A Very Busy Day!

Here we are on our way home from our trip to the orphanage. The girls were both so tired that they fell asleep within minutes of driving down the street. I have to say that it's most definitely a leap of faith every time we get into a car, van or bus! There are no car seats and many of the vans don't have seat belts either. It's really quite extraordinary, especially when watching the way people drive! Many intersections have no street lights or stop signs, cars just drive through at will. I'm still trying to figure out the traffic patterns, but have not had any luck. The one thing I have noticed is that if the driver is honking, that means they have no intention of stopping, so you better get out of their way - this applies to pedestrians too, so you have to be very careful when crossing the street!
Our trip to the orphanage went very well. It is, of course, not the Ritz Carlton, but as orphanages go, I was incredibly impressed. I can't post any pictures because that is against policy and would violate the children's privacy that live there. I asked our guide if all of the orphanages were this nice and she laughed at me. Then she said that the director had been there many years and he was very resourceful. The room that Terra slept in was a dark room with lots of metal cribs (perhaps 10 or so). There was also two playrooms that were nicely equipped and very clean - I believe that was for our benefit, they knew we were coming for a tour. We also saw and outdoor courtyard with a merry-go-round and climber. The side of the orphanage with the older children was very impressive! It had a computer lab, therapy room (we were told that 2 physical therapists come to work with the children) and a couple of playrooms.
When we first walked into the orphanage, Terra's nanny immediately took her out of my arms. Terra didn't smile, but seemed content to be with her. When another nanny picked her up, she started to cry and reached for me. I was so happy that I was the one she wanted to come back to and not her nanny! She stayed in my arms for the rest of the time and was very serious, no smiles at all. I put her down to see her friends, we were introduced to her two best friends and took pictures of the three girls together, but she would not let go and didn't even smile when she saw them. We had a nice tour and then went into a conference room to meet with the director. He gave us gifts for Jorie and Terra! He asked if we had any questions about Terra, so we asked if they had any special memories or stories they could tell us about her time there. Her nanny's response was that Terra is an incredibly smart little girl that never liked to be put down! The nanny said that Terra cried every time she put her down and always wanted to be held. She also said that she would push away the other children when they tried to get hugs from the nanny! It sounded quite a lot like our current status! The director invited us to stay for lunch, so we politely accepted. There was a special table set for us in another room and we sat down for a very interesting meal. Jorie was pleased to see that they had made french fries especially for her! The main dish came out and it was fish. Our guide spent a lot of time explaining to us how this was the most expensive fish to buy and it was quite an honor that they had prepared the fish for us to eat. Those of you that know me well, know that I do not eat seafood and if the seafood is served to me with the head still attached, that's an even bigger problem! I debated in my head which would be more offensive to our extremely kind host - to politely decline the fish or to eat the fish and run the risk of being sick right there at the table. I opted for the former and hoped it wouldn't cause too much trouble. Most of the talk at the table was in Chinese, so I really don't know if they were talking about me or not, but I prefer to think that they weren't. Jeff did eat the fish and said it was delicious, he even had seconds. Those of you that know Jeff, know that he doesn't eat seafood either, so it was a bit of a stretch for him to try it in the first place. At the end of our lunch, Jeff said a heart-felt thank you to the director for his hospitality and for taking such wonderful care of our little girl. I think I saw his eyes well up with tears, but I can't be completely sure. :) After lunch, it was time to head back to the hotel.

Once we got back to the hotel, we had a little time to rest. We went back to the store to pick up our dresses and Jorie insisted on trying on her fancy Christmas dress and shoes - gotta love those turquoise socks, I think they really make the outfit! She loves her fancy dress and I do too! I'm so impressed with how the dresses came out and I can't wait to see my shirt - it wasn't ready yet this afternoon and we didn't have time to go back this evening.

We did a little sight seeing this evening, before it started to rain on us, which cut the sight seeing short. Here we are at People's Park. It's a really beautiful park filled with people. There was one section of the park that was exercise equipment for adults! It was so neat to see all of the adults out at the park exercising together. We saw a lot of people playing badminton and one man practicing tennis by hitting a ball that was attached to a really long elastic and the elastic was tied around a brick on the ground. He hit the ball and when the ball hit the end of the elastic, it bounced back at him - pretty creative!
After the park, we had dinner at a beautiful restaurant nearby. It was a little surreal to walk into the restaurant and hear Celine Dion singing, the second song was Unchained Melody - so it must have been a mixed tape of some sort. During dinner, we saw a live performance of dancers. There were several different types of dancing - one traditional dance with fans, one hip-hop dance and one dance done by two girls that were able to move their bodies into positions that no human should be able to do! Terra and Jorie both loved the show and Jorie even went right up to sit on the edge of the stage and watch. By the time we got back from dinner, it was 8 PM and we were all exhausted. The rest of the family is sound asleep and it's time for me to say good-night too!
This is a picture of Terra's Christening gown. It's so beautiful that I had to post a picture for everyone to see. We bought a matching hat and shoes to go with it - I can't wait to see her all dressed up!
'Til next time...

It's the end of another day here in China, the girls are sound asleep, perhaps passed out is a better word! They're both so tired by the end of each day! I got my first full night's sleep last night and woke up feeling terrific. We had a really wonderful day. Jorie woke up about an hour and a half before Terra, so I got up with her and was able to play and talk one-on-one - something I had really been missing, since Terra has been monopolizing my time and my lap. It was so great to reconnect with Jorie. We're so incredibly proud of how she's dealing with all of this. She speaks to Terra in the softest, sweetest voice, saying things like, "Don't worry Terra, Mama, Baba (Daddy), and jiejie (big sister) are here, we'll be here to take care of you forever." It's so adorable. The two girls together are such hams - they copy everything the other one is doing, I can see this being a really big problem in the future!! :) Terra is becoming more and more comfortable with us. She's smiling a lot more as you can see in the picture above. She even took her first steps away from me. Of course, then she realized that she had left my lap and immediately turned around and ran into my arms with a big smile. Jeff is slowly winning Terra over with food. He gives her lots of snacks and though she still won't let him hold her, she will take food out of his hand and even fed him a few Cheerios today, which we think is a great sign! It's actually quite funny, Terra is definitely the smallest girl in our group, but she eats far more than the other kids. Anything having to do with food makes her very happy! We ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut for lunch today and Terra kept pointing at it as if she'd like to try some. I decided to let her try it and she ate the entire piece before pointing for more! The other couples are teasing us that Jeff will have to get a second job just to feed her. :)
We did some more sight seeing today. We went to the Tengwang Pavilion - that's the picture above. It was absolutely stunning! The original structure was built around 600 AD!! Of course, it's been refurbished since then. We were able to see a show while we were there - singing, dancing and musical instruments. Both of the girls loved it. When the dancing girls came out in their fancy costumes with lots of beads and sequins, Jorie said, "Wow, those fancy girls have lots of accessories!" After the Pavilion we came home and played for a while (that's when the smiling photo was taken). We discovered that Terra loves to be picked up and put down. After lunch, both of the girls were feeling tired and cranky, but neither were willing to take naps, so we loaded them both up in our carriers - Jorie on Jeff's back and Terra on my front - and ventured out for a walk. We did our first shopping since we arrived. We found a little shop that was absolutely wonderful! We placed an order to have a traditional Chinese dress made for Terra for her baptism - with shoes and a hat to match. We picked the most beautiful white fabric with white flowers. We ordered a scroll for Terra's room with her Chinese name, birth date and hometown on it. We also ordered matching dresses for the girls and a matching shirt for me in a beautiful red fabric that we can all wear this Christmas. The man measured all of us and will make the dresses, shoes and shirt specifically for us. The most incredible part is that they will all be ready tomorrow! I can't wait to see them and I'm debating putting in an order for another dress when we go pick up our last order, I think it will be nice to have a dress or two in larger sizes that Terra can wear as she grows older. After we spent most of our spending money in that store (just kidding, you wouldn't believe how inexpensive it was to custom order our clothes!), we ventured on to a whole street lined with shops. We were searching for a larger diaper bag, our bag is just not cutting it with two kids, and a pair of shorts for me - Terra is the messiest eater I've ever seen and I'm going through far more clothes than I thought I would. We ended up finding both things, but boy was it an adventure! When I decided on a pair of shorts, I asked the saleswoman where I could pay for them and she had no idea what I was asking. After a lot of confusion, Jeff finally took money out of his pocket to show her and she brought us to the register. We didn't last long shopping and returned to our room. That's when we attempted Terra's first bath with us. You can see one of the pictures above. It went so much more smoothly than I had anticipated. When I first placed her in the tub, she started to scream, but I think it had more to do with me putting her down than her being in the water. Once she got over the initial trauma, she settled down and started playing. She really enjoyed the bath and didn't mind at all when I washed her hair. She didn't even cry when Jorie decided to help and accidentally poured water right down the front of her face! I guess we'll have to sign her up for some swimming lessons when we get back! She's clearly not afraid of the water!
Jorie continues to attract a lot of attention. Our guide keeps explaining to us that the people here rarely see a child with blonde hair and blue eyes, so it's quite a novelty. Apparently, she's correct because Jorie has had her picture taken so many times that Jeff said, "Next time we come back to China for a visit, we're going to see Jorie's picture on detergent boxes or something!" On our way out for dinner last night, we were stopped by a couple that wanted to see Jorie and they commented on how beautiful she was. Then, the woman said, "That child is going to rule the world one day!" Can you imagine?! We're trying to take it all in stride, but it really is starting to bother Jorie. She's not usually one to shy from attention, but she's mentioned several times that she's tired of people touching her hair and asking to take pictures with her. At dinner tonight, our guide finally had to come over and tell the waitresses to leave her alone and go back to work, I don't know how many pictures they had taken before our guide intervened for us. We thought that Jeff wearing her on his back when we went out today would deter some folks from approaching her, but even that didn't work. So, we've explained to Jorie why everyone is so fascinated by her and perhaps we won't take too many other excursions on our own.
Tomorrow, we'll be going to visit Terra's orphanage. We're excited and anxious at the same time. We really want to see where Terra has lived for the past 17 months, but a little nervous that it might be especially difficult for her. She had such a terrible time leaving the nannies to begin with and we're just starting to make so much progress, we really hope that we don't set everything backwards by going to see her former home and friends.
Well, I think I've typed enough for now! Thank you all once again for all of your kind words, thoughts and prayers. It is so incredibly helpful to know how much love and support we have back home! Love to you all!

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!