Author: Louanne

It’s a bit unbelievable that this sweet little baby has been a part of our lives for 4 weeks already. She is the best little baby and fits into our family perfectly. The wait for her has melted away and we are so blessed by God to have her.

Here are the photos from Joplin:

Here are the photos from Myrtle Beach and Nadia’s first visit to the ocean:

Here are the photos from Nadia and Jaida’s 3 week reunion! We were going to pass through Augusta, so I called Amy and asked her if we could stop by. The Hatchers were one of the families we traveled to China with, but the girls were from different orphanages. It was a fun little visit!

 

We have been having a great time on our visit with Eddie, Kim and the kids. The weather has been very nice in Myrtle Beach and there is a lot to do here. On Tuesday we took Nadia down to the pool for a bit and I sat with her on the first step for a little while. She seemed to get a little nervous after a while, so I got her back out. That evening we walked down to the beach and she enjoyed looking at the kites that people were flying.

The kids have had a great time with Nadia and she gets a kick out of all the people to play with. She has been getting tired pretty quick on this trip, but she is getting a lot of stimulation with the kids and the new things to see. We have really enjoyed the visit with the Bakers.

We took her out and just stood in the water so that she could look at the waves coming and going. She checked out the ocean like she does everything else she is curious about – with intense concentration on her little face. On Wednesday we all got up and went to the Ripley’s Aquarium which was really cool. I got some good photos and I will up load them when we get home. The sharks and saw-fish there are really awesome, but I think my favorite thing was the sea dragons.

While we were there at the Boardwalk we went to Wee R Sweets to get TAFFY. We got a bunch of this 2 years ago and the stuff is awesome!!!! They make it fresh on site and they have a cool machine called a kiss wrap that wraps the 150 taffy’s a minute. We got a whole bunch more this time to last us a while.
For dinner we went to Rossi’s and it was awesome just like last time. They have a fried lobster appetizer that is FANTASTIC. (it’s all about the food you know). We went back to the beach in the evening for a bit and Nadia just watched the people go by once again and got a kick out of all the little kids she saw.

Today we went down to the beach and let Nadia play in the sand and in the water. She explored in the sand quite a bit and the water seemed to make her nervous even though she was with Mike. But she looked so cute in her little swimsuit and cover-up.

We are going to hit the road in the morning and head back home. We are going to stop in Augusta and visit with the Hatchers who went to China with us. Jaida and Nadia can have a reunion after just 3 weeks. Hee hee. Then we should get home sometime on Saturday and life will settle into a normal routine….back to work and all that stuff.

I will post all the photos from the trip when we get home. We have a lot and Nadia got to meet a lot of new people on this road trip, but she has just done wonderfully. She fits right into our family and our lifestyle.

We are a road trip family and so once we were mostly over the jet lag we decided to take Nadia on her first road trip. Mike’s Aunt Joy offered one solitary piece of advise before we left for China. She basically said, “Don’t turn your life upside down for the baby. Make her part of your life. She will adjust to the way you live.” (feel free to correct me Joy 🙂 ) So I have been joking that we are going to take her seriously. Nadia was doing well and needed to meet Mike’s family since she had met lots of my family.

We headed for Joplin, MO on Saturday so Nadia could meet her Grandma Linda, Aunt Sharon and Uncle Stoney, Cousins Jade and Gwen and Sharon’s good friend Amy. We were staying at the Residence Inn in Joplin in the evening and Mike was in the bedroom and I set Nadia down in the sitting area to sterilize her bottles. She was fascinated by the carpet because it had dots on it and she was spending some time touching each dot in front of her.

Then she saw DADDY and when I turned around she was crawling towards him. It was awesome and I started screaming, “She’s crawling, she’s crawling!!!” I almost started to cry and Mike said, “Grab the camera.” So we got it on video.

What is so amazing about this is that 3 weeks ago when we got Nadia she couldn’t sit up on her own and now she is pulling up and crawling. It’s just amazing what the power of touch and constant attention can do for children. And her hair is really growing in nicely on that bald spot on the back of her head. She is doing much better with the solid foods now that she is used to the spoon.

So Sunday we visited with Sharon and them for about 45 minutes and then we hit the road on our way east to Myrtle Beach to meet up with Mike’s cousin Eddie, his wife Kim, and all their kids. Evan, Julie, Claire and Regan. We got as far as Birmingham on Sunday, grabbed a hotel and then drove the rest of the way today.

Nadia did great on her first road trip and now she is totally used to the car seat which is great. Tomorrow morning we will take her down to the beach for the first time and the kids are so excited. We got here and they had onesies, a beach towel and beach toys for Nadia. She was just having so much fun playing with the kids tonight which was really cute.

Is this what blogs were really started for? Sleepless people to ramble on in the middle of the night? Well I am going to save you that and post some new photos of Nadia meeting and making new friends. She met Kaye and Darwin’s granddaughter Lila, Aunt Tahni, A’Jani, had her first trip to Italianni’s with Grammie and I and more. I also took a photo of all the shoes we got her in China. Some sizes I can’t believe I only got one pair in….anyone going to China soon that wants to pick me up a few more pairs?

Speaking of the little fashionista….we were given literally half a mini van full of clothes for Nadia from Eddie and Kim. They have 3 girls under 10 and started saving clothes when we first announced the adoption. I have them all sorted by size and in Nadia’s closet ready to go when the time comes. At the time I went through all of them in West Virginia, I didn’t take any of the really small clothes because we didn’t think we would get a referral of a child under a year. It just wasn’t common at the time our paperwork went in. So I told Kim to give all of those to a family that she knew was having a baby right away who could use them (which I am glad she did since a family got to use them ASAP). Sooooooooo the point of all this is that we got the little tiny peanut Nadia and didn’t have any clothes to fit her since she is in 6 month clothes. Not that I minded shopping, but it’s kind of funny for her to have a bunch of clothes in her closet she can’t wear.

Then Jessica Peterman packed up Randy like a sherpa on his most recent visit to Texas for a meeting with clothes that were Abby and Evie’s. I should have taken a photo before I just unpacked and sorted it. Thanks Jess, that was fun! There are several outfits that Nadia can wear right now which is great too. So I think that with all these clothes from the two families, some are bound to fit the girl in the correct season 🙂

We are really grateful to both Eddie and Kim and Randy and Jess for all the goodies for Nadia. It’s fun to see the clothes and think of the kids who wore them before that I LOVE SO MUCH!!!!