An update from Guangzhou, China

WOW where to begin right now. We have been in China for 10 days and it is going by very quickly here. We have had Emma for 8 days now and Elias for 6 days.  Our children are some sturdy, resilant and amazing children. God surely prepared our childrens hearts as this is a tough process and the children are doing very well and are very happy.

Elias Elias Elias... where to begin to explain about Elias.. He is one of the most handsome little boys I have seen and his personality only makes his looks even better. His smile is something that makes my heart melt and shows pure joy and lights up his whole face when he smiles (which he is doing most of the time now :)  Elias is a joy to be around and a very pleasant boy. He likes to be goofy and hide things from his little sister and give her a hard time occasionally but he can also be a great big brother. He is starting to really open up to me and tell me a little bit about his life here in China (not much but a tiny bit), he has not had it easy here in China and has lived with many many foster families so the concept of family and mom and dad to him are really more one of "my next care takers". He knows we are his new caretakers but the concept of a family and mom and dad will only be understood over time and with love. Elias is not to welcoming to ASL yet and has only picked up a few signs in ASL but he is watching and just not wanting to let go of his own language yet. I am 100% ok with that and working hard to learn as much Chinese Sign Language (CSL) as I can. I am acutally surprised at how much I have been able to pick up and how fast. I love learning new languages so this has been pure joy for me that he is willing to share his beautiful language with me. My learning CSL has been the best bond between myself and Elias and last night he curled up in bed with me and signed real small in my face in CSL "are you my momma?" I said "yes I am your momma" he pointed to Tom and signed "the man is he my daddy?" I signed back in CSL "yes he is your daddy and you will stay with us" he got so excited he squeeled and buried his little head in my chest. Oh my word Oh my word. My heart felt elated and torn as I cannot imagine what he is thinking and how he feels. He seems very very happy to be with us and seems happy to know he is going to have a home, family and siblings to play with. He cannot wait to meet Tommy the most it seems as Elias is a sports nut and cannot wait to have someone play football and basketball with him. ( oh and do push ups and sits ups.. this boy is strong and athletic!) Today I noticed that Elias is throwing in a few ASL signs here and there and it is so cute because I am not sure he realizes he is mixing his sign languages hahah. Amazing how fast the transformation of languages begins.  I am in love with this little boy already and his smile has my heart melting. He is starting to want to hold my hand today and sit with me and wants to be hugged and loved. He seems to really need some loving but wasnt sure he wanted it from me at first but is now starting to come searching for momma for some love!!!!




Now to write some about our little Chinese Princess, Emma. Emma came to me ready for some loving and longs for me to hug and kiss her little face and just wants me to hold her and hold her hand and snuggle. She is a love bug through and through. She keeps telling me and asking me if momma loves her and is she staying with momma and daddy. She gets SO excited when I say yes. She asks me daily when we fly to see Paige and cannot wait to see "her" siblings. She is constantly looking at photos saying that is Aaron, that is Luke, that is Tommy and there is "My Paige". She is beyond excited to see her sister and asks me everyday if today is the day we fly. Emma has a wiseness (doubt that is a real word but I just made it one) beyond her just turned six years old a few weeks ago age. She is one of the brightest little kiddos I have met in awhile. She has had only one semester of school but dont let that fool you. She is a book worm already and wants to figure out how to read things already. Today she signed her first ASL sentence and signed "My name (her sign name for Emma) and then fingerspelled E M M A.. She just blows my mind. We have some Kindergarten workbooks and she has blown through them already and wants more of them. I wish I had more. But only brought a few as I thought with only having school from Sept to Dec she would not understand at all. Trust me she understands and is already trying hard to start to add like her big brother Elias. She knows her colors, numbers and can match numbers to an amount and can connect the dots, she can write the before and after numbers. She is GOOD! She is also a helpful little girl who likes to help everyone and do things for herself. She will let us help her but wants me to show her how to do something herself so the next time she is independant, She is an amazingly good little girl. 

The siblings:  So far Emma and Elias get along very well 95% of t he time. There is a tiny bit of sibling rivalry over who gets to push the elevator button and sometimes over the toys but most of the time they get along just beautiful. Emma wont let Elias leave her sight and most of the time I think Elias is ok with it
 but sometimes he seems to want a little space and she wont give it to him so he will tease her a litttle bit and then she pouts and leaves him alone. He isnt mean to her or rough with her just likes to play around with her (like hide or shoe or something silly like that) but often Emma will  cry if he does stuff like that, she is not a fan of being teased. She likes to fool around sometimes but likes it on her terms hhahha. Overall how these two kids get along amazes  me as these are two children that have never met each other until 6 days ago. These are two children whose whole lives have been torn upside down yet the just go along with whatever we ask of them and seem happy to do it. We have laughter almost 24/7 with them and lots of playing and so far just good good times. We have played a ton of UNO and Crazy 8's (emma prefers crazy 8's as not as many rules for her to learn yet) but Elias has become the king of Uno the boy would like to play Uno all  day and night ahahha. He is turning into quite the card shark.  We have been out to dinner many times and even though both of our children have never been out to dinner in their lives they are very well behaved. If the do something that is not acceptable and we say no and explain not to do it again they both listen and accept that this is not an acceptable behavior. We are truly blessed with two beautiful, resilant, smart, funny, sweet and just plain amazing new children. They are going to fit in just beautiful with our group at home!!!!!

Tomorrow we go to the United States Consulate and pledge to them that the children are ours and that we will take care of them forever and never abandon them or neglect them and that we will love them forever. Cant wait to go make that pledge and then the children are officially officially ours!!! They pretty much are in the eyes of China and now we make it official for the good ol USA too!

Emma on her ride at the zoo, she loved it!

Elias with his new stuffed Tiger from the zoo

Elias and daddy

Emma and I at the new dinasaur exhibit at the zoo

Emma with her pal, Sam

Elias, Sam and Emma

Elias getting ready to feed the Tigers

Just chillin

Me and my goofy girl

Emma;s favorite pose

Elias feeding the giraffes

Emma after the giraffes took her food

Elias loved feeding the giraffes

Elias waited all day to see the Pandas.

Daddy had to feed the giraffes too

Emma with the Pandas

Look at that smile after seeing the Pandas

Emma at a playground near the river

Elias playing football for the first time

Trust me when I tell you he loved football

Already in love with that face and smile

Our gang infront of the 5 Ram statue in Guangzhou it is pretty darn famous