Gotcha!

We got her. She is less than thrilled with us but Reese is acceptable. It takes time. The orphanage is beautiful. Will be hours before I can get on FB. More later- Cheryl

Is that jacket not adorable?

Reese and Ana-Cherie

Reese showing Ana-Cherie her iPad in the car. Technology, universal common ground for small children. 

Six Years Ago Today...

A little over 7 years ago, we first saw this face. She was about 6 months old when these pictures were taken.

Another referral picture

She was quite upset when she came to us

First sight

She still looks a lot like this when she's upset.

Reese, St. Patrick's Day 2013

Six years ago, a scared little girl was put in our arms for the first time. She'd been removed from her foster family that day, had been told she was going to see her "mama", and had been promised ice cream to console her. We made good on the ice cream as soon as we could. Looking back now, I can see so much clearer the distress in those big brown eyes. Completely understandable distress as this little girl had been taken from everything she knew and left with us. That would be a confusing and upsetting experience for anyone, let alone a 2 year old. Looking at her now, though, it's hard to imagine she could be the same little girl we met 6 years ago in Taiyuan. Here's a link to the Gotcha Day post from 2007.

4th Forever Family Day

May 28, 2007

May 29,2007

May 2008

May 2009

May 2010

May 2011

Today we have had Reese for 4 years. She's gone from a 2.5 year old toddler, to a 6.5 year old grade-schooler, who will start 1st grade in the fall. She's speaks English fluently. She's gone from 18 months/24 months/2T to size 8/10. She's now around 4 feet tall, and 60-ish pounds. It's odd to see how much she's lost her baby face since this time last year, going from age 5.5 to 6.5. She now takes Irish dance and gymnastics. We got her on May 28, making her "our's" 4 years ago today.

She's incredibly smart. Beginning of the year testing for kindergarten had her pretty much where she should be at the end of the year at the beginning of it. She's reading well now, and just about everything she sees, but she prefers to read books to people, not alone. Her favorite TV show is Spongebob Squarepants (gah), and she's a complete diva. Such a girly-girl. I often am not sure what to do with her, because I was never that girly. I was pretty much the complete opposite.

This year has a lot in store: she'll start 1st grade, and she'll get to be a flower girl in my wedding. And that's just what we know is in store.

Happy 4th Forever Family Day to sweet Reese Maleah KaiJin Davidson.

Oh, how you've grown...

I love this picture.

I took all of these pictures yesterday, one year to the day that she was placed in our arms. Since then, she has learned English and speaks better than many children I know who've been around English since they were born. She's gained 7 lbs and grown 4 inches. Her hair has grown a ton. She's still full of attitude. She's so smart, and she did so well in preschool this past year. She's gone from anti-Daddy to Daddy's little girl. She loves to have books read to her now, and she likes to color, which she showed no interest in when we first got her. She can also mostly stay inside the lines now. She's had 2 laser treatments since she got home, and her birthmark has lightened up a lot. She has another one on the 26th. She is such an amazing girl, and I can't imagine what life would be without her, aside from quieter...and I'd still be sleeping in, but hey, I wouldn't trade her for anything.

I hope to make some layouts for her Forever/Gotcha Day either today or tomorrow, but I figured I'd post some pictures before then.

A Year Ago Today...

Coming into the room

The long hallway

Michelle and me trying to calm her down

A year ago today, we were in a raggedy van on our way to the Civil Affairs office in Taiyuan. That had to be one of the longest rides ever. I distinctly remember crossing the river that cuts Taiyuan down the middle, the Huang He (Yellow) River, I believe. The bridge was probably as long as the one that crosses the Arkansas River that we go over every so often. There was a large dragon statue in the middle of the river that was made to look like the dragon was winding up and down in the river. Pretty nifty. I also remember a big gold building, probably 4-6 stories tall and big! It was the Shanxi Provincial History Museum, which I would have loved to go to. I also remember what appeared to be a large alley with a blow-up gate with Chinese characters on it. I didn't ask what they said, but what with the large amounts of balloons and a general carnival type atmosphere, I assume it was something to do with Children's Day which was only a few days away. We actually saw a Children's Day celebration at the hotel across the street from our hotel later in the week. Finally, we got to the Civil Affairs Office. We went up to the 3rd floor, I think it was, maybe the 4th, and walked down a long hallway, with no lights on. The only light was from a large window at the end of the hallway. We then waited outside the Shanxi Province Foreign Adoption Administration Office, as no one was there yet to unlock the door. Finally, the notary, I believe it was, arrived and let us in. And I paced. And stared out the large windows down to the ground to see if I saw anyone coming in with a little girl. And paced some more. Then paced back to windows. They were running late. I read the English parts of the board about adoption and the board about marriage in the room. It was a kind of dingy room, fairly large, not really decorated, save for the big boards on the wall, and the windows were kind of grimy, but given the pollution that is common place in Shanxi, washing them all the time probably would have been a waste of time. I walked in between the windows and the couch for what seemed like forever. After looking at her picture for a year, what was another 30 minutes, really, but still. Finally, I heard a little girl crying and people talking in Chinese from down the hall. Somehow, in my pacing to the window and back, I had missed her coming in. She came in carried by a nanny, if I remember right, from the orphanage. The orphanage she had only spent 2 months in at the beginning of her life as an orphan, and the last week of it. I guess they told her what was going on, because Reese was very upset. Our guide took her from the nanny and tried to calm her down. I tried to play with her. I gave her Lifesavers, which she liked, but she continued sobbing. I tried a camel a person on my Mom or Dad's route had given her. It was very soft. She didn't like it. To this day, she doesn't like it. Bad association, I suppose. We tried letting Mom hold her, that made it worse. Finally, she passed out in Michelle, our guide's lap. We let her sleep there while we did some paperwork. Finally we had to take the adoption certificate picture. To do so, Michelle slipped Reese into Mom's lap on the floor. Sadly, we had to wake Reese up for the picture. So she's crying in our adoption certificate picture. She shut down for a little while, but apparently, she'd done the majority of her mourning there at the Civil Affairs Office. She was fairly quiet the whole way back to the hotel. At the hotel, we tried to get her to take a nap, but she refused. So she "watched" cartoons, and we changed her clothes and put the ones she came to us up. I'd love to take a picture of her in them now, but I'm worried it would upset her...or she wouldn't want to take them off. We then went to Wal-Mart.

I'm gonna try to take some pictures of her later this evening for her Gotcha/Forever Day.

We got her!

Right after they came in.

Our guide, Michelle, trying to get Kai Jin to calm down.

Still trying to get her to calm down.

Reese KaiJin quite thoroughly unhappy.

On one of our beds at the hotel with her sucker and cheerios...and cell phone. LOL

We have a precious little girl! She was SOOOO upset. She was screaming and yelling and crying for her foster mama. She cried herself to sleep in our guide's lap. It was so sweet. Mom keeps going 'you did that when you were little'. She is so upset. But she's calming down now. She's got her cell phone, her green apple sucker, and a big ziploc bag of Cheerios...and she is at least content, sort of.

The director of the orphanage said she is very naughty. Oh well, she's still precious.

They were late to get there, and so mom and I were like pacing the office. But all's well that ends well. Our guide says she was worried she would shut down and not let the stress, etc. out and that's not good for kids, but man, she cried her lungs out. Michelle says tomorrow we will have a completely different little girl probably. Also, she NEVER sleeps alone, so she'll be sleeping with one of us tonight. I hope me. She's never had a jie jie before, but she has had Mamas. So who knows?

I hate to say I didn't take a bazillion pictures. We were too busy trying to get her to stop screaming. We found out that this province only does about 1 adoption a month. So we're a real novelty here. :)

Half an hour til we leave...

Soon to be more than just a picture...

Less than 30 minutes until we leave to go to the civil affairs office to meet Reese for the first time...and less than an hour until that fateful moment. I totally can't wait. I slept from about 9:30 pm to 6:30 this morning...I have no clue when Mom went to sleep but she got up at 3:30 am. Neither one of us went down to get breakfast because we're all nerves, so we munched on baby cookies and coke. Michelle laughed when we said we eat baby cookies because they're baby food. Oh well, they taste good. There's something that looks like a 7/11 when you go out of our hotel and to the the left. Green and orange border thing, you know? They have a pretty good selection.

Will post more after we get back to the room with her.