Long-Awaited Pedicure

We've had such a wild couple of weeks. I've been so busy with work, my school, Evan's school, getting paperwork ready for Sydney, shopping for Sydney, and a few showers this weekend. Saturday night we decided that we needed a little pampering. Our regular salon was closed, so we tried out another one that has the cutest children's pedicure chairs. There was a little girl who was probably about 3 years old who Evan played with very well. She was so sweet with her and enjoyed playing with her until she ran off with my phone and hid from Evan. Evan thought she was in a lot of trouble and was stressing that I would be mad. It's probably a good thing I was in the middle of such a relaxing pedicure and was so mellow.

Sydney's First Party

We had a cake sent to Sydney a week or so ago so she could host her first party. We were so excited to receive pictures yesterday! This is the first time we've seen a hint of a smile. We're also excited to see that she can use a fork. As soon as Evan saw the pictures, she asked who the lady was. When I told her she was a nanny, she said "What is she doing with our baby? Tell her to give her back!"

First Girl Scout Ceremony

Evan had her first Girl Scout ceremony and received her cookie pin and several petals for her tunic. She's had a great time this year getting together with some of her Chinese friends.

A Great Good Friday

Julie and I took Evan, Kassidy and Bailee bowling, out to lunch, and then to Brownlee Park. The girls got to use the bumpers, so they each bowled excellent games!! Julie and I did not fare as well. In fact, we lost. At the park the girls found a little boy who had 2 puppies with him. They were Maltese/Yorkie mixes and were so cute. Evan had me ask his mom if we could have a puppy playdate.

Our First Gift to Sydney

We are having this package sent to Sydney from within China. You may not be able to tell, but she's getting a cash register, a panda, candy and nuts, a camera, a letter and pictures of us. We are also having a cake delivered so that she can host her first little party.

We Have Updates!

We received some unexpected new pictures today. Look how sweet she is! She is now 33 inches tall and weighs 24 lbs. I can't believe how fast this is all happening. While Evan was in gymnastics tonight, I ran to buy a few things for Sydney. I bought her a bathing suit and a sweet little dress. I thought Evan would love them. I guess that was the problem. It is finally sinking in that not everything I buy from here on out is for her. Eventhough she liked the outfit I bought her, it was nowhere nearly as cute as what I bought for Sydney. She's also afraid that she will not get anything from Santa because it will be Sydney's turn. This could be a harder transition than we thought.

It's Official!

Introducing Sydney Pyper YunLi McConnell! It usually takes a few months to receive the final approval from China, but we received it in exactly two weeks! We could travel by the end of June. This is going so fast!! We'll keep you posted. I would love to get some more pictures, but we probably will not receive any more since they've somehow gotten very speedy.

Did We Get a Referral?

We got a call from our adoption agency, A Helping Hand, in the afternoon on March 19th. We'd just returned from Spring Break, and I was getting caught up on my schoolwork. The call was from our advocate Dana. She was referring to an email we should have received earlier in the week letting us know that a Special Needs list was coming out Thursday night. We never received the email and had no idea that we had just been matched with our daughter! The only problem was that China's servers went down before they could download the children's files, so they thought that they'd matched us with a 4 year old girl with a heart defect. They had no idea if China would give us an extension since technically we would need to give them an answer and submit paperwork within the hour. How could we give an answer with no particulars? We ended the call with an understanding that we would hear from them first thing Monday morning after they'd had a chance to request an extension from China. Mike and I wanted to get excited about the prospect of finally having our second daughter, but we were also trying to be cautiously guarded in case the whole thing fell through. We decided not to tell Evan and get her hopes up. What a long weekend!
Monday morning we finally got a file and a few pictures of Li YunLi - a 2 year old with a repaired congenital heart defect from DongGuan, Guangdong Province. She's a tiny little thing and favors Evan a little. I thought Evan's eyes were round, but Li YunLi has rounder eyes. (I will post a picture as soon as we get the official approval from China.)
Because of our work schedules and Evan's gymnastics, we had to wait until about 7 pm to tell Evan. We made her eat dinner first since she probably would be too excited after we told her. Mike started out by telling her that we had something very important to talk to her about. She got a look on her face that said she thought she was in big trouble. I told her she was not in trouble that this was something that would change her life. Mike asked her what she would wish for if she could have ANYTHING in the whole world? She immediately responded "a scooter! " When we told her this wasn't it, she somehow thought we were telling her that Big Girl (my grandmother) was about to die and got very upset! We assured her that Big Girl wasn't going anywhere. Finally, she got a huge smile on her face and asked if it was time to go get Sydney, her sister. She was so excited and fell in love with her picture.
She immediately wanted to call her grandparents to share the news. I've never heard a more excited conversation. She is going to be such a big help.
We hope to travel to get Sydney Pyper in August or September and plan on taking Evan with us. We'll go to Beijing and do the tourist thing so Evan can see the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. Sydney will be about 2 1/2 by then (her estimated date of birth is 3-12-08). I can't wait to see how they interact. I'll post more as we get it.

Girl Scouts at Domino's

Evan got to make her own pizza at the Girl Scout's tour of Domino's. She did a great job and loved watching her pizza move through the oven. I have to admit that it was one of the best pizzas I've ever had.

Bonnie Springs Ranch

The first day after finally getting over a stomach virus, we decided to go horseback riding. Pretty brave, wasn't it? We had a great time! Evan had been looking forward to this for months. We went shopping on the way back to the hotel, and then she talked us into going swimming. The pools were so cold, so Evan spent her time in the hot tub. She made a few friends who were boys, of course. We had to leave the hotel by 4:45 am the next day, so we celebrated St. Paddy's Day and went to bed!

Closing Down the Strip

I realize that Vegas never sleeps - well, it definitely doesn't go to sleep at 11pm. We had a blast and packed so much in to about 8 hours. (That turned out to be a good thing because the next day I was sick and confined to the hotel room.) We ended the night at a restaurant I have wanted to go to for years. Serendipity is a restaurant in NY, but there is Serendipity Too in Vegas. They were closing when we got there, but they seated us anyway. We'd walked for almost an hour to get there, so Evan was ready to crash. We had the most awesome nachos and a fantastic frozen hot chocolate. Evan fell asleep in her nachos, and Mike had to carry her about a mile or so to get to the car.

Sugar OD

OK, so I've included a few pics from the top of the Eiffel Tower. We also went to the Coca Cola store and tried 8 strange flavors of Coke and 8 strange flavors of floats. We had mango syrup among others (I'll have to get Mike to help me remember). Mountain Dew floats are not good, but Fanta Strawberry floats are.

How fun is this?

Evan refused to take a picture with the scary guy in the top pic, so we made him pose with him. Then we wpent some time at the largest M&M store in the world. After that, it was off to Paris and the top of the Eiffel Tower. (OOPS! I forgot that pic!)

More from the Strip

Chinatown & The Strip

We ate all the chocolate we could and headed to Chinatown. Evan got a huge bowl of egg drop soup for lunch. Then we started our 8 hours on the Strip. I just love this place. Where else can you experience so many different eras, countries, cultures on one road?