First Day of School

Tuesday was the first day of school for our Sophia. She did wonderful! She was excited to go and nervous at the same time. Whe she got to school she has to place her name in one of two places, Yes I Like School, No I do Not Like School. She said she liked it a little bit. Once she got going in the class, I stepped out and the teacher said she did wonderful! There is a little girl in 1st grade that speeaks Mandarin and the Principal will be introducing them to each other. That will be wonderful for her. They also live in the neighborhood so hopefully play dates will be in her near future.

When I went to pcik her up, I asked her if she liked school a little bit or a lot. She said a lot!

I am so happy for her!

Micah's Gothca Day 2 YEARS!

Well, I am late as usual but I did not want to forget about celebrating Micah's 2 year Gotcha Day. It was September 29th and thanks to Kyle and Greg, I remembered to get our picture together:
2 Years Home

Gotcha Day
Oh how big my little boy is. I have to say, I am glad that he is still my youngest, my baby, even though he has to tell me that he is a big boy now. He has been adjusting do wonderfully to having a new big sister and in ways it has helped him be more responsible. There are some things that I have not let him do, like go outside without an adult, that I left Sophia do( with her siblings). But I have started to give him trial runs now and he is doing so much better, especially sine he knows that if her does not obey the rules, he looses that priviledge. He has come such a long way and we are so proud of him. We love you Micah, I can't believe it has only been two years, what would we do without you!

We are Still Here

Ambidextrous?



No Tooth!

Sorry for the long delay in posting. Below I have posted about the travel home and the first week. Writing is not my favorite thing to do so between the burnout from writing so much while in China and being soo busy, keeping up to date on the blog has gone to the bottom of my to do list.

It is now 5 weeks home and things are amazingly great! Sophia is adjusting so well. I could tell form the first week home that living in foster care for most of her life makes such a big difference compared to Micah living in the orphanage for the first 2.5 years of his life. She understands how a family works. She does what I ask her to do and doesn't have any fits if she doesn't get what she wants. When we go to stores she doesn't run around and even though she is very interested in looking at everything, she does not want me to buy everything.

The food situation is getting better. She tries more and more things and after a few days realized that while I can give her things that are similar to China, they won't be quite the same. We have made some trips to the asian market and she does enjoys that but we usually end up coming out with more snacks then anything else. She is trying and starting to like more and more things. Potatoes are are on the do not like list except when they are in the form of French fries. We are finally getting her to drink more water, it can not be cold but she will drink it. She prefers pop and juice but we don't have much of either in the house so I am trying to wean her off them and more on water. A healthy diet is definitly something we are going to need to work on.

She will be starting school this week. We have held off to see how she has been doing and after talking to our social worker for our six week post placement, she agrees that 1/2 day kindergarten would be good for everyone. THere are certain days when I am really busy that she just seems to get bored. We will go through all the list of things she likes to do but she passes and just like to lay around. WHich I think in turn she starts thinking of China and seems to get sad. So off to school. THis week she has actually asked about her going to school so that is encouraging. She can sing her ABCs, writes her numbers to 100 and can count to 13. She can also write her english name. I think that is pretty good for being home for a month.

SHe has lost her front tooth so that was pretty exciting. We have missed so many things with her so a milestone like this was so great to be apart of.

When we hit the three week mark at home, she just really started using more english. Before she would copy us a lot(even when I was punishing one of the other kids - that did not go over very well) but never really respond to us in english. She has started saying "THank you" "Are you ok" and many other phrases. She picks up things so quickly, I know that she will do great in school.

We have had a few tests at the doctors but nothing conclusive yet. We have another test is early December with the urologist that will hopefully give us some direction on treatments.

Things have been so amazing with her adjustment. She has moments of sadness that you can tell she is thinking about China. I ask if she is sad, and we give each others hugs. She is such a brave little girl. She never ceases to amaze me at how strong she is. She is definitely attaching to me and also to Russ. We both had to leave to do a service project for our church. She had stayed with Grammy and Grandfather at our house before and this time she was with Micah too. But she just did not want us to leave so she was upset but she did do ok. But I really try not to do anything in which she doesn't have at least Russ or myself - so attachment is growing.

She will be celebrating her birthday in a couple weeks and she is very excited, she has alresy started the count down. We are looking forward to her first one with her forever family!

First Week Home

The first week has gone so well. Sophia is adjusting to things very well. SHe is getting along with everyone but Micah is not doing really well with sharing with her. I have allowed her to keep the toys we brought home, too herself for now but have asked Micah to share his. This is a VERY HARD thing for a 4 year old to do. But he is doing fairly well. I will give her a little more time to adjust and then ask her to share more, but one step at a time.

Food is really the biggest obstacle. We are trying to give her all the things that her foster mom listed for us but some of the things she does not want. So the list of what we know she likes is small. She is eating but she is eating a lot of the same things so I am sure she is getting board with it. I am also giving her foods that we eat and asking her to just try 1 bite. She complies but most of the things she does not like. SHe does have a sweet tooth and also told the doctors at hour first International Adoption Clinic that she " doesn't really like eating meals but likes snacks"! OK we have our work cut out for us.

Another major adjustment is the car sickness. We had had a motion sickness patch while in China. We took it off when we got home and forgot to put another one on her. So come Sunday morning we drove to church, which is about 15 minutes, and by the time we got out of the car... Yep.. all over the parking lot. Thankfully we were not in the car. So off to get some dramamine. So we will have to see if things improve.

Cloths and her hair are a little struggle. She really does not want to wear anything that she has not picked out form the store but that consists of about 4 outfits. Once we got home, I did insist that she wear a different outfit everyday so until I can get to the store, she is stuck in wearing things that she is not happy with. As for the hair, it is still ponytails and the same little bear ponytail holders. She will let Olivia "Do" her hair but since Olivia is at school by the time Sophia gets up, it is ponytails again.

I was worried how things would go on Monday when Russ, and the kids(except Micah) would be gone. It went pretty well. Micah and Sophia played but not with each other, THey just played with toys sitting on different sides of the room. I was actually a little nervous when Micah went to school on Tuesday because it would just be the two of us. But it went very well. We were able to go to Once upon a child and I made her pick out several outfits. She only picked out jeans for pants and the plainer the top the better. It amazes me how such a girly girl who lovers jewelry and makeup and painted fingernails, is happy with jeans and a Tshirt!

On Friday we met with the IA clinic. We had a translator there and you could again see her personality coming out as we were there and she had the opportunity to communicate. SHe had the staff laughing all over the place. She is very straight forward and loves having the center of attention. We found out that she has chicken pox probably a year ago. She did talk about her foster family and we learned a little more information about them. THe translator says that her speech is wonderful and very developed. We have an appointment with the Myelomeningocele (Spina Bifida) clinic in two weeks that will hopefully help us learn more about her incontinence. Otherwise the visit went great. She had to get the TB test redone and there were some tears but they quickly passed. We will get blood drawn on Monday so hopefully that won't be too bad.

Travelling Home

Another Red Couch Picture with her Chinese Dress on

A very tired picture of a new American Citizen

All my kids together

WELCOME HOME!

Meeting Rocky for the first time( No Tears!)

One of My favorite Pictures

Thursday went quicker than I thought. We spent time packing and were able to go out for some last minute shopping. It was sooo hot. You could just stand there and start sweating. We grabbed our last lunch at the Deli next to the White Swan. We really liked eating there for a quick lunch but they were busy this time and I was not paying attention and they over charged us big time. Russ was really mad but we let it go because we are on our way out. We met our guide and a few other families at 4:30 to get Sophia's visa and passport. Sophia started crying once she realized were were not coming back. SHe was mainly upset over the fact that she would not see our guide again. So I put my arm around her in the van and she soon fell asleep.

Our ride to Hong Kong was suppose to be about 2.5 hours and it turned into 4! The traffic was horrible and the driver's foot was on/off/on/off the gas. I was really glad Sophia was not awake because this would have really made her sick. Unfortunately by the time we got to Hong Kong, it was dark so we could not really see the island. We were so glad to get to the hotel. We stayed at the Disneyland Hollywood hotel. It was great to have a little bit of back home. We ate at the buffet, which was outrageously priced, but we were tired and did not want to struggle with trying to figure out what Sophia wanted. Unfortunately, even though it had a lot of asian food, she really did not want most of it, except of course the dessert section. I think she probably tried one of everything, but I was not going to argue about it.

Our flight was not until noonish so we did not have to rush. When we got up we were amazed at our view. It was so beautiful, it seemed like we were in Hawaii. We would have loved to stay and see Hong Kong but we were ready to go home.

So we ate at a quick serve place for breakfast and requested two cabs to take us to the airport. Russ and Dominic were in one and Sophia and I the other. The rides were about 20 minutes and I got to see more of the island so that was great. What was not great was that the cabs did not stay together and we did not get dropped off at the same spot. Granted, we were on the same little strip but I thought Russ's cab was behind us, so I watched and watched, and sweated and watched. I was afraid to go inside because there were just more people to get lost in so I waited, and prayed that some how her would find me. Not 30 seconds after that prayer, Dominic came running out of the airport calling my name. They had already gone inside and were waiting at the United checkin. Dominic saw us through the window and my prayers were answered.

So through the airport we went, which was still sooo much easier than Russia, and we met up with some friends that were on the same flight.

THanksfully the flight went pretty smooth. Unfortunately on THursday, I started to get a cold, so as long as I was on meds, I did pretty good. Sophia, unfortunately had an accident on the plane, and even though I had wipes and pullups, I had NO PANTS, so that was difficult to deal with but we made it through. She stayed up until it was about 9pm China time and then slept for the rest of the trip. I had to laugh at the kids meals that we got on the plane, there was nothing ,kid like about them, in fact, they both liked our food better. Oh well.

We landed early, breezed through immigration and actually had the high hopes of catching an earlier flight home, but it was booked so we waited until 7pm for our final leg home( nwe landed around 1:30).

I have to tell you all of the bug laugh I got when we walked into the immigration section so give our papers to them. THere were several adoption families that were getting ready to leave the area as we came in. THere were also a few people that we not US citizens waiting for their paperwork. One was a family that sounded like they were from and Eastern European country based on their accent. THey had a son that was probably 5-6 ans were getting upset at the wait. He went up tot he immigration officer and was asking why all these "illegals" were able to go in front of him! Illegals? Hey buddy, we are all US CITIZENS!!!!

THe final flight home went well. Sophia slept some more. Once we landed I explained to her that when we got off the plane, she would meet Olivia, Luc and Micah. She had a very unsure look on her face so I was not sure how this would go.

It was so great to get off the plane and be home! As we walked toward security I was all smiles as I could see my three wonderful children that I have missed so much. We all hugged but Sophia just stayed very close to us. I introduced her to everyone but she was still very unsure and not too happy. It did not take too long as Olivia started to play with her for her to open up and feel comfortable.

We did not land until about 9 so it was after 10 when we finally got home. My parents stayed and the kids played until about 12:30am! SHe was a little weary of the dog but not scared like Micah was. She checked out everything and played with the kids for awhile. Olivia even was able to get Sophia to let her do her hair! Olivia has been waiting to do her little sister's hair forever!

We finally all made it to bed. I went to sleep with her for a little while but then finally got to get into my own bed!!!! Oh how I have been wanting to sleep in my own bed.

We all got a great nights sleep. Sophia did not even cry when we went to bed, I think she was just soooo tired.

Our trip to bring our little girl home is now over and we are finally a family of 7! Wow 7! I have to tell you all that as we were waiting at baggage claim and all the kids were so excited, I thought to myself, " Wow, this is a lot if kids!" Of how we are blessed.