Too Cute Not To Share

Dax turns 5, celebrating at Sunday school with cookies

No matter what Susi is doing, she will always stop to smile for the camera

Bed time story time, my five with their friend, Ava

Dax loves playing in pud

So does Graci

This is Thad's burrito. When it was served, believe it or not, it was wrapped tightly and completely looked like a burrito

Sweet Kamby, she is a charmer

Hard at work, Kamby is really focusing

Silly girl

See ya mom

The three musketeers, they are best friends!

Hands down, corn on the cob is Susi's favorite food

Kamby doing a little Kareoke while sitting on the potty

That ready to go as soon as he goes potty. He would do awesome with the sqatties in China.

The baking crew - Alyx, Serenity, and Graci made peanut butter cookies, ginger cookies, and brownies. YUM!

Baths in the backyard. This is actually the first time we have showered them in the backyard. Alyx had just mopped the floor inside and I didn't want them tracking through it plus I was really tired. So we just hosed them down, lathered them up, right out on the concrete slab. They loved it! I hope none of our neighbors were watching.

Susi's 1st Month Home

First Sunday at church and Sunday school

First haircut (with us anyway)

First pancake/waffle Saturday with Daddy

First babydoll

First movie/campout in the playroom with brother and sister

First 'pud play' in the backyard

First 'pud play'

First burrito (she loved it and ate the whole thing)

First tea party

First ping pong game (with us anyway)

First day of home school

First stick on fingernails (with cousin Serenity)

First bath/shower in the backyard after playing in the new sandbox

We have had a wonderful first month with our girl. She is a pure delight! Every time I come home or go in to get her after sleeping she flaps her arms, bounces up and down and squeals, "MOMMY, MOMMY, MOMMY!" It is quite precious! Susi is super smart and a very quick learner. She is catching on to English, using her words, and memorizing Bible verses, she loves to learn. She started Awana cubbies a few weeks ago and absolutely loves it. She was so proud of earning her vest and book after memorizing her verses. Saying her verse to her cubbie leader (who happens to be her big sister, Savannah) was the first time she really spoke to others voluntarily. Now she asks to say her verses. We thought that Susi would like to use her wheelchair around the house but she prefers to crawl and scoot. She can get up to the table by herself, into her reading chair, and up to her desk. She is quite independant, but if given a preference she would like mommy to do things for her. One of our routines she picked up on very fast was looking in the mirror. After, I do the girls' hair they look in the mirror and we say "whoooooowhee, how pretty is _____________? So pretty!" She asks every morning and every night if she can look in the mirror and she gets a huge smile on her face when we whoooowheeee her! Susi just loves all her siblings, she continues to adjust to Thad a little more than the rest but she loves them all. Thad's style of love is a little rougher and more abrupt than the others. She is now down to just flinching when he comes to hug and kiss her (and zerbert her). He even gets her to zerbert his tummy now in exchange for NOT zerberting her. Thad's zerberts tend to resemble spitting a little more than zerberting. Susi doesn't get why we find it so charming, ha-ha! All in all, it has been a great months of firsts and we are looking forward to many, many more!

Going Home and HOME!

Waiting in the very hot train station in Guangzhou

On the train.....that was a nice change from the usual air travel. Headed to Hong Kong for the night.

Picnic in the Hong Kong train station

Our group picnic

Susi becomes a U.S. Citizen in Seattle, Washington. To my adopting friends, if you can avoid entering in Seattle, I sure would. They are completely disorganized in immigration, short handed, and we waited for hours. Ridiculous!

This was a nice treat when we finally processed and got to our connecting gate. My nieces were there to greet us and fly to Phx with us!

On the plane, finally going home! Graci, Susi, and cousin Charlen.

After we arrived home we had a nice family dinner at our favorite mexican food restaraunt. We almost left gracefully but not quite. We had two melting down before we could get out of the restaraunt. Susi, because she had only slept 3 hours in the past 27 hours(and her parents were silly enough to take her out to dinner) and Kamby because she thought she would copy Susi. Then everyone thought mommy should carry them all since I was carrying Susi. It was quite the sight, but we had a great meal in the to go boxes we took home.

Susi is loving being home. She is exploring all the toys and fits right in with all the littles. She loves her big sisters and enjoyed her cousins today.

Brady 9

Happy girl! She can climb up on the trampoline by herself and bounce her little bottom.

Well, it was sure a long journey home but all went well. It was so different traveling with a four and five year old instead of babies. I have not done that before. It was so much easier! We calculated that we had visited 8 airports, taken 8 flights, 9 cities, 1 train, countless buses and vans, 4 hotels, and many waiting areas in 2 weeks. We were trying to calculate the miles traveled but we are still too tired to think that high. Whenever we had trouble persevering we just looked at Susi and told her she was worth it all. Susi is such a happy and well adjusted girl. We are learning that our angel has a stubborn side and is quite ornery! She also knows how to cry on command and shed tears when told no firmly. She has just loved all her brothers and sisters. She has given kisses and hugs to everyone and called them all by name. She is also sleeping wonderfully and enjoys going to bed with her sisters in the 'girl' room.

Photo Day and The Red Couch

Photo Opp

Can you tell Susi loves her new sunglasses!

Red couch photos

Susi getting ready for the group red couch photo

It was a little harder to get everyone on board for the picture. These are the 6 cuties who joined their forever families with Susi (and Xander's mom because he had no intention of sitting on the couch). Left to right -Sydnee, Brendan, Susi, Xander, Chloe, and Sophia

Our lovely travel group of 6 families!

Our family with our wonderful guide, Helen.

Three of my five favorite girls!

My and my girls!

Beautiful Graci Jia

Beautiful Susi-Yue

Ready for a swim after so many pictures

We went to the US Consulate this morning to get Susi's visa. It was pretty uneventful but always nice to have done because it is the last step to getting to go home. Fun day of shopping and swimming as this will be our last full day on the island. We leave tomorrow for Hong Kong and I will probably not post again until after we our home. Please pray for traveling mercies for our girls (and mom and dad) as we begin the very long journey home. As we have made wonderful friends here and had a great experience we are ready to be together with all our kids and fully complete the Brady 9. Praise God everone is well and Susi is adjusting beautifully!