Happy Birthday!

Well since all of the family is 45 min or more away from where we are it was just our little family of 5 celebrating Sarah’s Birthday tonight. We decided to go out to eat first and then come home for cake and presents. We went to a local Chinese Buffett and everyone was content with getting to choose what they wanted, Sarah as this morning has just been a bundle of silliness and energy.
She just had a blast with her cake it was too funny to watch her and if I would not know any better she got a sugar rush from the frosting she kept digging into…

Happy Birthday Sarah!!

YEY --- its Sarah's 3rd Birthday today. I had to chuckle I thought ok this will be the first birthday we get to celebrate at home and she may not quite understand what’s going on other then yippee she gets to unpack gifts and there is yummy cake :-) well........... Just a hunch they do celebrate a lot of birthday's at Pre-School and she figured out rather quickly what that means.

Because as I mentioned it to her last night and I said ok don’t let Daddy forge to bring your cup cakes to school, she started to jump up and down and yelled yeaaa Sarah’s Birthday. She also got all excited about it this morning…. It was really too cute to watch her.

Today also marks the day of our visit at the US Embassy in China to get her Visa to come home so we have two special events to celebrate today.

I will have to update the site later with some pictures but for now………

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL…….. WE LOVE YOU LOTS!!!!

A Year in Review!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SARAH!

It was today a year ago on April 16, 2007 that you where first placed into our arms. I remember the day so well, we where all so impatient not knowing what to expect not knowing how to react if you would go crazy start kicking and screaming.
I remember getting on the bus to the Civil Affairs Office staring out the window on the ride there; it was such a beautiful sunny and warm day. I kept reminding your Dad to make sure the Camera was ready and if he had his ID? We traveled there with another family that picked up their daughter just about a month younger then you. It was hard having to wait as we had been expecting to see you the day before knowing you where already in town somewhere with your nanny.

As we got to the Civil Affairs Office it was clear that many families that day where to be united with their little blessings. We had to wait for our guide to give us the ok to go upstairs and as we went up the elevator your dad already had the camera rolling. We got off the elevator and I recall this oh yea two ½ feet little whirlwind racing out the door into the hallway, bright yellow pants, very short hair pink vest. I thought how cute look at this little bundle of energy………we walked into the office and sat down….. Watching that little girl wrestle with the nanny trying to get her shoes back on… ….. …..hahahaha yea behold…… 5 minutes later we came to learn that this little whirlwind was you and the lady that was trying to tackle you down was the director of the orphanage. When they put you in my arms you just stared at me with those big brown eyes but you never cried not once that day. Some toys I had in my hand you instantly pulled from me and when your Dad gave me a cup we had brought along you also grabbed that with such a strong grip I recall thinking oh dear we got us a strong willed one here ………and was I ever right. We had to take the top of the cup since you did not know how to use the sippy cup but you wanted that drink and there was no holding you back.

They had cut your hair very short and you had little spots in your face that we had been told where suppose to be mosquito bites……well lets leave it at that…..but you looked so different then on the picture that we had seen of you 3 months ago that I am embarrassed to say we did not even recognize you…..We did eventually realize you had the chicken pox and found out some other details that we can share as you get older…… but I recall later as we where watching the video of you racing out of that room I just had to laugh…..boy did I know then we where in for a ride and you would fit right in. A match made in heaven.

I could go on and on recalling almost all the details of the day as the blur of the morning wait was gone fast once we got back on the bus to the hotel but we can safe that for some later talks when you are older to ask questions.

With that we will always keep this day in our hearts and our memories as your birth into our family – born in our hearts loved for a live time – Sarah Yong Dai – with all the thankfulness and gratefulness we can have to China for letting us bring you home and your birth mother whom had to make the choice to let you go, we are forever grateful to her and pray that she is well and somehow knows that you have found your forever family.

How much she has changed...........

We have what seems a zillion pictures from when we where in China and since we have come home with Sarah “Dai Dai” as her nannies called her and looking back at the pictures of her we took in China sometimes I think my goodness this is not even the same tiny little girl that we first met. Her personality has not changes much if nothing has gotten stronger and more determined but her physical appearance and her development otherwise in what seems such a fast year gone by is just short of amazing to say the least.

She still likes to eat like there is no tomorrow, she loves to see how far she can push you sometimes she certainly stands her ground when it comes to her two older brothers, she loves to color, sing, and more then anything she loves to be outside and play. She has this hearty laugh that sometimes sounds almost a little devilish when you get her going. Her all time favorite foods are Mac’n Cheese and Smoothies, she loves bananas and grapes and Sarah has this really really ticklish spot by her knee…… she can count to 10 and sing most of her ABC’s……… she is so smart and so outgoing such a match made in heaven, sometimes if I would not know better I would say she has so much of my personality its not even funny……….behold when she is a teenager ;-) she can be as strong headed as her mother.

We went from a size 18/24 months to almost all 3T’s in a year and up a whole shoe size can you believe it…. I keep thinking this just does not seem like the same kid anymore when I look at her and oh how much she can be a typical terrible two little girl ….lol…. at the same time I have to keep reminding myself that we are still working on what will be a long process of attachment and bonding to make up for the first two years of her live somehow that we have not been there.
But we are so blessed and so grateful to China for allowing us to bring her into our family and to her nannies that took such great care of her. In a couple of weeks she will be 3 years old, its just amazing its hard to recall what it was like before she was home with us.

Sarah "Yong Dao Dai" on Gotcha Day

Sarah & Daddy Flight Home

What an Amazing year......

It’s hard to believe that almost one year has passed already since we first met our daughter. The experience of getting that referral package and waiting to travel is a bit of a different approach when you are adopting a waiting child but nevertheless you go thru the same highs and lows and waiting and glimpsing for every update every picture you may or may not get until its finally your time to travel and bring your little one home. Crazy thing is that we remember every day up to that point of holding Sarah like it was only yesterday. I just tucked Sarah into bed after bed time story and hugs and kisses I am thinking back to when…………..

Today a year ago we where very impatiently sitting in Beijing waiting to travel to Changsha, Hunan to meet our almost 2 year old daughter Sarah at the time. We just found out that instead of meeting the girls that next day after arriving at the hotel we had to wait to meet them at the civil affairs office in Changsha not until Monday, we had another family travel with us from our agency also brining home a little girl from the same Orphanage. So I recall we decided to walk from our downtown Beijing hotel all the way to the Forbidden City to do some sight seeing, nothing like walking forever and wearing yourself out trying to pass the time taking in the beauty China has to offer, without being to impatient……….lol……..

It was a beautiful day and the City was amazing…..but not as amazing as what was to come two days later on April 16th. 2007.
This is the very first picture we ever saw of Sarah almost 9 months before we where able to hold her in our arms the first time ....

Funny thing is I kept thinking this girl has her daddy's ears ;-) now covered by longer hair but she still at times has that serious frown on her face.

San Francisco - China Town

Ok so I did not get a chance yet to post about our trip to San Francisco, DH was there for school and I had some flier miles and joined him for the weekend, which also happened to be the same weekend as the Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown SanFran.

Of course as it was not cold and snowy enough here this had to be the weekend of lots of rain and wind chills in San Francisco…. Go figure……lol…. In turn this limited us as to what we where able to do.
Due to the winds no ferries went to Alcatraz and who wants to walk the Golden Gate Bridge with 40mph + /hour winds. … Not I :-) We did get on the Cable Car for a ride up the hill and back down on the other side then walked back to China Town lol…..

To make a long story short we ended up spending most of Saturday in China Town, which was no kidding almost like being back in China. …. It was a lot of fun, we scrimmaged thru tons of the stores, mostly Asian people around us and most did not understand us if we asked questions as they did not speak any English unless younger ones where around, even more people in town for the celebration later that day and on top of it rain lots of rain…… We stopped at a tea store sat down for tea tasting, went to a bakery and had some very yummmyyyyy pastries……. Ate Dim Sum …… it was soo much fun…..lol… ok call me crazy but I loved every minute of it.

Later we watched most of the Parade, which was noted to be one of the top 10 international parades outside of Asia, however, the rain turned it into a rather chilly and wet event…. We where soaked by the time the parade was almost over 2 hours later that evening… the costumes where pretty neat the kids seemed to have lots of fun… there are a large number of Immersion Schools in San Francisco and all oft them had their little dragon costumes and floats.

Unfortunately a lot of our pictures due to the weather did not turn out … very disappointing but an experience nevertheless.

March 2008

Birthday Party