Goodbye and Thank you!

This is the final post on "Bringing Kennedy Home". Two hundred and seventy posts later, it's time to put the story of our journey to Kennedy to rest. We've done it. We've travelled around the globe to bring our beautiful daughter home. It's time now for her life to become private. Thank you all so much for your support over the past 2 years. It has truly been the journey of a lifetime...............

All our love,
Marvin, Carolyn and Kennedy Joy Caijiao

Bum scoot....broken tooth

Shall we just say that Miss K has finally figured out how to get around on our hardwood floors...and it happened overnight. All of the sudden she's zooming around the room. It's not walking and it's not even a crawl. I call it a bum scoot. One leg bent in front, one leg bent in back, bum on the floor and two hands grabbing the floor ahead of her, pulling her along. She's much happier and content being able to move about. She can get what she wants now by herself...sometimes not a good thing, depending what it is she wants!!

It will be two months on Thursday, since we met Kennedy for the very first time. Wow, how she has changed. She's grown. She's gone from not sitting up by herself, to now scooting all over the place. She is an excellent eater and is growing like a weed. She LOVES people. Like I've said before, the bigger the crowd,`the more she likes it. Loves to be entertained. She brings so much happiness to our lives...

On Sunday I broke my front tooth while eating a hotdog. I realized later that the tooth probably cracked on Saturday when we were at my parent's house. Kennedy's head hit my chin and my teeth slammed together very hard. At the time I didn't realize it, but I'm assuming that's when the damage was done as a hotdog wouldn't have done it. So off I went to the dentist today...she fixed me up as good as new. Dental work is definitely not my favorite thing but my dentist does a wonderful job and I didn't feel a thing!

If you have the time and would like to read an amazing story, check
this out. It's about a little girl living in the US (adopted from China) who suddenly became sick and needed a heart transplant. Her family is going through so much with finances and being away from their other children. A truly amazing story...

GO HABS GO!!!!!

And what does Yazzy think of all this partying????????

HE'S NOT IMPRESSED...

Birthday Party with the Clows!

I love when you sing to me...

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Birthday Party with the Milligans!

I'm One Today!!!

Our baby is 1 year old today! Wow! She woke up in a great mood this morning, just like she knows it's going to be a great day. Yesterday, we had a party with her family on the Milligan side. Today, we will have a party with her family on the Clow side. I will post pictures as soon as I get a chance.

At the age of 1 year, here are some of Kennedy's milestones:

-Talking, saying the following words: mama, quack, bye-bye,
-Signing: more, puppy, milk, book, ball
-Trying to do some sort of bum scoot to get places. No crawling or walking yet!
-Loves to sway when she hears ANY music (including my singing!)
-Doesn't sleep through the night like she used to :( Guess I bragged too much about that!

And today we remember Kennedy's birthparents in China. I only wish they could know how happy and well taken care of she is...

It's all about the food these days...

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Keeping up with my China sisters!!

This morning, Kennedy insisted on ponytails. After seeing both Claire and Ava with their ponies in, we knew we had to try to keep up, so here it is...it's a little hard to see them with the background. She actually looks like she has two horns...funny 'cause she's been a bit cranky the last couple of days (teeth again, I think) so the "horns" kind of fit!





This is Claire. She is my China sister. She lives in Edmonton. I miss her. xox



This is Ava. She is my China sister. She also lives in Edmonton. I miss her. xox

I think I want to take a trip to Edmonton!

Happy 95th Birthday Grammie!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is my grandmother, Veronica. On Wednesday, March 21, she turned 95 years old. We had a party for her yesterday. Many of her friends and family gathered to celebrate and all of her 9 children we there with her. I think it is so amazing for my dad at age 68, to have his mother living right next door (still cooking her meals on a wood stove, I might add!). Like my Uncle Fenton said in his speech, we're looking forward to celebrating her 100th too!

Getting together with friends....

Got together with my friends Crystal, Trudy and Jennifer and ALL the kiddos today (minus Jen's big girl, Savannah). We had 9 kids there! Fun. And how well behaved were these kids? Incredible. They had a great time playing...


"Green couch" picture. I couldn't resist.


Jen and Kennedy



Charlotte playing with Megan



Kennedy and Brandan



Cameron holding Megan

My New Book!

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Celebrating Matt and Chloe's birthdays!

Kennedy couldn't wait to play with her cousins Chloe and Breanna!




Uncle Mark with Chloe and Kennedy.




Aunt Pam and cousin Matt...opening his birthday envelopes!



Uncle Doug and Aunt Lisa playing with the girls...Kiana and Kennedy.





Now, this one may need some explanation...Marvin's mom has a wall with all twelve of her children's pictures hanging from oldest to youngest. This is Aunt Arlene, taking Kennedy through the list for her first time! Kennedy was very interested and followed Aunt Arlene carefully as she recited each name!

Pictures...

Sleeping with my kitty...my cousins Melanie and CJ gave it to me!




Playing with Mommy...all smiles!




Playtime with Daddy!




Reading the new book my friends at Greenfield gave me. I'm having a drooly day... Notice Yazzy is sleeping behind me :)

Looking back...

Marvin and I were looking back over some pictures and video from China and came upon this video clip. I don't think I shared it before. I know it's dark, but it captures the moment. This is within the first hour of meeting Kennedy. We walked back from the government office and went directly to our hotel room. You can see that I'm taking her THREE layers of clothes off. Knowing her the way we know her now, we realize how completely terrified she was in that moment. She was scared and didn't have a clue what was happening. It's actually sad for me to look back at the videos from Gotcha because like I said, I know how scared she was. No, she wasn't crying like the other babies, but I think that's the worst part. She was so sad, yet wouldn't let herself cry. The first cry she let out was after I undressed her and Marvin left the room to go and finish the paperwork. She cried so hard that I went looking for him...all she wanted was her daddy. When we found him she calmed down. The first couple of days she was completely glued to daddy.

Looking back over the pictures and video clips makes the trip seem like yesterday...in hindsight, it passed too quickly. Every now and again I like to go back over it in my mind. Marvin and I often talk about different parts of the trip, the people, the experiences. We just want to keep the memories alive...


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Playing with my cousins

These are my sister's kids, Cody, Paige and Brett. They waited so long to meet their new cousin and boy, were they glad when she finally arrived! We went out to have supper with them (and their Golden Retreiver, Bailey) a couple of weeks ago. Kennedy had a ball! She loves her cousins and they LOVE her. They give her ALL the attention when she's around. Looking forward to many more get togethers.....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

So we got the snow that usually goes with St. Pat's day. Not too much, but enough to cover the ground. St. Patrick's Day was never a big celebration around our house, unless ofcourse you count when I was in University :) We always used St. Pat's day as an excuse to *socialize*....I do want to say a big "Happy St. Patrick's Day" to my friend Jennifer. It's one of her favorite days...hope you're having a good one Jen!

Tugging at my heart...

If you ever had an inkling that international adoption was what you wanted to do, this will certainly pull at your heart strings. Brought me to tears. There are just so many children who need homes and ofcourse so many of us who need children...

The little girl in this video is Shaohannah "Shaoey" Chapman, daughter of musician Steven Curtis Chapman. Shaoey and her two sisters were adopted from China...get your kleenex ready.

Home for one month

Yes, we've been home from China for one month. It seems like much longer than that in so many ways. It feels like so long ago that we were in China and even longer ago that Kennedy was passed into my arms. It's hard to believe that she was with someone else for 10 months. I think of how much she's changed in just one month...and how much she must have changed in those 10 months with her foster family. I wish they, and her birth family, could now how well she's doing now...

Since coming home, Kennedy has learned so many things. Uncle Mark taught her to feed herself. Aunt Kimmy D. taught her how to patty-cake. She sways when she hears music. She waves bye-bye and says bye-bye. She sits independently. She insists on feeding herself and refuses most things that are delivered by spoon :) She sleeps through the night, almost always :) She loves being with people. Her daddy puts her to sleep every night. We cannot imagine life without her ofcourse. We often just look at each other and say how much we love her...it's like so many people told us...they made a perfect match when they made us Kennedy's forever family...

My wonderful staff hosts a baby shower for us!

On Wednesday, my staff hosted a baby shower for us! Wow! I've been to many, many of these and was overjoyed to finally sit in that rocking chair with my baby in my arms! Kennedy received so many beautiful gifts. Thank you to everyone at Greenfield! We love you all. You are the BEST!!! xoxo


Admiring the beautiful afghan our secretary, Judy, made for us.





Playing with the tissue paper...




Our dear friend, Crystal, handing us our gifts!




Miss Tina holding Trudy's baby girl, Megan.




Angie, Sherri and Bryn...looking forward to March Break, I think!

Meeting more friends!

Lisa and her little girl, Olivia, came to visit us all the way from Woodstock!


Visiting with Aunt Rosie!

PEI-China get together

Today we went to the China Star restaurant for a get together with other PEI families who have children from China. It's so much fun to see all the kids together. We've been going to these get-togethers for 2 years without a baby so it sure was nice to have Kennedy with us today. What's most fun is watching the older girls (4-5 year olds) chat and play with each other and the younger ones (2 year olds) run along behind them. The babies (Kennedy and Roshandra) are only interested in the food at this point!! Here are a couple of pictures...


Luca (Roshandra's big bro) with Lana (in front), Jane, Brielle, Julia and Emily




Kennedy was sooo excited to see her best friend Roshandra again. Both girls are battling sickness (cold/congestion), so when we're all feeling better a playdate is in order.

Clothing Police...

Good thing the clothing police didn't catch us this day!! See Kennedy's BARE leg peaking out? The Chinese people do not think much of us Westerners not keep our babies all bundled up! Kennedy has her hat from Auntie Bev, Uncle Randolph and cousin Asia on!! Thanks guys. It kept her very warm on those cold days in Beijing.
(Thanks to Shea for sending us this picture!)

Love at first sight...

Ofcourse, we loved her long before this moment, but you can imagine our excitement when we walked into the building where we would be getting our babies and there were FOUR of them sitting in the lobby. This picture was sent to me by a group member. I had my video camera running so I captured it on that, but didn't have any still pictures. From left to right is Ava, Claire, Maeve and Kennedy in the right hand corner. Marvin and I both agree that was the heart-stopping moment for us. It was panic because they were telling us to go upstairs but we were trying to figure out if these were our babies. Marvin and I knew right away that it was Kennedy...I was freaking out. Then we had to go upstairs WAIT for them to officially be brought to us. Ohhhhhhh what a day. Easily, the best day of my life.

On the mend...

After a couple of days of feeling pretty miserable, our girl woke up on Friday feeling much better. The doc told us that she should feel better in a couple of days and that's exactly what it took. Marvin was working night shifts, so Kennedy and I slept together for a couple of nights. I felt like I had to have her beside me because when she coughed in her sleep, she had a hard time catching her breath. I had to physically sit her up to get her to start breathing okay (scary!) Anyhow, I wondered after a couple of nights sleeping with mama, if she'd go back to her crib okay. Thank goodness she did. Last two nights she's slept through in her crib. Marvin and I have managed to avoid this sickness, thank goodness. Although I do think a lot of it has to do with her teeth...she had two new ones come through in the last couple of days, so that's 6 teeth now: 3 on top and 3 on the bottom!


The Clow family hosted a baby shower for us last Sunday. We received many beautiful gifts. Here are some pics:




Sitting on Aunt Patricia's knee!





The awesome cake Auntie Pam made for me!





Mommy and Me...opening our gifts!

Sick Baby

So we've had our first trip(of many, I'm sure)to outpatients. Yesterday at supper time Kennedy's fever really spiked, so off we went to the hospital. I figure we did pretty well. We got there at 4:45 and left at 8:00. They took us in quite quickly and did a urine test just to be sure...it took Kennedy a couple of hours to get her pee "out"!! People spend anywhere from 6-8 hours waiting to see a doctor there most days and the clinics were both closed last night so the place was packed. Kennedy sees our GP next week so we can get everything re-checked again. It all boiled down to the cold/flu that's going around plus a tiny bit of redness in her ear. So we got some meds and hopefully we're on our way to better health...

It's bloody freezing here...-30ish...

Visiting with the Clarks

Today, my friend Leah and her three kids came for a visit. Leah and I go way back to high school and lived together during university. She brought us a huge load of clothes for Kennedy (Max won't be needing them!!). Thanks guys. We'll visit you next!



Lauren, Kennedy, Anna and Max




A close up of another new baby...Max!

And we thought the exersaucer was a blast...

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I think I'll try Grammie's sink this time...

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So many new friends!

Teaching Brett how to use chopsticks:)




Rocking with Auntie Amy!




Sharing the chair with Auntie Amy and big cousin Cole!

Meeting my Great Grammie Milligan for the first time :)

Hanging out with the Porter family...Jill, Kevin, Kayl, Hayden and Karch!

Baby Mum-Mum

This post is especially for Catherine and Cari. These are Baby Mum-Mums. You can buy them in grocery stores and drugstores, in the baby section. They come in individual packages with two pieces in each package. I don't leave home without them...

A Week At Home...

We've now been home for a week. It's amazing how much things have changed over just 7 days...here are just a few things...
--Kennedy now puts food to her mouth. She didn't put anything to her mouth when we first got her. This was good in a lot of ways but we knew that developmentally this is one of the first things kids do...put things to their mouth in an effort to explore their environment. So thanks to Uncle Mark for teaching her that last Sunday :)

--Sitting up. Again when we first got her, she could not sit up on her own. After a week together in China, she was strong enough to sit on her own. She is now taking it one step further...she can pull herself up when she falls backward (she always has pillows behind her because she loves to "throw" herself back!!) She is just so much stronger now.

--Routine. Amen for routine. She is now, in just 7 days, a very predictable baby. Wakes up around 7-7:30. Breakfast. Playtime. Does her "business". A one hour nap somewhere around 10-10:30. Lunch. Playtime. 2 hours nap around 2:00. Supper. Playtime/Bathtime and bed @ 8pm. The beauty of it all is that she LOVES to get out and about and can fall asleep anywhere. Noise does not bother her. So we'll be on the go lots!

--Mum Mums are her ABSOLUTE favorite snack. If you need a minute to do something, just give her a mum mum. Cheerios come a close second.

--Constant runny nose. This hasn't let up since the second week of our trip. And she absolutely HATES when you try to wipe it :) It doesn't seem to be bothering her much. She's in a great mood, no fever, etc.

--She says mama and baba on occasion and has waved bye-bye a couple of times. Her hair is growing...we may have to go see Stacey for a trim soon!

A few pics:


Listening to some music on the plane from Beijing to Toronto!!



Playing with my cousin Taylor! He's a lot of fun!


Meeting my cousin Cole! He likes to hug me!

Danielle's Housewarming

Tonight, Kennedy and I headed over to Danielle's for her housewarming party! It was so nice to see everyone from work and Kennedy loved playing with everyone, especially Mya, Sophie, Chloe, Savannah and Kennah! Yep, that's right, Kennah was there and I told Jen that I'm gonna post her picture!!!! So for everyone out there that's been waiting to see baby Kennah, here she is...


Okay, so it's not such a good picture of Kennah...I'll leave the close ups to Jen. I just wanted to prove to you all that I did meet her and hold her. She's sweet!





This is Mya and Kennedy playing "Rubbermaid dishes" together. Aren't they just the best toys?


Kennedy playing with Monette...we can't wait for Kennedy to meet Monette's girls, Julie and Isabelle


Kennedy with Jen. We switched babies for a bit!

Splish Splash!

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Playing in my exersaucer

...with Oprah in the background and mommy blogging....


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Bath Time

Today Kennedy had her best bath time yet. Ofcourse, the big bathtub is just too big, the little baby bathtub, still a little big...but the sink is just right. Her favorite part is pouring the water over her hair to rinse out the shampoo!! Go figure. I remember screaming my head off when mom did that to me! Kennedy thinks it's fun. I think she's gonna like the pool this summer...

First hockey game (many more to come!)

Tonight we took Kennedy to the rink to see her cousin, Brett, play hockey. She loved it! Brett even scored a goal for her! Kennedy got to meet lots of new people including many that have been following our blog. It's so nice when people come up to us and tell us they've been following along. Here are a few pics from our day...

Another great sleep!

Yep! We got another great sleep last night. Miss K went to sleep at 8:30 and slept until 7:00! Cheers to that! She's really settling in now...more comforable with her surroundings and not as fussy as the first few days. She's met LOTS of people and that is when she's at her best. Like Aunt Marlene said, it's a good thing because in our family, there's always a crowd around.

I went to get our pictures developed yesterday...it took me over an hour. We have more than 400 pictures...that cost us a bundle, but it was well worth it.

The top photo is a picture of our entire group....absolutely fantastic people.

The bottom two pictures show Kennedy and I with our friends Raelene and Bryn; Shea and Caia. Raelene, Shea and I were in very close contact in the months leading up to our trip. They are both in Saskatchewan, so it was very hard to say goodbye, not knowing when we would meet again and when the girls would be together again...hopefully someday. We miss you guys!!!

Grandma visits!

This morning Grammie Milligan is here to entertain Miss K. Did I mention that she LOVES to be entertained? The bigger the crowd, the better. She finds Marvin and I to be rather boring and would much prefer to be out and about visiting people. Social butterfly on our hands.

Last night Kennedy went to bed @ 8pm and slept through till 3:30. Then she came in with us and eventually fell asleep by about 5:00. We were then all awake by 6:30. So a little disrupted but still much better than it was. We'll take it.

Sleep..........

It's amazing how much difference a good night of sleep makes. Since we got home, Kennedy had been sleeping in spurts through the night and having her big sleep during the day. So we decided to do our best to keep her up all day, with just a short nap, and put her to bed around 8ish. We did this on Sunday, with help from Aunt Kim, Uncle Mark and cousins Breanna and Chloe. Still, Sunday night she was waking up several times through the night, but I felt like we were heading in the right direction. Yesterday she had a couple of 1 hour naps and was ready for bed by 8pm last night. I went to bed at the same time, prepared to be woken up within a few hours. We I finally woke up, it was 4:30 a.m. I was so happy I could hardly get back to sleep. Now for the best part...Kennedy didn't wake until 8 a.m.!!! Then we got up and headed off to Greenfield School to see some friends, then to Aunt Kim's work...this afternoon our friend Ruth dropped by with some homemade soup and biscuits (Thanks Ruth) and we're heading to Grammie and Grampie Milligan's for supper! Will she make it through another night? We'll see...

We went to Charlottetown yesterday to welcome home Roshandra, Catherine and Kevin. It was Roshandra's birthday!! Nice to have everyone home safe and sound and start our new lives together...

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's the year of the Pig! Happy New Year everyone!

Well, it's been a tough few days for all of us. Our clocks are confused, to say the least. Kennedy has her days and nights totally reversed so we are working hard at getting that turned around. Today we went to Grammie Clow's house where Kennedy played with her aunts, uncles and cousins ALL day. She loved it! She had a 45 minute cat nap around 3 o'clock and we managed to keep her up until 8pm so hopefully she'll sleep through until at least 5 or 6 a.m. The last two mornings she woke up at 3 o'clock and 1:30 so we're thinking it can only get better, right?

We are also all battling colds/sore throats. I was actually in such discomfort this a.m that I went to emergency only to find a FULL waiting room at 8 a.m. I knew I couldn't sit there all day so I came back home. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.

Tomorrow we are heading to Charlottetown to welcome home the Stetson family. It is Roshandra's birthday tomorrow and we can't wait to see them again. We know their older children must be so anxious to finally meet their baby sister.

Thank you to everyone who has called, stopped by and sent messages. We still need a bit of time to get adjusted but we'll be up and on the go soon.

Home Sweet, Sweet Home!

It is soooooooo good to be home. I have now been up for 36+ hours without a wink of sleep. We arrived home at 2 ish, greeted friends and family at the airport and off we went to Summerside...straight to McDonald's. I hadn't eaten for so long...about 36 hours I guess. The flights were delayed everywhere, we missed a connection, waited and waited and waited. Let's just say I don't want to go near an airport anytime soon. Carrying a baby through airports and on airplanes for what seemed like forever was exhausting, but worth it for sure!!

I'd like to thank the makers of the evenflo exersaucer for their wonderful invention. Kennedy loves it and I love it too!! It's now 8 a.m. Marv is getting some sleep and Kennedy is good to go. Marv is getting sick, so he needs rest more than I at this point.

Thank you to those who came to the airport to welcome us home. It was heartwarming to see so many people there. I know there were several others that had planned to come, but with our late arrival it was impossible to get there. We totally understand this. Thank you for your thoughts and well wishes.

Mom, thank you for cleaning our house and having it all ready for our return :)

And yes, today is my 35th birthday. Who knew I'd be bringing my girl home on my birthday. What an awesome gift.

Thanks for posting the pictures Sue!

A HUGE congratulations to Jeff, Jen and Savannah on the birth of Kennah! Can't wait to see you guys.

Special hello to our friends who travelled home with us from Beijing...Kathleen, Pat, Lucilla, Marcus and the beautiful Maeve! We miss you guys already. Thank you for your friendship throughout the trip and special thanks to Lucilla and Marcus for all your help each day! You are truly wonderful people!

I must make mention of our friends Bryan and Angela, who travelled from Moncton (took the day of work today!) to welcome us home. That means a lot to us! We cannot wait to share the details of our journey with you as you prepare to bring Ella home. xoxo

More to come...

MORE PICTURES!!!

Here are some more pictures....what a cutie!!!

WELCOME HOME KENNEDY!!!

Hi Everyone,
This is Sue, it is 3AM and I am just back from the airport to welcome Miss Kennedy Joy Clow to PEI!! She is absolutely beautiful....and what a little personality on her! The plane landed at 2AM and there was a good crowd there to welcome them home!! I just wanted to post a 'few' pictures of the Clow arrival and Carolyn will post as soon as she is up and running!! Congratulations........and WELCOME HOME KENNEDY!!!
Hugs and Kisses,
Sue

Last Night in China: Wednesday, February 14th

Yes, it's hard to believe this is our last night in China. It is with a heavy heart that we take Kennedy from her homeland, all the while knowing that she will have a fresh start in our awesome country Canada with two parents who love her more than anything...

We are worn down and ready to return Summerside. The support we've received from our community has been tremendous, with people sharing our story with their friends and so on...Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

And finally, our dear girl Kennedy, we bring you home to the wonderful people of Prince Edward Island. Finally...we are a family.

Thanks for following along everyone. You can continue to follow our journey when we return home. Stay tuned...