The Sweetest Thing I've Ever Known, Is Loving You!!

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Ivy continues to just blow me away! She is getting so much more confident. She is always happy, always content! She laughs all the time and even snorts! She loves to be kissed and tickled and she loves to go out and about.

We spent from 9-3 at the safari park today and she loved it! She is however terrified of animals!!! So she took a few naps in the fresh air and enjoyed the ride in her ergo. When she saw me grab a branch of leaves that Emily had been feeding the giraffe she started screaming! Screaming for Ivy is odd and Jill told me she thought it was because she was afraid of the giraffe. I thought, no way, Im not even by the giraffe yet. Sure enough as soon as I got near the giraffe she started to cry and kick her legs. I dropped the leaves and she stopped. I walked near an animal and she cried again! She is smart. She put the 2 together before I even thought anything of it. Because she is such a bitty thing, I forget that she is 21 months old and she does not miss a beat.

She so badly wants to be a normal kid. She wants to get down and walk. She wants to do what the other toddlers do. She watches them and you can tell that watching kids play has been her way of playing. She guards herself well, she knows when she is exhausting herself. She knows that crawling takes her less energy than walking so after a few steps she will almost always change over to crawling. Tonight she crawled around the room and then just fell over in exhaustion. She gets very blue very quick and she happily cuddles in my arms and rests when Mama says no more! It breaks my heart. But soon, very soon, she will be climbing on the furniture and jumping off the ottoman with her sister!!

We had a nice dinner at Lucy's tonight. "Tiny Miss" ate 1 bowl of Chicken Congee, 3/4 of a piece of cod, 3 fries, a bowl of cheerios and lots of Lucy's Iced Tea! She then came home and asked for her can of pringles! Mama said no so she dug up some Hershey bar from her brothers back pack and made herself a big mess!!

Before bed we went out to do a little shoe shopping. The girl LOVES shoes!!!

And we bought her a new ride so she can roll like the big girls!!!

Thank you to everyone who has privately emailed me and posted here letting me know they are praying for Ivy! It is what has gotten us this far and it will continue to bless us as we move on to journey number 2 (Ivy's Surgery). Thank you Jill C for being such a positive blessing to us here in China! Thank you Emily for being the best 9 year old traveler on the planet!

Thank you Sis for your constant love and support. Thank you mom for giving your heart and soul to your grand babies! Thank you Diana for blogging for me and for your constant love, support and reassurance! Thank you Jill M and beautiful Lilah, Jennifer and Jennifer, Melody, Emily, Laurie M, Amy T, Ben and Amy, Tracy, Stephanie C, Tara, Sharon, Sarah and Lee, Natalie, Chrystal, And all the sweet bloggy world who have sent many many emails and comments with your commitments to pray for Ivy.

She is one loved up little girl and she is worthy of all those prayers and love!!!!!!

I can't wait to show you all what love and some medical intervention can do!!!!!!

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Goodbye Hangzhou and HELLO Guangzhou!!!!!

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We said Goodbye to Hangzhou and the staff at the Children's Welfare Center on Friday. It was such a long day, beginning in the morning with passport and notary paperwork, moving on to the orphanage visit and finally arriving in Guangzhou after a 2 hour flight at 10pm. Ivy was exhausted and overwhelmed. Last night she woke up at 1am FREEZING (mommy didn't realize that removing the room card from the slot would turn off the heat!) I could not warm her up so we ended up taking a hot bath in our hot tub in the Victory Bathroom at 2am. She loved it, pooped in it but loved it! Ya, enough said....

She ate a big bowl of hot cereal and finally settled in to my bed with Brady at 3am. Mommy was done sleeping for the night, the poop in the bath tub did me in!!! Hey, I cold handle it if she pooped in HER bath..... But this was a hot tub, I had my suit on and I WAS IN IT WITH HER!!! Oh the precious bonding going on!!

Anyway, The orphanage visit was great. The building was absolutely freezing anywhere that there were no children so I was so glad I put her big coat on her. She was happy all the way over and seemed to know where she was when we pulled up. 

She didn't seem anxious about it at all. Finally after long visits learning all about our baby girls first year and a half there, we asked for them to send in her nanny so Ivy could say a proper goodbye and we could tell her a proper thank you. Each time someone would walk by the would say LI QIN LI QIN!!!! They were very happy to see her with a family. She would give a quick smirk or smile and hold me tight. Finally Ivy's nanny appeared. She was so happy to see her. I could always see love in her eyes in the photos we have of her and Li Qin, today was no exception. 

She is such a pretty girl and she had such a sweet way greeting Ivy. 

Ivy did give her a sly smile and and she listened to everything the nanny was telling her. She tried to give her a hug and Ivy backed off and when she tried to hold her (We told her we would love for her to give her a goodbye hug or last cuddle) Ivy pushed her away and dove on to my chest. 

She was not crying, she had a sly smile on her face and she was content. They clapped and said Li Qin loves her mama, Li Qin has a mama!!! They were very very sweet and understanding and did not try and push themselves on her. She waved goodbye and smiled big as they said goodbye in Chinese. We will forever love this group of women who clearly love the kids ant Hangzhou CWI. 

If your child is there, Please know they are so loved and so well cared for. It is still an orphanage and very much not a family, but it is a place where your child is being loved until you get there!!!

Today we spent our first day on Shamian Island. It is so good to be here. Our room is fabulous and huge, We were upgraded to and executive suite for no charge due to the fact that our room had accidentally been checked in to by someone else. We have a huge sitting room and a huge huge balcony and Ivy really is loving the space. She crawled all over today, walked a little (totally out of breath in just a minute or two) and made lots of baby messes for me to clean up! So happy to be on the last leg of our journey to bring Ivy home!!!

Our Medical exam was today. 

She did great! They said she was blue, they said she has a bad heart, they said she was beautiful baby with no surgery and made a sad face. That's it!! We were done! It was so crowded!! 
Lots and lots of adoptive families here this week. 7 with BAAS alone. Maybe 30 families there just this morning.

Tomorrow we head to the Safari park so Brady and our friend Emily can have a little fun! They have been so good and so patient all week!!

(Pictures coming later today...! Mary will probably post to Facebook if she can. Her scribe has to be gone all day...)

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Tid Bits About Ivy Joy!!

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She is adorable! Smart. Shy. Curious. Tiny.

She loves to eat. She likes spicy food and sweats while she eats it. Don't dare take it away from her. Her nose runs and there are sweat beads on her nose and upper lip and she continues to eat her favorite Spicy Hot Pringles. She swiped a Snicker Bar from her brother tonight and proceeded to eat the entire thing! She seriously ate an entire Snickers!! We have no idea where it all goes!

She loves music and she loves bath time! She will stay in the bath as long as you let her.

She loves to sleep! She goes to bed at 8pm and we have to wake her up in the morning in order to get to breakfast before they close it up at 10am! She takes a 1.5 hour nap around 12:30.

We are seeing lots of smiles and even giggles now. She is tickleish under her chin and on her neck just like Lexi.

She is so LOVED!!!!!!

Tomorrow we head to the orphanage for a last goodbye. I have so many thank you's and hugs I want to give to the ladies who took care of Ivy Joy! We will be taking some pictures of a few little ones who will be coming home to their own families soon. Even one who is in foster care is being brought back to the orphanage for us to visit with. We hope to get some video of each of them as well. Then its off to Guangzhou for the last leg of this trip! We are half way done now! Can not wait to embrace my girls again and my absolutely amazing husband who has taken such good care of his girls at home while we've been in China! Love you Babe!!!!! Love you Quincie, Rylee, Cassidy, and Lexi! I am so blessed to call you all mine!!!!

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48 Hours Together!!

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It is hard to believe that I have only known my daughter for 48 hours. She is such a part of me now and there is not a thing I would not do for her. I am so in awe of her bravery, of her ability to cope. I am amazed at the way she has chosen to trust me. I am blown away by her ability to attach. I love her with all depth of my heart and my soul. My heart breaks at the thought of her being considered inoperable, and un-adoptable.

I would move mountains for this little girl, she is worth every second of this journey we have been on and if someone told me right now that her heart was beyond repair I would not change one thing. She is worthy of every ounce of life God chose her to have and she has clearly been cradled in the palm of his hands every day of her life.

She has been loved, she would not know how to love like she does had she not been loved in that orphanage! She loves to be cuddled and looks for my hand and holds it tight when she feels insecure. She woke up this morning and smiled when she saw me! She smiled! She still flips her lip up when people come too near her and when we go into a new environment but she is opening up and she is making huge progress. She is wonderfully, perfectly, beautifully made!!

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Our Tiny Valentine Is Officially Ours!!!!!

Pin It Today, February 14th (Valentines Day) Ivy's adoption was finalized. How appropriate that God chose this day for our little heart baby to be officially ours!!!

She is making huge strides. Last night we got our first smile and today we had many smiles but she is still so so very scared. When she gives us a grin, a smile or a tiny giggle it is still done with such reserve. She squeezes her face and doesn't really let it all out. She is really not sure what is going on yet. She does love her mama, I will tell you that. She keeps her body so very close to mine and just molds to me when she is scared. New environments really get her worried but once she see's we are ok she relaxes very quickly. I don't think she has ever been anywhere and I am certain she was not allowed to have much activity whatsoever. This in fact has saved her life. I learned this tonight but I will get to that later.

Back to how much she loves her mama..... she gives me kisses, voluntarily!!! She just leans over to me and comes in for a kiss. It is the sweetest thing ever!! Its random and it's often!!! It just melts me every time!!!!

Ok off my mommy high! Tonight I decided I wanted to see if I could get her to walk a little. I know her legs are strong, her balance is terrific, her fine motor skills are amazing, but she will not stay in standing position. So I took her in the hall and made a game of it. She was having no part of it at first so I had Emily pretend she was taking steps to me and tried to get Ivy a little interested in coming with us. Finally, she got up holding my finger and walked down the hall with us. She went down passed about 7 or 8 rooms and I could hear her breathing louder and louder. Her little heart was racing and she was absolutely exhausted. We will not be doing any more walking until after surgery!!!! Her orphanage has definitely done a wonderful job of caring for her and I am so grateful!!!

She will sit and play with her stacking cups for hours. She will sit and eat cheerios for hours. In fact she will sit and eat anything for hours. The girl can eat!! She only likes soft things (besides cheerios) but she never stops eating! She loves the little yogurt drinks they sell here. Her orphanage said she drank 1 during the day, and every day before bed. Well, today she had 4!!! along with congee, bananas, milk, sweet potatoes, bread, hot cereal, french fries and lots and lots of cheerios!!!

Night time is her most comfortable time. She loves to play in the room and becomes more cheerful and comfortable at that time. And since it is night time here now, I've got a little girl to go play with. Happy Valentines Day!!!

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Happy Valentine's Day From China!!

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We Have Ivy!

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She is amazing!

She cried very quietly for about 10 seconds and has been stoic and observant since. She is very scared but so brave! She is cuddly and wants to be in my arms always. She is so precious! I am still working on getting her layers of clothing off, she wants no part of it. I continue to pray that she will know the depth of my love for her. This journey has been such a sweet reminder to me that God is in the details and JOY comes in the morning.

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