Sisters

What great friends and sisters Sarah Grace and Caroline are. They have bonded quickly. Neither wants to be away from the other for very long. They play together and make each other giggle. Sarah Grace loves teaching Caroline new things and they find plenty of mischief together. Sarah Grace loves saying that Caroline is her "very best friend." It's just how we imagined sisters would be. (They, of course, love to bicker over toys and sitting in Mom's lap)

Sarah Grace will be 3 1/2 next week. She started gymnastics today and seems so grown-up. She currently loves writing letters, watching "Super Why," helping me cook, crafts (in its loosest definition), telling long stories, and making up "knock, knock jokes." She asks everyday if it is almost spring. We are ready.

Here are some of our favorite shots of the girls. The first shot is of the girls at a Bounce House with 2 of their friends. They bounced and jumped for a long time but then all ended up on the bench watch "Ni-hao Kai-Lan" and "Diego."

The second picture is their first Sunday at church. Caroline was not happy to have to stop playing and have a photo shoot but I desperately wanted a picture of them in their dresses so I insisted.

The third picture is the 2 girls enjoying TV together. I had to take this one fast b/c Caroline will only watch TV for about 60 seconds at a time.

The last shot is one of my recent favorite of Sarah Grace.

Home Update

Life at home with 2 little ones is busier than I thought so here is our first blog update from home. They are keeping us on our toes but we are having fun.

Caroline is healthy (except for a runny nose). We went to the cardiologist the day after getting home and found out that the hole in her heart closed on its own. She is a happy girl. She loves to make messes everywhere. She has about 12 words and 6 signs now so communication is getting easier every day. She loves baby dolls and blocks and running. Here are some of our favorite pictures of Caroline. It's hard to get pictures of Caroline because she doesn't slow down very often!

Last post from China - Next stop, home!

Hopefully, this will be our last post from China! We are headed to the US Consulate in a little while to take our oath. Then we are heading back to the hotel, ordering a Papa John's pizza and packing our bags. Tomorrow morning, we will leave early for the aiport, fly to for a long layover, fly to Chicago for a short layover with just enough time to make our next flight! We are having a great time with our girls and we are ready to see friends, family and our house!

Almost Home!

We are on the home stretch!

Yesterday, our guides went to the Consulate for us to make sure that all of our paperwork was approved and it was! The US is in the process of issuing Caroline a visa to go home. That is one of our last steps. Today, we will go take our oath at the US Consulate and tomorrow morning get on a plane.

The bad weather that I mentioned is actually part of a nationwide snowstorm (we haven't had the snow though) that is hitting the country badly. In some areas, it is the worst storm in 50 years. Hundreds of thousands of people are stranded on interstates or in cities without electricity (knocked out by the snow). This is an especially bad time of year because so many people are traveling for Chinese New Year. Many adoptive families have been stranded in various provinces but everyone in our travel group is here. It looks like the snow should not affect our air travel tomorrow. Here is a link to a news story about the storm:

http://news.rednet.cn/c/2008/01/28/1429761.htm

Angie, Caroline and Sarah Grace all have bad coughs and the girls have runny noses. Other than that, we are healthy. The girls are getting lots of sleep, which is helping.

Yesterday, we saw Caroline laughing out loud many times throughout the day. She also wandered around our hotel room quite a bit away from Mama's arms. We are now seeing much of her true personality - friendly, happy, impulsive. She is a blessing.

I'm going to sign off so I can try to get a bit more sleep before the girls wake up!

More pictures

Sightseeing

The weather here is not nearly as warm as the forecast predicted when we left home. It has been in the 30s-40s. We packed for the 60s-70s! So we are wearing the same outfits a lot. We are thankful for laundry services in the hotel. Today is supposed to be in the 50s though so we are planning to go outside a lot (unless it rains all day).

Many of you have e-mailed asking to see more pictures. I have tried to get a lot yesterday and we are hoping to get more today and tomorrow. The main problem is that even though Caroline is making progress in her bonding, she typically screams if she is not in my arms. That limits the number of poses we can get! When she is successfully out of my arms, we just want to savor the moments. Yesterday, while Sarah Grace napped, Andy & I got some good playtime with Caroline. She's a funny girl and has a great memory. Her smile is infectious and when she laughs out loud, my heart melts.

We started the day at the breakfast buffet. Aunt Karen is a huge help as you can see. There is always an adult to man the table while we make several trips to the buffet to get food for everyone. I don't know if the picture is clear, but the girls wore matching outfits yesterday! Too cute.

Yesterday, we spent the day sightseeing. We went to the Chen Family Temple which has along history. I especially love the picture where I am holding Caroline next to the tree. I have the exact same photo from when I held Sarah Grace next to the tree in 2005.

Then we went to a tea house. At this tea house, they make the best tea pots in the world. Sarah Grace talked for 12 hours before about how excited she was to drink tea. She told everyone on the bus how much she loves tea (She's never even had it). Well, it was a good thing I got a picture of her first sip because she didn't take any more sips. After the first one, she declared, "I don't like tea!" Caroline slept in the carrier through the whole outing.

With a free evening last night, both girls (and their parents) got very early bedtimes. Caroline even fell asleep fairly easily (still with her Mama though).

So all in all, it was a great family day.

We are amazed at how well Sarah Grace has done on this trip. It's a difficult trip and she has been a trooper. We are very proud of her. She has made good friends and seen so many things. When I asked her what her favorite part of China has been, she said "getting my baby sister." Just yesterday, she said for the first time, "I'm ready to go home."

We have reached the point of being tired of living in a hotel room! We are eager to go home and we have just 48 hours left. We are eager to bring Caroline to her new home and for everyone to meet her.

It seems that blogger won't let me post many pictures in this entry so I will post some in a separate entry.

A Full Day

Yesterday was a full day. We started out as a family at the breakfast buffet, which was nice. Many days we have had to eat in shifts because Sarah Grace wakes up earlier than Caroline. Yesterday we went together though. The breakfast buffet is amazing! I'll be disappointed to go back to our usual breakfasts at home. I've grown use to an elaborate breakfast.

Then, Andy, Angie and Caroline headed to Caroline's medical appointment. Here is the big news . . . The doctors couldn't find a heart murmur on Caroline. When we sat down, the doctor read Caroline's medical report and listened to her heart. The doctor looked confused so she took off Caroline's shirt so she could listen more clearly. At that point, she went to get another doctor to listen. I was getting very nervous and called our guide in to translate what was going on. Then the doctor looked at me and kept repeating, "No murmur, no murmur." We, of course, will take her to the cardiologist next week for another opinion but we are cautiously optimistic. At any rate, the hole seems to have gotten much smaller. We are praying that God has already healed our little girl.

After the medical trip, we went to a department store. The rest of our travel group has now joined us in Guangzhou (15 families) so some people needed supplies. We only needed a few things, but somehow while we were in the store, we added to our list: Chips Ahoy, a toy for each girl and some cookies that Caroline is wild about.

In the afternoon, Andy kept both girls for 2 hours while Angie went to a paperwork meeting. Andy did well with the girls. Caroline pretty much cries whenever she is not in Angie's arms so we were a bit worried. She settled in with her Dad quite nicely though and even let him hold her some throughout the evening. She knows how to walk but as she bonds to us, she has decided that she only wants to be held. The bonding continues to be a process.

We have discovered that Caroline is quite an active girl. She has a strong pitcher's arm and uses it to throw anything you put in her hands. She is certainly going to add some activity to our house!

Today, we are off for a day of sightseeing. We are all excited to get out as a family for the day.

We have reached the point in the trip where living in a hotel room has become a bit cramped! We are looking forward to settling in at home, where the girls have room to run and we have drawers where we can store everything!

Thank you for your continued prayers!