Meeting Ye ye and Nai Nai in Cocoa Beach

Tessa with Baba, Nai Nai & Ye Ye Lozowicki at sunset.
She had a wonderful time with all the fun gifts and goodies! Xie Xie!! (Thank you!)

Nai Nai taught Tessa how to say "Go Tim Tebo, aka, Go Gators!"

BOO!

Tessa's first long road trip with the whole family, except the cats, which she DID miss and got kind of sad later in the evening, asking to go home to be with the cats. Tessa was awesome!

Tessa was ready to meet her Nai Nai and Ye Ye in Cocoa Beach!

Sister & Friends Forever

Forever Friends and Sisters

Mama Allison and the Happy Girls

Mama Sandra and the Happy girls

Talking to SWI sister, Jinju

Tessa and Yanni HTS Pictures

Tessa and Yanni

Jingju, Tessa and Yanni

Tessa and Yanni

Yanni and Jingju

Yanni and Tessa

Yanni, Tessa and Jinju in the front row

Yanni, Tessa and Jingju (4th child)

Dancing Yanni Tessa are both enjoying Dance classes in America.

Swimming with Sister Yanni

We met at a really nice community park in Naples: Collier Regional Fun n the Sun Park. There were 4 pools and a lazy day pool. The girls had a blast!

Incredible Reunion with SWI Sister, Yanni!!

Gorgeous Girls!

We are not sure if the girls are speaking Mandarin or their dialect from Bei Hai City. If anybody knows, please leave a comment. The girls talked and talked and this must have felt good for both of them. They hugged and smiled all afternoon and they talked about Jingju (in Connecticut). A word we could understand was Mama...so we knew they were talking about their new lives with their new families.

Reunion with SWI Sister Yanni

It has been only 2 months since the girls last saw each other. Yanni and her Mom, Allison live in Fort Myers. They are so close. We are both so happy about this and hopeful that the girls will be able to stay close and keep up their Chinese language. Allison is with my agency, GWCA, and was the next group after our group. I would have met her in Beijing, but she did the same thing I did and traveled to Beijing with her new daughter. Yes, it would have been nice if we had all been together!!
Tessa was screaming "Guo Lan" when we pulled up, yet when they met, they were so somber. But I know they were both very, very excited to see each other again, and here in America!!

Incredible Reunion with SWI Sister!!

Sisters: Jingju Guo, Jing Huan Guo & YanLan Guo
(first 3 girls in photos)

YanLan Guo (Yanni) and Jing Huan Guo (Tessa) circa 2005

Last week, I received an email from Stephanie, an adopted Mom with a child also from Guangxi, who asked me to respond to a post on the Guangxi Yahoo Group. The post asked for contact info from families with girls from Bei Hai City SWI; a child recently adopted was missing her friends from China. I really didn't think Tessa would know the child but I responded anyway and I forwarded the request to Lisa in case Jinju might know her.

Well, we got a call on Friday evening. I had to literally stop the car and pull over!! I gave the phone to Tessa because Yanni (YanLan) was very eager to talk with Tessa. As you can tell, Tessa was in shock!! They talked for over 20 minutes, the longest phone conversation she has had, at least since she has been with me.....Tessa was very excited! When we got home, Tessa showed me who "Guo Lan" was from the photos in her Half The Sky Life Book. These girls were very close, they have been together all their lives, they are sisters!!! Yanni's Mom, Allison, said that they visited the blog and Yanni had been very anxious to talk to Tessa ever since. The girls talked again, Allison and I talked again and we scheduled a reunion for the girls for Sunday in Naples.

Tessa didn't quite get that Yanni was in Florida. But gosh, was she excited when I put her name and swimming together!!
How AWESOME is this????? Simply incredible!!

First American Hair Cut

After Chinese Language Class, we went to the mall, ate Chinese, shopped a little and then Tessa got her first American hair cut while sitting in a car (a Mercedez!!)

Jungle Island

We went to Jungle Island on Monday and had an awesome time. They were offering $10 admission for residents and $15 annual passes. We definitely got those!! Twins Jake and Jordan were there and made the visit twice as a nice!

Tessa loves Turtles and she couldn't believe how big this one was!

Ok, YIKES, and WOW was what I had to say when we walked into this underwater aquarium! Tessa and I actually held a baby alligator, but the picture turned out not so good. These alligators were so close to the window, it was amazing!



Jungle Island just opened a water activity area with 2 inflatable slides. Tessa was non-stop on the slides for 1.5 hours. She did not even go into the bay area water!
Cane Football Party: Here she is again, loving everybody else's car. She took over Jake and Jordan's Jeep and drove it for about an hour! She was very anti-social indeed...and the next day she had her day planned out: "school, dance, Jake and Jordan. Tessa loves Jake and Jordan's car." Go Canes!

Happy Girl in the Park

Tessa loves, loves, loves parks! Every time we drive by a jungle gym, she yells out "Tessa!"
She is a happy girl when she can be in a park!

Roller Derby Baby!

These were on sale and Tessa had asked for them a while ago.
It was a slippery hour or so, but by the end of the hour she was doing pretty good.

Baby Doll Time

I got Tessa a Baby Doll, "Baby Alive," that coos, eats and pees. Tessa seems to like it a lot and has continued to play with her for this past week. She wants to take it in the bath for a "shower," but it uses batteries....argh! so I ordered another doll last night... I went ahead and ordered an Asian Lots to Love doll online. Then my sister said the Water Babies are great for the bath....ok, I didn't want to spend a lot on dolls because I'm not sure how long she'll be interested in them. But so far, so good; she has not shown any aggressive behavior with the doll, only caring for it, like feeding, changing it's diaper and changing it's clothes. So I am happy about that! I wanted to observe her for any acting out behavior for any issues she might have had at her SWI, but so far so good. She's truly amazing!!