Today... One Year Ago

We were on a very LONG flight home with our sweet Julianna. She only had about 1 hour of unhappiness on the entire 15 hour flight!!! It was soooo good to get home!!

One Year Anniversary

One year ago today on August 2, little Guo Dan Fen was placed in my arms. She was a tiny, sick, scared, crying, hot little baby. I remember thinking she felt so hot. The ride to our hotel must have been so traumatic for her. The orphanage worker told our guide she had just gotten car sick. I remember thinking I didn't want to do anything that would upset her more.

Since she was one of the last babies to arrive, it wasn' t long after we got her that I remember our guide saying, "Babies are hungary. Take babies to your rooms and feed them." Such an unusual feeling. Here we are, we were just given a baby, and now she's ours and we just go back to our rooms with her. No big fanfare - the baby is now yours. WOW!!!!

I tried to feed Julianna a bottle. I did not have the opening in the nipple right, so she got only a bit. She fell asleep fairly quickly and slept through the night for the most part. She was sick, exhausted, and I think she wanted to sleep hoping we would not be there when she woke up.

She slept a lot over the next 2 days. I think it was the combination of being sick and scared.

Each day was better, though.

Now, one year later, we have a beautiful, smart, happy little girl. I thank God, and China for giving us such a wonderful gift.

Enjoy the pictures. Some are from last year, and the pictures from today show her eating her Chinese food dinner. She LOVES egg drop soup!!

A Fun Day

Today, to celebrate our one year gotcha day, we did some fun family things. We started the day off bright and early leaving at 8 am for Watercountry USA. It was a cloudy, cool day, so we did a few fun things. Then, jumped in the van and headed over to Busch Gardens for the afternoon.
Both girls had lots of fun. Caroline and Gary got to ride 2 BIG rollercoasters, and Julianna was happy to meet Elmo and Cookie Monster. I think for her though, "driving" the lady bug car round and round in the circle was the hit of the day!!! I have no pictures because I didn't plan on needing a camera at the water park. We did have a family pic taken at the beginning of the park and it is actually a very good shot of all of us!! I had to capture our 1 year anniversary some way.

One Year Ago

All this weekend I have been saying,"We were doing this one year ago..." I remember waiting in the Newark Airport for 8 hours just to get on our flight to Hong Kong. and Oh, that horrible flight. Caroline was so sick. We only had about 4 hours of sleep then off we go to Hong Kong Disney!! Here are a few pictures from those special days. I would do it all over again in a heart beat!!!!!