New Information (YAY Updates!)

Thanks to our wonderful agency pushing the Orphanage in China, we received some new updated information about Tian Xing (aka. Xylie).  We were also fortunate enough to get some updated pictures!  She is so beautiful!  We are so happy and excited about this little girl!



Here is what the orphanage had to say about her:

田星身高 height 85cm，体重 weight 12kg，头围 head 47.5cm，胸围 chest


50.5cm，牙齿 teeth 20颗，足长 foot 13cm，智力发育正常，语言发育良好，能

说5个字的句子。mental development on target. good language skills and

can speak 5 words sentences.
 
 
She is currently one year younger than Saiya was when we picked her up from China and this girl is almost exactly the same size.  Given that, I am very sure that Xylie is going to outgrow Saiya very quickly.  Poor Saiya!  On the upside, at least we know what size clothing and shoes to bring to China with us.  There were many things we brought for Saiya that were way to big and we ended up not using it or using pins to hold it up.
 
We can't wait to go to China to pick her up!

New AfterCare Program and Fingerprints

Yesterday we had an interview/tour of the Space Coast Early Intervention Center. We are considering moving Saiya there for aftercare. She is picking up a lot of bad habits from school and very quickly losing her ability to show compassion and empathy towards less fortunate children. School is the one place where kids learn to be mean and nasty to each other. The other night she came home in serious trouble for calling her cousin a “loser”. At the same time, she is really struggling with her confidence and self esteem. She does her work just fine at home and can count, add, and knows all of her Chinese words, but at school, she has trouble. She brings home zeros on her tests. Its frustrating because we know she can do the work and that she knows her letters and numbers, but the teachers are telling us that she struggles with the workload. I really think she took a hit when she started kindergarten because she is no longer the “little helper” but now she is the kid who needs help, is the smallest and sometimes doesn’t understand the idiosyncrasies of the American culture. She is behind by about a year in social development and maturity level. We are hoping the change to a new aftercare program will help.

The Early Intervention Center works with kids with and without special needs or delays and helps them get on track. We really think this is the best place for her. Right now, her aftercare program consists of doing her homework, coloring pre-printed pictures, and playing on the playground. There are structured activities at the Early Intervention Center that help the kids progress and develop better. Hopefully she will have her “in room evaluation” today and she can start there on Monday. It’s a little bit of extra work, since we have to pick her up from school and drop her there everyday, but we really hope it will help her confidence and self esteem. She really has been struggling the last two months in Kindergarten as far as social level and independence.


On another note, today we drove out to Orlando for finger printing for the USCIS. We received our home study addendum on Monday and I express mailed it to the USCIS office in Texas on Tuesday. We are moving right along with Xylie’s adoption and we are still so excited about bringing her home. I know that Saiya is really going to enjoy having a sister!

Pre-Approval from China

We received our pre-approval from China! This means that China has received our petition to adopt Tian Xing from China. We will be getting tags and the orphanage address very soon so that we can send her a care package.  We already have a ton of stuff for the first care package.  We will probably end up sending three care packages between now and when we leave for China sometime near April of next year.  We are so excited to be going back to China and can't wait to bring home our little girl!

Halloween Fun

Saiya is going to be Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween.  I finished making the cloak for her (which she LOVES!) and I just had to get a few pictures!  Nyxa was a great addition too!  :)  hahahaha!  Get it??

Boo at the Zoo

On Friday, we took the kids to Boo at the Zoo.  It is a Halloween event for kids held at the Brevard County Zoo.  Every year, they have carnival acts (jugglers, dancers, ect.) and arts and crafts, candy trails and a haunted house.  This year was the first year we went.  Saiya and the other kids had a great time.  They got to dress up and run around the zoo at night collecting candy and having a great time.  There were games for the kids, prizes, and even a place to roast marshmallows.  Saiya has grown so much since last year!  We are so excited to see her begin to really enjoy one of my favorite holidays!

Referral!!

Wednesday of last week, we received a referral of a little girl with a liver duct cyst. Her paperwork was a little frustrating as it was translated into Spanish. So here we are with a chinese version and a spanish version, but no english version. Fortunately enough, my spanish reading abilities have stuck with me over the years. I managed to muddle through it and then used MS word and Google translate to help with the more complicated stuff. Once I had a fairly good translation of the spanish document, I sent a copy to my mother-in-law and one of our Radiation Oncologists here at MIMA (thank you both for all your help!).  According to the orphanage, this little girl is very healthy after her surgery but might have some developmental delay.  At the same time, they say she is very smart, so we are thinking that her motor skills are a little behind due to her cyst preventing her from getting the right amount of vitamins.  With some work and proper nurtition, we should be able to correct any delays.

After hearing what they had to say and hours of discussion and thought about this little girl, we decided to go ahead and accept her referral. She will be four on April 4, 2012. The only pictures we have of her are fairly old. We have nothing more recent except for one that is black and white and VERY fuzzy. Saiya is super excited as we now have a closer estimate of when we will travel to China, provided we have no major hiccups along the way. We should be traveling between May and June of next year.

So much to do between now and then! Guess we better get started!

Camping Trip!

This weekend we packed the car, and headed to Deland for a camping trip that I have been planning for about 5 months.  This was Saiya's first camping trip.  She had a blast!  Friday night we took the little ferry over to Hontoon Island, where the campsites are and we set up our tents and got everyone settled.  The kids were wired from all the excitement so it took them a long time to fall asleep.  Saiya and Syrafina shared one of my little kiddie tents (it was the perfect size for the two of them).  Saturday, we bought the kids bug keepers and they were all entertained for HOURS playing "catch and release" with various types of critters that would fit in the little plastic containers.  Saturday night we roasted marshmellows and played games and then it was off to bed early for the kids.  Sunday was a simple day of packing up our gear and heading home.  Poor Saiya was exhausted and crashed in bed at 6:30 last night.  But she did have fun, we even had a little excitement from the local wildlife!

This was the campsite across from us.  The bear found a few yummy things to eat over there!