On Monday afternoon, Leah took a tour of her new school and even got to sit with her new Kindergarten class for a few minutes while each one of her new classmates were able to introduce themselves and say one thing special about them. Leah was quiet through the whole introductions but did not seem to be scared or upset about the fact that the next day she was to attend for the whole day. The best smile appeared though when she walked in and surprised James' 3rd grade class - she was all smiles when big brother got to introduce her to not only his class but another class since they were in Mrs. Simon's room doing joint work. Once we got home she was all chatty about the visit.

So we kept our fingers crossed for this morning, and it went off with only one hitch. We found out that Leah can be a very, very slow eater of breakfast. Good thing we had already planned on taking her in the car, for she would have missed the bus for sure. When Jeff and her got to school, and the bell rang Leah took the hands of two of her new classmates and walked with a bounce in her step toward Mrs. Moody's class. We had many eyes on her throughout the day and received only good reports, one even reported she laughed at something and the whole class caught onto her contagious laughter. James did big brother and made sure she got on the right bus for the ride home. Jeff and I made sure we were home early to be there when she got off the bus. When the doors opened at our stop, all we could hear was Leah's giggling and then she broke into the biggest smile when she saw us. She definitely had a great day and all our prayers were answered. Her only complaint was her backpack was "too big" so we found an even smaller one of Hannah's that is on wheels, her comment was "better". Leah proudly showed us her two new folders and two new reading books. Then commented that she wanted to ride the bus in the morning too with "Gee, Gee", so I guess the bus it is. Hopefully tomorrow she will move a bit faster in the morning or we are going to have to change wake up time to 30 minutes earlier!

We apologize for the time lapse between this and the last post, but between a non-stop last day in Guangzhou, late night flights to Beijing, and what seemed like a forever time with three flights back to the states we are finally awake and coherent enough to write a few words.

Our last days in Guangzhou were spent shopping, shopping, shopping - Jeff even found a way to spend the last yuans in the Beijing Airport since we could not exchange them. You will find pictures of both Leah and James in their Chinese outfits along with Leah , Reese and Madeline, the two darling other children that were in our adoption group on famous White Swan red couch. Before we left Guangzhou we found a great Italian resturant and tried to introduce Leah to Pizza - well that was a big Buha (No in Chinese) but the spaghetti bolagense was a great success. On our trip back while we were in Minneapolis Airport we introduced Leah to Tortilla chips and salsa - well we hate to report to all our Texas friends. It looks like there will be some time gap between acquiring a liking to chips and queso. Now we were successful at our favorite Mexican resturant in Allen to introducing flour tortillas and honey, that she liked.

James and Leah have found a new way to bound. Unfortunately it is at 2 am in the morning when both of them have been waking up since returning to the states. They then konk out from 9 am until noon. This morning at 2am I was awoken to Leah saying "Oh my gosh" to everything that was happening during her and James' illegal playtime. Pray for us tonight for James is returning to school tomorrow and needs his sleep so he will not fall asleep in class on Monday. Leah will hopefully be introduced to her new kindergarten class tomorrow too.

Today Hannah, I, Grandma and Leah went shopping for Easter dress and new school clothes. Leah was all smiles through the whole outing. She truly enjoyed picking out and trying on new clothes. She also was very agreeable to getting "no's" when she would keep showing us flashy rhinestone jeans that she wanted. Then she impressed me when trying on sandles to go with her new dress, after a brief walk around the store, she came up to me and pointed to her foot and said "too tight". Finally a child that thinks of comfort before cuteness!

The introduction to the dogs and cat have actually went better than expected. The only thing Leah still hasn't quite got the hang of is how to escape the big swishing tails and licking tongues, but at the sametime loves to play fetch with them. As for Link the cat, he has finally decided that after 36 hours, the new smell is staying and he just need to get use to it and stop hissing at her. Hopefully in a few more days Leah will actually get to pet him.

We believe, the big purple bed and all the barbies, pet shop pets, and babies that have been pulled out of storage have been well received. James has also successfully introduced his new sister to his favorite, Legos!

Enough for now - must get some sleep myself.