One Week Check-In - A week of firsts!

Cherry Blossom's week has consisted of many firsts!

She was able to celebrate her First St. Patrick's Day by wearing her green!

She was able to ride her first little bike in the driveway.

She was able to help mama go through all of our mail for the first time. She is really good about tearing up the envelopes!

She was able to wear her first pair of sunglasses.

She had her first Sweet Cece's Experience Yummmm!!

She got to help her mama clean the house for the first time.

Finally....she was able to spend the day at the zoo with her cousins for the first time.

She did much better at the zoo here then in Beijing. She could have cared less about the animals, but was all about her cousins! She held their hands, gave them hugs and constantly had their attention. (Have I mentioned she loves attention :) ) Her favorite parts were the fish/reptiles because she could be out of her stroller and running around for everyone to see and hear (squeaker shoes). She also loved the playground area where she could jump up and down and sit on the giant stuffed elephant that would fall over. Her Uncle Joel was crazy as usual and entertained her and his little one by throwing himself down and letting them climb all over him.

She loved hanging out with her cousins and we cannot wait to do the zoo with them again!


Cherry Blossom has had so many visitors this week and she is so loved by everyone! We have been blessed with friends from church who have brought us meals every night and have checked in with us on a daily basis. Cherry Blossom has such a wonderful church family who will help her grow physically, emotionally and spiritually. We have been blessed by our family and friends that want to spend time with her and watch her grow. She continues to amaze us every day and we are so thankful that God created this little girl especially for us!

One Week Check-In - Who Needs Sleep?!?!

Who needs sleep?!?! Apparently Cherry Blossom and I do not. Cherry Blossom and I have both have had a hard time adjusting to the new time zone. The Rock decided to go back to work on Monday so we were on our own with little sleep. I could not make myself go to bed before midnight and Cherry Blossom could not make her body sleep past 1:30 am, which meant she woke up screaming "mama" and I was up with her from 1:30 am until her nap. When I did lay her down for a nap I was out too trying to recover. When my alarm would go off I had a hard time getting her to wake up. It was like she was in her deep sleep cycle during the day and her nap time cycle at night. U.S. vs. China time zones.

This was not going to work and we needed to figure something out. The Rock let me sleep Tuesday night and got up with her instead. We then quit giving her naps, which was hard for me since I was also missing out on one! I kept her busy by going shopping and keeping her out in the sun.

On Thursday night an amazing thing happened......she slept the entire night! Yesterday I rewarded her by letting her take a nap and then she slept through last night too. I'm hoping we have finally turned a corner and our Cherry Blossom now knows when she is supposed to sleep.

Even though I did keep her busy on outings she still found ways to catch some Zzzzz's.

One Week Check-In - Cherry Blossom and her "sisters"

Poor Cherry Blossom, not only was she in a new country in a new home but she now had to meet her "sisters". These sisters have four legs, are very spoiled and have no idea what they are coming home to. The oldest, Molly Moo, had stayed with Grandma and Grandpa the entire time we were gone. Maggie Moo had stayed with our friends Beth and Kiel for a few days and then with Uncle Derek, Aunt Amanda and Morgan the rest of the time.

Molly Moo was the first to be introduced by immersion because she is a little bit calmer and would not get in Cherry Blossom's face as much. Grandma and Grandpa show up with the big sister and the screaming/crying commenced! Cherry Blossom wanted nothing to do with Molly and of course all Molly wanted to do was see her mommy and daddy. Every time she would get near Cherry Blossom there would be screaming. This went on while Grandma cooked us dinner until finally Molly went off to be depressed in her bed. Slowly over the evening Cherry Blossom was able to be in the same room with her, but not touch her or let her get close to her. What probably upset her the most was that the same balls she had been playing with the day before were now in Molly's mouth. I had been telling her that she was playing with the dog's toys!

We thought that maybe by taking pictures of them with us to China as well as show videos of them to her while we were there she would not be so blindsided. She was!

Cherry Blossom had such a hard time that she went right to bed. This time she wanted to sleep in her crib and we thought we would give it a try. The next morning when she woke up I think that she had hoped that her big sister would be gone, but alas she was still there and now in her room! I'm sure Molly felt the same way! It did get better and we began to see some improvements so we decided we better bring the other one home.

Maggie Moo did have a better greeting when she arrived. There was no screaming or crying, but she still did not want them by her. She has decided to call them both "Ma" and she loves to boss them around! If we are outside and she thinks that one of them has gone too far she will yell their name, stomp her foot and point at the ground. She is learning really quick how to be bossy. They both love to camp out under her high chair and she is always quick to share her snacks with them.

They are still not the best of friends, but they do follow her wherever she goes. It may be because she has squeaker shoes on or it could be the constant snacks in her hands, who knows. Maggie Moo did wake her up the other morning by licking her hand through the crib which did not go well. Hopefully all will be peaceful in our house soon and we will all begin to get some sleep.

One Week Check-In - Welcome Home!

So, I did not realize how many people were following our blog every day until I have had people ask what is going on with Cherry Blossom and where are the updates?!?! Sorry that our blog stopped at Day 16. I would love to document every day of Cherry Blossom's life, but in reality that is not going to happen with a two (almost three) year old in the house :) So, I will try to do weekly updates for all of you that love to hear about Cherry Blossom and also for Cherry Blossom to read later to know what her life was like when she finally came home to her forever family.

Our trip home was quite eventful! Our first flight from Guangzhou to Seoul Korea was a little over 3 hours. The last hour and a half was spent with Cherry Blossom crying/screaming/throwing up etc while everyone watched and tried to calm her down. We are on a plane full of asian women who apparently do not like children crying because they were all staring at us. We hated not knowing what had upset her, but we were worried because this was only our first leg of the trip. Once we reached Korea I decided that I better get her prepared for the 13 hour flight both physically and mentally. We had an hour to wait for the flight and so I took her into the restroom, rubbed her down with her bedtime lotion (best thing ever invented) and put her pjs on. I told her that we were going to sleep on this plane! We got onto the plane and thankfully we were with another family also returning to the states with their fourth little girl from China. They were very encouraging and we hoped that it would be a good ride for all of us. Cherry Blossom was very fidgety and moody as we patiently waited for dinner to be served and the lights to go out. Thankfully Korean Air does do kid's meals so she had a good meal and plenty to do. After a couple hours we finally got her to go to sleep! Our girl slept for 8 hours! That means for over half of the flight she was out! We were so proud of her and were glad to see her wake up in a good mood. Let me just say, I wish my child liked the in-seat entertainment which contained kid's movies or tv shows....she does not! Which means, The Rock got to watch a movie while I entertained her and then visa versa.

Our last leg was a debacle from the beginning. We stepped off the plane into the good ole U.S.A. only to find ourselves in a long line for customs. We had been told to have all of her immigration paperwork in hand and ready for customs. We had less then two hours until our flight to Nashville left and we had to get through customs, claim our luggage, recheck our luggage back in, go through security and find our gate in the Atlanta airport, all while entertaining a two year old who is now in a new country. As we were waiting in line I was catching up on facebook and saw that two other families that had left the day before us had missed their connecting flights because of the line at Atlanta. I started panicking because again, I am the "What If" girl. We finally get up to the counter and the guy looks at our immigration paperwork, that I have now had in my hand for over 30 minutes and passed numerous immigration officials, and tells us that we are in the wrong line and need to go down to the end of the room to another line. What?!?! We now have to race down to this line where there is only one family ahead of us, the group that was on the plane with us. The immigration official tells me to place our paperwork on the counter and he would call us when he is ready. I kindly tell him that we are in a hurry and need to make our flight because we have people waiting on us. He tells me that he will get to it when he can and I need to "wait". At this point in time being told to "wait" is not what I want to hear! To cool down and pray I decide to take Cherry Blossom to the bathroom in order to change her into her "Coming Home" outfit and to freshen up. I come out of the bathroom 15 minutes later to see my file still sitting there and the two guys talking to each other behind the desk. Argghhhhh!!! I go stand in front of the desk to let him know that I am patiently waiting! He picks up my file and begins to go through it. He then asks me if I have any fruit and I realize that there is a banana in Cherry Blossom's diaper bag that we had brought on the plane for her from China. I honestly tell him yes and try to hand him the banana. He refuses to take it and tells me that I now have to go to a different part of the security section to be searched for other foods. Cherry Blossom is about to see her mama have a meltdown now. I could have lied and just gone back into the bathroom and thrown it away, but I could not lie. He finally finishes our paperwork and we rush off only to be sent to the line for food in luggage. Of course we are behind a couple from India who apparently has a lot of food in their luggage and do not speak English. I hold up my banana at the security official hoping he will let me go through but he tells me to "wait". We finally get through the banana security and have to claim our luggage. It is nowhere to be found on the carousel. We are about to say "forget it" they can send it to us when I see that someone has pulled it off and left it to the side. We grab it, check it back in again and go through security. Thankfully security was way faster then customs.

If you have ever been in the Atlanta airport then you know how big it is! We have to find the train to take us to the right building. We get off the train and try to find the elevator because we still have Cherry Blossom's favorite stroller that she refuses to part with. As we are getting on the elevator God hears my prayers because an airport employee gets on too and sees from my expression that we are stressed. He asks me where we are going and he knows where it is and has a cart upstairs right outside the elevator. He throws us all on the cart and speeds us through the terminal to the gate. We run up to the gate just in time and we are the last ones on the plane. Of course Cherry Blossom had to make her entrance because she marched right onto that airplane and marched down the aisle in her squeaky shoes while everyone laughed and waved at her. She loves attention! This lasts until we are in the sky because then she passes out again.

We land in Nashville and Cherry Blossom is grumpy!! She has no desire to carry her American flag and I am dreading that she is going to throw a fit once we get into the airport. As we are coming up the terminal we hear Grandma say "Here they come" and Cherry Blossom perks up. The Rock gets left behind with the stroller and the carry ons as Cherry Blossom makes her entrance to her welcome home party. There was so many people wearing our Chosen shirts and she was all about entertaining them. She wanted down in order to play with the kids and was waving her flag everywhere. We were so overwhelmed by all of the love of our family and friends that came out at 10pm on a Saturday night to welcome home our family of three! She was giving everyone high fives and kisses and was just full of herself.

Her happiness ended when we got to her car and she was introduced to a car seat. She screamed and cried as her baba put her in it, but settled down soon after leaving the airport. She came home to a house decorated with balloons and signs from our dear friends as well as a stocked fridge and pantry. We all crashed in the master bedroom and Cherry Blossom was in her house! Everything was good, until the first four legged sister came home! (Next post -hopefully to come tomorrow)

Day 16: Leaving on a Jet Plane

Our bags are packed and we are ready to go. Leaving today is bittersweet since we are leaving the country of our daughter's birth. She is taking it all in stride this morning and actually helped mama pack. In other words, she took things out, handed them to me and I put them back in.

We went to a Thai Restaurant called Cow and Bridge for our last dinner last night. It was good, but definitely not kid friendly. Cherry Blossom did not like their rice, they could not understand that I wanted noodles for her, they were out of of fruit and no kid's meal. The Rock ran downstairs to get her some yogurt and fruit cocktail from 7Eleven. She did not like either of these either since they were different. It also bothered her that they did not give napkins. If you want dry or wet napkins you had to pay for them Really?!?! My food was good, but we didn't get to enjoy our meal with her not being able to eat anything other then the little snacks we bought her.

Yesterday afternoon she got to have the experience of a 2 story Walmart. Woo hoo! We let her pick out some snacks for home as well as a couple toys for the plane. We are hoping that with all of the snacks and toys she will be entertained on our long voyage today!

I know this is short, but we are having to check out and head to the GZ airport! Next stop, Seoul Korea and then onto Atlanta!

Please pray that there are no delays so that we can have our welcoming party tonight!! I'm so excited to see everyone!

God has blessed us with the most amazing daughter who I cannot get enough of! Maybe her little brother will not be far behind?!?! Now we have to ask ourselves, China or U.S.? God will provide that answer!

Day 15: Our Last Full Day in China!!

This time tomorrow we will be sitting on a flight to Seoul Korea! China has found a new place in my heart, but I am ready to come home! Today we spent the day hanging around the hotel and its surrounding area. We went walking in the beautiful gardens that are the center of the hotel. Cherry Blossom was still not a fan of the fish or statues so not many pictures were allowed to be taken. I did catch a couple of pics when she was pointing at the fish though!

Our little girl is growing up right before our eyes. We see more of her personality every day! We were excited to see at her medical appointment that she had gained two pounds since our last update so she is now a whopping 24 pounds! She is still very tiny for her age and many people refer to as an infant or baby, but she will gain some weight once she reaches our house!

One of my favorite times of the day is when she wakes up in the morning or from a nap. She just puts her arms around my neck and snuggles into my neck. She is such an active little girl that we rarely get hugs during the day. We still get plenty of kisses though! She continues to mimic things we say. Yesterday she was playing with her Baba and he was counting her stacking balls and she was counting right after him. She got all the way to 10! She also likes us to make noises when we dress her or change her diaper. She always has a smile on her face when one of us is playing with her. She is also adamantly independent at times and gets frustrated when she can't climb up onto the couch or a chair on her own. She is an almost 3 year old with the body of 1 and half year old but is strong willed!

I cannot wait to walk off that plane tomorrow night! We are so blessed to have friends and family coming to meet us at the airport. We are flying in from Atlanta on Delta flight 1709 arriving at 9:56. I believe that people are going to wait outside of security instead of baggage claim. Just as a reminder, we will be so happy to see you but please give Cherry Blossom her space. She is probably going to be irritable and tired. Please do not try to take her out of our arms, we are still working on her bonding with us and knowing that we are mama and baba. Hopefully she will be the joyful little girl you see in the pictures and will be waving and blowing kisses at everyone. A mama can hope :) We are praying that she falls asleep for most of the flight!

One more sleep until we are home!

Day 14: Cherry Blossom is sworn in to the U.S.A.

Today was a pretty exciting day for Cherry Blossom with a lot of firsts! First, today was the special day where we go to the American Consulate and we are sworn in on her behalf. Usually this office is full of other adoptive families, but because of Beijing keeping us an extra two days we are behind everyone else. In fact, many of those families left this morning to come home. (jealous!!) It was definitely an eventful swearing in. It was us and one other family and Cherry Blossom actually was playing with their little boy, so cute! The lady sat behind a window and told us our responsibilities about getting her a social security card etc. when we got back into the states. She then asked the parents to stand up and hold up their right hands and repeat after her. She begins and all of sudden I cannot understand what she is saying because she is laughing so hard. I look over and there stands Cherry Blossom standing beside her Baba with her right hand raised. What made it even funnier was that she had her flamingo glasses on. The lady couldn't finish the oath without laughing a few times because Cherry Blossom was being so serious in the glasses. It was a really proud moment for us :) We took a picture next to the American Consulate sign and Cherry Blossom got one by herself where she threw up a peace sign. I have noticed that whenever I see young people taking pictures together as a group over here they are throwing up peace signs, apparently Cherry Blossom is in the "in crowd". Tomorrow we will receive her visa and we can then leave anytime after that. She was one happy camper to be leaving the consulate today. She was holding her Babba's hand and swinging her right arm, still proudly wearing her flamingo glasses.

Cherry Blossom also got to try a Mexican restaurant for her first time last night. She better like mexican food because Mama is always craving it. We both agreed it was ok, but we definitely missed salsa and chips (didn't come with the meal) and cheese dip. She had chicken nuggets and fries, but only ate the fries because she still can't chew up chicken well enough and just spits it out. The restaurant was in walking distance so we got to see the night life of Guangzhou and enjoy the lights of our hotel. I will post some pictures below!

When we got home last night Cherry Blossom got to do her favorite thing, take a bath. She would probably stay in there for an hour if I let her. The hotel room we are in now has a humongous bathtub that she thinks is her private pool. She does not put her face under water yet, but we are working on getting her over her fear of fountains. If we go near a fountain of water she is shaking her head no and then begins screaming. We also found out today that this applies to statues.

We saw the statues on Shaiman Island, which is where adoptive family all used to stay up until the past couple of years. I absolutely loved the island! It was covered in beautiful flowers, gorgeous buildings and was so easy to get around. There were people over there taking wedding pictures, modeling pictures and family pictures. We went with another family that is here from our agency and Cherry Blossom had a blast with their little girl who is 3 almost four. They got to try candied fruit from a street vendor that made me cringe the whole time she was eating the sticky mess. This little girl talked way more then Cherry Blossom but was constantly holding Cherry Blossom's hand or sharing her food with her. It was adorable. We had fun shopping/bartering, walking around the island and eating lunch with this family. We found a playground and I did not think Cherry Blossom would be up for it since she screamed when I took her to the one at the airport. She found one slide that she would go up and down with me or Baba standing around it. She had a blast and then screamed and cried when we had to leave.

The poor thing did not have a nap today so we will see how the rest of the afternoon goes. She has been very grumpy, but mama is happy that she found more squeaker shoes and silk dresses for Cherry Blossom. I really love shopping over here, it is so cheap!

The Rock thinks we should move to China because he could make a lot of money over here with the construction. I told him he was crazy and that it was not going to happen. He then wondered if we could buy a summer home on the island......really?!?! I looked at him like he was crazy! I have loved my time here in China. It is way better then I thought it would be, but I am ready to be home to my soft bed!!! I think my back has finally adjusted to sleeping on bricks every night :)

Tomorrow we have a free day to pack and walk around the city. Two more sleeps in China!