Orange Island

Hey guys!  Today we did a little sightseeing to a place here in Changsha called Orange Island.  It was really beautiful and once again a very nice change of scenery from the every day hustle of a busy city in China!

When you parked at Orange Island you could then take a train to different stops along the island.   That was king of neat and also created a necessary breeze that we needed to cool off.  We have been sweating for about a week straight now.  Keith's entire shirt was soaked and it's not even that hot.  The humidity is the real killer here.  We have sweat coming out of our whole body and our guide looks like she just walked out the door fresh as ever.  I asked her how she does that. She said that today was nothing compared to the hotter days they have.  I wouldn't make it here.  No way;)

These are Lotus Flowers.  Lotus are the flowers that represent where Sadie is from.  They call girls from here Lotus girls.  Changsha is very famous for their hand embroidery.  We bought Sadie a beautiful Lotus embroidery as a keepsake.

 Family pic with the Lotus in the background.  Thank goodness this was early on in the trip before sweat started dripping!

                                                                      Beautiful lotus!

 This a quote from a poem Chairman Mao wrote. Below is the poem.  It talks about Autumn and all the beautiful things you see during that time.  Apparently he was a wonderful poet.  

 Check this out!  Totally awesome to see. Its a rock carving of Chairman Mao from his younger days.  It was really beautiful!

 So these girls were at Orange Island I guess for a photo shoot of some sort.  I guess they are dressed as characters from a popular cartoon here.  As you can see in the above photo...  Maggie said she wanted to go down and get her picture taken when in all actuality she was really wanting to go and get pics of these girls.  Haha.

Everything with Sadie is continuing to go well.  She did stab my between the eyes with a fork today.;) That was really probably my fault though.  I showed her how to hit forks with Keith and she took to that immediately.  Since she doesn't do anything gently it got wild fast.  Thank goodness only one prong punctured my skin.  Only a small amount of blood lost at Starbucks.  Haha  With this being our 5th child you would think we would know better but......

Speaking of her being a little rough..  We broke down and bought a small stroller for her.  It's just way to much walking for a little girl.  She doesn't exactly know how to stay with you.  We have been in several stores and she is like a bull in a China shop.  She is for sure going to need some teaching on appropriate shopping skills.  We did a little shopping after the island.  I also had the really bright idea to buy my not so gentle daughter a umbrella.  That was a lethal weapon.  She was waving that thing all around!!  Baba had to take it and run and she wasn't very happy.  Mom fail #2.  At least this one didn't result in blood;)One funny thing she has learned when we go shopping now is that if she sees something she likes she will take me by the hand and say mama and point at it.  Like she knows if she calls me mama it's a automatic yes.  So far her success rate is 100 percent with this move!!

I noticed today that she is taking to our guide a lot.  I think it's bc they can communicate well together unlike our situation with her.  It was making me a little uncomfortable that Sadie kept wanting her to hold her.  It's just a situation where you are trying to build a bond and it can be hard when someone else is doing what you need to be done.  Our guide is wonderful and was just trying to help but it made me think that when we get home we may really need to have some cocooning and bonding time and maybe some more rules about caring for Sadie than we did with Brennan.  Things are more confusing for her than they were for Brennan.  Sorry mom;)

One thing I haven't mentioned is Sadie's health.  I have been pleased to think that from the outside she seems totally normal.  She def does still need a nap.  I am guessing that is bc she does get more tired bc of her weaker heart.  She is also the sweatiest kid I have ever seen.  I don't know if that is heart related too or not.  I keep thinking maybe God has been making this part of her adoption so easy bc we know we still have a long road ahead of us when we get back to get her to where she needs to be heart wise.  I am not worrying about it.  I spent all these months asking God to prepare her heart for us and he did and now I am asking him to heal her heart for us and I believe he will do that too.  We are in this thing for the long haul.  We love this crazy spunky little girl and we can hardly wait to see what she grow up to be! Luke 12;48 The bible verse that started this whole thing 2 1/2 years ago when we decided to adopt Brennan says From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.  We want to live by this.  Always sharing our blessings with others and somehow I have come to find out in doing that you seem to be blessed again and again.  Sadie is a perfect gift from God.  All this time we thought we were helping her and I think we will be the ones to learn and grow from her;)

To my big guys at home-  As you know Sadie poked me with a fork between the eyes.  Once dad and Maggie knew I wasn't injured they got a good laugh out if it.  She also smacked me with the umbrella a few times too.  You guys would have been cracking up.  Our guide was telling her in Chinese (or China Spanish as you guys like to call it) all about you boys today for me.  She is going to love you.  Hope you have a fun time at the Merold's today.  Love you more than I could ever tell you! Mom

Orphanage Visit

              Hey guys!  Today was the day we went to visit the orphanage.  I have had mixed feelings about how this day would go for a long time.  When our guide came and got us this morning I asked her to please explain to Sadie that we were going to go visit her caretakers and teachers at the orphanage but that she would be leaving with her mama and baba.  We were just going to say goodbye.  She told Sadie and she nodded like she totally knew what we were saying.  Almost as soon as we pulled up you could see she was just a nervous wreck.  We started to walk in and she was ok but apprehensive.  We took the elevator up a couple floors to where she spent most of her days.  As soon as we got off the elevator she started holding on to me so tight.  Every person that came to talk to her including her friends made her more and more nervous.  We walked into the room that was her classroom (and mind you in 3 days we have never seen her cry) and our guide said she is starting to cry.  It wasn't at this point a loud cry she was just holding me as tight as she could and tears were streaming down her face. Talk about a heartbreaker.  As we were in her classroom a little longer it started.  She cried and cried.  I tried so hard not to cry but I just couldn't help it.  It didn't help that Maggie was crying too.  I think we stood there and cried for probably a few minutes while several of the women just stared at us.  Sadie was still just clutching me as tight as she possibly could.  Our guide told her over and over you aren't staying here you are going home with your mama and baba.  How do you expect someone to fully trust you after only a few days? Once we had our cry I just kept holding her tight and we kept going. We finished our tour and we were on our way.  I think by the time we were walking out to the car she was totally fine again.  Reassured that we were telling the truth and we were not going to leave her.

                                                        This is her classroom.

  This area there was a lot of kids Sadie's age and older exercising when we got there.  Keith was a huge hit.  He is such a fun guy.  All the kids were playing with him.  I think he was Kung Fu fighting some boys and dancing with some girls.  We spent forever in this area.  Finally I had to tell him it was time to move on;) He makes my heart so proud.

 This is the room Sadie slept in.  That is her little bed.  I can't wait for her to see the new room we have ready for her.  When she looks at the pictures her eyes just light up.

 This little ID kind of card was hung over her bed.  She looks so silly in her picture.

 These are a couple of Sadie's caregivers.  The one on the left came to the Civil Affairs office the day we got her.  She is such a sweet lady.  She was wanting to love Sadie and tell her goodbye but as you can see in her picture she had a vice grip on her mama.

 Here we are on the way out.  It was raining out or we would have taken a picture in front of the building.  Don't mind my beautiful looks.  It was like a million degrees in there.  We were all sweating to death.  Sadie and I both look like we have been in a wrestling match or something;)

 When children age out and don't get adopted (at age 14) they stay at the orphanage and learn skills to hopefully help them get a job someday.  They also make crafts to sell.  These are a few things that we bought for Sadie to keep.

 The rest of these are just bc she is out of control cute.  She wanted to try on her floaties and then brought me her bathing suit.  We were tired but we went swimming again.  She got totally in the pool this time.  No fear for this girl anymore.  She loves swimming,

As I am typing this right now Sadie and Maggie are sitting on the bed brushing the hair of the doll Sadie's baba bought her today.  She is speaking Chinese to Maggie in the cutest voice and they are giggling.  Like 2 girls who never didn't have each other.  Sadie is now calling me Mama.  If I am in the other room she will say Mama.  Such a sweet sound to my ears.  Maybe going to the orphanage with her today was the affirmation she needed to know that we are forever.  I don't know but I do know that she loves us and we love her more than what we could have ever thought was possible.  I was so sad to leave those kids behind today when we left the orphanage.  It's never easy when you think that was my daughter only a few days ago.  We are humbled that we have been called to be Sadie's family.  We are glad that her story is now a story of hope and she will always be loved;)

Hey boys- We are missing you guys like crazy! We are almost half way done with our trip.  Your little sister is so crazy;)  She is busier than Brennan I think.  Always getting in to things and running and jumping.  She is keeping us very busy.  She gave Maggie and I some kisses today.  I bet she will be giving them to you all soon too.  Love you, Love you, Love you Mom

Hey Guys!  Sadie is continuing to do well!  She slept all night last night.  No tears.  I think her feet were in my face at one point but that's ok.  After about midnight I am up anyways for several hours.  Her big personality is coming through. I thought she was going to be shy but I don't think that's the case.  She's actually quite funny and a little sassy.  Can't wait to see her and Brennan together.  We face timed with the boys today and Brennan said Hi Sadie;)  

Sadie is knowing us by name now.  She will look at pics of her and Mag and say Song Yi (her Chinese name) and JeJe (big sister in Chinese-thats what she is calling Maggie now).  She also looked at Keith today and said Baba (Chinese for daddy).  Our guide asked her in Chinese did your mom buy you those pretty shoes today on our way sight seeing.  Sadie nodded her head yes really big.  I feel like she knows what roles we are going to play in her life even if we are still figuring some things out.  

She thinks Keith is funny but still doesn't really want much more to do with him than that.I think this will be a short lived phase but we will see. He is giving her some space and we are hoping she will warm up quickly.  She and Maggie are still inseperable.  I love it.  Two sisters not by blood but by love.  I love being able to teach my kids that.  What a cool lesson to learn.  Maggie said someday I am going to adopt from China.  She hasn't even seen the orphanage.  After that she will certainly want to!  Speaking of tomorrow we will be going to the orphanage.  Hopefully it will be a good thing.  We have been told it will be good for Sadie to say goodbye to everyone there.  Kind of a closure thing I guess.  We will see how it goes.

Anyways, today we did some sight seeing this morning.  There are some mountains in Changsha.  We went into the mountains to a place called YueLu Academy.  It has lots of history there.  Some things very old and just historic.  It was pretty neat.  It was hot though and being as I am the only one who can hold Sadie except for Maggie a little bit we didn't stay as long as we would have otherwise.  We came back to the hotel and Sadie took a nap and then we went swimming.  Sadie was a splash machine.  She didn't get all the way in but stood on the ledge and splashed and splashed.  She was so cute!

This is outside of our hotel this morning as we waited on our guide to come get us.  It is really pretty. The water has fish in it. Apparently Sadie loves fish.  She kept saying something and the guide said she was saying a lot of fish.  Then another time she was saying no fish here.  

 These are all from the YueLu Academy. The landscape was so pretty.  Keith told our guide he was so happy to get out of the city for a while;)

 Seriously Keith.....  I didn't even see him in the picture till after I was taking it;)

 Ok how cute is she.  She is a trooper too.  She was a sweaty mess. She deserved that popsicle she got when we were done!

 Ok so now on to something super cute!!!  Check out this bathing suit.... In China you have to wear a bathing cap to swim.  Totally adorable...

 She is the biggest splasher you will ever know..  The ground all around the edge was soaked!

 Okay and I thought I would take one for the team.  My family has been hysterically laughing just thinking about us in our swim caps.  I def look like a pirate.  I think even Sadie thinks I am funny;)

 

Connor, Sam, and Brennan-  Love you boys.  Sadie is getting sassier by the day.  She is going to fit in at our house just fine.  Hope you guys have a really good day today!!  We are counting down the days till we get back home to you guys.

Sadie Day

Yesterday June 26th we didn't have much to report.  It was a long day of travel to get to Changsha (where we are now) from Beijing.  These are a couple of pictures outside of our window in our hotel room.   

 This morning (the 27th) around 9;40 we set off to the Civil Affairs office to meet Sadie.  I was a hot mess.  Just tired bc I didn't sleep hardly at all the night before and just nervous.  I was so afraid of how she would react to us when she met us.  Just a few minutes after 10 she came walking in.  Beautiful as ever.  She was reserved but she didn't cry.  Her caregivers told us that she told them last night that she couldn't wait until today to meet her family.  She was so brave.  We brought her a back pack full of new toys to play with and she was very into that.  She is scared of Keith a little.  She really won't let him hold her or touch her much but she is laughing at him when he jokes with her and I don't think it will be long before they are best of friends. (If Brennan allows it;)

This is Sadie just a moment after she was handed to us.

 She did let Keith hold her long enough to get this picture but thats about the extent of it.

 Sadie mostly only has eyes for this girl.  She loves Maggie.  They have been BFF's from the get go.  We are so glad we brought her along with us.

 This is Sadie's caregiver.  You could tell she loved Sadie and that Sadie loved her.

 Seriously could she even be any cuter?  We were told she loves being told she is pretty.  When our guide was taking our pic she told Sadie you are so pretty and look at her little smile!

 Being goofy with her daddy.  So I brought her a ton of hair bows and headbands.  That is possibly her favorite things she has.  She wanted to wear them all.  Like at the same time.  Haha.  Her caretaker told us she is very girly and she was right.  We will be painting nails very soon.

This is at the Civil Affairs office.  I guess her caretaker taught her how to do a peace sign when you get your picture taken.  She does it all the time.  Its totally hilarious.

I will post more pictures soon.  Maybe on my FB page.  I am so exhausted I can't even upload the ones from my phone at the moment;)

It has been quite a day.  I couldn't have planned for this day to go any better than it did.  She is a beautiful girl.  Fearfully and Wonderfully made by our God.  We are so humbled to have been called to the honor of being her parents.  We have loved her for months now but having her here with us is unexplainable.  Thank you for all your prayers and support.  We love you all and can't wait for you guys to meet our sweet girl.

Connor, Sam, and Brennan-  You guys are going to love your sister.  She is cute and funny.  She isn't chubby like Brennan though.  She is smaller than him I think.  She really likes Maggie and she is very girly:)  We are going to have to teach her about Power Rangers and Pokemon and Playstation.  Would you guys wake up already so I can facetime with you???  I can hardly wait!  Love you guys!  Mom