It's been 48 hours since we've had Harper, honestly it's seems like she's always been with us.  She is very comfortable around us & attaching well.  About the only time she is fussy is when she's tired, she's easilly comforted by us giving her a bottle & laying down with her. She falls asleep within 10 minutes or so.   Harper is understanding more English by the day.  It amazes us the things she knows but can't communicate verbally.  For example, I asked her to give daddy a piece of bread I had in my hand, she walked right over to Neil & gave it to him. I asked her to hold her dress up while I took her diaper off, she did. We said lets take a bath, she started rubbing her belly & when she got in the big bath tub, she took the wash cloth & was mimicking hand washing clothes & ringing it out.  She may have been in a religious household because she gets on her knees, put her hands in prayer position & then puts her head to the floor!  It's so funny to watch this 2 yr old transform in front of our eyes. She loves not having to be restrained in the car, we're gonna have some major problems when we get home, especially driving 2 hours.   We went to the Terra Cotta soldiers today & she was a champ, loves her stroller & passed out by the end of the tour.  Our guide took us to a traditional tea room, although we were so hot & sticky, & we had a cup of tea.    We'll post more later about China & the driving....If you think New York City is crazy...China is 10 times worse.   Going to bed now.....

Happy Harper Day!

We finally made it to China!  After almost 24 hours of travel, flying 8100 miles,  we made it safely.  All of us are feeling pretty good right now.  Neil didn't feel well, splitting headache & nauseated, but he quickly recovered.  He was physically exhausted & hungry.    Now, to the good part, we have Harper in our arms. Our day began early with all of us waking up between 4 & 6am.  We went to our hotel breakfast buffet & had a great breakfast, met our guide @ 2pm to go to the supermarket.  We then headed to the civil affairs office to meet Harper @ 4pm.  The building was about a 7 minute walk from our hotel & the building had very weak air conditioning.  Harper was the last baby to get there.  She walked in w/ a lady from the orphanage.  As soon as Harper saw the room full of people she started crying & wanted to be held.  She did cry alot at first, she was so scared & only wanted that lady. She also had another accident last week.....fell down & has a scratch & nice bruise on the right side of her face. Poor baby.... The lady finally left & Harper calmed down some.  We were only there maybe another 30 min after that & then left & went to a restaurant to get carry out.  She did well in the car, they dont use carseats so she sat on my lap & did better.  While waiting for our food in the restaurant, we got her first smile & laugh.  Less than 1 hr of being with us, It melted our hearts. We then went to the hotel room & ate.  She really came out of her shell. She was playing, laughing, eating a ton.  Very active, very similar to Kolton & Tori.  Developmentally she is right on target.  She's probably the same size as Tori, same height, but petite.  Her arms, legs & butt are soooo tiny.   We were dreading bed time, but she went to bed easily, slept in a king size bed (much bigger than american king)  with Neil, Bria & I.  Didn't even cry when we put her to bed. Slept all night & woke up in a very good mood. So far she's had a great day, smiling alot very active & even went down for a nap with no problems. I hate to say this b/c I don't wanna jinx us, but she has opened up & attached easily with us.  Neil & I had to step out to make some copies & she stayed w/ mom & Bria & she cried for mama......That's a huge step, she's calling me mama less than 24 hours of meeting us. We prepared ourselves for the worst, & she is doing far better than we imagined. We are so thankful. Her personality is outgoing, very bright, giggly & loving. Oh, she's semi-potty trained.  I put a diaper on her & she hasn't wet it.  Even overnight, her diaper was dry, so we put her on the toilet & she peed.  After bfast, she squated in the room, we took her to the toilet & she pooped! She squats on the floor b/c the toilets here are basically a hole in the floor.....what a smart little girl!  The internet connection is sporadic, not very reliable.  Takes forever to attach these pictures. I'll add more later. Someone email me & verify if these pictures are posted to the blog.  We can't see the blog or comments. Thank you all so much for the prayers, this is just the beginning but so far so good, she's doing great.  She's already understanding English!

China Itinerary

Here is our itinerary. I'm not sure when I'll be updating this blog. I promise to try to post while in China. I know most of you are waiting to see pictures of Harper & hopefully a video. Between my camera, Bria's & my mom's camera, we should be able to capture quite a few Kodak moments!

To all of the familes traveling soon, may we all have safe travels.

Aug 27: Depart from St Louis-New York-Beijing-Xi’an
Aug 28: Arriving in Beijing/Xi’an ( Bria’s Birthday )
Aug 29: Happy Harper Day!!!
Aug 30: Registration & Notarization
Aug 31: Local sightseeing (visit the Wild Goose Pagoda
& Bell Tower)
Sept 01: Local sightseeing (visit the Terra-Cotta Warrior)
Sept 02: Local sightseeing (visit the museum)
Sept 03: Getting passport -Fly from Xi’an to Guangzhou
Sept 04: Taking photo, medical check
Sept 05: Local sightseeing (visit the Yuntai Garden)
Sept 06: Local sightseeing (visit Pedestrian Street)
Sept 07: Visa appointment at 10:00
Local sightseeing (visit the Six Banyan Temple)
Sept 08: Local sightseeing (visit the Liu Hua Lake Park)
Swearing in ceremony at the Consulate,
Sept 09: Getting the visa
Take the train from Guangzhou to HK
Sept 11 Return home- Hong Kong-New York-St Louis

Another Shower

My girlfriends in Columbia threw us a couple's shower/BBQ over the weekend. It was very laid back & relaxed, although it stormed badly that night!Emily got the flower arrangement & added the globe with our route to China.

Courtney had these delicious cookies made...aren't they cute?

I got quite a few monogramed things. Christa got us these bloomers.

Beach bag....Thanks Kristin!

And a towel to match!

Christa also got this adorable monogramed bag. This will be good to take to Grandma's!

Huge thanks to all of my friends & family who made the shower's happen! Neil & I are thankful for having such a supportive network of people.

Harper is loved so much already, it's hard to believe she'll be in our arms forever in 6 days!

Keep the prayers coming!

Michigan-Part 4

Lazy days at the beach. We enjoyed our days at Empire Beach & Glen Haven Beach.



Casey snoozing....

The gang eating lunch

Shower

Wow, my first baby shower....My mom & sister's threw a traditional "women's" shower at a restaurant banquet room & had a wonderful turnout. We had to bring more tables in because almost everyone invited showed up! We're so lucky to have so much support from our family & friends. Look at all of these gifts... you can't tell, but there's more on the other side of the table!
Delicious cake that Paula picked out.

Paula Jean & I (thanks sissy)

Yes, I have a huge family...

Grandma Roxy made this quilt for Harper, it's sooo cute, I love the colors!

I got the jogging stroller from my sister's Paula & Susan (Susan you were missed dearly, wish you could have made it)

Little Pooh's closet after the shower, she got so many CUTE outfits. I also put a bunch of clothing in her drawers...she set until age 4.

Thank you Mom, Susan & Paula for putting the shower together on such short notice. Thanks to everyone that came to the shower. We still haven't decided on a middle name if anyone was wondering. We appreciate everyone's support during this journey. We leave in 8 days, please keep us in your prayers.

Harper's Room

Instead of painting her room, we decided to wall decals. I found these at Etsy.com & this beats painting! No mess, easy to apply
Doesn't take much time to do this

TaaaDaaa, finished product! I think it looks really cute :)

Michigan-Part 3

This was our most active day. The Glen Arbor community had a 5K run/walk which we participated in. We walked most of it while Casey ran it 21 minutes! Later on, we went kayaking. We started on Glen Lake, continued to Fisher's Pond & the end of the float was Crystal River. We happened to go on the windiest day & the water on Glen Lake was extremely choppy.

Transportation to the lake

The journey begins....


We kayaked for nearly 4 hours!

We thought we'd never see the end of the river

We finally made it, after about 12-15 miles! We were exhausted

Michigan-Part 2

There will be a lot of Michigan photos. Being there for 6 days, we were able to completely relax & enjoy the scenery. We hiked up to the top to see this amazing view of Lake Michigan. The water really is this blue.

This view was about halfway up the hike. On the left is Lake Michigan, Glen Lake is on the right.

View from the top!

My home girls!

Don't jump!

Michigan-Part 1

With all of the excitement with our travel plans, I am just now posting about our vacation to Glen Arbor, Michigan. We drove to Michigan (about 11hrs) to vacation with our dear friends, The Camp's & The Henderson's. Bria wasn't able to go due to mandatory dance camp :( She was missed so very much. She would've had a great time with the other kids. So, this was our last vacation without children.
This is day 1 of the trip, which happened to be my birthday. The guys took the kids & the girls walked around Glen Arbor, shopped in the boutiques, did a little bit of wine tasting at Cherry Republic & hung out. Later on, we grilled out & played poker!

The gang playing Texas Hole Em! I was not the big winner on my bday!

The gang in the kitchen preparing dinner.

The guys hanging out, finally relaxing after the long drive.

TA!!!!

This is soooo exciting! We just found out that our agency received our TA & it's being mailed to us. They also scheduled our consulate appointment for Sept 8.

This means we will probably leave on Fri (8/27) & see this sweet little face on Sunday 8/29!

I'm calling travel agents & pricing flights....Harper here we come!!!!!!!!!!!

How big is she?

According to the newest measurements, she's 27 lbs & 2ft 8 in tall (about 32 inches). Depending on the brand of clothing, it looks like she'll fit in a 24 month or 2T. This is her foster mom, I love how comfortable she is in her arms.

I had asked some questions a while ago from a care package service & I finally got them answered.

Is she potty trained? When she want to go potty, she would pull foster mom’s hand. Then foster mom knows she has to go potty. I'm guessing MAYBE???

What words can she say? She can say “Mama”, “Jie Jie” (big sister), “Ye Ye” (paternal grandpa. Kids call elder men grandpa also). She sometimes expresses herself with signs or babytalk that we can’t understand

She has an older foster sister & no pets

Does she have the baby clothes she was found in ? No, they didn't keep them... boo hoo

She is a lovely girl. She can say “Mama” , “Baba”, “Ye Ye” , “Dan Dan” “Jie Jie” etc. when she wants something, she pulls her foster mom’s hand and go look for it. when she needs to go potty, she will make some sign, such as squat down, pull hands. She can say bye bye, wave her hands. She can follow direction to point her mouth, nose, eyes, etc.
Her meal time: every day around 7:00am and 7:00pm drink some milk/formula.
8:00am, 11:00am, 5:30pm congee, vegetable soup, noodles, rice, meat, steamed buns. Her favorite food is milk/formula and congee.

She sleeps in the bed with her foster mom.

Harper-22 months old today!

Today Harper is 22 months old, born October 2, 2008. I'm praying this will be her last monthly birthday with out us. We are hoping to have her in our arms by Sept 2, definately by her Golden Birthday! She seems to be in deep thought in this picture. This is her foster sister. I feel these photos of her foster mom & foster sister are priceless. We even know their names. How ironic that she only has an older foster sister, just like our family.
Bria will be 13 this month & there's a strong possibility that she will celebrate her 13th bday in China with her new sister!

She seems to be an active child. I'm guessing this is the lobby of her apartment building.

This is the only family she's ever known & we're so lucky to have this picture. They seem to really love & care for her as their own.

I'll post more tomorrow....