Much cuteness! Day 2

and more officialness. :)

We have had such an amazing time, me and my 3 girls!!

Today, we had to go back for official paperwork and photos, and the 3 girls can color, play on the Ipad, color some more, and of course, keep track of Lili!!

She tends to slip away once in a while-just checking the place out, not going anywhere!!
She is a livewire, and a very happy one at that:)

We had to hand over the cash I was carrying around today-what a relief to be rid of all that!

After the official stuff was done, we went to Walmart for a few supplies, like LOTS of noodles, and some shoes for Lili. Since she only came with the clothes on her, that included one pair of heavy red boots, and we found her some really cute pink tennies, and she was delighted.

We also bought some gifts for the orphanage we will be visiting on Wednesday.

When we got back to the room, we cooked some noodles, the girls ate a quick/late lunch and they all crashed for 1 1/2 hours-and was it hard to get them up!!!

We ordered room service, and the food came, and Kendell was mightily disappointed with her chicken nuggets-guess we will have to wait for Guangzhou for anything that resembles chicken nuggets for her. She also had a bout of tummy trouble, and thankfully, is much better now and no one else has it:)


We also explored the HOTEL a bit, talk about gorgeous, and huge, and no place for little girls to run around and be silly.

We will share more tomorrow-even if it's not thrilling, it is what it is, a new family getting used to each other-minus the boys, that is!!!

Love
Chris and the girls!!



    Girls staying busy




all the gifts-and I actually saw them enjoy the chocolate-at one point, all the "officials" walked into our room happily munching on their mini cow pies!!!



Rose and Dir W and I have a final pic together

Making it all "official"

Rosalyn's foster Daddy helping her sign her name in Chinese characters

Rosalyn signing with Dir W's encouragement

Lili's handprint with the red ink

Rose's thumbprint. We are ALL official now.

Lili cooling off after shedding some layers and playing with the magna doodle. It made it all the way to Guiyang only to be broken by a 6 year old on the first day! :)

  Enjoying entertaining each other.

Sisters forever.

FOREVER a family!!!

3 families become 1.
How precious is that?!!?  And we know WHO to thank for working this all out!








A GOTCHA DAY LIKE NO OTHER!!!

Our first view of Lili (Lily)

                                            Our guide translating info from Lili's foster mom

                                                   Rosalyn and Lili meet for the first time

                                    Lili, our little spitfire decked out in her 6 layers of hot clothes.

                       A foster father/daughter moment that brought tears to my eyes and pain to my heart.

                                      Rosalyn and Dir W. What a special time together for all of us.

                     BUBBLES! The surefire way to erase the tears and bring smiles to everyone!!

Well, Sunday finally arrives. WE are nervous, excited, anxious, and THRILLED!

This is the day Rosalyn and Lilianna become members of our family!!

Our first view of Lili shows a vibrant, happy, very silly little girl who obviously loves her foster mama.

Our first glimpse of Rosalyn reveals a very shy, loving, smiling young lady who is quiet, yet full of joy, and who obviously loves her foster family!!!

The room is full of noise, confusion to some, but pleasant exchanges going on in all corners, concerns for the girls' and their routines, questions about their daily life, lots of PAPERWORK-as if we haven't done enough-wow-that was a bit overwhelming without a hubby to watch thekids or help look things over-

Lili had 2 minutes of tears whenher foster family left-thankfully, Rosalyn's foster dad was still there, and scooped her up, hugger her tight, and plopped her in my lap.

Within a couple minutes-she was wooed back to all smiles and impish impulsiveness and a wee bit of trouble :)

Rosalyn had a few moments of sorrow-broke my heart to see her in pain, but so thankful we were all able to be together to help her thru the transition.

I was so happy Rosalyn's foster dad was there to help her with her name signing-she is unsure of her Chinese characters as she has been learning English-how helpful it was for Baba to help her and smooth the anxieties away.

Finally, after 2 1/2 long hours-and yes, it was FREEZING in that room-I was froze stiff, we were escorted out and into our van. A 6 yr old happily bouncing along, holding my hand, and Rosalyn cheerfully helping clean up and clutter and pack up all our belongings to head to the Hotel .

Once in the room, things settled into a calm, uneventful pattern of Lili taking things out, the older girls putting them away:)

We are doing great, and if Lynnea will continue to post for me, we will be able to blog while here in Guiyang-for some reason, I have technical difficulites, even with a VPN downloaded.

Thanks for coming along on our FAMILY DAY!!!

Lots of Love,
Chris and the girls

In China

well, we made it

we got here with a 2 hour delay in Chicag0 for

that meant we were late our connecting flgiht

and I was having lots of frustration and tears on the long 13 1/2 hr flight

but He was faithful to help me, and I woke froma short nap k nowing it would all be ok. Once in Beijing, we were 4 minutes from flight time and knew we would miss it when lo and behold, we found out our plane was not even there yet, and would be an hour or so late, and YES< HE is good all the time

we arrived at the Brehms and will leave for Guiyang Saturday night, meeting Rosalyn and Lili onSunday afternoon; hopefully I will havemy owncomputer and can do a post when we get the girls

time to go, there is a birthday party in process

much love

Chris and Kendell

We now have a TEENAGER in the house:)

Happy Birthday Nicholas!!

We are so blessed to have you for a son!

What a gift God has given us in you-

You sing thru your days,

you are cheerful, helpful, smiley and loving!

You are our resident physician, musician, astronomer, scientist, and maintenance man!!

We love you so much, and

I can't imagine what life would be like without you!

God certainly knew what He was doing 11 years ago when he brought you into our home.

Now, at the age of 13, we are watching you turn from boy to young man, and it is

amazing!

SOOOOO happy to have a teenager now-

We Love You!!!

with all our love,

Mama & Baba

Our man of many smiles!!!

Thank you for being the wonderful son and loving brother that you are!!

Take good care of your little brothers for the next 18 days-they NEED you:)