First Family Day June 18th 2008

JUNE 2008

JUNE 2007

This has been such an amazing year. God has blessed my family with such a precious child. She finds so much excitement and joy each day. She is a drama queen but that makes life dramatic and fun most of the time. Every day I tell her she makes me smile.

I want to thank my parents for this past year. My mom stayed with us most of the year to help us all adjust to our new family. My job responsibilities changed which meant more traveling on the weekends but more time home during the week. To keep things consistent my mom (Nana) stayed with the kids when I was gone. This meant my Dad (Papa) was left in alone most of the time. They both allowed us to have the best possible start to a family of three.

Nathan has become a wonderful big brother most of the time. They can both give each other a run for the money when it comes to getting their ways. Neither is very good at backing down. Just what you would think a health brother sister relationship would be like.

ShayLa's Top Favorite Things That I Remember are:
1. Dress up - Being a Girly Girl
2. Loves Princesses - ALL OF THEM
3. Loves to eat - From day one she would eat whatever we gave her - Noodles still No. 1
4. Loves to sing -When she first came home she would sing in Mandarin all the time and slowly that changed to songs in English but the singing has never stopped. I love it! I know someday that may go away. I enjoy it and thank God she loves life and is Happy! Her brother on the other hand could do with a little less singing.
5. She prays every night and she lets God know everything that is going on in her life. We can't always understand what she is saying but I know God does and I can imagine Him just smiling and nodding so patiently.
6. She puts all her toys in purses and bags and carries them around.
7. She loves stuffed animals - This year her favorites were - Cat, Pet, Bear and Teddy
8. She loves to talk - All the time!
9. She knows no strangers - Always happy to say hi and ask questions
10. Loves to have her picture taken - She is a poser.
11. She loves to dance. She is usually singing or dancing now she has added skipping.
12. She loves her brother - Most of the time. She has learned to scream before he touches her just like any little sister would.
13. Did I mention she is dramatic - We never had much trouble communicating with her. You can always tell what she wants just from her expressions. Which are not always happy but it doesn't take much to get her back to smiling and having fun.
14. School - Loves going and seeing her friends
15. Cheerleading - Loves to watch and is excited about starting
16. Bath time - After bath being a Baby and letting mama rock her and sing "I love you" from Barney. Then she sings it back to me. So sweet.
17. Mandarin classes - She loved playing and singing songs. She still understands Mandarin but doesn't speak much any more.
18. Mama - She tells me that I am her best friend. Everything had to be the same for the longest time. I had a drink so she needed a drink. I was eating so she was eating. She would point out all the things that were the same.
19. Loves to say "Oh My Gosh" for just about everything new and exciting. It is so cute when she puts her hands up to her mouth.
20. I could go on and on - I don't want to forget any of these things. She is growing up so fast.

She also had some hard times. When I tell people that she is not always happy they can't believe it. She is really good at whinning. This is something we really had to work on and still do. No one is perfect don't we all know.

If anyone has questions about adopting an older child or one with a cleft lip and palate please let me know. She is wonderful and neither issue has been a problem. I love China and pray for her birth family each day. I am so thankful they chose to give her life. I am thankful that God chose me to be her Mama.

Julie

One Year Ago June 17th

On June 17th we traveled from Beijing to Wuhan. Again we had a very easy flight. We had to wait three hours for our plane. The flight only took about an hour and a half. The airport in Wuhan was very small compared to Beijing but they were doing construction and I am sure they are done with that by now. Our guide in Wuhan was very good. She had a major in tourism and clearly loved Wuhan and China. She was very interested in all the pictures that my brother was taking. Our hotel in Wuhan was very nice and the room was the largest of all the hotels. We got in unpacked and then went exploring. We found a grocery store, McDonalds and many places to go shopping. It was a long night but I did get some sleep. I kept think about what it would be like to meet ShayLa. Would she be happy or sad. I kept thinking that they might not approve the adoption at the last minute. Crazy things but it was mixed with excitement and joy at the same time. Looking back it was silly to worry so much God had a plan and it was good.

Julie

One Year Ago June 14th - 16th

One year ago my brother and I started our journey to get ShayLa Elizabeth O'Brien. We had such a great time and truly miss China. I am writing about my memories of our trip. Each day Shay, Nathan and I have sat down and looked at the video, pictures and talked about what was happening last year. I can not wait to take Shay and Nathan back some day.

On June 14th we were traveling and due to the time change lost this day. It was worth the lost. We arrived late around 10:00 p.m. The airport was huge and very nice. We found Chandler our guide without much trouble and the drive from the airport to the hotel was exciting. Just so excited to be in China. Still feeling some disbelief. The city is huge and even at that time the streets were every crowded. Our hotel was very nice and the beds were not to hard. The strangest thing was having to leave the key in a slot on the wall so the lights and AC would work. By day two we realized that is one of us left our key in that the AC would stay on all day. SPOILED AMERICAN!!!.

June 15th we got up early met our group in the lobby and headed for Tian'an Men Square. I remember that the streets were very crowded and many people were on bikes. It was interesting to see all the different things they could do with a bike. Tian'an Men Square was much larger than I thought it would be. When I've seen it on TV filled with people you don't realize just how many people it can hold until you stand in the middle of it. My favorite part of the day was the Forbidden City. The history and beauty of the buildings were amazing. Our guide did a good job of educating us. Chandler was fun and I remember he was so excited about coming to the US later in the summer. I hope he had a great time. It was also very hot. We enjoyed Starbucks in the middle of Tian'an Men Square and later after we came home heard that they had shut it down. I got to see my first squatty potty. Luckily I didn't have to use one. They had western toilets also.

June 16th we toured the Great Wall. This was my favorite site of the entire trip. It is so big and hard to believe that it was built by people so long ago. We had a nice day and John made it all the way to the top. My knee was still bothering me so I only made it to the second tower. I remember thinking how strange it was to have people trying to sell things to us even up on the wall. They were persistent but nice. One of the older men kept following me around he would smile and come back again later. We did end up buying some of the coins. I know they are not real but Nathan loved them. Later in the day we went to the Cloisonne Factory and after that by the Olympic area. In the pictures you can see where they were still working on the building card the "Bird's Nest" and the other one is a picture of it finished. Everywhere you looked Beijing was getting ready for the Olympics. They had so much construction. I wondered how they were going to make the haze go away. We went to one of the Olympic stores and bought a number of gifts.

We had seven families that toured with us in Beijing. All of the children in our group were Special needs so the next day we split into smaller groups and head to the province where our children were waiting.

I want to thank my brother for the great pictures. He did a great job of capturing what we saw. Now we are sharing it with ShayLa. Every time she sees something in China she says "My China" I wish she understood more so we could ask her questions. I am not sure she really remembers. I know that did a great job caring for her. She is a joy and I am so blessed to have her in my life.

One Year Ago Today!

One Year ago today my brother and I boarded three planes to LA / Tokyo / Beijing. We had a safe easy flight on all three planes. Our connections were well timed and other than being really nervous and excited about getting to meet Shay our trip over was very smooth. I remember thinking when I woke up that day "What have I done" (just a little worried) and "WOW I can't believe the time has come" (thankful and excited). I could not believe we were on our way.

We upgraded our seats from LA to Tokyo which made the long part of our trip so nice. I've never been in first class so it was a treat. Our seats laid out flat and made sleeping very easy. I always sleep on planes so that just made it even easier. I think we still have the slippers they gave us. Our seats were upstairs on a plane that held over 400 people.

Shay and I talked about Mama coming to get her today. She doesn't really get it but it was fun talking about it. I am so thankful for her she is such a blessing. Everyday I thank God for letting me be her Mama.

Thank you also to Uncle John for coming with us last year, my Mom and Dad for staying with Nathan while we traveled and Nathan for letting Mama go for so long and being a good boy for Nana. He has been a great big brother most of the time.

Julie

Almost One Year! Look at Her Now

On June 18th we will celebrate our first year Family Day. I have a hard time expressing just how blessed I feel when I see her jump, sing, twirl and laugh. She knows no strangers and everything for the most part is so exciting. She does have her times when she crys and whines but so do we all and it doesn't take long for her to get back to your normal amazing self. I'm just a little bit biased. :) I am working on finding pictures from each month she has been home and hope to post them soon. All the picture stuff and video stuff on the blog's is new to me so it might take a while. My computer at home won't let me post pictures. I think it's to old.

We've had a great couple of weeks the high light was seeing Uncle John and the space shuttle blast off. I will write about that later. Hoping to have pictures to make it more exciting. We have made it to the end of Nathan's Kindergarten and he is enjoying Lego camp this week. We have three weeks of camp and then we will spend two weeks in Oklahoma with my parents. It is finally time for Papa to meet his Little Princess.

We had our first family photo session last Saturday so I hope those pictures will turn out and I will be able to post them soon. Both the kids did a great job except for Nathan's bug-a-phobia. Even the rollie pollies caused him stress. It was actually very commical but he didn't think so. I had visions of all the pictures turning out with him having his eyes all over the place looking for bugs. I am sure some will turn out great.

Julie