Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Hefei Aquarium



Today was a free day. A nice family that I met here asked me if we wanted to come along for the day. So glad we did. We went to the aquarium, it was fun, but hot. After that we went out to lunch at a local restaurant. Not sure they see too many non asian people. We got lots of stares on our way out. While we were eating we were in a small room, just our table, and some good ir condition. The food was great as was the company. After that we dropped the husband and their little boy back to the hotel and headed our to Walmart. That was interesting. I am so exhausted I can't even stay awake to type anymore. I will add a few pictures from the day. BTW, the pic of the frogs is from Walmart....the food section, not the pet department.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

It's official!




It's official, she is ours. Today we did the adoption. We had another great day. I was up at 4 (not so great) and she got up about 6. hmmm, gonna have to work on that. We got up and had breakfast at the buffet here in the hotel. Glad some other Hefei mama's encouraged me to try it. Sooooo good. After that we met our guide in the lobby for 9 and headed to the civil affairs office to do more paperwork. Quick and painless, but HOT!!!!!! We were back at out hotel by about 10:30. We stayed around here again. It is so hot.We might go sight seeing with another family that we met here at the hotel. Not sure though. Did I mention it is hot? Add to that the way they drive around here and the ever present smell of gasoline in these vans. All of that is a migraine waiting to happen. I have been able to hold them off so far by taking my medicine as soon as i think one might be coming. If not a migraine, then car sickness for sure. The driving here is so crazy and all of the horn honking. I will not forget this. Even though we aren't getting out much, I am enjoying the visit. I'm really tired but here are a few pics from today. Not sure where these pics will show up. Top or bottom? I don't seem to have any control :-)

Monday, July 23, 2012



Today was unbelieveable. This girl is amazing. She walked in and they pointed me out to her. SHe came and gave me a hug and sat on my lap. She is so beautiful. She is also funny and very busy, Always doing something, The orphanage sent her with a back pack full of snacks and juice. Everytime I gave her something to see it had to go in the backpack. Clothes, bows, underwear, I could not have packed that much stuff into the little bag.She also has to have the bag with her all the time. Poor little thing, we went out for a walk and she had her bag on. When we got back to the room, her little back was sweating. Her shirt was all wet. I'm sure this is a security issue, so I will just go with it. If she gets too hot, she will take it off. She reminds me of Dora the Explorer with the backpack. I wanted to take a picture of all the stuff they had in there, but I didn't dare take it away from her. Now that she is sleeping, I am afraid if I unpack it that I will never get all of that stuff back in there. She loves her hairbows (yippee) She had to have 2 in her hair to go to bed. She also had to wear her new necklace to bed (thank you Jenn, she loves it). She is so precious. She loved her bath. She giggled the whole time and loved playing in the water. She is perfect in every way.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

First full day

Well, it is 5 a.m. Sunday morning, I am up. I will try to stay awake the rest of the day and try to get myself on a schedule. Going to force myself out of this room. Yesterday I just felt terrible. Emotional and exhausted. I tried to go downstairs to get something to eat but the restaurant appeared to be a sit down only. I had more take out on my mind. Finally at about 8 last night I ordered room service. SOme kind of spicy noodles. I was looking forward to it. Looked great when it came. I was thinking maybe udon noodles or something. Nope, came all the way to Chin@ and had good ole spaghetti in my soup. It was good anyway, Everyone working at the hotel seems really friendly. I am a little confused on the whole tipping thing here. I heard that you don't tip here, but it doesn't feel right. What have you done here? How about at the breakfast bufffet? Going to email a few of you in a minute and ask before I head down. Anyway, I am about 29 hours from meeting our girl!! Wow. So many emotions. Every time I open my eyes I wonder how it is going to go. How sad will she be? I can only wait and find out. Will post more later if I get out. Will try to get some pictures. Here is my fancy spicy spaghetti :-)


 My fancy spicy spaghetti
 Leaving Shanghai
 from what seemed like the basement of the airport. A smell I will never forget
Leaving my love at the airport

I'm here!

I'm here. I got in at about 11 last night. Arriving at night left me pretty scared to get out on my own. Maybe if I would have arrived during the day I could have checked out the area driving in. Right now it is 6:30 in the evening and I haven't left the room yet. Wondering what in the world I was thinking making this trip alone. Hopefully I will get out tomorrow. I think for today my big outing will be to go downstairs and get some food. So far I have had a granola bar and some m&m's. G bought me a laptop for the trip so I could Skype with him and the kids. PRICELESS! The benefit of this has outweighed the price of the computer a hundred times over. I also added $10.00 to the skype account so that I can make phone calls. It is about 5 cents to connect and 2.3 cents a minute. Great deal. Way better than 1.99 a minute with the at&t international plan. The driving and the horn honking is insane. As i sit here, 19 floors up, all I hear is horns honking on the street. It's interesting to look out and watch the traffic. It's incredible that there isn't crashes all over. Guess i'll go find something to eat. Hopefully I'll have something interesting to write about tomorrow, I meet my guide downstairs at 9 on Monday and should meet Ella Kate by about 9:30. I wonder if they tell her about what is going on. I sure hope they are preparing her in some way.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Heading out!

I leave very early tomorrow morning to start my trip to Chin@. I can't believe the time is finally here. I am excited to get this going and get home. I am incredibly sad to leave my husband and kids. I will miss them so much. Hopefully skype will work and I can see them every day. A huge mix of emotions this past week.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Jordan is 14!!!

Yep, Jordan turned 14 today. Where has the time gone. It seems like just yesterday that we stepped off the elevator at the hospital to go deliver Jordan. Was that really 14 years ago? Jordan has grown into such a kind, polite and funny boy. I love him more than he will ever know. I can't wait to see what life has in store for him. The sky is the limit.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

CA!!

So, we got TA on Monday and got the call yesterday that we have CA on July 31! YAY! This is fantastic news. I leave next week, a week from today, bright and early, ugh well, still dark and early to head to Chin@. I am beyond happy but trying to book these flights is kicking my ass. The stress is unreal. The prices are ridiculous. If I were traveling in a few weeks it would be less than half of what we are paying now. Would I wait 3 or 4 weeks to get Ella? We would save ALOT of money. NO WAY!! I'm going to get our girl!!! She will go to bed 10 more nights without the love of a family., without a mommy to tuck her in at night. I will not let her wait one single day longer. She has a mommy, daddy and 3 big brothers that can't wait to have her home. Mommy is coming baby girl!

Monday, July 9, 2012

TA!!!!!!!!

ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!!!!!!!!! Woooohooooo!! That's how I feel today. We got word of or TA today. So excited. I can't believe that I will have our sweet Ella Kate before the month is over. It was nice because the hubby was home for the call. Unfortunately he hurt his back today so he came home early, but the up side is that he was here for the call. He got a little more emotional about the call than I did. Very sweet. The agency is requesting our CA for 7/31, 8/1 or 8/2. If we get any of these dates I will leave next Friday!!! What?!?!? Yep, less than 2 weeks from now. If we end up with one of the other 2 dates, then I won't leave until about 7/27. If that's the case, then I will meet Ella on my dad's b-day. I would love to go sooner because that gives me more time before the boys start school. The first one starts 8/10.
 Excited, scared and nervous. Those have been the emotions of the day. Can't believe that I am traveling to Chin@, alone, to meet the daughter that I have waited a lifetime for.

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Baby girl has a room!

We are now waiting for our TA. I can't believe we have finally made it to this point. Our Art. 5 was picked up 6/28, Chin@ time (that's what the email said, I'll take it).  I would love to leave 7/20 but it will probably be 7/27. Works good for me either way. Of course I would love to get her a week early, but the later date puts her gotcha day on 7/30, my dads birthday.
 We finally have Ella's furniture in and I purchased her bedding and a few decorations for her room. Now all we need is our precious daughter. Come on TA. we are ready!!!! Here are a few pictures of her room.






It won't be long now!!!

Monday, July 2, 2012

Looks good!

Looks good and we will see you next year!!!! Those words are music to this mamas ears. This is what the Cardilogist had to say at Brandon's check up today. WoooHoooo! What a relief. The anxiety leading up to these appointments literally takes me out. When I am super stressed I get real sleepy. I napped often yesterday. Normal stress if fine, but this kind of stress just does me in. I felt like a different person walking out of the hospital. So glad my boy is doing good.  Here he is having a snack at the hospital after our appointment. We were there for 2 hours, he was a little hungry. I love this little guy like crazy.

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Brandon is 10!

Today is Brandon's birthday. 10 years old today! Can't believe he is in the double digits. Happy Birthday my sweet boy. I love you more than you will ever know.
 Branodn's birthday is always a very emotional day for me. He put the "heart" in the name of this blog. 10 years ago today, almost to the exact hour, I delivered my second son. What a day. I was so excitied to go to the hospital. I was induced so we knew he would be here that day.  After about 10 hours of labor, he was finally here. He was such a cute baby. A head full of dark hair, and just as beautiful as could be. They let us hold him for a while. We had friends and family there, so everyone got to see him for a few minutes. After a while the nurses wanted to take him to the nursery to clean him up and weigh him and all that good stuff. G went back with the nurse. A little while later G came back to the room and said that Brandon was turning blue and they kicked him out. WHAT?!?!? I remember the feeling like it was yesterday. Life as I knew it ended that very moment. I have not been the same person since. Soon after that doctors started coming in. Several of them. I don't remeber what they all did, but they kept talking about his heart. They were drawing me pictures of a regular heart and pictures of his heart. I thought my baby was going to die. Ugh, what emotions that brings back. We found out that Brandon had Transposition of the Great Arteries. Huh? What is that? Certainly they had to have me confused with someone else. This was not happening. But it was. By the time I saw him agian, my poor baby was already intubated. At just a couple of hours old. Later that day they transported him to Children's Hospital in New Orleans. My husband followed them over there until they got him settled. That was Brandon's home for the next 2 months. At just a couple of days old he had a procedure to keep the blood flowing. On July 17, one day after Jordan's birthday, Brandon had the Arterial Switch procedure. His Aorta and Pulmoary arteries were put back in the right places. This was about a 7 hour surgery. His surgeons were amazing. The nurses that took care of him were even more amazing. His recovery was tough. We did not get out of the hospital until August 29th. He has been pretty good since. He does have an irregular heart rate, and it is a little slow, but nothing that requires intervention at this point. Tomorrow we go for his annual check up with his cardiologist. While the visits have been good, it is very stressful for me. He seems to handle it all okay, but I know the older he gets the more it will affect him. Please say a prayer that all is still good. This boy fought so hard in the beginning. He is so special. He loves life and loves to laugh and have a good time. He doesn't take things too serious and just wants to have fun and enjoy his life. I love you Brandon! You make me so proud!

my sweet boy