11 weeks vs 11 months

Well we took our little getaway trip to French Lick. We spent time with friends in Newburgh, IN, on our way to French Lick and Jailyn played with Abigail and Allison and had big time fun. See the pictures of the girls playing. Then spent 2 days at the French Lick Resort. We love it there and Jailyn was pretty good in new surroundings and a little uneasy the first night and then the second was much better. She loved swimming and had fun playing in the pool on the shallow stairs. She was a big hit with all the guests and they thought she was too cute in her Tankini and so social with everyone who watched her. Our trip may have been a bit early to travel again with her still attaching and bonding with us and to change the dynamics of sleep and a new place for a few nights. She did well travelling however the last 1/2 hour of the trip she wanted out of that car seat. She amazingly enough travels very well with all things considered. She was so happy to come home and loved getting back in her routine today to play with her toys.

We have realized 11 weeks is very little time versus the 11 months with her foster mom. She is still attaching, bonding and getting closer to us and trusting we will always be there for her. We are giving love and attention and she is responsive however she must let herself feel the closeness and love which she pushes away sometimes going to bed and resisting cuddling. The fear to love and the fear to not have it taken away are very legitimate emotions she is dealing with at such a young age and will all come around with more time. It is coming......She had her first night terror last night not sure if it is the teething of her molars starting to come in or the trauma of our trip causing regression and memories of the past. She cried with big tears while sleeping for a 1/2 hour and I did not wake her however was able to hold her while she cried and tried to comfort and calm her down to know she is okay and with her momma. We were advised to not wake her if she has these night terrors as she needs to process the emotions in her sleep. It broke my heart and I cried for her too. Whatever did or did not happen in those 11 months still have impact. All the quality time together, love, prayers and holding time in with us are still in the beginning stages of our forever bond with Jailyn. We are spending the extra time at nap time and bed time to meet her needs of being there and comforting her with reassurance and words of affirmation it is okay and that we love her and will be here.

See our pictures at the West Badin Resort on the wavy couch.

We are pressing on now for 11 weeks of our journey of a lifetime with our baby girl, Jailyn. We feel truly blessed and honored with the gift of our little girl's life we share. We could not be any happier or more proud to be Jailyn's Mommy and Daddy.

13 Month Photo Shoot

Jailyn had her 13 month photo shoot in her bathing suit and boy was she cute. Enjoy her photos.

10 week Milestones

I will post her 13 month old pictures later this week as we will have them taken on Tuesday. Just blogging and checking in for the week. Jailyn appears to be bonding more and more with us and trusts we will be there. She is starting to snuggle and cuddle a bit as she never had that with her foster mom. I can't believe 10 weeks have pasted and she is doing so well. We are in a good routine and starting to transition to letting her stay with my folks a few hrs (twice this week) and soon with her sitter while I work on Tuesday and Thursday. She has been fine when I have family come over and watch her in the home too so I can run errands and have my much needed hair and nail appts......We will transition slowly when I start to work in Sept. My work schedule will be light but need to get back in the groove. My business is perfect and flexible and I get to be with her every morning and until after naptime. We went for our check up visit with Dr. Staat at Children's Hospital and all went well. There is still a small hole in her ear and they want us to have a hearing test and she still pulls on it. They are not too concerned and believe it will heal. She had two more shots cried and ate a mum mum like a trooper and was fine. We have joined the family with children from China group and Lynelle and I went to a ladies night out on Friday with the group. I was so happy to be out with the girls. I forgot how much I missed that girlfriend time over the past weeks. It is so needed and Mike and Jailyn did great with out me. Mike and I were able to have a couples massage on Saturday for a few hours and it was nice to be out just the two of us. This week we are taking a short trip to French Lick with Jailyn and will see friends on Thursday and have a day at the pool on Friday and back on Saturday. I am continually amazed at all the things Jailyn is learning and doing and it won't be long and she will be walking on her own. She can really move crawling and gets around quite nicely. Night time is getting better sometimes lots of fussing other times she is fine and learning to play in her crib with her toys and have fun in the mornings and before nap time or bed time. Wow 10 weeks and the best is yet to come and the tears flood many times when I hear the music on our blog and know how far we have come and GOD's PLAN was perfect for Jailyn to join our family. We are blessed beyond our wildest dreams with this amazing little girl and Thank God daily for this wonderful gift and blessing of Jailyn who truly is our little dream come true.

13 months old and such a gift to us!

Wow the weeks are just flying by and we have had Jailyn 9 weeks today and she turned 13 months old Aug 11. Even brought out another toy we had for her hide in her closet, the Princess mobile. She is figuring it out and pulls herself up and stands by it and plays with all the princess noises. She mimics sounds and things Mike and I do. She loves the buzzing sounds of her bee toy which I adore because it reminds me to bee-lieve always in Gods goodness for our lives. BELIEVE means Because Emmanuel Lives I Expect Victory Everytime. She has been playing us at night time since she can stand in her crib now. When she does not want to go to sleep which is usually always we rock her and get her asleep and then put her in her crib and then she wakes up a little and gets up and stands and screams (faking a lot of drama) then we pick her up and she smiles and stops then we do it again and the same thing one more time and then the last time we let her fuss for five minutes she gets mad and then we pick her up and rock to asleep and she is out. She is so smart and playing us and loves being a big stuff standing in her crib.

I have been on the internet researching the area she came from and found out lots and been on a research china site with pictures of the area and the orphanage and pictures of many of the fostered kids and their foster mothers. We have no information but the picture in the paper of her abandonment and her adoption docs stating where she was found and know she was in foster care. I found out the following that FengCheng has a population of 1.2 million and 51% are male and 48% female and the city means Harvest city which is only 37 miles from Nanchang the capital where they brought Jailyn to us. The majority of the people work in the rice fields, tea fields, coal mining industry and the area produces pork, chickens, beef, shrimp, fish and duck. Both husbands and wives work together and the grandparents raise the boy children. It is a poor area and most have very little education. Their census stated 1% attend university, 28% attend High school, 51% attend primary school and 19% never attended school. There is 21% of the population that have adult illiteracy and of that 11% are men and 31% are women. The households usually consist of a husband and wife, husbands parents and one male child. Since researching FengCheng I have thought so much about Jailyn's birth parents and feel so blessed we were chosen to be her mom and dad. I am so grateful we are able to give Jailyn a happy life with lots of love and opportunity to realize her hopes and dreams in her life. We have the honor of giving her wings to become the person she is called to be. How awesome is that! Our misfortune of being unable to have our own biological children has been the biggest blessing of all as we would not have this amazing little girl from China that rocks our world with love and newness of life and brings so much joy into our home. Life is a precious gift from God and we must cherish everyday and celebrate the blessing we have daily. This little girl has changed our lives and things are quite different at the Thornbury home and it is the norm now and I know the best is yet to come. Checkout these pictures on her princess mobile with her BEE on her head looking a bit puzzled and climbing up to stand by our couch which she does so many times in a day... can't wait for her to walk however Mike and I know she will be into everything and we must be on our toes watching her....

Truly blessed and very happy!

I'm growing so BIG!!!! Crawling, Standing and Walking!

Oh my stars our baby girl is getting big! She has started to crawl something we thought she might not do since she hated tummy time and never spent time on her tummy. She is standing in her crib and wants to walk with us always. She is less wobbly and will be taking off in a matter of days walking on her own. Her walker has helped her so much. It is amazing how almost 2 months with us she is doing so much and growing lots. She was a big hit at my unit baby warming gots lots of wonderful gifts from the incredible women I get to do life with in Mary Kay. Thank you everyone. Wednesday she had her well check with Dr. Finney. She was so good and we got a great report and clean bill of health. Woohoo! She now weighs 18.4 lbs and has gained approx 3 lbs since she has been with us and has grown 2 inches and now 28 3/4" tall. Her skin is great and ears are fine. She only received one shot the Hep A as she was good on the Hep B and they said her blood work was good and that she had the chicken pox immunities so she had chicken pox or the vaccine in China. We goto Dr. Staat at Children's Aug 17 and will get more shots there and a check up on any international concerns. She cried for a few seconds when she got her shot then ate her MUM MUMs. I am telling you MUM MUMs have saved our life with our baby girl. If she gets a MUM MUM life is great with Jailyn. She has also taken a liking to baby gold fish......Check out these pictures of our big girl!!!!