Hip Hip Hooray!!

We're Rested Today!!!

Today is the first day I actually feel like a human being. The sleepless nights were really starting to wear on me. Thankfully, Wesleigh treated me to a full nights' sleep last night!! Granted I was up with Cade and the dog, but I can deal with that! I am hoping we've started a new trend of sleeping but I'm not betting on it. It's also the first day I haven't taken a nap with her...hence the post!

She is doing so good. She is talking alot and coming up with new words all the time. She shakes her head very effectively. Shaking "no" while smiling means "yes"; shaking "no" with a straight face means "no". (Having these little details down make the day go alot smoother.)

This would be the face that goes with "uhhh". She uses that one alot ;)

She is in love with her daddy! It took a little while, but she now knows he is the funniest person around. This morning, she chased him around the house wanting him to hold her. He was pleasantly surprised.

Can you believe those lashes? They are so beautiful!

I am happy to report that we are better with the car seat. She has had two rides since the first disaster, and she did great. She started crying towards the end of the ride today, but I can deal with that. We've basically been spending our days at home. The boys went back to school yesterday. I have to say, it was a little surreal to be at home alone with a 2 year old again. It's been a LONG time since I've been home with a toddler. It's kind of hard to believe that she's really mine!

Who Dat?

I just thought I'd give you a peek at the newest Saints fan! I think she's the cutest Saints fan too! We'll be cheering the Saints to victory as long as our eyelids cooperate ;)

These are some pictures from yesterday. We went for a short walk to get a little sunshine, but it's really cold (not Beijing cold, though!!). She was just too cute in this outfit to not get a few pictures.

Wesleigh has started saying some English words. Her first one was "uh-oh". She uses that word ALOT. She has also says "no"and "look". She has the sweetest little voice and makes lots of sweet little sounds, even if we don't know what they mean.

Last night was a little better. We did try the Benadryl and think that worked. She didn't really wake up until 3:00, so that is progress. She was up from 3-6 though. She and I went back to sleep at 6:00 and slept till 9:30. I feel a little better today, but still dragging. Hopefully we'll make a little progress each day.

Tomorrow should be a big shock to her since she won't have her three brothers waiting on her hand and foot! I don't know what she's going to think about spending all her time with mom. I think we'll take a short trip in the car and try the carseat again. Should be a blast!

Overall, she is doing awesome. She is happy and seems to be having a great time exploring everything in this house. As I type, she's emptying a bag of trash I just collected. Oh well, she'll probably pick it all up next because that's what she seems to like to do.

I'm off to go play!

GEAUX SAINTS!!

Why Didn't You Tell Me?

Or maybe you did and I just didn't listen! This jet lag is for the birds!! I am really struggling over here trying to get things at least semi-picked up and the clothes washed...all on basically no sleep. Bryce and Braden are the only rested ones today so they have extra Wesleigh duty today ;) She sacked out at 7:30 last night (picture) but from midnight till 7:00am she was up and down constantly. She is "sleeping" in a pack 'n play right by my bed because that's what the set up was in China, but she gets up and whines at me constantly. I've tried putting her in bed with me, bottles, blankets, no blankets, rubbing her back, leaving her alone, talking to her, being silent, rocking...you get the idea. I am counting down the minutes until naptime...we're at 50 minutes right now!!

If that wasn't bad enough, Cade was up and down too. He came in our bed sometime in the middle of the night because he had a dream, but I kicked him out because he's hard to sleep with (not that there was any sleep to get). He came back sometime later and said he couldn't sleep. Richard ended up watching tv with Cade and Wesleigh at about 5:00am (I think). The top picture is how I found Cade when I got up this morning. So funny.

OK, there's my complaining. I have 28 minutes and counting before Miss W and I go down for a nap. I think I'll limit it to 2 hours today (as much as that pains me to say). I got us both up after 3 hours yesterday and she was pretty mad at me for a while and only wanted the boys. I thought it was hysterical. I wasn't happy to be up either ;)

I have a really cute picture for your bow fix. I'll try to post it later (but I'm not promising anything ;) We might be tired, but one of us is dressed to the 9's! (the other one hasn't washed her hair since she was in China!! LOL....)

We're Home!

We're Home!!

We might feel like we've been run over by a bus...and there are piles of "stuff" everywhere...but we're home!!

We had a great flight (as good as traveling for over 24 hours can be). Wesleigh only cried a little one time, but we didn't get a whole lot of sleep. She saved all her crying for the car seat on the way home! She HATED it and cried (screamed) the whole way home from New Orleans. Oh well, that's her new reality.

We visited with some family for a little while and showed Miss W around her house. She was so excited when she saw the toys in her room. She absolutely loved each one. Her favorite had to be the 2 plastic teasets. The next would be her baby doll and the little stroller. She's been walking around pushing the stroller all morning.

Sleeping last night was less than ideal. Wesleigh had a rough night. I would say it's because we're in a new place, but she's been sleeping in new places for 2 weeks without any problem. All I know is that at 3:00am Richard and I were having a tea party on the floor of Wesleigh's room. As sweet as it was, all I wanted to do is lay down and pass out. Bryce came in our room at 5:00 and said that he couldn't sleep. I gave Wesleigh to him and sent him in her room to play. I don't think I've ever been happier to see that boy! He brought her back to me at 6:00 and we slept until 8:30. I made myself wake up and also woke her up in the hopes that we can take a normal nap and sleep tonight. I'm counting down the minutes 'till nap time ;)

The biggest event yesterday was that Miss W decided to start going to her daddy all on her own. I guess it's better late than never, but it sure would have helped me on that long flight for her to let him hold her!! Oh well, I'm thrilled that she's doing it now.

I'm sure there's more to say, and who knows if what I typed makes any sense at all. It's the best I can get out right now. I'll post more later!

The End of a Chapter?

We are finally packed up and getting ready to take the van to Hong Kong. By the time most of you are reading this, we will be ready to board our flight to Chicago. I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about it. I do know that we will survive it, no matter what kind of passenger Miss Wesleigh is, so we're good. Just say a prayer for us!!!

I have a few thoughts to share with you as we prepare to leave the birth country of our daughter:

This journey has been the most amazing journey I have ever been on. I looked at Richard last night and said, "We did it! Can you believe after all these years of saying we were going to, doing paperwork, making plans...we did it!" I hope that following our journey has lit the fire of adoption in your heart. There are over 147 million orphans worldwide. As our group was on the bus heading for the airport to go to our different provinces and get our children, one of the dads who is a pastor shared a scripture with us. He read the story of when the disciples turned the children away from Jesus because they thought He was too busy. Jesus rebuked them and said to bring the children to him. He called them "the least of these". This dad told us that we were going to be a "Jesus" to these children...that we were saying, "bring the least of these to me, I will love them". There is no way you can look into any of these childrens' faces and say that they are not worthy of a home, of parents to love them. You can't look at my daughter and say that I should have thrown in the towel and given up...that the road was to hard and long. She deserves to have a family and so do all the others that we have to leave behind today. Jesus loves them...the least of these...I love them. This journey was long. It was painful. It was expensive. It was stressful. It was filled with tears, frustration and lots of red tape. It was worth it!

We can all do more.. I can do more. What will you do...for the least of these?

6 months of paperwork

2 years 7 months 19 days of waiting

28 hours of travel (twice!)

6 suitcases

3 backpacks

5 airport security checks

3 Chinese cities

2 bouts of jet lag

1 precious Chinese daughter.....PRICELESS

Thank you for taking this amazing journey with us. Your comments and support have been invaluable. They were a little piece of heaven each time I came to the computer. Many of you will be in this same place in the near future and I can't wait to follow your amazing journey. I will still be posting to my blog regularly, so please stay tuned to see how Miss Wesleigh continues to bloom and grow. I can't wait to see what God has in store for our family next. I do feel like this is an end to a chapter in our lives. We have talked about and planned for this moment for so long. Makes me wonder what the next chapter will hold...stay tuned!!

Zai Jian (goodbye) from China,

Home Stretch!!

Today was our last full day in Guangzhou. I can't even believe it's time to come home! Today was another great day. I took over 300 pictures today so it was hard to narrow them down. I think Diana will be happy for me to get home so she doesn't have to upload all these pics anymore!! The adorable dress Miss Wesleigh is wearing today was a special gift from my self proclaimed "scribe", Diana. I thought it fitting since Diana has been such a huge support to me as we were trying to get here and such a huge blessing in posting for me that Miss W should wear this special gift for our swearing in at the consulate's office. Doesn't she look adorable in it?

We started the day going to a local market outside of the city. It was amazing and these pictures are only a few of the awesome pictures we have. It is so humbling to see these people here and how they make their money. I felt overly extravagent as I strolled Wesleigh through with her matching bow and squeeky shoes. I wonder what they think of Americans and America.

We then went to a kindergarten close by. The children danced to some music for us and were absolutely adorable. We all had a great time here. Richard took Wesleigh to play on the playground and she enjoyed that. He has been able to hold her a number of times today. She still isn't asking to go to him, but she's not protesting quite so much when I hand her over. Progress...a little each day!!

I think her favorite activity is walking with the boys up and down the hall. They hold her hand and then fall to the ground. She thinks this is hysterical and laughs out load at them. When we get home and they're all at school, I think she's going to be sorely disappointed. There is no way I'm as entertaining as all that.

We leave for Hong Kong tomorrow afternoon about 4:30. They say it takes about 3 hours to get there, but we'll see. We spend the night there and then catch a flight at about 11:30 Thursday to head home. Since we gain our 1/2 day back, we land in New Orleans at about 4:30pm. You can't even imagine how much I'm dreading that flight home. Today, Wesleigh turned into a complete monkey. She is digging in everything and just spins on my lap. Please, Lord, let there be empty seats on this flight!!!!!!!! At least there are 5 of us. We can take turns walking her up and down the aisles if we need to. Yay! Regardless, we'll survive and then the reward will be great. We'll be home!!

Tomorrow morning we're going to an arts and craft museum...whatever that is. Actually every "museum" we've gone to has been more of a store. I still have a couple of souveniers to buy, so I'm hoping they have some neat stuff.. The afternoon will be spent packing. I don't even know where to begin. We bought a new suitcase, so we should be able to just throw everything in. I hope so. I will be happy to put these suitcases away at home and not see them for a while! I don't see us packing to go anywhere for quite a while!!!

I'm sure I'll be able to post tomorrow afternoon before we leave for Hong Kong, but that will be my final post from China...I can't even believe it. I can't wait to be able to look at all my posts and read all the wonderful comments again. What a blessing!

A Great Day!!!!

Today was such a fun day. We slept a little late which was very nice and then stayed in the room during our consulate appt. I tried to pick up this room a bit, but figured what's the use? There's no place to pick it up to!! I'll have to take a picture of it tomorrow. Most people take a picture of their room before they get in it and mess it all up. Oh no! Not me..you're going to get the real deal!!

This afternoon we rode the tour bus to Shaimen Island to do some shopping. They were only going to give us 2 hours (are you kidding me?!?!?!), so a group of us decided we would take a taxi back later. I am SO glad we did. We had a great time buying some more squeaky shoes and finding some new treasures. I still have a few yuan burning a hole in my pocket but don't know if we'll get back. I love GZ and not just because of the shopping ;) The weather is wonderful. (I've been in flip flops since we got here.) Honestly, I hardly feel like I'm in a foreign country any more. I think one reason is because we've been here for so long. Everything just feels normal...even brushing your teeth with water from the electric kettle. I've actually become quite fond of that electric kettle;) It sure helps when you're making noodles all the time! To be honest, I know I'll be happy to be home, but I wouldn't mind staying here for a while longer. I told Richard that and he looked at me like I'm crazy. He is stir crazy and is ready to get back to the real world!

Tonight a group of us went to Lucy's again. We sat outside and enjoyed the weather. It was great. We have really made some lifelong friendships on this trip. We feel so blessed to be with such great people. I got the grilled cheese which was suggested to me in the comments and it was very good! The funniest had to be when Wesleigh started chowing down on Richard's broccolli. Most dads bond with their daughters over icecream or sweets. Not mine...a big plate of broccolli!! He showed her how to use the fork to get it herself and she went to town. I told him he gets to change that diaper!! Hopefully it happens here in the room because I see a big blowout in my future if not!!

Miss W has done great today! She got in her stroller without crying and rode in it off and on the whole shopping trip! She also let Richard hold her without crying!! He spent a good bit of time with her while we were shopping because I was busy gathering my goods. There's a picture of her looking in the mirror of a jewelry box. She was too cute! It was a great evening. We wrapped it up by riding a taxi home. That is the experience of a lifetime! New York taxis have nothing on these guys!!!! They boys announced that they had never rode in a taxi before...what a way to start out! We did make it, but barely!

There's a picture of Cade and his new buddy Trey (and Trey's new sister). Cade and Trey were very happy to find each other as were we and Trey's parents. They have kept each other occupied and been having a great time. I'm also noticing that todays brother must be Braden. Braden has been Wesleigh's bath buddy every night so I had to get a picture of the two of them.. They are all so good with her, but he's got the most tender heart of them all. Last night when she kept smiling at us from her crib, he couldn't stand it. He said, "She's smiling at us, how can you not want to get her out?" Of course, we got her out and had a good time. She definitely has them all wrapped. What a life! She has 5 people at her service 24/7!!

Tomorrow morning we get to visit a kindergarten! I don't exactly know what we'll be doing, but I'm very excited to see it. I'm sure I'll have lots of pictures to share. The afternoon is our swearing ceremony at the consulate's office. It should be interresting because there's not much time in between for a nap. I've never seen Miss Wesleigh without a nap, so I'm praying she's one of those that will just fall asleep!! lol..yeah, right!! A girl can dream, can't she? I'll be sure and let you know!