Day 4----we are is so much trouble! : )

What a difference a few days has made.  The true personality is coming out and there is no shotage of it!  We started the day quiet and calm and ended lively and wild!!!  She has energy!!

We went to the Minority Museum. It was a quick trip showing ancient artifacts and selling items made by the mountain people. 

From there we went to a bird and flower market. It is impossible to imagine living and shopping like these people do. Some live above their shop. One picture shows someone buying a live chicken.  It is probably for dinner. There were aquariums of fish everywhere and dogs for sale.  Can you imagine making a living trying to sell a few goldfish or a dog each day so you can eat.  There was also camping equipment, plants, herbs. You name it.  It seems like such a simple life yet so very hard. 

We love our afternoons in our room and so does Olivia. She gets so afraid when we are out. I wonder if people say unkind things and she understand them. I pray that she does not hear them.  She is very good at reading facial expression.  Some people are taken back by the look of her cleft and we completely understand that. Others are so happy we are taking care of her and give us a thumbs up. We sometimes have our guide explained our situation if people seem very interested.  

Look at the smiles daddy got today!  The two had a good time playing!  I just love how she is looking at him!  So sweet!  And daddy thought he had  such a quiet girl.  Haha

She was so wound up!  We went to dinner and I had her on my lap. She had a little plastic spoon as did I. I touched her little nose so gently with the spoon.  She quickly turned, looked up at me with a silly grin and wacked me in the nose with hers and laughed. It was histerical !!  That was a great laugh!  Doug said I asked for it!  She is so busy and doesn't miss a thing!  Back in the room, she showed us her great imagination and focus. She took her large stacking cup and put her necklace inside. Using a bottle of lotion she stirred it and pretended it was food. She played alone with it for the longest time and would stop to catch my eye and give me a smile. Nice milestone to reach at this point. 

Jammie time. Still silly! : ) She loves to take her jammies and hide them behind her back. She smiles at me holding up her hands and saying, "uh". That means, where did they go. Then she pulls them out and giggles throwing them somewhere else. I love when she taps my shoulder and with those expressive eyes wants me to see something she had done. 

Soon another day begins. We are heading to Guangzhou today. The trip will be hard for her because of all of the people. I think that is overwhelming to her. Say a little prayer for Olivia !

What a smile!

Yesterday was so great!  God has given us a very precious gift!  We are so in love! 

We were able to skype with Connor and Michael in the morning. It was wonderful!  She loved seeing them!  It was so fun seeing Connor interact with her and showing her everything in the Christmas stocking. Then she started mimicing Michael. He happened to be leaning on the table with his hand on his chin. I looked down to see Olivia doing the same thing. We had a good laugh!  She is going to love those brothers!!

We went to the monkey park and temple. A cute lady saw us and tried sneaking behind a tree to take our picture. We waved and she smiled and came to show us her photo and see Olivia. She seems so very happy for us!  

Olivia seemed to shutdown while we were out and had a little tear. I snuggled her close and reasured her. I think we made an important connection at that moment. Upon returning to the hotel she hopped out of the van, flashed me a big grin, reached for my hand and ran inside!  So Cute!                                                                

And then a Huge moment!  A big belly laugh!  Olivia and I were playing on the bed being very silly throwing a wrapper back and forth, trying to eat it and making silly faces. She thought it was so funny! She just laughed and laughed at me!  It was the best!  What a mile stone for day three!  We are well on our way to some good bonding! 

I have not read Dougs posts because we can't see them here and he posts when I am sleeping. At some point he must have said he made Olivia cry. That was only upon meeting her at the Civil Affair office. She is fine with him now though she does often want me over him.  

Olivia is such a girly girl!  LOVEs her shoes!  Good thing, because we have a lot!  Haha! Always wants her hat!

More tomorrow!  We have been awake for hours anxiously waiting to play with her again!!!

Olivia - Day 2

It's the morning of 12/28.  Last night I was too tired to write, but we finally got a good night's sleep, so we feel much better.

Yesterday, Olivia was very quiet when she woke up, but we got to see her personality gradually emerge throughout the day. 

At breakfast, we discovered that she loves to eat.  Like Connor, she likes big people food the most, such as her mom's omelette.

We had to eat a little quickly because we had an appointment at the civil affairs office.  There we were joined by the other two adopting families in Guiyang as we all were getting our papers ready and our adoptions became official!  It was interesting to watch Olivia interact with the other kids there.  She showed a different side where she played energetically and seemed to have a lot of fun.  It was nice to see that she never withdrew into her own world, but that she kept engaging us.

Our friends, Lisa and Frank, were there with their four kids.  It brought back memories of when we had Melissa and Michael with us as we got Connor.

We also met Betty and San, who were adopting their sixth child.  They were as nice as can be.  A few days earlier, they had adopted their fifth, a blind girl from a different province.  A year earlier, they adopted Pearl, who like Olivia, had a cleft and was almost exactly the same age as Olivia.  We have great admiration for them.  They are taking on a lot and they know it.  Unfortunately, they are staying at a different hotel, but we look forward to re-connecting with them in Guangzhou, in a few days.

We got to say goodbye to Olivia's teacher.  She was very kind.  She got to hold Olivia one last time, after which Olivia came back to us without a complaint (to our amazement).

Unfortunately, the meeting went so long that when we returned to Skype with our other kids, Connor had already fallen asleep.  Seeing Melissa and Michael was great!

Eating and nap time was special.  Julie amazes me with her ability to get in tune with children.  Seeing her so in tune with Olivia's needs and connecting at Olivia's level is a joy to watch.  Olivia's personality really was showing, as she playfully interacted with us.

At nap time, I ran to the grocery.  It's always adventure shopping here where so few people speak English.  Without question, we are deep in the heart of a country that is little like our own, but which is greatly influenced by the West.  The contrast of modernization and traditionalism is everywhere.

When Olivia woke up, we went for a walk through the park.  There were people dancing and exercising, and small merchants were everywhere selling things, such as full sets of teeth.  That said, I think that we were the biggest attraction.  It got a little uncomfortable after a while, so we moved down to the river walk where there were less people and where Olivia could walk, which she enjoyed.  She loves to walk and she does a great job of keeping up.

In the evening, we went out to dinner with Frank and Lisa and family.  It was an adventure,  but it was so much fun and the food was great.  Olivia loves Tofu.  We went to one of the nicer restaurants in the city, but nobody spoke English.  It's a good thing that they had an I-Pad with English captions for us to order from.  We want to go back again, we enjoyed it so much. 

Olivia just woke up.  Time for an other day of discovery and getting connected.

Gotcha Day!!

Gotcha Day was wonderful!

I started out with us meeting new friends from Boston, Lisa and Frank, who were adopting two children and were here with their two older kids.  We spent the morning together, enjoying the river walk and the park.

This afternoon we received word that the group taking Olivia was delayed because of fog, so we had to wait an extra hour to see her. 

We arrived at the same time as Olivia, who was with her director and teacher.  Olivia wanted nothing to do with us, especially me (Doug).  Every time she looked at me, she backed up and cried.  After a while, we were allowed to pick her up, which she wanted no part of.  She wouldn't even look at us and just wanted to go back to her teacher.

She started to warm up eventually.  I showed he a picture of Melissa, Michael, and Connor, which she liked handing back and forth.   She really started warming up when she was offered crackers.  She liked eating them and sharing them with us.

By the time we got back to the room, she really started doing well.  She played bubbles and with her doll with Julie for a long time.  She ate, making it very clear what she liked and offering what she didn't like to me.   She played stacking cups very interactively for a long time, and also enjoyed looking at the window at the bright lights and controlling the light switches.  When she played with me she kept checking on Julie and making sure she knew what she was doing.  It was fun to see her.

Finally, she snuggled up in Julie's arms and fell asleep.  It was the perfect way to end gotcha day.  She fell asleep before we were able to Skype with Melissa, Michael, and Connor, who woke up early to see her, but they at least got to see her sleeping!  We'll talk to them again in the morning, which is the evening in Indiana.

It's wonderful to finally have Olivia

Merry Christmas!

We made it to Guiyang, China!  Tomorrow we get Olivia.  It is hard to believe that the big day is finally here! 

 

Travel was good but too long.  From the time we left home until we arrived in Beijing it was 32 hours with little sleep.  The picture was taken at Beijing airport.  We then got a quick nights sleep and were off to Guiyang.  It was pretty cool to see the Great Wall from the plane as we left Beijing. 

 

Guiyang is nothing like anything we experienced on our first trip to China.  It is a "small" city of about 3 million people.  Half of them were at Walmart today!  And you thought walmart in US was busy.  Very few people here speak english and there are very few westerners but we are in an area of the city where people seem to have a lot of money but we also see many poor people.  From our room on the 28th floor we can see the flashing lights and fancy store fronts but we can also see the piles of trash and run down areas hidden just off the main streets.  As you can see, our room and view are very nice.  It was very grey today and would love to see the city on a clear day. 

 

We are a little disappointed that we are the only adopting family is this hotel.  We know there are other families here to adopt but have not seen them.  We met the other family adopting thru FTIA and will meet up with them again on Fri.  It would be nice to have other families here to share the experience with.  Our guide is very helpful.  We needed him at the mall today because we don't understand the signs and can not communicate with people.  He may go back there with us tomorrow as I am sure people will not think we have proper clothing to keep Olivia warm enough!

 

Olivia has a long train ride tomorrow and will probably be tired when she meets us.  Poor little thing!  I hope she is not terribly afraid.  We have no idea how she will react to us. We just can't wait to hold her. 

One more thing!

I have been busy making dresses and skirts for Miss O and I have been asked many times to post a few so now that the pictures have finally been loaded to the computer I will share a few.

I know,  like I really have time to sit here and blog or just sit and do anything else, but yesterday and today I sat had a little creative thearapy time and made Olivia's, "While We Waited" album.  It is super cute!  So glad to had that finished before we leave.

Leaving in three days

After months of waiting and preparing, I can't believe that we are leaving in three short days.  I am so thankful for Julie.  She has been incredible in making this happen.  We are thankful, nervous, and excited all at the same time. 

We're thankful because Olivia is an answer to our prayers.  We also prayed that we would be able to get her this year when Melissa is home from Purdue, which we are. 

We're nervous because we are leaving our kids at home for 10 while we'll be half way around the world. 

We're praying for good health, smooth traveling, and minimal jet lag.  We also don't know what to expect when we get Olivia.  When we got Connor, the transition went remarkably well.  But, we saw all kinds of reactions and the three year olds seemed to be be afraid of their new families.  We know about challenges with attachment and other adjustments that we might face.  We are praying for God's grace and strength.

Perhaps most of all we're excited because we can't wait to hold our little girl.  We can't wait to show her the love that we have for her.  We think about and pray for her all the time.  Ever since we received her referral we've been waiting for this day.  We also can't wait to bring her home so that she can be with Melissa, Michael, and Connor.

Connor has been waiting to get his little sister for months, but now that it is getting close, he's going to miss his mom and dad.  He and Julie have such a special relationship.  Every night I read Connor a book and say his prayers.  A little later Julie walks in and Connor has a tear in his eye.  "I'll miss you and I'll miss my dad", he says.  We wish we could bring him with us, but I think that we made the right choice in leaving him home.  I just hope that Skype works well.

This past weekend Mom and Dad visited. We had a nice time together and celebrated an early Christmas. 

On Sunday, the church service was about adoption.  Pastor Craig shared a wonderful message about adoption.  Each of the adoptive families in the church had the opportunity to share pictures to be displayed on the big screen.  When we saw Olivia next to our other kids it meant a lot.  I just can't wait until all four of our kids are in the same picture.

Today, We kept Connor home from school so he could have a special day before we leave.  We met friends for lunch and Connor got to sit on Santa's lap with his good friend, Mary Grace.  Connor is excited for Christmas! 

What a special gift God is giving our family this year!

The next post will be from China!

Merry Christmas!

Thinking of you

Just thinking about our girl today. Just a little something we do every day! Olivia, I wonder what you are doing? who you are playing with? if your getting ready to come home? I wonder if you like running? Connor needs someone to chase him around! Are you ready to read books, ride bikes and meet new friends. There are 4 friends waiting to play. Oh, you will be busy!

We are busy getting ready to travel. The Christmas presents are all ready but not under the tree. They would never survive the next 19 days fully wrapped. Olivia's things are all ready to go into the suitcase.

God has been so amazing throughout this journey to Olivia. We have had so many answered prayers. I am still amazed how it has worked out that we are traveling while Melissa is home from college and can take care of the boys. That is such a relief for us to know the kids will all be at home together. A huge answer to prayer!

So, as we prepare to leave we pray for health and sanity! Things are a bit crazy around here!

Hoping to get updates and pictures sometime before we leave.

Tickets

It has been a busy day here.
The plane tickets have been purchased.
Plans are being made.
We will be in China this year for Christmas to recieve a special gift!
God is good! I have been anxiously waiting to see how he would work things out.
Miss Olivia will be home to celebrate her birthday!
What a special birthday it will be!