Happily Ever After...

We are waiting for a sweet family to send us pictures of our baby girls. Lots of pictures. The husband and his son are there RIGHT NOW adopting the cutest 8 year old you will ever see. On Sunday, the husband visited the orphanage and told his wife a few things about our girls which she graciously passed on via email. The good news: Celia is at a  therapeutic facility that is helping her make "great strides" in her development. I am a bit sad that the twins are not together, but happy that she is making such progress. He said she  is not spastic like children with severe CP are. He held, rocked, sang to and carried Sofia all around the orphanage. His wife said he was smitten with her and that she will be a Daddy's Princess. How precious is it that someone would take the time to snuggle my baby girl for me? It brings me to tears. The Sad News: He couldn't get one smile. Not one. Could you please pray with me for Sofia? That God would prepare that little guarded heart to...

Unfortunately for Aria, when mommy is out of town there is no one to do her hair. Or dress her. But at least she matches. For obvious reasons, it is equally important in the event of my untimely demise to have gobs  of life insurance AND a little girl hair and wardrobe intervention. I am prepared.  No worries. Daddy will just make her look like a boy.  (A very adorable boy, I might add) Even Bentley looks a tad depressed. SO GLAD we are home. Today, just 48 hours after surgery, Gianna is off narcotics and is feeling fine with just motrin.  I asked her how her back was feeling, and she replied: "There's nuffin wrong with my back Mommy.  Why you keep askin' me dat?" She has a 2 inch incision on her spine and was expanded double the amount of her first expansion. That means her bones should hurt, her muscles should hurt, her gait should be off, and the incision should definitely hurt. Silly me. This is Gianna. She's just fine. And she's still smiling.

Gianna had her surgery yesterday. In the pre-op area, Dr. Samdani told her that he had to write on her back, so it was only fair that she could draw on him. She took the marker and drew a HUGE HEART on the palm of his hand. She said, " I drew a heart because I love you Dr. Samdani. " He teared up. The man she knows is going to cut her open, and she loves him. After surgery, initially she did GREAT and then she crashed, barfed, rebounded and did great again. And when I say great, think Mommy had to stop her from RUNNING down the hall on the way to xray. And then about 9:30PM she hit the wall. Hard. The tylenol with codeine wasn't touching the pain and she was writhing around in agony while they were getting morphine and valium (for muscle spasms) to add to it. I was in tears, it is literally THE WORST to see your child in so much pain. Through her silent sobs, she looked at me and said,   " Mommy? At least I can still smile." Sigh. I have so much to learn from h...

I HATE cutting out coupons, but I LOVE the savings you can get if you just take the time. I should have spent $137.55 on these items I was nerdy enough to photograph. But I didn't. I only spent $38.55!!! That's a savings of 72%! It makes the clipping part worth it when the lady checking you out is impressed! Long Live Queen Couper!

~ We picked up the girls new bedding at Pottery B@rn on Saturday. It's beautiful and they love it. ~At 11:30 PM, Gianna got her first ever bloody nose. All over her new sheets, and shams. Fortunately, she missed her duvet, but the carpet wasn't so lucky. ~Nothing is worse than stripping brand new sheets at 11:30 PM, unless of course, you are doing it at 3:30AM for her sister. Yup, Aria couldn't be left out, and her nose bled all over her new bedding as well. ~ Speaking of bloody noses, my sweet husband called me from an airplane bathroom, where his nose was bleeding so badly, and he couldn't get it to stop. And they were backing out. Poor guy! ~Gotta love spring! ~Gianna has another surgery on Friday. I am taking her alone. We are flying up to Philly on Thursday, and hopefully, we will be home Saturday. ~ I am very nervous.  My sweet hubby is my rock. We don't usually do these things separately. With the twins coming, and G's surgery every 4-6 months, it makes s...

Yesterday Aria comes over to me, and says, "Mommy, when you wear your hair like that, it looks like you are t rying to be Chinese." I would like to state, for the record, that my hair was the EXACT SAME as it is at least 300 days every year. (The other 65 days, I would rather not discuss.) Then Gianna starts giggling and says, "She's trying to be Chinese!" giggle. snort. chuckle. " It won't work!" And they both walked away laughing. I think I was just dissed by pre-schoolers.

Reasons to start your 3rd blog in two weeks: ~My blog wouldn't open archived comments when I moved, and blogger couldn't seem to fix it. ~The sweet lady that did my blog design needed to upgrade her photobucket account because I lost all my bling. ~Being technologically challenged, I thought I had the problem, so I paid for photobucket Pro, and didn't need to. I found that out. ~My second blog REFUSED to re-install the bling. Refused. Dug it's heals in and would not accept the exact same template I have used for years. ~I thought of buying another blog design, but since I couldn't read my archived comments, it seemed better to just start over. This blog is behaving MUCH better than the last. The End.

Since we celebrate the Resurrection every day, and not just on Easter, we thought we'd celebrate a week later than everyone else. We had our social worker's visit the day before Easter, and with preparing all the documents she would need, and then having the visit, we were  too bushed to think about Easter festivities. The front door was as far as these two cuties made it, unfortunately, church is out before surgery to avoid the germs. Gianna will be having her next surgery in 12 days, so we are in our quarantine mode, which means, the girls are none the wiser. We also got ridiculously cheap Easter candy- which was an added bonus!!

Yesterday, we decided to get the big girls bunkbeds. This is a particularly difficult decision because we don't want Gianna to decide to climb to the top and swing like a monkey off. Not that she has, but this is Gianna..... she  might. We thought of two twin beds, but Aria's room just doesn't have enough space for two beds and a dresser. The closet can fit the dresser, but not the dresser AND two little girls worth of dresses ;) (I think we need a bigger house) Anyway, we decided on these bunkbeds, that can convert to two twin beds, in the event that Gianna loses her fear of the top bunk. The girls picked out these comforters, as Aria is my pink girl and Gianna is my purple girl. I wanted something not too cutesy, as Aria will be 6, and I didn't want her to hate it in 2 years. Simple, elegant, and timeless. I love it! Now the dilemma. We don't want to make any major changes for the twins for at least a year after they come home. Gianna has this adorable pumpkin car...

Aria and I love to talk about China. It is a regular part of our lives and our family's story. Last night, she was reading, "I Love You Like CrazyCakes" by Rose Lewis to me. (If you aren't familar with the book, it is about a woman who goes to China to adopt her daughter.) She sighed, and said, " I love the last page the best." The last page says:  " I held you tightly,kissed you softly, and cried.                                    The tears were for your Chinese mother who could not keep you.                                    I wanted her to know that we would always remember her.                             And I hoped somehow she knew that you were safe and happy in this world." Seizing what was perfect open door to talk ...

A sweet family who was reviewing the twins file many months ago, graciously sent us these pictures of our sweet girls as well as a medical opinion from a Dr who went to see them. I won't get excited, because I am a "prepare for the worst, hope for the best" kinda gal. BUT, the Dr who saw them doesn't think Celia has cerebral palsy. Without further diagnostic testing, we will not know for sure. And  if  she does, it is a medical condition we are comfortable with. We know the worst case. We are prepared. Sofia looks pretty in pink! Celia is such a tiny little peanut! "I'm on the move Mommy, you better get ready to CHASE ME!!!" Our deepest heartfelt thanks to a sweet person who took time out of their day, to MAKE OUR DAY with these new photos and information. It means so much more than you know!

Sofia Elizabeth ChaYi Celia Diane XiYi Thoughts for today: Who keeps putting bowls on my baby girls heads and cutting their hair with dull scissors??? How many times a day is too much to zoom in and stare at them? I may or may not be over the limit.

I thought our family and friends who are not familiar with China adoptions might like to know when we expect to travel. The short version is, that both agencies we are working with have said 10-12 months until we are in China. This is the worst case scenario. The long version is as follows: We have to complete our homestudy with CCAI. We had all our visits, so now it gets written and checked. They are AMAZING. If you are considering China adoption, USE THEM. They will file with USCIS and we wait for approval (45-65 days or so) We rush that approval to our other agency, and they submit our Dossier to China (DTC) China logs us into their system (LID or log in date) We wait somewhere from 1-3 months for China to review our paperwork and the babies files. (I'm voting for one month just so you know.) We receive our LOA (Letter of Acceptance) It is a letter that is basically saying, "Hey you know those twins you asked US for? Still want them?" We say YES!!! and sign it and rush...

About a month ago, I was reading a blog that advocated for a gorgeous Korean baby girl, who had one of Gianna's special needs. I was captivated by her curly hair and could not get her sweet face out of my mind. Being DONE, I sheepishly showed her photo to Greg and asked him to pray about inquiring about her. My sweet husband graciously did, even though he was CONVINCED we were DONE. A few weeks later, he told me that we should move forward, so I excitedly called the agency. "You are not going to believe this, but just before you called this morning her file was requested. " Closed Door. We decided to look for other agencies that place from Korean special needs children, you know, just to see ... I found an agency that listed all their special needs children from every country , and saw these sweet baby girls staring back at me. Greg and I have ALWAYS wanted twins. Always. The Dr thought our first born was a set of twins, and when we found out he wasn't, I cried for...

We are beyond THRILLED to announce that the Lord has graciously blessed us with TWIN BABY GIRLS from China!!! This process has been nothing short of a MIRACLE, which I will share later, but please let me introduce OUR TWINS.... Celia Diane (in walker) and Sofia Elizabeth. They are 18 months old and waiting for us in Guangdong Province. To GOD be the Glory for the things HE HAS DONE!!!