Halloween

"Halloween" - it cannot be described on a handheld translator. It just has to be done!

We all had a great day. Sara loved the candy. It was good and plentiful! The day was full of laughter and fun. The kids all enjoyed dressing up and spending time together. Moments like these are priceless.

And Life Goes On.....

P.S.

Sara loves the dog!

Home!

After the long flight, we made it to LAX. Unknowingly, we were to sit on that green bench for almost two hours awaiting Sara's "green card". But it did not matter. Everyone was happy to be one step closer to home. Although it was nearing midnight, it was smack dab in the middle of the day to our brains. After receiving the all important stamp in the passport, we spent the night at an LA hotel, got up and flew to Austin. It was home sweet home.

Sara loves her new home. The backyard, although nothing fancy, is a big hit! She loves to swing. She loves her room. From my favorite movie, Annie, I think "she's gonna really like it here!"

Final Day Pics

Our last day in China was quite a long one. Our flight did not leave until 10:50 that night, so we just packed and played around. We explored the huge park across the street from the hotel and as usual found new and exciting treasures. Sean enjoyed playing the shuttlecock with the locals - he is very quick on his feet. We discovered a soccer arena used in the Olympics that was breathtaking. Mostly we just enjoyed our last day day together in Sara Jia's home country before life changes more for her than we can ever imagine.

Home at Last!

Just a quick post to let everyone know we made it home safe and sound. Will wrap things up later .......

All Alone

We are alone in the hotel, now that most all the families we have gotten to know have flown back to Beijing to fly home tomorrow. It was great meeting people from all over the States who shared one big thing in common. Our flight to LA leaves tomorrow. We then spend the night in an airport hotel at LAX and then head to Austin the next day (whatever day that is!).

Please pray for good health for all six of us. Sara was not feeling well today. She had a fever and a bad headache. We are pretty positive it is from the draining of the tooth abscess, but whatever the reason, it is miserable for her. She had her second visit to the dentist this morning for the unpacking of her tooth. I tell you, she is much tougher than I am. I finally got her to take a Tylenol tonight and she perked up some.

We got Sara's visa today at the US Consulate. There were 33 other families there adopting children this time period! We ate at the Banana Leaf with another family and then the boys (yes, the boys!) went shopping. Sean and Ryan had yet to even get a souvenir for themselves on this trip. I am afraid the buying has been scarce. I have three kids who do not like to shop(Ryan loves it), so I have sacrificed my love for the sake of my children (I can hear the tears coming!). Sara will be the biggest gift I have ever brought home from a trip and she is worth every ounce!

Our next blog will be from home. I have mixed feelings about bringing Sara home - there is a huge comfort being here with her in her own country - plus I have enjoyed not cooking or cleaning! We have enjoyed our time greatly here in China and feel very comfortable in this "foreign" country. Can't explain it. Evan (3) said tonight "Mom, that man knows what the other man is saying! I bet he can even read my book, like Sara can (he has a Tom and Jerry Chinese comic book). I can not read it - but I love Chinese anyway!"

The pics below contain some of the families that are here with us (and Ryan with another shrimp head).

Day and Night

(Sara took the pics of the boys! - hence the looks!)

Thanks for all of your prayers. I am really amazed by the support we have. I just feel it - across the entire world. It is an amazing thing.

Sara has had quite a day. The first day we met her, back in Nanjing, she had held the side of her face. We asked her (through our guide) if she had a toothache, and it was said that she had a mild ache. She has complained off and on, but never too much. She woke up this morning holding her face. Since she was so grouchy yesterday and this morning, we thought we had better go ahead and take her to the dentist. Fortunately, Mike took her while I stayed back with the boys. She had a bad abscess and needed a root canal! I know I would have bawled seeing her have to go through all that. Mike was so proud of her. She never moved, but just sat there. She had tears streaming out of her eyes. The man next to her was from Canada. He was having a root canal done too, but was screaming out (Mike said it was very fortunate she could not hear what he said). Sara will have to go back tomorrow for the second part. Several people in the dentist office speak English and Mike was very impressed with how they operated.

The amazing thing was Sara was so happy the minute she sat up in the chair. She was so grateful to us for taking her to the dentist. It was the first time she had ever been, and the dentist said she must have had pain from that tooth for a long time. It is like day and night for her - we can tell she is feeling so much better!

To Mrs Smith's First Grade class - Ryan misses you very much! He has almost finished all his homework. All he has left are some phonic worksheets (they are not much fun to do by himself in a hotel room). He loves his new sister and cannot wait for you to meet her. He will see you next week (right now he is at a store like Walmart with his dad getting us some snacks for our last two days here!)

Early Wednesday

Please pray for us. We have only made it to breakfast before the tears and shunning started. Sara woke up early as usual. After a couple hours in the room, Sara and I headed on down to breakfast while the boys got some extra sleep. The is nothing on the schedule today. She woke up in great mood and even played on the computer (her favorite starfall.com) while I slept in until 6:30. But the minute we got down to breakfast and saw other families, she fell apart. She eats well, them immediately wants to leave (faster than I can eat). She cries and acts very hateful towards the other, even the children. It is very hard to see. I am so thankful they are newly adoptive families also. At least most everyone has some kind of issue. I am also grateful for our friends in Fredericksburg who I know will help us, even if the transition is rocky and rough initially. But, then again, she has a bit of unpredictability, so I do not know what she will be like there. I look forward to her meeting Brooke, Morgan, Sam and many other girls at Heritage and HGLC who I know she will enjoy and will love getting to know.

Tuesday Morning - Again!

Ok - I am running out of catchy titles! The days are really running together and the boys (and admittedly us) are starting to get a little anxious to come home. Sara had a couple of meltdowns today. Instead of coming in tears and sadness now, they look more like Evan's episodes (and occasionally Sean and Ryan's too). More like tantrums and screaming. I am sure she is exhausted. She is going to bed later but still getting up around 5:30ish. Tantrums from a ten year old are really interesting when in public and the child does not look like you nor speak your language. The two year old tantrum in the grocery store will never seem so bad too me! But she has still never blocked me out or pushed me away. She has never given any indication that she does not want to be with us - she just does not like other people! She is very quiet around others and still not want to be around the other Chinese children - which by now makes puts us in awkward positions. But at least all the families here understand what is happening, I just wish they could see her true personality. She would much rather stay in our hotel room 24/7. She is such a beautiful child inside and out, but is not a social butterfly. Her and Sean are very much alike, which I am sure is what is making it hard for them to form that bond. But I know when they do it will be very special.

Sara is the type to have maybe one or two special friends rather than many good friends. I look forward to the day when she has someone her age to talk to. I know she does too. We have her camera that she took pics with from the orphanage (we sent her a disposable one). The pics are all taken, and she gave the camera to me the day we met her. She had never wanted to develop them. My eyes tear up thinking about what we will see. The pastor from the Chinese Baptist Church in San Antonio helped connect us with a family in Kerrville - which is only 22 miles from us. Both parents were raised in China and they have two younger children (I think 7 and 9 - I will have to check again). We just found this out today when we checked our email. The mom's name is Sarah also! God is so good. We also found another connection in our own hometown just while we were in China!

Today we went to an authentic Chinese teahouse - right up Mike's alley. On the way back to the hotel we were informed that they had failed to do part of Sara's medical exam. So they let all the families off the bus and then took me and Sara BACK to the clinic to complete the exam. She was not happy. Fortunately it gave us about an hour alone time with our female guide, Amy. It was priceless to ask some personal questions and talk about somethings we could not do with our male counterparts. In the afternoon, the boys, and many of the men and young adult went somewhere (by taxi and subway) to play full court basketball. Someone has pics they are supposed to send over. Sara, Evan, and I and some girls went and rode motor boats on a lake nearby. Sara had never driven anything before and was terrified at first. I wanted her to steer, but she initially refused. I finally let go of the steering wheel and we headed right for a tree. She yelled out "mommy, mommy!!" and then grabbed the wheel. After that she enjoyed. She is very ruled oriented, though, and was much more worried about the time we had to have the boat back at the dock. My family is going to be full of little policemen - and Evan!

-GARRY - you are reading this as I write!!!!!

Our Boat Trip

Not Your Ordinary Monday

Today definitely was not MY ordinary Monday. It was a girls day! Sara and I enjoyed it and the boys had a great time just doing "boy"things! Sara and I started out the day with breakfast for two. The boys slept in, while we snuck downstairs to start our day. Many families tried to get us to join them to eat, but we insisted on our cozy table. After a hearty breakfast we set off on the bus for her medical exam. I am so glad we did not take the boys with us. It was crowded and hot and just plain miserable. Sara did not fair well on the eye exam (which took place with about 70 unknown people watching). They then escorted into a small opthalmic exam room where they made her do some testing. She was crying so hard she could not see for the tears. They were frustrated with her, which made her cry even more. Needless to say we will be seeing Anne when we get home. It appears she is just a bit near sighted, but also appears she does not like to be stared at, poked, prodded, rushed, and pushed. (all coming from an overly sensitive mom's mouth).

After the exam, Sara and I spent the next three hours shopping. Well, I say that, but she is not much of a shopper. You heard me right. I have vowed to accept her just the way she is, but yes, she is NOT a shopper. We ended up spending our time with another family. They adopted a thirteen year old they we know from the came we assisted with in Beijing 07. Sara will not talk to her much, but she will sit by her and it is nice for me to visit with another women adopting an older child. Maggie (the 13 year old is in the pic below with Sara). Sara did not want anything in the stores today except a Barbie doll. She now has two barbies, and she does wants nothing else. She loves to do their hair and change their clothes. She could do that for hours. I tried to get her to pick out a traditional Chinese silk dress. She would look so beautiful in one. She was very sassy and kept saying no. When she saw that I was still looking at them anyway, she told (translated to by the salesperson) a salesperson that they were very very ugly! She wants nothing to do with anything Chinese. (Maggie helped me pick out a dark pink one on the sly!)

Jia Jia prefers now that we call her Sara. I asked her today and that is what she said. She answers others with that name also. It sounds beautiful coming out of her mouth. It is the perfect name for her. She loves it. She calls us "mommy" and "dad" now. Only Evan out of the three calls me mommy, the other two call me mom. It sounds so sweet, although she does have a tendency to overdo it at a times. She still tests the limits, but seems to understand where lines are drawn. This is where bringing other children seems to come in the most useful. She follows their lead. When we are consistent with them, she follows. But if we get relaxed - watch out - she can be very obstinate. Her personality is overall mostly reserved. She is not all that strong-willed, but is very smart, a quick thinker, very sensitive and caring. I look forward to seeing her interact with friends back home. She is ssssoooooo excited to come to America. I wonder what she thinks it will be like?

Day of Rest

Today was a relaxing day. We did not have to be at breakfast until 9:30. In the boys room, all was quiet until 8:15 - what a way to start a Sunday. The girls room, on the other hand, started the same as always with Sara being up at 5:30. This is the same time she got up everyday in the orphanage. She is like a robot. I am doing my post earlier tonight so that I can go to sleep.

She had a hard day again today. She does not like being with all the other American families here. It is overwhelming to her. I am not sure if it is because we visit with them and it takes attention away from her or if it makes her sad for leaving her friends and life behind or maybe a combination. But when we went to tour a museum with the group this morning, she shut down and their were a lot of tears. After about two hours she was fine. She still refuses to talk with any of the girls with us. But overall, she is doing well. There is no doubt that she loves us and wants to be with us. She never shuts our family out, just others, including the translators.

The afternoon was free time for me and the kids. We drew and colored and did lots of homework. Mike was out doing the necessary paperwork for the upcoming adoption "stuff". Tonight we ate at the Japanese restaurant in the hotel. It was delicious. I had read about it on several blogs and was curious to see it myself. Tomorrow is Jia Jia's medical appointment and our trip to Shaiman Island (sp?). The boys are skipping the shopping trip. I think that is all for now. Hope you all have had a great weekend.

Familiar Faces

We made it safely to Guangzhou. It has been a long, but uneventful day. It has been nice to see to see faces other than Chinese. Don't get me wrong, we love the Chinese, but wow! did we stand out in the crowd. Now we have joined 13 other America World adopting families, plus thousand of international peoples. We still draw some attention - but so does everyone else. I did not realize how much I craved talking to other women (yes, it is true, I love to talk - surprise!).

Everyone is doing well. The boys have made some friends, In fact, this evening we went to the park to play soccer and frisbee with anther family who has a 10 and 11 year old (they adopted a five year old). They all had a blast.

Sara seems withdrawn and very shy around other families, but fortunately there are some older girls being adopted. So far she refuses to speak with other Chinese children. I hope that changes as the week progresses for we would love to see her interact with other girls.

Sara continues to be doing very well. Her English is improving everyday. She has, though, really started to test her boundaries. Ignoring requests and the word "no" have become commonplace around here. It is very hard to set limits with all four children in a hotel room and while traveling. I sometimes wonder if Sara thinks we really live like nomads, wondering around going from hotel room to hotel room, living out of suitcases and throwing our towels on the floor! Who knows what is going on through that head of hers!

In the hotel we are in now, we have two separate rooms. Sara and I have our own room which means we are alone for the first time. I have been craving this time, but never wanted to leave the boys out. This is very special time and we have used it talking with the help of the translator and just by sitting next to each other watching her favorite tv show.

We did not take many pics today - it was a great day for a break from the camera. I forgot about Skiatook yesterday on my post - thanks K and D !