The Willison's are hitting the road again! Well, not the road per say... more like the air, rail and maybe some road once we get to CHINA! We have accepted the referral of a 2 year old girl from the same orphanage that Kian was from. We hope to travel in the next month or so ~ we hope you follow along on our trip!

These are her referral photos ~

We will keep you updated on our progress....

April 1, 2014 marked our one year Family Day with Kian.

It has been quite the adventure  - Kian is a smart guy who was thankfully loved and cared for in China. This has made the transition to our family fairly easy and is making strides on his speech by leaps and bounds!

This past year was full of firsts for Kian - first time at the beach!

 First birthday party!





First camping trip!

First zoo trip.

First time having daddy's wings for the Eagles game :)

First Halloween.

First passport.

First Thanksgiving.

First snow!

First Christmas... looking a tad nervous - he is on board with Jesus but Santa is another story!

First time sledding.

First US Chinese New Year.

These among other firsts made Kian's first year home an eventful fun time. Declan is adjusting well to being a big brother... and is ready to do it again!

6 months!

April 1st, 2013 Guangzhou, China

Yep - Kian has been part of our family for SIX months! I know, I know, we can not believe it either....

He has grown 2 inches and packed on a "few" pounds. He has caught up in all developmental areas except speech - but he is progressing with speech therapy and can say about 30 words.  He understands everything spoken to him - except "can you help clean up?"

October 1st, 2013 USA

Kian loves playing with whatever his brother has and trucks, trains or anything with wheels. He also cooks up a mean burger in the play kitchen. He has a tricycle but has not figured out how to pedal yet! When he came home he could not do a puzzle at all - now he can do 4-6 piece puzzles no problem. He has started going to Sunday school at our church and has stayed a few times in the nursery without to much fuss. He is very active and loves to play outside.

3 Months!

We met Kian 3 months ago today.... unbelievable. He was made for our family. From the beginning we knew a bit of his personality as our agency had met him in person and told us he was outgoing, active and social. All of these are understatements!

Kian loves being around people and has quickly warmed up to our dog Hoover.

His favorite person ever is his brother..... he would cry every morning when he left for daycare!

Having a big brother has really helped Kian adjust and try new things with only minimal hesitation.  He  follows him to a fault (hence the broken arm!). D is adjusting really well and (most) of the time enjoys having a little brother.

The past 3 months have been full of doctors appointments, evaluations and general trust building with us and Kian. We feel he is really starting to understand the "family" concept. If you have never adopted or read about adoption you might not think that is such a big deal - but it really is. We have a little guy who was born into our family and loved every minute of watching him discover, learn and develop. He has known since day 1 who mama and baba are (yes D refers to us as that now!) We also have a little guy who until 3 months ago lived in a different country, spoke a different language, ate different food and did not know us - he has been a blessing also! Watching him develop family, language and a new culture has been nothing short of amazing!

Sorry for delay on posts! We are home majorly jet-lagged... like getting up at 3 am jet lagged :( Steve & I are ok - it is a bit easier when you regulate with caffeine! Declan & Kian on the other hand.... well let's just say it is not pretty. Hopefully they will be back on a normal wake up time sooner rather than later. Also on our last night in Hong Kong Kian broke his arm. The boys were jumping on the bed and Kian did not make the jump from one bed to the next. It is a small break but it requires a cast for the next 3 weeks. All is well (as can be), he is not in pain and is still adjusting well to our family and to his new home.

First flight - the excitement was overwhelming!

Woke up for lunch....

Could you get any closer?

Passed out on landing.

Toyko layover.

3 am breakfast!

Poor guy - got a Phillies red cast though.... 

Disney Hong Kong

 While planning our trip to we decided to leave through Hong Kong as the flight options were easier and cheaper. Hong Kong is located about 2.5 hours south of where we stayed so we rented a van and driver to give us a ride as soon as we received Kian's travel visa. While reading some info online I discovered some families visit Hong Kong Disney at the end of the trip.... well Declan has never been to Disney and we knew he would love it :) kind of a reward for being dragged around looking at all the stuff we wanted to see not to mention becoming a big brother! Through our adoption agency we knew that Kian was an active, extroverted and playful little boy so we figured he would like it also.... if not the plan was one of us would stay at the hotel with him and chill out. Luckily we felt he was up for the experience - good thing we ended up there for almost 11 hours! We all had a great time and it did turn out to be the perfect end cap to the trip.

Can you guess where we are headed?

Someone's new best friend.

You thought food was expensive at Disney World?! (this is in Hong Kong dollars)

Toy Story land. We spent a loooong time here!