Hannah's 1st Dr.'s appointment

We took Hannah to Riley International Adoption Clinic yesterday for a thorough check-up. She did very well and actually had gained 2 pounds from when we were in China. She is now 24 lbs.! The Dr. said she is developmentally on target, but that she wants to run several blood tests to check and make sure Hannah does not have any genetic conditions which caused her leg and hip deformity. We will be getting some blood work done over the next week or so and in the meantime, Dr. Keck will be helping us set up some appointments with an Orthopaedic Specialist and a Geneticist at Riley soon. Overall, Hannah is doing very well and the Dr. was very surprised at how well she is sleeping, speaking english, and eating! Thanks for all the prayers for her. We believe that is why she is doing so well! I think our biggest struggle right now is brother and sister learning to share toys, but will that ever get better??? Ha!

Ready for it to stay warm...

I am sure everyone is ready for it to stay warm, but we are soooo ready. The kids loved playing outside last night. Hannah got to try riding Wesley's Spiderman car that is motorized. He is too big for it, so it was nice to see him let her ride it and look happy about it. She loved it and really got the hang of turning it. Aunt Marilyn, notice she has the coat on that you got her??? She looks cute, doesn't she?
Things are still going well. Hannah slept in her bed last night but woke up around
1 am or so, but went back to sleep. She is good about taking naps and is sleeping right now. Wesley actually just fell asleep, too, while watching cartoons. Looking forward to dressing the kids up for Easter this weekend.

More pics to come....

First family day outside!

Well, today Mike was off work and we were so glad to know that it warmed up outside. We decided to go for a walk and to the post office. Wesley rode his bike for awhile and then wanted to push his new sister in her stroller. It was so cute! She rode in the stroller much better than riding in the cart in Walmart. She did not like that one bit! Anyways, it was nice to be outside today.
Another positive was that Hannah actually slept in her bed ALL NIGHT last night! We have been home for one week now and I think she is feeling much more comfortable in her new house. She slept from 8pm to 8am! 12 hours! I hope it stays that way, because Wes was never a big sleeper.
Today felt much more normal than any of the days we have had since we have been home. We appreciate everyone that has been providing meals to us this week, too. Hannah has enjoyed some new foods this week...pepperoni, refried beans, and brownies! We found out that she loves eggs, oatmeal, yogurt, and bananas. Her favorite is oranges. She love those things and I am so glad because we do not eat enough of fruits and veggies. Maybe she will inspire us to eat better as a family!

Adjusting Well...

Well, things are going well. Way better than I expected than to. The first couple of days were filled with lots of crying and some temper tantrums, but I think Hannah was just tired and scared. She met lots of family members over the weekend and surprised us all with her cheerful personality. She is usually shy at first, then warms up to people fairly quickly. She loves to give hugs and some kisses, but wants mommy and daddy close by her, which is great!
She and Wesly have been playing pretty well together. Some issues with sharing, but that is to be expected with a 2 and 4 year old.

Hannah is amazing us with how fast she is learning English. She can count to 3 already! And to top it off, she puts her fingers up to show 1, 2, and 3! We cannot believe we have had her for 2 weeks now. She is such a joy!
Big brother Wesley is being such a good big brother. He loves to help fasten Hannah in the car seat and at times, likes to hold her hand. Hannah loves her big brother and calls him, "Guh-Guh", which is Chinese for brother. She just does not like sharing her toys with him much yet! Ha!

The pics we are posting are of our family the night we returned home. It was an emotional time to see our son, Wesley. Hannah looks so tired in the photo. Little did she know that it was the start of her new life!

The other picture is of Hannah with some of her cousins she met. She had so much fun playing ball with them and wrestling around with the boys! It was more wonderful than we even imagined!

More pics to come!

We made it home!!!!

We made it home last night and boy does it feel good to be home! We got in Fort Wayne at around 11pm last night. It was an emotional homecoming for sure when we saw Wesley. He cried, too. We missed him so much and it was nice to have our complete family together. Thanks to all of our friends and family that greeted us at the airport last night. We love you guys and thank you for staying up so late for us!

Last night was nice to be home but very challenging. We made it into bed around 2pm. Hannah really put up a fight to go to sleep and it scared Wesley that she was crying because he didn't understand why she was not happy. I think she was so scared to be in another place and she was so tired. Hannah slept for 3 hours and was up at 5am! I felt like I had a newborn for sure. I am sure that Hannah will adjust to Indiana time, but at first with the jet lag and 12 hour difference in China, this will be hard for her and us. It was so hard because I was trying to comfort Wesley and Hannah. Mike also tried to comfort her, but she wanted Mommy last night. She also had another little bloody nose and that also scared Wesley. But, we just explained to him it was because her nose was dry and that she was scared, that was why she was crying. Wesley and Mike slept until 10am and I stayed up with Hannah. We are soooo tired. 4 hours of sleep in 2 days really makes you feel awful, but we will be ok. Hopefully, tonight will go better and we can start to get on a schedule. As far as the day went, it went wonderful. Both Wesley and Hannah had fun playing together. Hannah kissed Wesley on his cheeks a few times and she follows him around the house. It is so cute. Once, I even found Wesley putting his arm around his sister and rubbing her hair. It melted my heart!!! So, thanks for the prayers! We continue to pray for sleep and adjustments, but we are glad to be home. I will try to post more pictures in the next couple days.

Consulate Appointment Today!!!

Well, today we had the "Famous Red Couch" pictures. I am only posting the 1st one because we have not had the 2nd one yet. The 1st Red Couch picture is a picture of some of the kids from Hannah's Province-Yunnan, China. We got to know these families last week in Kunming. They were from all over. We met up with them again here in Guangzhou. The 2nd Red Couch picture will be of our Bethany group.
We also took Hannah to a really nice play room here in the hotel. It is designed specifically for the kids staying here in the hotel and most of the toys are English because the majority of them are used by American families who are adopting. Great hotel!!! Hannah is doing better today. Less coughing and she slept for 12 hours last night. Thanks again for the prayers for her! We are getting ready to leave to catch a bus with our group to head to the Consulate appointment which is the last thing we have to do that makes the adoption legal. We will be sworn in and asked a few questions and then we will be done. We will not have internet after 4pm today, which is your 4am, so the next time we post will be after we get home. Thanks again for following our blog of Hannah. Its been a long, hard journey, but we have made it and we have our girl~! Now, to just get home and be with the rest of our family~Wesley, it will be complete!
I hope to post more pictures once we get back.

She passed!!!! She got her shots today!!!

Yippee!!! Hannah was able to get her shots this afternoon. We are so happy because she got them and we can now come home as scheduled. We cannot wait to see you Wes!!
Mommy and Daddy's heart hurts to see you! We are very excited for all of you to meet Hannah. She is a sweetie pie and is shy at first, but once she is warmed up...she is very active! She still has a horrible cough, but she did not have a fever today so she could get her shots. She did well. Cried a bit, but not bad. It is such a relief! She seems to be feeling better, but we have not been going too many places so we can get her some rest. We all took naps today, so that was nice. We also got all our shopping done this afternoon. I had to buy another small suitcase to get everything home! Ha! Things are so cheap here. Lots of little girls outfits. We are headed to a good Chinese restaurant tonight and its supposed to be very good, not the weird stuff we ate last week. Tomorrow we meet our group at 2pm and get all the kids, red couch pictures...they off to the consulate at 3:30pm. We will leave our hotel 6am on Wednesday morning. Looking forward to getting home. Its been very nice to see China, but its been long enough for all of us.
Hannah is now watching Seasame Street in English and is LOVING it! She just smiles...its so cute!