Operation Smile: Esther Joy Xiao Tian

7 months later..

2006-10-06T20:25:00.000-04:00

It's been almost seven months since Esther ("Tian") joined our family. She is doing wonderful and continues to amaze us and everyone she meets. Most people can't believe she has only been home for six months. She talks her heads off, loves to laugh and have fun. She's had a rough first three years, and we missed a lot of firsts, but she has experienced so many firsts since being home and it's so wonderful to watch her grow and flourish.

If you'd like to follow Esther on her current life journey, please join us on our new blog Two "Twin" Terrors, http://www.twotwinterrors.blogspot.com or by clicking on the link to the right.

"Operation Smile:" The Movie

2006-05-12T16:33:00.000-04:00

Come journey back with us to March 2006 on our "Operation Smile" mission to Esther Joy Xiao Tian. The movie is done and now able to be viewed on the web. It's long at 23 minutes, but there was just too much to be left out. So grab some tissues if you're the crying type and get ready for another exciting journey to China and back. =)

http://homepage.mac.com/jiejie4china/iMovieTheater16.html

You will need quicktime installed on your computer to view the movie. Also, I've received e-mails from Apple that my bandwith for this month has exceeded my allowed bandwith, so they might be cutting off my site. I just tried it and it was still working, but I'm not sure for how much longer. If it is turned off, it will be back up and running on the 1st of May. A pain in the butt, I know!!!

The music for the first 4 songs is from Disney's "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron" Soundtrack. This is Esther's favorite movie and the words to the songs are meaningful to me. When we met Esther (Tian) my dad and I were both saying how it was as if she walked in saying, "Here I am. What took you guys so long?" The following songs are also from the soundtrack, and the last two are "How Great Is Our God" by Chris Tomlin (Do I really need to give an explanation for why I chose this one?) and "I'm Only Getting Started" by Steven Curtis Chapman. You'll see in the movie why I chose the last one. =)

Summarizing our Journey

2006-05-07T22:24:00.000-04:00

I found this site online that takes words from your blog and summarizes them into a little word cloud. I thought this was a neat summarization of our journey to Esther.. either that or I've used these words way too much in my blog!
Here's the link: http://www.snapshirts.com/custom.php

It's May!

2006-05-04T21:42:00.000-04:00

Since we've been home from China, it's like we've just kept going and going, and haven't had any time to stop and rest! (Except for our Easter break) But finally, school is over and summer is here!!!!
Tian is doing great. She's really a very easy and happy child. She loves to eat, play, watch movies and sing. Her English vocabulary is expanding every single day. I hardly notice her speaking Chinese anymore. She mimicks every word of Emma's, or everything you say to her. She understands almost everything, and what she doesn't, we use pointing gestures to help her understand. She loves to tell people "I Love You More!" and "I'm Hungry!" No longer does she yell "BaBa" when Dad comes home.. it's "Ba-dee," a mix of Daddy and Baba. =)
We've really been blessed by how well she has adjusted. However, things haven't gone as smooth for Emma. At first, it was Tian who didn't like Emma, so they were fighting all the time. Now, it's the opposite. Emma has regressed considerably in the last few weeks. Before, she was doing really well in potty training and only had a few accidents a day and was going #2 in the potty all the time. Right now she refuses to use the potty and only wants to go in her pull-up. This gets real frustrating since I HATE poopy diapers!! She's also quite mean and hits and pushes Tian anytime she's mad at her. This is to be expected since it's been a huge adjustment for Emma. However, it's been very difficult! Over the last few weeks our patience has really been tested and right now it's running real thin! Emma's going to be the 'difficult' one for my parents. She's obstinant and very independent.. boy are they in for it in the new few years!
Initially, Tian and I hadn't bonded very well. I think we bonded in China to survive each other, but once we came home we both became distant from each other. I came home and went right back to my normal activities.. school, tennis, dance, etc. Tian started to trust my mom and Elena more, and bonded better with them. The first few weeks it seemed like Emma was being a bit neglected, not in a bad way, just everyone was focused on Tian and not much on Emma, so I tried to spend as much time with Emma as possible. It's easier for me to handle Emma because I've bonded so well with her and we're a lot alike. It was differant with Tian because we had only known each other a few weeks and she is oh so very sensitive! The littlest thing would send her off into a meltdown.. and I really do not like crying!! Our bonding is getting better. It's just taken some time. It's funny because she really is a VERY easy child, thanks to her learned orphanage behaviours. If you leave her in a room with some toys, she will stay there for hours. Which, is SO different from Emma who is into EVERYTHING!!
I've started a new blog called "Two Twin Terrors" that will be about both girls, since this one was mainly for Tian. I'll be adding more pictures and updates soon, but for now the link is: http://www.twotwinterrors.blogspot.com (You'll probably have to copy & paste this into your browser, since I can't get blogger to link it for me!!)
That's a little update for now- I'll add more soon once there's more interesting things going on! =)

Life Keeps Rolling

2006-04-09T20:32:00.000-04:00

Have we really only been home for three weeks?? It seems much longer than that! Tian (or Esther) continues to do well in her new life and family. She is a very normal three year old little girl. When you watch Emma & Tian together you can tell how different the two girls are. Tian seems much more mature for a 3 year old than Emma does. She is much more protective, cautious and wants to be the leader. Emma really doesn't care and when she gets mad at Tian, she hits her.. simple as that. A lot of this week has been "Emma.. do not hit Tian" sorta stuff. My philosophy is to teach Tian to hit Emma back, therefore Emma will get a taste of what she's doing to Tian. My mom disagrees- she doesn't want the girls to start hitting each other. Anytime Emma hits or slaps (or bites.. yikes!) Tian, she comes up to some person, and yells and points at Emma.. like "It's her fault!" I've tried to tell Tian that she just needs to hit Emma back, and she seems to understand, but has yet to carry through with it.

Tian still does not skip a meal. She gets very annoyed with Emma, because Em takes her sweet old time eating. Usually, she never finishes her plate anyways. Tian eats everything and then some more, and then usually Emma's. This is classic orphanage behaviour because I'm sure she had a limited amount of food to eat.

As far as bedtime, it's getting better. This week, almost every night she went to sleep without crying. But it has to be on Tian's terms.. you can't put her down to sleep without asking her first. Surprisingly, she has asked several times to be put to bed and goes to sleep!! She's a very laid back child, just sometimes hard to deal with because at the littlest thing, she freaks out.

For instance- she HATES to be dirty!! If any little speck of food, dirt, juice-or anyone touches her without asking- gets on her, she completely flips out! It must have been a no-no in the orphanage for her to be dirty, because she cannot stand it. We'll have to work on her because in this family.. you do get dirty!!

On Saturday, my parents took Tian to get her ears pierced. No we're not a cruel terrible family.. it's just that it's a tradition to have the girls' ears pierced. We had Emma's done a week after she got home, but we waited a little longer for Tian. She really wanted them too and kept pointing to her ears because all of the girls in our family have them done. I knew she would probably scream, and I'm not stupid.. so I declined in going. Surprisingly, she did very well and didn't really cry. This kid has a HUGE tolerance for pain! She loves her earings though and wants to show them to EVERYONE!!

Tian's doing really well with learning English. In the last few days I've noticed that she repeats a lot of what we say and is starting to put things toether. I think she understands almost everything we say to her, and whatever she doesn't, we use pointing & hand motions to show her. Today, I got her to repeat some things and then said "I Love You" and she said "I Love You" back!! It sounded sooo sweet!!! I got it on video, so I'll try to upload it later! But it was so sweet and my mom-again- started to cry.

She's doing incredibly well for only being with us 4 1/2 weeks. I'm surprised at how well her transition has gone. It's crazy and chaotic around our house right now.. but if this is what the worst of it is supposed to be like, then boy are we blessed! Two is definitely much harder than only having one. They get into trouble together like sneaking into the pantry & stealing oreo's, and drawing all over their bodies with markers. But they're really cute together.

A lot of new pictures are up on my photo website;
http://www.homepage.mac.com/jiejie4china/jiejie4chinapics/
Password: fampics

So that's pretty much how Tian's doing in a nutshell. As far as her name.. is it Tian or Esther? Her name is Esther.. but we call her Tian like a nickname. She doesn't respond to Esther, although she will sometimes refer to herself as Esther. If she sees a picture of her, she immeadiatley says "Xiao Tian." Tian is just easier because Emma & Esther get too confusing after awhile. I think Tian will probably stick and we will end up calling her that.. but who knows. Esther is her legal American name, and Tian is her middle name.. so it really doesn't matter what she wants to go by. We have their Chinese Names as part of their middle name so that if they want to-when they're older- they can call themselves by either their American name or Chinese name. "Esther" wasn't really my favorite name.. so I kinda like Tian a little better. When people ask, I usually just tell them her name is Tian because it's too hard to explain that she doesn't respond to Esther. =)

POOR TIAN!!!!

2006-04-01T18:53:00.000-05:00

First, she started throwing up on the way home from a shopping trip to the mall. Good thing we were turning onto our street, because I was driving and throw-up is NOT something I can handle well!! (Guess we won't be giving her ANY more frappachino's)

We've been home an hour and she was playing with the lego's behind me, when I heard her fall and start screaming! I knew she had hit her head and my first instinct was to grab her and check her head. I wasn't prepared for the blood to start POURING down her face!! Good thing both my mom and her best friend were in the kitchen as they are both nurses. Dad was (and still is) on the phone, but came in real quick and said it was fine. Mom's rocking Tian right now and the bleeding has stopped, but boy did she get it good!! Don't think she'll be in need of stitches, but she'll have a little scar. Apparently, the head always bleeds more than anything else.

It just takes that one second where you see all that blood pouring out of her head and start panicking!! My hands are still shaking!

My Emma

2006-03-28T22:56:00.000-05:00

It was actually today that Emma had more meltdowns than Tian did! It's hard to get frustrated with Em when she has also had her whole world turned upside down. She went from the #1 Princess to now sharing her role. I'm sure right now, she's wishing we could send Tian back to China!

I don't think Emma really understood that Tian was going to be the same size as her. She knew Tian was coming and would tell us how she planned on sharing her toys with Tian and that she loved her. I honestly think that Emma thought Tian would be a baby though! Whenever "A Baby Story" would be on T.V., Emma would watch it and say "Aww, baby cry, like Esther!" I think she was quite shocked when we came home and brought her a friend. At first, it was fun, but after awhile, sharing your toys with a stranger isn't so fun anymore!!

Part of it is that Emma has been sick the past few days with a nasty cold, and a neverending runny nose! So her appetite isn't very good and she's a bit crabby from the medicine. She was usually the one who would have to give up the toy she wants to Tian, because we'd do anything not to initiate a meltdown! Now that Tian has been home a week, she's starting to learn the ropes and that she can't have everything she wants! Tian's usually the brute towards Emma, but Emma can give it right back! She did her fair share of hitting and pushing today.

This evening Mom was talking to Emma about how "bad" her day was and that if she kept this up, we would have to send her back to China. (JOKING of course!!) Emma replied, "You can't send me back, because I'm too cute!" I about died laughing. That's my Emma. She's smart, witty and hilarious. Emma and I are very close. Next to Mom, I'm her other #1 person.

Think They'll Notice?

2006-03-28T13:52:00.000-05:00

Emma demonstrates my great new idea of how to bring home more kiddos's from China! Go get one, and bring home a few more in your suitcase!! We'll promise to love them too!

The Meatball

2006-03-28T13:05:00.000-05:00

When Mom first met Tian she said, "Well she sure is a meatball!" The name has kinda stuck with Tian since she is such a big girl! Emma & Tian are 3 inches and 3 pounds apart in size, but there's a huge difference when you pick them up. Emma's got a tiny body build and is much more like a little bird. Tian, however, is much mightier, so that's why we call her the Meatball! I think Tian will be more sportier, but she doesn't have as much energy as Emma.

The last week has gone much smoother than I expected it. Sure, we've had PLENTY of meltdowns to last us a lifetime, but compared to other families stories, we're doing well. I think it's harder for Emma & Tian because they are both so strong willed and usually end up hitting each other when they don't get their way. However, within five minutes of a meltdown, they're back to both being their usual happy selves. Almost everyone has been sick this week, so we've all been a little crabby at one point or another!

On Thursday, Tian had her first doctor's appointment. (I don't really call the medical exam in Guangzhou, a doctor's appointment!) Our pediatrician was very impressed with how healthy Tian is and how well she is doing. She's very friendly towards others and wanted to be held by him as he entered the room. As we were leaving, the nurse told us they needed to run a T.B. test on her, which would include a shot! She had done so well during the exam, and now I knew we would be in for it! Mom and I held her down as the nurse prepared the syringe, and I was ready for the screaming! But.. Tian didn't shed a tear. I tell you this child has a HIGH tolerance for pain!!! I was so proud of her that she didn't cry at all and did so well! We still have some more tests to run through, including having her vision and hearing evaluated and then being referred to the Cleft Team. The Cleft Team is a group of doctors consisting of a Plastic Surgeon, Ear, Nose & Throat Doc, Orthodontist and probably someone else, but I can't remember! They will evaluate Tian and follow up with her as she grows to plan any surgeries she will need in the future. For now, she seems to be doing really well!!

I think Tian understands about 50% of what we say to her, just we can't understand what she is saying! Sometimes it gets a little frustrating, but she usually makes her point across by pointing and grunting! I've heard her call to Baba, Mama & Emma, and she calls me "Sa" (which is what Emma calls me) and Jia Jia (Big Sister). The one word I've heard her say repeatedly and quite clear is "I'm hungry." Boy can this kid eat too!! Her first time eating spagetti, she had four helpings! She usually has two servings of what we're eating and then eat's whatever Emma doesn't eat. And we thought Emma was a big eater!

The sleeping has gotten a little better, but she refuses to fall asleep anywhere but the couch downstairs. Emma's in bed between 8-8:30, so usually around then she'll sit on the couch with Mom and fall asleep. Then Elena transfers Tian to her room and she usually sleeps 'til about 8 am. She's & Elena are sharing a room. As far as nap's go, she usually takes a 20-30 minute power nap on the couch and that's all. For now, we're not pushing the nap thing and letting her settle in.

I've noticed that Tian is quite a brute!! On Sunday, I got the girls ready for church and dresses them all pretty and did their hair. When I brought them downstairs Mom came over and said to both girls how beautiful they looked. Well, I heard Tian say something to the degree of "Emma, Bu Hao piao liang...." but I knew she was saying "Emma is not pretty!" Mom had to tell Tian that BOTH of her girls were beautiful!! Geez.. can't wait when they're 12!

Ian turned eight on Saturday, so Dad took him and eight of his friends to a local amusement park for the afternoon. They came back afterwords and had cake and opened presents. Of course, the cake was a hit with Tian!

This week Tian has gotten to meet a lot of new friends including her new "Aunties" Nanette & Irma, "cousins," new friends Evan, Lowery & Brooke, and many other friends of our family. She is very friendly and at church on Sunday, she wanted to be held by a bunch of people who came over to meet her. Good thing she's not very shy!

The sweetest thing is when she sees Baba come home- she runs over to him screaming "Baba, Baba!!" =)

We've been home 10 days now, but it feels like we've been home for much longer than that!! Her transition has gone much smoother than I expected it to go, so hopefully it will continue to be that way. Adding #6 to the family hasn't changed too much.. just the grocery bill has gone up more, the workload has increased, there's more clothes and shoes to be bought, and the messes are more! Not to mention, there's another little one to be watching every minute! And yet.. we still want to do it again- adopt another one that is, maybe in the next year or so. (Shh! Don't tell my Dad!) But for now.. six is a good number to get used too.. for now at least!

Til next time,

The Meatball's big sister

Home Sweet Home!!

2006-03-20T22:20:00.000-05:00

We have been home for two days now and all I can say is, I am SO glad to be home!! It hit me when we were in the Chicago airport waiting to head to Orlando that I was just REALLY sick of the airplane flights and just wanted to be HOME!! Tian did great on all of the flights. She cried a little on each one, but we were blessed to have VERY nice flight attendants on two of the flights who helped tremendously. She slept about 8 of the 12 1/2 hour flight from Beijing-Chicago. It is always hard getting her to go to sleep, but once she is down, she is down!! A few times along the way home, I was ready to leave her and fly home myself. It was very stressful on the way back, but we are home and things are going well!!

When we landed in Orlando, I told Tian that we were going to see Mama, and she kept repeating "go see Mama!" I think she was a little overwhelmed when she first met everyone, but an hour later, she and Emma were running around the house in their matching nightgowns, care bears and squeaky shoes screaming and squealing. We were all up until around 3 am, but it was nice to be together as a WHOLE family and catch up. The happiness came to an end when Tian got mad that I was holding Emma. She threw a huge fit, including spitting at Emma, which scared Emma and so she was crying also!

On Sunday, my parents woke us up around 11, so we wouldn't sleep too much and recover from the jet lag. The kids showed Tian around the house and outside. She got to swing on the swingset and tried out the trampoline, but wasn't too crazy about it. In the afternoon, we headed over to our friend's house where we had a gathering of families from our church. Everyone was so excited to meet Tian and she did great! There were probably 50 people there and she went to almost everyone who would take her. She even fell asleep in my best friend Catie's lap! We were amazed at how well she did with everyone- she is quite friendly!

Today, has been much better. I saw at least one meltdown and heard about a few others, but I was at school when they occured. (Yes... they made me go to class today! I only went for 1/2 a day, so it wasn't too bad) Once I came home, the girls were outside playing together and doing well. At dinner time, Tian & Emma sat next to each other and ate noodles and watermelon. (Tian wasn't excited about the ribs & mashed potatoes) After dinner, I took them upstairs for a bath and that was a load of fun! The girls played as if they had known each other their whole lives! Tian would mimic Emma and they would squeal and laugh at each other. It was so cute to see them laughing and having fun, instead of the fighting and meltdowns I had pictured earlier!!

Tian is doing better. When Emma accidentally splashed water in her eyes, I thought Tian would go nuts.. but she was alright. A few days ago, she would have flipped out, but she's doing much better. She & Emma are learning to share, but it will be a slow and gradual process. I feel bad for Emma who has had to give up a lot of HER things! This morning when Tian got mad at Emma, she came up to me and said, "Sera, Esther scare me!!" Poor thing! But, when asked, she does say she is glad Tian is here to play with her and she loves her. Tonight, Emma & Tian were constantly looking for each other and wanted to be together the entire time.

After bath time, we had a very sweet friend from Taiwan come over. Crystal speaks Mandarin so she is going to be helping us communicate with Tian and also form a relationship with her, so hopefully she will continue to speak some Mandarin and maybe Emma too. Tian was more interested in playing with all the new toys, but I think she was glad Crystal was here so she could talk to her.

Overall, things are going really well!! Much better than I had anticipated! On the first night, when both girls were crying, I was overwhelmed and thinking "what have we done!!" Its been a roller coaster of emotions, but I am optimistic things will work out. Watching them play together tonight really showed me that they they will be best of friends, and at times fighting like sisters normally would.

I am very glad we are home and that she is home. It's different having two of them now.. a whole lot more work! After this China trip.. I don't think I'll ever want to have kids!! =0

Having all six kids together and realizing that poor Ian is alone in girl land, makes us realize that we really need to add a brother to the family!! Dad hasn't said no (yet), but it probably won't be for awhile! But we'll see.. it would be nice to add a brother to the mix. =)

Our trip was wonderful. It was difficult at times, but I would probably do it all over again in a heartbeat! I think next time I would want my Mom to be with us because when things got tough, Dad and I didn't know what to do.. and you really needed a Mom to be there!! Tian is bonding well with Mom though, which is a good thing.

Well, I'm outta here. The jet lag hasn't been too bad, and we are starting to adjust back to our regular schedule. I'll continue updating because the journey hasn't ended yet. Now we're on a journey through life with Emma & Tian for the next 15+ years! Oh what fun!!

Operation, Executed!!

2006-03-17T08:32:00.000-05:00

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under Heaven."

Eclesiastes 1: 9 (?? they don't have bibles for reference here in China)

Well, it's time to wrap things up here in Guangzhou, China and get ready to head home. We spent today shopping for souveniers, cute chinese dresses, shoes, etc. Rebecca had arranged a tour of the toy factory for today.. but we missed the bus thinking the meeting time would be at 11:00. It was actually an hour earlier! But we spent the time taking in our last sights of the island and doing lots of shopping. Dad did well with the shopping. Those of you who know him know that Mom does all the shopping, and Dad just makes the money! But he was a good boy and did very well in this "new" territory for him. He actually found some really nice things that I think Mom will like. =)

We ate lunch at Lucy's, Tian took a short nap, we played in the playroom and then ate dinner with Rebecca for the last time. Rebecca has been OUTSTANDING!! She is THE best guide and has always been on top of things. We ran into some trouble with the paperwork, but Rebecca took care of it. I just remember when we were at the Civil Affairs Office adopting the girls, Rebecca had two cell phones both ringing at the same time and talking to two different people. She was wonderful with Tian and they have a special relationship. I will really miss Rebecca and her funny personality. Our guides have all been absolutely superb. Whenever Tian got upset, they were always there to comfort her. Lily would read Tian books, David and Rebecca would stop eating themselves and spoon feed Tian. Our trip has been more like a vacation, thanks to them!

I will definitely miss the people of Guangzhou. They have all been so kind and friendly. If there was a place I could move to, I would settle in Guangzhou. At lunch, we sat outside and watched girls playing badmittion, guys kicking around a hacky sack, older folks doing tai chi, children playing in the park. It's something I'll miss watching all of these people interact. It's really a sense of community here on Shamian Island.

I will miss the White Swan too!! When we arrived on Sunday, the lobby greeted us like it was saying "Welcome back!" The hotel is really wonderful and the people are so nice. Each floor has floor attendants who go and push the elevator button for you when they see you coming and clean your rooms. Everytime Tian sees the floor attendanta, she starts singing "Mama Hao" and they all sing it with her!

I will miss the people in the shops. There are tons of shops located around the White Swan and they are all so sweet. A little pushy at times, but very nice. If you're going to Guangzhou soon, be sure to stop at the Chinese Life & Laundry store. (The first shop on the left) Lisa, the shopkeeper, and her friends are so sweet and will always give you a good price! The stores all sell pretty much the same things, but we bought mostly from Lisa because she was so nice. She remembered our names so everytime we passed by, she would say "Hello Claudio & Sera!!" Lisa & her friends always sit outside their store and watch DVD's.

I will also miss the other adoptive families and seeing the babies! There's nothing more heartwarming than watching parents meet the child they have desired for so long and orphaned babies become part of a forever family. You really feel like a large "family" here. Everyone has been so nice and we can all relate since we've been through the same process, emotions, etc!!

We ALL will miss our travel buddies, Charlie, Britt & Delaney. We met them on Gotcha Day and connected instantly since the girls are inseperable. Delaney & Tian are somethin' else!! Our travel group has been wonderful. I think our first travel group was a little better since we were all so close by the time we left and did everything together. We mostly hung with Delaney's family and everyone else did their own stuff. But nonetheless, they were all really nice and we have news friends!

Of course.. things I won't miss about Guangzhou:

The smog!! We haven't seen the sun once since being here. You can't see very far which is different from when we were here in August.

The smells! Yah, I won't miss the smells!

The Animals!! I don't mind the chickens hanging in the window, but the dead cats on the streets, I do!

The hard beds! The White Swan would be so much better if the beds were at least a bit softer!

And.. the spitting! After awhile, it gets a little old!

But these are the things that make Guangzhou!

Oh, and one other thing I'll miss are the "Is she your daughter?" comments I have gotten all week. Yes, they think Dad is the "Baba" and I am the "Mama"!!

Well, I could write more, but we have a 5:00 am wake-up call!! I finally convinced Dad that everything was not going to fit into three suitcases, so he (finally!) agreed and we bought another suitcase. Even with the extra suitcase, we are still jam-packed!

But we're ready to come home. Please be praying that Tian does well on the flight... preferably sleeps a lot and has no meltdowns!! And also, that we make our connecting flight in Chicago. We only have a two hour layover to get through customs and re-check for our flight back home.

Well, our operation was to get Tian and bring smiles to her face. And we have accomplished that operation! Now, it's time to complete the operation and get her home, so we can start a new Mission: Life with Emma & Tian!!!

Signing off from Guangzhou,

Sera, Claudio & Tian

P.S. Forgot the Picture Captions!!
1) Tian in the White Swan playroom
2) This is Tian and a little boy "FuFu" from her orphanage. They were in the same room together and seemed to know each other pretty well. They talked constantly and liked playing together. =)
3) The shopkeepers all loved Tian!
4) Inside one of the shops in Guangzhou (It is called the Arts & Crafts store and is on the left side, across from Jennifers & Sherry's. Great shop and one of our favorites!)
5) The next few are all views of Shamian Island
6) Dad & Tian
7) Me & Tian eating lunch at Lucy's
8) Coca Cola-Chinese version!
9 & 10) I shot these outside during lunch at Lucy's. We ate outside and watched people playing badmittion and tai chi during lunch.
11) Tian loves lettuce!
12) Me & Tian in front of the Pearl River
13) Dad & Tian in front of a statue in the Shamian Park. The statue is of a American parents with their newly adopted child.
14) Some of the local children playing on the statues
15) Just a FEW of the chinese silk outfits we bought for the girls!!
16) Tian trying on Dad's shoes
17) Tian & bear in front of the White Swan waterfall
18) Dinner! (I preferred not to touch the animals staring at me!)
19) Miss Delaney!!
20) Tian eating some cake! She shoved the whole piece in her mouth!
21) Tian & "Auntie" Rebecca
22) The girls and I in front of the waterfall.. kinda blurry!
23 & 24) Red couch photos of Delaney & Tian
25) Delaney & Tian made up an obstacle course in the Swan Room
26) With the shopkeepers from the Chinese Life/Laundry store
27) Artist working on a Granite Etching
28) Laney & Tian holding hands for the last time in Guangzhou
29) Dads & their daughters!
30) Britt & I with our new sisters

Whew! Think that was enough pictures??!!

Couldn't forget the pictures!!

2006-03-16T08:43:00.000-05:00

Tian loves this rocking chair.

Tian & Delaney playing in the White Swan playroom

Lily reading to Tian in the mall

We need malls like these in the USA! Six floors!

DVD shop

She screamed for 20 minutes as we waited for lunch and then crashed.. out like a light!

Delaney: "So are they really going to make us stay with these crazy Americans?"
Tian: "I sure hope not!"

Rebecca talking to Tian

Sweet Delaney!!

This one is for Delaney's Mama. =)

Tian and Britt.

Eating on the river cruise

Delaney: "It's okay Tian."

Pearl River Views

Our hotel, the White Swan

Charlie, Delaney, Britt, Tian & me

Switching the babies!

She Can Come Home Now!

2006-03-16T08:13:00.000-05:00

Well, it's official!! We can come home now! Today around 3pm, we took the oath at the US Consulate and recieved her Chinese passport and visa, allowing her to come home to the United States! Because only one parent travelled, she won't become a U.S. citizen right away like Emma did. We have a little bit of paperwork to do before that can happen. But we have everything, so technically we could leave now.. but we still have lots of shopping to do!

Earlier we went to a large shopping mall and visited some pearl & jade shops. We didn't buy anything at either store, but we're going back tomorrow, so maybe we'll buy something. We did buy quite a few things at the DVD store, and I think Elena, Kayla, Ian & Mom will be happy when they see what we got! Tian was especially happy because we bought a cd with children's music (including the famous "Mama Hao") and one of those pop-out books of Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Tian was starting to have a meltdown when we got to the mall, so our guide Lily took her and helped calm her down. She read Tian the Goldilocks story and by the 2nd or 3rd time, Tian was telling the story to Lily! Next, Dad wanted to buy some souveniers for Mom & the kids so we did that and found some really nice things. =) Tian was again, starting to flip out because I was pushing Delaney in the stroller and Tian just cannot share her Jia Jia! So Rebecca took Tian and walked her around the mall for a bit. When she came back, Rebecca told me that a little boy came over and tried to touch Tian's new book. Tian gave the little boy a warning and said "If you come over and touch my book, I will beat you!" Apparently, the little boy's father heard Tian say this because he came over, grabbed the little boy and moved him away from Tian!! She's quite friendly, huh?

Actually, she really is friendly. Tian loves the floor attendants and everytime we come out of the room she says "hello" and starts singing her Mama Hao song. The afternoon floor attendant loves Tian and always sings it with her! It is so cute! In the bus today, both Tian & Delaney were singing Mama Hao. Delaney mostly hums along with the song and joins in on the "Mama Hao" part, so Tian was trying to teach it to Delaney. They really are adorable together and for the most part, weren't fighting too much. I got some video of them singing and will try to upload it later.

We went on the Pearl River Cruise tonight, which was very nice. For once in my life, I got to be rude and push & shove my way through the buffet line. Otherwise, if you don't, everyone else will push in front of you and you'll get no where!! Somehow the chicken feet and all of the other unrecognizable meals weren't appealing.. so Dad and I ate some peanut butter crackers instead.

Tian went to sleep on her own tonight!! We are making progress!! More meltdowns today than usual, but she's doing well. When she gets mad at me, she spits, do I'm working with her on stopping that. ( I don't appreciate being spitted at!)

Tomorrow is our last day in China. Don't get me started because I'm glad to be going home in a sense.. but I'm not looking forward to getting back on my routine and back to school. Maybe we'll stay here in Guangzhou for a bit longer! I am however ready for my SOFT bed and to see my family and friends again.

G'night from China!

Wu-La-Yu

2006-03-16T08:06:00.000-05:00

"Wu La Yu"

Those are the words that make me jump when I hear them. When Tian says this, she means that it's time for the potty!

Well, when we were getting ready to board the bus and head back to the hotel, Tian said "wu la yu." Now, just 20 minutes (or so) before hand I had taken her to the public bathroom.. and only because I love her, I braved that trecherous nightmare!! (I despise the Chinese public bathrooms with a passion!!) I told Tian she would have to wait because I was not going back in the mall to the bathroom and we were only about 10 minutes away from the hotel. Well, Tian doesn't take no for an answer and when she says "Wu La Yu" she means business. Down went the pants and her pull-up and she went right there on the street! I could not believe my eyes when I saw her do this. We all just sat there laughing and couldn't believe she was actually doing that! Her aim is a little bad, and I watched in horror as her brand new squeaky shoes and jeans became soaked!! (Not to mention her LAST pair of clean socks!!)

She just acted like it was a normal occurance, pulled herself together and got right back on the bus!

Where was the camera when I needed it??

Tian's Smile

2006-03-15T17:03:00.000-05:00

( Hallelujah!! Tian went to sleep and is still sleeping! We did what the nannies told us to and let her play until Dad and I went to bed. I helped her put away her toys and then got her bed made up and told her "Jia Jia, shui jee-ow luh, Tian shui jee-ow luh" and she went right over to her bed-no fussing!- and went to sleep!! )

Tian was born with a congenital cleft lip and palate- one of the most common birth defects and seen more in Asians. A cleft lip is when the area between the lip and nose does not form, resulting in a large opening. The same is with the cleft palate, only there is a hole in the roof of her mouth. Both of these defects are very easy to fix and Tian's were corrected before we met her.

Tian was more than likely abandoned by her parents because of this birth defect. From what I can gather, the village she was found near is probably where she is from. It's my guess that her parent's were too poor to pay for her surgeries, so they abandoned Tian, hoping she would recieve the needed medical treatment and possibly be adopted.

On Gotcha Day, we recieved a picture of Tian from when she was about 6 months old. This picture was taken before her cleft lip surgery. Dad asked me if I was prepared to see this or not, and I thought sure, I've seen hundreds of pictures of children with cleft lip and palate before. But nothing prepared me for what I saw in her picture. Her cleft lip is one of the worst I have ever seen and it is quite shocking when you first look at it. I was under the impression that before surgery, she had two cracks extending from her lip up to her nose- a bilateral cleft lip, meaning open on two sides. When we did the research on cleft lip, this is what the pictures showed. However, there was a huge hole in between her lip and nose and it looked pretty bad.

I looked at her baby picture and then at Tian and thought how amazing she looks. Her lip truly looks incredible for what it looked like before. You probably wouldn't even be able to tell that Tian was cleft affected, except for the fact her nose is a little smooshed! She has big (luscious) lips, like Catie! =)

When she lets you look into her mouth (I personally wouldn't after all all the surgery she has been through!) you can see the scar from the cleft palate, which looks great considering her hole was very wide. Usually, children with cleft palate have a hard time speaking and require speech therapy. Tian may probably need it, but she speaks a ton! Whenever we go out of the room she always says "hello" to people or "goodbye." The floor attendant loves Tian and everytime we come out of the hotel she asks Tian to sing "Mama Hao" and they sing it together.. which is so precious!! Tian does all of the talking for us in Mandarin.. we just sit and ask, "what did she say??"

Tian will require some more surgery down the road; maybe a revision on her lip to help the scarring and some cosmetic on her nose, but this is something we can handle. Tian is such a fighter, and I know she will do well in life. She doesn't take no for an answer and with a family behind her, she can accomplish anything.

Dad and I already love her just the way she is- her big luscious lips, her big smile when she is happy, her two missing teeth, her laugh..she is so precious.

Hard to believe we almost missed out on this little fighter! There weren't any families interested in Tian and her file was about to go back to China. Once a child's file goes back, their chances of finding a family are slim to none. With two weeks left before her file went back, I told my parents we had to adopt her... because I couldn't bear to think of what her life would be like in China, growing up as an abandoned girl with a special need. After lots of persisting, 12 months later, here we are.

Want to see more pictures??

2006-03-15T17:02:00.000-05:00

http://www.copechina.blogspot.com

is Charlie's blog- Delaney's daddy. Lots of cute pictures!

Shenzhen..a city that doesn't sleep!

2006-03-15T06:38:00.000-05:00

Good morning to all of you waking up back home in the USA! We have had a really good day today here in China. There was only 1 1/2 meltdowns, so we are making progress!

After breakfast, we took Tian, Delaney and Megan to their medical exam's. The USA requires the adopted children to have a medical exam to make sure they are healthy. I always get a kick out of the medical exam because at that office, I could be the doctor!!

There are three stations- height & weight, ear, nose & throat and a physical exam. In the weight category, Tian was 14 kilo's.. fully clothed. I weighed her in the hotel room and she is 28 pounds. As far as height, I'm pretty sure she is 93 centimeters. You can do the conversions yourself to find that in inches! The ear, nose & throat is probably the funniest because to check their hearing, the doctor shakes a rattle on one side of their ear and then plays a musical toy by the other ear. If the child can turn and look at the other toy.. they can hear! The doctor who did her physical examination was quite smitten with her and that she could actually talk to him! They had a cute little conversation! So yes, she did pass the exam!!

Today we had the opportunity to visit the city Tian is from, Shenzhen. Shenzhen is located about 2 hours from Guangzhou and is right next to Hong Kong. The city is very large and has tons of high sky scrapers. Shenzhen is a very young city having only been established in the 1980's as a small village with 30 people. Today, 25 years later, this city has over 7 million people living in it!! Everytime someone finds out that Tian is from Shenzhen, they all say "Oh very nice city! Close to Guangzhou! Very Busy!" Shenzhen is like New York in that it never sleeps. Hmm.. no wonder Tian doesn't either!!

At first we were a bit worried about taking Tian back to the orphanage and how that might affect her. But both Rebecca and our Shenzhen guide, David told us that she would do fine. Good thing David was with us so he could translate!! We were very impressed by the Shenzhen Children's Welfare Institute. It is very clean and friendly. The director met us and took us to all of the places Tian spent her days. She also allowed us to take pictures of the baby room, play room and classroom. The nannies seemed to all know Tian and they all came to say hello. She seemed to do very well and let them hold her for pictures, but wanted me to hold her the rest of the time. When the assistant director came to see us, Tian immeadiatley got excited! I could tell these two have a very special relationship. =) All of the nannies asked Tian if she was happy with her new family and she replied "yes."

We saw the classroom where Tian spent most of her time, but right now they are renovating it, so we didn't get to see much. The assistant director told us that Tian has been in foster care for almost a year. She lived with a foster family who brought her to the orphanage around 8 am everyday and she stayed there until about 4pm. This was news to us since we had no clue she was in foster care. We had heard that she was staying with a foster family for about a month during the Chinese New Year, but didn't know she had actually ben staying with them for longer. I'm a little confused and don't really know if she has been because the pictures we have don't really make sense to what they are saying. I'm guessing she has probably been with them for the past 6 months or so. We were told the foster families are poor and can't afford to have any children of their own, so they take care of the children from the orphanage. Contact with the foster families is forbidden, which is a little sad because we would really like to thank Tian's foster family.

After we took our "tour" the assistant director invited us to lunch next door. We had a wonderful and very authentic Chinese meal. (Authentic to the point that the shrimp & fish were staring at us from their tanks and the chickens were hanging from the windows!) We were able to ask the assistant director lots of questions about Tian and her life. She & Tian were very sweet together and Tian really loves her. We found out about her sleeping habbits! The nannies told us that Tian has to be playing and we have to leave her alone and then she will fall asleep, which makes sense since that's what she did last night. (Maybe tonight will be better!)

It was so funny as we were leaving, Tian got her back pack on and her bear and then started saying goodbye to Dad and I thinking she was going back with the assistant director! Poor thing! But she was happy to come back with us.

We are very glad that we were able to visit the orphanage and spend some time with the assistant director, who has been very important in her life. The pictures & video will be very important to Tian when she is older.

We weren't able to visit her finding spot because like Emma, it was in another disctrict-far away- and they weren't sure where she was left exactley. All we have from her abandonment info is that she was left on the side of a road near a village at five days old. (Or so they estimated)

Tian has done very well today. She took about a 3 hour nap on the bus ride there and back and has been in a good mood today. Rebecca asked her earlier if she was happy to come to America with her family and Tian replied "yes!" The nannies and assistant director from the orphanage kept telling us how busy and smart she is! I have been showing Tian pictures of Mom and the kids from my laptop and she is able to recognize everyone. When we were coming home from dinner, she started pointing up to the sky and saying something. I asked Rebecca to translate and she said Tian was asking "is it going to rain?" Smart kid because not a minute later we could fell the rain drops!

We ate dinner at a Thai restaurant with our other guide Lily and another Lifeline family. This family just came from Nanning today and they have adopted two unrelated children! A boy from Wuhan and a girl from Nanning. Both are four years old and so precious! The family is very nice and we are looking forward to spending more time with them.

As we were coming home not only did we almost get runover by a van (they were going to let us cross the street, then changed their mind at the last minute!) but we also had machine guns pointed at us!! There is a bank right next door to the hotel, so as we were coming back they were transferring the money into one of those armored vehicles and there were three Chinese soldiers with machine guns. Talk about scary! And to ad to that, today I got to try out the Chinese squatty potties! I seriousley could NOT hold it any more and there are NO western toilets in Shenzhen! It's something I wish to not have to do again! But I think I clogged it because you're not supposed to throw the toilet paper in there.. Ooops!

Our Mandarin is coming along. "Habba Hao" is do you like it. "Hao" means yes and "Bu Hao" means no. "Wu-La-ya" means I have to go potty! and "bao" means hold. "Tee" means stop/wait, "shwee jee-ow la" means time for bed. When I say, "Tian, shwee je-ow lah, Habba Hao?" (Tian, it is time for bed.. do you want to?) I get a nasty look or a big mean grunt or sometimes a Bu Hao.

Hopefully tonight will be better. Right now Tian is a little wild! But things are getting better so hopefully she'll settle down soon! We're going shopping tomorrow and will visit the toy market and the pearl market and the jade market is upstairs! I told Dad he has to be good about the shopping thing, or else I will have to call Mom and have her talk some sense into him!!

G'night from China!

Sera, Claudio & Tian

P.S. Thank you so much for all of the comments and feedback regarding Tian's rocking and sleeping! They have been really informative and we're pretty much confirmed the rocking is a soothing mechanism.

PICTURE CAPTIONS:
1) Tian at the medical exam
2) Finally sleeps on the way to Shenzhen
3) Daddy & Daughter
4) The front of the Shenzhen Children's Welfare Institute
5) Tian with the nannies who cared for her
6) The baby room where Tian spent her first year of life
7) Play room where Tian played
8) Tian in her classroom
9) Tian's classroom (empty because of remodeling/painting)
10) In front of the Shenzhen CWI with assistant director
11) Tian & I with the assistant director
12) Tian showed us that she can eat with chopsticks!
13) Tian & the assistant director
14) Us with the assistant director and someone else who seemed to know Tian (but don't know who she is)
15) Us with our Shenzhen guide, David
16 & 17) Dad & I with Tian on the bridge in the lobby
18) Tian's crazy hair!

Wanna Hear Something Cute?

2006-03-15T03:41:00.000-05:00

If you've been crying already.. get out the buckets and some towels, because you will be BAWLING!!

Click on this link: (or copy & paste it)
http://homepage.mac.com/jiejie4china/iMovieTheater12.html

I can't get it to link on the post, so you can scroll down and on the right side under "Our Adoption Movies" click on "Tian singing MaMa Hao" and it will take you to the page.

Tian sings this song ALL the time and it is SO sweet!!

Here are the lyrics in English:

Mommy's the only dearest in the world
With a mom, you have the most valued treasure.
Jump into mom's heart
and you have endless happiness.

Mommy's the only dearest in the world
without a mom you are like a piece of grass/straw
away from mom's heart,
where will you find happiness?

No sleep in Guangzhou!

2006-03-14T17:14:00.000-05:00

Right after I sent my post last night, Tian woke up screaming!! I thought maybe she was having a night terror but Dad thinks she is too old to be doing this. I've never seen a child do what she did. It was like she was screaming about being in her bed and not wanting to fall asleep, only she was still asleep. She was kicking, thrashing, screaming..the works. (spitting included!) I picked her up and tried to rock her but she was inconsolable. Finally, I just sat her on my bed, and she began to rock herself again. We think she does the rocking as a soothing mechanism, because after a few minutes or so she started to fall, but then would catch herself and wake up.

Dad and I just sat there unsure of what to do. If we tried to say "shui jee-ow luh" (time for bed) she started wailing again. We were exhausted and we figured the doors are locked, the bathroom door is closed, so she can't get into to much trouble if she stays awake. We ignored her and pretended to be asleep. And little Xiaotian got up from my bed, went into her bed and started rocking again. I was floored! I didn't make it to see if she fell asleep or not, but she probably did because about an hour later she woke up screaming again! This time was shorter, about 10 minutes and I just prayed "Lord PLEASE let her fall asleep." And finally she did.

We're at a loss of what to do right now because she won't go to sleep ad is getting away with a lot of things that won't fly at home! I don't know what to do about the sleeping thing, only that we will be having many more sleepless nights here and at home. We aren't sure about the "rocking" thing, but it seems to be emotional. Hopefully we will find out more today at the orphanage.

Right now Tian is sleeping, so I pray she stays that way for a little bit longer. Dad is at the gym and I can't sleep, so I guess I'll go ahead and get a shower and then wake her up and get her bathed.

We could really appreciate your prayers right now because this is tough!! I'm sure all of our neighbors in the White Swan are ready to jump in the Pearl River!! Most people understand because they are going through the same thing, but some people just give you the weirdest looks! (Like we can do anything about this!!)

Day 3

2006-03-14T07:32:00.000-05:00

This will be a shorter post since I am utterly exhausted!!

For the most part things went really well today. Tian had a few melt downs, but they seem to be getting lesser. However, they are pretty intense melt downs!

Today we visited the Guangzhou zoo in the early morning and afternoon. The zoo is very nice and clean. The animals appear to be well fed and kept. It was much nicer than the Beijing zoo we visited in August 2004. Before we went to the zoo, we stopped by the store to purchase strollers for Tian & Delaney. I wasn't sure if Tian would sit in the stroller, so I sat her down in one of the display ones and she loved it! She & Delaney liked it even more when Britt and I would push them down the street real fast. One the way to the zoo, we went to a small children's store to buy a coat and clothes for Tian and shoes for Delaney. The weather has been very cold here (in the high 50's today) and I wasn't prepared for these temperatures! We did find a cute coat for Tian and she loves it so much that she refused to take it off today! We also bought her a few long sleeve shirts and pants. They aren't the cutest outfits in the world, but they'll due for now!

After we visited the animals, Rebecca let us take the girls to a small amusement park inside the zoo which they had a blast in! We took them on the carousel, bumper cars, train, small roller coaster and a few others. Tian & Delaney were having a lot of fun! Each time we saw Baba (Dad) while we were on the carousel she would wave and say "Hi Baba!" I'm glad we could take them on these rides and let them have some fun.

Once we got back to the hotel we had some lunch with Charlie, Delaney & Britt. During lunch, I gave Tian her first taste of chocolate ice cream. At first she got an ugly look on her face and spit it out, but then she saw me eat some and wanted to try again. This time I blew on it to make it a little warmer (she isn't used to cold things) and she still got a funny look on her face, but she really liked it! She ate lots of dessert for lunch and also tried guacemole, sour cream and lettuce..and she loves chocolate! Delaney would have no parts of the chocolate ice cream, even when Tian would try to feed it to her. The girls were cute together during lunch when Tian would feed Laney things from her spoon, including her water!

Afterwards, the girls were starting to get tired so we went back to the room and tried to put her down for a nap. Again, she refused! Earlier Tian had fallen asleep in the stroller, so I suggested we go out and walk a bit to try and get her to sleep. We dropped off the laundry and bought her some squeaky shoes and then an outfit and a toy. (By this time she was finally asleep in her stroller!!) We visited the grocery store and bought some more snacks for Tian and the children at her orphanage. We then headed to the pharmacy to buy Dad some ear drops since his ears were bothering him. This was quite an adventure! The "pharmacist" doesn't speak English, so she handed us a chart with a list of symptoms in English on one side and in Chinese on the other. There was no "ear ache" symptom, so Dad had to point to his ear. So the pharmacist went and grabbed some medicine, which turned out to be caplets. Dad already had some medicine like that, he just wanted ear drops. So we both tried to motion to her we wanted ear drops. She (the pharmacist) thought we meant "do we stick the caplets in our ears?" and kept motioning that the caplets went in the mouth. So finally Dad found the word "eye drop" and pointed to his ear and then the "drop." Finally, she understood and brought out some ear drops! Whew! The ear drops cost about 8 yuan, or $1.

We started to make our way back to the hotel when we ran into a very nice Chinese man who commented about Tian. He told us about Shenzhen and that he has been there before and also that he is a Chinese Christian. He was very nice and we found out his named is Jordan and he owns one of the stores near the hotel. He took us to the store and since he was so nice I told Dad we had to buy something from him!! We bought two braceletes for Emma & Tian and then a Chinese silk dress for Tian. As a free gift, Jordan made a calligraphy drawing of Esther's name in Chinese. =)

Back at the hotel, we played with Tian a bit and then went down to the Swan Room for some play time. Tian had another meltdown when I told her to keep her socks on, so we went back to the room instead of heading to dinner like we had planned. She hasn't had much of a nap today so she is exhausted and that makes her miserable to be around!!

We are really having a hard time getting her to sleep. The only way we can is by giving her Benadryl (yes.. I know how terrible that is) and she will only fall asleep in my arms. We're at a loss of what to do right now, but she just refuses to go to sleep. Tonight she screamed in her bed for 30 minutes before I finally picked her up and she fell asleep in my arms. She is so strong willed and has a meltdown anytime she doesn't get her way. She is VERY stubborn!

Tomorrow we will visit her orphanage in Shenzhen. We're a little hesitant about how Tian will do when she goes back and sees her nannies, but I feel it's very important we visit the city she is from. Also, we are hoping we can talk to the nannies and talk to them about her sleeping problems. Dad and I can't imagine that they would let her get away with the things she does because she acts like a spoiled brat! When she doesn't get her way she hits, kicks and spits. I know this is a 3 year old thing, but I can't imagine the orphanage letting her get away with these habbits!

We have a lot to do when we get home, but for now it's just survivial. When she is happy, Tian is a joy to be around, but when she doesn't get her way she turns into a little terror!!!!! Hopefully things will keep getting better as the days go by.

Sera, Claudio & Tian

Ups & Downs

2006-03-13T06:36:00.001-05:00

Today we saw a bit more of Esther's personality come through. She is very feisty and tough but also very funny.

This morning I had to wake her up because we needed to be at the Civil Affairs Office at 9 am to complete the adoption, and at 8:00 am, she still wasn't up yet! I was afraid she might go ballistic and start screaming, but she was very calm and subdued. She helped me dress her and went to the bathroom. At breakfast she didn't eat much, but then again there wasn't much time as we were running a little behind schedule!

We met up with everyone at the red couches and headed to the Civil Affairs Office. I was wondering how Esther and Delaney would do since this is the same place we recieved them at yesterday and they were probably thinking we were going to take them back! However, we went to a different room down the hall from where we got the girls and they did fine.

After about an hour and lots of questions such as "Do you like this child?", "Do you want to adopt her?", "Do you promise to never abandon her?" etc, the adoption became official and she is forever now Esther Joy Manubens. (Umm.. we sort of forgot to include her Chinese Name in the "official" name section in the paperwork.. so for now she is Chines-Name-Middle-Name-less, but it can be fixed when we re-adopt her!) We had a minor issue with the Power of Attorney form, but Rebecca is going to be taking care of it and it should be no worry. Rebecca is a hoot. She keeps us all in line and is very funny.

At the Civil Affairs office, Esther's personality came out quite a bit. She really loves my camera so when I bring it out to take pictures of her, she always wants to hold it and take pictures of everyone. I was letting her hold it and praying she wouldn't brake it, but when she started to go for the video camera, I had to put a stop to that! She started to throw a major temper tantrum and smacked herself on the ground kicking and thrashing. Poor Delaney tried to come over and soothe her, but everytime she did Esther would turn away. Delaney is persistent and finally Esther just hit her. (She got called on that one! Esther did, not Delaney!) Oooh she is a pistol. I've found that she does let me hold her when she starts crying and is upset and she needs to be holding her bear.

After the Civil Affairs, we went to the police station to apply for her Chinese passport. That only took about 20 minutes and then we were on our way back to the hotel. Both Delaney and Esther fell asleep on the way back. Charlie and I have found something weird about the girls. Esther will only let ME hold her and ONLY if I hold her on my right side. (My back and arms are killing me!) And Delaney will only let Charlie hold her on his LEFT side. If we try to change the girls to the other side, they both start screaming. I appreciate the fact that she only wants me to hold her everywhere we go, but boy are my arms tired! When we left the police station, I had to take a break so I made Dad hold her and Esther did not appreciate that at all! She screamed the whole way to the bus!

Once we got to the hotel, Esther was asleep so I tried to lay her down for a nap.. but no such luck. Infact, she refused to take a nap, so we brought out all of the toys and played. When she has to go to the bathroom she will grab her pants and say something that sounds like "Luh-cha-wa". She's gone both #1 & #2 and has stayed completely dry! I let her play with the faucet in the tub and then asked if maybe she would like a bath. She reluctantly took her clothes off and climbed in and let me bathe her. (She's very helpful in the bath tub) She's very tall and thin. I weighed her and she weighs 28 pounds. The 18-24 month pants she had on today were too short, but it's all I have! You can really tell how much taller she is than Emma by the sweater she had on today. I've let Emma wear the sweater on a few occasions since I wasn't sure how much use Esther would get out of it. When Emma wears it, it comes down to about her knees and it's comes to Esther's mid thigh. Esther is very beautiful and has dark skin. She has some mongolian spots on her bum too.

I went down to the Play room with Britt, Delaney and Esther while Dad and Charlie did paperwork and the kids played for awhile. The play room has one of those baby swings that fits older children and Esther loves it. I've found that if she gets upset (which is quite often since she and Delaney don't like to share!!) I'll just put her in that chair, give her her bear, let her swing and she calms down. She fell asleep again in the chair, so we took her back to the room and tried to put her down, but she woke up and refused again. So for the next three hours we played!

I brought out all of the toys from the suitcase and she had a great time drawing and playing. Sorry Mom, she's a righty! I can tell she is really starting to trust me now. She can count to ten and say lots of Chinese phrases. We have a doll named Ling that speaks in Chinese and English and she loves it! It's so funny because when Ling says "what's your name in Chinese", Esther will say "Shen Xiao Tian." (When asked, she will also tell you that she is three years old and holds up three fingers.) I put on a Dora the Explorer Movie and she sat through about half of that. She loves my circus peanuts and ate the rest of the bag! Her personality came out a lot more while we played and she is a lot of fun! She loves to laugh and smile, even though she's not in the pictures! She has a really sweet laugh and a cheesy little grin. =)

She talks a ton in Chinese, only I don't know what she is saying! I will point to something and tell her the English word for it and she will say the Chinese word for it. At lunch we ate in the restaurant by the river and she loved looking at the boats. I told her "boat" and she told me what it was in Chinese. She repeated it a few times and then made me repeat it. She was trying to teach me how to say it in Mandarin. See, I told you she is smart!!

She & Delaney are so funny together. You have to watch them and see all their funny antics. One minute they'll be screaming and hitting each other and the next they will be wiping each other's tears and comforting each other. They are only two months apart in age, but you can tell that Esther is much more mature than Delaney. It apears that Esther seems to be the "big sister" and is always looking out for Delaney. Delaney is a hoot though! Apparently she is terrified of strangers, but she doesn't really seem to be. She is very athletic and always on the go! She's a lot like Emma. Esther is much more subdued and would rather sit on my lap and observe, than get into it like Delaney. They are both so adorable!!

Overall Esther is doing very well for what she has been through in these past 24 hours! We took her down to dinner and she had a fit about something.. I have no idea what! We met up with Jenny & her son Bing (who is from Esther's orphanage) and she gave us a few sentances in Chinese to say to Esther. The one thing I wish we would have done is learn some Chinese because I don't know what to say to her and she doesn't understand us! She does a lot of pointing, whining and grunting for now. I finally got her to go down, so she is sleeping right now. (And so is Dad)

Tomorrow we are going to the zoo, so hopefully that will be fun! We are going to stop by a store tomorow and buy a stroller since my back is about to give way! We also need to buy some more clothes for Esther since the weather has been very cold and rainy. I only have one more long sleeve outfit for her and no jacket! Plus, the other clothes I brought are going to be too small for her. Mom, I measured her foot and it is bigger than Emma's. She fits into the Target size 7 shoes we bought her. Esther found the Gymborree sandals in her suitcase, but they are too small. I think you'll need to buy her a pair because she loves them!! We'll save these ones for Emma's tiny feet.

So overall things are going well. We're having our good moments and our bad ones, but that's to be expected. It's not going to be perfect and at some moments it's down right tough! But she has an incredible zest about her and we are really enjoying her. I can't wait for y'all to meet her. You'll fall in love!!

Love,
Sera, Claudio & Xiaotian
(P.S. She respons to Xiaotian, which is pronounced like "jow-tien" with almost a "ch" emphasis on the t. So get used to saying this!)
(Oh and P.S.S. She gave me a kiss on the cheek today!!! =)

PICTURE CAPTIONS:
1) Smiley Esther & Delaney with Rebecca
2) Baby Megan
3) Esther
4) Xiaotian and me (again.. she doesnt like to smile for the camera)
5) Charlie, Delaney and Britt
6) Delaney, Me and Tian
7) Tian full length view (with dad sleeping in the background)
8) Sweet Tian with her hair down
9) Tian looking out at the Pearl River
10) She LOVES noodles!!
11) Happy Xiaotian!
12) Miss Laney
13) Xiaotian.. all tuckered out

Meet Esther

2006-03-12T09:25:00.000-05:00

Well folks, we have a beautiful and super sweet new little girl. I am exhausted right now, but I will try to write as many details as I can remember!

We met up with our guide Rebecca and another adopting family and then boarded the bus to the Civil Affairs Office, where we would meet Esther. It took about 10 minutes to get there, but it seemed like an eternity! We finally arrived and took the elevator up to the 5th floor. When we arrived in the room there were five or six other families who had just recieved their baby girls. All of the girls were dressed in matching pink sweatsuits and were so stinkin' cute. Rebecca told us to sit down and she would tell us when the babies were about to arrive. Well, we weren't in the room 5 minutes before Rebecca said, "Guys.. the babies are here!!"

The first couple (Todd & Barb) recieved their daughter, Megan who is almost 11 months old and from an orphanage here in the Guangdong Province. The handoff went smooth until Megan began to cry, which is quite normal for what is happening in her little life! She is gorgeous and oh so tiny! After they met her, in walked the other family in our group with their daughter, Delaney who is from Esther's orphanage. Delaney was crying as she came in the room because she had been seperated from Esther.

I was thinking to myself, "where is Esther" when all of a sudden she rushed into the room with her nannies and went straight to her friend Delaney. I dropped my camera on the table and went over to get her! Oh she is so precious! She came right to me and had a huge smile on her face. It was almost as if she knew we were her daddy and big sister and here to get her!!

She is just oh so precious!! She's taller than Emma and thinner and she has beautiful straight black (LONG) hair! (I say long because her hair is long for Chinese orphanage standards!) She had pigtails and little twistees! The next 20 minutes are just such a blur. Rebecca had dad do some paperwork and sign a few things and then handed us some photo albums with pictures and gifts from the orphanage. Esther went right for the orphanage photo album and was pointing to all of the people and things in the photos. (Ewa made this for her and Delaney, Mom) I showed Esther her new ladybug back pack and all of the stuff inside of it. She pulled everything out, studied it real quickly and grabbed something else. The pink ladybug sunglasses are a hit and she loved these! Delaney did too and came over and grabbed them from Esther! Apparently these two can get into it because Esther started to get real mad and grabbed the sunglasses back from Delaney. What struck me was that she grabbed the sunglasses and then handed Delaney another toy!! She is soo very smart!

We only stayed for about 20 minutes in the Civil Affairs Office before it was time to leave. Up until this point Esther was fine and very happy, but then her nannies left and they made quite a scene telling her goodbye and everything. She got very upset and started to cry. Poor thing! I asked Rebecca to come over and talk to Esther and explain to her what was happening. She did and it seemed to cheer her up a little bit. Delaney's father, Charlie commented that that was the first time he had seen fear in her eyes.

The bus ride back went great. Esther sat next to me (with her back pack on and holding her yellow care bear) looking out the window. Delaney sat on me since I was sitting next to Esther. It's amazing how close these two are! They are inseperable and are best friends. We are really getting to know Delaney's father Charlie (who is also travelling single like Dad) and his son Britt, who is 8 years old.

Once we got back to the hotel and into the room.. things went downhill. Esther was very cautious (can't blame her) but when I went to try and take her shoes off, she flipped out. There's nothing you can do for her but console her. I don't speak Chinese and she doesn't speak English and neither one of us understands each other. She kept pointing for the door and screaming "Mama." She did this for about 20 minutes, but we couldn't get her to calm down. The positive thing about it though, was that she was letting me hold her and soothe her.

So we decided to take her down to the play room and see if maybe a change of scenery could help. It did! She ran right over to the toys and started checking them out. She presses all the buttons and tries to see how they work. (She is smart!) We found that Esther soothes herself by rocking. There is a rocking horse in the playroom and she just sat on that for 1/2 hour rocking herself.

Dad had to go do some paperwork, so we went up to Delaney's room and Esther was very happy when she saw her. Dad & Charlie went down to do some paperwork and I went back to our room with Esther, Delaney & Britt. Up until this time, Esther wouldn't let us change her clothes, so I figured maybe having Delaney with her, she would let me. And that worked. I started to unbutton her jacket and she started to squeal, but then I showed her the new clothes I had for her and she got very excited. (she wore her "I love Mommy" shirt!) After we headed back down to the playroom and let the girls play.

I'm very glad we have Britt here because he has been a huge help! He can get both girls to laugh and the love playing with him. In the playroom I was able to see a bit of Esther's personality. She is very tough! She & Delaney both wanted the same toy and they both started crying when the other took it. I decided to take it away from both of them and Esther threw a huge fit! But I stuck her into one of those baby swings that rocks and she settled right down. After a few minutes I heard her say something and she was singing! Oh she has an adorable voice!!!

We went back up to Delaney's room where the kids all played for awhile and both Laney & Esther went potty!! Up 'til then they hadn't gone potty at all and we weren't sure if they were potty trained. Charlie said that they were only, they learned to pee standing over a squatty potty. (Toilet on the ground) So I wasn't sure how that would work, but I stuck them both on the toilet and they both went! Esther had on a diaper and underwear on top of that when she came to us. I'm just playing it safe and have her in pull-ups for now, but she is staying dry!

Later we went to dinner at Lucy's where we called Mom. I handed the phone to Esther and she said "Hi momma." Of course my mom was bawling by then!! Esther is a big eater! We ordered noddles for her to split with Delaney and boy did she eat those fast! And with a huge fork too! She has very good table manners and ate everything. I gave her some french fries, which she seemed to like and then brought out the ketchup. Well, she seemed to think that ketchup was actual food, and was eating it with her fork! (Talk about gross!!!) She got mad when I didn't let her have any more, but I don't want her to become addicted to ketchup!!

She & Delaney are so sweet together and Esther wipes Delaney's mouth and feeds her! I wasn't looking forward to when we would have to say goodnight to Delaney and her family. Once we got in the room Esther started to scream again and kept pointing for the door yelling out Delaney's name. Again, there is nothing you can do. You just have to sit and watch them cry it out and try to console them. It's heartbreaking, but what else do you do? I managed to keep her entertained with a toothbrush for awhile and she knows what it is because she grabbed it from me and started to brush her teeth! She let me change her into pajama's, but that was as far as she was going!! She cried again for another 20 minutes before I was able to calm her down with my camera. She loved the camera and was figuring out how to work it at dinner. I let her watch the videos I had taken of her and Delaney at dinner and she perked up right away. For the next 30 minutes, she watched over and over again the video of her and Delaney and looked at all the pictures. The bond she has with Delaney is incredible, they really love each other. Esther is like her big sister and always looking out for her.

Finally, I just held her and rocked her to sleep and she was out like a light. She's sleeping right now so I'm typing in the dark.. so sorry for all of the grammatical errors and stuff that may not make sense!! Alright, I'm exhausted and we need to be up around 7 AM for the paperwork tomorrow.

Enjoy the pictures! She really is something and I think you'll agree she is beautiful!! What a blessing!!

Love, Sera, Claudio & Esther!

P.S. Mom

2006-03-11T23:47:00.000-05:00

(This is called a Coming Home Barbie- It is given to all of the children adopted from China who stay at The White Swan Hotel)

Operation.. Is a go!

2006-03-11T23:20:00.000-05:00

Hello again. I'm posting all of these messages at once since we had some trouble with the laptop when we arrived. Nothing to major, just VERY glad it's working again!

Anyways, Dad and I were up around 8 am and feel great. I was afraid we might sleep through the breakfast buffet, but we woke up very well rested. The beds are hard as rocks and we're both very sore! We headed down to the breakfast buffet and got to see all of the babies with their parents! They are all adorable! After the breakfast (which was pretty good) we walked around the hotel and explored a bit. The hotel is called The White Swan and it is located on an "island" called Shamian Island here in the city of Guangzhou. There are TONS of families here with their newly adopted babies. Almost everyone comes here to Guangzhou because this is where the American Consulate is located. It used to be just down the street from the hotel, but they moved it to a new facility farther away. However, this hotel is VERY nice and the area is wonderful, so families continue to stay here. The locals are all very friendly and there are tons of stores located around the hotel selling cute baby clothes and souveniers. The White Swan sits right on the Pearl River so there are lots of boats going past. Guanzghou is very smoggy and you can't see too far out. Hopefully the weather will cheer up this week and maybe we'll see the sun!

Dad and I got to really explore Shamian Island this morning and walk around the parks and watch all of the people. We didn't have time to do this in 2004, so we're taking advantage of it now! The people are all very friendly and we watched them do their tai-chi, sing and play badmitton and tennis We also watched a couple do some ball room dancing, which was pretty neat!

Right now we're just waiting for 2:30 pm to come because that is when we will meet Rebecca and the other two families and head to the Civil Affairs Office to MEET ESTHER!!! Ahh, we are so excited!! It's really starting to set in now that we're FINALLY going to meet her! I see all of these little girls with their families and it makes me so anxious to get Esther and show her off to everyone!

China is 13 hours a head of FL time, so if we meet her around 3 pm, that would be 2:00 AM in the USA. So when you all wake up, we will have her! I'll post pictures ASAP, because if I don't.. we'll sure hear it from mom!

But, ya.. we're going to meet her.. TODAY!! I guess that's all for now. Enjoy the pictures and you'll hear from us soon!!

Love,
Sera, Claudio and soon Esther!!

We're HERE

2006-03-11T23:13:00.000-05:00

Ni Hao!! It’s almost noon here in the city of Guangzhou in southern China. We have been here at the White Swan for almost 12 hours. Despite the time difference, we feel pretty good and aren’t too tired. Our days are all messed up since we left for China on Friday and got here, today on Sunday!!

We left San Francisco on Friday and boarded our Air China flight, bound for Beijing. We said goodbye to my uncle, aunt and cousins and then headed for the check in counter. Dad and I had hoped we would luck out and maybe no one would sit next to us in our row so we would have more room. No such luck. When we first arrived at the check-in counter, there were about a billion Chinese people in front of us. We were afraid we might not make the flight! But, there were actually two check-in lines (which all of the people didn’t realize) so we were able to skip ahead and head to our gate. We ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant and called mom to let her know we were leaving.
We took the same aircraft/airline we did last time to China, except we were in regular ole economy class this time. (Last time, we took business class) The plane was COMPLETELY packed. I don’t think there was a single empty seat on that flight. As we were waiting to leave, Dad and I were thinking “what have we done!!??” But despite being very cramped, the flight was fine. It went a lot faster than I thought it would. We rested on and off and watched three movies. The food..well..let’s just say, Dad and I stuck to bread and the circus peanuts, I had brought with me!!

We arrived in Beijing around 7:00 pm and got through customs, which didn’t give us much time to catch our next flight to Guangzhou, leaving at 8:20 pm. We walked over to the domestic departures counter and a nice lady was standing there and asked if we needed help. We handed her our tickets and after a moment, she looked at us and said, “Uh oh.. Problem!!” and then starting running towards the check in counters. That didn’t sound too good so we ran after her. There was a problem with the tickets (still don’t know what the problem was) so Dad and the lady were running between check in counters trying to get us on the flight. I just stood with the luggage praying we would make that flight! They came back, got our luggage and we ran to security. I got through that fine- Dad had to be searched up and down- but we made it through. There wasn’t any time so we had to run to our gate. Once we got to Gate 25, we realized that it wasn’t just one gate.. but several others from Gate 24A-Gate 25H! We found our flight to Guangzhou and ran through the crowds making it to our appropriate gate (25B) and being the LAST two people on the bus that shuttled us to the flight. WHEW!! The weather was very cold (around 30 degrees) which isn’t fun waiting to board the plane in my flip-flops!! This was much nicer and we had lots of room. Dad and I watched “Walk The Line” (great movie, by the way) which took up all the time. When we arrived in Guangzhou, it was quite foggy outside, but warm!! We grabbed our bags and met our guide, Rebecca. She is very sweet and reminds me a lot of the guide we had in Guangzhou (in 2004).

Rebecca told us that she has heard Esther is very tough! Whenever there is a new toy, or one of the other children has a toy, she runs over and grabs it and makes all of the children cry!! Oh boy, are we in for it!! She is also very smart, apparently!

We didn’t get to the hotel until midnight and didn’t go to sleep ‘til close to 2:00 am. Our day started around 9 am on Friday, March 10th in San Francisco and ended around 2:00 am on Sunday, March 12th in Guangzhou, China. Talk about a LONG day!!!

Mount Judah Trip

2006-03-11T23:02:00.001-05:00

When we got to San Francisco yesterday, my uncle suggested two activities we could do today:

1) Visit downtown San Francisco and see all the sights, etc

or

2) Go up to the Lake Tahoe area for some skiing and snowboarding

Well since we have come all this way, might as well take a chance to go up north rather than visit the city. So we did just that. We left the house around 8 AM this morning and drove up to "Sugar Bowl" on Mount Judah. Dad and my Uncle Mauri decided to go with the ski's, and my cousin Juliana was going to snowboard. Skiing might have been a better choice for me, since I've done it before.. but I was at a ski resort with an opportunity to learn to snowboard.. so I did.
Wow.. snowboarding is a LOT harder than it looks! We took a lesson (mostly me- Juliana was there for moral support) with an instructor (by the way-was very cute =) for about two hours. This was my first time snowboarding, and I had higher expectations, but I did pretty well. I made it down the beginner slope falling only twice! If we had more time, I could have gone longer, but we only went for half a day. The weather outisde was FREEZING (15 DEGREES!) and snow was falling on and off the whole time. I haven't been outside when snow is falling so that was pretty neat. It was so cold that my shirt sleeve (that stuck out of my jacket a bit) was completely solid ice!
We had a lot of fun and I can say now that I have gone snowboarding! (Although tomorrow might not be so much fun with a 12 hour plane ride and all these bruises!) There was a lot of ice on the ground so it was really slick outside. As we were leaving my dad and I went down some steps and I thought to myself 'boy I better not fall'.. and... down I went. Before I knew it, I had fallen down and hit my hip on the steps. What was funnier was not a minute later my dad also slipped on the ice and fell flat on his back!! Pass the tylenol around cuz we'll need it!

We've had a lot of fun here in Napa with our family. We had a huge party last night for my uncle's birthday and had a great time. But, it's time to keep going..so here we go!

Picture Captions:
1) Mt Judah sign (cool, huh Judah Pent!?)
2) Mountain
3) My cousin Juliana and me
4) All four of us
5) Dad and his brother, Mauricio

Halfway to China...

2006-03-09T01:47:00.000-05:00

Hey! Just a quickie to tell you we are here in Napa with our family. The flight was LONG (almost 6 hours).. a good practice for our upcoming 12 hour one on Friday. But we are here and doing fine. I've been up for 22 hours now.. and am really ready to crash! Tomorrow promises to be a fun day, so I'll update then!

Almost Ready to Go..well sort of

2006-03-06T19:13:00.000-05:00

We leave in a little over 24 hours.. and well nothing is really ready to go! Dad and I haven't even attempted to start packing, which isn't a big surprise. I'm sure we'll still be packing into the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday. Not like we'll get much sleep anyways since we need to be AT the airport BY 5:00 am. (Now thats EARLY!) But we have almost everything we need. Mom, Emma and I went to pick up the last of the things on our list at Best Buy (Emma prefers to call it "french fry") and Target. So we have everything, it's just a matter of shoving it in the suitcases! Half of Esther's clothing is washed and sitting in the suitcase.. the other half is waiting to be washed and there's a butload of toy's, sippy cups and pull-ups lying in and around it all.

Right now we're at crunch time because everything we said we'd do "later" needs to be done, now! But we'll get it done. It feels weird not packing so much stuff. Last time, we had 6 suitcases between the three of us (well, two were donations for a foster home). This time I think we'll make it into two. Because we're staying in Guangzhou we won't need to bring all the outrageous stuff you'd think you would need to bring to China. Guangzhou is very Americanized, not at all like "real" China. There are shops all along the hotel we'll be staying in, American restaurants, a 7-11 and a mall not to far away. All we really need are clothes, toys, movies (long plane ride!), paperwork (lots of that!) and converters to plug all of our crazy electronics into.. ahem.. iPod, laptop, hair straightener, etc.

The past week has gone by very fast. Finishing schoolwork has taken up a lot of time and we had my 16th birthday party on Saturday (which was soo much fun!) so that has kept us all quite busy. Last night we had a few families from our CARE group at church come over and hold a prayer "meeting" for us. It was a really wonderful time listening to everyone praying from Esther's adjustment to China's future and everything else in between. It showed us that we are so blessed to have such wonderful friends!!!! I taped a few of the prayers and I know these will mean a lot to Esther when she is older.

So.. we are almost ready to go.. paperwork is all done, packing..well.. we won't get into that! We're just ready to get outta here and bring Esther Joy home!!

Thanks for following us on our journey!

It's All Set!!

2006-03-03T00:22:00.000-05:00

Dad and I are leaving next Wednesday (March 8th) to head out to San Francisco. We'll be visiting my uncle, aunt and cousins there for two days before heading to Beijing on the 10th, where we'll catch our connecting flight to Guangzhou. Unfortunately for us, we'll arrive at our hotel (if we're lucky!) around 1 AM on the 12th and receive Esther that day!! Jet lag was so bad last time.. we didn't even make it to 3:00 pm!

Our Consulate Appointment is on March 16th, and we're heading home on the 18th! If we can make our connecting flight in Chicago, we'll be back home on Saturday night! I say this because we only have a 2 hour layover in Chicago and in that time we will need to clear customs and re-check our luggage etc. We couldn't get great deals on airlines- Friday we started looking at airline tickets but couldn't confirm anything until Monday. Well by Monday, the prices had risen tremendousley and there wasn't much to choose from. But at least we have flights and WILL get there..eventually!

SIX.. no make that FIVE.. days to go!!

And yet there is still so much to do!! I brought the suitcases down from the attic the other day, and they have yet to be filled. Esther's clothes are laying around waiting to be washed and we have a growing "To Do" list to get done before the weekend!!

Yikes! But it's a good kind of yikes! We're excited and I just wish these next five days would fly by so we can hurry up and get on that plane!!

WE HAVE TA!!!!!!!!

2006-02-24T13:38:00.000-05:00

It's here.. it's here!!!!!

AND WE'RE GOING TO CHINA!!!

Karla at Lifeline is asking for a consulate appointment on March 16th. We should have that confirmed by Monday or Tuesday, and if all goes planned, Dad and I will leave on the 8th!! We plan on leaving via San Francisco and spending two days with my dad's brother and his family in SF. Then arriving in Guangzhou on the 10th or 11th (depending on flights) and GOTCHA DAY will be MARCH 12TH!!!!!!!!!!

We should be back by the 18th or 19th. Holy cow.. I'm absolutely floored!! I knew our TA would be here either today or on Mondau and I just had this feeling we would leave on the 8th!!!! But it's all so real now.. I have a butload of school work to get done! The good about our trip is that it will be over Spring Break.. so I won't have too much school work to catch up on!!

But wow.. we're leaving for China.. in or around twelve days from now!

Hang on Esther Joy.. we're on our way!!!

Let me close with the lyrics of a song that were going through my mind as I read our wonderful news...

"How Great is Our God" by Chris Tomlin

"How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God

Name above all names
Worthy of all praise
My heart will sing
How great is our God (x2)

How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God"

The most wonderful update of all..

2006-02-22T18:01:00.000-05:00

"the TAs are on their way!!
lily has let me know that the TAs have been signed, printed and mailed! we are expecting them on monday or tuesday!"

That is DIRECT from our agency!! WOOO HOOOOO!! We're going to China... SOON!!! Tentatively the second or third week of March!!!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Valentine..

2006-02-14T22:09:00.000-05:00

If there were no words
No way to speak
I would still hear you
If there were no tears
No way to feel inside
I’d still feel for you

And even if the sun refused to shine
Even if romance ran out of rhyme
You would still have my heart until the end of time
You’re all I need, my love, my valentine

All of my life
I have been waiting for
All you give to me
You’ve opened my eyes
And showed me how to love unselfishly

I’ve dreamed of this a thousand times before
But in my dreams I couldn’t love you more
I will give you my heart
Until the end of time...
You’re all I need, my love, my valentine

And even if the sun refused to shine
Even if romance ran out of rhyme
You would still have my heart until the end of time
’cause all I need is you, my valentine
You’re all I need, my love, my valentine

"Valentine" by Martine McBride

Happy Birthday my Valentine, Emma Grace YunNa!
born: February 14, 2003 in Beijing, China

Now home almost 18 months in the USA with her forever family

AHHHH!!

2006-02-13T18:24:00.000-05:00

She will be three tomorrow!! What happened to the tiny 18 month old we met almost 18 months ago in Beijing, China who was scared to death of us and screamed for the first 1/2 hour??!!! Where has the time gone!!?? She is getting so big!

I'll add some pictures tomorrow.. She got lots of presents for her birthday!! =)

No TA yet...

2006-02-13T18:23:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow (Valentines Day & Emma's Birthday) will be 10 weeks from our Log in Date. When we first submitted our dossier, we thought it would be 6-9 weeks from LID. But good things come to those who wait, and we know our TA will be here.. eventually!

Travel in February is now out of the question, but we knew it probably wouldn't happen this month, so it wasn't really too much of a disappointment. Our agency is expecting our TA to come sometime later this month, and then travelling tentatively in mid-March!

This way it gives us more time to prepare, because if we got our TA tomorrow and were told to leave Friday.. it literally could not happen! I have our visa applications with the pictures all attached and almost ready to go. I just need my dad to get out the passports so we can fill out the last of the questions and then send them off to the courier in D.C. Once we send them off, they should be back in about a week. But that's not all!! We still have a lot of paperwork to finish and some more to obtain from INS. But it's all coming along, and pretty soon it will be done and we'll be ready to go!!!

Always a Good Reminder

2006-02-13T18:10:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite singers is Steven Curtis Chapman. He has adopted three daughters from China and has set up an organization called Shaohannah's Hope, which provides grants to adoptive families. I was listening to one of his songs today, and the lyrics were very comforting to me. They reminded me of how God is watching over us and Esther and how we just need to believe him that everything will come together in His perfect timing!!

Here are the Lyrics:

" Believe Me Now "

I watch you looking out across the raging water
So sure your only hope lies on the other side
You hear the enemy that's closing in around you
And I know that you don't have the strength to fight
But do you have the faith to stand and...

Believe Me now
Believe Me here
Remember all the times I've told you loud and clear
I am with you and I am for you
So believe Me now
Believe Me now

I am the One who waved my hand and split the ocean
I am the One who spoke the words and raised the dead
And I've loved you long before I set the world in motion
I know all the fears you're feeling now
But do you remember who I am?
Do you..

Believe Me now
Believe Me here
Remember all the times I've told you loud and clear
I am with you
And I am for you

So believe Me now
Believe it's true
I never have, I never will abandon you
And the God that I have always been
I will forever be
So believe Me now

I am the God who never wastes a single hurt that you endure
My words are true, and all My promises are sure
So believe Me now
Oh, believe Me now

It's extremely tiny..

2006-02-03T16:12:00.000-05:00

but there is a small chance we MIGHT be included in the next batch of TA's. (Well, it's more my wishful thinking) Our agency's facilitator is expecting TA's for the November LID's to come after Chinese New Year (which ends on Sunday-CCAA will be back at work on Monday) but didn't say anything about ours. We are LID 12/6. Most likely we will not be included.. but I'm hopeful that maybe.. just maybe.. we'll get our TA??

After that sort of depressing e-mail yesterday, my mom and I went outlet shopping for some "retail therapy." We hit the Oshkosh outlet because my mom needed to buy some gifts for friends of ours who just had twin boys and they were having a HUGE sale!! 40%-70% off almost everything! I walked up to a sales rack and they had a little chart which told you how much the item would cost with the 70% discout. (And.. not being very good in math.. this was a lifesaver!) I found some $32.00 sweaters marked down to $9.00 a piece!!! Knowing that the children at Langfang Children's Village needed coats, I grabbed a bunch..probably 7 or 8?! They are really thick sweaters, almost like coats and will be definitely needed for the younger children. I then started walking around to find some more marked down items, and they had a bunch of those really thick fleece sleepers on sale for $7 a piece!! I grabbed a bunch of those and found some pants and shirts for $3!! We walked out of the store with 3 shopping bags full of stuff for the kids in China. I must have gotten 10 of those little sleepers, 2 shirts, 1 pair of pants, 2 or 3 sets of pajama's (found some that are glow-in-the-dark!) and about 7 ot 8 sweaters, all for about $100.

My mom and I then left the store and happened to walk past Carters, which was having another HUGE sale. I said.. "Uh oh Mom.. Carter's is having a huge sale!!" Walked in and found a bunch more of those sleepers for $7!! I found thick booties for the babies for $5 a piece and then more pants and shirts (for little boys) at $5 a peice. Walked out of the store with another 2 bags of stuff.

I cannot believe how much stuff we got for the kids at Langfang! I layed it out on the floor last night and was in awe! I really had to stop myself in the store though, because I probably would have gotten more!! The winter clothes will really come in handy for the babies and toddlers, since it gets REALLY cold in Beijing.

I still haven't exactley talked my dad into going to Langfang when we're in China and visiting for a day. He knows I want to, and it would be right around my birthday. I guess with all the stuff we bought we will just have to!! I'll try to post some pictures later!

Guang Hai Fat Choi...

2006-01-30T16:52:00.000-05:00

..Hmm well at least I think that's how you spell it!! We went to a Chinese New Year celebration on Saturday night put on by the local Families with Children from China group. Oh how fun it is to walk in and see a ton of little Chinese girls running around!! I never knew there were so many in our area- I would say there were close to 50 little girls from China and their families there. When we first arrived, Emma was a bit guarded and not sure what was going on. I held her as my mom was talking to some friends and I could see she was watching all of the little girls running around, not sure what to think of them. But after a bit, she was her usual self and was happy to be playing around with all the girls!! The food was fabulous (best Chinese food I've had in a long time!) and I noticed how almost all the little girls slurped their noodles the same way Emma does!! =)

There were quite a few older girls (around age 7 or 8) there and of course, the beautiful new babies!! Emma was 18 months old when we got her and not much of a baby, so I love watching the little babies from China. It makes me wish we could have gotten Emma as a baby!! I wish we could get a "baby" but.. I don't think our family has the patience for a little one. (Gues I got to look forward to adopting my own babies when I'm older!!)

We had a wonderful time with all the families and it was neat to be able to share our journey and experience with others who have witnessed the same thing! We met up with some friends who just turned in their dossier to their agency and are waiting for a referral!! They remind me so much of us when we were waiting!! (Hi Don & Be!)

Anyways, enjoy the cute pics!! Happy Chinese New Year!!

Brown Envelope!!!

2006-01-26T22:18:00.000-05:00

We rec'd our brown envelope from the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou yesterday!! It was great to see that wonderful BROWN envelope sitting on the table!

Still waiting for TA! At this point, I don't expect it to come until close to Valentine's Day. Our agency rec'd referrals and TA's for their NSN families, but no TA's for us. It's unlikely the CCAA will send them before they go on break for Chinese New Year on the 28th. Then they will be closed until the 4th of February. Give them about a week to get everything approved and printed and maybe we'll get it around a week later. And then I PRAY we get a Consulate Appointment VERY soon after that.. and leave sometime by the end of February. But these are just guestimates.

Here's Emma waiting on her "I I." ("I, I- sounds like "eye eye" is what Emma calls Esther. No idea where she came up with that name.. but it's stuck!)

On Day 51 of TA wait!

Why the name Esther?

2006-01-21T18:30:00.000-05:00

(Well, since we're 6 weeks into the wait for TA and there is nothing else to say-except that we're still waiting- I thought I'd try to post something interesting.)

Why did we choose the name Esther?

Well, first off, it wasn't on the top of my list. Earlier this year when we had decided to pursue her adoption, it was right after we had found out we couldn't adopt a little girl we had fallen in love with and were searching for. We had met this little girl when we were in China and she was absolutely beautiful. She was the inspiration for us adopting a special needs child from China. The foster home she lived in called her "Esther." When we found out we couldn't adopt her, we were devastated, but happy she would have a family. Things may not always work out the way you think they will. I just KNEW we would adopt this little girl (Esther #1 as I called her) and when we couldn't.. it threw me for a loop. But.. things may not work out, because there is a reason behind it. Obviousley, God had intended for this little girl to have her own family, because our Esther was meant for us.

When we found our Esther, she was nicknamed "Brittany" by our adoption agency. We weren't too crazy about that name, and it didn't really fit with our names. (It kinda rhymes-Sera, Elena, Kayla, Emma, etc) When we were waiting to see if we would be approved by China, my mom told me she wanted to name her Esther. I was thinking no way! Number 1, I was still getting over the fact we couldn't adopt Esther #1. Number 2, it would be too confusing for her to be named Esther, after the little girl we wanted to adopt and couldn't. Number 3, it didn't really work well with our names. I wanted to call her Eden, as it kinda went with Emma and Ian. (Mom wasn't too crazy about that one!) But, she is the MOTHER and was the one to make the executive decision. So Esther it was.

Mom chose the middle name "Joy" for her, since it goes with "Grace" (Emma's middle name) and she would be a joy to us. I did like Joy and thought it was very appropriate for her. I still wasn't crazy about the name and told Mom I would call her Joy.. or come up with some kind of nickname for her!

After we got our approval from the agency, we found out her Chinese Name. It is Shen, Xiao Tian. "Shen" is her last name and all of the children from this orphanage have this last name, after Shenzhen CWI. "Xiao Tian" meant "understanding the sky." When I saw this.. the red threads were swirling!! Emma's Chinese Name, "Xi Yun Na" means "slender and graceful CLOUD", which goes with sky! Also, it jumped out at me that Esther #1 had "Shen" and "Tian" in her Chinese name too. I thought that was interesting.

But back in August while we were on vacation, I was browsing through some shop's in Pennsylvania with my aunt, cousin and Emma. We noticed they had those little plaque's with names and their meanings, so we started looking through them. My aunt was looking for her boys' names, and I was looking for my siblings. I found Emma's, but didn't think I would find Esther's. At first I didn't. My aunt kept looking and actually found one for Esther. She handed it to me and as I read it, I couldn't believe what I was reading. It said, "Esther: meaning star." Star.. goes with sky! Another red thread!! I knew then that her name was definitely Esther, and I couldn't imagine her being any other name.

She is Esther, and everyone know's her by that. If she doesn't like her name, she can change it sometime in the future. The orphanage calls her by her chinese name "Tian" so we can call her that too. (Goes with IAN)

I used to think our Esther would feel sad at the fact she was named after Esther #1 and that we couldn't adopt her, but she won't because I think of our Esther being named after Esther #1 because she (Esther #1) was the one who inspired us to adopt a special needs child. (See.. it gets confusing after awhile!)

So that's how we chose Esther's name. And.. if ever there is a little brother added to the family (which I sure hope will happen) I have already been kicking around the name "Asher." Which ironically would be after a little boy that we met nicknamed Asher at the foster home in China. He was Esther #1's best friend. These two were the ones who inspired us to adopt. Little Asher is missing three fingers on one of his hands, but when I met him.. I did not even notice he was missing those fingers. He was the funniest, happiest little guy I've ever seen and wasn't bothered by the fact he was missing fingers. He got along fine without them. I just looked up the name Asher on one of those baby name meaning site's and it means: fortunate, blessed, lucky, happy. Hmmmmm.........

Can you help make a difference in the life of an orphan?

2006-01-14T21:38:00.000-05:00

Meet Benaiah-He will be a year old on my mom's birthday and as you can see he has a repaired cleft lip and palate. But as you can also see he has the most kissable cheeks and is absolutely adorable. He is the little boy we sponsor at Philip Hayden Foundation's Langfang Children's Village.

PHF is a foster home run by Christian missionary families. They take in abandoned and sick children from nearby overcrowded orphanage's and provide them with the surgeries and rehabilitation they need, and lots of love and nourishment. I have seen personally how they take in very sick orphans and just by providing love and stimulation, the kids grow to be strong and healthy.

In July 2004 we were sent an e-mail from PHF about a baby girl they had just received named Fayth. She was very sick with a severe heart defect, but has eyes that grab ahold of you and won't let you go. In August, I got to meet baby Fayth when we visited Langfang Children's village. When she first entered the room, she was dark blue and seemed very lathargic. But when she saw that she had visitors, she turned completely pink, perked right up and gave us the biggest smile I have ever seen. (She even started flirting with my dad!) She was beautiful and I really enjoyed being able to spend some time with her. They told us that they didn't expect Fayth to live very long. She would probably die because her heart defect was so severe and no surgeon would touch her. The only thing we could hope for was a miracle.

Well baby Fayth is still alive and doing well. She is weak, but she is a fighter. Recently, we were told that a surgeon has been found who can hopefully provide Fayth with the lifesaving heart surgery she needs. Her surgery will cost around $7500 and Langfang will have to raise all the money for her surgery. If you have a few extra dollar lying around or have some money to give, please consider donating for Fayth's surgery. You can donate by going here: http://www.chinaorphans.org
and click on "Our Current Needs." Then scroll down to Fayth's picture and click "Donate."

I don't make much money between babysitting and odd jobs here and there, but I am able to give a little bit that will help. I've found that just by cleaning out the change that collects everywhere, it all adds up. It may not be much (I counted about $9 in change) but a little bit here and a little bit there will all add up to the final goal. And that will lead to hopefully saving the life of a little girl in need of a miracle. =)

Sponsorship for the children at PHF is $35 a month, so about $1 a day. They have 55 children right now in need of sponsors, so please be sure to visit their website and consider sponsoring one of the children!! And spread the word!

Soon, is what they are telling us!

2006-01-10T16:48:00.000-05:00

We are coming towards the home stretch of our wait for Travel Approval! Tomorrow marks 5 weeks since our Log in Date, and we are expecting another 4-5 week wait from here. Our agency, Lifeline Children's Services got Travel Approval for a family with an 11/7 LID yesterday! However, the CCAA takes off for awhile during Chinese New Year which starts on Jan 28th, and they will be back to work on Feb 5th. Our agency thinks we won't get TA til after CNY, so that puts us somewhere near Valentine's Day. But things can always change, so we'll see. I'm secretly hoping the CCAA will "work ahead" and send out our TA before CNY! I can hope, can't I?!

Also, Lifeline received their new special needs list! They have 15 waiting children from China, who are just adorable!! There are girls and boys ranging in age from around a year old-almost four and special needs from repaired cleft lip & palate- Hep B and several others that are quite manageable! For more information about the waiting children, please visit their website at:
http://www.lifelineadoption.org
Click on "Waiting Children from China." You will need to contact them for a password to view the list. Lifeline is a Christian adoption agency and are just wonderful! We have really enjoyed working with them. The waiting children are precious and I am in love with a little boy named "Max." He has a repaired cleft lip & palate, is a year old and is absolutely adorable!!!! He even looks like a little "Max." Now if only we could get another family size waiver, a time waiver and a reluctant parent's waiver, we'd be set and Ian would have a brother!!! =)

If you want information on little Max or are interested in the other waiting children, please e-mail me as I'd love to tell you about them!! =)

I was bored...

2006-01-07T22:42:00.001-05:00

So I created another movie, this time of Emma's Baptism Day. I've had the video clips on my computer for awhile, and some extra time, and it all came together quite nicely! I love making these little video's.

Enjoy! =)

Emma's Baptism Movie

It's January 6, 2006

2006-01-05T21:27:00.000-05:00

It's just after 9 am on January 6th in Shenzhen, China and a little girl is waking up. She probably doesn't know it, but today is her 3rd birthday. She's probably waking up to the same old routine she goes through each day. Wakes up, eat's breakfast, changes into some clothes and maybe plays with her friends. Does she know what a special day this is?

At the same time, somewhere in China is a mother who is also waking up. She's knows what day this is.. the day that three years ago brought the birth of her daughter. She probably gasped in horror as her child was born that day, looking at the face of her baby girl, born with a birth defect where her lip has not closed all the way. Faced with an uncertain future for this child, she does what countless other mothers have done, and leaves her baby girl near the side of a road, outside of a village.

Halfway around the world, I sit here typing this up, wondering many things. Wondering what Esther is doing right now, if her special day is being celebrated or if it's just forgotten. I also wonder about her birth mother and what she must be going through. The pain and aching of wondering what ever happened to the child you abandoned three years ago must be unbearable. As I think about these thoughts, I also know that we sit here as a family thinking of Esther on her special day and wishing we could be there to celebrate her. But I do know that God is watching over Esther and sending his angels to comfort her. Pretty soon, we will be there to hug and hold her and love her forever.

So Happy Birthday to my sweet sister on your special day. Birthday hugs & kisses are being sent your way! Know that God is watching over you and will be keeping you safe until we can come and get you! We plan on celebrating your birthday with us once you are home!

KISSES IN THE WIND (for Esther Joy Xiao Tian in China)

I hold you in my heart and touch you in my dreams.
You are here each day with me, at least that's how it seems.

I know you wonder where we are... what's taking us so long.
But remember child, I love you so and God will keep you strong.

Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin...
Because tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God hold you in His hand until I can be with you.
I promise you, my darling, I'm doing all that I can do.

Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.
But for tonight, just as always, I blow you kisses in the wind.

May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.
And let the angels bring the kisses that I send to you each night.
--- Unknown

ICE in the South

2006-01-03T17:53:00.000-05:00

This past week we went to one of the local resort's and checked out a wonderful display called ICE. It's a bunch of beautiful ice sculptures, and amazing to see what people can carve with ice! It was quite chilly at 9 DEGREES! Something us Southerners, are not used to at all! We had parka's on, but our fingers were frozen and felt like they would fall off! The whole exhibit took about 30 minutes to get through, but it was really neat and a lot of fun. Here are some pictures we took:

http://homepage.mac.com/jiejie4china/jiejie4chinapics/PhotoAlbum9.html

I've decided to password protect our page, so please e-mail me if you would like the password. If I don't know you, I will ask you a few questions before I give out the password, just so I know *who* is looking at our pictures!

Starting off 2006...

2006-01-01T22:27:00.000-05:00

One of the mothers of a Shenzhen daughter was in Shenzhen to visit the SWI this past week. We asked if she could possibly meet Esther, say hi and give her a hug for us. Well, she surprised us earlier this week with a bunch of pictures of Esther!! She was able to meet, hug and hold Esther and take pictures for us!! What a wonderful surprise!! Here is a little bit of the e-mail she sent: (BTW- Esther's Chinese Name is Tian)

"...I was allowed to see hug and hold Tian. She was very bemused by what was going on, but liked my kids. She is able to say hello, goodbye and thanks in English but what she really wanted was to be held. She
held my children very tightly, and she let me hold her hand.
She is a joy.

Joy to you"

Oh my heart!! How precious is that?! How appropriate too, since her middle name will be 'Joy.'

Today we got a few more pictures. I didn't ask permission to post her daughter's pictures, so I cropped her girls out.

The woman in pink is Esther's care taker

Oooh boy! Look at that face! The other half of the picture is (I'm assuming) the woman's husband, and he is shaking her hand. She doesn't look too impressed! I wonder if she'll do this to Dad!

I noticed that she looks much older in these recent pictures (take on 12/27) than the ones we got last week. So I'm assuming the ones we got from our adoption agency were actually taken in October or November, when her care package was delivered. I'm so glad to see they didn't cut her hair though!! Yaye!! I think they are using some of the hair twistee's we sent in the care package to do her hair! Geez I can't wait to kiss those sweet cheeks!! =)

Well, 2006 is FINALLY here and boy I can't wait for what's in store. Not looking forward to school starting back next week-I'm really enjoying this winter beak! But I know it's necessary because it means we're that much closer to China!! And then, who know's what we'll be up to this year? I know it will be a WONDERFUL year though!! Lookin' forward to all that's in store!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Comments!!!

2006-01-01T21:11:00.000-05:00

Wow, I'm so glad Donna let me know that her comments weren't showing up!! I just realized I have to approve all of the comments, and I hadn't been doing that because I wasn't told I had any comments! Geez! So now I know to approve comments! But I just wanted to say thank you to those of you who have left comments on my blog! They keep me going through this oh-so-long wait! I really appreciate it, and am so glad to see that people read my blog! For awhile, I was wondering if anyone ever read it!! =) So now I have some more blogs to check out!!!

Thankx!!!!

Sera
Jie Jie to Emma Grace YunNa
b) 2/14/03 a) 8/24/04 from Beijing CWI, China
and Waiting for Esther Joy Xiao Tian
b) 1/6/03 a) 3?/??/06 from Shenzhen CWI, Guangdong, China

Merry Christmas!!

2005-12-24T23:47:00.000-05:00

Have a very merry Christmas from our family to yours. We will be having fun tomorrow after Santa Clause leaves with the kiddo's opening presents (and seeing what Santa brought for me!!), attending church in the morning, and jumping on the new trampoline we got for Christmas! Nothing too special, just time for us to be together as a family. Of course, the hardest part is not having Esther with us. =( We have her very first ornament hanging on the tree with a picture of her in it. I can't wait until next year when she'll be with us and have presents to unwrap too! But for now, I just pray that God has his angels around her during this time and that somehow she knows she is loved, even if we are an ocean away! I'm sure she's probably wondering whats taking us so long, and hoping that we'll come get her soon.

These lryics to the new song, "All I Really Want" by Steven Curtis Chapman are incredibley touching to me as this is probably what she is thinking.. if only she knew she HAS a family.. and we are doing our best to get to her as SOON as possible!!

Well, I don't know if you remember me or not
I'm one of the kids they brought in from the home
I was the red-haired boy in an old, green flannel shirt
You may not have seen me, I was standing off alone

I didn't come and talk to you 'cause that's never worked before
And you'll probably never see this letter, anyway
But just in case there's something you can do to help me out
I'll ask you one more time

All I really want for Christmas is someone to tuck me in
A shoulder to cry on if I lose, shoulders to ride on if I win
There's so much I could ask for, but there's just one thing I need
All I really want for Christmas is a family

Well, I guess I should go ahead and tell you now
If it's really true about that list you have
Somehow I always seem to end up in a fight
But I'm really trying hard not to be bad

But maybe if I had a brother or a dad to wrestle with
Maybe they could teach me how to get along
And from everything I've heard, it sounds like the greatest gift on earth
Would be a mom

All I want for Christmas is someone who'll be here
To sing me happy birthday for the next 100 years
And It's okay if they're not perfect or even if they're a little broken
That's alright, 'Cause so am I

Well, I guess I should go, it's almost time for bed
Maybe next time I write you I'll be at home

`Cause all I really want for Christmas is someone to tuck me in
Tell me I'll never be alone, someone whose love will never end
Of all that I could ask for, well, there's just one thing I need
All I really want for Christmas is a family

A Very Merry Christmas...

2005-12-23T21:30:00.000-05:00

Christmas is going to be much better for us this year! We just got FIVE new pictures of Esther! If we couldn't have a TA for Christmas, then this was definately the best gift we could get!
Enjoy!!

Now, doesn't she look JUST like Emma??

How fitting for her to be wearing a Mickey Mouse t-shirt! She will get to visit Mickey a lot!

Her own version of the peace sign!! Too cute!

What a SWEET face!! I sure hope that sweet face smiles!

We sent Esther the yellow bear and all of the stuff sitting on the piano.

Christmas Short Story

2005-12-16T19:31:00.001-05:00

A few months ago I got an e-mail from my teacher about a Christmas story story contest for a local newspaper. It motivated me to try my hand at writing a short story and see how it would come out. I wrote it about two months ago, but totally forgot to submit the story before the due date. Oh well, maybe next year. I'll share my story anyways because I hate the fact that Esther is so far away from us on such a wonderful holiday. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday... but this year just doesn't feel like Christmas. It doesn't feel as jolly or happy as it usually does. I guess that's from all the stress with the recent move and the wait we are now enduring! It's a lot harder to have the picture of your little sister and know she is so far away in another country and has no idea what Christmas is. It just makes me look forward to next Christmas when she'll be home with us. I digress to much, but here's the story. I've rewritten the ending several times but it still doesn't feel "right." Maybe I'll have to work on that again!!!

Christmas Short Story
by. Sera

It was a cold winter night, as she looked out from the third story window of the orphanage. It was dark outside and the bright lights from the city reflected in her eyes. She sat there looking out into the unknown, a world she hadn’t seen much of from behind the high walls of the orphanage. A world that had been so cruel to her from the first day she had entered it. Abandoned at five days old outside a rural village in the Guangdong Province of China, she had lived in the orphanage all of her life. Xiao Tian wondered what it was she had done to be abandoned by her parents. The only reasons she could think of were the facts that she was born a girl and also with a facial deformity. At one year old she had surgery to correct the opening between her lip and nose, and the only remainder she has is a small scar on her face.
Xiao Tian sat quietly looking out into the cruel world, that she was sheltered from inside the orphanage. But as she watched the hustle and bustle of the busy street’s below, it didn’t look so cruel. She watched as children strolled through the streets of Shenzhen, with their parents closely following behind. All of the children she saw were exuberating with joy because of the impending arrival of Christmas. Yes, it was Christmas Eve in Shenzhen, China; Xiao Tian’s second Christmas in her short life. Another Christmas going by with no present’s, no holiday cheer… nothing, at all.
She didn’t know what Christmas was exactly, but she had overheard what it was from the nannies. She knew all about Santa Clause and how he visited all of the children in the world and brought them present’s. But, Santa Clause didn’t come to orphanages.
“Tian,” the nurse called, “Step away from the window, it is time for bed.” Xiao Tian changed into her pajamas along with the other children and climbed into her bed. She spread the blanket over her small cold body, and watched the bright lights from the lively city below disappear as she lowered her head.
She lied there looking up to the ceiling wondering about her friends, Li Ting and Meng Meng. Both of her friends had been adopted by families a few months before. Xiao Tian wished she had a family. She saw all of the younger babies be adopted by families, but she wondered if anyone would want her? All of the families wanted babies, not a three year old with a scar on her lip. She wondered if there was a family out there for her. “God…if you are there…please bring me a family,” Xiao Tian prayed. “I promise to be nice and never be mean. I won’t take up too much room and I won’t eat too much. Please give me a mommy and daddy to love me. That’s all I want for Christmas, and I promise to never ask for anything again.”
Xiao Tian looked out the window near her bed as the tears streamed down her face. She hoped God had heard what she prayed for. As she closed her eyes, she drifted off to sleep, dreaming about the family she prayed for.
The morning light crept into the cold and dark room where Xiao Tian slept. It is hard to sleep in an orphanage when there are babies crying for their breakfast and nannies working hard to feed all of the children. As Xiao Tian woke up, several of the other children were already awake and the day was starting, as it usually did. But there was something different. The nannies all had a smile on their faces and the children were squealing with delight.
As she got up from her bed, the nannies quickly ran over to her and took her to the washing room. They washed her face and put a clean outfit on her. Xiao Tian had no idea what was going on-the nannies never helped her like this before. They ushered her out of the washing room and over to the closet where she was fitted with a jacket and pair of shoe’s.
Something was definitely happening, but she had no idea what it was. She pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming! Xiao Tian was led outside of the orphanage where several people were waiting.
A nice lady came up to her and said, “Hello Xiao Tian. My name is Qui Yang and I have a very special surprise for you.”
She took Xiao Tian’s hand and placed it into the hand of a woman standing beside her.
The woman with a soft motherly face bent down next to her, and said “Xiao Tian, we have been waiting for you! I am your mother and this is your father, and we are your family!”
Xiao Tian was confused by this all. A family for her? Who would want a child of three with a scar on her lip? There are lots of babies here who need a mommy too. Could this all be happening to her?
But at that moment Xiao Tian realized she really DID have a family! As her new mother and father cradled her in their arms, she said a prayer thanking God for her Christmas wish-a family.

LOG IN DATE!!!

2005-12-13T17:14:00.000-05:00

We have a log in date!

December 6th.

Later than what we had thought it would be, but still much sooner than some families have had!!

I'm just glad we have a date and that we can officially start the countdown!!

P.S.

2005-12-12T23:18:00.000-05:00

Okay.. I'm still new at this Blogging thing. But does anyone know how to add images to the top of the blog page? Like near where the title is? Here's an example of one that I'd like to do: http://www.princessbrinley.blogspot.com
I like how they have the image of their daughter on the top.. but I can't figure out how to do it!! I tried something, but messed up my blog and just lost all the links I had added!! Arghh!! Help!

Emma and Ian visited Santa Clause today!

2005-12-12T22:46:00.000-05:00

We took the kids to the mall today to visit Santa Clause and do *some* Christmas shopping. (Yep- it's two weeks til Christmas and we have barely ANY shopping done!!) The wait wasn't too long. I guess that's because we went on a Monday early afternoon, rather than a weekend! Ian & Emma waited very patiently to see Santa Clause and we didn't have any meltdowns/temper tantrums, etc! (Which is always nice!) Emma was loose today since we forgot the stroller, so she really enjoyed the freedom!

The pictures turned out fabulous, as you can see! (Or maybe I'm just a little biased, but aren't they the cutest two children you have ever seen??)

Emma loved Santa Clause. At first she wasn't too sure about sitting on the lap of some strange guy with a big white beard. But because Ian was doing it, she had to too! She was so interested in Santa's beard and kept pulling on it to make sure it was real!! Poor Santa! But the pictures really turned out well, as you can see. I'm enjoying seeing Ian with Santa since this will probably be one of his last Christmas's taking pictures with Santa! They grow up so fast! I am looking forward to next year when we'll have two Chinese princesses sitting on Santa's lap!!!

A Log In Date would be nice..

2005-12-09T12:28:00.001-05:00

Still waiting for the coveted Log In Date (LID), so we can start the "official" countdown. The estimated LID date is December 2, so not too bad, but I'd really prefer it to be before the end of November. Although, that is not likely. The CCAA (agency in China in charge of adoptions) has been taking longer to process paperwork because of the increased number of people adopting. While this is wonderful to know more dossier's are being received, it is a pain to be waiting so long!! But, I will take this wait if it means more beautiful China babies are finding forever families.

Since we moved after being DTC, we have to have a homestudy update. Our social worker Megan, came by on Tuesday to visit the new house and get the update finished. So.. not much of an update on the adoption front. Just waiting and waiting and waiting!! I wish we could go into hibernation for the next 2 months and wake up with our TA! That would be wonderful. But I know this wait will pass fast with the upcoming holidays. I'm just so sad we will have to miss Esther's 3rd birthday on January 6th. =(

So.. thats the update. 3 weeks down.. and about 9 left to go!

Emma's Adoption Movie

2005-12-01T15:54:00.000-05:00

It's finished!! I finally found time to upload it to the web. Here's the link: ( you will have to copy and paste it into your browser )

http://homepage.mac.com/jiejie4china/iMovieTheater6.html

It features pictures and video from our trip. I found that having an ample supply of kleenex nearby was helpful. It's about 20 minutes long.. so grab some coffee/cocoa (or whatever you enjoy in this chilly weather!!) and enjoy!!

NOTE: You will need Quicktime installed on your computer in order to view it, which you can download here:
http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mac.html It may take a few minutes to load, but it is well worth it!!

Ahhh! Finally.. back to real life!!!

2005-11-29T21:18:00.000-05:00

Well for the past week and a half we have been living in limbo.. between two houses.. one with all of our furniture in it and no electricity and the other.. had electricity...but no furniture!!! We finally "moved" into our new home last night.. for the first time all of us sleeping under the same roof. Now, we are just trying to get everything unpacked and our lives back in order. Moving is hell!! Everyday last week we worked hard all day.. packing and unpacking.. and still last night when we went to get the "last" of the stuff.. we ended up moving until 3 am.. that was great fun. It's been much harder since we moved just a mile away and we did it all our selves. But I am so amazed by our wonderful friends. Last Saturday, several people from church came and helped us move furniture and the big stuff. All through the week we had friends coming and helping us pack, unpack, transport things.. etc. Then, this past Saturday we had our friends over with their big pick-up truck's and that helped a ton! I know they all had plans that day, but they pushed them aside and spent all day helping us move. Then yesterday, our friend came and helped us move til 3 am! And today, more friends came and helped us unpack. I know for a fact, I would not want to come help my friends unpack their house!! I am so thankful we have such wonderful friends to help us from loading boxes, to making Thanksgiving dinner for us, to helping us dump trash in the dumster! We are so blessed.

Moving has been so stressful that I can't even remember what week we're on for TA. I think it's week 2 right? 2 weeks since DTC? Im not exactley sure.. but things are moving fast. Stressful.. but fast! Can't believe December 1st is just around the corner. Better start getting the Christmas decorations unpacked..!!

Day 2.. and I'm ready to go...

2005-11-16T19:01:00.000-05:00

Well it's been 2 days since our DTC.. and officially we can't start the countdown until we get our Log in date (LID). I'm going to take a guess at that.. so I'll say December 1. And I'm hoping that's a conservative guess!!! A day in late November would be even better!!!!

Currently it's looking like we could get Travel Approval (TA) in as little as 39 days! How cool would that be?? That would put as with a TA in late January/February depending on our LID.

This weekend we were talking to a friend of ours and she commented on how amazing it would be if we could get Esther on my 16th birthday, which is Feb 26th. Then I was thinking we wouldn't get TA till March or April.. but I like what she was saying.. and with all the new recent TA's, that's the date I'm hoping for. I couldn't imagine a better birthday than spending it in China. (Just wish I could have my friends with me..)

So.. day 2 is almost over.. and if we're lucky, we should only have about 40 days left to go!! It doesn't seem that far away now. And I know it will go soo quickley with the move this weekend and the upcoming holidays.

FINALLY!!!! DTC!!!!!!!!!!!

2005-11-14T15:16:00.000-05:00

Wow I have not been this excited since the day we found out we were DTC for Emma! But... (drum roll please)....
WE ARE DTC!!!!!! TODAY!!!!! FOR ESTHER!!! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!

This means that our paperwork is now on it's way to the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs (CCAA) office in Beijing, China. We will now wait for a Log In Date (LID) which means it has been logged into the CCAA database. Hopefully it will be logged in before the end of the month. It has been taking between 2-6 weeks for LID's.. so we really have no idea of knowing when.. but at least we will know soon.

After the LID, we can officially start the count down for Travel Approval (TA). These are taking just under 3 months.. so it looks like maybe a February TA for us. But you never know with the CCAA.. they might make things go faster.. or it could go slower.. so we really don't know exactley.. but somewhere between January-March, we'll get TA. Then.. we'll go to China and bring Esther home!!!

I am just so glad the paperchase is now finally over. Wish we could have been saying this LAST month.. but it's all in God's perfect timing.. so I just have to learn to be patient and trust him!!

And I wanted to say a HUGE thank you to Pam Eidson who helped us finish our dossier. We couldn't have stayed sane without her!! She has definately been a blessing to us with Esther's adoption. Pam is a dossier consultant/courier and also an adoptive mom. Her website is: http://www.abcadopt.homestead.com

So now we have it.. DTC for Esther Joy XiaoTian on November 14, 2005!!!
How ironic that we were DTC for Emma on November 5, 2003 and Logged in on November 17, 2003!

Happy Halloween!!

2005-10-31T22:09:00.000-05:00

What's better than a frappachino???

Fall Days

2005-10-25T20:23:00.000-04:00

It's finally starting to look like fall! Today's high temperature was around 62 degrees!! BRRR! The photo's are from tonight-we took them for Esther's dossier.

We survived Wilma!!

2005-10-25T20:05:00.000-04:00

Yep.. we made it through. It all started around 5:30 am when Ian climbed into my bed because he was scared. The wind was really starting to pick up and reminded me a lot of Hurricane Jeanne. For the next 3 hours, Ian layed in my bed.. wide awake. I was trying to sleep.. but he was making a lot of noises and kept opening my shutters to look out the window. I finally got out of bed around 10:30 and the winds had started to die down, so the wind wasn't too terrible anymore. We didn't get a ton of rain, but a lot of wind. What Wilma brought was some COLD weather!!!!! Geez.. it's October.. we didn't expect this kinda weather 'til around December, but it has been a nice break from the warm weather.

But we came out alright.. a few downed tree's around here, but not much damage compared to the other hurricanes. We went and checked out the new house and everything is alright there, except for a tree fell on the dock. Dad and I tried to move it, but it was too heavy-although we don't think it damaged the dock.

Aunt Irma and Amy came down on Friday to visit for a few days. Amy went back home on Sunday night and Aunt Irma was going to Miami for a conference, but it was cancelled, so she left today. We had a fun time with them this weekend.

We dodged the bullet here, but our prayer's are with our friends in South Florida who didn't fair so well.

October Days...

2005-10-25T19:59:00.000-04:00

Elena, Kayla, Ian and Emma playing outside

A Sneakpeak..

2005-10-25T19:53:00.000-04:00

Emma in her Halloween costume

Emma's Language

2005-10-20T13:50:00.000-04:00

Emma was in the bathroom when I saw Ian walk past her. The next thing I heard was, "IAN!! GET OUT!! GET OUT!!" Hehehe! Emma's language has really blossomed in the past few weeks. In the last two months she has added the famous-never-ending questions: "Where Ya Going? Whatcha Doing?" Where's Mommy, Daddy, Sera etc." These questions are always asked everyday.. and even after you answer the question.. she still asks again! (It can get pretty annoying after awhile!) But don't try to ask her the same question several times. I asked her what she was doing and replied, she was eating. I asked her again, and again.. probably 4 times. The 4th time, she glared at me and yelled, "I'M EATING!!" LOL. Ahh.. she is a funny little one.

On Sunday we went to a friends house after church. Somehow Emma got away and the next thing we knew she was screaming and mom brought her in with blood dripping all over her face. She has a nice big scab on her tiny nose now! Everyone asks what happened to her, and she says, "I fall." That's all we could get out of her, so we don't know exactley how she fell.

Emma takes great pride in bossing Ian around. I called him twice to come empty the garbage and I finally told Emma to tell Ian. She runs into the living room yelling, "Ian..trash!!!!" Ian isn't too crazy about her bossing him around!!

Proud Sister Moment...

2005-10-18T22:51:00.000-04:00

Ian raised $581 selling popcorn for his cub scouts! He was the top seller out of his whole pack! We were really surprised he raised so much, since he only sold popcorn at Lowe's a few times and at church. His goal was to get a pocket knife as a prize, but because he sold so much, he got to choose from the BIG prizes and will now own a pair of walkie talkies. Fun stuff! I'm so proud of him =) Besides, I wasn't too comftorable with the idea of him having a pocket knife.. that's just a little scary.. Ian + pocket knife??? =O

And..despite having a terrible headache and finishing an algebra 2 test, this day ended great with a new picture of Esther!! Our friend Ewa who volunteers in Essie's orphanage took several of the children to a local amusement park. The kids got to ride on the rides and eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and orange juice. Ewa said the kids liked the train the best =) Look how big she has gotten! Essie is really starting to look like herself, because for awhile she was identical to Emmie..now she is really starting to look like Esther. She looks really tiny, much smaller than Emma! And just look at her sweet face!! Her lip looks really good, and her hair is starting to grow. Hopefully we'll be able to stick some cute barette's and bow's in that hair soon! =) I'm s excited and can't wait to kiss that sweet face!

Essie's dossier documents have all been re-notarized and we are hiring a courier to take the paperwork to the Secretary of State. Definately worth the extra money so we hopefully don't have to go through this again!

CAN I SCREAM NOW????

2005-10-13T10:45:00.000-04:00

ohh Lord I thought we would be out of this stage, but apparently we're not!!!

This morning, we got all of our documents back from the Secretary of State, unsealed with a letter explaining that they were done incorrectly!! How can they be done incorrectly???? They sent a paper detailing what it should look like, and ours look exactley like that! UGH! It looks like most of the documents they said are incorrect were notarized by a friend from church, so I guess we'll call her and ask what we should do. The other is from the doctor's office, which could take awhile to get re-done, or whatever we need to do.

I was really thinking we would be DTC within the next 2 weeks.. but again it doesn't look like that! Maybe we'll make November, if we're lucky!!!!!!

Of course my mother is going insane.. and I am too.. but someone has to keep the cool around here!!

I apologize.. but boy this makes me mad! All I want is to get my sister home!!! And all of these delay's are preventing us from travelling!!!

Not much to update on...

2005-10-12T15:12:00.000-04:00

..but I guess that's a good thing, right? We don't expect to have our documents back from the Secretary of State until the end of the week, or maybe Monday. I'm hoping for Saturday, so that way I can get all of the copies made and send everything off to the Houston Consulate. We're almost DTC! HOORAY!!

She can be quite a devil...

2005-10-07T20:46:00.000-04:00

So today I was playing with Emma and went to to hide on the couch. I put a pillow over my head, so she could see me, but I was pretending I couldn't see her. Well that little stinker came over and bit me!!! I know she's bitten people before but she's never bitten me! I was kinda shocked! So.. I bit her back.. and of course she started whining... just like I was because she bit me. So it was kinda funny.. mom's on the phone and she's got both her older daughter and youngest daughter whining because they bit eachother.
Oh is Emma funny. Sometimes I can't believe how adorable she is. I can't wait til we have two of them talking constantley, running around, keeping us busy.. etc.

It's out of our hands now...

2005-10-06T16:18:00.000-04:00

This morning we got everything together and sent off two piles of our dossier for authentication. One pile went to Carol Fredericks at Dependable Adoption Courier Service (www.dependable-acs.com) for authentication by the Chinese Consulate in D.C., and the other to the Secretary of State. So now it's all out of our hands! We can only pray that everything get's certified and we have no more hitches in our dossier! I will be so glad when we can finally turn it into Lifeline!

Here's Emma, quite happy that our dossier is almost finished for her "I, I" as she calls Esther...

WE GOT THEM!!

2005-10-05T23:07:00.000-04:00

My goodness.. finally! After what seemed like forever (about a month!) we finally received Mom & Dad's criminal background check's in the mail today! HOORAY!! They were the LAST two documents we needed for our dossier. So after we got home from church, I got everything organized and copied everything.. so now our dossier is ready to go to the Secretary of State for certification. I faxed the CBC's to Karla at Lifeline.. so once we get the ok from her, we'll send everything off. Oh we are so close now! We could be DTC in 2 weeks!! I am just so happy at this point and all I want to do is get this dossier to China so Esther doesn't have to wait any longer!

I created a post last week.. but for some reason it never showed up, so hopefully this one will!

Here is the reason why we're going through all of this.. to give this little girl a life in a country where she can be anything she wants to be and enjoy all of the freedoms and liberties associated.. and be loved like crazy by a family!

I can see the light at the end....

2005-09-22T13:31:00.000-04:00

..of the journey to Esther, that is! Or at least the paperchase part! Today, we got in the mail our I-171h from INS which is our next to last document we need to be done. Also, we got my mom's birth certificate back from authentication at the U.S. Department of State in D.C. We got a kick out of seeing Condoleezza Rice's signature on the forms! Now, we are just waiting for my parent's background checks to come in. They had them done two months ago, but they needed to be signed by a police officer and be notarized, so they had to be redone. We were told they would expedite them.. so I'm keeping my fingers crossed we'll get them by next week at the latest!!!!

Since we got our new computers, I have been working on Emma's adoption video for the past few weeks. It's coming out pretty nice, there's just a few things I need to change/fix/add but for the most part it is complete. We have gosh, probably over 6 hours of video tape from China and I had such a hard time picking and choosing which clips I should us. Right now the video is almost 30 minutes long!! Certainly not how long I planned on it being.. but there was so much I couldn't leave out. Watching all of the video makes me so EAGER to get back to China for Esther!! I completed the Gotcha Moment part yesterday and let Emma see what she thought of it, since it is her movie! She was a little puzzled, but I pointed to her and aid "There's Na Na" (her orphanage nickname) and she pointed to herself. Then she saw how she was handed to Mommy, and of course kept pointing Mommy! I pointed to her nanny and said "ayi", but she called her Mommy too. It was so precious when she watched when she was handed to my mom, and she was crying so she asked me "why am I crying?" And I told her because she was scared, but that it was okay because Mommy, Daddy and Sera had come to get her and bring her home. I don't know if she understood it, but one day she will. She loved seeing the clips of her friends in the video. She kept pointing to them and smiling. :-) Hopefully the video will be done soon! This is my first attempt at any kind of video..so it has taken a bit longer than I thought, but so far I really like how it has come out. Oh I can't wait to start working on Esther's movie!!!!!

-Sera

Welcome to our journey to Esther!

2005-09-21T15:52:00.000-04:00

Okay.. so those of you who us, know that it really is ME who updates our website all the time, even if I write it from my mom's point of view! We just got new computers, and our website doesn't run on them (Mac's) so I needed to find a new way to post our journey to China. Blog's seem to be the new hip thing, so I needed to get one!!

A little background info:

My name is Sera and I am the oldest child in my family, of six children, along with my parents, Nancy and Claudio. I'm almost 16, then we have my four sisters Elena-14, Kayla-10, Emma-2 1/2 and we're waiting for Esther who is also 2 1/2. I have ONE lonely little brother, Ian who is 7. If I could convince my parents.. we would go back to China for a brother for Ian!! So maybe we just might in a few years.. we'll see. First we need to get Esther home!

We adopted Emma Grace YunNa from Beijing, China on August 24, 2004, when she was 18 months old. I accompanied my parents to China and it changed my life forever. China was absolutely amazing!! Words cannot describe how awesome it was and how much it changed my life. I know my friends hear me talking about it all the time, but it was such an amazing experience for me. I cannot wait to go back and look forward to hopefully having a career there?? Who Knows!

Anyways, after we were home with Emma for a few months we knew we wanted to adopt again. To read our story about how we found Esther, you can go back to our website or to this link: http://www.thestoryofourfamily.com/whyspecialneeds.html
Esther just happened to fall into our laps when we first saw her. She was the right age we wanted, had the special need we could handle and was from Guangdong Province.. which means 2 weeks at the White Swan!! Yipee!!! We sent in our Letter of Intent on March 11, 2005. Because we have five children (which is more than China's requirement) we had to get a special waiver for her adoption. We received our Pre Approval and Family Size Waiver on June 14, 2005. Since then we have been paperchasing like crazy. Finally, we can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. Our I-171h should be here this week (at least I am hoping-if not.. it could get ugly!) and my parent's criminal background checks, which had to be redone since they got the "wrong" kind of form. Hopefully that will be here this week too. My goal was to be DTC before the end of this month.. I am still optimistic, but we'll see. It looks like at least an October Log in Date and then we wait for Travel Approval (TA). TA's are taking about 2-3 months after your dossier is logged into the CCAA. Which would put us at maybe TA before Christmas and travel around January. I would REALLY like to have Esther home by Christmas, but having her by her 3rd birthday would be just as great. (Her birthday is January 6th) So that is where we are right now.

If you're interested, keep checking in. I'll try to update this at least once a week and I'll be using this blog in China, so you'll definitely want to follow us on that journey!!!!!

Thanks for looking at our *new* blog! I'll try to add more info soon!!

<3 sera