Re-Adopt Process

On Wednesday, we sent out the paperwork (and payment) to an adoption attorney in Jacksonville to start the re-adopt process for Saiya.  This process can be complicated, which is why we hired a lawyer.  After the paperwork required for the actual adoption, we are ready for a break and so, we paid the fee for someone else to do the paper-chase.  It wasnt that expensive and saves us alot of headache.

The re-adoption process is simply a re-legalization of our adoption of Saiya.  What this means is that, although our adoption was legalized in China, we would have a hard time getting records and other documents should we ever need copies of things like birth certificates and her adoption certificate.  The re-adoption would allow us to get a Florida State issued birth certificate and adoption certificate.  It makes things MUCH easier for her in the long run if we ever needed copies of her paperwork for any reason.

Once our paperwork is filed with the state and we get a court date, we will drive to Jacksonville to meet the judge and maybe take another oath in court.  Afterwards, we can have a picture of our family with the judge for Saiya to keep.

This is the very last step in a long process and we could not be happier with our daughter and the joy and love she brings to our family!

Saiya’s Pony Party

This Saturday we had Saiya’s birthday party at Happy Hooves horse ranch.  The party started at 2:30 and we had five kids there.  A couple of girls from Saiya’s dance class were there and she had a blast!  I think she had more fun playing on the play sets than actually petting/feeding/riding the animals on the farm.

Overall, she had a great time.  She did not really like feeding the animals that much.  She doesn’t like them slobbering on her and she was afraid they would bite her.  Most of the time we fed the animals, she was in our arms and we fed the animals while she pet them.  There were a few moments where the goats and sheep thought she had food and would nose her.  She didn’t like that.

She liked the pony ride and had a blast with the hand painting and present opening (of course!).  We had a hot dog feast for the kids and a cup-cake-cake with a My Little Pony on it.  Saiya had a great day and promptly fell asleep in the car ride home.

Happy Birthday Baby!!

Next year, though, I think we will just do something small with our family and one or two friends of Saiya’s at Chuck E Cheese.  No more big parties for us for a little bit.

Are you Happy?

This weekend I worked while Chris watched Saiya. She was being difficult most of Sunday, so Chris let my sister take her for a few hours so that she could burn off some energy playing with her cousins. When I got home last night, we met my sister at the store to pick up Saiya and she was back to being her difficult self. I scolded her several times in the store and again when we got home. Finally when I was putting her to bed, she looked at me and said:

Saiya: Mama, are you happy?
Me: Yes, mama’s happy.
Saiya: Then why you scream at me?
Me: Mama didn’t scream at you, mama scolded you because you were misbehaving at the store.
Saiya: Does mama still love Saiya?

Of course at this point in the conversation, my heart was breaking! She has been with us for six months and 5 days and has never needed reassurance from us that we love her and we are happy that she is a part of our family. Truthfully, we never really thought she needed it as she is adjusting so well. I think sometimes we forget that adopted children can have those kinds of issues. The conversation continued:

Me:  Of course mama loves Saiya! No matter if Saiya is being good or bad or silly or sad, Mama will ALWAYS love Saiya!
Saiya:  Because I'm pretty?
Me:  Aww, baby, you are pretty, but thats not why we love you.  We love you because you are our little girl!

The conversation went on like that for about another 20 minutes until she was certain that we loved her. Poor girl. After about 10 minutes of being in bed, she was back to her old silly self, putting her stuffed animals to sleep and calling to me a million times for kisses and hugs. It was a very strange half an hour conversation with my daughter that I mistakenly assumed we wouldn’t need.

Here’s to learning something new everyday!

Working Hard and Saiya's Birthday

I was away working in Massachusetts for the weekend.  There was a problem with the treatment machine, so I was able to come home a day early.  I had been gone for four days.  Poor Chris was doing a great job with Saiya while I was gone.  She still wont let him rock her at night or read her a story (apparently, thats a Mama job).  Everynight she would crawl into bed and make sure he knew that "as soon as mama comes home, chee chee (kiss), rock me, read me".  Then thunk!  Out like a light.  Poor thing.  So when I got home one day early, we were running around town to get some more wood and stuff for the little fort I was building for her.  The whole entire car trip she was singing "Happy!  Happy!  Happy!  i'm so HAPPY!!"  I said, "why are you happy?"  She replied "Cause I love the mama!!  And the Baba!  And it's Mama, Baba, and Saiya!".  AWWWW!!!  Its hard to work and be away, and feels so good to some home to a happy little girl!!  (above is the fort I built for her out of left over fence pieces, it came out GREAT and the kids LOVE it!)

On another note, today is Saiya's birthday!  Happy birthday baby!  We are planning a party at the same ranch where she went for her Christmas Pony Ride.  We did not invite that many kids, but I know she will have fun.

As a follow-up to my last post, I found a purple Violin on EBay for real cheap (who knew they even came in that color!?), so I bought one for her birthday!  :)  I hope she likes it and that having something that she loves will help foster her love of music.

First Violin Lesson

We signed Saiya up for Violin lessons last week.  Monday was her first lesson.  Her teacher is very nice and has a daughter who started on the violin when she was 3!  Saiya was a little grumpy at the music lesson because she had been running around with her cousin, playing hard all day (there was no school).  She was being somewhat cooperative when Ms. Dana, her teacher, was going over the parts of the violin.  After about 20 minutes she was pretty much done listening and became really cranky.  The 1/4 violin that I rented was entirely too big for her.  We had to measure her and get a much smaller one (a 1/10).  Who knew they come that small!!  I hope she likes it!  I promised her that if she practices really hard and really likes it, I will buy her a purple violin- which she specifically requested about a hundred times (can you guess what her favorite color is??).  Next week she should be more cooperative since she wont be playing with her cousin all day and be so tired.  :)  Here's hoping!

Our Visit with Wei Ying (aka Annie)

When we were getting ready to travel to China, we thought we would have the opportunity to travel with two other families. As it turned out, we ended up traveling to China alone and two of the other children in the SWI where Saiya is from left before we traveled to pick her up. One of those little girls was Wen Wen, who we saw over Christmas break in Indiana, the other was Wei Ying, who we saw this past week while her family was visiting Florida.

Wednesday night, we invited her family over for dinner. We had a nice relaxing time with Jeanne and Andy while the girls played. As soon as Annie (Wei Ying) walked into the house, she looked at Saiya and said “You Ai!!”. She recognized her immediately. It was so cute that she remembered who she was!

The girls played for a couple of hours and then the next day, we all went to the zoo. The zoo was awesome! It was the second time we have taken Saiya to the zoo.  She LOVES it!  It was too bad the giraffes were not out so that we could feed them.  The rhinos were very cooperative though!

The girls had a great time! I am so glad that Saiya got to spend a little bit of time with her friend from the orphanage. Many thanks to her family for taking the time out of their vacation to come and visit with us!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Saiya had a Valentine's Day dance today at school.  All of the kids were supposed to dress up in fancy clothes for the party.  It was SO cute!  Here are a few pictures I thought I would share.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!