Jing-Qi's 1st Christmas Home!

We all had a blast on Jing-Qi's first Christmas. It was so wonderful to have her home. The kids had fun running through the trees at Frosty's Forest to pick out our annual Christmas tree. In all the commotion, we forgot to check that the tree was put on straight on the tree stand. We got home with our hot chocolate and tree to find that our tree looked like a cannon ready to fire. I mean it was at a 45 degree angle to the ground. Poor Sam wrestled with that tree for a good half hour before it finally surrendered and went straight. Way to go, Sam! Then, we all had fun listening to Christmas music while we decorated the tree.

Jing-Qi loves to wrap. The week or two before Christmas was filled with lots of wrapping of gifts for friends and family. Christina's school hosts a special store where the kids can buy inexpensive items for their families. Jing-Qi was allowed to participate as well, and she loved having gifts of her very own to give and wrap.

The eve of Christmas eve we all went to Sam's side of the family's Christmas dinner. I was concerned that meeting all the new people would be overwhelming for Jing-Qi, but she did awesome. She loved meeting everyone and playing with her cousins.

On Christmas Eve, we all enjoyed going to Grandma's house for the usual Christmas Eve gift of Christmas pajamas. Then, we all went to the candle light service at church, which was beautiful as usual. I love this service. It is so much fun to sing the traditional Christmas songs and light the candles while singing Silent Night. My parents come with us every year as well, which always makes it extra special.

On Christmas morning, we all went over to Grandma's house in our Christmas pajamas and open presents and have breakfast. My mom is up to twelve stockings on her hearth! Once again, I was concerned Jing-Qi would be overwhelmed by all the people and presents (Grandma has been known to get carried away), but not my girl. She had a blast!

That night, we all went to Aunt Mary's house for Christmas dinner and enjoyed the fellowship with more family.

We got home that night with Jing-Qi saying, "I like Mei Guo (America) Christmas!" She explained that in Taiwan she would stay up late and watch movies, which was fun, but there were no presents or family parties.

I am so grateful that we were able to have her home this Christmas. She has been adjusting incredibly well. I can't believe how well! She has embraced every member of the family and is learning family life well. I am so grateful! Praise God! We start back to our early morning schedule next week for school. I hope I'm still saying this next week! My girl does not do mornings well. She fits in to the Benavides family nicely.

OK. That's quite enough words! Here are some pics...

...at the Balboa Bay Club Christmas Boat Parade

We like silly faces...

Christina did Jing-Qi's hair.

Sam's dad with all his grandchildren & great grandchildren present

(a dozen more were out of state)

The dynamic duo sportin' their Christmas pajamas

Jing-Qi's first Grandma Christmas "sock"

Emily's 1st pic with her 1st Nikon camera-

following in her father's footsteps

Breakfast at Grandma & Grandpa's house...Yea!

Jing-Qi's 1st digital camera from Grandma & Grandpa

Christina, who struggles with SPD, wore the itchy dress!

This girl is silly!

She liked her Christmas dress so much, she tried to wear it to 

McDonald's the next day. She normally doesn't feel comfortable in dresses.

Christina escapes the itchy dress and celebrates with a little song.

Christina treated us to "Jesus Loves Me", "Hear Dem Bells",

and "Deck the Halls." Later, she improvises as her cousin, Hannah, 

dances ballet for us. It was quite a performance!

Mommy enjoys cousin, Austin's, beautiful piano.

Jing-Qi loves playing with her cousin, Chris, and Uncle Earl.

I think I will get her into fencing. 

Emily tries out Chris's archery set.

Wow! Go Grandma!

Christina is not feeling well. We find out a couple days later in the emergency room,

with a 104.5 degree temperature, that she has a really bad upper urinary tract infection.

She is doing better now, though, after a big scare to mama bear.

Here are the pics...

Here are our most recent pics of our new precious jewel. Warning: Some are very silly. Christina and Trina had a blast celebrating our Christmas lights going on for the first time, while our neighbors inflated the big snow man for the first time as well. The rest is pretty much from their cousin, Hannah's, birthday party. Last night was soooo much better in regards to the sleep situation, and she woke up no problems this morning, earning more student dollars. Yea!

Quick Update with More to Come...

I cannot believe it has been nine days since my last blog! I have been meaning to post more pictures, but we have been so busy. Trina is doing great. She is very smily and is very open to each member of the family, which I am so grateful for. She does get in an occasional disagreement with Christina, who she shares the room with, but they are the closest in age on top of sharing the room, and I would expect some bickering here or there. Most of the time, they play great. She is eating very well and loves to wrap little Christmas presents for her family. We had a wonderful time picking out our Christmas tree and decorating it. She was very excited about the lights on our house as well. Homeschooling has been going well so far, too. Christina's teacher said Trina could participate in her class's student store every 2 weeks. I handle the student store, so this was a great relief and help. Trina loves earning student dollars for reading and doing some school lessons with me. We are having the most difficult time with the sleep schedule. She simply does not want to go to bed at night. I let it go the first week, sympathizing with the time change and thinking that having to wake up in the morning to take the other two girls to school would fix the problem; however, it is a lot worse this week. She will not let Christina go to bed at night, and Christina is very overtired. Then, this morning, Trina would not wake up to take the girls to school and come to work with me. I had to carry her (all 60 lbs.) into the car with only her pajamas on and jacket and shoes in hand. My back is hurting a bit. Hopefully, tomorrow will go better. Please pray that she will adjust soon to our sleep schedule. Everything else is going very well, and we are so blessed to have our little Trina finally home. I will post pictures tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for all your prayers. They are so appreciated, and we are so thankful for every one of you.

Home, Sweet Home!

Sorry I didn't post the pics when I said I was going to, but here they are now. We had a really rough last night in Taiwan. The last day was wonderful, but when it came to saying goodbye to our guide we had quite a surprise. I knew my little one could have a problem with tearing up and missing people, but I expected this more when we left the orphanage. She did very well then and managed not to cry, but when it came to her last night in her home country with people that speak her home language, our daughter was very hard to comfort. This all hit as we said goodbye to our guide, Rosa. This wasn't merely quiet tears like when we hosted her. This was a full on outraged fit. She was screaming and crying for Rosa, who was indeed very wonderful and became like family to us while we were there, but I think she came to represent all of Taiwan and all that our little one has ever known. I felt terrible! I think the whole hotel could hear her screaming for Rosa. I tried to hold her and comfort her, but she just kept trying to break away and run for the door.

After maybe half an hour, she calmed down enough for me to communicate with her over the google translator. I tried to tell her that I understood her fears on leaving her home country and moving to a country she doesn't know with a whole new people and language to learn. I told her that I loved Taiwan, too, and could see why she would miss it. I told her we would try to come back to visit sometime. I told her that it would take time for her to feel entirely comfortable with us and that that was OK, but that I would try to be the best mommy I could be and help her. I told her about all the family and friends who already love her and are excited to meet her back in the US. I told her that I loved Rosa, too, and maybe we could have her as our guide again when we come back to visit Taiwan. All this seemed to finally calm her down, and we ended the evening with our usual hugs and smiles.

The next day at the airport, she was happy again and singing "Winnie the Pooh" as best she could. We repeated the same dialog over and over. She would say, "Zie Jian, Rosa. Zie, Jian Taiwan," and I would reply, "Bye-bye Rosa. Bye-bye Taiwan. I love Rosa. I love Taiwan. Hello US. Hello big sister. Hello, little sister. I love US." (in Chinese, of course) This seemed to be good closure for her. We had fun mirroring each other. I would copy her body position. Then she would make funny faces that I would try to copy, ending with her in hysterics. This seemed to help, too.

Our flight was a miracle in and of itself. I'm usually the type that likes to wait to the last minute to get on the plane, but I felt an urgency this time, so Sam was willing to board with the early boarders-those with children and the handicapped. The plane was full, and Sam had to sit separate from Jing-Qi and I, which was already a bummer, but no sooner did we find our seats and sit down then a couple came down the aisle holding the same seat number as me. I watched as this poor couple, whose flight had been cancelled the day before, got scrunched and pressed by oncoming passengers as they awaited news of their fate from the flight attendant. As bad as I felt for this couple, I was so glad that it wasn't Jing-Qi getting scrunched in the aisle. She had enough to deal with. Eventually, the flight attendant found a man that was willing to change seats to allow the couple to sit together somewhere else on the plane. He sat next to us. Jing-Qi ate and ate and hour into the flight. Then, we hit turbulance. I didn't know my new little one gets motion sickness. There were no bags for this sort of thing in the back of my seat, so a flight attendant gave us a big plastic bag and sent an announcement over the loudspeaker asking for a doctor as we returned to our seats. It turned out that the man sitting next to us was the doctor! We all sat down just in time for poor little Jing-Qi to throw up into the big bag as the doctor and I attended her. It all got in the bag! When does that ever happen?! The good doctor was from Taiwan and spoke Mandarin, making her feel very comfortable. He told me not to let her eat for the rest of the flight. Ooops. I massaged her feet, and she fell right asleep. She slept the whole rest of the flight.

When we finally made it home, a wide smiled started to stretch across her face as she observed all the Christmas lights on the houses welcoming her. "Wow!", she said. Then, we got her settled in her room. She absolutely loves it, especially the clouds and the glowing stars on the ceiling. Yea! She loves our refridgerator and pantry. She absolutely loves her sisters. She began to go around singing, "I so happy. I so happy." I began thinking, "I so happy. I so happy." Praise God! He is so faithful and has been with us through the whole journey. I am so grateful.

Here are more pics....

Pics from Yesterday...

We are having a blast here in Taiwan. Trina is such a trooper. The Benavides family tends to be "go,go,go" and I think she is fitting in beautifully. We went to Taipei 101 the day before yesterday. We went first with our guide. Then, at night, we went back just us three. It was great bonding time, but we didn't get to bed until about midnight. Taiwan is amazing! Yesterday, we went to the mountain, but it was raining. That didn't stop the Benavides family. : )  We had a blast doing a short hike to see a pretty bridge through the rain. Trina was giggling the whole way through. Then, we went to the Night market. Trina giggled the whole way through this as well. She seems to be very happy and is having fun with our sightseeing. She catches up on her rest in the car, where she often naps. We have been able to sleep in the last couple of days as well, which is very helpful. I love our hotel. I love our hotel. Did I mention that I love our hotel? We have a wonderful breakfast included in the price of our room each morning. The view from the restaurant overlooks Taipei 101, which we also love. We can take the sky bridge over to Taipei 101, where they have a wonderful foodcourt in the basement. The food is great and inexpensive. Our guide, Rosa, has also been wonderful. This is our last official day of sightseeing. Then, the next day we travel home. I will post more pictures tomorrow. Thanks for all your prayers and support!