Merry Christmas Everyone!

We had a great Christmas this year. Saiya wrote a letter to Santa a few weeks ago and on Friday, we received a letter back from Santa telling Saiya that he will see her on Saturday night and to be a good girl.

Friday night we had our gift exchange with my family. This year was a little harder because Saiya was the only kid home for the holiday. My neice and nephew were in New York with their Father. Because of that, Saiya got a little spoiled in the present department. Saturday morning we drove to Tampa to spend the Christmas weekend with Chris's family. Again, Saiya is the only grandchild, so she was showered with gifts Saturday night and again on Sunday when Santa came.

Saturday afternoon, we baked cookies for Santa and made brownies for after dinner. Saiya is so sweet! She wanted to leave enough cookies out for Santa and all of his Reindeer (because the reindeer will be hungry too). My daughter is so sweet. And smart too! We were out of presents for the rest of us by the time Sunday morning came along, so all the presents under the tree were for her. She kept asking why Santa only brought presents for her (apparently mommy and daddy were bad this year). We explained that Santa doesnt have time to bring all the grown-ups presents too, he only brings presents to kids. She was happy with that answer.

We had a great time in Tampa with family and hope everyone out there had a great Holiday!! We also wish you all the best for the new year and look forward to sharing next year's Christmas adventure with not one, but TWO wonderful little girls!!

DTC FINALLY!!

I know I have been really horrible about keeping up with the blog as of late, but things have gotten really crazy!  We finally finished our Christmas shopping.  Our tree went up the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Saiya had a great time decorating it.  She is so much more aware of the whole Santa Claus thing this year.  She is so very excited that Santa Claus is coming, although she was a little wary because we are not going to be home when he comes.  She was so concerned that he was going to forget where she was going to be.  After alot of reassurance, she is good with traveling over the holiday.  We purchased some toys for Toys For Tots and had her put them in the box at Walmart.  We tried to explain what those toys were for, but I think she might be a little confused since Santa is supposed to bring ALL of the kids toys.  She wanted to know why he didnt bring them toys too.  Poor girl, so logically minded.

Last week, we did come Christmas Shopping and I gave her some money to buy presents for her sister.  She got to carry the money around the store in her purse and picked out items she wanted to give to her sister, adding up the prices and making sure she had enough money.  Then we went to cash out and she put her spoils up on the converyor belt and paid the nice lady.  She was SO excited!!  Tonight I will help her wrap the presents she bought for Xylie so we can put them under the tree.

On the adoption of Xylie, we are FINALLY DTC!!  This means that our documents were sent to China (December 7, 2011).  We have 4-6 weeks before we hear when our Log In Date is.  It should be sometime soon, but we wont find out for 4-6 weeks.  Once we get our Log In Date, we should be getting our Letter of Acceptance which will allow us to file our I-800 with the US government.  We are going to be sending a second care package to China after Christmas with some toys and things we bought for Xylie.

We wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and the very best for the New Year!!

USCIS Approval

We received our USCIS approval for Xylie's adoption on Monday afternoon!  We are super excited as we were getting worried.  Her approval came almost exactly two weeks later than Saiya's approval took to arrive.  Now we are getting together the funds to send to CAWLI so that our paperwork can be sent to China (I went to the bank yesterday but they were closed by the time I got off work-- I will be going today during my lunchbreak to the bank and the post office).  We have about 6 months ahead of us and we are all still very excited!  Especially little Saiya.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We went to Ft Meyers for Thanksgiving weekend with Saiya.  We were visiting family down there.  I'm so glad that Saiya is a great traveler!  We had a great dinner and Saiya had a great time playing with Chris's Cousin Hannah.  We took Saiya to the Shell Factory where she filled a jar full of sea shells and got to watch a hermit crab race.  We were home on Saturday with Sunday to relax a little bit before going back to work.  Thank you to family for letting us stay at your house and eat all your food!

Happy Halloween!

Trick-or-Treating was a blast!  Saiya and 6 other kids in our group had a great time!  Got lots of candy and really enjoyed riding around the neighborhood in the back of my mom's pick-up truck.  It made it easier on us and the kids didnt have to walk as much between houses.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!  Funny that next year, we will be adding one more to the group!  So excited!

On another note, we received the orphanage address and I made tags for the items we want to go to Xylie.  We will be sending a care package out sometime this week.  She will finally get pictures of us and a few things like clothes and stuffed animals.  We really can't wait to go get her from China!

Harvest Festival and Lumpy Bumpy Pumpkins!!

On Saturday we went to the Harvest Festival sponsored by Saiya's school.  It was smaller than I had in mind, but there were bounce houses and games and all of the kids had fun.

Sunday we went GoodWill hopping and I bought a ton of stuff for both Saiya and Xylie.  When I was pulling out stuff for Xylie, Saiya had a (very) brief moment of only-child-jealousy.  We talked about it and when I included  her in helping me pick things out, she was much happier.  I'm sure she is going to be great with her sister!  She was so helpful and absolutely LOVED picking out clothes for Xylie.

Sunday night I went though Saiya's dresser and pulled out somethings that dont fit her any more.  There wasnt much since she hasnt really grown that much in the past year when it comes to clothes.  She has grown INTO her clothes, but not out of them.

Sunday night we also carved pumpkins for Halloween.  Since we waited until the last minute to get pumpkins, we were stuck with ones that were all warty.  The kids took one look at them and Said "EEW!!  I'm not carving that!!"  HAHAHA!  I think they came out great!!

Tonight we Trick-Or-Treat, even if it is raining and miserable!  :)

The Early Intervention Center

Yesterday was Saiya’s first day in her new aftercare program at the Early Intervention Center.  She was there for about three hours and WOW!  What a difference!

Before I dropped her off, she was complaining about going to a new school (again) and having to go all by herself.  I told her, it is the same as big-girl-school and she will be just fine.  All the teachers are very nice and she will make lots of friends.  She said she wanted to go back to Space Coast Montessori and that she missed her teachers.  I walked her to her classroom and showed her where her cubby was and talked to the teachers about her activities and developmental goals and then hugged and kissed her goodbye.

After work, I went to pick her up and the first thing she showed me was that she had gotten two “reward tags”.  When she gets 10 she can get a prize out of the treasure box.  She was so proud of them.  On the way to the car, she was telling me all about her day and that she made lots of friends and was a big help to the teachers.  She got to help the other kids with writing and did a good job listening and reading in the reading circle.

I don’t know what it was about her, but she seemed genuinely happy about this school.  I asked her if she still wanted to go back to Space Coast Montessori and she said “No!  I like my new school better!”

So after one day, there is a significant difference in how my daughter carries herself and her self esteem level.  I am amazed at how much this school makes a difference in my child.  Xylie will definitely be going here when she comes home.  I’m so glad we found this school and I really hope that Saiya will regain her self esteem and confidence here.

On a side note, the Space Coast Early Intervention Center is a non-profit child care/pre-school center that functions through the generosity of local companies and families.  If you would like to help donate to this school and do alot of shopping online, try this out!