One Year Later

It was one year ago that we saw Raegan's face for the first time.  We were overcome with joy and couldn't wait to have her home in our arms.  A year later she has brought more happiness into our lives than we thought was possible.  She has been the perfect child for our family and we can only thank God for the little miracle he blessed us with. 

4th of July

The 4th of July is always fun, especially for the kids in the family - Marshall, Madelyn, and Shawn! They look forward to shooting fireworks for weeks before the big event. We went to church in the morning and spent the rest of the day at Grandma Faye's house. And of course shooting fireworks was great!

Dena's Birthday

We had a great day spent with fun and relaxation for mommy's birthday today. Dad always takes the day off work for everyone's birthday so we were able to have a family day. The picture is of us getting ready to leave the house for the fun filled day. As you can tell, Madelyn did not want to stop long enough to get her picture taken and of course Shawn is taking the picture so sorry, no picture of the entire family. We spent most of the day at All Star Sports playing miniature golf, riding bumper boats, and the big boys even raced in the go-karts. Then we went to dinner with Grandma Faye at our favorite Japanese restaurant. It is always so much fun just spending a day with the entire family having fun!

Raegan's First Birthday

Time has flown by since Raegan became a part of our family and today was her first birthday. We had a quiet night at home with just the five of us. Since we are having a party at Grandma Faye's house this weekend we decided to just have cupcakes today. We had to get pictures of Raegan with her first cake on her actual birthday. I have to say, it sure was fun watching her demolish the cupcake. And we even got pictures with her smiling! This is the smiley girl we see all the time and it is fun to share that with everyone.

Mother's Day

What a very special mother's day it was this year. To have all three of my children with me at long last! The past few years have been bitter sweet because I had Marshall and Madelyn with me and they are the very best kids I could ask for. But at the same time there was a part of me missing the child that I loved more each day. And yes, I can truely say that I loved Raegan even before I knew who she was. So this year I was surrounded by all of my beautiful children and my wonderful husband. What else could a woman want?

Easter

We had an incredible Easter this year! First was a great service at church and then a wonderful lunch at Grandma Faye's. But what it made it extra special this year was having Raegan home with us. She wasn't old enough to hunt eggs this year but I bet next year she will be right behind Madelyn. Marshall decided he was too old to hunt eggs so he helped hide them. I think he had more fun doing that than he did last year hunting eggs.

Daddy's Favorite Hair Style

Shawn doesn't usually comment on hair styles but he loves this one on Raegan. So here is a great picture of Raegan, her crazy hair, and daddy.

And Another First

Raegan finally figured out how to get those arms and legs going together! This evening she took off crawling - slowly but definitely going forward. She has been so frustrated lately with going backwards when she can see what she wants in front of her. So, hopefully she will be happier - I don't know about the rest of us as she is already into everything!

It Finally Happened

After two months of drooling and gnawing on everything available Raegan finally has her first tooth. It is on the bottom front. The one next to it feels ready to pop through also. She has been so fussy the last few days and hopefully this is the cause.

Something Isn't Right

I was getting ready to feed Raegan the other night and when I approached her I thought something isn't right. I looked at her and eventually figured out what it was. Can you guess?

I had asked Shawn to get Raegan's shoes on and trusted he must have had plenty of experience doing this with the other two children so nothing could go wrong. Obviously this wasn't the case! He put her shoes on the wrong feet!

I had to grab the camera to get a picture of this. We all had a good laugh and Shawn decided I could put her shoes on now!

Pictures at 9 months

I wanted to post a couple of the pictures we had taken of Raegan last Friday. We now have proof for everyone to see how absolutely solemn she can be at times. She can instantly go from laughing and smiling to a totally blank stare. I think some people don't believe she ever smiles - but she does. Hopefully we can catch a smile on camera before too long and post it!

It has been a month since we have been home and we still haven't settled into a good routine yet. It is amazing how hard it is to get things done around the house when a little one wants to be held all the time.

Raegan is doing good and is growing like a weed. Her only issue right now is sleeping. She would really like for us to sit and hold her while she sleeps. It makes her very angry when we put her in the crib. We are working on getting her to lay in the crib with us sitting in the room with her so that she can see us. It is slowly working. Today she went down for her morning nap with no crying and only took about 20 minutes to fall asleep. She is still waking up some nights around 1 or 2 in the morning. She usually goes back to sleep in our bed, and then we put her back in her room.

We took her last week for pictures. They turned out good but we had absolutely no smiles at all. Oh well, hopefully we will have better luck at her year pictures.

I'm hoping as we settle in better I will be able to post more.

Farewell to China

We headed home today. It is bittersweet to leave China. We are leaving our daughter's first home and the wonderful country we have grown to love. We are also leaving our new family. We have quickly grown to love our travel group and guide. These are the people who totally get what we are talking about when we refer to gotcha day, the grieving our daughter has gone through, all the details of our trip, and our spicy girls. But we are glad to be heading home. Back to our normal routine and a soft bed. Back to friends and family. Being able to order a drink with ice in it. All the little things we missed while being gone.

It is funny how we will be leaving for the airport at 6:20 a.m., January 30th, and will arrive home after traveling for 30 hours at 10:30 p.m., January 30th. I think we will be feeling this trip for a few days!

The pictures above show the three girls at the airport in Guangzhou, Theaux heading to Beijing while Madelyn and Lydia head to Shanghai. It was sad for the girls to say goodbye!! Next is my friend Janine and her adorable daughter Annabelle along with Raegan and me in the Shanghai airport. Janine's mother knitted the girls matching socks for the trip and we had to get pictures with the girls wearing them. Of course the girls look super cute in them!! Grandma Faye met us at the airport in Wichita and we got a quick picture of her with Raegan. She was so excited to finally get her hands on her new granddaughter! And finally, Raegan at home in her new bouncing seat. She loves sitting in it and watching Marshall and Madelyn.

Misc. Pictures

Here are a few misc. photos.

There were quite a few brides and grooms getting their picture taken on Shamian Island in Guangzhou while we were there. We were told once a couple is engaged they get a formal portrait done. They might not actually get married for months to come but the portrait is the first step. Madelyn and her friend Theaux were asked to take their picture with the couple.

We didn't see the sun much while in China. This is one of the times it tried to peak through the smog but didn't quite succeed.

We got pictures on the Red Couch with our Pingjiang girls that were roommates. In the first picture I think Raegan and Eliza were trying to decide how long this was going to take. And the second is of the four girls - aren't they all just beautiful. They include Annabelle, Raegan, Eliza, and Keira. What a fun foursome they must have been while rooming together!

Finally, Madelyn and Raegan crashed out after a long day.

Local Market and Visa Received

Today we walked to a local market. It was amazing what they had to sell. And also amazing what they actually eat, or at least for this meat and potatoes midwesterner! Marshall thought everything was really cool and of course Madelyn was grossed out. Some of the most interesting finds included dried black ant that you use in soup (of course!), live scorpions, dried seahorse, dried star fish, snakes and then some more snakes (these were alive - yuck), fish, chickens, turtles, and about everything else imaginable. There were a lot of dried roots and dried flowers which they added to soups or teas. Madelyn wasn't too happy about walking by the booths where they were hacking up the chicken and fish - of course I wasn't either! It was very interesting though and we enjoyed it.

This afternoon our guide picked up all the Visas for the babies. It was great to finally have this last piece of paper. We can now bring Raegan into the United States.

We spent quite a bit of time packing today. Shawn was afraid we wouldn't get everything into the suitcases. Yes, we did purchase a few things while here! But I assured him they would all fit and I was right. We didn't even have to sit on the suitcases to zip them!!

We had one last dinner with our friends (Andy, Cindy, and their beautiful daughter Nicole) at Lucy's Restaurant and it was off to bed.

Buddhist Temple and Pearl Market

Today we headed to a Buddhist Temple and the Pearl Market. The temple had some amazing architecture. It was one of the more popular temples in Guangzhou and housed about 100 monks. After a quick tour of the temple we headed to the pearl market. It was a 5 story shopping center that had not only pearls but every other stone and gem imaginable. We were only able to stay about an hour and a half but could definitely spent the whole day going through the different stores. It was amazing to see all the different colored stones and gems in the store windows. Our guide took us to a pearl store that had high quality pearls. They had strings of pearls that you could have made into necklaces, bracelets, earrings, or anything else you could imagine. We ended up getting a pearl bracelet and 3 sets of earrings. In the picture above you can see Marshall standing next to bags and bags of pearls set on the floor.

Visa Paperwork and Taking Our Oath

Our guide, Veronica, took our Visa paperwork to the American Consulate in Guangzhou this morning. We had to wait in our hotel room until she called to let us know everything was okay with our paperwork. She told us at that time we would be going to the consulate today instead of tomorrow for our oath ceremony. Something had come up at the consulate on the 28th so they had to add the group of families suppose to take the oath tomorrow with the group scheduled for today. We ended up having 60 families at the American Consulate for the oath. It only took about 30 minutes. We had to wait for our name to be called then show the consulate worker Raegan to make sure she matched all our paperwork. Then after all the families had been called we had to take an oath stating all the paperwork we had filled out was correct and true. And that was it. We were done with the American Consulate other than waiting for Raegan's Visa to be ready on the 29th. We couldn't take any pictures at the consulate so I'll just post some of Raegan instead - I'm sure everyone will be okay with that!

Yuntai Park

Today we visited Yuntai Park. It was an amazing park in the middle of Guangzhou. The landscaping was incredible! They had a wonderful main water area that had fountains. The kids really enjoyed running around the park. Shawn was approached by a Chinese man who wondered about Raegan. They soon were in an in depth conversation surrounded by about 15 people. The man could speak pretty good English so he would ask Shawn questions then interpret for the rest of the group. The people in China have been so kind to us. They are caring and interested in what we are doing. If anyone ever gets the chance we would recommend visiting this amazing country.

Some of Our Favorite Photos

Marshall has already taught Raegan her first bad habit - sticking out her tongue at people. He thinks it is hilarious! Raegan taking her first bath. She loves the water! And last but not least - the most beautiful three hands we have ever seen!!!!

Medical Exam and Visa Photo

Today we got Raegan's visa photo taken. After that we walked to a medical clinic here on the island and had her examination done. It was basically three different rooms she had to go to - ENT, Height/Weight/Temp, and General Exam. She did great until we had to take her clothes off for the general exam. She decided she really didn't like that but just fussed a little. In the afternoon we had the babies picture on the Red Couch. It is tradition for the adoptive parents to take pictures of their babies on a red couch in the White Swan. Our guide arranged for a professional photographer to come by and take the picture. We also got a group picture with our entire group in it. Later we went to the Carrefour store which is basically a French Walmart. We got some more formula and some snacks. This evening we went to a Thai restaurant. It was really good food and we enjoyed it. Marshall actually shared pigeon with one of the other dads and loved it.

Chen Family Temple

Today we visited the Chen Family Temple. It is not actually a religious temple but rather a park that the Chen family in Guangzhou build for their family to enjoy in the 1890's. I attached some pictures taken in the lobby of our hotel. It has an amazing waterfall that the kids love to watch, especially Raegan. Also, there is a picture taken of our lunch at a dim sum restaurant. This was us and two other families. We can usually get about 3-4 families at each table and the food is served on a large lazy susan. We all share the dishes. Our guide orders our food at any of the group meals as we wouldn't be able to read the menus.