Little Miss Busy Body

Olivia is doing great. She is so busy checking everything out and into everything just like an average "almost" two year old. Yesterday was our first trip out to the store. She was waving at everyone and even high fived the teller at the bank. She is not the shy little girl we had in China. It is hard to get pictures of her to post though because she does not like the camera. I am not sure if she is afraid of it or what, but when she sees it she kinda whines and hides, so we have to sneak and they are often failed attempts at quick shots.

Her diet has not improved much. It still consits of rice, noodles, dry cereal, french fries and oatmeal bars. Besides formula that is about it. We keep putting an assortment of other things in front of her and they keep coming out of her mouth. Oh well, eventually she will figure it out, I hope. If not, she will eat rice for the rest of her life. I know someone else like that and he looks like a pretty healthy man-right Jack?

Today we are going to school to see big sis Morgan and eat lunch with the 4th grade class so Morgan can show her off to her classmates. I think they will both enjoy this outing. Olivia is starting to enjoy being the center of attention, especially if other kids are involved. Plus she just LOVES her big sister Morgan.

Mike started back to work this week after being laid off for almost four months. He was ready to go back so that was an answer to prayers. I have this week and next week off and still don't have a babysitter lined up for Olivia yet, so I am worried about that. I only need someone for two hours a day for 7 weeks until the end of the school year. It shouldn't be that hard, right? UGH! I am just going to keep praying about this one.

Well, off to get ready for lunch.

We are home!

We are home!!!

The kids are in love with Olivia. The first night home we laid her down in her crib and she slept from 9PM till 8AM when I woke her up. The next night she woke up every couple hours but would go right back to sleep. Last night she slept through the night again. I think we are getting there. She takes all her naps in her crib and has no problem with laying down and sleeping in her room.

When we got home on Wednesday she was a little overwhelmed because there were other people at the house but by the next day Katie and Morgan were both carrying her around and playing with her. She pretty much runs around the house but she still does not like our two dogs (Yorkie & Pomeranian) so if she sees them she wants you to carry her. Now when people come over she plays and shows off for everyone but still won't let others pick her up. It is amazing how she has come out of her shell. In China she would not let anyone talk to her. Not Chinese or American. She would turn her face away from them. We just thought she was very shy. Here she will walk up and bop them in the head with a balloon and laugh.

Eating is a different story. She was still on 4 bottles a day at the orphanage. She does not take a sippy cup or drink out of a regular glass or know what a straw is. It is bottles only. She won't even try anything different yet. She will eat dry cereal, granola bars, bread, rice, ramen noodles, french frys and not much else. The other night she did eat a chicken nugget. We figured we will just keep putting things in front of her and eventually she will have to eat something. I am keeping her on formula at this time since she is so little and until I know she is eating better. She sure has a strong will when it comes to food. We are just trying to not make a big deal out of it so that it does not become a power struggle and so she does not realize she has the power in this.

We were amazed when we put her in her carseat. It didn't bother her a bit. She acted like she had always been in one. So that was a relief.

In China we had a couple major temper tantrums or what I call a melt down. These can last up to about 45 minutes. She wants me to hold her but does not want me to touch her. She screams and cries and squirms. I think it is her way of grieving and releasing the trauma that she has gone through. We had a couple of these episodes in China and one since we have been home. I am not sure if there is a trigger to them or if she just hits a time and it just has to happen. It is really heart breaking to see. She acts like she is in physical pain. She will not let you comfort her but if you put her down she panics and immediately needs to be back in my lap. While she is screaming she wants to kick and hit. It is like every emotion is coming out at the same time and she has no control over it. I imagine these will become less and less frequent as time goes on.

She runs around the house and steals the show. She loves to make faces and show off. We call her Pistol Pete and she knows she is the center of attention. She is quite the actress. The introvert we were introduced to two weeks ago has disappeared and we have seen our little extrovert take her place. We wouldn't have it any other way.

T Minus and counting...

This is it.... the last post from the USA. We are leaving here at 6:00 AM for Chicago and our flight leaves at 12 noon. The next time you hear from us we will be in Beijing, God willing.

Reminder....to follow along on our journey log on to:

www.journeytome.com

username: stahley
password:stahley

I will probably not be posting here because the blogs do not always work in China.
Later all-
Soon to be ChinaMama

Closer and Closer

Sorry I have not posted in a while. Things here have been uneventful. Time seems to be dragging. Two more days until we take off. We are just tying up loose ends. One of the problems with being uber organized is that you get everything done ahead of time and then there is nothing to do but sit and wait.

Today is my last day to drive bus. I took tomorrow off so I could finish up my last minute errands. I am sure ready for a break. I had an altercation with a parent today and just need a break from them all for a while.

Tonight is our last travel meeting with our agency. I will be there via telephone (just like last time).

We got about two inches of snow last night. It looks very pretty. Probably the last snow we will see. It is suppose to get into the high 50's here this week and where we will be at in China the 70's and 80's. Very humid.

Well now I am just rambling. I will try to post once more before we take off.

Gettin' Real

Today our passports came back with our visa stamps and our travel letters and confirmations! Whew! We also got our itineraries. WOW! It is all coming together now. According to our agenda we will get Olivia on Monday March 13th. That is in 11 DAYS!!! Less than one week and I will be flying over an ocean someplace on my way to China too. Over one year of dreaming and planning is all coming to a head. I can hardly wait!

The total is in......

The total for our benefit is outstanding. It was so much fun too. I can't wait until we find a reason to do another one. I heard several others said the same thing. That is great. Okay, okay I will get to it. The total is.....drum roll please.......$3,996.00. Yippee! WOW!! Whoo Hoo! Unbelieveable!

I AM A GREAT AUNT!

My neice had a baby boy on Saturday night. After being in labor for two days she gave birth to an 8 lb. 6 ounce bouncing baby boy, Tevis Alexander. TWO DAYS OF LABOR! No 18 year old should have to go through that! LOL! He is adorable. AND she looks pretty darn good too.

Benefit

Yesterday was our benefit at church. I would call it a great sucess. I don't have the totals yet. They will give me those tomorrow. But there was plenty of food. They served chili and potato soup, bread and brownies. We brought soup, brownies and bread home as did several others there was so much left.

Then the items for auction! WOW! I would guess there were about 30 items up for silent auction. Some of the most beautiful baskets! Coffee baskets, chocolate baskets, Mary Kay baskets, movie basket, bath basket, kitchen basket, car care kit basket, children basket, tanning basket, Christmas basket and more. There was a dinner at a fancy restaurant donated, a night at a bed and breakfast donated, a couple golf outings donated, a kids set of golf clubs, hand stamped cards, hand made blankets....I could go on. It was so cool. And people were having so much fun bidding. They were practically wrestling over some of the items.

So, I would say it was a great sucess and I can't wait to do something like this again as a church cause it was fun!

Lori Kay, our pastor's wife, and my good friend, also interviewed us during the church service today. She asked us questions about the adoption process, our feelings and expectations and then prayed for us. It was nerve wracking but afterwards several people said we did really well. WHEW! I hope so, cuz I sure was sweating up there!

Surprise Shower! & We are GOING TO CHINA!!!

Last night at our Bible Study group they suprised us with a shower. Above is the gifts we received. We also had a cake, punch and non-alcoholic hooch (white grape juice). We were so shocked. We have only been part of this group for a few weeks but they have embraced us and supported us from day one. It has been really neat.

PART 2: At 9:30 last night we got confirmation of our Consulate date so our agency started working on our flights. Today we got those booked. It is now official! We are leaving on March 8th and returning on March 22nd. Our Consulate appointment is the 20th. We should get our full itinerary next week so we know what we will be doing each day in China.

I just can't believe it. After waiting for so long, the dream seems to be really turning into a reality. We are really going to China in less than 2 weeks! I know the time is going to fly with all the things we have going on yet and the things to do. YIPPEE!!!!

Okay-first advertisement...... our travel log can be found at www.journeytome.com (username: stahley password: stahley) Bookmark this site. This is where I will be posting our pictures and our travel log. I hope to be posting everyday that we have Internet connections. I will post this again before we leave.

Happy Birthday Son!

Today is my baby's birthday. Twenty years ago today I gave birth to my only son. Evan was 10 weeks premature and only given a 50/50 chance of living. He weighed a mere 3 pounds and lived in the hospital for 5 weeks. Well that little guy was a fighter. He fought and he grew and today he is 20 years old and a freshman in college.

Happy Birthday Evan~ I Love You

Trip to Ohio

Okay, I had some time to kill so I had to make another one of my surprise trips. LOL! This time I headed to Ohio to surprise another one of my travel mates. Yep-she didn't know I was coming. Morgan and I jumped in the van and made the almost 5 hour trip to her house. She was getting her hair done (we knew that). So when she got home, we were laying in wait. As she got to the door, I opened it for her and asked if she had any packages I could help her with. Well lets just say it is a good thing she does not wear dentures or we would have been picking them up off the floor. Then the screaming and hugging began! I had a great afternoon/evening visiting with Lisa. My buds Sheila and Jack drove up from KY so we could all go to supper together. Julie (Lisa's cousin who was in on the surprise) and her hubs Dave came too. Julie and Dave just got back last month from China picking up their second daughter and Lisa and Mike are also getting their second daughter.

Here are some pictures of Mike, Lisa and Laney. I am terrible about taking pictures. I totally forgot to get my camera out when we were together as a group. Sorry.

I am working on putting together a site for our travel log on Journey to Me. I may try to post here too, but several people have had problems with blogs being blocked in China. Plus on Journey to Me I can have all my pictures, my travel journal and any comments people leave me burned onto a CD for $25 and the site is free. It is password protected though(that is the one thing I don't like about it). Once I have it set up I WILL post here what the address it and the password so everyone can follow along. Kewl? Good! I won't leave anyone behind.

We are hoping for Consulate confirmation today and then we should be able to book our flight tickets today too! Yippee!

ChinaMama

TA'S ARE HERE!!!!!

YIPPEEEE!!!!

We just got word that our Travel Approval's have arrived!! That is what we have been waiting for. Our agency has now put in for our Consulate appointment and if we get our first choice we will be leaving for China on March 8th. Since our agency has requested a date so far out I doubt we will have a problem getting the one we want. I am a little bummed that it is still three weeks away but AT LEAST WE HAVE A DATE!! Hang on Olivia Mama is coming to get you.

Very Special Gift

Tonight I got a very special gift. There is a picture of it at the top. Does it resemble the picture underneath? Almost perfectly I would say. It was from my friend LK. She about had me in tears tonight. Believe it or not she "claims" that 10 months ago she could not even draw stick figures of people but now she can produce a drawing like this. I am absolutely amazed! And then she was worried that the pink mat would not match Olivia's room. Well that is not a problem because it won't be hanging in Olivia's room. It is hanging in my family room. She even spelled out Olivia's name in Chinese characters and then wrote "Daughter of my Heart" across the bottom. I just can't stop looking at it.

There is still no news on our travel approvals yet. I am feeling a little down today about it. I know realistically it will probably not be until next week, but I was really hoping for this week.

Hang on Olivia! Mama is coming!

PS: Morgan has one more (last) baby goat. She has Scooter, Missy and Lily.

Morgan has babies!!!

This morning early, around 6:00 AM one of Morgan's goats had twins. One little boy and one little girl. One (the white one-boy, looks just like the daddy) and the other (the brown one-girl, looks just like the mommy). Morgan got to watch the little girl being born. It was one of those life experiences that dad thought was worth missing the bus for so he drove her to school. She is so excited you would have thought she had them herself. Enjoy the pictures.

My Shower!!!

Today was my shower. It turned out really great. The picture above is of my mother, my girls and myself. The picture to the right is a picture of a gift from my friend for Mike. If you can't make it out, it is a walker with a stroller attached. It is hilarious. Olivia recieved lots of clothes, a potty Elmo, a Pink Leap Pad, lots of sippy cups, a couple stuffed animals, some dishes, a bunch of tub toys, some books, a couple gift cards and more. The theme was Ladybugs! It was a great celebration. Now all we need is Olivia home!

Packing, Packing, Packing

This is what Olivia's room looks like right now. A MESS! I do have the packing all figured out though. AND the only thing I have left to pack is my laptop (when it gets back from getting overhauled), my two camera's, my baby carrier once it gets here, and my make up which will actually go into the corner of one of the small bags. Other than that it is all done. If they called me tomorrow and said it is time to go, I would be ready to head out the door. SO-BRING IT ON!

Project Living room almost done.

Okay the walls are all done in the living room. Now we can get the trim up and push everything back into place. Yippee! This was one project I had been putting off but really wanted to get done before Olivia came home. Mike can normally have the trim up in one evening. I will probably have to buy a few more pieces and stain them, but it shouldn't take too long.

No TA this week so that means that we won't hear anything for the rest of the week since CCAA is closed this week for Chinese New Year. This is the year of the Dog. But my little girl was born in the year of the Monkey....same as her mommy! Mike says "Great, just what we need is two monkeys in the house!"

20 Years and counting....

I forgot to mention that Mike and I celebrated our 20th anniversary this last week. WOW! 20 years-it blows my mind. We decided our gift to each other this year would be a trip to China. Cool huh?

Mike and I married very young. I was 18 and he was 19. It was a pretty crazy time. I was finishing up my senior year in high school. He was going to trade school an hour away.

I remember it was a cold wintery day that we got married on. I remember being worried that the weather would get really bad and no one would be able to come. But they came. About 300 of them.

We honeymooned in Fort Wayne (couldn't afford a honeymoon so a few friends of my mom's went together and got us a hotel room for a couple nights). It was Super Bowl weekend. We got a pizza and sat on the bed with our pizza and watched the Super Bowl.

It hasn't always been easy, pretty tough at times actually, but in our case getting married young was a good thing. We finished growing up together. I can't imagine being married to anyone else. I can't imagine anyone else being the father to my children. Mike is my best friend and I thank God for him every day. Here is to 20 more babe!

Okay I am a nerd. But I just found this site. It is pretty cool. Just had to post it. Sorry if you have already seen it.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8524684692908021783

Some people just have too much time on their hands. If you have not seen this yet, watch it clear through. :)

Long slow wait

Well this wait will be fairly uneventful. While waiting for TA's there is not the rumor mill to follow and the ups and downs that there are with referrals. It is basically turn your letter in and wait for CCAA to do something with it. So the next six weeks is gonna be slow.

We did get a call from our Pastor's wife on Friday. The church would like to do a fundraiser for us to help bring Olivia home. Probably something like a dinner. I am so excited. I think it is awesome because it is a way for the church to get involved in our adoption, share in our excitement and a way to bring everyone together for a purpose. Of course, Mike sees it as a charity thing. He is not real excited. I gave him many arguments as to why we should agree to it. I finally won him over but it is grudingly. It does not bother me at all. We are always one of the first to step up and help people and everytime we do so we feel blessed. Sometimes you have to be able to recieve. Besides, this adoption and trip is going to happen no matter what. so it is not like we are asking for it.

I bought paint for the living room. I figured that is something I can work on while waiting. (Knowing me it will take about a week to get it done). But that will be one more week down.

I have one suitcase completely packed and three others half packed. I am down to mostly things that we are still using and can't pack until the last couple days before we leave.

The stork alert has just been alerted for the next batch of referrals. This last week has been a roller coaster ride for those waiting. I am SOOO glad to not be in that stage of the game anymore. ;)