CallaAnne Day~

How has it been a year already since they placed Calla in our arms?
Here a few of the highlights of our trip to get her~

 Landed in Nanning with new friends {Catherine & Blake} with one day to spare~

 CallaAnne Day was so wonderful. She came right to us and never cried~

 We took her back to the hotel and let her begin getting to know us~

 Day 2 was all about signing For Real papers~

 Just look at our precious baby~

 We loved our days in Nanning even though the heat was crushing.
It was very hard to leave Calla's home behind but it was time to get to Guangzhou~

 The best part of Guangzhou was Elvin, our guide!!!
Calla was very sick all week with a mystery fever and he was wonderful to help us~

 As the week wore on, she became sicker and sicker~

We were SO proud of Evie and Holly on the trip. They were definitely BIG sisters!!!

To celebrate we let Calla choose something special and she wanted to watch Trolls~

 Mill came over for a little while and she helped me get a cute pic of the baby~

R E D E E M E D~
.
I am redeemed, You set me free 
So I'll shake off these heavy chains 
And wipe away every stain now I'm not who I used to be 
I am redeemed…
{Big Daddy Weave}
.
When I remember the little girl we swooped into our arms a year ago and watch her videos, I can see glimpses of who she is now. Love covers a multitude of pain in the cocoon of family.

*Once so sick with infection, now she is well~ {many specialists and appts}.
*Once so sad from abandonment, now she is secure~ {picked up every single time she melted into a tantrum}.
*Once so scared from trauma and unable to fall asleep, now she sleeps in her bed with sisters close by~ {many hours being held, sleeping with us, or sitting by her bed until sleep won}.
.
She's come so far and yet so far to go. In my experience until our sweet ones have been HOME longer than not, they may question if this love is forever.
.
It's forever little Calla baby~ we adore and love you always. Even on our worst day together, you are worth it and redemption looks beautiful on you!!!

CallaAnne~

LOVES LOVES LOVES her Chatbook!
Looks it every single day.
Stories really do matter!

CallaAnne's Dr Visits~

Calla had an appointment with Infectious Disease.

She was doing SO well, we don't go back for 3 months 

AND they will most likely dismiss us!

We stopped by Costco on the way home,

and she gave us a very happy celebratory smile~

Another day we had her cardiology appointment and still another great report!
Doing so well we won't go back there for 6 months.
We stopped for lunch at Panera and she ate a whole bowl of chicken noodle soup~

I guess after many dr appointments we were bound to pick up a germ so off to the ped we went.
Nothing showed up and deemed a virus... looks pretty sick to me!!!~

Guangxi Provincial Museum~

Today was another touring day. We had breakfast and lots of time to play in our room. CA is really doing well with attaching and bonding. We are seeing signs of grieving especially when sleep is involved but so expected and positive. She wore her adorable bloomers monogrammed by my friend Sheila~

Evie and Holly are being the BEST big sisters to Calla. Evie is taking it especially serious and picks her up anytime she needs to feel helpful. I think you can see how Calla feels about it~

We had a short drive to the museum so Calla enjoyed a lollipop and I enjoyed snapping a few face photos~

The tour of museum was interesting and a relaxing way to spend the morning with our three bitties. Glenn our guide has been especially kind to the girls. He told them all kinds of cool facts~

I know the four kids back home will love this huge dragon hanging from the ceiling! Calla finally gave it up and napped for over half of the tour!!!~

NO hating but we went by for McDonald's again and came back for a lunch picnic~

The perfect time to snap a few more adorable photos of our beautiful baby!!! Tomorrow we leave the lush, tropical city of Nanning to fly east to Guangzhou~ more of the same. And one week from then, we fly home! Glory to God for all the goodness He is lavishing on us with CallaAnne. We are SO in love!!!

CallaAnne Day~

Today was a long day waiting for our baby love. We woke up super early because of jetlag and went down for our daily breakfast feast. 

Toast and coffee was about all I could handle but it was SO good! 

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon in the room. The girls played with all their toys and when everything was extinguished, I made a play bath complete with color tabs, water bottles, and stacking cups. 

We snacked through lunch and let the girls nap before we left for CallaAnne. 

Our guide picked us up about 2:20 and we left for civil affairs building. She was already there playing in the playroom and we could here her laughing. 

We sat down for paperwork~

And not long after she came walking out with three orphanage staff following telling her mama and baba. She walked right up to Scott, held out her arms, and allowed LOVE to take her in~

Then she came to me and one part of my heart mended right on the spot. The one had been gathered into her forever~

The orphanage said the foster family had talked about us and shown Calla our photo over and over so she knew us when she saw us. That is God!!!

We had to step into an office to promise to love and cherish her always and was reunited once again in the presence of the official~

She came right to me and it was so sweet~

We scooped her up for some photos~

And with the sweet orphanage staff who clearly adored her~

Then headed back to hotel to spend the afternoon getting to know each other. 

Things we know so far:

~She loves baths!

~She's funny and likes If I Was a Bumblebee game and her baba!

~ She loves being held!

~She loves her sippy cup and still take a bottle at night (I LOVE that!)!

~She is an awesome sleeper as long as she's right in the middle of us~

And where else would we want her to be!!! 

Happy CallaAnne Day love!

We are your forever and God has blessed us BIG!

Eccl 3:11 He makes Everything Beautoful in Hos time! 

Amen and amen!!!!!

Travel to China

We left home Friday morning for our journey to China. 

We dropped Rosie and the four kids at Savannah and Josh's for the weekend. We felt like it might help the separation if they weren't home. Was still super hard!

We picked up Josh and he drove us to the airport.

We checked in and waited only a short while before we boarded our first leg to LAX. The girls did amazingly well!!!

THEN we had a six hour layover...

You can imagine they crashed in the stroller waiting for our longest leg. 14 hours to Guangzhou.

This long flight is not for the faint of heart. Holly had some anxiety waking up from a nap in the dark on the plane. Once she was so hysterical, she threw up all over both of us. There was nothing to do but create a 'sweater skirt' and let my puke wet jeans dry.

We met the sweetest couple on the plane headed to Nanning just like us! We were instant best friends and will receive our children together tomorrow at the civil affairs building.

When we all came out from baggage, our guides were standing side by side!

This is the view from our 20th floor hotel room and our hotel is connected to a very nice mall, restaurants, and Walmart.

We have it all right here with us.

Tomorrow we will have the morning to get our bearings of where we are and then head to get CallaAnne about 2:30. Please pray for our sweet baby and her foster mother. They will be separated tomorrow and she will come to us. I expect it to be a very hard day but thank Jesus she will be our forever little girl this time tomorrow!!!

SO thankful to be here!!!

Mother's Day Weekend~

We were super thrilled to have BC for the weekend so Savannah and Josh
could get away for their fifth anniversary!
We also loved celebrating Holly and Payne's birthday~

 Along with Mother's Day for my mom~

It was wonderful to be together!

Sunday ALL my children were home.
Scott grilled, we took photos, and hung out around the pool~

I am a VERY blessed mama/Shayshay and SO thankful the little space between me and SJ
will soon be filled by a precious little baby named CallaAnne!
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms reading my blog.

Happy Birthday to Holly and Calla~

Both HollyMei and CallaAnne share a May day birthday~

One home almost two years, and one soon home. Both chosen forever!!!

We had a small party for Holly~

and will celebrate more next weekend with Payne who has a birthday in May too!
Happy 6th to Holly and 4th to Calla.
We love and adore you both!!!!!

All About Rocks and Volcanoes~

We had a great school week!
The kids have really been interested rocks lately, so I went with it.
We collected the rock books we owned and ordered a few more from Amazon.
Our first day we read about the layers of the Earth~

 And painted our own model~

Tuesday we enjoyed a Poetry Teatime~

 Then we watched youtube videos about volcanoes and learned to draw them~

 Beautiful work~

Our bible time was centered around the events of Easter.
We loved the scripture, "Even the stones will cry out" Luke 19:40~

 We usually read from our story bible in the mornings.
An article Hayden sent me encouraged us to find it in our real bibles and read that at night.
It has been SO meaningful, and the kids LOVE reading along in their bibles too!

Thursday we read the best book called If You Find a Rock and sorted our rocks into groups~

 I brought out my special memory rock for CallaAnne!
EK and SJ both have this awesome rock collections, and they enjoyed naming the rocks.
For our art story, we copied our new memory verses and illustrated~

Fun Friday was awesome!
I read A Rock is Lively and while the big girls played Rock on with the littles~

 I pulled together a science experiment for daddy to do with them~

 Everyone helped mix the ingredients for a volcano~

 We learned that rocks are mixed with minerals like cookies are mixed with ingredients so...
We made sugar cookies~

 Everyone divided their paper into fourths and drew the steps of our science experiment~

Daddy approved of our science reports, and I think they are hooked on How Science Works now!

Thinking the rock thing might just continue next week too!!!