Settled In

Well things in our household are finally settled down and feeling "normal" again. I was so surprised it took us so long to recover from the jet lag. I am sure having a baby who didn't sleep through the night made it a little tougher. But I am thrilled to report that Annabel now sleeps through the night in her port-a-crib. She goes down around 10:30 and I usually have to wake her up in the morning. I have been able to get showered every morning. Yea!!!! So things from that end are looking great. She even let Mark put her to bed last night. We have also been able to get her to now go to bed without a bottle. It was difficult in the beginning because she was obviously use to that, but we knew we had to break that habit. She now has a bottle around 8pm, we brush her teeth afterwards, let her play a little and then she is ready for bed around 10:30. We are slowly moving that time frame up. I would like to see her in bed by 8pm within a week or so. Due to her cleft palate, it takes her over an hour and a half to drink 4 ounces of Milk/formula so we are getting a lot of cuddling time throughout the day and evening. She is such a sweet little girl. Bless her heart she had her first round of blood work today. It took four of us to hold her down. It was so sad to watch her cry so hard. They had a hard time finding her vein so that of course didn't help. It took two pokes and a lot of moving around of the needle to find the vein. But she seems to be doing fine tonight. Another issue we have been dealing with that we are praying is behind us are her night terrors. She didn't have them in China but once we got home she started. She had four of them last week on four different nights. They each lasted between 20-45 minutes and were pretty severe. Looking back they all seemed to occur on the nights she didn't have a bowel movement. She dealt with some constipation the first week home so we are hoping that was all it was. So far she has gone the last 3 nights without any terrors. Praise God!!! I want to let all of the families that we traveled to China with know how much we miss you and your little ones. I haven't had a lot of computer time since getting home and am very much looking forward to checking out your blog sites this weekend to see how things are going in your homes. Thank you for your posts and your emails. It has been great hearing from you. I pray that your little ones are starting to fall into some great routines and that you adults are all rested up from traveling. God has truly blessed each of our families and I know we are all forever changed because of it.

Everyday it feels more like home

Hello everyone. The last few days with Annabel have been so much fun. Our prayers are being answered in that two nights ago she slept for over 10 hours in her port-a-crib. Praise God!!! Now our prayer is a little more specific. Let's pray she does that more then one night in a row. haha Last night was not so easy. She ended up in bed with me again. Don't get me wrong...I love cuddling with her. But she reminds me of a 300 professional wrestler when you get her in bed with you. She kicks, squirms, twists and turns all night long. She might be getting sleep but believe me, Mark and I are not. haha I spend my whole night trying to keep her from flying off of the bed in her sleep. I know tonight will be better because she is worn out. She will sleep great tonight. I am crossing my fingers as I speak.
We had a great day yesterday. We went shopping at the mall to get Amber a formal gown for Homecoming. Her dress is so beautiful. I can't wait to take pictures of her and her friends all dressed up. I had to laugh while we were shopping thinking I cant believe we are buying formal attire for our oldest daughter and diapers for our youngest on the same day. Who knew two years ago we would be starting over. In the words of Stephen Curtis Chapman, things have never been more crazy and wonderful at the same time. Annabel has turned our quiet house upside down but I would not change it for anything. We love her so much. It is so hard for me to believe she hasnt been with us since day one. Yesterday she had her first taste of Mexican food and Crispy cream doughnuts. I wish I had my video camera for both. She was hysterical. We couldn't cut it up fast enough for her.
Today we attended Church for the first time since coming home. It was so great to see everyone and feel normal again. We were greeted with a lot of hugs and love. I appreciate that so much everyone. Thank you for reminding me of what a fabulous church family we have. I missed it so much while away. Even though we were only gone for two weeks, it felt like much longer because I was very homesick for my kids while we were gone. We had a great time at church and Annabel seemed to love the music. She loves to dance and sing at home. After church we went and spent some time at grandmas. They spent some time bonding as you can see in the photos.
Tonight Joey made a very difficult decision to give his beloved ferret to a wonderful woman to raise for him. He loves her so much but just doesn't have the time now that he is back in school to give her the attention she deserves. So she came and picked her up tonight. Joey thanked her several times for taking such good care of her for him. She also has Ambers ferret (she got her a few months back). So she felt very blessed to have them both together to play with one another. I am so proud of Joey for putting the ferrets needs above his own. He seems fine with his decision because he knew she has just not had the chance to play as much since school started. The women who has both of our ferrets gives them a lot more freedom then they had here so I know they will be very happy with her. Thank you Beverly.

She likes the dog!!!!

It has been so exciting to watch Annabel grow and learn to trust us this week. It has been such an incredible week and a fantastic two days. First of all she is in her Port-a-crib for the 4th time. Each time we have been able to get her to sleep in it for about an hour. She has still been in bed with me each night(we finally gave in two nights ago), but it is a start. I believe tonight might be the night she spends the entire night in the crib (or at least a good part of it) only because she is very tired tonight and is already asleep. It is only 8:39pm. Praise God!! That sure beats 4am. She has had her first car seat experience this week. She LOVES her car seat because she enjoys looking out while we are driving. Everything is so new to her. She also did great at Walmart in the shopping cart for the first time. As you can see from the pictures one of her greatest accomplishments is that she is finally NOT terrified of the dog. In fact she follows him around everywhere. It is just too cute. We have to stop her over and over from trying to kiss the dog as you can see in the picture. She just puckers up and is ready for kisses. Of course the dog thinks it is great. So she has heard the word "no" a lot today. This morning she attended her first Sales Director meeting away from home and welcomed a few more of my friends to the house. She is definitely proving herself to be a child who can handle change with stride and can very easily adjust to just about any situation.

Falling into some routines

Hello everyone, I know many of you have been keeping up with my blog and wondering why I haven't posted anything substantial yet since getting home. So here is an attempt to catch up. First of all Annabel is doing amazing considering all she has been through. She has been pulled away from everything she has ever known and taken to a foreign country with people she never knew before. Wow..that would be scary for me, I can't imagine what she is thinking. She is doing great during the day. She has taken to the whole family and is actually starting to pet the dog. She was terrified of him at first. Poor puppy. He couldn't figure out why each time he came near her she would scream bloody murder. haha She is eating great and babbling like crazy. We hear some American words mixed in there amongst the jibber jabber. We took her to urgent care yesterday so we could get some medication for her eye (the doctor thought it was the start of pink eye). But after getting her home we felt it was probably just a cold in her eye because she caught a cold after flying. We couldn't get in yet with her Doctor because her paperwork was still processing to be put on our insurance so it was very nice of them to see her considering she wasn't even covered yet. They worked it out with us though because they knew we had been through so much in the days prior with travel and all. We ventured out today to the bank, church and a couple of stops on the base. She did great. She absolutely LOVES her car seat which shocked me. She loves just sitting there looking out as we drive. Thank You Lord for that one. I do have a prayer request for you all and that is that Annabel would fall madly in love with her porta crib, or her crib or even a sleeping bag on the floor. Anything that doesn't involve sleeping on my stomach. I think I have an invisible umbilical cord growing out of me. She only sleeps if she is attached to me. In China she slept all night in her crib with no problems. In fact she didn't want to be in bed with me at all at night. Here she wont go in her crib awake and if we move her she automatically wakes up. So the first two nights I slept either on the floor or on the recliner in my room with her. Last night I gave in and put her into bed with me. But she wiggles too much and doesn't sleep sound. Which means we have been taking a lot of little cat naps on the recliner during the day. Our sleep is all messed up to say the least. haha But she is still very happy when she is awake. My travel group has been emailing back and forth and it sounds like another family is experiencing the same thing which is very normal for these children. I would imagine she is scared that if she gets in that crib and falls asleep that we wont be there in the morning. Bless her heart. Other then the sleep issues I could not ask for a better situation. She loves us so much as we do her and we feel so very blessed to have her. God did an amazing job of matching her to us. As for us, feel free to call now. I know many of you have been so kind as to email asking for permission to call as you didn't want to disturb us. We would love to catch up and are even up to visitors. I do thank you for the privacy you have all given us the last couple of days though and the emails checking in on us. We are so grateful to be home. God Bless, Mark and Tamara

We are HOME!!!!!!!

We are finally home!!!! It felt like we were never going to make it. It took us 34 hours of traveling from the time we left our hotel until the moment we hit home. I have never been so tired in all my life but at the same time so happy and relieved. I will post later with some pictures and more details but I wanted everyone to know we were home safe and sound. Annabel is doing great and did amazing on our long journey here. She totally excepted Amber, Joey and Grandma. Praise God!!!! She is having so much fun with the kids. Our biggest issue right now is the time difference from here to China. We will have to work really hard the next few days to wean her onto our time schedule. We wanted so badly to go to church today but since she finally went to sleep at 4 am this morning, church just wasnt going to happen. But we will be there next week for sure. Thanks for all your prayers and emails while we were gone. Believe me we felt the prayers all the way in China. God bless and I can't wait to introduce you all to Annabel.

Our last post from China

Well this will probably be our last post from China as we head to the airport first thing in the morning. We have had a great last couple of days as a family. Most of our time has been spent shopping and exploring the area. We went out to dinner with our group last night for some very much welcomed Italian food. It was a great change from Chinese food. haha We bought an extra suitcase because we have had soooo much fun shopping. I can't wait to get home and see what I really ended up with. Annabel will have some great things to remind her of her culture and Joey and Amber, yes there are some great things for you as well. We have really enjoyed ourselves over the last 2 weeks. We have learned a great deal about Annabel's Province and Country that I hope we can pass on to her as she grows older. I know we will be back again someday and hopefully we will have done a great job in helping her to gain a respect and pride for where she came from. The Chinese people vary just as much as the Americans do in attitude and kindness. We have met some very wonderful people that I am sure Annabel would feel proud to call friends. The desire for these children to be adopted and loved by foreigners such as ourselves is very apparent. I am looking forward to getting home and putting together all the hours and hours of video clips we have on our camera. So be checking into the blog site periodically for those clips. It is just too hard to do it from over here because the connections are so much slower. While we have enjoyed ourselves so much here, I am so ready and excited to come home. Most of you know that I am a serious homebody. I love being home with my family and am so looking forward to watching how Annabel fits right into that. I am so proud of you Amber and Joey for sticking it out the last 2 weeks. You have been real troopers. I know it is very hard to go from having your parents there on a daily basis to all of a sudden not having them around. I promise once you meet Annabel it will have all been worth it. Please pray for our trip home tomorrow. From start to finish is 30 hours of airport and travel time for us. We have a lot of layover time in Beijing. I pray Annabel makes it through without too many meltdowns. I am sure we will be circling the plane many times on the long trip back to the states. Thank you for following our journey. It is not over yet. Now we head home and readjust again. I am sure we will see some set backs as we move into new routines. But I can tell you we could not have asked for a sweeter little girl then God gave us. She loves us so much as we do her. She loves to hug and kiss and you can tell she is just in heaven having a mommy and daddy. From day one God layed it upon our hearts to add two children to our home. I cannot wait to see who God has in store for us next. What's funny is that even the families who intended on only adopting once are talking about coming back again. There is something very contagious about seeing these kids grow and learn to love in such a short period of time. I wish there was a way to rescue each and every one of these lonely children. I know I don't have the power to do that. But I do ask you to pray for these children. Pray that men and women all over the world would open up their hearts and homes to a child who desperately needs a mommy and daddy. The blessing you will receive is greater then anything you could ever imagine. I have never seen God's love as much as I have in the past 7 days watching these children learn to trust and love their new parents. The miracle of love that God has for us and his orphan children is forever etched on my heart.

What a great day we had!!