Happy Tuesday!

Just a few picks of Norah to get your day started! We had a great day today. We went to the People's Park today and it was beautiful! There are so many things to do and see. Poor Norah was sweating terribly because it was so hot outside. No hotter than home really, just very humid. I am so glad we went though. We went back to the hotel and ate a really great lunch. Chinese of course :) We came back to the room and put Norah down for a nap. Or should I say Shannon put Norah down for a nap. For reasons I cannot tell, Shannon had to hold her and she screamed her head off. But he had to do it. Had no choice of ya know what I mean ;) He just held her close and talked to her gently. She feel asleep! We are making progress! She is a tiny little thing, but holding her all the time is giving me a workout! A pediatrician is coming at 5 to check out the babies. We are thinking that she maybe has a cavity. Her bottom tooth in the back has a hole in it and it is grey. We shall see.
So here is what you really want...
Elias, have a great day sugar! We miss you like crazy caked but we are SO PROUD that everyone has told us that you have been soooo good! We knew you could do it! Think of a special place you would like to go when we get home! Love you sooooo much!!!!!!

**THE PICS OF HER LOOKING TO THE RIGHT (YOUR RIGHT) SHE IS MAKING FUNNY FACES AT SHANNON... )**

A Simple Thank-You

Shannon and I just wanted to say thank you for all of your comments that you are sending us. We are able to read them and we are so very thankful for them. We are so far away from home and just knowing that you are all there rooting for us means more than you will ever know. So thank you very very much. Please keep them coming! We enjoy reading them and Johnny O, Shannon got the biggest smile on his face when he saw your first post. He said, "Is that Johnny O from work?" I said yes. He said, "He posted a comment??" I said yes. He thought that was pretty awesome! So thank you from Nanchang and sweet dreams!!!!!!!!!!! Peace and Love! The Sharp Four :)

Hands Full

Well, yesterday we had a really great day. We had a bunch of paperwork to do for Norah to become officially ours. And guess what… she is  Now officically Norah Catherine LanPing Sharp. It was pretty wild going into all of these buildings. We went to the Jiangxi Adoption Center, the place to get the babies visa’s and to the notary. While we were at the notary, the gentleman asked us, “Will you promise to never abandon her or mistreat her?” I wanted to say to him… Have you seen this face??? Of course our answer is no and we are falling more and more in love with her by the second.
After we got back from running around town al day we had a really nice lunch at a place near our hotel. Our guide Evelyn said it was a local favorite. It was yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!Evelyn ordered a bunch of things for us and everything is served family style. This are placed on a table with a piece that spins around and everyone serves themselves. Very very good! Very local. Shannon ate a piece of spicy chicken and he immediately broke into a sweat. I am talking HOT… sweat running down his face, under his eyes, his nose. It was crazy. He loved it though! Then in the afternoon, we went to (drumroll please) WALMART! That’s right people, Walmart. This place is 3 stories. The second and third floor is actually Walmart. It was similar to ours, but there is not a huge selection of anything really. It was really neat to be able to say I have been to walmart in China 
So about Norah, because I know that you could all care less about what we are seeing and doing here  Norah Is really coming out of her shell. I can tell that her and Elias are going to give me a run for my money already! She makes the cutest facial expressions. She loves to copy what I am doing. We made kiss faces and she will just out of the blue just come at me with her lips puckered and plant one wherever those lips fall. She can blow raspberries, roll her tongue, clap for herself, and she makes this really funny face that looks like a pirate. But to top it all off… We were walking out of Walmart yesterday and I was holding her and she patted my chest and said “mama”. I almost took a stroke right there people.
We went back to the hotel and played a bit more on the bed with Shannon. We are having a bit of trouble right now because she is a momma’s girl. It is inevitable that it happens to one of us. They either attach for a short time to mom or dad. We need to start working on her with Shannon. She will be the only one feeding her right now so that she can know that he is a provider. Now I know that he is going to be really mad at me for typing this. I know that he isn’t going to read this so just don’t bring it up. He is an AMAZING dad. Now I know why I would like to have 5 or 6 kids… he is a natural. He will jus t get tears in his eyes looking at her or holding her finger. He will say, “I love her so much already”. He is very attentive to her and very very loving with her. He says to me, “She is just beautiful Pen! She is perfect!” We are both pretty smitten with her and we are so looking forward to you all meeting her. Oh, and that girl can EAT! Don’t let that small frame fool you. When I say she can eat, I mean it and you better just get out the way. She loves everything that she puts in her mouth. Especially watermelon and fruit. I will try to take some picks today of her chowing down. It is pretty funny! Have a good night y’all! It is Tuesday am here and looks like it is going to be a beautiful day!
**Elias, we saw the pics of you fishing and daddy was soooooo jealous because he says he never catches anything. He said when we get home you guys are going to go fishing and maybe you can teach him how to catch a shark! We LOVED the pictures and we know that you had a great time with Aunt Val! When we went to Wal-Mart today we got you some skittles. They are like regular skittles I guess but they are in a Chinese wrapper. We took Norah to the pool at the hotel last night and she LOVED it. She was splashing and laughing and everything. It was her first time in a pool and I was telling her that her GeGe was a really good swimmer and she can’t wait to see you do flips. We miss you so much buddy and we are counting the days like you are. It is really beautiful here, but nothing compares to waking up to your stinky breath in the morning. We love you and miss you like crazy cakes! XOXOXOXO

Melanie Wyrick....

Can you please email me your email address??? I have some questions for you! Thank you soooo much for getting in touch with us!!!!!!!! XOXO Email address is spesharp@yahoo.com

More on Norah

So sorry that this took so long for me to post. Norah had a MAJOR meltdown last night, but all is well. It is about 445am monday morning here. I can't sleep. My heart has been doing flipflops all night and I wake jus to make sure that she is real and she is still here. I figured that now would be a good time to catch up on the days events.
We flew into Nanchang and got here about 1245ish. I could be totally off here, but I am pretty sure that was around the time. We were met by our guide Evelyn who is just awesome!!! We were taken to the hotel which is the nicest hotel that I have even stayed in. I wish I could transport the bathroom home. It is beautiful!
Nanchang is a very poor place. People are sweeping with straw brooms and it is very run down. The people drive…. Different. It is just kind of a free for all. Lots of horns honking and crazy driving. We are somewhat like celebrities here as they are not accustomed to seeing Westerner’s. They would honk at the bus we were in and wave and smile. When we walked into the hotel people just stopped and time stood still for a few minutes. It was wild! I feel so warm and safe here despite the façade. Maybe it is because this is Norah’s birthplace. The only home that she has ever known. I just really feels good here.
So we had a meeting at 3:00 in the conference room with our guide. We went over the next few days itinerary and some paperwork and then around 4:30 Evelyn told us to go back to our room and get our things together because the babies would be here at 5. So at 4:30 we went our room and gathered some paperwork, her giraffe, some snacks for her and her blanket. As we were getting off the elevator to meet everyone at the conference room I hear this baby just wailing. I mean MAD! I said, That is probably Norah. Boy was I right. There were just three of us in that room. Shannon and her hubby and girls waiting on Grace. And Denise and her family waiting on Ryan. It was 445 and the crying was getting closer. I mean really close and then I went in panic mode. I had dreamed this scenario a hundred different times. Sometimes she was happy and sometimes she was sad. But nothing in this world prepared me for meeting Norah for the first time. Nothing.
I saw her out in the hallway. And did I say before she was MAD? I just want to make sure that you are getting that. So Grace was handed to her family and then Evelyn looked at us and said, you ready? And it was like slow motion. I stood up, Shannon was videotaping, and they handed her to me. All I could say was thank you, thank you God. She was sweaty, she was screaming, and she was in my arms. Isn’t that the way it normally works? I held her and kissed her head. She is soooo tiny! She was wearing the outfit that we sent her in her care package. The pants we big, but the top was alright. She is just awesome. As I was trying to console her in the room, the orphanage director came to me with a gift for Norah (Which is not something that they do often).I could tell when she was giving it to me that she had tears in her eyes. How hard that must have been for her. And all I could do was say thank you with tears in my eyes. Evelyn came over and told me that they scanned her birth note for us as well. It is nothing more than her date of birth and the time that she was born. We went back to the room a few minutes later because she was screaming her face off. When we got to the room, we went to the window that overlooks the city and just sat there with her. She would not make any eye contact and was limp. She did not want a bottle; she did not want food, nothing. We talked really soft to her and she stopped crying after a while. I finally had to hand her over to Shannon because I had to take care of some business and the crying started all over again. He was talking so sweet to her and just rubbing her back and walking with her. Man, he is amazing. She calmed down and fell asleep on his shoulder. He laid her in the middle of the bed and I had to meet the other parents for more paperwork. At the meeting, they gave me a brochure for the orphanage, her shot records and the newspaper that has her finding ad in. I just cannot believe that they have been so good to us and to Norah. The things they brought, the gift, her toys everything. It is not something that they are required to. She got the bag that we sent her a few weeks ago and it is awesome! They had all of her things in that bag along with some hotdog things that she loves and some cookies.
Anyway, she slept for about an hour and woke up and started coming around. She was sitting on the bed and she actually took a bottle from me. She made eye contact several times, so that is good. I think she even smiled… We had to run a spoon to another family so I took her with me. We took her stacking cups and was a really happy girl! We went and checked on Denise and Ryan too. Ryan is 2 ½ and he was in there as well as Jenna who is 5 and Emma who is 1. She was really happy to be around the other kids. She actually let me put her down and she stood up at the edge of the bed looking around. She is very very observant like Elias is. He is going to LOVE her!
Then we went back to our room and Shannon was already sleeping. I put her in bed and gave her her blanket and she just stuck it in her mouth and laid there until she went to sleep. She just put a bit of blanket in her mouth and suck s it like a paci. The blanket that we gave her is from my Uncle Chuck. It is beautiful. And that is the only blanket that will work for her. She was lying in bed last night and she was sucking her blanket, and she was taking her hands and picking up the sides and rubbing them on her face. Beautiful.
She they are sleeping right now and she slept all through the night. This morning I woke up to her rubbing my arm in her sleep.
Mom, thank you so much for the comment that you left. That meant so much to me; I wish all of you were here to see her. Especially Elias. He would have loved this.

This is amazing. Truly. Nothing could have ever prepared me for this. My heart is full.
I will post more later. Stuart, to answer your questions, we have HBO and Cinemax in our room. We haven’t eaten anything really weird yet, I think they were letting us take baby steps. Last night we had pizza  We were just too tired to go anywhere. We sure miss you guys, you would love it here! But I am excited that we have a few days here to explore Norah’s home. Man I love that kid!
Elias, we miss you buddy! Daddy and I cannto wait to be home with you and snuggle. We were just talking about what a really cool kid you were to one of the other family members yesterday. I miss you squirt.I hope that you are having a good time! Love you so very much !!!!!

We have Norah!

Just wanted you all to know that we got Norah about 4:45 pm today. I will post all of the details later. But I will leave you with a few pics. I have to go to a meeting at 7 and Norah is asleep. Love you all!

Off to Nanchang

Good morning! This is our last day in Hong Kong and this mornign we are on our way to Nanchang. I could hardly sleep last night. Shannon woke up about 6pm yesterday and we went walking around our hotel There was supposed to be a laser light show but I am thinking that we missed it due to the fog. We went walking around and just people watched. It was pretty amazing. Shannon and Denise's family was with us and then they went back o their room for the night. I ordered room service for dinner because Shannon wasnt too hungry. It was some chicken dish and it was expensive! About 40 american dollars. It was a few slices of chicken with the skin still on, some veggies... not too sure what they were to be honest, a small bowl of white rice and a coke. Needless to say I am still hungry. Well, I have lots to do here in this next hour. Thank you to everyone that has posted comments on our blog. We really appreciate that more than you will ever know. Stuart, you made Shannon's day with your post. Keep them coming! Love and hugs and kisses to all! We are of to get Ms. Norah! XOXO

More

Wow! Seems like I have more time on my hands than I should! I figured that I should just go ahead and type type type all I can today because I have a feeling when Norah Catherine gets here tomorrow our world is going to be turned upside down! Shannon is napping right now. I asked him, "You are really going to nap when there is so much to see and do here!" Apparently he thought it was a good idea. He has been sleeping about 3 hours now. I went downstairs and did a bit of galavanting myself today. I didnt want to wander too far for fear of not finding my way back. But I did it :) This place is wild! It is so completely different than Charleston. I think we have seen 2 police officers since we have been here and they were on motorcycle. I have yet to see a car. The smells and the sights are truly one of a kind.
I cannot belive that this time tomorrow we will have Norah. I just cannot believe it. I know that I packed her suitcase and we flew a bajillion miles to get her, but it just does not feel real. Doesnt that sound crazy! I know that when we finally see her tomorrow that will be a real reality check. I am just so excited about it all and about seeing her sweet face. I really hope that she doesnt have a hard time with leaving the only home that she has ever known. I am so excited for her and for the journey that she is about to experience. Now it will just be convincing HER that it is alright :) Just Keep us in your prayers tomorrow :) Okay enough for now. I am going to try and wake the angry bear and see if he will go with me walking. We are going to meet the rest of our group at 7:30 in the lobby so we can see the laser show. Our guide told us that it was really pretty. The next time I post will be after we get Norah. We have to have our bags packed at outside our door at 710 am tomorow. Our flight from HK to Nanchang is 1 hour and 20 minutes. I will post pics as soon as I can! Love and Peace to you all!
Elias, you would have loved the shopping today! We are going to look for some thigns for you tomorrow. They were a bit expensice today when we went to the market. Things are supposed to be alot cheaper in mainland CHina. We miss you buddy and we are counting down the days that we will be back home so we can hug and snuggle down :) Love you buddy! XOXO SugarMomma and DaddyO

The surprise...

I cannot reveal at this time what the surprise is. I can however tell you that it has nothing to do with me per say. Not physically anyway. I will be able to tell you in about 5 weeksish?? Good stuff, I promise :)

Pictures from Hong Kong...

I have a little bit of time here so I want to upload the pics and stuff that I took today. We went to the Jade factory today and some pictures are from that tour. We also went to the Aberdeen fishing village in HK. We took a boat tour of the village and surrounding buildings. And then I took some pictures of the outfits that we got for Elias and Norah. Enjoy :)

Good Morning from Hong Kong!!

It feels so surreal to be typing that! We finally got into HK about 930ish last night, atleast I think that is what time it was! That was the LONGEST flight ever. By the last stretch of two hours I honestly wanted to just jump out and either swin or hitchhick my way to the hotel. We were on a HUGE plane on the way over there. There were 3 seats, and isle and another 3 seats. We were in the middle isle and I was in the middle of Shannon and another guy. It was a long flight and I am not even joking about that. We hit some turbulence a few times but nothing enough to loose your lunch over. So all in all it was good, but I was really really really happy to see the HK airport! Oh, it was really cool on the planes they had video screen on all the seats in fron of us. They had about 350 movies, tv shows and music as well as games. That definitely took up a good bit of our time!
We got to our hotel last night and literally crashed! We were wiped out! On the way to the hotel we went through downtown HK. There were tons and tons of apartment buildings. Not like the apts that we have at home. These were like skyscrappers. And they were all over the place! It was wild!
So this morning we are going to meet our group for breakfast and then do a Hong Kong tour. And tomorrow is Norah day. :) It feels so weird to say that! I will post pics later today. It is 7:05am Saturday morning here. So I guess it would be 7:00 Friday night there.
Elias we miss you soooo much!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm gonna try to call you now.

Write more soon!!! XOXOXO

The countdown is on....

Well, in 9 hours and 30 minutes we will be on our way to China. I can't believe that I am really typing that! WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO GET OUR DAUGHTER!!!!!!! We have dreamed, planned and prayed for this day for so long and now it is finally coming true! But that joy comes with a price. And that is leaving Elias behind. I did really good until mom came to pick him up. Then I lost it. The last time I cried with my mom was when I came to her about wanting to adopt from China and my heart was just aching for a little girl that needed me as much as I needed her. And now these were tears of joy and sadness that were falling down my cheeks. We spent a really great day with Elias. We went to the pool for a while and came home and took a family nap. What a good snuggler he is! We got up and he chose to go to Logan's for dinner. At dinner I asked him what he would like for us to bring him back from China and he said, "Momma, just bring Norah home please." Well, I admit that I did get a bit teary. I held it back since we were in the middle of the restaraunt. But when mom and I were standing in the living room, I just sobbed and sobbed so sad that I would be without my shadow for 2 weeks. He was oblivious of it all and sat on the computer playing his video games. I will miss that little squirt and my heart will not rest until we are home and both of my kids are in my arms. I hope that I will be enough for them and I hope that they will be happy with each other. He is going to be such an amazing big brother. Mom called me shortly after they drove out of the neighborhood and told me that Elias said... "Nana, now we FINALLY get some alone time! I am on vacation for 2 weeks!!!" I felt so much better :)
So the next time we will post it will be from our hotel in Hong Kong!!! Have a good day all!
For those of you that called, emailed, myspaced, and texted... thank you. I know that I forgot to call a few people back and I am so sorry. I hope all of you have a great 2 weeks... I know we will! Until then my friends, peace and love to you all!

We are getting closer.

And I just got the most amazing news... can't reveal just yet but someone made me a very very very happy girl today!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ilyac!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are just over the top. I am going home tonight to pack our stuff so I can spend the rest of the week with Elias. 4 more sleeps until Norah. I just can't believe that it is finally here. I really can't.

And her bags are packed....

CAN YOU TELL I HAVE BEEN BUSY??? I SKIPPED A DAY!

WE ARE DOWN TO SINGLE DIGITS!!!!!!!!!! YIPEEEEEE!