Video of our Journey to Shay

We love you, Shay Meilyn! Welcome Home!!

 Click HERE to go to our video!

 or check it out on the side of our blog (I think I have it working!!)

 

2 weeks home!

We've had a great 2 weeks!  Shay is doing really well and is such a kind, joyful sweetheart!  She is continuing to add to her English daily and is amazing us with her memory!  She has learned lots of simple phrases like, "that's ok..,"  "be back soon," "in a little bit," " I don't know," "stand up", "sit down" etc., and so far hasn't been frustrated with the communication barrier. She rarely talks in Chinese, however, she also knows we only know a few phrases and words.  We do use the iTranslate Voice app occasionally if I have to explain something to her that requires more words than I can pantomime, and that works pretty well if I keep the phrases short.  She enjoys doing math worksheets and kindergarten grade papers which are helping to teach her what words like bigger/smaller, taller/shorter, different/same, etc. mean.  She loves to write words and after coloring papers will write, "WOW!" on them or give herself an A+.  Too cute!  If she colors a picture of a monkey for example, she will ask us how to spell monkey and is able to write the letters from memory.  She will sit for a long time and work hard at what she is doing.  She is such a joy and it is hard not to just sit and stare at her and be in awe of the fact that she is finally here and that we were chosen to be her parents! 

Emily and Shay continue to be joined at the hip.  Shay is so sweet and gentle with Emily.  She clearly loves little children and will point out babies or toddlers in photos or when we are out and about.  She doesn't like when they cry and will immediately be drawn to that sound.  Emily is doing extremely well sharing us and her things.  There have been a few minor moments that she has been sad that Shay is being held when she wants carried, but I've been amazed at how well she has transitioned too.  I'm so proud of her. Emily seems a year older to us now that Shay is home!  I love watching the two of them snuggled up on the couch together watching a movie or playing at the table together with their play dough and giggling.

The princesses!

 

 

Go Fish and Old Maid have become quite popular here!

 

The girls share a room and bedtime has been surprisingly easy (I will probably regret I typed that out!We've stuck to the same routine every night and that has seemed to help greatly!

We took Shay and Emily to our local YMCA last week for cookies with Santa.  My friend's daughter went along with me to help with the girls since it was Shay's first outing and we would be making gingerbread houses.  Thanks, Cassie!  Shay did great and the girls even sat on Santa's lap!  A first for both of them!

 

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas at my parents and today we will celebrate with John's family.  Shay did really well meeting her new cousins and being in new surroundings.

 

She would typically get very loud when she is overstimulated although that has been much better and didn't happen yesterday much to my surprise.  She enjoyed opening the presents and was so happy to play with them this morning!  Seth slept over at my parents to spend more time with his cousins, and Shay was concerned we were forgetting him.  She kept yelling, "Seth! Seth!" to get our attention and pointing to his seat in the car.  Once we reassured her he was just sleeping there one night and would be home tomorrow, she settled back down in her seat.  Poor girl! 

We are so blessed with our children.  We prayed that Shay would be home from Christmas and are so thankful she is here.  It's certainly busier here, harder to keep up with the laundry, and lots more noisy, but all in a WONDERFUL way!  Thank you, Jesus for your birth, for adopting us all into Your family, and for the precious gift of our children.  Merry Christmas from our family to yours!!

Saturday, 12/6: Home Sweet Home!!!

We are so happy to be home!! It was a long trip, but the kids all did great.  It went so much better than I expected even with a travel delay! Aunt Heidi was gracious to pick us up, especially after we found out right before boarding our last flight home that it was cancelled.  UGH!  More about that in a little.  I'll go backwards and catch up the blog first!

We spent our last day in China just lounging around the hotel and packing our last few things.  We let the girls sleep in and went to breakfast late that morning.  In the afternoon, we planned to go for a walk and started down the street, but after stopping for ice cream, we were all too cold!  It was so nice when we arrived in Guangzhou, but the temperature dropped about 25 degrees during the week.  So, we went back in and the girls played while we waited for 4:00 to arrive. 

 

We met Elvin for the last time and he gave us Shay's visa and the all-important brown immigration packet that we are instructed over and over again to NOT open and hand over to immigrations in Chicago.  Our van driver arrived from Hong Kong and we loaded up and left around 4:30. 

It takes about 3 hours to get to Hong Kong.  I remember thinking that our driver was going slower than I expected.  On our last trip, we used the same service, and I felt safe, but recall that the driver drove very, very fast.  About 1/2 way into the trip, this driver started to shake his head back and forth over and over again like he was saying no.  He kept leaning forward and gripped the wheel funny, and was going rather slow for the lane we were in.  The girls and I were in the first row and the boys were in the back.  The boys were all whispering and John leaned forward to ask me what I thought was going on.  We were all wondering how he could see driving like that with his head shaking.  We finally came to the conclusion that he must be falling asleep, however, I was watching his eyes closely in the mirror and he didn't appear to be tired.  I finally leaned forward and asked him if he was alright.  He stopped shaking his head and said he was fine.  I said a few more words to him and the weird behavior stopped and he began driving a more normal speed. The boys and John said later they were planning on how to jump over the seat and grab the wheel if he fell asleep!  Oh, my! 

We had to drive through customs and immigration into Hong Kong.  This time the driver pulled up to the building and told Kyle and John they had to walk through as he could only drive 4 passengers through the line.  It took us about 1/2 hour to get through because a vehicle in front of us must have had problems and delayed the process. We were soon on our way, however, and arrived safely at the Sky City Marriott. The girls did really well travelling although we were running out of snacks.  Shay thinks she should get a lollipop every single time we get into a moving vehicle!

entering Hong Kong

 

Kyle commented that he really liked the :Sky City Marriott hotel....it was starting to feel like home!

We had breakfast the next morning early and caught our shuttle to the airport about 8.

in our hotel lobby

 

my helpers!

 

 We made it in plenty of time to our gate and boarded our flight without any problems.

Saying goodbye to Hong Kong. 

 

It's always hard for me to leave China knowing we are taking Shay away from her birth place. 

 

The girls did amazing on the flight! They mostly watched videos on the seat TV's, but did some stickers, played with their iPads and colored.

 

 

The girls slept the last 3 hours or so of the flight and woke up before we descended.  Our flight to Chicago took about 13 1/2 hours and we arrived to Chicago around noon.

We got through customs and immigration in Chicago pretty fast compared to our experience in Newark and Shay was declared a US Citizen.  Yay!!  We were excited to know we would soon be on our way to Pittsburgh and home. 

 

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.  We got to our gate early and observed a maintenance man working on the plane.  In fact, John commented that the guy was standing in the same position for about an hour!  As it got closer to boarding, they announced that due to maintenance issues, the flight would be delayed. It was delayed twice and then right before boarding again at 4:30, it was announced that it was cancelled and to go to a customer service desk to be rebooked.  UGH!!!  Poor Aunt Heidi was waiting for us in Pittsburgh and would now have a longer wait.  Actually, maybe it was poor Uncle Bryan, as it gave Heidi a longer time to shop!  Ha!  She graciously offered to stay no matter what, and we were able to get booked on a 7:30 flight.  Now we needed keep the girls entertained for another 3 hours.  I wasn't worried so much about the flights as I was the airport hours.  Shay has done extremely well, but is what we have termed a runner.  She sees something she wants to see or have and she goes right after it.  We were a little worried about how she would do at the airport.  Giving her the task of pulling a small piece of luggage worked great as she loves to help us and kept her walking controlled.  When we had the delay, I thankfully still had a few things in our bags that they hadn't seen yet, so they kept busy with their activity books. I am completely amazed at how well they did on so little sleep! 

We touched down in Pittsburgh at 10 PM, met Aunt Heidi who was an instant hit with her super cute pandas, and loaded up the suburban.

Boy, we take up a lot of space now. Ha!

Emily slept the whole way home and we pretty much carried her straight to bed.  Shay dozed on and off on the way.  We got home about 1 AM.  It was so sweet watching Shay explore the house and check out her room with Emily, her closet of clothes, and then explore lots of drawers. She just smiled and smiled as she went from room to room and giggled as she saw her pictures all over our house and the Christmas stocking with her name. She was great getting into her jammies and loaded up her bed with as many stuffed animals as she could find (picture the scene from ET!).  Emily was already fast asleep beside her in her bed, and I told Shay I would stay in the room on the rocking chair while she fell asleep.  She did fine and within 10 minutes or so was fast asleep.  We all slept like logs and had to wake the kids up at 11 AM this morning. 

John cooked everyone eggs and bacon for breakfast and Shay had fun playing with new toys.

 

 

She squealed when she noticed the play kitchen (thank you, Kelly P.) and has had fun playing with it!  I think I have two little helpers in the kitchen now.  Yay!

John, Seth, and the girls just went outside for a walk. We are all feeling pretty good, but as it gets closer to evening we are feeling pretty tired.  Being outside helps, but of course it is a rainy, cold day.  They saw the neighbor's horses and sheep and Shay would likely have stayed outside much longer!

 

 Our neighbor Bill came over with flowers to welcome the girls home and visited for a little too.  

It is so great to be home. John and I are feeling incredibly blessed!  Thank you everyone for following along on our journey and praying us through out travel.  Your prayers were definitely needed, felt, and greatly appreciated!  We are so thankful for our daughter and all of our children.  It's an incredible feeling to be back home and all together finally.  Thank you everyone! Love to you all!!

Wed, 12/3: HAPPY EMILY DAY, Consulate appointment, and Shamian Island

What a great day to be with our family in China!!  Today is the day we met Emily for the first time 2 years ago.  It's hard to believe it's been 2 years already!

 

 

She has changed so much in the past 2 years and we are so grateful to be her forever family!

 

She is spunky, silly, sweet, and sometimes stubborn, but has the gentlest spirit. 

She is also amazingly brave and has been a great little sister, and has just been wonderful on this trip.  I was concerned at how she would react to being back in China so soon on top of having to adapt to having a big sister and sharing us and her brothers.  I didn't need to worry.  She has been absolutely amazing.  I am so proud of her and love watching the two of them play together. She told me again this morning how happy she is to have a big sister.  Right now as I type this, they are playing hide and seek.  I hear squeals of "Where's Shay?? Where's Emily??" which means Seth is to come and find them.  This has been a daily game and the girls always want to be on the same "team."   Too sweet. 

We had to wake up really early this morning to have breakfast and meet our guide at 7:30.  Shay's consulate appointment was at 8:30 and we were the first family to arrive.  You can't take any electronics into the building, so we only have a few photos from outside.

 

We proceeded through security, and up the stairs. After waiting for all the families to arrive, we all took an oath together that we promise all of our paperwork was correct.  It was pretty anti-climatic (as it was for Emily's adoption) especially considering that this appointment was the final process of our adoption and THE date we scheduled our whole trip around.  Although, anti-climatic and no surprises or complications is of course, good!!  We now wait for them to process her Visa which we will receive tomorrow right before we head back to Hong Kong and get one step closer to home. 

While we were waiting at the consulate, a gentlemen was asking questions about our family. Twice on this trip I've been asked how our family is all related. They think Kyle and I are brother and sister.  Ha! Thanks!

After the appointment, we went to Shamian Island and walked around.  We took pictures of our family at the traditional spot on Shamian Island. 

Seth thought this Mountain Dew bottle was so cool!

 

There was a large group of school children there performing a routine to a song.  The girl's enjoyed watching them perform. 

 

We visited a few shops and bought a few souvenirs for the girls and then headed back to our hotel.

Shay picked a few Chinese books.  She loves to read!

Watching an artist make chops for all of us. They are wooden stampers that have the animal on the top that corresponds to the year they were born and their name in Chinese and in English.

 

 

After getting back to the hotel, I was able to get most everything packed so we can take it easy tomorrow.  We will check out and meet our guide to get Shay's visa and to meet our van at 4:30.  It will take about 3 hours to drive to Hong Kong and we will stay at the Sky City Marriott again. It is much cheaper for the 6 of us to fly back out of Hong Kong and use our free Marriott points to stay at the hotel, then it is to fly from Guangzhou to HK and then home.  We will fly home through Chicago this time and will arrive to Pittsburgh about 6 PM Friday night. 

It's amazing, but I haven't been counting down the days to go home.  In fact, believe it or not, a part of me is sad to leave China.  I think it's because my family is here with me and I am content!  I also know this is our last trip to China for quite awhile.  Our family is complete now, but I hope to bring the girls back someday.  I've really enjoyed our time here and have just enjoyed the sights, sounds, (ok, not the smells) and watching Shay grow more and more comfortable with us.  We are so incredibly blessed to be Kyle, Seth, Shay and Emily's parents.  I love them all so much, and am SO thankful for them.  Thank you, Lord, for our family.  I am one happy mama!!!!