More pictures of our shopping day

She's now a daddy's girl

Well today was just a fabulous day for Annabel. She had a little trouble falling asleep last night because we were in a new room. But once she did she did pretty well except for some stirring. I broke down though at one point and put her into bed with me during the middle of the night. I was nervous she would wake up while I was still in a deep sleep and tumble out of her crib. It is not very tall and she towers over the top when she stands up. I discovered that she does not like to be touched when she is asleep. She likes to sprawl out on her tummy and take up the whole bed. Just like me. haha She fits in our family already. She woke up very happy and has been that way all day. The weather was great today and the air clearer thanks to the typhoon yesterday so our guide took us out to see some sights. Our first stop was of course Walmart to satisfy our need for the familiar. We did a lot of shopping. My order came to $100 us dollars. I can't believe all that I got for $100. The cost of items are just soooo much less here then the US. I got an adorable stroller that I am praying makes it home in one piece. If not at least it will save our back here. She loves the chest pouch but I think it is going to be way too hot in our last province for us to wear it. After Walmart we had some good old American food...Pizza Hut!!! It was the best pizza ever because I have had rice for 6 days straight. We love Chinese food but were ready for a change. I forgot to mention that today was daddy day. He decided he wanted me to let him do it all (or at least most of it)to really work on his bonding with Annabel. It worked. She isn't fussing for me to hold her 24/7 nearly as much as she has in the past 2 days. They had a great day together as you can see from the pictures. The best part of the day for Mark, outside of Annabel becoming his cuddle bug was stopping and touring the Zhonghua Gate. Which use to be the largest gate protecting the city during the first Ming Dynasty making this the original Forbidden City. It was very cool. They happened to have had a show today for us to watch as well. But honestly we Americans might as well have been the show. I have never had so many people stare at me in my life. Have you ever had one of those dreams where you feel like you are walking around the city naked and everyone is staring at you? Well I would imagine that this would feel about the same. Everyone just stares and talks. Once the stares start to get to be too many you pull out your lamenated "Why I am in China with a Chinese baby card" and then their stares turn to smiles and they start talking to you. I kept saying "Larry (that's our guide) what are they asking me?" It's amazing because within 5 seconds of reading that card you have 10-20 people surrounding you. The card simply explained that we are adopting a child from an orphanage. Of course the most curious thing isn't that we are adopting but it is that we already have children at home. Why would we want another one. They were all curious about her cleft lip as well. It just blows me away because they can be very open and candid here. Over all I have found that once they understand why we are here they are very nice and friendly. I loved having Larry around to translate for me. Annabel is really coming out of her shell today. She loves to talk and babble. She giggles a lot too when playing on the floor or being flown around like a plane. She is also very ticklish. She says mama, up, hi and loves to give fishy faces and blow kisses. She is like a sponge learning new things each day. When we first got her she wouldn't let go of the furniture to walk across the room even though she was walking around everywhere holding on. Now she is very daring and walking quite well for short distances. Her legs have gotten a lot stronger in just a few days. I can't wait to watch her blossom as the next week passes. Amber and Joey you are going to fall so in love with her. She is the sweetest little thing and loves to cuddle. I can't wait to see you both. Thanks for all the emails and comments on our blog site. We have enjoyed reading each one. It is part of my evening routine. I apologize I havent been able to reply to each one but know that I have read them all and feel very blessed to have you all in our lives. God Bless, Mark, Tamara and Annabel

Typhoon Central

Well today is another day down until the day we get to come home. Not that we are counting. In case you haven't watched the news, we are having the worst typhoon that this area has had in over 10 years. We havent even turned on our tv this week so we didn't know it was coming until it was here. It's a strong one. We had to change rooms because our room began to flood and we were on the 30th floor at the time. The wind and rain were coming in so hard that our drapes were blowing all over and that was with the windows closed and the air conditioner off. Crazy crazy!!! Then once we got into our second room they wanted to move us again. They wanted to move everyone on one side of the building to the other side. We told them we would take our chances. I wasnt about to repack and move for the second time in one day. Not only was it typhoon day today but we can officially title it "Melt Down Day". Annabel had some fantastic moments today with laughter and giggling up a storm and then she had some major sad moments. It is obvious that she is confused and misses her nanny. One minute she will be fine and the next she will just sit there and cry...then stop again in a matter of minutes. She always wants to be held and hugged during that time so I know it is separation pain she is going through. Mark now calls me the human marsupial because the only way to get her to calm down sometimes is to put her into my pouch (baby harness carrier). I absolutely love it because it takes all the strain off of my arms and back. Her 22 pound body was getting heavy. Especially considering she doesn't just want me a to just hold her...she wants me standing and rocking her. Too cute but also painful. haha So in the mist of us moving I put her into my pouch. I knew if I moved her after she fell alseep that she would wake up and cry again so I just plopped onto the bed on my back and slept with her. I felt like a beached whale. Since the weather is so bad we spent the day at the hotel. We had lunch with another couple adopting, Robin and Marty. Then went back to their room to let the girls (their daughter is Maddy) play together. As soon as we got back to our room Annabel had another melt down. But she is fine now. She is sleeping and will probably sleep the next 10 hours. At least she has the last two nights. Even though it is tough to watch her mourn the way she is mourning, I know she will be ok. She is such a blessing and sweet little girl. I can't wait to see her fall deep into some routines and totally understand that we are not going to leave her. I know that is big concern of hers right now. She is afraid she will wake up and we will not be there. Pray for her transition. When it somes to bonding though...God definetly answered prayers. She is doing fantastic in that area. Better then we had imagined she would do. Well take care. We will be safe. God Bless, Tamara

Day Two with Annabel

Hello again. It's day two with Annabel and oh what a blessing she is to us. She slept all night which made for a great day. Total she slept 10 hours. I heard her stir a couple of times in the middle of the night but then she would start rocking her head on the mattress and she would be asleep again. It is a self soothing technique very common in orphans. It is great that she can fall back asleep but it breaks my heart to think of her self soothing because there was no one there to rock her. We met her nannies today. And believe me they were amazingly loving. But with so many babies and so few nannies they cannot possibly be there for each child when they really need to be loved on. Today both Mark and I agreed that she is starving for affection. She doesn't want anything to do with much of anything except being held and cuddling. When I tell her I love you in Chinese she smiles and puts her head on my shoulders. It is enough to make you melt. Yes I am putty in her hands. She will go to either Mark or I but still seems to favor me for comfort. Today I handed her off a few times even when I really didn't want to only because I want her to learn to get comfort from both of us. And she did fine with that. It's just when given her choice she wants me. She is a great eater. I am only giving her food smashed up right now though because I really am not 100% certain what she is capable of eating with her palate. This afternoon she began to choke on a piece of cherreeos and then made the strangest noises after crying. It almost sounded as though she couldnt get enough air. Of course being the new mom again I was afraid she had a piece stuck somewhere and couldnt get enough oxygen out. She was fine though. She was only trying to catch her breath after being scared. I am still learning her sounds. She has a raspy cry due to the cleft. Cleft babies sometimes have baby teeth growing all over the place in their mouth. When she was giggling tonight Mark saw that she has a tooth way in the back where a tooth should not be. Weird. That's ok. One of the first things were are doing is making our medical appointments when we get home. She will see a great team of Doctors at Children Hospital for all of her future palate and dental procedures. She also has one tooth growing right in the front of her top row. We call her snaggle tooth. haha
Well today Annabel said bye to her nannies. I was so glad she gave lots of hugs and kisses first. I was concerned how she would react when seeing them again. She got very excited and went right to them but when it was time to leave she came right back to me. Thank goodness. But when the housekeeper came in tonight she started to cry a little bit and put her arms out asking her to pick her up. I told her that wasn't her nannie. I am sure she did not understand me but she did calm down. One thing that we cannot figure out is why she is terrified of dolls. She gets so scared when you put a doll near her. Anyone have any ideas why, then let me know. The only thing we can figure is maybe she was jealous when new babies come to the orphanage because they demand so much time from the nannies. I don't know. I hope she grows out of that one.
Today we signed all of the official documents to make Annabel officially ours in the eyes of China. We had to answer some simple questions like why do we want her and how many children we already have and to promise never to abandon her. Of course we passed with flying colors because they handed us some offical documents. Now we just wait until the end of the week to receive our paperwork from the notary and her Visa so she can leave the province. After we gave the nannies their gifts and gifts for the children they gave us a very special gift that I will always treasure. They gave us a zodiac jade necklace with Annabels zodiac the Dog on it. It is very sentimental in China to pass that down to your children. They also gave us a little red velvet container with soil from her home land. I hope to bring her back when she is older for a heritage tour to learn about her heritage. well I am off to bed now. Annabel is a sleep so it is time for us to also take advantage of that time to sleep. Until next time....God Bless, Tamara

3rd set of pics from Gotcha day

More gotcha day photos

Gotcha Day

Every one be sure to say an extra prayer of thanks for God helping us to figure out technology today. haha Poor Mark stayed up for hours trying to get pics to post. They were all just too large but once we figured out that was the problem we got it working.
WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN? Besides the days that I gave birth to Amber and Joey...yesterday had to be the best day of my life. Annabel is everything and more that we have been dreaming of and praying for. These desciribe our day yesterday:
She is the biggest cuddle bug I have ever met.
She has a very soft gentle spirit.
She eats about anything you give her
SHE LOVES BATHS!!! That was when she really came out of her shell.
You lay her down and she goes to sleep.
She loves riding in a shopping cart (it was her first time I am sure)
She loves to feel Marks scruf from not shaving.
She wont let mama out of her sight (I am loving that right now)
She is so sweet and such an amazing gift to us.

Even as I sit and type I can't keep from crying because the day could not have gone any better. We traveled with another family yesterday who also got their little girl. On the plane I just sat and the tears flowed as I prayed she would accept us. The closer we got to landing the less and less Mark and I could contain our emotions. We just very quietly sat there and wiped away tears. We were both just feeling so blessed and in a way didn't feel like it was really the day. But rather a day dream. It was kind of like when your husband comes home from deployment after waiting 8 months. But this was so much more emotional then any return from deployment. All I can sum it up to was that God was moving especially strong in our hearts yesterday. He just kept reminding us around every corner how lucky we were and how much he has been in control of this day from the very beginning. We almost missed our flight because the airport changed our gate 2 times in a matter of 15 minutes. You should have seen all four of us running from gate to gate. it was so funny. The Great Wall the day before prepared us for that. Once our driver picked us up we headed straight to the babies. That is why I look so bad. haha No mouse or hairspray that morning(had to turn in bags the night before and both my mouse and hairspray were too big for a carryon.) and also NO SLEEP. I woke up at 1am the day we were to fly out. I realized it was almost time for church to start back home so I just layed in bed and prayed for our day and thought about what she was going to be like. Anyways...enough of that. Can you tell I am tired? I know I am rambling along. We got to the adoption center and walked in. They already had Annabel there with her nannies. They obviously had been preparing her with our photos. She went right to me. She didn't want to stay with me the whole time. We kind of passed her back and forth about between me and Mark and the nanny. But by the time we left the nanny and headed outside she was stuck like glue to me. It took a while to get her to smile. She smiled a little in the mirror but it was bath time that pulled her out of her shell. She absolutely LOVES water. Another plus since we love to go swimming. We just cuddled and cuddled after bath time and had a bottle then it was time to put her down. They say she goes to bed at 7pm so I tried. Now here comes the only part of the day that broke both Mark and My heart. When I layed her in her crib I rubbed her leg. She was on her back. A little scared of a new crib but she did ok since I was there. Then she started in with totally normal yet absolutely heart breaking institutionalized behavior. She began shaking her head back and forth. Kind of like you would if you were on your back and the back of your head itches. But hers didnt itch. It was very obvious she was rocking herself to sleep. I video taped it for when she is older. I cried as i video taped thinking of all the nights she didnt have anyone to rock her to sleep. that was her way of self soothing. And of all the babies still yet to rock them selves to sleep because they dont have a mommy or daddy. It is so heartbreaking. She fell asleep within 2 minutes and has been alseep ever since. That was about 5 hours ago. They say she sleeps through the night. So far so good. Anyways, I am going to try to go back and add some more pics but here are a few to get you started. Thank you so much for following our time here in China. Just so you all know we still cannot read the comments. So if you do comment please also send it to us in an email. I would still love both because I am hoping to be able to save this blog onto a disk for Annabel to have in the future. Kind of like a photo album of her first days with us. Not sure if we can do that yet, but never the less I would love both email so I can read while I am here and the comment for her to have. God bless, We miss you Amber and Joey. You are going to fall so in love with Annabel. Oh about her cleft. her lip looks amazing. The U.S. doctors told us she would probably have a little minor repair done to smooth out scarring. But even for now...I am completely thrilled for her. We are very very pleased. She has a pretty extensive cleft which we knew about already. It doesnt seem to stop her from eating or drinking. We will get the ball rolling for surgery when we get home. And of course she had a fresh shaving of the hair. I think they did it the morning of us coming because she still had little pieces of hair on her neck. But we don't care about that. She is so sweet and beautiful even without hair. haha But in the mean time...Joey I bet you are the only one in the neighborhood who's sister can blow banana out her nose. I know you would think that was pretty cool. haha Love you all Love Mark, Tamara, and Annabel Joy YiXi