Evie update

Since we have been home, I have been so blessed by the amount of people that said they followed us and we're praying for us while we were gone. God has certainly blessed us with people that supported us and cheered us along the way. Lots of people have asked for updates on her and have wondered if I'm continuing my blog. I can't tell you the number of times that I've started to write a blog post but for some reason cannot find the time to even do it. Plus, life here at home is not as exciting as all of the amazing things we got to do abroad. Doing a daily blog post about my life here would be something like laundry, dishes, diapers, cleanup, repeat. :) But, I thought I would update on the progress that Evie has made. 

I don't want to give the impression that everything has been and always is wonderful. There have certainly been hard times. Jet lag with a family of six is no joke! But I think we've all recovered from that and are getting back to our new normal life. Evie has certainly had her share of adjustments in the last few weeks and I am sure that she was scared many of times. But, she knows how loved and adored she is and has done really well. We are thanking Jesus for blessing us with her precious life.

So, a few updates on her:

Language for her has come slowly, but it is coming so we are thankful for that. She can say (and sign) more. That makes her very happy to say because that usually means she gets what she wants. She says mama and dada and has attempted her sisters names too. She says uh oh and tries to sing along with some songs like ring around the rosie.

She gives kisses ALL the time! 

She is getting faster and tries to run now.

She has mastered going up the stairs and is attempting to go down.

She has overcome her fear of the dog. For the first few days she would only scream and cry when she would see the dog and she would not let us put her down on the ground at all. But, now she is fine with him and has even attempted to touch him a couple of times. 

She absolutely loves everyone that comes to our house and gets very upset when people leave.

She already is comfortable going to child watch at the y and nursery at church.

She goes to bed like a rockstar. She almost giggles when we put her in her crib and she never cries when she wakes up. We have to just go check on her in the mornings and she is usually sitting up smiling waiting for us to come and get her. That is such a huge change from the screaming for hours to go to bed and not allowing us to lay her down the first few days we had her. I really think that she was scared to go to sleep because she didn't know what would happen to her when she woke up. Would we still be there?

She loves to play patty cake and ring around the rosie.

She still eats and eats and eats. She has gotten over her need to have a piece of food in hand at all times (I think that she thought it was pretty cool to just have food available to her and she never wanted to let it go), but she still loves when it's time to eat.

 

She loves, loves, loves her sisters. :)

Incredible Hong Kong!!

In some ways it's hard to believe that this day actually happened! It's the kind of day that is really hard to describe to other people because it was so amazing. I feel like it was probably a life-changing day both for me and my girls to be able to see and experience what we did. It was so incredible to tour part of Hong Kong. My eyes were certainly opened and I know my girls were too! Our tour included going to a beach, going to a fishing village, going to a monestary with the biggest Buddha statue you can even believe, and then riding on cable cars with a glass bottom through the mountains and over a lake. It was so unbelievable even I couldn't stop taking pictures and I'm not even the normal picture taker!

Hong Kong/China differences according to our tour guide:

HK you drive on left, in China you drive in middle of the road, even though it's officially supposed to be the right.

HK you actually stop at stop light, in China it's just a suggestion.

If you need a toilet here, no need to ask, just follow your nose.

First time on the beach!

This was a maximum security prison in a gorgeous setting. We learned from our tour guide that they call it a Correctional institution, not prison. They are not prisoners, they are students.

Taking it all in.

The fishing village.

We went inside a temple at the fishing village.

Then we went to the Po Lin monestary with the Buddha temple. We went inside Buddha and came out Buddha's butt. The girls thought that was funny. It was the biggest statue I've ever seen! Buddha's ashes are inside the statue. It was a very sacred place for many people.

There was tons of insence offered to Buddha!

We ate a vegetarian meal right outside the monestary.

And then the cable car ride!!! It was 20 minutes of incredible!! I didn't get great pictures cause I was holding a sleeping Evie so Matt will have to share his pictures some other time.