Oh Yeah ... It's On!

Easter vacation road trip!

2500 miles, 4 countries, 4 kids, 1 car

Cross Country Race

Every January, ASM takes all the 5th grade students and a select few of the "fastest" 4th grade students to a cross country race.  Adeline was selected as one of the 4th graders this year and she was so excited.  She trained with Mitchell for the two weeks before the race and even got up early before school on same days to run!  Adeline is a sleeper and doesn't get up until the last possible moment (it is usually after at least 10:30 on Saturday mornings) so this was a huge deal to her!

Priscilla and I were able to go and watch her race.  Great job Ad!!

Priscilla Update...

Here is a post from a month ago that I forgot to make public. :)

I am painfully aware that it has been ages since I have written.  So much has happened and I wish I could have wrote about it at the time.  This has been a Christmas vacation that was incredibly difficult, utterly beautiful and completely exhausting.

Priscilla all in all is doing amazingly well.  She bonded with me right away in China and came around a lot with Mitchell.  However, when we landed in Madrid and came "home" she was thrown for a loop.  Initially she was thrilled to have kids around to entertain her and then she realized they were always there.  These little people also wanted the attention of the two people she was learning to trust and rely on.  She was not a big fan of sharing...in particular, my lap.  She didn't want them to sit there or for me to give them any sort of affection really.  All they wanted to do was play with her and love her up.  The kids knew who she was and were completely in love with their new sister.  Priscilla, however, had no idea who they were and wasn't necessarily very excited about them.

The kids were patient and would give her space, but this got more and more difficult as the days went on.  She wanted me to do everything for her and it seemed like all the progress we made in China went out the window.  On the plus side, she was more comfortable with Mitchell now and would allow him to hold her more.  We pushed on and the distraction of the excitement with Christmas helped.

Then the sickness hit.  We don't get sick very often, in fact until this we had only been to the doctor two times in Spain in nearly 3 years...for any of us.  This time, however, we weren't so lucky.  It knocked out all of us and has lasted at least 2 weeks.  It started with the boys, then Priscilla, moved on to Mitchell and I and finally hit Adeline last.  We took Truman and Priscilla to the doctor and were told both times it was a virus that was all over Madrid.  Wait it out and treat the symptoms.  Poor Priscilla had a fever for 4 days, a horrible chesty cough and a nose that was constantly draining.  She was miserable.  I knew she would get sick at some point, but I wasn't ready for it to happen 1 week after being home.  Every comforting technique I had discovered that worked and she didn't hate, changed when she didn't feel good.  She wanted to be in my lap or in my arms, but didn't want me to touch her, talk to her or look at her.  She wasn't sleeping.  At all.  She woke up at least once per hour all night long.  Naps weren't happening either.  It was a heartbreaking time.  I longed for something that would make her feel better, but she was uncomfortable and clearly when she had been sick before it had been very different.  I cried, I prayed, I held her and kept trying.  Finally, we started making a little progress and we found new ways to comfort her.  Thank heavens because by now I was sick.  Horribly sick and felt horrendous.  We are so thankful that we didn't have plans this Christmas.  We didn't have any travel we had to cancel or visits we'd have to miss.  We were able to stay put, play games and get to know each other all over again.  I suppose you can look at getting sick as a blessing in disguise.  Priscilla now knows that we will always be there for her, especially when she doesn't feel good. 

A few days ago we started feeling well enough to leave the house.  Priscilla LOVES being outside and would prefer to be out all day.  She loves going on walks in the stroller, loves going to the play ground, playing on the slide and swinging.  She started letting the kids play with her at the park and it gradually carried over to playing inside as well.  She allows them to carry her now and I can even leave the room for short periods of time when they play now!  I am so glad they finally connected and she is enjoying time with them.  Adoption is truly a blessing, but it is amazingly difficult as well! 

Travel day- Thursday, December 10 x2 - Saturday, December 13

One of the best parts about flying from China to Seattle is that you get two tries at the same day. We landed 15 min after we took off because of the 17 hour time difference! What fun!!

We flew ANA for the first time on this trip. They are still Star Alliance and provided the shortest itinerary for us. We flew Guangzhou to Tokyo and then on to Seattle. All in all, we were impressed. Check in was super smooth, you are treated like a rock star in China if you are traveling with a baby. We had really enjoyed this perk when Truman was a baby and it was nice to do it again! You don't have to wait in any lines (they pull you to the front) and you are treated so kindly! The lady at the check in counter was nice enough to block the seat in between Mitchell and I on the long flight to Seattle, thus giving a lap child her own seat. Bonus! They were also super friendly to us and Priscilla on the flight and she was even brought her own baby meals!

Priscilla is quickly proving to be an all star traveller. God definitely knew what we needed and Priscilla is fantastic! She is getting the hang of crazy itineraries, hotels, airports, security, suitcases, and airplanes. On each flight she played for a bit, ate her food and went to sleep. Awesome!! She is a bit of a toss and turner when she sleeps, so it was so nice that she had her own seat!

Once we landed we went directly through immigration. Since we were flying on a Japanese airline there weren't that many Americans on our flight and no one else who was adopting. We were taken to the front of the line at immigration!! I couldn't believe it, that sort of treatment never happens in the U.S.!! Once you go through the initial check they send you on to a special area where an officer reviews the "brown envelope" (we were given this on Wednesday morning with strict instructions to not open it or it would make our documents invalid). We were also told that this portion of the process could take up to 2 hours depending on how busy it was. Well thankfully at 930am in Seattle, it was just us. In about 10 min he stamped Priscilla's passport with her "I just became an American stamp" (no it didn't really say that, but it should have!!) and we were good to go!

As we came up the escalator our sweet friend Wendy was waiting for us. It brought tears to my eyes to see her after our long journey, what a huge blessing!! Keith and Wendy so kindly opened their house up to us and offered to drive us all around Seattle fulfilling our legal appointments for Priscilla.

First stop, passport office. I was so worried about this step of the process. We were asking them to create a U.S. Passport for Priscilla with her new English name, after only being a citizen for an hour with a less than 24 hour turn around time. Completely doable right?? Haha. Thankfully, it was!! I still can't believe it!

She took to Wendy right away! 

We celebrated getting her U.S. passport with her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

She LOVED it!!  

Friday we headed to the social security office. This requires the entire afternoon because we didn't have an appointment. In fact, it only dawned on us that we needed to go and apply for her number that morning! In the end, this was successful as well! We celebrated by going out to dinner and having Seattle craft beer!

The car seat is magical! 

Priscilla adores Keith and Wendy!! 

Celebrating our social security experience with dinner and beer. 😊 

Two peas in a pod.  

Saturday we headed to a beautiful waterfall. It was pouring down rain and quite chilly, but we still made the trek and got the pictures! 😊 For the record, Priscilla is not a fan of rain or wind or wearing a hat...not a good combination!! Haha. After that we had a marathon shopping excursion to Target. Yes they probably sell almost everything we bought somewhere in Spain, but that's not the point. We loaded up on essentials (socks, underwear, organic baby food), some treats for the kids (pants that will actually go to Truman's ankles, Swedish fish gum, cinnamon gum) and a few last minute Christmas presents. Saturday night we had a game marathon! SO MUCH FUN!

Beautiful waterfalls!  

It was pouring!! 

Priscilla was less than thrilled. Haha

I'm sensing a trend! 

We had 3 lovely days with our dear friends. We spent them relaxing, laughing and just completely enjoying every second of being together. Priscilla adored them and more and more of her personality is starting to show. She is so funny and sweet and we love her immensely.

Day 13 - Adoption - Tuesday, December 8

Today started off WAY too early. We had to be in the lobby at 7:30am to head to the US Consulate for our visa interview. Normally, that's not that early. However, Mitchell and I are both completely exhausted EVERY single night. We usually get a pretty good run of sleep as Priscilla has been a rock star sleeper, but last night didn't go so well for any of us. Poor Priscilla has been having some digestive issues with her drastic changes in diet. We thought it would be easier on her, but she spent quite a long time trying to poop before bed without any results. So she woke up once in the night because she was poopy and another time (we are assuming) because her tummy hurt. I brought her to bed with me because I was exhausted and not really thinking straight. She, of course, thought this was completely bizarre and "talked" to me for a while before she finally settled down and went to sleep. SIDE NOTE: she went to sleep tonight without sucking her fingers!! I'm hoping it's a sign she's getting more comfortable with me and doesn't always need her coping mechanism. However, I'm fully prepared for it to just be a fluke. 

Once she was finally asleep again, I continued to toss and turn constantly afraid we'd over slept the alarm. At any rate, it was a bad night for all of us, but we rallied and were the first family ready in the lobby. 😊  

Love when babies sleep with their bottoms in the air. So cute!!  She was out cold when I had to wake her up in the morning. 

 Our appointment at the consulate was at 8:30am and we were told it would take no more than 90 min. It was nice to be at the consulate (you are on official U.S. soil), we were even serenaded with Christmas carols by consulate workers. However, they were SO slow. We didn't leave until 11am!! By that time Priscilla and I had both had enough and wanted to go!  On the plus side, we passed our interview and she didn't even ask us about our current residence in Spain. It's a bit of a gray area as we are permanent residents of the U.S. Temporarily residing in Spain. It always seems a bit shady to say, even though it's 100% true. Our time in Spain may very well be numbered. Hopefully we find out soon. Anyway if all goes well, we should get Priscilla's passport with her U.S. Visa inside (along with all the papers needed for the immigration officer in Seattle) at 4pm tomorrow. This is the last piece we need so we can leave China and move on to the next phase of our adventure. 

After the Consulate we headed to Shamian Island. Mitchell and I think it's an old consession​ area, much like in Tianjin. The houses are beautiful and nothing looking Chinese at all. We had lunch there and then did a little shopping and walked around. It was a beautiful cool day and it was nice to just be outside.  I even had two Chinese ladies who asked if they could take their picture with me! It happened to the kids all the time, but never to me. Haha

Such bizarre statues on the island! 

This is the "adoption statue" at the entrance of the park. Mitchell and I got a kick out of this because it totally looks like grandparents and a child.  

It was really pretty! 

It's not every day that you get to feel like Hannah Montana. Right Ad? 😉 

We stopped by the Starbucks on a recommendation from a friend. It was actually a Starbucks Reserve. We'd never heard of such a thing, but they had specialty coffee there. One of which was a pour over (5 options to choose from). Mitchell had one and thought it was pretty darn tasty!​

Starbucks Reserve

I thought this was a cool map on the wall at Starbucks.  

Mitchell's Vietnamese coffee pour over  

This afternoon we lounged a bit and then headed to a Tapas Restaurant near our hotel for dinner. Mitchell, of course, aided by Priscilla befriended the owner who by the end of the night has sent us a friend request on Facebook. 😂 Mitchell was giving her tips on how to improve on her menu and why Spanish food is like in Spain. The food was good, but he thought he could make it better (and she was all ears, taking notes!). She said when we come back next we will see changes made. Oh goodness!​

Dinner at Solo Tapas

"Spanish Sausages" OR a fancy way to serve hot dogs. 😂 

I put Priscila to bed early tonight ​(8pm) and she sucked on her fingers to fall asleep again. Oh well, she'll get there. 😉

Adoption - Day 11 - Sunday December 6

Sorry this post didn't get sent last night, I actually fell asleep on the couch with Priscilla at 8:30pm. 😊 It's absolutely crazy how tired and sore I am!   Apparently I should trained before we left, because carrying a nearly 25lb baby is taking its toll on me. I'm sore in places I didn't even know I had. Haha 

This little cutie LOVES eggs (she'll fit in well at our house). we were sharing an omelet every morning, but she was eating almost the entire thing!!

She loves playing with the Starbucks cups.  

Yesterday we did a bit of sightseeing with the other 7 families in our group. We went to the Chen Clan Academy, which is a house from the Qing Dynasty donated to Guangzhou by the Chen family. It also houses the Cantonese Folk Art Museum. It was very similar to buildings in China, but on a smaller scale. Our guide, Miko, told us it was a great place to buy good quality mementos from China at good prices. They had a lot of the same things that we had in Beijing, but at crazy expensive prices. Most people thought they were decent because they were similar prices to what you'd pay for souvenirs in the U.S.  Mitchell and I, however, thought they were crazy prices!!  We ended up only buying Christmas ornaments for everyone in our family with their Chinese Zodiac animals (Mitchell and Priscilla are horses, Henry and I are sheep, Adeline is a rooster and Truman is a tiger). Yes we all thinking it absolutely hilarious that Henry got the sheep, sorry buddy! For those that don't know, henry absolutely despises sheep. He had a mishap with feeding them when he was 3 and has never gotten over it. 😉

Priscilla was tired of the adventure after about 20 minutes. She wanted nothing to do with being in the carrier and shopping is most definitely NOT her thing. So we practiced going up and down steps for the majority of the time. She loves to walk, but is still too unsteady by herself, so she keeps hold of both of my hands. 

Loved this. Tai chi while balancing the ball. It was impressive! 

Female lion guarding the gate

This guy did all these painting with his hands! They were pretty neat! 

After this we jumped back on the bus and headed to the Liwan Plaza, which I guess is "the" place to buy jade and pearls. Mitchell and I went in to a store with a couple of other families just to check out prices. Again, they were astronomical compared to Beijing. But other families thought it was completely reasonable. We opted to skip the jewelry shopping and headed outside so Priscilla could practice some more walking. By the time the 90 minutes was up, we were ALL ready to head back to the hotel!

The wholesale jewelry market.  

she'd do this all day if we let her!! 

We spent the afternoon lounging, napping (Priscilla and Mitchell), playing together and even watching Enchanted. We ventured to a quirky Thai restaurant for dinner. Quirky because they had an Asian band that sang American pop songs (ranging from Stayin Alive to Uptown Funk). They even had choreographed dances to each song! It was a hoot!! 

bath time! 

Flirting with daddy

the band 😊 

our hotel  

A little pre-bedtime cuddle time! 

Priscilla is making progress with Mitchell. She thinks he's funny and he's not holding anything back to entertain her. We've both been laughing quite a bit!! She still doesn't want him to hold her, but she's allowing him to kiss her on occasion. I also taught her how to blow him kisses, so for now he's happy with that!!​

Friday - Day 9 - Travel Day

Today was a great day. It was completely exhausting both physically and emotionally,  but it was great.

Priscilla seems to be starting to understand that we are always here. Of course, this will take much longer to realize we are here no matter what and she can always rely on us, but we are thankful for baby steps in that direction.

This sweet baby girl loves to sleep! She reminds me a lot of Adeline. She'll talk and talk (especially at bed time), but when she finally closes her eyes she sleeps hard and for a long time. Adeline would sleep every day until 10 or later if we let her. 😊 Thursday night we put Priscilla to bed at 8:30pm and we were going to let her sleep in as long as she wanted. The orphanage had told us that she goes to bed at 9pm and wakes up at 7am. We have yet to see that schedule. Between 7:30 and 8pm she's starting to get sleepy. Friday morning we had to make quite a bit of noise for her to wake up at 9:30!!

We were also told by the orphanage that she had never had solid food, only formula. She was having a bottle every 3 hours, even twice in the night. I started giving her baby food and snacks (gerber puffs and yogurt melts) and she is completely hooked. We tried keeping her normal formula routine, but most of the time she was refusing it. So, we are now down to 3 bottles per day and she seems to be happy with that. We've even gotten her to start drinking a little bit of water!

Friday morning we packed and got ready to say goodbye to Kunming and David. I am so thankful for our time there, but we were so ready for a change. Priscilla was even tired of our hotel room and would get fussy if we had to go back in there!!

Packing

Waiting patiently in the lobby...anywhere, but the hotel room! 

Before we checked out we received an awesome present in the mail from Jarter and Helena. They had sent us a new car seat for Priscilla and a phone that speaks both in Mandarin and English.  We were thrilled and Priscilla loves them both!!

Playing with her new awesome phone! 

Priscilla LOVES to ride in the car and be on the go (thank goodness!) so we were hopeful that this would carry over to flying. We travelled from Kunming to Guangzhou with the Johnson family from Georgia. Check in was a bit crazy as we all had overweight luggage and their daughter's birthdate in her passport didn't match what he airline had in the computer. It literally took over an hour to fix!! Once that was sorted though the actually flight was great. Priscilla was a rock star!! She looked through the in flight magazine, had a bottle and took a nap! She woke up right before we landed and watched out he window for the rest of the trip. Let's hope the next 4 flights are that smooth!!

Eating on the way to the airport

Kunming airport  

Yay we all have a passport!! They weren't sure if Priscilla's would be ready before we left.  

Such a good traveler! 

She sucks on two fingers and crosses two others when she's going to sleep or gets nervous.  

So cute!! 

Love her!! 

Lucky enough to sit by this guy. 😂 

We met our new guide, Miko, at the airport and then headed to our new hotel. We are staying at the Garden Hotel in Guangzhou and it's beautiful. Such a nice change from the last one!! We have a bit more room to spread out and the change of scenery is great for all of us. There are A LOT of American families at this hotel with their adopted kiddos. We joined 6 other families for this leg of the journey. They all actually used the same adoption agency, Lifeline. But there are loads of other families and guides throughout the hotel as well.

The gorgeous Christmas tree in the lobby of our hotel.  

Checking out the new view. You can see a lot from the 25th floor! 

It was after 8pm when we were finally free to go find something for supper last night. We thankfully found a restaurant in the hotel and ended up having a spinach salad, cheeseburger and French onion soup. We love Chinese food, but it was a yummy change!!

Waiting for dinner.  

Awesome gingerbread house in the restaurant.  

Priscilla did great with the new room, new bed, late bedtime. She is such a roll with the flow kid so far (as long as I am holding her)!! 😊 She also made some progress with Mitchell today. She would look at him when he talked to her and she allowed him to tickle her while she was on my lap. Baby steps, but we will take them!!

We got her to crawl!!! 

Getting used to her car seat. She LOVES it!!!