Home, forever.

This morning, at a very early hour, the girls and I headed out of the house and off to the airport to greet the newest American Citizen arriving from China.

Baby Emma and her family arrived home this morning from China and we wanted to be there to welcome them.

She is gorgeous and tiny, and sweet. Her big brown eyes were full of wonder as she looked around at all of her admirers and she was very happy to stay close to Mama.

When taking photos of such an auspicious occasion, don' t use your phone.

The welcoming committee
Here she comes
Yay, a family of 5

We only stayed for a few minutes as the girls had to go to school.

Welcome home.

this made me giggle. Amidst all the hubbub and hullabaloo Lily and Adam found a few seconds to catch up on life. It was so cute to see them in their own little world oblivious to everything.

Friends From The Start.

Yesterday we had the absolute pleasure of meeting one of the families that we traveled to China with in 2003 for lunch. I had a few more minutes with them cos I volunteered to pick them up at the port and take them to pick up their car at the rental agency. I recognised them immediately as they have not changed a bit, sure the girls have grown, Sonja is now 8 and Maddy 15, and they are gorgeous but John and Nancy have not changed, they were a tad red from the lovely Caribbean sun but other than that, unchanged. We drove to a restaurant and met up with Jacob, the girls, Andie and Chicken Feet. Chicken Feet is so named as she took us to this restaurant back in 2003 just before we all left for China and served us chicken feet for lunch. Since that fateful day we have called her CF and she has called us CF. It is a term of endearment, we love each other however Jacob and I do not care to eat chicken feet! Most people think that when we refer to CF as CF she has no idea, ha, she does and loves it!

The girls were excited to meet up once again and instantly time was lost on them and they just fell back in to that comfy zone that happens to kids especially China sisters. Within minutes they were comparing notes on second grade, gaps in teeth, how many they had lost, Hannah Montana, sisters, bedrooms and this was just the first 3 minutes. They are so alike these 2 it is scary. They are outgoing and funny, they love to laugh and giggle. Did I mention giggle? OMW these 2 can giggle. If by chance these 2 were ever in the same school it would be disastrous, the teachers would not stand a chance. They ate and giggled about that, they giggled at the chicken feet on the table, I giggled at the chicken feet on the table. They just loved being together and I should add that on Thursday evening we did not get home until after 11 and Lily was so tired. Whilst I went to the port she really gave Andie and Daddy a run for their money in the ugly department cos she was whipped but once she met Sonja she forgot all about being tired. Sadly lunch ended and they headed back to there car to head north to Disney so we had to say farewell and see you in 3 years. The girls were deflated.

When Lily and Sonja met they were just little toddlers, 14 and 18 months respectively. We were in the same travel group. We had the absolute best time with the White Rose Club, the name we gave ourselves. All the families got on really well and for the most part we have all stayed in touch. Since our adoption agency is based in Seattle WA most of the families are from the west coast so we don't really see much of each other. We flew out for a one year reunion and have a pact for a 10 yr reunion trip to China in 2013 and most of us still plan on going.

John and Sonja in Wuhan China August 2003. Lily is in red right behind them. (with her tummy on show.)


Lily and Sonja sharing breakfast.


One year later we headed to Seattle for a reunion and oddly enough Lily and Sonja played together then as well. I think they both have the same energy level.


This was yesterday. They have grown quite a bit in 6 years.


John and Sonja


Maddy, Nancy and CF


Jacob and Andie


Oh My Gosh, what was that is was so HOT!


Group Shot


Jacob And Rosie

China Sister Fun.

We hosted a picnic today for our local South Florida Asia Group and as always when this group gets together we had a really lovely time. I am not sure of the exact number of people that showed up but we had a large crowd and the rain that was forecast stayed far far away. Jacob myself and Hollis were laughing at the fact that were 50 kids there but our 5 girls stuck together as if no one else existed. They played with the other girls for a few minutes but for the most part it was the "C" girls and "M" girls. Rosie thought this was her birthday party so she was in heaven and when Jean showed up with a birthday cake that had her name on it along with all the kids names that have had recent birthdays she was convinced it was all about her.

I met this little girl and her really lovely Momma. They live not far from us and we met through another blog and vowed to meet but never had until today. My goodness Tessa is really, really lovely. All our children are and we are so very fortunate to have a group as wonderful as this. When we joined it Lily was one of the babies but now she is one of the big girls and Rosie is one of the babies. We chat amongst ourselves about their heritage and how we keep it alive, we chat about the questions they ask, going special needs versus non special needs, whether it really is all that to stay at the White Swan when In Guanzhou or whether the Victory is better, we just chatter about adoption stuff and there is never a moments hesitation because you know the person you are talking to "get's it". Our old SW was there cos we invited her. She is an amazing woman and some people are still really shocked to find out that she reads my blog. She isn't some nosey instigator she is a professional who helps to unite families and she has become a huge part of ours. She loves to see all of "her" kids playing together at the picnics and seeing how many of her parents have become good friends.

Whenever we have a picnic we donate money to a worthy cause and we usually choose Half the Sky but this year due to the earthquake we decided to collect the money for Haiti. I am not sure yet on the total as some people still want to donate and our final figure will be matched.

At one point there must of been easily 150 of us but we failed to take a group photo but as the last of us were clearing up I decided we needed to get a photo of the kids....they were thrilled, can you tell? I love the choke hold one sister has on the other!


A close up of Miss Tessa! She would not smile for this but as soon as I put the camera down she cracked up!



Rosie's Birthday Cake.





A very small part of the group.


Bubbles




Why no pictures of Lily yo ask? Because she took off to the playground when we arrived, resurfaced for lunch and was gone again for hours shortly after that. We kept checking in on the big kids but they we very independent today and out of camera range....oh boy they are getting big!

Nothing Doing...

...until now.

We have been really busy but just the normal every day stuff.
I could have blogged about how I managed to totally wreck my new camera, the camera that I love so very much, by dropping it.
I could have blogged about how how my ipod was possessed by the devil to the point that it had to go to ipod hospital.
I could have blogged about how when any of us get hiccups Rosie puts up with it for about 3 seconds and then says, "dop dat" (stop that) but none of that was really blog worthy so I had to wait until tonight.

Tonight we met up with some of our travel mates from our first trip to China to bring home Lily. They live in Wisconsin but Jeff's Grandma lives in Delray and they were visiting so we drove up and met up with them. We had so much fun. We have remained close with all of our travel mates from Lily's trip but we just get on really, really well with this family and have only seen them 3 times since the trip. Jill was my packing lifeline when we went to bring Lily home. Lets face it I had never been a mother and really didn't know what I needed to take for Lily but Jill was about to receive her third child so she knew what to do....thank goodness.

I know that the girls are getting bigger. My gosh, I see Lily ever single day so I am aware of how big she is but somewhere in my mind Abby was still a little girl, still only 3. Well she isn't (of course) and even though she is 9 days younger than Lily she towers above her and has already lost 3 teeth. Lily was green with envy.
Abbey and Lily wasted no time catching up. They played and played. They are both very outgoing and both love to be outside and consequently loved being in the park. Later we all went to dinner together and had a truly lovely time.

Lily and Abbey

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All the kidlets

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Lets eat

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Orphanage Sisters

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Once we left the restaurant the temps had dropped drastically so I asked Lily is she was cold and she said yes. To this Jeff roared with laughter and decided to tell us just how much snow and freezing weather they have been experiencing in Wisconsin. Lily thought it sounded wonderful and told him so through teeth that were chattering. It's all relative.

Good People = Good Fun

Last night we went over to Lori and Marc's house for a fabulous evening of silliness and fun. It was like a mini blogger bash as we all blog. We finally got to meet Vivian, Cory and Kerri. I started to follow their blog shortly after they moved to Canada. I had no idea they used to live here until a few months later. Vivian and I swore that the next time they came down this way we would meet and we did last night. It was so strange to finally meet someone that you know so much about, someone who looks so familiar to you, yet you have never laid eyes on before. They are the nicest people, and Kerri can steal your heart in an instant, she is just gorgeous. She even gave me a hug bye bye.

We had a really super evening, Tammie bought, what has to be, the best chocolate cake I have ever eaten in my life. The kidlets played merrily with another of Lori's friends. They literally climbed all over him for hours and he kept going back for more. The time flew by and that was a shame.

The Dynamic Duo are so very kind and sweet and were more than happy to share their toys with the rest of the gang. Katie Starr is such a tiny little peanut and so girly and her brother Ethan has the cutest voice I have ever heard. Lily loves Katie and was very excited to see her. Rosie spent most of the night pointing to the dog and saying over and over again, "doddy". Erin is also very tiny so Lily ended up being the giant of Kidetland, which is saying something. The kidlets were moving a lightening speed which made taking photos utterly impossible.

These pictures should probably come with a disclaimer stating that I cannot be held responsible for their content due to the consumption of too many alcoholic beverages but alas that isn't true cos the hardest bevvy consumed by any of us was coke! This is just us, us having fun.

This needs no explanation. Kids. Toys. Fun!

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A think he liked the cake too. (If you can see a really, really tiny posterior in this photo, to the right of Jacob, you are required, by law, to state how very tiny it is. Otherwise the owner of said posterior will call me the "B" word for posting it!

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Honestly, we are all sober!

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Well, maybe someone was sniffing the cooking sherry!

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Kerri is a robot!

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Rosie felt right at home. She actually gave Tammie a hug, and a real one not just a limp rag one and then she decided to sit next to Vivian. This is not like her but she knows good peeps when she meets them.

Lily fell asleep in the car on the way home and didn't even stir when we carried her into the house, this is a first. Rosie, well she didn't fall asleep on the way home but she was asleep within seconds of hitting her crib.

Lori, thank you so much. We are sending Big Al good vibes and Marc lots of love. What a lovely evening...sigh.

The Best Laid Plans

As you know if you read yesterday's post, today was our national adoption day picnic and we were excited about it. The kiddos were up bright and early and things were wonderful. I headed into the shower, Jacob was loading the car and the girls were playing upstairs. As I was drying my hair I could hear Lily saying to Rosie, "here is a drawer for you to close", I figured that since Rosie loves to close drawers Lily was opening them and Rose was shutting them, no biggy.
All of a sudden I heard a blood curdling scream, I dropped my hair dryer and shot into my bedroom to find that somehow they had knocked over/pulled over Jacobs huge chest of drawers and it was resting on them. I screamed, which is really unusual cos I am the voice of calm and reason in bad situations and Jacob came running. I had righted the chest and grabbed Rosie who was bleeding from a cut on her face and yanked Lily out of the way. Jacob ran to Lily and I tended to Rose.

I calmed down instantly and checked out both of the girlies thoroughly. They both got smacked in the face by the drawers and were sporting small cuts and bruises but that was it! It is what it is and yes it could have been much worse but it wasn't. Enough said.

We headed off to the picnic, better late than never and as soon as we arrived I asked Hollis if our social worker was coming. She said. yes. so I said, Oh Cwap! Our SW is fabulous and of course she noticed the cuts and Lily's eye which is now black and we joked about how I really shouldn't beat my kids.

The picnic was going really well and loads of people that we haven't seen for ages were there. We all talked and the kids played and Rosie was running around like one of the crowd. I met a really nice lady called Ana and we chatted for ages cos she wants to move to the Special Needs program and wanted information on that. (the red thread comes into play here)

Lily was having such a lovely time playing ball, playing on the playground, blowing bubbles, whirling her hula hoop and basically just enjoying her friends. At one point Jacob was watching Lily and I was watching Rose when Lily comes up to me wearing her dad's shirt. She told me she had fallen over in a red ant nest and daddy was making sure there weren't any more ants on her clothes. I asked if she was OK and she said she was but very itchy. Not five minutes later Jacob is carrying her over to me and she is crying and scratching like mad. I started to talk to her but she was really upset so we went to the car so I could take off all her clothes and have a look myself. Once I sat her down I realised that she was covered in hives. I asked a friends hubby to look at her as he is a paramedic and he told Jacob to go and get some Benedryll quickly. Jacob took off with Rosie and I stayed with Lily and watched as her little body got bigger and bigger and her eyes started to swell shut. I kept wiping her down with really cold water on paper towels and under my breathe I was begging Jacob to drive faster. She could still breathe properly and that wasn't changing so I hoped she would be fine. Another Mum came over and told me to dial 911 but I didn't. Jacob appeared with the goods and that is where the red thread with Ana comes into play. It turns out she is a nurse practitioner so I called her over to the car and asked her to look at Lily. Ana said it was pretty bad and to give her a massive dose of Benedryll. We also used topical benedryll and within about 10 minutes things started to calm down. Lily was instantly wiped out by the meds but she wanted to stay. Ana said that she must stay on the antihistamine all night cos the swelling could come back and could get much worse.

Obviously we had to leave but Lily really didn't want to. After about 10 minutes she got really sick so that was it. We headed home. I rang our Dr. from the car and she said to take her to an urgent care clinic because of the facial swelling. I dropped Jacob off at home and Lily and I went straight out. As we were waiting to see the Dr. her hives back back with a vengeance and her face started to swell again, needless to say we were seen immediately. My little trooper is on a very heavy dose of steroids for the next 4 days, she received even more antihistamines from the Dr. and is now in a drug induced sleep and feeling much better. She now has to carry an Epi-pen everywhere she goes and we have been warned that next time it happens the reaction will most likely be much faster and much worse.

Since she has a really nasty reaction to mosquito bites we have always thought that she might be allergic to ants and bees and now we know for sure. The good side of this, cos you know me, Miss Silver Lining, is that this happened when we were around medical professionals so we were able to deal with it very quickly. If something like this has to happen make sure you have good people around.LOL

All Lily has had to say about it is, "wow, I am just like Grandpa. If I keep the bees away from him he can keep the ants away from me."

This has been one of the longest days I can remember. Jacob just made me laugh because he said, "this day just had the Emergency department written all over it right from the second we woke up". And so in the scheme of things the dresser falling on the girls was not a big deal but those tiny weeny little ants, damn they were huge! Oh and the dresser....securely anchored to the wall, now!

I think I have photos somewhere but I need to hit the chocolate so I will post them later.

Half The Sky....fell on us.

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine, also an adoptive mama to two girls from China, contacted me and asked if Lily and I would be interested in doing a lemonade stand and bake sale to raise money for Half The Sky. My answer was a resounding yes.

I believe that it is very important to teach our children to give. We live in such a wealthy society where the need for instant gratification appears to the sole purpose of life. It makes me cringe a little. Surely the most important things in life cannot be measured by the "stuff" you own. Growing up my parents did an unfathomable amount of charity work. I am not talking little things either. They put on and hosted huge events that attracted people from miles away year after year after year. These events were so much fun and all the monies raised were donated to charity. I can vividly remember the excitement as the day of an event approached.

Shortly after bringing Lily home I learnt of Half The Sky and we immediately got involved. Lily did a sponsored walk every year and we donated the money to them. Of course now we are forever indebted to them for the love and care they gave to Rosie during the first year of her itty bitty life. Lily understands that we have things that a whole lot of people do not have and probably will never have. She understands that it is important to help those less fortunate than ourselves and she does so willingly. When I told her we were going to have a lemonade stand she was giddy.

We started baking yesterday morning and continued until about 9pm. She helped with a lot of it and I give her a lot of credit. We took a few breaks to take care of other things and have a few minutes of silliness but for the most part she was right there by my side.

This photo is for my father. He loved condensed milk as a little boy and apparently so do his granddaughters!



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We got up this morning, loaded up the car and headed into the Gables. We set up the stand and all was well.



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But then the weather changed and the sky fell down. It poured and poured. We tried to hold umbrellas over the baked goods and also tried to remain optimistic. The girls would run out from under the umbrellas each time they saw a person and would accost them. The day wasn't a complete wash and we managed to raise $112 but had it not rained we would have done so much better. The girls didn't care about the weather they still laughed and played, drank lemonade and stuffed their little faces with cookies. Tonight we are all eating cookies...leftovers from our cut short due to bad weather bake sale.

Lily is very proud of her accomplishments. She is also telling everyone that more people bought her cookies than anyone elses. I told her it is rude to boost but just this once she deserves it.