Thursday,
November 22, 2007
HAPPY THANKSGIVING
Sorry this update has taken so long, but we have had a rough
several days as Ella is still on China time. She has been
keeping us up most of the night and sleeping late in the
afternoon. Yesterday, I finally kept her up and she ended up
sleeping 8 hours last night. Shouts of joys were heard around
the house this morning =). We are hoping over this long weekend
we can get her completely adjusted.
Our flight from Guangzhou to Los Angeles was a breeze. We said a
tearful goodbye to our guide, Jocelyn and boarded our flight
with about 20 other adoptive families. We cleared immigrations
and customs quickly and walked to the other side of LAX (not
kidding when I say the other side-like 2 miles away) to our
connecting flight to Phoenix. Our flight was late and we ended
up having a four hour layover in Los Angeles. We arrived Friday
evening about midnight-just 3 hours after we left China, but 19
hours of travel. To say we were excited to see our kids and
introduce them to Ella was an understatement. We were so glad to
hug and kiss our kids and just be home. Our family stayed up
until 3 in the morning letting Ella run around her new room and
play.
Other than the sleeping issues, Ella has been her giggly and
adorable self. We feel like we have a toddler in our home
because she is so curious; she runs around the house exploring
how everything works and opening every drawer and cupboard. She
is not too keen about the dog, and we have taught her to tell
Jack ‘no.’’ Ella now yells ‘NO” if Jack gets anywhere near her
which is always the case because she drops so much food on the
floor. She is sleeping in her bed and playing with her toys. She
loves all of her new clothes and wants to change outfits all the
time. Although, she is not saying too many English words, she
seems to understand so much of what we say. She loves to go in
the car which she calls “beep beep.” We honked the horn one day
and she busted out laughing-hence “beep beep.” Yesterday, Ella
and I went to the grocery store to buy food for our Thanksgiving
Dinner. Ella, being the lover of food that she is, got so
excited in the store that she just wiggled around in the grocery
cart. She would point to everything and say “wo yao” which means
“I want.” She was getting mad at me because I would not give her
any food. She was yelling “wo yao” “wo yao” “wo yao.” I finally
gave her a banana in the check out line and she was all smiles.
I had to laugh at her because watching her experience things for
the first time is so much fun.
We took Ella back to the doctor and were told that her
bronchitis was not cleared up. The medicine that was prescribed
in China was not strong enough to clear the gunk out of her
lungs, so she is on a very powerful antibiotic that hopefully
will get her better. She stills sounds so raspy when she talks.
Ella has been with us for about 3 weeks, but it feels like she
has been a part of our family forever. The kids are so in love
with her-she is a little rock star in their eyes. We are still
so amazed at the incredible journey we have traveled to get her.
Almost two years ago, we started the process of this adoption;
an adoption that I thought would never go forward because Bart
needed convincing-almost two years of convincing. As I look back
at the last four years, I am truly humbled at the sequence of
events. If Bart had said yes immediately to the adoption, had we
never changed to the SN program, had we not started the process
when we did (two years ago), had we not raised our age
request-we would have missed Ella. Bart keeps telling me “I knew
it was the right thing to do, that it would all work out, but I
never imagined that Ella would be so special and that I would
instantly love her so much.” I am grateful to a loving Heavenly
Father who has a plan for our family. I am so grateful that we
were inspired to travel down this adoption road and bring our
beautiful Ella into our forever family. Our family has so much
to be grateful for this Thanksgiving Day.
We will update our family website monthly.
“All children come from God, for some the Journey home just
takes a little longer.” |
Welcome Home
Shopping at Target
So Curious
Loving My Bed
Ella and Madison
Playing In My Room
Deep Thoughts |
