1st time swimming & Cousins

Just a quick post with some pictures. All of us have been sick one way or another with allergies, sinus stuff and congestion. Hoping that ends soon. Springtime please come visit early!!

We took Sydney swimming for the first time last weekend. She loved it! We were really nervous about a freak-out or something. Excited about summer and pool time. PJ's sister and her three girls came down for a visit this past week. The kids enjoyed hanging out with them. Wish they lived closer. Hope all of you had a great February!

Can't get enough of her smile!
Philip & Kaitlyn

Meagan & Ashlyn

Everyone exept Tristan (PJ was probably holding her!)

Ashlyn holding Tristan

(stole this from my SIL's FB page--hope she doesn't mind!)
PJ holding Tristan. He loves babies!

Kaitlyn & Sydney

Happy Chinese New Year!

Not a lot happening at the Vinyard house. Which is a good thing! The boys can not shake their coughs & the girls have started also. Hoping they stop it! Sydney is talking in English sentences. This was the first week we had no Cantonese conversations. Even in the bathroom at physical therapy (which brought on really fast Cantonese sentences??), we had nothing. Just "I need to potty." Makes us sad because we were hoping to keep both but I don't think it is possible at this point. But her sentences have 3 to 5 English words and we can understand them. We have had a change in favorites. Sydney still loves her Philip but Ashlyn is really cool. Especially with all of the American Girl stuff! I love seeing how much Sydney has changed since Gotcha Day. God is just awesome!

This was our first year celebrating Chinese New Year. We were invited to a Chinese celebration during the week with other adoptive families. We had so much fun! The food and company were wonderful. We were supposed to go to another one today, but the girls were coughing too much. Sorry guys. I figured you would want us to keep our germs! So I had to cook Chinese food. I know Yikes! It was really not that bad. I put out all of the stuff we bought in China plus lanterns & made chicken & rice with water chestnuts, dumplings (ok I did not make those), green beans (Sydney's favorite veggie)and Jasmine tea. Guess who would not eat???? Yes Sydney Hope! Next year, we are fixing fajitas, chips, queso, beans & Mexican rice!! Happy Chinese New Year & Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

Not sure what is up with this picture? That is not even the eye that had the injury. Lets just say she is winking?
I have seen this "face" with Philip & Ashlyn. Neat how God works like that. Sydney looks a lot older here. Stop that!

Love this picture! All ready for Chinese New Year dinner/celebration.

At our Chinese New Year Celebration. I did not take enough pictures. I wish Louisa was facing the camera. Because she is a little cutie! Please pray for my friend Lesley (pictured with the girls)--she is in Kazakhstan right now picking up her Lucy! Louisa will be a wonderful big sister!

Wearing Philip's old costume!

Playing outside even though we still have snow on the ground. Amarillo is crazy like that!

My beautiful girls! Thank you Jamie & Peggy for the outfits. Adorable!

The Awesome Name Pictures

Several of you sent us emails or comments about our picture that was behind us in the previous post. I went ahead & just took pictures so you guys could see them. We LOVE them. Our friend, Jason Boyett, did both of them. So sweet of him to do another one since Sydney joined our family!

Ignore the candle in front. Sorry!

Two Months with Sydney

Tomorrow marks two months with Sydney Hope. Crazy to think about how much Sydney has changed in those two months. I love being a mom to three wonderful & beautiful kids. When the kids are wrestling on the floor or being silly in their rooms, PJ & I look at each other in this disbelief look--our life is just awesome and how did we get so lucky to be their parents! Don't get me wrong. This adjustment has been DIFFICULT for all of us. Way more work and attention than we expected. But totally worth it! Every week seems to be easier. But Wow. The laundry is never ending!!
On Monday, Sydney went to the dentist for the first time. She tagged along with Ashlyn a couple of weeks ago. And I think that really helped. Sydney went right back to the room, climbed up in the chair & opened her mouth really wide. Really cute! Sydney does have two cavities in her back teeth so those will need to be fixed sometime soon. Sydney went back for a checkup on Thursday with our pedi. Sydney thinks she is a Rock Star there! All of the ladies just tell her how cute she is & her clothes are so cute, etc. We did have to start on the immunization schedule--4 shots this time. Sad. The nurse teared up, Sydney screamed really loud & I just prayed for it to end. Amazing how fast a sucker can dry up your tears!
Sydney's blood work is still not "normal". Sydney's results could just be the change in her diet. Or some other things. Since we have no medical history before December 7th, we have no idea what Sydney's normal blood results look like! We repeated blood work (& stool sample) for the third time. It was not a pleasant experience and we will repeat in 6 months regardless of these results. Hoping Sydney forgets that memory soon. Sydney is a super strong three year old. She has some sort of crazy strength! PJ thinks she needs to start martial arts with them ASAP!!
My sweet girlfriends threw a Welcome Home shower for Sydney today. The shower was wonderful. We all had a great time. I have the sweetest girlfriends! Sydney received the cutest outfits and shoes. I need to go buy a few things for myself so my kids are not embarrassed to be with me! Thank you for everyone that came this morning. Loved seeing all of you!

Love this picture. Sydney has the sweetest expressions.
Cheese face! She asked for me to take her picture here.

My girls & myself before the shower. You can't see it but I actually did NOT have on jeans. I know--big shocker!

Peggy, Aunt Val & Sydney at the shower.

Sweet Sydney Hope.

How Great is Our God!

Half the Sky Pictures

Here are two of the pictures that we received from Half the Sky. The pictures are from the summer of 2007 & 2008. Kinda neat to see how much Sydney changed in a year. Love those cheeks! Just want to kiss them all of the time.

I think this is on the orphanage grounds. Kinda looks like her nanny just let her go--kinda like she just started running or something.
I love this picture! Love that Sydney had face to face interaction like that. Not all babies get that in orphanages. Sydney called her nanny in this picture "Mama". Makes me kinda teary but not in a sad way (hard to explain). Sydney has had at least three Mamas that we know of--this nanny in yellow (who was the same lady in all pictures for two years), foster mom (11 months) and then me (almost 9 weeks). I just pray that Sydney starts to understand that this Mama is here to stay.

Project Chosen

Did you notice my new button--Project Chosen? A bloggy/adoption/ & agency friend decided to take the whole month of February and feature a family a day who has experienced the miracle of adoption. That is so awesome! Guess who today is??!! Miss Sydney Hope and her pungent self! Please go check out Jeanette's blog every day this month and read about the families & their little cuties.
Maybe God is calling you to help one of the 143 million orphans (by praying for them, sponsoring a child or adopting a child).
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18

Snow Snow Snow

Well we have a lot of snow! School has been closed for the last two days. Which is crazy! PJ & I grew up here and can only remember maybe one time they closed school. So we have a lot of snow. The last two days have consisted of staying inside, eating cookie dough and sitting by the fire!!
The kids ventured outside this afternoon. This was Sydney's first time playing in the snow. We had snow around Christmas time but Sydney was still in her China jet lag phase & acted like it did not exist! This time she was pointing out the window & saying "ohhhhh". The flakes were huge! Sydney only lasted maybe 5 minutes outside. She does not retain heat very well & was frozen when she stepped outside. But she is not used to cold weather at all. Hello Texas Panhandle weather! Nothing like being totally opposite of what you are used to. And yes she was bundled up in ski clothes! We need to get out tomorrow like outside of the neighborhood!! Can you say stir crazy??!!

The girls on the sled. Sydney looks like she is having fun but not really!

I think she was thinking "Mommy it is so bright out here & cold!"

Philip, Ashlyn & PJ stayed outside for HOURS! It was crazy how long they were out there. But they had a lot of fun. Not sure why Philip has his ski helmet on or why Ashlyn's hat is all crazy tall!

Sydney & her cookies! For her first time making & decorating cookies, she did great! Sydney just really licked off the red icing & sprinkles.

Have I mentioned just how much I love this girl? I still get teary thinking about what a blessing she is to me and our family. She is just so happy almost all of the time!

Ashlyn was super patient with Sydney during the cookies. Sydney dumped a ton of sprinkles on her cookies and Ashlyn acted like no biggie. I know Ash was thinking "she just wasted all of those sprinkles!" But Ash did not say anything. Great bonding moment for them.

"Pungent"

Philip & Hollywood! For some reason, Sydney loves Ashlyn's drawer of sunglasses.

Philip adores Sydney!

My beautiful girls!
Ashlyn actually requested that they have matching jammies. Sydney looks really chubby here.

The next two photos are of Sydney "posing" for the camera. Too funny!

More posing!

In Sydney's referral, it stated that she was "pungent and extroverted". I think that means ornery & super duper friendly here in the States. Because she is! She is a typical three year old. Full of life, loudness and laughter! We love that she feels comfortable to be that way with us.

I think we are all adjusting to our new life & family. Sydney is just doing great with most everything. PJ is the magic key to naptime & bedtime. Barely any tears when he lays her down. She just lights up when he comes home from work. Philip and Ashlyn just love Sydney. I'm really proud of the way they have handled Sydney coming home. At times, they have more patience than I do. They will make great parents some day. Sydney tries to mimic everything we say--which is great for her English. PJ & I went out to lunch last week. Sydney was eating chips and picked up two chips. She then said "two chips"! You would of thought that she just graduated from Harvard or something by the way PJ & I acted! I'm sure the people around us were like OK. Your child can say two & chips. Big deal. But it was a big deal to us! Sydney continues to be a big helper. I have never seen a child that can carry so much dirty laundry to the washing machine with a big ole smile on her face! And wants to do it! And not her laundry!

Sydney did not qualify for occupational therapy. Yeah! Our OT just adopted from China over the summer. It was wonderful to just sit & talk with someone that is a little ahead of us in this process. I just love the adoption community! The nicest people you could ever meet.

Sydney still loves physical therapy! She went in by herself today. This was our third therapy session. Ashleigh said she had no tears but did say "Momma" a couple of times. I sat outside the room drinking a Chai tea and enjoying a little time alone (please don't start thinking negative of me now!).

We received a nice surprise at the end of last week. Sydney's reports from Half The Sky came in. We have 5 pictures/reports of Sydney from her time in the orphanage. And at least two pictures of Sydney's nanny. If HTS was in your child's orphanage, I would highly recommend getting the reports for your child. The pictures are worth it! The reports did not give us anymore medical information. Sydney even had those chubby cheeks when she was a baby. I'll post a picture or two when someone figures out how to crop the picture!

One Month Home with Sydney Hope

One Month Home! Hard to believe. Sydney is doing great! We barely can remember what our life was like before her. All of us are doing great. Wow--emotions were crazy there for a couple of days (mine especially).
The weather has been very warm here so Sydney is getting a ton of park play time. She is not scared of anything at the park. Really freaks me out sometimes! Sydney has been coming into church with PJ & I (we actually go out into the cafe to watch the sermon). She raises her hands during the praise & worship music--love that!! It is so cute.
I posted last time about Sydney's tests--blood & stool stuff. Everything came back normal. Thank you to everyone that sent us comments or emails! We go back in at the beginning of February to go over all of the tests with the doctor. I think we might have to get a couple of shots too :(. Physical therapy went great last week. Sydney LOVES it. We will go once a week for at least 3 months. Sydney also has an occupational evaluation this week. We do not think she qualifies but we feel like early intervention is always best!
I know that I keep posting this BUT if you ever thought/think about adopting--DO IT! There are so many orphans (143 million plus) in this world that need a forever family.

Love that smile! It lights up the room.
PJ calls this the "babysitter". Sydney will sit in this basket for a very long time. She just sits & plays with her toys. Ashlyn attached the rope to it. Both of the kids pull her around in it!

Kids hanging out before bedtime.

Happy One Month Gotcha Anniversary

I know. My post is late by two days. Sorry! Hard to believe that Sydney has been with us for a month now. PJ & I were talking about how the time from referral to travel seriously felt like 5years! But the last month felt like 7 days!!
The "big" kids & I watched parts of the Gotcha day video today. In the video, Sydney just sat in my lap barely moving for a really long time. She is practically running through every room in the house now and very rarely sits still. Love how she is changing! Her favorite show is "Kai Lan" but she calls it "Ni Hao". She will only watch that show & a little bit of Fresh Beat Band. Sydney loves Chris Tomlin's song Sing, Sing, Sing. She raises her arms up & jumps around. Too cute! Sydney loves to wear Ashlyn's school backpack & a bright pink headband down in front of her eyes & walk around the house. She is pretending to be Ashlyn! Ashlyn wears her glasses to school & her backpack. Too cute! Ashlyn & Sydney are doing a little better with their adjustment. It will just take time.
The big question (& honestly the MOST ANNOYING question for me) is--does Sydney know any English yet? Yes she does. But she knows A LOT of Cantonese because that is still her native language and ALL she ever heard til 5 weeks ago. We would love for Sydney to be fluent in English but that is just not possible. Wonder how much Cantonese I would know if the situations were reversed??? Probably not much. I'm sure you can tell that I'm tired of this question. I wish people would focus on something else--adjustment, sleeping, eating, health, schedule, anything.
Sydney is sleeping about 7pm to 7am and takes about an hour nap after lunch. We still have little problems getting her to sleep but they have improved since last 3 weeks home. She is still eating almost everything. Loves anything yogurt related. We feed her noodles almost every day because she loves them! And corn. Sydney can put away the corn.
That brings us to Sydney's health stuff. Our stool sample came back normal (yeah--no parasites.) The pedi did mention to us during our visit that we might redo the stool samples a couple more times to just make sure. I posted on the previous entry that Sydney's blood work did not come back as expected. Stool sample did not reveal anymore information. So Sydney & I went back for more blood work on Friday. It was really sad. She cried big ole tears. PJ & I are trying to not jump to conclusions or stress about all of this. God already knows "our plan". I think we just expected everything (health related) to be normal. Sydney looks very healthy and even a little chubby in her tummy (which we love!). So not hearing that has been a little difficult to grasp. Hopefully, the results will come back this week.
Our eye appointment went great. The doctor (who was wonderful with Sydney & very calm) said he could not see any damage from the orphanage/foster eye injury. Sydney did fantastic during the exams and drops but we had this awesome tech in there with us (Thanks Aunt Melissa). Another checkup in 6 months. We start physical therapy this week. And then Sydney is watching Ashlyn getting her teeth cleaned this week also & then she goes in next month.

Now for updated pictures!!!

Philip & Sydney playing the Wii. She really just loves the control thing. Philip is wonderful with her! The adjustment has been very easy for them. But Philip is a pro when it comes to sisters and Sydney had a foster brother who is 10 years old. I love that they have this cute little bond.
Look at the mess behind her! She loves playing in the "other closet". The girls have two walk-in closets. So we converted one to a little kitchen thing.

Love this picture! Have you guys heard the new Steven Curtis Chapman song? Heaven is the Face? He mentions in that song how Maria had dark brown eyes that disappear when she smiled. Thats our Sydney. We think very highly of the Chapman family.

Can you tell this girl loves her noodles? She even gets out the pot & noodles to cook them at lunchtime. What a great helper!!

My beautiful girls!