Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

We went to Myrtle Beach this weekend with my in-laws to visit family and have a nice little vacation.  It took us about 10 hours to drive up there.  Saiya was such a trooper in the car!  She played, colored, and watched movies in the car.  She didn’t complain at all, there was no whining and she really was fantastic the whole way!

The first day we were there, we went to the aquarium.  Saiya loved the aquarium!  The shark tank was amazing and Saiya loved playing with the horseshoe crabs and rays in the touch tanks.  Later that night, we took her to the pool where she is really learning how to swim!  One of our goals for the summer is for her to learn to swim.  She is already learning to kick with a kickboard, so it really is only a matter of time before she is swimming like a fish!

The second day, we went to a place called MagiQuest.  It is a live action medieval-type game where you run around completing quests with your “magic wand”.  You wave the wand at certain objects in the game area and you collect items and virtual money for your quests.  It was an awesome game!  Saiya had a blast!  She loved to wave the wand at the treasure chests and get all the money from them.  Every time she opened a chest she would say “Yay!  Money!!”.

 On Saturday, we went to the beach to have a picnic with Chris’s dad’s family.  She loved playing in the sand.  I tried to get her to go in the water, but it was a little cold and she didn’t like the waves knocking her all over the place.  Later that night, we went over Chris’s cousin’s house for a BBQ and she had an awesome time playing with her second cousins.

The ride home was a little shorter than the ride up there and Saiya did great in the car.  She travels so well!  I am shocked that a five-year-old can sit in a car for 8-10 hours and not complain at all!

We had a great time!  Thank you very much Uma and Umpa for inviting us on the vacation!  More pictures to come!

Mommy and Me Tea Party

On Friday, Saiya's school hosted a Mommy and Me Tea Party in honor of Mother's Day.  I was unable to go because I had a meeting, so my sister volunteered to go in my place.  Saiya was so excited that she was going to have someone there with her for the tea party.  On Friday morning, my sister had to cancel because of something she had to do for school and Saiya was so disappointed.  According to the teachers, she cried a little when she realized my sister wasnt going to be there.

In order to make it up to her, while Chris was working today, I held a special Tea Party just for Saiya and I.  We had strawberry/cream cheese danishes and all the juice we could drink out of our special wine glasses I pulled down from the cupboard.  She was thrilled to have a special Tea Party with me and I think it really made her feel special, and hopefully it made up for us not being able to be at her tea party at school.

Yesterday, Chris and Saiya brought home a whole bag full of gifts for Mother's Day.  Saiya made a cake at school and bought some flowers for me.  It was so sweet!!

I love my family!
Happy Mother's Day to all!!  I hope your weekend was as special as ours!

"Where's My Sister…"

We had my niece and nephew for the weekend while my sister was on vacation in New York planning wedding stuff for August.  Saiya and my niece were sharing a her bed while they were with us.  Saturday morning, Saiya came sneaking into our room…

Saiya:  “Mama…?  Mama?  Mama…  My sister’s still asleep.”

Me:  “Huh??  She’s not your sister, Saiya, she’s your cousin.”

Saiya:  “um…  ok.  She’s still sleeping.”

Me:  “That’s ok, Saiya, you can go play, she will be up in a little while.”

Saiya:  “ok!”

It was so cute!  Chris and I were a little shocked and taken by surprise by her calling Syrafina her sister.  So, on Sunday we were at the dance studio taking recital pictures.  I had to be there a little longer than Saiya, so I had Chris come and get her.  I told her that baba was going to be picking her up and she was welcome to go home and play…

Saiya:  “I can go home and play with Sebastian?”

Me:  “Yes and Syrafina.”

Saiya:  “Yay!!  I can go play with my sister!!”

So last night my sister came back home and picked up her kids from us.  It was back to our normal bedtime routine with just me and my daughter.  Saiya was getting ready for bed and turned to me…

Saiya:   “Where’s my sister?”

Me:  “She’s your cousin, she doesn’t live with us.  She went home with her mommy.”

Saiya:  “Why?”

Me:   “Because she lives with them, not with us.”

Saiya:  “oh…  She comes back on Friday?”

Me:  “No, I don’t think so, Baby…”

Saiya:  “oh…” (sad face)

Um… I think my daughter is trying to tell us something…  We haven’t really talked much about going back to China for another little girl, and I think my daughter is slowly getting lonely.  She had a great time while we had my niece and nephew.  Now that they are gone, she is all alone again.  I thought the story was a cute one…  As far as a second child is concerned, only time will tell…

Happy Easter!

This was a busy busy weekend!!  Thursday night, Saiya spent the night with my sister because there was no school on Friday.  Friday night was Dan’s birthday, so we watched her kids.  Saturday we went to the paintball field and spent several hours shooting little balls of paint at each other.  Saiya and Syrafina were content to make “Paint Soup” with the stray paint balls that had fallen on the ground.  They spent hours poking at them with sticks and making a colorful, albeit smelly, mess.  Saturday afternoon, we went home, took showers, and then headed out to see African Cats for Earthday.  It was a great movie, but the younger kids got bored very quickly.  About an hour into the movie, Saiya was grumpy and wanted to leave.  Luckily she managed to sit through it to the end, but she was very happy it was over.

Saturday night my sister stopped by to pick up the kids.  They all went to her house to color eggs for Easter.  I can only assume Saiya had a great time before heading off to bed.  Sunday morning we went over to my sister’s house for an Easter egg hunt.  Saiya and the rest of the kids spent a couple of hours hunting jelly beans and Easter Eggs.  The Easter Bunny even left each of the kids a candy filled basket of goodies.  Saiya had a great time!  Sunday afternoon, we went home and had a nice relaxing afternoon.  Poor Saiya was so tired she was falling asleep at the dinner table.  Poor thing.  So after a quick bath it was off to bed for her.

Overall, we had a great weekend and thank you to my sister and the rest of my family for helping to make Saiya’s first Easter a great one!

Readopt Hearing

Yesterday we drove to Jacksonville for Saiya’s readopt hearing.  We met with the Honorable Linda McCallum who presided over our hearing.  The lawyer asked us a few questions about our family and our daughter and the judge even asked Saiya a few questions.  The hearing was brief, but so important!

After the hearing we headed home.  We planned a big party for Saiya with skewers from the grill and a huge ice cream-cookie cake I had specially made for her.  Both Chris’s family and mine were there!  It was definitely a happy, wonderful day!!

A funny story:  the night before we went to Jacksonville for the readopt hearing, Saiya told me that she wanted to go back to china to see all of her friends.  She misses them.  I told her that she has lots of friends here who love her.  She said they don’t count because they don’t live with us.  Then she said… Mama, I want a baby sister!  HAHA!  We are just now getting through this adoption and we haven’t really thought about going back to China for a second child, but there you have it.  My daughter is lonely and wants a friend who will live with us (aka, a baby sister).  I think also, she doesnt want to be the youngest anymore.  Syrafina is 18 months older and when they play together, she is always the baby while Syrafina gets to play the mommy.  She wants to be the older child for a change.  The same thing happens at school because she is the smallest one in her class.  She loves to help cook and clean and take care of people/pets, but she never really has the opportunity to do so because of her age/size in relation to the kids she is playing with.

Missing China

Saiya is so well adjusted its hard to believe she was adopted from China! She is such a happy girl! We ask her sometimes if she remembers China (which she says she does). Last night she told me that she missed her friends at the orphanage and that she wanted to visit with Wen Wen and Wei Ying again (both children adopted around the same time as her from the same SWI whom we have had the pleasure of meeting up with over the last 8 months here in the States). She went on to tell me that she wanted to take a trip back to China, by herself. And mama and baba can sleep while she is gone. HAHA! After a long moment of thinking she changed her mind about going alone and said that mama and baba can come too.  It was cute!

We know she misses her friends and all of the caretakers over there, but at the same time, she is happy here at home with us. This is the first time since she came home that she has mentioned missing them. I was thinking that she could help us put together a box of pictures and clothes and other items to send the SWI. Maybe that will help her grieve for losing them. We have been doing so amazingly well that we didnt think about this before. I guess now that she has the words/language to express herself that she is becoming more open about how she feels about her adoption, which is a good thing. We are all so happy that she is a part of our family and I know she is too.

I told her when she is older we will take a trip back to China so she can visit where she is from. I also told her that we will try very hard to see Wen Wen and Wei Ying again this year around Christmas time (making sure we are home for Santa, of course!).  She was happy with that resolution.

Hearing Date for Saiya's Re-Adopt

Our hearing is scheduled for April 19, 2011 at 10:45am in the Duvall County Courthouse.  This is in Jacksonville (about 3 hours away from where we live).  We had the option to do the re-adopt here, over the phone, but we really want a picture with the judge for Saiya.  I am very shocked that the process to re-adopt went by so quickly.  We just barely sent out our paperwork to the lawyer about three weeks ago.  We received Saiya's Social Security card in the mail this week and I will be applying for a US passport for her as soon as I get it back from my husband.... HA!

We are so excited and thrilled that this whole process is finally coming to a close.  We have plans to head to Boston in August to visit with our agency so that they can meet Saiya.  :)

We are one happy family!!

Just for fun... Tony the Tiger was at Walmart!!  We just had to get a picture!