We are in China!

Please follow our journey to our daughter on journeytome. com (delete spaces)

click on adoption stories and find Sarah Grace JiangMing!

Tomorrow is gotcha day!! Yippee Jesus!

I will try to do one post on this site about Ming Ming while we are in China- especially since this is her blog- and her little sister's!

Once we are home I will be blogging on this site again!

Please share our joy!

Princess Party!!

Anna has been invited to a princess birthday party!! This is the first birthday party she has been invited to!! She has a princess outfit from when she first joined our family. It was a gift from her older siblings.  We put it on her today and she absolutely loved it. In fact it is still on her now and I think we will have a hard time getting it off of her! The party is for Savannah and Aalijah from our FCC playgroup. They will be 5 yrs old! I am hoping to be in China when they have the party so we thought we'd get some pics now! Daddy will be taking her to the party!

No TA, yet. We are hoping they will arrive on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday! We are still backing, preparing and hoping things work out so we can leave asap (Nov. 19th)!

New pic of Ming Ming!

We received new pics for Sarah! She is beautiful and growing up! Katie and I are so excited to get to China to meet her! We have our plane reservation and now we just need that TA and CA then off we go!! On Saturday Katie and I will go to the travel class at our agency. Anna seems to be warming up to the idea of a sister!  Hopefully after a little time the girls will enjoy each others company. My bag is packed and I am working on Ming Ming's bag. I am hoping to get the measurements and answers to the questions we asked before we leave for China. I really do not want to clothes and shoe shop while we are there. Please keep us in your prayers!

Bonus day!

What a beautiful day it was in Minnesota! Absolutely gorgeous!! 73 degree, sunny and with a little wind! The weather is usually not like this in early November- so we really need to enjoy it! I have heard that reality will be coming at the end of this week. We have been so preoccupied with getting ready for China that we really didn't enjoy the outdoors this weekend as much as we should have, so today after lunch Anna and I went to her favorite park!! It has been at least a month or two since we have gone there. Her large motor skills have really improved! She is climbing, sliding, swinging and even attempting the balance beam!

Getting ready for China has been a little hard on Anna. She like things to run smooth and everyday should be like the one before but instead we are busy and preoccupied with packing, planning schedules for both at home and for in China. I have told her a couple times that Momma is going to China to get her sister and that we will be coming home.  She gets to stay home in her house with her Daddy, Mark and Johnny. She loves them all so much and is so comfortable with her surroundings- her home! She looks sad when she hears I am going but then relieved that she will be home with other beloved family members.  We are planning to skype as long as it seems to be a good thing for Sarah and Anna. If it is upsetting or confusing to one of them we will do it with they are sleeping.

Anna is really into doing things herself now! She wants to dress herself, put on her own socks and shoes, put on her own jacket and hat- I am very proud of her but also realizing that we will need to leave more time to get places. They are so cute doing it themselves but it takes a lot of patience on the parents part!  

She is practicing the weeee sound in speech so swinging on the swing was perfect for her today!! 

Happy Halloween!!

Our Halloween was very low key this year- with Anna only being 2 and her mommy preoccupied with going to China we did 2 yr old version of Halloween. Johnny had plans with his friends - the same crew he's done things with or the last 5 years. Due to poor planning on the mom's part and traveling out of town on the Dad's part we did not get our pumpkins carved- that's okay now they can be Thanksgiving decorations (at least until the rot)! 

Because we live off a private drive we did not have any trick or treaters. It's great if you are an older couple and empty nesters BUT we are an older couple refilling our home! Next year I am seriously going to use advertising and bribery to bring in the trick or treaters!! I thinking a sign that says "trick or treaters welcome, candy lovers will not be disappointed"!  I may live to regret doing this but I think it would be fun for the girls to have some trick or treaters!

This year Anna was a pink pig that says oink! Which is much different than what she was last year- a pink pig that said baa. She looked adorable and she enjoyed wearing her costume. She wore it to ECFE, Speech and trick or treating. Daddy took her to 5 houses- one of which was ours!! She liked that one best! There was a doggy at the second house after that her feet never touched the ground. She said trick or treat at every house except her voice got quieter with each house. Last year she was overloaded- shut down and fell asleep. this year she did good- and the celebration was just right for a 2 yr old!  She came home, sat in her high chair and ate the candy!! When she sat in her high chair she gave us very clear direction "momma, you leave, Daddy you leave"! She wanted us away from her candy!  And ohhhh, she loved her candy!! This morning she wanted the candy for breakfast! When we said no- we had a few tears.