Bragging Time!

CONGRATS Goes out to my beautiful Senior Anna Joy Kerr!!!!!  Anna graduates from high school in the top of her class #7 to be exact in just a few short weeks. Anna has been accepted into Dallas Baptist University and has just made the 2012-2013 Patriettes Drill Team for DBU today!!!!! She tried out with 30 girls and was one of the 19 girls to make the team! I am such a proud Mamma right now!!!! Yaaaaaaayyyyyy ANNA!!!!! Anna plans to study at DBU and become a socail worker. She wants to travel and teach English in China and volunteer for International Justice Mission. Did I mention how proud I am???? Love, Love my baby girl almost all grown up!

3 months and some progress made!

Sister Love

Peace from Jailynn and Jaidyn

More Love and Happiness

Jaidyn playing with Jailynn on the tire swing.

Jaidyn's first bike!

She rode her bike all day long!

Riding bikes with Jailynn.

Jaidyn is coming out of her shell and blossoming! She is full of joy and happy most of the time. She loves playing with Jailynn outside and loves her first bike. She is also bonding more and more with me. I am also doing so much better and feeling like myself again. It was a hard adjustment for me and I had to do some major soul searching to make sense of my emotions. I finally prayed and found that I had to forgive myself and Jaidyn for her initial response to me. I had to let go of the negative emotions and ask God to heal my emotions. I also had to forgive myself and let go of all my preconceived expectations and except Jaidyn for who she is right now. I realized that I had so many preconceived ideas and expectation for how this adoption would go and how I would feel in China and how Jaidyn would respond to us. None of my expectations were realities and I was disappointed on a deep level that I did not even realize. When Jaidyn rejected me that just made matters worse within myself and I did not know how to deal with how I was feeling. I did not know that I was feeling all this. I only knew that I felt terrible and I was not bonding with Jaidyn. I was experiencing post adoption depression and post traumatic stress from previous adoptions. Very hard to deal with when I wanted to feel excited and happy to be united with Jaidyn and in China. So it took nearly three months to work all this out and get over myself! Wew! I can honestly say that when I began to forgive myself and let go that I started feeling so much better. It took lots of prayer and soul searching. This was not the rainbow and roses adoption. I am just thankful that I am over that phase and enjoying getting to know Jaidyn. She is a sweet and loving little girl that needed a Momma and family to love her.

A Long Overdue Post!

Three Princesses and their new bed!

Jaidyn, Jordyn, and Jailynn

Jaidyn smiles for the camera!

Jailynn is 10 yrs old! Can you believe that??

Jailynn is my monkey girl...she loves to climb trees...how she ever got up into that tree is beyond me!

I had to have at least one picture of JonMarc on his bike!

 Just a couple of pictures to post to try and catch up. Where to begin is the question because so much has happened in the last few weeks. New Year Day has come and gone and we missed celebrating the Chinese New Year. I had to work :(
We had our first post placement visit with our SW just two weeks ago. I'm sorry, but one month PP study and visit is just too soon. I was not ready,  my house was not ready, and Jaidyn was not ready. I was a basket case trying to get my house presentable because raising 7 children in a small house creates a mess all on its own accord. Never mind working 40 plus hours and still not feeling quite like myself yet. Bonding time with Jaidyn has been very slow because of having to work. Bottom line is that I was not ready for my SW. My vision of our pp visit and the reality did not quite match. I had imagined that I would have new furniture in the living room and kids rooms (because our old furniture is needing to be replaced in a bad, bad way), brownies baking in the oven, pot roast in the crock pot, and everything in it's proper place. So not how it happened!! I had worked the night before and stayed up past my bedtime cleaning like mad and barely got to take a shower before she arrived. My kids got off the bus and we discussed how they MUST BEHAVE while dear SW was here and no tv during the visit. I then bribed promised them special rewards for good behavior. Then, she arrived and I was so shocked at how well my children all got along and talked with her. Jaidyn had not a clue about what was happening and locked herself in her room. She finally came out and helped Jordyn and Jailynn put a puzzle together. In the end, I was very happy with our visit and collapsed in bed for a much needed nap.
I did get some of our furniture replaced thanks to craigslist and answered prayers. I have wanted a doll house bunk bed for my girls for a very long time and finally found the bed of my and their dreams on craigslist!! The price was unbelievable and just in my very low price range. We realized that the price was a steal because  the bed was very difficult to take apart and reassemble. Thanks to my DH Tim, and our friend David, we had the bed home and put together for Jailynn's 10th birthday. All three girls absolutely love the bed. Jadiyn was very happy with the bed and she is making huge progress at home. She actually posed for the camera with her sisters and let me take her picture. That may seem like a small thing but I literally had to sneak in pics of her in China and Christmas. She is starting to say more English words and phrases and she will say she is sorry when she corrected. She also is better at the store with Tim and in public. I am very happy to see her doing so much better. I am also starting to feel like myself again and feel much better. I had allot of issues in China and when we came home that had more to do with me and how I was handling everything than with Jaidyn. I plan to post about that later. I am just thankful that Jaidyn is starting to bloom and we are starting to have a new normal.

Jaidyn's First Christmas

Santa has arrived! (Momma Santa stayed up all night and thought I would never get finished!)

Noah loved the China umbrella!

Jaidyn caught on to unwrapping her gifts!

Noah loved helping big sister unwrap her presents!

Jailynn and Jordyn loved all their gifts!

Jordyn's tiny panda tea set!

Amanda enjoyed her gifts and finally a picture of Jaidyn's beautiful face. She likes to hide from the camera.

Jailynn and Jordyn loved their traditional Chinese dresses.


Jaidyn's first Christmas was very special for all of us. We were all together and enjoyed taking turns to open gifts. We all felt blessed to be together and spend Christmas together. Jaidyn was not sure at first what was going on and she only liked the boy toys. If she opened a girl toy she would toss it to the side and make a yucky face. It was so funny. She liked letting Noah help her open her presents and she was really happy with her gifts. I was happy that everyone was happy and getting along. I was not sure how things would turn out but we were very blessed on Christmas morning. After everyone opened their presents, I took a much needed nap. We had Christmas dinner and read the Christmas story after dinner. We try to do that before opening presents in the morning but decided to wait until the evening. I will be so glad when Jaidyn learns more English and can learn about Jesus. Looking back on Christmas I am just so amazed at how blessed we are to have been home having such a special time together.

Jaidyn's First Night Home

Finally....A long over due post. Pictures from Jaidyn's first night at home and meeting her big sisters. We came home to a fabulously clean and reorganized home thanks to big sisters Anna, Amanda, and our family friend Stephanie and Emerald. We were shocked by all they had done to make our homecoming perfect...welcome home gifts for everyone, Christmas tree up and ready to be decorated,  clean & organized home (trust me when I say it had been sorely neglected), groceries in the fridge, dinner cooked and Christmas cookies were baked. We were so blessed and had such a sweet reunion of finally being all together in our own home. I did not expect all that was done for us and it meant more than words can say because that meant so much less stress for me and Tim.
Jaidyn was very sleepy and in a state of shock at first but she came around quickly. Jaidyn's first week went very smoothly. She has a happy disposition and laughs...ALOT. She just laughs and finds so many things funny. I think she has a very good sense of humor. She has taken to Noah and loves to play with him. Jaidyn is bonding and attaching to everyone and we are so blessed to have her.

Sleeping Beauties!

Proof is in the picture. These three girls truly love each other and were meant to be together forever. Jailynn is proud of her new sister and leads her around all over the house and plays with her. Jaidyn loves both Jordyn and Jailynn. She is also playing very well with Noah and JonMarc. She will meet her big sisters later today when we will finally be home all together!!

At the Airport

Happy partial family reunion at the airport

Chaos at the airport!

Three Forever Sisters!

Pics from the zoo

One more update of the zoo.

Jaidyn looking at the Chimp in the second picture. He looked like an old wise sad soul.

Jaidyn and Baba looking at the baby chimps. I caught her by suprise to get a picture. She hids from the camera and does not want a picture taken. We found out later that she gave us a hard time at the zoo because she only wanted to watch the monkeys. Oh well, If we had only known.

Haiving a heart to heart with Momma and our guide on the phone. Please be a good girl and have fun at the zoo.

Jaidn loved the Tigers.

Jaidyn and Baba riding the hose and carraige together.

Jaidyn loved the rides and cars. She was better after that and some ice cream always makes things better.

We finished our trip to the zoo with the animal show. I am not sure if you can tell, but this is a black bear riding a bike. They had a hook in his mouth to control him and when he did a trick they gave him a treat but led him with the wire hook in his mouth. It was a sad, sad thing to witness. Cruelty to animals...anyone???Where is the spca animal cops when you need them? They also had monkeys riding a bike too and that was tolerable I guess, but the bear just broke my heart. SO sad!! They also had the Tigers jump through the hoops and some other animal tricks. I could not get over the bear. They also made the bear walk a tight rope carrying an umbrella.

Finally, the Panda made the trip worthwhle...well, except for the behavior problem and the terrible, inhumane animal show. I know Jaidyn was confused and had never been to the zoo before so she did not know how to experence it. I think it was overwhelming and she can't understand us so that does not help anything. I am happy to report that she was 100% better today and even held my hand.

We are making huge progress. Only 2 more days until we come home!!!

Finally...time to post!

Last day in Changsha

Description of pics. Since I'm emailing this post I can't put the labels with the pics, sorry. ;o)

1. Breakfast with Ba ba.

2.  In the lobby with Ba ba...she would not take a picture with Mama :(

3. On the airplane to Guanzhou. Jaidyn loved the airpane and was not afraid at all. She loves the little green game and plays it all the time.

After Changsha things got harder. I was feeling bad the last 2 days and had a bad day with Jaidyn yesterday. She was not happy with me and pretty much rejecting me and showing more anger towards me. We took her to the zoo and I think it was overwhelming for her. She was more angry and did not want to hold our hands or go with us. She was yelling at us and probably saying some really bad things to us in Chinese. We could not understand her and we were getting alot of shocked and angry looks from the onlookers. We hoped for a good time of fun and bonding at the zoo but it turned out to be a huge fail! We were both embarassed and exasperated and did not know what to do.

I thought I'd call our guide and try and get her to talk to Jaidyn and see if that would help, but I did not have our guides number so I just started redialing numbers that i knew were local China numbers and finally talked to another guide. The guide helped to explain to her what we were doing and that we wanted her to hold our hands and walk wth us to see the animals. She would only hold Tim's hand and finally started to act a little better.

We went to dinner at Lucy's (in Guangzhou of course) and she was much better. She started to cry at dinner and grieved very hard. We had to call our guide Amy to talk with her an explain everything to her. She calmed down and went to sleep after that and then I cried. I just had such a sad day that was not what I hoped for.

Today was much better for us thank the Lord. She actually went to the medical clinic with me and held my hand. This was a first and I was really happy. Its the small things that make me smile :). We walked around Shamian Island for a long time today and had a very good time together. We are going to dinner at Lucy's tonight with some other families.
Please continue the prayers for our bonding and her peace with her new family.
Melanie