Day 15 in China -- One Year Ago Today

Mom spent most of the day doing paper work, Dad watched after the girls, and everyone got together in the evening for a fun pizza party. Click here to read the post for that day and here to see lots of fun pictures taken that day.

The girls spending time with Charlie


Hope and Charley - Isn't he just a little gentleman!


Mom, Dad, and Girls with the China Team

A Special Post ---

On "Day 9" last year (October 12), two days after the twins met their Mom and Dad, they were waiting in the hotel lobby getting ready for a sightseeing trip with their group when Tara saw a woman approaching her with what appeared to be the photo album she had sent to the girls in their care package. She thought it must be someone from the orphanage delivering it to them as it wasn't given back to them when they got the girls but when the twins spotted the woman and the man accompanying her they started screaming and crying and it didn't take long to figure out who this couple was -- the Foster Parents!

Of course the girls immediately started reaching for them and Mom and Dad let them go -- hesitantly I'm sure. Dirk said he was a bit scared and immediately moved between them and the door "just in case". It seems that as soon as the orphanage director picked the girls up on the morning of October 10 the Foster Parents left by bus to travel from their home in Fuzhou to Nanchang to search for the twins and their new parents. They had an interpreter with them and had been going from hotel to hotel for the previous two days looking for them. Of course they had no names and no idea which hotel in a city of 2 1/2 million people but they were determined to meet the girls' new parents and I'm sure get one more glance of these little girls they had cared for and nurtured from the time they were just 10 days old.

There wasn't much time for Tara and Dirk to visit with the Foster Parents as the group was getting ready to leave but the Foster Mother gave Tara some pictures of the girls and asked if she could keep the photo album (of course Tara happily agreed). On the back of the photographs there is writing which I'm sure includes their name and contact information but unfortunately we have not been able to get this information translated because of the dialect they speak. Mimi will continue to pursue this as I feel it is important to stay in touch with them and perhaps someday go back to China to visit them.

We have waited to post this for several reasons but Mimi thought this was such a wonderful thing for the girls' Foster Parents to have done and wanted finally share this story and Mom and Dad agreed. Unfortunately they weren't able to take but a few pictures and they are all pretty dark but I've lightened this on up a bit and want to share it with all of you ----

Continuing of Our Journey Down Memory Lane ---

Mimi apologizes for the delay but is back on track and wants to invite you to continue our journey remembering the remainder of "The China Trip". I have included a picture for each of the days to 'catch up'. If you click on the "Day ..." it will take you back to the post for that day last year.

Day 8 in China - This was the first full day the girls spent with their Mom and Dad and was also the Official Chinese Adoption Day (and the infamous trip to Walmart :)
Mom, Dad, and the Twins


Hope and Faith checking out Nanchang from their hotel


Day 9 in China was spent visiting a Chinese Temple with their travel group. Clicking here will also get you to some great pictures posted that day.
Mom, Dad, and the Girls

The Group in front of a Chinese Temple


Day 10 in China was spent visiting an art museum and more siteseeing with lots of great pictures.
Dad teaching Hope "Guns Up" (it's a Texas Tech Red Raiders' thing :)


Day 11 in China - a visit to People's Park and fun play time with the girls (this post also includes pictures of a Chinese Walmart :)


Day 12 in China - a visit to the Tengwang Pavilion and a porcelain market was the agenda this day.
Mom, Dad, and the Girls - the twins were born in the Year of the Monkey

Dad and the girls waiting patiently while Mom shopped

The Tea Set they brought Mimi that was made in Jiangxi, the province where the girls were born


Day 13 in China - This is the day the girls took their first plane trip, they left Jiangxi Province where they were born to begin the first leg of the long trip to their new home and traveled to Dongguan were they would spend the remainder of their trip.
Waiting at the airport


Day 14 in China was spent on their medical visit (a requirement before the girls could be issued their Visas) and a fun dinner cruise on the Pearl River
Dad and the girls waiting for their medical appointment.....

Mom and the girls on the Pearl River Cruise

Congrats to DeLeon Bearcats!

Last Friday Mimi made a mad dash from Portland OR to DeLeon TX to watch the twins' Cousins Cody and Tanner (two of Mimi's grandsons) and the DeLeon Bearcats play football -- WE WON!!

after two overtimes!!! and two of the touchdowns were scored by Cousin Tanner!!!!
Needless to say we were all VERY excited, unfortunately Tara, Dirk, and the girls weren't able to attend (they were back home waiting for their last "Home Visit" to complete the China Adoption process).

Here are a few pictures from game night --

Cousin Neeley got to cheer before the game (and her brother Slade was sick and missed most of the game -- glad to hear your feeling much better Slade!)


Baby Cousin Jake had a big smile when Tanner scored his second touchdown :)


Cousin Cody and some of the Senior Bearcats celebrating after the game (Hunter - where did you go?)


Tanner -- Great Game!!


Cody -- and to you too!


Cody, Bailey, and Tanner


Proud Mom (Aunt Chelle)with her kids -

Day 7 in China -- One Year Ago Today
Happy "Gotcha Day" to Hope and Faith

Wow, it's hard to believe it's been a whole year since these little girls came into our lives -- and it's hard to believe it's ONLY been a year. How very blessed we are.

Happy Gotcha/Family Day to all of our group!

Click here to revisit last year's post of Gotcha Day.

Looking back to this day last year ---
One of Mimi's favorite pictures -- and it isn't even very clear but oh how you can see the sheer joy in Mom and Dad's faces when they saw the girls for the very first time


Here are a few "Then and Now" pictures for you to enjoy --

Two very scared little girls then


One very happy Lindsey Family today

Day 6 in China -- One Year Ago Today

Day 6 was spent meeting their adoption group and filling out lots of paperwork. I'm sure Mom and Dad were thinking a lot about the day ahead when they would finally meet their new daughters. I can only imagine the emotions they were experiencing but Mimi certainly knows what she was feeling that day -- excitement, concern (for those little ones that were about to have their world turned upside down), joy, apprehension (how would they deal with the language and attachment issues), but most of all confidence that these little girls were about to meet two wonderful parents and become the newest members to a pretty great family who would give them lots of love.

Dimsum Lunch in Guanzhou getting to know everyone in the adoption travel group


These next two pictures were actually taken at the airport very early the next day as they were leaving for Nanchang.
Dirk and Tara


The group --


And a few recent pictures of the twins --
Faith and Hope


Our little cheerleaders -- Faith and Hope

Day 5 in China -- One Year Ago Today

Day 5 brought to an end the "Pre-Trip" Tara and Dirk chose to take before the "Official Adoption" part of the trip. On this day they said Goodbye to Beijing and flew off to Guangzhou where they were to meet the rest of their group on the following day.
Note: Clicking on the Pink words will take you to the post from last year.


A few recent pictures of the girls with more of their cousins --
As frightened as girls have been of most animals, they don't seem to be as intimidated by the larger ones??? Hope goes for a ride with Cousin Hannah (and Uncle David stands by)


Cousin Sidney holding Hope, Cousin Hannah, and Faith(sorry, can't tell from the picture who is holding her)

Day 4 in China -- One Year Ago Today

Day 4 was spent visiting the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. They also visited a Hutong (a traditional Chinese community) -- I wonder if it is similar to the community where the girls spent most of the first 22 months of their lives with their foster family?


The Forbidden City


A recent picture of the girls and a few of their cousins ---
Slade, Cody & Hope, and Bailey & Faith

Day 3 in China -- One Year Ago Today

Day 3 was another day of sight seeing including a visit to The Great Wall of China.


and for a dose of the present, here is a picture of the girls fresh from their bath decked out in their new "Mimi's Princess" shirts! It has proven to be rather difficult to find anything "Mimi" related so when Mimi came across these cute T Shirts she bought them right away -- also offered one to Cousin Bailey (who's 11 now) but she grinned and declined :)

Day 2 in China -- One Year Ago Today

Sightseeing was the name of the game on this second day in China for Mom and Dad, including a visit to the Summer Palace and the Temple of Heaven.


Mimi also has a few pictures to share when Mom, Dad, and the girls visited this past July.

This is a picture taken of the girls, Tara (Mom) and Tara's Grandmother, Marie. The girls were both named after her -- Hope Marie and Faith Marie. --


and more pictures of the visit from Candice and Josh who brought some fun foo foo stuff for the girls!