our happy baby girl

well, the time has come...i'm going to 'sign off' of this blog. don't worry, we'll keep you updated with pictures and milestones via email, but i just don't have the time to update this enough right now. i have really enjoyed sharing this with all of you-and from your responses, you've enjoyed it as well. thank you SO SO much for all the WONDERFUL comments/emails/phone calls and gifts! wow! i hope you've all been able to catch a glimpse of our merciful God of love thru our story. we know that this was His plan and again, we are humbled that we were chosen to be this sweet little one's parents. for any of you who know someone thinking about adopting from china-or even YOU YOURSELVES!!!! PLEASE let us know, we would be more than happy to give our agency's info to them, as well as answer any questions that we may know. i'm going to miss this time, but i know i'm going to enjoy even more-the time spent with my daughter. thanks again, everyone-this was awesome! with love, jennifer gordon

more fun friends!

yesterday, our friends in new mexico-the newells, called...from goodyear, AZ!!!! they'd loaded up their three kids and drove 11 hours just to come for myah's birthday party on saturday! we haven't seen neal and bec in three years-and had never met their twins, owen and emma. it was SO great to see them again! and myah really likes all the action!

meeting lily!

scott and kristin were in town for a few days, so they brought miss lily over to meet myah. fun!

first time to church!

awwww, how cute! i'd bought this dress back in 2000, after my miscarriage; i just KNEW that one day, i'd have a beautiful girl who could wear it...and she's finally here! myah lasted thru the worship/singing part at church, then got a little too figity. she and i played/fought sleep in the foyer for awhile-then daddy came to join us. after church-the crowds came in full! oh my! all our neat friends there wanted to finally see this special baby who they'd prayed for for so long. myah did pretty good-but she'd already missed her morning nap, so after about 15 mins of 'meeting people,' she'd had enuf and it was time to get her home. kevin thinks she was just fussy b/c she wasn't in a baptist church, ha!

oh so happy to be home!

yippee! she's an american! yippee! she's so happy! this was also taken at the airport in phoenix on wednesday. she had a better nite last nite, but today was even more clingy and fussy. what's so hard about that is, is that she was NEVER fussy/clingy the entire time in china; but, we've read in a lot of the books that this is normal. once the babies are in your home, even if they've been very content up til now, they're having to adjust YET AGAIN to a new place. a home, not just a small hotel room. poor, poor little baby! if one of us even leaves the room, she wails! it's amazing at how different she's acting, but like i said-we knew it was a possibility-and for this very reason, we didn't allow any of the grandparents to be at our house when we got home. she needs to take some time to adjust to this new place, with as little confusion as possible. if you think of us, please keep her in your prayers. we're praying that the adjustment time will be over soon and that kevin and i will never lose the compassion for what she's been thru-cuz man! it gets reallly tiring, her being so fussy. sweet baby girl-been thru soooooooo much. but we keep telling her (esp when she REALLY wails at nap/bedtime) that we will ALWAYS be here for her when she wakes up. we are her forever family now and we will ALWAYS love her, fussy or not!

homecoming at sky harbor

here is one of the first pix of us approaching our 'welcoming committee' at the airport on wednesday. our friends, the grattopps took these and will actually be sending more in a few days. (so-i've decided to keep this blog going, at least updating it, unti i've posted the other ones they captured at the airport) how true this shot is...kevin, all smiles. myah, happy as a clam. me, crying!

just before bedtime in her new room

little did we know how much this rocking chair would be used after this pix was taken. she was still doing great; enjoyed bathtime, ate a good dinner and was her happy self. she took her bottle and was out before she finished it. (7pm)...and then it began... poor thing-she had a pretty rough nite, and i can't blame her one bit! this was the third big change in less than two weeks, plus all the time-change, AND we think she's teething. poor baby. the last time i went in to help her get back to sleep was at 2am and from then to 7am, she slept continuously. whew! what a first nite that was! anyway, she woke up a little fussy and has been very clingy today. bless her heart. anyway, i'm gonna go in the other room and play with her and kevin right now. i'll post one or two more times probably tomorrow, but then i may stop; i'm going to have these printed and then bound; so i've gotta stop somewhere. after that, i may send pix every once in while, in emails. til then, sleep well and think of us as YOU'RE sleeping thru the nite! : )

meeting the neighbors

our friends down the street brough dinner over, THANKS SO VERY MUCH!!! and it was VERY GOOD! myah enjoyed watching the older kiddos play and didn't act scared or overwhelmed at all. what a life-she touches down on in california (all us adopting families clapped!), became an american citizen at the punch of a stamp, arrives to a 'welcoming committe' full of gifts, toys and flowers, gets home to MORE welcome goodies, then has dinner and friends brought over to welcome her home! wow! what a fun day for her!

what a sight!

as we turned down our street, kev noticed a sign on the actual street sign that said MYAH STREET, cute! then, THIS is what we saw as we got closer!!! amy and her kiddos; rebecca, steven and reagan (pictured here) were really busy today! there were balloons on the 'for sale' sign and on the front porch along with more WE LOVE MYAH and MYAH ROCKS posters all over outside! soooooooooo neat! sooooooooo fun! and when we got inside, with wide-eyed myah, there were more balloons and a 'baby' banner and a stocked refrigerator-thanks church friends!myah was still doing great-and did a lot of looking/babbling to pookie and scooter!

almost home!

we landed in phoenix at about 3:30, 27 hours after we'd left china. OUCH! we walked off the plane and into the arms/hugs of many friends who'd come to welcome us home. it was SO nice to see these familiar faces! not to mention a blue sky finally! 0(i'll post some of those pix after my friends sent em to me). after visiting with our welcome-home-crowd for awhile, we were ready to get home. we got her into her carseat-wondering how she'd do in it, and yes-with a few cheerios in her hand and her mommy sitting beside her, she was as happy as can be!

flyin the friendly skies

well, as most of you may have guessed-the reason why we haven't posted in a while is b/c we were ON OUR WAY HOME!!!! i tried to post a few things tuesday nite, the nite before we left china-but the hotel internet wouldn't let us. so anyway, here's the little peanut-fast asleep on the plane. as usual, she did FANTASTIC! out of the 26 hours she was 'in transit,' we estimated that she only was fussy for about 5 minutes of that time! wow! see guys, your prayers were not only heard-but answered! thank you!!!

craaazy!

enlarge this pix by clicking on it and check out these window-washers!

say cheese, or WAAAHHH!

here's those lovely hubei babies, sitting on the red couch at the white swan hotel. check out the one on the very right (clara), as well as the third from the right, (melody-who is usually singing/squealin/talking). toooo funny! this one's a frame-r for sure! myah just sat there, watching all the girls, grabbin lainey's face at times (to her right) and suckin on that paci!

gettin smooched

not sure she really liked this, hee.hee.

ladybug girl

here's miss myah-looking so pretty in her new ladybug dress and those way cute sqeaky shoes. ladybugs are a symbol of good luck-whatever-but in the chinese adoption world, they are HUGE! there's even a store (in the 'american shopping district' on shamian island) called 'the ladybug store.' don't ya just love those little legs of hers!?

tummy time with daddy

we've learned that in order for her to half-way enjoy 'tummy-time,' one of us needs to be down there with her. here's daddy and myah this morning. by the way, this is our last full day in china. we'll be leaving for the airport eeeearly tomorrow morning to head back home!

our bathing beauty

after playing in her squeaky shoes, it was time for her bath. she's really starting to enjoy bathtime now. can't wait to get her home and show her all her bath toys! she's doing SO much better when it's time to go nitey-nite. could it be that the last two days we've had her out and about; therefore not letting her get a good nap in??? either way, she's such a trooper! we're so proud of her and oh so thankful she's ours!

squeaky shoes!!!!!!!!

we heard about these popular things a loooong time ago. they actually have squeakers in the soles of each shoe! (thankfully, you can take them out if it gets too irritating!) anyway, they are abosolutely adorable and EVERYONE has em! ha! it's hilarious-you can always hear a little person coming long before you can see them! we put em on myah, even tho she's not walking and she loved them! she figured it out right away-that if she steps down, they'll squeak. she would take a few step and totally be looking down at her feet, then look up and smile so big! then she even started jumping up and down and even stomping one foot just to hear it! hahahha!

white swan lobby

just had to put this in. this is inside the famous white swan hotel. also, mattel toy company makes special barbies for all guests that stay here that are adopting; it's a caucasion mommy with an asian baby in her arms; the adoption barbie; neat! kinda sad we didn't get to stay here!

the famous red couch

this is at the white swan hotel on shamian island. this is where most adopting families stay. our agency no longer puts their people up here, since the US consulate moved, it's a little far from this hotel now. but this is the red couch everyone gets a picture on; actually, the families will put all their babies on this for a big group baby picture. we're gonna try to at least get all the hubei babies on it tomorrow. oh yeah, myah wasn't into the shopping much today-she konked as soon as we put her in this stroller. (one of the stores let us borrow it for free; they SO know how to cater to americans!)

health tip...

riding a bike everywhere you go can do wonders for your body-ask the chinese!

a day of shopping

this morning after breakfast, we all had to stay in our hotel rooms (well, at least one parent) while our two guides did all our paperwork at the US consolate. one parent needed to stay in the room in the event of a question regarding the paperwork. no one needed a call-everyone's paperwork went thru!!! after that, we went via taxi to the electronics market; there were three buildings of six floors each FULL of electronics vendors. talk about cheap, oh my! too bad we have such a low weight limit on the plane! after that, we all went to shamian island where all the 'american shopping' is. here we are underneat a sign to a store called "jennifer's place," but the guy who took it must not have understood why we wanted a pix in front of it. hee.hee. we bought myah 16 gifts (small, cheapy-yet chinese-y stuff) so we can give her one thing per birthday til she's sixteen. it was fun picking stuff out.

in the words of lenny kravitz...

'american woman...'
and proud to be an american!

playin' with the girls

here's melody, myah and lainey. sooo fun to watch them together.

interested in starbucks

this is in our hotel, yea! she sure looks like she wants some, but she'll have to wait. we let her have mcdonalds french fries today; that's enuf new stuff for one day!

silly daddy

kevin wanted her to have the 'chopsticks experience' too. here she is, eating a cheerio off of them!

daddy's girls

getting ready for japanese food-a nice change.

lovin' on her daddy

this was after the park today. came back to cool off before dinner. this girl must be teething-she loves gnawing on anything, esp daddy's nose!

family pix

this was at the park just down the street from our hotel. beautiful! but oh so humid! you can practically 'see' the moisture in the air-or, that could be pollution? and notice we're all wearing long-sleeves! aahhh! we didn't pack for this kind of weather.

keeping them in business

yummy!

little leopard print lady

this is the outfit kevin picked out for her way back in september. she has shoes to match, but i didn't bring em-wasn't sure on the size. she's LOVING us holding her hands while she 'walks,' and gets sooo excited. we even let go a few times and she could do a few steps, but thankfully-it'll be awhile before she's walking on her own. if she were doing it now, the plane ride home would be a lot harder!

myah's comments about the tea

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

tea tasting

it was so pretty inside. we all sat around beautiful wooden tables on short little wooden stools as the lady described each tea and let us try them. we learned that the chinese looove tea down here in the south part of the country.

the tea house

this was SO neat! we all went here to see how they 'do' tea. they explained which teapot works best, how to clean the leaves and how to serve it. very interesting. we tried ten different teas. kev's fave-ginsing. mine-jasmine. myah's-well, she slept thru it!

traffic

um...don't know why it posted two of this picture, but if i delete one, it deletes both and i have several more to do-but i'm getting sleepy; so i'm keeping it. anyway, this is an example of the traffic here. nice! now you know why there's ALWAYS a lot of honking going on!

another fan of hers

this was in the garden of the museum and this lady just couldn't get enuf of miss myah.

mom and daughter

outside the museum.

outside of museum

pretty neat inside, but MAN is it humid here. we walked around for about an hour, then we all headed back for the A/C in the bus.

one cool kid

this morning, myah woke up at 7, she slept for 10.5 hours! yeeee-haw! the optional tour of the day was to a folk museum, pretty cool. so i'll post some pix of that, then onto a tea house; very cool! she had another great day; she's SUCH a great baby!

rewind

this was taken outside our hotel in hubei. these people were doing early-morning tai-chi. neat. okay, funny story-fast forward to monday afternoon in guangzhau. myah had her first REAL good poo. and it makes me laugh outloud even now (but i have to shhhh, cuz she's sleeping!) but as soon as we opened up her diaper, kev flew across the room and kept saying OH MY GOSH! and all i could do was just stand there, holding her legs in the air, but me, doubled-over in laughter! i was cracking up, i tell ya! then kevin tried to come back and help me, b/c yes-by this point, i had to get to work (using a million wipe-ys) and was gagging, a lot! we were both pretty grossed out and when it was finally all over and done with, he kept telling me, "i'm not kidding, honey, i almost threw up!" hahahhahaha! sooooo funny! my gut still hurts from laughing, then gagging so hard! the entire time, sweet little myah just let us laugh our butts of and was so good. poor baby-her parents were laughing at her expense! oh and then it came time to attack the green monsters in her nose; as you can guess, she barely put up a fight! oh yeah, kevin called that diaper, a "fu bomb", (her chinese first name is Fu). hee.hee.

chinese passport

this is the third time i've tried to post this. hmmm. i wonder if i can only have so many characters; i had originally written a loooong post. anyway this pix is from last nite at the airport on our way to guangzhau. we had such a big day travelling and myah had a rough time once it was bed-time, so that's why we weren't able to post yesterday, sorry! short version: i got a little emotional leaving her province of hubei; knowing she had no clue what she was leaving...her beginning, but i know this is the plan God's had since before she (and prob kevin and i, too) was born. anyway, she did AWESOME on the flight. our hotel is super-nice; mcdonalds and starbucks next door. she slept til 7am, instead of the usual 5:30 (we were so appreciative!) and it's been so fun seeing the rest of the group again; with all their beautiful babies!

where's OSHA?

check this guy out! i sure hope he's getting paid the big bucks, cuz he's got a dangerous job!

mmmmwah! kiss.kiss.

okay, so not really. i was eatin chicken nuggets and myah was really watching me put it into my mouth. she got real close, so i would leave a little bit sticking out. she went for it, so i let her eat it out of my lips! ha! it was sooo cute, but we later decided we shouldn't let her think that's a way to take bites. but i have to say, we both loved watching her do this! classic!

best friends

here's myah and sophie. check out the difference in skin tones! myah's hair is jet black, sophie's has a little more brown to it.

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

still such a happy baby, still no nap! this is the first day she hasn't napped! this whole time we've had her, she's taken 3-4 naps each day. we're starting to wonder if all that sleeping also had to do with her defense mechanism? kinda like shutting down? cuz of all the overload? she was still happy and content; but today, she's SOOO happy and was bouncing around, totally showing off and all smiles while we waited for the bus. she even chewed happier at breakfast today; seriously! we could tell! wow! this is even more fun-and we didn't think that was possible!

shopping 4 essentials

after the med exam, they took both bus loads to this store/mall for food, diapers, etc. we all met back up outside while waiting for the busses to come get us. i should have taken a pix of the scene; happy parents with happy, beautiful babies!

getting better

she's doing so much better at getting the cheerios from her hand to her mouth. not every time is a success, so we feed some to her-but she sure is trying. love those cute little hands! oh yeah, gramma betty-this is the outfit you got her! lots of compliments on it!

vanilla coke!

mom's happy! can't get my favorite drink in america anymore, so we had to buy some here! no, grandmas-we didn't give her any! : )

just saying hi

on the bus-man! we're gonna have to take bus rides around phoenix when we get back since it's become such a part of her schedule!