We're Home!!

We are so SO happy to be home!  The boys, my parents, and Laura's family were there to greet us at the airport with balloons and signs, it was wonderful to see them all!  I'll have to get the pictures from Laura.  The boys seemed so big and grown-up to me! Claire did pretty well on the flights-she didn't sleep much which was hard since we flew through our night, but she was actually happy when we arrived and gave them a few smiles!

 

Here are Claire and I when we got home. 

 

 Our family of five!!!  (See the cute decorations that the boys/my parents did for us?)

 The next morning I had to get a picture of my three kids eating breakfast together!

 The first day we were home (Sunday) our family came over to visit with Claire and I passed out all the presents we got them.  One of them was these Chinese outfits.  Claire was sleeping so we don't have a picture of her, but she has a matching dress to Elizabeth. 

 The cute "squeaky" shoes I got for Claire in China. 

 After her first bath at home!  She cries through every bath until just yesterday!  She actually sat and played in the bath!!

 Claire has adjusted so well to our life.  It has just been crazy busy with three kids, I feel like I can't give her a ton of one-on-one attention because we just have lots going on with Cooper and Jackson!  But we've been trying to stay home and get her used to us and our life so she gets lots of quality time with Jackson while Cooper is in school. 

 It is amazing how well she is doing here.  She has been happy and cheerful and comfortable from day one!  She definitely likes me to hold her.  A lot.  She also doesn't like being outside unless I'm holding her or she's in the stroller, so I'm having a hard time getting pictures of her outside!  Soon I'm sure. :) 

 At the house she follows me around and likes to have me near her.  This comes in handy because it makes me nervous having her just run around the house without me-I'm worried she's going to get hurt or get into something she shouldn't be getting into.

 Jackson LOVES her, he'll say to people "isn't she precious?  I love her!"  Cooper is also so sweet with her and talks to her in a sweet voice.  I don't have many pictures of him with her yet because he's in school all day!

 I did get her to sit by herself outside for a few minutes while we blew bubbles.

 I was trying to get a picture of her in this adorable outfit and she is just SO busy!  Runs and runs around!  I took both her and Jackson to Target- I was nervous the entire time but it went so well!  I carried her in the ergo and Jackson walked along beside the cart.  I don't know how often I'll do that but it's nice to know I can.

 Look at me go!

 I tried to get a picture of our three kids-she was not a fan.

 She loves to brush her teeth!  She is also so compliant for changing her clothes/diaper.  She'll lay right down and help!  She loves to wear her shoes and tries to put them on as well.

 We tried out the park one morning!

 This is where Claire was (Jackson actually took this!)

 Trying to tickle Claire.  She loves it when I do it, not as much when the boys do it.

She is very curious about everything!

Jackson tried to hold Claire-she wasn't having it!

 What a great big brother!

 She definitely likes me to hold her- I see this face a lot if I'm not!

Good thing she's so darn cute!! :)

Almost Home!!!

We are sitting in a hotel room in Hong Kong with Claire's visa safely in our hands!  Thank goodness!  We fly out tomorrow morning and can't WAIT to get home!  Thank you so so much for your prayers, they were definitely answered!! We received her visa on Friday which was exactly what I was hoping for!  Now we just need to make it through the 13 hour flight!! :)  I'll try to update as soon as possible when we get back, I can't wait to hug my boys, and then get pictures of all three of my kids!!!

Another Update

Well we are still here and don't know when we are going to be able to leave!  We have heard that the consulate is closed Thursday and most likely Friday as well, but I am still holding out hope for a miracle that it will open up Friday, at least long enough to get Claire's paperwork back and her visa printed (as well as the 24 other families who had their appointments on Monday).  No one here can remember the consulate ever closing like this, it is an extremely unusual situation.  We are just beyond frustrated and so ready to come home.  I have spent the evening emailing every government official that I can think of.  It probably won't help at all but I figure it can't hurt!  We are praying praying praying that a miracle will happen and we will receive her visa on Friday, please  join us in this prayer, we would so appreciate it!  Luckily there are many other families in the same boat (not lucky for them!) and so we are in good company at this time.  Please also pray that we all stay healthy and that the boys at home stay healthy-so far so good.  We miss all of you!!!!

Day 8 and 9 with Claire and an Update

Well we don't have good news.  The consulate here experienced a security threat and so they closed down until at least Thursday.  So that means the earliest we can get Claire's visa (we think) is Friday and then travel Saturday.  But I think there might be a chance we might not even get it until Monday!  Needless to say today was a very emotional day.  We are both so ready to get home to the boys and I thought for sure we'd be able to get home by Thursday at the latest.  So please pray that we can get Claire's visa by Thursday or Friday so we can be home by the weekend!!!  Thank you!!!

On a better note, yesterday marked a week since we met Claire!  It was a great day, we started it applying for her visa.  Pictures aren't allowed so we don't have any photos from it, but we applied!  We were so lucky because the group of people who were there after us got stuck for a few hours at the consulate due to the security threat. 

After we applied  for her visa we went to a nearby park to take a walk (and take pictures of Claire in her adorable patriotic dress!) 

 My friend Leanne made it, isn't it adorable??

 The park nearby our hotel is just beautiful!

 Lots of pictures I know but they're just too cute to not post! :) 

 With her tiny baby doll.  She mostly throws her on the floor and then laughs because she gets a reaction from us, but I'm now trying to teach her to be sweet to babies.   Ryan taught her the throwing trick by accident. :)

After Claire took her nap we joined the adoption group that's kind of "adopted" us for a Pearl River Cruise!  It was a great time!  Here is some of the group waiting to get on the boat.

 Here's the boat.

 Here we are getting ready to cruise!

 There was a pretty good buffet and a beautiful view on the river. 

 Oops, out of order.  The entire group rode the bus to the ferry and for a little bit Ryan was holding Claire and our friends' daughter Isabelle.  Had to get a picture of that, doesn't he look great with two girls??    he he

 They had entertainment on the cruise as well!

I'm so glad we were invited to join them!

I'm blogging about day 8 at the end of day 9.  Unfortunately today I didn't take any pictures-we were in our room most of the day either waiting for phone calls or trying to make plans. Now that we know we'll be here a few more days we'll try to enjoy ourselves some.  It's hard though, our hearts are just so ready to be back at home!

Day 7 With Claire

Well my stomach is in knots and we haven't heard anything yet (it's night here so we won't know anything until tomorrow) but I wanted to keep up with the blog or I'll never post it! 

Yesterday we had a free day so our guide Becky took us to the Safari Park.  It's basically a big zoo, I think the biggest in China maybe?  I might have made that up.

On the way over Claire was being so adorable! :)  I LOVE this picture of her.

In China people don't use car seats so she sits on our lap the entire time.  Very nerve-wracking considering the traffic here.  Luckily our driver is awesome!

We're here!  It was VERY crowded since it was a Sunday, so I think Claire was overwhelmed at first.  She was whimpering and wouldn't let us put her down.   Once we got out of the crowds she became a little more comfortable.

It was beautiful, kind of like a jungle.  Sure felt like one with the heat and humidity!

We first did the "driving zoo."  A tram to look at animals roaming.

I'm not going to bore you with lots of animal photos, here's just one so you know we saw some! :)

She wans't too sure about the tram.  Sometimes she enjoyed it, sometimes she got bored. 

Ok I lied, one more picture of an animal.  There's a baby elephant behind the mommy, just too cute not to post! :)

Squeaky shoes we bought in GZ for around 8 dollars!   (they're called squeaky shoes because they make a squeaky noise every time she steps.  Luckily you can remove the squeak part.  She loves them so much now we haven't taken it out yet.)

We brought the Ergo to wear her but it was just so hot, we had to break out the stroller.  We have to walk by it and hold her hand most of the time, but toward the end of the zoo she was ok if we just walked next to her.

Looking at pictures of her brothers!  I'm so excited for her to meet them!

We were waiting for Becky so she started playing around with Ryan.

After the zoo and a nap Ryan worked a bit and I took Claire outside to our hotel's playground.  We tried bubbles for the first time!

At first she was very solemn and just stared at them.

 But once I started catching them on the stick and letting her pop them, she loved it!

 I stepped back to take a few photos of the surroundings so we wouldn't forget them.  She doesn't feel comfortable enough yet playing on the playset, but maybe she will once she's home.

 She then started putting the stick in and out of the bubble holder.  What a smart girl!  :)

She went right to bed that night and I was able to extract myself from her for the majority of the night-makes for a good night sleep! :)