Journey2LilyRose

New Blog

2011-03-04T11:26:00.002-05:00

We now have a new family blog. www.myamazing4.blogspot.com

Hope you stopp over to take a look.

Updates

2009-06-24T11:58:00.009-04:00

It's been so darn long. LilyRose is doing great. She just finished pre-school and loved it. She can't wait to go back in September. She will go 4 days a week for 2 1/2 hours. Not a long day, but she still loves it. She had her tubes removed on Tuesday June 16th and she did great. She will be a flower girl in my cousins wedding on Sunday. She looks beautiful in her dress. Joseph will also be in the wedding. Mason is doing great too. I am going to start a Family Blog as soon as I find the time to get it going. I will post the link as soon as it's done.

CA & Travel Dates for Mason

2009-03-10T08:26:00.002-04:00

We have our CA - Consulate Appointment for March 30 2009. We are leaving for China on March 20, 2009 and returning to America on April 3, 2009. We hope you all follow along. Please go to Mason's blog at www.themiracleofwang.blogspot.com

I am asking for prayers that my son Joseph does not get sick before, during or after our trip to China. As most of you know, Joe has Asthma. Lets hope that he does well. I hope LilyRose will be able to handle 13 1/2 hours on the plane. Wait, lets hope that MOM can handle 13 1/2 hours on the plane.

Also pray that Mason Anthony has a smooth transition to us. I am getting so nervous now that we are leaving in less then 10 days. More later...

LilyRose starts Pre-School & Joseph was nominated...

2009-02-23T09:08:00.004-05:00

LilyRose & Grandma

LilyRose in front of the school

This is the way we go to school

How pretty am I for my 1st day of school

Well, LilyRose starts pre-school today. She was not potty trained for September and I thought we would have to wait until this September to get her in the 4 year old program, but she trained the week of my b'day. I called my cousin Joanie who works in the pre-school and asked her if I could get her in. She said that one of the kids in her class left the program, so there was an opening. I called the district and they told me that they didn't like to take kids this late in the program, but I assured them that LilyRose would do fine. So, they let her in. She will be in the class that my cousin works in and she goes from 12:30 to 3:00 pm Monday, Tuesday & Thursdays. I am so happy for her. She is going to love playing with all the little kids and I think she will be fine. If she cry's, I will be very surprised. I will let you know how she does.

Now, for Joseph. I got a letter from the school a few weeks ago. It seems that Joseph was nominated by one of his teachers for a program called The National Young Scholars Program. The certificate reads "Joseph has been personally nominated to join the nation's highest-achieving elementary school students at the National Young Scholars Program this summer 2009". The sad news is I had to decline it as the program cost $1700.00. With going to China this year, we just don't have it to send him. I explained it to the program director and he said that we could defer it for a year and they would hold his nomination until next summer. I was so happy to hear that as I am super proud of Joseph. So Joseph will be a Young Scholar next summer. CONGRATULATIONS JOSEPH, I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!!!!!

Well, LilyRose did great today for her first day of school. She looked a little overwhelmed at first, but she gave me and grandma a kiss, a big smile and a wave and she was fine. My cousin said she didn't cry at all and got very into the whole thing. She looked so tired when I picked her up and she was a little clingy at first, but she said she can't wait to go back tomorrow. I am happy and so is LilyRose.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE

2009-02-11T09:52:00.005-05:00

We are adopting from China again. Yes, you read that right. We are headed back to China sometime in March/April of 09. We just received LOA Monday night.

I would like to introduce to you all our new son/brother Mason Anthony QianWang. He is 8 years old and he is waiting for us in Kunming, Yunnan China. Please follow the link to his blog and be sure to follow us on this miraculous journey and also to see his beautiful face. I am truly in love.

www.themiracleofwang.blogspot.com

Celebrating our 2nd Gotcha Day

2009-02-06T08:49:00.009-05:00

LilyRose today - Happy

LilyRose Super Happy

4 hours after our 1st meeting

Daddy & LilyRose for the 1st time (camera date is wrong)

Mommy & LilyRose for the 1st time

Who r these people? I want my aunty to hold me (camera date is wrong)

Well today is our 2 year Gotcha Day!!!!!!

I can't believe it has been 2 years already. I can't remember what it was like without our LilyRose. She has come a long way and we are so blessed to have her. She is the second love of my life.

Happy Anniversary LilyRose - WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

IPod Songs

2009-01-29T08:58:00.003-05:00

This is funny, so I thought I would share it with you.

As you know from my previous post, my husband Anthony got me a Yellow IPod Nano and a $15.00 ITunes Gift Card. My niece Christina also got me a $15.00 Gift Card. So the other day I downloaded 30 songs. My son Joseph asked if he could listen to the songs I picked. I took some songs off of his IPod. All of a sudden he starts to make gagging noises. I ran over to him and asked him what was wrong. I thought he was sick from something he ate. No, that was not why he was gagging. It was because of the songs on my Ipod. He scrolled through the list of songs and took the IPod off right away, and told me to never bring it outside the house. I asked him "why"? and he said "people will think something is wrong with you or something if they hear those songs, and it would embarrass me too." I laugh every time I put the IPod on now. My husband listened to it and I think he feels the same way Joseph does. Although he does like one of the songs on it because it was our wedding song.

So I decided to see what you all think of my song choices...

At Last - Etta James (wedding song)

Beautiful - Akon

Beggin' - Frankie Valli

Benny n the Jets - Elton John

California Dreamin' - Mamas & Papas

Can't take my eyes off of you - Frankie Valli

Can you feel it - Michael Jackson

Christmas/Sarajevo - Trans Siberian Orchestra

Christmas Canon - Trans Siberian

Crazy in Love - Beyonce

Crimson & Clover - Tommy James

Do you wanna touch me there - Joan Jett

Don't Stop the Music - Rihanna (joe's pod)

Forever - Chris Brown (joe's pod)

Give Me Tonight - Shannon

I think I love You - The Partridge Family

It's goin' down - Yung Joc (joe's pod)

Just Dance - Lady GaGa (joe's pod)

Live your Life - T.I. (joe's pod)

No Air - Jordin Sparks

Not in Love - Enrique Iglesias

Nothing Else Matters - Metallica

Rie y Llora - Ceila Cruz

Right Now - Akon (joe's pod)

So What - Pink

Sugar, Sugar - The Archies

Whatever You Like - T.I. (joe's pod)

Wild Horses - The Sundays

Wizards In Winter - Trans Siberian

Yes - Amber

I think it's a great song list. What do you all think?!?

LilyRose is Potty Trained

2009-01-26T15:38:00.001-05:00

WHOOO HOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

LilyRose is potty trained. On Monday, January 19th at 6:45am LilyRose is calling me like crazy. I told her to go back to sleep because it's way to early for her to be up. She kept saying she had to go potty. So, I finally got up and she runs to her little potty chair and sure enough she went. She hasn't looked back. Knock on wood we have not had 1 accident so far. Although I put pull-ups when we go out just in case. It's only been a week. Anthony & I used to get very stressed out over the fact that she did not want anything to do with the potty. One day I told him to stop saying anything about it and lets see what happens. As soon as we stopped talking about her going on the potty, she wanted to go. It was a great birthday present for me.

Now for my other great birthday presents. My husband gave me an IPod. It's the new Nano and it's Yellow. I wanted it for the plane ride (?!?) I also got some ITunes gift cards. My son gave me beautiful diamond earrings and LilyRose gave me beautiful hoop earrings. My 2 nieces gave me a beautiful diamond heart bracelet and I also got money from my mother and brother.

So turning 44 wasn't all that bad. My birthday was January 23. I have to get some pictures up soon.

Ok, ok here's a new post

2009-01-15T10:37:00.015-05:00

Joseph & Santa 2008

LilyRose & Santa 2008

LilyRose New Years Eve at friends house

Joseph loves cologne - 10th B'day

Happy 10th Joseph

Joe & Lily Christmas Eve 2008

Joe's 1st Chorus show

Bass Clarinet

I wanted to do a post on the last 6 months of 2008, but now is not the time. I will do one though, soon I hope.

Anyway, the holidays were great and the kids enjoyed themselves and all the presents they got. My son Joseph just turned 10 years old on January 9th. WOW, double digits. I can't believe it. Here's a little about what is going on with Joe:

He plays on the travel Soccer team and he's doing really well with it. We signed him up for the winter session and he plays every Saturday night. It's a crappy place, but he loves it and it's indoors. He also plays Basketball. Doesn't know how to play that well, but he likes playing and I like watching him run around like a nut. He got 2 baskets already. Very exciting. He is in the school Chorus and had his 1st concert on December 2nd. He also is in band and plays the Bass Clarinet. The instrument is bigger them him, but he's pretty good. All in all, Joseph is doing great.

As for LilyRose, well she doesn't do half as much as Joseph right now. We are having a hard time potty training. She does well for Anthony, but for me, no way. She just doesn't want to know from it. So I couldn't get her into pre-school her b/c you have to be trained. All the places that would take her wanted crazy money for 2 days @ 2 1/2 hours. Get lost. So, she has been going to our local Library and doing all these programs they have for her age group. She loves going to the craft class and I signed her up for a Toddler Tango class that is coming up soon. She talks up a storm and is a really happy kid. I feel bad that we will not be making the FCC-LI Chinese New Year party. Things are a little tight and we just can't swing it for this year. I hope that next year we will be able to go.

As for the rest of us, we are doing fine. Anthony has been very slow at work and I am thinking of going to work part time. He's not happy about it, but it's for the best. Things are tight and I hate living like this.

I hope you are all enjoying the New Year. I will post some pictures that I have of the kids. Also, to my friend Jenni who tagged me. I didn't forget I will post it soon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY NEW YEAR

2008-12-21T14:12:00.002-05:00

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS!!!!!!!

WE HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A VERY HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR!!!!

Happy Halloween

2008-11-01T10:22:00.012-04:00

I hope everyone enjoyed Halloween. I personally do not like this day. I never did and I guess I never will, but my kids sure did enjoy it. This was the first year that my son Joseph went Trick or Treating with his friends. He had a great time. LilyRose enjoyed it for like an hour and then said she was really tired and wanted to go home. Anthony finally took her to our friends house and she was as happy as could be. I hope you enjoy the pictures...

LilyRose's Birthday Party

2008-09-08T20:36:00.010-04:00

Lily loves this show

Panda pj's

Lily loves to draw and color

we love to bowl

Can you tell we love Panda's

Happy 3rd Birthday

LilyRose had a birthday party on Saturday night with some family and some friends. The weather was really bad, so some did not make it. It turned out ok though and she got lots of nice presents. We will have another birthday party for her with more family on this coming Saturday.

Happy 3rd Birthday LilyRose

2008-09-04T11:01:00.004-04:00

present from big brother Joseph

opening present from Godmother Aunt Gina

My first dollhouse from Aunt Gina

Happy Birthday LilyRose

LilyRose talking to cousins from Belgium

BEAUTIFUL LILYROSE

Joseph 1st day of school

LilyRose turns 3 today.

She woke up singing the Happy Birthday song. Last night her Godfather Uncle Joe took her to ChuckECheese and then out to a Chinese restaurant. Aunt Maryann said that she was the main attraction as all the wait staff stopped what they were doing to come over and talk with LilyRose. She had a good time.

Tonight we will have a cupcake with a candle to sing happy birthday to Lily as her daddy has to work late. We will be having a party for LilyRose this Saturday night with my mothers side of the family and next Saturday night with my fathers side of the family. With everyone together, it would be nuts. I wish I had a bigger house.

Well it is now almost 8pm and we just sang happy birthday to LilyRose and she opened her present from Godmother Aunt Gina and 1 from Joseph and 1 from mommy and daddy. The rest she will open on Saturday night when the family is here. LilyRose got a surprise phone call from our cousins from Belgium tonight. They stayed up late to make sure they got to talk with her. It was a great surprise for all of us. I have a few picture of Lily from tonight. I will post the ones I take on Saturday night. Stay tuned...

Pictures

2008-07-29T09:51:00.008-04:00

Joe & his friend Vincent

LilyRose's Christening

Joe & Lily w/cousins from Belgium

Beautiful LilyRose

Reflections on the pass 6 months

2008-06-23T09:10:00.012-04:00

I woke up this morning with thoughts of the last 6 months of my life and I really can't believe all that has happened. I have had some devastating things and some wonderful things happen and I am not sure if the good out weighs the bad. I am trying to figure it out.

January 2008 - This I thought was going to be a very good year for us. I think we all think this on New Year's Day. We had the best holidays, with LilyRose being here to celebrate and my brother being home from Iraq and my Niece's spending the first Christmas with us in a lot of years. We were going to bring our new son Jack home sometime this year and we couldn't wait. Then Monday, January 7th rolled around and I didn't know it yet but my life was about to take a turn for the worst. Anthony came home from work not feeling well. He had a sore throat. Fast forward to Friday January 11th. He woke up and his neck was 10 x's the normal size and his eyes were popping out of his head. Off to the ER. He told me everything was ok and that he would be home later that night. Ok, I feel better about it, so I drive my brother to the airport so that he could return to Iraq. I am consoling my niece's for the next 2 hours and I get the call that changed my life. "Your husband is 2 steps from death and he needs emergency surgery on his throat to save his life". I stumbled around in a fog for the next month. I couldn't believe what was happening, he's only 44 years old, super strong and I thought healthy. He works like crazy, gets up every morning at 4:30am and works sometimes until 8pm. Anthony can't be this sick, I think, but he was and it knocked the wind out of my sails for a long time. Now I have to deal with his ex-wife. There is no love lost there, trust me. I have had 5 years of hell with this woman and her kids. Well, their Anthony's kids too but... I will leave it at that. So anyway, my husband hasn't worked in over a month at this time and things are really bad here but she wants to know how she is going to get her child support. I am like, are you ^*$&! kidding me? My kids are 9 and 2 and your kids are almost 21 and 19. I won't get into anymore about that, but that brought January to a really, really bad end.

February 2008 - Anthony recovered better once he was home. We had our home study updated for Jack. We celebrated our 1 year "Gotcha Day" for LilyRose. I was running like crazy to get all of our stuff done for our Vietnam Adoption and I was thanking God that things were going better for us. I finally sold my dad's car which hurt me more then it should have. It helped to pay for some of Jack's adoption but I was really wishing my dad was around driving that old thing. I really needed him at this time in my life. Although we didn't really get along, he was great to talk to. He had a lot of insight and his advice (not taken most of the time) was always on the money. I really, really needed him at this point in time. Had our taxes done and we had to deal with the ex-wife again and his kids this time. February came to an end and it was just as bad as last month. When will I not have to deal with her again??????

March 2008 - This was a nice month for us. Jack turned 8 years old and LilyRose was finally Baptised. Joseph made the Travel All Star Baseball Team and he was super excited about it. We went to the FCC-LI CNY Party and had a great time. My niece's came with us and it was a great family day. We still didn't have a finger print appt. and that was freakin me out. But I had everything else done for our dossier. So we sent it on to Vietnam for translation and we were praying to get the I171H to send out too.

April 2008 - This was a super month for us. This is when we met Ayanna. My sweet, precious Ayanna. We also got our I171H and off to Vietnam it went. We ordered the new bedroom set for Joseph and Jack and things were great. Well not so great with LilyRose. She resented Ayanna and at first she loved having this little bundle of joy at the house. But as soon as she saw that mommy was holding and feeding and changing and bathing her, she didn't like it so much anymore. It was very hard and tiring and draining for me and for her. But I loved Ayanna so much it hurt. I knew that I would never be able to give this sweet baby up. I started to ask if there was any way for us to adopt her. Well, we all know how that turned out.

May 2008 - Well my cousin had her baby. Little Tate was born on May 1st. My brother ended his tour in Iraq and came home for good. Super happy time for my family. Then my Godson Jake made his First Holy Communion and I was invited. I had not seen Jake for something like 5 years. So I was super happy to be a part of his special day. We got our official referral for Jack Anthony and things could not be better. Joseph had tryouts for the Summer All Star Baseball team and the Soccer Travel Team. He made both teams. He really is my super jock. My niece made Confirmation and we were there to see it. That was very exciting for us. But one of the saddest days of my life was on May 23, when Ayanna went to another host family. OMG, my heart hurt so bad I wanted to die. I cried and cried for her and I am still crying for her. I won't ever forget her and she will always be my little Ayanna. I am crying just writing this.

June 2008 - My 2nd saddest day was when we got the call that we were no longer able to adopt Jack. His birth mother came and took him home. I will surly die now, I thought. My heart is in a million little pieces now and it will never fully recover. How does one deal with this pain. I am still trying to figure it out. Thank God for my family and friends. without them I have no idea where I would be right now. Although I have had some very weird comments on these past events that have me baffled, I still need the support of the rest of them to get me through this. What hurts me the most at this point is that my son Joseph will never be the same. I will never forget the look on his face when I told him Jack was no longer going to be his brother. I can't even describe it. My son, who only a few weeks ago was trying to heal my heart over Ayanna and telling me that he loved me and that soon we would have Jack to love and to hold, now needed me to heal his heart and to tell him that I loved him more then life itself. I can't even promise him that we will bring him a new brother because we don't know what we are doing right now. I need time to heal and to think about our next step. I just need peace. Well, we will get no peace until my husband is completely done with his ex-wife. What a weekend we had with her. She resents my daughter. Can you believe it? She blames my daughter because Anthony will stop paying child support for his 21 year old son soon. He is also trying to stop support for his 19 year old who he hasn't seen or talked to in 5 years and who has 2 jobs by the way. She thinks if my daughter is no longer here, he will continued to pay for his boys. So I told her to take a walk (I really told her something else, but this is a family blog lol) my daughter is here to stay. Now I have to say that June was a very crazy month for me personally. Tell me what you think of these events?!? In the beginning of June after finding out about Jack, i am driving home from my cousin's baby shower and some young guy (with his girlfriend in the car) cuts me off. So I blow y horn at him. Get this, he starts screaming and cursing at me like a mad man. He rips off his seat belt and is going absolutely crazy. I was laughing so hard that I think it freaked him out even more. So, now he starts to drive and every time I got close he would slam on his breaks. So I laid on my horn. He finally stops his car and gets out. My window is open at this time and he comes flying over and puts his whole upper body in my window. I am trying to get my seat belt off and the stupid thing locks on me. I can't move at all. I am trying to unbuckle it and I can't. This moron is spitting at me, cursing at me and I am trying to push him out of my car. In the meantime, all the cars behind me are blowing there horns telling us to move off to the side of the road. Can you believe it? If my husband or brother saw some guy hanging in a girls car and she is alone they would be out in a minute helping her. I was not so lucky. I told his girlfriend through her window to run for the hills because if she didn't she would be dead within the year. She wouldn't even look my way. He took off and I couldn't get his plate number. Everyone keeps asking me what I would have done if I got out of the car. With the mood I was in who knows. I would have at least gotten one good shot at him. Then the other day my older niece ask me to help her get her stuff out of her mother's new house. She is marrying a guy that my niece's hate. He is a nasty guy and they don't like him. My younger niece lives here with us because of him. My older niece just got her own place and so I told her I would take her as long as it was early in the morning while her mother and the boyfriend were at work. We get there at 11am and sure enough the boyfriend is home. I got cursed out and charged at by this great big piece of white trash and the names I was called, holy you know what. Well I have to say that if I wasn't looking to adopt again, I would have taken a bat to his head. I mean come on people, do I have a sign on me anywhere that reads "Come on down and treat me like &^*%?" No I don't think so. I have to say that the things that were flying out of my mouth were just as bad at this point and I didn't care at all. This pig and that is what he is, was like a crazy man. He was saying some nasty things to my niece and I really wanted to hurt this guy. Needless to say, he threw out the rest of her stuff on the street and I had to go back to get it all before it rained. I have a friend that lives out there and she drove by and saw it all. It is an hour drive each way. My ex sister in law took his side and not her daughters. My ex sister in law married this guy yesterday (Sunday). My younger niece went but the older one did not. When the ex came to pick up my younger niece Saturday, she pulls in front of my house in front of my kids and gives me the finger. Can you believe the nerve? She tells me to go and F myself. She was no good from day one, but my brother got 2 beautiful girls out of it and for that I am thankful. I wish her luck, because that thing she married will do her harm one day for sure. I hope I am around to see it. I can't wait for June 2008 to be over.

I hope the next 6 months are better for us. I don't think I could take any more . I would like to wish all the families that are waiting to go and bring their children home and the families that have their children home all the best. I hope one day it will be us again.

Heartache

2008-06-15T12:39:00.004-04:00

We are no longer able to adopt our sweet boy Jack.

I have posted to his blog if you care to read what happened. Here is the link...

http://www.ourjourney2jack.blogspot.com/

A Sad Day

2008-05-23T09:04:00.002-04:00

Today is a sad day in my home. Ayanna, the sweet baby girl we were hosting has left our home to be placed in another Host Family home. We have had Ayanna for 5 weeks and I truly love this baby with all my heart, but having her here has affected my family in so many ways.

LilyRose has taken it the hardest. She is so jealous and she started to act out in ways that floored me. I tried to spend as much time with her as I could in the last 5 weeks, but when she saw me with the baby it flipped her out. My son Joseph didn't mind Ayanna being here, it just bothered him that I didn't spend time with him that much anymore. Normally, we would do his homework together and I would go to his baseball games and that kinda changed. Ayanna was always up around the time he would do his homework and with the crazy weather we have been having I would not take her to the field so Anthony would take Joe and LilyRose so that I could catch up on some sleep while Ayanna slept. Anthony tried to deal with it as best he could too. My husband gets up at 4:30 am every morning to go to work. Ayanna had her days and nights mixed up for a long while. I finally got that fixed and she got sick. She had the worst cold and ear infection so we were back to no sleep at night. My mother helped out alot with Ayanna. She is so in love with this little baby and really wanted to adopt her. I am just sleep deprived and really can't function anymore.

Ayanna was suppose to be placed with her adopted family a few times and then the birth mother would change her mind at the last minute. Her birth mother really wanted to parent her but she couldn't get anyone to help her. I really don't know what will happen to Ayanna now. They knew my family was having a hard time and so they found another host family to care for Ayanna until she is placed in her permanent home. So, this morning at 8:15 am they came to take Ayanna to her new home. I have never cried so hard in my life. That was the hardest thing I ever had to do. I mean I just handed her over. I am the only "mother" she has ever known and I just handed her over because we, as a family couldn't handle it. What kind of person am I? I hate myself right now. I can't even look at myself in the mirror. I dropped the ball so to speak. I thought I was doing a good thing here. I never in my wildest dreams thought I couldn't handle it. I will never forgive myself for not seeing this beautiful child through to her new home.

You know, I can't even write anymore. I just want to go and sort through my feelings and my thoughts. I need to rest my broken heart. Please pray for baby Ayanna.

Happy Belated Mother's Day To You All

2008-05-13T10:32:00.006-04:00

My Mother's Day present (mine is not engraved yet I took photo from Things Remembered)

I hope you all enjoyed your Mother's Day. I was sick in bed. A Mother's Day present from our host baby Ayanna. I still had a great day though. Ayanna goes back to her birth mother on Friday. I am sure I will be in bed for this weekend to. But can anyone says the word EXHAUSTED!!!!!!!!!!! I haven't slept in about a month. I am so tired. I am to old for an infant. lol Her days and nights are still mixed up, better but not great. LilyRose is so not happy that Ayanna is here. I thought by now she would be ok with it, but no. It has been a hard time for my family here the last month, but, god, do I love this little girl. She is the cutest little thing you ever wanted to see. I will miss her everyday for the rest of my life. I know that we will not have contact with her again after Friday and that hurts even more. I would so love to at least get a picture of her once a year. I would be happy with that, but it won't happen.

I will not be hosting another baby anytime soon, as we just got our official referral for Jack. I filled out our paperwork for the I600 over the weekend and I hope I did it right. I was so sick, I couldn't keep my head up for very long. But I sent it to our agency yesterday and hopefully it will go on from there this week. Keep your fingers crossed. I posted pictures of our Jack on his blog. If you would like to take a peek look for his link on the right and drop by. We are hoping to travel before September, but that doesn't look like it will happen. We can't wait for Jack to be home with his new FOREVER FAMILY!!!!!!

I have to get pictures of LilyRose up. I still haven't even sent her Christening Thank Yous yet. I am horrible lately, but I am just so tired.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are now A Host Family

2008-04-20T11:00:00.003-04:00

A woman that worked for our previous agency when we adopted LilyRose is now working for Spence-Chapin in NYC. She called me a few weeks ago and asked if we would consider being a "Host Family" "Yes, we would love to I said". So we sent our paperwork over to them and thought it would take a few months, but no, that wasn't the case since we have all of our clearances. We got a call on Wednesday morning asking how soon we could take a baby in? I said "how soon do you need us to?" 4pm today was the answer. So as of 4:30pm on Wednesday April 16th, we have a newborn in our home. She is the cutest little peanut ever. It's actually called "Boarding Parents" The birth mothers have up until 30 days to decide if they would like to parent the child or put them up for adoption. We are in no way able to adopt these children at all. The birth mother has already chosen an adopted family. Everyone thinks I am nuts. "Aren't you going to get attached to this baby?" "How are you going to give this baby up when the time comes?". My answer to these questions are this, "Yes, I am attached to this baby already. She is with me 24/7. My arms ache when I am not holding her." "But, if and when the time comes that her birth mother wants her back, or decides that she will place her for adoption, I will give her back." If her birth mother wants her then that is truly the best place for her to be. I am sure this BM is a young girl who is scared out of her mind and needed just a little more time to get comfortable with the idea she is a mother now. If she decides that she will put this child up for adoption, then I will hand over this child to a woman who never had the pleasure of being pregnant and giving birth. She will know the greatest joy in life, becoming a mother. I have experienced that joy 2 ways. Giving birth and adoption. Then when this sweet child leaves my home, I will go into my room and cry. Yes, I will mourn and I will never forget her. But I feel that I am giving this child a safe and happy, healthy start in this life. For the short amount of time that she is here with us, she will be loved and held and snuggled and loved some more. She is a beautiful baby and I hope she has a wonderful life.

I am hoping that those of you that read this and think you might like to be a Host Family and you live in the NY area, please call Spence-Chapin. They are in major need of Host Families. Please, won't you open your home and hearts to these innocent babies and help give them a loving start in life? If you want more info feel free to email me. I really hope someone will call or email.

Just saying hello

2008-04-08T09:26:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it's been this long since I posted here. So many things have been going on. First off, we finally Baptised LilyRose on March 30th and she looked beautiful. It was a very small gathering and I am sure lots of people will be mad at me, but with Jack's adoption things are very tight right now and that's why I kept it super small. I planned it in a short time as I wanted my brother to be here for it. I will post pictures as soon as I figure out how to use my new computer. Yes, that's right, I am posting this from a brand new laptop. A gift from my brother.

Isn't he a great brother?!?!!!! Unfortunately, Ralph went back to Iraq on Monday night. Even though he is a pain in the ass sometimes, it is super hard watching him leave. He will be home for good in October of this year. 6 months isn't really a long time away, but for us it seems like an eternity. I can't wait for the day I pick him up at the airport for the last time. That will be a great day for all of us.

LilyRose is doing great. She talks up a storm and 90% of the time it is loud and clear. She's funny, cute and sometimes very shy. Other times she is like a social butterfly. She has the biggest crush on my niece's boyfriend. When he walks through the door she gets this look on her face and just floats into his arms. I think it's the cutest thing ever, my husband on the other hand holds his heart and cringes. Joseph is doing great also. He made the Travel Team (baseball) He beat out some 10 year olds and is super proud of himself. Their uniforms this year are awesome looking. He looks so grown up out on the field. He had his first double header on Sunday. It was really cold out so I didn't make it to the field this time around. Anthony said he did really well, although he got hit by a pitch and his arm was swollen and bruised. He made sure he showed everyone that came to the house on Sunday.

So other then my brother leaving and that our adoption of Jack is killing me, things are good here. My children are great and that makes life worth living.

Happy Easter

2008-03-26T10:49:00.002-04:00

Just wanted to wish everyone a belated Happy Easter. Both my kids were really sick. LilyRose more so then Joseph. This was LilyRose's first cold since we have her. We went to Church and in the middle of the service she started to burn up. She was really bad, so we had to leave. When we got home, I put her pj's on and gave her medicine and she slept on and off most of the day. We did not get one picture of her in her dress or any of Joseph for that matter. Maybe when she feels better, I will dress them up and get a few pictures.

I am sorry that I have not posted much, but our adoption of Jack Anthony is not going so good and I am just preoccupied with what is happening. Hope to get back on track soon.

Video of Ribbon Dance

2008-03-11T11:03:00.004-04:00

Ok, this was really funny to see in person. The video didn't come out as clear as I had hoped it would. Before the music started, my mother kept asking "Where's the music" the lady who was doing this was bugging out with her. She kept saying " in a minute". well my mother can't hear to well and kept asking her the same thing. The lady just ignored her after a while. I wish I got that on video. When the dance was over, the lady asked my mother to say something in Chinese and my mother did. We still have no idea what she said. The lady must have made her say something on the lines of "I am a crazy, annoying lady" lol

For all of you who do know my mother, you could just imagine what she is saying throughout this whole thing. Whatever you THINK she is saying, SHE IS!!!! For all that don't know my mother, you don't want to know what she was saying. LOL LOL she really is a very funny lady.

Oh, BTW, she is all the way in the back on the left next to Joseph and Anthony. Everyone did really well. My niece Christina (in the front) did a great job. Check out LilyRose, she moves like a pro.

FCC-LI Chinese New Year Party

2008-03-11T10:17:00.009-04:00

Sunday was the FCC-LI CNY Party at Stony Brook College.

We had a great time. My mother and my 2 nieces came with us and it was a great family day. LilyRose had a great time and so did Joseph. He spent the entire day running crazy with his friend Brenden. Joseph is part of the FCC-LI Youth Group and they made Chocolate to sell and Anthony spent most of Saturday baking Brownies and Chocolate Chip Cookies for the bake sale. He did really well. All his brownies sold. Joseph had to sell the goods at the party. I didn't think he would do it, but he surprised me and walked around the rooms to sell. He did a great job. I won a Ladybug Basket for LilyRose. The reason I tried to win this basket was the fact it had a Lily Ladybug Flashlight in it. I couldn't believe I won it. It had some really cute ladybug things in it.

My niece's had a good time also. My older niece Christina got up on stage for some of the shows and she did a Ribbon Dance along with my mother and Anthony and Joseph and Lily. I have it on video and just watching my mother is the funniest thing ever. It didn't come out as clear as I would have liked but for all that know my mother, you will get a kick out of it. Joseph got up on stage a few times too. My niece Daniella sat with me. We didn't get up on stage for any of it. TOO SHY!!!!!

I am glad we went and cannot wait until next year. I am looking forward to the next gathering with our FCC-LI Family.

LilyRose is home 1 year today

2008-02-16T14:20:00.007-05:00

HOME ALMOST 1 YEAR TO THE DAY

HOME 4 DAYS

Can you believe it? We can't.

It seems like LilyRose has always been here with us. I remember walking in the door and my mother burst into tears when she saw her new granddaughter. I also remember LilyRose not wanting anything to do with her. It took her almost a week to warm up to my mother. Looking at them now, you would never believe it. She loves her "mamma". She looks so very different from a year ago. She has grown in so many ways. LilyRose has bought so much joy and love to us.

We could not imagine our world without her.

1 Year Ago Today

2008-02-06T19:52:00.001-05:00

NOW

THEN

Today we celebrated 1 year with LilyRose.

I can't believe a whole year has passed. It seems like yesterday that we arrived in China not knowing what to expect. Is our daughter deaf? Is she sick? How bad will she grieve? Will we make her happy? I woke up this morning and I remembered all those feelings I had 1 year ago. It was crazy. I went into LilyRose's room and just watched her sleep for a while, like we did in China when we first got her. We just sat and watched her. I thought about her aunty today too. That poor woman cried when we walked into the office. She knew that she would never see her "baby" again. I wonder if she thinks of LilyRose sometimes? I sure think of her. I hope she didn't hurt too much when she left Lilyrose behind on that beautiful, sunny day a year ago. What was most likely one of the worst days of her life, was one of the best days of mine. I also thought of her bio mother, does she know that her daughter is safe, healthy and happy? Does she wonder where she lives and what she looks like? I can't imagine what she must feel.

So, yes, today is a very happy day for our family, but I still feel some sadness for the 2 other women that loved our daughter.

Update

2008-01-25T20:10:00.000-05:00

I am so sorry that I have not posted in a while. Anthony is home and doing really well. He came home on Saturday, January 20th. We thought at one point while he was still in the hospital that he would have to have another surgery, but thank god he didn't need it. They still have no idea what happened to him. The surgeon said it was a very aggressive infection and they were just happy that they caught it before it turned fatal.

The kids were so happy to have him home. I was happy too because I didn't have to drive to the hospital 2 times a day. lol Also because my Christmas Lights were finally taken down. That was one of the last things I said to Anthony before he went into surgery. "You better hurry up home, because the Christmas stuff is still on the outside of the house and it's embarrassing". The Dr. was cracking up.

The hole in his neck is closing nicely and the Dr. said he can go back to work on Monday. I told him I wasn't happy with him going into NYC especially since the hole is still open and his immune system is not that strong right now. Thank God his boss said he can go to a job that is starting on Wednesday right here in Long Island. He can drive there and it's not hard labor. So he will go back to work on Wednesday. We are in a little trouble here as he has not gotten paid in 4 weeks. Our adoption is on hold because of it. I need to take care of here first before we can proceed with the adoption. It breaks my heart that Jack knows we are coming and now it will take us so much longer to get him home, but I have to thank some people for donating. We got 3 Chip In donations and a few checks to the PO Box. So hold on Jack, were coming!!!!

Well, Wednesday I turned 43. I can't believe I am that old. I was looking in the mirror that day and I almost fell over. Damn, I look 43. So SCARY!!!!!! But it was a nice day. My husband was home and my kids were here, my niece's were here and some of my family even came over. I really didn't want anything, but my mother insisted that we have to have cake and coffee. My brother called from Iraq and I felt so bad because he was really sick and it was 4:45am there when he called. He said that he set his alarm so that he wouldn't miss calling me. I have an awesome family.

I would like to thank each and everyone of you that left a comment for my husband. It meant so very much to us.

Say a Prayer for Anthony

2008-01-13T08:50:00.000-05:00

I am asking for prayers for my husband Anthony. He had emergency throat surgery on Friday night. It started last Sunday night. He said he had a sore throat. He had been working so much overtime since Nov. to come up with the money for Jacks adoption, that we just thought he was run down. Monday he went to work and when he got home he looked sick. Tuesday he didn't go to work, if you know Anthony, that never happens, so he went to the Dr.'s and called me and said that he had an abscess in his throat and had to have it drained. So they sent him to an ENT and he came home and went to bed. Then on Wed. he went back and they drained it again. I told him to go to the hospital because he didn't look so good, but he refused. Wednesday night he came down just long enough to watch Joseph blow out his candles. My whole family was shocked and told him to go to the hospital. He didn't go. Thursday he was in bed all day and night but his neck looked like it was swollen. Friday morning he woke up and his neck was 10x's the normal size and his eyes were popping out of his head. So, my brother rushed him to the hospital up the road from us.

In the meantime, my brother was going back to Iraq on Friday afternoon. So I drove him to the airport with his kids and again, watched him walk away to go back. My head was reeling. When I called the hospital, Anthony said they had him on heavy antibiotics and that he would be home soon. I get home from the airport and an hour later I get a call from Anthony that they are moving him to another hospital because he needs major surgery. I race to that hospital and the Dr. told me that if he would have waited another day or 2 he would have died. He had puss traveling to his brain and his heart. WHAT?!?!? How could this be happening? I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. So I go home and get my kids situated and I drive to this other hospital and they wouldn't let me in to see him before the surgery. Well, thank god I am a nasty ass because they DID LET ME IN!!!. They held him up for the surgery because he didn't have his insurance card. They wouldn't take the paperwork from the other hospital. He sat in the ER for 2 hours with no IV's because he didn't have his card. Freaked me out. The surgeon explained the procedure to us and they said they would have to do a Tracheotomy on him also. They said the procedure could be very dangerous. So off he went and I just sat and waited. Anthony's cousin came to sit with me. I finally got to see him and he looked good considering. He didn't have as much puss as they thought, but he had a lot of gas pockets throughout his neck. So he has 2 draining tubes and a trach tube. He will be in the hospital for a week and then we are not sure what the home recovery will be like. He thinks he's going back to work next week. Not happening. So our life is on hold for now.

So if you would just say a prayer for him to get better and for us to hang in I would really appreciate it.

Happy Birthday Joseph

2008-01-09T10:47:00.000-05:00

HAPPY 9TH BIRTHDAY JOSEPH !!!!!!!!

Well, Joseph turns 9 today and of course he woke up ON HIS OWN today (lol) and wanted his presents. So sorry Joe, but you have to wait until tonight when everyone is here and we finish having cake and coffee. You had to see his face when I said this. It was priceless. I wish I had my camera on hand. I will post more tonight after the party.

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T11:19:00.000-05:00

Panda pj's (I love them)

Matching pj's (look at Lily's hair)

My Family

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday and a Happy New Year!!!!

I haven't been able to post in so long. With my brother being home from Iraq and the Holidays and the kids being off from school, I haven't had time to do anything. Now that school is back in full swing, I have time to post. Our Christmas was fantastic. It was awesome having my brother and nieces here with us. LilyRose had the best first Christmas. Joseph made out like a bandit and my husband will have to get 3 more jobs. lol

I can't believe that the holidays are over and we are in a new year. WOW, we are home with LilyRose almost a year now. Where has the time gone? It feels like yesterday that we started the process for her. I have some pictures from Christmas, I hope you enjoy. I will write more later...

FCC-LI Holiday Party

2007-12-10T13:54:00.001-05:00

LilyRose, Santa & Joseph

Joseph with his funky hat

The Girls

Paige

Anthony - Cotton Eye Joe

LilyRose Dancing

Emily

Joseph & LilyRose

Emily & LilyRose

My Family

Yesterday was a great day for us. The FCC-LI group had their annual Holiday Party and it was awesome. We had a blast seeing all of our friends and we even made some new ones. Joseph and LilyRose had a good time too. By the end of the day, LilyRose looked liked she hadn't slept in weeks. We were amazed, but she didn't cry when she went to see Santa. Maybe it was because her big brother Joseph went up with her. She's not afraid of anything when her big brother is with her. Just think, this time next year she will have 2 big brothers to protect her...

That's right. We have a new son. His name is Jack Anthony and right now he lives in Vietnam. We are hoping to travel to bring him home by April or May 2008. He will be 8 years old in March and we couldn't be happier. Here is the link to his blog: http://www.ourjourney2jack.blogspot.com/

I have posted a picture of him and will be updating his site again today. Please stop by and leave us a comment, so that Jack can see how loved he really is. Please don't forget to leave a comment here for LilyRose and Joseph too. I guess I will have to make a blog for Joe now too.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-25T13:11:00.001-05:00

Me & LilyRose

How adorable is this outfit

Joseph & LilyRose - God they are gorgeous

Joseph getting sick again

LilyRose with her cell phone

My mother, Eleanore & cousin Nancy

Cousins Anita, Michael, Pete & Joanie

Anthony & cousin Carl

Cousins Mark, Kristi, Crystal, Joseph, Gina & LilyRose

My family Happy Thanksgiving!!

A few days late.

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving. We had a great time at my cousin Michael & Anita's house. The food was good, the company was good. It was a good day. LilyRose ate and ate. I just don't know where she puts it. Joseph hardly ate anything. I don't know how the kid stands up. He is the worst eater ever. He doesn't like anything other then pasta. It's amazing.

We played this great game called Catch Phrase. It's been around for a while but I never played it. It was hysterical watching my mother play this game. She had no clue. Joseph did really well playing it. My cousin Crystal also had this little ball called 20Q. What an amazing thing this is. It tries to read your mind so to speak. It will ask you if you are thinking of an Animal, Vegetable or Mineral. Then it will ask these 20 questions and by your answer it will tell you what you were thinking of. It worked 10 out of 12 times we did it. A lot of fun.

Friday, we put up our Christmas Tree and decorated inside the house. I didn't go nuts this year because LilyRose was touching everything. It still looks great. We had fun doing it together. Then Friday night I made Hot Chocolate and we watched "It's a Wonderful Life". This is my favorite Holiday movie. I watch it every year on the night we put up the tree. I have been doing this for years and years. Anthony fell asleep and Joseph got bored and went to play video games, but LilyRose sat right next to me and watched the whole movie. She would have sat there even if nothing was on the TV. As long as she was sitting near me she was happy. lol

Saturday I had a baby shower out east. We left early and got home late. Anthony and Joseph decorated outside the house while we were gone. It came out very nice.

Sunday was a calm day. Doing nothing and loving it.

On Wednesday late afternoon we found out that we are approved to adopt a 7 year old boy from Vietnam. We are so very happy about this. I am overjoyed but sad at the same time. I will never hold the little boy from China and that is breaking my heart. But at the same time, if we accept, I HAVE A NEW SON!!!!!!

We are having his medical file checked out hopefully this week and then we will have to make our decision. The agency put me in contact with a woman who met this little boy in May and we spoke and she sent me pictures of him and she told me that he is the sweetest little boy. When we make our decision and if we accept him, I will post his pictures. Then I will make a blog just for him. I guess Joseph will want one for himself now too.

I am asking for prays now for my heart to heal and for that sweet child in China to find his family. WOW that just made me cry. I thought we were going to be his family. I can't understand how I could be happy and so sad at the same time. Any thoughts on this?

I have some pictures of Thanksgiving and some of my cousin birthday party. The top 3pictures are from Nov. 11th. Crystal's birthday party. The rest are from Thanksgiving. The camera dates are wrong.

Married 3 Years Today

2007-11-13T09:49:00.000-05:00

This is my favorite

Love you mommy

At Last (At Last was our wedding song)

I DO !!!!

My dance with Joseph (I am your Child)

My dance with my brother (The Times of your Life)

YES, we did it !!!

My heart and soul

Cousin Gina & Brother Ralph

Nikki & Cousin Dale

My mom & my Joseph

Boy do I need this drink

A family at last

Well, today is our 3 year wedding anniversary.

I remember being a nervous wreck at this time 3 years ago. I also remember that I cried most of the day. So many tears for such a happy day everyone kept telling me. So many people that were missing that day I kept telling them. My father, my nieces, all of Anthony's family. I swear at the very last moment before I walked down the aisle, I turned and could have sworn that I saw my father standing there in a tuxedo. My father never thought that I would get married. He didn't think that anyone would want to marry a girl that had a child. He died 2 months after I met Anthony. He never got to meet my husband. I never got to tell him he was wrong, that someone did love me even though I had Joseph. I just really wanted to tell him he didn't have to be ashamed of me anymore.

But... We had an awesome wedding. We got married at the Jericho Terrace. It was where I always wanted to get married. Anthony's Uncle knew the owners so things were above and beyond everything I wanted my wedding to be. We had some issues, like the photographer and video guy. My photographer was a piss face and her brother who was doing the video called me the morning of my wedding and told me he wasn't going to be able to video the wedding because he was passing his stones. I almost jumped through the phone. I told him that he was going to video my wedding because he was going to pass his stones at Jericho Terrace in a jar in between breaks. He sent someone else that was a big moron. The florist forgot to send the flowers for my cake and when I got my flowers they had cigarette ashes all over it. I so wanted the trumpets and I couldn't wait for that and they sucked. One was like 7 feet tall and the other was 4 feet tall. They were off key and at one point they weren't even playing the same tune.

All in all we had a great day and it really was the wedding of my dreams. My gown was the best part of the wedding. It was the only gown that I tried on and it was prefect. I didn't want strapless but it was. It had a lace jacket that went over the gown. It had bell sleeves and the train was 3 inches longer then the gown train. It was the prefect gown for me. I loved it.

I can't believe it's been 3 years already...

Sad & Confused

2007-11-10T08:57:00.000-05:00

I just read a post from one of the groups that I am on that waivers are being given to Large Families. I just don't understand the logic of it all. How could it be that a family with 6 or 7 children (or more) could get a waiver to bring another child into their family and my husband and I who only have 2 children but are only married 3 years can't ???????

I am not saying that parents with large families are not good parents. I would think they are stretch to their limits though. Just because we are not married 5 years, doesn't make us bad parents. My husband was married almost 18 years to his ex-wife. She decided that she didn't want to be married anymore.

We would love to adopt this one little boy that I first saw in April of this year. He was on this list for a while and I called about him. The woman in charge of the SN WC list told me that no one had called about him so far. Well over the next 6 months I called and e-mailed almost everyday. She would tell me the same thing each time I contacted her. "No one has ever called to look at his file but me, and there was nothing she could do for us". She would not even try to get us a waiver. Finally she stopped answering my calls and my e-mails. Well, needless to say, his file was sent back to the CCAA and I have no idea where he will turn up next. Not that it really matters anymore. No one will fight for us. No one will take a stand for the many families in my situation. They are all afraid that the CCAA will "punish" them for trying.

I think that we would be able to give this beautiful little boy a very good home. A safe, happy, healthy and loving home. Why won't anyone listen and take a stand? I would write the letter myself, but I was told it wouldn't be taken seriously. WHAT???????? How could a plea for a child's life not be taken seriously???? What is wrong with this picture? Someone please tell me.

Now, I know that I could go to another country and most likely we will. We are talking about Taiwan or Vietnam. Actually, there is a little boy in Vietnam right now that I am waiting to get his file. He is adorable and he needs a family. We could be that family. The problem is, I close my eyes and I see the little boy from China. I open my eyes and I see the little boy from China. I look at my children at the dinner table and I see the little boy from China sitting next to my son and daughter. I started shopping for Christmas presents for my kids and I see the little boy from China opening his presents next to my son and daughter on Christmas morning. When I tuck my kids in at night, I see the little boy from China waiting for me to tuck him in. I see the little boy from China everywhere I go, in everything I do, awake and asleep!!!!!

So, yes I could wait 2 years and go back to China, but the little boy who's face I can't erase from my mind most likely won't be available anymore. I have experienced heartache before and this is one that will last a lifetime for me.

WWE & Halloween

2007-11-02T06:12:00.000-04:00

Joseph, lilyRose, neighbor & Daniella

Kristi, Joseph & Siri

LilyRose banging on door, Joe & Della

Gina, Joe, Della & LilyRose

Need I Say More

Joe, Della & LilyRose

The Undertaker & Batista

Batista

Joseph

Ok, here it is.

Tuesday night Joseph went to the Nassau Coliseum to see the WWE Smack Down/Raw show. We got him these tickets months ago. They cost an arm and a leg but he was so excited. I had no idea what the seats were going to be like so I had my fingers crossed. Anthony ran into a friend of his a few weeks back that works for the WWE and told him to call and the friend was going to see if he could get Joseph in the standing only front row. Anthony had the guy on the phone right before he left the house and the guy said he was there already and that they should meet him by the flags. Well, the guy never showed up. Now if you know Joseph, you know that he was crushed. So they get on line and Anthony calls me and said that Joseph looked like he was waiting on line to get a shot from the Dr. WOW, I know that look and I felt so bad for him. 1/2 later the phone rings and Joseph was talking so fast that I couldn't understand him. What he was trying to tell me is that they had the BEST seats. They were something like 10 rows from the rink. He said the seats were better then were the standing only section was. He was over the moon. I was so happy for him. I am not a big fan of wrestling but I was really excited. He called me once or twice to tell me his favorite guys were out and he was so close to them. Ray Mestrio and The Undertaker. His all time favorites. He got home at midnight and of course had to wake me up to tell me all about it. Little does he know that I get very little sleep as it is (tons of stuff running through my mind at warp speed) I was only sleeping for like an hour and then I was up for the rest of the night. I am like a zombie during the day lately. Poor Anthony was dead to the world. He gets up at 4am every morning. He usually goes to be at 8:30pm so he was way passed tired. But 4am came and he got up on 4 hours sleep and went to work. WAY TO GO ANTHONY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now for Halloween....

Joseph was buzzing all day I am sure. Even though he was exhausted, once he got off the bus from school he was raring to go. LilyRose on the other hand had no idea what was happening. I got her dressed at 4pm. My cousin Gina was here already and my niece Daniella was on her way, as well as my cousin Siri and Kristi. Siri is Joseph Godmother and Kristi is her sister. They have been Trick or Treating with Joseph since he was born. Gina started coming with us a few years ago and now that will be LilyRose's Godmother she has to really get into it. We made LilyRose knock at my mom's door(she lives downstairs from us) just to get the idea of what she is doing. She had no clue. But I have to say after the 3rd house she picked up really quick. By the 4th house she was running up to the door and banging on it yelling TrickTreat, TrickTreat. once they opened the door she was grabbing the loot right out of there hands. She even tried to get into some of the houses at one point. But the best is when she would bang on a door and they didn't open it... She would look at the door and yell TrickTreat and had this look on her face like, hey they are suppose to open the door and give me something here. Too funny. But the best is that we need to send Godmother Gina to Halloween school. Anthony kept saying that we needed to put knee pads on LilyRose. Hey G, her knees are starting to heal!!!!!!!!!! lol haha I was so glad that my niece wanted to hang out with us. It has been years since Danileela and Joseph got to T ot T togehter. She actually was over the night before to hang out with us. We had a few laughs and T or T was really fun this year.

Then we ran into one of Joseph's friends and so we walked with them for a while. We stopped to grab some dinner and then we headed over to my cousin Joanie's house which is Gina's house too. We always go there on Halloween. As we were leaving our house, my niece Christina pulled up. So she followed us there and hung out with us for a little bit. Then my mother walked in and it was a nut house, but we always have lots of laughs together. After we TorT at Joanie's we go across the street to Annie's house. Well, LilyRose decided she wanted to get a better look at Annie's house. When Annie opened the door LilyRose just waltz right. It went to a few more houses and ran into Kathleen. She was so happy to see Joseph and LilyRose dressed up. By now it was almost 9pm so we packed everything up and dropped my niece off at her house and home we went. LilyRose was out cold. We were washing her up and changing her and she never opened an eye. It was a long night and I am glad it is over.

The pictures of wrestling are kinda dark. I think 1 or 2 are ok. So I hope you enjoy the pictures.

I Love You

2007-10-26T14:17:00.000-04:00

LilyRose walks around the house now saying "I Love You" I tried so many times to catch her saying it and every time I got the camera she would stop saying it. I got lucky today and had to share it with all of you. She sounds much clearer when the camera is not on, but you can hear her saying it here. She is the cutest!!!!!!!!!!

It was a long weekend

2007-10-22T15:41:00.000-04:00

Front of Quilt

Back of Quilt

Ming and us

Stacey, David, LilyRose & Joseph

Where to begin....

Friday morning I finished my quilt. I think it came out pretty good if I do say so myself. It was also Mom's Night Out. It was pouring rain most of the day and night, so Anthony drove me out to my friend Vicki's house and he stayed there with her husband and the kids and we went to Mom's Night Out. I always have a good time when I go there. Just a bunch of women talking about their kids and adoption. Maybe it's because I don't get out much that I enjoy myself. Who knows.

Saturday we got up super early and packed the car and headed out to Delaware. It took us 3 hours and when we finally get to Stacey's house, she was still at the store. No big deal. We waited 5 minutes and then she got home. She has the cutest condo ever. We loved it. Joseph was not feeling well on the drive up, but he said that it was allergies. I wasn't to concerned at that point. We went out to dinner and had a really nice time. LilyRose loves Stacey and her boyfriend David. They were really good with her too. When we got back from eating, Joseph really started not to feel well. I knew he was getting really sick. Of course I forgot his asthma machine and medicine. I gave him Advil and he slept ok. Sunday we had the Adoption House Picnic. It was a really nice day and we got to meet so many other families. The girls are all beautiful. Ming was in from China and she had a blast seeing all her "girls". She never got to meet LilyRose as we were in Beijing before we got LilyRose. I gave her the quilt as a kind of Thank You for her kindness. Now I have to make one for Stacey. I was originally going to make Stacey's first but when I heard Ming was coming I decided to make hers first so I didn't have to ship it to China. Worked out well for us. As the day progressed, Joseph got worse and worse. The ride home was horrid. His chest was killing him and he couldn't breath very well. Of course we hit all kinds a traffic and didn't get home until 10 pm. He had a lot of treatments during the night.

He didn't go to school today and I really thought that we were going to end up in the ER at some point today. We went to the Dr.'s and he said it was bad. We have all new kinds of medicine to take this week. Tonight was his very first Basketball practice, but he won't be there. Probably won't be going to school until the end of the week. LilyRose is not a happy camper either today. I don't know what is wrong with her but boy is she cranky. She is not use to Joseph being home all day and he is getting tons of attention and she just doesn't like it. I am totally exhausted right now. It's 4:55pm and I could go to sleep for the night right now. That so will not happen but a mother could wish... lol

I have a few pictures, enjoy.

FCC-LI Halloween Party

2007-10-17T06:45:00.000-04:00

Our FCC-LI group had it's 1st Halloween Party on Saturday night. Yes, I know, it's Wednesday already and I am just posting about it now. Hey, I am getting better, at least it wasn't next month that I am writing about it.

SOOOOOOO, anyway, Anthony had to work and Gina was no where to be found, so I went with just me and the kids. Joseph asked me to call and see if that kid Brandan was going to be there and his mother said that they couldn't make it. Right after that his friend Vincent called and asked if Joe could hang out. So I told Joseph to ask Vin if he wanted to go and he did so that worked out well for him. We had a really good time and I stayed longer then I thought I would, so when Anthony got home I told him to come up there and meet us. He had fun meeting more of the families and seeing the kids. LilyRose was a little "off" that night. She kinda wanted to be held by anyone that would look at her, which kinda freaked me out. I had never seen some of these people and neither did she, but that did not stop here from running over to them when she made eye contact with them and throw up her arms and snuggle in. I really do not like that. She hasn't done that in ages and I have to say that I went over and took her out of their arms. I just don't like it. (Can you tell I don't like it)? lol Then I don't know what she was doing, but she ran right into a wall. BAM, knocked her right on her skinny little butt. She was dazed for a minute. Her father walked in right after it happened, couldn't have come at a better time for me. She didn't cry or anything but it was just weird. I have been keeping an eye on her since. Just want to see if any other strange behavior comes about.

Other then that, things have been quite here. We are going to Delaware this weekend for a picnic that Adoption House is throwing for the families. Ming is here from China and it will be great to see her again. She did not get to meet LilyRose as we went to Beijing first. So this will be a nice weekend I hope. I will post about that next week.

Until next time.....

Trying to catch up

2007-10-11T09:35:00.000-04:00

AnnaClaire's Scrapbook Page

Joseph & LilyRose

Joseph & LilyRose Pumpkin Picking

Bumble Bee LilyRose

Joseph & Brandan

Emily & LilyRose

Ok, ok I know that I am way behind again. I try to stay on top of this blog but I just can't for some reason. I really have to make a point of posting every Sunday at least.

Ok, where to start. On September 29th we went to the Autumn Moon Festival Picnic. They had it at Belmont Lake State Park on the Island. Anthony had to work so of course my cousin Gina came with us. Joseph was not so happy to be going at first because he didn't know who he would hang out with. Well, he was in the middle of 7 kids his age. He made a fast friend with this 8 year old boy Brendan who was adopted from China years back. Gina and I had a blast with this boy. He was the cutest and funny too. They live about a 1/2 hour from us. I signed Joseph up for the FCC-LI Youth Group. I didn't know he could join but once he found out that his new friends were in it he agreed. His first meeting will be Nov. 3rd. He's really looking forward to that.

LilyRose had a great time with all her little friends and she even made new ones. She was also off and running with the crowd. They had a Scavenger Hunt and arts and crafts. I finally got to meet Donna. I met her online last year but we never met. So it was great to finally meet her. She doesn't live to far from us either. I got to see Bruny and her husband Joe too. Bruny has never met LilyRose in person, so that was really fun to see her meet Lily for the first time. Bruny was so excited about that. I got to see her friend Mary's referral picture of her new daughter. She is beautiful and Mary and her husband will be leaving for China at the end of this month. So I wish them the best of luck. I also met another Lisa while we were walking into the park. She was super nice and I didn't get her phone number but I hope to see her again at another FCC function. I got to see all of the other women that I do know and it was great to see them all. I had a great time and can't wait until next year. Oh btw, Anthony got to come for about an hour. He had fun saying hello to everyone too.

On October 2nd, LilyRose had an ENT appt. Her tubes are doing fine and the Dr. say LilyRose's ear are in great shape. We were very happy with the visit. She doesn't have to go back to see him until Jan. 08. AWESOME!!!

That night I went to start another quilt. Last year I did one for Joseph. I never sewed in my life and I needed to learn to make LilyRose's 100 Good Wish Quilt. It took me months and months to do Joseph's. It came out pretty good for a first timer so I am told. Well, since I forgot how to do it, I started again. I really like it, but it takes me a long time because I don't have a sewing machine. Not a problem any more, Anthony bought me the one from the quilting store that I go to and I love it. It's a Baby Lock and I learned on one of them. So we picked it up last Friday night and I was so excited to sew that when I turned it on, I forgot to set the needle in the center and I started to sew and the freakin' needle broke off. I had the damn thing 2 minutes and Pow, BROKEN!!!!!. Anthony put a new needle in but I couldn't for the life of me thread the needle. So I closed it up and sulked for the rest of the night. The next day I bring it to the store and when I walked in I told them I broke the machine. The girls were cracking up. The only thing wrong with it was that the needle was in backwards. So now that it's fixed I am happily sewing with it. LOVE IT. If my friends from my past could see me know. HAHA LOL HA.

Sunday October 7th - We had a very special family come over for an Italian dinner. The Cox family have been wonderful to us. Joseph and Thomas are good friends. I love the girls Kathleen and Elizabeth. Maureen and Noel are just awesome and we all get along great. Lifelong friends we have in them.

Monday, October 8th - Anthony was off from work today so we went Pumpkin Picking. Not the best time, but it was ok. Joseph thought it was babyish and Anthony was just damn cranky. Should have left both of them home and just taken LilyRose. She must have tripped over every pumpkin in the patch. Some of them were bigger then her. lol

Tuesday October 9th - Joseph had Basketball tryouts. He did pretty good for a kid that never played before. We will hear in 2 weeks what the results are. Keep your fingers crossed that he gets on a team with one of his friends. He's very concerned about this.

So I think I am caught up now. I got LilyRose's birthday card from her Chenzhou sister AnnaClaire. Her page is done. Just missing 2 "sisters" cards. I sent out Halloween cards with a picture of LilyRose in her costume. I hope she at least gets a few Halloween cards so I can add them to her book. ENJOY!!!!!!!

Chenzhou Bithday / Christmas Cards

2007-09-30T16:38:00.000-04:00

The Front Cover

LilyRose's Page

Paul's Page

Lainie's Page

Makayla's Page

MeiLi's Page

Jayde's Page

YuMei's Page

LilyRose received some birthday cards from other children that were in the same SWI around the same time as she was. We will hopefully exchange birthday and Christmas cards every year so that she has that connection to her very first home. I decided to make a scrapbook so that she could look at the cards and pictures of her Chenzhou sisters and brother. I think it came out pretty good. There's 10 families including LilyRose. I am missing 3 cards and hope to receive them someday soon. Here are the pictures of the book. Let me know what you think about the job I did. Some of the pictures are blurry, sorry about that.

BBQ

2007-09-20T06:27:00.000-04:00

We were invited to a BBQ at Vicky and Chris' house. They are the very proud parents of Emily. Emily is from Hunan just like LilyRose. I met them through the local FCC-LI group. I instantly connected with Vicky. We are alot alike and our daughters share a striking resemblance to each other. Everyone that see them notices it. No, that are not twins or anything, but they sure do resemble each other.

Well anyway, they came to LilyRose's b'day party and my husband Anthony and Vicky's husband Chris hit it off and they invited us out for the day. They actually live down the road from my cousins farm out east. We had a really good time and Joseph got to go in the pool. It was heated and like 85 degrees. He had a good time. Emily loved playing with Joseph and I think LilyRose kinda was like "Hey, that's my big brother". LilyRose does not know how to share that well yet!!!

It was a very nice day and we hope to get together a lot more in the future. Enjoy the pics and check out the cute little video of LilyRose and Emily dancing.

Party # 2

2007-09-18T09:31:00.000-04:00

Wouldn't you know it. I am way behind again on posting. We had a 2nd party for LilyRose on September 9th for all her little friends and cousins. It turned out really nice. I had the big bouncy pit again for the older kids, but the little ones had a blast in it. I had Elmo stop by, but most of the kids were afraid. We had 3 little girls from the FCC-LI group here and how cute they all were. Nola Ann, Emily & Maya. Just love these little ones. LilyRose was so tired that right after we sang Happy Birthday, she fell fast asleep in the chair. It was really cute. I was super happy that my cousins Janeen & Kristi were able to come. They are on my fathers side of the family and I am so glad that we are able to maintain our connection since my father died 4 years ago. Our kids get along really well and they have a blast together. My other cousins were here also. Gina is a permanent fixture here. lol My cousin Gerard and his wife Elizabeth with their daughter Courtney who is absolutely gorgeous by the way were here, my cousin Michael and his wife Danielle along with their son Tyler (hey Ty, give me a pound) Cousins Siri, Kristi & Mark. Thanks for coming. But a big shout out goes to my very dear friend Liz. I have known Liz for almost 30 years. She was here with her daughter Valerie. Valerie is 2 months younger then LilyRose and I hope they will be able to say they know each other for 30+ years someday. I just love Liz. LilyRose had an awesome time and she has lots of family and friends that love her to pieces. Enjoy the pic.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LILYROSE

2007-09-04T07:10:00.000-04:00

Today our beautiful daughter LilyRose turns 2 years old.

I am so very thankful that we have her home and are able to celebrate this day with her. We will be home 7 months on the 16th of this month. WOW, time sure flies when you are having the time of your life.

LilyRose had her very first birthday party on Saturday night. I had just a few of the family over to help celebrate her birthday. I am having another party on September 9th for her little friends and my cousins that have children LilyRose's age. I have to say that I am glad I only had a few people here Saturday night as I was still so sick. I don't know what I had but it sure knocked me on my ass for 4 days. I got out of bed at 5:30pm and my company came at 6:00pm. Thank God for my mother and cousin Gina. They did most of the prep work for me and my mother even had to go and order the cake and stuff for me. I was in bad shape. I am feeling a lot better then I did a few days ago.

LilyRose had a really good time though. She got some great gifts too. My mother bought her a beautiful white table and chair set. LilyRose loves it. Her brother Joseph bought her a Yellow Care Bear and a Princess Tea Set which LilyRose loves playing with on her new table and chair set. Joseph also bought her the tiara that you will see in the pictures. Godmother Aunt Gina got her Diamond Stud Earrings. I was 38 when I got my first pair, go figure !!! Godfather Joe and Aunt Maryann got her a motorized Jeep, which she almost knows how to drive by herself, Gold Ball Earrings and the #2 Lenox Train. I cannot wait for Anthony to put up the shelves in LilyRose's room so I can get the train up and out. It's beautiful. She also got some cute clothes and she got a Magnetic Letters and numbers set. This gift came from my aunt that just passed away last week. My cousin Nancy had it for a while and the card was written out way before my aunt passed away. I just wish she gave me a heads up before I opened the card because it took me by surprise and I kinda lost it for a minute. It will be a great keep sake for LilyRose. She also got a Crayola Color Wonder which she loves.

Tonight we will have a little cake to celebrate her birthday with just us and then one more party on Sunday. I think LilyRose will love all her parties and all the fuss that is just for her. Can you believe the birthday girl just woke up and has a cold and a cough. I can't believe it. Oh, boy this is going to be fun. Oh well, I guess we will be spending some time in the doctors office today. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Dutch Wonderland/Hershey Park

2007-08-31T20:04:00.000-04:00

We left Sunday morning for Hershey Park. We went with 2 other families. One of the families are good friends of ours. Joseph and their son Vincent are good friends and Anthony and Vin's father Nick are their Soccer Coaches. We got to PA at like 11 am and went right to Dutch Wonderland. The kids had the best time. LilyRose got to go on so many rides. Some of them she loved and some of them she didn't love. We had to stop 2 rides because she was crying so hard. I had to laugh because the rides she cried on were the ones Anthony put her on. It was really funny that she gave him "that look" that she is famous for when she's not a happy kid. She was amazed at all the different rides and sounds and she had a ball. I got to go on 2 rides here. The old fashion car ride with LilyRose and the bumper cars with Joseph. I am not a big ride person, but it made Joseph happy so of course I did it. My neck was not happy but Oh Well. Then we went to check into the hotel which was right across the street from Dutch Wonderland. It was ok, not a place that I would want to stay at again. We were going to go back to the park but the kids wanted to go and eat and then go in the pool. So we went to the Texas Road House. What a great place. Of course, the kids we having Peanut fights. They put huge buckets of peanuts on the table and they were throwing them at us. We had to have 2 tables because there were 11 of us and LilyRose. She was so tired by this time and her heading was hitting her chest until the food came out and boy did she get her 2nd wind. It was really funny. After that the kids went to the pool and LilyRose and I went to bed.

Monday we got up at the crack of dawn and had breakfasts and headed to Hershey Park. We got there at 10 am right when the park opened and it was a mad house. I have been there 3 times and it was never that crowed. They waited like 2 hours for a 3 second ride. LilyRose and I did alot of sitting and walking around by ourselves. I did get to go on 1 ride though. I went on the "Whip". I love that ride. Joseph was embarrassed because I was laughing so loud and throwing my hands up. To bad, I had fun. I have to say that I was really surprised at Joseph. He went on roller coasters that I didn't think he would go on and he had a ball. There was one called the "Mouse" and it had no sides so you feel like your gonna go off the sides when you go on the turns. It was so crowed that we were sure when they got on and I didn't have my camera ready when they went by, but I will never forget Joe's face. He definitely had skid marks happening. LOL.

Then they went on this Flume ride. It goes really high up and then has this steep drop and the wave that happens is HUGE. They had a full boat and the wave was one of the biggest. It looked like a really fun ride but I am afraid of heights so I wouldn't go on. I was looking for the characters so I could get pics with LilyRose but they were no where to be seen. LilyRose went on a lot of rides and she really liked all of them expect the ones Anthony went on with her. LOL He took her on the baby slide and she was screaming on the way down. I have a pic but you will have to click on it to make it bigger so you could see her face. All in all we had a great time. We were at the park until it closed. 12 hours of walking and waiting and walking and waiting. Poor LilyRose was so done. Then we went to the Chocolate Factory and took the tour and LilyRose loved it. Then we shopped for a little ( i didn't buy that much candy) and headed back to the hotel. We ordered pizza and picked it up when we got back. We went out by the pool and ate and the kids went in the pool and of course LilyRose fell asleep so I went back to the room and went to sleep too.

Tuesday was a very relaxing day. Cathy, the mom from the other family stayed back at the hotel with the kids while then went into the pool and we all went to the "Amish Village" We did some shopping and had a nice 2 hours out. I was starting not to feel well though and knew that I was getting sick. I had the worst body aches I ever had. We went into this store that sells Shoe Fly Pies b/c Nick loves them and I walking around looking at all the stuff and it finally hits me that everything in the store says " I Love Intercourse" WHAT????????? I was cracking up. I was going to buy a t-shirt for my mother that had the logo on it but they didn't have her size. To bad it would have been a funny joke. I have to say the baked goods were awesome. I did not try the Shoe Fly pie though. We went back to the hotel and hung out by the pool the rest of the day. The other family that came with us left, but there girls stayed with Susan and Nick. We went back to the Texas Roadhouse and ate and then went to play Miniature Golf. LilyRose was out cold so I stayed in the car with her. By now I am getting sicker by the minute. We went back to the hotel and I went right to bed.

We got up Wednesday and packed up and ate and went to the outlets. I did some shopping and got the kids clothes. I got a few things for myself too. We got on the road and came home. By the time I walked into my house I was full blown sick. High fever (haven't had a fever in years) my body felt like a truck was rolling over me every few seconds and my throat was on fire and the couch was deep and painful. Forget my head, I can't believe it's still on my shoulders. My kids were so happy to see Grandma, that even though I was so sick it made me smile that they love her so much. My mother of course made the biggest scene when she saw them too. Thursday was a bad day for me. I could hardly get out of bed. I unpacked the suitcase and did 4 loads of laundry and laid down when LilyRose took her nap. My mother had to go and order LilyRose's birthday cake for me and get all the other stuff I needed. We are having her very first party on Saturday night for the family. Today was a little better, I still fell like crap and have a slight fever that comes and goes and my body is still screaming for mercy. I am going to go to sleep now. I hope you enjoy the pics. Remember to click on them if you want to see them close up.

Joseph got another trophy last night and the coach said a nice little speech for each boy on the team as he gave them the throphy. It has his name and jersey # on it. It is really very nice. Joseph had a great season.

Thanks for stopping by. Watch for LilyRose's 2nd birthday party stories and pictures. She will 2 on September 4th.

Again, it's been a long time

2007-08-24T08:57:00.000-04:00

I don't know what is wrong with me. I promise myself that I would keep up with my posts and then I look and it's weeks since my last post. I really need to snap out of it.

So much happens and I want to write about it and by the time I get here I forget what I want to write. Let's see...

LilyRose got her ears pierced. She looks so darn cute. When you ask her to show you her earrings, she tilts her head and puts her hand right below the earrings and scrunches her face up. It really is cute. Joseph asked if he could get an earring !!(?) I told him if he REALLY wanted one that he could get it, but he would have to take it out when he played sports. He's thinking about it now. I think it was because LilyRose got one and we all made such a big fuss over it that he was feeling a LITTLE left out.

Joseph was sick for 2 weeks. The day he made MVP, that night had a fever of 102. That fever of 102 came and went for 3 days. Every time I got it down a few hours later it shot back up. Then the Asthma hit. Of course all of the Dr.'s we have were on vacation and I don't like the Dr. that covers for one of them. The other Dr.s wouldn't even squeeze him in. Not very happy on the Dr. front right now and I am in the process of finding new ones. Thank god we are use to this and I have a huge supply of meds for him and I just treated him myself. But that cough lasted for 2 weeks. So of course he missed lots of games and was super upset about it. Thank god tomorrow is the very last game for the All Star team. We just signed him up for Basketball. He starts in Nov. Did I mention that Anthony is Joseph's Soccer coach? I have to help out with this also. Anthony and another dad (1 of Joe's good friends) will be coaching and between the both of them they know very little about it. So the other mom and I have to help out. Well, this will be a very funny season for us because the 4 of us have no clue.

As you all know, my brother went back to Iraq on Aug. 1st. I am asking for prays for him. Some very not nice things took place here last weekend with his Ex and it has affected him in a very bad way. I did what he asked me to do and of course with her things never go the way they should and things got out of hand and he is all the way around the world and it's just to damn much for him. So, keep him in your prays that he will be able to get through this and keep himself safe. Thanks.

We are going to Hershey Park and Dutch Wonderland this week for a few days. We really need a few days away and the kids need to have some fun. So we are going with another family (the other soccer coach) and Joseph is super excited about going. All he keeps talking about are the bumper cars. I will take tons of pics and post when I get home.

LilyRose will be turning 2 on 9/4. I have 2 parties planed. One for the family and a few days later for all the little kids. I have 20 kids for that party. I can't wait for her to have her very first party all of her own.

OMG, my mother just told me that my Aunt passed away this morning. I was just there to see her on Wed. night. She was 92 and a super lady. My aunt has been ill for a while and sometimes not all here but when we went to get LilyRose, she would ask my cousin Nancy everyday if we were home yet. My cousin said at times she didn't know her name but would ask about LilyRose by name all the time. For some reason my aunt and LilyRose had a connection from the very start. We were home a week and Nancy and Aunt Mae came to see her. My aunt was in a wheelchair, but it didn't bother LilyRose at all. As soon as my aunt came in the house, my daughter went right up to her and took her hand and held it for a while. She never shied away from Aunt Mae either. So needless to say I am very sad that my aunt has passed.

I was tagged!!! Thank you Lara. But please forgive me as I will need a few days to sit and do it. With my aunt passing, my mind is blank. Thank you for thinking of me and I will do it, I promise.

Joseph made MVP

2007-08-12T10:56:00.000-04:00

I had to post this right away.

Joseph's All Star Baseball Team made the playoffs this weekend. Friday nights game was rained out. It poured all day into late evening. Saturday he had 2 games. They won both games. Joe did pretty good. It was today's game that he did great. I missed this game (of course) because he had to be there at 7:30 am. Way to early for LilyRose. So I am on the phone with my friend April (Aiden's mom) and Anthony calls on the nextel and tells me to come outside with my camera. So I am thinking that Joseph is covered in dirt from head to toe and he wanted a pic of it. Well, that was not it at all. He opens the door and out comes this very big trophy. Joe has this huge smile on his face and says "Look ma, I was MVP today" (Most Valuable Player) Well as you can imagine I was jumping up and down and snapping pictures at the same time. He was so excited. He pitched and Anthony said he made 2 great plays on the field. Anthony said he did really good with pitching. I am so angry that I missed this game and the announcer calling out my son's name to come and get his trophy. I never really get over things like this. Now every time I dust his room and look at this trophy I am always gonna feel bad that I missed his special moment. Hopefully I won't miss anymore special times for him.

Well, I have some pictures. Check out that smile!!!!!!

LilyRose

2007-08-11T09:09:00.000-04:00

Ok, so I forgot to mention in my post from yesterday a few things about LilyRose. First she just learned how to skip. Or better yet it's the toddler version of skipping. I believe my niece Christina taught her this. It really is the cutest thing to see. She skips everywhere. We crack up every time. Second, she said her ABC's yesterday. Ok, we had to repeat some of the letters like 50 times but she got through to Z. It was super cute and I am hoping to get all these new milestones on video now. Last but not least, she went to the beach for the first time last weekend. Saturday night me, Anthony, Joseph and LilyRose took a ride to the beach at like 7:15 pm. You had to see her face when she got on the sand. She had no clue of what to make of the whole thing. Joseph went into the water while Anthony stayed down by the water watching him. LilyRose was sitting with me a few feet away on the sand trying to figure out what it was. She couldn't understand why she couldn't get the sand off her hands and feet. It took her a while to get use to it. Well, she decided to walk over to Anthony just as the water was rolling in and it covered her feet. She let out the biggest laugh and scream and that was it, she was hooked. I had no bathing suit for her, so her shorts did just fine. Thank god I always leave the house with an extra outfit or 2.

Sunday we went to the beach nice and early with my cousins Janeen and Kristi and there 5 kids, plus one of there friends with her son. All together there were 7 kids and LilyRose. They had a blast. I didn't bring my camera because I forgot it. Can you believe it, I forgot the camera. It doesn't matter, the whole day is seared in my memory for life. I have a few pics from the night at the beach. There kinda dark but if you click on the pic you can see her face.

More to come soon.

So much has happened

2007-08-10T09:20:00.001-04:00

OMG, I haven't been here in so long AGAIN. Where to begin...

First, let me say thank you to Sara Lane for making my blog look awesome. I love it. You should check her out. Her site is on my sidebar.

Well, my brother's visit was great. Short, but great. My son loved having him here and loved the fact that my younger niece was here everyday. They did lots of things and just had a great time together. We also got to spend time with our cousins from my fathers side. I have tried to keep in contact with them since he died. The last time we saw them was at my wedding in 2004. My brother ran into my cousin Kristi at a party that his motorcycle club had for him and she just moved to the next town over from us. She called us the next day and asked if we would like to go to her house so that everyone could see my brother and meet my daughter LilyRose. They had never seen her in person. They followed our trip to China and commented everyday. So we went and had a wonderful time. My cousin Kristi has 2 kids, Anthony and Isabella. Anthony is 1 year younger then Joseph and Isabella is 5. My cousin Janeen has 3 kids, Alexia, Gianna, and JonJon. Alexia is 10, Gianna just turned 8 and JonJon is I think 4. My fathers niece is Ann and her husband Babe. It was great to see them too. The next night, my cousin Amelia (Ann's sister) came with her husband, Tony and her younger son Thomas. They have 2 other boys also. My aunts from my mothers side came to see Ralph too. It was fun visiting with family and hanging out.

We also were invited to Gianna 8th birthday party. Joseph had a great time in the pool with all the kids. We love hanging out with them and plan to keep it up. In all of this visiting and hanging out, I fell down the stairs with LilyRose one morning. Slide right down with her in my arms. She didn't get hurt, but I sure did. Pulled my back out. My brother was on the couch down at my mothers house and I don't think he even touched the floor. He thought I dropped LilyRose. When he saw that she was fine, he went right back to the couch. The nerve of him. lol My daughter bugged my brother every chance she got. It was really funny. At one point right before he left to go back to Iraq, she climbed up on the couch and just put her head on his shoulder. Thank god I had my camera, it is the cutest picture.

My husband turned 44 in the mist of all of this. He had to work late that night and of course Joseph had a baseball game. So that is where we spent Anthony's birthday. By the time we got home from the game, Anthony was so tired he showered and went to bed. He didn't even want to have cake. What a birthday, huh? I am sure I am forgetting things, so I will try to get it all down.

Ralph had to leave on Aug. 1st. His daughters couldn't go to the airport with us so saying goodbye to them early in the day was a really hard thing for him. My mother didn't want to go to the airport because she couldn't handle that, he said goodbye to her so fast so that he didn't have to see her flip out crying. The ride to the airport was ok. LilyRose talked away and we had a laugh or two. But as soon as we pulled into the airport the air in the car changed. Ralph didn't want us to go inside with him, so we said goodbye outside. LilyRose got very sad looking, like she knew he was leaving, but it was my son Joseph that took it the hardest. He burst into tears and was sobbing. We were all shocked. My brother was so upset at that, that he got out of the car in a daze. I couldn't even speak at this point, I just hugged him and whispered that
I loved him and to be safe. That's about all I could get out. Even my husband cried. It was just so damn sad. Then my brother walked away. He didn't even look back. I stood there for a while after he went inside thinking maybe he would come out again, but he didn't. I still get chocked up when I think of it. My son cried all the way home. He kinda went into a depression. He went to sleep crying and when he got up the next day and saw his room (Ralph stayed in Joe's room) empty he started to cry again. He was depressed for 2 days. Didn't want any play dates or anything. It was a slow process, but we are just starting to get back to normal. Although, we will not be NORMAL until he is home for good. So hurry up Ralph, we need you to be home for good.

LilyRose had her first Dr.'s appointment since her tubes were put in and her ears are all clear. No fluid and she passed her hearing test. So we are super happy about that and she will get her ears pierced on the 14th of Aug. I know she will look really cute. Her Godmother Aunt Gina already put dibs on her first pair of diamond stud earrings.

Joseph's All Star team made the playoffs. It's been very exciting although it seems we are at the games every night, it's still exciting and I am so proud of him. Now he wants to join Basketball. I know absolutely nothing about basketball. But we will let him try it out.

We had our first Post-Placement meeting the other day. Can you believe we are home 6 months already. Time sure does fly by.

My Brother is Home

2007-07-17T06:23:00.000-04:00

My brother is home from Iraq. Not for good (yet) but just for a visit. He has to go back August 1, 2007.

Anthony and I went to pick him up on Friday, July 6th at JFK. Joseph stayed home from his summer program and we had LilyRose with us also. My brother only met LilyRose for a few hours when we got home because he left the day after we got home from China. I really didn't sleep the night before, I was so excited. Ralph and I are the typical brother and sister. We get along but we also don't get along, but I couldn't wait to see him. We got to the airport way to early and then we were in the wrong terminal and had to walk to the other side of the airport. LilyRose got carriage sickness. lol Up the hill, down the hill. We finally find where we are suppose to be and wouldn't you know it, the flight is delayed. So we got coffee and Joseph got his Wrestling magazine and LilyRose got crackers and we were good to wait. We really didn't have to wait that long and it gave me time to calm down. When he walked through the doors, I started to scream. Couldn't help myself, didn't realize I missed him that much. He looked up at me and just smiled and laughed. Now of course everyone is looking at us and I'm crying like an ass and trying to take pictures and the stupid camera froze up on me. Boy was I pissed. I didn't know it at the time but Anthony was suppose to be video taping and he got the floor and Ralph's shoes and the back of my head. I was so mad. But I did manage to get some very good video of him and my mother. Anyway, my son was so happy to have his uncle/godfather home. Joseph adores Ralph. It was really funny seeing LilyRose looking up at him. Ralph was loving her. So we get on our way to go home and I think my brother was nervous seeing my mother. I called her to let her know we were close and when we pulled up I jumped out first so I could video tape it and my mother just kept saying his name over and over. She was crying so hard that I don't think she really saw him the first 15 minutes. My brother was all choked up just like the rest of us. After she calmed down she asked him to take out the garbage. Thank god I still had the camera on, because no one would believe it. We were hysterical. So there's Ralph, home one hour from Iraq and he's taking out the trash. PRICELESS

Then we took Ralph home to see his kids. Now, I haven't seen my oldest niece in almost 3 years. My younger niece I saw a handful of times in 3 years. That's a whole other story. So i have my camera ready to catch the homecoming but my younger niece flew out of the house so fast that I missed it. But I have to say I will never forget her face. She cried and was holding onto him so tight that you could see my brother trying to catch his breath. Then my older niece came out and it was very touching. No one said anything to me at all and that was ok. The girls had never seen LilyRose so I told Joseph to take her out of the truck so that they could meet her. We left Ralph at his house and went home. I took a nap because I was so tired and about an hour later I hear my brother telling me to get up. I came out of my room and the girls were here. I was shocked. Ralph is staying here for his time home. He is divorced and his ex and the girls live in the house. My younger niece Daniella has been here everyday. She even slept here a few times. Joseph is having a ball. Daniella and Joseph always got along great. They are very much alike. Christina is 17 now and has a boyfriend and she does her own thing.
I am just surprised that she has been here so much. I didn't know that it bothered me so much not having them in my life. I am just hoping that when Ralph goes back, that Daniella can still come here to hang out. LilyRose loves her like crazy. I saw my ex-sister-in-law for the first time in 3 years the other day and I took LilyRose over to the car to introduce her. We will never be friends, but I want to be civil so that my nieces can come here whenever they want. It's great having everyone together again. My mother is happy to have all of her grandchildren together.

BTW, LilyRose is doing great. She is picking up lots of words now that the tubes are in and she's loving life. My cousin's baby girl turned 1 years old and they had the pony rides and petting zoo. LilyRose was up close and personal with all the animals. She really loved the pony ride though. Wouldn't you know it, my carmera battery died right when it was her turn. I got 1 pic of her on the pony.

LilyRose had her Surgery

2007-07-11T10:03:00.000-04:00

LilyRose had her surgery yesterday and all went well.

I was a basket case and didn't sleep at all the night before. We got her up as close to the time we had to leave because LilyRose LOVES to eat. She must have been wondering why she didn't get her milk and then her breakfast. Of course we had a few people come to the hospital with us. My cousin Gina (LilyRose's Godmother) my mother, my son, my brother and his daughter. We always do things big in this family. We had to be there at 8:30 am and she was suppose to go in at 9:30am. They called us in at 9:45 and she went to surgery at 10:15 am. Only one parent was allowed to go into the room and hold her while they put the mask over her face so I made Anthony do that. There was no way that I could watch that happen. I would have passed out. That's my baby and it would have broke my heart. Anthony was crying when he came out. I had to laugh though because he had the white cover up and blue hat that he had to wear to bring her in. He looked really funny. I cried a little when he walked away with her and she's waving bye bye but I really lost it when I went back to the waiting room and my mother started to cry. But no sooner did we sit down they called us back in. As we opened the door to go back to the recovery area, we heard LilyRose flipping out. She was screaming and crying and we took off at a run and boy was I shocked when I saw here. This was NOT my LilyRose. She had this blank look on her face and she was kicking and hitting the nurse. So I took her and she was flipping and hitting and I almost dropped her. So Anthony took her and he was having a hard time holding her too. She was pulling his hair and squeezing his face and she had no idea who we were or where she was. This went on for a 1/2 hour. The nurse told us we could leave, but I was not going anywhere while she was acting like this. The nurse kept telling us that this was normal and that she would snap out of it soon. I was floored. She finally calmed down enough for us to leave. She wouldn't look at anyone in the car and when we got home she sat on the couch with my niece and finally started to be herself. She came into the kitchen and pointed to the cereal cabinet and then she was off to the races. She ate all day long. Finally at 1pm she went down for a 3 hour nap. She got up and ate some more and played and was talking up a storm. She was repeating what we said more then she ever did. The Dr. told me, don't talk loud near her for a few days and I had to laugh at that, we are a loud family. But she was fine and thank god it's done and she's doing great.

I want to thank everyone who has emailed me and called me and wrote here. I really appreciate it all.

July 10th is the day for Tubes

2007-06-25T11:07:00.000-04:00

Hi all, July 10th is the day LilyRose will have her tubes put in her ears. I am so nervous. I know it's common but still, she's my baby and I am freakin out. I know her ears are bothering her now because her fingers are always in them. I have an appt. with the ENT this week to see if we can get some drops to hold us over until her operation. So, please keep her in your prays and keep me in them too. I will most likely pass out when she goes under. I passed out when Joseph had to have intravenous. Not good at that stuff when it comes to my kids. Thank God for Anthony. He will have to hold both of us that day.

We had another play date last Monday with the FCCLI girls @ Vicky's house and boy, did we all have fun. Thanks Vicky for a great day and the use of your house and pool. I want to thank Emily for letting LilyRose play with all of her toys. What a big girl you are Emily. Oh, btw, thanks for the shoes, I can't wait for LilyRose to wear them. Can't wait to do it again.

Now, I want to say Happy Birthday Nola Ann. LilyRose was invited to Nola's birthday party on Sat. and we had a great time. My good friend Rebecca's family was awesome. She has 2 beautiful sisters and her parents were super sweet. Nola has been home from China I believe 2 or 3 months and she is absolutely beautiful. You have to see her sister Gracie too. She will be a heartbreaker when she gets older. Thanks guys for inviting us.

I will post again soon. BTW, look at LilyRose on the "Rollercoaster" ride. She loved it and I can't find it in any of the stores. If someone comes across it, please let me know where
I can get it.

The weekend

2007-06-11T09:23:00.000-04:00

Ok, so another weekend is gone. Joseph had a baseball game almost every night last week. LilyRose and I went to all of them except Friday night. Wouldn't you know it, Joseph hit a home run and got another 2 RBI's. He was so happy that he won the game for his team. He made Anthony call me as soon as he hit home plate. I can't believe I missed it. I guess I will be going to every game from now on.

LilyRose had her 2nd ENT appt. on Saturday morning. I was so surprised to hear the Dr. tell me that she needs tubes put in. Both her ears had a lot of fluid in them. She failed the hearing tests that she passed the first visit we had with him. So, LilyRose will have tubes put in sometime in the next 2 weeks. I know it is so common, but I still was very upset that she needs them. I am a nervous wreck.

I have no new pictures to post. I just wanted to let you all know what was happening.

Have a great week.

No Early Intervention for LilyRose

2007-06-08T12:11:00.000-04:00

We had E.I. here today and LilyRose does not qualify. They said she is where she should be for her age and for only being home 4 months she is doing awesome. I have to have then come back in 6 months for another evaluation. They had a Chinese Interpreter and LilyRose just stared at her with this look on her face like she was thinking "I heard that language before, but I don't know where I heard it from".

Let me explain that look. On Monday, we went to the local mall here to see my cousin who was working in an eye place helping out his friend until his practice opens next month because I needed new contact lenses. We had LilyRose with us. When we were leaving the mall, I was walking a few feet ahead of Anthony and LilyRose. All of a sudden, I hear a woman talking Chinese. I turned around and this lady is talking to LilyRose and my daughter is just staring at her with this look on her face. It was total confusion. I have no idea what this lady was saying to her and then she offered her some fruit. At that moment I snapped out of my fog and told Anthony to pick her up and let's go. LilyRose was turning in his arms to see this lady all the way out of the mall. I didn't think to ask her what she said to Lily until after we were in the car. We had one of the worst nights with her that night. She would not go to sleep and she cried like crazy and just went into her own little world. I was scared to death. I thought that she was going to regress after that. The next morning she still wasn't herself, but by that night she was ok. So I guess when she saw this lady today she had somewhat of the same facial expression but didn't let it bother her at all.

She was very entertaining though today. They got a real kick out of her. LilyRose loves to be the center of attention and boy was she in her element today.

Ok, last Sat. night we went to the Cox family's house for a BBQ. Anthony kinda invited us on his own there. We are super close with this family and had a really good time. We had a lot of laughs and Joseph and their son Thomas are really good friends. Their daughters Kathleen and Elizabeth adore LilyRose. I got some nice pics of the night.

Joseph has had a baseball game every night this week. So of course we are at the field every night. I put LilyRose on the swings and she hated them, as you will see by the pics. I didn't get one of her crying but you will get the idea when you look at them. Now the slide is a different story. She loves it. Wants to go down it all the time. So I hope you enjoy.

I want to say hi to my brother Ralph. I was happy to see that he commented on here the other day all the way from Iraq. We are in the count down for him to come home on leave. He will be getting home on July 6th. and will be here for 28 days. My mother is beside herself. We have not seen Ralph since Feb. 16th. The very day we got home from China with LilyRose. He left the next morning and we really can't wait to see him. We are picking him up at the airport and my mother doesn't want to go because she is afraid that she will make a scene. I know I'm going to make a scene and I don't care. Damn, I miss him and can't wait to see him.

Wow, haven't been here in a while

2007-06-01T11:44:00.000-04:00

I hope everyone is doing well. I can't believe it's been this long since I was here last. So much has happened.

First off, I would like to welcome home April, Sean and their new son Aiden. He is the cutest little boy and we are so very happy for them. We wish them all the best and I can't wait to talk with April when she gets settled.

Joseph and LilyRose are doing great. Joseph has been playing soccer and baseball like crazy. Over Memorial Day Weekend he had a tournament and played 3 games in the afternoon. I will be bragging right about now, Joseph was the only one to score any goals for his team in all the games. I have to say that I was jumping up and down as I do not like most of the moms on this team. I know it sounds bad, but I can't help it. No love lost there. Thank god the season has ended. Joseph is doing great in baseball too, although the other night he caught the ball with his upper lip. I got there after it happened and of course being the way I am I kinda flipped out for a minute. He was on the field and I could see that something was on his mouth. To my surprise it was his lip that was so puffy that you could see it across the field. It's still swollen but it looks much better. He has 16 more days of school left. He's counting, not me. lol But he lets us all know everyday how many days are left. He will go to a summer program that the school offers for the month of July. He has a great time and all of his friends go. Have no idea what Aug. will bring. He will be playing Baseball though. Lets hope the Asthma stays at bay.

Now for LilyRose. Lets see, she is spoiled beyond belief. She is getting chunky and her hair is growing nicely. I even got 2 clips in her hair at once. I had Early Intervention come. Not sure if she will qualify, but I made them come anyway. She was saying 14 or 15 English words and then kinda stopped. So, I figured I had nothing to lose. Other then that she is doing great. She is a very happy little girl and we love her to pieces. She is the main event wherever we go. She loves the attention. She will be famous one day. I still can't believe that she is ours and how very lucky we got. She is the sweetest little girl and very lovable. Her favorite thing right now is talking on the phone. Boy does she love to talk. My brother calls from Iraq a lot and she has some conversation with him. He cannot wait to get home to really get to meet her. Don't forget, he left the very next day when we returned from China. He only got to see her for an hour or so. He says listening to her makes him laugh. I guess where he is he needs all the laughs he can get. He will be coming home for a 2 week break in the beginning of July. My mother is counting the days until she sees her son again. I think this is the hardest thing is has ever lived with. I couldn't imagine what she feels or any of the parents with children over there.

I hope you enjoy some of the pictures. Lets hope that I don't stay away to long again after this post.

Happy Mothers Day

2007-05-13T12:33:00.000-04:00

I would like to wish all the Moms, new Moms, and soon to be Moms, a very Happy Mothers Day. Enjoy your day.

Joseph's First Holy Communion

2007-05-12T23:49:00.000-04:00

Well, Joe made his First Holy Communion and I am thrilled. He looked so very handsome. It was a beautiful ceremony and thank God I wore waterproof mascara. I wasn't the only mother crying either by the way. He looked so grown up walking down the isle and he had the biggest smile on his face. We were not allowed to take pictures during the ceremony which was to bad because he did look so handsome and it is a special day and it would have been nice to have. We went to the Church at 10am so that we could take pictures before it got really crowed. At 10:30am they were lined up and at exactly 11am it started. I liked the way they did things. Anthony and I sat in the pew with Joseph between us and my family that came had their own pew. We actually went to the altar with Joseph and had to introduce him to the priest and watch up him take his First Communion. It was really neat. I saw my mother out of the corner of my eye staying off to the side watching Joseph take his First Communion. When Joseph saw her he gave her the biggest smile. When we got back to the pew he looked at me and said " it taste like foam" "So I asked him how he knew what foam taste liked" He had no answer for that. It was to funny. The party was really nice too. Anthony worked on our backyard for 3 weeks to get it in shape and we had a tent and table and chairs and he planted all these flowers and it looked great, but it was really cold out so not that many people sat out there. We had a little over 60 people here and everyone had a great time.

My mother cooked her butt off for this because Joseph didn't want it catered. He loves my mothers cooking. My poor mother was wiped out. On top of that my brother called from Iraq to congratulate Joseph (he's Joes Godfather) and to wish my mother a Happy Mothers day (this is the first one in 45 years that he wasn't with her) and she was crying and I think after that she was in a fog. But all in all, it was a really nice day.

A friend of mine owns a party entertainment co. and I had one of those big bouncy things that had a rock climbing wall and a slide. The kids had a great time in that thing. I went in it also. I don't think it's made for people over 40. I got super dizzy and when I went to slide down the slide, I don't know what I did, but I went down head first and tumbled over like an ass. When I got out of the thing, my legs were like jello. I had to sit for a half hour after that. I am just way to old for this stuff. LilyRose got in for a little while with all the other babies we had here. It was really cute. Thank god we video taped it all. My daughter ate all day long. Anyone she saw that had food, she was on them like jelly on peanut butter.

I'm glad it's done. It was a lot of fun, but very stressful. It started to pour right after the last guest left. God was good to us today. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

So much to tell

2007-05-04T17:18:00.000-04:00

So LilyRose turns 20 months old today. She is getting so big, and the bigger she gets the bigger her attitude gets!!! She has some attitude already. They were not kidding when they told us that the Hunan girls were "Spicy Girls" she is wild. But we love her to death and wouldn't change a thing. My mother tells me that she is a mini me. No problem!!! She talks up a storm and laughs all day long. It's amazing that she is here and she's all mine. LilyRose is a momma's girl all the way. Thank You God .

Joseph made the All Star Team. We got the call tonight. So, out of something like 50 or 60 boys that tried out, Joseph was 1 of 12 that made the team. He was so excited he almost fell down the stairs when he went to tell my mother that he made it. He is officially a "Bulldog All Star Baseball Player". I am so proud. Woo Hoo!!!!!!!! He can't wait for my brother to call tomorrow from Iraq so that he can tell him that he made it.

My niece Angelina made her First Holy Communion last Saturday and she looked beautiful. LilyRose had a great time at this party. She danced, she ate and she sang and she ate, and ate and ate. I don't know where she puts it but God Bless her. She has an awesome appetite. Joseph also had a great time. There were a lot of kids at the party and some were his age. The DJ was pretty good and Joseph danced. WOW, my son danced and in front of people to boot. I wish he would take Hip Hop classes. I think he's a pretty good dancer.

I want to wish April and Sean a safe and wonderful trip to bring their son Aiden home. They are finally leaving on May 18th and we couldn't be happier for them. This is such an exciting time and we wish you all the best of luck. We love you guys. Can't wait to see the very first pictures of you and Aiden together.

More updates

2007-04-25T18:55:00.000-04:00

Boy, am I slow at posting again. First off I have had 2 sick kids this week. WOW, I have to give tons of props to the mom's that have more then 2 kids. I don't know how I survived. lol haha

Well, on Saturday, April 21, my agency, Adoption House had a party for the families that have adopted domestically and internationally in the last year. We had a really nice time and LilyRose finally got to meet Paige. Paige got home in June of 06 and boy is she gorgeous. LilyRose gets a little high strung around crowds and she was off to the races that day. Anthony was trying to calm her down most of the day. I never saw it that bad before. To top it off, my SW was there and she got a little of bit of the "spicy girl attitude" also. Can't wait to see what happens at our first post-placement meeting. LOL.

Now onto Joseph's updates. As I said earlier, he will be trying out for the Summer All Star Baseball team and he is really very excited about it. The head manager checked him out at his first game but wants to try him out one on one. So Sunday April 22, he had a soccer game in the morning and he got one of the 2 goals for that game. He got the goal off a kid that he has been in competition with for 2 years. Then he comes home and we get a phone call that he has a baseball game. It's a make up game from the week before. But, he has the All star try out in the middle of it. So, we go to his baseball game and he plays really good because he is pumped up about the try out. We leave one field and race to the other field and there goes my son, The All Star. He did awesome. The manager said it looked really, really good for Joseph. We won't know for sure until next week, but I think he did great either way. He can't wait for my brother to call from Iraq so that he could tell him all about it. My brother was a great baseball player when he was younger, actually a great pitcher. He had a try out for the majors but blew his arm out right before. So instead of being a baseball player, my brother became a NYC Police Officer. My father never recovered from that one. So anyway, Joseph had a busy Sunday and the price that he paid, he got a really bad cold on Monday. LilyRose got sick Sunday night, so it has been a crazy week.

I have some pictures, not many, but some cute ones. Hope you enjoy.

Friday 4/20/07

2007-04-23T06:49:00.000-04:00

Tonight Joseph had his Regatta Boat Race at Cub Scouts. He came in 2nd place. He was so happy. LilyRose and I went to the race but only stayed for a little while because she was so tired and was very cranky. The race started at 8 pm which is her normal bedtime and there were alot of people and she was so overwhelmed. We watched the first race and then I took her home. Anthony and Joseph got home at 10:30pm and of course LilyRose and I were fast asleep and Joseph woke me up to show me his trophy and patch that he won. His trophy shelf is full now. We have to add another shelf. I wish I could have stayed to get some pictures. I have to ask to see if one of the other moms had her camera.

Updates from Thursday 4/19/07

2007-04-23T06:26:00.000-04:00

I know, I am very behind on posting. Sorry. Just trying to get stuff done.

Well, LilyRose had a play date today with her little friends from the FCCLI group. A great time was had by all of us. I honestly believe that the mothers have a better time sometimes then the kids.

We finally got to meet Nola Ann today. OMG, she is adorable. Shy, just like her older sister Gracie but both very adorable. After the girls played, LilyRose and I walked around the mall for a little while and then we went home. She was exhausted after her play date and so was I.

Joseph finally had his first Baseball game of the season. # games prior were rained out. So, he was the starting pitcher and pitched 3 innings. He struck 8 out of 9 batters out. He also got on base both times he was at bat. This game meant more to him because he was being checked out for the All Star Team. I was so proud of him because he did his best and I think he made a great impression. So we will see.

After Joseph's game we stopped by my cousin's house to wish Carl a Happy Birthday. They live right by us and right by the field. We had coffee and cake and then went home. We were all exhausted.

The blog will stay the same

2007-04-16T13:41:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone,

I didn't have to do a new blog I just had to switch to the google thing they change to. Journey2lilyrose will stay the same. I only meant to say that sometimes it doesn't let you in to update and things like that. So keep visiting here and all is well.

Just switched to the new blogger

2007-04-15T10:43:00.000-04:00

Well, I had no choice but to switch to the new blogger. I really didn't want to b/c I have heard that so many people are having problems logging in. So if you don't see me for a while, you know what that means. So just post a comment to the last post (with your email address or you site b/c my comments are private until I publish them) and I will get to see it from my email address and I will be able to get back to you. Hope I won't have any problems.

A Big Congratulations

2007-04-09T16:59:00.000-04:00

I would like to send out a big Congratulations to our friends April & Sean who have been waiting for that dreaded LOA for 110 days. Well it finally came today and we couldn't be happier for them. So good luck my friend, your journey to Aiden is just beginning. Just think, you will have your little boy for Mother's Day. We are so very happy for you and Sean. We love you guys!!!!

Easter Pictures

2007-04-09T13:09:00.000-04:00

Here are pictures of Easter day. Hope you all enjoy.

And yes, I cut my hair off.

How does it look?

Thank you April & Sean for the dress. LilyRose looked beautiful in it.

HAPPY EASTER

2007-04-08T10:14:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter everyone!!!!

This is our first holiday with LilyRose. I cannot wait to put her Easter dress on. A huge thank you goes out to April & Sean for sending her the cutest dress. I will post lots of pictures later.

Well, the Easter Bunny stopped at our house last night. The kids made out really good this year. The best thing the Easter Bunny left for Joseph was the Listerine Agent Cool Blue (Plaque-Detecting Rinse) and a new Tooth Tunes tooth brush. He didn't think so, but I sure did. I am sure this will be the very last year Joseph still believes. I had a hard time convincing him this time. He looked at me like "I'm not so sure". LilyRose was just interested in the pink grass that was in her Easter basket. She got a new cell phone that can record her voice and these really cool car keys that make the coolest sounds. She also got a school bus. She loves the "wheels on the bus" song. It was a very cute morning for all of us.

Well, I need to get ready. So, I would like to wish you all a very Happy Easter.

Enjoy your day.

Fun Photos

2007-04-06T11:21:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to post some new fun photos of Joseph and LilyRose. They had a ball. Also have some shots of LilyRose alone. Check out her bad hair day. That's what she looks like when she wakes up. To funny. The sunglasses are her favorite right now.

To Cute...

LilyRose's ENT appt.

2007-04-04T14:03:00.000-04:00

Well, LilyRose had her first ENT appt. on Monday. I have to say that I was a little surprised that my daughter didn't pass the test for her right ear. Her left ear hearing is excellent. The right ear hearing is good but not as strong as the left ear. I was reassured that she does not have nerve damage as far as they can see at this point. We will have more testing done in the next few weeks and we will know more by the beginning of the summer. The only reason that I was surprised is that LilyRose can hear. She speaks really well and understands everything she hears. She is an amazing little girl and I thank god every morning, noon and night that she is ours. When I left the Dr.'s office I said to myself it doesn't matter what the next round of test says, she is perfect and she will be fine. If the next set of test reveal anything we will deal with it, have it taken care of and move on.

When the Dr. was looking in her ear, LilyRose got very annoyed and kinda told him off. He looked at me and asked me "Did she just tell me off in Chinese?" "Yes, she did" I said. LilyRose still babbles in Chinese when she gets annoyed and it really is the cutest thing we have ever heard. I was just telling my brother who called from Iraq this morning and he is busting to hear her tell someone off in Chinese. I need to tape it and send it to him. She is gaining weight and she is starting to get the baby rolls on her wrist and her cheeks are getting chubby and so are her legs. She is absolutely adorable. Her hair is starting to grow and it is getting a little darker. I actually got a hair clip in her hair yesterday and she kept it in all day. Right now, LilyRose is downstairs with her big brother and her grandma playing cards. They are letting her hold the Joker card and she really thinks she's playing cards with them. I have started video taping finally and got some great things on video. Joseph and LilyRose are very funny together.

I will keep everyone that is interested in Lily's testing, updated as it moves along.

We would like to wish everyone a very "Happy Easter".

Again, to long since last post

2007-04-01T18:59:00.000-04:00

Well, I did it again. It has been a long time since my last post. Where to begin...

LilyRose has had a bad cold since last week. She is doing much better now. We had a busy week. Tuesday I was in Target with my mother and LilyRose and I ran into a woman that we met in Hong Kong on the way home from China who lives in my town. Hi Barbara, Dave and Maya!!! Anyway, we were all so tired at our first meeting we didn't exchange numbers. I knew that we would run into each other somewhere eventually. So we did. Anyway, she had asked if I was a member of the FCC LI group and I told her I was. She asked if I was going to the Playdate on Thursday with some of the mothers. I told her no, that I didn't know anything about it. So she invited me to meet them there. It was at a local mall here. So LilyRose and I went. There were I believe 7 moms and 7 little girls. What a really nice bunch of ladies. They made me feel very welcomed and a part of the group, and the babies were all just gorgeous. OMG, each and everyone of them. LilyRose had a great time playing with the kids and it was a great time for all of us. Then they started talking about the "mom's night out" that was the next night. Barbara asked if I was going and I told her no b/c I didn't know where it was and didn't know a soul there and that I didn't respond to the email. Well Jayne said I could go b/c she is the one I had to respond to so she noted I was going and that was that.

So Friday I was really excited about getting out for a few hours and it gave Anthony a chance to sit with the KIDS (still loves the way that sounds) and it gave me a chance to unwind for a while. My friend Bruny called me early on Friday to say hello and I told her the story b/c she joined the FCC LI group the same day I did. So I told her I was going to "Mom's Night Out" and she told me she would be there. I was so happy b/c I haven't seen Bruny in a long time. We keep trying to make plans for her and her husband to come over to meet LilyRose and it hasn't happened yet. Anyway, I meet her there and I have to tell you that I had the best time. Something like 30 women and everyone is super friendly and made all of us newcomers feel so welcomed and at ease. I have to say a big thank you to Barbara for bring it up to me and asking me to go and I have to say thanks to Vicky who I met on Thursday b/c she gave me 2 of the cutest outfits that didn't fit her daughter and they had tags on them still. LilyRose will look super cute in them. Vicky's daughter is so very beautiful. So, we ate and talked and laughed and it was a fun night out. I have to laugh, b/c who would have ever thought that I would think sitting in a church hall with a bunch of ladies that I didn't know was fun? Well, I did and I can't wait to go again. So, THANK YOU to the FCC LI LADIES for a great night. I look forward to doing it again.

I want to say Welcome home to my friends Rebecca, Andy & Nola Ann. They got home on Wednesday with their little girl from China and I got to talk with Rebecca today and I was very happy to hear that all is well. I can't wait to see her and Nola and Grace sometime this week.

Tomorrow is LilyRose's first ENT appt. Hopefully, they will start to clean out the massive amounts of wax out of her ears. Anthony and I have been doing our best to clean them out with the instructions from the specialist, but she still has so much in them. So wish her well for tomorrow and I will post when we get home as to what they say. Until next time...

It's me again

2007-03-25T18:16:00.000-04:00

I am so happy. We received LilyRose's Certificate of Citizenship yesterday. I have to say that was a great feeling when I opened the envelope. It really makes it "real" for me.

We went to my cousin's daughters 1st birthday party yesterday. A lot of this side of the family had not met LilyRose yet, so I put her in one of the Chinese outfits we bought back from China and she looked awesome. I couldn't get a great shot of her but I will post the one I did get. Everyone thought she looked great. We just want to wish Courtney a very happy 1st birthday. She looked adorable and she is the cutest little girl. She has the biggest eyes I have ever seen. Just love her lots.

Our friends Rebecca and Andy will be coming home on Wednesday with their beautiful little girl Nola Ann. We want to wish them all the best and we hope that they have a safe and enjoyable flight home. I wish I could go to the airport to see them but if I drive by myself I would wind up in VA or something. I can't wait for LilyRose to meet Nola Ann and they can play together and hopefully be very good friends. We also want to wish Nola Ann's big sister Gracie congratulations on becoming a big sister. We are so happy for you all.

Ok, hope this is a good start for me with posting again. Have a great day.

By the way, I don't have any pictures of the birthday girl. I will have to get some and post a picture because she is beautiful.

Wow, it's been a long time

2007-03-23T10:20:00.000-04:00

It really has been a long time since I last posted. Thanks April for pointing this out to me.

So, we are home well over a month and things are just fine. LilyRose is filling out nicely and she is truly a "Spicy Girl". I laugh all day long with her. She entertains both me and my mother everyday. My mother is the one having the best time with LilyRose. She will feed her breakfast some mornings while I get Joseph on the bus and when I come back into the house I hear my mother singing all these songs and there is my daughter either singing right along or trying to snap her fingers or just dancing in her seat. It is the funniest thing to see. The only thing is, I have the "bus song" in my head. You know the one that goes "The wheels on the bus go round and round". I hear it going round and round in my head morning, noon and night. I will start singing it at the weirdest moments too. My mother cracks up when I start singing it too.

Anyway, right now my LilyRose is not so happy. She had a reaction to one of the shots she got and her face & neck broke out. I went to the Dr.'s yesterday and he said it is not contiguous and it will run it course. He said 1 out of 8 kids have this reaction and I guess she is the 1. I have to say though, "who cares" she is my 1 and that's all that matters.

She has a great personality and she says 7 or 8 English words already. "Don't Touch" is her favorite. She hears it so much that she must think it's her name. She is a toucher. Loves to touch whatever she can get her hands on. The best part is, she will look at you while she is touching something she knows she shouldn't be touching. That's my girl.

We went to a cousin's b'day party and some family members hadn't seen her before. She really knows how to work a room. It was so much fun to watch. I tell Anthony, wait until she is 18 or even 16, she will be a pro at getting attention. He kinda gets this pained look on his face which is fun to watch also. Joseph is still trying to figure out if it is ok to share the spotlight with his sister. Joseph has been the only one in the spotlight for 8 years. Although we have 3 other babies in the family who are almost all over 1 now, he was always the "Center of Attention". He will be fine though and he is loving his sister beyond belief. She gets CRAZY when he gets off the bus and walks in the door. It is awesome to see.

LilyRose still has some skin issues. Not as bad as when we first got home, but still an issue. We have an appointment with the ENT on April 2nd. I hope all goes well on that visit. She hears fine and I can't believe that I was so scared about it. Of course you always fear the unknown. I had gotten some comments while I was in China from my "fan club" (I will talk about that group of women soon) saying that I had posted earlier of how scared I was about taking her referral and all this crap and I have to say to them, I wouldn't have been human if I wasn't scared to death. I am just glad that we did accept her referral b/c she is perfect. LilyRose is super happy and very well adjusted. She is very much loved and cherished and I can't imagine my life without her. No one can.

Here are some random pictures I took since we are home. Joseph made the sign for us and it was hung on the door when we got home. He did a great job. LilyRose loves to wear her hat in the house. She will wear it all day if I let her. She loves her headbands also. She will keep them on too.

2nd Scoop of the Poop

2007-03-08T07:54:00.000-05:00

Well, we had the 2nd poop scoop the other day. I laughed my ass off the whole time. They got some corn in that batch. I tried those Gerber Graduates and Lily Rose loved them but they had a lot of corn in them and she seems to like corn. Remember the Corn Doodles in China? Anyway, we all know corn goes in and comes out the same way. So yeah, they got corn.

We are having some sleep problems here in our house. Lily Rose goes to sleep around 8 pm and then gets up at least 12 times during the night. She's not "up" but she cries in her sleep and sits up. We tried lots of different things and nothing works. The only thing we have not tried is to bring her into our bed. That is the one thing we won't do. So, we have many sleepless nights, but I guess we will get through those too.

Everything else is going great. She really is a happy baby and she is very well loved in this house. When I tell her not to do something and she keeps doing it and my voice gets stern, my son yells at me to leave her alone. He will run over to "protect" her. It's awesome to see. At least I know no one will get away with bothering his sister. Joseph is a great big brother.

Other then that, we are getting ready for Joseph's Communion. We went to church the other night for the last meeting before communion and we took Lily Rose with us and at one point the church was somewhat quite and Lily Rose let out this very loud burp. Me and my cousin Gina couldn't stop laughing. Joseph got embarrassed and my mother was also. I thought it was very funny. She is a rip and she fits right into our family.

We had our 1st popper scooper

2007-03-02T11:13:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I did the 1st scoop of the poop. Mind you, I never did anything like this in my life. I did not have to do this with Joseph so it was like an operation this morning. I gagged the whole time and I had to scoop for 3 containers today. The room still has the lingering smell of poop. I sprayed air freshener and to tell you the truth I wanted to spray the freshener up my nose to get the smell out. No matter what I do I still smell poop in my nose. Lily Rose thought the whole thing was very funny and she laughed that cute belly laugh while she watched me scoop the poop.

I have to give the technicians a lot of credit. What a job they have. I really wanted to bring them something when I drop off the poop, but I can't think of anything appropriate. At first I was thinking of a box of chocolate, but when I thought for a minute longer, I don't think they eat chocolate. I know I would never eat it. Maybe nice smelling flowers would do the trick. Anyway, I am off to the lab to drop off the poop. More later.....

It's 3:25pm and I just got off the phone with my friend Rebecca and she recieved her TA this morning. I am so very happy for her and her husband Andy and big sister Gracie. She should be leaving March 14th to bring her Nola Ann home. We are so very happy for you guys. Enjoy all the craziness that you will experience in the next few weeks. We Wish You All the Best!!!

LilyRose had her 1st Dr.'s visit today

2007-03-01T18:28:00.000-05:00

Oh Boy, what a day. LilyRose was NOT a happy camper today. She weights 20 lbs. and is 32" tall and she has a big head 45. She had blood drawn and a TB test and 3 shots and boy was she off her rocker. I had to leave the room for most of it because I was going to pass out. Thank god Anthony can handle this stuff. I remember when Joseph had his shots and blood drawn. I did pass out. They had her in this contraption thing, like a straight jacket. I think that pissed her off the most. But they took 2 vials of blood which I kept saying was to much. No one paid attention to me though. Then we have to be on poop patrol. I have 7 containers that we have to put poop into and bring to the lab. How funny is that going to be. I can't wait for her to poop now. I have to scoop the poop into a container. HAHA. I was told very sternly NOT to give her a bath everyday. Her skin is SO dry and cracked. She even has scabs on her legs from the dry skin. I have been putting Aquaphor on her like crazy. Thank god it's clearing up. My poor baby. What a day she had.

She's in Joseph's room now watching her big brother and her daddy play pool. She is like "hey, what about me, I want to play too" She tries to pulls the balls out of the pockets and her fingers get caught in the little nets. Too cute. I really need to take more pictures. Maybe tomorrow.

The Dr.'s asked us what she does and if she talks. Well, yes she does talk. She says, mama, dada, hi, bye-bye, nana (which my mother wishes she wouldn't call her, she's wants to be grandma) thank you and something like jo for Joseph. She walks well and she runs really good and she loves her stacking cups which she does really well with and anything that makes music. She loves to dance as all babies do and she likes to SCREAM!!!!! She's doing awesome.

Here are the pictures

2007-02-28T20:04:00.000-05:00

Here are some of the pictures that we had taken in China. Changsha to be precise. I think they came out great and if you are going to Changsha and staying at the Dolton, this photography studio is right around the corner. It's called Guo Guo Ado and they do great work. Hope you enjoy.

Things are great here by the way and Lily Rose is a dream.

Home 1 week

2007-02-25T09:33:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone.

So, we are home for 1 week and Lily Rose acts like she was born here. She has adjusted to her new home and family perfectly. Although she has a bad cold right now, it's not stopping her from having fun. I got some great pictures of Lily Rose and her brother, grandma, Uncle Ralph, great aunt, cousin and her godfather. We are waiting for godmother to return from Hawaii today. I am in awe everyday with Lily Rose. I can't picture my life before my kids. I love being a mom to 2.

Anthony went back to work on Tuesday and Joseph was still sick so it has been a slow week. We went out to Maryann and Joe's last night for dinner and Lily Rose fit right in. Other then the 3 big Labs that she was scared of, she had a great time there. She had the squeaky shoes on and when she walked the dogs where following her feet to see what the noise was. It was really cute. After a while she didn't have a problem with the black lab Shadow or the yellow lab Missy, but the brown lab Coco, well that was another story. She would walk sideways hoping that she wouldn't notice her. Funny is not the word to use for that one. Everyone that knows me knows I love Lenox. Well, Uncle Joe got Lily Rose the Lenox Birthday Train. It is gorgeous. She got the Engine and the 1st Birthday train and Uncle Joe will add to it each birthday. I absolutely love it.

This kid loves to eat. I mean she will eat anything you give her. When she see's my mother she knows that she could get something to eat. When my mother feeds her Lily Rose has to hold her hand. She doesn't do that with anyone else, just my mother. It's a special bond they have together. Joseph is still leary when he feeds her but he is getting better. She is a total momma's girl. LOVE IT!!!!!

She has been sleeping through the night for that last 3 or 4 nights. She usually sleeps to 7am. She is all over the crib though and never keeps the blankets on. I get up a few times each night to cover her. She is like her brother Joseph. He never keeps the blankets on either. Joseph is not to happy when Lily Rose goes into his room and she tries to get in there a lot. See, Joseph is a collector and he has a lot of stuff in his room and knows where everything is. If something is moved, he knows. He's getting better about it and yesterday Anthony and Joseph fixed up his room and put up more shelves and cleaned out 1 of his closets and the room looks great. They have one more closet to fix up and he's good to go. Maybe after that he will let Lily Rose in. We will see!!!!!

We are going to church today. Lets hope that Lily Rose is a good girl. Joseph was great when he went to church at her age. Lily Rose on the other hand is very noisy and likes to walk and talk to everyone. I'll let you know how that goes later on.

For all the family and friends that have called and I didn't get back to you yet, forgive me. It was a bonding week for me and the kids since Joseph was home from school and I was getting use to being back home. So I promise that I will return the phone calls this week coming up. I can't believe we are home 9 days today. It seems like it was a life time ago that we were in China. We showed my mother and Joseph and my cousin Nancy and my Aunt Mae the videos of our trip and when Gotcha Day came on Lily Rose stopped dead in her tracks when her nanny came on the screen and she walked over to the TV and just stared at her. I felt so bad for Lily Rose because I know she was upset. Let's face it, this women took care of her for most of her life and now she is on the other side of the world. I will be more careful the next time we watch the video. Well, I will end this here for now. Sorry it took so long to post again. Now for the pictures....

Bittersweet Homecoming

2007-02-18T03:33:00.000-05:00

Well, we made it home.

We got up on Friday at 4:30 am and got ready to leave the hotel at 6am. Lily Rose really didn't like being up that early but she was a trooper. Our guide Connie met us at 6 am and off we went. I was so happy that I didn't mind (at the time) that I didn't have a cup of coffee. It was a very crappy morning. It was very, very foggy and we knew it was going to rain at some point. Anyway, we get to the airport and it was packed. I mean thousands of people. Tons of us with our babies just wanting to get home. So we check in and off to the first security point. Well I guess they were not in good moods because they pulled us off the line and made us check one of our carry ons. You see we had to buy 2 more small suitcases for all the stuff we bought. So thank god Connie was still in ear shot and she brought us bad to check in and cut this huge line and got our bag checked. She was a very funny girl and I really liked her. So we go back to the security and another guy wants to check our other bag that was checked by the first guy and I thought Connie was going to rip his head off. She was yelling at him and finally he let us through. Well that was not the last obstacle we had to go through. The next security check point was not any better. When I went through with Lily Rose I had a quarter in my pocket and boy you would think what was in my pocket. They had that freakin wade all over me, in here, over there and then on Lily Rose too. Well I really had a good laugh because when Anthony came through, they made him take his shoes off and he's sitting there and he's really pissed and he asking them if they want him to take his socks off too. then the belt had to come off and they had that freakin wade out again and it was working double time. So, ok we make it through that point. Now, we only have like 20 minutes to get to our gate and it on the other side of the airport. So we get one of those cars and they want money. So Anthony pulls out American money and they won't take it. So now we are searching for their money and I forgot that I had some so we took care of that. What ever happened to courtesy cars? Well, we then have to go through another security point and again, Anthony had to take his shoes off. Mind you we don't see anyone else going through this. So Anthony is now starting to call them all Lappers and such and we are getting frazzled by the minute. We finally get to the gate and just in time mind you. Now we give them the boarding pass and start to walk down that hallway and sure enough, there are some security people and they want our passports. Hello, we just went through 3 or 4 security points. I think if we weren't who we were suppose to be, someone would have picked it up by now, don't you? We finally get on the plane and it is full of American families going home with their babies. It was a great flight.

We get into Hong Kong and we had to walk miles and miles to the other side of the airport to check in for our flight home. By this time Anthony and I are not talking to each other. We are both so tired and I was just so focused on getting home to see my son who was not going to be at the airport because he was still sick and it was really cold out here in NY, so I was very upset over that and Anthony just didn't get it. So we finally check in and go to our gate and I finally get a cup of COFFEE. I took 3 or 4 sips and threw it out. There's nothing like Maxwell House coffee made in my kitchen. So we board the plane and it was a full house. I would say there was about 26 or 27 families with babies going home. Everyone had enough and didn't care who knew it. I thought I was the only one being so TRUTHFUL, but I was wrong. Lots of other families felt the same way we did. Anyway, we got lucky, the middle seat was empty for us and Lily Rose got to lay out and sleep. She was really good on the 15 hour flight. She never cried and talked up a storm to anyone that walked by and just had a great time. She loves Ritz crackers and ate most of the flight home. Well, the flight had lots of turbulence and it lasted most of the flight. At one point we were hitting air pockets and coming out of our seats. Scary is not the word I would use for that, but something way beyond that. I didn't sleep at all on the flight and I was exhausted and so not feeling well. We finally land and then had to go trough immigration which wasn't bad at all, but we had to wait for our luggage for a long time. I called Anthony's cousin Maryann who was picking us up with my cousin Gina and I asked her who else was with her because her husband Joe which is Lily Rose's Godfather was suppose to be there also, but with the weather he was working. So she tells me it's just her and Gina. We get all but one suitcase and we are waiting and waiting and I finally go up to see if I can see the other suitcase and after a while I see it. The bright orange sticker we put on it was missing and the thing was going round and round on the belt for who knows how long. We didn't know it was ours and so we wasted a 1/2 hour right there. So we are walking to where everyone is waiting and I see Maryann and Gina waving like nuts. So I have Lily Rose and Anthony has the 20 piece of luggage LOL and a man is walking kinda in front of me but just a little to my right side and all of a sudden I see this boy come out of nowhere and he's running towards us and I realized it was Joseph and I started screaming and I took off running and knocked the man right out of my way and Lily Rose is holding on for dear life and I am yelling Joseph's name and people must have thought I was nuts but I really didn't care one bit. I almost knocked Joseph down when I got to him. I couldn't let him go and Lily Rose was looking at us in amazement. It was the best feeling in the world to hold my son. When I finally could see I started crying all over again, because my son was holding onto me and crying his eyes out and all he kept saying to me was , "I can't believe your home and please don't leave me again." I still cry when I think about it. My cousin Gina was trying to video tape it all and she's shaking like a nut and crying and I had to laugh at her she was so funny. Maryann really pulled through for us and we are forever grateful to her. More then she knows. She called us everyday while we were in China and it was a lifesaver for me to hear her voice everyday. Of course we sat in traffic for a long time but finally we got home.

Now, there was a really big sign on the door that my son made and I have to get a picture of it and post it so you all can see what a great job he did. When my mother saw her granddaughter for the first time it was priceless. Lily Rose thought otherwise. She cried and wouldn't go to her. It was strange because she went to Gina and Maryann and I never saw a kid of any age not want to go to my mother. So I felt very bad for my mother. Lily Rose is still having a hard time going to my mother. So after a little while she had a ball checking out her new home. She walked all over my mothers house and then we brought her upstairs to our house and she absolutely loved her room. She loves all her toys and her dolls. She was pointing to all of them and talking to them. My friend Liz stopped by to say hello and see how my mother was doing. My mother is still very sick and so very sad. (I'll get to that in a minute) Lily Rose loves her big brother Joseph. She follows him around and likes to sit by him. Lily Rose let my mother feed her and she has sat on her lap for a little while and looks very content being there, but she still won't go to her when my mother holds out her arms. I know it will take time but....

Anyway, my mother made a big dinner and my brother came over to eat. I will now tell you why our homecoming was bittersweet and why my mother is so very sad. My brother left for Iraq on Saturday (the day after we got home) for a year. I will not get into why and all of that, but my mother can't handle it. We always felt horrible for the mothers and fathers who had children over there fighting this war and now we are one of those families.

I feel horrible because I got really sick and had to lay down and didn't get to spend much time with my brother Friday night. But I do know that he loves his new niece and from what I heard she loved him. They said she went to him and sat on his lap and talked to him. Thank god I got a picture of it. They woke me up when he was leaving and I wish they didn't because it was the saddest day for us. My mother was holding on to him and wouldn't let him out of the door and she was crying and begging him not to go and my brother is trying to hold it together and then he just lost it. It was crazy. Everyone is crying and she's not letting go and he had to pry her hands off of him and kinda ran out the door. There's my mother standing at the door and she aged 10 years right in front of us. I thought my mother was going to have a heart attack right there. She has a heart condition to begin with and this is really putting a strain on her. I think that is why Lily Rose is having a hard time attaching to her. She feels her sadness and she saw her crying and I think she is afraid. I hope that changes for my mothers sake. I want my daughter to love her like Joseph loves her. A few minutes after my brother left, Maryann and Joe came in. Joe wanted to see his new goddaughter. She went to him, no problem. They stayed a while and then left. We got everyone ready for bed and we all fell asleep. Lily Rose got up a few times, but went right back to sleep.

Saturday, we all felt a little better. We unpacked and I started to wash all the clothes. We had to go to the store and get somethings for Lily Rose. I went to Target and had to get her some clothes that fit her. I had to buy 12 months. The 18 months are big and the 12 months JUST fit her. I mean probably buy next month they won't, but I needed some stuff. Couldn't find that many winter things though. Oh well, I will improvise. One of her teeth came through and it was very painful for her. But she doing much better. She fell asleep at like 6:45 and Joseph fell asleep at like 7pm. I went to bed at 8pm, I was exhausted. Lily Rose got up a lot during the night but would go back to sleep after a while. I have been up since 3am and it is now 4:45am. I will post pictures of my family soon. Hope you enjoyed.

Our last night in China

2007-02-15T07:37:00.000-05:00

Well, our journey has come to an end and we are going home tomorrow. I can't stop jumping up and down. Our last day here was wonderful. We got very early and went and had breakfast and met a great family from Chicago the other day that is staying in our hotel. They have twin daughters that they adopted 41/2 years ago and they are here to bring Henry home. He is so very cute. So we went shopping with them most of the day and then we had to meet Connie at the White Swan to go to the consulate to get Lily Rose's Visa. Well, I have to tell you that it is the most emotional thing. We had to get up and go to a window and show the women Lily Rose. She looked at her face and our passports and said ok, same baby. Then we had to wait for al the other families to do the same. Then this women comes out and talks for a few minutes and then she tells us to stand up and raise our right hands and to repeat after her. She ask if all the paper work was honest and truthful and if we will love our babies. We all said yes at the same time and me and Anthony started to cry. I think it was us and one other family that was crying like idiots. I couldn't help it. It was like I just gave birth to her. It was the same feeling I had when Joseph was born. Hey mom, This is your birthday present. Lily Rose is officially ours and it happened on your 70th birthday. Her Visa has the date of Feb. 15, 2007. That in itself is the most special part of this journey. Your new granddaughter official on your birthday.

After that was over we headed back to the island and did more shopping and then we met the family from Chicago and had dinner with them at the White Swan. It has been a very long day and we are so tired, but we have to pack and we have a wake up call for 4:30am and we leave the hotel at 6:00am to go to the airport. I am so overjoyed to be coming home. I don't care what the weather is. I want to be with my family and friends and I want to be able to talk to everyone on the phone. I cannot wait for that.

I want to thank everyone for following our journey and for leaving the best comments. We really love you all very much. Even the people we don't know. Just an awesome group of friends we have. I will print out as many comments that I can and put them in Lily Rose's life book.

I loved ALMOST every minute of our trip and it will be in my memory for my whole life. Our daughter is absolutely beautiful and we are so very lucky. She is a mommy and daddy's girl and very soon she will be up her big brothers butt and Lily Rose and grandma will get on just fine because they both love FOOD!!!!!!!

I will end this here because we really need to pack and I have to call home to talk with Joseph and to wish my mother a Happy Birthday. We love you all and please check back in often because I will be adding pictures of Lily Rose with Joseph and the rest of the family. Thank you all.

As always Joseph we miss you and love you more and we will be home very, very soon.

ps I ran into Caroline today at the Consulate. I met her on one of the Yahoo groups. Her son's name is Jack and he is adorable. We got a picture on the famous red couch at the White Swan and I think 2 perfect pictures of Lily Rose and Jack, don't you think?

Consulate Appointment & Pearl River Cruise

2007-02-14T08:02:00.000-05:00

We had a busy day today. We got up kind of late and went to breakfast and then I had to stay in the room from 10:30am to 12:00pm. Connie went to the Consulate to bring our papers and she came here at 12:30pm and told us everything was great. So tomorrow we will go back to the Consulate for the swearing in ceremony and then we get Lily Rose's visa and then we can come HOME.!!!!!!!!!

We went shopping for Pearls. We bought Lily Rose Pearls and the bracelet and stud earrings to match for her wedding day. Lori we got your pearls also. Very pretty. After that we went and had lunch at Lucy's and then from there we went back to the hotel to drop off our pearls and then we went on the River Cruise. It was very pretty and since it is Valentine's day it was even more special. Lily Rose had a nice time too. Now we are back at the room and Anthony went in search of some food. He's always eating. I have to say that I lost some weight. Yeah for me. Lily Rose is in her crib right now talking up a storm. She slept on and off on the cruise and in the cab so I guess she is wide awake right now. It is so funny to hear her talk. She sounds like Donald Duck. I think I am going to start to call her ducky. How freakin' cute is that, she just talked herself to sleep and she's holding onto the doll we sent her in the care package for dear life. She has the fattest cheeks and all I do is kiss them all day long. She so didn't like to be kissed but now she doesn't mind it so much. To bad, that's what I do all day and she will have to get use to it. Joseph loved it when I use to kiss his face all over. Not so much now because he is a big kid now. But I still get to kiss him often.

I want to say hello to a few people. First to my cousin Janine (on my dad's side). Thanks for checking in all day and posting comments. I look forward to them. Yes, we will get together when we get back. We would love to see all of you guys. Hi Liz, I hope you guys are feeling better. Lily Rose will be just as chunky as Valerie once we get home. I also want to say hello to all my friends on the yahoo groups. Hi Rebecca and April and god to many to list. Ok, this is not working to good. There are just to many people to say hello to. So I will give one big huge hello to everyone and I hope you are all well and thanks you all so much for helping us stay focused on this great journey of ours. We would not have made it if it wasn't for you guys.

Hey Sandi, I wanted to let you know that we did NOT get those seats. When I called the lady said they were booked weeks ago. So we are sitting in row 46 or 47 something like that. But thank you for letting your friends know we will be there. I remember Theresa. I will make sure I say hello to her. I hope the flight is not to booked so that maybe we can get all 3 seats so Lily Rose can sleep between us. I really wish you were on that flight. That would have been great to see you again. If you want to know about adopting a baby girl from China I'll help you out. :)

I just got off the phone with my mother and Joseph and they are both sounding a little better. I feel horrible that I missed Valentine's Day with them and tomorrow is my mother's b'day. I never missed her b'day. But I know that we have only one more day here and then it's time to come home. I can't tell you all how happy we are to be coming home and the best part is, Lily Rose will be with us. Anthony and I still can't believe she is our daughter. What a feeling.

Joseph, as always we miss you and love you more then life itself and 1 more day and we will be home with you where we belong. Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

We are in Guangzhou

2007-02-13T08:14:00.000-05:00

It is Tuesday night at 9:15 pm and we just got back to the room after a very long day. We arrived late last night and boy were we tired. Lily Rose did excellent her first time on an airplane. She didn't cry at all and I guess her ears didn't bother her. Our hotel room is huge and we have air condition. Whoo Hoo!!!!

This morning around 10am Connie, our guide who is very nice came to our room and we went over all the paper work. Then when that was done we went to get Lily Rose's visa pictures and then over to the Medical Building. We gave them her medical report from the orphanage and then a few Dr.'s started to make noise and Lily Rose didn't know where to look first. So now they are all standing around reading her medical and I think at that point every Dr. in the building came into the room to make noise. They kept asking us if her medical was correct. They checked her ears a few times and said other then a huge build up of wax her ears were totally fine. We knew that because she can her us perfect. So as far as the medical staff here is concerned Lily Rose has perfect looking ears inside and out and she CAN HEAR. They were more concerned with the burn mark on her hand. I am not sure if I mentioned it in an earlier post, but Lily Rose has a burn mark on her hand. The nanny told us that she was being held at the orphanage and they were sitting by a heater and Lily put her hand out and got burned. It's a nice size pink scar on her hand. So the other night we were sitting on the bed playing and out of no where Lily Rose picks up her hand with the burn mark and with the other finger points to it and starts to cry. Well Anthony and I were floored. She put her hand up to each of us so that we could kiss it and then she cradled her hand for a while. I was so upset that my daughter remembered that. I felt so bad. So when the Dr. was checking it out she put her hand up for him to kiss it but he didn't so she turned to me and Ant and we kissed it for her. After we got her clean bill of health we were free for the day.

We went to the White Swan to bring the photo's to that family and they invited us to lunch. We had a really nice time and then they had something to do so we went shopping and ran into some of the families that we met at the Dolton. We had a really fun day and we got lots of presents. Mostly for Joseph and Lily Rose. :~) Tomorrow is our Consulate Appointment and then after that we have somethings to do with Connie and then tomorrow night we are going on a cruise. The Pearl River Cruise. How nice that it is Valentine's Day and we will be on a cruise. I am looking forward to that. Then on Thursday we have another free day and we will finish up shopping and then come back and pack. We have to leave the hotel at 6am Friday. I am jumping for joy about that. I called home before thinking it was 7:30 am and it really was 5:30am so I woke my mother up. She has a really bad cold and she told me Joseph is really sick too. That freaked me out. I worry that he will have an asthma attack and I am not there. I know that I have nothing to worry about because my mother is there and so is my cousin Gina. She is staying with them. Hey Gina, your last comment was just singed GINA. Are we not Aunt Godmother Gina anymore? lol

Ok, everyone keeps asking me what size she is, well she is 21 lbs. I bought her an outfit the other day and it was 12 months and it just fits her. I have 18 months also and they are kinda big. But the clothes here are made different. So if you guys can hold off on asking me until I get home and try on some 12 month clothes, I'll let you know because I will still be posting from home too. Or you can just call me.

We got to eat at Lucy's today and I liked it. We also went back after we finished shopping with another family just to sit and talk and have something to drink. I will go back there again. The shopping here is amazing. Anthony bargained his butt off today. He is getting really, really good. I found a pure white silk Chinese dress for Lily Rose's Christening. I just have to get the shoes now. I also bought her a Chinese outfit for Joseph's Communion. It's red, I love it.

I am having a problem posting pictures. I got these 4 up and we have no idea who or what the lady is all about, but Anthony loved it. I am going to relax now. Talk with you all soon. We love all the comments. Thanks for taking the time to check in. Hey Lisa, a Starbucks just opened here 2 days ago. You know what that means!!!!!!!!!!

As always, Joseph we love you very much and miss you. 3 more days. Feel better, my heart I love you.

Our last day in Changsha

2007-02-11T21:45:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry I haven't posted but we were so tired yesterday. We went to 2 different parks and walked our butts off. The first park was the DuFu JiangGe. It was awesome. It is a memorial to all the poets of Changsha. The paintings were beautiful. WE got some great video and I hope I got some good pictures. While we were there, Jacky bought what looked like cheese doodles, but they were made out of corn. So corn doodles they are. Anyway, Lily Rose absolutely loved them. She was double fisting. This child loves to eat and will try anything you put in front of her. So she basically stayed with Jacky because he had the bag of corn. Anthony and I got to really see this beautiful building and all the carvings and pictures. I loved it. Then we get in the car and Lily Rose is going to town on this bag of corn doodles and we are all talking and all of a sudden I look down and her head is down. I thought she was looking at her new black shoes but when I looked she was really sleeping with her head on the corn bag. I couldn't get to my camera and she woke up from all of us laughing. But it is something I will remember for a very long time.

Next we went to another park and I think it was called Motar Park or Mother Park. I cannot for the life of me remember. Anyway, this park was great. It was packed with people and everytime we stopped to look at something a crowd of people would surround us. And there's Anthony waving to everyone and shaking hands and talking with them. They loved us. I tried to get some pictures of the kids but most of them were really shy. I think I got 1 or 2. There was a group of teenage girls that walked by us and I said hello to them and they went nuts. Jacky told me that they never saw Americans before and they felt honored that I said hello to them. That was a great feeling. All the while that this is happening, Lily Rose is still eating these corn doodles. All the older Chinese women would come up to us and Lily Rose and want to touch us and they kept telling us Thank You and baby is very Lucky. I really love this place and I can't wait to come back with my kids. WOW, I love saying that, KIDS. I have Kids. Whoo Hoo!!!!!! We spent a lot of time at this park and I am so glad we did. We actually saw a dating service right in the park and all these single men and women were there trying to make a match. An outdoor version of Match.com. Did I mention that the women of Changsha are gorgeous? I feel very plain next to these women. They dress really nice and are just so beautiful. Watch out boys, here comes Lily Rose. Joseph you will be one busy big brother.

After that, we came back to the hotel to give Lily Rose lunch. I really didn't think she would eat but she did. She is a very happy baby and she is a MAMA'S GIRL!!!!!!! If I walk out of the room she is right behind me. She still is a big daddy's girl, but I am holding my own. She talks up a storm and all the staff at the Dolton love her. The head doorman asked us to take pictures with him and then this morning he had them sent to our room and he also sent us a gift thanking us for being so kind to him and the entire staff here. We are always downstairs hanging out with them and talking and joking around. The staff at the Coffee Garden were super nice to us all week and last night after dinner we hung around with them talking and they were loving Lily Rose. I gave each girl a gift for being so nice to us all week. I gave them one of the canvas totes with the American Flag on it and they were all so very happy. I really love this hotel and anyone that will be coming to Changsha should definitely stay here and you have to go to the Photo place. They were wonderful there and the pictures came out great. I can't wait to download the CD they gave us so that you can see Lily Rose.

We were suppose to be on a plane to Guangzhou right now (11am) but our flight was changed to 7:45pm tonight. I don't know why and I really wish we were going now because I don't want to sit here anymore. It also means that we are coming to the end of our journey in China and I really, really need to get home to see my son. I didn't think it was possible to miss someone so much. I think of him morning, noon and night and while I sleep too. I can smell him at times and my heart hurts so bad that I want to curl up and die. My mother told me yesterday that after we hang up from calling him, he is really sad and that hurt me so much. Ok, I have to stop because I can't see the keyboard with the tears rolling out of my eyes like a waterfall. This feeling is bad.

Anthony and Lily Rose went for a walk. She loves to be outside. I needed to post so they left for a while. I wonder how she will do on the plane? Speaking of planes, I would like to say hello and thank you to Sandi. She was a flight attendant on Continental on our way to China and she posted a comment here. Thanks for checking in. Hope you keep checking even when we are home so you can see Lily Rose enjoy NY. Thanks.

Well, I wanted to tell everyone that we miss them and love them and can't wait to get home. I wanted to thank my friend Peggy. You really made a difference the other day. But I knew you would. Thank you very much my "forever friend".

Mom and Ralph we miss you and love you and we can't wait to see you again. Ralph, is there anyway you can postpone your trip for a while so that we can hang out with you before you go? Anthony and I really, really don't want you to go and I have thought about it a lot while we were here and it's not a good thing for you to leave us. So, change your mind, OK?!!!!!!

Joseph as always, we miss you and love you and it's 4 more days. 4 days will go fast. Love You

Today was a very good day

2007-02-10T07:24:00.000-05:00

Hi again,

I have to say that today a very good day. Lily Rose was definitely a mama's girl today. It was awesome. At first when she got up this morning, I was up already and she wouldn't look at me or come to me, so I left her in her crib for a while. Anthony was out cold and she kept looking at him and when she realized that he was not getting up she wanted me to take her out. So that was the start of our day. We gave her some rice cereal and a few teaspoons of prunes. She loves prunes and she needed a little help also. So we waited for a while and nothing happened so we called Joseph and they had a "conversation over the phone. Joseph said things to her and she answered him back. We have been teaching her how to say big brother and grandma in Chinese and she called Joseph big brother. I don't know the spelling of it but it sounds like GuGe. Grandma sounds like WuPor. Joseph was very happy to hear that. Then we needed to change and bathe her. The prunes worked. We got dressed and went to breakfast. She was very happy at breakfast. I was in her good graces. We had to wait for our guide so we went for a walk. The people drive crazy here. They drive up the wrong side of the street and actually cut over from one side of the road to the other. We got to cross the street once here and me and Anthony we like jumping up and down because we crossed the street. We looked like 2 asses. Can you imagine getting so excited over something we do everyday. Like when Lily Rose first went number 2. We were running in the hallways looking for someone to tell. We were like crazy over it. Again, 2 asses.

Anyway, Jacky got here and we went to the Mummy Museum. It was fabulous. It was so worth going to see. We really enjoyed it. We were not allowed to take pictures inside. We were allowed to take video though, which we got some great video from there. Lily Rose finally found her voice. I mean her screaming voice. She did it when Jacky walked up to her and she didn't stop. She loved hearing herself scream. She liked it even better when we were in the museum. Well after a while she screamed herself to sleep. Ahhh, quite. Then we did a little shopping there and got some great things. Then after that we went to a market for diapers and wipes and I have to tell you it was a mad house. I absolutely loved it. I wanted to buy 1 packages of wipes and the girl that worked in that aisle said if we buy 2 she would give us a gift. It was this Chinese basket and it was really cute so I bought 2. You had to see how happy she was. We walked around the market for a while but then Jacky couldn't take it anymore. I would have stayed for a while because all the people were super friendly. I had a ball.

Now mind you everytime we got in the car Lily Rose sat with me. That hasn't happened for a long time. I was overjoyed. When we got back to the hotel we took some pictures with the doormen. One in particular who's name is Dean. He is the happiest man I have ever met. We talk with him everyday. He even invited us to go to his home for lunch. I don't think I will forget Dean. We went back to the room and Lily Rose walks around and talks and talks. She was laying all over me and calling me MaMa. Anthony was getting bored so he wanted to take another walk. I didn't want to go so he took Lily Rose and went for a walk. I stayed and tired to fix our bags up. We have way to much stuff and we keep buying stuff. I know our luggage will be over now. When they got back we went to eat. We have not gone to any other restaurant because we love the girls in the Coffee Garden. They love Lily Rose and they are really nice to us and we like the food. We were meeting the girl that owns the photo studio at 7pm. She met us in the Coffee Garden and bought our pictures that we had taken of Lily Rose. They came out fantastic. She looks beautiful. We are so happy with them. I wished Joseph was here for that. It would have been great. So all the girls had to look and they think Lily Rose is perfect. They know we are leaving on Monday and they are sad to see us go.

Everytime I got up to leave the table Lily Rose followed me with her eyes and kept looking for me. That is a first. She only did that with Anthony.

After dinner we came upstairs and got Lily ready for bed. She was buzzing all over the place. She wore herself out tonight. So it is 8pm and we are so tired. We might watch a movie now and just relax. I hope you are all enjoying our journey.

Joseph we love you and miss you so very much. We love and miss you too mom.

Hey Lisa call my mom for the number. Liz where have you been? Tricia can't wait for Lily Rose to meet Joey Jr. Lily Rose says hi to her new cousins, Courtney, Jordan & Tyler. What fun you 4 will have together. Hey Adrianna, we will bring your cousins Joseph and Lily Rose to see you this summer. Ralph, I called you from China and I got your answering machine. Hope all is well with you and we will see you soon. 6 days and counting.

Hi Again

2007-02-09T09:07:00.000-05:00

Well, it is the end of our day here. It is 10:10pm and I am exhausted. After Lily Rose got up from her nap we went to this market with Lene, she is the Swedish couple we met. What a pisser that was. They have the cutest clothes and we got an outfit for Lily and one for Joseph. So there's Anthony bargaining with them and it was really funny because we don't understand them and they don't understand us. So here's Anthony being very animated and they are laughing and he's just trying to pay for these outfits and I had to walk away because I am peeing in my pants. Then when we are done and want to go back to the hotel we can't get a cab. Now mind you we are with no guides at all. Every cab that pulls up tells us no, no go to that hotel. So there's Anthony standing with his hand up calling for a cab and when they would pass us by he would be saying "thanks skippy, or thanks lapper or thanks flounder". Lene was cracking up.

We get back to the hotel and we are starving. We clean Lily up and run downstairs to eat. Lene & Johan and their kids met us down there and we had a great dinner together. They are leaving tomorrow morning. We will really miss them. We had fun with them and it was great meeting them. So, Lily is in a really good mood because she ate 3 bowls of Congee and we gave her meat and bread and anything and everything that we could get her to eat. She loves to eat. Anyway, Anthony is talking with the others and she is laughing and talking and all of a sudden she looks up at me and says "MaMa" and I pucker up my lips to give her a kiss and she leans in and puts her forehead to my lips for a kiss. Well, I almost died. That was a "Priceless" moment for me and one I will never forget. 2 seconds later, I was forgotten. Oh well, I had a moment. We had a great day and I am happy.

Joseph, we miss you and love you beyond words. I am counting the days. Can't wait to get home. Hi Mom, I am looking forward to macaroni and meatballs.

Some down time

2007-02-09T01:08:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,

Thanks for posting comments. Anthony and I love reading them. It is a big help knowing that you all are following and sending good thoughts our way. It would have been so very hard without that.

We took Lily Rose to the Guo Guo A Duo Children's Photo Studio. They were super nice and I am so glad that we knew about it. Thank you Alison H. Lots of the other families that were at our hotel didn't know about it until we started telling them. So a Swedish family went last night and one other family went today but they are leaving for Guangzhou tonight and it takes a day to get the pictures back, so I told them that I would bring it with us when we go to Guangzhou on Monday. So that made them very happy that they could have these pictures taken of their daughter. They have all these different Chinese outfits that you could put your baby in and they take these pictures and boy did Lily Rose come out great. We got some awesome shots. They also give you all the pictures on a CD so that you can print pictures out when you get home. So be prepared for some beautiful picture of Lily Rose.

We have a day off from sightseeing today so right now Lily Rose is sleeping. She is very attached to Anthony and will go to anyone that puts her arms out. She will go to me and hang out as long as she doesn't see Anthony. Then it's back to daddy. It is kinda hard to deal with this but it is what it is. Hopefully one day soon she will look for me the same way she looks for Anthony. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

We got back everything we sent to Lily in the care package. I was very surprised. The little doll that we sent her is her favorite thing. She hasn't let it go since we got her. I got the Chop and the finding ad and the Half the Sky report which our guide Jacky is translating for us. We also got the outfit she was found in. That was very emotional for me. I finally just opened the bag that it was in and took a look at it. God, I wonder what her mother was thinking. I know I am her mother now, but she has a Mother that must have loved her so very much. I mean come on, I love her more then life and I didn't give birth to her. Can you imagine what her mother felt? Well I can imagine what that woman felt and my heart breaks for her.

Lily Rose doesn't drink very much water and it is starting to make me a little nervous. She only drinks it if you feed it off a spoon. She will drink a bottle of formula at night, but only if she gets to hold it. She will not drink if Anthony and I try to hold her and feed the bottle to her. We have tried everything to get that to happen, but no go.

I have to say that I am very happy that my daughter is a lot like me. Whoo Hoo!!!!!! She has the same facial expression that I have and she is very stubborn. It is so very true what they say about Hunan girls. They are called Spicy Girls. So watch out because now there is 2 of us.

When she gets up in the morning she will just sit in her crib and talk. It is the cutest thing I have seen about her so far. When she finally gets you to get up and look at her she puts the biggest smile on her face. It is awesome. She is absolutely adorable and she belongs to us. It is amazing.

I love you Joseph. 7 more days and counting.

Having a Great Time

2007-02-08T06:22:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone!!!!

We are doing great over here in Changsha, China. I absolutely love it here. We had a slow morning. First off Lily Rose slept from 8pm until 6am this morning. She cried a little in the middle of the night, but I got up and rubbed her head for like 2 seconds and she went right back to sleep. We got up and played for a while and she has a tooth coming in and she had a slight fever so we gave her some medicine and some teething gel and she was great.

We met a few families that are staying at the Dolton, but there is one family we are closer to. They come from Swenden and have 3 children now. They are Johan, Lene, David, Maria & little Ester. We went to the Hunan Embroidery Institute today with them and what a great place it is. I absolutely loved it. We really like this family and it made the trip a lot more fun. They gave us a name of a place to go to shop and things are cheap. We had a really fun time there. Anthony bargained his butt off. It was funny to watch. I watched from a distance though. That's not my cup of tea.

We went back to the Civil Affairs Office today. When we went back on Tuesday, we forgot our cameras and missed all the signing of the paperwork. So our guide Jacky, who is awesome by the way called them and asked if we could go back and get it on video. They were kind enough to let us do that. We were so very happy to have that very special moment on film. We watched it when we got back to the hotel and we got all emotional all over again when she said "You are official her parents". Isn't it great. Lily Rose is officially ours.

We came back to the hotel and she had something to eat and then we went up to the play room for a while. She was really tired so we went to dinner early and now she is sound asleep. Which is where I will be right after I call Joseph in a little while. I can't believe I am in bed and sleeping by 9pm everynight.

I want to thank everyone for your comments. It has made a world of difference for us. We are truly blessed to have friends and family like you all. Keep them coming.

I only took a handful of pictures today. More tomorrow. I have to say that Lily Rose is more attached to Anthony now. He's loving it. She was very playful tonight with both of us which is a first. She was having a ball. I hope it stays like that. She is absolutely beautiful and we are very grateful to be her parents.

Joseph as always we miss you very much and we love you even more. I am counting down the days until I can be home with you again. Hi mom, do you miss us? We sure miss you. We will be home very soon and we don't plan on going anyway for a long time. Aren't you the lucky one. Hey Ralph how's it goin'? Are you still picking us up from the airport? Hope so, because you really need to see your new niece.

ps I really wish I had Emily H. here with us. She is an awesome blogger. My post would have been much better. Hey Peggy the Ballerina outfit looks great on her and it fits too.

Hey Lisa, if you want the panda phone number call my mother. I told her you would be calling. Remember we are 13 hours ahead of you. Tell Derrick we said hi. Keep posting comments, we love it.

Hello Everyone

2007-02-07T17:37:00.000-05:00

I am sorry that I didn't post in a while but I was very tired. We had a great day yesterday. We took Lily to a park and she got to play in a sand box with lots of other babies. We met 2 women with their little boys and god were they gorgeous. Lily loved playing with the other babies. She was so very cute. We got some great video. She is very shy around strangers but with us she is so happy and laughs and talks all the time. Right now she is a daddy's girl. But she points to me when daddy says MaMa. She loves to cuddle and she will put her head on your shoulder and try to hold your hand. She loves contact. I love contact with her.

Then we went to a Buddhist Temple. It was beautiful and I never saw anything like it. We got to see a Buddhist lesson and we felt honored. When we got back to the hotel we went to the play room and their were some other babies there. One little girl came over to me and sat on my lap. Her parents think I might remind her of her foster mother. Lily was looking at us like to say "hay that's my mom". It was very heartwarming for me. My daughter loves me and that is all I need. I can't see my life without her now. I am so thankful that I have her.

We went to eat and she loves food. Anthony and I laugh because my mother will love that. My mom likes to eat too. Lily is the perfect fit for our family. I have some great pictures and I will post them now.

Changsha is a wonderful place and I can't wait to bring Lily and Joseph here when they get a little older.

Hi Joseph, I really miss you and I love you and can't wait to be home with you. Have fun and we will be home soon. Your sister looks at your picture all the time.

Just a little info on Lily Rose

2007-02-06T21:33:00.000-05:00

I have some time this morning to post about Lily Rose. She just went down for a nap because she got up a few times last night.

She has a great personality. She is very, very loving and will put her arms up to either one of us when she wants to be held, which is most of the time. :) I have no problem holding her all day and night. She is so petite. She has about 8 teeth and when she smiles her little face scrunchs up. So cute. She is a little unsteady on her feet yet, but she walks pretty good. After her bath yesterday I brushed her hair and then this morning she walked over to the brush and started to brush her own hair. She is super alert and loves to look at everything.

She loves warm water and very warm formula. The cheerio's are a huge hit and she eats anything we put on her plate. She has a great appetite. This morning she had French Toast and loved it. Everytime she put a piece in her mouth she would laugh and smile. She watched cartoons this morning and just sat here and laughed. She is starting to reach for my hand to hold now when she sits with me. She loves to look at us and gives us that cute little face when we smile at her. You know that shy look when they put their chins on the shoulder? Well that's what we have been getting all morning.

I will post more as it happens. I am so very happy that we finally have her and I can't imagine my life without her. I will take more pictures today when we go out sightseeing.

Changsha is beautiful and the people are super friendly and we are having a great time here.

Hi Joseph, I hope you are feeling better. I was very sad to hear that you are not feeling well and that I am not there to help you get better. But I know Grandma is doing a great job. Your sister has a little cold also. Not anything major, but I feel bad she is not feeling well either.

Talk more later.

Thank You

2007-02-06T18:21:00.000-05:00

I would like to thank all my family and friends. Your comments mean the world to me. But you don't have to knock yourself out trying to reply to the negative comments. Why they continue to comment here is beyond me. As for the big groups talking about me I don't see why. I did not bash the country that my daughter comes from. I will only say this one time and I will never comment on this subject again. I LOVE my new daughter more then my own life just as I LOVE my son. They are the reason I was born and the reason I breath. So please don't feel sorry for my kids because they are very much loved.

I deleted the offensive post. I figured if it's not here no one will come here. The only ones that will come are the ones that are interested in the journey. So, please lets drop this. This is the most joyful time for us and nothing will change that.

More pictures of Lily Rose

2007-02-06T08:48:00.000-05:00

Here are a few pictures of Lily Rose. I have more but it is 10pm here and I am so very tired. I am going to sleep now.

Hey Joseph, isn't your new baby sister beautiful? WE love you and miss you. Talk with you later. Hope you had fun at school today.

Can't we all just get along?

2007-02-06T08:28:00.000-05:00

Ok, what happened here? I posted about a day that I had that was not one of my better ones and I come on here to post pictures of our most important day in China and THE BEST ONE OF ALL and I have women ripping me apart. I don't get it. I didn't say anything bad about China or the people. I was telling about a day that I had where I was not feeling well and missing my son beyond anything that I ever felt before and wanting to curl up in a ball because of it and I am being beaten up for no reason. I post here about my "off" day and the next thing I hear is that it is on the boards. WHO put it on the boards? This is my blog. I thought that you were allowed to post how you feel on your own blog. I don't know why you are offended by what I write. You actually read it out of context. If you knew me you would understand how I write and how I come across. That is the problem when you have strangers reading your stuff. If it wasn't that I have so many "strangers" that are interested in our journey I would have this blog private. So, I won't say not to come here and read because I know you will, but please do me a favor and not comment on here. I deleted your comments because I don't want my son and daughter to read this kind of stuff. I will leave the post here so that when I print this all out my daughter will see it and I will explain it to her the right way. The way it was intended to be read because she will "know me". I won't be made to feel afraid to post here what I am feeling. You are welcome to come here and read and look at my family but again I ask you not to post negative things. Trust me when I say that I would never post anything negative on anyone's site that is being done for their future children. It is so not nice and it is hurtful. I have read some really weird things on some sites but it's not for me to post bad things to someone. I hope this is the last I hear of this. Thanks for my friends that stuck up for me. I really appreciate it.