Baby dragons, bunk beds and haircuts

On Friday, Kai Wei and Daniel watched Eragon, a movie about a dragon and its rider. After watching the movie, they decided to be dragons. Everyone knows that baby dragons alternately growl and making baby dragon chirping noises for attention. They also, apparently, need to hop since they are still too little to fly. The baby dragons came into the our bedroom, where Rebecca and I were rearranging furniture. Friends of ours had a futon bunk that they weren't using so they passed it along to us. We moved it to where Rebecca's bed used to be, moved her bed to where my bed was and collapsed the bed that I was sleeping on so that it fit back under Sarah Grace's bed, and put the mattress from the trundle on her bed. I now have a box spring and mattress instead of just a mattress on the trundle bed (which I'm VERY happy about) and Sarah Grace finally has a mattress on her bed, so now I think we are 100% ready for her to come home. Once we get the mattress from my grandparent for the trundle we'll have beds for 5 in our room! I'm foreseeing some sleepovers in the future.

The baby dragons were thrilled with the new bedroom arrangement and managed to hop there way up to the top of the bunk bed using there very stubby wings for support. Even though they could manage that, when it was time to go downstairs for our video chat with Sarah Grace, somehow they weren't able to hop down the stairs, so they conned their big sisters into piggy back rides.


Sarah Grace was not as excited about the new room arrangement as the boys were- she told us she would rather sleep in the boys' room! There aren't any other girls her age at the orphanage, and she is quite a tom-boy, so she enjoys playing with the boys.

Kai Wei and Ssu Ya usually seem pretty happy to see each other, but they don't talk all that much. Sarah Grace doesn't really carry on conversations well through the webchats, and it takes some prompting for Kai Wei to tell her much. The first few times we talked when we suggested he tell her about something we did, he asked us to tell her in English! This time the social worker who was there asked him a few questions directly and he was more ready to answer in Chinese. We weren't always sure what he was saying! Though, the one time he said something that surprised her she said, "no, that's not true" and then translated what he had said. (he had told her that he was going to sleep in Rebecca's bed and she was going to sleep with a bug is how the social worker translated it. I think what he was saying is that Rebecca was going to sleep in her sleeping bag, because whenever we sleep in sleeping bags he pretends to be a caterpillar and then comes out and tells us he is a "piaoliang hudie" (beautiful butterfly). We had told the boys they could sleep on the bunk bed and futon that evening since they were excited about it).

Somehow we got on the subject of Kai Wei singing and Ssu Ya said she wanted to hear him sing. So we turned on his favorite song (Bible Story by Scott Kripayne) and he performed for her. We should really take a video and post it- he is so cute when he sings. He loves to listen and sing along to the songs Rebecca and I have on our cellphones, and has even started to sing the lyrics to my Juanes songs in Spanish!




Sarah Grace had gotten her hair cut. I was disappointed because it was actually growing out a bit when we talked to her on Easter and I thought they might just let it grow. She's still beautiful anyway. I think this haircut makes her look older though. Our baby girl is growing up while we wait for her. It's been over 9 months since we got her referral. I never though it would take this long once we got the referral. Kai Wei coming home made the waiting easier for awhile- we were all so focused on him and getting to know him, and seeing how his adjustment would be. Now that he has been home for a bit and things are settling down to a new normal, the wait for Sarah Grace is getting harder again. Over Easter we got some clothes for Sarah Grace from Abby, and as I was putting them away in her now nearly full drawers in made me sad. Here are these drawers full of clothes that she is probably starting to grow out of, just sitting here. I can't wait for her to come home, so we can start on a new adventure of discovering a new normal for our family.