Christmas 2011

Christmas this year was so simple and beautiful. We had our traditional dinner where we invited our parents to come for dinner, and of course, my sweet Grandma. I feel so blessed to have her close again (she is living with my parents). It is her house that we would go to, or have her come to ours, when I was growing up. It was her that gave us pajamas each year so we had something special to wake up in on Christmas morning. I love her so much!

The kids also wanted to make a birthday cake for Jesus, so they helped me make that as well. And, we ate our traditional Shepherds Pie-our rendition of it!


Then, we talked about the birth of Christ, what His life means to us, and how we can better live to show our love for Him. I love these tender moments where our parents share their testimonies with our children. It is truly spiritual.

We try to keep Christmas simple, focusing on Christ, not too many gifts, and more about giving. The kids have been great, making simple lists and not asking for anything extravagant. It was a great morning taking turns to open gifts from each other and giving thanks to each person. I just absolutely love the Christmas season. Decorations have been more simple, the schedule has been more simple, and we had Lizzie, our little miracle, with us this year enjoying her first "Christmas." It's been perfect! I look forward to spending some time visiting our parents today.

Christmas Season Photos

First Snow of the Year

We had a little bit of snow fall...just enough to make a snowman out of one giant snowball. But, it was exciting enough for Lizzie, Ryann and Nathan. Lizzie tasted the snow, the kids used our Snowman Kit, and we played outside for a while. It was fun! And doesn't she look so cute!

Isn't she just the cutest thing ever?

5 Months Home

Many have asked how Lizzie is doing. She is doing fantastic. She is 2, and very busy. The kids love her, her big brother Josh (12), has developed such a fun relationship with her. She adores him and Ryann (10), and enjoys playing with Nathan (7) when he’s not teasing. They all are adjusting so well to our new family dynamics, and they have been very honest with their feelings. It has been such a great experience.

She has had no side-affects from the hydrocephalus. It has self-corrected and she is doing amazing. She runs, jumps, sings with me (that is one of my favorites), and grew 2 inches in 3 months. She is learning the language so quickly. She loves animals, so those are the first words she picked up. Nathan quickly taught her “Mine”, and she’s now saying no to about everything. She says no so sweetly when she means yes, and shakes her head “no” while saying it with a little more force when she means no. She loves our cats, loves to pretend she’s a kitty, and sleeps with a stuffed animal kitty. It is darling. She also loves shoes and feet & lotion. I did not realize you could be born so enamored with shoes, but she adores them and loves to try them on in the store. She always wants you to have your shoes on….and I seem to prefer bare-foot, so it’s a battle.

She is attaching well. It was such a blessing that she attached to her foster mom. I owe her so much for loving my daughter and teaching Lizzie to love. It has been a much smoother process than we had expected. We are grateful for the classes we took before adopting that helped us be aware of the attachment issues, and to so many wonderful people who shared their success and not-so-successful stories so we went into this educated.

I was looking at her the other day and had the thought: wow, she’s Chinese! She has fit so well into our family that I don’t see that very often. She is our daughter, she is our gift, and she is everything we dreamed and hoped she would be.

(photos from Nov & beginning of Dec)

4 Months!

She continues to be a complete joy to have! And she has discovered a favorite place for a bath....the kitchen sink. Easy on mama's back and conserves water!

Trick Or Treat

The most fun for Lizzie was Trick-or-Treating. Though she wasn't out very long, she really enjoyed knocking on doors and having her bag filled. It was a curious thing to her, but none the less, one she enjoyed. The others were old enough to take off with friends an their families, though Nathan always prefers to stick close to us. They had fun, and Josh, by far, collected the most!

Pumpkin Carving @ Grandpa's

The grand-kids who were willing to dress up and come trick-or-treating received a fun surprise. Those who didn't got left behind. We took photos of all those who were willing.

Ryann & Josh

as Bed-Time Girl and Jack Sparrow
(Sparrow's costume by my sister, Carrie. Bed-time by Costco)

Lizzie as our little black cat

(Costume by Old Navy & Target)

Nathan as our China Man
(Costume by Silk Market in Beijing)

Meleah, Brianna and Tanya
as Scarecrow, Butterfly & Peacock
(Costumes by my sister, Emily, their mom-I know, pure talent!)

Keira & Zach
as BamBam & Bug
(Costumes by their mommy, Heather)

Carving Pumpkins is so much fun! And we enjoyed some delicious food made and contributed by all! Nathan even fit in some fishing with Grandpa and daddy. It was such a fun way to start our Halloween Party Week-end!

3 Month Update

It has been 3 months since we picked up our Angel, and it has been such an incredible experience. I feel so blessed to be her mother, and to have her in our family! She is doing so incredibly well!

She is progressing great with the language! After a priesthood blessing from her daddy promising her that her ears would be open to understanding, she has understood nearly everything we've asked, she has begun going to sleep on her own (though I still love our time together in the rocking chair before laying her down), and her words have been coming quickly.

She can say kitty, puppy, bird, bye bye, daddy, mommy, Josh, baby, owie (every time I do her hair, she says it now), ah oh, hello, eyes, ears, nose, and so many other thing. She also has been trying to sign a few things to help us understand her (rain, drink, milk - meaning chocolate milk).

She loves chocolate milk and we made the mistake of giving it to her because she wouldn't drink her milk. Now that is all she wants! She is a trooper running the kids around and supporting them in their sports. She loves shoes, wants every pair in the store, as well as to wear all of ours (especially daddy's). She loves to carry around a picture of our family that includes her, and she'll sit and point to each member, trying to say their names, and then to her. We always say, "Lizzie's family", and then she smiles.

She loves music, singing, and dancing. I love to listen try to sing "I Love To See the Temple" along with me. She often starts to sing softly as we sit down, asking me to sing to her. She walks, runs, climbs on everything, empties every drawer she can, she is doing all those things that a typical 2 year old would do. She is, in my eyes, perfect.

She is.....attached! And so am I!

Below is a Facebook Post from Jake:

What a transition. To go from home to China, to parents of a toddler again, to back home, to needing to toddler proof the house again, to struggling to adjust the first month or so, to questioning our sanity, to seeing her play and bond with our other children, to seeing her smile, to finally seeing her expression change and become calm, to knowing that she is finally becoming comfortable, to being amazed that she fits in so well with our family and our personalities, to now finally feeling like life is getting back to normal. Well, almost normal. Normal plus one. Well again, as normal as I could ever possibly be.

Family Blog

Because this blog was to help people understand and enjoy our journey to pick up our little Chinese Princess, and now she is part of our family, I am going to go back to posting only in our family blog. We would love to continue to share our journey as a family. If you would like to access our Family Blog, please leave your email in the comments and we will send you an invite. Thank you so much for sharing this journey with us!!!

2 Months

She is absolutely perfect, and we are so in love with her! She is a dream come true! What a great way to celebrate 2 months since gotcha-day than to visit the Healing Fields in Sandy, Utah. It was a very special day!

Adjusting to Home

Here are some photo's since we've been home!
The Saturday after we arrived home, we headed up to Heber to say goodbye to my sister who was moving to New Hampshire (sad face). Lizzie jumped on the tramp for the first time, petted my mom and dad's baby horse (born just before we left), and tried out the swing.

That Sunday we took her to eat dinner with the Anderegg family and meet cousins, pet the dog, Buddy, and eat icecream. She has absolutely loved her siblings, and I was able to capture a few of her and her big brother, whom she adores (and he can't get enough of her).

Here is a photo of the girls in their dresses. I found these in a shopping center in Zhengzhou. They turned out perfectly!
Football practice started that following Monday with tryouts the first two days and then team practice Wed-Sat, and Mon-Sat since. Though we don't go to all of them, it is one of the only times we are all together, so we like to go support Josh. Lizzie enjoys the park nearby, but there are no swings. However, there is a lot of space to play in the grass and practice walking.
We like to go for walks. She enjoys discovering new things and being outside.
She always starts out with the sunglasses on, but by the time we're home, they are off and she is anxious to get out.
And this photo I just had to take to show that she is not always happy, we are all adjusting, but she is always adorable!