic in hand, putting on a show for several of our neighbors. She loved it. We may have a future showgirl on our hands!

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

2011-06-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

We had a great Memorial Day Weekend. My parents, uncle, and sister traveled to our house and got to spend some quality time with Miss Lia. My sister Tracy brought Lia a Tinkerbell gift bag filled with goodies. A "Barbie-sized" Tinkerbell doll, a couple pairs of Hello Kitty socks, purple sunglasses (Lia's favorite color) and large Koosh ball type thing. Lia was very excited over her new treasures and dolled herself up like a diva strutting around the house:

We also received very good reports back from Lia's doctors last week. Her surgeon was very pleased with how her palate has healed since her surgery May 4. At this point her palate looks completely intact, and she *should* not require any further palate surgeries until her adult teeth come in. We all have our fingers crossed that no more fistulas appear in the meantime. She is still eating only soft foods for one more week, and then she will be released to a normal toddler diet. We also hope that this set of eartubes will last longer than the first set did (only 3 months!) If we can keep them in place for 10-12 months, it is possible that her ears may not need them after that - or she may need another pair placed. We'll just play that one by *ear* (haha)... Her pediatrician also had blood drawn during her surgery for a variety of tests, and called today to let us know that everything looks good. All of her counts are within (or close to) the normal range for a child of her age. So all of that is good news!

In other news, my sister will be starting her third round of chemo (in three years) in the coming couple of weeks, so we appreciate all positive thoughts and prayers sent her way. Lia LOVES her Aunt Tracy! She loves to watch Tracy put on her make-up (something mama does very little of!) and she lets Tracy do her hair up in all sorts of cute styles:

Right now Lia is ALL girly-girl and absolutely loves Tinkerbell, Minnie Mouse, Princesses and Barbie, etc. She also loves "puppies" (what she calls dogs of all ages). But she mainly loves anything that glitters or sparkles. Her favorite color is purple, (with pink coming in a close second). She is also becoming somewhat of a clotheshorse, wanting to change her outfit several times each day and shoes by the hour. People always comment on how cute we have her dressed, and I always explain that SHE picks out her clothes! She is a strong-willed kid and no longer wants me to pick out clothes for her. But you know what? She has a great sense of style! Right now if a piece of clothing has one of her favorite characters on it, it is likely to be in high rotation...and shoes embellished with sparkles or flowers are also a high priority. We are going to work on potty training in the coming weeks. I'm hoping all the cute Tink and Minnie panties will be enough motivation to get this kid out of diapers. She seems ready. Wish us luck!

Adoption Day #2

2011-05-20T19:28:00.000-07:00

Thanks for everyone's well wishes. Physically, Lia is doing really well recovering from her last surgery. She was off the pain meds completely by the following Monday (her surgery was on a Wed.). Unfortunately, the stress of the surgery and her hospital stay seems to have triggered some fears and sleeping issues that we weren't dealing with previously. We've been assured that these are completely age-appropriate behaviors and that they are typically brought on by stress in a child's life. Of course we tend to jump to the conclusion that any fears or behaviors she displays are adoption-related, but we also need to remember she is a toddler and often times toddlers go thru phases where they are afraid of the dark, or afraid of the window curtains, or afraid of the bathtub, (or in our case, all three of these at once!) But even now, those fears seem to subsiding with each day that passes, so we are hopeful that this is a short-lived phase she is going through. In the meantime, she is getting most of her sleep either in our bed with us, or on her little Mickey sofa that flips out into a small bed in our family room:

In other news, today was our court hearing to finalize the adoption in our state. In Washington, you only have to have custody of the child for six months in order to finalize, so after our six month post-placement, we decided to file the paperwork and finalize. The judge was so kind and he, our attorney, and the court clerk were all smitten with our girl. They closed the courtroom to just us and afterwards we took some photos for Lia's scrapbook.

HOORAY!

Happy Birthday, Happy Mother's Day, and Get Well Soon...

2011-05-08T17:03:00.000-07:00

Wow...busy week! Today is Mother's Day. My first "official" one. Last year I had been matched with Lia, but had not yet traveled to get her, so it was bittersweet. The four years prior to that were even more depressing as I waited...and waited...and waited...for a match. There is a lot of "hype" around Mother's Day, and I've received a lot of congratulatory messages from friends and family which is lovely, but the fact of the matter is while I am so happy Lia is in my life and I feel so blessed to have her call me mama...I can't help but think of her birthmother and the terrible decision she had to make, that ultimately led me to my daughter. I pray that somehow she is at peace with her decision and that her heart somehow "knows" that her sweet baby girl is in good hands and receiving the care she could not provide for her.

Speaking of which, thank you to everyone who held us in your thoughts and prayers this week as Lia underwent palate surgery #2. We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 on Wednesday morning, and she was rolled back to surgery just before 9 am (I cried, but she didn't thanks to the drugs they gave her beforehand). Around 11:15 we got the news that she was out of surgery and in the recovery room. Unlike last time, she was still asleep for a good hour in the recovery room...we hoped this was due to the change in her not getting morphine, which seemed to have caused a lot of extra anxiety (to put it mildly) last time. Unfortunately, she still had a very rough time coming back out of the anesthesia. Our poor girl screamed and fought everyone - us, the nurses, and pretty much the entire world for about 2 hours. Around 2 pm she finally started calming down. There was a lot more blood this time too. Not to be graphic, but rather than the blood running down the back of her throat like it did last time, this time more of the surgery was up at the front of her mouth, just behind her teeth, therefore a lot more blood ran out of her mouth - for hours. It was pretty traumatic for her and for us.We spent the night and all day Thursday (my birthday) at the hospital as well. She slept most of Thursday with one or the other of us holding her...

Lucky for us, her surgeon happened to be the on-call ENT at the hospital that night, so he popped in to check on her around 9 pm and decided she was in good enough shape to go home. So after signing all the release papers and a visit to the 24 hr pharmacy across town, we got home around midnight.

Since being home she has been perking up a bit more each day. She's still not eating much and can only eat very soft or pureed foods for the next couple of weeks. She's on several meds, so we did have one Mother's Day vomiting episode this morning (lucky for me she was sitting on daddy's lap at the time!) But other than that, she's been fairly chipper, and wearing her arm restraints without too much fuss. We appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers as she continues to heal. Our hope is that this surgery "takes" and that we won't have to go back again for several years.

Updates - April

2011-04-30T11:46:00.001-07:00

April has been a busy month for us. Catching up with friends and family, Easter activities, and a flurry of doctor visits...a lot going on! Lia really enjoyed finally meeting her Grandma W. in person. They had Skyped over the last eight months, but this was their first time playing together. Lia had a blast!

Lia is still Tinkerbell crazy! She loves all things Tinkerbell, from the movies to dolls to clothing and every other marketing ploy those marketing gurus at Disney have come up with! The Easter Bunny did his job well and brought a couple of mini "Bell" dolls for her basket. We can now go nowhere without them...

Easter Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day (one of the first we've seen this Spring!). So we dressed Lia up and snapped some photos. The dress was the first piece of clothing ever bought for Lia back in April 2007. Just after my dossier was sent to China, my sister picked out this dress for her. She looked so darling in it.

Early in the month we learned that Lia had an raging ear infection going on, which we needed to clear before we could move forward with scheduling her next palate surgery. Unfortunately, she ended up having an allergic reaction to the antibiotics, so we ended up at the doctor (again) for rash cream. On the bright side her ears are now cleared, and we are scheduled for her 2nd palate/ear tube surgery on Wednesday. We will be going in early in the morning and likely staying one night at the hospital. Prayers and positive vibes appreciated for Wed/Thurs.!

Ending this post with a video from earlier this week. Lia has been practicing her animal names and noises. Her speech is coming along well...

Egg Hunt 2011

2011-04-17T18:34:00.000-07:00

Today our local group of China adoptive families met at a park for an Easter Egg hunt. It was a sunny, but cold and windy spring day. Since this is Lia's first Easter in the U.S., we had to practice with her a bit about collecting eggs and placing them in her basket. She was the youngest child at the hunt, (although there were quite a few 3 yr olds)...so the 2-3 yr olds got a head start, and then the older kids joined in. The older kids were told they could collect 12 eggs, and then they needed to help the little ones to make sure everyone was getting a (semi) even number. I have to say this was a very polite and kind-hearted group of kids. They all chipped in to help one another and make sure everyone was getting eggs.

Once she got the hang of it, Lia had a blast! Here are some photos from the day:

Sunday Snapshots

2011-04-10T19:38:00.000-07:00

We visited the ENT on Thursday. Lia had been putting her finger in her right ear quite a bit (the one that the tube fell out of in January). And sure enough, she had a raging ear infection going on. No fever, no other symptoms, but we did get some medicine as we want to make sure this is completely cleared up before she goes in for her palate touch-up at the end of this month (or beginning of May). Her ENT said her left ear tube is also about to fall out, so it is good timing for this next surgery, as new tubes can be put in at the same time. She is such a good girl and takes her medicine like a champ!

We had a great weekend. My parents were in town so Lia got to spend lots of quality time with Grandma and Grandpa. They chased each other around the house, and blew bubbles, and read books, and there were lots of hugs and kisses to be had for everyone. Good times. Steve's mom arrives Thursday for several days, so Lia will be receiving even more "grandma love" this coming week! Here are some photos:

Grandpa and Lia checking out the wind chimes on our patio

First warm-ish day of Spring...Lia was chillin...

A bedtime story with Grandma!

Bubbles! (video)

2011-04-04T13:33:00.003-07:00

Recent Photos & Updates

2011-03-24T13:14:00.001-07:00

Sorry I've been so bad about blogging lately. With the advent of Facebook, it seems like most folks follow our happenings there now. However, I know that there are a few people who don't have (or can't access) Facebook who still check here for photos and updates, so I'll try to continue to post a few times per month.

Our lives have been busy, busy, busy with a very active 2 year old, her speech therapy and doctor appointments, library storytimes, and other activities. Unfortunately, I threw my back out about a week ago, while lifting Lia into her highchair, so I have been "out of commission" for the past week. Thankfully Steve has been able to (literally) "pick up" the slack so to speak... Anyway, onto what everyone wants to see anyway - PHOTOS:

Celebrating Daddy's birthday at a fancy (a.k.a. dark!) restaurant...

Always laughing...

With her friend Mickey, on her new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse sofa/bed

Feeding her new bunny (thanks Renee & Sierra!) some goldfish crackers

Trying out her "big girl bed" for size...

One night later - back to the overstuffed Pack'n'Play!

Saturday morning, vacuuming and chatting on her "phone"

Wordless Wednesday

2011-03-09T13:12:00.000-08:00

Pictures & Updates

2011-02-22T17:07:00.000-08:00

We've had a very busy last few weeks, between Steve traveling to Denver, us traveling to Seattle, and then my family visiting here for a few days. Lots of activity, but not a lot of time to blog. In between all these activities we've been making the rounds to all of Lia's doctors - ENT, Audiology, Speech Therapy, Primary Care, etc. - and also trying to find time to work. Whew!

Lia was being very picky about food for about a month, and then suddenly about a week ago, she started eating again. Her current favorite snack items are: Nutrigrain bars and cheddar cheese sticks. She also continues to love items with a strong garlic or slightly spicy flavor. However, she is still not a big fan of meat. Our big girl now weighs 26 lbs and is 35 inches tall!

Lia now has a longer attention span and can sit still while you read her a book. She can sit through a 20-30 minute cartoon and follow the storyline. She interacts with educational programs and points or shouts out answers to their questions. She is currently obsessed with pictures of animals and the sounds different animals make. While her speech is still based on vowel sounds, we hear the occasional "D" or "T" and it blows us away! Her speech therapist has us working on "B" and "P" sounds currently by learning to put those lips together and make a pressure sound by blowing air. The therapist recommended putting some chapstick on her lips to get her rubbing her lips together, and now we have a chapstick addict on our hands!

Here are some pictures from the past week or two:

You take a picture of me? I'll take a picture of you!

Like mama, like daughter, rocking and texting...

In the sound booth at her Audiology appointment.

Rockin the "Bee" crown from OCB.

Show me your ears!

Six Months My Love...

2011-02-15T16:44:00.000-08:00

Such a busy week. Today Lia has been with us six months. Hard to believe time has passed so quickly, but then again, she seems like she's been with us forever.

Sandwiched between Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year Lantern Festival, we have our six-month post-placement visit with our social worker. This week I had to send her all of the pre-placement child profile information we received about Lia from our agency. It was so strange reading through it all again.

To think that this premature infant that I read about, who was literally starving due to her cleft lip and palate, could be the same child that I see flying through our kitchen with a smile on her face today...leaves me speechless.

I wish I could tell her birthmother that not only did her baby girl survive, but she is thriving! She is so loved.

Happy Year of the Rabbit

2011-02-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

Chinese New Year 2011 kicked off last Thursday, and we took the opportunity to get Lia dressed up in the special outfit we bought for her while in China, along with the Jade necklace we got for her. This is one of my favorites from the photoshoot:

Steve was out of town this weekend, so it was a "Mommy & Me" weekend for Lia. This was the first time Steve and I had been apart for more than a few hours since we got Lia, and with very few friends and no family in this town where we live, I was indoctrinated pretty quickly into single life with a 2 year old - and let me tell you - it is HARD work! It made me appreciate and admire all the single moms I know even more than I already did, and it also made me appreciate Steve and everything he does to support me in caring for Lia on a daily basis! We were happy to be able to Skype with him while he was out of town, and Lia really got in to interacting with him via the laptop. Now when he calls on the phone, she immediately points to the computer, wanting to see him as well! Here's a pic from one of our Skype sessions:

On Saturday, I decided to take Lia down to our local Asian grocery for their annual Chinese New Year celebration. It is sponsored by the "sister city" coalition, and I was shocked at how many people were there! The grocery store itself is not big, and it was packed wall to wall with people. As Lia and I wedged ourselves in amongst the crowd, I had to laugh as I heard a Chinese woman singing "Like a Virgin" over the loud speakers inside the store. I was having flashbacks to our time in Beijing (with the "Winston Cowboy")... We left the store and went out to the parking lot where most of the activities took place. There were young men beating drums and setting up to do a lion dance, and older men throwning garlands of firecrackers (unlit) off the roof in long strings. As the "lucky" time (11:11 am in 2011), the crowd got big. The lion and dragon started dancing and the fireworks started going off...and off...and off... We finally left and the firecrackers were STILL going off. The red "ribbons" hanging from the roof in this photo are actually firecrackers. You can tell from the shadows that they were looped over several times...There were literally thousands:

Gong Xi Fa Cai

HAPPY YEAR OF THE METAL RABBIT!

3 Months Post-Surgery

2011-01-28T15:57:00.000-08:00

Can't believe we've already been home from China for five months...time is flying by. But in other ways, it seems that Lia has been with us forever. I guess she has been, in our hearts.

This week was filled with doctor appointments as she is now three months post palate surgery. Unfortunately, her ENT/Surgeon found a tiny hole (fistula) in the very top of her palate, which will need to be corrected, likely in April, with another surgery. While we weren't thrilled to hear this news, we know that this will be a more minor surgery and we are glad that no other holes have appeared. According to the surgeon, Lia has a very highly arched palate, and it looks like the repair just didn't hold at the very top of the arch.

We visited the audiology lab today to see how her ears have improved since she received her ear tubes (at the same time she had her palate surgery in October). Before surgery, she was experiencing about 85% hearing loss. We were pleased to learn today that it looks like she is now hearing all tones within the "normal" range, with the possibly exception of some of the lower tones. As the technician pointed out, it's hard to tell with a 2 year old, whether they can't hear the tones or whether they are just tired of cooperating with the tests! Also, the tubes themselves can cause the testing equipment to become confused when measuring the responses of the eardrum. So we will be going back for some additional testing in February.

Lia is a champ and is always so cooperative with the doctors. She lets them stick things in her ears and mouth and really doesn't put up much of a fuss. Here are some photos from the past week:

Letting the doc take a look at her palate

Panda glasses!

Bath time (still afraid of the big tub!)

Hanging out with friends...

Her Heart's Desire...Strawberry Jello... (video)

2011-01-23T14:40:00.000-08:00

Lately Lia has become very picky with her food. I guess having access to so many kinds of tastes and textures has made her a more finicky eater...or maybe she's just being a normal two year old. What she LOVES one day, is often completely off limits the next time we try to feed it to her.

We have found that the best way to get her to eat more than a couple of bites is to take her to buffet restaurants, where we can put several different foods on her plate and see what strikes her fancy (another nice thing about these places, is that most times kids under 3 eat free). The other night while at one of these buffets, she decided that strawberry jello was her heart's desire...which was funny because we've offered her jello at home several times over the past four months and she was never very interested in it. But this time she proceeded to eat two full bowls of it...with her hands...Steve captured some video with his iPhone:

...and then came time for the clean-up...

LOVE THAT GIGGLE!

Rough Couple of Weeks!

2011-01-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

Not a lot to report. The first two weeks of January have kicked our butts this far. As mentioned in the previous post, we dealt with the furnace issue on New Year's Day, and the hot water heater going out just before Christmas. It's been since the week before Christmas and we have yet to receive our replacement dishwasher (now they are saying Monday...fingers crossed!), and the roof sprung a new leak last week as well. Luckily the leak is over the "formal" living room (which we don't use and don't even have much furniture in), but we've had a parade of fix-it guys coming to the house to do estimates. Thankfully, we don't own this house! The upside of that is that we don't have to pay for the repairs. The downside of that is that WE have to live in it while all this is going on...the landlord doesn't.

On top of all that, Steve and I caught some kind of intense stomach virus last week that had us each in bed for a few days. Well, we took turns being in bed because someone had to watch Lil Miss and make sure she didn't get into trouble. Thankfully, the stomach virus seems to have alluded Lia. However, she is dealing with a lot of congestion and coughing, which is keeping us ALL up during the night (as we listen to her on the monitor). If it doesn't improve soon, I think we'll be making a trip to her doctor...

On the brightside, she had her monthly weight and height check on the 5th, and she is now in the 25th percentile for kids her age in the U.S.! This is huge, because when we first came home, she was only in the 5th percentile. Given the fact that she had palate surgery also since then, everyone is very pleased with her growth progress.

So not a lot of new photos this week. Just one good one of our girl rediscovering the joys of strawberry jello on Monday night.

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-01T16:49:00.001-08:00

The last couple of weeks have been interesting around our house. The Monday before Christmas, our hot water heater went on the fritz...then on Wednesday (the day were supposed to leave for Seattle) I loaded the dishwasher, and lo and behold, the "start" button wouldn't work! Then last night, on New Year's Eve, our furnace brokedown. Keep in mind, the low temp here last night was -3 degrees. Not good.

The hot water heater was a (seemingly) easy fix by a handyman. The appliance repairman informed us that the motherboard on the dishwasher was "fried", so we will be getting a new dishwasher in the coming week. Thankfully the furnace man was able to arrive by 10 am this morning, and it was just the blower/motor that had gone kaput, not the entire furnace, so he was able to fix it (but not before our house reached a low temp of 52 degrees inside - brrrrr!) So we are hoping that, as usual, things happen in "threes" and we have now completed our "three" household maintenance problems for awhile!

While going through pictures from the past couple of weeks, it occured to me that some of the best pictures I capture of Lia are usually while she is strapped into a high chair or a shopping cart! I think this child was photographed so much at Starfish, that she holds no interest in being photographed. Period. But, when she is strapped in, particularly while she is eating, she is usually entertaining herself and at her happiest! Here are a few photos from the past couple of weeks that prove my point:

Enjoying her "5 Guys" fries...

A Pre-Christmas shopping trip to Target...

Loved the old-fashioned high chairs at this restaurant!

Coloring to pass the time - waiting on her mac'n'cheese...

First haircut by herself (not sitting on mama's lap!)

Scanning the menu at The Spaghetti Factory

Showing off her new Christmas hat - thanks cousin Scott!

Logging in some blog time - just like mama...

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011!

Merry Christmas 2010

2010-12-27T20:53:00.003-08:00

On Thursday we got up early and headed west to Seattle to visit my parents for the holiday weekend. I was excited because this was the first time my grandma, and my aunt, uncle and cousin Adam would get to meet Lia. However, we weren't sure how Lia would do, since she loves her routine at home, and this would be the first overnight trip we'd taken since bringing her home from China.

As it turned out, Lia had a great time checking out grandma and grandpa's house on the island. She ended up sleeping through both ferry rides, so I can't say she's "experienced" that yet, but she loved looking at the boats in the marina across the street from my folks' house, especially at night when some of the boats were lit up with Christmas lights.

She loved my mom's Christmas tree (since my mom was brave and had all her ornaments within reach of 2 year old hands!)

On Christmas Eve she wore her new Mickey Mouse PJ's that she got from her Grandma W. (and mama wore her matching Mickey pants!)

Christmas morning she got the hang of the "present" thing pretty quickly, and my what an amazing plethora of gifts she received! Santa even brought her a place to "hide" from all the paparazzi (a.k.a. - relatives) - a Disney Princess Play Tent! So she was a happy little girl.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-21T14:41:00.000-08:00

Pre-Christmas Week

2010-12-17T15:27:00.002-08:00

Things have been busy around our house as Steve and I both wrap up work projects in anticipation of the upcoming holidays. Lia has had a few rough nights the past week, my best guess is that it is related to teething (2 year molars?) as she is spending a lot of time poking her fingers into her mouth. She has woken up a few nights crying and unconsolable, but teething tablets seem to help. Our county cleft coordinator also believes Lia is on the verge of another growth spurt, since she's kind of plateau'd in recent weeks...and I've heard that kids will often experience sleep problems when they are doing a lot of growing. Our girl continues to get bigger and stronger. She weighs nearly 25 lbs now, and is over 33 inches tall! Because she is so tall, she is on the low end of the U.S. height/weight growth charts, coming in at the 10th percentile. But for height only, she is in the U.S. 55th percentile (which would probably be the 99th percentile in China!) We continue to have her on whole milk, and spike all her foods with butter, cream cheese, olive oil, and other goodies in an effort to fatten her up.

In the past month her vocabulary has exploded! Thanks to her ear tubes, she now mimics us all the time. She now knows 30-40 different words, and walks into a room waving and saying "Hi". She can look at her books and point out all the words she knows: Star, Heart, Princess, Santa, Frosty, Pooh, Car, House, Tree, Flower, Dog, Kitty, Horse, Frog, Bird, Snow, Sun, Lights, Water, Milk, Ice Cream, Pumpkin, Diaper, Potty, Mama, Daddy, Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma...and many, many more! Of course, Steve and I know what she is talking about - other people still might have a hard time understanding her - but she will be starting speech therapy in January to help her catch up on her sounds. We've been attending the weekly Toddler Storytimes at our local library. There she is learning songs like "Wheels on the Bus" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" in-between the stories. She is not too excited about interacting with the other kids at storytime, she is happy to stay on my lap, or in her own little corner of the floor, but she runs right up to the presenter at the end of each session to get her hand stamped like the rest of the kids!

We are looking forward to seeing more of the extended family next week for Christmas. In the meantime, here are some photos from the past week:

"Hello this is Lia, your AT&T Operator, how can I help you?"

The life-sized Dora doll that Grandma W. sent to her - she loves it!

Ready to go Christmas shopping with Mama

Practicing her texting skills on mama's iPhone

Starfish Foster Home Alumni Video

2010-12-10T13:45:00.002-08:00

Shortly after I received my referral for Lia last April, I was thrilled to find out that she was living at the Starfish Foster Home in Xi'an. I had heard stories about how well cared for and loved the babies from Starfish were. As I waited four months to travel while our paperwork processed, I heard from several Starfish volunteers, and parents of other Starfish babies, who told me about my girl and forwarded me pictures of her on a regular basis. It was truly a blessing I never expected in this process.

When we received Lia in August, we also received CDs filled with literally thousands of photos documenting every month she was at Starfish from Nov. '08 to Aug. '10. Thanks to volunteers and donors, we also recently received a beautiful lifebook filled with pictures and anecdotes about Lia's early life at Starfish. This is information that most adoptive families never have the opportunity to receive about their children. I am so, so thankful to Starfish and plan to do anything I can to help them continue their wonderful work on behalf of medically-fragile Chinese orphans.

One of the other Starfish moms created the video below to spotlight the great work Starfish is doing, and to show the difference they have made in the lives of each of these babies - one by one... The "before and after" photos are amazing - Lia (formerly named Sophia at the foster home) is featured around 3:12. If I could ask people to donate to just ONE charity this holiday season, it is this one! Be sure to turn off the music player at the bottom of the page before clicking on the video - ENJOY:

Oh Christmas Tree!

2010-12-06T13:58:00.000-08:00

This weekend we got our tree and started putting up holiday decorations in the house. We had started seeing Christmas Trees at stores, and doctors offices, etc. and Lia was intrigued. I kept telling her we would get a tree and put it in our house. In her typical fashion, she pointed to the family room floor and said "HERE???" and I told her, yes, in this room! I'm not sure she believed me...

We decided to get a smaller tree this year (just a 4-footer) and put it up on the bar in the family room (which has a high cathedral ceiling), thus avoiding the issue of her pulling all the ornaments off the tree one by one... So we all went together to buy a tree on Saturday morning, and then Steve and I set up the tree and got lights put on it while she was taking her nap on Saturday afternoon. When she woke up from her nap - boy, was she surprised!

I also had a little stuffed Santa that I had kept for her in my Christmas box. She promptly put him in her doll stroller and started showing him around the house:

We let her help/watch as we pulled out a select few of our many boxes of ornaments to hang on this smaller tree. Every year that I waited for my match from China, I set aside ornaments for Lia: two different Hello Kitty ornaments, one of a Chinese takeout box, and one with a little girl and her Chinese home. She also really liked the Asian "angel" ornament which was handed down from my mother to me. Here she is checking out Hello Kitty:

However, my favorite ornament was the one we added just this year:

Wordless Wednesday - Fall Photos 2010

2010-12-01T15:17:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-28T19:43:00.000-08:00

...otherwise known as the best Thanksgiving EVER!

Seriously though, Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. What's not to like about eating lots of yummy food, and watching the Macy's parade and lots of cheesy holiday movies on Lifetime and the Hallmark channel - it's the best! But in recent years, it's been tough for me. This was Steve's and my fifth Thanksgiving together, and although they've all been great - every year, I've wondered when we would finally add another chair to our Thanksgiving table - and this - of course, was the year! I could not remember a Thanksgiving when I was happier or more thankful than this year. :)

Lia loved Thanksgiving. First of all, my parents, uncle and sister came to town, which means LOTS of extra attention and shenanigans for Miss Lia! She was in heaven. Second of all - FOOD - one of Lia's favorite pastimes! We loaded her high chair tray down with a little bit of everything to try, but when it came down to it - it was having her own bowl of turkey gravy (sucked up with a spoon) and fistfuls of cranberry jelly that really made her day. We even had a cute Thanksgiving bib for her that said "Everyone is Thankful for ME!":

Finally - the "all done" sign!

We also had lots of snow this holiday! In total, about a foot and a half on the ground by Saturday evening. Grandma and Grandpa couldn't help themselves but buy Lia a toboggan sled when they were out shopping on Friday. So on Saturday afternoon, the whole family hit our steeply-sloped front lawn and driveway for some fun in the snow. Lia was not a fan of the sledding, but she enjoyed watching everyone else - especially grandpa - flying down the hill in the sled.

With Grandma and Aunt Tracy - ready to go outside!

Fun in the snow with mama and Aunt Tracy

Disney on Ice

2010-11-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago, I won free tickets to "Disney on Ice: Celebrations" from a local radio station. When I stopped by the station to pick up the tickets (which happened to be on Lia's birthday), they also gave me a "swag bag" to go with them - including a stuffed Mickey doll and a program for the show.

Waiting with Mickey for the show to start...

She's been seeing the promos for the show on TV for a few weeks, and got really excited, as she now recognizes Mickey, and "Princesses"...when she sees them. Well, tonight was the show. So we dressed Lia up cute, and took her Mickey doll with us. To say she was mesmorized would be an understatement! She may have taken Mickey as her "date", but she fell in LOVE with Minnie during this show!

Mesmorized by a mouse

Being the suckers we are for this child, we ended up buying her a Minnie doll during the intermission (thank you Great Grandma D for Lia's birthday money!) She was in heaven the rest of the show - clutching her Minnie doll. When the show was over, she wasn't ready for it to end. She did NOT want to put on her coat or leave the arena. It was so cute. She was convinced if we stayed they would all come out again and do another show.

THE END. Hey - where did everybody go?

Snow Bunny

2010-11-18T10:27:00.001-08:00

We awoke to our first snow of the season this morning. Not sure if Lia had ever seen snow in China, (I've heard it does snow in Xi'an occasionally) but if she had, she probably doesn't remember it because she was too young. It was so fun to see her reaction when we opened the curtains this morning:

We told her is was "snow" - and she immediately pointed to her nose. Okay, so "snow" and "nose" are similar sounding I guess...LOL. After breakfast, we got her dressed up in warm clothes and went out on the back patio to explore the snow. She wasn't sure what to make of it. It didn't help that the new snow boots mama bought her for her birthday are still a little big... But she loves her flowered jacket (thanks Heidi!).

We had a hard time finding a hat and mittens that work for her. It seems these items are either in "infant" size (0-24 mos.) in which case Lia's head is WAY too big for the hats - or they are in "toddler" size (2-4 yrs) in which case the mittens are WAY too big. So we went with the too big mittens...and as you can see, they don't stay on (next time I will put her coat on over them).

She was too scared to actually touch the snow with her hand, but she liked it when I threw a snowball in the air and she watched it smash on the ground. So fun!

Birthday Weekend

2010-11-14T20:29:00.001-08:00

Lia's birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, so while we had our own little private celebration that day, we waited for my parents to arrive on Thursday from Seattle to start the serious hoopla. Thursday night we opened her gifts. She received so many nice presents - here are a few of the highlights:

On Friday afternoon we celebrated with a cake, adorned with characters from one of her favorite TV shows, Yo Gabba Gabba. She LOVED the cake and the birthday tiara we got for her:

On Friday night, the biggest surprise came. Steve had entered an online contest to win Yo Gabba Gabba Live tickets since they happened to be in town for her birthday - and we WON four tickets!!! So amazingly, we ended up front row center at Yo Gabba Gabba Live on Friday night...myself, Lia, Steve, and my dad! We weren't sure how Lia would react to seeing her favorite costumed characters from TV in life-size. The confetti cannons startled her, but after a few tears at the very beginning - she loved it! She even got to "High Five" her favorite character, DJ Lance...so it was pretty cool. She is still playing with the balloons she caught at the show (they fell from the ceiling) - and saying "Yo!" with a big smile.

All in all it was great weekend. She may not remember the details of her amazing 2nd birthday, but Steve and I will certainly never forget what fun we had...in case you can't tell, we are madly in love with this child! :)

Happy 2nd Birthday Lia!!!

2010-11-10T16:30:00.000-08:00

You've come a long way baby! Your mama and daddy and many, many other people love you very much!

Happy Halloween (from Princess Lia Ladybug)...

2010-10-31T21:15:00.001-07:00

All dressed up and ready to go...

At the mall...where do we start?

Strolling the mall for treats

Look at all my candy!

Look mama, a pumpkin sticker!

Not taking her eyes off Spiderman...

By the third floor, getting tired. Riding in style...

Homeward bound, playing peek-a-boo with her tu-tu...

Ready to go to the neighbors' house with Daddy

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

Checking Out Great!

2010-10-29T14:09:00.003-07:00

Lia had her 2 year old well-check at our family doctor this morning. It was about 10 days early, but with so many doctor appointments on our schedule these days, this is when we could make it work. Our doctor was very pleased in the amount of growth and developmental milestones Lia has reached since she'd last seen her five weeks ago. We've now been home from China two months - I can't believe how fast the time is flying by! While at the doctor's office, Lia decided to try her hand at sitting in the doctor's chair and pretending to enter notes (don't worry - the keyboard was locked):

Lia is now off all of her narcotic pain meds. We are only giving her ibuprofen as needed about once a day. She doesn't seem to be in pain at all, and getting her off the narcotics has helped her get back to her normal napping and sleeping schedule (thank goodness!) She is still wearing the "no-no's" (arm restraints) when she is eating and sleeping, but more and more we are allowing her to go without them while we are in the room watching her. Luckily, she is not big on sticking things (other than food) in her mouth, so all is well during playtime.

She is still LOVING everything "pumpkin" right now. Daddy brought her some pumpkin balloons to the hospital last week, and now she has one in her bedroom and one in the playroom that she enjoys carrying around:

Although we are expecting rain here on Sunday, Steve is planning to take her trick-or-treating in her Ladybug Princess outfit, at least around our neighborhood. She can't eat the candy (more for mom and dad!) and she can't say "trick-or-treat", but I know the neighbors will still enjoy seeing her. Particularly those who visited our garage fundraiser sale this summer prior to the China trip. This week Lia also got her first letter in the mail (from Grandma & Grandpa):

In other news, Lia's friend Jack is still waiting for a family... I received this updated photo of Jack from the Starfish Foster Home Halloween photoshoot this week. Isn't he darling?

As mentioned previously on this blog, Jack has spina bifida and is paralyzed from the waist down, but he gets around well in his wheelchair, and he is one of the sweetest kids you will ever meet. Jack's favorite song is "Happy Birthday"and his is coming up next week - he will turn 3. A forever family would be the best present Jack could ever ask for! Additionally, WACAP is currently offering a $4,200 grant to help with the costs related to Jack's adoption. Click HERE for more info.

Post-Op Week 1

2010-10-25T16:02:00.000-07:00

Lia is doing so amazingly well considering all she went thru last Wed./Thurs. I am so proud of her. She is so brave and so strong! She hasn't seemed to be in much pain from the surgery, though she is quite bruised from the thrashing that resulted from her reaction to the morphine. We are trying to stay ahead on the pain meds so that she doesn't experience much pain. We have yet to sleep through the night. She usually wakes up at some point around 2 or 3 a.m. needing additional pain meds, and then she fights going back to sleep. So we've had some loooooong nights since the surgery. Hopefully that will get better as time goes on and she is in less pain.

She is fed up with the arm restraints ("no-no's") and we are trying to give her frequent breaks from them when we can be near her and watch her carefully. I feel bad that she has to wear them to sleep, but we don't want to take any chances that she might put her hands in her mouth.

She is also not thrilled with her choice of entrees for food since surgery. Everything we offer her has to be liquid, pureed, or very, very soft (not requiring any chewing). She's eating lots of vitamin-fortified puddings, yogurts, cream of wheat, as well as pureed soups, rice & beans, noodles, etc. But she keeps taking us to the pantry where her crackers and crunchy snacks are usually kept - just in case we might change our minds and give her something from there... :)

In general she is being a CHAMP about taking all of her medications...everyday she has to take an antibiotic, painkillers, and ear drops at least 2x each - and for the most part she is being great about it (especially when daddy administers the medicine!) Here are a few more pics from the past week:

Daddy and Lia resting at the hospital

Mama holding Lia at the hospital

Lia figuring out the "no-no's"

Five days post-surgery...just hanging out!

Home Sweet Home

2010-10-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

...with "no-no's" on her arms to protect her mouth (from her hands!) So far, so good. She is napping away...and hopefully soon - I will be too. Thanks again for all the support - our friends and family (and cyber friends too!) are the best...

Brief Recovery Update...

2010-10-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers the past 24 hrs. Lia is doing much better this morning. They took her off morphine around 7 pm last night and switched her over to Dilaudid which helped her nap more throughout the night (on and off). Around 5 am we started to see her personality coming back and she took some water from a syringe and swallowed it... This morning at 8 she was drinking smoothies and gogurts and the doctors are really pleased. We should be able to get her off the IV and headed home today - HOORAY!

More once we are home...

Rough Day...

2010-10-20T17:38:00.000-07:00

UGH. Tough, tough day...found out our girl has a bad reaction to morphine as well as anesthesia...hoping the next painkiller will help (minus the violent, thrashing tantrums)... Our cleft coordinator stopped by to see us this afternoon and said she's never seen a child have such a violent reaction to recovery meds. ...I don't know who has cried more today - me or Lia! :(

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day...

Halloween Decorations - Surgery Week!

2010-10-18T14:39:00.001-07:00

This weekend we had a lot of fun decorating the house for Halloween with Lia. She is starting to really mimic our words and actions now...her favorite word? "Pumpkin!" (although, I have to admit, with her cleft, it currently comes out sounding more like "Un-In") - but we know what she means. She will find photos of pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns in magazines, advertisements, and on TV - and point and say "Pumpkin!"

On recent trips to local area stores, we were afraid she might be scared of the spooky Halloween decorations, but she is loving it all. In fact, she likes the super spooky costumes and pictures of - skulls, ghosts, jesters, etc. So we decided to go ahead and decorate the house as we usually do at Halloween. Yesterday Steve put up the lights and hung the "friendly ghost" from our front porch arbor. Then he carved our big pumpkin with a "Terra Cotta Warrior" face - it turned out so cool!

Lia watching thru the screen door as daddy carves our pumpkin...

Our front walkway...spooky!

Our Terra Cotta Warrior Pumpkin (good job Steve!)

Thursday we had Lia's pre-op appointment with her ENT/Plastic Surgeon. We are a GO for her palate surgery this Wednesday and have to be at the hospital at 7 am.

Playing with the magna-doodle at the doctor's office

Please say a prayer that everything goes smoothly for Lia during surgery and also during her recovery. I know it will be hard for her to keep her hands out of her mouth, and not be able to feed herself, and only have a liquid diet for a few weeks... Our goal is to get her drinking liquids as soon as possible following surgery, so that we don't have to stay in the hospital for too long. We'll try to keep the blog and Facebook updated as we can on Wednesday!

Prepping for Surgery Week...

2010-10-11T18:55:00.000-07:00

It now looks like Lia's palate surgery WILL happen next week. She has been cleared by all the doctors, and we have our final pre-op appointment with her ENT/Surgeon this Thursday. So we've been working hard to get her completely off her bottle (as she won't be allowed to put anything - including a rubber nipple - into her mouth for a few days following surgery). It will be an all liquid/puree diet for awhile. We're working on getting her to drink from a "big kid" sippy cup that only has an indent or hole (like a commuter mug) rather than any kind of nipple or spout that would go into her mouth. She doesn't love it, and she spills - a lot - but we are starting to see her drink from it more and more.

I know she is a tough little cookie who will get thru this just fine, and I am trying my hardest not to stress about it. Interesting that - after four years of working in a children's hospital - I now find myself in the position of BEING one of those parents in the waiting room... I have complete confidence in her surgeon and the children's hospital staff. However, I do feel like we JUST got her home and finally settled into a "routine" (of sorts) and now we are going to put her through this trauma - even though I know it is for the best. It's still tough...

Anyway - we had a great weekend. My parents and sister came to town and stayed with us for a couple days. Everyone had a great time playing with Lia. On Saturday night, after Lia was in bed, we watched the documentary "Babies" on DVD. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. There are so many cute and funny moments - and the soundtrack is great!

Here are some pics from the last few days:

Riding her Kai-Lan car...

Learning to color...

Having a giggle with Aunt Tracy...

Going shirtless with sunglasses (on a rainy, 50-degree day) LOL!

Finally - Happy Anniversary to us!

Steve and I met four years ago this weekend.

Here's to many more happy years ahead...

She's a Nut!!!

2010-10-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

So many people ask me each week - how is your daughter doing? And my first response tends to be, "She's a nut!" People always look at me quizzically after that, but I mean it in the best of ways - she's a goofball - and she's letting us see her true personality more and more now...a few pics from the last few days to share:

She's still obsessed with walking around in my shoes...

...and sleeping in the dog's bed...

...and wearing her food...(more chocolate pudding please!)

at tea parties with her dolls...

and of course, sitting in her doll's stroller whenever possible...

See what I mean? The kid is a NUT...and we LOVE her with all our hearts!

A Plea for Jack - October Begins

2010-10-03T17:36:00.000-07:00

Shortly after we were matched with Lia, we found out (through an amazing red thread which I can relate in a different post) that Lia was living at the Starfish Foster Home in Xi'an, where she was known as "Sophia". Due to confidentiality rules with my agency, I was unable to share this wonderful news with my readers here until we had Lia in our arms. But now that she is home, I definitely want to spread the great news about Starfish far and wide - they need our support! This is a non-profit organization that is literally changing children's lives one by one. But my post about Starfish is for another day...today I want to talk about Jack.

Jack was one of Lia's best friends at Starfish. Jack is an (almost) 3 yr old little boy who was born with Spina Bifida, and is paralyzed from the waist down - but Jack does not let that stop him from being an amazing, generous, sweet little soul. He gets around wonderfully in a little wheelchair that was donated to Starfish specifically for him. When Lia left Starfish to be brought to us, Jack continued to save part of his food for her, in case she might come back hungry...THAT is the kind of kid Jack is. Every day I pray for the children at Starfish, but I especially pray for Jack. I so want this sweet boy's family to find him. He has been on the China "shared list" for over a year now... I'm sure the words "spina bifida" are scaring families away, but if they could see Jack and get to know him, see how well he gets around and what an amazing kid he is, I know families would be fighting over who gets to make him their son! Jack has seen many of his friends come and go from Starfish, yet he always remains. Now he is one of the oldest kids there. Do YOU know someone who could be Jack's forever family? Some of the families who have adopted children from Starfish are working together to raise awareness and offset some of Jack's adoption fees. See the left sidebar of this blog, or click HERE to learn more about Jack and how you can help!

Meanwhile, here are some Lia pics from this week:

Holding court with all her ladybug toys

Trying on her ladybug costume for the first time - she loves it!

Even a ladybug princess needs some down time...

Gotta love those beautiful long eyelashes!

Happy Harvest Everybody!

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News...

2010-09-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

This week we spent a lot of time at medical visits. On Tuesday, we took Lia to get her blood drawn for all the typical tests they run on newly adopted children from other countries. On Wednesday, a nursing student with the county cleft team came to our house to do a height and weight check-up, and also do some testing with Lia in regards to her overall developmental skills (she has gained one pound and grown one inch in the last two weeks!) On Thursday, we saw Lia's ENT (who is also a plastic surgeon). He will be doing her palate surgery (and is awesome!); and finally on Friday, we visited the pediatric dentist. What a whirlwind. Oh yeah, and I also started back to work this week part-time in the afternoons...WHEW!

Lia at the ENT's office - waiting for the doctor

As of right now, it looks like Lia is ready to have her palate repaired, and it could happen as soon as the third or fourth week in October...which is sooner than we expected...but also good timing because it will give her some time to heal before her birthday and the holidays, and should also get her started catching up on her hearing and speech (which are currently delayed due to the cleft).

Some more pictures from this week:

Riding on her Ni Hao Kai-Lan car

Playing with Bitty Baby's new stroller

Trying out mama's shoes

Trying to walk in mama's shoes (cracking up herself...and us...)

Mama, help me JUMP!

I love jumping...Again! Again!

Week 3 at Home - One Month Later...

2010-09-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

September 15th marked one month since we met Miss Lia in Xi'an, China. I can't believe how quickly the time has passed (well, except for those hours at 3 am that seem to...drag...so...slowly...) :)

Lia is making amazing strides every week - probably more that I can remember to recount here on the blog. But in an effort to keep some kind of record for her in the future I can say this - she loves to play, dance, and eat! Right now her favorite foods are pastas (with any kind of sauce, from mac'n'cheese to lasagna!), Mexican rice & beans, peaches, mandarin oranges, bananas, oatmeal, yogurt, goldfish and peanut butter crackers, Carnation Instant Breakfast, and on occasion - a scoop of vanilla ice cream or an Oreo cookie.

Her favorite TVshows right now are Yo Gabba Gabba, Ni Hao Kai-Lan, The Wiggles, and a Chinese cartoon about goats and wolves, (which - thankfully - we bought the DVD of while we were in China).

This week we moved Lia off of her twin mattress and back into the portable crib - but still in her own room. It became clear that I was never going to get any sleep if we continued down the path we were on. She now falls asleep most nights fairly quickly in the crib, and if she awakens during the night, I just go in and sleep next to her on her twin mattress. With this new system, we have achieved a decent sleep schedule and even some NAPS this week! I guess a lot of this is just trial and error...so hooray for small miracles. :)

Lia hates wearing socks or pajamas with feet - she would prefer to go barefoot most of the time, or barefooted inside her mary janes. We were able to keep a pair of socks on her feet today all day, which was a major achievement (and I think it only happened because the socks had monkeys on them, which she likes). It will be interesting to see what happens as the weather gets colder.

She is comfortable around both dogs about 90% of the time now, which is great. There are still times when they start barking at the sight of a neighborhood cat, or deer in the yard - that the barking overwhelms her. But for the most part she is getting more and more relaxed with them each day.

My parents were in town this weekend and babysat Lia on Saturday afternoon so that Steve and I could have a break. We went out to lunch and went to see the movie, "Eat, Pray, Love". It was terrific. Of course by the time the movie was over, we were both anxious to get home and see our girl! Apparently my dad (the church choir director) and mom (choir member) had been teaching Lia to sing while we were out. My mom was running scales with her, and my dad said she was a great mimic, and her pitch was spot-on. We already knew she enjoys music and dancing, so it would not surprise me if she ends up a singer as well! Our family is very music-oriented, so she will have plenty of opportunity to listen to, play, and/or sing music in her future.

She had her first family doctor appointment on Friday. Everything checked out great. She has already gained a pound since the cleft team coordinator visited us the week before. We are going to get a blood draw done this week, just to run all the typical tests that are recommended for internationally adopted kids, and we got a referral to our preferred ENT, so we will be making that appointment this week as well. After the ENT visit we will have a better idea of what will be involved with her cleft repair, and the timelines for her next surgery, etc.

This week wraps up my maternity leave from work. I return to work (part-time) on Thursday. Since I work in the adoption community, it is a bittersweet return. I want to spend every moment I can with my daughter while she is still little, and new, and adjusting to us - but I also know my job is important, and ultimately I help other children like Lia find forever families... Please send your positive prayers and vibes out to me this week as I try to figure out my work-family "balance".

Here are some photos from this week:

With her "Mei Yang Yang" goat cellphone, driving her Ni Hao Kai-lan car.

Talk about "distracted driving"!!!

Waiting at the window for Grandma & Grandpa to arrive.

Petting Nipper, the RCA Records dog...

Getting ready to go out in the rain with Daddy.

Sleeping with her baby in the dog's bed...

Does this one even need a caption?

Week 2 at Home

2010-09-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that week 2 was considerably better than week 1. Over Labor Day Weekend, we turned a corner with Lia's sleep/jet lag issues, and have pretty much been sleeping thru the night since. She no longer needs to be physically touching me when she falls asleep at night in her bed, as long as I am in the room with her, she can fall asleep on her own. I am still sleeping on an air mattress next to her twin mattress on her bedroom floor. I'm sure if my chiropractor is reading this, he is grinning from ear to ear knowing that he has job security for a long time to come... :)

Lia still has no interest in taking a nap during the day. Some days she will literally fall asleep on the living room floor or sofa while she is playing, but if we try for a "scheduled" nap - it is not happening. However, if we put her in her carseat for even a 3 minute drive to the grocery store, she is out like a light!

We've seen a lot of progress between her and our yorkie, Killer. She pets him now, and interacts with him. She is still leery of our mini schnauzer, Luna (who is closer to her size!)...she will tolerate Luna being in the room for short periods of time, but does not like to be on the floor at the same time as Luna. But still, we've made amazing progress in two weeks considering that just the sound of a dog in another room would send her into shrieking, terrorized fits the first few days...

Yesterday we met with the cleft team coordinator for our area. We discussed nutrition, potential surgery schedules and preferred doctors and specialists. Lia will have her first appointment next Friday with our family doctor, who will then give us a referral to the ENT. At the ENT appointment we will figure out much more about the "plan of attack" in terms of her future surgeries, etc. In the meantime, the cleft team coordinator instructed us to "fatten her up". While her head circumferance and height are on target with other girls her age, her weight is still pretty low for her height, so we will be feeding her extra calories and fats in the coming months to help her gain weight. Hopefully Steve and I won't gain weight with her!

This week also brought several gift from friends...which Lia had a blast opening up and checking out:

Her first American Girl doll, Bitty Baby, from our friends

Beth & Peggy, and their daughter Piper - she loves it and pats it's back.

Several hip new fall outfits from Steve's cousin Alicia in Iowa...

Lia held each one up - ooohing and aaaahing over each piece - so cute!

A Spinning Ladybug Top from our friends Ron & Betsy, and their son Jaryn.

Until today she was having us "make it spin" for her, but today she figured it out on her own!

Adjusting to Life at Home...

2010-09-05T17:51:00.001-07:00

The past week has been filled with ups and downs...not unexpected I guess. We were all suffering the effects of jet lag for several days, and for Lia, who had never had a life on west coast time - it was especially difficult to swap out daytime for nighttime. We had a few VERY rough nights the middle of last week...but I'm happy (and hopeful?) to report that we *may* have finally crossed the jet lag hurdle in the past couple of days. The last two nights she has slept more than eight hours - hooray!

Daddy and Lia resting on the sofa

The first few nights home, we tried having her sleep in the portable crib next to our bed in our master bedroom...but she refused to stay in it (she'd rather be in bed with us - sleeping sideways and kicking us all night!) So with Steve needing to go back to work this week, we decided to move her to her own bedroom, and we have been taking turns sleeping on an air mattress in her room next to her bed (where her twin mattress is on the floor anyway). As long as she can see and/or touch one of us as she falls asleep she has been fine.

During the day, we have explored local parks, her Ni Hao Kai-Lan "bubble machine", and the variety of toys and books we had waiting for her. Like most kids, she still prefers tupperware and used margarine and cool whip containers to most of her toys...

She is fascinated by the kitchen and is constantly pulling one of us in there to hang out. Sometimes she wants to play in the tupperware cupboard, but most of the time I think she is just interested in us opening the cabinets and the refrigerator and showing her all the amazing products stored within:

Her biggest milestones this week have been with our dogs. When we first came home, we had shrieking tantrums whenever the dogs were seen or heard. Then we moved on to it being okay if the were seen, as long as they didn't come near her. We are now at the point, that she will feed the dogs snacks, and laugh and toss the toy ring to Killer (our yorkie), IF she is sitting on mom or dad's lap. She is still scared of being on the floor with the dogs without mom or dad's protection.

Holding court with the pups...

and finally - the girl eats EVERYTHING! This week she's tried Mexican, Indian, and a variety of American dishes that I'm sure she never had before - all with great success! The only things we have found that she actually spit out have been watermelon and pineapple. She's not a huge fan of apple juice, but she has discovered a LOVE of peanut butter - and Oreos:

Her Oreo "goatee"...

Wordless Wednesday...

2010-09-01T15:05:00.000-07:00

Quick Post from HOME!!!

2010-08-29T20:02:00.000-07:00

Hi all - thanks for following our journey in China. We made it home around midnight on Friday. It was a LONG day of traveling, but Miss Lia did amazingly well through all four plane rides! We had a few fussy moments, but they were short-lived. We consider ourselves very lucky to have such an easy-going child when it comes to travel!

I need to share this photo of my first (unsolicited) hug from Lia. It happened at the Hong Kong airport on Friday. We were at the EVA Air desk getting our boarding passes for our int'l flight, and I set her down for a moment on the desk to rest, when she reach out around my neck and pulled me in for a tight squeeze - it was awesome - thankfully Steve had his iPhone out and was able to capture the moment:

Needless to say, our girl was somewhat overstimulated by the time we arrived home at 1 am Saturday morning. The size of our house overwhelmed her I think, as well as the dogs barking and jumping to greet us, and the grandparents wanting a look at her...she went into full meltdown mode, so we quickly escaped to the master bedroom for some quiet time and a bottle. The first night was a constant up and down mode for all of us, not sure we slept much. However, Saturday morning we slept til 11 am and Lia slept til 1 pm. Again she started out the day with crying and fear, but ended the day tolerating having her grandparents in the room (but not the dogs).

Last night we only had one real wake-up at 2 am for about an hour, and then we all slept until 9 am. This morning, she sat in her high chair and had breakfast with the family and did well. In the afternoon I just HAD to take a nap, and this turned out well, because she ended up opening up more to grandma and grandpa, letting them engage her with toys, and even holding her for short periods of time! (but still crying at the sight of the dogs)...

Right now as I write this, she is in the living room with Steve, my parents, and Luna (our mini schauzer) - in the same room - PROGRESS!!! But she still can't tolerate Killer (our little Yorkie). Killer has a loud bark for a little guy, and unfortunately when she cries, he barks, which makes her cry more...etc. So that relationship may take awhile to blossom. But overall, we have made amazing progress in just the past two days, so I am hopeful! :)

Tonight we went to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. On the way to the restaurant, she was less than thrilled with the car seat - but on the way home, I handed her a bottle, and she was completely passed out in the 5 minutes it took to get to our house:

Thanks again for everyone's great comments and well wishes. More when we have caught up on sleep!

Guangzhou - Day 15 - We're Going Home!!!

2010-08-26T19:07:00.000-07:00

Well - we made it! All the paperwork is complete. Lia's passport and visa are in hand, and we can return to the States. We are now packing up to leave the hotel around 1 pm today. We have four flights to get us home...Guangzhou to Hong Kong, Hong Kong to Taipei, Tapei to Seattle (where Lia will "officially" become an American citizen once she puts her foot on the ground!) and finally Seattle to Spokane...whew! It's going to be a loooooong day/night of traveling...

We're *hoping* that because we are traveling the longest leg of the journey (Taipei to Seattle) overnight, Lia will be ready to sleep (fingers crossed!). We are scheduled to get home around midnight Friday (west coast time). Of course, to us, it will seem like morning - so I'm sure it will take awhile for us to get over the jet lag and screwed up body clocks. Fortunately, the nature of this trip doesn't really allow for getting your child on any type of "routine" - so by now she is used to every day being different. It will be nice to get home and settle into some kind of routine.

Overall, we've had an amazing time exploring China and getting to know our daughter. We've taken TONS of pictures which we will bore you all with the next time we see you! The Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Terra Cotta Warriors...the beauty of Shaiman Island in Guangzhou...but there are definitely some things we are NOT going to miss: living in hotel rooms, brushing our teeth with bottled water, smokers (everywhere!), warm canned soda w/no ice, having to get showered and dressed to get to the breakfast buffet day after day after day...the bed that is like sleeping on the floor...and every meal tasting just a little bit like Chinese food... ;)

Here are some pics from our last day:

Are we done yet?

Chopstick wars with mama!

YUM...how I love this disgusting orange jello drink in a bag!!!

Ready to go to the airport!

Guangzhou - Day 14 - Consulate Day

2010-08-25T18:59:00.000-07:00

Today we went to the US Consulate office in Guangzhou to complete Lia's Visa/Immigration paperwork and to take the "Oath" for her to become an American citizen. All adoptive families from the US are required to come thru Guangzhou to complete this final step in the process. The Consulate office used to be located right next to the White Swan hotel, which was very convenient...now it is located on the other side of the city, so we had to take a tour bus to get there.

The office itself reminded me a bit of any DMV office...a bunch of chairs on one side of the room in the waiting area, and several numbered "windows" on the other side. Basically, we just had to wait for them to call "the family of (child's Chinese name)...which sounds easier than it is, when you have 30 families with small children in the waiting room. The microphones sounded like Peppermint Patty's teacher on Charlie Brown "wha, wha, wha, whaaaah"... Anyway we finally heard what sounded like us and got the papers signed. After every family had been called, the Officer came out and issued the Oath to us as a big group. She acknowledged all the kids who had recent birthdays, the families adopting twins, the family adopting a 13 yr old girl (one week before her 14th b-day, when she would become ineligible for adoption!) and all the single moms who had waited their turns to make it thru the process...I have to admit I got teary-eyed several times during her speech.

There were no phones or cameras allowed at the Consulate, so we don't have any pictures of that, but here are a few photos of Lia from earlier in the morning:

Guangzhou - Day 13 - Visa Appt. & Red Couch Photos

2010-08-24T17:31:00.001-07:00

Mon-Tues. Lia had a tough 24 hours. Hard to tell exactly what's going on. She is going thru so much right now...all the shots she's had, teething, all the new sights and sounds and people...and the fact that - well - she is an almost 2 year old...there's more than a bit of overstimulation going on right now. There was a Pearl Riverboat Cruise on the docket for last night, but between Steve's stuffy head, my queasy stomach, and Lia being overtired, we decided to bow out of that excursion and try some quite time in our room instead.

We had a three-hour meltdown in the middle of the night last (Mon.) night. We tried just about everything and finally got her to fall asleep in bed with us for a few hours.

After breakfast, our guides attended our appointments at the US Consulate on our behalves. During this time, we could not leave the hotel room in case there were any problems or questions regarding our paperwork. At 11 am, we received a call letting us know that our appt. had been a success and Lia's Visa is officially being processed (HOORAY!) This means our final steps will be going to take the "Oath" at the US Consulate this afternoon, and then pick up her Visa on tomorrow (Thurs.) - and then...TA-DA...we can finally head home on Friday!

Around Noon, we met in the lobby of the White Swan for the traditional "red couch" photos of our travel group. This is something adoption groups in China have been doing for years. Our group is so large, it was hard to get decent photos of everybody, and the one with the babies-only is just comical, but Lia loved her new fancy dress, which is a little big and should still fit her for Chinese New Year.

Click on any of the photos to make them larger...

Our entire travel group

All the babies...(Lia is the one standing in the back - not happy!)

Family photo

Okay...can we take this dress off now?

OFF! Now!!!

Doing the tulle skirt "hula"

At this point, we are really READY to come home. There are only so many ways to keep a toddler entertained in a hotel room. So far, she is scared of the swimming pool and completely overwhelmed by the hotel playroom...we did however, get her into the bathtub last night (with mama) and had a fun time playing with cups and shaving cream for awhile...and were able to get her hair washed (finally)...so baby steps...(literally!)

Guangzhou - Day 12 - More shots, the Orient Express...and shopping!

2010-08-24T02:25:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit behind on the blogging...we've been busy and little Miss has been giving us a run for our money the last couple of days...

So yesterday was a good day for the most part. Lia was up and ready to go to breakfast at 6:30 am, so we started a bit earlier than usual. The huge rainstorm the night before had cooled things off a little bit, so we decided to take a walk around the area, pick up our laundry, and do a little shopping. Many of the clothes I brought for Lia are not fitting...She's a little top heavy...LOL. Her head and shoulders are definitely 18 mos. size, but her tiny little waist and booty are more on a 12 mos. scale. I've been able to make most stuff work, but rather than have our laundry done (again!), we decided with clothes and shoes as cheap as they are here...to just get a her a few new things to wear over the next few days until we fly home. By a few things I mean seven pairs of shoes (including bigger sizes to grow into) and five outfits...but by cheap, I mean CHEAP. I don't think any of the shoes were over $5/pr and the outfits were anywear from $2-$8/each. We did buy her several pairs of "squeaky shoes", but I'm happy to report the squeaker easily pulls out, which will save our sanity, and keep the dogs from chewing them to bits!

Enjoying her morning snack

Showing off her new shoes and hat at the hotel

After shopping, lunch, and a nap, Miss Lia had to go back to the medical clinic for her final three shots. There was a momentary panic where they measured her temp and it was just a tiny bit high (meaning they wouldn't be able to administer the shots), but our awesome guide Grace seated us in the waiting area next to a window A/C unit and literally told us to blow on her and cool her off - while she explained to the nurse that we had walked a long way in the heat of the day and Lia was probably just overheated...so they came back a tried it again a few minutes later - and it worked! I've never been so happy to get a "yes" to shots - but we need them in order to leave the country... This time they did one in each arm, and one in a thigh. Again she wailed, but I was quick to pull out the Gerber Yogurt Melts and let her have at 'em...it seemed to do the trick.

Contemplating what she'll get into next...

We stopped by Starbuck's on the way home from the clinic for a couple of iced teas (and a mango-passion fruit blended frapp for Lia). She LOVED that!

For dinner we decided to try the French place we had heard about. It's at the other end of Shaiman Island, so it's a good 15 min. walk, but it's worth it. It's call "The Orient Express" and part of it is in an actual train car.

Photo taken by our waiter

More please...

What do you mean, "all gone"???

The place is gorgeous - very trendy. Steve and I both thought that if the same exact place were in LA, it would be a place where the Hollywood stars would hang out. But just like every other restaurant here, they were very welcoming to adoptive families with small children (although we were quick to have the remove the extra wine glasses from the table!) It ended up being probably one of the best meals we've had since we've been in China. I highly recommend it for families travelling soon! One more shot to close out the day:

Asleep with her friend Kai-Lan

Guangzhou - Day 11 - Buddhist Temple, Chen House

2010-08-22T06:23:00.000-07:00

Today our group had an optional tour to the Six Banyan Tree Buddhist Temple, as well as the Chen House.

The temple was gorgeous and Steve took all sorts of photos (more than I can post here), but we were lucky that a monk was available to give (for the families that wanted one) a Buddhist blessing of their children. I'm guessing it was close to 800 degrees inside the temple, but it was worth it - the beautiful chanting, the Joss stick incense, and amazing artwork and statues surrounding us. We kneeled on the floor and Lia stayed reasonably quiet and motionless in my lap for the duration of the blessing. At the end, the monk came by and sprinkled water over all the babies' heads - similar to a Christian baptismal ceremony. It was lovely and we were so glad we did it!

Six Banyan Tree Temple

Inside the temple, three Buddhas represent your past, present and future lives

The monk chanting the blessing on our kids

Lia getting her Buddhist blessing

After the temple, we visited the "Chen House". Chen is the biggest family surname in Guangzhou (similar to Smith or Anderson in the U.S.). This historic building is now home to displays of many types of Chinese folk arts - paper cutting, enamel, tapestry, jade, etc. The detail of the building itself was an intricate combination of carved woodwork, marble, and jade - just amazing!

The courtyard at the Chen House

The entrance at the Chen House...

the giant doors have Generals painted on them to ward off evil spirits and enemies

Lia and her new friend Sophie (Amy's daughter)

It seems they were wondering WHY these people keep dragging us

out to these boring places in this hot weather.

As mentioned, it was so hot today it was like walking on the sun...so when we came back to the hotel around 12:30 pm, Steve ran out and got us takeout burgers from Lucy's while I got Lia fed and down for her nap.

At 4 pm I had to go finish up some immigration paperwork with the other parents. Then at 5:30 we all met up to go the Thai restaurant in town - The Cow and Bridge. The food (and the company) were terrific! We ordered Lia some bean curd off the "baby menu", but she ended up preferring our pan-fried noodle dish more. We're figuring out quickly that we don't need to order special food for her - she is happier sharing whatever we are eating.

During dinner, a huge rainstorm blew into town. Lightening, thunder, and basically a torrential downpour...thankfully our guides brought umbrellas from the hotel, so we were all able to run three blocks in ankle-deep water with the strollers - but were all still completely soaked by the time we got back to the hotel. Luckily it was time for jammies and bed anyway, so we peeled off the wet clothes and got snuggled in for the night.

For folks wondering how I have the time to blog every day - we tend to do this while Lia is napping or after she has gone to bed. Honestly - there's not much else to do! The television options are VERY limited in the rooms. Most of the stations are in Chinese, and then there are news networks (CNN, BBC, etc.), a cartoon/kids network, and HBO (but it's not like HBO at home, the movies are very limited and tend to be very violent). So thank god for laptops and the internet!

Tomorrow afternoon Lia goes back for her final three immunizations. Wish us luck. We saved the last of her favorite snacks for this trip, so that she will have a treat afterwards. Poor kid. Other than that - we have no other appointments or tours tomorrow, so depending on how she feels (and how hot it is) we may just do some shopping in the area around the hotel. We heard about a great French restaurant nearby, so we may try that for dinner tomorrow night. It's nice to have more food options now. We both like Asian food, but 10 days in a row it gets pretty old... Goodnight from Guangzhou.

Guangzhou - Day 10 - More pictures (cont'd)...

2010-08-21T06:40:00.000-07:00

Here are some additional photos from today:

Getting her temp taken at the clinic (under her arm)

Getting her height and weight taken - like a big girl!

Being checked out by the doctor - what a good girl she was!

Lunch at Lucy's Restaurant

Look who was waiting in our hotel room!

Can't you see the resemblance? (LOL)

Back of the Barbie box

Never so happy to see a Starbuck's in my life...

and love the random statue of an old caucasion hillbilly playing the fiddle out front!

Another day with our sweet baby girl!

Guangzhou - Day 10 - The White Swan...Long Post

2010-08-20T23:38:00.000-07:00

We are having problems connecting to Facebook here, and photos are VERY slow to upload as our internet connection isn't the best, so if we post less over the next week, that is why!

So as previously mentioned, we had a long day yesterday. We left the Sheraton in Xi'an at Noon in order to pick up the babies' passports, and get to the airport in time for our 3 pm flight to Guangzhou. Now, I'm pretty sure that on a good day, it would take the average single business person some extra time to figure out the chaotic airport system in China - and families travelling with toddlers take more time to get through any airport anyway, but when you've got 15 Americans, (5 of them being age 4 & under), five strollers and at least 15-20 suitcases - you can bet that EVERYTHING you do takes at least twice the time! Our guide got us as far as security, and from there we were on our own to find the gate and get boarded. The problem is, you have no idea when they are calling your group to board, because everything they are announcing is in Chinese. Finally, it seemed like the time was getting close that we board, so Steve told me to find someone to ask. I lucked out, and the second airport person I found spoke some English. I showed her my ticket and she said "yes, NOW - stand here" - so I ran and got the rest of our group. The airline folks were actually very kind and let our group through a special line to the bus (yes, you board a tram that takes you out to your plane!) Once out at the plane in the middle of the airfield, we had to check all the strollers and climb the steps to the plane. But we made it! The seats on Chinese airlines are TINY (tinier than regular coach American seats if you can believe that!) and Lia just had a lap ticket, so I sat in the middle and Steve sat on the aisle with Lia on his lap. At first she was fussy because she couldn't move around much, but overall she did great on the flight. The cupholders and tray tables held much fascination for her. Once the attendants served us drinks in paper cups, she played with the empty cups and pretended to "serve" us drinks. We looked at the in-flight magazines and the books I had brought along for her. It was a two-hour flight.

Trying out her new sunglasses

Once we arrived in Guangzhou, another tram met us at the plane and transferred us to the terminal. The guys waited for our bags and strollers, while the moms did potty & diaper breaks with all the kids. It was HOT in the baggage area. I think I've experienced some humidity it my lifetime...living in Iowa, visiting Florida and Texas (and most recently, Beijing and Xi'an)...but nothing prepares you for this kind of humidity. The air is so thick you can literally SEE it. It had been raining before we arrived, so the dampness hung heavy around us.

Looking at her "family book"

So we finally got all our bags and headed out of baggage to find our guides, Maggie and Grace, waiting for us - hooray! We made it. Another 20 minutes goes by as we load luggage, strollers, and people onto our (thankfully air-conditioned) bus. The bus ride into town is about 45 min. since we arriving on Friday night at rush hour. At 7 pm, Maggie says if any of us want to order Papa John's pizza, she has menus on the bus, and she will call in the order from her cellphone and have it waiting for us at the hotel. Neither Steve nor I are big fan of Papa John's, but in this case, we are so starved and exhausted - what the heck? Bring it on! Finally we arrived at the hotel, got checked in, unpacked and set up in the room, feed Lia and feed ourselves. Then it was time to get Lia in pajamas and into her crib (where she went willingly - tired as we were!) Our bed is almost as hard as sleeping on the floor, but at that point I just didn't care.

Peace, man...

This morning we hit the breakfast buffet and really got to see the lobby of the hotel for the first time. It's beautiful, with a waterfall and ponds with lots of Koi.

Sunrise in Guangzhou...our view from the 19th floor...6:30 am

We got to meet up again with all the families we'd seperated from in Beijing, plus additional families from our agency who had flown in thru Hong Kong. In total there are 16 CCAI families here now. This morning I finally got to meet one of my "blog world" friends Amy too. Amy and I were logged in as singles at the same time back in 2007 and have followed each other's blogs for three years. She is here with her mom and her daughter, Sophie, is just precious.

Getting ready for our first flight

After breakfast, we headed out as a group to get the kids' Visa photos taken, and then on to the medical clinic to have their required check-ups and vaccinations. Lia was a trooper! She didn't cry at all as the nurses checked her height and weight, or during the general medical check, or even when the ENT was checking her ears and mouth. The vaccination area was rough. According to the officials, Lia needs six shots (ugh) - and they recommended doing three today, and coming back Monday or Tuesday to do the other three (or we could choose to do all six at once). We decided to just do the first three. The first one was in the arm, and she didn't cry! But then they stuck her once in each thigh, and the crying started - poor thing - I almost cried just watching. Steve was an awesome daddy and held her still on his lap while the doctors did their thing and she wailed into his shoulder. Needless to say, we're not looking forward to going back for the other three, but we didn't want to overload her little system with too much at once today. She actually recovered quite quickly (thanks to Gerber yogurt melts - they are lifesavers - I may purchase stock in Gerber after this trip!) After 20 minutes we were allowed to leave the clinic and walk back to the hotel. We decided to stop at Lucy's (a western-style restaurant) for lunch. After a cheeseburger, enchiladas, and some apple pie ala mode - we were ALL feeling much better! :)

Playing with daddy near the waterfall

Now it is naptime and we have the rest of the afternoon free. We may visit the hotel playroom or the pool later on depending on how things go. More tomorrow!

Guangzhou - Day 9 - We're here...

2010-08-20T06:36:00.000-07:00

Made it to the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. LONG DAY!!!

We have to take Lia for her intercountry-adoption-required vaccinations tomorrow morning. Please send prayers and positive vibes that she only has to receive the minimum number of shots...some kids end up getting up to to eight in one day...NOT COOL. Fingers crossed...

Will post more tomorrow - xoxo from Guangzhou!

Xi'an - Day 8 - Finally...Sleep!

2010-08-19T18:48:00.001-07:00

Hooray! All three of us slept thru the night, you can't imagine how much better we feel. Lia willingly went to her crib at 7:30 last night, and Steve and I were in bed by 8:30 ourselves... At 7 am we were up and off to the breakfast buffet and now we are back in our room enjoying some free time and packing up our things to leave for Guangzhou in a few hours...but back to yesterday...here are some of our favorite pics:

Daddy's got some big shoes to fill!

Hey...this guy looks like my daddy!

Lia is like a rockstar wherever she goes...drawing a crowd!

Steve's head was perfectly proportioned for "The General"

2,000 unearthed soldiers in this room alone...an amazing sight...
the 8th Wonder of the World! (Steve says "Lia is the Ninth!!!)

Taken by our guide...the "pit" behind us is the size of eight football fields.

Lia even let mama hold her for awhile at the Museum.

This is what she was pointing at. Her favorite part of the tour.
She said "baby" (which is what we call her doll). I think she thought this was a giant doll.

Short post...

2010-08-19T05:25:00.002-07:00

We are SO tired tonight. This is going to be a short post. I will post pictures and more tomorrow morning when we have some free time in the room. We were out all day at the Terra Cotta Warriors and it was amazing (except pouring rain and we all got drenched!) However, Lia didn't get her nap and was a force to be reckoned with tonight. She even grabbed a dish off the table next to us in the hotel restaurant and smashed it on the floor at dinner - very dramatic when she is overtired! On the brightside, she let me hold her several times (in public!) today when we were out and about, so that was a new milestone for us.

She is finally sleeping now and hopefully we won't have too much fussiness tonight. She woke up fussy a couple of times last night so we gave her some teething tablets, which really seemed to help her get back to sleep. We, on the other hand, didn't get much sleep at all...

Tomorrow morning we will pack up and leave the hotel at noon to catch our 3 pm flight to Guangzhou. That is where we will finish up all the remaining US Immigration paperwork to complete the adoption. More tomorrow...goodnight!

Xi'an - Day 7 - Houston, we have poop!

2010-08-18T05:40:00.000-07:00

I know, TMI...but Miss Lia hadn't had a BM since Sunday, so we were starting to get concerned. We made a trip to a nearby grocery for prune juice and also found a baby store that actually sells Gerber baby food in jars (a miracle!), so we were able to pick up some jars of prunes and peaches as well - and around 7 pm tonight - we had poop! YAY!!!

At the grocery store shopping for prunes. The grocery store is "small" by Chinese standards, but covers three floors, which you travel by flat escalator with your cart (or in this case, stroller)...

Prunes...yummy!

Most of today was spent in our hotel room (the Xi'an Sheraton for those who wondered) playing and eating a variety of fruit - and Lia's personality continued to open up and let us in. Particularly after she finally went to the bathroom, she was obviously feeling SO much better - she was dancing around the room to her Ni Hao, Kai-Lan DVD and making funny little faces for us. Here are the photos from today:

Uh, dad? Your shoes are taking up too much of my play space.

More please...

She LOVES this little yellow bowl. It came with her from the foster home,
and is clearly her "security" item. We take it everywhere with us!

Breaking it down to the Ni Hao Kai-Lan theme song.

Her favorite new toy? The ice bucket. Go figure.

Fix my bottle daddy!

Smiles for mommy.

Xi'an - Day 6 - A day to relax...sort of...

2010-08-17T06:28:00.000-07:00

Today we finally had a "free day" - meaning no scheduled tours or adoption meetings. We were more than ready for the break! Miss Lia had quite a meltdown around 2 am overnight, and we were awake for over an hour rocking her and trying to console her little breaking heart. It was very sad, but I also think it was a bit of an emotional breakthrough for her. So needless to say, we were thankful for the ability to sleep in a little bit and not be dragged all around town today.

Hands still "holding" her bottle - too cute!

We got down to the breakfast buffet at the hotel and met up with our new friends Reese and Rachel, and their baby, Grace. They live nearby us back home, and it looks like our daughters will have the same cleft surgeon and treatment team, so it will be nice to have another family in town and playmates for our girls. Their baby also has a bilateral cleft lip and palate, but she has not had her lip surgery yet. She is a tiny little peanut with a huge wide grin - a very happy little girl and just adorable! They are great people and we feel so lucky to have connected with them on this journey.

Bedhead...and her morning bottle

After breakfast, the dads decided they would make a taxi trip to the big grocery/department store to purchase more supplies. Unfortunately, seeing Steve walk out the hotel room door without her set Lia off on another meltdown. She probably wailed brokenhearted for 40 minutes while I rocked her. Finally I pulled up some pictures of Steve on the laptop and kept promising her over and over that he would be coming back. It ended up being a good thing, because at some point she turned a corner with me, and started trusting me. She was actually smiles and giggles for quite awhile after that. The "dad trip" took longer than they expected, so I fed her lunch and put her down for her nap and Steve came home while she was asleep. Boy was she angry with him when she woke up! It took a good hour before she would look him in the eye or interact with him again, but she finally gave in and was back to smiles after a bit.

After naptime, we took a walk with the stroller to a nearby shopping area, which she seemed to enjoy. Everywhere we go, we get stopped by people, either practicing their English with us, or playing a sort of game of "charades". They ask if Lia is Chinese, and where we are from. They say she is a "lucky baby" and we tell them, no, WE are the lucky ones!!!

We met up with Reese, Rachel, & baby Grace for a jaunt over to the nearby Dumpling House for dinner. For $24 (and no tip), the six of us had two different kinds of sweet & sour chicken, egg fried rice, steamed pork dumplings, fried pork and chicken dumplings, and four warm canned Cokes (no ice). Each plate of dumplings has like 20 dumplings on it! The plates of chicken and rice were piled high...family-style. We could hardly make a dent in the piles of food in front of us - we seriously could have fed an army! At home we would have paid well over $150 for that much food.

Tomorrow is another free day, thank goodness. I feel like we came a long way today in terms of earning Lia's trust and hopefully tomorrow we'll see even more improvement. She is a little sweetheart, and I can tell there is a tender heart inside her just waiting to open up completely to us. We already see glimpses of her little personality here and there, and more and more each day.

Xi'an - Day 5 - Another Busy Day

2010-08-16T06:30:00.001-07:00

Today we had to meet our agency guide, Sissia, in the hotel lobby at 8 am. I think all the drama yesterday really wore Lia out, because I had to wake her up in order to get us all fed and down to the lobby by 8 am. You know that saying, "never wake a sleeping baby?" Yes, well, we found out today how true that statement really is. Poor Lia was still sleepy and NOT happy...

WAY too early mom!

Unfortunately, we had to go back to the Civil Affairs office TWICE today (the scene of all yesterday's drama) - in order to complete paperwork. So each time, our poor girl got herself wound up again, only for all of us to be standing around in hot offices for long periods of time with no A/C... In addition to two trips to the Civil Affairs office, we also made trips to get our first "official" family photo taken, and a trip to the local police station to have her passport photo taken. Lots of standing around and waiting...

Seriously??? Can we leave yet???

On the bright side, the adoption became "official" today in the eyes of the Chinese government. They made it very clear, that she is all ours and we can't give her back (as if we'd ever want to - NOT!!!) We were able to pick up a light-weight stroller for her yesterday afternoon, which has made all of these office visits much more tolerable. However, as much as Lia seems to like me when we're at the hotel room playing - no one else in the world except Steve exists once we leave the hotel! There are really only two choices... in the stroller - or Steve carrying her...at all times.

Back at the hotel, we had some fun playing with her new doll:

...and her colorful stacking cups have provided hours of fun (thank you auntie Megan!):

We also tried a bath tonight for the first time. So far I have to report, Lia is not a fan. I thought maybe the stacking cups would provide some fun bathtime distraction, but to no avail...so our wailing child was in and out of the tub in record time!

A smile for daddy...pre-bath!

After pajamas, and a bottle, she is crashed out cold in her crib. Thankfully, tomorrow is a free day, so no rush to get anywhere in the morning. So far, so good...thanks for all the wonderful comments, prayers, and positive vibes being sent our way - they are surely being felt! :)

I told you people...NO MORE PICTURES!

Xi'an - Day 4 - Tough, but Amazing...We Have Our Girl!

2010-08-15T06:23:00.000-07:00

I won't bore you with all the details now, since I know what everyone is looking for - PICTURES! But suffice to say, Lia was NOT thrilled to meet us (particularly me!) at the Civil Affairs office today. She only let Steve hold her at first for the most part. We had a tough couple of first hours, but once we got back to the hotel room, turned on the Ni Hao Kai-Lan DVD, and fed each other some snacks, we slowly started to win her over...she wore herself out and is now crashed out in her crib with her little bare feet sticking out thru the crib bars. :)

Now what you've all been waiting for...

Our Adoption Group, leaving the hotel to go get the babies!

Our girl - not a happy camper at first...

Wanting her nanny to come back...rough!

First family photo...still not sure about us...

Back at the hotel, starting to warm up...

Feeding mama a snack!

Finally - relaxing!

Letting mama give her a kiss...

A fresh diaper, in her jammies and ready for bed!

Beijing - Day 3 - A Whirlwind!

2010-08-14T06:47:00.001-07:00

It is 9:30 pm locally. We JUST got back to the hotel after 12 hours of touring. Today the smog finally lifted and it was a little bit cooler because of a nice breeze. We visited the Jade Factory and the Great Wall before lunch, and then had lunch at a Cloisonne Factory, followed by an acrobatic show and a visit to the 2008 Olympic Village...WHEW!!!

Best of all, we have a 4 am wake-up call tomorrow morning! We must be up with bags packed and outside our hotel door by 5 am, and ready to load the bus to the airport at 5:30 am. We then catch an 8:30 flight to Xi'an, where we will check into a our new hotel and then sometime after that - it's LIA TIME!

Needless to say I don't have time to get into details or post many of the 320 photos Steve took today - but here are a couple from the Great Wall to tide you all over...

Next post from Xi'an...WITH LIA!!!! :)

Beijing - Day 2 - Hutong Tour, Silk Factory, Forbidden City

2010-08-13T06:25:00.000-07:00

Last night we slept great...waking up around 6 am this morning. Not too shabby considering that we are trying to adjust our bodies to a 15-hr time difference! We showered and headed down to the hotel's breakfast buffet. We were seated next to the only other caucasion couple in the restaurant, so I asked if they were here with CCAI - and yep, they sure were - and they were from Mukilteo of all places (a suburb north of Seattle). So we had a nice chat with them while we sorted thru an interesting array of breakfast options...Steve went for the fried eggs (bad), pancakes (great) and coffee (really bad)...I went the opposite direction and had a couple slices of ham (ok) with fried rice (delicious), hashbrown wedges (not very warm, but decent), and a milk-steamed bun.

At 9 am, all the CCAI families met in the lobby for our first day of touring and loaded onto a tour bus with our guide, "George". We have 8 families in our group from all over the U.S. - Colorado, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois and Washington are the states I can remember. One couple will be receiving one year old TWIN girls on Sunday! We were all excited to talk about our children-to-be and there are several couples who will be first-time parents on this trip. There is also one couple traveling with their now 4.5 yr old daughter from China who is adorable and is enjoying being doted on by all the families.

Our first tour of the day was the Hutong Tour. Hutong's are what the oldest neighborbhoods in Beijing are called. The streets are very narrow, and can only be accessed by rickshaw, scooter, bicycle, or a very small cars. Each family/couple got put into a rickshaw and off we went!

They are actually quite like a pedicab - a very cool way to see an area up close and personal. The rickshaws (and vehicles in general here) stop for no one - so it is a wild ride! While in the Hutong, we also had the chance to visit a personal family's home and courtyard.

After the Hutong Tour, we headed over to the Silk Factory, where we learned about silk worms and how the silk thread gets pulled and stretched into quilts and clothing.

Of course then they gave everyone the "hard sell" to buy some silk items, which were very beautiful, but Steve and I declined any purchases.

Then we loaded into the bus and went to lunch. We ate at a restaurant representing the Dai minority of China. The food was...interesting. I tried a little bit of everything, but found the rice most appealing. During the lunch, there were dancers representing various Chinese minority groups who came out and put on a little show for us. Also during the lunch, some girls came by our table and tied pieces of red yard around our wrists. We asked what they were for, but none of the girls spoke English well enough to explain. When we left the restaurant, we noticed hundreds of the red yarns tied to the tree branches outside the restaurant, so we tied ours on there too.

After lunch George loaded us onto the bus toward the Forbidden City. First we walked thru Tiananmen Square. There were huge crowds of people - 98% of them were Chinese, so of course our group raised a lot of eyebrows (and cameras!)...every few feet we were stopped by people wanting to take photos with us. George was great about keeping us moving so we didn't get too overwhelmed with street vendors and curious natives.

At one point a little girl saw me taking a photo with Steve's iPhone and ran up to get a picture...not of me...just of Steve's iPhone!!! George said they have iphones in China, but she probably liked the special rubber case he has his in.

We spent 2.5 hrs. walking around the grounds of the Imperial Palace. It was hot and smoggy.

(Steve with George, our guide)

We were all pretty wiped out by the end of the tour. So we all were thrilled to return to the air-conditioned bus - and get back to the hotel for showers and dinner. Steve and I decided we've had enough chicken and rice for awhile, so we walked two blocks to Pizza Hut (which is more trendy and upscale here - like CPK in the U.S.) I'm telling you, plain cheese pizza never tasted so good!

On our way back, we stopped in the grocery store again, and were pleased to hear the Chinese man singing "Let it Be" this time...which of course led straight into another round of...(wait for it)....WINSTON CALL BOY! (Rhinestone Cowboy). :)

Tomorrow morning we have a 6 am wake-up call. We have to visit the breakfast buffet and be ready to leave the hotel lobby by 8 am. George will be taking us to the Great Wall, the 2008 Olympic Park, and an acrobatic show tomorrow...looking forward to it - but first we need some sleep... Goodnight from Beijing!

Beijing - Day 1 - We Made It!

2010-08-12T06:53:00.000-07:00

After 20+ hours of travelling, we FINALLY made it to Beijing this afternoon!

Our journey started with a smaller, prop plane flight to Seattle. I was not thrilled about this as it was the smallest plane I'd ever flown on, and as many of you know, I'm not a huge fan of flying anyway...but you do what you have to do when you want to go get your daughter!!! Anyway, the turbulence over the mountains was quite bumpy, but we arrived in one piece.

We then had a 5-hour layover in Seattle before catching our red-eye to Taipei. That flight was on a 777 and really smooth. We had an open seat on one side of us, so we had some extra room. We each were able to get short naps throughout the flight, and EVA Air had an pretty good selection of movies/TV to choose from. They fed us twice and the food was pretty decent (for airline food). One meal was a chicken stir-fry type "dinner" with rice, and once a "western-style" breakfast of scrambled eggs, tater tots (LOL), yogurt and a blueberry muffin. Being me, I took photos of all the food, and will upload those when I get a chance... When we finally arrived in Taipei is was 5:00 am local time.

So then we had a 5-hour layover in Taipei until our flight to Beijing. I'd heard from several people that the Taiwanese LOVE their "Hello Kitty", and I was not disappointed - she is everywhere! In fact the gate where we were to catch our next flight out to Beijing was a specially-decorated "Hello Kitty" gate with a big child play area (and of course, a giant Hello Kitty store) attached...photos to come... When the stores and restaurants finally opened around 6 am, we were able to grab a Coke, a bottled water, and a roll to tide us over until our 9:30 am flight.

The EVA Air flight from Taipei to Beijing was intense. It was 3 hours on another 777 but the plane was crowded and the seats were smaller. I was in the middle seat and Steve was on the aisle. The man on the window side of me was making every "bodily noise" possible, and it seemed that the plane's A/C did not work, or worked very little - so everyone was sweating. There were a couple times I thought I might pass out, either from sheer overheating or clausterphobia. So I fanned myself with the emergency exit card while we received our second serving of chicken stir-fry in 24 hours... Anyhow, we made it to Beijing around 12:30 pm - and WOW - what a big airport! You'd expect it to be big I guess, given it is the capitol city of the most-populated country in the world.

We made it thru Customs and found our agency rep holding a sign and waiting for us. He connected us to the driver that was taking us to our hotel, gave us some directions on how to find the nearest grocery store and restaurants to our hotel, and off we went! The driver didn't speak much English, so the ride was quiet while we took in the sights around us and relaxed in the car's A/C. It took about 40 minutes to get to our downtown hotel. Our room is nicely appointed - however very small - and the "King Bed" is more of a Full/Queen, but hey - the A/C works great - so I'm happy! :)

Once we were checked in and exchanged some money, we decided to head out again right away and purchase some bottled water and snacks from the grocery store our rep told us about. It's located inside a giant indoor mall-type building about two blocks from our hotel. We found our way to the basement (where the grocery store is), and were able to find bottled water and a few other snacks. Let me tell you - the best part of the grocery store was the soundtrack! The entire 20 minutes we were there, a male Chinese singer was singing the first two verses of "Rhinestone Cowboy" over...and over...and over. Then the music would pause for a moment, and just when you thought something new would be starting up - it would start over again. Steve and I were punchy by this point anyway, but it was completely surreal and we were cracking up. We wished we'd had our video camera with us to capture the moment, but I do think Steve got a few seconds of it with his iPhone. It sounded like the guy was singing "Like a Winston Call-boy"... :)

Back to the hotel for much-needed showers and a nap! We ended up "napping" for about three hours, took a walk around the hotel to locate tomorrow's breakfast buffet, and then decided we weren't really all that hungry for "dinner" - so we will load up on water and snacks tonight, and rest in our room. Tomorrow morning at 9 am we meet up with our rep and the other families to start touring Beijing. We will be here touring a couple of days, before we fly to Xi'an on Sunday morning for LIA DAY!

Believe me, Steve is taking tons of photos, which we will download and get some of them posted up here soon. We are just too tired tonight and trying to get over jet lag. Soon - I promise!!! :)

Headed to the Airport...

2010-08-10T17:48:00.000-07:00

We are leaving for the airport in a half hour. All bags are packed. One suitcase is 38 lbs, and the other is 39 lbs. The theory of using zip locks for everything and sucking all the air out worked! Massive amounts of stuff in each bag!

Mom is here and officially "on duty" with the dogs. We had a great birthday dinner with her last night at Texas Roadhouse. We practiced with Skype today so she is all set.

We have a four hour layover in Seattle before catching the red-eye to Beijing (via Taipei).

We're coming for you Lia!!! :)

This is just a test -- from the "back up" blogger!

2010-08-09T18:29:00.002-07:00

Is this thing on?

48 Hours and Counting...

2010-08-08T16:38:00.000-07:00

This weekend we have been cleaning and organizing the house, and starting to get packed. I've been getting Lia's stuff together for packing for a few weeks now, but now I mean BUSINESS! I am slowly getting our laundry done and trying to fit all of our stuff and Lia's into two suitcases which cannot weigh more than 44 lbs. each...hmmm...thank goodness it is summer, so we can pack light! :)

I also got a pedicure, a haircut, and a brow wax, as I figure it could be awhile before I get to the salon again. The Vietnamese women at the salon were SO excited to hear I was adopting from a little girl from China! They gave me a *special* pedicure (complete with little flowers on my toes), and gave me the *deluxe* foot spa treatment for free (awesome!) They also would not let me leave before promising to bring Lia in to meet them once we are home. DEAL!

My mom arrives tomorrow. She and my uncle will be staying at the house while we are gone, taking care of the dogs. It also happens to be my mom's birthday tomorrow, so we will treat her to dinner and have a little celebration before we leave on Tuesday. It's fun that my mom's birthday is tomorrow and my dad's birthday is next Monday. This year they are getting a grandchild as a birthday present! August is always a happy month for our family, so now we will have even one more reason to celebrate - our Family Day with Lia!

8 Days and Counting...

2010-08-02T16:46:00.000-07:00

Only eight days until we leave for China. The carseat has been installed in our SUV, and our little dogs are now befuddled as to how they will jump back and forth between the front and back seats as they are so used to doing... As the dogs are about to find out...there is a WHOLE NEW WORLD coming at the end of this month! Our fur-babies, Luna and Killer have been our focus for the past four years. Luna is our 7-yr -old "not-so-miniature" Schnauzer, and Killer is our 12-yr old-Yorkie. We keep telling them they have a "sister" coming, but they just stare at us and expect a treat. Go figure.

My mom is coming to stay at our house and watch the dogs while we are in China. Hopefully she will be able to relax and enjoy the warmer weather (as well as our A/C) on this side of the state. I know she is also planning to work on Lia's 100 Good Wishes Quilt during that time. While it will be hard to leave our four-legged friends behind for 17 days, I am happy that we don't have to leave them at a kennel or with a petsitter. They know my mom and will be much happier staying in their own home and their regular routine...that is, until Lil Miss shows up and starts giving them a run for their money!

In other interesting news, last night we were out on our back patio enjoying the cool evening breeze, when I noticed up in a tree about 20 ft high - a BIG hornet's nest - about the size of a football - eeeeeek! So one more thing we are trying to accomplish before we leave is to get someone out to remove that from our yard. Never a dull moment... :)

Only 11 More Days

2010-07-30T20:03:00.001-07:00

It's official! Our plane tickets arrived via FedEx this week. We are going to CHINA!!! We leave the evening of Aug. 10, arrive in Beijing on the 12th, and head to Xi'an on the 15th (where Lia Day will occur!!!)...after a few days in Xi'an, we will fly to Guangzhou, where the U.S. Consulate is, to get all of her immigration paperwork filed, before heading back to the U.S. on Aug. 27.

It's really happening... So this is a "test post", emailing my blog post to Blogger. Let's see if it works...

TA Hooray!!!

2010-07-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

Today I received word from my agency that my travel approval has been received. They are working now to set a consulate appointment for us, so until that is set we won't know our travel dates for sure - but it's looking like we will leave on or around August 11th!!! Whoo hoooo...let the packing begin!

FINALLY - WE ARE GOING TO CHINA...SOON!

A Whole New Look!

2010-07-17T18:45:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my new and improved blog! It was designed for me by a wonderful young woman named Alexis, who uses her talents and design skills to raise money for orphans and mission trips - how cool is that? If your blog is in desperate need of a makeover (like mine was!) I highly recommend her. Thank you Alexis for designing a blog for me that really captured everything I wanted in my new blog! :)

Article 5!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-07-09T11:38:00.000-07:00

"We just received an update from our Guangzhou staff stating that they have picked up your family’s Article 5 (signed 2nd acceptance letter) from the Consulate and now it is off to the CCAA. The Article 5 typically takes about 4-5 days to be delivered to the CCAA. Once the CCAA receives this document, they will have all that they need to issue your family’s travel approval. The CCAA typically takes about 2-4 weeks to issue a travel approval. We see this update as great news for your family as you are one step closer to getting you to China!"

A Quiet Fourth of July

2010-07-05T11:53:00.001-07:00

We had a quiet, relaxing July 4th - complete with afternoon naps, steaks on the grill, and movie rentals - it was great! Everyone keeps telling me that I need to appreciate every ounce of sleep and relaxation that I can get "pre-toddler", so I am abiding by their words and doing my best to enjoy every opportunity to have "grown-up time" now while I still can...but at the same time, I am so excited about holidays to come with Lia! Not to imply that one thing is better than the other...but I've been enjoying "grown-up" holidays for over 20 years now - I'm ready to experience these traditions through the eyes of a child again! :)

Independence Day also had me thinking (once again) about how lucky I was to be born in America. While I would be the first one to admit that America has it's problems, and that I often disagree with the politics and/or agendas of U.S. political parties and their leaders, the bottom line is - I have the FREEDOM to disagree! When I look at the many children around the world who are born into poverty, illness, war, and malnutrition it makes me realize how many families take it all for granted in the U.S.

Whether or not we can "afford" it, we have access to amazing healthcare in this country. Children here are routinely immunized starting at birth for diseases that run rampant in other countries. We can drink water from taps in our kitchens and bathrooms without worrying about contracting parasites or diseases. We are not victims to days (or weeks) of blackouts because of energy shortages. Boys AND girls have an equal opportunity to attend schools and receive higher education...the list goes on...

For all these things I am so grateful, and I try to remember every day not to take them for granted. I hope everyone had a fun and safe Fourth...

God Bless America (and all the other countries that need his blessings too!)

FUN-draising!!!

2010-06-28T13:59:00.001-07:00

This weekend my family hosted an Adoption Fundraiser/Spaghetti Feed at my old high school (my dad works there and secured the gymnasium and attached kitchen for us!) - We spread the news through Facebook, my parents' church newsletter and word of mouth. We were uncertain how many folks would actually show up for an event on a nice Saturday evening in June, but we ended up with around 50 people and we had a great time!

We got to the gym early on Saturday afternoon to decorate. I also prepared a powerpoint slideshow that documented my adoption journey, which played on a big screen throughout the event. We ran music from Steve's iPod...and my mom - bless her heart - cooked spaghetti - LOTS of it! Along with salad, garlic bread, and cake for dessert.

With my mom (no resemblance there...haha)

We didn't charge for tickets, but instead just let people give whatever they felt they could to help us bring Lia home. We also offered up a few small silent auction items for bidding.

My sister Tracy, my dad, and myself - goofy in the kitchen!

It was so great to see some of my old high school friends - some who I haven't seen in over 20 years - others who I've only reconnected with recently via Facebook:

"Class of '88" girls from left: Shari, Paula, Brietta, myself

With my good friend Rick and his wife Katie

Because I attended parochial schools in the same neighborhood, with the same families for 14 years (Preschool-Grade 12), I also saw some of my past teachers and principals...it was really cool. Kind of like a fundraiser and reunion combined.

My friend Ron, who I went to grade school with!

I'm happy to report that after expenses, we raised over $1,000 to bring our girl home! Between the online donations I've received (see upper left for ChipIn link) - and a few personal checks I've received by mail - we have raised $3,000 so far toward our travel expenses. A HUGE thanks to my family for all the work they put into this event, thanks to Steve for photographing and documenting the entire evening - and finally THANK YOU to everyone who attended - it was so much fun!

Next up? Garage Sale July 10...

This Letter is to Inform You...

2010-06-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

Don't you just love official-looking letters that start out like that??? Well, I'm actually starting to!

"This letter is to inform you that your petition has been forwarded to the appropriate visa-issuing post where the adoption interview will take place..."

Whoo hoooooo! THE interview WILL. TAKE. PLACE. I literally teared up reading those words. This is the letter telling me that my U.S. paperwork has been forwarded to the U.S. consulate in Guangzhou. Which means we will likely be traveling in about 6 weeks!

So we made a trip to the "Big W" today (known for their great prices, but a store I rarely frequent and refuse to give any free publicity to)... When it comes to buying baby/toddler supplies and medicines, you can't beat their prices (I went online and checked!) Since we will be dealing with limited luggage space and weight restrictions, we are basically just buying the items that A) aren't readily available in China - or B) we need just a little bit of until we can get out to a store in China... So Lia's playroom table has become a dumping ground for our pre-packing collections.

This, of course, does not include a lot of her other stuff like clothes, toys, bottles, diapers, snacks, etc. I am still hoping for an update on her current size and daily habits before I purchase or pack those items - closer to when we leave. But as all this stuff costs money, so I'm trying to spread out the expenses over a few paychecks.

We also went to see the new "Karate Kid" movie today. Let me start by saying that I loved, LOVED the original Karate Kid - complete with pics of Ralph Macchio from Tiger Beat magazine taped up on my bedrooms walls when I was 14. I even owned an LP of the soundtrack! My sister and I must've watched that movie 100 times. So I was thrilled to learn that it was being remade and set in China no less, on the summer I am about to embark there. Too cool. Jackie Chan plays the "Mr. Miyagi" role as "Mr. Han". Jayden Smith (Will Smith's son) plays "Dre" the new Karate Kid, and this time the Kid is learning Kung Fu rather than Karate. Throughout the movie, Mr. Han refers to Dre as "Xiao Dre". He tells Dre this translates as "Little Dre". Hearing this made me smile, since Lia's Chinese name is Xiao Hui, meaning "little" and "intelligent". Overall I thought the movie was great. I'm pleased that they kept so much of the heart from the original movie (which was lacking in the other sequels). I'm guessing this is a movie we will eventually own and watch over and over again in the coming years. :)

Finishing up her room...and travel visas received!

2010-06-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

This week we finished up a few things in Lia's room. I hung some of her clothes - at least the ones that might be in the vicinity of fitting her between sometime in the next several months. We also hung her name sign above her closet, and finished things off with a few decorative flowers:

We also finished hanging the shelves above the dresser/changing table:

FedEx arrived today with our passports - complete with our Chinese travel visas attached! YAY. So we are READY to travel when we get the call - come on travel approval (TA)!!! This time I did not get a photo with the FedEx guy...it was a different driver, and he was off and back in his truck before I even got to the door.

There are still several steps of paperwork that need to go back and forth and exchange hands between China and the U.S. before our consulate appointment (CA) gets set - and we can't get TA until we have a CA...so, right now we are still hoping for travel in early August - fingers crossed. It's getting harder and harder to wait at this point...although as I've said the entire past three years, it will happen when it is supposed to happen (but hopefully it just happens sooner than later!) :)

Money Grows from Friends, Not Trees!

2010-06-06T19:01:00.001-07:00

Just a brief note of thanks to everyone who has contributed to my adoption fundraiser thus far! As you can see (at left) - my online "ChipIn" account has accumulated over $900 so far...but in total, I have raised over $1,500 from generous friends and family members across the U.S. - and I'm looking forward to hosting a fundraiser at my former high school in a couple of weeks to add to that amount!

Adoption is not an easy or cheap process. Adoptive families undergo years of paperwork, in-depth scrutiny into their personal backgrounds and financial records, criminal background checks, fingerprinting by the FBI and Homeland Security - and at every step along the way, there are fees to pay. You pay your agency, the social worker who does your homestudy, and USCIS for the priviledge of bringing a foreign child into the U.S. as an adopted child.

Once you actually get matched with a child, you pay for visas and travel expenses (for them and you!), and a donation to the orphanage that has cared for your child. Then once you come home you pay your social worker to write and submit post-placement reports and court costs to re-finalize the adoption in your state...it just goes on and on and on...and you start to wonder if as many people would have biological children, if they all had to go through this type of process to become a parent...I'm thinking probably not.

But after working at a pediatric hospital where the leading cause of non-accidental death in infants was shaken baby syndrome year after year...I'm thinking perhaps they should.

Anyway - thank you to everyone who has helped me achieve this dream, but even more importantly, is helping change the life of one very special child. You will be in our thoughts and prayers always!

Memorial Day Weekend - Lia's Room

2010-05-31T18:49:00.000-07:00

For those folks who had planned on taking their boat out to a lake, or camping, or having a nice backyard BBQ this weekend, the weather here in the inland northwest - sadly - did not cooperate. As I write this, it is raining BUCKETS (buckets I tell you!!!) - and it's been this way for several days. Temps in the 50s and 60s, and rain showers on and off. Not much of a "kickoff to summer" in these parts. So far we've only seen a handful of days with temps in the 70s and even hit 80 so far (once or twice). But those of us who live up here realize that "summer" never really starts until after July 4th anyway. Onward and upward...

Nevertheless, for us this weekend was all about indoor projects, so the weather really didn't matter. It was finally, (FINALLY!) time to work on Lia's room! To those who are newly following along on my journey, I have moved a total of five times since I started the adoption process in 2006. FIVE. TIMES. After the first two moves, I stopped unpacking all the cute, little girl items I was collecting, and instead packed everything away in rubbermaid containers, labeled and sorted by age and type of item. Not knowing what age Lia would be when she came home, I gladly accepted hand-me-downs (in various sizes) from friends, but never purchased any furniture or a crib/bed for her room, figuring I would handle all that once I knew more about her. So now that I know she will be almost 2 years old when she comes home later this summer, it was time to get to work! There are still some finishing touches to come...but here are some of the highlights from what we accomplished this weekend:

Her bed is a very cool contraption from IKEA called the "Kura" bed. It can be set up as a bunk bed, a loft bed, or as a regular twin bed, just depending on how you flip it (upside down or right side up) and attach the bed rails. As you can see, we are starting it out in the "loft bed" position, but without the loft mattress actually in place, instead placing the mattress directly on the floor (so she can't fall out). As she gets bigger, we can flip it over and make it a twin bed, or install the railings for the upper bunk and turn the ladder out away from the wall. The pediatrician I spoke with at the adoption clinic mentioned that - at her age - the type of bed (crib, toddler bed, or twin mattress on the floor) didn't matter as much as creating a "cozy nook" for the child to help them feel safe and secure, as well as the ability for a parent to snuggle with them or sleep next to them if necessary - which should work well with this setup. We may end up co-sleeping for awhile as she adjusts to her new surroundings, but I wanted her room to be an inviting place to play and imagine...for both of us!

LOA Arrived Today!

2010-05-25T13:47:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I rec'd notice that my LOA from the Chinese gov't had arrived at my agency's office in Colorado. They FedEx'd it to me...and ding, dong, the doorbell rang around 10:30 am and the FedEx guy was quite surprised to learn that part of his job was "delivering babies"... but he was happy to pose for a quick photo with me for Lia's scrapbook:

Then the sorting and signing of the documents began...

We wrapped this up with a trip to the FedEx office downtown so I could overnight everything I signed back to Colorado. In the meantime, my Travel Packet arrived via email, so now I get to work on all the travel paperwork and requirements, visa applications, etc. ... never a dull moment these days, but I'LL TAKE IT - another step closer to my girl!

One Toddler Room...coming soon...and LOA!!!!!

2010-05-23T20:56:00.001-07:00

This weekend we headed to IKEA to purchase all of the basics for Lia's room, which I have been eyeing for several months... In my usual way, I had (nearly) the entire list of items pre-printed out including which aisles and bins to locate them in at the warehouse... I am proud to report we were in and out of IKEA with 42 items (including a bed and mattress) in 1.5 hours, with the precision of a NASCAR pit crew. Even better, we were able to fit all of our purchases into the SUV along with our overnight bags, two air mattresses, blankets, toys and food for the dogs - and of course the two dogs themselves. Five hours later we are home and unloaded. WHEW! Guess what I'll be doing Memorial Day Weekend???

More photos to come next week. Watch out world - my need to "nest" is in overdrive!

P.S. - just rec'd notice of my Letter of Acceptance (LOA!) this morning...10-13 weeks until TRAVEL.