One month in our arms

It's hard to believe that yesterday marked one month that this precious little dumpling has been in our arms.  In that time she has come out of her shell in a big way.  She cried every time we walked into our hotel room in Taiyuan.  Nights weren't easy either.  We occasionally heard her babble. She was grieving, and if you have adopted, you know it's hard to watch.

 Today she's a very different girl, a typical toddler.  She screams when she wants something and screams just to be heard.  It's really nice for when you want to make phone calls.  Um, not really.  She really does pester poor Madeline.  Oy!  She's always wanting what she has and will scream, pull her clothes or hair, or, usually, squeeze her arm.  Yep.  Everything is mine, and I want it now.

She loves her chocolate milk and can drink it by the gallon.  She'll generally eat what I fix the big dumplings.  This girl LOVES to drink water....like all day and a lot....which means lots of pee pee diapers.  I still do put her on the potty to pee, but she drinks so much stinkin' water, I have a hard time keeping up. lol  She's sleeping well, both for naps and bedtime.  We had a few days of big time crying and thought it was grieving.  But my wise sister who has parented this age before told me it just might be that she doesn't want to sleep.  Ding ding ding! We have a winner.  Thankfully those times of crying about sleep were short lived.  She sleeps like a champ without any crying now.  

  Since coming home, she has learned a few basic signs- water, milk, more, please, and thank you.  She can say water (wa wa) and diaper (bi bur) and mommy (though she says mommy when pointing to herself, so she doesn't know it means me yet.)  I originally wanted to her call me mommy because I know she called her foster mom "mama", and I didn't want to upset or confuse her, which it did (upset her) in China.  She says mama and baba but only to babble, not in reference to us.  She babbles quite a bit and will even act like she's having a conversation with you.  It's so funny.  She loves swinging at the park, swimming in the pool, riding in the wagon or on her tricycle, brushing her teeth, dancing to music, and anything she can grab out of her in her sister's hand.  She loves to fake laugh so she can join her brother and sister in their laughing fits too.  She reminds us that we have to check her mouth for loose teeth because both her brother and sister have loosey-goosey teeth that need checking.  Oh she won't be forgotten.  Nope. Well, I could go on and on, but I think I'll stop right there.

As I said in my previous post, I knew I had to start taking some photos of Havi at home because I need to send them to our agency as part of our post placement report.  So one night I decided to take my camera with me on our evening walk.

 I thought I would take this snapshot of the three dumplings together because China wants to see the child experiencing their new culture.  They were thrilled to go on the walk, though not to stop and smile for my camera.  Oh well, it's good enough to send to China.  Done.

 We spotted this small but pretty rainbow as we were nearing home.

Happy 1 month with us, Havi Xue!
You have turned our lives upside for the better, you loud, spunky little girl!
We love love love you like crazy crazycakes!!!!

To the beach!

Yep, we're backing up again...to when Bammy was down here visiting.  I know I said I was going to do a Havi post, but that will have to wait.  I've actually had some time, no wait made time to pick up my camera to capture these first few weeks of Havi at home.  Well, maybe it's also because we need to send photos to China for our 1 month post placement visit.  But either way, I'm snapping away.  

Early one morning when Bammy was here, we all headed to the beach.  We arrived by 9am to avoid the heat and crowds.  Score.

 Havi hung out with me under an umbrella while Caleb and Madeline built sand castles with Bammy.

 Then Havi made her way down to the water's edge.

 She was not nearly as ecstatic about the ocean as she was in Hong Kong.  I can't blame her.  The beach in Hong Kong was small, and the waves were mild.  Not so here on the east coast of Florida.

She did enjoy the sand though and picked right back up where she left off with it in Hong Kong....eating it.  Oy!  But her favorite part of the beach?  Well, that was rinsing off in the shower.  She couldn't get enough of the water splashing over her head.  It was a short but sweet and enjoyable first trip to our local beach.  I'd say it was a winner.

Later that night, we went for a walk in the neighborhood.  I love taking walks in this quiet beachside community....just people and their four-legged friends out and about.  We always saw people walking in our old community.  But we lived on a busy street.  So we always had to contend with lots of car traffic while navigating the streets.  Not so here...which is why I can ask my kids to step off the sidewalk and into the street to pose for me without fear.

Then Patrick plucked Havi out of the wagon so she could also participate in this photo op.

Do you see that face?  And those arms across her chest?  Oh yes!  She did that back in China.  This girl can cop a 'tude like no one's business.  Yep, it's safe to say she's giving Madeline a run for her money for the next Academy Award.  She's just a little bit dramatic. Ha ha.  Or as we say in our house, a lotta bit dramatic.

Well, Madeline's 3 year Family Day/Gotcha Day anniversary is approaching.  It's actually on Friday, and to prepare for it, I plan on making some yummy treats.  This girl loves chocolate.  So I will be making some fresh chocolate ice cream for her.  You read that right...ice cream....because we just bought ourselves a handy dandy maker for the home.  It's safe to say I'll be churning up some cold creamy goodness this summer (which, lucky for us in Florida, lasts all year.)  I will also make a double chocolate chocolate cookie, nothing fancy, just lots of chocolate for my little chocolate lover.  Other items that I've been baking up are your basic quick breads and muffins that we like to snack on.  But I also made some delicious butterscotch supreme cupcakes from Rosie at Sweetapolita.  Big big winner here!  And it was great to have something that wasn't vanilla or chocolate. lol  I do love my cake and cupcakes, but I'm trying to change things up a bit because I know the rest of the peeps in the house aren't as crazy for them as I am. So we'll see what else I can bake up.

Anyway, I'm gonna try my best to catch up on my blogging here this week.  Promise.  I know you're all itching to see that third dumpling of ours in action.

Her first trip to the park

I'm a bit behind in sharing about Havi's first week home.  That's because I have been busy in the kitchen or in the pool with the dumplings.  Anywho, last week when Bammy was here, we went to the park late one morning/early afternoon.  The lighting was harsh, but I brought my camera anyway.  Havi loved the slide and swing.

Now, don't get any crazy ideas, like I allow my kids to go down slides head first.  This is the toddler slide, so very short and low to the ground.  Madeline has to crawl her way out.  So she's completely safe going head first.

So there you have it.  A short, sweet little trip to our favorite-y favorite park by the river.  It's the first of many more for this little girl.  

This week saw Bammy heading back to Connecticut.  The dumplings were so sad to drop her off at the airport.  We hadn't even left the airport parking lot when they were telling me how much they missed her already.  It was a great visit!  

Yesterday Havi had a doctor's appointment.  She did fairly well.  She got 3 out of 5 vaccines in order to make her current for her age and to comply with the Hague requirements.  She did cry but not for long.  She cried harder and longer when she tripped in the waiting area and hit her cheek hard against the leg of a chair.  It bruised up right away.  Poor girl.  Oh yes, and right before our social worker comes out tomorrow for our one month post placement visit.  Nice.  Anyway, I plan on writing up a post to share with you more about our precious little Havi.  For now, I'll leave you with one word to describe her- LOUD!

Happy weekend everyone!

We're home!

After 32 hours of travel door to door, we finally arrived home late this afternoon.  We were greeted at the airport by a dear friend of ours and her two daughters.  Since we landed early, we beat my sister and crew to baggage claim. (They helped to drive our minivan to the airport for us so we could drive home.)  We ate a little dinner, unpacked, started laundry, showered up and hit the hay.  Well, that is everyone but me because I just wanted to pop on here and give a quickie update.  Anyway, my sister snapped a few photos.  So I will try to get those from her soon.  I also have to wrap up our time in Hong Kong, which I will pick back up with tomorrow.

Thanks for all your prayers and well wishes.  We are so blessed to have you all follow along as Havi joined our family.  It was so so wonderful to see her playing with Caleb and Madeline and her cousins, Leah and Josh, tonight.  Be still my heart!  She's finally home!

Over the moon

What a day!  What a day!

But I must back up to last Thursday.  That's when the tide started to turn.  After getting nowhere fast with the passport call center (again), I hung up the phone pretty steamed and practically in tears.  I decided that for the umpteenth time, I would search the house again for Madeline's passport, in case we never gave it to them in the first place.  Only this time I decided to look in places it shouldn't be.  And what do you know?  There it was....mixed up with Patrick's business docs.  Yep, it was under our noses the entire month, and we didn't know it.  The last four weeks were extremely stressful, and I wouldn't want to relive them.  But I'm grateful to have Madeline's Chinese passport in my possession, even if we did have it the entire time.  Big big relief!  Now we can apply for our visas.

Also on Thursday, I decided to give our immigration officer call.  Remember, the one whose name escaped me?  She informed me that our applications had just come across her desk that day and that I should call her back Monday afternoon, as she would likely have us approved by then.  Great.  I'm on it.

Then we had the cake we ordered for Havi...oh a month ago.  We still hadn't received the photos, and it had us worried.  Other families adopting from the same orphanage waited days to receive their cake photos.  We were waiting almost a month.  I expressed my concern to Ann at Red Thread China.  On Saturday, she told me she was finally able to communicate with the orphanage, and that she would try to get us the photos on Monday.  Well, it goes without staying I started checking my email like crazy Sunday night and Monday morning.

Sure enough, right in the middle of our school lessons this morning, I saw the email.  So Caleb and I made a mad dash to the computer to pull them up.  And here they are!!!  And yes, for those of you who know your Chinese cartoons, that is Pleasant Goat on her cake!

Then this afternoon, as I called our immigration officer to check on the status of our applications, I could barely get a word in before she told me that she approved us this morning!  So...that means the approval will be forwarded to the National Visa Center (NVC) where the approval notice will be cabled (electronically delivered) to Guangzhou, where the immigration interview will take place in China.  It should take about a week to ten days to get the approval cabled.  Then Havi's visa application (Article 5) can be dropped off.  Two weeks later it will be picked up and then delivered to CCCW@ when we will wait for our Travel Invitation (or Travel Approval, TA.)  TA will come 2-3 weeks later.  So, we should definitely be able to travel in June, following Madeline's dance recital.  

Today was truly an amazing day.  To see our daughter smiling and laughing...that's priceless.  To jump over one more paperwork hurdle...icing on the cake (couldn't resist saying that).

I do promise to give another update soon.  Life just has us busy.  A good busy, but still busy.  I'll get those iPhone snapshots up soon.