March photos

Happiness is a tea party!

Or a vacation with your sister...

Sunvisor fun compliments of Auntie Ethel!

Chinese NY Photos

My drama queen, ready for her Chinese school New Year's performance!

FCC Chinese New Year party

Craft table at FCC party- Elizabeth and best buddy Kim work on making cloth fortune cookies Elizabeth is all dressed up for her Chinese school dance performance...half the fun is the make-up!

Meanwhile, Sarah is all aglow with excitement in dressing up like big sister for FCC party

Here are dance partners Elizabeth and Casey backstage before their performance

Photos from 2nd month home

Our girls love to bake... There are always lots of muffins at our house.
Cookies are fun to bake, then fun to decorate!

What big sister does, little sister does

And finally the clean up (this time of playdough). Gotta have those goggles!

After 2 Months Home

Having been home 2 months now, I guess we have hit the new normal mark. Jet lag and holiday days off school are over and I am back to work 3 days a week until my family leave runs out. Sarah is now comfortable enough with us to start expressing her displeasure if life doesn’t follow her plan! She is still the happy and delightful child we first met, but is dealing with the fact that she now has parents who need to tell her “no”!

Sarah turned 4 in January, although she is still a peanut at 24 lbs and 32”, she is making remarkable progress with language and development in areas she has never had experience with (such as cutting with scissors). She has gotten a clean bill of health from the adoption clinic and only had to have one catch up immunization.

The sisters are getting along great and Elizabeth continues to be a huge help with Sarah as mom goes back to work. One of their favorite activities is baking, as you can see from the photos. Mom & Dad are still pretty tired, but quite content with having two very special girls.

Photos from first month home

Here is Sarah with her Uncle Mark (AKA Jungle-Gym!)

First Snow!

Love that hat!

Making muffins with Sis.

Dress up is fun -- especially when Dad gets in the act!

What big sister does, little sister does!

First Moment photos

Here we are at the Civil Affairs office where we all met for the first time. We got Sarah at 4pm and all these photos were that first day, so you can see how quickly things went from somber to smiles once we were back at the hotel. Sarah is such a happy child...we see her sunny smile all the time as she continues to discover all the wonderful new things in her world.

Home at last -- baaaaddddd jet lag!

Our trip home was as uneventful as we could have hoped. Since we left Guangzhou at 9pm, we were able to eat dinner, then both girls fell fast asleep. Our arrival at LA was timed with dinner there, so we had room service and bedtime. Of course, that meant we were up at 2 am again!

We were greeted at the airport by Grandma, Uncle Mark's family, Uncle Jon and Elizabeth's two best friends, Kim and Abby. We needed all the support just to carry our luggage. We must have had a whole suitcase full of gifts and souveniers.

After a normal bedtime on Sunday night, we were all up at 3 am. Elizabeth went back to school on Monday with all the exciting news of our trip to share. Her teacher, classroom aide and a bevy of first graders rushed out at the end of the school day to meet Sarah, despite the snowy, blustery day. While surviving the school day, Elizabeth ran out of steam and fell asleep before dinner. Reese & Sarah survived the day by taking an afternoon nap. Energizer Bunny mama kept going, trying to bring some sense to the piles of mail, laundry and luggage.

Tuesday, Elizabeth again survived the school day well and again fell asleep before dinner. Nancy finally hit a wall and took a 4 hour nap with Sarah. Wednesday morning had us all up by 6 am, but hopefully the worst of the jet lag is now over.

I'll be updating the blog later this week with photos from the trip -- once I get just a little bit more organized!