Serendipities

Brothers

2012-01-22T20:11:00.005-05:00

We always tell our children that the greatest gift we can ever give them is each other. No one else will ever be able to understand what it was like to endure the trials and joys of having been raised by Jerry and I. Their siblings will be there to support them in times and in ways that we cannot. The gift of family is a treasure even if it sometimes just looks like an ordinary earthen vessel.
Simon and Jed couldn't be more opposite. Jed is smiley and outgoing and full of enthusiasm. He is the best at wii boxing. Even Everett can't beat him. Simon is shy and reserved and studies things carefully. He sometimes slips off in the evening and goes to bed while everyone else is still playing. When he saw how much turkey I put on his plate at dinner, he smiled as if he was opening a birthday surprise.
They seem wonderfully happy here. I believe one reason is that they have each other. I confess, I worried about bringing home two 'older boys'. Those worries seem pretty silly from this end. There is Alot of Chinese being spoken around here, since Dominic and Rosie recovered their mother tongue, and I do worry that I cannot be in control of what is being said. I heard of a mom who told her kids they couldn't speak Chinese anymore because they were obviously making fun of their siblings and all things American. I totally understand that. However, I would much prefer for them to be bilingual, even if it takes a little longer for them to acquire English. Even though the Chinese are all learning English as fast as they can, I am pretty sure that speaking Chinese will still be useful when the kids are older.

Here is the Jedi that Everett drew for Ric's Star Wars birthday party. We played 'pin the light saber on the jedi' with blindfolds. ......I am hoping that Ric's parents will start letting him spend more time with our family (he was here for a month over Christmas break but went home last week) since now we will be able to offer them a 'Chinese immersion program'. How strange is that?

Thoughts after a week at HOME

2012-01-17T22:10:00.002-05:00

Gee, but it's great to be back home......Home is where I wanna be.....I've been on the road so long, my .........uh, okay,sorry, no one wants to hear me sing.........But all that is true. The kids are all doing great and spend most of their time having Alot of fun. Although, we never heard Rosie and Dominic speak a word of Chinese to each other, they both can speak to Simon and Jed. When we brought R and D home, alot of the responsibility to 'show them the ropes' fell on Nellie's shoulders. This week, we have been delighted at the way Rosie has stepped up as the big sister and Chinese interpreter, to help Simon and Jed.

The best news of the week came while the kids were watching the new Superbook cartoon about Daniel. Rosie told me that Simon 'knows Jesus'. I wasn't totally surprised because he had seemed so happy at church, but I was totally surprised that he and Rosie talked about it. (I am beginning to think that quiet little Rosie might be more of a FORCE than I had previously realized - just like Katrina, a Type A anomaly in this otherwise laid back family).

I have completed 29 plane flights since God first sent us to China in 2006. Even the Xanax only took me from 'terrified' to 'nervously keeping an eye on the stewardesses'. If bravery really isn't 'the absence of fear' but rather 'doing what you have to do even though you are afraid', then God must be working on making me brave. But like patience, that isn't really a character quality I had been seeking :/ . I would be okay with never needing to be brave again.

Every time we have done an adoption, and more particularily, every time we have gone to China, we thought it was our last time. This time I am not making any predictions, although I have a lovely sense of being Finished at this moment. During the adoption process, the missing children are never far from your mind and heart. You think you can imagine what it will be like to have them there , but it is never the same as you imagine. Knowing that older children can have a hard time adjusting, there is always a nagging fear that this effort to make life better for two kids might totally ruin the lives of the ones already home. The children at home have each been praying for Simon and Jed every night for over a year. I believe those prayers prepared Nellie, Rosie, Dominic and Andy's hearts to be able to welcome them home with joy rather than jealousy. And at the moment, joy is here in abundance.

Partly because of jet lag, I feel like we haven't had much individual time with any of the kids this week, so it was nice that I had the chance to make a trip to Chapel Hill (a five hour drive) for Andy's doctor apppointments, with just Andy and Jed. We stayed in a hotel and shopped and ate at a few special places, which included Jed's first trip to McDonald's, complete with Happy Meal. Simon still has that in his future. One of Andy's doctors asked Jed in Chinese if he missed China and he, very clearly, told her that he Did Not.

Some time this week we will start school. Maybe tomorrow. Or maybe not.

Lifeline Group

2012-01-10T09:23:00.000-05:00

Some of the lovely people we met on this trip - All of them ordinary people, just like us, who were led to this unlikely place at this appointed time.
Catherine

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The Last Day in China

2012-01-10T04:49:00.001-05:00

It was so much fun to watch Simon and Jed's reactions to the animals at the zoo today ! They chattered and pointed and made it obvious that they had never been to one before. It was finally relatively warm so a perfect day to stroll through, but cool enough that the animals were all very active. No one here seems to be worried about providing a natural environment for the animals , so they have no place to hide from the visitors, and can be seen much more closely than in any American zoos I have visited.

This afternoon we are packing. We will meet tonight with our group for pictures and put our baggage out for the porters at 6AM. We have a short first flight - about 2 hours- to Shanghai and then a 15 hour flight to Atlanta. We will be traveling for 25 hours, but because of the time change, will arrive only 13 hours after we leave. That boggles my mind. I think that means we get on the plane when you are having dinner Tuesday night and arrive Wednesday night. But for us it will be like leaving Wednesday morning and arriving in Atlanta Wednesday night, but living a 25 hour day in 12 hours.

The boys are ready. In fact, they have been in waiting mode, passing the time watching movies, for days now. We are so thankful for the prayers, encouragement, and support from everyone during this whole process, but especially during this trip. It has been a truly wonderful time for all of us. We have made new friends and met people we only knew in cyberspace. We have had more adventure than I thought my fearful heart was capable. I really, really hope that we get to support MANY of you when you make the decision to embark on a similar adventure!

Catherine

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Photo Fatique

2012-01-09T08:54:00.000-05:00

We have two boys who are Really tired of posing for pictures! We went to the White Swan (the hotel we stayed in when we adopted Andy) today to do some shopping and take the traditional 'Red Couch Adoption Photo" - you can see the results, the third photo is in our hotel, on our way out to 7/11 to pick up lunch. The timing for this, is actually pretty good, since, not only
are we leaving soon, but as you might notice from the black spot at the bottom of the pictures, my camera is dying.

We left early this morning and had what we thought was a successful morning at the consulate, but just got a call saying that one of us has to go early tomorrow morning again, as a date was left off some paper we signed. I nominated Jerry, since I am allergic to early mornings. When he returns we will go with our group to the zoo and then come back to pack. It will be so worth facing the mountain of laundry at home to get to see everyone again!

Tonight we are having a 'Room Service and Star Wars' family night to introduce the boys to SW in preparation for Ric's birthday party..

Another God thing - when I was buying backpacks, clothes, toys, to bring to the boys, whenever possible I bought Simons in red and Jed's in blue. When we got the boys and the guide asked them their favorite colors, Simon said red and Jed said blue. Smile. It's always good to remember God's hand of direction when things get hard, as of course, in a fallen world, they will.

Catherine________________________________________________________________
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Happy Birthday Camila and Ric !

2012-01-08T10:40:00.001-05:00

This morning our group was taken to shop at two large indoor market/malls. Each were 5 stories tall, one totally devoted to jewelry, primarily jade and pearls. Mothers adopting baby girls like to buy pearls to give on their daughters 16th birthday or their wedding day. Not my cup of tea (not that I
don't like jewlery, but gold and valueable gems are my preference). I still needed some clothes for the boys so we left the buildings and mingled with the hoards of people in surrounding neighborhoods, looking for a bargain (TOTALLY my cup of tea). I found the longsleeved tshirts I have been looking for and matching angry bird sweatshirts, so the boys will get a change of clothes tomorrow. I hate that most of their pictures on this trip are in boring green jackets!

Speaking of tomorrow - it is our day to go to the American consulate to raise our right hands and swear that we will be good parents to these boys. No pictures allowed, even of the outside of the building. At that point the official business will be done (except for a small glitch with Jed's paperwork form his province, which will be taken care of in the afternoon).

Tonight we ate dinner on a riverboat cruise of the Pearl River. We don't have any pictures of Simon looking at the camera because he was working on eating 12 chicken feet. EWW !

THanks to those who are praying - the hard greiving baby seems to be doing a bit better and her parents got a decent nights sleep so they are doing better, too! I know they would still love your prayers though, she still isn't eating much.

Please wish Camila and Ric Happy Birthday today!!!

Love, from China, Catherine ________________________________________________________________
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Badmitton

2012-01-07T10:16:00.001-05:00

This morning we went for the boys TB checks. Both were fine but our friends had a little scare when their daughters showed a reaction and necessitated an xray. After a few anxious moments, and her xray came back clear, happy tears were shed all around. (The USA does not allow non citizens with suspected TB to enter the country until they have completed many weeks of treatment and our children are not citizens until they step onto American soil. It is a classic Catch 22. Had her xray not been clear she would have had to remain in China, but since in Chinas eyes the adoption is final, she could not be taken back to the orphanage.)

While we shopped a little on the Island we saw some people playing badmitton (a fairly common sight) and decided to buy the boys a set. Jed lost the first shuttlecock up on a roof so Jerry took over his position and Simon got good at the game pretty quickly. A Chinese couple walked by and the man challeged Jerry to a few rounds, so he got to sweat a little today.

This afternoon I worked on Consulate paperwork (it is never ending!) and tonight we went to a Mongolian restaurant with our group. Today we added a single mom who traveled alone with her 7 year old to pick up her almost three year old. She will return home going west through Thailand and Gemany so will have traveled all the way around the world in two weeks, alone with
children. Yikes! She could probably use your prayers, as could another couple in our group who are first time parents and whose baby daughter is greiving hard and not even wanting to eat.

We highly recommend adopting 10/11 year olds !! They are a TON of fun!

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World Second Tallest Tower

2012-01-06T09:16:00.001-05:00

We began today with a visit to the second tallest tower in the world. The tallest is in Dubai. The nice part about it is that the three other families in our group are great. In addition to the Thompsons, today we met a family adopting their third child, first girl and a couple who is in contention for the 'bravest people in the world' award. They are approaching 50ish doctors who are adopting their first children ! A baby girl and an 11 year old boy !! They changed their first diaper yesterday ! Do you think life might change a little for them?!! I sure wish they had a blog we could follow, but as it happens, they know Trish Enloe Patterson, our friend's Robert
and Rita's daughter. Small World. Simon had a little trouble with car sickness on the bus again today (glad I had a bag with me) so we went to a pharmacy and bought some car sick medecine. I won't give it to him unless gum and all else fails. We went to a huge bookstore this afternoon, which I
thought would thrill Simon but he couldn't pick out anything he wanted. I knew Jed wouldn't want anything, but he actually spent sometime looking through a book about animals, but said he didn't want it. I picked out a few things for them , including some tiny , cheap math books to do when we get home. There were hundreds of different 'learn to speak English" programs because Chinese parents all want their kids to speak English. Our boys will learn much more quickly with 'instant full immersion', although perhaps not so quickly as the others, because they have each other to speak to. BTW, See the boys sweaters? Chinese also love wearing clothes with English words on them. The sweaters say DON OT BLEACH HAND WASH....LOL....hope they don't mean it.

At dinner tonight, I drew a tic tac toe game - Jed was familiar with it, Simon was not. We were surrounded b waitresses asking questions again tonight - usually addressed to smiley Jed, even though he was mad at me for telling him not to tell me No when I tell him something. (It was 'put your jacket on', because I knew we were going to walk outside to dinner and he did not.) In situations with that kind of timing, I just imagine what he
might be saying, smile. Our guide said an adoptive mother of an 11 year old girl called her to translate a frequently heard comment from her daughter.. It was 'mom, you are crazy!' Ya know, if they are saying that, (as I'm sure mine might), I would just as soon not know. At the moment, Jed is watching
Cars2 and Simon is reading a Snoopy cartoon book I bought today. Jerry is watching soccer. They are all precious !

Loving this adventure , Catherine
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Medical Exam Day

2012-01-05T07:51:00.001-05:00

I wanted to beging by giving you a glimpse of that 200 dollar meal. The boys are eating shrimp and please note - the flowers on the table are orchids. Jed and Simon were totally unimpressed that the room was moving. I guess when you figure that moving into a 5 star hotel with strange looking 'big nosed' people , who make you bathe and change your clothes regularly and buy you things every time you step out the door and offer you more food at one sitting than you have ever seen before, a spinning room must just be a normal thing in this new strange world.

Today we went to Shamian Island for the medical exams. We are
traveling now with another family we know from online - the Thompsons (thompsontreasures.blogspot.com) from PA. They have adopted two precious 5 and 6 year old girls who are bothe doing great. Faith hasn't had much time to keep up her blog, but I am pretty sure her girls don't spend as much time occupied with movies as my boys do. At the moment Jed is watching
Tranformers and Simon is watching Mickey Mouse. The medical exams went fine, Simon had to have 4 shots , because he is over 10, and he didn't even flinch. We go backin two days to have their TB tests read. Failing that would be the only thing that could keep us from all returning home on time. We know of two families who had to leave their kids here for a couple of
months while they completed the treament for TB. Not fun. I'll check their arms tomorrow and hope to see nothing.

It is FAreezing here! The latitude is the same as the Florida Keys, and I can pretty much guarantee that nobody there will be wearing down jackets there, as we did here today, any time this winter. There is obviously something about the temperature realtive to the equator that I don't understand. Any help out there??
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Guangzhou - blocked

2012-01-04T23:48:00.001-05:00

We have made it safely to Guangzhou, but cannot get through the government internet blocks to post on our blog. We are trying to find another way around the blocks. The boys are still doing great. We had worried that Simon might be a little sad about leaving Xian, but he showed no signs of it, and was very smiley on the plane flight. (Unlike me, I am wondering if
I can double the Xanax dose. I kept saying to myself 'John Makinson does this because he LIKES IT, all the time, and Cathy even went with him! ...Just when I thought I was so used to flying I was heading to Broadway .....) This hotel is gorgeous and we have been upgraded to the executive floor. We somehow got the idea that meant we could eat on the glass walled, rotating, restaurant on the 30th floor for free. The first 200 dollar meal I have ever eaten.....OOPS! should have tried the the lobster claws!.......Catherine
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Muslim Market Shopping

2012-01-03T03:48:00.006-05:00

It is no secret that I like to shop. Today was shopping of the very best kind! - in an interesting foreign place with tons of deals to be had, if only you can come up with a few of the right words to negotiate/communicate. We went back to the Muslin Market without a guide ( so, no need to hurry, feeling she might want to move on) but with a driver (so, no need to worry that an hour long wait for a taxi could end in failure and we would be lost in China forever). This is how we do it - we stroll along together until I see something I am interested in, then we part ways and Jerry and the boys look at things that interest them in the vicinity. After the shopkeeper and I have come to an agreement about the price, I call for Jerry and he tries his Chinese out on the shopkeeper, makes jokes and pays the bill. This girl hit the jackpot with our Nrth Face purchases, although since she started asking me to pay 380 yuan for a jacket and I ended up paying 160, I felt pretty good about it, too. :) Jerry got a Manchester shirt for a pretty good price and the boys got yo yos and the Bee Movie (Jed is watching right now while Jerry and Simon are down playing ping pong).

There were alot of places cooking amazingly delicious looking Muslim food on the street but our guide suggested we should stick to the restaurants. I did buy some wonderful bread.

If you look carefully you can see Jerry's white head above everyone in the middle of this picture.

The boys were fascinated by a man doing magic tricks. When he asked me if my husband was Chinese, I said no, he is the white headed man over there and the whole crowd laughed like I had told the biggest joke. It is very hard not really knowing what people are saying, particularily to the boys about us and about adoption. The subject comes up frequently everywhere, but always in restaurants. Chinese are loud, pushy and inquisitive and there are no questions that are considered bad taste. So when one waitress finds out we are the boy's parents, a crowd of waiters, waitresses and any other interested parties, usually forms. And they talk to the boys. Today we went into a very small restaurant in the Muslim district. The kind where you sit down and they take your order (the menu had pictures, thankfully) and then you have to pay before they send it to the kitchen. And then they brought packets of wrapped dishes to our table and asked if we wanted to rent them to eat off or if we were planning to eat out of the serving dishes. We rented 4 sets - 50 cents. At that point about 10 people were surrounding our table talking and laughing, asking the boys questions. I usually watch the boys carefully to make sure no one is being mean, and today they seemed to be smilling back, so I guess it was all good. Occassionally, in shops, when they find out we are adopting them, people will say thank you, or give us a better deal on what we are buying, so I think , in general, people think it is a good thing and that the boys 'are very lucky'. We try to express, that we are the ones who have been blessed.

These girls were excited to see themselves in the pictures that I took.
Both boys continue to be cheerful and good natured. Jed often wakes me up with a hug, like used to, smiling and saying 'goodmorning, Mama'. Today he told me, 'I love you', in English. Wondering how Simon will feel about leaving his hometown, tomorrow. thanks for your prayers, Catherine

Late Night Musing

2012-01-02T10:39:00.003-05:00

These are the kids waiting for us at home. I miss them.
The one in the middle is Ric. He will turn 7 while we are in China. We will celebrate his birthday the first weekend after we get home. Star Wars.
It was at Ric's age that three of my Chinese boys were found and taken to the orphanage.
It was at Ric's age that three of my children were left. Alone.
Can you even begin to wrap your mind around that ?
And now they leave everything again, but they are not alone. They will never be alone again. They have family who will never leave them. C

Older Children

2012-01-02T06:04:00.005-05:00

The nice thing about adopting older children is that they already do so many things for themselves. The hard thing about adopting older children is that they do so many things for themselves in ways that ......let's say, won't work at home. When Jed first came, I showed him how to take a bubble bath. He locked the door and stayed in for a long time, but I fugured that was okay. Simon said he took showers, so it wasn't until two nights ago that Jed showed him how to take a bath. I should have been paying more attention. They went in seperately and each spent a Very long time in there last night. At the end of that time, when I looked up from my book, every jar of shampoo, conditioner and bath foam was empty and on the floor with all of the towels and an inch of water. Their fingers were clean and pruny. sigh. smile. Tonight there will be showers.
I think when we get to Guangzhou we need to try to communicate a few more things with them that will help at home. Like putting the toilet seatup when they pee. And changing socks and underwear. And brushing teeth daily. And washing hair. And for Simon, not throwing trash on the floor, because at home the lady with the push broom sweeping up trash will be him :) (maybe I shouldn't tell him that yet since things are going so well).
The giggling is of them watching Nemo, which seems to be their favorite - they have watched it over and over the past few days. (For those who will be traveling for older kids, I am SO glad I bothered to bring one of our car DVD players and a batch of movies, mostly Disney we had in Chinese. They have given us the use of Jerry's laptop which we had to make available for R and D to watch movies on when we got them. So far we have not seen any movies to buy here in China, but I know they will be abundant in Guangzhou.)

We said goodbye to our sweet guide , Celine, today. She will be taking a might train to another province to help another family adopt a baby. Her baby, who is two, lives near her, but is primarily cared for by her mother, so he will be fine while she travels.

We visited a museum today and saw the largest stone lion in China, and alot of other Chinese dynasty things. After we went to lunch with Celine and our driver, we went back to our hotel before deciding to venture out on another shopping trip. Unfortunately, the bellmen told us there were no taxis from 3 to 5 in the afternoon. Huh? In a city of Xty million people, all the taxis take a break at the same time?? So, we walked down the street and stood with other people trying to get a taxi. It was true. We saw many taxis, some parked, some driving, but none that would pick up people. We walked.

More trivia. I learned at the museum that the Emperor who buried all those Terra Cotta Warriors under the ground, wasn't the only guy to do that. Emperors and other rich guys were always burying stuff to help them in the afterlife - gold , jewelry, chariots, you name it. So I asked Celine, who the stuff would belong to if were found, say on My property. (Like oil in Texas.) She said, 'We have a Constitution. It says that all of the land in China belongs to China and everything under the land belongs to China. Although, in this new, more capitalist economy, people can own houses and apartments, they can only own them for 70 years. But they can never own the land.'

2012-01-01T06:55:00.008-05:00

Last night the boys watched movies on our bed waiting for the New Year because their beds had too many toys on it for them to fit (Where are the neatnick kids who typically come from orphanages? R and D were compulsively tidy . These two act like 'the maid will clean it up'. LOL Maybe they are secretly genetically related to me.) After we entered the New Year, we called Ryan so we could tell him about the future. It is good.
Today we walked on part of the city wall that was built around Xian 600 years ago (or maybe in the year 600?) complete with a moat and ramparts (never knew what that part of the StarSB meant) just like at a castle. There were even men there dressed in castle-like armor.
Chinese New Year decorations are going up everywhere, including the city wall. Apparently , like our Christmas, they figure if you are doing all that lavish decorating, it ought to be up a month or so ahead of time.

We also went to the Drum Tower (Chinese ring a bell in the morning and bang a drum at dusk) in a Muslim part of town and bought the boys traditional Chinese clothes for the 'red couch picture' in Guangzhou and Chinese New Year at home and some wooden swords. They were delighted with the swords, the clothes , not so much. We also ventured alone to the wholesale clothing market again and had another hour wait for a taxi. It is a hard place to live.

We asked our guide when she last saw the sun and she couldn't remember. It seems like it would be so drepressing to live all winter in grey smog/fog, but most people are noticeably cheerful and friendly. Today a groupf of teenage girls asked if they could take pictures with me. Like I was a movie star. Of course, I accomodated.

The boys are best buds. I am so glad that God led us to Jed's picture (he was on another agency's site and I advocated for him for awhile). If it weren't for Jed, I don't think Simon would have stayed with us. And if we hadn't already been adopting Simon we probably wouldn't have considered Jed. They obviously belong together and having both of them actually makes this adoption easier on us. On the way to China, I had the typical 'are we making a huge mistake?' worries. On the day we met Simon, I would have settled with going home with one. I am so glad that I am not the one in control here. His ways are better than mine.

This picture shows how Simon and Jed were feeling about sightseeing by the end of the day.

Terra Cotta Warrior Day

2011-12-31T06:03:00.011-05:00

Here is our first family picture ! Simon hasn't gotten the 'smile for the picture' thing, but as you'll see, I captured a few smiles when he wasn't expecting it. (BTW they don't say 'cheese' here, but rather 'pomegranite', or perhaps I have confused that with another fruit.hmm) The Chinese call the Terra Cotta Warriors, the eighth wonder of the world, and anyone who has seen them would probably agree. The wonder to me is all that work and artistry was deliberately hidden under the ground for no one to see. or ever find. Some farmers were digging a well and discovered it. It was a great place to visit with 10 year old boys. As expected, Simon read everyword and evesdropped on some of the tour guides who were speaking in Chinese (our was speaking English) and Jed skipped through happily, occassionally stopping to look and study something.

Tonight we will go back and forth ( I hope ) between the New Year celebrations at the Xian Temple and an important Manchester soccer game.

As a first course they chose Spagetti (I had fried rice, Jerry went straight to the ice cream course.) The boys finished up with ice cream for the second day in a row. I sense a change in diet awaiting us back in NC. For the last year, since we've had Dominic and Rosie we have eaten rice nearly every day. These two Northern Chinese boys are 'noodle boys'. And I don't mean the rice noodles that I have come to love, but heavy hand made wheat noodles. (David Rusch are you out there??)

Touring and Trivia

2011-12-30T03:28:00.007-05:00

Today we visited a Buddhist Temple, did a little shopping and gave the boys their first taste of America. I am not a good tourist or museum goer. I like to walk on by and say, 'mm, that's nice', what's next. Jerry, on the other hand, reads every caption, and asks questions about every piece of information, given by the guide. I try to say, 'oh, wow!' politely, hiding my yawns. If you want to know anything about Chinese temples, buy a book. Or ask Jerry. Simon is like Jerry (see him standing thoughtfully in the first picture), Jed is like me - are you surprised? We saw alot of statues, Buddhas and goddesses. Fortunately for me, while Jerry and the boys climbed to the top of the seven story temple (I've seen stairs before) I got to watch the set up and partial rehersal for the New Years celebration that will be going on at this temple. It will be fun to watch it on TV and see everyone in their costumes.

Simon told the guide that he did not believe in Buddha, but later he considered putting some money given him by the orphanage in a donation box. He and Jed discussed it, laughing , and then apparently decided against it.

Since Jerry discovered there was a Dairy Queen here, he has mentioned several times that 'we should take the boys'. I am sure he only had their interests at heart and was really sacrificing to have ice cream for lunch. We decided on Blizzards and we got genuine smiles and enthusiasm from both boys through the whole event. Georgia Mud Fudge, Cookies and Cream and Strawberry Banana were our choices, avoiding melon, kiwi and a few other fruit flavors. apparently American candy bars are not allowed.

Simon is doing great. We have seen smiles -at Dairy Queen, when we went back to Walmart and bought him the remote control car he refused the other day,,and when we bought the boys books. He chose Pleasant Goat and came home and read it. Jed chose Cars and hasn't glanced at it since I made him choose it. We have heard laughter - watching movies, playing with Jed, jumping on the bed (don't tell). He still isn't making eye contact, but that will come.

In talking to our guide, we learn more about Chinese culture. She and her husband are both only children so they are the first modern generation who will legally be allowed to have two children. She has a two year old son, and is very excited to be able to have another child. When we told her we were taking the boys to DQ she cautioned us against allowing them to have too much as it is not considered healthy to eat cold food in the winter (I wondered why the boys were giggling so much, at stealing ice off the buffet at breakfast!).

She also told us that it gets very hot here in the summer, sometimes as high as 110 degrees. There is a law that when the temperature gets over 100 no one has to go to work. With little air conditioning, that would be nice, except that the weather stations are only allowed to say that the temperature is 98 or 99! So everyone must go to work even though they know they should not have to.

Have I said yet, that both boys arrived wearing brand new pjs under brand new sweatpants, under brand new jeans and sweater (Simon's is handmade by an orphanage volunteer). And new shoes. They also had the cameras and toys that we sent. Jed had a bag of apples and Simon some snacks. That's it. At ten years old, they owned nothing of their own. Jed knows a bit about computers and could negotiate his way around qq if we wanted him to, but since we didn't we unplugged the cord from the internet in Urumqi and he hasn't asked here. Simon said he didn't know about computers, when he was wailing the first day, and hasn't asked to contact friends on qq at his orphanage, so perhaps they are not allowed to in Xian. (QQ is like the old IM where anyone can wander into a chat room. We prefer to have more control over our kids contacts than that allows.) Sorry for rambling on, we love you all, Catherine

While You Were Sleeping - a Miracle on Adoption Day

2011-12-29T06:01:00.006-05:00

Before I tell the tale, I want to express our gratitude to the many people who prayed and wrote with suggestions and offered help ! We have been overwhelmed with the outpouring of love shown toward Simon and our family. This outcome was totally out of our hands.
After I wrote last night, we talked to Dominic, who we had hoped would speak some reassuring Chinese words to him , but Dominic is very shy and wouldn' say much of anything. I told Simon, 'Dominic is much like you, very shy' (I demonstrated, eyes down, shoulders hunched, he looked at me and nodded. Later, we received an email from the mother of one of Simon's closest friends at the orphanage who was adopted last summer. I had never 'talked' with her and did not know she was on any of my yahoo groups, but she was responding to a plea I posted on the Xian group. She offered to let her son Skype with Simon. Although, it was very late here, I wrote back with our Skype name asking her to call as soon as she could, realizing that it could be a day or so before she had time to respond. She responded within minutes. Simon was delighted to talk to her son, Jude, who is absolutley adorable and still amazingly fluent in Chinese. They talked for a long time, but to the best of my understanding, at the end of the conversation, Simon was still saying he was planning to stay in China. Perhaps, though, something began in his heart at that time.
Afterwards, he and Jed had fun playing with their remote control cars and took their leapsters to bed with them. It was after 1:00 when I was still telling them to stop talking and go to sleep. I heard the words America and China alot in their conversation. We awoke and went to breakfast not having a clue what the day would hold. Jed was outgoing and big brotherly toward Simon, as usual, and Simon was his 'oh so very reserved' self. Toward the end of breakfast, Jed said, ' Gu Gu (big brother, that's Simon) fei ji (airplane) Guangzhou (the city where we complete our US paperwork). Jerry and I were momentarily stunned, not daring to believe it, not wanting to overreact in any way. Bursting into tears in the restaurant might have gotten us even more attention than we already get, if that is possible.
We met our guide in the lobby and whispered what we thought we had heard to her and she asked him how the night went. He said 'good'. Wow! We were hopeful but still not certain until he put his hand print on the paper, which turned out to be a very ordinary moment, in the midst of the mountain of final paperwork. Between the Civil Affairs Office and the police station , where we applied for his passport (note to anyone coming here, there is almost no heat in those two offices, wear your long johns) Simon asked the guide if he still belonged to the orphanage. She told him 'No, now you belong to a family'. I honestly think that was another hard moment for him.

This is on our way back to the hotel after all the paperwork was completed - Simon is playing the kindle, everyone was physically and emotionally exhausted !

This is in the lobby, waiting for our room to be cleaned, Simon actually was waving at me, almost cheerfully. As the day went on he got more and more cheerful - no, I should really say, less and less somber.

There was a real smile on his face, when we bought him a suitcase for his first airplane ride.

We had alittle adventure this afternoon when we took a taxi to the 'wholesale market' -zillions of people pushing through trillions of shops (think Disney at it's most crowded, but filthier than your local landfill). After buying the boys some sweatshirts, watches, Simon's suitcase and a basketball (which will have to remain in China) we needed to take a taxi back to the hotel. Hailing a taxi on a crowded street in a not so nice area in China is not quite the same as stepping out of a hotel to a line of taxis. We were a weary group nearly an hour later, as the sky was darkening, when an empty taxi finally pulled over. Weary, but feeling more like a family.

Please keep praying, Simon and Jed are becoming buddies, oddly enough, with Jed as the acting 'big brother'. Jed has been with us two days longer, so of course, he already knows everything ;). Simon has not shown any particular affection or even interest toward Jerry or I. While Jed jumps to help us at every turn, Simon throws things on the floor and expects us to clean the up (not in a mean way, it is customary here - in the civil affairs office , he threw a paper cup on the floor after he was done with it- there are people with push brooms everywhere, sweeping up stuff people throw or spit on the floor...but enough local color). he responds very well when I tell him to do something but I don't want to push too hard right now. I do appreciate Sammy telling me, she thought her older kid adoptions were easier because she is strict - I am , too, but I am holding back alot here, smile. Tomorrow we begin touring - Terra Cotta Warriors on Saturday. Again - thank you, thank you , thank you !!

Simon's Gotcha Day- not quite Picture Perfect

2011-12-28T09:02:00.005-05:00

Our initial meeting with Simon was......difficult, to say the least. When he entered the room with the orphanage workers, he was quietly crying. I totally understand that, I would be, too. After they left, it escalated to wailing while we filled out paperwork and by the time we traveled to the photo office it was a full blown fit, yelling and hitting things. I understood alot of the yelling because it was mostly bu yao mei guo, which is 'NO NO America!...... Our adoption guide, the people at all the offices we visited, as well as people on the phone from the orphanage tried reasoning with him, but the fit went on. We stopped at walmart on the way back to the hotel to pick up a few things to eat and buy a toy and some jeans for Jed , but Simon refused to choose anything. After we got back to the hotel, he continued his fit, through the lobby and up to the room. Jerry and Jed left , to go borrow a screwdriver for his remote control car so I got out a map to try to explain in sign language where China and America are on the globe and that when one is awake the other is sleeping. That captured his interest and we began exploring a world map I downloaded on my Kindle Fire (if i could have brought only one thing on this trip, that would be it! and p.s. I was able to download new apps on it from China, but so far no new books). I told him with my Chinese dictionary app that he was a smart boy and he was old enough to decide whether he went to America. He said he was staying in China. Technically at 11 he is going to have to agree to go and sign his name. I don't know how they will handle it if he still says no tomorrow. I am not sure it would be right to drag an 11 year old, kicking and screaming to America, even if I think it would be best for him. Jerry disagrees. I certainly hope it doesn't come to that.
Anyway, since that conversation, he has been subdued, but pleasant. We went out to dinner and saw some unusual things to eat (notice the frogs!). Jed has been his irrepressible smiley self except for a moment in walmart, when Simon's misery obviously got to him and he quitely asked the guide if America is a good place. She assured him it is.
We could use some prayer. His will, not mine, be done. C

Urumqi to Xian

2011-12-27T09:22:00.003-05:00

Here is our official adoption picture. Confession - when the photographer pulled down the red backdrop I complained that it would clash with my magenta-ish shirt. Since I don't speak much Chinese (understatement) I am pretty sure they didn't have a clue what I was saying, so it was pretty nice to see that somehow they had managed to turn my shirt red in the picture.
Since today was officially a travel day we didn't have time do do much except a very little shopping. We were looking for the N+rth Face jackets we had seen, but the street vendors weren't out with them so we just bought Jed a hat and sweater. I only brought the boys three outfits with me because I didn't believe their measurements (I thought they would be bigger than Andy) but Jed's were exactly right.
This morning Jerry and Jed played a little ping pong. We were puzzled when we checked in and the lady at the desk handed us two mesh bags each. Jed tried them on as a glove and Jerry put them on the handle of his pinpong paddle. The lady came over to explain that they were to cover our shoes! The carpet in the whole entire hotel is so noticeably filthy (our room didn't get vacuumed all week) that that we burst out laughing!
Our flight to Xian was uneventful (yay!). I had my comfort music and book on my Kindle (Annie Moses band and Agatha Christie), together with my X and I did fine. In retrospect (in other words now that I know I survived it) I agree with everyone (Cheryl) who said Urumqi would be a special and unique place to visit. first of all , it was nice not being 'the big Americans'. We were average sized there, with many being much larger than us (unlike in Guangzhou where we will finish up the trip). The ethnic diversity was also facinating. Yesterday we spent a long time at the police station and a group of Kazaks or Russians were there at the same time. In fact, when we were shopping today, a man asked if we were 'Rusky?'.
Now that we are settled in Xian, Jed has finally taking the toys out of the backpack I gave him and is playing with them. Yesterday, he seemed to be in a waiting mode, just watching to see what was coming next. I forgot to mention that when he put his new pjs on last night I saw that all day he had been wearing pajamas with a sweatsuit over that and bluejeans lined with flannel and a sweater over it all. Today I just laid out his blue jeans and a tshirt and a sweater to wear but when we got on the plane I noticed that he had his spiderman pjs on underneath. smile.
Tomorrow, we meet Simon about 4:00. If the pictures are an indication, he will be much more reserved than Jed. Tune in tomorrow. And thanks for your prayers!

Jed's Gotcha Day - Picture Perfect !

2011-12-26T07:50:00.004-05:00

Jed is exactly the smiley, adorable rascal we thought he would be ! Our first meeting was textbook perfect. We were running a few minutes late to the Civil Affairs office and we heard that his car was also, due to the terrible smog/fog slowing down traffic (he had about a two hour drive, ours was about 10 minutes). As we emerged from the elevator he was standing alone in the hall. As he saw us, he gave us a look of recognition and I gave him a big smile and a little wave, not wanting to be too 'pushy'. I was surprised and delighted when he ran right to me and gave me a big hug!

Even through a rather boring day of hours and hours of waiting in many offices while mountains of paperwork were completed he has remained affectionate and good natured.
He is tiny, no bigger than Andy, but he orphanage director says he loves all sports and is good at them. She also told us again that he is 'knotty' (did I say 'rascal' ?)

We ate at our first Muslim restaurant and enjoyed the famous Xinjiang noodles and Shishkabob (somehow that doesn't look like it is spelled right but I don't even have a guess how to fix it)

Unfortunately, this is what most of jed's first day with us looked like. I was so glad I downloaded all those apps on my Kindle Fire ! I don't know what most of them are, but he didn't have any trouble figuring them out ! At the moment he is laying on his bed watching Clifford the Big Red Dog with Chinese subtitles, although he has already watched about 10 minutes each of all the Chinese movies I brought. Not sure if it is short attention span or just a desire to investigate everything ! He is giggling - it's as cute as his dimples!

Later tonight we will Skype with his new siblings for the first time and tomorrow we fly to Xian - his first plane ride and I'll be half way through flying for this trip !

Christmas in Urumqi

2011-12-25T07:06:00.009-05:00

We awoke a tad early this morning to enjoy skyping with the children while they were enjoying our traditional Christmas eve celebration- when the siblings give gifts to each other. There are alot of them, so the gifts are not lavish, but the merriment is. I think the hit of the night (at least in my mind) was Everett and Kathryn's gift to Clara of a doll and stroller. Clara spends alot of hours being pushed around town by her mom and it is obviously a 'like mother like daughter' situation. The children's favorite might have been Travis and Lindsay's gift to them of a drum set. I told Lindsay that I will pay her back one day.
Everett warned me that I should wait to put my mascara on, and of course he was right - it was hard to see all of them and not be able to put my arms around them!
After praying with them, the little kids went to bed and Jerry and I went down to breakfast. We had to laugh to find Minnie and Santa greeting us on Christmas morning ! The breakfast buffet is not your typical western fare.

We try to be a little daring but some things are definitely outside our comfort zone!

This is in a Muslim neighborhood near our hotel. Although the temperature was below zero today, commerce went on as briskly as usual and these men were outside cooking food that looked amazing.

I must have been right about that mix up between Santa's elves and the Seven Dwarves. This was the scene in our hotel lobby tonight.

We have spoken to our adoption guide and he is coming to our hotel at 9 o'clock tonight to help us with some paperwork and give us the plan for tomorrow. While you are finishing Christmas dinner we may be headed to meet Jed ! Merry Christmas !

Adoption and the Promised Land

2011-12-24T05:08:00.009-05:00

Since Jerry and I aren't doing much besides shopping in our local neighborhood and recovering from jet lag before we meet Jed, please forgive me if I stand on my soap box for awhile.
Not having been brought up in church ( I didn't become a Christian until I was in college), I was unfamiliar with many Old Testament Bible stories. I knew some about the Patriarchs and about God giving the Promised Land to Israel but not much about the details. A few years ago, when Jerry challenged our family to read through the Bible in 90 days, I was amazed to discover a few things about the "gift" of the Promised Land. I had thought it was like, God said, "It's yours!" and Israel moved right in and opened up their lawn chairs. But it wasn't like that AT ALL. They had to fight for almost every inch of ground. They had to learn to listen to God to know when to fight and when to hold their ground. They had to believe that He was powerful enough to help them win their battles, when they obeyed him. And they had to obey even when they were afraid.
And what does this have to do with adoption ? Well. Over the last 20 some years since we first adopted, many people have said to us, 'Oh, I would Love to adopt......... if only God would just place them right on my doorstep. I see those pictures of orphans in magazines and I would love to have a dozen of them!' I want to say to those people, that I learned from the story about the Promised Land that it doesn't always work like that. Sometimes, in order to receive a very special gift, like the Promised Land, and like sons and daughters, there is work involved. And sacrifice. And struggle. So I want to say, if You are one of those people, who look at those pictures of orphans and your heart melts, please consider that this may be a true call that God has on your life and you Can do it ! It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, old or young, fearful or lazy (like me!), I can tell you stories about other people, just like you, who God has used in this way. And they have been richly blessed. As you will be, also, if you obey God's call to 'care for orphans'.

I want to note, that I am old enough now to know that God does not call everyone to the same thing. Some of you are not called to adopt. If the call on your life is in some other area, I want to support you in that, to the best of my ability. But to those who Are called, Do not be afraid! Rejoice ! I can't imagine anything else that is so hard, but so much fun and full of blessing!

Can you find us in these pictures?

Shopping in China is like Disney World - Very Crowded and occassionally Mickey shows up!

Here is the manger I told you about, guarded by a dwarf. Today, someone put a fish in beside the bell. Christmas carols are played everywhere - in English- and today we saw big signs in one of the stores proclaiming "Joy to the World- Merry Christmas!" So,opposite of places where, because they understand the meanings, they don't allow the words. Here, the words are everywhere, but no one understands.

In China !!!

2011-12-23T05:09:00.006-05:00

We have arrived at the 'ends of the earth'! At least it seems that way to me, since to travel here, we could have gone east from NC or west from NC and it would have been the exact same distance. I am sure some of you adventurous people would have chosen to go east, fly into Moscow and arrive in Urumqi, China from there, but being a fearful person, who always chooses the safest path, we flew west. Or rather, I thought we were flying west. This time, rather than flying west across America and then hugging the coast of Canada and Alaska before turning south (did you know that you never fly straight across the ocean? I didn't. Jerry says there is some rule about how far you can be from land.) we flew due north, across Hudson Bay and over the North Pole before heading south over Siberia and Mongolia. The flight was unevenful, unless you count the fact that our frequent flyer miles put me in Business class, which meant my chair turned into a bed and gave massages ! Even the cheap seats get to choose from hundreds of movies to watch, so I caught up on a few I had missed. We spent the night at the exquisite Shanghai Hilton , which Jerry says cost us less honors points than a night at a Hampton at home.
The five and a half hour flight to Urumqi on a smaller jet, in those squishy seats, wasn't as much fun. We were the only Westerners and they tried hard to accomodate us by making the annoucements in English, some of which we actually understood. After it was over, Jerry said there was some amazing scenery and at one time we were flying through a mountain pass, but I don't like to know about those things, particularily since there is a probability we will be leaving here on another plane (did I mention that xanax is my flying friend?)

The hotel in Urumqi is more than slightly less exquisite than the Hilton. Just so Scotty and Nikki don't have all the fun, they decorated their lobby for Christmas with Disney characters (well actually only the Seven Dwarfs. Must be the Chinese version of elves) ! There is also a manger with red bells (and Only red bells) laying inside.

Shopping here is a blast !
We bought a new suitcase to replace the one destroyed on the plane (never travel without duct tape ) two scarves and a cute leather Armani purse for me to carry our pasports in- or rather a 15 dollar purse with an Italian name on it. smile.
Here is a Santa with a new twist - he is holding a metal detector, waving it over people as they enter the store. Here in the ends of the earth they do things a little differently, but the food is fabulous!

We don't meet Jed until the 26th, so hopefully we will have our days and nights turned around by then. Blessings to you all! catherine

Wrapping Things Up

2011-12-15T22:48:00.008-05:00

Both figuratively and literally.
Tonight we wrapped up Aladdin. What a fun show! It was predominantly a 'school show' with only two evening performances. That means audiences packed with the heightened excitement of 1500 squealing/screaming kids. Aladdins arrival at the back of the theater riding on a lifesized elephant led by the genie was pretty impressive. Everett played the evil Jafar and it was perhaps my favorite of all the roles he has played. It was certainly the most gorgeous costume!

T

Here's a picture of Jafar and his siblings, the street urchins (Dominic, Nellie, Rosie, Andy).

Jafar and Ariel, another sibling, playing the role of a fan in the lobby after the show.

This is Henry, Jafar's nephew, surrounded by Aladdin and Jasmine.

And as to the literal wrapping - the Christmas presents are nearly all wrapped and under the tree

and these 5 bags each contain a Dec/Jan calendar counting down the 22 days until we return and a wrapped present to open each of those days. Phew! That was 110 presents to wrap and my aching neck is still recovering!

Walking away from the theater tonight was a little sad. There is always a let down after a show, especially one that was put up in less than a month and we didn't begin to get tired of yet.
Now I have practically nothing to distract me from the enormity of what lies before us. We have been on this path to pick up our two new sons in China for over a year now. Tomorrow I will begin to sort through the "stuff" I have accumulated for this time and begin to see how much of it I can fit in our suitcases. We say good-bye on Monday night.

Word from China Re: Simon and TA

2011-12-04T10:19:00.003-05:00

While we still do not have Travel Approval from China, we have heard that it will arrive this week. The good news is that we will finish the adoption (it is finalized in the province) this year and benefit from this years tax perks. The bad news is that we will be away at Christmas. We expect to leave around Dec 20th and return around Jan 7th. We will get Jed first, in Urumqi, Xinjiang (near Kazakstan....I call it the ends of the earth from here because it is 6 of one half dozen of another, whether we travel east or west to get there. Since I am a nervous flier and don't relish arriving in China on Aeroflot from Moscow, we will go west!) A few days later we will get Simon in Xian (think St. Louis with terra cotta warriors).

Good thing for those tax perks, because, once again, we are traveling at a time when air prices to China are outlandishly high. We could have saved about a thousand dollars per ticket by traveling a week earlier or a week later. We are hoping that the tax benefit will be more than than. We will travel with the zillions of Chinese Americans who are traveling back to China while their kids are off school on Christmas break (like Ric's Aunt and Uncle). Ariel will hold down the home front here, as she did last time. All the big kids, except Ryan and Julia (he has a new church), will be here for Christmas, so everyone is expecting to have the normal fun and chaos that is traditional, with us watching by Skype. The younger kids have had various responses, with Dominic the most reluctant for us to leave and Ric asking if he was going to get a present everyday I was gone (A tradition I began with Nellie when we went to get Andy, which meant 17 wrapped presents in a bag, one to be opened each day we were gone. When we got D and R that was 17 times 3 presents for Nellie, Andy and Ric. This time it will be 17 times 5! Not to mention, having everyone's Christmas presents wrapped and ready. Good thing I decided to cut back a little this Christmas. No wonder I was checking out at Walmart at midnight Friday night - and I don't mean black Friday.)

We also heard from someone in Xian who sent a few pictures of Simon. He also told us he hoped we wouldn't be afraid when he laughed and has convulsions. What??!! As they say, international adoption is not for the faint of heart (not sure how I qualified, my heart is often exceedingly faint). Of course, I began googling and have some idea what this could be, but since it could also just be Chinese translation error, I am trying not to go there, yet. Obviously, we could all use your prayers. Thanks.

Nutcrackers at Christmas ??

2011-12-03T21:50:00.007-05:00

For many years, our family was involved, one way or another , with the Nutcracker Ballet. Camila danced in it with several different companies, beginning with the role of Clara when she was 12. Many of the rest of us joined her in various capacities. Jerry and I played the host family for a few years. Jay and Travis accompanied Camila in Arabian several times, either rolling her out of a rug or carrying her in on their shoulders. We have had children in the party scene and even rats (Ariel played both).
So, although we have tried to be relative purists about the way we celebrate Christmas (we have never done Santa, didn't even have a tree until a couple of years ago and have five Nativity sets), we have picked up a Nutcracker or two over the years - just to commemorate the performances of course ;-) .

Until now, I haven't even tried to explain to the new Chinese kids what they have to do with Christmas. I just left them in the category of the many crazy things Americans do (I know they are still wondering why we have drawers and drawers full of clothing that needs to be washed, folded and MATCHED !). So when the Moscow Ballet came to our theater, I decided to take everyone (Jerry was out of town). It was a festive opening to the Christmas season, if not exactly the spiritual high point.
I expect the Annie Moses Band concert next week will bring the message of Christmas that we want the children to hear.

Fall images

2011-10-28T22:05:00.007-04:00

Fall means swapping the spring/summer draperies and decorations for the fall/winter ones. While relaxing on pinterest one day, I saw this idea, which I adapted for our fall mantel. The pictures are of Simon and Jed, our two boys still waiting in China.

Ric's dad came home to cook for the Moon Festival.

Our son, Travis, has produced Henry and Clara, our only grandchildren. Aren't they precious?!

Since I have shown you my pinterest success, it is only fair that I also show my pinterest failure. There was a picture of a beautiful pumpkin- looking cake that supposedly was
a right side up bundt cake on top of an upside down bundt cake. Not being one to waste time reading directions, and often unreasonably confident, I decided to make it when some dear friends, who we hadn't seen for years were coming for lunch. As you can see it doesn't look much like a pumpkin, but it provided ALOT of carrot cake and was good for a laugh. BTW I did go back and read the directions later and the real thing required utensils and cooking mastery way beyond what I would ever like to acquire. I'll stick to painting. LOL

Ordained !

2011-10-22T20:44:00.005-04:00

Ryan, our firstborn son, has been ordained ! We are incredibly proud!
The ceremony was very special, with important people from Ryan's life participating. Jerry's dad, Jack, was there to pray for him. Jack is the annointed patriarch of our family, a worship leader and then assistant pastor, for many years. Tim Colwell, our former pastor, who has mentored Ryan since high school, was part of the ordination committee, traveling from Florida to be there. Of course he was also surrounded by many brothers and sisters!

When I think back to Ryan's dedication as a baby, this outcome seems obvious. But there were many days/years in the interim when this outcome wasn't obvious at all. I am grateful to God for his call on Ryan's life and to Ryan for saying 'yes' to that call.

Pastors, praying for Ryan.

Prayer for Julia, to fulfill the call God has on her, as a pastor's wife.

Simon

2011-09-27T22:21:00.003-04:00

We asked our agency to try to get updated pictures of our boys. This is the picture China sent them of Simon, who lives at a large orphanage in Xian (about 500 kids). Frankly, this picture leaves me without words.
We are now thinking that travel may be in December. I would NEVER have planned it this way, but perhaps eventually we will know the reason.

Not exactly the Vacation we had planned...

2011-09-04T12:39:00.025-04:00

but that is what Serendipity means isn't it?
When you plan a vacation during hurricane season, Boston would seem to be one of the safest destinations to choose. Not this year.
We have been studying early American history for a year and I wanted to take the kids to see the Mayflower, Plimoth Plantation, and the Freedom Trail in Boston. I had been waiting to make this trip after Simon and Jed came home, but since China has taken 3 months longer than we had expected to approve us, it seemed like a perfect time to move from Pilgrims to the Revolution. We had a week between Narnia and beginning Wizard of Oz, so we decided to visit my sister, Cher, in Massachusetts, who Dominic and Rosie have not yet met.
Katrina, is living in Winchester Virginia this year doing a pharmacy residency so we planned to spend one night with her while waiting for Hurricane Irene to pass. On our drive North we began to hear of the devastation she was causing and I began to think about Plan B. As each day passed we kept hoping that my sister would get her power and water back on. As each evening came and that hadn't happened we searched the internet for alternate things to do.
Washington is a fun place to visit and if your kids are as familiar with National Treasure as mine are, the first place everyone wanted to visit was the National Archives to see the real Declaration of Independence. While there we also visit the Smithsonian's Natural History and American History Museum.

The next day we hung out with George Washington and his family at Mt Vernon

and took a special tour (with only our family) into the basement and to see the ice tunnel shown the movie National Treasure 2. The museum there is terrific ! I am pretty sure we covered at least as much American history on this trip as the one I had planned. We'll read a couple of biographies and visit Williamsburg and begin Westward Expansion so that we can get to the Civil War while Katrina is still in Virginia.

Winchester is filled with orchards so we spent a day at one, picking peaches and raspberries and eating some of their home baked goods.

On the way home we toured Luray Cavern, which is the largest in the Shenandoah Valley.

Although hot and steamy outside , it is a cool 57 degrees in there, year round.

I am sure we would all agree that the most laughs on this trip were provided by the Virginia Safari Park, just south of Lexington (where we were the only family in the movie theater, watching Spy Kids, in cushy reclining seats the night before). As soon as we bought the animal food and drove through the gates we were sourrounded by animals trying to get in our windows.

Dominic won the award for being able to feed the camels, without them stealing his bucket ( Nellie lost that one, Rosie and Andy abstained.)

I controlled the window switches, so Jerry got and occasional surprise.

The llamas were the sweetest. We were careful to keep our windows up near the zebras, bison, and long horned somethings, as we had been instructed. An ostrich got pretty mad at me as I was closing Andy's widow, but fortunately my window was up when he spit at me (as it was the whole trip, I am Not an animal person).

A giraffe was kind enough to pose with the kids.

Even the petting zoo held some surprising animal encounters.

And just incase we never get around to studying science this year, we stopped at Gray's Fossil museum in Kingsport, TN, which of course was full of preposterous guesses about the ages of the things they found, but it was still fun to try put bone fragments together. We'll head to the Creation Museum sometime this year to hear the truth.

So, it wasn't what we had planned, but we had a blast and now it is Great To Be Back Home !

Ariel's Birthday

2011-08-30T23:46:00.003-04:00

Ariel turned twenty and said she wanted a party. She made her own cupcakes - aren't they adorable ? We played pitch a penny (won by Travis , Jay and Rosie) , put the penny in a cup, and of course Everyone's favorite - Sharks and Minnows.

Good, Bad and the name

2011-08-24T22:37:00.008-04:00

This is the view from my lawnchair. So what could I possibly have to complain about? Look carefully at the picture and you might notice that two little faces are missing from the picture. We had expected to bring Simon and Jed (full name Jedidiah, meaning beloved by the LORD...also called Jedi by his brothers who are thinking of another meaning entirely) home at the beginning of the summer. We have two dressers full of summer clothes for them that will soon have to be packed away. We have been waiting since May for a piece of paper we expected to arrive in June from China. Still no word of it. So while life here is wonderful, there are two boys at orphanages in China who have waited a very loong time for their forever family to come get them.

Summer has been lovely. Ariel has been teaching the kids to swim. Rosie can now go under water !

My parents stopped by twice - once on their way North and again, for Jay and Lindsay's birthday, on their way back to Naples.

Good thing I was planning to try decorating their cake like one I saw on pinterest, because it crmbled to bits when I tried to get it out of the pan and after dumping a ton of icing on my heap of chocolate crumbs, not finding any twix bars, I surrounded it with twizzlers and poured M+Ms on top. At least my DILs will never have to be intimidated by my great skills in the kitchen!

Narnia

2011-08-07T22:21:00.008-04:00

This week Dominic, Rosie, and Nellie were in Narnia. They love the movie and have cast themselves as various main characters in much of their play. In the stage version, they had to be satisfied to play an eagle and water fairies (nyads).

The props and staging were pretty amazing, so they were happy just being a part of the show. Considering that a year ago Rosie and Dominic still lived in a Chinese orphanage, the very fact that they could speak enough English to make it through the audition is impressive !

Andy, everyones favorite audience member, even got to experience the wonder of fog made by dry ice for a few minutes.

Everett played a very sweet Tumnus and a centaur created by to walk like a real horse.

Now that Narnia is over the kids are already excited about the next show. Dominic prayed tonight that it would 'come soon'. Earlier this week, Andy came in to the kitchen and announced "Only nine more days !". I asked, "Nine more days til what ?" "Nine more days until Wizard of Oz auditions!"

So mark your calendars for auditions on Aug 15. Hooray, it's a musical ! And it is going to be huge ! Tickets are on sale at the box office or at greatmountainmusic.com .

On the adoption front - we are still waiting for the next piece of paper from China. We had hoped to get it in June, we are still waiting. So are our sons.

warning- no cute kid pictures

2011-05-24T20:35:00.008-04:00

When my wonderful, only sister invited me to join her visiting my parents in Florida (no kids allowed) I barely gave it a second thought. After homeschooling her kids, Cher has now become a Disney princess, booking Disney vacations and exploring the whole D empire, while I have never spent a week without Jerry and the kids. I wasn't sure I really wanted to. Eventually, I began to realize that I shouldn't pass up an opportunity to spend time with my very wonderful parents.
Ariel and Jerry have very graciously managed my responsibilities at home and I have been able to talk to the kids on Skype so I have not worried (too much) about being away. Ariel is one of the most organized people I have ever known and has been able to get the kids to their piano lessons and sports practices, Ric to school, homeschool the kids, grocery shop and basically step into my shoes beautifully.

I am so grateful. The trip has been fabulous - filled with great conversations, eating, swimming, and sun, with a little shopping thrown in ;) . Ariel's car, which has 237,000 miles on it, made it without a glitch ( good thing, because it has a few things to haul back home).

As much as I have enjoyed this, I am so grateful that this is not my life. I love being with Jerry and my kids and I wouldn't trade my life with anyone in the world. That said, we have decided we need to schedule this as a yearly event. Hope that is okay with everyone in NC.

Graduations !

2011-05-15T16:57:00.006-04:00

We enjoyed two graduations this month - one expected, the other a surprise. Katrina has been working hard for many years and was rewarded with a Doctorate in Pharmacy. In the first picture she is receiving the hood which is the symbol of a doctor.

Jerry's mom, dad, and sister joined us in Chapel Hill to celebrate. (The last time we met them in Chapel Hill was 8 yrs ago when Camila received her Doctorate of Law.)

We knew that Ryan was working toward his doctorate from LR Seminary, but didn't know that he had reached any milestones until just a few days before his graduation with a Master of Arts. My sons are not great communicators (although 3 of them have chosen wonderful wives who encourage them to do better, thanks Lindsay, Amber and Julia !). Ryan's graduation was at First Baptist Church in Atlanta, which is an amazing facility.

We are very proud of these two (as we are of all our kids) and relieved that our experiment in homeschooling (Katrina all the way through, Ryan except for 1.5 yrs on highschool to play soccer) doesn't seem to have handicapped them too much. It gives us the courage to go on with the ones still at home.

Spring !

2011-04-24T17:32:00.005-04:00

This year, spring has not only meant birthday parties but also opportunities to try some new things. Ric is playing on his first baseball team and Dominic ran in his first 5k. Both boys wanted to try these new adventures, but neither knew what they were getting in to. Ric decided he wanted to be a baseball player when he grew up because he loves singing 'Take me out to the ballgame' with my dad. Dominic decided to run a race with my DDIL, Lindsay, after running a few miles on a treadmill watching soccer with Jerry. Since D had no clue how long 3 miles really is, he led the pack for the first mile and then decided it was time to adjust his shoelaces :) . He ended up winning his age group, but not before he 'lost his lunch' so to speak.
My favorite picture of this group is the one with Ric at bb practice. I can't remember how old I was before I ever even saw a cow, so I think it is pretty cool that they are over there swatting flies during his practice!

This is my precious grandson, Henry, who spent a very long morning waiting for his mom, who sacrificially ran the whole race encouraging Dominic rather than fly by everyone to win.

Birthday Shopping

2011-04-19T23:48:00.005-04:00

Rosie and Nellie both turned twelve recently and chose to go to the American Girl doll store in Atlanta for their birthdays. It is very likely that this will be the last time I will be able to enjoy this kind of wonderful fun with them - next year they will be teenagers! They were both SOoo excited. Of course, that meant some new clothes and a luncheon with their dolls. They each chose a new doll and an outfit and a few other goodies which will provide many, many hours of entertainment when they are sent up to bed at night.

For the record, Nellie chose Kanani, chiefly I think, because her hair goes dowm to her knees, and Rosie chose an Asian look alike.

Finally ! an update on Li Qiang

2011-04-13T23:38:00.003-04:00

We have been waiting very anxiously, since we heard of his little encounter with a firecracker, for news of Li Qiang ( the children still pray nightly for Simon and 'the boy who doesn't have a name yet' :/ ). I was worried that his injuries were much more serious than we had been led to believe. This evening received pictures of him receiving the cake we sent to him. Look at that smile! It is nice to see that he no longer 'hates to smile for the camera'. You can see that he is missing part of one eyebrow and his hand looks red and swollen (in fact he is using his left hand to eat), but it is a relief to see that he seems to be recovering nicely. We are hoping that our paperwork will go to China any day now. That would mean travel in August I think. The most expensive and miserably hot time of the year. That's okay, we are used to it.

Good News and Bad News

2011-03-17T01:39:00.003-04:00

Good news first - we had a cake sent to Simon, along with a letter and pictures of our family and we got back pictures of him sharing it with some friends ! As you can see, his friends got their pieces first, but he got two pieces, all to himself. In all the ten pictures we received, he never once looked up at the camera. He is always staring down intently at his cake. Isn't he adorable !

Now for the bad news. Our other son, the one who still does not have an American name, will not get his cake for ten more days. It seems that on the way to school he found a firecracker and a lighter and managed to do enough damage to his hand and face, that he required a hospital stay. I don't know whether to be more worried about his physical well being or about the kinds of things he might try after he gets home. :/

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss !!!

2011-03-03T09:42:00.005-05:00

At this very moment, I am sitting in a beautiful theater which is about to be occupied by 1500 elementary school kids who are about to see the Cat in the Hat come to life. My kids have already seen it many times, but have asked to come twice today because tonight will be the final performance. We are very blessed to have this priviledge. We have read many Seuss books this week - each child has read more than one On Their Own !! Yipee! Everyone can read !

Pretending

2011-02-19T23:43:00.002-05:00

After the snowiest winter in memory, the crocuses and daffodils are blooming and the weather is unseasonably warm. We are pretending it is spring. Today we even cooked hot dogs over a fire in our backyard. Tomorrow we will go geocaching and won't even need jackets. If you don't know what that is, google it. It is tons of family fun. Or call and invite yourselves to join us, we'd love to have you come along.

The Reason for Two

2011-02-18T22:02:00.002-05:00

When you are in the midst of all the miserable paperwork for an international adoption, it is helpful to keep in contact with other people who are walking the same path. They can give you advice and console you when you have a glitch, as you inevitably will. Some of these people are just beginning the process and haven't been matched with a child yet, so there are frequently conversations about specific waiting children whose pictures may be seen on various blogs and agency websites. People say things like " have you seen Davey on so and so's new list? Isn't he adorable?" So of course, you go over to so and so's new list to look at Davey and while you are there you see pictures of 10, 20 , 30, other children who wait ( of the 2000 plus on Chinas special needs list at any one time). You know that many of these will never be chosen, but when you find a Special One, you go to all your blogs and you say "did you see Kent, on Agency's new list?" hoping that someone else will see what you have seen and choose Him. And so I did. For two boys. The first was last fall, for Simon, from our agency's list. The second one, in January, was this boy, posted by another agency, from the shared list. I fell in love with those dimples. I said , "see him, isn't he cute?" and many agreed. But, it turned out that he was meant for us. We are rejoicing !

Chinese New Year

2011-02-13T20:27:00.008-05:00

The Chinese part of our family, Ric's mom and Dad, invited us to their house to celebrate Chinese New Year. Ric's brother Brandon, also lived with an American family for many years, until recently. Rachel, the blonde, is his American sister. My children, (two of whom speak Chinese) Nellie, Dominic, and Andy are Ric's American siblings. Brandon, Ric's Chinese brother, does not speak any Chinese. lol

We began our celebration, as they would in China, watching some of the day long TV programing which would include, singing, dancing, acrobats, and magic shows.

The younger children played games while the older ones kept in touch with their world.

Ariel was pretty unhappy that she no longer maintains the 'child' label and wasn't invited to fill a bag with goodies, which include red envelopes filled with varying amounts of good old American dollars.

The real highlight of Chinese New Year, of course, is the food, much of which you will never see at a Chinese restaurant !

Random Winter Fun

2011-02-05T17:08:00.009-05:00

Happy Days

Mighty warriors of all ages.

Jerry's mom and dad came for a visit.

My mom and dad couldn't come, but they did take us out to Mexican.

The other kids loved sledding, but Rosie's favorite part of the snow was building snowme. She built one all by herself !

Why Wouldn't We ?

2011-01-13T22:39:00.005-05:00

This is Simon. He is ten years old and according to the paperwork we received "loves peformances and often sings and dances". Does that sound like he might just fit in to our family ?

At our age, every time we adopt we are pretty sure it is for the last time. It took a year after Andy's adoption before we could even discuss going back for Dominic who had finally become available. We brought Rosie home with Dominic because we were pretty sure it would be our last opportunity to give a child a family. The serendipitous thing about their adoption was how easy it has been. Although far from perfect, I have four new loving affectionate children. I am hugely grateful.

So we began to think, if we could adopt again, Why Wouldn't We? Did you know that people don't adopt boys? It's true. Everyone wants cute little girls. Waiting child lists are filled with boys who are never chosen. So, on paper, we chose Simon and China has given us preliminary approval. But in Truth, God chose Simon before the foundation of the world, to be part of our family (as He did us, to be part of His) and we are so excited !

Now the only question is - "Will he be coming home alone?"

Our Growing Family

2010-12-26T17:21:00.007-05:00

We had a wonderful Christmas ! All the kids were here and we had the first white Christmas in many many years - it was Julia's first ever. We had so much (7-9 inches so far) that Ryan and Julia can't get their car out to get back to Atlanta so we will get to enjoy them one more day.
After each getting dozens and dozens of presents (there is Some advantage to having all these siblings) on Christmas eve and Christmas day Rosie asked me last night if there would be more tomorrow. lol I guess when you are an optimist you believe that amazingly wonderful things can continue indefinitely. Rosie told me that her foster mother told her she should come with us to the 'beautiful paradise'. In spite of a few unpleasant doctor visits, some school work and having to help with chores, maybe she thinks she has finally arrived.
I confess that I did torture everyone on Christmas day by making them dress in Red (can you believe it? when some people look So Terrible in red) and taking family pictures. Nellie made everyone adorable red hats, Rosie wrote everyone's name on their shirts and I bought the matching pants (Dominic and Andy made Russian tea for everyone). Getting 20 people to look happy all at once when they are hot, smushed and their mother is standing on a table yelling at them is probably not possible, but, in my opinion at least, was worth a try. And all that red will look so good with my curtains. So much for paradise.

2010-12-12T17:09:00.007-05:00

I was awakened early this morning by Andy , telling me that it snowed last night! Some years we go all winter without ever having enough to go sledding, so we get pretty excited about it. We managed to scrounge up enough snowclothes for everyone and had a great time in the yard of a neighbor. I discovered what a great yard she had for sledding when I went to a yardsale there after her death. We have lived here almost thirty years and I had no idea what a treasure was across the street. It is possible that she might not have welcomed my multitude of children. I prefer to think that she just never thought about it.
Rosie told me early today that it never snows in China. We had a nice teachable moment, with a globe about the climate near the equator and the climate at the poles, looking at maps of China and the USA and talking about where it snows. She only went to school through second grade so I wasn't totally surprised by what she said, although I did wonder if there are second graders in Florida who think it doesn't snow in America. I was pretty proud of myself for explaining it so that she seemed to understand - At least until, after playing outside the kids came in for hot chocolate and I heard Dominic,who completed fourth grade in China, in the kitchen telling Everett, 'it no snow in China'. Time to get the globe down again.

Piano Recital

2010-12-05T15:38:00.006-05:00

The kids had a great time playing in their first piano recital, followed by a covered dish and Christmas caroling. Group piano lessons are so much more fun than individual lessons !

2010-11-30T21:37:00.003-05:00

I am so excited about celebrating the Christmas season with Dominic and Rosie. As we opened each new box of decorations that they helped bring down fromthe attic , there were ooooos and aaaaahs of excitement. We drove up towards Highlands to choose our tree and cut it down - it was appropraitely freezing, but unfortunately no snow. On Sunday, the kids rode on the firetruck in the Christmas parade and then watched the rest of the parade, delighted to pick up the candy thrown their way.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-30T20:46:00.004-05:00

We had our smallest Thanksgiving celebration ever . We all missed having Camila, Ryan and Julia ,and the Hare family with us. And yes, I was standing on the hutch.

Operation Christmas Child

2010-11-21T22:03:00.002-05:00

Operation Christmas Child began in 1993, the brainchild of Franklin Graham, with the simple idea of asking people to fill a shoebox with things a child might want/need and then delivering those boxes all over the world. More than 77million boxes have been delivered. We sometimes watched videos, online, of children opening those boxes and wondered where our boxes might have ended up. My friend, Cheryl, who lives in China, once got to deliver some boxes to children living in an orphanage near her. I thought that was pretty amazing, but she is an amazing person anyway, and has done even more amazing things than that (she is now in Nepal and will soon begin opening homes for girls rescued from brothels). But, now, by the most wonderful grace of God, I have two children who received one of those boxes last year! This year, Dominic and Rosie were able to go shopping and choose things to put in the box to send to a child who is in the place they were in less than a year ago. I cannot even begin to express the JOY over what God has done! PTL !

America's First People

2010-11-19T21:01:00.006-05:00

Can you tell I found my camera cord?
Our main focus in school this year (in addition to English acquisition) is to learn a little about the USA. The kids can all say/sing the states and locate them on a map but they can't write them all yet without looking. We have talked about Indians being the first people who inhabited our country but I have had a hard time finding videos for them to watch. While we grew up on cowboys and Indians, kids of today only know pirates and princesses. (When I was little, I longed to be an Indian maiden and was most happy on those very rare occasions when I could persuade my mother to put my hair in braids instead of my regular curls. My costume was a pillowcase with Indian designs written with lipstick. I had a good mom.)
The kids and I had a great time visiting a nearby Cherokee village and learning how they lived. We followed up with a visit to the surrounding tourist traps to buy some of the fun things that no real Cherokee ever saw. Last night we watched Davy Crockett. That probably wasn't exactly historically correct either , but I am just trying to give general impressions here. Dominic spent the first day Andy got his coonskin cap telling him he looked like a girl (with a pony tail?).
Next week we will focus on Thanksgiving. Dominic is building a paper model of the Mayflower. It is hard for me to get my mind around the idea that D and R don't have any better picture in their mind of what a European puritan/pilgrim is like than they did the Indians. (Try explaining about Columbus 'discovering America' 200 years ago to someone whose country has Recorded history for thousands of years.)

Everything continues to go amazingly well. We are so blessed.

Kayaking

2010-09-26T18:13:00.007-04:00

A friend of mine recently told me that she is adventurous and would like her children to be, also. Anyone who knows me knows that I do not have an adventurous bone in my body - especially where my children are involved.
When I told Jerry that I wanted to take the kids to Duke's Nuclear Energy Station in South Carolina, I knew they would be shooting bows and arrows and fishing but I thought it would be someone else who would be doing the kayaking.
As it turned out, although Dominic thought it was bumper boats, no one got more than the seat of their pants wet, and a good time was had by all.

Piano Lessons

2010-09-17T15:34:00.006-04:00

I have said, in recent years, that the one thing I would do differently with my first nine kids, would be to spend less time on sports and more time on music study. Most of them took violin, piano or flute lessons and five or six had the opportunity to play with an orchestra but music was still very much an after thought. Sports Mattered - music practice happened when we could fit it in.
Since we own every size violin, I had expected to first start the kids in violin lessons but when I heard that a local teacher was doing group piano lessons for beginners , I called her. She is a homeschool mom who speaks a little Mandarin ! (that might not be unusual where you live but since there probably aren't more than 20 Mandarin speakers in our whole county, and most of them are busy working at restaurants, this is pretty amazing ) The introductions at the first lesson were so funny. The poor teacher met - the Chinese mother (Ric's mom, Chumsi) who speaks mostly Chinese with two children, one who looks Chinese(Ric's Chinese brother, Brandon), one blond Brandon's American sister, Rachel), neither of whom can speak a word of Chinese - and the American mom (me) with two children who cannot speak a word of English - and Ric, who thinks he belongs to both of us and who calls Andy, Dominic and Rosie his American brothers and sister. Confusing? Yes, but so much fun. The teacher is energetic and enthusiastic and we all love the lessons, even Nellie who gets to play outside in the woods with our teacher's daughter.

Serendipities

2010-09-16T20:39:00.003-04:00

Serendipity.....I had this as a vocabulary word in high school. I love the meaning of the word and the way it rolls off the tongue. It is what my life is filled with. Not just the children , but also something else I'll talk about later. Katrina first set up this blog and named it. I love naming things. Now I have given it a new name to reflect the realities of our life. :) Now, if someone could explain how I can get my whole picture to show up behind the title I would appreciate it. :/

Getting Ready for Camping

2010-09-12T21:06:00.003-04:00

We are going camping. We have camped several times in the distant past but we decided it wasn't our cup of tea. My own bed, with clean sheets and all the windows open, with the smell of smoke from our cookout coming in the windows captures for me all the best features of a camping trip. When we travel I am a "yes I do want you to change my sheets and give me clean towels every day!" kind of girl (who do those people think they are fooling? saving the environment? right. saving their almighty dollars, but not they are charging a hundred dollars a night for a room!) . Many years ago, we sold all our camping equipment. Any camping friends we had have all upgraded to moving homes with kitchens and bathrooms that need regular cleaning- I could live the rest of my life without ever entering the one kitchen I have, I certainly do not want another.
But, like childbirth and long airplane flights, after enough time, you forget, and when someone says, 'let's do that again', you agree. So when our church announced a group camping trip, I remembered how often Andy had asked to go camping and I signed us up.
Today we told the children we would be going camping in 3 weeks and we were going to see the campground first. On the way there I heard Andy say to Ric, "I hope they don't have ghosts". I knew that telling them there are no ghosts would only provoke an argument, as all their knowledge about camping comes from Disney's Sing Along Camp Songs where they learned everything they know about ghosts. And, although I recently heard Nellie telling Andy that Mickey Mouse -who says there are ghosts -is not real, he didn't believe her because he had his picture taken with him. This, in a family that doesn't do Santa or the toothfairy because we do not want our children to be confused about what is real and what is not...sigh...So , I told them there are no ghosts in North Carolina and aren't we blessed to live in this beautiful state.
While we were at the campground the kids decided to try out the creek. Later in the day I found a great deal on a tent and sleeping bags for the kids, which provided an hour giggling while they tried them on rightsideup and upsidedown. It is entirely possible that the preparation might be alot more fun than the actual event. More on that later. C

Week Three - Climbing trees/Karate

2010-09-11T22:24:00.009-04:00

We do alot of things that don't require language. This week that included climbing trees and, for Dominic, karate. After the kids conquered what we have always called 'the tick bush' (you can probably guess why) they attempted the two maple trees in the front yard. I had to tell them that using the slide is cheating. The rule is, if you can get up without artificial aids, you can climb it. Dominic has good coordination and upper body strength so he had no trouble pulling himself up. If Nellie can get a good enough foothold, she can scramble up, too. Then I had to make a rule regarding carrying animals up into the trees. It is not allowed. I am sure 2 or3 animals are relieved.
School has gone very well this week. Dominic can work in the first Primary Phonics workbook and read the first reader aloud with Andy and I. Instead of trying to teach Ariel Chinese, today Rosie began to ask her how to say words in English ! Hooray, perhaps she has decided she will learn English after all. It is probably a good thing since our translator is no longer working. It acts like someone emptied everything on it. If anyone reading this has a guess what might have happened please comment.
Both kids made calls to China again this week but the calls were even shorter this week - probably less than 5 minutes each. I am glad because I am anxious for some of Dominic's relationships to be a thing of the past and it will be much easier if the initiative is his. Rosie did have a wonderful Skype talk with a friend she grew up with who was adopted by a family in Oklahoma last November. I met Mary Kate and her mom in Atlanta before we went to China, MK gave me a letter to take to Rosie which Rosie read over and over again. The only time she ever cried was when we got home and she couldn't see Mary Kate. MK has as many siblings as Rosie does so the conversation was very much a family affair with faces hovering in the background of Skype and many introductions on both ends. MK has learned alot of English and lost alot of Chinese so I think we probably got more insight into their conversation than we would have if they had both been fluent in Chinese. There was talk from Rosie about Chinese mama , who she loves, but MK said she did not want to talk to hers, because she hit her. Then Mary Kate asked if Rosie knows about God and tried to tell her about Him but she couldn't remember enough words in Chinese and said we would have to talk about it more when we meet in November. MK recited to us the first verse she learned for AWANA this week, Genesis1:1. I think it is so glorious that He took two little girls who grew up together in an orphanage in China (we have pictures of them together as babies and later) and set them down halfway around the world into families which are so alike. I hope they will always be able to encourage each other,in the Lord.

American Technology

2010-09-04T22:40:00.006-04:00

One of the most fun things about bringing home older children is getting to introduce them to new things. However, since daily life here is so incredibly different from what they are used to we want to add new things gradually. Andy was here over a week before he even knew that our house has a playroom. He had enough new things in his bedroom and the rest of the house to keep him entertained. Rosie and Dominic have still not been to the Theater, the Factory, or Dairy Queen - or Chickfilet, or the Fire Dept. or Wesley's Park. They have met alot of people, a surprising number of whom are brothers or sisters.
Yesterday, they were introduced to the wii. Jerry is out of town reffing soccer games so I needed a new entertainment factor (we also went to Sonic for the first time). As I expected, Dominic is a pro. Rosie will watch for awhile, but in general, nothing on the TV interests her, possibly because her eyesight is so bad. Our local eye doctor refered us to a specialist in Asheville but he doesn't think she will ever be able to see out of one of her eyes although the other is correctable.
Home schooling now begins with the question "what is the name of our country?" Since Nellie, who has been in public school in the USA for 5 years did not know the answer to that question, I thought it would be a good place to begin. We do puzzles of the states and label maps and sing 'Fifty, Nifty, United States' and the words aren't much more foreign to Dominic and Rosie than they are to Nellie and Andy.
We have also had some lessons in the wonders of modern American technology. Today I taught Dominic how to use a vacuum cleaner. Unfortunately, when I meant to communicate where to put it away, he thought I was asking him to vacuum the back porch which undoubtedly filled it with things I wouldn't have wanted sucked up. sigh..During the bathroom cleaning lesson earlier in the week, we had a little mishap when Rosie threw all the paper towels in the toilet. :( It was perfectly reasonable from her perspective, as after all, in America, we put toilet tissue in there! It is possible they never used toilet tissue before, although we did visit a home where it was put on the table for the Americans to use as napkins. The water system in most places is not good enough to flush it- it goes in a can. I also doubt if they ever had a bath or a shower. I still am not sure if either of them is using soap or shampoo, although I have demonstrated it several times. Rome wasn't built in a day, as they say. They have each had a laundry lesson -I am certain neither one has seen a dryer. When Dominic gets his load out of the dryer tomorrow (I let him put them all in at once, sorting will be for another day) we will probably have a talk about how many pairs of underwear should have been in there. (sorry, if thats TMI, but some of my audience is probably considering older child adoption and they might be interested in the details). Nellie has been the main one to teach them about kitchen cleaning but it has just occured to me that perhaps I should explain the limits of what can go down the garbage disposal and mention that we only have one!
In general , things continue to go very well. I think this is called the honeymoon phase - hope it lasts ! Thank you for your prayers. C

Katrina's Birthday Visit

2010-08-29T19:59:00.006-04:00

Katrina came home to celebrate her birthday (26) and meet her new brother and sister. Ric's mother , Chumsi, and brother, Brandon, joined us for a cookout. Everett stopped by for a game for indoor/outdoor hide and seek and Travis and Lindsay brought baby Clara by for a visit.
The children are all doing amazingly well. Dominic and Rosie seem very happy. Rosie is very demonstrative, usually huggy and affectionate, but also quick to tell me no when something doesn't suit her. She is learning that I don't expect to hear no from my children when I tell them to do something :). She is happy to put on clean clothes every day but thinks we shower and wash our hair entirely too often. Dominic is always very helpful and may understand more English than he has been letting on, or else he is learning quickly. We watch movies every night in English, although I bought alot in Chinese, and he watches intently. We alternate boy movies and girl movies - last night was Indiana Jones, tonight is Cinderella. The children play really well together , there is an ebb and flow to who plays with who with no strong alliances. Rosie and Nellie do girl stuff , Rosie and Dominic can talk to each other, the boys do sword fighting and boy play, Nellie and Dominic are equally matched in races in the swimming pool. Nellie has alot of responsiblity to help R and D , especially R, learn the rules of the house and to teach them many many things (like - we sleep under the covers, not on the bedspreads; how to put dishes in and out of the dishwasher; that we take off and hangup our dress after church; we stay in our bedroom when we are sent upstairs to bed; we do not leave the front yard to walk on the sidewalk in front of the house, etc, etc). I was afraid that she might resent all the extra work but she told me today that life is alot more fun since Rosie and Dominic have come. Phew!
Rosie and Dominic begin piano lessons this week - their teacher speaks Mandarin! Dominic has his first doctor's visit and Rosie will see the eye doctor.

I am so grateful how well things are going but I am still tired and find the days long. I feel like I am entertaining company. I want them to enjoy themselves , so I can't quite really relax. I try to make sure they have something to do and like what there is to eat. Tomorrow we start homeschool. R and D's main job this year will be to learn English, Andy needs to become a solid reader and Nellie needs to back up and work on foundations. I want to get them into a routine so that when I get the email that says I can come play at the theater again, they will be ready. Can't wait! C

SwordPlay

2010-08-26T20:43:00.004-04:00

When Everett is around I find myself constantly saying, "PLEASE, be careful!" while everyone else is laughing.

Home Sweet Home

2010-08-22T22:41:00.003-04:00

Our trip home was ineventful except for almost missing a plane in Detroit and and losing three pieces of our luggage. We were told they'll deliver it to our house tomorrow. When you are this zombied-out ,you don't really care.
While we were gone everyone (both here and in China) learned to play Uno so while Jerry and I began unpacking the kids did some uno-bonding.
Nellie and Rosie hit it off right away, because they both love their baby dolls and American girl dolls. It will be interesting to see who is the bossiest of the two. Dominic is by far the most worldly so he is still my biggest concern, although he seems pretty compliant right now.
Hope everyone sleeps for days...C

On Our Way Home!

2010-08-21T07:54:00.004-04:00

We have added two children, three suitcases and two backpacks since we were last here in HongKong , 17 days ago. At nine o'clock Sunday morning (here) we will get on a plane and travel for about 20 hours and land in Atlanta about 4 o'clock Sunday afternoon (there). It is called gaining a day, but it is something like being outside of time, the way God is.
The one thing I will miss about China, is the food. At a restaurant or noodles in the room -I love it all. I am afraid that the children are going to be very disappointed to go from breakfasts of 6 or 8 kinds of meats , fruits, noodles, juices, pastries with a chef to cook personal omlets to a box of cold cereal. I may have to be more accommodating in the early hours of the day than I am accustomed to ( think they'd settle for pancakes from the freezer, or could my rice cooker keep rice warm if I put it in the night before?)

Only two more flights. When we get home , I will have completed 26 flights in four years. For someone with FOF, I consider that an accomplishment. I keep wondering if maybe I am over it. That won't keep me from taking my Xx, but I might consider a weekend in NYC or two in Amsterdaam....maybe. C, from OUTSIDE the bamboo curtain hooray!

advice to new parents of second children

2010-08-20T08:49:00.000-04:00

If you only post your second born child's pictures on facebook and neglect to tell the story, together with many picures, on your blog, when your child grows up and you have learned from Sarah how to make your blog into a book, said second born child will continually reprove you for the oversight. How that for a one sentence tip ?

Children at Work

2010-08-20T06:26:00.000-04:00

Jerry trying to get a better price on wooden swords (bested by a 6 year
old). A little girl helping at the fabric mall.

Fabric Shopping

2010-08-20T05:20:00.002-04:00

My favorite days (not counting the ones with Cheryl, which were my Very favorite days) in China have been the ones where we have ventured out on our own . Today we decided to go to the fabric market. The people at the front desk write something on a piece of paper which we hand to the taxi driver (being careful to have the hotel's address in Chinese in our pocket) and off we go hoping the ride won't be Too long and the driver knows where he is going. Then we end up in a place where we will not see any western faces, but when we say 'how much?" everyone can type it on their calculator. The fabric store turned out to be more than one building each with 3 or 4 floors of fabric. Since most of it was silks and glitzy fabric (SC would be lost in there for days) and I needed a heavish cotton for summer curtains (25 meters) I didn't have alot of choices but did manage to find something that will give us a cheerful change in the living room and dining room next summer. We wandered around the neighbor and found a nice/ cheap place to eat lunch and discovered an electronics market. Everything seemed to be more expensive than we can get on sale in America (have heard that electronics in Hong Kong is cheaper) so we ended up only buying a suitcase to carry the fabric and books and new clothes we have purchased home. As you can see the taxi driver found our hotel and returned us safely.

Fabric Shopping

2010-08-20T05:07:00.000-04:00

My favorite days (not counting the ones with Cheryl, which were my Very
favorite days) in China have been the ones where we have ventured out on
our own . Today we decided to go to the fabric market. The people at the
front desk write something on a piece of paper which we hand to the taxi
driver
(being careful to have the hotel's address in Chinese in our pocket) and
off we go hoping the ride won't be Too long and the driver knows where he
is
going. Then we end up in a place where we will not see any western faces,
but when we say 'how much?" everyone can type it on their calculator. The
fabric store turned out to be more than one building each with 3 or 4
floors of fabric. Since most of it was silks and glitzy fabric (SC would be
lost
in there for days) and I needed a heavish cotton for summer curtains (25
meters) I didn't have alot of choices but did manage to find something that
will give us a cheerful change in the living room and dining room next
summer. We wandered around the neighbor and found a nice/ cheap place to
eat lunch and discovered an electronics market. Everything seemed to be
more expensive than we can get on sale in America (have heard that
electronics in Hong Kong is cheaper) so we ended up only buying a suitcase
to carry the fabric and books and new clothes we have purchased home. As
you can see the taxi driver found our hotel and returned us safely.

Fw: Fabric Shopping

2010-08-20T04:48:00.000-04:00

My favorite days (not counting the ones with Cheryl, which were my Very
favorite days) in China have been the ones where we have ventured out on
our
own . Today we decided to go to the fabric market. The people at the
front
desk write something on a piece of paper which we hand to the taxi driver
(being careful to have the hotel's address in Chinese in our pocket) and
off
we go hoping the ride won't be Too long and the driver knows where he is
going. Then we end up in a place where we will not see any western faces,
but when we say 'how much?" everyone can type it on their calculator. The
fabric store turned out to be more than one building each with 3 or 4
floors
of fabric. Since most of it was silks and glitzy fabric (SC would be lost
in
there for days) and I needed a heavish cotton for summer curtains (25
meters) I didn't have alot of choices but did manage to find something that
will give us a cheerful change in the living room and dining room next
summer. We wandered around the neighbor and found a nice/ cheap place to
eat lunch and discovered an electronics market. Everything seemed to be
more expensive than we can get on sale in America (have heard that
electronics in Hong Kong is cheaper) so we ended up only buying a suitcase
to carry the fabric and books and new clothes we have purchased home. As
you
can see the taxi driver found our hotel and returned us safely.

Travel Friends

2010-08-19T10:49:00.001-04:00

Consulate Day

2010-08-19T10:42:00.001-04:00

We began the day sightseeing at the Chen Family estate, which is a sort of living museum of the arts. We saw people painting inside bottles, demonstrating calligraphy, the tea ceremony, painting, carving and various other local crafts. I am sorry to admit that I am something less than fond of sightseeing, unless I am trying to get my kids to learn something from it. My kids weren't having much to do with me this morning so I spent most of my time in the shops. Mornings tend to be like that for us, with Rosie pushing me away . That is actually fine with me, as I am pretty sluggish and often grouchy in the mornngs. As I type this, she is sitting on my lap. :) A close look at the picutres demonstrates the contrast of old and new , poor and rich, in China. Notice the skyscraper behind Jerry in one picture and the laundry hanging in the other.
This afternoon we went to the American Consulate, where, with 11 other families, we swore that to the best of our knowledge our paperwork was accurate and were told our children would be given a visa to enter the USA. When they step off the plane onto American soil in Detroit they will become US citizens.
Tonight we went out to dinner and then shopped on the bridge(for DVDs) and at the Disney store (most of Dominic's clothes are too small) with our wonderful travel companions Bill and Kathy who will be leaving for home early tomorrow.
While we are sleeping many of you will have the chance to see Steven Curtis Chapman - I sooo wanted to be back for it (almost asked if we could watch it on Skype, but I imagine he has some kind of contractual things that would prohibit it). Ariel will be taking Nellie and Andy. I know it will be great !
One more full day!

Hanging Out Around the Hotel

2010-08-18T08:45:00.004-04:00

As we hung out in and around the hotel today, our paperwork was taken to and approved by the US Consulate. Sorry about the awkward format of this, but the vpn is no longer recognizing our computer so it has gotten more difficult to make contact outside of communism.
Rosie's favorite game to play is hide and seek...ever tried playing that in two rooms? She used our translator to type that she is bored and wants someone to play with her so I need to keep this short. I can't wait til she has Nellie as a playmate!
Clara has apparently been born but so far we know nothing....feel very cut off...worry that there may be a problem we are not being told about....C

we ate here

2010-08-18T08:17:00.002-04:00

our hotel neighborhood

2010-08-18T08:11:00.002-04:00

Length of Days

2010-08-17T12:29:00.002-04:00

The days here are soo much longer than days in real life. This morning was years ago. This morning Rosie was still telling me no and resisting every attempt of mine to touch her....tonight she came and sat on my lap and snuggled beside me while playing the didj. In between we took a taxi (just our family) to a huge bookstore and ate at Kentucky Fried Chicken (where we ate fish!) and played Uno (where we spoke numbers and colors in English) went swimming (where the kids played marco polo with a blind 11 yr old being adopted by a family from Indiana) and ate dinner on a riverboat on the Pearl River.
In the midst of this we talked about home schooling (D does not like school or reading so was not at all opposed), found some wonderful books (biographies of Lincoln, Mother Theresa, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein etc.and Little Red Riding Hood, The Ugly Duckling, The Three Little Pigs, etc. all written in English and Chinese and Rosie's favorite Pleasant Goat stories) , talked about violin lessons (D wants them , we watched Karate Kid last night)and talked about limiting their phone calls to connections here in China. Exhausting. C

2010-08-17T12:07:00.002-04:00

our guide 'Miko'

2010-08-17T12:04:00.002-04:00

in the hotel lobby

2010-08-17T12:01:00.002-04:00

the 'real' Dominic, laughing at Rosie

Red Couch Pictures

2010-08-16T07:21:00.001-04:00

It is a tradition in the Chinese adoption community to have their children's picture taken on the red couch at the White Swan where many aoptive families stay during the Guangzhou part of the trip. I might have sent Jerry by himself had I not had such fond memories of our last stay here. Unfortunately we are not staying there this time, nor are many other families because the area is under construction in advance of the coming Asian games. We had to make a trip to the area to have the kids TB tests read (they were negative - hooray!) so we stopped by the WS for pictures. The picture tells it all : our son with the earphones hanging out the front of his shirt and our daughter with her pants sticking out. Eleven year olds. And the sweet 3 year old belonging to the family traveling with us. A wonderful family traveling with their only other child, a 24 yr old son who have facinating stories of their short term mission trips in Central and South America. The husband also works for a power company so he and Jerry have endless things to talk about.
That's the easy - here's the hard - the resistant daughter who continually says No! (okay, so it is her only English word) and a son who drinks coffee, plays poker, and sneaks up in the morning to watch music TV. Back to the good- after some pouting and the guide speaking to him about trust he is back to his cheerful self singing along with Cheryl's Chinese worship music on his mp3.....Anyone remember Everett's geisha performance ? That is exactly what he sounds like :)
So please keep praying as we work out this'family' thing.Thanks.C

At the White Swan

2010-08-16T07:17:00.002-04:00

at the White Swan

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY - RYAN & JULIA

2010-08-15T21:41:00.000-04:00

Anniversary blessings go out to Ryan and Julia today. The big 1! One whole year together on your way to many, many more! The first is exciting but the next is better, if you can beleive that! So far, for me, the first 34 years have been the best!!! :)
dAd

Picture test

2010-08-15T14:49:00.002-04:00

Dominic thought this would be interesting. From our room:

What Happened to Quiet and Shy ?

2010-08-15T10:19:00.000-04:00

Sorry there will be no pictures today. We have been blocked. We had found a way to get through the censors but it isn't working today. I hope by tomorrow to have a new plan.
Today's post was to have been about the change in Dominic with accompanying pictures, some taken by him. Jerry says he is all boy . He loves to play tricks on us and jump out and scare us. He talks, laughs, smiles, whistles, SINGS, constantly. I just keep thinking that he and Everett together are going to be positively scary.

Medical Examination Day

2010-08-14T08:04:00.004-04:00

As you can tell from Dominic's countenance, he is a much happier boy.
Today was the day of the children's medical exams. The US governement currently requires adopted children to have their imunizations completed before entering the US. They must also have a TB test, which if positive, will result in a chest Xray and possible long term treatment. This is all done in a Chinese medical clinic with zillions of new adoptive parents and their children. (think hot and dirty) Today a 3 year old who was adopted last week began to have seizures after her shots. You can imagine her sobbing parents as the so called medical staff tried to offer her candy! Eventually they got out some oxygen and when we saw her later she seemed to have recovered. I pray so. My two each needed three shots and a TB test. I have no idea how they came up with those numbers since Dominic had no record of ever having any shots at all. The TB test was given as a shallow shot above the wrist, causing bleeding on both of them. Both children are reportedly Hep b positive. The nurses did not wear gloves. When they walked out bleeding, I flipped out. They gave Rosie a tissue. Oi
Rosie's eye exam was alot like Andy's where they helped her point her hand in the direction of the Es. We go back on Monday to have the TB tests read. Please pray for negative results. For some reason, this is something I have worried about (okay, so I worry about alot of things)
We shopped a little on Shamian Island and way overpaid for the requisite Chinese clothes for these two and Nellie.
Jerry and Dominic played ping pong and squash. Jerry thought D might have been holding back on him at ping pong and J is pretty good himself!
When you are living in a hotel room , if you don't read books it is electronics to the rescue ! Rosie is watching Disney movie's on computer while playing leapster, Jerry and Dominic are watching English premier league soccer and Yankees baseball. Fortunately, I read books. Which I am going to do now. C

Electronics and Travel

2010-08-13T10:38:00.009-04:00

We have always been pretty determined that our children would not have electronic gadgets that would take time from old fashioned children's play and using imaginations. That is also the reason that the only time we watch TV is as a family in the evenings - usually a kids movie.

I made my first exception last Christmas when I bought leapsters and a didji. I did so with the reasoning that they are educational and if they could learn any simple math or language skills without me having to teach them, it would be worth it. For that reason I brought them for Rosie and Dominic to play with and they have been a huge hit. As you can see, Liu Bo and Isabella are also enamored.

I am having a hard time even admitting the next part, so I am going to give all the rationals first. As you know, Dominic had a very hard first few days with us. When we offered to buy him things he usually said no even to food. The afternoon we had pizza at Chicago Cafe our guide took him for a walk and came back saying that Dominic wanted an MP3 player. My first response was an unequivical 'No!'. (the first thing Rosie asked for was a fake Barbie, I had to say no to that too) I hated to say no to anything at that point so I was really struggling. Fortunately Cheryl came to the rescue again. She offered to buy one for him and download tons of Xiao Ping's Contemporary Chinese Christian music. Dominic was delighted. We decided that all 3 of our eleven year olds could have one so Cheryl bought one for Rosie also and we bought one for Nellie. This meant that Cheryl spent the morning downloading music (for some reason Nellie's didn't work - hers will have songs in English).

While Cheryl was busy Jerry and Xiao Ping took the kids on a paddle boat ride. When I returned from going back to the hotel for the camera, I was pretty horrified to see the two nonswimmers sitting precariously on the front of one of the boats, but they all survived and a grand time was had by all.

Dominic is becoming a happy, helpful young man. He gets up early and goes to run at the fitness center with Jerry and loves being asked to help do anything. He watches Jerry to see how to do things. He seems years older than Rosie, although she is definitely the bossy, talkative one of the two.

It was very hard saying goodbye to Cheryl and the girls. Our flight was thankfully again uneventful. Both children love flying. We are now staying in what is by far, the nicest hotel we have ever stayed in. The downside is that it is not on the island where so many adoptive families stay and it appears to be sorrounded by stores where we couldn't afford to buy anything. We will be here 8 more days. It will feel like forever. But I imagine the breakfast will be to die for.....there is usually an up side to everything..C

Hardship and Suffering

2010-08-12T11:40:00.005-04:00

No blog on China is complete without a picture of the toilet facilities. It is known as a squatty potty for reasons that need no explanation. Tissue goes in the wastebasket, not down the drain. This one is relatively clean and even had a door. I will not tell about the one in the shopping area in Beijing with no doors and lines in front of every stall. Use your imagination.

For me 17 days of occassional SPs and eating at places so filthy my husband had to go outside is hardship. But what we saw today and what Cheryl sees everyday she is here goes so far beyond that there is no comparison. It is true suffering.
When we walked out of our 4star hotel this morning past that a new pink arrangement of lilies and rounded the corner a 3 or 4 year old girl approached us holding out a stainless steel bowl. Her mother was teaching her to beg.
Most places we went we were surrounded by crowds of people pushing, moving, motorcycles and bicycles weaving through crowds, crowds weaving through traffic. Everything horribly filthy. As we were pushing toward another group of stores , out of the corner of my eye, I noticed an 8 or 10 year old girl kneeling forward on the edge of the sidewalk with her shirt ripped off her back showing terrible burn scars. There was a bowl to collect money on the ground beside her. Cheryl said it is possible she was deliberately burned so as to collect more money. Hardly anyone gave her a passing glance.
This evening as we waited in front of the church for Xiao Ping this is the scene we were part of. I had the nerve to pull out my camera this time. That is a living human being on the ground beside us.

I often glibbly say "you can't help everyone, but you Can help the ones God puts before you". Easy for me to say, I live in America and I am not tripping over people in abject misery daily.
May God's richest blessings be on those, like Cheryl, who have the courage to choose to follow God's call to minister in places like this. C

My Hero Cheryl W

2010-08-12T09:08:00.008-04:00

Cheryl, LiuBo and Isabella arrived in Kunming from the US at one o'clock this morning. After that exhausting flight they slept a little and then spent the rest of the day ministering to Jerry and I and the children. (Background info: Cheryl is the reason we ever came to China at all, see sidebar for more of the story)

We are amazed at Cheryl's ability to negotiate this huge city. She bargained for our purchases and took us to out of the way shops. We had lunch at the coffee shop where Xiao Ping works. It is called Chicago Coffee and is in an area where alot of internationals live. The children ate their first pizza and I drank my first caramel coffee frappe.

I have pouted, grumbled, whined and complained alot during this past year about all of the delays. Tonight it was perfectly clear that there was not a minutia of accident in any of the timing of this trip. For on the very day that Cheryl's family and ours crossed paths in the far reaches of China, the young people at one of China's officially recognized churches met to raise their voices and their hands to worship the One True God and listen to a message from Acts1:8 (when the Holy Spirit comes on you, .......you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth) and my son and daughter heard the gospel in their own language and joined in the singing. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit...from China ! c

Gotcha Day Number Two

2010-08-11T08:49:00.013-04:00

Of our three Chinese adoptions, this was our first difficult one. Not as difficult perhaps, as the one we observed after we got Rosie in Nanning where we wandered into a room full of families getting crying babies, but in it's way just as heart rending. Dominic Lu Min has been in tears off and on from our first meeting. The thought of how hard it must be to leave everything and go with people who aren't even smart enough to speak Chinese has brought me to tears as well. David, our guide has been wonderful and soon after we returned to our hotel Xiao Ping (Cheryl's young helper who now lives in Kunming). Dominic knows her, which helped, but also she was loving and funny and affectionate with both children so we totally enjoyed our time with her. Tomorrow we will visit her at the coffee shop where she works.

As you can see from the pictures, Dominic is tall! So although Rosie is two months older she seems like a little girl and Dominic feels almost like a teenager and I don't quite know how to treat him. I think he may already feel rather confined being part of a family. Please pray for us all as we learn to be one.

On the plus side, since he can write pinyin he can type things on the translator to communicate with us a little. On the negative side, he asked to watch TV and when I said he could watch sports he wanted to watch some music TV . Uh, no.

Just got a note that this may not post so I am going to quit here. Keep praying. c

Nanning/Kunming

2010-08-10T08:59:00.005-04:00

We began the day with Rosie's first introduction to a lavish hotel breakfast. We skipped the pigs ear and chicken paw but found plenty of other more palatable things to try. Jerry liked the sour spicy potatoes but he said there wasn't much sour to them. I am about the least adventurous eater in the world but yesterday but I actually tried a frog casserole. It was a little chewy. As we have one interesting eating opportunity after another I think often of a young couple who are friends of mine, who ate their way through their first year of marriage and I can't help but think that they may enjoy this same experience one day.

After breakfast we spent about three hours at a huge bookstore. Rosie picked out some books for herself - I insisted on a math book or two and we also got nine Disney movies in Chinese. I am afraid when Rosie finds out that Jerry's computer will play them our time on here will be limited.
Can you see the man on the bike beside this bus? The drivers here have to be the most aggressive in the world.

Rosie adored the plane ride. I am so grateful that our guide David sat beside her because she never stopped exclaiming about all the things she saw out the window. I want to pretend that there are no windows and if possible that I am not on a plane.

Actually, although we arrived an hour or so late or flight was uneventful and the food as usual was great.

I think Kunming must be one of the nicest cities in China. The lilies that Rosie is smelling in our hotel lobby are real and filled the air with an amazing fragrance. We expect to do a little shopping in the morning and meet Dominic around two . He will be making a 4 hour drive leaving all his friends behind. The great part is that Cheryl, who he knows will soon be on her way here and I hope he will find it comforting to meet with her and LiuBo after he has been with us for a day.

Now that Rosie is getting more chatty she seems to find it hard to believe that not only can I not understand Chinese, I am unable to read it when she writes it down. So far, I can write things to her on our translator and it will say them to her but since she does not know pinyin well enough to use a keyboard she cannot talk to me unless David is around. I am so glad that she and Dominic will have each other to talk to tomorrow. I know it will probably slow down their English language acquisition but I think it will be very comforting for them.

Time to break out the Disney movies.

Gotcha Day Number One - Perfect

2010-08-09T06:36:00.007-04:00

This morning we arrived at the Civil Affairs office a few minutes ahead of the orphanage officials who escorted Rosie. I was worried that she would be reluctant or afraid. As you can see from the pictures, she was a little nervous (as were we !) but she quickly recovered and enjoyed having her picture taken and being in the spotlight all day. We signed our names dozens of times - in hotel rooms, notary offices, civil affairs offices; added our red fingerprints, and Rosie even gave a red footprint. We gave statements about why we wanted to adopt her and promised never to abandon her. Since she is over 10, Rosie was asked privately whether she really wanted to be adopted by us. By the end of the day we got the official red document saying that as far as China is concerned, Rosie is now ours! It will be 11 more days before the American consulate agrees.

When we stopped by the hotel in the middle of the day and I showed Rosie the clothes I had brought for her, she asked if she could change into something. She loves pink! hooray, my favorite color! She wanted to do her nails immediately but I told her that would have to wait until after dinner.

She also loves bling. I wanted to buy her some cute, comfortable sandals (her feet are 2 very different sizes but she walks much better than I expected) and it was almost impossible to persuade her to try anything that wasn't shiny pink plastic. I finally gave her the choice of anything from a certain rack but she still managed to pick some that could not possibly be called comfortable. They do match her dress perfectly, so I'll give her points for that :). She is now playing with Ric's leapster - electronic things seem to cross all langauge barriers.

Thank you for all your prayers! Keep them coming! The support is SOO encouraging.

Rosemary's backpack

2010-08-08T16:55:00.000-04:00

Rosemary's Backpack________________________________________________________________
Sent via the WebMail system at email.dnet.net

Nanning, Guangxi, China

2010-08-08T10:56:00.000-04:00

We are really Here! Did you know that Chinese airlines serve full yummy meals on one hour flights? Our guide met us at the airport and our driver was the slowest, most careful driver in China - and not just cuz the X was still working, Jerry thought so ,too. Tomorrow we will meet him in the morning for a 25 minute drive to meet Rosie. She will have left Luizhou about 3 hours earlier to make what will possibly be the longest trip she has ever taken. Please pray that God makes us look and smell at least moderately good to her. After meeting her we will probably do a little shopping and go to lunch before we have to go to sign documents at two different govt offices. Tomorrow night for us, Monday morning for you we will have pictures! I am going to try to add a picture of the backpack we will give her when we meet her.

Test

2010-08-08T03:45:00.000-04:00

We will probably not be able to access our blog in China so I am trying to post from email. This is a test.
________________________________________________________________
Sent via the WebMail system at email.dnet.net

Hardships

2010-08-08T00:12:00.008-04:00

Lest anyone spend too many moments feeling sorry for all the hardships we have had to endure to bring home Dominic and Rosemary I need to show you our six dollar breakfast buffet options.
In addition to the traditional American breakfast option where the chef cooked eggs per your specification, there was a chef cooking crepes, another cooking noodle choices, another keeping the fruit bar filled, others stocking the pastry rack and the dozens of hot choices that I didn't recognize. So much for hardships. Of course this is Hong Kong. :)

ARIEL is my Hero!

2010-08-06T09:49:00.002-04:00

We said our farewells and drove down to Atlanta last night to prepare for an early morning departure. As I was stepping out of the shower this morning I had a panic attack, remembering that when I made last minute copies of our passports yesterday,I had left the pasports in the copy machine. At close to 9:00 I called Ariel to tell her to throw the little kids in the car and get them to us at the airport asap. Atlanta is a 2 hour drive from where we live , the traffic is horrendous, especially getting to the airport and I have never let 18 year old Ariel make that drive before - especially alone. I am so impressed that she managed to rouse 2 sleeping children and throw them in the car fast enough to get to us on time. We had alerted the Delta people so they were also watching out for us.
So our trip began with me spending the morning crying at the airport. Partially over my stupidity at leaving the passports but mostly over my worry about Ariel and the kids having to make that awful drive.
God was gracious. We don't always get to see God bring good out of bad things but this time we saw it almost immediately. As Ariel was driving home we got the second call of the morning from Ric who was misreable and crying. His mother had taken him to Gainesville to visit his dad and cousins for the weekend and he was not doing well (he threw up last night, so maybe he was actually sick).
I told his Mom that Ariel was passing through Gainesville at that moment and she could take him back to Franklin if she wanted. He was happy to get to go home with her although he spent yesterday and today so far laying around. Ariel is off to Splash Country today so Joyce and Lindsay are managing the kids.
Our flights were uneventful. X@n@x is a miracle drug for those with FOF. We are now in a luxurious Marriot about to crash. We get Rosie on Monday and Dominic on Wednesday and the real adventure will begin. Goodnight. C

Approaching the Goal

2010-08-01T22:34:00.004-04:00

For the entire last year, we having been pressing toward the goal of going to China to bring home Dominic and Rosemary. Amidst all the busyness of our lives, the thought of them ,and the trip to get them, has never been far from our thoughts. We have completed a veritable mountain of paperwork, sent money to agencies everywhere, debated about clothing sizes, filled drawers with new clothes , repainted bedrooms, refinished furniture, struggled to choose names, bought new dolls :) , electronic toys, backpacks, bedspreads, you name it, and doing all that we could to prepare a place that we hope these children will like.
And them? Until just a few months ago, they did not even know we existed. One of them has lived in an orphanage since being abandoned on a bus at age 5, the other has lived in an orphanage or fostercare for 10 years. It is what they have known. And now they will be asked if they would like to leave all they have ever known to come with us. Will they be brave enough to do it? At their age, they have a choice. As an orphan in China, they will have no opportunity for education and most jobs are not open to them. But, at least they know what they can expect. They know nothing about us.
I love the Biblical parallels in adoption. I love that God left a comfortable place to come to us, although we were not mighty, or worthy, or even good, and by the power of His 'love He predestined us to adoption as sons, according to the good pleasure of His will' (Eph1:5). I love that Jesus said that He was going to prepare a place for us. I love that He has allowed us to experience, in a small way, what He has done for us.
If the children knew all that we have done /planned for them surely they would be eager to come. (Do you think that is just what God is thinking about us? )
How will they respond?
For us, at this moment in time, that is an unknown. But it is already known to God. I love that , too.

July Birthdays

2010-08-01T21:19:00.009-04:00

With four birthdays within eleven days , we get our fill of cake and ice cream in July.

The kids took Jerry for a ride on Thomas for his birthday again this year.

What to do ?

2010-07-17T11:41:00.002-04:00

We have been waiting a year to get travel approval (TA) from China so that we could bring home Dominic and Rosie. We heard yesterday that we had finally received it and that we could travel from Aug 8 to the 21st. So why am I not rejoicing? We had expected to be back before the 15th when: my parents are arriving from Florida, Clara (our first granddaughter) is supposed to come out of Lindsay's tummy, and we have tickets for Steven Curtis Chapman (right here in Franklin, greatmountainmusic.com ). Add to that the fact that tickets are mega expensive in August (worse because our agency has us traveling on weekends) and in September they plummet to only $1200 person. So. We told the kids that we thought we would get them in July. Do we wait until September? We are checking to see if we can use our FF miles. Inspite of all we would miss here that might be the deciding factor. Or not.

Beauty and the Beast

2010-06-26T17:19:00.009-04:00

In case you haven't been able to get hold of us lately, its because we have been at the theater. We have had a fun family time working together on Beauty and the Beast this spring.

In his day job, Everett built this adorable house for Belle and every night he sang to her. Jerry, Nellie , Travis and Lindsay were all villagers although Travis and Lindsay eventually became enchanted objects.

The enchanted objects were adorable, but I am not sure that Lindsay ever believed that the costume I made her looked much like a mop (keep in mind that baby Clara was hiding undertaht mop costume). Note Travis in turquoise, first as a baker, later as a spatula.

Andy and Ric saw this show at least 20 times and have loved every minute. Andy was voted by the cast as their favorite audience because of his easy laugh. He knows all the songs and almost all the dialog. I am hoping the practice will work as a kind of speech therapy for him :).

It will be a bit of a shock to go back to real life next week but there is still plenty to be done for the arrrival of Rosemary and Dominic. And this fall we have Jekyll and Hyde - one of my favorites!

Ariel Graduates

2010-06-23T19:52:00.005-04:00

Ariel's high school graduation brought friends and family to town. She has had a wonderful high school experience and it was bittersweet (at least to me) to celebrate its completion. We are so grateful for all the teachers , coaches and friends who have helped along the way.

Nellie and Rosie's Rooms

2010-06-18T22:43:00.007-04:00

Nellie wanted to share a bedroom with Rosie so I managed to squeeze another bed in her room and the ajoining room has become a girl's playroom. Nellie's clothes are in the bedroom and Rosie's are in the playroom which I hope will help them keep some kind of order. I am not quite finished ,as the nightstand is on the front porch with the paint drying and I am putting a second coat on picture frames in the living room. This gives a general idea and I thought I ought to capture the moment before they acquire a more 'lived-in' look. :) I hadn't expected to ever 'do' a little girl's room again, so I had tons of fun with it. The day I found out we were getting Rosie, I went online and bought an American Girl doll and an Asian baby doll (ebay, of course).

Rosemary

2010-06-05T22:21:00.002-04:00

We were so excited to wake up this morning and find a new picture of Rosie in our email ! We were also told that she knows we are coming and is happy about it.

That is a Huge relief to me, as sometimes children are not told in advance. Can you imagine the terrified children and miserable adoptive parents when kids are not prepared to leave everything they have ever known to go around the world with complete strangers who are not even smart enough to speak Chinese.?

Isn't she beautiful?