Packing up the care package. |
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.
My dd was 3.5 when we travelled to get my son (2). It really helped him to transition smoothly having her there. I packed him a backpack & she carried hers. I gave new toys, stickers, books, and candy as the trip progressed so they didn't tire too quickly by having them all from the beginning. I took a cheap blow up beach ball. You can inflate it once in China in your hotel room, deflate for travel to the next Province and left it in China. Kids really enjoyed it. The travel and process really did help my dd understand her adoption. We didn't readopt our son til he was 6. Going to the court house and him seeing the adoption on a smaller scale helped him too with his adoption. Have fun! We too live in GA! We're in Augusta.
ReplyDeleteOh, also wanted to tell you that there'a Yahoo Group for Henan families. If you need help finding it, let me know. There also may be a Yahoo group for your son's specific orphanage. You'll have to check or ask on the Henan group.
ReplyDeleteSue
Congrats to an adorable little one!!
ReplyDeleteWe too adopted a second time last fall and brought our at the time almost 4 year old daughter with us to China to get "HER babybrother", her saying :) We prepared her well before the trip, we watch her gotcha-movie several times and talked a lot about China before going. She had a great time, and made everything so much easier with attachment with ds, we had no big issues at all. Today, almost a year later, she says that she is happy to have him and that he is her best friend. He was a little older, almost 2, but I think that a caring bigsis is all that´s needed :)
Have a safe trip ones you go, and hopefully sooner then later.
We should coordinate toys, I ALMOST sent that remote! :) These kids are going to be showered in toys by the time we get there. Fingers crossed your LOA comes earlier than mine and we travel together!
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