Category: Adoption

We have known Aili for 2 months now. I know it’s ridiculously cliche to say, but it seems like she’s always been with us. It seems impossible to love someone so much in such a short time. When we were going through the process to bring her home, I had a thought every once in…

I know i’m waaaaay overdue for a post. It’s much easier to post away from home without all the responsibilities of home. I’ve also been sick and feeling like crud. Raleigh and Aili got it too. Sam  swears that gulping a large Gatorade in a short amount of time when he feels like he’s getting…

Well, we are home, my family of four. Traveling home was 29 hours of hell. Aili took it better than any of us. It started with a terrifying 3.5 hour van ride from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Our driver scared us to death and made Raleigh sick. Sucked big time. We got to the airport…

My girls are asleep, so I’m posting again. Today we went to the US consulate to get Aili’s visa process moving. It was nice being in US territory for a short time as we entered through a US citizen entrance and skipped the very long line of Chinese residents. Once inside it didn’t take long…

Today we had a free day. No appointments. We stayed on the island and walked, shopped, and ate. First, after breakfast, we had to stop at Starbucks of course. While we were in there, the craziest thing happened. I saw this American guy in there with what appeared to be his mom, his 4 year…

Ok, I spoke too soon about the well slept nights. Aili had a rough night last night. At about midnight she started whimpering. I didn’t know if she had a bellyache or what was wrong. I touched her face and her hair. It was all wet. She was crying. I’ve read about this many times.…

Yesterday we switched hotels. We planned on switching on Sunday because our guide has other families coming in this weekend and it helps to have us all in one hotel. Many families stay at this hotel, The Victory. It’s on Shamian Island, about 30 minutes outside of downtown Guangzhou. We moved two days early. Why?…

Kristin’s fingers are tired and blistered from writing the blog posts, so hear I am. After the police appointment yesterday, Aili wasn’t too keen on me carrying her around. She would burst into tears if she got near me  (no, this isn’t a common reaction by women in my life). Nothing some pasta and a…

Raleigh has been waking up super early, as usual. But Aili has been the last to wake. We actually have to wake her. Heaven. So far, every time she wakes it’s with a smile. Can it really be this easy? She slept really well again. There was still head banging, but less. After breakfast, we…

We had no idea how Aili was going to sleep through the night. We thought for certain that she’d wake up scared to death. This child went right to sleep when we put her down, and didn’t wake up until we woke her at 7am. Awesome. I slept with her and Sam slept with Raleigh.…