Guangzhou!

It's finally done! We've been to Guangzhou where we raised our right hand and swore to love and protect our little Halle and got her visa and got to have a nice warm vacation all at the same time! It was so overwhelming and yet so amazing to meet so many families who were in guangzhou adopting at the same time as us and so very cool to raise our right hand with about 30 other families and take our oath together! Uncle Josh was with us to celebrate Christmas in Guangzhou the first few days and Dave's parents joined us for the entire time. We enjoyed wonderful food like Subway, Starbucks, and Italian restaurants! It was sad to say good bye to Guangzhou but it's also nice to be back home getting back into a routine! So thankful our paperwork is done and Halle is part of our family forever!

The first two weeks!

wow, is it easy to fall behind in posting stuff on your blog when you have 4 kids!!! Well I must say so many times I look at Halle and think "wow, i can't believe we finally have her!" it just blows my mind! Since having Halle we've decorated our Christmas tree which she adored doing!, decorated uncle josh's semi-christmas tree which she also loved doing, she's been introduced at church and likes Sunday School, is finally used to our cats and doesn't cry every time she sees them, and last night she finally slept through the night! (she likes to wake up like 4 times a night to check on dave and i). we're hoping this trend continues and she'll continue to feel nice and secure. We got our Christmas card pictures taken and they came out pretty well. She has this lovely habit of smiling really really big when we say "cheese!" Min Hao has his first loose tooth which he is ecstatic about and shows us all the time, and overall Marissa and DJ are doing a wonderful job transitioning. There are of course difficulties and the occasional "i don't like her anymore!" towards Halle. Thankfully she doesn't understand it yet :) We're all really looking forward to grandma and grandpa coming at Christmas and counting down the days until break! We continue to feel so blessed by adoption. Our little Halle is so sweet, funny, smart, and all we could've asked for. We are blessed beyond measure!

First Week at Home with Halle

This has been a fun few days getting Halle used to our home and routine. She is at this point definitely NOT fond of the cats, but every day she gets a little more used to them. She also has a bit of a strong will but other than that she is a joy and so much fun and is really such a perfect addition to our family. we truly say Halle- lujah for having her!

Adoption Day!!

Today was official Adoption Day! She is so picked by God just for our family! We signed papers and more papers from 9:30-11:30 in the
morning and then before we knew it, they were shaking hands and saying "Congratultions!" and taking official pictures with important people. So now, Ha beibei is officially

Halle Bei Yost! We then went out, had lunch, and went home to take naps. After naps, we went to St. Sophie's Cathedral and bought some bird feed and fed the pigeons. The kids had a blast with this! it was really cold though so we headed to KFC for some hot chocolates and then went to Pizza Hut for a celebration of Halle's Adoption Day! (being adopted by Americans she has to have american food to celebrate :) ). Now the kids are happily playing in the bath and then the girls will paint their toenails. It's truly been a wonderful day enjoyed by all 5 Yosts!

More "Gotcha Day" Fun!

Just so much fun on Monday afternoon!

Gotcha Day

This morning we met our Halle Bei at 9:30 a.m. We were all excited and nervous and then in she walked. She was hesitant at first and I picked her up. She was fine for a few minutes of that but then she began to cry. She was a bit overwhelmed I think with the grief of saying good-bye to her caretaker from the orphanage, being surrounded and gawked at by these 4 foreigners, and just the realization that life as she knew it was about to change. The hour at the civil affairs office she mostly just sat there quietly taking it all in. On the van ride to the hotel, she sat there quietly and eventually fell asleep for a few minutes. Once we were in the hotel room though it only took a few minutes before she was looking at books, holding her toys, changing her clothes, and interacting with us. After 45 minutes of hotel time we went to McDonalds (always a good place to take kids to warm them up to you!) and on the way she was holding hands with Marissa and DJ and even beginning to laugh about some silly things they were doing. She loved McDonalds and ate very well. After McDonalds we came back to the hotel and played again and this time there was lots of laughing. I felt bad having to stop all the giggling so they could take naps. her and Marissa napped together and she fell asleep. That is where we are at presently. We are thrilled with her, her laugh, and that she is already beginning to feel comfortable and happy with us. We are very blessed!

Journey to Harbin - Day 2

Today was a day to enjoy the falling snow and get comfortable in our surroundings. The closest thing Harbin has to a Starbucks is a USABucks that is a coffeebar. We've enjoyed seeing the buildings and the russian influence in architecture.

We started the morning with a walk along the riverside. The kids mostly found old snow piles and jumped on those. i saw a beautiful mother/son statue that i took a picture of. The kids were so excited when the snow started falling even though it meant it was getting colder!

Only a few more hours to go until we meet Halle. The kids and us had a great talk about what to expect tomorrow and prepared our hearts and minds for the meeting tomorrow. We are excited! Pray for our transition!

Journey to City of Harbin - Day 1

Saturday, November 20, we left Chengdu to travel to Harbin on our final journey to Beibei. Here is a picture of the Harbin airport and the hotel where we are staying.

Three More Days

Our travel approval arrived and ...Well the countdown is on! We leave for Harbin in 3 days and pick up our sweet halle bei in 5! It's the craziest thing to know that this time next week all the paperwork will be finished and she'll be forever ours! I'll update this blog daily so stay posted!

CA, TA, and other abbreviations

Well rumor is that we should have our TA in our hands today (that would be our travel approval) that allows us to travel and pick up our daughter! We're planning on traveling the 21st and her Gotcha day being the 22nd of November and then spend a very untraditional but extra thankful Thanksgiving with her in harbin, China. Our consulate appointment to get her passport will be during Christmas break on Dec. 28. We will continue to update our blog during our travel so stay tuned!

Crazy Week

well it's been a crazy week! DJ had his 5th bday, I had my 33rd bday, and we had a Halloween party at uncle Josh's and we went trick-or-treating! So much fun crammed into one week! Today is Nov.1. I'm praying and praying we'll travel by the end of this month to get our little girl.

A Halle Update!

Oh what a joyful day it was today to open my email and see new pics of Halle! I have to admit I'd almost lost faith we'd have any new pics of her until we picked her up, so this was such an amazing surprise! She's even more beautiful and healthy than we'd even dared hope! So now we're just praying our 800 approval isn't lost in the mail and other than that we should be traveling in November. Her birthday is Nov. 14 so please pray that we can get her on or before her birthday! How we'd love to celebrate with her!

October Holiday

Well in adoption news we just wait and wait for our 800 approval to show up in the mail and to hear of our travel approval. We're hoping and praying to be able to travel in November to get our dear little Halle! But we are plenty busy until then! We just finished our October holiday and had Dave's birthday and in 9 days my little DJ will be turning 5! The next day will be my birthday and then Halloween and then we welcome November! Hopefully our travel month and we meet our daughter. Here are some pics of October Holiday!

Therapeutic Horseback Riding

Well in adoption news our I-800 is approved and we've been told our NVC letter will be emailed to us to save us a few weeks of snail mail traveling so we're very thankful for that! Every step is one closer to Halle! In other news, we've begun horseback riding therapy for Min Hao (who had of course never seen a horse before) and for Marissa (for her eyes) and of course riding horses and being around them is her idea of a perfect day! At first Min Hao was deathly afraid to even look at a horse but he eventually got used to them and was able to sit on one. I was a side walker so I got to make sure he didn't fall off. On day 2 of lessons he didn't cry at all and even a few smiles were seen. We're making progress! Marissa has progressed in her lessons to learning the jump position (she's not jumping yet, just learning the position and holding it) so she's loving it. DJ didn't want to ride, he enjoyed the leadership of being the lead walker and was so great at his job! He looked like a mini rancher! Well it was a long but great day. Made me wish we had a ranch...