AHH Picnic

This past weekend Morgan, Olivia and I made the trip south to Kentucky for our adoption agency's annual reunion picnic. It was their 10th anniversary so it was even more special for them. There were over 1300 people there. They catered in food, had free cotton candy, snow cones and popcorn. They also set up several inflatable rides (bouncy rides, slides etc.). My travel group The Lovebugs set up several canopies so that we could all hang out together and visit and see our girls and how much they have changed. It was so neat! I can't believe how much the babies have changed in the last 3 months. Allison our guide from China was also there. It was great to see her again. She gave me a big hug and about knocked me over she was so happy to see me.

Olivia hanging out at the picnic.

Some of the cool rides at the picnic.

Olivia and her buddy Ava.

Ava's mommy and daddy passing out goodies.

Some more of our cuties hanging out at the picnic.

This is Allison our Chinese guide with another friend of mine and her daughter.

Pretties...

Today Olivia got some pretties (earrings). She didn't actually mind the piercings. It was when the lady put the rubber gloves on that she went ballistic. I am pretty sure she thought she was a doctor. She started screaming. Now she walks around pointing out her pretties, mommies pretties and Morgan's pretties (Morgan got her ears double pierced). Now hopefully mommy doesn't get kicked out. Daddy didn't want this. He thinks I should wait until she is old enough to decide for herself. I have always thought little girls are adorable with pierced ears. Well I told him I waited with the first two girls, this time I got it my way. That conversation was a month ago. Hopefully he remembers it. :)



PS: The spots around her eyes are a bug bite and scratch from camping this weekend. The bug bite almost swelled her eye shut.

3 Month Anniversary

WoW! Four posts in three days. It must be a record for me. LOL!

Today is the three month anniversary of the day that they placed Olivia in my arms for the first time. It is really unbelieveable to me. It seems longer to me. It feels like she has been in our family longer than 3 months. Do we get to count the time we were waiting for her???

She has changed so much in the last three months though. I can hardly remember the little girl we brought home. I think she has even changed in her pictures. She seems older. Maybe she has become more self assured and confident or something, but she seemed so lost and helpless in those early pictures. Now I see a little imp.

Today she was a little stinker. Days like today remind me why I may be too old to have young children. It seems like she has a day once and a while when she gets into everything. AND I MEAN EVERYTHING!!! I was busy trying to clean and everytime I turned around she was getting into something that she wasn't suppose to. I think she can tell when I am not focused on her and she does this on purpose. I was ready to scream and pull my hair out. By the time it was bedtime tonight I was exhausted. I had yelled and snapped at her, she got swatted and I even smacked her hand once before the day was over. None of it phased her a bit. Oh, when I swatted her (diapered) butt, she looked up at me and stuck her elbow up and said "Owie" and wanted a kiss. Then ran off laughing. She really knows how to distract me and get my attention on something else. Little stinker!! I think she was growing horns today. UGH! But at bedtime she grabbed my face with both of her hands and gave me a big kiss. Okay, I forgive her and it was all worth it...again.

Post #3 Today-Weekend Camp Trip

This weekend we had a church camp out. Olivia was in her element. She LOVES to be outside and to be able to virtually live outside for two days was just about heaven for her. She got to experience a campfire, bike riding (she was not real excited about that at first), lots of walks in her stroller, snacking all day, playing in the dirt and with sticks and looking for bugs. She did great. Morgan just rode bikes and ran with her friends all weekend. I just don't know where the kids get all their energy. I get worn out watching them.

Okay so Morgan doesn't look so energetic in this one. LOL!

Time to go home and Morgan is trying to corral Olivia and she is not too happy about it.

Post #2 Today-The Zoo

Well after the accident and all, the girls had a great time at the zoo. Olivia loved the animals. She also got to go on a boat ride through the Australian section and drive the jeep in the African Safari.

A Mama's Nightmare

Today my oldest daughter Katie (18) decided to take Morgan (10), Olivia(2) and her friend Steph(16) to the Fort Wayne Zoo (1 1/2 hours away). About the time they should have been arriving at the zoo I get a phone call and it is the very frantic voice of Katie screaming "MOM! We have a flat tire and we are in the middle of the Interstate!" I tell her to pull the van off the road. She says "I can't the van won't move. The tire is behind me!" I finally figure out that the tire has shredded and she is on the rim and the van won't move anymore. She is in a panic because traffic is moving at them at 70 plus miles an hour and no one realizes until the last seconds that they are not moving. She is laying on her horn trying to get people's attention, she has the flashers on and the van is shaking from the vehicles flying past them. She says "I have to get us out of the van cause I know someone is going to hit us." Well I am not too excited about this idea but I am not there to assess the situation and I am 1.5 hours away freaking out myself trying to call someone else on the other phone to get them help. She hung up on me and called me back about four minutes later. She says "Okay we are out and in the median, but no one is stopping I don't know what to do....OH NO! Someone just hit the van!!!" Less than one minute after they got out of the van and someone hit it. Thankfully Katie did the right thing and got them out and also the hit wasn't too bad. Well to make a long story not quite as long, the police ended up driving the girls to the zoo so they could hang out there until I could drive down there to assess the situation and figure out what we were going to do. The van was towed, but we able to put the spare tire on the van (thanks to the guy at the wrecker place) and I drove it back at 45 MPH (probably losing parts on the way) and got it to the collision shop with Katie following me. It could have been much worse. Katie was so worried they were going to be rear ended by a semi. She is normally so calm in bad situations and frankly I don't know if I have ever heard her so scared or this panicked before. I think that is what had me so upset. To be so far away and not be able to help or know what to do for them. Praise the Lord, He was in control and took care of them (though I am sure their guardian angels have some gray hairs.)

Graduation, Speech and other ramblings....

Saturday was Katie's Graduation open house. We had a hog roast and served somewhere between 125-150 people. All I can say is "WHEW" I am glad that is over and done. The rest of the summer should be smooth sailing. I hope.

Here Olivia is with her cousin Gust at the open house. He loves chasing her around and she just squeals with delight.

Today Olivia started her speech therapy. She is not having any major difficulties but we decided to have her evaluated by our local First Steps program since it is free and to just see what the professionals think. For the evaluation they sent out a Speech Therapist and an Occupational Therapist. They decided that her gross and fine motor skills are right on if not even a little above what they expect them to be. Her social skills are even excellent. They were really surprised she was doing so well considering she had come from an orphanage and only been in our home for about 9 weeks. She does however qualify for speech therapy. She should have a vocabulary of about 50 words right now and she has maybe 10 that she uses plus (this surprised me) the 20 signs that she knows. I was surprised that they count the signs cause to me they are a form of communication but it is not "speech". Anyway, we signed her up for the services because they are 1. Free, 2. They said it will get her over the hump and get her caught up 3. I like having a professional evaluate her and know that she is getting to where she should be.

So, anyway today was her first session. After the hour when it was time for Susan to leave Olivia all but laid on the toys that Susan had brought to try to get her to stay. She LOVED the one on one attention and all the fun stuff that Susan brought. Susan also said that Olivia is very smart and she thinks the therapy will be very short term. YEAH! She said in a few months her brain will transition over to the English sounds and words and she will catch up quickly.

Livi also went swimming for the second time today. She loves it. I am relieved. After the initial bath fear, I was afraid she would be terrified of the pool. Today Katie and her friend Steph took Livi out and she cried when they had to come in.

Livi and Steph.

Family Pic

We have to do a 2 month update for our agency. They want a family picture. We grabbed all the kids and had my friend Cassie take a quick one cause we were all actually home at the same time for a few minutes. LOL!

Busy Weekend

We had a busy weekend this Memorial Day weekend. On Sunday we had a memorial service for my grandfather. He died two years ago, but he donated his body to science and this spring they sent his ashes back to the family. So we got together for a little service or rememberance before the ashes were buried. Then on Sunday Katie graduated. Whoo hoo! I was not looking forward to this event. It was 91 degrees out and humid. There were over 250 kids in her class and the gym was not air conditioned. BUT sitting in the gym fanning myself the band started to play Pomp and Circumstance and the Seniors started walking in I got all teary eyed. My little girl was graduating!! She graduated with an Advanced Scholar Indiana Academic Honors Diploma. She did her mama proud! This fall she will start college at Indiana University to become a Pharmacist.

Today we had some friends over that we have met during our adoption process. They live about an hour and a half away. We met them online and discovered we were using the same agency. They have been to China twice to add to their family and have two adorable daughters Kendall and Isabelle. Today they came to meet Olivia for the first time. Olivia did better than I though she might. I don't think she was real excited about sharing her toys, but we had no major meltdowns and it was a good learning experience for her. She also did not seem to notice that the two new friends were Chinese. When my friend Julia brought her daughters over Olivia seemed to tense up immediately when she saw them and I wondered if it was because they were Chinese. This was also within about two weeks of us being home so memories of her orphanage may have been still fresh in her mind.

Livi's Birthday

We celebrated Livi's birthday yesterday. It didn't take long for her to get into the ripping off the wrapping paper. She even spent the right amount of time checking each toy out before moving on to the next gift. She still was not feeling quite herself because of her shots and would not have much to do with anyone but mom. She also would not eat any of her cake. So we did not get any good messy cake pictures. She was scared of the candles so big sis Katie had to blow them out for her. LOL. We kept her party low key and only had grandparents and two aunts over (the uncles were working). Five cousins came too.

She also got a picture taken with two of her cousins. One is 7 months old and the other is 2 months old. They both weigh 15 pounds. Only 3 pounds less than she does. If you can't tell she hates having her picture taken and is less than thrilled on this day.

Two Years Old Today

Little Miss Olivia is Two today. We don't know if she even celebrated her first birthday or not but tomorrow we are having a little celebration for her second birthday. Yesterday she got three of the five shots she needed to get caught up and today was not a good day for her. She was sore and running a 103 degree fever. She was quite cranky and wanted to take naps off and on all day.

We did get some good shots of her enjoying her bath this week though.....

This week Olivia also got a really neat mini quilt for her birthday from Kay "Nana" Wilson. She is the really neat lady that did the quilting for Olivia's 100 Wishes quilt. It was really neat to get that package in the mail.

I will post her birthday pictures soon.

Where I have been...

create your own visited states map

Bring Me Hope

I know this video has made it around but if you have not seen it yet, grab a kleenex, pull up a chair and watch it. It is sure to touch your heart.

http://bringmehope.com/dvd/index.html

Go to the right side of the page and watch the 7 minute version of the Bring me Hope DVD. It is the best.

A Packet of Gold

When we received our referral of Olivia we of course looked up her orphanage (Guilin SWI) right away and found out that Half The Sky Foundation was in her orphanage. I contacted them during our wait to travel and asked them if she was in their Baby Sister Program (click on underline links for more info or to see pics). They got back with me right away (within 24 hours) and said that she was indeed in their Baby Sister Program and that after we were home with her and had officially adopted her, we could request all the information they had on her. When we were in China and on "Adoption Day" we were handed a packet of paperwork that had Half the Sky written across it. I couldn't wait to get back to our room to look at it. Unfortunately it was all written in Chinese. Fortunately there were many pictures of Olivia from babyhood up to her current age and enough dates on the papers that I could figure out that these looked like developement write ups on her for every three months from when she entered into the orphanage to when we were able to get her. They also included some hand and foot prints of hers and some pictures drawn by someone. I was very excited to say the least. Very few people are this lucky to have this many pictures of their children let alone information of the months of them growing up.

When we got home I wondered how I was going to get the information translated without spending a lot of money. There was probably 20 pages of information. My daughter, Katie, who is a senior in high school says, "Hey, there is a kid in my class who is from China, I can ask him if he could do it." So the next day she asks him and shows him a page. He says "Sure, I can read that and I would love to do it, for nothing." So for the next week to 10 days my daughter keeps bringing home a few pages at a time as he translates them for us.

These pages are GOLD to me. These are written by Olivia's nanny, and she refers to herself as Olivia's "grandmother". She talks about her the first time Olivia sits up, rolls over, crawls, talks, walks, gets into a rocking chair by herself, how many teeth she has, how she interacts with other children, how she is jealous when the "grandmother" has to care for a new baby that comes to the orphanage etc. She even talks about the day our care package arrives and she shows Olivia our photo album and she points out our pictures to her and how Olivia cries when one of the other kids takes her photo album away from her.

I am planning on writing a letter to the orphanage director and one to the "grandmother" before school is over so Katie's friend can translate them for me. I will send them with some gifts and pictures this summer. I want to show them and let them know how well she is doing and thank them for the care they took care of her. I am hoping I can get the grandmother to correspond with me either by letter or email.

I have added some pictures of what a couple of the pages looked like that were in the packet.

PS: I did give Katie's friend a thank you card and I put some cash in it for him cause we all know how teens like cash and I am not sure when he offered to translate all those pages for me that he knew what he was getting himself into. HAHA!

My next baby is growing up

I have one off to college with the second one close at his heels. My daughter Katie is about ready to graduate and in a few short months head off to college. Right now she is planning to pursue Pharmacy. She just had her senior pictures taken this weekend and now we have a disc of 109 pictures that we need to narrow down to about 5! This is not gonna be easy. Here are a few of MY favorites....(which aren't necessarily her favorites or her fathers....**sigh**)