Hello Again!

Hello Friends and Family! So sorry for the absolute silence on the blog front! It has taken us a good two weeks to get back on Illinois time and for Kara to get into a good sleeping routine. Whew! She has turned the corner on her sleeping and is a night owl like the rest of us! She has been going down for bed around 10:15 (I think I just heard a gasp out there. :) ) and wakes up around 5:30 am to come to bed with us and then sleeps until 8:30. It's a beautiful thing! We took her to our doctor and he was so pleased with her development and her ability to work around her cleft palate. They ran some blood work and we were thrilled to find out that all of the markers for her vaccines in China were right on track and she didn't have any surprises in her blood work other than she apparently had chicken pox at some point. Blake and I joked that they probably rubbed all of the children together pass it along to them all to get it over with at one time. I cannot imagine having to deal with chicken pox over and over again! We will be heading to St. Louis at the end of May to meet with the Cleft Team at Mercy Hospital. Dr. Marsh will complete the palate surgery in June and he is one of the very best in the nation so we were thrilled to be able to get into his office! Kara loves her brothers and we wait in the driveway every afternoon for them to get off of the bus. She is quite the ham and loves all of the attention from all of the kids as they get off the bus at our stop. I have their picture on my phone and when I ask her where the boys are, she will look at my phone and smile. The boys are doing really well with her. It's quite an adjustment as they are not use to little ones and we are proud of them and how they love on her! She is finally growing some hair! I will post a picture soon so you can see it. I know I will miss her sweet bald head when I look back at the pictures in China! She still dislikes her bows and so I don't push it too often. She will pull them out of her hair and then look at me - Oh this girl is going to give me a run for my money! We are heading to our friend's wedding this weekend and she will have a big old pink bow on her head, at least at the wedding! Alex and Kaleb will be turning 9 next Wednesday and I simply cannot believe it! Where in the world has the time gone? They will be heading over to the Middle School next year and I think it is going to be harder on me than on them. I won't be able to pop into their room to see what they are up to or to give them a smooch in the hallway between classes. Oh our babies are growing up too fast!

Complete!

After a long 13.5 hour flight with a semi unhappy baby, we made it to Chicago ahead of schedule! An hour ahead if you can believe it. We zipped right through baggage, immigration, and security and had time to grab a quick bite at McDonalds before the boys and Grammy and Grampy came in carrying signs of welcome for Kara. What an awesome and tearful reunion it was! Such a blessing to have our three beautiful children together and in our arms! When we arrived home, Uncle Chris and Grandpa Don and Grandma Judy were waiting to greet us. There were hugs and kisses all around. Thankfully, we all napped at some point in the car on the way home so we are really hoping to get back on Illinois time quickly with a good nights sleep tonight. We had dinner together as a family of 5 (thanks for the meatloaf Mom!), Kara had her bath and she is sleeping soundly in her bed. Ahhhhh. Now it's time to snuggle up with Alex (Kaleb's turn tomorrow) and get some sleep! So thankful for this day and for the many blessings in our life and for all of you for your good thoughts and wishes!

Shamien Island and our last few days in China

Yesterday we spent a few hours on Shamian Island. It's much like what I would imagine Charleston, South Carolina to be like. Muggy, lots of greenery, colonial style buildings, and lots of boulevards. It was a lovely place even though it was raining off and on all day long. They have many cool bronze statutes along to main drag. We tried to have Kara pose in a line of childlike statutes but as you can see, she wanted no part of it! We picked up some sweet Chinese dresses for her to wear as she gets older, some fun gifts for the boys, and what I thought would be fun but have turned out to be a bit annoying, squeaky shoes. We had our COnsulate Appointment on Thursday where we took an oath on Kara's behalf stating that she would be a model U.S. citizen signed a few more papers and will be free to leave Guanzhou after 4:30 today once we receive her Visa! We will be flying to Hong Kong tonight at 10:30 and will arrive there at 11:30. We will spend the night at the airport hotel and then fly home to Chicago at 11:55 am China time on Saturday and arrive at Ohare at 1:50 on Saturday. Of course this after a 14.5 hour flight so this may well be the longest day of our lives! Asking for your good thoughts and prayers for our flights, pilots, and for understanding for our fellow passengers! Also for Kara to have a comfortable and quiet flight! ; ). We cannot wait to get home and get the boys in our arms. We have missed them so much! Thanks to all of you for following along on this amazing journey!

Birthday, pearls, and random shots of cuteness!

Hello Again! Sorry we have been slow to update the blog. The last two days have been busy around here. Well, yesterday I celebrated by 35th birthday (gulp!) in China with my beautiful early gift and her Daddy. We went to a whole sale market that sold beads, pearls, jade, clothing, and just about any other thing you can image! Ink about Eastland Mall times 6 floors crammed full of little shops about the size of your master bathroom. We were so thankful to have our guides there to show us the good shops and to keep us away from the over priced ones! Kara now has a beautiful pearl necklace and bracelet set that she will be able to wear for her First Communion and wedding if she would like. We also picked up a few jade pieces and Chinese dresses for Kara. We had a late lunch followed by a lovely two hour nap. Once we woke up, we headed down to The Irish Pub for dinner and when we retur Ed the hotel had sent up the most delicious yellow sponge cake filled with a whipped cream fruit filling and surrounded by a box made out of chocolate! Kara ate about as much as we did! The only thing missing was our sweet boys but we will celebrate again when we get back from China! Today we went to the Guangzhou zoo where we saw lions, monkeys, bird, elephants, but only one panda here. Why? Apparently it's mating season for the pandas and they have "loaned out" their studs in the hopes to keep the panda population growing! Our little monkey slept the entire time but she woke up in time for us to have lunch with some other families where we had a good time trading travel and adoption experiences: the good, the bad, and the ugly! Tomorrow we will head out to Shamien Island, an older area of town with many local people selling their wares. It will be great to get out of the hustle and bustle of the city and into a slower pace. I have included many pictures on this blog from the past few days. Kara has begun to walk while we have been here. She was taking about six steps but now she can walk and turn around. Of curse, this is only when she feels like it and would still rather hold hands or be carried. Some other pictures will show us out and around our hotel. I think you will be able to tell why they call this The Garden Hotel! Hi Alex and Kaleb! We love face timing with you each day and hearing about your days. Not too long and we will be home! We can't wait to see you and to cover you with kisses!

Medical Exam

Here are some of the fifteen families waiting for our medical exams and here is our tired girl after. It's quite a process. Get your child's Visa photo taken, fill out paperwork, move into another area and go to three or four medical stations (thankfully Kara is under two so she didn't have to get the blood draw for the tb test), and then wait for all of the poor two and olders to get their tb test. : ( everyone was worn out and ready for naps after those couple of hours. She was given a clean bill of health so we are cleared to leave Guangzhou on Friday! The other photos are of Kara eating some yummy rice and noodles! She probably ate her weight in rice for lunch and one of her getting stuck in the foot stool in the hotel.

Hello from Guangzhou!

Hello from Guangzhou! Yesterday was a travel day for us so sorry for being MIA. I have also noticed that we are having some trouble connecting to Facebook so I will be trying to work that out. It's 5:00 am here and I am wide awake but Blake and Kara are still snoozing. Thankfully our new hotel has separate living room and bedroom areas. On Thursday, we went to a place in Chongqing where two rivers meet and we were able to visit a fortress from the Ming Dynasty. Amazing! Chongqing has been the site of many battles as leaders often move here to use the mountains as protection from enemies. It was bombed during ww2 and in 2003, workers began excavating the area where this fortress sat and were able to find many relics. Besides Gotca Day, I would say this was our favorite day. Well, know that I tell you all of this, there are no photos! We only took the camera and we are not able to link it to the iPad so you can look forward to those pictures once we return! She is doing great and did pretty well on our two hour flight from Chongqing to Guangzhou but she is becoming a little terror at bedtime-fighting it and not wanting to lay down. Sorry to any of our neighbors here at The Garden Hotel who heard the major fit last night! we are really looking forward to today as we will meet up with the rest of the Lifeline Families and get to see everyone with their sweet children! Paperwork this morning and looks like a free day after that. We are in the middle of the third largest city in China and what did we do for dinner last night? Pizza Hut! Haha. Thank heaven we also have a 7 eleven right around the corner where we found coke, coke zero, Pringles, and Hersey bars-oh it's the little things that get us excited! On a fun note, I was able to face time with my teacher friends at school yesterday and my class! So fun to see them all! Kaleb and Alex-we love being able to talk to you everyday and to hear how you are doing! I hope you had a great first week back and that your tests were a piece of cake! Good luck at your first soccer game tomorrow. One. Ore week and we will be home. Get ready or your crazy sister! Thanks to Grammy and Grampy for uprooting their lives to stay with you! Love! Here are so funny face photos! Girl loves pizza. Love the look on her face when she first tried it-big eyes! She hates her be, but Mommy loves it. No one called her a boy that day and she left it in all afternoon!

Orphanage Visit

We have a cranky little miss this evening! Don't want you to think that it's all sunshine and roses. : ). We went to visit her orphanage this morning and it was tough on all of us. They have 20 babies in her room, one just 15 days old!, and only 4 more have been matched with families so far but they are getting the paperwork together for the others to be available. One sweet girl (about 2.5) latched in to me. She has Downs Syndrome and she has been matched and is waiting for her family to come! I carried her around for a bit and then Kara got mad so I passed the sweetie off to her nanny. We were able to see Kara's old bed and play room. Sadly her favorite nanny was not there today but we heard she had a very hard time saying good-bye on Monday, so it might be for the best. The indoor photos were taken on one camera but the ones below are from the outside of orphanage. It is way up high in a mountain and has lovely views. One highlight from today is that we found out that Kara loves pizza!