Thanksgiving and Latest News

We recently visited KY (left Wednesday afternoon and returned Sunday evening). The girls did amazingly well during the trip. It took 7 hrs just to get there (normally takes 5). We had a wonderful visit with both our families. Rachel was held by someone practically the whole time we were home so we are having fun getting her used to sitting on the floor since returning home hehe ;-) She also cried and screamed each night we were in KY when we put her in her crib at Nai Nai's house. Rachel definitely knows the difference between our house and theirs. Once she would get to sleep she slept fairly well but she sure had a hard time going night night. When we came home, it was so cute to see how pleased Rachel was to be here. She went to sleep Sunday night without the slightest wimper and did last night as well. We are still having some issues with her sleeping later than 6am so we have started cutting back on her naptime during the day which is helping. We've all had a nasty cold/sinus infection over the past month so it has been a little rough but we are finally all rebounding I believe. Santa Claus is finished with shopping so now all there is to do is decorate and look forward to his visit ! I will post a few pictures from our thanksgiving visit and more on our family website.

PS. Rachel took 3 steps with daddy yesterday so we are getting close to walking but not quite there. She turned 14 months on Nov 21st so we've got to be close to her walking, don't we ?? ;-)

About Halloween and a very late post

Audrey and Rachel celebrated Halloween at our local MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) fall festival, at their mother's day out program and Halloween evening with Mommy, Ms. Faith and Mr. Mike (Alex was in Chicago on business). At just under 13 months, Rachel was amused by the whole thing but clearly not as excited as big sister Audrey. I will post a few prized pictures here as well as more on our family website http://audreyandrachel.com .

Latest news

Rachel has finally tapered off on the teething and pooping all the time. I know, TMI, but that has been our life the past 3 weeks. We are again, finally, sleeping through the night and not going through 3 outfits a day so life is good ;-) Rachel and Audrey are getting along great now and we couldn't have hoped for a better relationship between the two. Rachel is still pulling up on everything and gaining more balance everyday so it won't suprise us if she's walking in the next month. I uploaded a photo slideshow today with alot of recent photos of the girls. It's on our website http://audreyandrachel.com . The slideshow is on the video page. Hope you enjoy !

ps. Audrey is currently working on her first science project. She is growing seeds that we've placed between two wet pieces of papertowel in a ziplock bag. She is really obsessed with them sprouting and always is making sure they are still wet and in the sun. Today they have actually started sprouting so she is quite pleased!

Rachel's First Birthday

Rachel's first birthday has come and gone. It's hard to believe that she is a year old already ! We just wish she could have enjoyed her birthday more. She is currently in the middle of a nasty bout of teething and cranky would be an understatement for her temperament the past couple days. I went ahead and made her a batch of White cupcakes with strawberry frosting (big sisters suggestion ;-)) . Rachel liked seeing the cupcake and the burning candle but wouldn't even try a bite of her cupcake. Needless to say the rest of us didn't have a problem with the eating them ! Rachel is doing great other than her teething. She is waving bye bye and trying to say it. She is saying mama and dada. She is pulling up on everything and trying to walk so it won't be long until she is. Here is a picture of Rachel with her Birthday cupcake. I'll post more as soon as I can.

What's New ? and Yes I'm ashamed I haven't posted in a month !

I am quite happy to report that we have settled in amazingly well and we actually have somewhat of a routine. Audrey and Rachel are truly sisters and have that wonderful love/hate relationship already. Audrey definitely has her moments when she is not very nice to baby sister but for the most part we are really proud of her and she seems to be enjoying having a sister more than not. Rachel has been a really easy baby and we just can't believe it ! Or, maybe Audrey was just such a difficult baby that any other baby seems easy hehe. Regardless, we love both of them for who they are and not how much trouble they are ;-)

Developmentally Rachel is doing wonderfully and she is now pulling up on all our furniture and standing. It' s so hard to believe that a month and a half ago, she wasn't even that steady sitting up.

Audrey is doing awesome too. Although she is killing us on a daily basis with her pleas for independence and her temperamental moodiness, she is the light of our lives. She just started gymnastics and has her 2nd lesson tomorrow so we are excited about that. So far Audrey just loves it and she can't wait to go back.

We are also doing MOPS again and it has been a Godsend for me. Audrey and Rachel have wonderful caregivers while we meet and the moms there are the best. I can't say enough good things about the program!

Our house is messy and I can't keep up with the stickiness or the laundry but we are happy anyway ;-)

Last, but not least, and Becky if your out there, don't post about this lol ! I reactivated our family website again so I could post videos/slideshows etc on a larger scale and post more pictures without worrying about space. So, once again, you can click on the link on the right to go to http://audreyandrachel.com . I no longer have dropshots.com since that was just for video and pics. I promise I'm going to quit playing musical websites haha ;-)

Please do go to http://audreyandrachel.com though and go to the videos tab and you can view the slideshow I made the other day with some of the pictures since we've been home with Rachel. The ones taken at the playground were just taken a few days ago.

I'll try to post more frequently as I'm able and hopefully I'll be able to make some videos or slideshows with our pictures and footage from our China trip.

Our Cutie Pie - Looking back ....

When I look at Rachel now and see her on a daily basis, two things really strike me from her update from China that we received with her referral information. First, it said she had a ready smile that would bring us much joy and happiness. I can certainly vouch for that; she smiles constantly and grins showing us her 4 beautiful teeth. Alex has affectionately started referring to her as "Beaver" ;-) Secondly, it described Rachel as having many facial expressions. I have never seen a child make so many adorable faces and show such expression. It really makes us feel good to know that Rachel's caregivers really noticed Rachel and what was special about her.

Sisterly Love and Sunglasses

I came downstairs the other day and found Audrey had put her heart shaped sunglasses on Rachel and Audrey had on her Dora glasses. I of course immediately ran and grabbed the camera and took these priceless pics !

Swim Trip with the Girls Last Week

Last Tuesday I ventured down to our neighborhood pool with the girls. I think it took us longer to get ready than the time we actually spent at the pool. What is humorous is that Rachel decided it was nap time so she took a bottle and passed out when we got there. Audrey and I let Rachel sleep in her stroller while we went swimming for about 1.5 hours. Eventually we will get Rachel in the pool ! ;-)

Pictures of Rachel at Xiushan orphanage between Referral and Travel

The pictures above were taken by the staff at Xiushan SWI with the disposable camera we sent with Rachel's carepackage after we received her referral. There were quite a few photos but I will just post a couple here now. I will post more on dropshots.com (see link on right for Audrey and Rachel Pics) tomorrow or I may post one or two more here.

Picture of Alex, Audrey and Rachel and cousin Matthew our 2nd day home from China

I love this picture so I'm ashamed that I had not posted it before now.

This is going to be one of those posts where I have to post just because I want to remember things.

Today was the first day I took Audrey and Rachel to the grocery together and it was a hoot. At our Bi-Lo they have Racecar shopping carts that seat two so I put Rachel and Audrey in one. I was a little concerned that Rachel might be a bit young for it but it had a strap to hold her in so I said why not ;-)? Anyway, Rachel absolutely loved it and kept grinning the whole time we were there. Audrey was wonderful and even kept putting her arm around Rachel and acting protective. They must have looked cute because the ladies from the deli came out and brought them cookies lol !

Also, Audrey has turned into a mother hen and a mommy's helper. She helped me make Spaghetti and cookies this week and tonight she helped me give Rachel a bath. She also is always eager to help me gather supplies for messy diaper changings etc. One time this week we had a very stinky, messy diaper and Audrey started gagging. I kept telling her to leave if it was making her sick but she insisted I needed her help lol.

Today a woman from Tennessee dept. of Education came by to talk to me about Rachels developmental progress. My pediatrician recommended I let her give them a referral so they could check out Rachel for us and see if she needed any help catching up. I am happy to report that the woman that evaluated her was very pleased with her progress and she didn't think we needed a referral because Rachel is exhibiting all the signs that she is progressing and should progress normally even though she is still a little behind. It is absolutely amazing the progress she has made just in the past two weeks we've been home. She has went from eating no solids to now eating just about any baby food we give her, oatmeal, rice cereal and cheerios. She has went from not even being able to sit up by herself to sitting up by herself well, pulling herself all over the place with her upper body and she is now bringing her back legs up trying to crawl. She is also starting to transition so that she can go from a lying down position to sitting which is neat to watch.

I don't want to neglect to mention that over the past week Rachel has started saying Mama when she needs me and needless to say I come running whenever she says it. I am amazed that she is already saying it !

Rachel is also really becoming vocal and making all kinds of entertaining baby talk.

Audrey and Rachel are still sleeping in the same room and so far it has worked out really well. I put them to bed at the same time and I let Rachel sit in my lap while I read Audrey her bedtime story and Rachel loves it. Actually I think Rachel just likes getting to sit on the "dreamcastle" bed the most ;-) After storytime I put Rachel in her crib and she goes to sleep no problem as does Audrey. I keep wondering how long this will last. I will say that Rachel did cry some for the first week when we put her in her crib but the 2nd week I made her sleep in the crib and didn't take her out if she cried the first few minutes and now she doesn't even bother to cry when she knows it is bedtime, she goes right to sleep. We are truly blessed .....

Pictures from our first week home with Rachel

Regarding AudreyandRachel.com website

Due to the fact that I'm mainly using our blog now to post pictures and info updates, I've decided to cancel our family website (audreyandrachel.com). It costs me 12.00/mo and I just feel it's a waste of money no more than I post to it recently. Please bookmark this blog because I'll continue to update it and I'm going to put videos/slide shows on my multiply site which is at http://sahmto2fromchina.multiply.com . I already have some videos on that site but I'm going to add the rest this coming week. I will also post new pictures there occassionally. I will post a link to the multiply site on this blog in the links column as well.

The Details ..................

Ok, Ok, Ok, so you want details ;-) We left Louisville KY on July 7th (Friday) at 9:58 am. nothing exciting there. We left Chicago Ohare at 12:10pm right on time and the interesting point I will share here is that Audrey and I had to sit by ourselves in the center aisle between two men (one Chinese American and one Caucasian American), while Alex sat across the aisle in between two men that he did not know. My In-laws, Patsy and Scott sat in front of Alex. All I have to say is nice job "Delight Travel" sigh lol. Anyway, Audrey was high maintenance the first 6 hours of the trip but the gentlemen sitting next to us on both sides were super nice and extremely understanding so it wasn't too bad. After about 7.5 hours of wiggling squirming complaining and pushing her limits Audrey finally melted down and said quite loudly and in tears " I don't want to go to Beijing ! I want to go home, I want my blankie" (yes, we left the almighty blankie in the van *cringe*). Eventually Audrey passed out on me and slept the remainder of the trip. Needless to say I slept very little the entire flight except maybe a couple of 15-20 min catnaps where I passed out from exhaustion. We finally arrived in Beijing at approximately 2:10 pm their time and even a little ahead of schedule. We arrived at the Qian Men Jian Guo hotel and checked in and we weren't far from Tianamen Square so we took a taxi down there to walk around at approximately 5:30pm. We all slept fairly well except Audrey who vehemently refused to adapt to China time. From about 2:00 am to 5:10 am we would hear her say "Is it 5:30"? We told her she couldn't get up until 5:30am lol. On Sunday, our first full day in China we ate breakfast and headed for "The Great Wall". I didn't believe that the weather there could have been worse than it was when we visited it in 2004 but it was haha (minus the fact that it wasn't as cold). It was very foggy and rained our entire visit but we still enjoyed it and collected a few pictures, some video and souveneirs. We also all had some calf and thigh cramps to show for it as well. After the Great wall, we visited the Friendship store and ate lunch. We then rushed to the Beijing Airport to catch our 4:40pm flight to Chongqing. We stayed at the Chongqing Marriot in Chongqing and it was wonderful just like it was in 2004. The next morning (Gotcha Day), we didn't have to leave for the Civil affairs bureau until 2:00 pm but we double checked paperwork with our guides that morning. Our orphanage donation was actually wired from a Chinese Bank in Chongqing instead of us having to give the money in person so this was a pleasant suprise. Our (Gotcha Day) was about as perfect as it could have been, other than the fact that Audrey slept through the entire thing and then there was the somewhat worrisome fact that Rachel was like holding jello when we first received her and could barely hold her head up by herself. Her tongue seemed completely out of her control for the most part too. I will say though that Rachel gave us some glimpses of her charming personality even from the beginning. She grinned and smiled at us within just a few minutes of us holding her and seemed completely at ease with us. Her caregivers seemed very loving and even posed for some pictures and video with her. We also received back the camera that we sent with her care package so we were thrilled to have that back. I will post some of those pics once I have them back. As far as the rest of our stay together in Chongqing, the overriding memory I will always have of this time is that they don't call it "The furnace" for nothin ;-) Not only did we experience 100+ temps almost everyday we were there, but the humidity was insane. Despite the lovely weather, we still did quite a bit of site seeing and survived to tell about it. We visited the Chongqing Zoo (see picture of Alex, Rachel and Hippo Butt hehe), Eling park that had some breathtaking views, and we visited Chao Tian Men where we viewed the work of local artists. We had Audrey and Rachels names done with Calligraphy and we also purchased several Banyan leave paintings which are beautiful. Banyan trees are the city tree of Chongqing and make a great keepsake. We also visited the Walmart in Chongqing where we were able to purchase Chinese huggies, rice cereal, and a replacement blankie for Audrey until we could get home !. The Wal-mart was wild and was on 3 or 4 floors and they had ramp escalators that took you between floors. Lastly, we were able to experience the Sichuan Hot Pot dinner while in Chongqing and it was pretty tasty minus the fish and a couple other funky items they provided to dip in the tasty broth.
We left for Guangzhou on Friday July 14th and were wondering what the heat there would be like. The bad news is it rained our entire time there, the good news is that it was much cooler than Chongqing so we didn't mind the rain one bit ! This right after the remainder of the typhoon had passed so the high temps were in the low- mid 80s, amazing for Guangzhou in July I'm sure.
Ok, more about Rachel while we were in China. She was an angel and almost too good ! She hardly ever cried or got upset unless she was really hungry or tired so this made things alot easier. Audrey was a sweetheart too and really had very few instances where she was upset about Rachel or us paying attention to her. Audrey had a cold the first week we were in China and I had bronchitis starting 2 days after Gotcha Day. Rachel also had the bronchitis so I went ahead and gave her amoxicillin which knocked it out pretty quick. Rachel also had a rash on her feet which was obviously itchy to her and concerned us . Finally while we were in Chongqing, Allison offered to take me to childrens hospital in Chongqing to have the rash looked at because I was paranoid it could be scabies. The visit to the childrens hospital was one I won't soon forget and really made me appreciate our hospitals and doctors here in the US. The hospital there had no air conditioning except in the rooms where the doctors saw the patient and it was very hot and humid. You really just had to see it to believe it. Long story short is that Rachel ended up seeing some resident doctors and the only thing that wasn't lost in translation was the word "dermatitis" (inflamation of the skin). I was like doh lol, so what is causing it. Allison told me that she thought they said that it wasn't scabies but I still wasn't sure and continued to worry. They gave me a prescription for this funky brown cream that stunk and told me to cream her down from neck to toes which also worried me. Allison and I had taken a taxi to the hospital bu t when we tried to get one to go back to the hotel, it wasn't easy. We actually had one taxi driver make us get out of the taxi once we were in because the ride wasn't worth his time (wasn't far enough). I really couldn't believe that ! Anyway, we just went ahead and treated her with elimite all over, then we put cortisone on her feet and an antifungal and her feet slowly improved. When I saw her pediatrician yesterday she said that it just appeared to be an unusual case of a different type of eczema and told me to continue to apply cortisone to her feet, no scabies at all.
At Rachels medical exam in Guangzhou she was 29.25 inches long and 21.5 pounds so definitely a big girl but not quite as big as our update had led us to believe. Since we've been home with Rachel, we've seen great improvements in her developmentally almost on a daily basis. She can now sit by herself fairly well, has much more control of her tongue and she is taking stage 2 baby foods (she was only taking food from a bottle when we received her and in China). She is also in the beginning stages of crawling and she can pull herself all over the place using her arms and upper body. I'm guessing she will be crawling great in the next 2-3 weeks. She has been babbling and experimenting with sounds alot now like you would expect a 10 month old to do so we are really happy with her progress all around. The only downside to all of this is that she is now alot more high maintenance than she was in China. From the time we hit US soil she decided that she would scream and cry if you sat her down by herself. She also doesn't like to be put in her crib and fall asleep on her own so she usually just passes out downstairs and then we put her in the crib. She's now sleeping through the night about every other night so I think she is just working through the jet lag. She is an awesome sleeper when she sleeps.
As far as Audrey and her relationship, that has been kind of humorous. Initially it was Rachel who seemed jealous of Audrey and didn't like her while we were in China. Everytime Audrey would get too close, Rachel would scream and cry which was not at all what we had expected. Now that we are home, Rachel seems to like Audrey alot more and Audrey is probably the more jealous one. Overall though, I'm amazed at how well they are tolerating each other and adjusting to all the changes in their lives. Although this adoption and adjustment hasn't been easy, I know in my heart that we have done the right thing by adopting again and I am already seeing the blessings from it.

Lastly, I will leave you with one good laugh. On our return trip home from China we had about a 4.5 hour layover in Chicago which was delayed by almost 2 hours. When we finally boarded the plane at 10:30pm est, the pilot came on and informed us that they were experiencing major runway congestion and they didn't know how long it would be before we took off. About this time, Rachel decided to have a nasty blowout and so there we were, 27 hours into our trip home, me with a stinky baby and a wet poopy feeling on my leg. I told Alex and my inlaws, I didn't care what the pilot or flight atttendant said, I was going to the restroom to change this baby so Alex told me he would hold Rachel instead. Needless to say, I had no problem handing her over lol. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep for the short flight to Louisville and Rachel actually didn't smell that bad when we arrived in Louisville ;-)

I will try to post some current pics of Audrey and Rachel tomorrow ...

Pictures from China

I regret that we haven't had more time to post since we received Rachel but as you can imagine the jet lag was murder and we also stayed 2 extra days in KY with Alex's parents so we could visit both our families before we returned to Chattanooga/Ooltewah. I will try to post some of the better pictures from our trip here now.

We've got our Girl !

We received Rachel Victoria Xiu Hanna just as scheduled at approximately 2:35 PM Monday 7/10/06. Rachel was so calm and happy about our first meeting and she just grinned and smiled the whole time. She is very easygoing and eventempered just like her update stated. She came right to me, Alex and Nai Nai and Papa too. She just seemed intrigued with all of us and very curious as opposed to being afraid in any way. It is obvious to all of us that she has been well taken care of and given alot of love. Rachel is also just as big as her update stated. She is definitely a very cute and chubby baby ! ;-)
In the evening Rachel had a tougher time and was a little fussy with a few crying bouts. She has since come down with an upper respiratory infection which we are about to start treating with amoxicillin. Big sister Audrey slept through the entire Gotcha Day process and then was cross with us when she woke up and said "You went and got baby Rachel without me !" lol. The first day we had Rachel, Audrey did really well and even the next morning but since then there have been some akward moments and Audrey is definitely a little distressed about the attention Mommy and daddy are giving Rachel vs. her.
We are all doing amazingly well and Audrey and Rachel are now sleeping through the night. (the first 2 nights before Rachel came, Audrey was waking up at 2 and 3am and we were having trouble getting her on China time). Audrey is also sick with a cold but she's being a trooper about it. As soon as we know more I will try to post, but for now we will just leave you with a few pictures.

After the Birthday party, we came home and Audrey finally sat down long enough to have some cake !

Happy Birthday Audrey !!!!

Today we had Audrey's birthday party at our neighborhood pool with some of her best friends. Audrey turned 3 on June 16th but we had all been sick the week before so we planned her party for today. There was rain/thunderstorms in the forecast all weekend but amazingly we were spared any storms and just had alot of clouds with a few sprinkles until the end of the party. This was Audrey's first official birthday party and it was wonderful. She and her friends had a great time; They thoroughly enjoyed and wore themselves out ;-) Oh, and mommy wore herself and daddy out lol ! Thank you so much Faith for helping get everything ready and Virginia for the wonderful cake and cupcakes. The picture of the gang in the mini-van is one of my favorites and was taken when we were trying to get the kids loaded up to go home. They just did not want the fun to end !

Travel Date Changed

Yesterday after I posted we were leaving July 6th, I spoke to our travel agent who proceeded to tell me that all flights were booked for July 6th so we would have to leave July 7th. The good news is that we have great flights and only one layover in Chicago so our travel time is going to be minimal compared to our travel time when we brought home Audrey. We have already purchased our tickets over the phone and should have them in hand in a day or two. We will be returning on 7/19/06 as far as I know right now.

We are leaving for China July 6th !!!

We received an email from our agency this morning that our consulate appointment is 7/17/06 and that we are leaving 7/6/06. We are just waiting to hear from the travel agent who will reserve our airline tickets. After such a long and uncertain wait, it is still hard for us to believe that we will be holding our precious Rachel in a little over 2 weeks !!!
As soon as we have more information regarding our travel arrangements we will post. We don't expect to receive our in-country itinerary until next week.