Two Months

Two months......just like last time it feels like she has been with us so much longer. Hattie has fallen into place in our family like we've always been saving this place for her, which we have. This time around is definitely different in ways, a few the same. While giving birth falls into the miracle of life category, as a family that adopts we experience a different kind of miracle. To watch Hattie's transition in these past two months has been nothing short of that. To watch a toddler who has no idea what a family is, never spoken a word of English, always had rice with pureed vegetables, and never left an orphanage except for medical care, is amazing and hard work. She's went from this scared, sad, quiet girl.

To a laughing, joyful, mischievous girl today.

We've had the privilege of watching Hattie discover her personality and who she is over the past two months. Even though she didn't understand what a family was, she innately knew how to draw out her ability to love and enjoy life. I have no idea what she was like at the orphanage, but their descriptions of her are not the child we have seen. 

Language is amazing to watch. To see a toddler catch up from minimal language skills to understanding all kinds of phrases and beginning to talk in a matter of weeks, is pretty cool. Hattie is constantly pointing at everything wondering what it is. Mispronouncing tons of words, sometimes making them sound like American curse words. She has at least

One year......plus a week or so

We've been living in our home for a little over a year now! We've owned it for about 4 months longer than that, as we did some major renovations we didn't want to live through. So glad we financially planned for that! The memory of having to bathe in a stripped to the studs bathroom with a bowl of lukewarm water, was enough to wait the extra few months to know we could carry two homes for awhile if necessary. And turns out it wasn't necessary. We learned so much in home renovation in our old home and are continuing to learn a lot in our new home. We learned what is worth our time to do and what is worth hiring someone to do. Projects have been ongoing and ongoing and are still ongoing. The biggest lesson I've learned and mantra I have to keep repeating is, "a home is always evolving and a work in progress." We really love this place and thought I would devote a few posts to our progress in this past year. I love looking at other people's home/ projects for ideas. If you don't, you can stop reading! Our most important goal with our home this year has been functionality and creating a space that is what WE love and that reflects us as a family.

BEFORE

 The exterior of our home when we bought it was fine. It needed a paint job soon and the driveway is bad! I hate blacktop over cement, it's a quick fix that never looks good or works. We looked straight past it and the cost to replace it, check the driveway when you are home shopping! We also never anticipated buying a home that has the extent of landscaping this sucker does. We have a nice large lot (1/2 acre) and tons of trees (13 in fact), which turns out costs a lot to maintain. Already did $500 in tree trimming this year and that was only three trees. Granted they were large trees. We have a creek running through our backyard and ultimately the trees give us so much privacy and woodsiness in the center of Omaha. In the end, the yard actually ended up selling us a bit on the house.

AFTER

We hired someone to paint the exterior a nice shade of army green. The windows/ shutters/ garage went to a nice cream. We also knew we needed new windows in the next few years when we bought the house. We had the painters paint the ugly, metal storm windows on the outside of the house. It looks unbelieveably better, in fact good enough we can hold out on windows a bit longer possibly.

BEFORE

AFTER

We removed the tree that was completely blocking the front of the house. This gave us the opportunity to buy a chainsaw. Which makes you feel powerful when you use it. I'm still looking for things to chainsaw. The house still lacks a bit of

Weeks 2 & 3: Football, not mama??

These girls continue to get to know each other better and are spending more time together alone. Not home alone, I don't think we can do that for a little while, right? Naomi's mature, but probably not. I have fleeting thoughts that all heck is about to break loose, but it's not. And I don't know that it will. They genuinely like each other. Yesterday when we went to pick Naomi up at daycare she almost went to hug Hattie before me, almost. She still needs me to drive her around and pull her shows up on the DVR, so until Hattie can do that I think I'm safe. She gives me a quick hug and then over to Hattie, then they always hold hands all the way out. It's the most sickeningly sweet thing ever. I'm sure I'm getting a few eye rolls, but I'm counting this as balancing out from our difficult transition with Naomi.

It's not all roses and sunshine all of the time. They will both be able to put whining as one of their skills on their resume. It seems to be contagious, one starts and then the other starts. Occasional sharing issues but Hattie is getting better with this. Hattie is taking Naomi's cue as a picky eater. She refuses to try anything new now and even some things she "used" to like unless you feed it to her by hand. Baxter is still an issue, conditional tolerance is where we are at with him and Hattie. We had a few medical tests that turned out okay. We see the craniofacial team the first week of December for her ears, Naomi is the same day. We will see how that goes.  Hoping Hattie takes a cue from Naomi who is fine with all of the professions on the team except the ENT always cleans ear wax out, which she hates. Debating getting Hattie's hearing tested before that given she's having some trouble locating sounds. The girls love having dance parties in the study.

Hattie continues to acquire language. She has finally started calling pumpkins the correct name instead of calling them apples. All animals are not doggies, although cats are still doggies. She can clearly say the word football thanks to Adam this weekend. She is yet to really say mama, but football yes. Nice. Hattie loves baths now. She went from being like a cat in water to wanting to swim like a fish. She gets upset now on nights we don't do baths. She's potty trained completely now. She loves pretending anything is a phone. Getting in to Yo Gabba Gabba, which is about the only kids show I can watch a whole episode, so good choice Hattie. Loves Mickey Mouse and sweeping. Demands this book be read over and over and over.

Hattie loves hats. Must be the name. She seems to not care about the colder temperatures, today was likely the coldest temps she has felt. Adam has his birthday this past weekend. The girls and I did birthday preparation on Friday by making a peanut butter cup cheesecake, art for his office and birthday cards. Hattie's art was starting to look a bit like she had smeared poop all over the canvas as she just kept mixing all the colors, so I strategically started adding more purple in.

Naomi also added an interesting touch to the birthday card. She was trying to spell "baba," and ended up with all of the letters but out of order on the card below. Either she thinks he's a Swedish pop fan or God. 

Week One

We've made it through our first week as a family of 4. It has went really, really well. Better than we expected. We've learned a lot about Hattie in this week!

• The orphanage description of her being meek and quiet was a bit off. She's probably going to be the most extroverted of all of us. Which isn't hard given the introverted nature of the other 3 of us. She babbles and sings a lot. She loves yelling and scolding. She has a few English words like: ball, more, flower, doll, ducky, sister, and baba. She's really let loose and is very expressive.
• She is becoming increasingly picky with eating. In China she loved things like yogurt and cantaloupe, now won't touch them. Some of her favorites: noodles, fruit, rice, milk, chips. She does not like chocolate at all. She picked the cookies out of her ice cream last night. In contrast to our Naomi, who is crazy about anything sweet.

Hattie continues to love bubbles and digs taking walks. The playground was scary at first but she loves swinging and will play a little as long as Naomi is. She has no fear of the street or cars, bad news! In fact it's a game to bolt towards the street. Her walking that we were concerned about has gotten a tiny bit better.

We definitely have two goofy, nerdy girls. Perfect for us! Hattie loves putting all kinds of things on her head. Hattie and Naomi are getting along really well. Naomi is being such an amazing big sister and relishing in her role as that. She tries to help Hattie all of the time, and takes it well when Hattie isn't so keen on the help. Hattie's a swiper when she gets upset. Naomi is sharing and Hattie is a

Home........in a rented Ford Escape?

We've been home for about 4 days now! I haven't had time to post since we left Guangzhou, but our trip home was interesting. Warning, long post!  It all started Wednesday in Guangzhou about 4:30pm when Hattie's US visa arrived in the hotel lobby. We were then whisked right away to a van where we traveled to the Guangzhou train station to board our train to Hong Kong. Traffic was horrible. There was a major holiday starting the next day, so our guide says, "I think it will be busy." Understatement. We also got a completely timid driver, the first I've ever had in China, at the most inopportune time. We needed someone who was willing to get sideswiped or take out a biker, but not this time. As our guide started yelling at him to go I started to get worried about making the train. We were struck in traffic right in front of IKEA Guangzhou for about 10 minutes. I just stared longingly. We rushed through the train station, made it no problem. In fact our train ended up leaving late. Train ride went well. Hattie was great and finally used a "squatty potty." Which next time I need to work on my quads before I go to China for those damn things. I wonder how many elderly break their hips using them. Before we left Guangzhou, we went out to the hotel courtyard and took a few last photos of Hattie in China.

A few or our favorites above. Our train was an hour late getting in to Hong Kong, and apparently our escort to the hotel had gotten a bit impatient. He breaks in to an all out spring as we met him and hightails it out of the train station. I had to jog with a huge suitcase and carrying a 2 and 1/2 year old. Seriously dude, help a girl out. Took a van to a hotel near the airport in Hong Kong. It was a great ride as we got to look at the skyline all lit up again. I was a little sad as we were seeing our last parts of China that night, for a long time. We were taking Hattie from her home country for a long time.

The airport hotel was insane at 11pm. Adam had to stand in line for 20 minutes to check in. Slept and took the pedestrian bridge over to the Hong Kong airport, which is probably number one on my list of airports I've been to. Clean, great food, doesn't feel crowded, good shopping. While we were waiting for our flight, we found the Hong Kong Disney store. Hattie apparently loves Mickey Mouse. Not sure if she had seen him before, but she's a big fan. She would just stand in from of a sign with Mickey on it in the store and point. Picked up a little Mickey doll and coloring book for the flight. Boarded our 15 hour flight.

Bye bye China!

We flew Cathay Pacific, which we really liked. It is awesome to fly with kids. They have special meals for them and special kids packs with games, colors, and all kinds of cool stuff. Hattie was super good on the plane ride. Used the airplane

Last night in Guangzhou

I missed a blog post yesterday! It was a pretty uneventful day and I was super tired and fell asleep trying to type anything. Also fell asleep last night too! Anyway, Monday we explored a bit around the hotel more. We were going to go to the zoo here but instead chose to go to the civil affairs building to meet the adoptive parents who were adopting Hattie's best friend. We met them and exchanged information and showed them photos of their daughter we had taken on Friday. They are not planning on going to the orphanage so we can luckily share all of the ones we have. The mom was very emotional that she could have them. They were very sweet and this was their first child together. They live in Michigan. So not quite as glamorous as Naomi's foster sister who lives in Amsterdam, but closer. I'm hopeful they can be "pen pals" probably by email but nonetheless a great connection for her to have in the US! We skipped out of their quick so they could have their gotcha day all to themselves. We visited the San Yet Sun Memorial by our hotel, kind of like the Orpheum in terms of purpose here in Guangzhou, but much bigger and older. Hattie loves music so we captured a few of her dancing. The girl also loves accessories of any kind, headband plus sunglasses were the ones of choice Monday. Sunglasses are interesting since her ears are significantly different heights, may not be a good option for her, she might have to be a hat girl.

San Yet Sun Memorial Hall, no idea who he is as everything was in Chinese.

Guangzhou

Interesting nap position

Dancing

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Monday night we went to the group dinner which was really nice. Had traditional Cantonese food and Chinese Barbecue.  Attempted a bath again. I tried to get into the bathtub with my swimsuit on, ended up staying in for about 20 minutes trying to play and coax her in. Didn't work. She did tolerate the shower after awhile, not hair washing though. It's so amazing to see the confidence in Hattie over the past 8 days with us, just not with water. She's l

3 more days left!

We've reached that point where we are so ready to come home! We have had a really good trip this time but you can only live in a hotel room with a toddler for so long in China. This is Adam and I's 13th night away. We have two more nights here in Guangzhou left and then one night in Hong Kong, and sort of one night in the air. I do love China and we will definitely be back several times, but most likely under different circumstances. Where we don't have to worry about packing, meeting, and getting to know our new child. We went with a couple other families to Shamian Island today. We decided we would take the subway there, which went pretty smoothly despite being crowded.......with one minor exception. In China you must do a lot of pushing to make your way off a crowded subway.  So while the doors are open at our station everyone got off in time.......except Hattie and I. Adam tried to stick his hand in the door but had to yank it out before it was torn off. It was one of those moments where I was staring through the doors at everyone else on the other side, they were motioning they would stay there. I decided not to panic and Hattie and I would just ride it down one stop and then come back up. Which we did, however I ended up on the other side of the station and couldn't get across. I was determined not to panic, then I realized I had no money and no phone on me and I was carrying a 2 year old through the Guangzhou subway. I allowed a bit of panic to happen and made a plan. The doors open on both sides of the train so I would have to go across two trains while both doors were open to get back across. I knew this would involve a lot of pushing, put on my gameface and got us back across. I was very relieved to see them still there! I did have to physically push one gentleman out of my way on the last train across, but well worth it. Shamian is where a lot of adoptive families used to stay but the island has since lost the adoption business. There is still fairly good kids shopping and traditional Chinese goods shopping there though, and it's much quieter and greener and cheaper than the city. Finally purchased some new sunglasses since Hattie broke mine on her first day here. They are Gucci and I got them for about $9. Hmmmmm not sure if they are real?? Picked up some fun umbrellas for the girls.

An umbrella and a slinky are hard to handle all at once

The island is hugely popular for photographers, especially weddings

Lots of fun statues, but it was so freaking hot Hattie was not having photos, decided to stay in her stroller

Strange siting of the day.....seeing a girl eat corn on the cob

Baths and Doctors- Things Hattie does not Like

After we took a nice nap from our orphanage trip, we went to a park called LiuHua Park. It was one of my favorite places when we were here last time. What I don't remember is it being a cat haven. We would just see gangs of cats lurking in the bushes and trees. 

Plotting

Putting their cat plans into action after dark. 

We ate at a lovely outdoor restaurant in the park. We were even out much past dark, on a Friday night I might add. Our flash was able to catch all of the cats waiting outside our restaurant as we left, a little creepy. We then came back to give Hattie a bath and that was very similar to what giving a bath to one of those cats in the park would have been like. Actually the cats were smaller, so they would have probably been easier. This girl is freakishly strong and she hates water pretty much of any sort. We knew she wouldn't sit down but she tolerated us hosing her off a few days ago when she threw up. In one of the many ways she is starting to express herself more, she made an incredible attempt to make her way out of the tub. She was very wet and slippery. Between the two of us somehow we got her hosed down and Adam had to hold her down while I washed her hair quickly. Hoping she just follows Naomi's lead at least on baths once we get home. 

Saturday morning cartoons with daddy in bed

Lazy morning lounging a bit and then off the the US Visa medical check. Turns out last night in the bathtub was a warm-up for the medical check. She was clearly nervous when we got there and as soon as she saw someone in a whitecoat, she freaked. Between Adam , the doctor, and I we managed to hold her down at each station. The last one she had to get a blood draw for her TB test and they do not allow parents to go in. They think it

Dongguan

We left fairly early this morning to visit Hattie's orphanage and finding spot in Dongguan. After yesterday's episode we fed her a light breakfast and covered her with one of Adam's t-shirts the whole way there. It was about an hour and a half drive. No puking! No car seats really here in China, you kind of just have to let go of that major safety issue and ride with your child on your lap. I didn't know what to expect or how Hattie would react. When we arrived the director of international adoption met us and led us around with our guide from Holt. We first toured the main building where they have a program called the Sunshine Academy. It is a preschool, Hattie would have went when she was three if she would have stayed. They had classrooms, huge playrooms, art projects, it was incredibly similar to Naomi's daycare. Very clean and organized. They also had tons of Ikea furniture and toys, so style points too.

We then went to the group family that Hattie lived in. There are about 10 kids in each little home with a couple of caregivers. We met all of her caregivers or "aunties" as they call them. They all wanted to hold her again and immediately one grabbed Hattie and took her back to the bathroom to wipe her nose and eyes off from her cold. Silly Americans leaving their kids faces dirty. It was actually quite sweet. We took pictures of Hattie with all of her caregivers she has really had there over the past year at least. We saw her crib where she slept each night, where she took a bath, where she

Motion sickness?

Hmmmm, where did I leave off.....oh yeah we had just left to apply for Hattie's Chinese passport. That was easy, but the traffic on the way back to the hotel was stop and go, stop and go. I was turned around talking to our guide in the back of the van and out of the corner of my eye I see Hattie start throwing up. All over herself and Adam. I sort of froze, because I have never had a child vomit. Naomi has literally never thrown up in the 18+ months we have been with her. I whip out my little pack of kleenexes, which did very little and she proceeds to throw up more. Note to self don't give Hattie milk and tomato flavored Lays chips before car rides. Probably a good rule for anyone. She managed to only get a little on the actual van and we only had about 10 minutes to sit with the smell until we reached the hotel. She took it all in stride and just laid on Adam's chest for the most part. I'm hoping it was the food combo and the jolting from all of the stopping and starting with traffic, not car rides in general. We came back and Hattie had her first taste of pizza from Papa Johns, she liked it despite the face.

 Relaxed the rest of the night. Hattie was sad this morning. She just cried for a couple minutes and then was okay. In the mornings she is a bit confused about where she is and why we are probably still there. She's opening up more and more, especially in our room with just us. She is a bit overwhelmed when we are out, as am I at times. So many people! But even now in some quieter public places like breakfast or a quiet restaurant she will talk and interact more. In our hotel room she's very comfortable, talking up a storm at times. Other times very quiet. Plays by herself, which I am not used to given Naomi isn't a big fan of that. We Skyped with Naomi and my parents again today and it went well, other than our connection here was spotty. I miss that girl tons, try not to think about it a lot as it can be overwhelming. She's having a blast with grandmas and grandpas though. Went to a different large park today. I had sweat dripping down my face and back after about 5 minutes, maybe 2 minutes actually.

Chinese caligraphy a man was writing with water on the path in Yuexiu Park

I'm sweating in minutes in shorts and t-shirt. These ladies are doing aerobics in jeggings without a sweat?

Hattie and I stayed at the bottom of the 75+ steps to the statue below. She loves sunglasses.

I believe this was the five goats or rams statue which Adam walked up to see. I can really tell which it is.

Very nice way to say stay off the grass. I can't tell you how many times I've had to tell Adam this.

We tried the swimming pool today, don't think we will be swimming any time soon. Got all ready and Hattie freaked when she got

First 48 hours

Hattie has been with us for almost 48 hours. Things have been going really good. We had appointments most of the day yesterday and went to the grocery store. We had two interviews with Chinese officials. The notary guy we had was apparently a jokester, which we didn't realize. He kept asking me if we remembered the name of the notary we had at Naomi's adoption. I kept saying no, he kept asking, apparently very funny for him. I thought I was going to have some sort of PTSD after our last grocery store experience here with Naomi, but no flashbacks. Hattie let me push the cart and was very interested in things at the store. All of these experiences are so new to her, we are guessing she had rarely been away from the orphanage except for maybe a couple medical appointments. She's slept unbelievably well. Goes down 8:30 or 9pm each night and sleeps until about 7am. Naps 2 hours every day. She's incredibly easy to take care of, routine was I'm sure very part of her life. Pretty well potty trained, once we get home and take the pull ups away my guess is she will get it within a week. Had to change our 4th poopy diaper ever, hoping to stay under 10 in our parenting experience, suckers. She cooperates when getting dressed, holds hands to go anywhere, likes the stroller. Really easy now. We had not heard her cry until yesterday at all. She got a little upset with sharing some toys in the playroom here at the hotel, but overall I think sharing will not be a huge issue. We skyped with Naomi last night and she met Hattie for the first time. We forgot to take a picture, bad parents. Actually we've been pretty bad about remembering our camera, trying hard to remember it more. Anyway, it went okay with Naomi, she was her goofy self over Skype. She smiled at Hattie and seemed maybe slightly unsure but said she was excited to play with her. Hattie was glued to the screen with Naomi on it and immediately started talking when Naomi popped up on Skype. The first time we saw Hattie get upset was when we pulled her back from the screen where Naomi was at. I'm taking that as a good sign, she was very interested in her!

Practicing her martial arts with chopsticks

Loves her heart bracelets one of the caregivers gave her at the orphanage before she left

Target puffs a hit again this time!

Food is a bit interesting with her. They have a really good breakfast buffet here and the yesterday morning we took her there. She ate about 10 different things, cantaloupe, tomato, eggs, sausage, watermelon, yogurt, bananas. Really liked

Hattie Day

We finally met the girl we have been waiting for since we saw her face in February! It was a much more low key meeting than the one we had with Naomi. We were one of the first to arrive at the Civil Affairs building about 2pm Monday. It was much less crowded than last time. There were probably 4 families there this time versus 30 last time. It filled up as the afternoon progressed to a good 15 families I would say. Again, when we walked in the door we could see Hattie back in the kids room. Within 5 minutes they called our name. She was a little hesitant at first but didn't fight me picking her up to take her back to our area. She didn't cry, in fact she did not make a sound the entire time we were there or on the van ride back to our hotel. Drastic contrast between this...

And this....

Same room, same exact place, two different girls and reactions. We weren't necessarily surprised by this given Naomi was foster family and Hattie was orphanage. We met with orphanage staff and found out more about her routine and life there. Found out who her best friend was. She was described as very easy to take care of and quiet. She doesn't understand how to be carried very well. She keeps her legs straight and doesn't wrap her arms around you much when you pick her up. I'm guessing she walked and crawled most places in her orphanage. Tried to hold her to rock her a bit before putting her to bed and she clearly didn't understand that either. She just wanted to be put in the crib. It's going to take awhile longer for her to understand affection. She's slept so far from 8:30pm to 5:30am here, and still asleep. Eating really well. Had a super cute outfit on. Big feet, I think my shoes I brought may be too small! Not too far off from Naomi height.

She hadn't made a sound until when we got back to our room and were playing with colors, she let out a huge, happy yell. From that point on she's been talking and clapping and playing and laughing. We understand little of

If you want an Arnold Schwarzenegger portrait........

We explored Guangzhou today. There are a lot of people here and it was hot! I know it was hot in Nebraska as well but factor in the huge amounts of people and it was a bit insane out and about today. Adam and I were talking on the train to Guangzhou yesterday about how many people live in the area that we passed through, 50 million! Basically that would be 50 million people living within a 90 mile radius of Omaha. We traveled by subway today to a couple of shopping areas and it was pretty amazing how many people that mass transit moved.

Subway ticket purchasing area at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon- people were out and about!

We did end up finding some jade while we were out and I got some face cream from Sephora here. Sounds weird but when I was here last time I got it and it was amazing. They don't sell it in the US, probably because it contains something they can't sell in the US. I live on the edge. Also did some thrifty negotiating for a couple dresses for the girls for Chinese New Year. Found this gem on the street market.

Don't think it will fit in our suitcases, very disappointing. We ate at the Chinese restaurant here at the hotel. We had some delicious fried chicken wings and noodles.

Settling in to our hotel room for

China Hotel- Guangzhou

We took the train late Saturday morning from Hong Kong to Guangzhou in mainland China. Very easy and nice way to travel. Our guide picked us up at the train station and we again got a taste for the traffic here in Guangzhou, very crowded and sometimes very little regard for lanes. I wondered how many people are side swiped here. We arrived at the China Hotel again for our long stay, it was actually kind of nice coming back to somewhere we had stayed last time. Finally made it to our room late Saturday afternoon to an update and a photo new photo of Hattie.

This is a photo of the photo, so not the best quality. They seem to have let her hair grow, I was expecting shaved head. I'll have to search for some ponytail holders tomorrow! From the measurements we got she seems to be almost as big as Naomi right now. A little over 34 inches and 26 pounds. I'm a little worried the shoes I brought are too small, those feet look good sized! We received her daily schedule and she is getting up around 6:30am and going to bed at 10pm. It says she still needs a diaper at night and reminding to use the bathroom, so we will see how that goes. Eating steamed rice with minced meat and vegetables. It says she has been in good health. They describe her as "meek" and initially does not like strangers until she is acquainted. Sounds a bit like Naomi, or most any kid. Not sure about the meek, whether that means quiet. She loves playing