6 Month Home Study Visit

Friday, we had our 6 month home study visit.  We had not seen the social worker for over a year and a half, although it didn’t seem like it has been that long!  She was really impressed with the progress we have made with Saiya and how well she is adjusting.  As soon as Saiya realized that the social worker was there to see her, she was all about the attention.  She kept wanting to show her all her toys and her room and then insisted on sitting down and reading to her.  We talked about how well she is doing in school and where we are with attachment and bonding.  We are really very lucky, (and happy) that we have no issues in either of those areas.  I think that the social worker was a little surprised at how outgoing Saiya is.  We had a nice lunch of simple sandwiches, showed the social worker pictures of our family with Saiya (to be sent to China with the home study report) and then the visit was over.  Saiya even gave the social worker a hug before she left.  I know that she left knowing that Saiya was a treasured part of a good family!  I can’t wait until the 1 year home study visit and see how much she has grown and adapted to our family!

Fun Filled Weekend!

This weekend, we had a great time!  On Saturday, Saiya had dance class.  Saiya still LOVES her dance class!  Her recital is May 22 and she is so excited!  They are doing a little tap dance to a medly of Elvis songs.  It is too CUTE!!

After dance class, we went to Umma’s and Umpa’s house for the day.  Saiya got to go to Rockledge Gardens’ little bug club.  They made mini worm compost buckets.  Saiya loved making the garden sign, she even wrote her own name!  She wasn’t too happy about picking out the worms, and wouldn’t hold them in her hand.  She would, however, poke at them with the little shovel that came with the bucket.  Poor wormies.  After we made the buckets, Umma bought her a flower to put in her garden and then took us out to ice cream.

After we got back to Umma’s house, Saiya played with a puzzle with Umpa.  She had a blast!  I’m still amazed at how long of an attention span she has.  Umpa said she will be working on her Ph.D. By the time she is 20.  Hahaha!!

Saiya had a great day!

Birthday Party at the Ice Rink

Sunday we had Sebastian’s birthday party at the ice skating rink.  Saiya has never been on skates before, but she had a blast!  Most of the time, I was holding her hand, but she can skate pretty well on her own without needing to hold both hands.  She’s a natural!  Its too bad that we don’t have a skating rink closer to our house.  This one is about 35-40 minutes away.  She had fun though!

No More Rails

Saturday morning, I awoke to a small girl tip-toeing into my room whispering “Mama” at 5am.  I asked her what she wanted sleepily wondering how she managed to get out of bed on her own with the rails in the way.  I took her to the potty and put her back to bed.  At 7am, she tip-toed back into my room and asked for breakfast.

So, we made the decision that it was time for the rails to come down off of her bed.  Chris took them down Saturday morning.  Saturday night, Saiya was getting ready for bed, and noticed they were gone.  She had a shocked look on her face and said “where’d they go?”.  I told her that baba put them out in the garage.  Well, she would not go to bed until we showed her were they were.  So, Chris took her out to the garage to show her that they were still out there and we told her if she fell out of bed, we would put them back up.

So far, two nights and she is fine.  So, I think we are done with the rails.  Maybe we can use them for a tree fort or something….

Time to Relax!

Today we spent the day with my sister and my mother.  My mom treated all of us to Pedicures and a really nice lunch!  Saiya had a blast and even got her toes painted, which was the highlight of her day!  Thank you Nana for an awesome Girl's Day Out!

Catching Up - Our Visit with Wen Wen (aka Matteah)

Last year, we were supposed to travel to China with another family in the middle of July to get Saiya.  We didnt end up traveling until late August, but Saiya's friend Wen Wen got to home in July.  Her family lives in Winsconsin and travels to Kentucky every year between Christmas and New Year's while the kids are on break.  On their way through Indiana, we arranged for Saiya and Wen Wen (aka Matteah) to play together.  We drove down to Indianapolis and Matteah's mother stopped for a break at the local Chuck-E-Cheese so that the girls could play.  I'm not sure if they remembered each other and I would give almost anything to know what they were thinking when they first saw each other.  I asked Saiya repeatedly if she knew who Wen Wen was and if she knew what happened to her.  She told me that Wen Wen had a mama and baba now and that she went with them.  But when she first saw her at the restaurant, I asked her if she recognized her and she said no.  Now if you ask her, she knows exactly who Wen Wen is and smiles alot when we talk about how much fun she had playing with her and her sister.  Still, it would be nice to know what goes on in her mind and whether she really remembered her friend from the orphanage or not.  I hope that we can continue to arrange play dates for them.  I think its really important for Saiya to know what happened to her friend and being from the same orphanage will be something they will both share forever.

Catching Up - Visiting Grandpa in Indiana

The day after Christmas we flew to Indiana to visit with Chris's grandfather and have Saiya meet the rest of his family.  We usually travel over Thanksgiving, but that didnt work out this year.  So, we bundled up well and hopped on the plane for Indiana.  We stayed at Chris's grandfather's house and from minute one, Saiya had him wrapped around her little finger!  I would scold her for something and he would say "Stop making that little girl cry."  Hahaha!  It was funny.

There were presents there for her when we arrived, one of which was a sledding-saucer.  There was lots of snow, so we took her outside with Chris's cousin and she went sledding for the first time.  We even got to try the sled out ourselves!  Unfortunately, we only got to go out and play in the snow the first day we were there since the weather got too warm for it to stick around for vey long.

On day two we went to see Tangled at the movie theater.  This was the first movie we took Saiya to see a movie and she did great!  She loved the movie (which was very cute) and sat through the whole thing.  She only got a little restless at the end when she started to complain that she was hungry.

Before the movie, we went to the cemetary so that Chris could visit with his mom and grandma.  Saiya picked out flowers for the graves and said hello to them while we were there.  It's heartbreaking that she never got to meet either of them.  They were both amazing women.  It is our hope, though, that she will learn about who they were from us.  We miss them very much...

She got to meet many family members and took to everyone (and all the attention) like a fish to water!  She did great the whole time we were up there and traveled really well.  I love visiting up there and can't wait until later this year when we can go again.  Hopefully we will be able to travel around Thanksgiving like we usualy do so that we can visit with more of Chris's family.  We really didnt have enough time to see everyone and it was a shame that Saiya could not meet them all.