Mei Mei Adventures

Don't forget to follow updates of Chayah at home, and sister Sarah Lu, over at the new blog at:
http://www.meimeiadventures.blogspot.com

Fun with Friends

Home Update

Chayah is amazing! She is such an amazing girl and we all just love her so much! She is extremely happy. Happy about anything and everything it seems like. She is giggly, funny, and such a silly girl! She loves to laugh and tries to be funny all the time. Sometimes she gets a little upset, and when that happens, she whines.. and whines. But not too much, because most of the time she is smiling, giggling, and wanting me to hold and cuddle her. If you've ever heard the song "I think I'm gonna like it here" from Disney's Annie, it reminds me so much of Chayah! This is her attitude about so much. Everything is new and exciting and she is so happy with it! It is truly amazing to see! She loves to show affection and is almost constantly giving me kisses. Before I left for school the other morning, she had to give me four kisses- one on each hand and one on each cheek. She is such a sweetie!! She is doing really well with our dogs. Just last week, when she would be in someone's arms and the dogs would be on the floor in the same room, she would start screaming, crying, and be absolutely terrified. But, this week, she is walking all aorund the house, not paying any attention to the dogs. And she has even started to like them! She will now give them treats, throw their toys for them, and (the biggest one!!) she will go up and kiss them!! :) I am so proud of my girl! The one difficulty we have now is getting her to go to anyone other than me. Although she was fine with Mama and Baba in China, since coming home, she has decided to latch herself onto me and not want anyone else. She is getting better and loves her other two big sisters and will go to them without a problem. Going to daddy, and especially mommy, are pretty hard for her though. I know that she will want mommy and daddy only soon though, it will just take more time. I absolutely love that she loves me and I love her so much, but I also know that she needs to bond to mommy. Sarah is doing good, considering that her world has been turned upside down too. Jealousy is coming out, more than we thought it would actually. Sharing is not too easy to do! I am so proud of Sarah though! She is trying and is doing better and better everyday! :) Just a little over one week home, it is amazing to see how much she has already changed! Chayah is such a blessing! And we are so blessed to have our complete family of seven! :)

Now that Chayah is home, I will continue to post a few updates and photos on this blog, but mainly everything will be posted on what was previously Sarah Lu's blog, now to be my main blog, Mei Mei Adventures at www.meimeiadventures.blogspot.com
Be sure to follow as posting for both Sarah and Chayah will continue over THERE

Chayah's Home!!

She's home at last!! We met them at the airport and it was so much fun! Chayah's my girl for sure!! :) She has been attached to me, literally, since we met! I am absolutely loving having her at home! She is so sweet and will just reach over, grab my hand, and kiss it! I am so in love with this girl!! She is precious and is doing so well! I am so proud of her!! She is scared of our dogs, two black lab mixes, but even since just last night, she is already so much better with them. At first, she cried when she even saw them- they were pretty scary to her! But today she has been on the ground, walking around the room at the same time they are, and even throwing a treat to them earlier. So little by little she is getting more used to them and less scared of them. She has been very happy, except when the dogs come up to her, at which point she loudly screams and wants to be picked up very fast. She is my little sister and it is so amazing that she is finally home!!!

Three big sisters, anxiously waiting to meet Chayah!

Me and my girl!

Chrissy and Chayah

Chayah, Me, Sarah, and Chrissy

Chayah, Me, (Charity hiding behind me), Faith, Sarah, Joyeaux, and Chrissy

Me and Chayah on the way home

I love her so much!

Kisses :)

Chayah coming home

Sarah coming home after a long trip, listening to jie jie's music

More kisses from Chayah

Sisters :)

With her new baby doll

Me and my little sisters!!!

Chayah, finally home!

She's Home!

Just a very quick note to say that we just got home from the airport-- Chayah is home and doing great! She is such a sweetie and I am so in love! She has attached to me and is now always with me- sweetest thing ever!! It is so amazing to have her finally HOME!! I promise I'll try to post more, including pictures, later tonight after Chayah goes to sleep. ;)

The Red Couch

My family on the Red Couch at the White Swan. I love this picture!

Travel Group :)

My mei mei's are so cute!!

Chayah, Kennedy, Ezra, and Sarah-- They are so cute!!

I love these red couch photos! For those of you that may not understand, the red couch is at the White Swan Hotel (there are several of them there, actually) in Guangzhou and it is a tradition of adoptive families to take pictures there.
Now, today is Friday and tomorrow, they are coming home!! We are going to be meeting them at the airport and I can't wait! It is going to be so amazing to meet Chayah and to see Sarah and my parents again! I've missed them a lot! I am so excited about tomorrow morning (their flight lands at approximately 11am central time). They're almost home!!!

Around in Guangzhou

Two beautiful dancing princesses :)

Enjoying the warm weather in Guangzhou

The family :)

At the White Swan in front of the bird cage

Pictures!

At the Beijing airport

The Pearl River

Mom, Chayah, and Sarah looking out on the Pearl River

Dinner at Lucy's

They made it safely to Guangzhou and are now staying at the White Swan Hotel. Chayah had her first can of pop (Orange Sunkist) and was treasuring it! They got the Going Home Barbie-- Something that I have been dying for us to get. Yesterday they went to the Guangzhou Zoo. Today they had Chayah's medical exam. We talked to them on skype just a little while ago and they were heading out to the Liu Hua Park- it is so beautiful and we had a great time there on our last trip.

Guangzhou!

They should be arriving in Guangzhou right around now! I can't wait to hear from them... hopefully with more pictures that I am absolutely dying to see!! ;)

More Pictures!

Beautiful sisters together and matching at last! ;)

Mommy and both of her girls!
Don't you just love it that Chayah is wearing a bow?! So cute!!!

Gotcha Video

Here is the video of Chayah's gotcha!! It starts out with the nannies at the orphanage first seeing Sarah again (Sarah was at the same orphanage as Chayah) and then goes into getting Chayah! It's pretty short, only 1 minute, but is so cute and absolutely precious!!

Update!

• They went out to dinner on Gotcha Day and in the bathroom were flush toilets. It was a very funny thing that the toilet flushed and so mom and the girls stayed in there for a little while, just flushing the toilet and giggling. ;)
• Chayah is little! She is a head shorter than Sarah. Sarah, at four years old, is wearing sizes 4 and 5 now, with about a size 8 1/2 shoe. Chayah, at six years old, fits into size 3 pants and size 4 shirts. Her feet are also itty bitty, fitting into a size 6 or 7 shoe!
  
• Chayah likes her new name- "Chayah"
• On Adoption Day(Monday the 12th), they started out in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of Hebei Province. They had to go back to Langfang to apply for her passport and then into Beijing to stay until Saturday. It was alot of driving and they ended up not getting to eat dinner til 8pm. Chayah got sick and threw up. She said goodbye to her nanny and there were lots of tears.
  
• We talked to them on webcam last night here, which was Tuesday morning for them. She came up to talk to us at first with mommy, but then decided that running around the lobby (that's where they are getting an internet connection) with Sarah was much more fun! Before we got off though, she came over with daddy and played with us through the webcam. We had our first sister-bonding moment with sticking out our tongues and making funny faces. She is a silly girl!!

Gotcha, Chayah!

Chayah with Baba and Mama!

And Mei Mei too!

They're all together at last!!! Notice how Sarah is kissing Chayah's hand? So sweet!!!

Mom, Dad, Sarah, and Chayah with the nannies and the kids at the orphanage

They have her!!!! It is so amazing to finally see pictures of all of them together at last! God's plan is so amazing!!!! Chayah came right up to them, said "Mama!" and grabbed my mom's hand!! She has been very happy, no tears! All smiles and laughter! She and Sarah have been holding hands. :)