Silly Girls

It's been a week since we arrived back home and we all continue to grow closer each day. Terra has decided that Jeff is a great Daddy and can't get enough hugs and cuddles from him. They are so cute together! She's walking all over our house and loves to explore all of Jorie's toys. Jorie isn't always thrilled by that, but we're working on it. :) They wouldn't be sisters without the occasional squabble! Terra and Jorie have grown much closer. Terra is content to receive hugs from her big sister and often reaches out to give hugs of her own. The two of them play peek-a-boo and chase each other around. They also love to sing together. Terra doesn't actually say words, but she starts singing "lalala" every time Jorie starts singing.

We all just love to see Terra smile - her smile lights up the room and brings joy to our hearts. How could anyone not fall in love with this little girl?! How blessed we are to have two beautiful angels in our lives!!

We're Home!

Just in case anyone was wondering about us, I wanted to let you know that we're home safe and sound. We arrived last night around 7:30 and were greeted at the airport by Mimi, Grammy, Skipper, Uncle Ry Ry, Auntie Kathy and Uncle Anthony. We're all looking forward to the next phase of the journey!! Thank you so much for all of your love and support along the way!

Packing Up

Our bags are packed and we're ready to bring Terra home!! We can't wait to see what Terra thinks about her new house! She's feeling even better today - the fever is completely gone, she's still stuffy and has that terrible cough, but she was much more lively - just in time for her to sit still for a really long plane ride! :)

Terra and Jeff slept until 10 this morning! So, Jorie and I went to breakfast together, then walked around and took some pictures. Here's the waterfall in the lobby that I've mentioned. I really don't think the picture does it justice, but it gives some idea of what it looks like.
This is the view from the breakfast buffet. The hotel is right on a river, as you can see. Jorie enjoys watching the boats go by during breakfast.
This is one of the two pools. Both pools are outside. Jeff and Jorie spent a lot of time at this pool while Terra and I were resting this week. They had tons of fun and Jorie especially loved that there was a waterfall going right into the pool!
The hotel where we're staying is very famous in the adoption community. There are tons of adoptive families here - I'm pretty sure I've seen far more adoptive families around than native Chinese families. The red couches in the lobby are also famous. It is a tradition for adoptive families to take pictures on these couches before going to the consulate for the oath ceremony. We took group pictures with all of the families traveling with us, then we took individual family photos, here's ours. We're not allowed to bring cameras into the consulate, so this is a special way of commemorating the event.
The oath ceremony was actually very quick and not at all what we expected. We all sat in a room and waited for our turn to walk up to a little window, almost like a bank teller window, we handed a woman our papers, she looked at our passport photos and Terra's passport photo, then looked at each of us to be sure we were the right parents taking home the right baby. She approved us and told us to sit back down. Once everyone passed the window test, a woman came out and said, "Everyone please stand and raise your right hand for the oath ceremony." So we did. Then she said, "Do you swear that the information you have given the United States government in your adoption paperwork is the truth?" We all said yes, then she said, "Okay, you can sit down." We were completely shocked, that was it! We thought we would be swearing to take care of our children or something a little more involved than simply swearing that we told the truth! Then she gave us a little information about our children's visas and the ceremony (if you can call it that, I'm not convinced it qualifies as a ceremony) was done. We received Terra's visa and now as soon as she steps foot on American soil, which happens to be tomorrow when we get off the plane in Detroit, she'll be a US citizen!! She's stuck with us, like it or not! :)
We've reached the end of our journey here in China, but life as a family of four is just beginning. Was it the perfect trip without flaws? Of course not, but what family trip is? I think when you're traveling with children, it's more of an adventure than a vacation. Was it the perfect way to grow our family? Absolutely, there is no doubt in my mind that Terra was meant to be our little girl. Can I explain why the little girl that is supposed to be ours was born half a world away? Not at all, I don't think I'll ever be able to, but it's more clear now than ever that this was God's intention for us all along. Terra was born to another family, but our hearts have somehow always been connected. We are her family now and we will be eternally grateful to her first family for allowing us the privilege to love and raise such a wonderful and precious little girl. This whole experience has been a dream come true and now I look forward to watching Terra's dreams come true - whatever they may be!

Surprise Surprise!

Hello Everyone!
I've finally emerged from my fever-induced haze and feel ready to write! I'm happy to report that I am feeling MUCH better. I'm pretty sure I had strep throat. The good thing about strep is that once you start the antibiotics, you start feeling better quickly. I started taking the spare antibiotics that our doctor gave us "just in case" yesterday and I'm almost 100% today. Terra, on the other hand has not been quite so lucky. We had one of the grandmothers that's traveling with our group, who also happens to be a retired pediatrician, come take a look at Terra today. She said that Terra does not have pneumonia, but that the upper part of her lungs are very congested. She said we should absolutely continue the antibiotics and Tylenol. I think that she's starting to come around, she was much perkier this afternoon, as you'll see in the pictures below and tonight is her first night without a fever in the past 4 days - good sign!! Now we just have to get rid of that congestion before we board the plane on Friday morning - keep your fingers crossed!

Since we've barely left our hotel room in 3 days, I thought I'd post a picture of the view from our window. :) You can't see it in this picture, but Jorie is especially impressed with the building that has a pool on the roof. :) I'm hoping I'll remember to get some pictures of our hotel lobby tomorrow - the waterfall down there is so pretty. We had to stay in the room this morning while our guides went to the consulate for us and completed all of the paperwork. They wanted to be sure they could contact us, in case anything went awry. Luckily, all went well and the paperwork for Terra's visa is complete. We should be able to pick up her visa tomorrow after our oath ceremony - that's where we swear to take care of Terra. I'll write more about it tomorrow, after we actually do it. We ventured out for about an hour around lunchtime to get out of the room, do a little shopping and get some lunch. Jeff went out on a 4 hour shopping spree this afternoon! As he left for the wholesale electronics market, Jorie said, "Is he coming back?" and I said, "I certainly hope so!" But, after the first three hours passed, I began to have doubts myself! :) He did return and I think the shopping did him a lot of good. He came back with a smile on his face and an ipod in his pocket. :)
While Jeff was out shopping, the girls and I spent some time together. Here's a picture of Jorie showing Terra her quilt. We were telling her who each square of fabric was from and how much everyone loves her. She really enjoyed the quilt, pointing at the different fabrics and smiling.
It looks like Uncle Billy is getting his wish of introducing the Boston Red Sox early. Terra especially loved his addition to the quilt. She kept pointing to the letters. She pointed to many other fabrics too, but kept coming right back to Uncle Billy's squares. :)
This was a huge surprise to me - Terra can crawl! I had no idea, she had not yet attempted to crawl anywhere, so I thought that she didn't know how. I figured we were going straight to walking. Well, she was sitting on the bed as I was taking pictures and all of a sudden took off crawling straight at me. I snapped this picture then dropped the camera to catch her before she went right off the edge of the bed. She's looking a little pale and tired, but overall not so bad.
This is Jorie's favorite part of our hotel room. She likes to stand behind the curtains there, then comes out onto the rectangle in the floor to dance. The rectangle is, of course, her stage - where she sings and dances her heart out. Terra thinks it's hysterical - she laughs and points at her big sister. I'm sure the two of them will be dancing together in no time.
Here was the second surprise of the day - Terra walks pretty steadily! She was walking all over the room holding my hand today, we even did a few laps around the hall in the hotel - but, here she is walking right at me without holding on to anything! I have a feeling that once she's really comfortable with us, she's just going to take off and we'll be chasing after her. She has SO much energy and quite a personality! I can't wait to see what the combination will bring in the future - should be a very interesting and wonderful adventure!

We Passed!

This will have to be a short post, I have one very sick little girl that I need to get back to. We somehow managed to pass the medical exam this morning. It must have been divine intervention because Terra had a fever before we left and another one by the time we got back, but was fever-free for the exam! The doctor listened to her lungs and told me she was very congested. He asked if I had any medicine I could give her. I told him I had some antibiotics for her and he told me to start giving them to her right away. So, that's the first thing we did when we got back from the exam. Her fever was over 102 this evening, but I'm hoping and praying she'll be feeling much better by morning. For that matter, I'm hoping and praying that I'll be feeling much better by morning too! :) We missed the sightseeing tours again today, but Jorie and I did manage to have dinner with the group. We went to a restaurant called the Cow and Bridge - great Thai food! Terra was sleeping, so Jeff stayed with her and took a little nap too.
Back to our little sickie...I hope I'll have better news and pictures to post tomorrow!!!!

Under the Weather

I don't have anything exciting to report today. We've entered the somewhat boring phase of our trip - lots of paperwork and appointments. We were supposed to go to a folk art museum this morning, but Terra and I both have colds, so I decided we'd better stay at the hotel and rest. Once Jorie heard that I wasn't going, she decided she needed to rest too, so none of us went. We ventured out for a short walk around the nearby shops, but that's about it. Jeff completed all of the paperwork for Terra's visa and we'll bring Terra tomorrow for her medical exam. We're hoping her fever will be gone by morning because a fever means lots of medical testing before she'll be given clearance to enter the US. We gave her some Tylenol tonight and I'll give her more about 1/2 an hour before we leave in the morning, hopefully that will do the trick!
We had Papa John's delivered for dinner - what fun! Papa John's is one of our favorite pizza places but we rarely get to eat it because the closest one to us is 40 minutes away. Who would have guessed we could travel all the way to China and be closer to a Papa John's than we are at home?!
We decided today that we're going to leave one day earlier than we planned. All of our appointments will be finished Thursday night and we had planned to stay on Friday to rest and pack before the big trip home. But, since Terra and I are both not feeling that great and Jorie is really wanting to be back home, we thought that the sooner we get home the better. So, we switched our flights and will be leaving first thing Friday morning, which is Thursday night for most of you. :) We should be arriving home sometime around 7 pm on Friday evening. We've really had a wonderful trip and an amazing adventure in China, but I think we're all feeling like we'd like to be back in our own beds - particularly since our current hotel ran out of king size beds and we are now all sharing a double bed! I woke up this morning to find Jeff sleeping on the floor! He took the cushions off of the two chairs in the room and made himself a bed. Pretty funny!
I'm hoping Terra and I will feel up to going on tomorrow's sightseeing adventure - I'm not sure where we're headed, but I do believe the adventure ends with dinner at a Thai restaurant - sounds delicious! Hopefully, I'll have a few more pictures to add tomorrow! I'm off to bed...

First Plane Ride

We arrived safely in our second destination today. We'll be in Guangzhou until we leave on Saturday. This is where the American Consulate is, so we'll be here getting Terra's visa all set - so we can bring her home!! We left our hotel in Nanchang fairly early this morning and Terra took her first plane ride! It was a short ride, only about an hour. Terra was so amazed by everything. She pointed out the window and smiled, she loved looking between the seats to see the people behind us and she had a lot of fun kicking the seat in front of us. I'm sure the man in front of us really enjoyed that! She wiggled all over the place trying to see everything she could. My arms felt like I had been in a wrestling match by the end of the trip! I'm hoping she won't be quite as wiggly for the entire trip back to the US, or I'm going to be completely exhausted!! Perhaps she'll be willing to sit on Jeff's lap for a while during that trip.
Everything is so much more relaxed here in Guangzhou. We arrived at the hotel and everything just seems so peaceful. There's a beautiful waterfall in the lobby and gorgeous gardens that add to the tranquility. We ventured outside where there are TONS of shops. The cars still drive pretty fast around here, but there are lots of speed bumps and only one lane of traffic, instead of four, like in Nanchang. We ate lunch and dinner at the same restaurant down the street. They specialize in American food, which was a much needed change of pace today. I don't think I've ever enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich quite so much!
Jeff and Jorie enjoyed some time in the pool after lunch, while Terra napped and I got us all settled into our room. I'm hoping to take Terra down to the pool at some point before we leave. After dinner tonight, we stopped by the 7-Eleven for some water and were surprised and pleased to find Rocky Road ice cream! We bought a big container to share. We weren't sure what Terra would think of her first ice cream, but she loved it! It's official, she's definitely part of the family!
Not much else to report, just a wonderful and relaxing Sunday!