Merry Christmas!

Sleeping on Grandpa-pa!

Looking at the Christmas Windows downtown!

Here's a little video of Kaiya dancing to the "NutCracker!"

Having a good 'ol time!

Life has been good! Kaiya is doing really well-bonded to Brett & I beautifully! She's gotten a little better w/ the seperation anxiety, which is a relief. She's sleeping good, takes good naps and sleeps peacefully through the night (knock on wood!).

She started walking about a month ago and practically running at this point. It's so cute to see her little legs walking through the house. She's a curious girl, would rather play w/ a piece of paper vs. a toy sometimes-but that's all about being a 15 mo. old! :) She's silly and playful and loves to giggle as you can see from some of the pictures below! Grandpa and Kaiya on Turkey Day
Olivia playing in the leaves

Like my glasses!
Mmmmm-popsicle!
Hellllooooo-anyone there?
Olivia, Kaiya and Graham!
Grandma & Graham on Turkey Day

Here's a little video of her first days of walking! She's sooo proud of herself-giggles the whole way! The other little girl in the video is my cousins daughter adopted from Guatamala, baby Noe. They were visiting from California and having a good 'ol time together! Very cute little girls!

Oh My Oh My, it's Halloween!

It's been a little over 3 weeks so far and things are going well. Kaiya has bonded to us beautifully, although she has become very sensitive to strangers and will not go to them at all. This is all part of the process, so we're being very patient w/ her and reassuring her that we will always be here for her!

I've joined a Journeys of the Heart Playgroup w/ other children that have been adopted. So far, everyone has been so friendly and full of wonderful advice. I'm hoping to meet them all in person very soon. This will be good for Kaiya too to be around other adopted children from all over the world.

Tomorrow we have to go to the Daily Center downtown to begin our "readoption" process in court. It should be a quick hearing and there will be a final ruling before Christmas. Looking forward to all the paperwork being done and her legally ours forever! :)

The kids had a fun Halloween-the weather was perfect! Kaiya had fun dressing as Tinkerbell-Olivia LOVES Peter Pan, so the "theme" was centered around that. Graham even dressed as a scarrrry Pirate!

Knock Knock!!! Trick or Treat!!!

Home for 1 week!

So, it's been a little over a week since Kaiya has been home, and Phewww, I know now why people don't update their blogs very often, it's been a very busy household! :) All good busy of course! Kaiya has settled in nicely. Her sister and brother were so excited to finally meet her! The jetlag took a weekend to get over-it was rough, but have now settled into a good sleeping pattern. My dear friends from my neighborhood threw me a surprise 1st Birthday Party for Kaiya at our scheduled playgroup date. It was soooo nice-Kaiya got some nice things and was excited to meet her new friends.

I have attached a few extra photos from Taiwan below. Signing the infamous wall at the TWCA in Taiwan (Adoption Agency)
Another Gotcha Moment!!

Meeting Daddy at the airport for the FIRST TIME! She took to Brett immediately! Resting her head on his shoulder, it was great! Pictures are a little blurry as Susan was so excited too! :)

I love this picture, she looks so sad, but really, she's not-just hanging outside!

Daddy & Kaiya

MMMMMmmm-she LOVES to eat!!!!

She loves to peek upside down!

Playing w/ new brother Graham & new sister Olivia

A day at the pumpkin patch w/ Aunt Becky & Uncle John and Cousin Maddie & Emma
The cousins licking their lollipops!

Her first taffy apple-yummmy! She LOVED it!

For her Birthday, I sent her this flower toy and she loves it, as you can see!

Our Last Day . . .

Taipei 101-Tallest building in the world! We also took the faster elevator in the world-101 stories in less than 33 seconds! We could see for miles and miles-pretty amazing! As we were up there, I all of a sudden heard a loud BOOM! It felt like something had crashed a few floors beneath us b/c the floor shook . . . well . . . it was AN EARTHQUAKE!!! O.k., I'm starting to panic now . . .the employees all started running to look at the Damper Baby, which is an ENORMOUS ball in the center of the building hanging by a pendulum helps to keep the building balanced for earthquakes and typhoons probably was moving a little bit to keep the buidling from falling!!!
Basically, we took the fastest elevator down immediately and went back to the hotel! Phhewww, never been in an earthquake before, and especially not 100 stories up!

This was the changing of the guards at the Martyrs Shrine. They change once every hour, it's very formal-you'd have to see it on video to get the "full effect." The guards stand on their post for one hour w/out moving. Keep in mind it's usually very hot and humid and these guards are fully clothed-phewww, hot!!!

These are our last few photos in Taiwan on the way to the airport, we stopped at the Grand Hotel, a very old, famous hotel in Taiwan located on the outskirts of Taipei overlooking the city.


Flying home was a lonnnnnnggg trip. Kaiya mostly slept the whole way which was great, but she slept on me, which kept me up! haha! On our flight from LAX to Chicago, we flew with John Cusack which, being a celebrity junkie, thought was pretty cool! :) We landed around 11:30 p.m. Thursday night and when Kaiya saw Brett for the first time she had the biggest smile!! We said, "BaBa" (daddy in Chinese) and she leaned to him and he held her! It was wonderful! She laid her little head on him and hasn't let go! She has adjusted so nicely, we couldn't have been any luckier.

Tonight, she meets her brother and sister and grandparents . . .so we're all looking foward to that! Finally, a family of 5!