Finally, some "real" photographs!

I finally managed to get the girls to a photographer for some "official" photos. Okay, we're not the White House. We don't really have "official" photos, but it's nice to have something a little better than a snapshot. We got some cute ones. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure.

Merry Christmas!

I love having Christmas on a Sunday. I love being in church celebrating the birth of our Savior on Christmas Day. We awakened to a light snow dropped overnight, and it continued to snow off and on all day. We attended church as a family, and then we came home and had lunch and opened gifts. As I looked around the room, I was aware that the real gifts are the people in my family. As usual, we had too much "stuff," but my heart overflowed with gratitude that we have a cozy home, plenty of food to eat, clean water, and yes, even the means to give too much "stuff." My heart was joyful that that my children - both of them - were in my living room. We were only short one sweet 4 year old, but next year will be her year!

A White Christmas for us!

It almost never happens (except it has happened the last two out of three years!), but we had snow on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. My nieces were over on Christmas Eve, and when the snow started falling, they all went out to enjoy some playtime. The girls had a blast. I can't wait until our XiaoChun is here to be a part of all the fun.

Lucy's dedication

Twice a year, my church holds a special service where parents can dedicate their new babies to the Lord - basically, make a commitment to the Lord and to the child that you will rear him or her in the ways of faith. This time, there were four families. Two families were blessed with babies in the traditional manner. Two families - including mine - were dedicating children who joined the family through adoption. We had Lucy, who is two, and came from Taiwan, and Phillip, who is a 4th grader, adopted through US foster care. It gave me such joy to see these two, especially, dedicated to the Lord! The photos aren't the best, but here are a few from that day. After church, we went to lunch with my travel friend, Sara, and her husband and boys. Lucy LOVES Sara's boys in a big way! Alas, lunch fell during Lucy's usual naptime, so she missed most of the fun.

Look what Lucy found

The place where Mommy keeps all the hair pretties!

All Aboard the Polar Express!

We decided to venture aboard The POlar Express for some Christmas cheer this year. We took a whole crew: Papa, Grandmama, Uncle Dave, Aunt Melinda, Cousin Kyndal, Cousin Candice, friends Herb and Logan, and of course, Amelia, Lucy and me. Lucy was out of sorts for most of the ride. I think she wasn't feeling well. However, she did perk up long enough to receive a bell from Santa and to sing Jingle Bells with her cousins. I, on the other hand, ended up with a lap full of hot chocolate. Again. It seems to be my fate. Still, fun was had by most!

Lucy and Bear

Lucy loves Bear. Bear joined our family on the same day Lucy did - - he accompanied her from her home at Morning Light to our hotel rooms in Taiwan and all the way home. Bear is her trusted companion and night-night friend. Lucy shares everything with Bear - lunch included. Bear even got diapered today. I'm not sure who blessed Morning Light and Lucy with Bear, but I am so thankful we have had Bear to help Lucy make the transition to her new life in the United States.

Home almost 3 weeks!

We have now been home almost three weeks, and Christmas is just around the corner. Lucy is continuing to do amazingly well. She seems to understand most of what we say, even though she rarely spontaneously uses English words. She absolutely adores the family cats, although she thinks the word for cat is "Isaac" so all cats are "Isaac." She runs around after them, callling out, "ISHAAK! ISHAAK!" Isaac loves the kids, and he especially loves that Lucy is always willing to share her dinner with him.

Amelia has mostly turned the corner, too. She is being so sweet and generous toward Lucy. She seems to, at times, even welcome Lucy's company. I do call Amelia my New York Times reporter, though. She gives me a running commentary of Lucy's every activity. "Mom! Lucy ate some mashed potatoes. MOM! Lucy is spitting out the potatoes. MOM! I don't think Lucy liked potatoes. MOM! I think the potatoes are falling on the floor. MOM! I think we should not give Lucy any more potatoes. MOM! Did I spit potatoes on the floor when you adopted me? MOM! Lucy is done eating. I don't think she ate her potatoes. Doesn't she have to eat her potatoes?" I love The Chunster, and I freely admit she has MANY words. The child can talk. And talk. And talk. As a result, I have my very own LHN- Lucy Headline News. It's Amelia AiChun on the scene.

We LOVE our Lucy. What a gem the Lord has given to our family. WHen you have one wonderful, successful adoption, you think, "can it happen twice?" Yes, friends, it can. I have now officially won the little girl lottery not once, but twice. Praying for our sweet Xiao Chun and trusting that, yes, it can even happen THREE times!

Blessings,
Amy

Settling in and Lucy's first snow!

I have been meaning to update everyone on our time at home, but time has slipped away from me. I have been busy settling in, nesting, enjoying Lucy, enjoying taking Amelia to and from school and ballet - basically enjoying being an at-home mom. I do have a question for you at-home moms. How do you get it all done? Laundry, housekeeping, entertaining your kids, shopping. It seems like I should be able to accomplish more in a day, but before you know it, the day is gone. I sometimes wonder the same thing at work...you come in with a plan of what you hope to accomplish, and then it's all out the window with the first phone call or e-mail of the day. I guess that's just how it works.

I returned to work today, and even though I was sad that my time at home had come to an end, it is such a relief to know that Lucy is getting to stay in her own home being cared for by her own Grandmama while I work. That is SUCH a blessing, and it made a huge difference in how I felt going back to work. There were no tears from Lucy or me - such a difference from leaving Amelia in daycare. I missed being at home, but I also enjoyed being back at work today. I enjoy the work I do and the people with whom I work, so going back is no hardship. I just really like my time away.

In this past week, Amelia and Lucy seem to be on much better footing with one another. They seem to be growing to love one another. That makes me HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY. I love to see them being sweet and kind to each other. They still have their moments, but they are becoming fewer, which is a good thing.

Lucy continues to prove herself to be a happy, easy baby. She is content most of the time. She goes to bed better than any toddler I have ever seen. She loves baths, but the temper tantrums that she had in Taiwan over getting out of the bath have not occurred here. Ditto for the temper tantrums over diaper changes. For some reason, the moment Lucy stepped foot in the house, she has not had any of the extreme behaviors we saw in Taiwan. She has definitely been calmer, which is a good thing.

We lovingly refer to Lucy as The Popo Princess. When we were in Taiwan, if she didn't want to walk or ride in the stroller, she would put her little arms up and say, "popo," which clearly meant "pick me up!" Now that we are home, she is all about the popo. Especially when the mama is around, Lucy seems to forget that her little feet work. Amelia has even adopted the word, saying, "Hey Mom. Lucy wants to popo." In case anyone is keeping track, that means our family vernacular includes Papa, poo-poo, and popo.

Lucy has recently decided she likes Elmo. She saw Elmo slippers from the store, so we bought them. However, she became frustrated when she could not put them on by herself at home, and now she has a thing against the shoes. She won't even consider wearing them. If you ask her about them, she is insistent: no Elmo shoes. It's like she is mad at the shoes. It's funny, but I am hoping she decides soon that she'd rather wear the slippers. I much prefer the slippers to the tennis shoes on the floors. Oh well.

Lucy's receptive language is developing quickly. You can tell her to get her coat, put on her shoes, come to the table, trade me this for this, and a number of other commands, and she seems to understand. She repeats a lot of what we say, but she still isn't quite as chatty as she was in Taiwan. She is still trying to figure it all out.

Lucy enjoyed her first snow today. She was pretty impressed and seemed to understand that snow was meant for PLAY. Amelia, of course, was also happy to see the snow. She is hoping for a snow day tomorrow, but for now, she just has a delayed start time.

I am hoping to get "real" photos made of the girls soon. I looked around the house and realized I needed to get on the ball to get some photos of Lucy displayed.

All in all, life is good. I look around and see more blessings than I could have ever dreamed. As we wait for one more, we pray that she is healthy and safe in China and that the Lord is preparing her heart for our family and our family's heart to welcome her. Change is hard, but when it comes to opening our doors to children in need, what answer is there except, "Yes, Lord, send me."

We're home - Happy Thanksgiving!

We finally arrived home around 6:30 p.m. on Thanksgiving evening. My parents, Sara's husband and boys, and our precious friends The Dillard Family were on hand to welcome us home. Lucy garnered favor from Grandmama by going right into her arms. (She's a smart cookie-- she knows who will be doing the Christmas shopping!) We bundled up our unreasonable amount of luggage and headed home to find a wonderful surprise - - the table set and the dinner warm for a beautiful American Thanksgiving feast! I could have laid down and cried. Instead, I ate! Even Lucy, who is just not much of an eater, put away two helpings of turkey, some stuffing, and mashed potatoes. What a wonderful way to end a very special Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has always been the holiday I have most loved, and I don't think it is any coincidence that Our Heavenly Father, in His utmost wisdom, chose to bless me with both of my girls over the Thanksgiving holidays. My cup overfloweth.

The long journey home!

Our homecoming route took us from Taipei to Tokyo to Dallas to Lubbock. All in all, we experienced about a 20+ hour journey. The longest part of that was the Tokyo to Dallas flight, but because of favorable flight conditions, that flight ended up being around 10 hours -- much better than expected! Both girls did great. We had a meal not long after takeoff, and after that, they both snuggled up and slept almost the entire way to Dallas. In Dallas, Lucy had to go through her immigration port-of-entry inspection. It took a little longer than we thought to finish that and then make it through customs, so we were booking it to catch our last flight. Since it was Thanksgiving Day, most of the government offices were working with smaller staffs than usual, but we made it! Hooray. Enjoy a few photos from the journey.

Last days in Taipei

I never got the chance to post about our last couple of days in Taipei - what a whirlwind. We had drizzly weather, which made it hard to get the girls outside to run off some energy. Lucy continued to improve with each day - fewer tantrums overall, and the ones she did have were less intense and more manageable.

We've learned some things about Lucy. First, the child hardly eats anything. We have tried noodles, rice, dumplings, cereal, eggs. We succeeded with a single Oreo and a handful of Cheetos. Not quite the dining plan I had in mind. Second, Lucy is a snuggle-bug. She loves to be held, rocked and cuddled. She already seems to love giving hugs and kisses. It's funny, because when she is mad, she adopts a stance and arches her back so she is stiff and hard to hold, but usually, she is a koala baby, holding on for the ride. Lucy LOVES animals. She "woof woofs" everytime we see a dog, which is fairly often as the Taiwanese seem to be very into their pets. I thought Americans were the only people ridiculously over the moon about our pets. Here in Taiwan, though, there are vet clinics all around, doggie specialty shops, pet spas - the works.

That leads me to an overall comment about Taipei. What on earth do the people do here for a living? I have never seen more BMWs, Mercedes, etc. All the shops are Armani, Gucci, Prada, Rolex. I thought only Taipei 101 would be so high end, but even the regular little local shops have high end fashion merchandise. Please forgive me if you don't get a souvenir from Taiwan. Chanel isn't in my budget.

I thought Taiwan and mainland China would be similar. Not so much! Taiwan is much more Western...even more so than Shanghai, I think. Maybe it's more akin to Hong Kong. In China, you see lots of bicycles, pedicabs (love those), people walking the streets. In Taipei, and even to some extent in the smaller cities, people mostly have motor transportation. The dress and facilities are all more Western. Taipei has approximately 1 McDonald's and 1 Starbucks on every city block. I just was not prepared for that.

Oddly enough, I also seemed to have a more difficult time communicating with people in Taiwan. In China, even though my Chinese is almost non-existent and many Chinese don't speak English, I was usually able to walk into a restaurant and order by pointing or walk into a business and conduct a transaction through charades and a calculator. In Taipei, I did not encounter many English speakers. I guess my charades are dusty because nobody seemed to understand my requests, and many days we ended up eating in Western restaurants because it was the path of least resistance. (Side note: my charades did work for "where's the restroom?" - great fun acting that one out!!)

I had heard from other parents that the visa appointment in Taipei to get your child's visa that allows them to immigrate to the United States was often stressful, with lots of questioning about a variety of topics. I was dreading the appointment. I am happy to report that my visa interview was not the least bit stressful. They asked me two very basic questions and then said, "congratulations!" While there, I had a lovely visit with an American couple from Missouri who were there adopting their third sweet Taiwanese baby. The only stressful part was that I had filled in Lucy's birthdate incorrectly on some forms, so they needed to redo the visa, which means I needed to come back the next day before closing to pick it up. I came when they told me to, but they were very clearly shutting down for business, so I think I just barely made it!

In short, a good last couple of days, but we were all SO ready to head home.

Hanging in Taipei

We have spent the past two days just passing time in Taipei. We are SO HAPPY to have good weather. After days and days of rain, the sunshine is a welcomed blessing. Yesterday, I forgot to charge my camera, so we missed some really great photo ops. For example, we went to the Taipei Zoo. Lucy was wearing a bright pink flower in her hair. In the butterfly house at the zoo, the butterflies thought she was the greatest, so I missed the chance to photograph Lucy in the giant pink bow with butterflies alighting. We also went to the night market, where there were throngs - and I do mean throngs- of people. We tried out some of the street food, but we definitely did NOT attempt the Taiwan delecacy of stinky tofu- goodness was it stinky! Today, we took the girls to the park, where Lucy took a fall and cut her lip. Poor girl! We also took them swimming at the hotel. Note to self: buy a life jacket, because this girl is ALL about jumping in. While I am at it, another note to self: get on the water payment plan because Lucy likes to flush the toilet at least 37 times a day. We ended with dinner at Chili's. I never thought I would eat at an Amercian chain in Taipei (who does that?!?!), but I have become that person. I have had enough dumplings and noodles - bring on the chicken nachos. I'm just saying. Enjoy the photos, and I will try to post a video of Lucy soon.