6 months ago today....

The months and days seemed to interminably CRAWL by the three plus years we were on our journey to Brielle. And now... zippola!! 6 months have past since Director Fu placed sweet little petite timid pale itchy Brie in my arms. Six months!! Can I just say that God blessed me with exactly what I asked for. He does cool things like that all the time! We have thoroughly enjoyed our daughter every minute she has been with us. Her little personality definately keeps us on our toes, and it is such a joy to experience what new things she discovers each day. I fell in love with her six months ago, but somehow she fills my heart more & more as the hours pass. I still sit back in amazement that we really do have her ~ finally! Happy Anniversary Yingtan families!!

A New Year...

Happy New Year Family & Friends!

It's hard to believe that 2008 has come and gone. Last year at this time I was almost totally obsessed with reading Rumor Queen and anything I could get my hands on relating to our China adoption. Little did I know that at this time last year it would still be another 6 months before we would be united with our baby girl. God's timing is always the best, but it is so stinking hard for me to be patient most times. These past 5 months have literally flown by. Brielle has changed so much from the first few weeks we spent together. She was so thin with barely any hair on her noggin! And her skin was so rough and covered with rash from lack of care. Over these months she has put on a few pounds and has grown over three inches! Her hair is coming in and she has a mouth full of teeth. Brie has quite the sense of humor and knows just how to play her parents already. Her language is slowly picking up. She parrots everything but is very selective as to when she wants to put those words into action on her own. Last weekend we had a girls slumber party and she had a great time with Emma & Olivia! She loves reading books and playing "kitchen".

We had a fabulous first Christmas together and Uncle Cy, Aunty Dawn, and Kali came and spent a week with us. Seeing those two little girls together is what we've been waiting to see for a looong time. I've posted a few pictures of the past few weeks.

Hugs and kisses to all of our Yingtan Sister Families. We miss you lots and would love to see recent pictures of the girls.

Daddy's girl!

Before I post a word about Brielle today, I need to apologize to the bloggers (or lurkers) who have been reading here and were offended with photo captions I posted. First of all, I LOVE my daughter and the country from where she was born and the Chinese culture. I never meant to "make fun" and intentionally hurt anyone. I have removed the wording which depicted dialect for fear of insulting anyone else. However... I do not blog for anyone but my family and friends. They know me and understand my humor. So for those of you who felt it necessary to let me know how you felt, thanks, but doing it anonymously does not allow me to contact you directly. Oh well.

Now that that is out of the way.... Brielle certainly has become a little Daddy's girl of late! I have had to work early and extended hours the past week which has afforded Brie and her Dad a lot of one-on-one time. Wow... she wants him by her side every minute now. Yesterday at church Rob dropped Brie off at Tots Landing and she screamed (literally from what I was told) when her Dad handed her off the to women working in her classroom. I wondered what was taking him so long as I went ahead and saved us seats in the auditorium. Finally, he had to get one of the Dad's who was working the registration desk to get her at which time she quieted right down.
I was totally expecting that to happen while we were in China... not four months later! I promise I'm trying to be the best mom I can be to her (although the ticked off lurkers would totally disagree with me on this right now!) But she is in LOVE with her Dad for sure.

Yesterday Olivia and I had our first one-on-one time since we returned from China. We went to see Madagascar 2. I think I laughed more than she did! We enjoyed popcorn and skittles and shared a drink! It was wonderful as I do miss spending time with the girls. Then we went home and played with Brielle who had napped almost the entire time we were gone. I wish weekends would come around alot faster than they do!

Not too impresed with the costume bit

Halloween was very low key for us here in our cul-de-sac. I went out and purchased way, way too much candy. Whole candy bars for my neighborhood kids and not a ONE showed up at the door. We only had four groups of kids ring the doorbell. I'm guessing parents are getting their children involved with community/church gatherings on that night versus letting them go to run from door to door as we did as kids. We had a shooting here in SC! Can you believe that? Some poor kid and his brother were trick-or-treating with their father close behind them and they get shot when they went to the door of a home! Young son and the dad were treated and released but the older boy was shot above the eye and died! I understand why parents keep their kids from getting out now. Problem is i now have all this chocolate and sugar filled treats in my pantry that is constantly calling my name!! I need to bring it in to work to share with everyone.

Brielle was a butterfly for Halloween. She wasn't thrilled with all the paraphenalia. She proceeded to rip off a fuzzy antler on the borrowed costume minutes after we dressed her in it!! So now I need to glue it back on somehow. I guess she related it to the bows I still try to keep in her hair that she repeatedly pulls off. ;)

I am trying to teach Brie some sign language. The whiny little noise she makes over & over & over when she trys to communicate with us had led me to try something...anything... to keep her from doing it. This morning I ignored her whine for something she didn't have and suddenly she started signing for something to eat!! Needless to say i was thrilled and immediately rewarded her!! Now if I can just get her to sign for potty we'll be in business. She is still doing pretty well with that. Consistency with attempts is the key.

Every day with her is so amazing. Even when she keeps me up at night I try to savor every minute because I know too well how temporary this too will be!

She Walks!

On our third month anniversary of Gotcha Day ~October 22nd~ our little peanut decided she would quit messing around with scooting and sliding and decided to boldly step out and WALK. When I picked her up from the babysitter yesterday afternoon, Brielle walked all the way across the living room to me with a "Hi Mom" look on her face! I loved it. I had only seen her take a few shuffle plop steps before this. It was amazing to see how much balance she had. Her next demonstration was toddling over to her Dad who was at the opposite end of our kitchen. She kept it up to get the applause and I can say she slept so well last night that I had a hard time to wake her this morning . It is so fun to see the changes she experiences every day! I can't believe it has already been three months since she was placed in my arms.

It's Already October!

I'm sorry we haven't posted anything in so long...

What a totally incredible Summer this has been. God is so amazing! Talk about miracles ~ We experienced many throughout this adoption process and most recently our trip. One thing is for certain.. He keeps His promises, and Brielle is a living testament to that my friends!

I've been simply stunned at how many people we had reading our blog while we were in China! People I do not even know have told us they followed our blog. Now that we have been home for 10 weeks, I can reflect on our journey with great joy. We looked at our trip photos for the first time the other night. Rob's mom and stepdad were here visiting from NY and got to meet Brielle for the first time. Telling people of our journey seems so amazing to me now that the psychotic rollercoaster of emotion is out of the picture! And now that we have bonded as a family so much more so than when we were in China, reflecting on that time there has taken on a whole new meaning for me.

Brielle has brought so much joy to our family and friends in the short time she has been with us... If I would have had a glimpse of what a complete blessing she was going to be to us the three year wait would have been much more difficult than it was! Does that make any sense??
Anyway we LOVE every little chinese inch of her!

She is finally starting to fill out a bit and her hair is growing! Just within the past few days Brie is actually letting me put bows in her hair. She now has 14 teeth... maybe more I'm afraid to feel around back there for fear of getting bitten! She knows the concept of brushing her teeth; however, it's NOT her favorite thing to do. She is very good about going potty tho! Believe it or not I started sitting her on the big potty with a training seat as soon as we got home only because I knew she was used to "going" on those chairs at the orphanage. Low and behold... she goes! 1 & 2!! Now.. I dont force the issue, and it may be a while before she can tell me..but she's well ahead of the curve. Brie has taken three or four steps on her own. She is still doing the "Lt. Dan" scoot as Rob calls it vs. crawling! That's awful isn't it? But she moves pretty quickly.

Brielle had a great time with Olivia and Emma on her first visit to a pumpkin patch. She found a pumpkin and wouldn't let go of it! Too cute. Enjoy some updated pictures.

Life is good.

We made it home!!

Wow.. i think we were in airplanes for 1.5 days...can I tell you how many times our bags were searched and passports were shown to get out of China??? Tooooooo many. Brielle was a very good girl. She wasn't the wormy screecher I was dreading she would be. She actually slept as much time as she was awake. We flew from Gz to Beijing and had a 4 hour layover..I now know why so much time is needed between flights. Tip to those who plan to leave very soon.... go with the flow and don't let things bother you ! We then had 13+ hours in the air to NJ and another layover which ended up being 2.5 hours longer than we anticipated. NO baby food or liquid is allowed through so we could only carry formula powder... so Ihad to find fuit Sat night at the airport to feed Brie. Anyway ... we survived!

We had an awesome greeting after midnight at the Charleston airport by a big crowd of family and friends! We didn't get home until 1:30 am and talked until 3 am with Kris and Whitney. Brie fell asleep and so did we and we all slept until 12:30PM TODAY! It was wonderful. A comfy bed! Another tip to nexters... bring a pillow or at least pillow cases to have something from home to help you sleep. Pillows are terrible at White Swan and beds are rock hard no exaggeration!

I'll post pics tomorrow as Olivia is spending the night tonight and she keeps begging me to go to bed!

Love to all,
L, R & B