A busy day!!

We had a busy day-I met flower and her father while everyone else went to the monkey park. Then we all met later for lunch. She is very sweet and we had a good time. I am so tired and need to get some sleep so this will be a short post. Tyler finally seems to be warming up to me,only received a few battle wounds today. He is so cute.....A funny story that happened today, we actually were in a taxi and they were pulled over and received a ticket!!! WOW, we were shocked, for all you BTDT people you will understand why this seems strange and humerous too-usually while in China the best thing to do while riding in a taxi is to get in, hold on and CLOSE your eyes!!!! Oh and pray you arrive at your destination safely!!!

I miss Aleaya so much...My mom is taking good care of her. She doesn't really want to talk about Skeeter though so it might be a little hard when we get home...she seems jealous even over the phone!! We have Skype so we call home everyday for merely pennies, it is amazing...for everyone traveling soon SKYPE is the way to go!!!

comments

I am not able to read any comments so everyone who comment to us-thank you, I will read them when I get home-the firewalls in China are keeping me out!!!!

plans have changed!!

Trudy called this morning and we are meeting for coffee. I also have the chance this afternoon to go to the Guiyang SWI with Trudy and her husband. If you don't remember who Trudy is she is the lady who was in charge of Hua's surgery and asked Amy from LWB if they could help. Hua is arriving this afternoon and I will get the chance to meet her tomorrow sometime. I am very excited to meet Hua and her family. Again, I'm sure (at least on my part) there will be more tears....I will try not be a blubbering fool after finally meeting Hua.


The rest of my family did end up going to the Minority Village this morning with Richard. I guess I will get to see the pictures...I didn't want to pass up the chance to go the orphanage and meet with Trudy so that we can finally chat in person. She is a great lady. I'm sure skeeter won't mind being away from his Mommma for a few hours-I got scratched, my hair pulled, smacked and a truck thrown right square at my nose this morning, OUCH.........the boy loves me so....lol!!! It doesn't matter be can beat me to a pulp, I will continue to love on my little guy until he FINALLY loves me back.........better buy some stock in band aids and neosporine while waiting to be loved........for a little guy he has some umpph behind his smacks!!!

cutie pie

"I'm ready, Where is my dinner?

A smile for Mommy

pictures

part of the city

our guide Richard telling us about the ancient city

walking into the city

We went to an Ancient Town yesterday. The town is over 600 yrs old. It is a minority town with lots of beautiful hand made things. We had hot pot for lunch and it was very good, wasn't really too excited to get a chicken head or chicken foot when I was looking for some more chicken. I guess when in Rome, okay maybe not ;). Today we were going to go to a Minorioty Village to see them dance and sing but we won't be able to. We heard last night because of the bad weather part of their village has been washed away. Please say a pray for these poor villagers, I hope that they can rebuild the damage caused.

About Skeeter-(Tyler) he seems to be doing better, although he seems to enjoy Matt more than me. He only wants me when he needs something LOL, nothing new there. He is the cutest thing but boy does he have a temper. He likes to kick and scream when he doesn't get what he wants, the good news is it only lasts a few minutes. He usually calms down quick if you pick him up. he loves noodles, vegetables and fruit...what a good boy. he has slept thru the night every night. I feel so blessed to have another child who sleeps all night long. I didn't think I would be so lucky but it is true...YIPEE, thank you, Jesus.

I think today instead of the Village we will go to the monkey park and do some shopping at the Friendship store...will write more later

more pictures

Adoption Day!!

fun with Dad and even a smile

almost a smile

Skeeter eating breakfast

Today was Adoption day so Skeeter is finally legally our son. His official name is Tyler Sheng-Le Callahan........but I can't seem to stop calling him Skeeter. He woke up this morning without crying, seemed a little happier. He is DEFINATLY used to getting WHATEVER he wants ...it is actually kind of cute-he has this little grunt when he wants something-like our guide said "he has his own language" I just think everything he does is cute at this point. Maybe in a few days the grunting might take its toll and we will have to resort to other things-at this point he is just testing the water and it cracks me up..............so I guess you could say he is continuing to get WHATEVER he wants from us.............

He is taking a nap now........worn out from running around the lobby, he is so full of energy....

Tomorrow we go the an Ancient Village and maybe the park with the monkeys. This should be fun. My Dad is getting bored with all this adoption paperwork so it will be nice for us to finally do some sightseeing again. At the moment Matt and Sami are getting a foot massage.

A "little" happier!!!

Wow, that was so hard. Skeeter came into the room with his foster parents and Grandma. As soon as I saw his foster momma's tear stained face I LOST IT!!! They were just so sad and devastated to give up this little boy. Skeeter has lived with this wonderful family since he was 10 days old...........I can not even fathom the grief they must be feeling and the grief our little guy is going thru........they loved him so much!!! They sent him with some clothing and formula and snacks not to mention EVERYTHING I had ever sent him included 2 cameras filled with pictures to develop. They also sent a little photo album with lots of pictures of him and his foster family. Also a wonderful letter they had translated. The whole room was crying before it was all over...even poor Richard, our guide!!! It was so bitter-sweet for us, we are very thankful that Skeeter has been loved and hope to keep in contact with his foster family.........please say a prayer for this wonderful family and our little guy!!!

On a happier note, he cried until we came back to the hotel room and he fell asleep in my arms 5 minutes later...he is SO cute!!! He giggles and when he hears music the guy is ready to boogie!! It is so hilarious to watch!! He hasn't been upset since the initial reaction....we started playing peek-a-boo after his very short nap and he was okay with that. He is a little peanut and I know now it is because he never stops-even when he is standing, he is in motion-did I mention how cute he is?????????

About his feet-THANKFULLY his feet were corrected by the ponseti method of casting. I am so happy about that...it does look like he will have to have some more castings done-he does wear a brace at night. it doesn't seem to bother him, he must be used to it. We received a letter that said he needed to wear his brace until he is 4 yrs old. We will see when we get home what else needs to be done. The boy is not only walking but running!!!

sorry about the quality of pictures but the camera was acting up again!!! We promise more tomorrow...................

pictures of Gotcha day!!!

"let me out a here" poor little guy didn't want anything to do with me or Matt.

A very unhappy little boy-My poor baby!!!

Skeeter with his Foster Family.... happy until he saw us :(

more pictures

Like I said AMAZING!!!! At one point there was at least 12-20 girls on a bike-we didn't get a picture of it but definitely a "WOW" moment!

Waiting for the Chinese Acrobat show-I'm still looking a little pale and sickly!! (feeling it too at this point)the Chinese Acrobat show was awesome we never got the chance to see it last time we went to Beijing. I'm so glad I was able to see it this time.

Matt walking up the Great Wall

The Great wall

more pictures

Sami with some villagers

Grampy and Sami in Beijing

a picture of Sami and Matt's feet on the Ski lift up to the Great wall

grampy at the great wall

2.5 more hours

We meet Skeeter in a few hours...We are ready. Our guide's name is Richard and he is very nice so far. We took a taxi to Walmart to buy some diapers-that was an experience. It is a little different here in Guiyang. There are not to many American's that come here so you get lot's of stares. I don't think anyone is being rude just curious. I just smile-isn't that the universal language???

The weather is a little chilly but not as bad as I had planned for-this is good news!!! There is a little bit of freezing rain going on-seems almost like Washington weather...which is very different from the usual-sub-tropical climate Guiyang is known for.

I will post some pictures of the great wall and other things-more of an update after we get Skeeter-BTW his name is Tyler. Matt informed me of this....funny!!!


***Side note to Keri-those little tiny oranges are to die for!!! Wish I could bring some home for Claire.

Made it to Guiyang

We arrived in Guiyang today without barfing-WHOOO HOO, feeling much better now. We are really tired and it is only 730 pm-we are scheduled to receive Skeeter at 3 pm tomorrow. I will write more later and post pictures-right now I am going to catch some much needed ZZZZ's...very thankful for Lisa's medicine cabinet that she brought along to China, I am feeling almost human again....

We are here!!

We arrived in Beijing last night. I am not feeling to great, I hurled on the plane twice. I'm not sure if it is the flu or food poisining. Everyone went to the Great Wall today and on a rickshaw ride. I decided to stay at the hotel and recoup. We are going to a Chinese Acrobat show tonight so I am hoping to feel better. I will write more later.

leaving tomorrow on a Jet plane

Everything is packed and we are ready to go..FINALLY. I would take a picture of the luggage just for fun but it is already packed in the back of the van ready to go to the airport. Our flight doesn't leave until 1pm but we need to be at the airport 3 hours before our flight so we are leaving the house at 9 am. My mom is picking up Aleaya, she made me promise not to cry and make a scene when we say goodbye (yea, right, fat chance of that not happening) but I will try. I will miss my little girl so much!!! Thanks Mom, for taking care of her while we are gone!!!



I also want to apologize in advance for any spelling errors on my blog-for some reason my spell check isn't working. I am horrible at spelling to begin with-add some Jet lag and a new baby into the mix and FORGET it...so sorry in advance for any spelling errors :)

6 more days!!

Only 6 more days until we get to hold our little boy!! We leave on Wed. Feb. 13th at 1pm and then arrive in Beijing Feb.15th at 915 pm-via Tokyo...We will be sightseeing there for a few days and then off to Guiyang to pick up little Skeeter-the good news is-the weather report is FINALLY saying it isn't going to snow!!!

Then and Now

What a difference a year makes. My little girl is growing up......She will be three on Valentine's Day. We will be in China for her birthday picking up her little brother. Happy Birthday Sugar Plum, Mommy loves you!!!

Aleaya and Audrey's B-day party

The girls blowing out the candles

Aleaya and Audrey waiting for the candles to be lit

Matt and Emmerson having some floor time

Dewey(my brother) and his daughter Emmerson

We had Aleaya's Birthday party tonight. We combined parties with her cousin Audrey who was born on Jan. 20th-they are only 1 month apart. Wish they lived closer so we could spend more time with them. Also, how adorable is baby emme?????

TRANNY $$$$$$$$

Matt received a call last night about my van. It needs a new transmission among other things for the whopping price of $4,000 OUCH.....................As we were driving to the Honda dealer to drop off my van I mentioned to Aleaya that "mommy's van is broken" She was silent for a minute thinking, pondering what to do then she said "hum, should I get some tape?" She is so clever, now if it could only be that easy!!!!!

TRANNY issues

Last week Sami's transmission went out in her new(old) car-it is at the shop right now getting a re-built transmission put in....I was driving down the rode today and my van starting acting really crazy like it was possessed. It started jerking like crazy, scared the crap out of me(not literally, but you get the drift) My wonderful "make it happen" husband got right on the phone and called the Honda dealer...I am now in a rental car until they fix the transmission in the van...........I don't know why I should be shocked, financial pit falls seem to always happen right before we are ready to go to China...Atleast the ceiling isnt falling in the family room this time-(true story)HAHA!!! My husbands quote of the day " its only money" I'm sure he might change his outlook when he sees the bill........



9 more days...............

3 YR CHECK-UP

Aleaya had her 3 yr check-up today(WOW, can't believe she is going to be 3 yrs old already) She received a flu shot and one other shot to bring her up to date on everything. She was such a big girl, she only cried for a minute. She is healthy and as cute as ever.

We are celebrating her 3rd birthday this weekend. She informed me that she wanted a Dora bike and a helmet..and of course a cupcake with some balloons...

PACKING!!

I restarted my packing nightmare and I feel better now~ I did some repacking and now I have one suitcase for Matt (and the clothes for the orphange donation) that only weighs 34 pounds-and he even has shaving cream...Skeeter's suitcase weighs 40 pounds and it was hard but I unpacked some of his cute outfits-if there is anything else he needs we can just buy it in China, I was really trying to stop the madness(my shopping habits) but any excuse will do ;)

Sami and I will finish our packing later in the week..now on to the gathering of the paperwork-FUN,FUN,FUN

FEB. 1st Tradition

Since Aleaya's b-day is Feb. 14th we have a tradition, she wears hearts the whole month of Feb. I am going to miss some of the fun (since we will be in China, YIPEE) but here our some pictures from today. She wanted to take some pictures too so she brought out her disney camera. Isn't she just adorable?

HELP!!

I feel so disorganized.......I don't even know where to start to get ready to go to China..I was so much more organized last time. Truthfully, I probably felt just as unorganized then but that was so long ago I must have forgotten what it felt like. I packed two suitcases yesterday and ended up with a suitcase that weighed 43.5 pounds-humm, they can only be 44 pounds so I think that is cutting it just a little to close. Should I get rid of some of my husbands underwear, his shaving cream, his toasty warm clothes?? After seeing the weather in China lately, I think his toasty warm clothes may be important..maybe I should get rid of some of the 45 outfits I packed for Skeeter(really I think it is about 16, yes a little over the top even for me) I didn't even fit in his PJ's before the suitcase was full, couldn't even bring myself to weigh his....okay everyone, I am going to take a deep breath and start all over again...come to think of it a beard might help to keep Matt warm.Bye-Bye shaving cream and unfortunately some of Skeeters outfits....

Baby Yuan and Scotty

Last April when Scotty passed away Love without Boundaries and Stefani with CHI asked if we could have a memorial in Scotty's name so that donations could be made to help some of the urgent children. The night Scotty passed away Amy at LWB received a call about Hua or Flower who I have already talked about, she needed heart surgery. We also were told there were some other urgent babies who needed help. While looking at the list of children I couldn't help but notice a little guy who happened to be from the same orphanage as Scotty, he needed heart surgery. His name was baby Yuan, he needed to have urgent heart surgery and Matt and I felt that it was fitting to also include Yuan in the memorial for Scotty. I was so excited to hear that Baby Yuans surgery was successful and that he was doing great. I was even more excited to learn that he was soon to be on a list for adoption. The excitement grew when I heard that Yuan had found his Forever Family. AMAZINGLY once again, I have been blessed with the chance to meet Baby Yuan and his forever family. He is moving to Washington, WOW, about 30 minutes away from our house....WOW, can this be any more amazing? I hope to meet Yuan (soon to be Owen) and his family sometime in the spring when he comes home.

one more thing, I know that the pictures of our referrals pictures sometimes have the babies in the same chair and clothes etc.....................but look at little Scotty and Baby Yuan, they are wearing the same outfit and sitting in the same chair..........that is just so sweet.

My bribery worked

I mentioned earlier that Aleaya wouldn't go potty out in public. We would leave and go home everytime she needed to go or spend 30 minutes crying in the potty without any results. Today I resorted to bribery. We were shopping at Target and I told her she could have some juice or a fruit smoothie if she went potty first. IT WORKED.........finally, my daughter went potty in public and was rewarded with a Tropical Smoothie-no crying, no tantrums.....hopefully I won't have to resort to this every time we are out and about but this was a start.

We are Going to China!!

We are leaving on Feb 13th, we meet our little boy on the 17th. We are so excited. We will travel to Beijing first for some sightseeing for a few days and then travel to Guiyang on the 16th.
We will then travel to Guangzhou for our Consulate appt-we arrive in Guangzhou on the 23rd and travel back to the US on the 29th of Feb.

Aleaya is staying home with "omma" (yes, my mom doesn't want to be called Grandma, so silly) for two weeks while we are in China. I am going to miss my little "sugar plum" so much...although, I just have to add there hasn't been anything "sweet" about her behavior lately.............whoever it was that told me three is so much easier than two-ha, I beg to differ-

My last day of work is Feb. 9th and we are celebrating Aleaya's Birthday on Feb. 10th since we will be in China for her Birthday on Valentines day...

BUNNYTOWN

Aleaya dancing to the Bunnytown hop during Saturday morning cartoons. She is just the cutest even with her bed-head!!

Motherhood-this time around-

When I wasn't able to become pregnant we chose adoption rather than go through the heartache and pain of IVF etc.....We wanted a baby and we decided adoption was the best choice for our family. I was so nervous to become a mom-I felt like I didn't even know what to do, I spent hours in Aleayas bedroom folding and unfolding her clothes, nesting, listening to lullaby's, waiting and wondering about the day we finally were able to meet our little girl. When I finally held her in my arms for the first time I was so excited-but it still took me months to get used to being a Mom-sometime it felt awkward, I was unsure a lot, not sure what my little bundle of joy wanted or needed. She taught me so much in the last two years....She taught me to love her so deeply that I cant even imagine what my life was like without her in it.

This time around it feels different, the awkwardness is gone...I am so excited to just love on my little boy and hey, I know how to make a bottle and surely know how to change a diaper this time around-certainly, there will be things that will be new, but I am so ready this time around and not scared at all, thanks to my precious little girl who taught me how to love and how to become a mother.

My baby is growing up!!

I told Aleaya that as soon as she could go potty and wear "big girl" pants she would be able to go to school. (you have to be potty trained) Since becoming potty trained that is all she talks about. I told her the other day that we needed to go to the bank. She said "No, Momma, you are going to the bank, I'm going to school" She preceded to put on her coat and then her back pack....so I guess I need to hold up my end of the bargain and start looking at schools for my little girl-My little girl is growing up way to fast!!!

VISAS

I sent our passports today so that we can receive our visas to go to China-how exciting? After all this time, can this really be happening? We have tentative plans to leave on Feb. 14Th and arrive in Beijing on the 15Th-we will go to the Great Wall and the Chinese Acrobat show- leaving on the 17Th to arrive in Skeeter(we are at a stand still for the name again, we decided to wait until we see our little boy's face and then decide on his name)so far we agree on his middle name (his Chinese name Sheng Le) okay, sorry got off the subject!! We will then arrive in Guiyang. Skeeters Province and stay for 5-6 days-we will do some sightseeing there and meet Hua and her family and of course we can't forget Trudy too, she made this all possible with Hua's family. I cant wait to meet them-we will leave on the 22ND for Guangzhou-and then off to Hong Kong to go to Disneyland-and of course more sightseeing. Hopefully all my tentative plans will all work out.............HA HA, that is so funny at this point, so far NOTHING has worked out as planned. So we will continue to leave it in Gods hands and arrive in China when the time is right. We are just so excited. It won't be long now.............

The potty again!!

Aleaya will not go potty while we are out and about in public! For some reason she wants to come home and go potty. This is fine and dandy now, I usually will stop what I am doing and just go home but this is really going to become an inconvenience at some point..it seems like maybe she is scared of the loud flushing in the public bathrooms, not to mention the "grossness" of it all...UGHH, I really can't blame her. I guess it is a good thing she is staying home when we go to China.. I think the squatty potties might be a little much for her at this point...maybe she will get used to it soon. Anyone else have this problem with their kids???? Would love any advice...