Fun In The Snow

The girls have been having a grand time out in the snow!! Lottie LOVES it!! She eats it, rolls in it, sits in it, crawls in it, throws it and smiles and laughs the whole time. I love to see JOY in her face!! Such a huge change from our days in Ch*na!!

National Adoption Day

Leila, Gavin and Lottie I think they are going to be forever friends!!

It was a wonderful day!!! So much fun to see so many children with their forever family!!! My prayer is that God will stir the hearts of His people to give more of these beautiful children a forever family!

A VERY SPECIAL DAY!!!!

Family Hikes

We have been on some fun family hikes and have been enjoying the beautiful fall colors.

We have been having fun times with our cousins too. We found this BIG tree and made the kids do this picture. The big kids don't really like their picture taken anymore.

Our happy girls!! On a walk at Mt. Rainier.

The Life Of A Farm Girl

It's harvest time and the girls are out in the orchard with me all day long. They are a little dirty and tired but they are having a wonderful time playing in the grass and dirt!! and eating A LOT of pears. Oh the joys of being a farm girl!!!!

Look at those dirty feet!!

Hugs to you all!

Teresa

Home Three Months

Lottie has been home three months already. She is bringing so much JOY to our family!!! She is such a happy girl. Always smiling, laughing and teasing. She is doing so good. Oh what a blessing she is to our family. Thank you God for this little treasure!!!

Fun With Gavin

It was so much fun to spend time with Gavin and his family again!! But we all agreed that we wished Maria and her family could have been with us too. These two little treasure are really starting to blossom. It is so much fun to see!!

Three Years Ago

Three years ago today our beautiful Leila Lu was placed in my arms. Oh what joy she has brought to our family. Oh what a treasure she is. She was so tiny at 16 months old. She couldn't even sit up on her own. But, look at her now.

Thank you God for this wonderful gift. Our sweet sweet Leila Lu!!

The Sweetest Words

I wub ou mama ( I love you mama) you can't get much sweeter then that!! I love you too Lottie girl!!

Love Grandpa's home made ice cream!!

Mama, I think I might like this kind of ice cream.

Happy Birthday Lottie

Lottie turned three years old last week. She was not to sure about her birthday, but she loved her balloons!!! We were so glad to have her home for her birthday.

Fun Times

Lottie is doing so much better!!! She is such a happy girl and is attaching well to all of us. She loves playing in water and being outside. If we could just get the weather to stay warm!! We are so glad God lead us to her and that she is our daughter.

Blessings,

Teresa

Forever Sisters

Lottie and Leila are starting to enjoy each others company. It is fun to watch them become friends. Lottie is doing better and better everyday. She feels safe here at home, but when we take her out you can see the fear in her eyes all over again. So we will be spending our time here at home until she feels comfortable and completely safe with her family. She still greives at night and she now wants me to hold her as she goes to sleep. We are making progress slowly but surely.

Home Sweet Home

Hi there, I know you all have been wondering where I have been and if I made it home. The answer is yes I am home and so very glad!!!!

We started out our jorney home at about 2 pm when we had to check out of our room. We then spent four hours sitting in the play room at our hotel. We left for the airport at 6 and boarded our plane at 8:15. We then sat on the runway for almost 4 hours because of a bad storm. Then had a 13 hour flight home. We arrived about 10 or 10:30 and had to go through imagrations and have Lottie's paperwork processed. I missed my flight home so went to Alaska Airlines to check in so I could leave at 6:20 am they said I could not check in until 4 am by then it was midnight they said I could sit over in the chairs until check in time. I had, had it by then and called Jon and cried right there in their lobby. I finally got my self together and remembered that in the international departure section there was a McDonald's so that is were I spent the next four hours. At 4 am I went to check in Lottie had done good up until this point and decided to throw a HUGE tantrum. She was done and so was I. Everyone was staring at us and finally some lady said " Crying isn't going to make it any better". I said to her " If you had just gone through what she has you would be crying too. I told her I felt like scream too." she didn't say anything else. We finally arrived in Seattle Sunday morning at 8:40 am I was so glad to be home and to see my family!!! Lottie is doing good. She loves her brothers and sisters and her daddy and is very happy. She is having a little trouble at night so I am still not getting much sleep. but we will get there. That's all for now.

Hugs from Home!!!!
Teresa

Coming Home!!!

Good Bye, China!

Lottie and Maria eating their pizza

The Ulm family

the Tenkley family

The Larochelle family

The Haynes family

Well this will be my last post from China. I am homesick!!! I miss my family so much!! I am so ready to come home. BUT, I have been blessed this week to meet some wonderful people!!! The families in our group are so wonderful. I know that I have made some lasting friendships with them. I will miss my friend Jenny who has been so good to me. I will be praying for her and that God will bless her little shop because of her kindness. I will miss our wonderful guide Emma. She is so good at what she does and really cares about each of the families. I will miss Stacy and our long walks and talks we had together. That we got to meet is such a gift from God. Our adoption journey has had its ups and downs. It has been very painful at times. But, there is no doubt in my mind that God had a plan. Lottie needed our family and we needed her!! We are so honored to be her parents. As I watch Lottie and learn about who she is I know she was meant for our family. There are so many things that she does that remind me of her sisters. I know we have some work to do when we get home, but God will see us through.

Tonight our group had a farewell pizza party. We ordered pizza and it was delivered to our hotel. We had a wonderful time visiting and then Gary had a beautiful prayer for all of the families and for AGCI. It was a great ending to our time together.

While you are sleeping I will begin my journey home. I know the journey may be hard, but God will see me through. I thank you all for your prayers for Lottie and I while we were in China. I thank all those who cared for my family while I was away. I will never be able to repay you!! And to my wonderful niece Dakota I thank you for doing this blog for me so that our friends and family could be part of this incredible journey to Miss Lottie Mei XiYan Tall.

If you ever feel God calling you to adoption, I ask you to NOT ignore His voice. Take that leap of faith. Though the journey is sometimes hard, the blessings you will receive will out way the hardships!! There are so many beautiful children longing for a forever family. Could you be that family they are looking for?

Good bye from China,
Teresa and Lottie

Oath ceremony and red couch photos:take two

This little guy wouldn't even sit on the couch!

Smiley!

that's my girl!

that's my girl again!

"We'll only look at you from the back

of the couch!"


We had our oath ceremony today at the US consulate. Our adoption process in now finished here. Tomorrow Emma our guide will pick up the visa for Lottie and then we are homeward bound!!!!! The oath ceremony is very simple, but I felt very emotional. This journey has been very painful at times and to be standing there and knowing that this is it and Lottie is our daughter was almost more then I could do to hold back the tears. Lottie was again very scared as we entered the building. It was like she thought we were going back to the same building were she came to me at. She cried when they called her name and we went to get her papers. You could see the fear in her eyes. She was so happy when we got back in the bus.

We did more pictures today. It was a little better and candy helped!!! but I would have to say it was a lot of work trying to get the kids to sit and take one good picture. Enjoy the pictures of our red couch photos take two!!!

Love and hugs from China,
Teresa

Red couch photos: Take one!

My friend Stacy and her little girl are leaving in the morning so we thought it would be real nice to do red couch pictures. What do you think? We have to do this again with our group tomorrow. I am thinking I might need to get some candy!!! It was fun even though the pictures weren't perfect. Better memories when they are like this.

Enjoy,
Teresa