The excited big sister

Packing up the care package. 

Julia has really become excited about getting a little brother.  She has "called" Matthew in China on her toy phone and she talks about flying on the big plane to China, loving on him and playing with him when he comes home.  She's also been spending time in his room playing with the Tonka trucks we've bought for him and she's decided that we still need to buy a dump truck and a crane (don't ask).  She initially was disappointed that he wasn't going to be older but now I think she's getting behind the idea of helping Mommy take care of him, which totally appeals to her bossy nature.   :-)  

She's also been very excited about picking out toys for a care package to send to him in China.  Tonight we boxed up some toys, blanket, disposable camera and candy to send to Matthew's orphanage.  We also sent one to Julia when she was in China and the orphanage kept most of the items, which was fine by me.   The only items I really want to get back is a photo book and the disposable camera that, hopefully, the nannies will use to take photos of his life in the orphanage. 

I think watching us prepare for Matthew (and stress over the paperwork!)  is really helping Julia process how she came to be in our family.   I hope it continues to open avenues for her to ask more questions and spark some interesting conversations with her about it.   I plan on spending the months prior to travel showing her more photos of China and discussing what will happen once we get to China.   She's a brave little girl and not much fazes her so I'm optimistic about  bringing her with us to get Matthew.  I really don't want her to miss such a valuable opportunity to visit her homeland.