Julia and her babysitter Milauni, you can tell she loves her! We are very lucky to know Milauni and her family.


Off and running with the mower.

Investigating the Bubble Machine a bit closer.



Just a quick update, since I started loading pictures, Julia has fallen asleep in the high chair so this will have to be quick.

We are trying to get more things for Julia to do outside this summer, so this weekend I picked her up a Bubble Mower and a Cinderella Bubble Machine. She liked the mower right off, the Bubble Machine took a little investigating before deciding that it might be fun too. I know she's played with bubbles before but maybe it was because then there were other kids around...not sure. But she was pretty unsure of the whole thing to start with.

You can see on the video at Dropshots that she was trying to stick pretty close to me so that was making it hard to get some really good shots.

Aunt Tiny, we love this outfit, it's still a little bit big (not by much now though) but since it was a little cooler this morning the longer pants were perfect! And I even got her to say "Tiny" while we were getting her dressed. :)

Her vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds right now. As is she! Daddy measured her again this weekend because we swear you can almost see her growing right now, and whether he was off last time or this time I don't know (likely she's somewhere in between) but this weekend she was 34" even.

So that's been our week so far. Love to all!!

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Happy Mother's Day!

We've had a wonderful weekend here. We got to visit with Julia's Godfather and his family. Their youngest is just a few months younger than Julia and it was oh so special to finally get to watch the girls play together and they both did so well!! As you can see on the video they had lots of fun, I wish we had sound for you so you could hear the gales of laughter coming from the two of them. They even did very well taking turns and sharing. The girls had seen each other briefly around New Year's but it was so fast and with many other friends. This is the first chance they've had to spend some time together. And both of our families as well really, since they moved to California just before we went to China last year. But Julia honestly couldn't have a better Godfather even from a distance. We are so blessed to have this family as part of ours.

And today Ray and Julia have spoiled me as usual, and I woke up to the sound of them talking in the kitchen, it's a nice way to wake up. :) I felt very blessed as I came out, Julia saw me and smiled and said "Mama". Heart melting moment that she is famous for.:) I hope that all the Mom's in our lives had a wonderful day as well.

Go to Dropshots for lots more videos!

Another week another play date. Melissa and I have been having fun taking Julia and Bradon to Jump for Joy lately. Here are a few shots from inside last week. They have a blast running, jumping and climbing on everything. Here you see Julia making a new friend, something she's never afraid to do, and of course following Bradon's lead! We took them to Olive Garden for lunch after last weeks play date and date was the operative word there. We had set them in high chairs next to each other and they were being so good, eating their lunches and a couple of times holding hands. Not sure where that was coming from but it was really really cute.

Updated measurement. Well Ray finally got a chance to place Ms. Julia against the wall and make a mark last night. When we took the measurement she was 33 and 3/4 inches tall. Not entirely sure how accurate the method was but at least it gives us some idea. Haven't weighed her lately either but I can tell you she is gaining. Even some of the pants are starting to fit...lol. So she is one healthy solid little girl. She has even decided that she knows what the phone is for now. She's talked to both grandma's recently and to her Uncle Robert the other night when he called. And she took the phone last week and talked to Daddy for 10 minutes while he was on his way home from work. Yep, despite all the bumps, scuffs and bruises (from playing hard and falling down) she is a girly girl at heart. Started with the purse and taking money out of my wallet, of course when shopping with Daddy she reaches right for the Debit Card first, now the phone and of course her obsession with anything Cinderella. But as long as she's not afraid to get dirty and play hard (though she's not big on her hands staying dirty for any time at all..lol) I think she's got a pretty good balance.

As always if you go to Dropshots there are lots more photos and a couple of videos too. They'll give you an idea of how many it takes to get a good shot some days. LOL.

A year ago last Friday, we were waiting on pins and needles for that phone call from CWA telling us that we had a referral and giving us all the info on Julia. I had to make our case manager stop 3 times so I could get tissues. That was the one thing I didn't have ready as I'm not generally a crier. HA. So much for that. Just hearing her voice telling me I had a daughter and where she was from was too much for me. I did have pen and paper and my list of questions ready, most of which I even remembered to ask. And then finally the next day the envelope arrived. I'm so glad Lauren was off from school and was able to be here with me when it got here. Though for a little while I'm certain she thought I'd lost my mind. I'll never forget Lauren's first words after seeing Julia's pictures..."well she looks China" LOL. Keep in mind she was only 6 years old at the time. :) I thought it was cute. And she had fun running all over town with me to show Julia first to Daddy and Ms. Candy and then of course to Ms Erica whom I had worked closely with for so long.

All of the nerves melted away, the stress of the wait. Gone when I saw those brown eyes and that oh so serious face. I just wanted to make her smile. She hadn't in any of the referral pictures and I just couldn't wait to see her smile. She quickly gave me that a couple of months later when we picked her up. I had worried she might be too serious or sad, but this child was anything but. She's now serious when she is concentrating on a task, trying to figure something out, or meeting someone new but she comes back to her usual grins and giggles very quickly once she's done or when she decides to like a person. :) Mama's girl. No doubt. I got a serious photo recently that I'll share next to her referral photo, it's the first one I've taken that you can really see the baby from the referral pictures in. Most of the photos we take she's showing off or playing or something. So this was a rare one.

The nerves, stress and anxiety, I'm sure you can understand. We had waited so long to be parents. So many different paths over the years had finally led on this journey to Julia and to China. And with the wait being extended every month starting just a few months before we were originally expecting our referral, it was very hard especially for me to not wait for the other shoe to drop. Surely something would go wrong. Or at the least we may have had to wait another month. Doesn't seem so bad now when you consider people are waiting much longer. But it was the uncertainty of it all that was so hard.

After going through over 10 years of infertility, the paper chase taking us around 7 months once we actually got started because of delays and having to have the dr's physical report on both of us having to be redone and notarized again because he wouldn't listen to me and do it right the first time. All those little bumps in the road and then what was supposed to be a 6 month wait when we started being extended to nearly 11 months. But it taught me once again to trust God's timing and not my own. For surely this was the child he meant to be mine. He even gave me hope a couple of times through the wait and showed her to me. Once when she was oh so tiny in the fall and then again in Feb right after her paperwork had been signed and sent to the CCAA where it would later be matched with ours. I've always had my faith in good times and bad, but this was a true test of actually letting go and letting everything be in God's hands. Never an easy thing and especially hard for a planner like me. But I did and we have Julia and all is well. :)

I'm also going to add the translated letter or parts of it anyways. I realized I've never done that before and couldn't think of a better time than now when we are celebrating the one year mark of receiving it. It might give you some insight into what Julia's life was like before she became Julia Marie Tian, when she was
Xiao Ying Tian or as they liked to call her in China "Tian-Tian" I'm so very glad that we had already decided to keep that part of her name.

Here are some things from our initial report on Xiao Ying Tian

Xiao Ying (reflect; shine) Tian (sweet), female, was found by the gate of Zhuzhou City CWI on 8/8/2005. She was wearing a white cotton outfit with animal prints on it. There was a bag containing clothes, cloth diapers, and her DOB note by her side. After receiving the report of the abandoned baby, Qingyun Security Office in Zhuzhou City tried to find the parents/family, but failed. The baby was then claimed as abandoned infant and was brought to our CWI on the same day. Upon admission, our doctor examined the baby and found that she was healthy and with normal development. Based on the note with her, her DOB is 8/1/2005.

Development

Yingtian joined our big family days after her birth. In here, she grows happily and healthily.
Our doctor gave her basic vaccines according to the law.

Yingtian lives in a group life, so she has good living habits. She gets up at 7:30am, naps at noon, and goes to bed at 8:00pm. She likes to sleep in her own crib and falls asleep quickly. She wakes up a couple of times and falls back to sleep once changed or patted lightly. She does not like to be alone. She has good appetite; eats 5 meals a day, 240ml each meal, mainly milk, rice pastes, and milk mixed with little eggs; eats at 7:00am, 10:00am, 2:30pm, 6:00pm, & 11:00pm. We added some congee and egg yolk and she likes it. She has 1 BM every morning.

Yingtian is very open, active, and energetic. She is not afraid of strangers; likes to be held; laughs out loud when being played with; Yingtian cannot stand alone at this time yet; needs to be held by care takers; but with care takers holding her arms, she can stand very straight; has strong little arms and legs. Yingtian likes to watch TV and is very curious about colors; yells “Ah! Ah!” when happy. Yingtian loves toys; she likes to grab a toy, waves it, and puts it in her mouth after a while. Yingtian also likes for her care takers to take her outside to play; likes to watch other kids play on the lawns. She imitates bigger kids dancing, singing as well, and appears very happy. She curiously watches flowers, green grass, birds, and moving cars, etc, as if wanting to take in the whole world.

In our CWI, Yingtian lives very happily and becomes lovelier and lovelier. All of our care takers wish her a nice new family and continues to live healthily and happily forever.