big steps!

once again I posted a picture twice!
LuLu was so scared of the dogs the first night she trembled and screamed......
we thought oh no as we have 3 of them!
Nick worked his magic and by the 3rd night she was cuddling with Dude! She thinks they are so funny. She yells GOGO (dog in Chinese) and then laughs and laughs.
We took a nap together today and this little girl just melts my heart.......I'm in love. The tantrums are getting to be fewer oh they still happen but not has much and she is just laughing and dancing and loving her new home!

Zoo

sleepless in Seattle

We are sleepless in Seattle! We had a layover in Tokyo had some great sushi and some Saki. The flight from Guangzhou to Tokyo was wonderful the best airline we have ever flown, the US airlines should take notes from them! After how many hours of traveling well about 19 our flight was cancelled to Denver. The biggest snow fall of the year we were told. OF COURSE we were so looking forward to home, our own beds, seeing our dogs most important of all!! Stuck in a Ramada Inn by the airport with 2 kids that are overly tired and parents that just want to go to bed but we do have the best asian restaurant around here right in our lobby with a great happy hour.....oh well we will make the best of it and get cleaned up and then tomorrow we get to travel from 9 to 6 to get to Denver which should be just a 3 hour flight oh the joys of our China adventure!!
The greatest news of all is LuLu is a US citizen!

good bye China

We had a great busy day today. We went to the zoo, really nice zoo. It was clean and so much green, flowers, plants and big beautiful trees. We got to see a panda bear yeah!! Jason and Kathy have been the BEST facilitators ever! We will truly miss our travel group they have been so kind and everyone has had a special something to bring to the group. Guangzhou has brought us closer together as a family and BaBa is a hit now with LuLu, he has her laughing and running! We took the oath today at the american consulate and the woman doing it cried so of course we all shed a few tears.
Bitter sweet that is what tonight is.......we are excited to get home and start a new life of a family of 4 but leaving Regina and Janaes birth place is sad. China honored us with two amazing beautiful, smart girls and for that we will always honer China and their birth parents.
Thank you to all that followed our journey and all of your kind words and prayers.
Next post will be from Lyons Colorado!

good bye China..........................................

having fun in Guangzhou

LuLu and BaBa bonding

Nick's Birthday cake the candle sent the fire dept to our room!!

Sorry some of the pictures are posting twice I don't have time to fix it!

LuLu in a protected tantrum arena

Jason and Kathy our facilitators are from Hunan and Jason is from YueYang just like Regina!!

LuLu and her friend from Anyang Lilly

Group picture 12 families

Regina Allie and Anna all beautiful older sisters

getting these sisters to look at the same time for a picture is like herding cats.....

The Henan babies red couch picture

Anyang Henan girls

family Fuster

Medical exam

LuLu would not close her mouth!!

Regina loves to push the stroller

We are having a great time in Guangzhou. LuLu and BaBa are bonding more and more each day!! We are getting better with the tantrums she seems to understand more now that it's not ok to scream bloody murder whenever things don't go her way. Don't get me wrong they still happen but its more of a three year old tantrum instead of a scared little girl tantrum. When we get home things I'm sure will turn around quickly for her. She is a leader, the alpha of the group which will be great when she's older. Also we see lots of sports for this one.

I went and got a great foot massage the other day. They spent 90 minutes on me. It was a full body massage with clothes on with soaking feet in tea water. Chinese torture massage that hurt so good.

The Best news is Nick and LuLu are really bonding and she is getting to like her new BaBa!! It makes Nick feel better! Less draining on me too, but I seem to have gotten a cold and sore throat.....

We have done the medical exam, all paper work for the USA visa is good, we take the oath tomorrow and we are done!! Hope to go to the zoo tomorrow afternoon then pack and get ready for a really fun flight home hehehehehe just hoping and praying here that we make it without any child abuse charges!! Really officer she just likes to throw big loud tantrums that just our LuLu!! :0) See you all soon, thanks so much for taking care of our dogs neighbor family we miss them so much!! XXOO

Thank You!

everyone that has made a comment or prayer on whats happening here you have no idea how much it is appreciated!!! We are now in Guangzhou and it is wonderful!! Everyone has been so nice and really incredible! We went to a Buddhist Temple today and had the girls blessed. We feel that everyone can use as much blessing in their life's as possible! LuLu has had many first since leaving Henan.

first airplane ride

first stroller ride

first grilled cheese sandwich

first glance at birds in a cage

first glance at fish in a pond in the hotel

first time to pick out her own shoes and dress

first skinned knee!!

And wow how she is oh oh oh dramatic about her boo boo.

When she laughs everyone laughs!! And when she screams the room clears!!

We are going to enjoy our last few days in China!!

Regina by the way is awesome, I don't know what we would do without her being here with us. she is the best helper and great with her Mei Mei!!

last day in Henan

and I have very mixed emotions, I think we all do. It has been a very different adoption experience in several different ways. Henan in not used to seeing westerners, it is a very under developed province a province in China you would have visited 15 or more years ago. A few examples.......we walk through the park and everyone stares. One woman today was riding her bike and almost crashed because she was staring at us. When in the park today LuLu started screaming (like she does a few times a day) and women just stared and then they start whispering to each other and get this judgemental look on their faces.....today I broke down just started crying and actually looked at some of these woman and said " are you getting a good look?"......I'm sure they thought I was a little nutty and well I actually felt a little nutty!! I have read other woman's blogs that say I can't wait to get home or they can't wait to leave the province that their new children are from....I always thought why don't they just enjoy it and appreciate where their children are from ? Well I understand completely now, its not be easy being here, it has been a struggle. I am very excited to get to Guangzhou where they are used to seeing westerners with Chinese baby's and children. I'm done.......I'm ready to leave Henan. I feel bad that this is the way I feel about my new daughters province and this is the last time she will be here as a 3 year old but I have tried and I am raw with emotion.
So we leave Henan a changed family forever. We all are looking forward to a wonderful last week in Guangzhou with a wonderful travel group that we hope will be our forever friends!

I can't keep up!

It's official I can NOT keep up with 2 kids!!

the officials did a ceremony for us