Here we go again!!

Our first home study visit is scheduled for this coming Monday.  Our social worker, Amber, is traveling all the way from Ormond Beach.  We really appreciate her taking the time to come and see us and for her agency (Embraced by Grace) doing the home study for us.  The new Chinese regulations have certainly made things more difficult and slightly more expensive for us this time around.

I started on the major cleaning yesterday, and because I am gone for the weekend with my sister and her other bridesmaid celebrating her bachelorette party, we will have to complete ALL of the cleaning of the house this week and then hope and pray that is stays clean for the entirety of the weekend...

Back to cleaning I go!!  Wish us luck!!

Happy Fourth of July!

Sunday night we took Saiya to our town’s Fourth of July celebration.  They had a live band and tons of food and fun for all.  Saiya was having a blast dancing to the music and chowing down on ice cream and mini corn dogs.  I even managed to buy one of those glowy butterfly wands for $2 for her (they usually cost $5).  The lady said it was broken, but we got it to work, so good deal!  Once the sun went down and the fireworks started, Saiya was a grumpy monkey.  She doesn’t really like loud noises, and I figured she would hate the fireworks, but it was her first July 4^th, so we had to try.  She started to cry while the fireworks were going off and kept complaining that she wanted to go home.  Poor kid.  I covered her ears with my hands and let her sit on my lap, then she promptly fell asleep.  She was a sack of potatoes the rest of the night.  Even after it took us 45 minutes to even get out of the parking lot!  She had a really long, tiring weekend.

Prepping the Nest

Last week Chris and I looked around online and at a few used-furniture stores for new beds for Saiya and her new sister.  My sister was having a garage sale this weekend and I really wanted to put Saiya’s old mattresses and stuff in it, so we were a little pressed to find new beds before then.  I randomly went to goodwill on Tuesday and found two ADORABLE beds with rails included!  The wooden one was $25 and the metal one was $15.  I sent pictures of them to Chris and stood around like an idiot for about ten minutes waiting for him to respond on whether or not he liked them.  Finally, after what seemed like forever, he said sure.

We already had box springs from my mom’s old King bed, so all we needed were mattresses, which I decided to purchase new for the girls.  Well, I was so excited, we went to Walmart to buy bedding (we had no twin sized sheets or anything).  When I finally got everything home, we found out that the box springs for a king bed are a good 4 inches longer than a standard twin….  Who knew?  I was so mad!  So on Wednesday and Thursday, I found fairly good box springs on Craigslist for $20 each.  So, after a few days of frustration, Saiya’s room is finally back together and looking more adorable than ever!!

Yay!! New beds!!  Saiya LOVES her new bed, although she already fell off once.  She is still getting used to having less space.  She is definately excited, she tells everyone who comes over that the other bed in her room is for her sister!

The Decision

After months of deliberation and conversation and weighing the pros and cons, Chris and I have finally come to a decision.  We have decided to go back to China to adopt another little girl.  We considered another country, but there are so many reasons to go back to China.  We filed the paperwork with CAWLI (the same agency we used to adopt Saiya) last week and we have been working on gathering all of the paperwork and arrangning a social worker.  We would have liked to use the same home study agency as we did for Saiya's adoption, but China has changed its foreign adoption regulations and now requires that the home study be completed by a Hague Accredited agency, which Florida Home Studies and Adoption is not.  So we found another agency that is (Embraced by Grace) which was willing to complete our home study for us.  I must admit, the second time around, the process is so much easier, and considerably less stressful.  I'm not sure if that is because we already have a wonderful daughter who we can enjoy while we wait or because we already know the process and therefore there should be few surprises.  Maybe a little of both.  We already have the vast majority of the paperwork completed and ready for the social worker.

We are so excited to be opening our home to another little girl.  We have talked with Saiya about bringing home a sister and she is all for it!  I think one conversation went something like this:

Me:  Saiya, what do you think about Mama and Baba getting a sister for you?
Saiya:  A sister?  From China?  YES please!
Me:  are you sure?  it means you will have to share all of your stuff, all your panda bears and your room, and you will have to share time with mama and baba too.  So when mama rocks you, she will have to rock her too.
Saiya:  I do share, i share with syrafina, but she not sharing with me.
Me:  baby, this will be different, Syrafina doesnt live here, your sister will live here, are you sure you can share with her?
Saiya:  Um... yup!  I try hard mama.  I promise, I share with my sister!

Now we are in the process of looking for new furniture (Saiya has a queen bed in her room which we are trading out for two twin beds) and deciding on a name.  So far we have:

Adlae
Kiori
Nyomi
Xylie
Yumae

At first, we picked out Nyomi,  but I am really liking Xylie so much better.  Chris is indifferent to Xylie, hence the predicament...  Ideas are always welcome.  :)

Happy Father’s Day!

This weekend was our first Father’s Day!  Saiya and I went shopping for presents for Baba and bought him some t-shirts and movies.  She made a picture frame at school for him.  She was so excited to give him all his presents that she was pulling them out of the bag for him as he was reading the cards.  It was cute!

On Saturday, we went to Seaworld.  Saiya has never been to Seaworld and even though it was unbearably hot, we all had a great time.  We played some of those carnival games and I won Saiya a HUGE stuffed dolphin, which she LOVES!  Of course, then we had to carry it around the whole park with us the rest of the day.  We watched the Shamu show, which Saiya loved, and then went to see the polar bears and whales and dolphins.  We had a lovely lunch at the Shark restaurant there.  She got to feed the seals and sealions in the pacific coast exhibit and she loved watching the dolphins in the underwater viewing areas.  It was a little disappointing that she was too short to even ride on any of the rides in the kiddie area.  By the time we were ready to leave, she was exhausted.  But she didn’t complain once while we were in the park.  She only started to complain about the heat and her poor tired feet as we were walking back to the car.

Sunday, we had a fairly relaxing day, Saiya went to see Mr. Pauper’s Penguins with nana while we watched the Green Lantern with Chris’s dad.  Later that afternoon, we had a lovely dinner at Carrabas with Uma and Umpa.

Overall, we had a fantastic weekend!  Saiya did great at Seaworld!!  Happy Father’s day to all the dads out there!

Dance Recital

Sorry, I’m a little behind with this post, but I was waiting on pictures!  On May 22, Saiya had her first dance recital.  She had a blast and did so well!  I was very proud of her.  The day was very busy as we had to be there early and didn’t leave until late, but she did have fun.  Uma, Umpa, Nana the rest of our family all went to see Saiya dance.  The recital lasted about 2 ½ hours.  After the recital, we went to dinner with the family at Olive Garden.

Saiya’s class did a tap dance to a medley of Elvis songs.  It was soooooo CUTE!

Summer Fun in the Sun!

A good friend of mine gave us a kiddie pool for our puppies.  The puppy hated it, but Saiya loves it!  She spent hours splashing around in there.  We literally had to drag her out so we could go grocery shopping.  :)  She is getting so comfortable around water.  I am willing to bet she will be swimming by the end of the summer.  Last weekend, she was paddling around my friend's pool with her star-fish tube around her.  She spent hours swimming back and forth across the pool, she didnt care that she couldnt touch bottom and was happy as a clam splashing around.

Yay Summer!