Happy New Year....

Christmas is over and a new year will soon be here. Our friends Chip and Holly have just taken the cake for the best late Christmas present ever, they received their referral today for a beautiful little girl. Congratulations Chip and Holly, may your lives be filled with joy and happiness as you bring you little girl home.

Christmas time is always a special time of year. It's a time for family and friends to come together and enjoy each other company. My parents were able to come join us again this year. It is always nice to have them here during this time of year and it make me miss Colorado every time they visit. Then I look at my wonderful family and think, I would not have my life any other way.

We did the typical Christmas stuff, open gifts and drink a lot of eggnog. But this year again was special because Saffi got to celebrate her first Christmas with Sawyer and Saxton. They all loved opening their gifts and playing with their new toys. It was funny to watch all of their expressions as they opened their presents. Just to give you a visual, when they opened up a toy, their eye lit up and a huge smile filled their face. But when they open up a present with clothes in it, they quickly put that gift to the side and look for another that might contain a toy. Totally priceless.

We took my parents to the Aquarium and then to the Jersey Shore. They loved every minute of it. Plus, we finally got a picture with the whole family together.

Here are some other pictures from the last week.

All three children loving each other. The Grandparents with the Grandchildren at the Shore.

From our family to yours, we hope you all had a wonderful Holiday Season and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

The Day Before the Day Before Christmas.....

Or in other words, the day before Saffi's 7th Birthday.

The past couple of weeks has been a complete roller coaster. Saffi has been doing really well at home with very minor temper tantrums, but school is a different story. While she has been a model student the last couple of days, last week was really difficult. Monday she did really well, no complaints from the teachers or counselors, Tuesday and Wednesday she was out of school because of multiple family doctors appointments. On Thursday and Friday, Saffi did not want anything to do with school (for the most part). On Thursday morning, she threw a temper tantrum that would rival a Hollywood Heiress when she didn't get the color Ferrari she wanted. She was kicking, screaming and hitting the teachers. Thank God the teachers pretty much ignored it and then she seems to calm down because she was not getting the attention she wanted.

Friday, Saffi upped the ante. Not only did she start the day off by kicking, hitting and screaming at the teachers (which they ignored again), she started hitting and scratching herself. Because of this, she was in the principle office for most of the day. This made us very, very concerned. We are monitoring this very closely, but the school believes this is another form of attention getting because once they told her to stop and held her, she would stop hitting and scratching herself. Another belief they and we have, she might be trying to do this to to tell us that she is getting injured at school so we don't send her to school. We have contacted some Mandarin speaking Psychologists in the area and we are trying to get an appointment so we can figure out why she was doing this.

BUT, as I stated earlier, they last couple of days she has been a different little girl. Grandma and Grandpa came into town from Colorado and she has been climbing all over them.

She has been helping around the house getting the boys dressed in the morning and helping clean up the living room after the kids play.

Last night, she helped decorated the Christmas Tree.
On Saturday, she went for horseback riding with Sawyer and Saxton and did not through a fit while getting on the horse, but she did gang up with Saxton to pick on Grandpa while he was trying to get warm.Tomorrow is not only Christmas Eve, but it is Saffi's 7th Birthday. We hope she has a great Birthday and a wonderful first Christmas..

Happy Holidays everyone.

It's Not All Rainbows and Ladybugs....

And anyone who tells you it is, is full of (insert your own word here). Now, before all of you out there in blogland get bent out of shape, let me explain. Saffi has come a VERY long way since Shelby first laid eyes on her about a month ago in Nanchang. At first, Saffi was very difficult to handle and would act out, violently, when Shelby tried to discipline her. When they got home, it didn't get any better and we thought to ourselves, "What the hell did we get ourselves into." She was testing boundaries in a big way. For instance, I would ask her to not touch the computer, then she would touch it anyway. When I would tell her to stop, she would sit in the middle of the room and start wailing for 'Ma Ma.' If we tried to comfort her, she would push us away, start kicking us, start trying to bite us and start hitting us. This is the side of adoption many people leave out. Eventually, she would settle down and begin to play again.

We started Saffi in Elementary School last week. Things were going great for the first couple of days. She seemed to like her teacher and the other students in her class. She also liked the work that the English as a Second Language teacher was giving her. Then came last Friday and meltdown city. When we brought her to school, she refused to go into the building with me, but she had no problem going into the school with Shelby. BUT, once the teacher's aide came to pick her up for class,the fight was on. Teachers told us to leave and that she would be okay. That was at 8:45 am. at 10:00am, we got our first phone call that Saffi was throwing toys at other students and trying to bite the school counsilor and teacher's aide, all while screaming, yes screaming, that she wanted to go home. We, along with the teachers agreed that going home was not an option because we do not want to give into her tantrums so that in the future she will think that if she tantrums, she will get what she wants. At 1:30, we received a second phone call saying that she calmed down and was back in the classroom for 1/2 hour, but flipped out when she was told to go to the cafeteria for lunch. So back to the Principles office she went. She ended up there for the rest of the day all the while she was kicking, screaming, hitting and biting the Principle, teacher's aide and counselor. It was so bad, the school told us that if she isn't better on Monday, we would have to look at a modified schedule until she can get used to the school.

Luckily, over the weekend, an alien ship came from outer space and took away the bad Saffi and gave us a good Saffi. For the most part, this week has been uneventful. She has only thrown one tantrum at home and has been an angel at school Thank heaven for little girls. The boys love playing with her and she loves chasing the boys around the house. We started her in Horseback riding two weeks ago, her second ride is this Friday. Hopefully she will like it this time as much as last time.
Here is a really good picture of all three kids playing together.

This past weekend, we went on a Santa Train in West Chester, PA. It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately, the kids didn't know what think of Santa. But they all had a great time riding the train and singing Christmas Carols.

BTW-It was around 20 degrees with a wind chill of 5 degrees. A very, very cold day.