We are so in love!

Jax is doing so well. I know we are still in the "honeymoon" phase but we are enjoying every second! It breaks our heart because he seems so hungry. He can not get full and has been eating non-stop. He is so smart he has been learning to say thank-you after we give him something. He is also learning that just because he whines we won't give him his way. He pouts, we ignore him, he gets over it. I do have to say he loves Mama! hee hee. He keeps bringing me snacks and makes sure I am in the room...of course I love that. We took him to Mcdonalds this afternoon and he was so excited! Bert carried him when we crossed the street and Jax looked so happy and proud that his Baba was holding him. When it was time to leave McDonalds he started shoving food in his mouth like crazy....uhh even off the floor. I tried to show him that we were bringing his leftovers with us to the hotel. He has been eating his leftover fries all afternoon they are finally gone! I know we will have him filled out in no time. He weighs about the same as Sophie and is about 2 inches taller. The 5t shirt fits him perfect and thankfully the 5t shorts are adjustable waist or they would be too big. He wears a size 10 shoe. He is just a peanut! Oh we are so in love. Thank you Lord for answering all our prayers!!

Totally Smitten!!

Oh my word! What a stinking cutie! Thank you so much for your prayers. It could not have went any better. He came to us. Was happy to take his backpack with all his loot. The worker at our orphanage said he was very happy to be adopted and wondered what was taking so long for us to come. You could tell he was well prepared. He loves his Baba and his Sissy big time. He is so precious. BUT I know all you want to see is pictures so enough for now!

One More Sleep

We have made it to Chengdu. So happy to be here. The only bad thing is the internet in our room is painfully slow. I don't even know if it will let me upload pictures. But believe me I will try. We meet the guide at 9:30am and then it is an hour to the orphanage so about 10:45am here when we get him 9:45pm your time. PLEASE PRAY!! We are so excited!

Street Market, Summer Palace and Kung Fu show

Today we visited the 3 things in the title. It was a lot of fun. Enjoy the pictures. We are ready to go to Chengdu! We fly out tomorrow (Sunday) We get Jax Monday morning which will be Sunday night for those of you in the states. I hope our luggage is not too heavy from all the souvenirs!

Great Wall

3 words. Mutuianyu Great Wall. IT WAS AWESOME!! Definitely worth the 2 hour drive of near car-sickness. The best part of the great wall was the toboggan sled down at break neck speeds. So much fun. The worst part was the stairs just to get to the wall. I seriously think I died a thousand deaths on the way up. I also wanted my whining, gasping, complaining children to die a thousand deaths on the way up! hee hee. Grandma and Sophie cheated and rode the cable car up. We still let them buy the t-shirts that said they "climbed the Great Wall" even though we know the truth. Micah and EG were the "tired" ones just for the record. Tyler was not like that at all. In fact he beat us all to the top because between his size 14 shoe and his mile long legs it wasn't as hard on him.

We also rode the cable car down and we were scared, thus some of these pics. Then after that we had a fun time bargaining for more souvenirs. SO glad we brought 2 extra suitcases!

Beijing tour day 1

Thank you Amber so much for posting for me and thank you everyone for your sweet comments.

Erica, Sophie is adjusting incredibly well. I was actually quite worried but so far so good. Yes, China seems much easier this time around, much more comfortable.

Today the kids got a dose of what it feels like to be a celebrity. Oh my goodness people were hounding us like crazy to get their pictures made with us, more so with the kids than the adults. Sophie and EG liked this but I think it really embarrassed the boys, but thankfully they complied.

Our guide's name is Teresa and she is wonderful we love her. She is so sweet and she even understands some of our Rosetta Stone mandarin although she gets a good laugh out of our pronunciation.

We went to Tian an men Square, Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven. It was awesome and we learned a lot!! Then we went to this market where you could buy everything and anything. The guys all got fitted for suits Bert went back and forth over the price so much I was a nervous wreck and walked away several times, I just wanted to hide I was so embarrassed. But he got his way in the end and the guys are all getting super nice cashmere suits for $115 each, that are custom tailored to fit them!

EG picked out some souvenirs for her friends...Yes, Laken, Savanna and Mallory you were among the friend list!!! :) Sophie picked out a Hello Kitty purse and a Dora watch. She wanted to get Taylor, Madison and Brianna one of everything we found! The girl is a serious shopper! I am so ready to go get Jax! I wish he were here with us doing all this awesome touring. Maybe when we come back for number 6...hee hee.

We made it!!!

We are here! The flights went great and were uneventful. We all fell asleep as soon as we got to our hotel which is not good because we are all now wide awake and it is 1:51am here. I just took a dramamine and gave one to EG and Micah, gave Sophie a benedryl so hopefully we will be back asleep soon. Will update with some pictures later!

We're off

Well, tomorrow we are on our way. Heading out very early. I will try and post once we are in Beijing. Thanks for all your prayers!!

Uhh does that say 5 days!

Believe it or not I am pretty much ready to go. In fact I wish it was here already.

I had a yard sale today...yes Thursday. (suppose to rain Friday)Thank you to all my friends who donated items, money and their time...Laura, Brooke, Dena, Melody, Kim, Linzi,,,,you all know you are and I can't thank you enough. We will have it again on Saturday. For a Thursday it did surprisingly well...with totals over $500 and we still have a LOT to sell so if you are in the area please feel free to stop by. It is at my mom's so email me if you need her address. sh0ptildr@aol.com

I also wanted to thank my friend Meagan who has been selling my things in her ebay store at no cost to me to help raise money to get our boy. THANKS MEAG!!!!

Sophie finally noticed the huge mess of suitcases on our bedroom floor. (unfortunately my room is always messy)

Sophie: "Why are all these suitcases on the floor?"

Me: "That's for our China trip"

Sophie: "You mean we're spending the night!?"

2 weeks to go...

Marla this picture is for you! ( I am so ashamed of this mess)

I did accomplish a few things this past week and weekend. I got more clothes picked out for the kids. Bought the kids all new shoes. Bought a few gifts for the orphanage workers. Had the kids bring down all the electronics they plan on taking on this trip AND the chargers. Bought some more things for Jax to help ease transition...i.e balloons for the room, crayons, play-doh, etc. Picked up some small envelopes at the Dollar Tree for tips. I wouldn't say I am half way there yet on this whole packing thing, but I am getting closer. And all of you that I told I was going to try and do carry on only...well, I was obviously very delirious when I said that!!

3 weeks till take off

So three weeks from today we will finally be boarding a plane headed to our sweet boy! Our tickets are purchased and let me just tell you they were waaaayyyy more than I budgeted for...as in over $2000 a piece. Yeah. I still don't know what our in country costs are going to be yet. We are having a HUGE garage sale fundraiser on the weekend of the 14th and 15th so if you have any stuff you want to get rid of and would like to donate please let me know!
I haven't officially started packing yet. I do have a suitcase in my room that I throw random things in. I have a really long "to-do" list that I just can't seem to get started.
We are trying to finish up school and we are so ready to be finished!!!

A day at the park

My kids finished up their standardized testing yesterday so we headed off to the park to celebrate.