Personality Plus :)

Our daughter is quite the entertainer!  While Kieran napped, I sat her down for a little photo shoot.  In a matter of minutes, I captured so many different expressions from her.  She cracks me up with all the goofy faces she likes to make.  Here are some of them...

Conducting an orchestra.  (Classical music was playing at the time.)

Making silly sounds with her lips.

Singing like a drunken sailor.

Being a cool cat.

Practicing her clapping.  (This is a new discovery this week.)

Waving and saying "bye bye" (Also new this week.)

Just being adorable as she laughs at her own "jokes".

A family of Four

Kieran is getting so big!  He loves all things transportation related.

Our little cutie.  She's a happy camper most of the time.

Big brother gets to help feed little sister a bottle for the first time.

My sleepy heads.  They both just woke up from naps.

A little cuddle time after nap.  Mommy takes naps when the kids do!

Kieran decides to help with another bottle.  Marisa's being a good sport about it.

Our girl is getting some tummy time practice.  Crawling to commence soon!

We finally got our charmer to hold still and smile for the camera.
He was running laps around the family room for Marisa's entertainment.  

"Look at me family!  I'm getting ready to crawl!"

Tonight there's one less orphan,
and one family that is amazingly blessed to call her ours.

Hey everybody... We're finally coming out of the fog from jet lag and colds.  Marisa is sleeping through the night.  Hallelujah.  Yesterday I actually left the house for the first time since we got home.  I went to the store for baby supplies.  Kieran came with me and we had some Mommy & son time.  He's going through the typical feelings that kids experience when they get a new sibling.  We are doing our best to give him lots of affirmation, affection, and attention.  He is doing a good job of being an older brother and is sweet to his sister most of the time.  Marisa is doing great.  She's a playful, easy going girl overall.  She loves to eat, which is a refreshing change of pace.  More precious to us, she seems to know who her family is.  She's already calling me mama and also says dada to Mike.  She calls Kieran bubba sometimes.  He loves it, and we love her!!  I feel such a sense of contentment to have both a son and a daughter.  I'm enjoying both of my kids more now because of what each child is teaching me about the other.  I'm realizing how independent Kieran is, and what a blessing that can be.  I appreciate that he can talk to me, and can cooperate with me a lot better than his sister can.  Because I've seen how quickly Kieran has grown, I'm really enjoying the baby stage with Marisa.  She babbles at me and I just melt.  She plays peek-a-boo and says "bah" for boo.  I love it!  I also love to watch both of our kids play happily, either together or separately.  There seems to be a good balance now that we are a family of four.  However, Mike and I are also challenged to find a balance in how we care for each kid, take care of ourselves, and find time to do all the other chores that need to get done.  We so appreciate all of your prayers.  They've helped each of us as we're transitioning to a new life.  We are also very grateful to my MOPS group as they are bringing us meals this week and next.  Having a warm dinner ready to eat has been such a blessing.  It has given me more time and energy to devote to my kids and Mike, as they all need extra TLC right now.  Mike is recovering from a cold, and is getting his voice back.  Thankfully, the rest of us are all healthy!  Hugs to all of you from all of us.

Settling in at home

Our awesome travel group.  This was our last day together.
We were so blessed to have each others' support & supplies ;)
while we were far from home and the familiar.

All the beauties in our travel group.  It was an honor to meet each of
them & watch them bond with their forever families.

"I'm finally off that awful airplane!"

Grandpa & Grandma with their three grand babies. :)

Sister & brother together at last.  

Yep, life is good!

Auntie Kendra & Marisa.  Both gorgeous!

Auntie Katie & cousin Haley came to visit too.
(Kate, we need to get some photos of you holding Marisa!)

We are so glad to be home!!!  I'm typing this single handed while I hold Marisa.  It's after midnight & we are WIDE awake!  Time for a bottle.  :)

P.S.  I want to say a huge thank you to my sister Katie for keeping our blog going while we were in China.  Love you, Kate!!

Home at last!

We arrived home Friday afternoon.  It was a long and grueling 24 hrs. of travel.  All three of us slept very little, if at all.  Marisa took a several cat naps on our flights, but did not really sleep much.  We arrived home very bleary eyed and so happy to see our son and some of our family.

The last few days have been crazy as we try to get some rest and overcome the jet lag and colds.  Marisa has been waking up three to four times each night.  We feel like we have a newborn since we're up half the night with her.  I'm hopeful that she's improving a bit each day, and we've been blessed with family here to help with Kieran as well as doing laundry, making meals, and keeping the house in order.  Lately I've been feeling like I've been run over by a steam roller.  I'm so looking forward to getting rested and past the jet lag stage!

Meanwhile, we're having a great time watching everybody get to know Marisa.  Kieran got her to laugh today as he put the stacking cups on his head and let them slide off.  I loved observing them interact and have fun together.

More updates later when I'm feeling normal.  For now, here are some recent photos of our homecoming...

Thanks for all your love and prayers.  We are so grateful for everybody's support as we completed Marisa's adoption.

More Marisa :)

Mike and I recently realized that we have been in the process to adopt Marisa for half of our marriage.  So it shouldn't surprise me that I feel such a sense of contentment to finally reach the goal we have waited so long for.  We love having a daughter, and she was definitely worth the wait!!  We're looking forward to getting back home and introducing her to her big brother and her extended family.  This has been a long trip, and we miss Kieran so much.  Just two more days and we'll be heading home!  We've been lazy the last couple of days and left our camera in the room rather than haul it along on outings.  So, we only have pictures of our cutie for today's post. That's what everybody wants to see anyway, right?

We'd appreciate your prayers for a smooth trip home, and for Kieran as he adjusts to being a big brother.  Love to all our family and friends.  See you soon!

All is well!

Only a few days left before we head for home.  Yesterday we went shopping, and tomorrow we'll do some more shopping!  Today we went to the consulate and applied for Marisa's visa.  We saw many adopting families all at the same stage in the journey that we are.  (Mike and I were having flashbacks to Africa as it was similar to our experience in Ethiopia when we finalized Kieran's visa.)  It's so encouraging to see children being united with families.  We learned during our visit today that 67% of the children adopted by Americans in 2010 were special needs.  There is one baby in our group of five families that is considered special needs.  Her ear is slightly underdeveloped.  It's not what I would consider a special need.  The wait for a special needs referral is considerably shorter than for a non special needs referral.  For those considering international adoption, I would highly recommend looking into this option.

Mike and I are continually blown away by how blessed we are to have Marisa.  She's such a happy baby who likes to have fun.  We have had plenty of down time lately to just chill out and bond with her.  It's been wonderful.  Marisa has so many different facial expressions and we're constantly cracking up at her funny faces.  She often babbles and says words like: "mama", "dada", and even "bye bye".  It's so sweet.  Really her only struggle is that she doesn't like baths.  Otherwise she's usually a happy camper.  We are so grateful that she's our daughter, and we're looking forward to seeing her interact with Kieran.

We need to borrow a cord to connect our camera to the computer.  So for now, here's a quick photo from the ipod.

Happy Momma and happy baby.
Marisa finishes a bottle before bed time.

The many faces of Marisa

 

Our cutie pie with pureed prunes on her face.

Marisa's Winston Churchill impersonation, "We will never surrendah!"  (Waiting for medical exam.)

Daddy feeding Marisa a bottle on the bus after medical exam.  After the bottle, she napped for an hour.

Marisa and Mommy playing games before bath time.

We think she's such a beauty!  She loves playing with her stacking cups.

One of the couples having wedding photos taken in the park.  (We saw about 6 couples during our walk today.)

Happy New Year!

Sorry we haven't posted in a few days.  On Friday we flew from Marisa's province to Guangzhou.  She did ok on the short flight, but was very active.  I'm wondering how we'll manage an international flight at the end of this week.  Kieran slept the whole way home, so we were spoiled with him!  I have a feeling Marisa is going to be keeping us busy on our flight home.

Yesterday we went to the medical exam for all the babies.  Marisa is 30 inches long (she's going to be a tall girl) and 19 lbs.  The doctor measured her head and said, "Clever baby!"  It was a nice way to say, she's got a huge head!  Other than a diaper rash, she seems very healthy.  When we get home, we'll visit our pediatrician for a more thorough exam.

Today was a free day for us.  It was wonderful to not have any appointments to rush off to.  We have been keeping in touch with Kieran each morning, so we talked to him for quite a while.  It's been tough to be away from him for so long.  We're looking forward to being together as a family of four soon.

After a lazy morning, we took a walk in the park nearby.  There were many couples getting wedding photos taken at the park.  We're guessing that the new year is a lucky time to get married since there have been weddings all weekend here at the hotel.

We've been having a great time with our travel group.  All the babies are doing well and showing signs of bonding with their families.  We have been getting together for meals and just to hang out and visit.  Tomorrow we're all going shopping.  Then Tuesday we have more appointments to go to.  Every body is counting down the days until we get to go home.

We have been having such fun getting to know our daughter.  She's playful and smart.  She'll often initiate little games like peek-a-boo, and gives a ready smile.  She's starting to pick up on what we're trying to communicate to her.  A favorite game of hers when she's sitting on the bed is to fall back on the pillows and then try to sit back up.  Today I said, "Give me your hand," and she reached out for my hand to help her sit up!  We've been working on improving her core strength.  In just a few days, she's improved so much that she is able to sit up on her own without falling over.  Now we're working on strengthening her legs and also encouraging her to roll from tummy to back.  I have a feeling that she'll be learning to crawl soon after we get home.

Pictures to follow soon...