Leaving Tonight....

Yeah! We are leaving China this evening and will arrive in Atlanta on the 24th at 8:15am. Rick and Angie are picking us up and my mom and dad will be waiting for us when we get home. I am so excited to see them and to get home. I know that this will be another transition for Sarah, but I have faith that we will get through it as a family. I am looking forward to establishing a routine and her being in a place where she is safe ans secure to run around and play. Our hotel room isn't kid friendly! Please pray for safe travels for us and all of the families in our travel group. We said goodbye to Melanie and Ryan and their family and it was difficlut. We have been with them everyday and I am going to miss them. Their daughter is so precious. She is such a beautiful baby. I hope that we keep in touch!! 

We are hoping since we are traveling overnight that Sarah will sleep....pray for that for us also!! There are four other families that we know that will be on our flight to LAX so hopefully it will not be a chorus of four screaming babies! :)

We can't wait to be home!! Also.....Juanita (my best friend from college) is in the hospital as we speak being induced...little Amelia will be her first!!

Leaving China tomorrow evening....

It's Thursday morning here and we are flying out of Guangzhou tomorrow night at 9:00. It is a 12 and a half hour flight to LAX and then we will have a layover there and board another plane to Atlanta. We will arrive in Atlanta on Saturday morning....then drive home. It was a hard trip coming here so I am imagining that it will be a little more difficult with a two year old. Sarah is pretty easy going, but that is a long time to be confided. We are excited about going home. I think that everything will be easier there. Sadly, it is another adjustment for Sarah, but I have faith that she will do just fine. She was a bit cranky yesterday, but she didn't have a nap because we had an appointment. She went to sleep reluctantly around 8:00 and is still sleeping. We gave her a bath yesterday which was a little better, but still lots of screaming and crying. She has been in the pool and does pretty well as long as hold her, but the tub is not her favorite. It will get better and we will have to be okay with her being upset. :( There is a family here that we have become close to that we are going to miss! That and Sarah leaving her homeland is the only reason we are sad about leaving. I hope that we will be able to stay in touch with them!! 

Yesterday at our swearing in at the American Consulate there were about 80 American families there adopting children. It was neat to see that. There was one family there that this was there 5th adoption from China. How incredible. I got teary eyed seeing all of the children. The children ranged from elementary school age to babies. Lots of kids with special needs and parents from different walks of life. We can't wait to see everyone......

Happy girl!!!!

Waiting on her food.....

Not feeling so good....

Sarah is not feeling so great. She had five vaccines yesterday and woke up feeling yucky this morning. We knew that she didn't feel well when she would not eat any Cheerios (she LOVES the,)  and woke up at 6:00am. She is already sleeping again and it is only 11:00am. We put some Tylenol in her drink at breakfast so we are hoping she feels better soon! The whole vaccine situation was horrible. She didn't seem to be upset with us, but she cried and cried. Todd was sweet enough to go in with her while I walked the hallway. Her tears dried up some when we gave her a lollipop. She loves lollipops so she gets them as a reward for doing well. I am not sure that she gets it, but she will eventually. I haven't been feeling well again, but am better today. My stomach hasn't been the same since I left South Carolina. I have lost about 10 pounds since we have been here. Alot of the other people in our group have lost weight too. I hoping it will stay off! :):)

Todd is doing well. He is so laid back and so helpful. There is no way I could do this without him. There are some ladies here that traveled by themselves to adopt their babies. They are much stronger than me. We will only have three more nights here....then the LONG flight home, but at least we will be at home. We miss everyone so much!!

Look at that pretty smile!!!

That is Sarah's confused looked....

That is Sarah's "we are not happy" face....

She is so beautiful.......

 

We made it....

Our flight to Guangzhou was delayed and it was 11:30 before we got into the hotel. Sarah was so tired and cried and screamed on the plane. It was so hard for her to sit in a stroller at the airport and then on a plane for hours. Sarah is the kid of girl that needs her sleep. She sleeps 10-12 hours a night and naps for about 2 hours a day. Guangzhou is so different from Nanchang. It is much more like the West and the hotel we are staying at is full with adoptive families. We spent some time this evening in the playroom and meet some really neat people. We went to eat with about 20 other people. It is encouraging to spend time with people that we going through the same thing that you are. Sarah had her medical exam and TB skin test today. She was a trooper. There were some tears but she bounced back rather quickly. She has to go back in Monday to have her TB test read and get her vaccinations. I don't know how many she is going to have to have, but pray that she doesn't have to have many and that she does not get sick from them. We had a good day together. We seem to be getting into a routine and I think that she is learning to trust us more and more. She is sweeter and sweeter everyday. She has such animated facial expressions. For some reason I am not able to upload pictures into the blog right now. I will post some pictures as soon as I can.  We miss everyone!

Leaving Friday afternoon.....

We are leaving this afternoon for Guangzhou. I can't believe our trip here in Nanchang is coming to a close. We have enjoyed our time here. We will meet up with some more families in Guangzhou. There is a woman that I have been communicating with that will be there and we will finally meet. I am excited. In Guangzhou, we will take care of some paperwork and Sarah will have a medical examine and will more than likely received some vaccinations. Please pray that she doesn't need that many and she will not get sick. I think that it is so wrong that our gov't requires this of us, but this is just want has to be done in order to get a visa to come home AND we want to come home. Sarah is doing good. She is walking more and more everyday. She is so funny! She is smart and understands so much of what is going on. The most frustrating part is that we don't understand what she is saying. She babbles in Chinese and even the Chinese guides we are with don't understand what she is saying. The more we don't understand what she wants the louder she gets. :) The culture is so different here. I could spend hours writing about what we have seen. The people for the most part are friendly and helpful, but of course, the language barrier is difficult. One of the things I am most surprised by is how loud everyone is here. People talk so loudly and fast. Everywhere we go, people stare at us. It feels uncomfortable at times. I am writing in the middle of the night here because I am not feeling well. I am having some stomach issues so pray that I feel better soon!!

Kisses......

Todd and I are the kind of couple that love to kiss and Sarah loves to imitate everything we do so today she was pucking up her lips for a couple of hours on and off then all of a sudden she leaned over and kissed my lips....then it was daddy's turn.....and she kissed him! It was so cute. Here are a few pictures from yesterday. She is so pretty.....

At the playroom in our hotel. 

At dinner last night

Getting to know each other......

Today was a good day! We played and went shopping. Sarah got a new pair of shoes (pink, leather ones :)) and went to a Western Italian Restaurant here owned by a couple in Texas. When we shopping, women were coming up to us and wanting to pick up Sarah( she was in a stroller). It makes me a little uncomfortable. I know they are just curious. A woman actually reached in pick her up. She shook my head no and she seemed to understand. I picked up Sarah so she could talk to the lady and the lady put her arms out so she could hold Sarah and she shook her head no. We laugh because everywhere we go, people are stopping us and looking at the babies and taking our pictures. We say we have our own paparazzi. We went with another family we are traveling with. They are so much fun. We had to take a taxi there and I was never so scared in my life being in a car. People drive so crazy here. There are cars, buses, mopes, and bikes just all over the road AND there are no seat belts. Todd held Sarah and she put her head down against his chest the whole time. I think she was scared too. She did great at the restaurant. She is still funny about what she wants to drink from, but now she has discovered that she likes just having her own water bottle, but it comes out too fast and she coughs so we are working on that. I know that seems weird to talk about, but Sarah finally had a "number 2" yesterday, which seems like a crazy thing to mention, but it a big deal. All of the families in the group are asking each other...Sarah was the second one to achieved that goal! :) Last night when we got back we gave her a bath. It was the most horrible 5 minutes! She screamed, cried, hit her face, and arched her back. Todd finally got in the tub and rinsed her as fast as I could. She was screaming so loud our friends next door could hear her. I cried and cried. Poor Sarah. We just don't know what to do. She cries some when I change her diaper and when we dress her, but that is better. I felt so horrible. I was able to cream her up. She loves that. I brushes her hair and then she brushed mine. She is sweet. She did go to sleep eventually, but it took longer than usual. She feel asleep on my chest and when I put her in the crib she cried again so of course I laid with her in the bed until she was in a deep sleep. I had a hard time falling asleep because I felt so bad. Also, Todd's tummy was upset last night. He thinks the food was too rich last night. I hope he feels better today. I will post a couple of pictures later when Todd is up. I am sure how to download them on his computer.Sarah doesn't like getting her picture taken...she doesn't like the flash, but we are working on that. Pray Todd feels good when he wakes up and we can work this whole bath thing out. 

Already awake....

It is 5:30am and Todd and I are already awake. The time difference is hard to adjust to to, but we both slept so well last night. I went to sleep around 8:00pm and slept until a few minutes ago. Sarah feel asleep in my arms last night around 7:30 and she is still sleeping. She was wide open all last night. She is so funny. She has discovered the mirror and loves looking at herself. It is one of those full length mirrors and she laughs at herself when she looks in the mirror. Last night before dinner she kept licking the mirror so of course, we did the parent thing and told her "No, Sarah" and shook our heads and she walked away, but then went right back there and looked at us stuck her tongue out and got close to the mirror, but didn't touch it. Wow!! I prayed for a strong, smart girl and well, I think God answered my prayers. We wanted to laugh, but knew it wouldn't help any. We went to Walmart and McDonald's yesterday. More than likely Sarah had never been to either one. She pretty much goes with the flow. She loves french fries, but was not so crazy about the nuggets. She kept trying to feed Todd and I the nuggets. It is so hot here, yesterday the weather here made South Carolina seem mild. Can you imagine? All three of us sweated all day. When we  walk around people stare at us (we are always in a group) and usually ask to take our pictures. They especially want to take a picture with all three of us. We have had people come up to us to say thank you for adopting Sarah and they are happy for her. It is sad to hear that, but we are glad that people are being so nice. Again, I can't say enough about the people we are with here. They are wonderful. We all go everywhere together. One of the couples parents and sister traveled with her and they are so sweet. We have so many questions about this and that and they are so helpful. We are planning on going to the department store with them today and maybe going to the pool. We gave Sarah a bath Sunday night and she screamed and screamed so let's see how that goes. There are so many new experiences for her. We miss being at home so much, but we are trying to enjoy the people and culture here. I will post more later. We love and miss everyone!! 
You can't deny she is a cutie!! 

We meet our sweet Sarah....

Yesterday after traveling for 26 hours when we arrived in Nanchang around 10:00am, we were told that we would meet Sarah that afternoon around 4:00. We were not expecting to meet her until Monday! So, we showered and attempted to get ourselves together for the meeting of a lifetime. I can't even being to explain the emotions we felt waiting for her to get to the Civil Affairs office. We were scared...excited...and it almost felt surreal. I can't explain the emotions I felt when I first saw her. She was so sad and cried for about two hours after meeting her. She was inconsolable. We found out the Sarah actually didn't live in an orphanage, but was in foster care with a retired couple. She eventually warmed up to us and we were able to see some of her personality. Amazingly, we ate dinner together and she slept all night. This morning was a little challenging, we had to wake her up to make it to an appointment and I think that she was scared because she didn't recognize her surroundings. We got through that and the rest of the morning went well. We are now legally Sarah's parents now which feels wonderful. She discovered at the adoption appointment that she can walk. She may walk unsteadily, but she is walking without holding on to anything. Our hotel room is not baby proof so it is a little scary at times. If I had to describe Sarah to you, I would say that she is sweet, tough, sassy, smart and very stubborn. Last night when Todd was holding her, she rubbed his back. She loves to feed us her food. She waves at people when the walk by. When she doesn't get what she wants, she cries or screams (she also does this funny cute little thing with her mouth when she cries). She loves to throw things. She is curious about everything. If we show her to do something once, she can do it almost immediately. She has fallen more than a few times when she has been walking and she just doesn't cry, she says "ohhh..." and gets back up. She wants what she wants when she wants it. All of that sounds like a two year old, doesn't it? We are so happy to finally be with her, but it has been difficult at times. We don't understand much about her and that is hard for both of us. It has taken us yesterday and today to get her to drink because we weren't using the right cup. We don't know when she is tired or hungry, but we are learning each other. Todd and I still so exhausted, but we are loving being with Sarah. The other couples in our travel group are wonderful. We feel so supported.  This would be so hard to do by yourself. We miss home and can't wait to see everyone!!

Here are some pictures from yesterday and today. 

Leaving in less than 48 hours.....

I can't believe that we are leaving in less than 48 hours. I think that we are ready. Our bags are packed and I cleaned a good bit today. It feels like we are going to be gone for forever. Todd and I were talking this evening and this will be the longest that we have ever been away from home. My parents are taking care of our dog and our cat is staying at the house. I feel bad leaving Zoe for that long, but I don't think that she would want to be some place else. I am surprisingly calm. I thought that I would be so anxious the week before leaving that I wouldn't be able to sleep, but believe me, I am sleeping. I am not sure that it has quite hit me that we are leaving on Friday and that we will meet Sarah on Monday. I can't wait! I am sure that I won't be so calm that morning!