We made it home!

We are finally home with our girls! We had a great visit at home. Alexei and Brandon's Mom flew in and all of my family got to meet the girls. The girls were baptized on Sunday and it was a beautiful service. I will post pictures soon but our computer is not working soI am borrowing my cousins right now.
The girls are doing fine. Aurora seems to be adjusting to her home. Lilly is having an interesting time dealing with the split attention from mommy. She goes between caring for Rory (patting her head and Kissing her) to trying to sit on her and taking her pasi.ffier out of her mouth and plopping it into hers. She has never had a pasifier before so it isn't as if she needs one. I am sure it will be fine. I am trying to unpack and get the house in order too so forgive me for not posting much this week.
Heidi

We made it to Chicago

We arrived in Chicago after 32 hours of travel! Lilly was a little mad at us at first but after a day she is doing wonderful now. She is very protective over her baby Rory. She likes to pat her head and hug her when she cries. Alexei met us here on Wednesday and we are finally all together as a family. It is such an amazing feeling.

Heidi

Were coming home!

We leave tonight for America! We will post more about our trip once we are home.

We are at the White Swan

This is the first time we have been able to post. We leave to go back home tommorrow! Rory has been with us a week now. She is so pretty. She has had a rough time getting adjusted to us. But now she seems fine. She is happy and laughs alot. We have shopped a ton. Lots of presents for everyone. Here are some pictures of the beauty queen!

Rory's 1st Pizza

My pretty hat

I finally get to wear my pretty dress

Daddy kissing Rory

Happy baby

New Daddies

Mommy and Rory

Last post in the USA!

We leave tomorrow morning for Vegas! We meet up with our travel group on Tuesday at LAX and it is on to CHINA!!!! I just wanted to thank everyone on here for all their support. We will be touring Beijing for a few days then on to Changsha! We get the girls on Monday in Changsha so late Sunday night I guess. 1 more week until we get our babies!!!! We are all packed and quite excited! I will try to post as ofter as possible. I can't believe it is finally here. Only 1 more week without our Rory. I am still nervous about leaving Lilly. I know she will be fine, but I am worried about Brandon and I. A whole 2 weeks without the Lilly Monster! What are we gonna do with ourselves. I know we will miss her but in two and a half weeks we will all be together as a family! Brandon and I and Lilly, Rory and Alexei!
Heidi

Hair post

So tonight my friend Dianne came up to see us and say goodbye. I started to tell her the hair drama and we decided that if it was blond, or at least lighter, I would feel better. We ran out to tell Brandon and with my cousin watching Lilly (she was sleeping) we all went to Sally's (1st time for us!) . Do you know how to lighten your blond hair that you dyed twice to make it red? Apparently you HAVE to bleach it! This was sounding frightening to Dianne and I. We were at Sally's an hour deciding what to do. We decided to go ahead with the bleach (not your kitchen kind) idea but we learned you have to cover the whole head really fast or my hair will be spotted. YIKES, this is getting more terrifying by the minute! So we get home and it is decided that Brandon and Dianne will each dye a side of my hair so it goes on faster. It takes at least 15 minutes for them to apply this stuff. I was watching the clock while wiping bleach off my eye brow and out of my ears! I have to say I was a bit nervous!
20 minutes later they are both yelling "It is turning color we have to save your hair! Hurry get over to the sink!" So Brandon washes my hair out and it looks a bit orange, but we condition it and then I go dry it. It is actually cute. It is still red but streaky blond and strawberry blondish red. It looks really good. Definitely lighter and not so shocking. I look more like me!!!!
I am much happier and I only lost a shirt to the bleach. So far my hair has not fallen out!!!

Thursday

Only 3 days and 13 hours until our plane leaves SLC!!! We are getting excited. We spent the afternoon looking at China books at B&N. I kept thinking next week this time we will be in Beijing! With the time change we should be getting Rory in 10 days. The single didgets start tomorrow!!! Referrals for the August batch came today. I have seen a few from Hunan. I love those spicy babies! They are all so cute. Even now though Rory is still one of the youngest. I sometimes can not believe we are going to have a 7 month old baby in a little over a week. YIKES!

My hair is starting to grow on me a bit. I got some headbands and barretts to pull it back in China. I figure the red will be out by next week so whatever. It is just hair right.

Lilly is 21 months old today! She is getting so big. I can't believe that in 10 days she won't be the baby anymore. She will still be my baby but really she is a big girl now. Brandon was saying the other day about how she is not a baby anymore. She is a little girl. She loves trying on shoes at Target. She tries to help you put them on her and then walks up and down the aisle showing them off, connected and all. I think that means she is officially a little girl now! I guess she will have to be ready to be a big sister.

On that note this is a shirt I had made for Alexei. I got the idea from another Mom in our travel group. It is from Mandysmoon.com you can create the characters to represent your family! We will be all together for the first time on Aug 22nd! Alexei and Lilly and Aurora Grace will finally meet! I cannot wait to have our family together! Only 20 more DAYS!!!!

MY HAIR!

OK we are leaving to get Rory in 4 days and like 5 hours (not that I'm counting) and I was a bit restless yesterday soooo
I dyed my hair red and today I cut it all off. Alright not all but 8 inches worth! I actually did not want it this short but it seemed that the woman didn't hear me and she started cutting at my chin! I said I wanted a lot cut off but I wanted it to be able to be put in a ponytail still! I guess it will grow back. It is radically different. I am blond with long hair usually. It will fade from the red I am sure, but wow it is different. I hope they give me my baby and don't think I am someone else! It is cute, I just hope when I have to do it myself I do OK. Also that it is able to somehow be pulled back. I think it will have about an inch hanging down! I may die of heat in China.
I am trying to not miss my hair too much, it's just hair right? It just is not quite what I had in mind. I will look like a different person in all the pictures in China.

1 more week!

We leave for china in 1 week! It is crazy right now. we have decided to have the girls baptized as soon as we get back to Chicago. So we have been frantically getting that together as well as packing and getting the Lilly monster ready! In 2 weeks from now we will have Princess Aurora Grace finally!

Travel Itenerary!

We purchased our tickets today!!! It is finally real.

Our trip will start on Aug. 6th (yes in 11 days!!!)

08/06/07 - Vegas to meet my parents so they can take Lilly home with them.

08/07/07 - Fly from Vegas to LAX. Leave LAX at 11:50pm to fly to Guangzhou, China

08/09/07 - Arrive in Guangzhou and hop on plane to Beijing. We are staying at the Capitol Hotel

08/10/07 to 08/12/07 - Tour Beijing and Great Wall

08/12/07 - Fly to Changsha and check into the Dolton Hotel

08/13/07 - WE MEET AURORA GRACE!!!!

08/14/07 - we officially adopt Aurora Grace

08/15/07 to 08/17/07 - we wait for Rory's passport and tour Changsha

08/17/07 - We fly to Guangzhou to get Rory's VISA. We are staying at The White Swan hotel. I want our Barbie doll!

08/18/07 - Medical

08/19/07 - Shopping in Guangzhou

08/20/07 - tour Guangzhou and 1st conulate apt.

08/21/07 - VISA swearing in and fly home!

08/22/07 - We will arrive in Chicago!!! Miss Aurora Grace will be a United States citizen as soon as we step off the plane at LAX!!!

Today

Today has been 28 months and 16 days sense the day I called Brandon and said we should adopt a baby girl from China. I can honestly say I have not breathed a full breath since that day. Until today. I feel better today. You would think upon seeing Rory that I would have felt better. But No, it was today. We got our TA and that was when it happened. Today we got a letter from China saying that Yes, they agree. Dan Ning is our baby. Everything is good, she is healthy and will you please come get her. That was it, that was the moment it hit me. This beautiful child, who looks a lot like my husband and my nephew, is our baby. In 13 days we will travel to China. In 18 days they will hand her to me. We aren't going to let go.
When we got Lilly people would say "well at least you have Lilly" "you are busy now it is good that you are waiting for Rory". No I can honestly say I needed them both. I need Lilly because she is and has always been my baby girl. She is wild and crazy. She is funny and truth be told EXACTLY like me. But that didn't fill that empty spot. Rory is that spot, in 18 days that place in my heart and soul will finally be filled. My girls will soon be home, together, HOME. I needed my family together. I know that everyday I will think I was crazy, everyday I will know that This is where all of us belong. Brandon and I, Alexei, Lilly and Rory, Together.
Today I will breathe, tomorrow I will find my destiny.

WE HAVE TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!

We are so excited! We are leaving to pick up Rory on Aug. 7th! Gotcha day will be on Aug. 13th. 13 is my lucky number so I am thrilled about that!!! Only 18 more days without Aurora Grace is with us! It feels like a whirlwind today.

Still waiting

We are still waiting for our TA (travel approval) from china. It should be here by the beginning of next week. We found out that Rory is in foster care. Which is different that what her paperwork says. It is good for her though. It means she is getting more attention. We are also waiting on her updated information. Those should be here by the end of the week. I am starting to pack and get everything together for our trip. It should be in about 3 weeks.
Lilly is walking now. She is into everything! I can't wait to have our girls in the same place!

Aurora Grace

I just wanted to bump this up because I can't stop looking at her. In 5 weeks from Monday we should be holding our little Princess Aurora. I am getting so excited. This has been the longest journey I could imagine. But in the end we now will have our three gorgeous girls. Life doesn't get much better that that.

1 Year ago today

I arrived in Haiti to meet Princess Lilly. I can honestly say neither her or I have ever been the same. These are pictures of that day and now. It amazing how much she has grown.
I love you Princess Lilly Monster!

The first time I held Lilly on July 13, 2006
Lilly was 8 months old and about 7 pounds!

Her smile has always lit up a room!
July 2006

At Disneyland May 30, 2007
All 20 pounds of rambunctious wild Lilly monster!

For my girls

"Somewhere far across the sea
Waits a little heart for me
Amazing though how it may seem
We both are sharing the same dream
I long to tuck you in at night
And hold your tiny hand so tight
To kiss your tears and keep you near
To chase away your every fear
No one knows the tears I've cried
The emptiness I've felt inside
Only God knew what to do
A red thread tied from me to you
And now my love it's almost time
When I'll be yours and you'll be mine
Soon forever-never to part
My child I bore inside my heart"
(anonymous)

Rory's parework

So the mom who is adopting the little girl at Rory's orpanage and I
realized that we cannot understand Chinese!  We read the
chart wrong.  Rory is not impatient, she is quiet.  She likes to read
picture books and listen to music and has a ready smile.   She likes
toys and can hold her blocks.   She is closest to her caretaker and
crib mate (we think is Meili).  We like that at least the girls are
together now. She follows voices and knows who is familiar and a
stranger.  She also laughs out load.
Not sure how meeting the Lilly monster who is LOUD, wild and crazy
is going to go.  Me mom says that Katie and I were exact opposites
growing up so I guess it is fitting.
Heidi
>

Tuesday after refferal

I feel like we havn't stopped moving since getting Rory's refferal. It has been a good crazy though. I had a moment in Target that I realized we are gonna have a BABY!!! Then the panic, we are going to have a baby!!!! We need things I had returned because I never thought Rory would be SO YOUNG! I am fine now though. We had dinner with our travel mates on Saturday. It was so great to all be together talking about our girls. There is one little girl from our group in the same orphanage as Rory. She is only 2 days older than Rory. At least by the estimate! All the babies are so cute. One family has a 9 month old and the other has a 2 year old little girl. They asked for an older child and she is perfect. We are all so excited to go get them.
Our tentative gotcha day is Aug. 20, 2007. I CAN"T WAIT!
Lilly is practicing how to be gentle with her baby Rory. I sure hope Rory's personality can hold up to the Lilly Monster, she is something!
Brandon is leaving tonight on his first fire. He is a meteorologist and he goes to fires to help forcast wind direction and how the fire is going to react to the current conditions. He will be gone for 1 to 2 weeks. So we had to cancel San Diego. We are disappointed, but I do have a lot to do here before we go to China.

Introducing Aurora Grace (Jiang Dan Ning)

DOB 1/6/07
Weight: 13lbs (6.2 kg)
Currently waiting for us at Pingjiang SWI, Hunan Provence

Here are her pics!! If you click on them they are easier to see!!

Lilly and Alexei have a sister!!!!

Alexei and Lilly have a BABY sister! Rory is 6 months old today! Her birthday is Jan. 6, 2007. She was born 1 day after we got to Haiti to pick up Lilly. I guess she wasn't ready before that!. Get this Rory has blond hair! No I am not kidding. She is the lightest asian baby that we have ever seen. She is just beautiful. She is from Hunan, so we have a spicy baby! She likes music and toys and is impatient. Sounds like we got the right one. Lilly likes to give baby Rory kisses (she takes the special picture that the agency made her and she kisses it). Brandon is going back to work and will scan the pictures for the blog. They should be up in about an hour! We are so excited. Thanks for all the well wishes these past few days.

Heidi