Friday-1/20

Today is Friday morning and we only have 3 more days until we return home. We are all enjoying our time in China but very much look forward to returning home and working toward a new normalcy in our family. Things continue to go well! Bonding with mama, baba and brother have all been great. The past couple of days, Arabella has started to push the boundaries but nothing too extravagent or extreme. Even with these few moments, we still feel very blessed that it is going so well!

Arabella and I became comfortable very quickly and have been close since day one. Arabella took a couple of days to warm up to baba but since about day 3, she has been very close to both mama and baba. We had no doubt that we would love Arabella and be comfortable with her since day one but our concern was with Sterling and Arabella but thankfully, we've been truly blessed and the two are best of friends!

Arabella is cute as a button, she seem to enjoy being a girl and all the girlie accessories we brought to China. She is kind to her brother and enjoys his company and being the "big" sister. We haven't seen any dominant behavior toward Sterling but we will continue to monitor their interaction together. She's tried to play "mama" a couple of times but it seemed to be innocent. Older children are known at times to feel a sense of "dominance" with younger children. Thankfully, we have not seen this behavior and have seen nothing but acceptance. She's a smart girl and enjoyes reading Chinese signs when we are walking around. She also has some English skills. With each passing day she becomes more comfortable with the family. Today, we feel she was sharing with us what she has been learning in school with regard to English. She was signing a song that included body parts in English. Arabella loves to talk! We get a kick out of listening to her when she is with other Chinese speaking individuals. She will talk and talk. It's great! She is a strong willed little girl with little outward display of emotions but understandable given her past. She's had to survive and a survivor she is. She doesn't display much affection but it doesn't stop me from hugging on her, placing my arm around her and giving her kisses, the same as I do with Sterling. I am trying to be very aware of keeping all things, (affection, words of praise, choices) even between the two of them so that no one starts to feel different or left out.

We've continued our routine and now have added to it. We continue to hit the Starbucks after the kids have easten breakfast and now, we've added McDonald's to our routine. Nothing like a little taste of home to get us through these last days! The McDonald's has a nice dinning room and is on the second floor with floor to ceiling windows. We enjoy the walk through the local markets and housing area. One of our friends, Jennifer/Harry/Baby Elliott, return for home today. We are blessed to spend a couple more hours together before they depart. Chris her girls and our family will depart on Sunday. We are down to only a few days before our journey, home. 

                                                                     Beautiful Rose!

                                                                 Baby Elliott & Baba