It's Back to School for the Jennings!

We were supposed to start school last week. And, well, you know. Life happens. :)  That is just one of the reasons I LOVE homeschooling the kiddos. Not that we can just fly by the seat of our pants or anything, but we do have a little flexibility when we have a little too much going on.

So, today was our first day.  Mia is starting her first year with us at home and is super excited.  I think that we made a great decision by having her stay home this year instead of waiting for kindergarten.  Tate is in 2nd and 3rd grade, as he likes to say. :) He is doing 2nd grade curriculum except Math, which is 3rd grade.  Tucker is doing 5th grade curriculum except Math and Reading, which is 6th grade. Another reason I love homeschool - you can teach them where they are. :)

Here are our super fun first day pics!!  (realizing it may not be much longer that Tucker will stand in front of our house holding a sign)  :)

Love this!!  Super fun for calendar math and circle time on the other side. :)  A total splurge just to help keep the littles busy - and learn a little while we are at it. :)

He doesn't sit this still very often, so I had to grab a pic. :)

Lynli joined right in!  She talked the whole way through our "circle time" - complete with copying mommies hand motions. :)  We think she may be a lefty. 

So, another school year begins!  Is is truly one of the hardest, but most rewarding things I have ever done. Honestly, I don't do much else. My house is a wreck most of the time and the laundry hardly gets folded - unless my mom comes. :)  Most of my free time is spent doing lesson plans for 3 grades now and figuring out who needs to study what and what field trips work the best with who. 

BUT, right now, I wouldn't change a thing. The time I get with my children is priceless. I have been blessed beyond measure with these amazing four children. Really blessed.  And even though many days I am exhausted, totally exhausted by the end of the day, I just wouldn't change it.  

Off to fill our work boxes and sleep!!

We should have named her....

Joy.

Seriously. I love her name. Lynli Grace. It really does fit her. But, had I known her first, we might have added a Joy in there somewhere. :)

She is such a joy and truly a wonderful addition to our family. Her smiles and giggles keep us laughing and smiling all day long. Her little voice is so cute.

She is still repeating things we say, but doesn't talk very much on her own yet. In the past couple of days she has started pretending to talk to us. It is hard to explain, but so cute. If Mia is talking to me, Lynli will come over, make the same hand gestures as Mia, but will whisper and "gibber gabber" as if she is saying the same thing as Mia. PRECIOUS.

Guess who is sleeping in her room?  Yep. We moved her in there last night and so far, so good. She likes to have Keith lay with her until she falls asleep. Mia is excited to finally have little sis in her room!

The last two weeks have been really good. We are just taking it day by day. School starts tomorrow for the oldest 3 and mommy is excited to be back to a little bit of a schedule.

Here are some fun pics from Lynli's first 2 weeks home....

First haircut with Granna! 

Visiting the zoo!

Silly kiddos!

Do you see that smile?

For my mom... I tried. Really. I did. :) She was just not having it. 

At least these two wanted to pose! :)

Home!

Whew!  What a fast, crazy few days it has been.

We arrived home to a wonderful welcome from family and friends at the airport on Thursday night - including a bag of homemade brownies from my sweet friend, Debbie. :)  Lynli screamed the entire way home. And this girl can scream. She was not at all a fan of the car seat. The kids had all traveled the 20 plus hours wonderfully, so a little screaming was quite alright.

Since then, we have been adjusting to our new life with little bit and trying to recover from jetlag.

Lynli is amazing. Really amazing.

She is sleeping well, although she does not like to go to sleep. But what 3 year old really does?  She is getting to know Max and Carly, our dog and cat, but is not really fond of them being too close. That will come with time. She is opening up and speaking more and more each day. She is talking to us in both her Chinese dialect and english. It comes throughout the day in little spurts. Today she repeated Elmo, roll, high five, push, and bye.  I get a few good mamas, but she still just yells lots of other things for our attention too. It is super cute.

We have had a some family members over to visit too. Can you believe that I managed to not get a single picture of her meeting her grandparents? CRAZY!  Can I blame that on jetlag? Grrr....

This is quite the quick update folks! Life is happening at the Jennings household. I'm off to take Tucker to scouts tonight, we ventured out to Target today (for a quick "get use to the car" trip), and Lynli will attend her first family birthday party tomorrow night. On Wednesday, we have Lynli's first doctor appointment and we are expecting all to be well with that. Other than those few things we are just "hibernating" a little and letting Lynli explore her new surroundings.

Much love to you all!  More soon.....

I did manage to get this pic with great-grandmother, Nanny.

Checking out the toys...

The kids demanded I take a pic of Lynli's first CFA nuggets. :)

She loves the piano.

She is not very fond of the grass and will not move her feet. So funny.

She likes this much better.

Goodbye Guangzhou!

I can't believe it's time to say goodbye to China once again. This journey started just about a year ago, seemed to take sooooo long, and before you know it, it's over and done.  Not really though, right? The best part is just beginning.

We have so enjoyed our time here this trip.  It is a huge mix of emotions to start packing up tonight. We are so ready to be home. But, at the same time, we are taking one from the only home she has ever known. Tomorrow, as we land in Atlanta, every smell, taste, sound and face will be new to Lynli.

We pray that her heart be guarded, that she understands a little, and that she continues to trust us. Her adjustment so far has been incredible and we pray that continues with the next big step...

The next time I write, it will be from the comfort of my family room sofa. :)  Thank you all for your prayers, words of encouragement, and love.

I'll leave you all with pics from a little photo shoot we did today....

This was taken Tuesday at our Consulate appointment. Our paper work is complete, oath taken and Lynli Grace will become a citizen of the US when her feet touch the ground in Atlanta.

All my precious babes...

These two are becoming buddies... slowly, but surely. :)

My firstborn love. The oldest and caretaker of all. 

Sweetness. Fun.  He loves his sister so much, he hasn't stopped smiling since we arrived.

Strong. Joy. One incredible big sister. 

Tiny, but with a big personality. Brave. And beautiful. 

We are still here!  Sorry for not posting over the weekend.  We have had a few busy days and I have had a little tummy bug the past 24 hours... and Mia has had a fever... and, well, that means no blog post. :)

But, things are looking better!  We have 2 more fun filled days left and then we are homeward bound!  And I can't tell you how happy that makes me. We are so ready to be home!!

So, what have we been up to?  Well, a trip to China, no matter what the purpose, wouldn't be complete without a little history lesson. One of our excursions with our guide last week took us to the tomb of the Nanyue King.  Back in 1983 it was stumbled upon and has now been completely excavated. The actual tomb has been perserved and you can walk inside the different chambers.  All of the items found within the tomb are on exhibit in the museum.  Very cool. And super neat that we have studied ancient Egypt and could relate this info back to that, as this king was buried in similar fashion as the pharaohs of similar time. Check one day off of school for the year. :)

Then yesterday, we headed over to a very large park that holds many historical items. Ok y'all. I LOVE history. But it was HOT! I have never sweated so much in my life!  And little bit does not want to walk, not even one step, so Keith and I carried her the entire day.  In the middle of our adventure, Mia started feeling bad and so I either had 23 lbs. on my front, or 40 lbs. on my back. Talk about a workout... and did I mention the steps!  Wow!

Anyway, we saw the very large memorial  to the "father of modern China", Sun Yat-sen. Very pretty. Then we hiked it up a bazillion steps and around to the "5 Story Temple"- from the Ming Dynasty in the 1300s.  From there we walked to the monument for Sun Yat-sen and walked along parts of an original city wall of the Ming Dynasty.  And last, but not least, we headed over to the 5 Rams Statue.  I have to be honest. By this point, I just said, "let's look at the goats and be done". :)   It was neat too and was built to honor the legend of how Guangzhou started.

So, that was our Sunday. Add to that a couple of fevers and upset tummies and it's a full day!

Lynli is doing great!  She picks up routines quickly so we have kept bath and bedtime exactly the same each night for her. She now LOVES taking a bath, I think the pool helped with that.  We finally got her to open her mouth for a teeth brushing and she likes to help with that also.  She hasn't screamed or cried for bedtime since the second night. I lay beside her and she eventually falls asleep.  It does take awhile though since she fights so hard to stay awake.  I can only imagine how terrifying it must be to fall asleep.

We are also seeing some anxiety in her at different times throughout the day.  Multiple times she has gone to stand at the window and just stare. She is very quiet during this time and we just give her a little space to take it all in. Keith heard her whispering to herself in her dialect the other day. Don't you wonder what she was saying?  What her little mind is thinking?

She also wants to be carried at all times if we are out of our room. The first day or so, she would walk holding our hands, but not anymore. She wants to be super close when we are out with lots of people. I can understand that, so we just carry her everywhere. :)

She is starting to mimic some english. Very little though. She has said "Mama" and "bye-bye" once or twice and "Mia" about the same. She will copy more words from Tucker and he somehow got her to say Batman. Go figure. :)  She also speaks a little in her dialect, a version of Cantonese. It is super cute. Most of the time, if she wants me or Keith, she just yells, "Da". I think it is her version of "hey, you".  :)

We are getting there! Counting down to home!!  Today is our Consulate appointment and our last shopping day. Wednesday we are going to try out the local zoo since we had to miss the Safari Park yesterday.

2 more sleeps until my soft bed! :)

The Nanyue King

One of the reasons I love China. It is so modern, but yet, these are the brooms we see being used everyday.

The kids with a very old tree.

The memorial

The wall from the Ming dynasty

The 5 Rams statue

Somebody is three!

Hello from Guangzhou!

Today was little bit's 3rd birthday!  We were so excited to get to spend this day with her.  Had our paper work been delayed just a few more days, we would have traveled later and missed it.  It was a fun, relaxing day that started out with a little bit of this....

A happy morning with a sweet birthday shirt!  Then we moved on to a little bit of fish feeding after breakfast and happy birthday wishes from the grandparents via skype.

Lynli kept giving herself little bites of the bread, so we headed in for a snack. :)  After we filled our bellies, we headed out to try a birthday swim.  It started a little bit like this...

I swear I'm not torturing her. I just wanted a quick pic of the girls together and she likes to be held most of the time. Putting her down creates this sad face. :(

But then....

A little splashing until we got used to the water and ready for....

A swim with dad...

and Mia...

Then we headed out for dinner at what seems to be our go-to quick meal... Pizza Hut.  Yes.  Not kidding. They have many more options than pizza. :)

And then it was back to the room for a little party for Lynli Grace!  We arrived to an incredible cake that was a gift from our agency. 

Look closely, that is a chocolate bar box wrapped in white chocolate ribbon. The cake was inside. Beautiful.

Little bit loved it and had two pieces. And quite a bit of the ribbon. :)

Last, but not least, presents!!  We wrapped and packed 2 gifts for her special day.

She really had no clue what today was all about. But we did. And one day she will. 

Another day done, another day closer to coming home.  Honestly, we love China. We really do. But this trip, we just feel a little bit more ready to come home and get life started with our new sweetie. 

 So, yesterday the only appointment we had was for Lynli's passport.  I can't wait to see how the photo turned out. :)  We spent the morning visiting a big park not too far from our hotel.  The Martyr's Tomb is within the park, so we took a look at that.  It was SO hot!  Hot, Hot, Hot, yesterday.  We stopped at McDonald's for an ice cream on the way back. Little bit took a few bites, but didn't seem too crazy about it.

After her passport appointment, we headed back over to Shamian Island for a little bit of shopping and to eat at one of our favorite restaurants from our last trip.  Yummy!  

Sorry, for the boring post.  Not much going on really. :)  Lynli is still doing great.  Bath and bed was much better last night.  She screamed for the first part of her bath, but then settled down. She and Mia sat in the bed and watched t.v for awhile and then when I turned it off, she just settled in and fell asleep. Much better than the screaming of the night before. :)

So, we are off to start another day!  Heading to Lynli's medical appointment this morning and then to tour with our guide.  She is also taking us to dinner at a traditional Cantonese restaurant. Can't wait to see the pictures of cow tongue, fish heads and other "unknowns" on the menu. :)

The girls at the park. This is for all my buddies asking about Lynli's size compared to Mia. :)

I love this one. Mia so happy and Lynli giving her the eye for invading her space. :)

It's official!

Yesterday we completed our adoption of Lynli Grace!  She is officially a Jennings!  We even have her little footprint approval. :)

We headed out yesterday morning, back to the same office as Monday, to complete our paper work and have the officials, officially accept our adoption.  After that, we really just hung around all day.  We took the kiddos down to feed the fish, then went to cool off in the pool.  Lynli wasn't too fond of the water, but we may try again another day. She ended up sitting in my lap and taking a little nap.  After that, we headed to a new area of town, within walking distance, to try out a new restaurant and pick up some items at the store.  Can I just remind you how CRAZY roads and driving or walking is here. Pedestrians do NOT have the right of way.  So, crossing a street, with no walkways, is a gamble.  Seriously.  Quite nerve-racking with 4 little ones.  So happy to have my mom's extra hands. :)

Little bit is doing great!  She is happy with either Keith or me, which is really nice and allows each of us to spend time with her and the other kids. She laughs and giggles a lot, but yesterday she was a little more quiet. I have a feeling it is starting to sink in that she is not going back. It may get a little more scary for her at this point.  We'll have to see.  I know one thing.  This little girl has a set of lungs. She does NOT like to take a shower or go to bed.  She knew as soon as she saw the pj's come out what was happening and she started screaming.  It is the sweetest little scream.  But it is LOUD! :)  It took about 15 minutes of pure screaming, but she finally settled into a great sleep.  I fell asleep beside her at 8:00 last night.  I was so tired, but I feel refreshed today!!

We are headed to breakfast in a few, then over to a park or something.  At 3:00p we will apply for Lynli's passport and I think we are headed over to Shamian Island for some shopping this evening.

Day 2 was good and I can't wait to see what Day 3 will hold...

Playing with a balloon as we wait for papers to be completed

Mama with her girls!

Lynli stamping the official documents

Look at that sweet foot!

Mia has grown so much since her adoption day here in 2010

Feeding the fish

One proud, happy Baba with his baby girl

She is so sweet. That's the best word to describe her so far. Sweet.