From Baby Clothes to Burberry

Hi everyone.....we are day 3 in Guangzhou and things are still going great.  I'm late in blogging as we are just exhausted so I am just going to attach some cute pics and highlight the "melts':

- Started the day with a family blessing at a Buddhist Temple which was amazing, very moving. It was a beautiful Temple and Sha of course asked Connie loads of questions about the Monks "Do they live here year round", etc. Connie kept saying "Oooh she is smart".:)

- After that we went to Jade factory (got my sis a surprise:) and then went to lunch. 

- At lunch Sha ordered fruit salad and mussels...yes mussels. Paul and I ate grilled cheese and BLT's and she had mussels.

- Finally found a playground for her but she was not really having it.

- At night we went shopping and dropped off some very needed laundry.  One of these little shops near the hotel had these children's coats.  The woman of course threw one on Sha and said "Oh she loves it", I could tell she didn't but the BEST part was I saw this khaki trench coat behind that one thinking to myself how cute that one was and all of a sudden Sha pointed to it and lit up....Come to find out it was a knock off Burberry trench coat.OMG so so cute and for once we agreed on something for her to wear.  I cried-LOL

- On our way back from dinner we found a Pug statue which she recognized it and said "Jack".  She sat on it for a picture and we of course tried to say "see he's friendly" and she gave us a look like "Duh, no kidding he's a statue"-LOL

Her English is improving literally every day.  She is now starting to repeat things like when I am always saying "Oh My God"..yeah.  Each day she gets closer to us and now will come up and hug us for no reason.  She is starting to test us more but when she pushes us and we stay stern she is ok, she listens and doesn't test us further.  Let's hope that stays that way.

Well that's all for now. We are going back to the medical clinic to confirm she doesn't have TB which we are confident she doesn't-yeah!  Then we are off to the pearl market.

Miss you all....
Love us 3

The Power of THE KISS

Good morning. It's about 5:50PM on Saturday and we just got back from our first full day in Guangzhou.  Sha had her medical exam first thing in the morning and had to get 5 shots, poor sunshine.  We went with another family from CAWLI and from CT.  The place was insane. There were easily 300 people in this room and screaming babies everywhere.  It scared me more then it scared Sha I think however she did really good.  The family from CT had a 1 year old baby who had a little fever so they didn't give her the shots.  When it was Sha's turn she got very nervous and started to tell the nurse she had a fever so she couldn't get the shots today....it was quite cute although she was quite scared.  She did really good though. I, of course, took photos. We walked to the medical clinic so we could see downtown Guangzhou which is much more exciting and colorful then Changsha.  Paul and I laughed because this morning at the buffet we felt like we were at a Little People convention except it was an Adoption one instead.  There were loads of other families which was really neat to see and chat with.

After the clinic we walked more and had a brief moment of sadness because Sha just wanted to walk with Connie so she could chat with her.  We were walking into a Seven 11 behind her and just as Paul and I were all like "Awh she wants nothing to do with us" she went thru the door with our guide and then bounced right back out to make sure we were still behind her. Once she saw us she gave a little smirk and then went back with our guide.  Silly I know but we were melting inside.

Ok, so our highlights for the day.

    * We played hide and seek and she finally got her to laugh her head off with us.  She has this laugh that is indescribable.  We were waiting for the moment we could get that out of her and we did today.  She was decided to hide in a drawer and when Paul found her she just cracked up. I captured that for a pic.

    * The Kiss.  She does this cute little face when Paul and I kiss each other so today when she got all silly we attacked her and started to smother her with kisses, this time she loved it so all day today she would push our heads together and say "kiss" and then wait for us to kiss her again.  I think Paul and I kissed more today then we have in the 15 years we have been together-ha.

    * The Hug. Paul got the first official Bear hug today.  After playing hide and seek she sat at the end of the bed near him and wrapped herself around him and stayed there for a bit.  She then came over to me and gave me one and then a kiss on each cheek. Ahhhhhh, melting just writing it.

    * At lunch she ordered shrimp full still in "body" and she tore into it like there was no tomorrow.

    * At lunch she held up her drink to us and said "Cheers"..ha love it

    * After lunch she typed in her translator "Can we go for a stroll"

There are so many moments I could go on.  This hotel is really nice.  We got a Barbie doll that came with a little Asian baby...well I think it's Asian.  When I pointed to it I said "Mama and Sha Sha" and she lit up with a huge smile.  The lobby and the pools are really nice. There are HUGE koy fish in this pond under this waterfall...in the lobby...see pics.

That's all for now.  Ya know there will be more.

PS...you'll see she is also getting more comfortable in front of the camera:)

Sha LOVED her first plane ride

We are in Guangzhou! Sha Sha LOVED her first plane ride, she was awesome.  We were very nervous leaving Changsha and having her say good bye to Clare and her friends but I think within her she may have been ready to go. She got the window seat (of course) and was just glued to it before we took off.  Once we were up in the air she just took it all in. The seats were two and then 1 so Paul got the honor of sitting next to her which is fine because I was too busy being a silly first time mom taking all these photos.  There were two Chinese woman behind me with a baby who I think thought I was a drunk-ha.

So for the highlights of this trip, the three of us spent the morning together and then Vicky came by with her passport (so stinking cute BTW), the setback we saw earlier completely went away and she was starting to bond with us again.  We had a great opportunity at one point for Vicky to talk with her about the flights, her ears, staying close to us and her clothes. As I mentioned earlier she doesn't like them but wears them anyway. We were able to really get the point across that she doesn't have to, it's ok to tell us stuff like that and then she asked Vicky if she can go shopping in Guangzhou and pick out her own clothes.  That was my melt # 1,989, my daughter LOVES to shop....isn't that every mother's dream-ha.  Paul won't admit it but he was excited about that too.

When we got to the airport we bumped into the family that have those sweet girls Sha likes.  The mom offered Sha a peppermint paddy in the airport which Sha took, then she reached into her backpack (which we learned she also doesn't like:)  and pulled out a chocolate cookie she got and handed it to her and said "Thank You"....another big "melt".   The couple ended up sitting right in front of us. When we were on the plane I pulled out goldfish and she immediately stood up to hand the bag over to them asking them if they wanted any...it's insane how generous she is, she is always thinking of other people.   So then they served us this little snack thing that none of knew what was in it.  The mom leaned back to me and said "Ask Sha what this is", so I asked her and she pulled out her translator and told us what it was, she explained the whole meal to us and then typed in her translator "I want your asparagus" to Paul and me.  That of course was fine by us since we didn't know this flat white looking thing in a bag was asparagus.

So we then landed, her ears hurt a bit but Paul taught her to chew on gum, she didn't complain at all.  When we got our (now 3 bags) of luggage she was all excited about the luggage cart.  After Paul loaded the suitcases he put her on top of them to push her and she loved that.  We met Connie our guide and another family from CT and went to the White Swan.   Very nice hotel but the best part is our view. Guangzhou has the Asian Games right now. The city is on a huge river and it every building is just lit up.  They have all these ferry boats with amazing lighting on them.  Sha ran into the room all excited and then looked at the window and went "WOW, beautiful"...I don't know what # melt that was but it was another huge one.

Today is her medical exam which we are nervous about because the little sunshine has to get about 4 shots I think and a full exam.  Connie said it's about 2 hours. We told her after that we will go clothes shopping.  Tomorrow I think we are going to take her to a zoo which I'm sure she will love.

All is VERY GOOD in China.  We miss everyone and can not wait for you all to meet our little miss sunshine.

Last Day In Changsha

Hi everyone,

This is our last blog from Changsha.  We've been here 5 days and it's been wonderful.  We have mixed emotions about leaving, the main one is our concern for Sha as this is the only place she has ever known but then we are excited to know we are getting closer to bringing her home. Plus Guangzhou, where we fly to today, has a lot more to do for kids, Changsha does not.

Yesterday was another great day but it came with a lot more emotions involved.  We went and visited on of ICC's orphanages that was basically for children who are not adoptable.  Either they aged out or were severely special needs.  The main reason for the visit was to thank a woman who was the first person who cared for Sha when she was first abandoned.  I have attached a picture of her.  She was very grateful to Paul and I and just kept thanking us for giving her this chance.  Sha Sha also was able to see a few of her friends she knew when ICC did camping day trips.  This visit was truly a life changing event, there are just so many children who need 24 care that are not getting it.  They are certainly not neglected but it was very difficult to see the setting they were in.  Clare, Lis and the staff at ICC who all volunteer their time are just amazing, they need so many more Clare's.

After the visit we went and had a "hot pot" lunch which is basically a gigantic bowl of soup.  We ordered a non spicy one and a very spicy one for our spicy girl,  the LOVES spicy.  We later found out she order a frog soup hot pot.  When I say frog it had ALL parts of the frog in it..yuk.  Sha loved it and wanted us to try it.  I seriously didn't think I could do it but she offered me a kiss on the cheek if I tried..well can't say no to that.  Clare took a picture of me eating it..wasn't chicken that's all I have to say.  After that I finally found my Starbucks, thought I died and went to heaven, I have dreamed of this. Clare convinced us to try a green tea latte which I did....why not sure when all I dreamed about was a cinnamon dulce latte skinny-ha.  We did take a picture great photo of her outside of SB though.

After that we went back and had dinner at Clare and Lis, for Thanksgiving.  We were nervous about this because Sha was going to see her best friends Don Jia for the last time. We were afraid it would set her back a bit and unfortunately I think it has.  This morning she was somewhat back to day one with us, still sweet but a little distant from us.  I felt so bad because she picked out an outfit that I knew she didn't like but she was telling me "yes".  To me it looked babyish but she kept saying yes.  I should have gone with my motherly instincts and known she didn't like it but she is too shy to say no.  She later told our waitress Zoe that she didn't like it.  Zoe got her translator again and all 5 of us were able to chat at the restaurant and were able to tell us it's ok if she doesn't like it, she doesn't have to say she does.  When we got back to the room we made a "yes and no" pile,she did good with that and did put a few pieces in the no pile.  She also told the waitress to tell us she is not a baby,  ha.  I'm sure we are babying her a bit but at least she felt comfortable enough to tell us that.

We ended last night with a ride on this huge ferris wheel and after she was able to ride these little cars in the park, she loved it.  We are hopeful once we are in Guangzhou she will bet closer with us again, there is a zoo we are going to take her to.  She is such a smart, sweet child who we just want to make feel safe and happy.
That's all for now, will write from Guangzhou.

Day 4 With ShaSha

Hello everyone!

Well here we are on day 4 with our little miracle and let me tell you that she is more than just a miracle at that!  The day started out meeting Clare for breakfast.  ShaSha likes to see her as they both chat Mandarin together.  ShaSha can get quite excited and loud when she is explaining things!  I think there may be some Italian in her!  :)

We spent the morning just playing games at the hotel.  After lunch Vicki, our guide, took us to a very famous and very old university where several political figures were educated.  We were worried at first as we thought ShaSha was going to be bored.  Well we were wrong.  There were many exhibits and artifacts on display and ShaSha had questions for Vicki constantly.  She couldn't believe the things our little ShaSha was asking!  She pointed out historic people, spoke about the communist revolution, WWII and even showed much interest on the age of the University!  Towards the end of this visit ShaSha pulled a dollar out of her own wallet and we asked what she was doing.  She told Vicki she wanted to give it to the beggar she saw when at the beginning of the tour!!!!  This child's heart is so big.

It doesn't stop there.  We then went on to visit the Embroidery.  Changsha is famous for this.  It was amazing to see the absolute detail in some of the works displayed.  They looked like pictures!!!  Its hard to describe without actually seeing them.  We have pics and will show you all.  Once again she showed so much interest and impressed the people there making them laugh and amazed.  At the end there was a shop that sold many items.  Linda's dream is to buy a silk Asian dress and take a picture of her new daughter on the "Red Couch" in the White Swan hotel in Guangzhou.  Well wouldn't you know it we found a beautiful pink silk dress at the end of this tour at the Embroidery!!!  ShaSha had the entire staff there laughing and in tears when she came out of the change room with the dress on.  She looked absolutely beautiful.

From there we went onto a bookstore.  Linda and I wanted to get her some books and DVDs for her to have so she can still have a connection of home.  You would think a 9 year old would like subjects like doggies, kitties, etc.  Not ShaSha.  She picked out 3 books.  "Shakespeare", "Around the World in 80 Days" and "Greek Mythology"!!!!!!!!!!  We still can't believe it.  From there we went to the DVD section where we told her she could pick out 2 DVDs.  She saw a cartoon she liked and picked out 2 DVDs.  As we were heading out she stopped and put the 2 DVDs down and then proceeded to pick out 2 "box sets" of the same cartoon and turned around and said "you said 2".  She knew there was more in the two box sets...more for the money:) It made us crack up.  She is definitelty a smart girl.

We then ended up having dinner with another family at the hotel who had adopted 2 little girls.  When we sat down to eat ShaSha jumped up and ran around the other side of the table and started gently feeding the baby. She was very nurturing towards both of them, rubbing their faces and holding their hands when we left.  She then proceeded to give her Fuwah (stuffed animal) to the other child.  Again she has a huge heart for a 9 year old little girl.

We also discovered she's a little Ansel Adams.  I gave her our camera today and not only did she love it but she takes really great pics, they are centered and she has quite an eye.

My favorite time of day now is bedtime.  Linda runs the bath for her as she absolutely loves baths and I puff up her bed and tuck in her stuffed animals.  When she comes out in her jammies she gets so excited to watch a little TV and then falls asleep on us.  So amazing.

Anyhow I will stop here as I am starting to feel like one of those parents that goes on about their kid!!! :)  Day 5 is just starting and Clare has already sent us our agenda.  She is putting on a Thanksgiving dinner for us Changsha.  She has been such a great part of this journey for us.

More updates to come later on.  Hope all is well with everyone.  Clearly we have one small miracle we are very Thankful for today.....Happy Thanksgiving.

Love,

Paul, Linda and ShaSha  xo xo xo

Dreams really do come true

It's 4:30 in the morning Changsha time and I can't sleep, but it's all for good reason. I woke up to this little hand reaching out for my face and for the 800th time today, I just melted. Sha Sha canned the kids' cot idea from the first day and wanted to sleep in the big bed. The first night she said we had to sleep in the cot, but by night she didn't appear to mind so much. She slept on the far side with her big blue cat in the middle of us. Last night she wanted to sleep in the middle of us which I thought was a huge step in her beginning to trust us. She LOVES Paul and it's beyond amazing to see just how much she has instantly transformed him. He's already so wonderful with her and I can't wait for you all to see this awesome relationship they are forming. When she first got into bed, Paul laid down with her and when I came out of the bathroom she was lying her head on him and holding his hand, she did this all voluntarily. I have attached a picture, that was melt # 789:) We noticed when she is tired she likes to rub our faces, she likes to rub Paul's stubble on his face. She also appears very comfortable when her head is on my lap and her legs on Paul's, I think that is her way of just making sure we are close.



Now for seriously one of the most amazing moments that happened today. It was just the three of us at lunch. Sha ordered Spaghetti Bolgenese which we couldn't believe but the best was when she started eating it she actually took her fork and spoon and started to twirl the pasta, we just cracked up....also attached a picture of that knowing she will make my Italian side of the family very proud. The waitress (Zoe) and her then started to talk and unfortunately the waitress did not have good English so she couldn't tell us what they were talking about. Paul and I started to get concerned because the tone of the conversation started to sound serious. We were like "What if she is telling the waitress her new parents are crazy-lol". This conversation went on for about 10 minutes and at one point the waitress handed Sha a bracelet that was on her wrist. She was able to tell us that Sha could keep this but I could sense there was something else and again being worried I thought Sha may had said she was unhappy or sad to her. When we were going to leave, another waitress came running up to us with Zoe and wanted to translate their conversation to her. She told us Sha told her that these are her new parents and that she is going on a long plane ride to the USA. She told her and I quote, "she was afraid of the plane crashing however she knew she had to get on the plane because she had an opportunity to go to college one day and to live out her dreams". She mentioned again Harvard to the waitress. The waitress translating then told us Zoe wants her to have this bracelet to remind her of this moment and to always stay true to her dreams. Yes, true story and Paul and I were literally hysterically crying tears. Later that night Clare stopped by and I told her the story because I wanted her to see what Sha's version of it was. Clare asked her about the bracelet and Sha wanted me to tell the story, when Clare mentioned Harvard Sha just lit up again and told her she wants to be a doctor so she can help other people. We all just hugged each other:)


We just had another great day, she continues to just amaze us. She will not go anywhere now with out her translator,in fact when she was in the shower tonight she asked me for it which I panicked thinking if she gets this wet we'll be lost forever. However she understood me when I asked her to lean outside with it. The little sunshine just wanted her doll;) She is already saying words like, "computer, baby, please, thank you, can you help me, i'm ok, stop, and my favorite, go go go" that's when she wants to leave the room or restaurant. She seems to be doing really well, we all seem to be doing really well.


We also went swimming again, discovered a love for a beach ball, found an "interesting" playroom in the hotel and went out for Chinese with Clare;) Pics are also attached. Oh one last thing, Sha found a the video I did of her finished bedroom which was great because Clare was there so she could explain things to her. The part when I opened the closet and she saw all her clothes her face lit up. She hasn't grasped the concept that most of them are here right now but she saw the blue dress Paul got her and she went crazy, especially when I pulled it out of the suitcase.:)

Sorry for the long blog. We received everyone's wonderful emails sending their love, support and prayers and we want you all to know we've read them all and it truly meant so much to us. We would love to email you all individually however we thought the blog may be the best way to update you all.