Happy Easter

Happy Easter to you! We headed down south to Dallas to celebrate Easter with Susie's parents. We have had a great weekend. The trip did not start out great though, at least not for Susie and the kids (I flew down...poor me :) . The usual 8 hr drive here took 12.5 hrs!!!! This was not good for Maeve's first experience on a long distance road trip. There were massive fires in Oklahoma and the highway was such down twice. At one point they waited 2.5 hrs on the interstate as fires rushed along the road and smoke filled our car. All I can say is thank God they are safe and thank God again that I was not there!! I guess the boys all did amazingly well considering and Maeve tolerated the whole trip pretty well too. Hopefully our drive back will be less eventful. The rest of the weekend has been great and relaxing. We have had decent weather except this morning, so the kids had their egg hunt in the house. It didn't damper any of their spirits though, so that is good. Maeve has done great on the trip and she is sleeping better here than at home! She even likes the pool. We are happy she was able to get used to the bath before coming here.
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Ready to be the leader of the marching band.
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Taking a leisurely Sunday drive.
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Thumbs up to pool time for Fintan.
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Maeve a little tentative at first.
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The kids taking a break from their "war" with Grandpa.
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Cian, Maeve and Aidan on the pool rocker.
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Serious business of egg dying.
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Grandma and Maeve getting the stickers ready for the eggs.
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Aidan and Cian post egg hunt.
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Easter Pictures

We had the kids photos taken today. Sorry, but I can't flip them around so you will have to crank your neck. Happy Easter!!
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Fintan
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Cian
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Aidan
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The gang. Maeve was not thrilled with the picture taking!
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This one did turn out well.
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Hand surgery

We had our first appointment today with Maeve's hand surgeon. She was a wonderful woman who was very knowledgeable about syndactaly. She explained everything she will be doing and how we can give Maeve the most function and best cosmetic look too. The surgery is planned for 5/15/09, so hopefully we will be able to stick to that. Maeve has an upper respiratory infection right now and she needs to be runny nose free for ~4 weeks prior to anesthesia. We cannot wait to have this done so we will continue to pray for it all to work out.

Who are these kids?

We mentioned earlier that Maeve's orphanage director gave us a few gifts on Maeve's adoption day. One of them was a CD filled with pictures. Most of these pictures are of Maeve and her foster mother or just Maeve, but some of them include other children. We recently "found" one of the kiddos, but would love to meet the other children and follow them as Maeve grows up. Some day she may want to meet some of these girls again and have that connection. We have no idea if these children have been adopted or not. Some of them very well may be waiting for their moms and dads to this day. Anyway, if you recognize any of these beautiful kids as your own, let us know. We would love to keep in contact with you.
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This kiddo is in many pictures with Maeve. We know Maeve's foster mom cared for another baby, so maybe this was that baby???
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I love this picture. Not sure why they are all lined up, but it is very cute. The little girl next to Maeve has some crazy hair.
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The layers of clothing crack me up. Remember this is in a tropical part of China.
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We have "found" this little girl and know her name is Flora. She is now a Virginia girl!!

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Week 3

All continues to be going well on the home front. Maeve has a good day then a not so good day. We think she is making good progress, but at other times we feel like she still is so unsure of us and her new home. We have noticed that large crowds seem to throw her off for the next day. Kinda of strange, but we think it is all the new people and everyone wanting to hold her. Our social worker has asked us to not have anyone hold her other than Susie and I, so we will try that and see if it helps. I'm sure it is confusing for Maeve to figure things out when all these strangers are reaching for her. Hopefully that will continue to get better. The boys are doing great and we are so impressed/proud of them. They have really taken to her and welcomed into our family.

Aidan had a soccer game this weekend and scored a goal!! He was very excited about that. We had dinner with my parents last night and celebrated Easter with them. The kids had an egg hunt in their yard and had a great time. Today has been rainy and lazy. Maeve (and me!) slept for 3 hours!! We had a fairly busy weekend so I'm sure she was very tired. Grandma Jane returns this week so we are all very excited!! Also after much fretting on my part, Maeve's US passport arrived yesterday! What a relief!! Now we can go on the cruise without any fears. Also they put Maeve's new US name on the passport. We were not sure if it would have her Chinese name or US name. We asked for her US name, but also read somewhere to in order to "legally" change her name, we would have to go to court. Anyway, it has the correct name, so I am thrilled.
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Having fun with Cian and Audra.
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Cian and Fintan trying to make a break for it.
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The new princess and her princely subjects.
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Very serious

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