Finally Home!

Hello all,

We are home! We got home Saturday morning at 6:30 and in our drive way by 7:30 am. Good to be home! Yesterday was full of visits from family, which was great! We were exhausted, but upside on our days and nights. Having family here was a nice way to stay awake!

The night was tough. I couldn't fall asleep, even after Tylenol PM. Tierzah woke up at 3:00, just as I was feeling like I could fall asleep. She went back to sleep for about 30 minutes and then was up again for a while. Her crying woke up Aaron and he was up for the day, so I went to bed and Aaron and Piper were up.

Tierzah went back to bed about 8:30 and Piper about 9:00. I got up at 10:00 and Aaron went to church to stay awake. It's now 11:18 and I am posting this, then I will wake everyone up and try to have a normal day and get to bed a little early, but not too early!

We still have some adjusting days ahead!

Thanks all for following our journey. Feel free to call!

Thank you Desi for staying on top of the blog while I couldn't access it. You are the best - love you so much!

Love you
Shannon

Videos!

Tierzah Smiling:


Piper and Tierzah swimming:


Piper and Tierzah dancing:

More pictures

I couldn't help it, I had to see this one in black and white - Desi

First group of pictures

I love how Tierzah is looking at Piper in this one - Desi

Update!

Hi all! I got a lot of pictures and three videos from Shannon, too, but I'm in a hotel right now with very spotty internet connection, so unfortunatly I'll have to post the pictures and videos tonight! Sorry about that - I'll do it as soon as I get home. -Desi

Here's the update from Shannon:

We are now in Guangzhou. It is so much better here. The hotel is beautiful and the area is very charming. There is a Subway and Starbucks and a nice little restaurant names Lucy's which has very good American food. I had a hamburger yesterday which was really good!

The pools here are nice. Piper has been having a great time swimming with Grandpa and Grandma and yesterday she took Tierzah swimming. She was so grown up with her in the water. I will include pictures. She had a nice moment. A Chinese lady came and took her from Piper (very common here) and Tierzah cried and turned and reached for Piper. Piper was so proud. Tierzah wanted her!

Tierzah adores Piper and Piper Tierzah. It's very sweet. They play and laugh a lot together. Tierzah is everything Piper has been hoping she'd be. Thus far we have had zero jealousy issues with Piper. She is so attentive and proud of her sister.

Tierzah has really come out of her shell. She was so very stoic and unemotional the first few days. She didn't even cry, which is very heartbreaking. What I have heard is that they stop crying because they don't get any response when they cry. No one comes. Well, she cries now! Not a lot. She is very good. But we thought maybe she couldn't cry. When she first did, there wasn't much sound. Almost like when a debarked dog barks. They sound horse. She did too.

She didn't smile at all the first couple days and then slowly we were getting some, but it took a lot of work. Not now! She is a smiling happy little girl who coos and baby talks like every other little baby I've seen.

The transformation has been very interesting and heartwarming to watch. The first couple days I tried to touch her toes to her nose. Babies can do that, but she couldn't. I thought she was very unflexible. She was just tense. Now her toes are in her mouth all the time. She's a little gumby! (Nice turn out too, Teresa and Corrie!)

Tierzah had her medical exam yesterday. Diagnosis - healthy baby. She is 18 lbs and 23' long. She seems very tall to me. Much bigger than Anniston.

Tomorrow is our last appointment. We meet with the American Consulate for the Oath-taking ceremony. After that, it's all official on the US side. Since we are already official on the China side, that will make it official all the way around!

I will send a bunch a pics now and this will likely be the last post, unless I can figure out something less expensive or free! We are back home on Saturday am, so I'll see/talk to you all soon!

Love - Shannon

Happy Memorial Day!

A quick note from Desi:

I haven't heard from Shannon since they left Hunan, but I'm sure she'd want to wish you all a happy Memorial day and say a big thanks to all of our Veterans.

Thank you for your service!

Today is our last day in Hunan. This afternoon we board a plane and head to Guangzhou, our final destination in China. We are there until Friday evening (Friday morning for you). We are hopeful that getting around and eating will be a bit less challenging. According to our current guide, Grace, it should be. We get a new guide there. I hope she is as good as this one. Grace is awesome - very cute and fun. I included a picture of her on this blog.

I am packing and the girls are with Grandma in the pool. It has been closed the last 4 days, which was a real bummer. That was about all we could do here. So, Tierzah's first time swimming. She looked pretty cute in the swimsuit (thanks SEE team!) Grandma is taking pictures, so hopefully I can get some sent to Desi to upload to the blog.

I don't know what kind of computer access we'll have in the new hotel. I may have to resort to using Sheryl's phone. If so, it will cut back on pictures, but I'll do my best.

Enjoy the pictures. They are from Leishi park, which we visited yesterday. It is a beautiful park, but it was raining and foggy, so we didn't stay long. We'll, bye from Changsha, Hunan!

PS - I have attached several pics

The group is all the people we are traveling with.
The girl with Piper on the ride is Sommer, her new friend from California. She is traveling with us.
The rest should be self explanatory.

(By the way, you can click on any picture to see it bigger - Desi)

Well today is our last full day in Hunan. Tomorrow afternoon we head to Guangzhou for our last trek of this adventure. Yesterday was pretty boring around here. We went to the embroidery factory in the morning and then back to the hotel for a whole lot of nothing. You really can't get around here very easily. It isn't even a good idea to just walk around outside. It is so busy here. It makes a walk around Manhattan look like a walk around Lake Harriet. Really! The cars will drive on the sidewalk because the traffic on the street is so bad. You have to be careful because (you were so right, Dad) whatever is bigger has the right-a-way. Even in the cross-walk or on the sidewalk!

Today we are going to Leishi Park. We are looking forward to just being out in the air.

Tierzah is really blossoming. She is chatting away and smiling more, but still not easily. She smiles mostly for Piper and she is quickly becoming "Daddy's girl". It's really sweet to watch Aaron with her. He is smitten! I'll send more pics later today. Right now I am including a few of the novelty pics from Walmart - Bon appetit!

Love and miss you all so much!
Shannon

Yesterday was a great day with Tierzah. She really has started to come out a bit. She is playing and making baby noises and smiling a little. The first couple days she was very stoic. Our guide, Grace, said it is very common. They don't show a lot of expression because they don't have a lot of interaction, so don't learn how to show expression. I find that very sad. But she is starting to! She seems to be learning her name and she knows no and night night. Aaron says that to her and she goes right to sleep!

She finally pooped! Yeah! I don't think I have never been so pleased at that!

I am sending a couple of pics. We are in a hurry to go on a tour of an embroidery factory. I'll send more later.

Shannon

It's official!

As of yesterday it is official - she is legally ours as far as the Chinese government is concerned! We still have the American Consulate appt, which requires way more hoops than the Chinese government, but I am not worried. We've got everything we need.

She slept beautifully again last night. Very solid for about 9 hours. She woke up pretty cranky. She is teething and hasn't had a bowl movement since we've had her. I am really pushing apple juice today to see if we can get that moving. I did give her Gripe water this morning (Thank Kerstin!) about 5 minutes later - happy baby!

Piper had a great moment with her after breakfast. She was holding and rocking her and she fell asleep. Piper was so proud of herself. She said "I've never put a baby to sleep before!"

Food has been tough here - pretty weird things. Frozen Alligator heads and freeze dried pig faces at Walmart! (And you wanted to eat here Dr. Walker!) We enjoyed McDonalds for lunch and Papa Johns for dinner last night - boy would I love a cold glass of skim milk right now. They only have whole powdered milk here.

Today we are going to a museum. It's supposed to be pretty cool. I'll let you know.

By for now - home in 9 days! Whoo hooo - daddy - bring skim milk to the airport please!!!!!!

FYI - I can get and respond to emails. I just can't access the blog. Certain things are blocked in China - Blogspot and facebook are 2 of them.

Love you!
Shannon

She is scared - very stoic. Doesn't cry, but fusses. She has a cold. She slept great last night - about 10 hours and when she woke, she didn't expect anyone to get her. She just laid there. She isn't eating great. I couldn't get her to eat at all yesterday, but she did take a bottle this morning. she is teething too! Gave her a bit of tylenol.

Piper is trying so hard to make her happy. She did get 3 smiles and a giggle, better than anyone else has done, but for the most part she just looks at whomever is holding her. She doesn't like to be put down either. Just held.

Can't wait to be home - the food here is challenging. Yesterday on the Western Buffet they had whole cooked turtles and fried snake!!!!!! I am eating a lot of watermelon.

We have her!

We have her! She is so beautiful and so sweet. She has hardly fussed. She is sleeping soundly right now. We'll see how long that lasts. She is bigger than I thought she'd be. 12 months fits well. She is long. Not chubby, but healthy. It has been a busy day. Tomorrow we have appointments. Pictures! Enjoy.

Monday morning in China

It is 8:30 Monday morning here. We are waiting to meet our guide to go the bank and change our money to Yuan for the adoption fees. We meet Grace (our guide) at 10:30. There is another family here with a 6 year old girl - Summer. Her and Piper have really hit it off. They are having a lot of fun together. The kids are going to stay here with Vern and Sheryl while we go to the bank. When we get back, I have to go with Grace to Walmart and get the necessities for Tierzah. There was a mix up (of course) and the baby backpack with all the supplies needed for Tierzah that I paid for didn't happen, so now we need to scramble to get stuff.

Then we meet later today (2:30) to go to civil affairs to get Tierzah! Finally - today. I guess you could say I am now in active labor! I will post pictures later today, so look for them when you wake in the morning!

Love and miss you all
Shannon

Update from Shannon!

Hello from Hunan! It is 5:30 am here. We have been up since 3:30. The time zone thing is really kicking us - especially Piper. She took a 4 hour nap today! We couldn't wake her up. By 8:00 she was out cold again and now, up watching Hannah Montana!

This hotel is beautiful! This place is interesting, but very different than home. We can't find skim milk! In fact, we had Papa Johns for dinner! So much for eating like the locals. They do have a fabulous buffet breakfast here. It is included in the price of the hotel and it's huge and WESTERN! I had a great omelet and bacon.

Last night Sheryl and I ventured out to Walmart - yes, I typed Walmart. It was an 8 RMB cab ride (about $1.50 US) to an area of town which resembles Time Square - only more people! Things are very face paced here, which I didn't expect.

Today is Sunday and we will join with 2 other families today. One family we met briefly in Guangzhou. They were on our flight from LA and were heading first to Beijing. They have a 6 year old daughter - Summer. It was nice for her and Piper to meet. She seamed like a pretty fun kid, so having them with us traveling will be nice.

Ok - Time for a shower! We get Tierzah tomorrow at 3:00. We are 13 hours ahead of you, so it will be 2:00am Monday for you. I'll try to get pics up as soon as we can.

Love you and miss you all - Shannon

Hi everyone! This is Shannon's cousin Desi, and I'm test-posting for her before they leave for China tomorrow. I'm excited to be able to help out and keep everyone updated while they're there, and I can't wait to meet Tierzah!

Here are a few pictures of her:

We leave tomorrow!

That time has finally arrived. We leave tomorrow. While I am not looking forward to the 29 hours of travel we have ahead of us, I am looking forward to getting there and getting her.

We leave tomorrow at 5:00pm and arrive at our final destination on Friday at 11:10 am (which is 7:10 pm on Thursday here.

We take custody of Tierzah on Monday, May 24 at 10:30 am (which is 6:30 pm on Sunday, May 23rd here)

Posting is going to be a bit tricky, but my fabulous cousin, Desi is going to handle it for me. I'll be able to email her and she'll post here for me - Thank you, Desi. Love you!

Thanks for all of your support, prayers and friendship as we have gone though this long journey.

See you in a few weeks! Shannon

Flight Fiasco!

So, last night (April 19) at 6:30 pm I received an email from our Travel Agent stating that our flight from LA to Changsha was canceled and that the airlines booked us on a flight the next day which would get us into Changsha on Monday afternoon instead of Sunday afternoon. This is not good. We get Tierzah on Monday morning and this can't be changed.

There is no plan leaving a day early, but there is one leave 2 days early - May 19th. So, our Agent tried to book us there and the flight with full! We were placed on the waiting list. Our agent called the powers to be at Southern China Air ( and with the help of THE power to be) got us all (5 of us) on that over booked flight. Seat assignments too! PRAISE GOD!

I have been told this is the first of possibly many stumbles as we head toward this journey. Please continue to pray.

Thanks
Shannon

We have plane tickets!

It is official - we have plane tickets! We (Aaron, Piper, Vern, Sheryl and I) leave for Hunan on May 21, 2010 at 5:00 pm. We loose a day on the trip, so we get there at 10:00 on May 23rd! We take custody of Tierzah on May 24th. She'll be with us the remainder of the stay.

We have several appts while we are in China to finalize the adoption. We'll return back to Minnesota with our new baby girl on June 5th.

I'll post again when there is more to tell and we'll keep you posted while we are in China.

The beginning of the end - finally!

In October, 2005 we made the decision to adopt a baby girl from China. They told us it would be 6-8 month once our paperwork was logged in China. We logged in on April 11, 2006 and prepared to bring home our daughter. Then we waited...

March 1, 2010 we received our first glimps of our daughter. It's been a long 6-8 months. Seams like 4 years? Oh wait, it is!

Her Chinese name is Yong Xiau Bo (last, first, middle). She was born August 9, 2009 in Hunan Province. We have given her a new name - Tierzah Sharon - after my mom. She would have loved her!

This is where we begin our journey. I'll post things here as there is more information and when we travel, I'll try to keep you posted here.