Princess in Purple

Dolls not balls!

I keep telling Jade but she's not listening! :>)

This little piggie...

Jade will be 14 months old on the 28th, wow I cant believe we've had her 4 months already. She is standing quite well and holds on to things with one hand and will furniture cruise when she sees something she wants. Brothers are having a good summer and we're looking forward to going to the beach at the end of the month!

Growing and changing by the day

Today Jade started pulling up on everything, the couch, her crib, her Mommy :>) I bet a month from now she will be toddling around! This is the first weekend since we've been back from China that we had nothing planned and it was nice to hang out and watch movies while it rained today. Here are some recent pics. I want to say a special Hi to the State Attorney ladies that have had a special interest in our story!

Purple Hat Society

Our mini reunion

We traveled with 7 families to Chongqing and 2 of them, the Mrkalls and the Northcutts live an hour away! Another family from Maryland , the Deyshers came down and we got the 4 girls together today and oh what a blast it was! These people are all like family to us after the experience that we went thru together. Here are some shots of the girls having fun! From left to right of the 4: Micah, Anna, Keira and Jade......

Scooter

Miss Jade is crawling and is starting to get into mischief! She has all 4 top teeth coming in at once and has been a bit crabby. The boys are really helpful with her when I need to get something done. All in all, life is settling in nicely and it feels like she is completely part of us now....Here is a picture of her crawling and one of her wanting me to pic her up or give her the camera :>)

Pink Ring

My dear friend growing up- Carol, sent Jade her first ring! Its a beautiful Sterling Silver with a pink heart in the middle. Jade thinks its pretty neat!!! Thanks Carol (hug)!

First sleepover

We had such a busy weekend with Ryan's and Will's birthdays that Jade got to stay with Grandma Maggie for her first sleepover! She did well even tho she had to sleep in a crib with cowboy sheets on them :>) We all missed her terribly tho!

Happy Birthday to you Jade!

Today was a wonderful day! We had our family and close friends over to share in our celebration of Jade's birthday. She had alot of fun playing in the pool and getting cake all over herself and Luke! Happy Birthday to our sweet girl....

May 26

Above is the picture of Jade with her protectors of evil :>) The summer is here! Today is the first day of the boys' vacation and things are going well so far :>) Jade is making progress and can go from sitting to crawling position then scoots backwards..very cute! She turns one on Sunday and we are having a small family party for her, more pics to come!

Jade's Portraits

My Mom and I met at the mall and had Jade's pictures taken today. I'll go later in the summer and get the boys taken with her too. Here are two of them out of the 50 great pics they took!

Happy Mothers Day!

This will be a very special Mother's Day for me with my guys and girl! Wishing all of you a great day too!

Swimming

Ok Mommy has gotten picture happy now!

Pool deck Princess

Jadeybug

We are starting to get into a normal routine finally! Jade is a good baby thankfully and just takes everything in stride. She is sleeping 12 hrs and starting to eat more table food. She can sit up well and roll over both ways now, both of which she couldnt do a month ago! Its hard to believe we'll have had her for one month on Friday...wow, we are so blessed!

Jet Lag!

Hi from home at midnight! We are still on China time especially our little China doll! The boys are up at all hours wanting to eat and watch tv. Hopefully it will get better soon. I am thankful they are on spring break so they can rest up for school next week.

We are going to see family this weekend for Easter! Cant wait to see everyone and let Jade play with her cousins. Here are a few pics my Mom took while she was here yesterday.

We're home!

Hi from home! The 16 days went so fast and now it all seems like a dream especially when I look at Jade's sweet face :>) We left Guangzhou at 8am Friday morning flew to Bejing then it was 13 hrs to Newark. The kids did great! Jade slept 11 hrs of it and the boys were good about staying busy or sleeping. Mike and I had a harder time getting comfy...we left Newark late and arrived in Tampa at 1am where we were greeted by our excited parents and dog ! We were home by 2:30 and eating the best tasting Sonny's bbq by 3am. Big thanks to Kathryn for that and to Renee and Kim for stocking the house with essentials. You guys are the best, ((((( big hug)))))

We all slept till noon the next day then unpacked and said hi to Jade's first visitors. Last night the princess was up from 2-4am wanting to play. Hopefully she will get back to the 12 hr sleeping nights she has had since we got her! Wishful thinking...

I will send pics when I find the camera, its buried somewhere in my diaper bag!

Love to all and thanks for your prayers, it got us thru the trip home.....

Michele

More pictures from today

The red couch photo is a tradition with the adoptive families here at the beautiful White Swan Hotel. These are the girls adopted from Chongqing, our Jade is 2nd from the left. The other picture is our group of travelmates. We will miss everyone! Safe travels home...

Our last post from China

Hi! Well we are almost at the end of this incredible trip! Today we had the swearing in ceremony at the American Consulate here in Guanzghou. It was very quick! When Jade lands in Newark NJ she will be an American citizen! We had dinner tonight with our special friends the Mrkalls and the McSorleys' whom we hope to keep in touch with for sure. We then shopped for last minute treasures and bought a $20 Polo suitcase for the trip home... we hope the wheels dont fall off in the airport...Ryan was excited about his $20 Rolex as well :>)

I want to add a special thankyou to everyone who has been interested in our journey to China to get our Jade. The messages from all of you have been priceless and helped us feel closer to home THANKYOU! Please post again if you get a chance as I will be printing all this out for her baby book. We will continue to update our blog when we get home as we get the time. If you are even thinking about adopting a baby from China, follow your heart as we did!!! It will be one of the most amazing things you will ever get the chance to do. Our family is so in love with this precious child..

How to sum up this trip?? The first part in Bejing was very tiring with the time change but also fun with the touring schedule and meeting of new friends. The boys really enjoyed climbing the Great Wall and all received plaques certifying the trek. Being in Chongqing was like being under a microscope with all the peering eyes at us and the babies. I tried to soak in as much as I could about Jades birth province sometimes looking at the faces and wondering if she was related to them. I kept coming back to the thought of her birth Mother having to leave her at the Park gate with 'old cotton clothes' as it was described. We didnt get to see this place as it was 8 hrs away as was her orphange. I will try to honor her birth Mother in bringing up Jade and by talking about her China Mommy when the questions begin. Coming to Guangzhou was a relief to be like everyone else (from all over the world) here with a baby adopted from some area in China. Becoming Parents of FOUR children has also proved a challenge and overwhelming at times. But we're not giving her back!!! :>) She is the best thing ever "Made in China" :>)))

Our next post will be from home after 20 hrs of total flying not counting layovers!Thankyou for all your prayers and support.

See ya'll on the other side...

xoxox
The Waters family of 6