The 11th thing about Addie....

....she has a healthy heart!!!!! We adopted Addie from the special needs list with China- she was diagnosed with an ASD in her heart (a small hole in her heart) BUT we just took her to the pediatric cardiologist and did another ultrasound of her heart (which she screamed all the way through)- and found that the hole had closed!! We are so so thankful and thrilled that God healed her heart. She is a perfectly healthy ACTIVE 1 year old. :)

10 Things about Addie

1. Don't I repeat don't mess with her bottle!

- this is something we learned early on- she has to hold her bottle herself- this is how she did it before so its not something we have fought- we do try to hold and snuggle as much as we can while she has her bottle

2. Addie is active! She loves to move and clap and throw her hands in the air, and laugh.

3. Adding onto the above- she likes to climb ON things- chairs, toys, even a 5 by 5 inch cube she is trying to get her feet on it

4. She def prefers Chinese dishes to American food (I mean to be expected) with one exception.. Cheese!

5. She is just learning to walk....she toddles everywhere- and is so determined- she may fall flat on her face but she just gets up and goes again. (When she first joined our family she could stand, but not really crawl- now she has gone from crawling to walking in 3 weeks).

6. We definitely know how Addie is feeling. She is either squealing with joy or crying with frustration. High highs and low lows.

7. She loves her big brother. She loves to watch Will jump around, run around, do silly dances or whatever- he makes her smile :) (and I love that)

8. Addie likes to dance- turn on music and she is standing (kinda doing a sumo squat) smiling and clapping her hands

9. We think she's pretty smart- she loves to mimic and copy us. I handed her socks the other day and she put them towards her feet like she was trying to put them on.

10. She's a cutie!!! (see pictures :) )

More Pictures

Here are a few more pictures of our new life with Addie :) Some are from NanChang and some are here at home in Shanghai. Wish I could make some more comments but it is getting late and Addie wakes up 5-6 times each night....got to get to bed!

More to come soon....

I have so meant to post more pictures- just like I mean to clean up the kitchen, do a little work, and finish un packing. But some things are just falling to the wayside as we adjust to life with 2 kids (one being a very cute and active 1 year old). We are doing well- today was my first day with Dennis back at work and I had both kids all day. It was tough getting all three of us fed, dressed, shoes on and out the door by 8:30am to walk to Will's pre- school. I was exhausted- but I kept thinking this isn't like 1 hard day- this is my new NORMAL! Whoa baby. So I will post some more pictures soon of our 2 cuties... before I clean up my kitchen. :)

Finally- a post of our new family!

Hi all! So sorry we haven't posted yet. I thought we would be able to post more- but adjusting to life with 2 in a hotel room is just tiring. Here is our girl! Addelyn. I will write more later- but just had to get some pictures up.

This is that first afternoon after they brought her to our room. She cried at first and then Will had the idea to feed her those kid puffs- she loved it! Way to go Will. Bonding over eating- it calmed her down. :) Isn't she a cutie?

Let me back up- a few cute pictures from our train ride to Nanchang- Will LOVED it- here he is with our picnic lunch on the train.

Will is liking writing letter lately- here he is writing him and Addie's name on the train- so sweet.
Our first family picture as a family of 4. Taken moments after she joined our family.

She really does love to laugh and play. We have seen already that she is very active and very determined- if she doesn't like something she lets us know. :)
Taken at the Civil affairs office on day2. Here the adoption is official! Addie is a Baker!

On the way to visit Addie's orphanage in the van.- Super Dad!!:)
A picture outside the sign of the ZhangShu Orphanage.


With the orphanage director, our guide, head of the children's department.

Ok many more pictures to post- we head back to Shanghai tomorrow- so hopefully I can post more then! Thanks for thinking of us and praying for us! We are so happy to finally be together!

Mommy & Will Date

I thought since we are going to be a family of 4 soon and knowing that I am going to be busy with a little one that is getting used to her new family, I thought I should take Will on a little date. So on thursday I picked him up from preschool and surprised him with a date.

Here are a few pictures from the day (gosh I love that little guy!)

We started with lunch at Ajisen (a Will and Mommy favorite) its a chain japanese food restaurant. We also get fried rice and an extra bowl of Miso soup. (Will loves eating the tofu out of the soup. And since I love him so much I like to give him all the tofu :) )
We then went to the Museum of Science and Technology (we have a year pass) and got to visit his favorite exhibits. (They opened a new kids area a couple months ago- but 2 months later half the stuff is BROKEN!!! UGH! Good thing a 3 year old didn't notice. Here are some pics from there)
Playing with the wheelbarrel in the building area.
Will's favorite thing of the day was the mirror maze. He would bonk his face right into the mirrors - thinking it was the path and just laugh (it was actually pretty funny- thanks mom for that sick sense of humor :) ).
It also made for some pretty cool pictures....
Whoa what if I had 6 Wills?! He's a great kid- but I think I'll stick with the 1 I have. He's pretty awesome. :)
And of course every good date should end with ice cream- KFC chocolate sundae

And then we rode home from the subway on a motorized rickshaw (Will loves taking these.....ok I do too.)

Love you Will! You are going to be an awesome big brother- and you will always always be my baby boy (even though you're getting to be a pretty big kid :))

Changes coming :)

Well hopefully you have noticed the changes on our blog. I just thought it would be appropriate as we get ready to add our precious daughter to the family.....this sunday!!! That's right- in a few days we will be a family of 4!

It has been a whirlwind week- we just got it confirmed yesterday that all of our appointments are in place and we can travel to Jiangxi province and go get her. SO this morning I just bought 3 train tickets to Nanchang and 4 plane tickets back to Shanghai! (a nice benefit of living in the country you are adopting from is that you can just go quickly). So in 48 hours we will be on a 5 1/2 hour train to go meet our daughter.

I have also changed the blog so people can make comments- so if you want to say how adorable Addie looks or how tired we look- ha ha- you can.

As we travel I will try to be good about posting pics- especially for the grandparents.

AHHH we are so excited!!!