Abraham turns 7!!!!

Abraham turned 7 on May 29th. We had his party on the 28th out by my in-laws pond. Rob's sisters and their children were there along with his sister who lives overseas - she is visiting for 2 weeks. We also had a few of his friends with their families joining in on the fun! The picture below is of the cake I made, it's called After Dinner Mint Pie. It's made with crushed oreos, cool whip, marshmallow cream and a bit of peppermint. You freeze it and then serve.

doing the water balloon toss - if they made it the basket was moved back. If they missed they got one more try and then were out if they missed again. Abraham won! They had a water balloon fight with the balloons left over.

The egg relay race - down around a basket and back to the line to pass the spoon and egg off to the next runner. We had a race with the adults too - boy we got competitive - well some of us did!

Opening gifts

Then a few of the Dad's stayed the night and camped out with their sons.

On the 29th we gave him his present which was a bike from his grandparents in NY as well as Rob and I. It's a pretty cool bike that he was thrilled about. Thank you - Mooie and Poppie, Oma and Opa.

checking it out.....

looking at the trick pegs...

yes it's a keeper....

Kindergarten Music Program

Abraham's first performance - singing with all the kindergartners. The girl next to him looking at the camera is Erin.

The night was all about being on a farm - so all the songs went along with that theme. This was the Chicken dance.

Abraham with his teacher Mrs. Hensch

Eden dancing during the performance

Abraham has had a great start to school. He has so enjoyed his teacher and he has done well with all the rules and homework etc. I'm glad for a good start for him. He is ready for the next step of all day school. I'm not sure I am ready. It seems like such a long day to not have my boy with me. I know I will adjust - it's another part of life and season we are going into. He is getting so big. He is such a help to me with Eden. He is beginning to help more around the house without being asked and he is growing to be such a great kid. I feel so blessed to have him in our family.

One Month!!!

Abraham put Eden in the toy basket and piled all the toys around her. She loved it. Doesn't she look like someone reading the newspaper or something.

Ha! Ha! Big brother playing games

Abraham wanted to stay outside with her on the blanket. I took this with the zoom lens from inside the house.

Tomorrow the 18th marks one month since Eden joined our family. I can't believe it's been a month already. It has gone much better than I had imagined. I read a lot about adoption beforehand and talkes to others who had adopted and there are horror stories about the babies crying all night every night. Eventually, these babies adjust and end up being very happy and content babies. So I was preparing for that and it has been nothing like that at all. The first few weeks we could tell she was just getting to know us and would look at us with that stare wondering who we are. Now when I go in her room to get her she will often have a smile for me. Getting her diaper changed is not such a traumatic thing anymore and she seems very much at ease with us. We feel blessed. She is such a joy!

The Many Faces of Eden

Eden is a very funny girl. She likes to mimic almost everything and sound we do. If you blow in her face she tries to blow in yours, if you growl like a lion she will growl, if you close your eyes tight she will close hers tight. It's very funny! It makes me wonder what she will be like as she grows up - doing this at 10 months makes me think she is very smart.

The other funny thing she does is makes all sorts of faces. The other day while taking photos of her I was able to capture a few - here they are.....

First Week Back!

Eden being read to for the first time (that we know of) she kept trying to grab the images off the page. She really enjoyed it.

Eden with her cousin Georgia who was born one day later. We told them they are going to be good friends! ;)

It will be a week tomorrow night that we have been back. It's been a pretty smooth week I have to say. On Monday after Rob left for work was the only time I felt a little overwhelmed. There was still unpacking to do, I was feeling the jet lag and I had to figure in a baby's schedule along with taking Abraham to and from school. I had a few times of being short with Abraham, I asked him to forgive me and told him how I was feeling. He of course forgave me and the day seemed much better after that.

Eden is getting used to her car seat which is good. We also took a walk in the stroller for the first time and she seemed to love that. I think we are all about over jet lag. Today was the first day none of us woke up around 4 or 5 a.m. Eden has been doing the best as far as the jet lag goes. It's probably because I don't let her sleep very long for her naps (2hrs.) before waking her up.

She has met most of her family that lives in the area. All her immediate family that is. Her Aunt's and Uncles Grandpa and Grandma just love her.

She is going to be dedicated next Sunday on Mother's day! Then she will turn 1 on June 11th.

We Made it Home!!

Friday morning (Thursday night in the US) we left Guangzhou for Beijing. We were planning on spending the night in Beijing and leaving for the US the next day. Once we got to Beijing we thought we would go to the American Airlines counter and see if they could get us on a flight with another airline. Over the phone 2 days earlier they said they could not, but we thought maybe when we are face to face with them they will give us a different answer. They first put us on stand by with Continental, we did not get on. Then they rushed us to United and we got on. We had to hurry though! Rob requested one of their workers to help us through the lines and he did. We went through the diplomat line at immigration and he rushed us through all the security lines. Once in the terminal we were actually running to the gate. We made it though! Before getting on the plane while we were waiting to see if they could get us on we quickly opened our luggage to grab extra diapers and formula since we were not prepared for our international flight being that day.

We were so glad we took the chance to try and get on. We basically went back to our original itinerary. Once in Chicago we had to clear immigration which took longer since Eden was traveling on a Chinese passport. We were given a whole packet of papers from the Consulate in China and told it was not to be opened until we got to immigration. So once that process was done we ran again to the American Airlines counter to see if we could get on the last flight to Ft. Wayne. Once at the counter we saw the flight had been delayed by about 45 minutes. It gave us just enough time to get our tickets and get on the flight. We have never had such a rushed and frantic ride home. It was worth all the running though because we were able to get back 2 days early!!!

We called Rob's parents once in Chicago and gave them a shock that we were going to be in Ft. Wayne in an hour! They were there to pick us up along with Rob's grandfather and his aunt and uncle. It was fun to be greeted that way!

Last night Eden seemed a bit overwhelmed by our house and actually was shaking when she saw the cat. Rob picked her up and talked to her calmly and showed her the house and she seemed to calm down after that. She slept until 3 a.m. we fed her and put her back down - she slept then until 9. I had to wake her after her first nap since her body thinks it's the middle of the night.

We are so, so glad to be home! Thank you for all the prayers and for all the excitement surrounding Eden's adoption. We are so blessed by you all!

On the plane from Beijing to Chicago! We are were heading home!

These are the other families with our agency getting their kids!

Family of 4!!

I bought this outfit when we were still living in Kunming 2 years ago. It was falling apart by the end of the day and I had to take off of her. It was a little small too. She wore it to the consulate and the swearing in!!