Monday, November 24, 2008

well, I'm waiting for my chicken to finish cooking, and then I'm off to the gym to pick up the big girls. So while I'm waiting I'll share a little story that happened to me last week.
We went to get our family picture taken to put in the church directory...yeah... I'll wait while you pick yourself off the floor.....
so the pictures were taken, and we were ushered into another room to look at them on the computer to see if there were any we wanted to buy..(NOT), when the girl showing us the pics said to me smiling,
"umm so, are they adopted??"
I replied not smiling ( i wasn't in a very good mood).. "ummm, yeah.."
she then asked "umm, can I ask you why you adopted?"
I replied without a breathe very straight faced "well, we weren't happy with the 2 older ones so we thought we'd try our luck with these 2".
Oh man... you should of seen her face, ohh I love those moments.


How could I not be happy with these 2 fools????

Friday, November 21, 2008

So I had the 4 kids at the dentist this week! I had to laugh, as we took up all his examine chairs.
Lily had her first full cleaning, and did great! She was just dying to get to the dentist for some reason. She really likes it there. Hanlin had his teeth counted, no cavities and good enamel.
The older girls also got a great report!

We also brought Hanlin to the pediatrician this week. The doctor just loved him, He has no concerns. We've known this doctor for years, 10 to be exact!
We had a great chat, and I felt great leaving there.
I'll post more about it in a bit, but right now I'm off to shop with Isabelle.

Ringworm!

Cheryl this post is for you!!!!!!!!


CAN YOU SAY RINGWORM???











Wednesday, November 12, 2008

When we received our referral for Hanlin, lots of things happened that I couldn't blog about. Also while we were in China, "stuff" happened that again, I couldn't blog about.... BUT now that we're home, (and as of Friday, officially a Canadian Citizen), I can tell you the whole story!!
Some people know bits of this so skip the part you might already know..

Now, let me see, where shall I start???

I posted back in April about receiving additional information from the foster family via a friend living in Beijing. What I didn't post about is that from April to September we were able to have webcams with the foster family. We were in constant contact with them. It was wonderful and really helped out Hanlin with the transition. He was calling us Mama and Baba before we ever left for China! He knew each of the girls by name, and would shout at them on the computer! He and Lily would chat and show each other their toys.
He saw the inside of the house, the toy room and even outside!! When he arrived home, he ran to the playroom within 5 seconds of arriving. He knew where it was!!

We still sent pictures and a care package, but seeing him "in person" right after the referral was truly amazing.
Since we got to know the foster family, we decided to spend an extra week in Tianjin meeting with them. (1 week before the actual "family day")
We arrived on the first and on the 3rd, met Hanlin for the first time! They came to our hotel and we all ran to the lobby to greet them! It was a very emotional meeting, very happy!! We exchanged gifts, and many tears.. They gave us a photo album journaling his 4.5 years with them. To have baby photos is amazing!
The foster parents soon left, but wanted us to take Hanlin and his foster sister (21yrs old) shopping for the day. We went sightseeing, shopping and had a good time. He was very wound up, and we found out that he was slightly addicted of pop (coke)! LOL
We had a few more days with the family, we went to the park another day, and we took them out for supper and we took a boat tour of the Tianjin river.
When the actual adoption day happened, it was still very emotional!! Although I didn't cry right there, I held it together not only for Hanlin but for the foster parents.(But I lost it later in the van.) I kept hugging them telling them, we'll call..we'll e-mail... (and we have).
This adoption wasn't anything like Lily's, just like the birth of the girls wasn't the same, its neat for each of them to have such different stories and they love to hear about them.
All my pictures are still on the laptop, once I get them transferred over I'll post some pictures of our "secret week" hee hee

Thursday, November 6, 2008

ok, ok, I am sooo behind with my posts! Bad Blogger!!



Hanlin received his very first bike recently!!! Thank you Andrea and family!!!
He rides his bike everyday!! EVERYDAY!!!!!!!!!! He has really gotten the hang of it, at first he didn't know how to push the peddles, but after an hour of mommy back breaking pushing on the peddles with his feet, he got the hang of it! LOL
(yes he is wearing girls hat and mitts... give me a break...I have 3 girls..it might take me a while to break the girl habit!) Hee actually, I do have brown mitts and a sweet hat, but its a bit big for him and falls over his eyes, and when your just learning to ride a bike, you want to have nothing obstructing your view! ...oh and yes, we usually wear a helmet...but this was his first time, and we had 3 people flanking him. (he was very unsteady at first, and still has no idea how to brake! So Abigail would be on one side of him and Isabelle in the front of him to stop him from running into Lily, and I would hold the back of the bike, at the same time turning the peddles!) Now that we need a picture of ! LOL


Every year for Halloween, we put out our big spider in our maple tree and this year, Erica (our neighbor) had the great idea to add a decapitated kid in the web!! LOL
Lily went as a shark (this costume was made by my sister years ago for her son) and Hanlin went as a super hero!! Every house he went to he asked to eat the treat!! (it made for a long night for mommy)!

It is unbelievable the progress this little guy is making. He is speaking English and French and understands mandarin. (although he isn't speaking it.) I always understand what he is saying.
Lily has gotten so much better and has gained some patience with him. She no longer screams whenever he is near, or tries to gouge his eyes out. She is "using her words" more!
What I see between them now is more sibling rivalry stuff. yeah!!!

They both love going to school, and are even making letters!! They both can recognize their written names, and he loves to go around the house finding anything with his name on it! LOL