Valentines Day pictures

Ellie with "Greatgrandma"

Rorey sitting on "Nana Sandy"
Riley being....well Riley!

Rick the life of the party!!
Ellie's first Valentines Day

On Valentines Day, we headed to T-ville to visit my Grandma in the nursing home, and then to my parents house to visit them! We went out to dinner with them and my cousin Tony joined us also. As you can see our family is easily entertained, the kids had great fun wearing the ice cream cone covers on their heads. The kids got candy from Nana & Papa, along with some other fun items, and we had a nice afternoon .

School districts...ugh

I have to say that I have heard many horror stories from many families about dealing with school districts. And I had my own when it took me 3 months to get a return phone call from our special ed provider(SASED) regarding getting Rorey into speech therapy.(nearly 3 years ago) BUT I have never been more disgusted than I am right now, since we received a letter from SASED and I had to tell Ellie she can't go to school anymore. Apparently they changed their minds about her eligibility. Now how in the world am I going to explain to a 4 year old who speaks limited English that it isn't her fault, that she didn't do anything wrong, but...even though it was the highlight of her week, even though she drastically needs this, even though they let her come for 3 weeks, it's done....no more. What makes me most upset is that apparently they have been using these "sessions" to further evaluate her (which we were never told) and have now concluded that she doesn't qualify. If I had known that, I would have approached this differently, I would not have told Ellie it was a long term thing. I would not have called it "school ...like Rorey and Riley." Now I have a devastated child who I can't console because she can't speak English. BUT she doesn't qualify for English as a second language.(ESL) Does anyone else see the irony in this?

OK I'm done whining, even if no one reads this I feel better just getting it off my chest.

Play day at the library

Rorey and Ellie in the play house
Rorey's awesome "castle"

Since I've been such a bad blogger lately thought I would throw in a couple of pictures we took at the library last week. These kids love to go to the library....

play house, Lego table, loads of books, DVDs to check out....What else could you ask for? The only problem we have there is the very loud voice of Ellie reverberating from one end of the building to the other!! She does not understand the concept of an "inside voice"!!

School Rocks

First day of school pictures

Ellie has been kind of jealous that the boys are going to school and she is stuck at home everyday. So finally after much "discussion"(I'm trying not to be sarcastic) with our special education provider, Ellie has started going to English as a second language class (ESL) twice a week. She is sooo happy! She is very proud and she tells us all about it, shows us her stickers, gives us a 2-3 paragraph explanation of what she did(..most of which I can't understand!!) HAHA! The teacher goes to our church, and she is super nice...Ellie loves it! She is learning more English everyday, but we still have trouble understanding some of it!
On the other hand Ellie has been teaching Rorey more Chinese everyday, and they seem to have their own language going on......I like to call it Chinglish. Who knows what in the world they are talking about most of the time! Next year Rorey and Ellie are both going to go to Kindergarten. Ellie will only go half days, and take the ESL classes while she is there. Then the next year Rorey will move on to First grade and Ellie will start into a normal all day Kindergarten. We have decided that is the best plan we have available to us, and we don't want her to struggle in school because she is still learning English.

The English "floodgate" has opened!

Everyone has told me that Ellie would have a speech explosion after being here for three months. She has learned a lot since October, but it has seemed to be only a word here and a word there. (and in a sentence with Chinese also) Well the 3 month mark came on January 16th, and everyone was sooo right! In the last week she has been spouting LOTS of English, phrases and sentences. Since we know some Chinese she still talks to us and us to her in Mandarin sometimes, but she has been putting it all together the last week. Yesterday morning she found me in the laundry room getting ready for church. (unfortunately our clothes don't normally make it back up to the closets!) In her pathetic whining voice said "Mama...I want sausage." The child loves meat!!! I just looked at her and asked "did you say you want sausage?" She said yes....with an a on the end yesa. Wow I said.........that was a great job! But, NO we have to get to church......... eat a poptart!

Urumqi Reunion

Grace and Ellie together again!

Brooke, Vickie, and Grace (sleeping beauty)

Rorey making the moves on the girls!!

Ellie and Kelsey together again!

Last Saturday we braved the cold weather and drove up to Joliet to meet up with some "cyber friends"..Vickie...her daughter Grace (who came from Ellie's orphanage) Grace's big sister Brooke, and Kelsey.... another friend who visited Ellie and Grace in China before they came home. Grace is sooo sweet as you can see, she is a year younger than Ellie, and came home a year ago in October. We planned to meet at Chuck E Cheese...which was a zoo obviously because it was a Saturday afternoon! The kids played for a while and then we went to TGI Friday's to get some real food, and where we would be able to hear each other speaking without screaming across the table!! Grace feel asleep in the car on the way to lunch, so Vickie had to hold the poor little thing while she was trying to eat ! She did finally wake up and then decided to snack on Ellie and Rorey's french fries. Rorey was sitting right there helping to feed her and then asked Vickie if she wanted to go on a date!! He is so full of .....something!! Grace is very tiny compared to Ellie, not that Ellie is very big! Of course compared to her brother Ellie is very tiny, so everything is relative I guess!! Ellie was looking at Grace's picture before we left to drive up that day, and it was obvious to me that she remembered Grace. But it upset her when she saw the pictures from her orphanage of Grace as a baby, and when I said we were going to see her. Maybe she thought we were heading back to China? Or perhaps it just brings back memories of leaving China? We never know when something is going to send her over the edge! Hopefully in a few months Ellie will be able to tell us why she is upset by certain things, and we will be able to help her deal with her fears. We had a great day, and it was so fun to finally "see" each other after all of the e-mails and blog reading!!

Christmas is COOL

Ellie climbing on Uncle John

Riley checking out one of his gifts

Ellie and her new doll from the Severns'

Rorey, Riley, Ellie and Teresa checking out the stockings

Thacker cousins at Nana's house

Christmas Eve ..Rorey, Ellie and Daddy

Christmas was on the back burner around here this year, as has been this blog if you didn't notice! LOL! We are still trying to adjust to our new family dynamics, and I just was not in the holiday spirit!! Apparently Ellie has never heard of Christmas....she stared at us like we had lost our minds when we drug the huge Christmas tree bag up from the basement and started putting a tree up in the middle of the living room!! We did get some baking done, which Ellie enjoyed helping with. (and eating) Rorey, Ellie and I also made a gingerbread house, which they loved. But they got really mad when I threw it away and wouldn't let them eat it!! We decided to spend the night at my parents house on Christmas eve, so we could be there for the family soup supper and then go to church that evening. Ellie is so funny because she LOVES to sing! She knows several songs in Chinese and now she knows Jesus loves me and Jingle bells in English! But at church on Christmas eve we were singing lots of songs that she does not know, and she didn't care she was still singing along ....really loudly.... in her half English half Chinese mumbo jumbo talk!! People were looking at us. She was that loud. So Santa had to find us at Nana and Papa's house, which of course he could easily do. All of the kids got way to many presents and had lots of fun opening all of them. We had Christmas dinner for my mothers whole family at her house, people came and went for lunch, and desserts, and then dinner (yuck, who can eat again?) We had to come home Christmas day evening because I had to work the next day. When we got home I realized the kids hadn't opened the presents from Rick and I!! I'm so mean I made them wait until Saturday morning.. we had our own little Christmas morning!! Then Sunday morning we got up and made our way to Rick's parent's house for Christmas with his family! These have got to be the three most spoiled children I have ever seen!! We had a nice day and the kids got even more presents from Nana and Papa Severns, Aunt Debbie and Aunt Teresa!! WOW it looks like a toy store threw up in this house!! Where in the world are we going to put all of this?? It is time for some serious cleaning!! Luckily Rick's Mom offered to take some toys to her house for the kids to play with when they go to visit them. I'm definately going to take her up on that offer. So that is our Christmas in a nutshell!! Nothing crazy, no dramatic moments, just Ellie looking at us like we were totally out of our heads.

Sorry I'm slacking!!

Time has been going by really quick!! I feel like I don't have time to get anything done!! I have to go back to work December 1st, and I'm trying to get a lot of Christmas stuff finished before that. Well I'm trying! It's not really working out as I had hoped. There never seems to be enough time in the day. Ellie wants my attention every three seconds. Every mark of the crayon, every puzzle piece
placed, every pop bead snapped, she wants me to see. How many times can you say "wow," or great, or pretty before you start to lose your own mind? She is still rattling off long paragraphs of Chinese, and then sighs at me when I say "I don't know what you are saying." She obviously understands much of what we say, but I think she thinks we are going to learn Chinese instead of her learning English!! Although I did teach her to say" I'm bossy" LOL

Weekend with Nana and Papa

Maybe she will be a pilot?
Just doing a little shopping

Rorey riding with "Mr. Boney"

Three wild animals in a cage!

WOW that's just scary!!

We just got home from spending the weekend with my parents, and Ellie was really good!! She didn't seem to mind going there and staying 3 nights. She slept with Rorey in Nana's room on the pull out couch bed, and they had a load of fun!! Riley and I slept in the spare bedroom.....which is more like a dorm with 2 twin beds and a double bed in there!! The kids didn't have school Thursday and Friday because of parent teacher conferences and then today because of Veterans day. It was great timing for a long weekend at Grandma's house. We also went and visited my grandmother who recently had to go into the nursing home. Ellie has seen her at her home, and did great, but the nursing home made her start crying and get the "doctor's office face." She calmed down after about 10 minutes, I guess she figured out that it wasn't scary after all. On Saturday we took the kids to a children's museum in Decatur. It is pretty cool, Riley has been there several times and Rorey one other time when he was small. Ellie had lots of fun, her favorites being....bubbles.....water table.....shadow wall.....and the climbing area. Also we went to church with my parents... to the church I grew up going to. There are still many people there who remember me and have helped us out during this adoption journey. Everyone was so excited to see Ellie!! She was a little shy, but no crying or fits. She even went into the preschool room with Rorey for 2 hours with no problem. This girl ROCKS!! Then we went out to lunch at the Chinese restaurant where my parents and half of my Mom's family go EVERY Sunday!!

The people there have been anxiously awaiting Ellie's visit!! I guess they where very excited when she came in, and talked to her for quite a while. (I was on McDonald's duty, bringing food for Rorey and Riley) Ellie ordered won ton soup and fried rice with shrimp and pork. By the way she is going to enjoy the left overs for lunch today!! HAHA! We had a fun weekend, and now I'm trying to get all the laundry done!!

English as a second language

We are still hearing a lot of Chinese around here, although it seems like she understands much of what we are saying to her. She knows when we say to put her clothes on, put her shoes on, take a bath, brush her teeth, but we haven't heard much English. I have had to look up some wonderful Chinese words like....share, be nice girl, be quiet!! Well last night I was putting her to bed and she grabbed her little stuffed pig and said......Mom this one is a baby. I just stared at her for a second like English was my second language!! Then I said yes it is, it is a baby pig then I said it was a blue baby pig and she repeated blue baby pig. Today at the store I told her that Rorey had to go to the bathroom, and she turned to me and said Mama where is the bathroom? I don't know about you, but I'm impressed!! I promise we didn't learn any Chinese that fast.

Halloween Pics

Spidey, Hobo, & Sunshine

Pumpkin Time

Halloween was kind of up in the air this year....we didn't know how Ellie was going to react to all of the excitement!! It isn't surprising that she LOVED it!! She laughed crazily as Riley chased her around the house in his "hobo, vampire, army guy" costume, and loved Rorey in the Spiderman getup also. She enjoyed being a "sunshine bear" even though she has no clue what a "sunshine bear" is!! We went to the "trick or trunk" at the Methodist church first, and they also have a free wiener roast there. Ellie tried her first smore, which she did not care for at all!! She seems to have an aversion to chocolate! I know it's pretty obvious that she is not my biological child, but this just seals the deal!! (Also she does not like Mac-n-Cheese, but we will discuss that in a later post) Anyway after the trunk deal we went to my friend Michelle's house and we all went trick or treating in her neighborhood. She has 6 children...5 bios and 1 new adoptee from China. So 4 of hers and 3 of mine went out and ran the streets, with parents chasing, and yelling, and reminding to say Thank you etc. Wow I was beat after all of that!! Tons of candy, what else do you need to know?

Pics of the Princess

On the porch with our pumpkins

Princess Oh Yeah!

Posing , posing, posing

GQ Ellie


Tuesday we took Ellie to her first Doctor's appointment here in the US. It went OK........after we finally got into the room and the doctor came in. Ellie freaked out when 1. they weighed her 2. they measured her height 3. they took her blood pressure. 4. they took us to a real room 5. they made her put on a gown 6. they made us wait for 30 minutes for the Dr. to come in! Once the doctor came in the interpreter told Ellie that all she wanted to do was talk to Mom and Dad. and that she was an auntie....not a doctor!! HAHA It worked. The doctor also had an occupational therapy student with her who had toys and markers to distract Ellie with. Things were fine after that while we talked for 45 minutes or more!! Once the doctor wanted to listen to Ellie's lungs, heart etc. she was calm and didn't freak out!! She went to the bathroom in a cup with no problem, of course then we come to the ugly part!! The nurse came to do the TB test.......bad bad bad!! Daddy had to hold her for that and I held her arm. Next we headed to the lab for so many blood tests that the list was hanging to the floor like Santa's list of bad kids!!! I think they took at least 9 BIG vials of blood, maybe more I lost count. We have to have her tested for everything just in case. You can't always trust the Chinese medical reports. Also she was tested to see if she needs her shots again. Daddy had to hold her for this too! I held her arm....it was more like arm wrestling than anything else!! After a total blowout and complete psychotic break, it was finally over and we left the hospital while she was still crying hysterically!! She fell asleep in the car after about 5 minutes and was still mad at us when we woke her up an hour later. It wasn't long before she came back around, and was fine last night here at home. So now what? Rorey woke up at 2 Am sick. I got him back to bed, but this morning he started throwing up!! Luckily he hadn't eaten anything since dinner last night! I just hope that we can keep from spreading it around to the rest of us!! Lysol here we go!!

She's holding out on us!

Well it's official she is holding out on us!! Ellie has been saying a few English words, but mainly has been bombarding us with whole paragraphs of Chinese and then staring at us like we are stupid!! Well today I was in the laundry room and Rick stuffed some clothes down the chute which promptly clogged and I had to get it unstuck. I keep a long pole in the laundry room for just these occasions, and as I pulled it out she said as plain as day.....what is that? I think it shocked her that it came out of her mouth because when I turned and said ...did you just say what is that? She grinned really big and shook her head yes. Now I wonder what else she could say if she wanted to. What a stinker!!

Amazing Ellie

Big brother Rorey, Little sister Ellie, and ringo the dog!! In their PJ's ready for bed!!

Still posing every time we get the camera out!!

Our new family picture

Things are going well! We have been getting used to each other, getting back into a "normal schedule"......well at least Riley and Rorey!! They both are back to their regular activities. Riley is in 5th grade, and Rorey is in pre-school three days a week. Rick and I are still off work and I will not be going back until December, so plenty of time to let Ellie start to feel at home here with us. Rick will be going back to his normal work as of November 2nd. (many of you will understand what I'm saying!) Hopefully we will all get along well and things will be under control sooner rather than later! We are taking Ellie to DR. Laddage in St. Louis this Tuesday and we are praying that she will not act like she did in Guangzhou!! WOW crazy girl!!! Also I'm going to get a dentist appointment for her ....and Rorey who has never had a "successful" dentist appointment either!! Which would mean he would sit in the chair and or let them look in his mouth!! HAHA At church today Ellie went into the 4 & 5 year old class with her brother with no problem!! She spent the entire time in there and was just fine!! I was very surprised!! We spent the rest of the day out and about at the park, apple barn, and then another park. It was soooo windy I've got windburn on my face and chapped lips!! Ellie took a big dive at the park off of a piece of playground equipment and fell face first into the dirty mulch! She had dirt in her mouth and her feet went up over her back and head!! I thought she broke her neck!! She has NO FEAR!! She is like a loaded gun, constantly running from one thing to the next, with no regard for her safety. You should see her in the pool!!! I will NEVER be able to take her and Rorey swimming by myself, one of them would end up dead for sure!

Our friend James and his wife made Ellie some "pig feet with eggs" over rice and brought the left overs to our house for her. It looks disgusting, but smells really good and she LOVES it! They have helped us so much by talking to her, explaining things, and calming her down when she was totally consumed with grief!

Also we went to visit my parents on Saturday in my hometown, and ended up going out to lunch at one of the Chinese restaurants there. They where talking to Ellie for 20 minutes and the son spoke very good English so he was telling us what she was saying. She is very funny when she sees other Chinese people, and they all tell us she is very smart! Ellie seems to know that they are her grandparents and is giving them hugs and kisses when we leave. Luckily since my father is our babysitter when I'm at work....three days a week. Hope she gets really really used to Papa Jim before December hits!!

Ellie has been sleeping great the last 5 or so days. She isn't even crying when it is time for bed. She lets me rock her in the rocker for a few minutes, then gets up and gets in her bed willingly and goes to sleep until morning!! Can you guys believe that? Also you might have noticed the haircut....Rick's Mom cut her hair for us, and Ellie seems to like it! She was always pushing her hair out from her face, and now it doesn't bother her. I'll try to keep up with the blog, as much as I can so keep checking in!!

Settling In

We are still alive, finally getting over the jetlag and feeling like humans again!! Ellie is doing extremely well......during the day! When evening comes it's a different story! She gets really upset and doesn't want to take a bath or take her clothes off to put on PJ's. She knows what is coming.......bedtime!! She cried last night hysterically for about 30 minutes so we called our Chinese friend James and he calmed her down on the phone. He said she is asking to go home.
I feel for her because I felt this way anytime I was away from my family when I was a kid. She fell asleep in the bed after only 3 minutes of crying, and slept until 9 this morning so once she is in bed it's not that bad!! I know she is feeling really awkward about bonding to us, like she is betraying her China family!! The better she does with us during the day, the worse it is in the evening. Over all it has been very good, a pretty smooth transition considering she is 4 years old, and left her foster family of 4 years to come here!! Rorey is being great with her....too good sometimes!! She has taken advantage of his sweet personality several times so I had to explain to him not to let her take toys or hit him with out telling me. She can be a stinker!! Riley is back in school and got all of his work done finally!! Poor kid picked up a stomach bug on the way home somewhere! He woke up at 4 AM on Saturday throwing up. He had a fever and a bad headache. He had to stay home from our "field cookout" with Rick's parents and sisters on Sunday.....(when they meet Ellie) so my mom came and watched him. Rick's dad is a farmer and is in the field now, so we went to the field and had a cookout/picnic. Today we are taking Ellie to James' house around lunch time and then they are cooking Chinese food for our dinner and bringing the food and Ellie back to us at 4PM. She will probably be seeing the Wang family often. Also we have an appointment at the school tomorrow to speak to them about getting Ellie into some kind of program. She is really bored and needs to be with other kids. Rorey's preschool is just not prepared to take on a child who speaks no English!!
I'm not sure what we will end up doing about school etc. She should start Kindergarten next year, but I don't want her and Rorey in the same grade.
We will have to wait and see, I just don't want anything negative coming out of this for Rorey, because he is such a soft hearted precious boy!

We are home!!

Well we are here, after two plane flights and a 4 hour van ride. We made it home without any major throw downs.. Ellie was great on the plane, actually amazing! She slept off and on and just sat there the rest of the time!! I think I might have been more upset than she was!!
It was so great to see my Mom when we finally made it through the immigration paperwork and headed out of there!! And of course Rorey !!! I think he grew an inch while we were gone!! He is so excited and happy to have Ellie home with us, but we will see how long that lasts!!

Thanks to everyone who followed our journey.....and for all the comments, they keep you sane and help you remember that eventually you will be home and back to normal!

Last day in Guangzhou!!

Riley with fast friend Will, who is traveling with his family
Red couch picture
Our travel group
Farewell dinner with our travel group

Yeah!! Tomorrow we are starting home!! We will fly out of GZ at 9:30 AM and then land in Beijing at 12:30. Then we will get on our United flight at 4:00 Pm and land in Chicago at 4:15 Pm on Thursday afternoon. I am so excited to come home! I just want to drink tap water, use my own bathroom, sleep in my own bed, and most of all see my baby boy....Rorey Clark!!! I miss you so much buddy, I can't wait to get off that plane and see your sweet little face!! I have to warn you that your new sister can be a real stinker!! She sometimes hits and bites if she doesn't get her way, so I'm warning you before we get home that you have to be a real good boy and not hit or bite her back!! We have to teach her to be good like you are, OK?
Mommy loves you and I'll see you really soon!!

Thank God for Starbucks

Our lifes blood!! Coffee!!!
We love you Starbucks!!


Riley after another long night sharing a bed with the princess!!

You do not know how much I mean that! It is like a tiny US here in Guangzhou!! They even have a real TOILET!! Not a squatty potty, but an honest to goodness toilet!! WOW I knew I loved Starbucks, but now there is no doubt!! We have gone there several times, and all the American families seem to feel the same way we do. We are sitting in the room now, waiting for our guide Elsie who is at the American Consulate now, applying for Ellie's (everyone's children in our group) visa. We have to wait here in case she has a problem with our paperwork, so she could get ahold of us if need be. After we get the all clear we are planning to go out shopping with the Skiles'. Hopefully also to Starbucks!! We love you Rorey!! Only a few more days....big kisses to you!!