The O'Cain family journal is moving. I have found a blog server that I am going to try. I like the way it is set up and that I can have my site put on a memory CD as a keepsake. My blog serves two purposes. One is to share the blessings of adopting a child and the other is to chronicle our family times together. You Belong is designed for both of those purposes.

To see our new home please visit: www.youbelong.net/theocaincrew

Another reason I like this site is because it is easier for people to leave messages, no having to set up a blogger account. This should be nice for the grandparents to be able to leave messages and those who don't have blogger.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ONE OF THE GREATEST JOYS OF MY LIFE, WYATT!!!!!

As of today Lily has officially been ours for 26 days and home for 16 days. Things are still going very well and each day we learn new things about her and we learn how to live together as a family of 7.

Lily's daily schedule starts with sleeping in. As I write this it is 9:54 and she is still in bed. It is not usually this late everyday but she usually sleeps until at least 8:30. She always comes downstairs with a smile and sort of sleepy look. ( She just came down, grabbed my hand and pulled me upstairs to her room. She had spent the last hour making her bed and cleaning her room. She even refolded and straightened the clothes in her drawers). First we have breakfast which usually consists of Egg Drop Soup or rice or noodles. She doesn't seem to care for any typical American breakfast foods. After breakfast she will say " take a bath" and off to the bath we go. I start the water, help her pick out clothes and then leave. She will be bop downstairs about 15 minutes later, dressed and ready for the day. For the rest of the day we spend our time doing many things. Lately she has discovered those little tadpoles we found turn into the cutest little frogs, if it is not too sunny and hot she will walk around outside looking for those frogs and if mommy can, she helps because she has a very good eye for them. We also like to draw and this has proved helpful when trying to communicate more difficult subjects. We have used drawings to explain mommy going to work, Lily's future trip to the dentist, when some one's birthday is and as suggested by a article on attachment we used it to show Lily who her immediate family is and who her extended family is. This big family thing is so new for her but she is doing great understanding it.

Sellers brought home a 2nd grade left over math book for Lily and daily she works in it. She catches on quickly with math but we need to spend our time on letters. She is starting to want to learn them so that has helped. We went to the bookstore this week and I let her pick out some books. Later that night when going to bed she got one for me to read to her, when she opened it she seemed surprised that it was in English. She just looks at it and says " I don't know". She let me read it but hasn't since. She just isn't ready for that yet and that is OK. She has almost learned the whole alphabet (she was familiar with some letters when we got her) and we have some little alphabet books we look at. Her English comprehension is good and she says quite a few words, I couldn't even begin to list them all here.

This past week she got her first baby doll and she loves it. It makes little noises and moves. For the first few days she took it everywhere, now she just plays with it at home. She also plays with her Barbies and this week her and her brother's put on a Barbie fashion show for me. She loves to cook and we have been cooking a lot of fried rice, noodles and soup. She copies a lot of what I do and even puts on an apron when she cooks as I often do so I don't get stains on my clothes.

She does not like hot. She will refuse to get in the car until I have cooled it down. Outside in the sun she will carry an umbrella to keep the sun off of her as did many Chinese when we were in China. She does not like cold either and wants to sleep in long sleeve and long pant pajamas. She doesn't have a lot of meat on her bones so I imagine she is always cold inside.

I am usually the one to put her to bed unless I am working. It takes about 30 to 45 minutes but that includes a lot of learning. We usually do some letters or math before bed. She is always the one getting the books out. This girl LOVES to learn. I still lay in bed with her with lights out for about 5 or so minutes. I then leave and we don't see her again until morning. She has never gotten out of bed.

The longer she is home the more comfortable she is and the more she tests the water. We are consistent with her and treat her just like the boys, if they can't do it then she can't. There doesn't seem to be any jealousy between them. She shares with them, looks after them and truly adores them. They are so sweet with her and understanding. One day we took her to get some toys because we had not got her any yet and didn't buy the boys anything. No one said a word. They just understood, that made me proud.

I had a hard time going back to work this past week. I just wasn't ready but couldn't take any more time, I just haven't been there long enough. Overall she did fine with me going just putting up a little bit of a fight with pulling and hugging on me and saying, "no". It has been good for her and daddy because now she is with him 3 afternoons and nights without me around. I can already see a difference in their relationship just this week.

I could say more but this post is long enough. I have got to go. It has taken me all day to get this written and I am ready for bed! On the 11th it is our 1 month Gotcha Anniversary, time just flies! We are so in love with our little girl!

Cooking with Mason:

Loves to have her picture taken and will ask me to take it everytime she has on something new.

Our little American girl. If you look closely you can see she got carried away with some old make up I had given her to play with. She puts it on every morning and I haven't been able to make her understand it is just for play. Today I had to wipe it off, she didn't get mad at me thank goodness!

We have been taking a step back and realize now we did too much too soon with Lily. Too many new people, too many experiences. She is doing great still and such a great joy but we want what is best for her and what is best for her attachment to John and I. Many people "know" Lily through our blog but please remember she does not know you and it can be quite strange to her for a complete stranger to walk up to her and call her name and touch her. We appreciate how much everyone loves her and supports us but please respect that she is going through a lot in her little head.

I am going to try and do a update tomorrow on how it is going which is great!

Down by the river with Poppy and Nama.Chilling by the river with Wyatt.

It's official, Lily is an American Citizen.
She received her first credit card application in the mail yesterday.
I think I will keep this one for her memory box.
Just because I think it is so funny.
It is even addressed to her in her Chinese name.

Big Update coming this weekend!

Two things to add to the earlier post...

As you wait for your adopted child you try to imagine what they are like in person. John and I would talk about how we wondered what her voice sounded like, what she actually looked like, etc. Never in a million years would I have imagined my cute, dainty little daughter would have the loudest, and I mean loudest voice in a house full of boys. It keeps me cracking up to hear such loudness coming out of such a small young girl. (especially when it is usually in Chinese)


Also, the other day I made a sheet of math problems just to see what she knew. I was surprised and happy that she could easily do addition and subtraction problems. Now she brings me paper and pen several times a day so I can make her some practice problems. She only occasionally makes a mistake so I am glad about that!

Oh and one more thing... These are her current phrases she is using in English

Gimme Five
Good Morning
Goodnight
Sorry
Okay
I don't know
Oh my gah ( yeah I'm working on that one)

She is also starting to repeat a lot of what I say, It's so fun to see how much she is learning and so fast!

We seem to be settling in well with our new little one. She is making herself right at home and seems to be happy. She keeps herself and those around her very busy and we are having fun getting to know each other. She has met all of her extended family except my brother who lives in AZ. She is smitten with her girl cousins and loves to play with them. She has been very responsive to her grandparents, aunts and uncles and I'm sure has stolen their hearts too. She got a new bike (thanks) and some toys (thanks) and I know it makes her feel so special. Today I took her to Target to get some things for her room. She was so excited and kept putting her hand over her heart and patting it. This is her way of telling me she is excited and surprised. We bought a couple toys and some smaller shirts since she is so slim. As soon as we got home she tore into everything and put it up.

She also went to the pool for the first time with John and Sellers. With some coaxing from her cousin she did go out into the pool which shocked me. In China she would not go beyond the 3 feet section. I am glad she is liking it because we like to go swimming around here often.

Today the boys went back to school and I wasn't sure how that would go but other than asking me a few dozen times where they were she did fine. She was very happy when they came home. I am sure she is wondering if she will go to school.

Last night I lay awake worrying about her teeth. She has some severe decay in her back teeth. I am just worried about what this means for her and what she will have to go through to have them taken care of. I just don't understand how someone so young can have such decay.

Lily opening a present, she was so excited.



Lily trying out her bike for the first time.Having her first southern cookout, hamburgers!

I was unable to access Blogger once I was in Guangzhou, apparently it was blocked because other families were unable to access it either. If you missed our trip you can go to

www.myadoptionwebsite.com/lovinglily/

and get a recap. Luckily I had set that up and had another avenue to update everyone on our trip. The site is unlocked now since she is legally ours. In the next couple days I will start posting here again but not as often. I am looking at updating twice a week on set days, I'll keep ya posted!

If you haven't been there go check it out, we had an awesome trip!

Ni Hao from China! After a 20+ hour travel day we made it to Beijing. Here is our day in a nutshell. I may not have time to do this everyday. My most thought through post will be on the other sight.

We left our house around 630 am and John's dad met and took us to the airport. We boarded the plane and then we were informed there was a paperwork problem and we had to wait. Once that was straightened we then got a new route to Chicago. Apparently our little jet didn't have enough fuel for that route so we had to wait to get more fuel. We ended up leaving 50 minutes late. Thankfully we had enough layover time in Chicago so it did not effect us. When we got to Chicago we ate lunch and boarded our plane.

When we first boarded the plane I nearly panicked. It felt so claustrophobic I didn't know if I could do it. I had to sit in a very tight space in the middle of a long row. Thankfully I did adjust although it was one of hardest things to do. 13 hours never seemed so long.Here's a little plane by the numbers:

34 The row we sat on
179 The number of people in economy
100 The number of blankets available for those in economy (boy I am glad I had mine)
60 The temperature it felt like they kept it on the whole time
2 The number of lunches we were fed (they just fed us whatever, whenever-made little sense to me)
1 The number of lunches good enough to eat
8 The number of times we talked about wishing we were in business class
13 The number of hours the people sitting in front of John kept their seat all the back.
2 The number of inches between our knees and the seat in front of us.
5 The number of passengers wearing face masks.
2 The number of times I watched Bride Wars ( watched one other movie too)
38000 The number of ft in the air we flew
6700 The number of miles we flew from Chicago to Beijing


When we got to the airport it was very easy to figure out what to do. We quickly got through everything and located our guide Tom. There is a picture of that on the site. It was so weird how all of a sudden we enter this room and there are dozens and dozens of people holding up signs to meet someone. I thought we might never find our guide but we did. He whisked us away to a van and off we were on a 40 min ride to our hotel. Riding around Beijing is so interesting. I have never seen so many giant apartment building. Some are nice and many you can tell are a little older and not as nice. There were people everywhere. Cars, buses, bikes and pedestrians all use the same roads to it is quite wild at times. It was chaotic but seemed that everyone knew what they were doing. Tom checked us into our hotel and off to our room we went. The hotel is very pretty. We are very pleased. The room is nice and the bed is actually big. I had been worried about sleeping on their beds because I had heard they were hard. Last night our bed looked to soft and I was pleasantly surprised until I lay down and it doesn't give at all, it is quite firm. Last night I was too tired to care! At six we met the family I have been in contact with and Tom took us to eat. The food was so good and we seem to get along well with this family. They are so nice and I look forward to being with them through all of our trip! We all started feeling tired so we heading back to our rooms, John and I were asleep before 730 and we slept until 4 this morning. I feel better but one more nights sleep should do it! This morning we are off to Tianemen Square, Forbidden City and the GREAT WAll! I am so excited about getting out and seeing this city. So far I really like China a lot!

This is my last post before we leave. I have so much to do that my mind feels like it is going to explode. I am just home from work (1230 am) and can't rest thinking of all I need to do.
When I am going somewhere I always think I am more prepared than I really am until the last minute and then I realize I still have so much to do. And to make things more interesting; I have never traveled this long, never left my children this long, and have never traveled to a foreign country, never adopted, etc. so that adds a lot to the preparation for the trip. So what I am trying to say is Goodbye! I will not have time for blogs for the next few days!

Be sure to check out our travel blog at

www.myadoptionwebsite.com/lovinglily/

It is and will be password protected until we have her and she is legally ours. Not sure what day in our trip that will be. If you do not have the password leave a comment and email and I will try to get back to ya!

At this time we have received an email from our agency and from the US Consulate in Ghuangzhou in regards to the swine flu scare. At this time nothing has changed and we are still set to go. They have however suspended visits to the orphanages so it is very likely we will not get to visit. I am disappointed but at this point I just want to go, get Lily and come home. I will either take the orphanage donations and mail them to the orphanage while in China or mail them from here. Any Advice? I may take them just in case I am able to go. We'll see.

We are praying for this flu to stay under control and for our travels to stay on time and be safe!
Please join us.

I know this is not very good. The boy I was trying to zoom on in the back turned out not to be Noah. I have the hardest time finding him back there. It didn't help we were on the second row, the back rows were taken. Even though it's not great you get the idea.

Tonight Noah had his 6th grade band concert. It was quite good and I always enjoy watching my kids do something they enjoy. Noah plays percussion and does a little of everything. He loves it but the downfall is he is always in the very back and we can never see him. I tried and tried to get some decent footage but all you can see is the top of his head and the drumsticks moving about. They played several pieces, most surprisingly they played a beautiful version of Jesus Loves Me. Even in the conservative South this is something that took me by surprise. It was a good surprise. I am happy that my son has a teacher that isn't afraid to play something that could be seen as controversial by some folks these days. Tomorrow I may attempt to put some footage here of them playing. (I just tried to download it and not only did I not succeed with that I also accidentally erased it- :0( )

Another little thing on my mind right now it this new flu bug. I do not know if China would close their borders but if my trip to China was postponed because of this flu I am going to be so upset.
I just am praying that we get out of here before anything drastic happens. We only have 9 days to get through! (yes, I did just type a single digit-we are going to China in 9 days! )Please pray that NOTHING keeps us from going next week! Thanks!

This morning I got some new pictures of Lily. They are on Loving Lily the blog (not my adoption website.com). Check them out. I think they are cute even if she is wearing a Spiderman shirt!

With our letter I sent two packs of stickers. They were Hello Kitty and Spiderman. Lily has on Spiderman and the other girl has on Hello Kitty. I guess it was a coincidence, I thought that was cool.

Just TWO WEEKS and we will be en route to China! actually this time in two weeks we will be in the midst of a 19 hour journey. I am starting to get a little nervous about all that travel. And it doesn't help that we went to the attorney's office today to sign our wills. I found it kind of weird but it is an absolute necessity when you are leaving four kids and a lot of stuff behind! Please start praying for us to have safe travel. I need peace with it, I have very little travel experience. Sorry- I did not mean for this post to turn morbid! I am just so excited we have just two weeks left!It is a fabulous FRIDAY! 88 degrees, Sunny and wonderful!

Have a great weekend!

I always find the best things on other peoples blogs. This speaks volumes to me.

I have just watched this twice. Honestly can you even fathom that many children are orphaned? It is unbelieveable to me. I so want to make a difference, to more than just one. I will become mommy to one, but I want to help more. John keeps telling me if I let him sell our house (don't have a heart attack Poppy) and move to the country and buy some land we could adopt as many as I wanted....you better watch out John I might take you up on it!

Today (or yesterday, the time difference messes me up) a young girl from Lily's orphanage was united with her Daddy and Mommy (mommy via Skype). Her name is Sunny. The post from her mom posting about their meeting is so cute. You can actually feel the excitement in her "voice".
Go here if you want to check it out. They are planning on going to the orphanage and meeting Lily to give her our letter and stickers. I hope they do! Congratulations Jennifer and Lloyd on Sunny!

Here is our itinerary for our trip, there is no trip listed to Lily's orphanage so I am not sure at this point if we will be able to go. I really hope so, I have been counting on it! We leave in a mere 18 days and meet Lily in just 3 weeks.

May 9: Arriving in Beijing by at 15:15,
Staying in Wang Fu Jing Grand Hotel in Beijing
May 10: Local sightseeing: Forbidden City and Great Wall
May 11: Fly from Beijing to Guangzhou by CZ#3108 at 09:15,
Arriving Guangzhou at 12:20, Transfer to White Swan Hotel
Meet Lily in the afternoon -GOTCHA DAY!
May 12: Registration and notarization
May 13: Apply passport, Shang Xia Jiu Pedestrian Shopping Street
May 14: Local sightseeing: Six Banyan Temple, Family Chen’s Temple
May 15: Local sightseeing: Liu Hua Hu Park
May 16: Local sightseeing: Zoo
May 17: Local sightseeing: Yuntai Garden
May 18: Getting legal documents, taking visa photo and Physical check
May 19: Visa appointment at 9:30
May 20: Swearing in the ceremony at the Consulate, getting the visa
May 21: fly from Guangzhou to Beijing to the US