Uncle Matt Visits.....

We traveled to Peoria last weekend to see Uncle Matt. Uncle Matt is Shannon's brother who lives in Florida. We haven't seen him for some time, so it was very nice to see him. He came home to visit and just hang out. We were very excited for him to finally meet Jetta. We send him pictures and he calls often and has talked to her, but hasn't had the chance to meet her in person. They seemed to enjoy meeting each other. We got a few good pictures of them together and just wanted to post them. I'm glad we got to see Uncle Matt, but also very glad he got to meet Jetta.

Little Gym....

When we came home from China I wanted to get Jetta into some sort of program that incorporated tumbling, gymnastics and other activities, in order to get her use to being in a group, as well as active.

After talking with a friend, I decided that the Little Gym might just be the place to go. We went for our first visit back in April or May and have not stopped going since. We go once a week and each week the kids learn new activities, explore all the gym equipment, and just get to run around and be kids. Jetta absolutely loves it. She has learned many great things since starting and some not so great things. The not so great thing is the ability to hang from a bar and not be afraid.

You might be wondering why that is not such a great thing. Well, long story short, it has given Jetta the confidence to climb out of her crib! Since she knows how to hang on the uneven bars at Little Gym, and once her arms tire that you just drop down. Well, that provided a great platform for her to crawl out of her crib. She doesn't take the easy route, by that I mean, climbing over the front rail....nope, not my little dare devil. She opts to climb over the end that isn't against the wall. Since the end rails are taller and rounded (kind of like a sleigh bed), she is able to get up over it, grab the rounded edge, hold on and drop to the floor without a problem. I'm surprised when she lands she does say "ta da"....as you'll see in one of the pictures I'll attach, she loves to say "ta da" when she finishes up something and it should be a "ta da" moment.

So, now, she has figured out how to climb out and makes her way across the house and knocks on my bedroom door at 3:30 in the morning, saying "mommy". Fortunately she has only done this twice, but none the less, not something I was hoping she'd figure out.

So, long story short, Little Gym has been great for building confidence and the ability to climb out of the crib. All joking aside, the Little Gym is great, we love it and as you'll see in the pictures, she just finished her last session, got her medal and has already started her next class. I look forward to her continuing to grow and developing more skills, which by the way, she walks across the balance beam on her own and will jump off the end (of course only when Shannon or I are there to catch her). I think I might have a little gymnast on my hands. She's still a little young to put her in an official program, but if she continues to show interest in another year or so, I will get her into an actual gymnastic program.

Here are a few pics from her last session, such a big girl.... however, notice the ribbon holding up her pants.....yep, my almost 22 month baby needs something to hold up her 12 to 18 month pants. She can still wear some 12 month pants, but they are starting to get a bit short, but 18 month pants are perfect for length, but definitely require a belt (wrapped around her twice). She's is finally almost 24 lbs and 32 inches tall. So, she has gained nearly 10 lbs since we came home 10 months ago (today) and 3 or so inches. I guess that would explain why the 12 month pants are to short. Anyway, enjoy the pictures.

1 to 13 in 21 months....

Well, Jetta finally got it figured out and is now able to count to 11 without missing a number, she finally decided that she knew 6 & 7. She can count to 13, but still misses 12. Despite missing 12, I think she is doing really well, being able to count to 13 in 21 months. Really, in 1o months, since that is how long she has been hearing English. I'm so proud of her and how well she is doing. I'm gonna post a video of her counting.....as I think it's very cute to listen to her and her adorable little voice. I hope you enjoy it too.

One year ago today.....

First of all, let me thank all of you for following along for the last year. Hard to believe, but it was one year ago today that we got our referral for Jetta. Just typing that brings tears to my eyes.

It was a typical Monday morning, I got up and headed into work. Once I got there, I did my usual morning ritual, I logged onto my computer and headed straight to the Rumor Queen's website to see if there was any news and to my surprise there was news, news I was not expecting. She had posted that Europe was starting to receive calls for referrals that included our log in date. I could hardly believe it, it was finally gonna happen. One of my friends who live outside of Chicago saw the Rumor Queen's post and she called me to ask me if I was ready to get "the call"......It was so strange to hear that, the fact that we would soon be hearing something from our agency about our daughter.

While I could hardly concentrate, I attempted to work, which was not really working so well. I kept checking Rumor Queen and talking with my friend Abby, who lives in Peoria, to see if she had heard anything yet. As the day slowly passed by, she heard from her caseworker, along with some of my other travel mates. They were all talking and saying that they had information about their daughters. I was still waiting.

Finally, as I was leaving work, around 4:30, my cell phone rang and it was my social worker, I was shaking so much, I could hardly believe I was finally gonna hear the news that I had waited so long for. She told me, you have a daughter, her name is Jia Jia Xu and she is in Guangdong province and is 9 months old. I could hardly believe it. At that point she said she didn't have much other information, but would try to get back to me soon with more details.

So, I got on the bus and headed home, once I got on, I could hardly contain myself and told everyone who would listen, I got a referral for my daughter and we would soon get to see pictures. It was so hard to believe that this was finally going to happen. We were finally gonna see pictures of the baby who we had been calling Jetta and dreaming about for over 3 years. That night when I got home, I told Shannon what I knew, which wasn't much, but then our social worker called and said she had one small picture that she could share, but that we would see more tomorrow. She sent it and it was amazing to finally see her face. Her hair all wild and crazay, the biggest brown eyes ever and the cutest lips. She was perfect. Now, just to wait for the next morning and to finally get more details and pictures of our little girl.

We got the pictures that next morning, I called Shannon and sent them directly over to him. We were both speechless and were so in love. I could barely contain myself and had to go tell everyone I worked with that I had pictures. So, I shared them with all of them. She was perfect and could barely wait to go and get her.

Fast forward, March 4th, we headed to China to get Jetta, it was the longest flight ever. Once we got there, we spent a few days in Hong Kong to get adjusted. Finally on Sunday, March 8th we headed to Guangzhou with all the other parents so we could be there for Monday, March 9th, which was the day we got the girls. What an amazing day. I don't think I'll ever forget that day, it was even more amazing than finding out that we had our referral. They called our names and brought her out to us.....she was so tiny, so precious, with such big, curious eyes. To our surprise we got our first smile from her. She wasn't sure what to think of everything, but seemed to adjust fairly well. She was a hit with all the other parents, as she was so sweet and outgoing. Those first few days were amazing. I could hardly believe we had her and that she was ours.

After spending another week in China it was time to come home. Leaving China was difficult. Only becauase that was her home and we were taking her from it. While I knew we would be giving her a much better life than what she would have had, it was still very emotional to take her away and to not think about her birth mother and what a huge sacrifice she had made by giving her up. I am forever grateful to her, I wish I could tell her that, but I hope she finds some comfort in knowing that her daughter is somewhere with a very loving family, who wants to give her the best of everything. While I can't imagine the void her heart feels, mine is completely full and never knew that being a mom could be so amazing.

Now that we've been home, Jetta has done so many amazing things. She started walking on May 5th, just 6 short weeks after we came home and hasn't slowed down since. She is always on the go. She keeps us busy that's for sure. She now has a vocabularly of about 60 words, can say part of her abc's....a, b, c, d, e, f, g.....it a start. She also can count to 13.....despite missing 6, 7 & 12. However, she is finally starting to say 6. She also did something else very big today....she went poop on the potty. Yep, poop. It was a huge step. As the week continues I'm gonna try to work more with her, but am hopeful that we may be on the road to no more diapers, during the day that is. There are so many more amazing things she has accomplished, she is doing far better than I could have ever imagined. They prepare you for the worst and we definitely didn't encounter that. Jetta is so advanced and amazes me more and more every day. She is a wonderful kid and I couldn't imagine not having her in my life.

We hope to meet up with all our travel mates again in the near future and I am looking forward to that, as I can't wait to see how all the other girls have progressed. We got Christmas cards from many of the families and all the girls look very happy and are growing so quickly. I hope these 8, the Guangdong 8, will always have a special connection to each other, after all they spent almost their first full year of life together. It's hard to believe that we've had them for almost 10 months now and that soon they will have been with us as long as they were in the orphange. It seems that they are all adjusting well and can't wait to see what the next year brings.

I'm gonna post her referral pictures and then a picture from today, just to show how much she has changed. Her face is so sweet, her eyes so big and her heart so full of love. I'm so grateful that her mother gave her this opportunity, that China chose her for us and that she is a part of my life. I can't imagine it any other way.

Christmas Day....

Well, this is the second post of the two I promised for Christmas. It was as special, actually more special than I could have imagined. We woke up around 7:30 and hurried around to get everything set up so we could capture Jetta coming out to see her gifts from Santa Claus. When she first came, she wasn't very happy, as I sat her down and told her to go see her daddy (with his new Cubs hat on her head), she got upset and cried. So, we stopped the camera for a minute and then she was fine. So, back to the plan of recording it was.

She came around the edge of the couch and saw her new quad with Frosty the Snowman on it. She walked over, eyes wide open and proceeded to pull Frosty off the quad and took her spot. She crawled up on it and pushed the button and was very surprised when it took off. She seemed to enjoy it. Then it was time to open all the other many gifts she had under the tree. We helped her open the corners of each package and then let her rip off the paper, many of the gifts were met with a "wow" and wide eyes, others with a big smile. She loved everything and we loved watching her open her gifts. As we neared the end of the huge pile that she had to open, we kept a couple aside so we could call Grandma and Grandpa Peters on Skype and let them enjoy watching her open a few of her gifts from them.

She loved them, one was a patio set with "Mouse" aka Mickey Mouse on it and she just kept saying "Mouse". She is talking so much. Then after she opened her last gift, she just decided she would climb all over the box. She seems to enjoy climbing on boxes these days vs actually playing with the gifts. After we Skyped Grandma and Grandpa, it was time to start cooking for the day. We had our friends Dora, Jason and Zach over to have Christmas dinner with us. It was nice to spend the day with friends.

They also brought Jetta gift, a Ni-hao Kai-lan trike, which talks in both Chinese and English. She loves it, but she's just a tad bit to short to reach the peddles. However, she still loves to climb on it and listen to all its sounds. Last night we played with her and pushed her back and forth and she absolutely loved it. After filling our bellies full of great food, we played a few games and then called it a day. Jetta was so tired, she fell asleep in my arms at the table.

I think she really enjoyed her first Christmas and I know we surely did. We had a great time watching her enjoy Santa Claus, all her presents and believe or not, we actually got some snow on Christmas morning. So, the day was perfect. As of right now I'm not gonna include any video as it is all on the camcorder, but do plan to try to figure that out, but will put some pics of her opening her many gifts. Thanks to everyone who got her something, we really appreciate you thinking of her on her first holiday with us.