Sisters

We've had such an incredible first day as a family of four. We saw Terra's first smile today and it was so wonderful. She laughed and smiled at Jorie as they were playing together, I can't explain how great it felt to see her smile. The other girls that arrived yesterday have been smiling since they got here, but Terra has been very serious. I told Jeff that it was even better that we had to wait to see a smile, because we know that it means she's starting to feel more comfortable around us.
Last night went pretty well. Both girls slept through the night and at one point were even cuddling together, it was so adorable. The girls have had a wonderful time playing together and at one point, I'm sure Terra was attempting to say jie jie (big sister). The orphanage staff did tell us yesterday that she could talk, they said she could say "Mama", but we haven't heard that yet.
We have noticed some sibling rivalry already, so that's something we'll have to work on, once we get everyone settled. Terra is still stuck to me like glue, not willing to ever be out of my lap, and Jorie is having a bit of a tough time with that. They're both battling for my affection and attention. Thank goodness I have two arms and can hold and hug them both at the same time!
We did a little bit of sightseeing today. Not too much, since we were on foot and it's at least 95 degrees here with crazy humidity. We walked around a beautiful lake for a little while and we went to see a pond that was covered in lotus flowers. We also saw a fishing pond where many people were fishing. Our guide was telling us that the pond is stocked with fish and the people have to pay for the fish they catch!
After sightseeing, we took a shopping expedition to Walmart, which was quite an adventure. Our group really was somewhat of a spectacle. The store was two floors with an escalator in the middle that was really more of a moving ramp - we put our entire cart right on and went down!
After the morning adventure, we came back to our room and spent time getting to know each other. We brought a Chinese lullaby CD with us and we noticed that every time one particular song starts playing, Terra's eyes light up and she starts pointing at the computer (that's what we use to play the CD) with a big smile and saying something. She obviously knows the song from somewhere.
Jorie continues to dazzle our guide with her mandarin skills. She has answered several of the guide's questions in mandarin (any question requiring a simple one or two word answer that she happens to know in mandarin), which really impresses everyone. :) She attracts so much attention when we're out - everyone wants to talk to her and touch her curls. Today, as she was looking at Terra, she said, "She has beautiful eyes, I love them. I love her hair too. She really is a lovely little sister." Too cute!!
Well, it's time to get ready to go for dinner - it takes us so much longer to get out the door now!
I'll try to add some more pictures tomorrow!

Our Little Girl

What an emotional day!! We were all up at 4:30 this morning, we couldn't convince Jorie to go back to sleep. Not that it would have made a difference if she had, Jeff and I were too excited to sleep as well. We played some games to pass the time until the breakfast buffet opened, then headed down for breakfast. After breakfast, we did everything we could think of to pass the time until Terra arrived. We prepared as best we could, getting a bottle and some snacks ready, figuring she might be hungry after her long journey from the orphanage. Finally, 11:00 came and we went down to the second floor to meet our little girl. We walked into the conference room with two other families from our group and our facilitator looked at us and said, "Your baby is here, the others have not yet arrived." We couldn't believe it! A few minutes later Terra came into the room with one of her nannies. She was hysterical!! My eyes welled up with tears and the emotions were no different than what I felt in the delivery room when Jorie was born. I was finally meeting my little girl. I gently picked her up out of her nanny's arms. She cried and cried, I could barely hear what the facilitator was telling us about her schedule. After a few minutes, the facilitator suggested that we bring her upstairs and settle her down. She said we could do the formal paperwork later and ask the orphanage staff questions later. So, we headed up to our room and began life as a family of four. The first picture is the picture of Terra and I as we entered the hotel room. She started calming down within minutes of coming into the room. I sat down with her on the floor and didn't dare move as she sat contentedly on my lap. Jorie kept asking when she could play with her and Terra just stared at all of us, as if to say, "Who are you people and why am I here?!" After the initial novelty of being a big sister wore off, Jorie decided she wanted to play cards. This actually ended up being the best thing she could have done because Terra was very interested in the cards and that was the first time she interacted with any of us. She and Jorie passed the cards back and forth to each other and had a great time. After that, she started exploring a few other toys, all from the safety of my lap - she would not venture off nor did she like it when I tried to move. So, we sat on the floor with her on my lap for about 3 hours - the second picture above was taken at some point in those 3 hours. Then, it was time to get ready to complete our formal paperwork and adoption registration. Getting out the door with two children was no easy task! We were so concerned about having everything we needed for the girls and the paperwork, that we totally forgot our gifts that we brought for the officials that helped us with the paperwork! We felt just awful at the adoption registry when they handed us a gift and thanked us for our kindness and we had no gift to give back!
We've learned quite a bit about Terra already. We know that she is terrified of anything new, each new thing that we've done or person that we've seen has brought about many tears. We also know that she DOES NOT like elevators - we may have to go in search of stairs if she doesn't warm up to the elevators. We also know that she is incredibly smart. She studied her bottle with avid curiosity until she figured out how to put the top on and off herself, she has already mastered the sippy cup, and she watched Jorie and I build a tower for a few minutes, then started adding cups to the tower herself. We had sent her a care package a few months ago and one of the things we sent was a toy with pictures of us. When she arrived today, the orphanage staff gave us the toy and it was clear that someone had spent time showing her our pictures. Once we got back from all of our appointments, we sat back down to our perch on the floor and she picked up her toy. She looked at each of our pictures. She pointed to my picture and rubbed my face in the picture. She also pointed to Jorie's picture, then picked it up and gave it kisses! Then, to our surprise, she pointed at Jorie! What a smarty pants! We also know that she LOVES to eat! You wouldn't know it to look at her, she's quite a little peanut, but she ate far more than her big sister at dinner tonight. It's so strange to have a child that will eat anything! Although, I can't really blame her, dinner was fantastic! It was, by far, the best meal we've had since our arrival. We can't wait to learn more about our little girl as the days go on!
It's been so interesting to watch the different reactions of the babies that arrived today. Terra was, by far, the most visibly upset about the changes in her life. She has not let go of me since she arrived and won't even think of going near Jeff. One other girl in our group will not let go of her new daddy and won't go near her new mommy! The third little girl has been quietly content since she arrived. At the adoption registry, we met another couple that received their little boy this morning and he was laughing and playing with his new parents like they had known each other for years. It's so amazing how children have so many different ways to cope.
The other families in our group have commented on what an incredibly beautiful little girl we have, she really is quite beautiful. They also insist that her resemblance to me is uncanny - go figure! They insist that she has my coloring and my eyes - big brown eyes with long eyelashes.
Well, I should go wash bottles and get ready for bed - the rest of my family is sound asleep. We'll continue to keep you posted on our progress. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and well wishes. We feel so incredibly blessed to be on this journey!

We're Here!

Hi Everyone!
We arrived in China last night, safe and sound after a long, but fun journey. Jorie had a wonderful time on the planes and made many new friends! We checked into our hotel last night for about 6 hours before going back to the airport this morning to fly to Terra's province. In our sleep-deprived state last night, we read our itinerary wrong and thought our flight left at 9:10 this morning. We arrived at the airport to find out it actually departed at 8:00 AM and arrived at our destination at 9:10 AM!! Good thing we had planned to be at the airport 2 hours before take-off! We arrived at our gate as they were closing the door and made it safely on board. :) We found out that we'll be meeting Terra tomorrow at 11:00 AM and she will be with us forever after that!! We are so incredibly excited, it finally feels real to all of us! Jorie has been dancing and singing around the room while Jeff and I try to get everything settled before we meet the new addition. We have internet access at our current hotel and we'll be staying here through Sunday. I hope to be able to post updates once a day and some pictures just as soon as we have them.
Love to all of you!!

3 Days!

We can hardly believe that we're leaving for China in 3 days! At this point, we're mostly packed. We have three large duffle bags filled with diapers, wipes, food, medicine, toys and some clothes. We received our itinerary last week and it looks like we'll be very busy while we're away. The adoption agency scheduled lots of shopping and touring trips - it'll be hard to stick to the budget! We're so excited to begin our adventure and can't believe that Terra will be in our arms in less than a week!
We'll be cleaning the house tomorrow, so we can come home to a clean house (I'm sure it won't stay clean for long). The plan is to make Thursday all about Jorie. We have a creamery tour scheduled with some of her homeschooling friends, so we'll do that in the morning. We told Jorie she could pick somewhere to go for dinner on Thursday night (so we won't have to worry about cooking and dishes). She's VERY excited about the night out!
We'll do our best to keep everyone posted while we're away. I'm not sure if we'll be able to post pictures before we return, but I'll try to post a few messages about our adventures. I promise to post pictures when we get back!

Terra's Quilt

Well, here it is, my first ever quilt! It definitely looks like a beginner's quilt, but you have to add points for all of the love that was poured into it - through my hard work and everyone's fabric contribution! For the most part, I enjoyed putting the quilt together. I loved cutting the fabric, arranging the squares and sewing them together - it was kind of like putting together pieces of a puzzle. The only part that I thoroughly disliked was sewing the entire thing together - front, back and batting. It was not fun. If any of you quilters out there have suggestions to make that process easier, I'd love to hear them. Perhaps I should have taken some sort of class before diving in, I'm not really sure why I thought quilting was a teach yourself sort of activity! :) Anyway, thank you to everyone who sent us fabric, we're looking forward to bringing the quilt to China and wrapping Terra up in love!

Travel Dates!

Our travel dates were confirmed today!! We weren't able to get an appointment at the US Consulate until July 16th. So, we'll be leaving the US on Friday, July 4th and returning on Saturday, July 19th. We're a little disappointed that we're leaving a week later than we hoped, but we're so excited that we'll have Terra in our arms in less than a month! We're scheduled to pick up Terra on Monday, July 7th, with the adoption becoming final on Tuesday, July 8th.
We'll continue to keep you posted...

Travel Approval

Today we received our travel approval from China, which is basically an invitation from the Chinese government to fly to China and adopt a child. Our agency is working hard to schedule our appointments at the American Consulate. If all goes according to plan, we'll be leaving the US on June 27th. We'll be in China for two weeks and then returning to the states on July 12th as a family of four!! We've got a stack of things in our bedroom ready to be packed and we're wondering just exactly what the agency means when they say "pack light". How does one "pack light" when traveling with a 3 1/2-year-old and a 16-month-old in a foreign country? I'll do my best! I had fun shopping for clothes for the girls. I bought matching dresses for them to wear on the day that the adoption is finalized and a couple of outfits that are the same outfits, but different colors - what fun to have two little girls!! Boy, are they going to hate me!! :)