Complete...

.... the adoption

.... the house addition
.... our family

.... Danielle (actually Complete(ly awesome) would be more accurate)
.... Christmas card pictures...

yup, already done and ordered. I just want to point out that the photos that are on the card - all photoshopped, with tinting, vignettes, shading, funny phrases and perfect smiles... do not come easy. How many shots do YOU have to take to get 6 smiles, no closed eyes (forever Austin's problem), no spiked hair (that would be me), no inappropriate hand gestures (that would be Jack), no grumpy faces (well, in his defense, Greg was trying to watch the Bears game at the same time), no supermodel poses (yup, girls will be girls), coordinating clothing that is still cool enough to be shown in a family photo and no tears? Well, put it this way, my battery life was near the end. Just thought I would share with you the real story behind my trying to play hot shot photographer...

So here is the point. We are finally a family. This is the first of many family photos to come. We are Complete. It feels Completely Amazing.

Settling In

It's been such an amazing week.

Danielle has settled into the family as though she has always been here. It is almost surreal - I have to remind myself that she has only been with us a few short weeks.

She has adjusted from the jet lag. She is sleeping with no problems all night, in her own room, and wakes up with a smile and a hug for each of us. She is very loving and has a ton of energy! She is not speaking much English yet, but seems to understand almost everything we say. She still babbles on and on in Chinese, with big expressive eyes, and just giggles when we say "Right!" to everything she says. Eating was becoming a bit of struggle, but we have managed to find some basics for each meal that Danielle will gobble down. She loves fruit, any kind, so that is easy. It is the protein that we are always searching for a winning recipe. She is doing well, regardless of her palate preferences.

She is having a great time playing with her brothers, with her sister, with all of their friends (who have been wonderful with her). She is loving swinging on the swings, jumping on the trampoline and playing with all our various ride on toys! She definately likes to be outside as much as possible, despite the cold air.

Unlike Avery, Danielle likes to play with baby dolls. She lines them up for feeding and sleeping, taking care to talk to each one and snuggle a blanket around them. She clearly has a loving heart. Slowly, she is making her way through all of the dress up clothes in the "dress up closet", and all of the toys and dolls in the toy chests in the basement. It is nice to see the excitement in Danielle playing with toys that the older kids disguarded years ago. She is just so happy.

Another fun part of her day is picking out what she is wearing! She likes to wear skirts and tights....and the SHOES! Like Mom, like daughter.... a pair to match each outfit!

One funny thing is her rotating toothbrush. She did not know what to make of this thing at first. It is the Hello Kitty version, so it is pretty kid friendly, but it makes a noise and you are suppose to put it in your mouth? She did not think this was going to end on a good note... but now that she has tried it a couple of times, she rushes in to brush 2, 3 sometimes 4 times a day!! Bonus!

Greg and I have had more than a few conversations this week about how lucky we are. Danielle has really surpassed our dreams. She is perfect in every way and it feels so natural and right to have her with us. When you embark on this journey of adoption, and you are "matched" with a child, you go with your instincts (and a lot of prayers). When we first saw Danielle's face, we knew. She was our daughter. I don't know how to describe it exactly, but there was not even a second of hesitation. We could have said no, we could have tried again and gotten matched differently, but there was just no doubt. We looked at her file, we looked at her face and we said "when can we get her home?" Now she is here, and it is as though all is now right in the world... at least at our home.

On a final note today, I need to say thank you to many, many, many people. I have received emails, calls, letters, gifts, hugs, an overwhelming amount of congratulations and supportive comments, all amounting to a lot of LOVE. I have had friends making doctor's appointments for me, shopping for me, making dinners and lunches, and checking in to see if there is anything else that I could possibly need. I am so very grateful. So very very grateful. All of you that have followed this journey, and supported us with positive gestures, thoughts, and comments , you are amazing and we love you. Your support and love have helped carry us through and we have been truly inspired by your friendship. I want each of you to know how wonderful it has been to share our lives with you.
Today at work (I call it that very loosely), I was given a shared gift by many of my clients. They presented me with an amazing custom made card and photography session for our family to get some formal photos taken. It was so touching and beautiful. I want to share it with you.....

I was paralized with gratitude - shaking with emotion. How can I thank all of these incredible women? I torture them day after day in class, and they turn around and give me this beautiful gift. Wow. I am so very lucky. I may have to be nicer in class now..... ummm, probably not.

All kidding aside, it was such a special, wonderful gift and an even more special, wonderful moment. I am so thankful for this gift and the many others I have received. Not only has this journey brought us Danielle with her beauty and sunshine, but it has also brought the sunshine of many loving hearts such as those terrific friends today. You are wonderful people, wonderful friends and you make me feel more blessed than I should be .....

Happy Halloween!

Need I say more?

Despite Austin's absence on our 2 week trip, the passed 2 days have seen a tight bond develop between Austin and his youngest sister. Truly a wonder.

The day we arrived, Austin was at school until the afternoon. I picked him up from school waiting in the parking lot with a big warm hug, but he practically blew past me, thinking that Danielle was in the car. She wasn't, he was bummed. When we got home and Austin and Danielle met, she was shy, sizing him up and only sharing a small smile and quiet giggle. But after about an hour, she discovered that her newest brother was pretty cool and liked to play with her, so out came the full blown laugh and the endless Chinese banter.

She went to Austin's championship football game on Sunday and cheered from the sidelines. She kept asking which one was "Autin" (she can't get his name exactly right, yet). They won - Austin made some TDs so she was happy to do all the clapping she could!

Then we moved on into Halloween. We weren't sure how she would react, or even understand, this ritual, but after her siblings all donned their costumes, she wanted to get into the action. Luckily I had kept a cute kitty outfit from Avery's past Halloween wardrobes. She was so happy to put the costume on and add some whiskers to her face. Delighted! So then we ventured out to see if tricks and treats were going to be OK. Of course, she was so happy to say a quiet "twick or tweet" followed by some great candy nabbing and a nice "tank you!". She did awesome! We first visited Uncle Bryan across the street - of course they poured enough candy into her small bag to almost fill it after the first house! We moved on to a few more houses and then came back to warm up and answer the door to some other costumed creatures.

The one struggle I am facing still is food. She is a good eater as we saw in China, but she can't seem to find anything here that really peaks her appetite. I am working hard, hope to find some basics that will keep weight on her petite figure!

Last Moments in China, First Moments at Home

We spent it playing, packing, posing for more pictures,

picking up Danielle's visa (more bus riding),

and eating candy to pass the time away.

We started at the airport in Guangzhou on Thursday night. The airport was crazy busy - we had to mad dash it to the gate for our flight - security took forever!

We made it to Beijing and had 6 hours to run through the halls of the hotel, eat, shower, and sleep. Once the kids finally got to sleep it was UGLY trying to get them back up again a couple hours later.

But we rallied. We had told the hotel that we would need their nifty little shuttle bus to take us to the airport at 5am (and they were fully warned about the amount of luggage), but when we came to the lobby to board the bus, there was no room for the Nowlins! Yikes! Greg's blood pressure shot up like the Indonesian volcano. The lava was flowing, so 2 cabs had to be called to accommodate the Nowlin troops and put out the flames!

Last photos in China - ready to go.......except that stupid little light in cockpit on the dashboard that seems to tell the pilots that they can't fly without a "maintanence check"....ughhhhhh... 3 hours of sitting on a plane ON THE GROUND before you know you have to sit on that same plane for 13 hours IN THE AIR is the modern form of Chinese water torture....

But we finally made it to Chicago. O'Hare was surprisingly quiet on a Friday morning.

When we met with Immigration, they stamped Danielle's paperwork and she is now an American citizen! A monumental thing for a little 4 year old!

When we arrived home, Grammie, Popper, Uncle Bryan and Aunt Sandy and the twin cousins had decorated the house with Welcome Home signs and balloons for Danielle! It was Awesome!! She is home!! We are so thankful!!

She met her older brother, Austin, in person (she figured out he isn't a cartoon on the video screen after all!). We were so happy to see him after these 2 long weeks. Today is the day we have been waiting for for a long time. To be together as a family finally. It feels so good.

Pearls and Pinching

We went to the "pedestrian street" today to shop and tour. We are escorted around town in a huge luxury bus along with our guide, Elvin, and about 5 other families from our agency. The bus is great, but it is overkill for the small amount of seats we take up on the huge machine. It is with great skill that the driver has to manuever this big bus through the very busy streets. The turning radius is amazing, and they clearly know, by the inch, when and how to turn and change lanes without causing a wreck. It is a science.

The pedestrian street was a street closed off to cars, which had stores on all sides and mini malls to shop. It was very busy, and interesting. The bargains were incredible. I could have spent a lot more time, and money, but Greg was hovering......

So, I managed to buy some pearls (they strung the necklaces right in front of me), some clothes for the girls and some t-shirts (sorry Chase, no orange chicken, you have to settle for a t-shirt....).

We then came back to the hotel to relax. We have noticed that Danielle has no grieving episodes at all now. She is pretty happy most of the time, unless we are reprimanding her for either a.) Pinching (seems to be a favorite way to get your attention right now), b.) tossing all trash on the floor, or c.) spitting (this is definately cultural). Looking at this small list of irritants makes me feel so wonderful - if this is all that she has going on for us to work on with her, we win. Game over. I'll take it.

So after we had a couple of fun wrestling matches with Danielle and then regrouped, we headed back to Shaiman Island for dinner. We ate at the Cow and the Bridge. I should take a poll to see if anyone would guess the correct cuisine of this restaurant. Not Chinese. Ok, close enough, it was Thai. We always like Thai food at home and this was no exception. The food was great. We walked a bit more around the island, took pictures at the famous White Swan hotel (a haven for adoptive families) and then made our way back to the hotel. In the cab ride back to the hotel, we were trying to correctly pronounce the name of Danielle's province, Urumqi, which we have heard pronounced 5 different ways. As we were saying Urumqi, Danielle just cracked up laughing and tried to help us say it correctly. Each time we repeated after her, she just laughed....stupid Americans.....

We felt like some dessert tonight, but the one scoop of Hagen Daaz ice cream containers at the hotel were 55 yuan each which is almost 10 dollars. Yep, that is some pricey ice cream. Greg volunteered to go to the 7-11 to pick up some ice cream (there are 7-11s everywhere here, but they are tiny - the whole store can barely fit 10 people in it at once). So we enjoyed some ice cream and chocolate cake from the local convenience store.
We are excited to pick up Danielle's visa tomorrow and head to the airport. We will be going to Beijing tomorrow night. We are going to try to stay up as late as possible tomorrow night in Beijing so that when we board our flight to come home early Friday morning, we may just sleep the whole way to Chicago!