It's been awhile

Wow, time has flown by. We are slowly settling into the new normal. The kids are all doing great. The boys love Mae so much and she is pretty smitten with them.  The hardest part (easily) has been having two toddlers again. It had been long enough that I had forgotten how exhausting it can be. Mae's sleeping and eating have come so far and she is even getting ready to go to school in a couple of weeks (I will start back the week after she does).  Here are a few recent shots. I'll try to get some better ones loaded soon.

Sorry!

Fun at the park

love that smile!

crazy kids

a quick update

We are home and doing great!  The boys love their sister so much and she loves them.

Mae is adjusting really well. She is sleeping through the night, but she has a hard time getting down. The boys are also adjusting good. Grant is having the hardest time, but that was expected. I am so proud of all of them and very grateful to be have everyone together! 

Together at last!

Still in China

We are still here. Tomorrow is our last day. We had our Consulate appointment today. Hopefully we will get Mae's visa tomorrow! We have had fun in the local parks and museums and going up the Canton Tower. Mae is just more amazing every day!!

Wearing mommy's shoes

One of the parks

We really loved going to the parks!

what we have been up to

Mae is doing amazingly well.  She is happy and outgoing. She makes everyone around her smile.  Joe and i are just are worn out at the end of the day and so I have't had the energy to write as much as I had hoped.  I am going to try to catch up a little.

On Wednesday we went to the police station to apply for her visa. We were not allowed to take pictures there.  It took about an hour to process all of the families, but each family took about 2 minutes. 

On Thursday we visited Mae's orphanage. That is it's own post all together. We could tell she was really loved and that she loved her nannies, so that made us so happy.

On Friday we went to downtown Guangzhou and visited the Guangdong Cultural Musuem. The city is incredible. It really makes Dallas seem like a small town. Everywhere you look there are phenomenal skyscrapers. The Musuem was fantastic, so much rich history. After we got back from the morning trip and rested Joe and I took a taxi to Shaiman Island. It was so beautiful there!  I am sure we will go back at least one more time 

Inside the museum.

A fun robot with the Canton Tower in the background.  

On the island.

More on the island.

the past couple of days

The last couple of days with Mae have been wonderful.  She continues to smile and she is learning to trust us.  She is still very scared at times and seems to be confused (who can blame her).  All in all she is very happy and outgoing little girl.  We could not ask for more!

Yesterday we went back to the Civil Affairs office to sign the official paperwork to make Mae our daughter.  We had 2 interviews.  One with a notary and one with an adoption official.  They were both pretty short and straightforward.  The notary was very interested in Joe's job and asked him a lot of questions about being an attorney.  I think he was just curious and it was fun to talk to him.

Waiting for our interviews.

The notary who interviewed us.

Today we went to the police station to apply for Mae's passport.  We took a quick photo and signed some papers.  We should have her passport in a day or so.

Tomorrow we are visiting her orphanage.  It will be a hard day, but an important one.  We hope it is not too traumatic for her.

I hope to write more soon, but we are strangely tired and worn out these days.  Hopefully I will have more energy tomorrow.

Mae day!

The past 24 hours have been incredible.  It has been nearly one day since we met the most amazing little girl, our sweet Mae!

Finally!

I am having trouble posting on the computer where most of the photos are, so I will post from my phone and update with more pictures and details later. 

She is so wonderful and she has so much personality! I can't wait to share more soon!

Okay, I am sorry I have been the world's worst blogger over here.  Today is Thursday and we visited Mae's orphanage today.  That is an entirely different post, so I will just stick to gotcha day for now.

On Monday we woke up after a surprisingly restful night (I think the 2 Advil PM didn't hurt).  We enjoyed a nice breakfast at the buffet and then met Miko at 10:30 to go over the paperwork for the week.  We met the other 3 families that are here adopting also.  They are so wonderful and we are grateful to be on this journey with them.

The meeting was exiting because it really felt like this was happening.  The meeting lasted less than an hour and then we broke for lunch before we were to meet up again at 1:45 to head over to the Civil Affairs Office.  Our nerves were on edge at this point so we headed over to Pizza Hut to have something familiar for lunch.  The pizza was exactly like at home. 

Finally, the time to leave and meet Mae arrived.  We were all so nervous and excited going to the office.  We drove for about 20 minutes and then got out of the car to walk through some side streets.  When we reached the building there were some little ones near the elevator headed up.  One of the families in our group saw their daughter.  It was so exciting.  

We made it to the 8th floor and situated ourselves in a corner of the room.  Off to the side was a nanny with some little ones and one of them was Mae!  She was getting her hands washed.  We could not believe she was right there and we could not hold her yet!  They still had to go over some paperwork and get us organized.  Mae was sent off to a small toy room to play.  About 10 minutes passed and then we were told it was time to meet our children and that our group was first.  We were the second family (out of about 15) to be meet our child.  

She came to us really well and did not cry.  We just held her and told her we loved her in Chinese.  We showed her some toys and gave her a lollipop.  After awhile I started to rock back with her.  She really liked this and gave us our first smiles and giggles.  It was wonderful! The time there is sort of a blur.  I think we were there about 90 minutes.  Here are a few more pictures that can tell the story better than I ever could!

the forbidden city

Yesterday we toured Tienamen Square, the Forbidden City, and an area of Beijing called Hutong. 

Tienamen Square was massive. There were so many people in it, but it did not even feel that crowded. There are also these two giant movie screens, which seemed really odd and out of place. There is not too much to do there, so we took some pictures and headed over to the Forbidden City. 

The Forbidden City from a distance 

The forbidden City was also enormous. The buildings are beautiful and it was fascinating to learn the history of the city. However, it felt very cold and lonely even though there were a zillion people there. It is not somewhere I would want to live. The gardens in the city were really beautiful with interesting trees and rock formations. I will try to upload those from the big camera later (these are all iPhone pictures). 

Inside the Forbidden City

more of the city

still more

Hutong is an old section of Beijing. It offers a glimpse of what life was like in Beijing before the construction boom. The homes are very simple and humble. We were able to visit one of the homes and meet the lady who lives there. She told us what life is like in Hutong. We also took a rickshaw around the neighborhood and visited the local market.  

The view from our rickshaw ride

Inside the local market.

The Hutong area

After out tour our guide helen took us to another part of Hutong. This part had lots of shops and restaurants. There was also a beautiful lake. 

so pretty

Our great guide Helen.