Bringing Home Sofie

Great Essay

2007-10-15T08:34:00.000-04:00

I just got this link from a blog I read. It is a great essay written by a Korean Adoptee.

http://www.antiracistparent.com/2007/10/10/a-slur-by-any-other-name/

Please take the time to read it. I thought it was an eye opener.

I'll Never Be Able to Choose

2007-10-03T12:18:00.000-04:00

Last night Sofie, Mom and I went over to my friend Ron's for a slideshow showing all of the proofs from the pictures he took of Sofie. I was in attendance for this photo shoot but never imagined that these were the the product. And I'm an art director. I was blown away. I have 50 photos to choose from and each one is a work of art. Here are a few. I need to go back and pull out more. I need help choosing. Please let me know what ones you like best. I will add more shots later today.

In case anyone is near St. Louis and wants portraits of their kids done here is Ron's website:
http://www.ronkleinphotography.com/kidslifestyle.html

7 Months

2007-10-01T17:02:00.000-04:00

Seeing Sofie everyday we do not realize how much she has changed in the past seven months. But comparing a recent photo to one taken shortly after we got home - wow - we really see a difference

Still Growing Strong

2007-10-01T16:12:00.000-04:00

We had yet another fab. weekend at the cabin. Some friends had a movie party at their cabin down the road. They set up a huge screen outside, blankets, popcorn, etc for the kids and had fire pits and drinks and food for the adults. The weather was perfect - a little chilly. They had torches and white lights, etc.. and to top it off no one had to drive home! It was a really fun party for kids and adults. Sofie had a blast, we all did. It was one of those perfect nights.

I can't get Sofie to hold still long enough - but just by looking at her I'd say she has grown at least 2, prob 4 inches in the past 2 months since her Dr.'s appt.

Here are a few new shots from this weekend. You can see she is working so hard at coloring and then takes a fast break to gulp down a little water and then is back to coloring.

One Year

2007-09-27T10:36:00.000-04:00

It was the one year anniversary of my grandmother's death last Friday. I think about her all of the time and miss her more than I can say. There have been so many times where I go to the phone to call her and then remember. I was looking through some old photos of her last week and wanted to post a few.

Jana and Matej

2007-09-27T10:21:00.000-04:00

We are so sad that our friends from Slovakia had to go home yesterday. They have come to stay with my parents for the past 2 summers and we are crazy about them. Unfortunately they won't be back next summer. Hopefully in 2 years, but that is so far away. Saying goodbye was heart wrenching. They have become like family to us.

Jana, Matej - if you guys are reading this - I hope you made it home safely and that you had a good flight. We are thinking about you both and miss you already! I will send pictures soon.

No Photos!

2007-09-27T09:01:00.000-04:00

Hi - sorry for the lack of posts. I left my camera at the cabin 4 weeks ago and have not been back to get it. We are going this weekend though and I will have a lot of photos to take to make up for this draught.

My friend Ron is a professional photographer. He specializes in kids portraits. He does AMAZING work. Last Monday we met him for a photo shoot in my parent's yard and he took a ton of pictures of Sofie. I can hardly wait to see what he has come up with. When he is ready for us to see the pictures he puts a slide show together and we will go over to his studio for a "movie." I imagine Sofie will get a huge kick out of this.

Yesterday Sofie and I were at the park down the street from our house. She was playing on the slide with 2 other little girls who were a month and 2 months older. The mom's asked me how old Sofie was and when I told them the acted really surprised - kind of with a snotty tone. Either meaning - wow she is so tall, or wow she seems younger?? Sofie was having fun, so we stayed and I was talking to the 2 moms a little bit. That was when they changed the topic of the conversation to genetics. Where their children got their blonde hair, or their brown eyes, etc... Obviously this topic pretty much excluded me from the conversation so I just kept quiet and played with Sofie. The conversation kept on and on. A good 20 mins. I was really tempted to chime in and say that I was positive that Sofie got her black hair from me. Oh yes - and her beautiful olive skin.

They seemed like nice people - I just can't imagine picking that topic of conversation when you are standing with someone who has obviously adopted and then continuing on that topic for such a long period of time.

Marc and I celebrated the Autumn Moon festival with my friend Kelly and family last weekend. When we got home after Sofie went to bed, we sat outside and thought about her foster family and bio family. We thought about them celebrating the same holiday in China. It is such a weird thing. To us, Sofie feels like our child, completely, 100%. Sometimes it strikes me as odd when I suddenly remember that we did not make her. I am surprised to suddenly realize that. Obviously I remember our WAIT and our trip to China and all of the hard work. I guess it is that she just fits in so well with us, it seems so natural and feels so natural. When I think about her birthparents sometimes I am surprised to think that someone else created her. It feels like we did. Intuitively. If that makes sense.

Adoption will never cease to amaze me. It was def. one of the hardest things I have ever done. But the rewards are endless. I realize that I will probabally never experience giving birth. Which I'm sure is an amazing thing. But instead I get to have Sofie in my life. I'd make that trade any day of the week. Over and over again. With my eyes closed and my hands tied. So many beautiful, smart, funny little girls just like Sofie. Little girls that have such strong wills and are so full of life. I know that China is not a better place with the loss of so many.

Sofie and Olivia choose a video

2007-08-25T13:46:00.000-04:00

Muck stayed up after we all went to bed and cleaned this mess up

More Still From Walker Weekend

2007-08-25T12:20:00.000-04:00

30 things about Sofie at 18 months

2007-08-24T12:26:00.000-04:00

1. Her hugs make my day.
2. Has been putting a few words together for about a month now. Her language is starting to really take off.
3. Loves art, especially drawing.
4. Has fabulous coordination. Has wonderful fine motor skills.
5. Spends a lot of time walking on tip toe.
6. Likes to spin in circles until she is so dizzy she falls over.
7. Calls her Dad: Dad, Daddy, Baba and Muck (meaning Marc)
8. Is trying to say butterfly. So far she has mastered "Butter"
9. Loves baloons.
10. Has a mind of her own.
11. Has a devilish sense of humor.
12. Loves pickles and onions of all kinds.
13. Giggles when she eats something she really likes.
14. Takes a 3 hour nap.
15. Does not like to go to bed at night.
16. Calls all cats "meows".
17. Likes to drink out of Mama's glass.
18. Loves fruit.
19. Loves puzzles and problem solving.
20. Dances often, esp. to the Mocado and to the Wiggles.
21. Does a cute penguin imitation.
22. After 6 months in the US still understands basic Mandarin.
23. Loves her blankets. Likes to walk through the house with one over head so she can't see.
24. Is very gentle with the dogs, loves to give them hugs.
25. Likes to wear her Dad's shoes and socks.
26. Can put on her own "choose" - crocks are the easiest.
27. Can put on her own shorts. Both legs usually share 1 hole.
28. Can brush her own teeth.
29. Loves books most of all. We read her Goodnight Moon every night before bed.
30. Has blessed her parents a million times over.

Grant's Farm

2007-08-20T15:48:00.000-04:00

This weekend we had a short break in the 95-100 degree heat and Sofie and I ran out to Grant's Farm. She is old enough to really start enjoying it. We even went without a stroller. My upper arms were not too happy on Sunday however.

On Sunday I went to a dim sum brunch with my friend Jaden. Just the 2 of us - kids at home! I missed Sofie - but it was nice to get out and get to talk to Jaden and relax. We had a lot of fun.

This is a shot from last night - some of my best pals from highschool got together at my friend Nancy's for dessert. 2 of my friends had not met Sofie yet - so she came along. Here is a shot of Sofie with Margaret.

More from Walker Weekend

2007-08-20T15:42:00.000-04:00

Sofie and Olivia really were 2 peas in a pod.

On a side note. This suit is a 4T. I bought it for NEXT summer. Oh well. Just a reminder. Sofie is 18 months old. She has grown 8 inches since we brought her home.

Teepee

2007-08-20T15:37:00.000-04:00

Here is a shot of Sofie playing in her new tee pee. Actually I think she is watching the Wiggles from the teepee.

And here is Harriet watching us from Sofie's teepee

Olivia!

2007-08-20T14:36:00.000-04:00

We got to spend a fabulous weekend with the Walker family last weekend. I can't even beginn to describe how great it was to see them again. The bonds you form in China are strong ones. Such an emotional momentous trip spent together. I hope that we will be able to see one another often through the years. Not only for the parents - but for the girls as well. Sofie and Olivia really had fun together. Not just funin the same basic area of the room - but actual fun interacting and playing together. It was so sweet I almost melted. We also got to meet Megan Walker for the first time. She was darling - it was so nice to get to know her and spend time with her. She was so patient with the 2 little girls, mature, smart, etc... Olivia is so lucky to have such a great role model and special big sister. Here are some photos of the HOT weekend.

Itsy Bitsy Spider

2007-08-07T23:16:00.000-04:00

I debated on weather or not to post this. If poor singing offends you - please - don't bother playing this movie clip. Singing - much to my dismay - has never been one of my strong suits. Also - our basement is a pit in this clip. Toys and dog hair abound. Continue at your own risk.

Our neighbor brought over a bag of dress up clothes for Sofie. She thought dressing up was pretty cool - she was esp. drawn to the sparkly evening bag she has on her wrist. Once again - sorry for the monotone singing and the horrible mess.

The Wiggles

2007-08-07T23:12:00.000-04:00

Sofie loves the Wiggles. They get on my nerves a little - but watching her dance to them is so funny that I can't help but let her watch it.

August 7th Update

2007-08-07T11:33:00.000-04:00

Sofie had her 18 month checkup. She is doing great. She has grown 8 inches since March. I can hardly believe that. She is 30 lbs and 34 inches tall. 95th percentile for both height and weight. I have been buying 4ts for next summer. She'll be 2.

A good friend of my friend Kelly just lost their 7 month old baby to SIDS. I can't even imagine what they must be feeling right now. I know that they really struggled to have a family to begin with. I wish there was something someone could do to make it better for them, but I know there is not.

I went to a baby shower for my friend Jaden - just back from China - last weekend. She really cracks me up. Her new daughter, Juna, is doing wonderfully. She is such a good baby and really seems to have bonded to her new Mom quickly. She will actually caress Jaden's face when she eats - while maintaining eye contact, etc... That blew me away.

It took quite a bit longer for Sofie to really bond tightly with us. Sofie was put into foster care around 10 days old. I wonder a lot about her foster mother. I wonder if she was a loving, affectionate person or if she was afraid to get too close knowing that her foster baby would be placed with a different family one day? I think about her all of the time and worry that she was devastated when Sofie left. Or - even worse - what if she wasn't? I can't imagine anyone knowing Sofie and not being head over heels in love with her. In the past month or so it feels like our bond has become really strong. I get a lot of hugs where she wraps her little arms tightly around my shoulders, looks at me and says Mama. As you can imagine I don't like this at all! I live for those hugs.

This was my dress when I was little. It says Katie on it. My Mom saved it for me. I love it when she wears it - even though her name is not Katie.
We went out to dinner to celebrate Aunt Jane's birthday. Here is Sofie with the birthday girl. Jane looks amazing. A good 10 years younger than her actual age.
More from dinner
More from dinner - Mom and Jane
More from dinner - Dale and Jim. Unfortunately Tom and Lisa were out of town.
Marc's side of the family. Taken at Vickie's rehersal dinner.
I love this shot of Sofie and her cousin Alexis. Unfortunately it is out of focus and Alexis is looking down.
Sofie and cousin Ben - flowergirl and ring bearer
Marc's side of the family
Sofie checking out a big pink flower.

Flower Girl

2007-07-27T10:27:00.001-04:00

Last weekend we went to our niece's wedding. She was our flower girl - 11 years ago - yes we are really old. Her wedding was beautiful. They had it out at a hunting lodge way out in the country. She had a big tent set up right next to the lake for the reception. Tons of candles and little white lights. The weather was beautiful - we got to see a great sunset right into the lake. They had a fireworks display after dark and a really good band. Sofie was one of 2 flower girls - it was a good thing there were 2 - as Sofie had a last minute change of heart and decided not to go down the aisle. In rehersal she did it 3 times - even tap danced down once. I think the crowd was too much for her. She participated in all of the pictures and had a lot of fun with her cousins rolling around on the floor - etc...

Here is a little clip. Unfortunately I did not get her dancing in the aisle to the violin and piano music. The room was full of people sitting quietly waiting for the wedding to start. Sofie's cousin Ben is the ring bearer. He was so patient with her - even when she started to chew on the ring pillow that he was trying so hard to be responsible for.

Rehersal dinner with cousins Alexis and Ben.
Rehersal dinner with cousin Lindsey.

CHI Picnic and a few random shots

2007-07-18T16:30:00.000-04:00

We went to my friend Kelly's parents house to swim last week. Sofie loves to play with Anna and Ben. Kelly and I spent a lot of time in that pool all through high school. It was easy remembering lying on a raft all day, doing a little shopping and then hitting the town to party every night. Who ever said highschool is rough?
My aunts have been taking turns and coming over to "play." Sofie loves this. Here is a shot with aunt Laura in the "pool" last week.
We had lunch with aunt Jane last week. Sofie finished making a mess - I mean eating - and immediately went over so she could get on Jane's walker and go for a ride - who knew walkers were so much fun? Something to look forward to I guess.
Mary and Addie on Friday night before the picnic. We loved getting a chance to see the Howards and catch up.

It is hard to see - but she actually managed to stand up on the edge of this cart. She is climbing on here. She stood up that outer side that she is about to climb up. Stood perfectly still and staight, balancing the entire toy. Wow - could have knocked me over with a feather.
With Mary Alice (Quinn's older sister), Quinn and Corinna. Quinn and Corina are from Hunan as well, Corrina and Sofie were from the same orphanage - although both were in foster care. I know it seems impossible - but I really think Sofie recognized Corinna. She reached out to her and whined. I imagine it could have been a coincidence. Not sure. Sofie loks small here - but she was sitting. All 3 girls are about the same height - 31 to 32.5 inches.
Playing with Corinna
With Rebecca - our beloved social worker
I went outside the other evening to find this. It may not look so funny here - but I laughed pretty hard. It was an unexpected sight. Unfortunately all of the bug spray washed off and Sofie was eaten alive. She is going to ba a flower girl in 2 days and I'm hoping the ones on her face clear up before then.

4th of July

2007-07-18T16:00:00.000-04:00

The fourth of July really started on third. My parent's club does a show on the 3rd every year. We had dinner at their house and walked up for the fireworks display. My friend Kelly and family joined us. We had a big group including my brother Tom, SIL, Lisa and their 3 boys along with my brother Jim and his girlfriend Bridget. The fireworks were a lot of fun. Unfortunately I was so busy I hardly took any pictures. Bridget took a few for me. Sofie was a little scared of the fireworks. We were sitting on the golf course right under them. We had to move back some - where they weren't so scarry. They had a band as well and that took her mind off of the fireworks some, but all togather it was pretty loud.
Sofie with my nephew Henry.
Fireworks

We were exhausted on the 4th and skipped another late night so Sofie could get to bed. We went out to the cabin for the weekend and were invited over to Innsbrook by some good friends for more fireworks on Saturday. This was perfect - as we were pretty far back. Sofie really liked the fireworks but even more had fun playing in the sand with the kids. Mary Katherine - my friend's daughter, is our mother's helper and Sofie is crazy about her.
At the cabin - walking in old flip-flops she found in a drawer.

Playing Peek-a-Boo
In Marc's hat.

This is for Bob W.- wanted him to see the fish!
Getting ready for fireworks show #2
Playing with Mary.
With Annalise in the sand.
Enjoying the fireworks.

On the way back to the cabin. I was actually surprised she fell asleep.

Up The Book

2007-07-18T12:21:00.000-04:00

Hi - sorry for the long draught on the posting - I have a ton of pictures and will get them on here - in fact my camera battery is charging up now for that purpose. In the mean time I wanted to get a few things recorded. I wanted to keep up my blog so I could be sure to record all of the little milestones in Sofie's life. Seems like a good way to accomplish that since I spend so much time working at the computer anyway.

Sofie has just started stringing words together. This morning she was standing up in her crib looking at her book shelves. I imagine her eyes pop open in the morning and she is immediately ready to begin "reading" books. I walked into her room and she pointed at the books and said "up the book." Up has become synonomous for all "verbs," including open, off, give me, etc..

Last week we were at my aunt Dale's with my Mom and aunt Laura discussing the family cabin. Dale picked up her dog Shirley's foot and put it on a piece of paper and took a pen and drew around the dog's foot. About 25 minutes later Sofie tried to pick up Dale's foot and put it on the paper so she could trace it. Then yesterday our Mother's helper, Mary Katherine, was here and apparently Sofie was trying to get Mary to put her foot on the etch-a-sketch so she could trace it. Pretty clever!

The other thing that we, her partial parents, have found amazing is her sense of balance and coordination. I was never blessed with fabulous coordination - but WOW - Sofie sure is and I am in awe. Unbelievable. She can stand on the edge of things on her tip toes, perfectly straight and not fall. She is also into walking through the house on her tip toes. Not sure why - but I guess it is because she can. She also walks around backwards. This does not always work out so well for her, but she keeps at it. My aunts brought her one of those View Masters from the Grand Canyon and she puts it up to her eyes and walks around looking through it - with no card in it. Pretty funny to watch. Twirling is also a big hit. She spins and spins until she falls over from being dizzy.

Last weekend was the big annual reunion for our adoption agency. Some friends of ours came in Friday evening and were able to come over for a BBQ. The girls were able to play together in the backyard - it was so much fun to watch. Addie, Matt and Mary Howard's daughter has changed so much since China. She is walking - heck she is running, talking some, and has a great sense of humor. We really enjoyed spending time with them. It is amazing the bonds you form with the other families in China. It is hard to describe. Maybe something like war buddies might feel?? There were several other families at the picnic on Saturday - 2 others from our half of the group - the ones that went to Hunan with us. Seeing them was wonderful. I almost cried! Luckily they both live here in St. Louis so the plan is to gt together at Tillies Park in August.

I'll post photos soon! OOPS - how could I forget - some friends of mine just got back from China with their beautiful daughter Juna! I followed their trip on their blog and was reminded so clearly of our trip. I am so glad they are home safely. Way back - several years ago - when we first submitted our paperwork to China I met Jaden through our agency email group. We realized that we would travel together and that we lived 10 minutes apart. We spent a lot of time stalking the internet for adoption rumors and adoption information while emailing back and forth about how we were sure it would never happen for us. We were both desperate to get to China and meet our daughters. The wait got longer and longer, growing exponentially every month. We were sad together, excited together, cheered each other on, and really understood one anothers plight. Unfortunately we did not travel together due to what turned out to be very happy circumstances, but are now FINALLY both home. A place we wondered daily if we would ever find. It still seems surreal - every night I go into Sofie's room and watch her while she sleeps. I can't beleive how lucky we have become. My life is so full now. I used to wish for more. Now I don't even have time to consider wanting more. No more longing, wishing or hoping. It is an amazing feeling!

Growing like a weed

2007-06-28T23:31:00.000-04:00

A few days ago I posted that all of Sofie's summer pjs were dirty and I put a pair on her that we had used in China. I was sad because they were too small. Well I remembered 2 new pairs I had in a drawer - waiting for her to grow into. Size 3T. She is 17 months. So Marc put them on her tonight - which took awhile as the little Chinese acrobat was running around like a banshee all over our bed - and much to my surprise the 3Ts are flippin tight. So I guess by Christmas she will be in a 5T? Heck - I'll be shopping in the juniors department before next summer if she keep growing like this. Tomorrow we go to the Dr. - I'll be very curious to learn exactly how much she has grown.

I know - growing is good - not complaining, well I guess I am complaining, I just love my funny little baby, not ready to lose her yet. Can't she just stay little for a little longer?

Old Photo Revisited

2007-06-27T15:45:00.000-04:00

I have a friend in China right now and have been reliving my trip through her blog. It has brought back so many memories of our emotion packed journey. I have also been getting my photos printed and into books for Sofie to look at. She LOVES pictures - esp. ones of herself and of us. I came across this one and cropped it and blew it up. I wish my camera took higher res pictures and had a macro lens. But my large printout turned out pretty well. It is easier to think about our trip now that I have had some distance and rest! Now I can remember without just feeling tired. What an amazing time. I imagine it was the trip of my life. I can see why people go back a second time! We are not ready for that - but I do know that someday I want to take Sofie back to see China. Hopefully we can travel with some of our friends from our first trip. Prob. would not be the same without them.

This photo was taken shortly after they gave us Sofie. I look at it and remember looking at her in complete amazement. I could not believe this perfect, sweet little girl was ours and how much we all had gone through to find one another.

Swimming

2007-06-26T17:12:00.001-04:00

Balls

2007-06-25T12:05:00.000-04:00

Anything that remotley resembles something round is a "ball." Sofie is constantly in search of balls. She finds them up high, down low, all over. The other day she found them on her plate, small, green and smushy. So peas are now called balls.

Last night we realized all of Sofie's summer p.j.s were in the dirty clothes (yes - I need to do some laundry) So I put these on her - from our first night with her in China.

TOO SMALL! Ah! Not fair - she is growing way too fast.

Last week we met a really old friend of mine, Ron, and his daughter Rievley in the park. The girls are 5 months apart but will someday be in the same grade. Ron and I met at a mixer our freshman year of highschool and have been friends ever since. I am excited for our girls to be friends - lets hope they don't try and pull any of the stuff Ron and I did in highschool. I kind of figure that since I have done it all, I'll be one step ahead of Sofie - sitting at the bottom of the drainpipe she shimmies down in order to sneak out odf the house, etc... We really wern't that bad - just always looking to have fun.

Talk About Behind!

2007-06-22T17:33:00.000-04:00

THis is kinda after the fact, but here is a clip from Easter (back in April). Please ignore my irritating voice.

Attachment

2007-06-19T16:24:00.000-04:00

Attachment is such a confusing, subtle thing. I have noticed a few things lately that have me a tad concerned. It is hard to know what is just typical 17 month old behavior and what could be due to the fact that Sofie has only had a Mom for not quite 4 months. So in turn I have scaled back the amount of time she is away from me and have gone back to treating her more like a little baby - trying to feed her some, rock her while she drinks a bottle, maintaing eye contact, etc... I don't know about all 17 month olds - but this one thinks she is well beyond letting Mom hold the bottle. So it is a bit of a struggle but I plan to persevere. I am having to work at night some now - but I figure I can do it for awhile - just until we are back on track. Nothing major happened - I just have noticed a few things. So this week she went to my parents on Monday for 3 hours and will go to my aunts on Friday for a few hours, otherwise I'm keeping her with me. I am working early in the morning and through her 3 hour nap and then again in the evening when Marc gets home. Things have been going so well it is hard to remember that she has not always been a part of our lives and all of this is relatively new for her.

Here are a few of the latest shots. The one with her lips puckered is her response to "what does a fishy do?"

Jillian Jiggs

2007-06-15T10:48:00.000-04:00

This is from April 4th, a few weeks after we got home. The yellow duck actually belongs in the bathtub. I came upstairs and found Marc reading to Sofie and was able to grab the camera. Please excuse Marc's hair. He won't be happy to know I have posted this - he may even ask me to take it down, but for the mean time here it is.

Hi Lindsey!!!!!!!!

2007-06-01T23:21:00.000-04:00

Hi Lindsey. Here you go! (Please tell your mom that since we have spoken I have done so much I couldn't possibly list all of it here but I have taken careful notes and will report to her on Sunday)

Here are the latest photos. I'm also going to try and upload some video, but it may take awhile as I have never done it before.

We were back to the cabin for the 3rd weekend in a row. It was nice to have a three day weekend. The Robberson family came out for the weekend and the O'learys came out for the day on Saturday. They were out at their cabin not too far away and came to spend the afternoon with us at the beach. We had quite a crowd with the 3 of us, 4 Robbersons and 6 O'learys. It was a lot of fun.

Sofie is amazing us with her language abilities. She seems to pick up a new word or 2 everyday and can understand what we say to her. The only word she does not seem to have grasped is "no." Apparently "no" is just some sort of a funny joke. I'm going to have to figure that one out.

We went to Macy's with my Mom yesterday to help her choose a new rug for the living room. The rug/furniture department turned out to be more fun than a park, zoo, etc.. It may take second to the beach though. Sofie had a blast running around, laughing hysterically and throwing herself onto piles of rugs. Not so sure the sales people enjoyed it much. Next time I am looking to get out and take her somewhere fun we are headed to another furniture store.

Nothing Specific or Witty

2007-05-23T10:08:00.000-04:00

I don't have anything specific to say - but here are some pictures from the past week or so. Last weekend Nancy, Scott and family came out to the cabin for the day. The weather was perfect and we spent the day on the beach. On Snday Marc and I went to the beach again before going home. We were walking down with our stuff and one little girl yelled - "look, it's Sofie – they got her in China!" as loudly as she could. So I imagine if anyone had any questions for us at least now the basic one has been answered and I didn't have to say a word.

Sofie and Eddie on the futon. I snapped this shot and then made Ed get down. He is NOT supposed to be up on the futon.

Having a snack with Nicholas. I was trying to figure out how to take the chips away from her without causing a meltdown.

Breakfast with Dad on the deck

Belated Mother's Day dinner
Broccoli anyone?

New favorite thhing to do is atach and un-attach the clasps on her highchair. This is apparently really fun as she spends quite a bit of time working on them. Shopping carts also have the same clasps - as do car seats.

Mother's Day

2007-05-14T11:32:00.000-04:00

We had a great Mother's Day Weekend. We went out to our cabin, the weather was perfect and we were able to get to the beach both days. Sofie LOVED the water and the sand. She really loved all of the fish that followed her around in the water and the muscle shells that she saved. She played in the sand with a bucket and a few discarded annual pots. We are all really worn out. Yesterday on the way home we stopped off at Tom and Lisa's for my nephew Henry's first communion party. Once again Sofie had a lot of fun, not shy at all, passing out the contents of my purse along with her dirty bib to everyone there. She was right in the middle of the gifts being open, grabbing for tissue paper and ribbon.

Sofie did really well in the water. She put her face in and tried to blow bubbles - unfortunately she really only drank the lake water. She also kicked on her back and on her stomach. She also said "fishy" and "kick, kick, kick." It seems like everytime I turn around she has learned something new - or is trying something new. It is pretty amazing.

Here are a few shots of Sofie and Marc in the lake. My first Mother's Day was definately a memorable one! It was a perfect weekend, watching Sofie on the beach and in the lake, my favorite place when I was a little girl.

More Memories - The night before we Left and the flight

2007-05-10T22:49:00.000-04:00

1. Excited.

2. I loved packing for the trip.

3. Wondering if we had all the paperwork. Too tired to check it over again. decided to hope for the best.

4. Killing myself to finish up as much work as possible. Finally at 2 am I gave up. Mom was picking us up in 2 hours for the airport.

5. FInished last minute stuff until 4 am. Our dryer conked out on my last load around 2:30. I packed a few wet items in a bag.

6. I completed the last item on my list 15 minutes before we left for the airport.

7. Tired and hurried, trying to be patient with Marc's inability to read my mind.

8. Worried about leaving the dogs behind. Tried to remember a million things in my note for our dog sitter.

9. Froze the white chili I had made around 7pm? This was ridiculous. I knew it was ridiculous, but wanted to make it anyway.

10. Thinking too hard about all that needed to be done to even consider what we were doing or where we were going.

11. Mom came to pick us up. I worried about her driving home from the airport so tired and in the dark.

12. I will never forget getting out of the car at the airport. Mom asked if we were okay and I said I really wished she was coming. She did too and reminded me this was a big trip (I guess incase I had forgotten? A Mom thing I suppose)

13. I knew I had to walk off and leave her, knowing the next time I saw her everything would be different. I worried our plane would crash into the North Pole. (right into Santa's barber pole naturally)

14. I tried not to cry and walked away, hoping we would return safely and I would see her again. (Yes - I tend to worry)

15. Waiting in the terminal in St. Louis to board the first plane to Denver so exhausted I started to feel sick.

16. Unable to sleep on any of the plane rides. Just sat there, too tired to even read Star Magazine. My brian could not even take mindless fluff.

17. Flew over San Jose on the way to SF. That goofy Dione Warwick song - Do you know the way to San Jose - was stuck in my brain. San Jose did look lovely though.

18. Made the final flight from SF to HK. Could not believe the seats back in steerage. I almost cried. 14.5 hours in a window seet with no where for my legs. The third seat was filled. We were screwed. The man in the aisle seat took off his shoes and socks for the trip and put his feet up on the seat - curled into a little upright ball.

19. After 7 hours I was sure it had been 12. So bummed to hear we had 7 more to go. I finally took some benedryl and slept off and on. My legs were miserable.

20. Flying over Siberia was pretty cool - very white.

21. So excited as we approached HK. We were on the other side of the world. And we were there to meet our daughter.

22. Landed at dusk. The islands looked mystical with all of the fog and lights but tropical at the same time. I immediately fell in love with HK. They looked like a 1940's Humphrey Bogart movie.

23. We scurried through the airport. No trash. Clean. Miraculously our luggage popped right out.

A List of Memories before I forget

2007-05-10T14:51:00.000-04:00

Adoption Related Memories - Referral Day

1. Knowing a package was coming via DHL that had to FINALLY contain referrals.

2. Getting the email from the China program director that all referrals were accounted for. The feeling of pure relief still brings tears to my eyes.

3. Getting the call about 2 hours before I expected it. Relieved to hear she was okay.

4. Hanging up with our social worker after the call. Not knowing what to do with myself. In a fog.

5. Getting to the agency with Marc and walking down the LONG well lit hall to the waiting crowd at the end. Reminiscent of a rock star.

6. Being handed her photo, not really even seeing her face, still in a fog of disbelief and euphoria.

7. Driving home from the agency and wishing we could go back and do it all again. It went by too fast and I knew that perfect moment was over.

8. So excited to show everyone her photo.

9. Still in a fog - did not grasp that it really had happened. I think the fog has just lifted 5 months later.

10. Felt like the luckiest people on earth. Very puzzled at how suddenly we were so blessed after so much heartache.

11. Made it to my parents house, loved watching them fall in love with a photo - just like we did.

12. Kelly and Anna hurried over to my parents. Once again love at first sight.

13. Marc and I had a late dinner, we finally felt like we were parents - or at least about to be parents. I couldn't imagine this had actually happened for us.

14. Two days later the bottom fell out. Total hysteria and desperation. USCIS was going to stop us from adopting.

15. I felt as if nothing good could ever happen for us. Here we were again - as soon as we let ourselves feel like we were finally there - it was finally going to happen - we were going to be parents - wham, something would happen to take it all away.

16. Total desperation. Afraid to tell anyone of our troubles - didn't want others to worry. Desperate to fix the problem. Scrambling to put more paper work in order.

17. Out of my control. Anger. USCIS had misunderstood some of our papers and it seemed as if they had made up their minds and would deny our adoption. I was not going to let anyone take my daughter away from us.

18. Relief. Our social worker said not to worry. We did not do anything wrong and all would be fine.

19. Still scared.

20. It all worked out. We had our renewal in hand and were on our way to China.

Next - The night before we left.

The Best Thing

2007-05-10T14:01:00.000-04:00

The best thing is when S. comes home everyday around 12:00 from my parents or one of my aunts, sees me, and comes running with a big smile on her face, jumps into my arms and gives me a big hug. She has been gone all morning and has always had a lot of fun, usually tired and ready for a nap. My heart grows three sizes everyday.

After that she actually takes a nap. For 2 to 3 hours. And I am actually getting my work done. Somehow things are going according to my plan. How is it that it is all working out so well? The other nice feeling is falling into bed by - if you can believe this - 9 each night feeling a little sore and totally exhausted from all of the playing and fun we have had. It is the best tired and sore ever.

Last night S. got in the little "dog" pool for the first time. I think she may have had the most fun she has ever had. This weekend the three of us and the animals are off to the cabin. We think she is ready for her first trip to the beach. We will see how she does with the sand. I bet the lake is still pretty cold, but imagine I will be in it with her.

We have discovered she needs to wear 45 sunscreen all of the time. Already has tan lines on her feet from her sandles.

Weekend Update

2007-04-29T19:53:00.000-04:00

We had a fun weekend. On Friday we had dinner with my Dad and brother Jim. Sofie was awesome - we were there for 3 hours and she had a ball. Mostly with her noodles and water as the picture shows. Looks like a glass full of worms. MMMM. On Saturday night Marc had a bachelor party so we went out to the cabin again with my aunts. My aunt and I took some photos to use in an adoption announcement. I think I know which one I'm going to use, but we got a lot.

I am exhausted. Ready to go to bed here at 7 pm. On the way home we hit the outlet mall and exchanged a bunch of stuff I bought almost 2 years ago that did not fit. I actually saved the receipts. The store clerks argued with me some, but I was eventually able to return it all. Unfortunately I was there with no stroller. I won't be making that mistake again. First of all you can only carry 27.5 pounds for so long. Second of all she ran through the stores like a banshee if I set her down, leaving all sorts of clutter on the floors in her wake. Shelves were cleared, trinkets tossed, etc... I spent more time cleaning up behind her than actually shopping. I imagine she had fun though and hey - isn't that what counts?

She shared those noodles with uncle Jim. Mmmm.

After her photo shoot I had to get the white dress off - before I put on something else she was busy learning how to start a fire in the BBQ pit.

She like to run out of the bedroom in the cabin and surprise us. Thinks it is hysterical.

Second Dr.s Visit

2007-04-25T15:54:00.000-04:00

Sofie had her second Dr.s visit today. I know I should be happy and counting my lucky stars that she is so healthy. And I am. BUT she grew an entire inch. In one month. An inch today, an inch tomorrow and whamo - she is off to college. She is an inch taller than last month. A whole inch. She won't be going back either. I am happy with her now - just as she is. I suppose she will continue to grow though. I also imagine she would prefer it this way, so I guess I will deal with it, but I don't have to like it.

She also gained a pound and a half. I imagine it came with that darned inch, but if you ask me it went straight to her cute little baby belly. She eats an entire cantelope a day. I would swear that she is storing a spare in her belly. She has actually outgrown several outfits and has moved on to a 2T - at 15 months! So much for the stereotype of Chinese people being smaller. Sofie is in the 98th percentile on the American charts.

We have been very busy and also doing fabulously. I am so crazy about her that I have been tempted to wake her up in the middle of the night to play. I have not been so stpid as to actually do this, but it has crossed my mind more than a few times.

She is now going over to my parents and aunts houses in the mornings. I am actually starting to get some work done on a regular basis, so this is great. BUT she does not want to nap in the afternoon. Some days are fine and she will go down, but others, not a chance. Any suggestions? She will hang out in her crib for awhile, but eventually whimper a little - so I run up to pat her back, etc... but I can't get her to sleep. We do a routyine with pulling the shade, taking off her shoes, and playing a lulaby CD. Still nothing. She jumps up and down, laughs, etc...

On the slide with her beloved cantelope.
The only way to get her to nap is pretty much like this in the car.
First visit to Grants Farm - trying to take it all in.
Same slide, different visit. She LOVES the slide. THis play thing has a choice of 3 slides and she will pretend she is going to go down one, so I will get ready to spot her, and then she will start to laugh and jump up and run over to another slide and go down as fast as she can. I barely make it in time.
My friend Laura's daughter Mary Katherine is fabulous with kids. She followed Sofie around the park for close to 2 hours.

With Mary and Lucy in the park
Sofie's first visit to Aspenhoff - our family cabin. We went for the day with Aunts Dale and Laura
I got her one of those punch baloons to hit around out on the deck and she loved it. (Don't worry she was not unsupervised with a baloon)
Unfortunately it blew way down into the woods. Aunt Dale was nice enough to go get it. I personally was willing to let it go - as it came from the dollar store.

More From Easter

2007-04-13T17:11:00.000-04:00

Kelly and Anna and Ben came by to visit Easter morning. Anna and Ben looked adorable as usual. Although I must say - Anna's dress was prob. one of the cutest I have EVER seen. Vickie - if you are reading this - it came from Strasburg Kids. (spelling?) Vickie is my niece and Sofie is going to be her flower girl this summer! Vickie was actually our flower girl, so it is a pretty special event. We can't believe Vickie is getting married. No offense Vick - but it really makes us old! Anyway - Vickie when you are in town we will have to go look and see if we can find a solid white dress and then we can have a blue sash made. (I imagine my Mom can whip one up.)

We are off to our first dinner out since being home. Lunch has been done quite a bit, but this is the first dinner. We are headed to PF Changs - a friend of mine recently sent us a lovely gift including a gift certificate to PF CHangs. We are pretty fired up!

Dah yeeee

2007-04-10T10:46:00.000-04:00

Not sure where she picked it up - I must have used Daddy a few times but Marc has graduated from Da Da to Dah yeeee. Sometimes for short he is just plain DA. She likes to stand at the top of the stairs, lean forward with her butt sticking out, and yell as loud as she can: "DA."

I took her to the park today for lunch, we met Kelly along with Anna and Ben and Anna's friend. Another friend, Nancy also happened to be there with her 4 boys. So the kids ran around in a pack. Sofie kept right up with them.

We are making arrangements to have Sofie baptized. Luckily the priest that married us - some 10 years ago - was just transferred back into town from Ohio. I was pretty bummed out - thinking he would not be here to baptize her - and what do you know - he is! We are crazy about him. He actually baptized Marc also. He is such a great guy, we are really excited to have him baptize Sofie. He has offered to come to our parrish for the baptism.

Nancy's son Nicholas - my God son - had a Schnucks sticker. Sofie is trying her best to steal it.

Easter!

2007-04-09T10:05:00.000-04:00

Easter was fabulous! Sofie had a great time. She loved her basket and all of the eggs. We finally spent a holiday as a family. No more waiting and feeling sad. A huge hole in our lives has been filled. Filled so high it is overflowing. I can remember the past few Easters - feeling so sad, wondering if it would ever happen, feeling like it never would. It finally did happen, much to my amazement. I really feel like a miracle has been dropped in our laps. During our long wait for a child a lot of people told us that we would forget the agony of waiting once we had her in our arms. I'm not sure I quite get that statement. Maybe what people mean is that you wont worry about how long you waited or about how unhappy you felt. But forget - no way. It was hard and it really sucked. In fact the contrast of how I feel now vs. how I felt last Easter just reminds me even more of how lucky we are today. I am so grateful and thankful to have Sofie here with us that I don't even have words to express my happiness. Everyday I wake up feeling so satisfied and fulfilled. No more longing, wondering or wishing. What a miracle for all 3 of us.

Aunt Laura and I took her to the transportation museum.
Afterwards we had lunch and Sofie used 2 spoons to eat a bowl of ice cream. She really hates ice cream! By the way she started to eat using a spoon and fork a few days ago. She is sometimes in too much of a hurry to get the food in, but when she is feeling patient she actually uses the utensils pretty successfully.

We dyed egges Saturday night.
Easter morning
My nephews eating peeps
Sofie eating a peep
Owen
Looking for eggs
Sofie with her Isenberg cousins.
First holiday as a family!
Dad, Tom, the boys and Sofie
Dad with Sofie
Playing with Star Wars ships
Sofie loves to look at pictures of herself

I tried to get a decent shot of her dress, but was never really successful
Giving Earnie a hug
Ready to go play with her grandparents.

5 Weeks

2007-04-03T14:34:00.000-04:00

I was curious to compare Sofie's referral photos to recent ones, as well as photos form the first day we had her to more recent shots. I am amazed at the difference 5 weeks can make! I can't believe 5 weeks have passed since we have had her. I also can't believe that it has only been 5 weeks. She is suddenly doing much better in the sleeping department - sleeping all night long, no waking up and crying and actaully going down for a nap with ease. She has a will of iron and was determined not to take a daily nap - heck determined to never ever take a nap. Why would you want to go to sleepand miss out on some fun anyway? She seems to have caved in the last few days and is finally going to bed and is taking a nap without a lot of "hoopla." YAY!
Here are a few photos showing now and then. Amazing! We are totally in love with our little girl!

Referral photo and a recent one.

Referral photo and recent one

"Gotcha" Day and at the Zoo with Da Da.

2 Weeks of Photos

2007-03-29T23:16:00.000-04:00

My nephew Eliot with my parents new puppy - Earnie.

2 more nephews - Henry and Owen clowning around at my parents house.

Sofie with Mom

Last week Marc and I took Sofie to the zoo. She LOVED it. Pointed at everything.

After the Zoo in the car on the way home.

With Mom in a rocking chair.

After her much loved bath.

YOu can't see it - but it actually sowed a little a week ago. I imagine this was Sofie's first look at snow.

With Kelly and Anna.

Playing with Aunt Dale.

Swinging with aunt Dale

Forgot the bib - unfortunately she was eating beef stew that ended up all over the place including her hair.

Loving the swing

More from the bath

Hard to see - but here is a shot of our dog Eddie sleeping by Sofie's crib at night.

One more from the zoo.

The Stupid's Get A Dryer

2007-03-19T14:58:00.000-04:00

This is an old post from last week that I never published. I have tons of pictures that I need to upload also

There are a set of kid's books that my brother's and I had as kids called the Stupid's. There were only 3, the Stupid's Step Out, The Stupid's Have a Ball and the Stupid's Die. They were about a family that was really stupid. They called their dog - cat, their cat - dog, etc... The one where they die was actually just the loss of electricity - or they blew a fuze or something and it was dark so they assumed they were dead. We LOVED these books. Thought they were hysterical. Needless to say the term has stuck. Family vacations were named - The Stupids go to Holland, or Florida, etc... Someone would do something stupid and you can use your imagination... A few years ago Marc left the keys in our car while it was running downtown and it was stolen - my Dad's comment was: "The stupid's sell a car."

Today the stupids got a new dryer. Our dryer has plagued us from the beginning. It actually started a fire in our house about 2 years ago. THe exhaust had come loose and the hot air caught some lint on fire. THe house filled with smoke and we could not find the source. So we dialed 911. Much to our embarassment 4 fire trucks came and tons of police cars. I imagine there was an ambulance or 2 in the mix. We had men in full garb pouring into our house and me in my pjs with the bird on the front porch standing in midst of all the high beams shining on the house. What a commotion. That was "the stupids do laundry"

Right before we the stupid's went to China, our dryer pooped out - actually hours before we left for the airport. It did 1 load when we got home and that was it. So today our new one was delivered. You can imagine the loads of laundry in our future. We have even been sleeping on dirty sheets! Which I hate. At least we have been tired enough not to care a lot. After they left we noticed that the dryer was not hooked up correctly in the back - the vented thingy had come loose. So to aviod another fire we the delivery guys and had them come back and fix it. After they left for the second time we remembered that there had been a load of wet clothes in the dryer. So we called them for a third time and they sent someone after our old dryer and he pulled the load of clothes out and actually brought them to us. I felt like a moron. It was a good thing that they found the clothes though, all of Marc's new socks were in that load.

Still Home! Woo Hoo!

2007-03-16T07:18:00.001-04:00

Well the trip home was rough. Sofie did wonderfully. She prob. fared better than Marc and me. We were very impressed an grateful. All of our flights were full, so there was no where to spread out. The flights were all on time and the flight attendants really did take care of us. One of them had a son in the process of adopting from Guatemala and was just as nice as could be. She was beyond excited to become a grandmother and had tons of photos of her soon to be grandson. She even gave us a bottle of bubbly to take home from the plane. One thing - if you want a hot bottle either have them take the bottle back to fill it up or just ask for a cup of hot water - they are not allowed to pour the hot water into the bottle for you. Someone got burned this way and sued. They all balked when we asked for really hot water. I think they thought we were abusive parents, or clueless idiots. We explained that that was how it was done in China and what she was used to. They watched her take the bottle and gulp it down and were shocked. I felt like a heel.

We finally landed in St. Louis after 30 hours of travel and I about kissed the ground. We walked off the plane into the gate and there was my brother Tom waiting for us. I have never, ever, been so happy to see anyone - except Marc on our wedding day, my Mom arriving to pick me up after my disaster of a freshman year at KU and Sofie when she was handed to us in China. Tom was able to use his security badge and come back to the gate. I had not even considered that he would be there, but was actually looking for him when we stepped through the door. Of coarse the tears I had been trying so hard to hold back for 30 hours came. As each leg of the journey home ended it was so hard not to cry. Each time a plane landed, or each time one took off I had to really fight the overwhelming emotion of actually coming home with our baby. I was not ever completly successful I should admit! I guess it finally had sunk in that we really had done it. After everything - years of pregnancy mishaps, a year of paperwork, and 1.5 years of nervous waiting we had finally accomplished the impossible. We were a family! Not only that, but more importantly we had somehow managed to find the perfect child for us.

We walked down the terminal toward baggage claim and then saw my mom and aunt, Marc's aunt and uncle and 3 of my lifelong friends waiting for us as well as our social worker from CHI that we love to death. What a great homecoming. Everyone was crying and just so happy to see Sofie and to finally meet her in person. It was fabulous. Not only were we home with our daughter, but we felt so loved and missed as well. As we got closer to the waiting group Tom dared me to turn around and go the other way. Can you imagine if the 3 of us had done that. That would have been pretty funny. Had I had an ounce more energy I might have considered it.

The first 2 days at home were really hard. Sleep was a long forgotten thing. We could not really even stand up. I had Marc carry Sofie down the stairs, I was sure I would drop her I was so tired. THe floor under my feet felt like it was tilting. Somehow we made it through and on the third night at bedtime Sofie was crying and really upset. I gave her some Children's Motrin and she immediately went to sleep. She is teething and I imagine was in pain as well as having her entire world turned upside down. That night she slept for about 7 hours and woke up for 2 hours in the middle of the night. This was the first night in a crib and she did a lot better than she did in our bed. She thinks our bed is a big play area and really fights going to sleep. When she woke upin her crib I just repeatedly went in and patted her back and gave her hugs. She finally went back to sleep and slept until 7 am. The next night she woke up once for about 2 minutes and I was able to calm her down quickly and she fell back asleep. Now - the third night in her crib - she has SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT! In fact she has been asleep for 12 hours now. In addition she has been taking a 3 hour nap for the past 3 days - in her crib - no fussing at all.

She wakes up happy and smiling, loves to be held, is eating well, loves a baby massage with lavendar baby lotion, loves to play and is overall doing wonderfully. I am really watching her for signs that she may not be attaching well, but am seeing a lot of positive behavior. Sometimes when she takes a bottle she does not want me to hold it - she wants to do it herself and will actually try to remove my hand. I let her do this as she seems to have an independant streak typical of a 14 month old. Her eye contact while eating is pretty good - there are times when she wants to look around - also normal. Last night I had to aspirate her nose and she was really mad at me for a few minutes. She would not look at me at all and did not want me to comfort her. We made up after a minute and all was well.

The girl that hated baths now cries when we take her out of the tub. I have been taking a bath with her, but last night she tried it on her own. I blew up the baby bath tub that is shaped like a duck. Boy is that a nice thing to have. She can sit in there safely without fear of falling. She played and kicked her feet and loved it.

Well she is awake so I have to go!

Asleep at the White Swan. We could hear all of the other families leaving in the hall. We had an extra hour since we were taking a train to Hong Kong to spend the night and fly home Sunday. Very sad!

Making Tea in Hong Kong.

Ready to go home!

Reading the Hungry Caterpillar in the Tokyo airport playroom

Very tired waiting to fly to Chicago.

FInally at home!

Our nephew Owen teaches Sofie a new game. She had so much fun with him. Huge belly laughs. She would throw her toys out of her crib and he would throw them back in. Unfortunately Owen is not here all the time to keep throwing them back in and Sofie is still very fond of this game. Owen - if you are reading this - Sofie is really hoping you can come back to throw her toys into her crib for her.

Just a random shot that shows some of her room - for Colette

Looking out her window like we imagined she would.

First time on a swing (as far as we know). She loved it. She was pumping her legs and smiling.

Learning the merry-go-round with aunt Laura.

A little apprehensive at first!

The slide is her favorite.

Home Safe and Sound

2007-03-14T13:02:00.001-04:00

We are home! Woo Hoo! I'll post more soon!

Hello from Tokyo

2007-03-11T04:56:00.000-04:00

Hi, We are in Tokyo waiting for our flight to Chicago. This is one clean joint. Clean, efficient and friendly. You would not believe the bathrooms. The women's rooms have these toilets that can be used kind of like a bidet. (No I did not try it) but they play music and spray airfreshner as well. Sofie is a champion traveler so far. We have a many more miles to cover as well as a layover in CHicago that will the middle of the night for her. May be a tad rough. We'll see. Benadryl. This airport even has a kids playroom. sofie wants to say something:
3`qqqqe

okay i'd better go. kind of hard type with a baby on
my lap

Goodbye from Guangzhou

2007-03-09T07:35:00.000-05:00

Last dinner in GZ. at Lucy's with the Walkers and the Ritzmans. Sofie had some chicken noodle soup. You can see she had trouble getting the noodles in her mouth. Most of them were on her lap.

More fun with noodles

Farewell dinner - our awesome CHI coordinator Lina with Sofie and Tara and Remy Ritzman.

Yesterdays nap.

We are leaving the White Swan early tomorrow morning and heading to Hong Kong where we catch a flight home Sunday morning. We can't believe our trip has come to an end. We had so much fun and met so many nice people and even made some new friends that we really hope we can keep in touch with. It feels like Sofie has been our daughter for a long time. She has fit into our little family like a glove. It is amazing. She is such a happy go with the flow kind of girl. Even today her personality is still emerging. Just when we think we have seen it all. She has pretty much been talking, laughing and making noises with her tongue all day. It is pretty funny. This morning I packed our stuff and she amused herself all morning - I was actually able to get it done. She even seems to be understanding some of what we say.

Last night was the farewell dinner. I actually had a lot of fun. The food was really good and the company even better. Sofie seemed to enjoy herself as well. Marc was in the hotel sick - he finally got what passed to me from Sofie. He was convinced he had bird flu - of coarse - and said he was craving seeds and worms. He feels much better today - although has a fever again tonight. Please - no worries - he is bird flu free, I promise.

Today we had our swearing in ceremony at the US consulate. A lot of people were pretty choked up and if you can imagine I was not. There is a first for everything I guess. I thought we were going to promise to do right by our children but we only swore that our paperwork was all honest to the best of our abilities. Very red tape if you ask me. We all raised our right hands and repeated after the official (in English) Sofie actually raised her hand (her left) and babbled along with the group. Pretty cute.

I'm off to finish packing and will try and post from Hong Kong. Please don't worry if I don't. I believe our room has internet but I'm not positive. Otherwise we will be home Sunday night! A little apprehensive about being home, just another big change for all 3 of us, but I'm sure all will work itself out in time. I will miss maid service as well as room service. We have not really had room service here in GZ though - too expensive. It was dirt cheap in Changsha. I could order steamed egg for Sofie and it was around 17 cents or so to have it sent to our room. Steamed egg - oh boy is she going to miss that dish. She has it almost every day and it is a Chinese dish - that I'll have to find the recipe for. Almost like an egg custard with no sugar and sometimes soy sauce on top. Congee is the other big baby dish here but Sofie did not like it at all. She really eats about anything. We let her taste what ever we have - to a point - no fiery peppers or anything like that, but she seems to like everything except yogurt and some fruits - go figure.

I really need to go. I could sit here and write about our trip all night. Colette just left our room - we had to say goodbye. So sad - we had such a good time with the Walkers and are looking forward to seeing them soon is St. Louis or in Tulsa. Sofie and Olivia will really miss each other as well. It really stinks having to say goodbye. You go through such an incredible experience together and become friends quickly and then have to say goodbye. But there is always email and the phone.

Here are the photos from last night and today.

Second Post of the Day

2007-03-08T02:35:00.000-05:00

First, Here is a better shot of the Xinhua girls the Ritzman's sent us this morning from yesterday's red couch crying fest.

Sofie is napping so I thought I'd post todays photos thus far. This morning was our group photo and afterwards a few of us went to the Swan room to play. The hotel has really cleared out. A lot of families went home today. We got one of the last consulate appointment slots so we are still here. Some families are leaving tomorrow night and the rest of us Sat. morning. We are prob. the last family to leave as we are headed to Hong Kong, not catching an early am flight home. We leave Hong Kong Sunday morning at 10. So tonight is our farewell dinner and tomorrow our swearing in ceremony at the consulate (no cameras aloud) Today our guides went to the consulate on all of our behalf to process our paperwork. We had to remain in our rooms from 9:30 to 11:00 in case they had to call with any questions. All went well, so our paperwork was in order and is I believe (drum roll please) about over! Somehow we managed to correctly navigate paperwork for the past 2 to 3 years and we are done. I know there is some paper work involved with our post placement visits, but nothing like what we have done thus far (Rebecca - please correct me if I am wrong?) We actually have 3 post placement visits, 3 months home, 6 months and a year. I am looking forward to these as we love our social worker from CHI to death. She is prob. reading this and laughing - but it is true, she was our saving grace throughout this process and we would have never made it this far without her encouragement and positive, level-headed thinking. She talked me off of a cliff more than once. I can't see making it through this process without an agency and agency representative that you can trust and count on for accurate information. Rebecca was basically our fertility specialist that got us the long-awaited positive result!

So here are the photos from this morning. After the group shot the photos are of Sofie and her 2 buddies from Xinhua - Olivia and Remy. In addition to the Ritzmans and the Walkers - 2 families that we will be really sad to say goodbye to, the Uttermullens also joined us in the play room. They are from CA and have adopted a 2.5 year old girl from Hunan with a cleft lip and palette. Simi. She is doing really well and seems to be bonding successfully to her new family. She would be hard pressed not to bond to them as they are really caring people. The Mom is a social worker and from Finland. She is a wonderful mother and such a caring person. She has done a commendable job with her new daughter, really I can't imagine a more caring person. Adopting an older child seems to be much more challenging than adopting a baby. All of the families are doing a great job with their babies. The difference a few weeks has made is amazing. I will miss watching each of them progress.

Funny Dream

2007-03-07T02:29:00.000-05:00

Last night I dreamed I was walking down the hall here at the hotel and looked into a room with an open door and found Kelly in there blowing her hair dry. I was sad to wake up and realize she was not here! Maybe it is because hotel living reminds me of the dorm at KU. We walk out into the hall and always see people we know or we visit the Walkers down the hall. Since Kelly was my KU roommate it makes sense. Maybe tonight I'll dream that Shelley is here also and the 3 of us can go raid the kitchen for trays to use as sleds. Or get into a Jello fight. I sure wouldn't dream that we were studying - maybe Kelly - but prob. not Shelley or myself at least not as KU freshmen.

This morning was the group photo of all the babies in our group on the red couch. Sofie did not cry at all, just stared at the babies that did cry. It was pretty much a 3 ring circus. I can only imagine how many babies have sat on that couch before us. Countless numbers. Almost all of the families that adopt from China stay here at the White Swan. Every group that comes through does a photo shoot on the red couch. There are 4 babies in our group from the Xin Hua Social Welfare Institute, Olivia Walker soon to live in Tulsa, Remy Ritzman, headed to Seattle and Corina Baker, also of St. Louis, and Sofie. All 4 babies are healthy and doing well. Sofie was in Foster care the whole time, and the other 3 were all put into foster care 4 months ago when they were chosen for international adoption. Sofie was actually hospitalized for 2 months to have laser surgery done on the birthmark on her forehead. So she lived at the hospital the entire 2 months. Poor baby. It is too bad she was separated from her foster mother for so long. I have so many questions that I'll prob. never have answers to. The orphanage director gave me her card and asked us to email her photos of Sofie. I asked our CHI guide Lina if it was okay to go ahead and do this and she said yes - I know our agency likes us to communicate through them, but emailing will be so easy. Maybe eventually I will be able to ask the director more questions. I hope she has a way to translate my English.

Yesterday afternoon Sofie was reading my Martha Stewart Living Magazine - she was learning a lot about new ways to keep a kitchen fresh. The next thing we noticed her butt was up in the air and her face was planted on the magazine, she was sucking as hard as she could on big picture of the cookie of the month. I'm wondering if now she thinks cookies taste like paper and will not care for any in the future?

She loved the pearl market. So much action. Not even a whimper from her. She remains fascinated with her shoes, so if I took too long looking at something she would just play with her shoes until we started moving again. We stopped for a mother daughter lunch at a cafe. (Marc stayed home and skipped the shopping trip - not feeling too well) We had a lot of fun playing peek-a-boo which she picked up very quickly. We started teaching her the night before and at breakfast the next morning she was holding her hands over her eyes. She also will pull my hands over to her eyes. So cute! In fact she will imitate just about anything. If I tap my hand on the table, she will, if I smile, she will, etc....

Tom - I did hum that song during the medical. However, there was a little piano in the playroom in Changsha and I did break out into 1235441 212344 8665654212344. I'm sure it was an impressive rendition.

No need for a nap after a long day of shopping.

Sofie at lunch - check out the whole she unraveled in her stockings.

Pearl Market - 5 stories of pearls, stones, jade, silver, turquoise, etc............

Pearl Market - store where we looked at pearls.

Random cuteness!

The 4 girls from Xin Hau

Our whole group on the red couch

Sofie and Marc on the Red Couch

Medical Exam

2007-03-06T06:40:00.001-05:00

The medical exam was fine. Not a big deal. To test Sofie's hearing they played a little piano and waited to see if she looked. Very scientific. They did weigh her, dressed with no shoes she was 27 lbs. - and yes I have new muscles in my upper arms! The baby carrier I brought with me is really nice. With it I am able to carry her around for an hour or 2. If we use the carrier Marc and I switch off to give our backs a break.

The weather here has gone south. Cold and rainy. Not quite Changsha cold, but close. Yesterday we had a ton of laundry done. I also had a sweater mended. They did not shrink the cotton at all and the whole load was 87RMB. In US dollars that is about $11.50. We had 2 big laundry bags full. And the clothes are so soft and clean. I am going to miss the laundry here.

After the medical exam we went down to the Swan room - a play area furnished by Mattel for the adopted babies. It was fun to watch them play. Sofie was a bit shy and she and Olivia stuck close to Colette and me. She was fascinated by Elmo.

This morning we have a group photo of the babies on the famous red couch here at the hotel. Then we are all off to the pearl market where I can practice my bargaining skills. I think our guides will also help bargain, but I am hoping I can really knock down the prices. THey used to accept US dollars at the pearl market and now they are not as keen on them, saying the US economy is not so strong. They will take them in exchange for pearls but not for jade.

Sofie still does not want to go to bed at night. Even though we can tell how tired she is she wants to play. Eventually she just thrashes around and whines. What we need is a rocking chair and her bottle. The hotel room is a hard place to get her to sleep. Maybe tonight I'll try sitting up in a chair and holding her until she is out. The problem is she wakes up when I move her to the bed and then starts playing again. I think once we get home this will get easier. She is a really sound sleeper after being asleep for awhile.

Here are the photos from yesterday.

Oh yeah - we think she has learned Mama and Baba (daddy in CHinese) I know - sounds like baby babble - but when I make her bottle she says Mama over and over and if Marc shuts the bathroom door to take a shower she beats on the door and calls Baba. SHe has also looked at me and said Mama. I guess we will see?

Playing in the Swan Room with Olivia

Playing with Elmo in the Swan room in the hotel.

Shaiman Island

Starbucks. We ordered Ice coffee with no ice - they managed it somehow, go figure.

School children doing exercises.

School children doing exercises.

2007-03-06T06:40:00.000-05:00

We Are Off to the Official Medical Exam

2007-03-05T17:47:00.000-05:00

She is learning to like soft toys. She LOVES the dol Mom made. Lat night she was carrying on a conversation with it. A one sided conversation - but none the less. Mom - we may need you to re-dress her though. Sofie has managed to untie the knots that held the dolls jacket on.

Typical Chinese squatty potty. Often it is the only choice.

Sofie looking in a hand held mirror.

Marc in a hat with ponytail

Park on Shaiman Island.

Sofie and friend on the slide.

Shaiman Island - where our hotel is

Aligator - soon to be someones dinner.

We are off to the official medical exam this morning. I need to make this quick because I need to get moving. We have a faw paperwork things we need to prepare for this afternoon as well. Yesterday we did miss the mountain park, but the weather was beautiful - no humidity - and the 3 of us had a long walk around the Island we are staying on - Shaiman Island. We saw a group of school children at recess and found a park with a slide that Sofie liked. She had an afternoon nap and then we went to dinner with the walkers. It was a really nice relaxing day. Thanks for the sleep advice everyone. We miss you guys too!

Apology to the Green Family Next Door

2007-03-04T08:58:00.000-05:00

Sofie is on fire tonight. Sleep is not an option for her at this point. We have had the lights off and have been trying to calm her down for a good hour. No such luck. She is having a fabulous time diving into the covers and pillows, kicking her legs, singing, talking and screaming with delight. I'm sure our neighbors - the Green family can hear her. She can't hold still at all. Marc is now giving her a second bottle to try and calm her down. She is still squirming though. We have not given her sugar or anything like that - no clue - she barely had a nap today and we thought she would be exhausted. Nope. She is having a fabulous time. We went all day , went downtown, had her visa photo done, went to dinner with the group, played, had a quick nap, and now she is not tired at all. So I need to try and get her to sleep. Here are some photos in the mean time. Sorry for the short post. Mom - Dale - Laura - please tell Jane hi for me.

Hi - I was never able to post the photos last night - it is the next morning now - Monday. Sofie continued her antics for another hour and then was just over tired and could not sleep. She would drift off a little, wake up and cry, and do it again. This went on for awhile and I finally gave her some Children's Motrin and that helped her get to sleep. She is still out this morning and it looks like we are going to miss our trip to the mountain nearby. We are bummed out to miss it - I have heard it is fabulous. But we want to let her sleep some - especially being sick and all. Marc is calling her Nadia this morning after her acrobatic show last night. Boy was that funny. I know my laughing only encouraged her, but she was just having so much fun. At one point I wondered if someone had slipped her a mickey at dinner. Or if she had had a bunch of sugar. I know she did not have anything sweet - I just have no clue where all of that came from. She was very happy though - so I'm not too worried. We will see how tonight goes. But it is possible Marc and I may have our hands full! We have been going really strong here too, always on the move. She loves action, likes the city, lights at night, moving fast in her stroller, playing, diving into pillows, etc.. I was thinking after all of that hard play she would have gotten to sleep, but maybe she was too wound up. She was rubbing her ears, but we have noticed her doing that when she is tired. Maybe her ears hurt and that was the problem? Either way the motrin helped. I will have the Dr. look at her ears right away when we get home. I know I am supposed to give her Motrin for an ear ache, but do I need to do something else now??? Any ideas? Thanks!

So here are the photos!

Another big smile.

Warming up for the acrobatic display.

Imitation is the best form of flattery right? Here she is imitating Marc reading the paper. She turns the pages and everything. She will imitate a lot of things that we do. Some we encourage her to do and other things she picks up on her own.

Sofie loves the book of pictures from home. She looks at it over and over.

Starting to appreciate soft toys. She is really fascinated with the doll Mom made. Yesterday I put the blanket Lisa made Sofie over me and she got upset. I guess she knows it is hers. She does share toys with Olivia though and shares food with Marc and me. She loves to feed us. She must associate the blanket with comfort.

Holding hands with Olivia after dinner.

preferred stroller pose

Downtown, sewing notion district. Street after street of stores with buttons or ribbons, etc......

Side street in downtown Guangzhou

Cobbler on the street in downtown Guangzhou

White Swan Lobby, Year of the Pig

We Are in Guangzhou

2007-03-03T09:54:00.001-05:00

We made it to Guanzhou and are in the White Swan. Holy smokes. We basically just went from Cleveland to Palm Beach. Not knocking Changsha - we loved it - but wow - this is like a vacation. It is so nice here. The air is so clean, the traffic is safe - in fact no cars at all near the hotel on Shaiman Island. The buildings are lit up like Hong Kong with another laser show. Below our picture window there is a mirror and as you can imagine Sofie loves to sit there and look at her self! We keep scoring these rooms with fabulous views. We are basically right on top of the river here and the view is fabulous. I'll post a photo. Sofie was great on the plane, not even a whimper. She slept for most of the flight. I still feel horrible about the medicine. She hates it and really cries hard when we give it to her. Fights us off as hard as she can and tries to spit it out. We have to take off all of her clothes and hold her down wrapped in a towel on our laps. Torture. Then there is the whole nose aspirator deal. She hates that just as much. She will be happily playing and having fun with us and them whamo - time to torture her. I hate it.

We went to dinner tonight with the Walkers and with the Howards. We also got to meet the Greens - all friends via email over the past months, years, whatever. During the Wait. Everyone is great. We ate outside at an American restaurant very near the river. The babies loved the lights from the boats and buildings. Sofie scarfed down broccoli, eggs, and mashed potatoes. She would have kept eating I think had the bowls still had any food left. We came back played for awhile, tortured her with medicine and she had half a bottle and was out. We have a huge King size bed and are going to just have her sleep with us. The crib here is really small. She would never be able to do the 360 degree turns while she sleeps that are so much fun. I am pooped so I have to go to sleep - my internet is really fast here so Ill post a lot!

Here are the photos from today.

Mom and Dad it was good to hear your voices. We miss you a lot. See you in a week.

this is her big smile. We are seeing it a lot now.

Playing with Olivia Walker in our room at the White Swan. Tom and Lisa - she loves the little train you bought her in CHina!

view from the room - actually only half of it.

Both of us asleep on the plane.

Sofie and Olivia plaing with Hello Kitty band-aids in the airport

Waiting for the plane in CHangsha

Waiting to get on the plane in Changsha

2007-03-03T09:54:00.000-05:00

Waiting to get on the plane in Changsha

We are off to Guangzhou

2007-03-02T16:51:00.000-05:00

Good morning! Sofie just about slept through the night. I caught her before she dove into my bed, picked her up and watched her scoot around my bed for 5 minutes in an odd backwards fashion, kind of like an inch worm. She was a little unhappy. Then she seemed to want to go back to her crib so I put her in it and she fell back to sleep right away. That was it. So easy. She did not even want a bottle. This really should not have been a surprise. She ate a huge amount of steamed egg at our dinner. Wow did she put it away. I was amazed. We went out to dinner with some of our group and our coordinator Lina. Vickie, our guide, went to get one families passport (for the baby) that was held up. So we missed her at dinner and we have to say goodbye to her today as we leave for Guanzhou. She has done a wonderful job, everything has gone so well for us, we have seen so much and learned a lot about Hunan and about Changsha. I wish we could stay and learn more. It is kind of sad to be leaving Sofie's home. Learning about China and experiencing it have helped me know her better and has really driven home how important it is to teach her about her culture. It could not be more different than ours. Even down to the smallest details - we order eggs sunny side up and they serve them down. She is a part of this culture and we plan on teaching her to be proud of it and to appreciate where she came from. The Chinese history alone is so amazing. All three of us have a lot to learn together.

I need to pack so I have to run. The flight should be interesting. 100 babies headed to Guanzhou today. I feel very sorry for any passenger not carrying a baby. We will see how Sofie does. Either way it will be a test for the LONG flight home. Trying not to think about that right now!

Mom and Dad - I emailed Dad a few days ago but have not gotten a response? Dad - I'm thinking maybe you did not get it?

Same Day - New Post

2007-03-02T00:34:00.001-05:00

Now that our internet is working so well and Sofie allows me to set her down, I can actually post! She is sleeping very soundly right now - taking an afternoon nap. We had a free day today and went walking around with the Walker family. We love bargaining. I am getting bold with it too. I take any price they offer and cut it in half. Most of the time I get laughed at. But it's fun. I remember my Mom enjoying bargaining in Spain. Marc thinks I have a little fish wife in me. Sofie spent the entire shopping trip in her stroller. I was kind of sad - I wanted be holding her. But she was happy and even fell asleep. Plus it is hard to carry 25 lbs or so for 2 hours.

Everyday our agency arranges for laundry to be sent out, we just get it together and the laundry people come to our room and pick it up. Yesterday's dirties were just delivered. They come back really clean and all folded into separate little bags. The total bill just now was $14 for a ton of stuff. including a blanket covered in poop. We had gotten this brown Chinese medicine all over Sofie's pink overalls - I soaked them and used my trusty Tide stick - still stained. But the laundry people made the clothes look like new. The Chinese don't fool around where laundry is concerned. It doesn't have the April fresh smell of our American detergent, but the clothes are truely as clean as they could be.

So here are the photos from this morning. We leave for Guanzhou tomorrow and the weather is in the 80s. I knew this little dress would be to hot for Sofie to wear in Guanzhou so she wore it today. I even got a bit of a smile in one photo! I'm off to do paperwork!

Same Day - New Post

2007-03-02T00:34:00.000-05:00

Second to Last Day in Changsha

2007-03-01T17:01:00.000-05:00

HI everyone! I just read your comments on my last post - the internet is pretty amazing huh? I for one am so thankful to Al Gore for inventing it. Dale - yes your post showed up! Nice job - I was kind of wondering if you would try to do it! And Christy - yours also! Diane - yours cracked me up - please tell Dr. Rebbe will can't wait for him to check over our healthy girl. Nancy all of yours have shown up too. I was laughing that you could sympathize with the hydrofoil! I think my head was on my Mom's lap as well for our hydrofoil trip. Not so much due to seasickness but to staying out all night playing Liverpool with K-She (spelling) and drinking the water! Laura - I am here with a lady that is a social worker at St. Mary's. Her name is Mary Prouty. She has a friend on the 5th floor day shift that was reading her blog about the Prouty's trip. So you are reading mine at night and one of the day nurses is reading Mary's during the day. We thought that was pretty funny. St. Louis is a small town. Anna's posts are killing me. Kelly - please tell Anna that Sofie loves her too! So everybody that is reading or posting a comment, etc.. thanks so much for following along and caring so much about us. We can't wait for you all to meet her. I would like to be able to sit down and have a 30 minute conversation with each of you right now. But I guess that will have to wait as I think it would break the bank!

Elliot, Henry and Owen, we are happy your Mom and Dad are home safely. They really missed you while they were in China. They helped us out more than they know. So we are grateful they were here with us and really grateful that they loved Sofie's homeland so much. It meant a lot to us and I think it will to Sofie as well once she is older and can understand. We also know that you guys are learning about China and we think that is pretty cool. Henry - I only owe you $5 - not $10!

I have so much to tell I don't know where to begin. First of all Jaden - I took this for Narnia in Hong Kong.

Yesterday was amazing. The best day we have had. We are finally relaxed and really enjoying Sofie and China. The first 72 hours were a huge adjustment and to top it off Sofie was sick. I now know what a "velcro baby" is. A lot of the time she would not even look at Marc or let him look at her. This is all very normal - a lot of the families are experiencing the same thing. We expected it to go this way. But still hard none the less. So watching her open up and seeing her personality emerge is amazing. We finally saw a full blown smile last night and heard a belly laugh. She smiles so big her eyes shut. I wish I had gotten a picture. We will try really hard to get one. She is interested in everything. Marc and I took her out yesterday afternoon in a stroller for a long walk to get a different gift for our guide Vickie (we had a few gifts confiscated in the St. Louis Airport) and look in some of the embroidery stores. Hunan is known for their embroidery. They actually do it on 2 sides. So they have a thin piece of silk and have 2-sided embroidery. We got a single - sided one for Sofie's room of some iris's - done a lot like the way we painted them on her walls. It is framed really nicely and cost us about $8. We wanted her to have something her province is known for. Oh yeah - Marc got a pair of socks.

The people on the streets were so much fun and so nice. They LOVE babies in China. We also see a lot of girls. Maybe more boys, but def. both. Our coordinator Lina (who is darling) said the imbalance is more in the rural areas. Changsha is a large city. I think the weather was around 52 or so when we went out. We had Sofie bundled up in a coat with a hood and a hat. We have been told over and over to bundle the babies up because Chinese ladies will stop and scold us if they don't think they are warm enough. A lot of people call them the clothes police. So we thought we were safe. There was a little boy running after Marc and Sofie because he wanted to say hello to her. So we stopped and his mom came over to say hello. She knew some english so we were able to talk. She seemed to immediately grasp the situation - that we were her adoptive parents. (A lot of people do not get this. They think it is crazy to see to westerners with a Chinese baby. Our guides gave us a piece of paper that is written in pin yin describing who we are and what we are doing with a CHinese baby to show curious confused people) Anyway, this woman asked where she was from, how old, etc.. Then another woman joined us and the 2 of them were speaking in Chinese to each other and feeling the thickness of Sofie's coat, checking out her sweater and top underneath. I was secretly beaming, thinking we would pass inspection. Sofie was actually perspiring she was so warm. Nope! They advised that we zip her coat up all the way and they pulled up her pants leg and saw skin above her socks. THis was a big no no. They said we needed more layers on bottom as well. They were so busy looking at her outfit the woman forgot to watch her son who was running into the street. He was fine. But I thought it was ironic, esp. since the traffic here is like the bumper cars at six flags on steroids.

We did show our paper explination to one woman that was confused about us. She was so sweet. She almost started to cry and thanked us over and over and said that she felt it was such an important thing to do and she was impressed with the good will of American's toward China. We told her that we were just grateful that China would let us have a daughter and that we were the lucky ones that owed China debt of gratitude. Little does she know how true this is. I guess the only way we can ever repay China is to do the best we can to raise Sofie in the best way possible.

Sofie now seems to know the difference between us and strangers. She will hide her face on me or on Marc when they talk to her. This is a great sign. Last night at dinner she actually sat in a high chair for 90% of the meal. She would take food and feed it to Marc and to me. Some of it was food right out of her own mouth. We ate it anyway, although I managed to secretly spit some of it out. When she was done with the highchair I held her and fed her the rest of her steamed egg. She got a hold of a spoon as well and fed me steamed egg. If I left any little bit on the spoon she would take it off with her fingers and put it in my mouth. Then she would smile so big her eyes would shut. Talk about cute.

Her crib is between our beds. They gave us a high bottomed crib. So it is the same height as our beds. The sides are only about 2 feet high. Last night and the night before she dove out head first in the middle of the night onto my bed. Scarry. We asked for a different crib but they don't have any others left. So out beds are scooted up tightly against hers. Sleeping with her is not really restful. She turns in 360 degree circles all night. I just took a photo and will post it.

Oh yes - we are having to give her several types of medicine. We have a dropper and a spoon attached to a tube thingy. SHE HATES it and we have to pretty much hold her down. I hate doing this esp. when she is learning to trust us. Anyone have a ny tricks on getting a 13 month old to take medicine the easiest way?

Here are some photos from yesterday. We went to a great park and to a museum. The corpse is of a 2100 year old noble woman from a tomb discovered in China in the early 70s.

Hello Again from Changsha

2007-03-01T01:26:00.001-05:00

First of all, thanks so much for all of the comments! We are reading it all and really enjoying hearing from everyone. We are really doing well! Sofie was really sick yesterday - just a nasty cold that seemed to suddenly turn worse yesterday. She was miserable so we took her to the hotel infirmary where a Doctor checked her over. We were advised to start the antibiotic and given some Chinese cold and cough medicine. Today we have a new child, getting over her initial shock of being handed over to us and now also feeling better, she is suddenly full of smiles, baby babble, and actually is enjoying a few toys. For the past 2 days I have been the only one she will let old her and suddenly Marc has been deemed acceptable as well. This was really good news for both of us. She has however let him push her around the hotel in a stroller, but in order for her not to be crying either I had to hold her - and this had to be 100% holding her, no resting her on a counter, etc.. or she had to be in a stroller that was moving. So for me to shower or to do anything Marc has been wheeling her around. This morning she left with him happily and has since smiled at him and let him hold her. Huge step forward. We saw our first smiles yesterday. We were blown away. She has also started to take an interest in her toys. She loves to play and loves to see herself in the mirror. We went to a museum today and she babbled the whole way through catching her reflection in the glass and excitedly babbling and kicking her feet. This prob. all sounds like regular baby stuff - but we are amazed at her transformation. She has gone from a very sad unresponsive little girl to a happy baby. Any little thing she does seems like a miracle to us.

Last night we went to dinner with the Walkers - who we are really enjoying being with - and had a seriously amusing experience. We were in the Hotel's Chinese restaurant. It was really hot and the service was slow. I was so happy to see Sofie happy and not clingy and crying I was willing to let her do what she wanted. She won't sit in a highchair and Marc was not acceptable at the time so I sat her in front of me on the table. I was used to a quiet baby that would not even move much and she suddenly decided to have fun, eat (finally) and play with the food on my plate. I was so happy to see an appetite I just did not care about the mess. There are 100 babies in the Hotel right now so I figured she can't be the first to make a substantial mess. She had patted her rice cake into my shirt and was storing it there for later. She devoured a whole bowl of steamed egg (custard like dish the babies like) including some of Olivia's steamed egg. She ate a ton of broccoli and then ate lots of my noodles and actually picked out the green onions and ate them. The table was a disaster. Then Olivia spilled a beer and Sofie pushed all of my food off my plate. She sprayed me with her bottle, the whole time happily babbling and smiling. I felt horrible for the waitresses. But was having a hard time not laughing. We were all hot and tired and a bit slap happy. At the end a waitress came and plunked a vase with a lavender rose in the middle of our disaster table. It looked so absurd sitting there in the midst of spilled drink, smushed food, steamed egg, etc... This morning at breakfast I was much smarter and kept all food out of Sofie's reach.

Yesterday Sofie became officially ours in the eyes of the Chinese government. We went back to the place where they gave her to us and did lots of official things, thumb and foot prints, family photos, and notarizing. We left our gifts and actually got to meet the Director of Sofie's Social Welfare Institute. Our translator asked her many questions for us about Sofie's life before she became our daughter. We were slightly suspicious that she had been breast fed. The director confirmed that there was a woman that had given birth and nursed Sofie as well. This must explain her size and overall excellent health. I had worried about the fact that any baby we adopted would not have been breast fed - I was so pleased and amazed to hear that she had. We wished we could have spoken to this woman for hours, but she did not speak english at all and our questions were all translated by out Children's Hope coordinator. So our time and questions were limited. We did have our photo done with her (she had a camera too) and we gave her a hug and thanked her, also asking her to please thank her foster mother for us. Thank you seems so insufficient for all that they have given us, but will have to do. She did give us her card with an email address so that we can send photos.

Here are some photos of the past 2 days. Thanks again for the comments!!!!!! Please, keep em coming! Love tons, Katie

2007-03-01T01:26:00.000-05:00

More from "Family Day"

2007-02-27T19:22:00.002-05:00

I have some more photos I wanted to add. The day was very surreal. There were 100 babies adopted out on Monday through the civil affairs office which made things very chaotic. Chinese New Year was the week before and the office was closed so everyone waited for Monday. All of the New families are staying here in our hotel as well. Our group met in the lobby at 9:30, including Tom and Lisa. (Who were amazing and helpful and wonderful.) We all got on our coach and drove the civil affairs office where we would meet the babies. It was very crowded with families to be from all over the world and several babies and orphanage staff. A few minutes after we got there a group of babies and nannies came in. We watched Sofie (Min Chun) walk into the room and had no idea it was her. She has changed some in the past 4 months since her photos were taken, longer hair, darker complexion than in the photos, etc... After a minute or two we started to wonder if that was her. We suddenly realized these were our babies and remembered she had a birthmark. Tom jumped up and looked and confirmed it was indeed Sofie. We were able to get a few photos of her sitting with her care givers (crying) and Lisa had gotten one of her walking in by chance.

I could hardly look in their direction once I realized it was her. I wanted to keep my composure as well as I could and I knew looking at her with the nannies would not help me to be composed. Very quickly they called the four families up that were getting babies from Xin Hua Social Welfare Institute. I think we were the last ones to be handed their baby. I really don't remember them giving her to me. I do remember outting my arms around her and holding on tightly. She was crying and scared. Marc and I sat down and looked at her and offered her a bottle. She was really hot and layered in clothes and had just had a 4 hour bus ride.

That was pretty much it. We left shortly after our whole group had gotten their babies. It was pretty unbelievable to watch family after family receive their children. There are lots of Spanish people here and several other countries as well. No matter where you are from though everyone's reaction to being in that room when they start handing over the little girls is the same. It was a one in a lifetime experience that leaves you overwhelmed.

I had barely looked at Sofie at this point. She was on my lap but either crying or drinking her bottle. We left and got on the bus and drove to the nearest market to buy the specific formula they had been on in the orphanage or in foster care. I'm sure we almost died like 20 times driving to the store, but have decided not to even look out the window of the bus at traffic. I figure what I don't know won't hurt me especially having no control over it. You can imagine that I held on to Sofie really tightly though. The store, the ride, all a bit of a blur. I know I was really happy and felt like I was on cloud nine. I think Marc felt the same way. He held her through the store and back to the hotel. I could not stop looking at her. She had a little pack of rice crackers that the nannies had given her that she was clutching for dear life and we were able to find them in the store and buy a ton. Again Tom and Lisa were invaluable to us in the store. Our brains were mush and they knew what we needed. Lisa got a cart and put in what we would need. I think I wandered around empty handed in a daze watching Marcdo a wonderful job taking care of Sofie.

MAN! No Internet Connection!

2007-02-27T03:12:00.000-05:00

So sorry! I have not had an internet connection and have not been able to get to the business center to post either. But my connection is better and I'm using Firefox instead of Safari, so I'm hoping it will work now.

So I know you don;t really care about that and that several people are pretty worried about us. SO SORRY. But please, no need to to worry all is great over here! You guys are not going to believe Sofie. She just takes our breath away. We are still going through a HUGE adjustment as she is really really sad and is grieving. Right now it is really hard, but this process was to be expected and is actually a really good thing. It means that she had bonded to her care giver - foster mother in her case - and has been loved and has learned to love in return. I will post much more later - she just woke up and will not let me set her down at all. So I will post photos and write more after she goes to bed.

3 AM

2007-02-25T14:04:00.001-05:00

I would really like to get a little more sleep. It was not happening though. I thought maybe if I got up and turned on the computer for a minute I might get tired - hey it works at home! We'll see what happens.

I can't seem to see my blog online. If I go to the busines center I can. I also can't see Mary or Jackie's blogs - they are both with our agency and in Guanzhou. They got their babies yesterday and and I really want to see if either has posted. I'm wondering if the business center is open this late?

If you all want to take a look here is the link to Mary's blog and Jackie's is a link on Mary's page.
http://mnmhoward@blogspot.com

Marc is sleeping and I am jealous. It is kind of funny - I can look out my hotel window (wich we have open - the weather is beautiful) and see the streets below. (we are on the 30th floor) I can see those crazy cab drivers running through the intersection, not stopping of coarse, as well as the occasional lightless vehicle. None of the cars seem to be stopping at the intersection, not even a pause. Scarry. They do things so differently over here. They also find us funny? They see us and they laugh. I was a bit concerned by this at first, but have gotten used to it. I was kind of worried I was the only one they were laughing at, but that does not seem to be the case. I was pretty relieved when Lisa told me she and Tom were laughed at all day as well. Now if it had just been Tom they were laughing at I would have still been worried - but Lisa is pretty normal - so I was relieved.

Marc had read that open-toed shoes were unacceptable over here. I went ahead and tried to wear them today. I got more than several dissaproving looks and immediately took them off. I think he is privately gloating. Not sure. Tom thinks I was worrying too much. This is a definate posibility, but either way, I really don't want to offend the people that are giving us our daughter by my toes. (they are painted a lovely shade of pink however)

This is prob. a really stupid post, but I wanted to tell Mom that we have not bought Marc any socks yet. He did discover the pocket in his bag with 4 extra pairs today. He was pretty excited. Tom and Lisa got socks on the plane - United socks and have given them to Marc as a joke. I wouldn't be surprised if he wore them though. (Marc was very VERY concerned that I had not packed enough pairs of socks for him. He wanted all new socks to bring to China. I just did not have the time to worry about his sock situation and he was pretty concerned. I figured if he was that worried he could go out and buy socks himself. There was some official who recently took his shoes off in public and had a hole in the toe of his sock. Marc was concerned this would happen to him and wanted all new socks for the trip. As you can see this is a ridiculous topic to discuss. I don't believe his socks have holes in them, but actually I don't really know. He does the laundry. Tom and Lisa are now going to buy him socks for Christmas every year and Marc has requested gold toe socks. I believe the toes are reinforced. )

I guess when one posts things to the internet in the middle of the night whith no sleep before the biggest day in ones life this is what you get. At least this is what you get from me. Okay - I have babbled on enough, pretty embarassing if I actually picture others reading this stupid stuff. But it is helping to pass the time and get my mind thinking of other things besides how things might and might not go tomorrow (or heck - today.) Well the next time you hear from me I wll be an official Mom. And Marc will be an official Dad.

Yikes!

Wow - uploaded 2 photos

2007-02-25T07:47:00.000-05:00

Hotel lobby in Changsha.

Sofie's crib is ready.

Nevermind

2007-02-25T07:06:00.002-05:00

We can post photos right away. I was confused - we are not supposed to post them to a government site. Not a problem - we were not planning to do that anyway! Fireworks are still going off. We love Changsha. It is a really neat town and the Chinese people are so friendly. Very interested in us. At first I felt really self-conscience. But have gotten past it. We walked all around the area today and were the only westerners we saw. Tom and Lisa had a great day. They went all over the city and also really loved it. They seem to be having a lot of fun. They are going to a movie tonight . Marc and I have been on a slower pace - a lot to get ready for tomorrow. The big BIG day. We had a paperwork session this afternoon with our group. We really were impressed with our guides. Both Lina and Vickie seem great and have wonderful senses of humor. I imagine a sense of humor is important for their jobs. We finally got to meet everyone in our group - especially Colette and Bob Walker - a couple we have been emailing with for awhile. The second half of our group - in Guanzhou got their babies today. I have been thinking about them and hope all is well. I am looking forward to seeing Mary and Jackie and meeting their girls!

I'm not sure we will get a lot of sleep tonight - nothing new. We seem to average 3 to 4 hours a night. I might try some Benedryl. I'm sure I'll be up around 3. That is fine - gives me time to get ready. Not sure what else I need to do at this point though? I have no clue. Clueless mother to be. I think our guides kow what they are doing and will help us out if we need it. They are very confident and have offered good advice. They said that Sofie is out of foster care and has been at the orphanage for the past few days. She will prob. be quiet tomorrow or very sad. We need to pick 1 of us to actually take her when they hand her over. That person should hold her all day tomorrow so she feels safe. Not sure which one of us that will be yet. It may depend on who she prefers. She may be more used to women or may prefer Marc - either way is fine. we are supposed to take her a bottle of juice and a few toys. We should not feed her anything cooler than room temp - her system is not used to it. We also need our passports, but that is it. Not a lot to worry about except Sofie. The rest of the paperwork is done Tuesday when we agree to adopt her. We are all supposed to meet in the lobby tomorrow at 9:30. The civil affairs office will be crowded with a lot of different groups adopting. We have met people from Spain here to adopt, England, and several others. So I guess I am off to bed. We'll see how that goes!
K

2007-02-25T07:06:00.001-05:00

Good News, Bad News

2007-02-24T21:39:00.000-05:00

Hi - Our group is here and we have met our CHI guides, who seem really nice. They have given us permission to let Tom and Lisa come along tomorrow morning to the Civil Affairs office to pick up the babies. This is great news. BUT they have warned us against posting photos right away. I am hoping we only need to wait 24 hours to post the photos. I will find out in an hour or so. Apparently the Chinese officials don't want the photos on the internet until the babies are ours. I think in China's eyes this is done the following day - Tuesday for us. But need to find out. (I am having trouble uploading photos - but think I can use the business office downstairs to do this.) I will find out how long I need to wait. SORRY. 24 hours though - not too bad.

Jaden - I have a photo I took in Hong Kong for you and N. I am going to see if I can email it to you.

I also think I can get a tech. person up here to fix our connection and will be able to upload.

K

CHANGSHA Day 4

2007-02-24T18:07:00.001-05:00

Day 4 has not really started yet but I wanted to post. We were so excited to make it to mainland China yesterday. We took the boat around Hong Kong to Shenzhen, China. From there took a shuttle to the airport. The difference between CHina and Hong Kong was immediately noticable. The houses we saw, the poeple just spending the evening watching lanes take off, the landscape. All was very different. We stnad out a lot more here than we did in Hong Kong. English is not the second language like it is in Hong Kong.

THe people are very friendly and some are surprised to see a westerner. Kind of funny. Our flight was great on China Southern. We actually watched an episode of Mr. Bean on the flight. (we thought of you Mom - it was the one where he paints his room with a stick of dynamite)

From the airport we were unfortunate enough to attempt a cab ride to our hotels. This was a really poor idea. We are just relieved to be safe and needless to say are all staying here at the Dolton now as to avoid all future cab rides. Tom and Lisa immediately switched hotels. The rules of the road are completely different from what we are used to. You could say they are a bit lax. It was a tough situation - no way to communicate where we were going, in an unfamiliar place, carrying lots of money, and a cab driver that agreed to drive us despite the fact he did not know where we were going. He did find the situation very amusing though. There are truely no traffic laws. double yellow lines don't matter, if your headlights are out, no big deal, rain is nothing to worry about - I guess slick roads are not a concern. Pedestrians aimlesly wander dark roads. Sidewalks are perfectly acceptable alt. roadways, speed is completely up to the discretion of the driver of the vehicle. Swerving is an aquired skill praticed by all. No stop signs, intersections are a free for all, etc.................

Last night around midnight we had a firework display. Now it is 7 am and we are having another?? Marc just said that he doesn't think Bob (greyhound) would like it here. He is not a fan of fireworks. This is a rather large firework display. Still going on. I can almost be assured this is not an organized or official display. Heck it may be our cab driver celebrating his windall from last night? Not a particularily good show considering it is daytime and foggy. I guess it is a last ditch Chinese New Year celebration. Dogs are now barking, horns honking, and the noise of the fireworks is far greater than the caliber of the show. Well - we are off to meet TOm and Lisa for breakfast. I'll take my camera with me today and see if I can post photos. My connection is hit or miss, I'll do my best. Our group gets here at 2:30. We are really thankful to be joining up with CHI. We will feel much safer and more secure with an intrepreter and guide. - More firework displays are starting up. We think it is a Chinese New Years closing ceremony. Wow - the city is errupting in firework displays. Yikes.

We Are in Changsha - Day 3

2007-02-24T12:07:00.000-05:00

We are here in Changsha. Had a tough time getting to the hotel from the airport, but luckily are safe - Tom and Lisa are now staying at the Dolton as well. We will go into detail later as it is is late and my internet connection is slow. I also can't access email. Hopefully I will be able to figure it out tomorrow. I'll post more later.

K

Day 2 - Hong Kong

2007-02-23T07:20:00.000-05:00

We had a full day touring around Hong Kong. It is an amazing city. Beautiful green mountains, Huge skyscrappers, and old world feeling China. Everywhere you look there is something new to see. We started the day off early and took a cab to a nearby mall where we changed money and went to a travel agency and got our hydrofoil and plane tickets. (Nancy - if you are reading this I saw your comment about the Strait of Gibralter and my thoughts were also of the same hydrofoil ride. I am counting on tomorrows ride to be a bit more pleasant than that one! Maybe the technology has improved in the past - what - 22 years or so? I am praying tomorrow's weather will be storm free for our ride.) So after we made travel arrangements I had more passport photos taken for our adoption paperwork. It was so efficient and quick. Very unlike the US. It feels like everytime we turn around we have had to have more and more passport photos made. THe best was the one we had done at the post office. We stood randomly against a wall and a really short woman held a camera up in the air, aimed in our general direction and clicked. Needless to say I looked like an escaped convict high on something besides life. Today's photo was so much easier. A nice lady fixed my hair and I sat in a booth that showed a preview of my photo - so I knew to move my head over, smile more, etc.. pretty cool. Then we took a tram up to the top of Victoria Peak. Oh man - unbelievable views. Beautiful day - georgeus weather and what a view. I am adding a few photos below. We also went to Madame Toussauds (spelling) wax museum on the top of the peak as well. It was silly but kind of fun. Then we had a lovely lunch at a really pretty place on the peak. After the Peak we went to the antique area called Hollywood road. Really neat stores. Some of the antiques were 1000 years old. They had these intracately carved giant tusks that they were asking $250,000.00 for. We were not alloud to photograph them. We also went through other market areas. THere was an open air market in the shadows of some really new looking skyscrappers. They had booth after booth of fresh produce, eggs, seafood - all still living, butchers, etc... etc.... Some of it looked great, very apparent that the Chinese make use out of all parts of each animal. There is not a lot of waste.

Tom and Lisa really figured out Hong Kong the first day they were here. They were able to guide us around with no problem. We were on and off the subway, took taxies, tram, walked all over, etc.. We are going to hit the hay early tonight. Marc - once again is out like a light. We have a long day of travel tomorrow to Changsha. We are all looking forward to arriving in mainland China. Marc and I are starting to feel a little nervous. Here we are on what felt like a day of vacation, going where ever we wanted, whenever we wanted. All of that is about to change. I'm starting to feel a little scared, but more excited than I have ever been.

I took 70 some odd photos today. Here are a few.

View from our room of the harbor and Hong Kong.

Early morning - same view from the room

Breakfast - Tom and Lisa emailing home from a cafe

View from Victoria Peak

Tom and Marc block Yao Ming at the wax museum

We Are Here

2007-02-22T10:15:00.000-05:00

We are here, in Hong Kong. No disasters, pretty uneventfull actually. We have basically been up since Monday. So, very tired, but really really excited. We got here and went to dinner with Tom and Lisa. THey are doing really well. Tired also - although I can't imagine first class seats on the flight were all that grueling! At least better than our "steerage" tickets. We had cup o noodles, they had filet. We made the best of it though and just approached it as a means to an ends. The third flight was a little over 14 hours, so it was rough. We had 3 flights, all were on time and smooth. Landing in Hong Kong was really cool. Amazing actually. We landed at dusk and the clouds and mist made it seem mysterious. It looks like a mountain rising out of the sea. Our room is unbelievable. Tom booked them and did a fabulous job. Somehow we ended up with a suite with 2 huge picture windows looking out over Kowloon harbor. Every night at 8 Hong Kong puts on a laser show over the harbor and our room has a prime view. We have a bed room, living room, bath and kitchen??? No idea how this happened. Marc's first thought was for me to hit Schnucks and do some shopping so I can cook. I assume this was a joke? I ignored the idea. We actually have pots and pans. But - at least we can keep breakfast stuff in the fridge, etc.

Oh - I should mention - there are these little clementine trees in pots everywhere. They have tons of tangerines all over them. And our hotel lobby smells EXACTLY like the Pickake lotion I love so much from bare essentuals. We walked in and I smelled it right away. I thought maybe there were Pickake flowers in the lobby somehwere. There are tons of flowers in the lobby including an actual blooming cherry tree. But they apparently they send the Pickake scent through the vents. Laura - Dale I wanted to mention that for your benefit. I know you will appreciate that.

So really we have not seen Hong Kong in the day yet. Tomorrow is supposed to be beautiful. The first stop on our list is to go buy plane tickets to Changsha. The trains are all full. Tom and Lisa have already done it and got them really reasonably. The plan is to take a boat to Chenzen (spelling) airport and then fly to Changsha. The boat is an hour and half ride on what we think might be a hydrofoil. I have had 1 experience on a hydrofoil with Mom in Spain and it was a tad rough to say the least. Either way it should be an adventure.

I forgot the cord that attaches my camera to the laptop - so I can't post photos yet. I will either get a new one tomorrow or see if Tom and Lisa have one. We are going to go up on Victoria Peak tomorrow and then go to the Temple Street night Market. Should be fun.

Leaving home was hard, we have been thinking about the dogs, cat and bird all day. We know they are fine but miss them. When ever I was feeling miserable on the plane I just took out Sofie's picture and that gave me a second wind everytime. I have been talking about, thinking about and planning for China for so long, it almost seemed like a common place thing to come here. But after actually doing it I realize just haw far away it is. Everytime I have been lucky enough to travel overseas I realize that there is a whole other world out there. This is like that whole other world on steroids. So populated, busy and far away. We are going to have an amazing few weeks and are so excited and feel so lucky to be doing this. Leaving my Mom at the airport this morning was really difficult, knowing all that lied ahead. Traveling this far to finally meet our daughter is a bit overwhelming. I still can't believe it is actually happening. I always hoped that one day I'd be sitting on the long flight over here coming closer to our daughter every minute - but wondered if it would ever happen. I can't believe that today it did.

I will update tomorrow around the same time. Hopefully I will have gotten the right cord for my camera. I can't wait to post the photos of the view from our room. Unbelievable! Marc is already asleep and I need to do the same before my eyes roll back in my head from exhaustion. I am very grateful that we have a few days to adjust before we meet Sofie.

Katie

On Their Way

2007-02-20T14:30:00.000-05:00

Tom and Lisa - my brother and sister-in-law – left today. We have not heard from them so I assume all is well. I can't believe we leave tomorrow. All of our familiy and friends have really made the last few weeks special. We are overwhelmed with everyone's kindness and well wishes. THANKS EVERYONE so much! Hopefully we will post next from Hong Kong. I can't believe we are actually ready to go (almost ready). My head is spinning - we are so excited to meet Sofie! This feels like a real miracle to both of us.

Revised Travel Plan

2007-02-16T10:08:00.000-05:00

Leave St. Louis 6 am February 21st.
STL to Denver to San Francisco to HongKong

Feb. 22nd – Arrive Hong Kong
Feb. 23rd – Spend night in Hong Kong
Stay here 2 nights - 22nd and 23rd: http://www.harbour-plaza.com/en/home.aspx?hotel_id=hpme§ion_id=home&subsection_id=overview

Feb. 24th – Train to Changsha from Hong Kong
Stay Dolton Hotel 24th - 3rd
http://202.103.114.104/doltonhome.nsf/indexE.htm

Feb. 25th - Rest of travel group arrives in Changsha
Mon, Feb 26 Gotcha Day!
Tues, Feb 27 Do adoption procedure (registration & notary)
Wed, Feb 28 Sightseeing: A kindergarten and YuLu Academy
Thur, March 1 Sightseeing: Hunan Provincial Museum
Fri, March 2 Get all the paperwork back

Sat, March 3 Flight to GZ HU7405(12:00-13:10)
Stay White Swan Hotel through March 9th
http://www.white-swan-hotel.com/eng/Public/index.asp

Sun, March 4 Free day
Mon, March 5 Sightseeing: Baiyun Mountain
Tues, March 6 Medical exam for children
Wed, March 7 Free day
Thurs, March 8 ACS appointment; Farewell dinner
Fri, March 9 Go to ACS to take oath and get visa late in the afternoon (around 6:00pm)

Sat, March 10 Train to Honk Kong.
Stay Here: http://www.metroparkhotelkowloon.com/

Sun March 11 Come Home! Hong Kong to Tokoyo to Chicago to St. Louis.
Arrive in St. Louis at 9:16 pm on United flight # 5383 (still the 11th - as we gain back the day we lost going to China)

Blog Changes

2007-02-15T10:47:00.000-05:00

Hi,
I wanted to be a little more secure without password protecting this blog. I have gotten rid of the archives but am planning on updating the blog daily - hopefully from China. My father has been very generous and is going to send his new laptop over with us so hopefully we will be able to update often. Thanks for following along! Wish us luck, we leave in less than a week.

Travel Plans

2007-02-13T15:57:00.000-05:00

Here is our travel schedule.

Leave St. Louis 6 am February 21st.
STL to Denver to San Francisco to HongKong
Feb. 22nd – Arrive Hong Kong
Feb. 23rd – Spend night in Hong Kong
Feb. 24th – Train to Changsha from Hong Kong
Feb. 25th - Rest of travel group arrives in Changsha
Feb. 26th – Meet Xin Min Chun!
Feb 27: adoption procedure with registration and notary
Feb 28 - sightseeing and free days in the province
March 5th or 6th - Fly to Guangzhou
Mar 7: medical exam for children
March 8: ACS appt
March 9 : receive your child’s visa about 6:00pm.
March 10th – Train to Hong Kong
March 11th – Fly home! Via Tokoyo, Chicago and finally St. Louis. Arrive @ 9:15 pm.

Fun!

2007-01-29T14:14:00.000-05:00

Have I mentioned how much fun we are having getting ready for our daughter? If not - then it was because I was having too good of a time thinking about her. The room is progressing at a nice rate thanks to my aunt, who has been over here working hard glazing the walls, painting clouds and flowers, etc... We hope to wrap up all the painting by Saturday afternoon. Then we can move everything into the room. The crib is in the dining room, the dressers are in our room along with the rug and various bits and pieces. The house is a mess. It doesn't even bother me.

Her closet is filling up. I had a fabulous time shopping on Saturday. This is by far my favorite dress thus far.

Tonight is our appointment with a pediatrician. I am trying to remember what papers I had planned on taking along. I have a feeling they are all in a folder together but need to check. Basically we are still on cloud nine. And are not coming down anytime soon. Neither of us can wait to see her smile!

January 21st - Xin Min Chun's First Birthday

2007-01-23T12:30:00.000-05:00

Sunday was our daughter's first birthday. We hated not being able to spend it with her, but did our best to celebrate. We took the advice of a restaurant reviewer friend that writes a column in a local magazine on where to go for brunch and tried Wei Hong's dim sum brunch. We loved it. The restaurant is actually a converted movie theater which makes it rather unique inside. We were among the only non-asian people there - which was also nice. I love truely authentic restaurants.

After brunch we had our visa pictures done - and yes once again I look like a recently escaped convict on the lam. Marc's photo was respectable - not a surprise. We took the visa info and dropped it all of at my brother's house. He is going to take it to Chicago for us along with the rest of the families. Very nice! He also gave us a bunch of baby gear while we were there. Again, very nice! So the day was spent thinking about our daughter, getting ready to go get her and getting the house ready for her. A good way to spend her birthday. I hope she was able to celebrate in China. I imagine her foster family marked the occasion in some way. I wonder if it was a bittersweet day for them - knowing she will be leaving soon? I also thought of her birth parents and wondered how they felt. These are questions I may never be able to learn the answers to but will wonder about every year. Somehow we will also have to help our daughter come to terms with these questions as well.

Jan. 18th

2007-01-18T17:51:00.000-05:00

I have heard some people say the longest part of the wait happens between referral and Travel. Hmmm. Maybe this was said back when the wait was only 6 months. (Ha - 6 months - I scoff at 6 months) Let me tell you time is flying by. I can't believe we have had our referral for two weeks already! The agency thinks we will leave on the 22nd of February. So - I guess I have 5 weeks before we leave. For those of us with no nursery started, no clothes or baby gear purchased before referral - 5 weeks is a really small window of time. I'm not complaining though - I actually prefer this race against the clock. I work much better under pressure. I thrive on pressure. I become super organized and efficient.

The nursery is taking shape and I am having so much fun. I'm so glad I waited to do it. Now that I know we are really going to be parents I can throw myself into the job and enjoy it. After making decorating decisions I just whip out my picture of Min Chun and imagine her in the room. I registered last night at Pottery Barn Kids and brought her picture with me. I could imagine her using each thing I signed up for. I bought a rug for her room and actually lugged it through the mall to my car. The entire way I worried that the rug weighed the same amout she will and I wondered how in the world we would carry her through China. Once I got to the car I looked at the tag and realized the rug was 41 lbs. - almost twice as much as Min Chun. Much more do-able. Marc just went to the store to buy dog food. I told him to buy the big bag and not to use a cart. We will see what he thinks.

I also hit Gymboree last night. Now that was a good time. I am a sucker for tights. I love the tights that match the outfit. And what outfit is complete without the matching hairbows? The one thing I have not bought yet are shoes. How do I know what size shoes to buy? Or what kind? I have no clue. I know shoes are good to buy in China - but I'm sure I'll need a pair or 2 to start off with. Also - if she is 13 months - will she still need an excer-saucer?

I have been in my new office all week and I love it! I took a few photos - not great, but here it is. We still need new windows and a few other things, but it is great so far. I love being able to quit work and go upstairs and shut the basement door and be done with it. It is a huge deal for me. These were taken last week before I moved the office down, but the main idea is the same.

YAY!!!

2007-01-11T17:52:00.000-05:00

Our I-171 is coming in the mail. We should have it Monday. AND we travel on the 22nd of Feb. Holy smokes. Looks like we might really make it to China. This is so unbelievable.

25 Lbs

2007-01-10T22:36:00.000-05:00

I was planning on taking a maya wrap to China to use to carry Sofie as much as possible. I'm wondering - if she was somewhere close to 24 lbs in October - will a Maya wrap be the right kind of baby carrier? I need to find something around the house that weighs 25 lbs and carry it around for a while. I think I also may need to revisit baby carriers. I'm wondering what weighs about 25 lbs? Any ideas?

WOW, We are Dumbfounded!

2007-01-04T00:15:00.000-05:00

I am thinking I may take this down - not sure about posting the photo, but I am so excited - we'll see how it goes! So here she is!!!!!!!!!!!!! Soon to be Sofie Margaret Chun. Never in a million years did I imagine this little person was waiting for us at the end of the line!

I can't Believe it!

2007-01-03T13:42:00.000-05:00

It really happened! We are parents! We got the call from our agency at 11 this morning. Marc is at work, so I was home alone. I am totally bowled over. Shocked. Amazed. Floored. Etc..

So here she is:
Xin Min Chun
Chun means Season of Spring

Born Jan. 21st 2006
At 9 months she was:
31.6 inches long.
24.2 lbs
Hunan province, In foster care since Feb. 1, 2006
Associated with the Xin Hua Social Welfare Institute.

3 teeth on top, 2 on bottom!

THis is all we have so far - we are headed to the agency to pick up the rest of the info this afternoon! Can barely wait!

Dear Sofie

2007-01-02T23:33:00.000-05:00

Dear Sofie,
Tomorrow is the day we have been waiting fo for so so long. Tomorrow we will know who our daughter is. We know you will be special in so many ways. We can hardly wait to know you and learn what wonderful traits you possess. We feel so lucky to have you as our daughter. How special that you will come to us from accross the world. Not many people are so lucky to have a family made in such a beautiful and unique way. Waiting to travel to China to bring you home will be hard. Just knowing you are there and we are here is going to be rough. We will be counting the days we have to wait to meet you andwill be working hard to make your home perfect for you when you get here. Please know how much you are loved.

The return of the Gut

2006-12-20T10:17:00.000-05:00

Okay! My gut feeling for Thursday is back on. Thursday or Friday for sure. I know I sound like a crazed skitzophrenic - but we're back on. If they come Friday - that is the date of my first due date from my first pregnancy. If it comes Thursday (as in tomorrow) better yet! OMG OMG OMG!!!!!! I'm going to be a Mom in a day or 2. And I'm supposed to be getting work done?

Follow Up to Shopping Expidition

2006-12-19T21:14:00.000-05:00

I still can't quite get over it. Marc sucessfully did about two-thirds of the Christmas shopping all by himself, quickly, with no difficulty. I mean seriously, this is unbelievable. He is now my new hero. Unfortunately, for him, he has raised the bar around here and now I'm going to expect all sorts of things from him that I never would have dreamed of yesterday. Perhaps he can make the monthly trip to Sam's Club? Or paint walls? Caulk? Hmm, not really a good idea. handiness is not his forte. It is really not worth it to have him do handy things as a professional has to come in after him to correct all of his handy attempts. But I'll come up with something good.

My neighbors are having a baby and found out it was going to be a girl! Another friend for Sofie! I am so excited. We love our neighbors and can't wait for the new baby. They already have an adorable 3 year old boy who will be a great big brother. So many new kids on our block now, Sofie is going to love it!

The rest of my week is going to be nuts, I have a girls ornament exchange tomorrow night - a party we have been doing for 16 years or so. It is more about drinking wine and laughing than the ornaments. My friend Kelly is hosting it and then on Thursday she is hosting another party with all of our good high school friends. We all get together about 3 times a year for dinner - sometimes at a restaurant and sometimes at someones house. So Kelly is going to be busy. I am trying to help by bringing dishes, wine, etc... I know wehave something going on this weekend - but I can't think of what it is??? Then Christmas! Wow! I bet it all flies by. Which is good because I am living for referral day!

Nevermind

2006-12-19T12:21:00.000-05:00

I jumped the gun. No referrals on Thursday. Crud. So hopefully next week???

Sudden Feeling of Impending Referral

2006-12-19T09:14:00.000-05:00

I am officially thinking that my gut says we will get referrals on Thursday! As in the DAY AFTER FREAKIN TOMORROW! OMG OMG OMG! I can barley type I am so excited. How am I going to work, my brain is mush.

Monday!

2006-12-18T13:25:00.000-05:00

Man, I blinked an eye and the weekend is gone. We had a lot going on - so nothing got done around here. And - oh yeah - I guess Christmas is a week from today? Nobody told me. I guess I'd better do some shopping? My family is actually celebrating on the 26th. Marc's family's is on Christmas Eve. So the morning of the 26th I have a HUGE annual Report job that goes to the printer. So stressful, time consuming, full of details, etc... then celebrate Christmas??? Weird Day. I'm really not sure if I will even make it to my parents by noon - I may miss a good deal of the celebration. That's what you get with a bunch of pilots in the family and their crazy schedules.

Mom and I took my 3 nephews to lunch and a movie on Saturday. We went to this place for lunch that is a small version of - believe it or not- Chuck E. Cheese. Good Night Nurse - that is just nuts. We ran into my neighbors and they told us that the house next to them was just sold to a family with THREE daughters from China! WOW - I am so excited about that! And to top it off I think the Mom is a pediatrician. Now how could we ask for better neighbors? You can bet they are going to get a big old welcome to the neighborhood gift from us! Perfect! I think the yougnest daughter is either 1.5 or 2. I can't wait for them to move in!

The movie we saw was Deck the Halls. The kids liked it, but we adults thougt it was awful. DUMB! We are going again on the 23rd and I think we'll do Charlotte's Web. Looks darling.

TGIF!

2006-12-15T18:45:00.000-05:00

I know it's not the 80's anymore - TGIF is a bit dated, but still TGIF!!! I think we may have a hot little referral in our hands in as little as a week from today. Maybe a little longer, but soon never the less. We have a jam packed weekend which should fly by and then I have tons and tons of work to do next week, so hopefully that will go quickly too. Before I know it it will be referral time! Marc will be on Christmas vacation so he'll be home for the next 2 weeks or so, def. here when we get THE CALL. I have my questions printed and sitting on top of my computer all ready to fill out. There won't be any filming, but we'll do our best to take a few photos. I think it will all seem like a dream. I have to stop thinking about it so much or I'll never make it to next week. I'm off to a nice dinner at my brother Jims restaurant and a big old martini!!!

The 10th!! Good Night Nurse!

2006-12-10T09:51:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it is the 10th. Really, I can't believe it. I thought I would be bitting my toenails by now, but with everything else going on I have all but forgotten our referral is actually (supposedly is a better word) coming this month. Don't get me wrong - I am still thinking about it at least twice a day, but not hourly as I was before. Now that my Dad is recovering I'm sure I'll start to get excited again - I can already feel the pit returning to my stomach. Nothing like a quadruple bypass to calm the nerves about adopting ones first child from a country on the other side of the planet.

For the past 2 months I have read accounts of people being skipped and not receiving referrals. My agency has not had this happen, but there is a first time for everything right? We were not questioned in the review room (by the grace of God I imagine) but I can't shake the nagging feeling of what if. Hopefully this will not happen to anyone this month. Our LID was alredy swithched around whne we were logged in out of order last year. Hopefully we won't have yet another delay. I also have a problem being the Queen of the 1% odds. If there is a 1% chance of something bad happening I'm your girl. My Dad had a 2% chance of not surviving his surgery - so we made those odds, hopefully things will continue on this way. I guess time will tell. Don't worry, I'm not crippled with this fear or anything, it just runs through my mind every once in a while. Okay - I really need to get some work done, then I'm off the Apple store to get Dad a new laptop for his hospital stay! He has also offered to send the new laptop to China with us since it has video and a microphone. He thought we could use it to scape - which is some sort of video feed done via email??? No clue, but sounds pretty cool. My parents do it now on their desktop computer with the exchange student they had stay with them last summer from Slovakia, Janna. She is a darling girl who I think is coming back again this summer to stay with my parents for a few months. I'm not sure if the connections in China will be fast enough for scapping? Heck I don't even know if I am spelling scapping correctly, much less how to do it or what it really is. We'll see!

Doing Great!!!!!!

2006-12-09T09:36:00.000-05:00

The surgery went well. They did a quad. bypass and cleaned out his carotid artery. It only ended up taking about 4 hours instead of the 6 they thought it would take. I was able to cancel my appointment and spend the day at the hospital. My Mom, brother Tom and I were all there for the day so it was nice to have company while we waited. The scrub nurse called us every hour with an update. They did have to use two arteries (maybe veins?) on one area since the first one was not doing its job very well, but this was the only complication. My Sister in law was there pretty much all day as well and my aunts came for awhile. Marc was able to come late afternoon. So all of the company really made the waiting bearable. I jumped up like a jack-in-the- box every time the hospital phone rang. But i really went okay. We were able to see him quickly in the ICU afterward. He actually looked pretty good. His color was good, face not swollen, etc.. I was pleasantly surprised. The Doctors were worried that he would have a hard time getting off the ventilator due to some emphysema. But the best news came this morning at 6 when my Mom called to say he was already off the vent., was alert and sitting up!!! We can't visit today until 11, so I plan to go then and after that they are going to move him out of ICU to a room. So things are really going well. What a relief!!!!

Thanks for the kind thought and prayers! I really really appreciate it!! Seeing my Dad so sick has been really scarry. I don't know what I would do if something happened to him. He has always been there for me, over and over and over again. He has supported all of our decisions with the adoption 100%. He helped find an agency, learned about the different options along with us, etc.. He can't wait to meet his first grandaughter (already has 3 grandsons - my nephews). He has even referred to our baby as "his" baby - which makes me slightly nervous! He is already devoted to her and wants to be a huge part of her life. So I just can't imagine something happening to him now. I know my Mom and brothers can't imagine it either. I am so thankful this problem was discovered and fixed. Guess I'd better go buy him that computer - he has already made sure the hospital has wireless. He has been taking math classes over the internet through the local community college and I think that is why he wants the computer in the hospital so badly. I'm sure solving math problems will help him through the boring hospital stay.

One kind of funny thing - yesterday before my Dad went into surgery - he was in his room standing up in the hospital gown. My brother Tom was there and some guy came in to start getting my Dad ready for surgery and to take him to the pre- op place or whatever it is called. So the guy came in the room and asked my Dad if he was Mr. Isenberg. My Dad, not wanting to go into surgery, pointed at Tom and said this is Mr. Isenberg. Tom pointed at my Dad's room mate - who was a bit on the confused side - and said no, that is Mr. Isenberg. So the orderly guy goes over to the room mate and starts taking off his watch, ring, etc and was going to wheel him out of the room for surgery. My Dad and brother just stood there and watched. (I was not there) Finally my Dad spoke up and said "I'm actually the guy you want." I'm assuming at some point someone would have read the guy's ID bracelet. I wonder what would have happened if Dad hadn't spoken up?

Pretty bad. Sometime soon I'll have to tell the story about my brother purposely scaring all of the passengers on his plane by pretending to one time be drunk and the other time mentally challenged. Not good images for a pilot. I'm surprised he wasn't at least reprimanded much less fired. He and my Dad have pretty sick senses of humor.

Thanks again!

I Spoke too Soon

2006-12-07T19:41:00.000-05:00

I always jinx myself - my Dad is now having a double bypass tomorrow. His coronary and carotid arteries are blocked, so they kept him in the hospital and are operating tomorrow. I am hoping this is a good thing. Better to find it all now rather than after something awful happens right? It is just scarry to think about - seeing him going through all of it - in ICU, etc... I hust hope tomorrow night I am feeling relieved that it is over. His heart is very healthy, just the pipes that need fixing. I hope it goes well. He is taking it really well - at least he puts on a good show. The surgery is supposed to take 6 hours, so I am hoping he is out by 6pm or so. Marc and I are going to take the afternoon off and go the the hospital around 1 and keep my Mom company. My Dad has asked me to go out there , get his credit card and go buy him a new MAC laptop. He is worried about weather or not the hospital has wireless. So, all in all his attitude is pretty good! He has one all picked out, so I think he was planning on getting a new one anyway. Unfortunately somehow he has ended up in the same room my grandmother was in. Crazy! It is a huge hospital - easy to actually get lost in. I can't believe it.

Needless to say he won't be coming to China with us anymore. The Doctor has put the kabash on the trip. But the brothers and SIL are still coming as far as I know. That's fine by me - what ever it takes to make him well!!! Thanks to the kind wishes on my earlier post!!!!!!

Party in China

2006-12-07T14:10:00.000-05:00

It's looking like my whole darned family is coming to China. I don't know how much we will see of them while we are over there, as I imagine they will be off doiing their own thing a lot of the time, but my other brother Tom and sister-in-law Lisa are going to come also. I'm sure things could change between now and then, but it looks like they are going to be joining us. This is actually great for news for us. My sister in law is an ER nurse at Children's hospital in St. Louis. She has been there for at least 12 years. If any of the babies are sick she will be able to help any parents in our group if they want her advice on medication, etc... She is not a Dr., but will be really helpful if we are stuck in a tight spot with a sick baby.

So I'm really happy they are coming. They won't be touring with our group, but will prob. come to the province when we get the babies and then meet up with us in Guangzhou again for a day or 2 befor they all go to Hong Kong (so Dad can have his suits made)

My Dad participated in a medical study of some sort the ther day and they did a scan of his neck and found that his left carotid artery was 90% clogged. So today his Doctor is doing a more through check and then they are going to opperate before Christmas to open things up or do a bypass, not sure yet. I know this has become a common procedure, but when it's your own father it seems so scarry. I'm just glad they found it before anything happened. Hopefully he will be okay!

Stalling

2006-12-06T17:31:00.000-05:00

I am just worked out. Sick of working. Between photo shoots, phone calls, logo designs and annual report cover designs, I have had it. So to stall I thought I'd post the before pictures I took of the basement. Really boring I know, I just don't want to work. They put the radiant floor in this afternoon. I am hoping they finish up on Friday!!!!
Here are the lovely and exciting photos.

This shows some drywall up.

2006-12-04T22:22:00.000-05:00

Houston! We have a furnace! Heat is such a nice thing. This morning we hit a low point - 37 degrees in the dining room. By 4:00 this afternoon we had heat. It's a balmy 64 degrees now. Just how I like it - and actually feels a little hot. We all survived, even Bob. These little radiator space heaters are awesome. Once I got over my space heater fears we plugged them in and closed off rooms and were able to basically heat the living room and bedroom. Got to get back to work as I have fallen WAY behind!

3.5 Weeks and Counting!

2006-12-03T12:22:00.000-05:00

I don't want to jinx myself - or any of my September buddies, but I think we are N.E.X.T!!!!! I am handling it just fine right now. Not going crazy with anticipation, or staring off into space with a blank look on my face to often.

Our furnace has been "condemed." Sounds awful and yes it is pretty cold. The house was a warm 41 degrees this morning. THe furnace fix-it dude came yesterday to look at it after we noticed it was blowing out cold air, and found melted parts and a big old crack that was letting carbon monoxide out into the house. Unfortunately with it being a Saturday we have to wait until Monday morning for a new one to be put in. I am actually happy the darn thing broke. It was getting close to 20 years old and I knew it would need to be replaced. It is a good thing it happened now with no baby in the house to worry about and I guess before we all died of carbon monoxide posioning??? Yikes! I am hanging detectors Monday. This weekend stinks just being so cold - but a little discomfort is worth it knowing the house will be a safer place for a baby.

Bob is our Greyhound and does not care for the cold. He wrapped in and electric blanket and several quilts here so he can stay warm. He is also a bit of a baby.

Monday is going to be nuts. Between the heating and cooling dude and the contractor installing the floor and finishing the drywall skim coat, our basement is going to see more action than it has in the past 110 years or so since it was built. We have decided to have a radiant heat floor installed under the Pergo floor we are putting in to the basement. Let me tell you - I wish it had been done already - we could be all warm right now sitting on it down there - but never the less it will be so nice when it's done. My Dad came over to see the progress and decided we needed to have it - he knows Sofie will have toys down there and was worried she would be cold, so voila, heated floor. Parents are great!

My little brother Jim is coming to China with us. My Mom can't make the trip and my Dad was going to come alone so we decided Jim should come to keep him company. I spoke with him about the trip last night and he is so excited. My Dad was going to come so he would be over there if we needed anything and his main objective was to go to Hong Kong and have suits made for himself then to meet us in Guangzouh after we had Sofie for about a week. So Jim is now my Dad's official tour guide and has been put in charge of planning the trip for himself and Dad. Jim is reading up on China, history, where to go, etc... I think it will be a much better trip for my Dad now. It seems a little odd to travel so far to an amazing place just to have suits made. My father likes to shop! Anyway my piont was that when I spoke to Jim about this last night he was telling me what he wanted to see & do in China, etc.. and said that the real reason he wants to be there is to help me out - and he wants to wait and plan the trip around us so that they will be close by and can help if needed. What a great brother. He is only 28 - not married yet - and gets to plan a 2 week trip to China, going and doing whatever he would like to do, but wants to be sure Marc and I are his priority and can't wait to help us! He is such a nice guy.

Well, I need to get to work and stop rambling on!

On another note

2006-11-28T21:14:00.000-05:00

This is horrible, I have a friend that I have met through our adoption who is pregnant and having a ton of trouble. She has been through the wringer and is having a lot of trouble with her pregnancy. She is now on her way to the hospital and I am so worried for her, her husband and their little girl. She is also on bed rest and in pain. Now she is pretty sick with food posioning or flu and has to be hospitalized. (I was a little concerned I gave her food posioning because I took them dinner the other night - but the rest of the family is fine) Either way if anyone would please say a little prayer for her or send good thoughts her way that would be great!

OOPS!

2006-11-28T20:31:00.000-05:00

Bummer! No referral for us this month. Looks like we are just going to miss the cut-off. Ouch. I could easily throw a tizzy fit, but am trying hard to muster up a little more patience. 4 more weeks. What's 4 more weeks after 16 months from DTC anyway. A flash in the pan. Plus we are not ready yet anyway. Our paperwork came back because USCIS thought we had not turned over the correct fees. They had overlooked our fingerprint receipts and the note I included about the fingerprinting and apparently the new fingerprint approval they themselves had mailed us which I included a copy of as well. Maybe a blind person was reviewing our file? Either way we have to send it all back in.

The basement is coming along!!! WOO HOO!!! We have added a few extras which have slowed us down a tad, but all should be done Friday! We decided to put radiant heat under the flooring and quickly ordered it yesterday to be delivered tomorrow. So the contractor will come tomorow afternoon and Thursday to finish up! After a day of drywalling with friends and family I decided we had imposed on others enough and we should jut pay our contractor to finish the rest of the job. Who was I kidding - I don't have time to get the job done myself at this point and we all know I have no clue how to lay flooring, put up base boards and hang doors correctly. Heck I don't own a level and I'd bet I'd need one of those. There are a few things we still plan to do down there that are going to have to wait a few months - new windows and carpeting on the stairs. But in the mean time I can move the office down there and start Sofie's room upstairs!!! I have a master plan for her room that I have been formulating for years now. The details have changed many times, but the basic concept is still there. At least I know I'll be happy with after having years to think about it!

It will be so much fun to put the room together. I am so excited to start I can barely stand it! I love to work on our house, but this will by far be my favorite job. I want her room to be perfect for her, calm, soothing and pretty. I still need to find a rug and some sort of storage unit for toys and books. I think Pottery Barn kids had some nice selections and I have a gift certificate with my name on it. Sometimes Target has some cute Pottery Barn knock-offs too.

Speaking of decorating I am addicted to Divine Design on HGTV. I think Candice Olsen is the bomb. I love to see her transform room after room. I have learned so much about lighting from her. Heck I've learned a lot about everything from her. I have noticed that she tries to keep horizontal surfaces in rooms the same basic colors. Like in a kitchen her counter tops and flooring all is in the same basic color family. I never would have known. She is unbelievable. I want to be on her show and have her do a room in our house. I wonder how it works? Do we come up with $10,000 for her to work with or does HGTV? Maybe she has a base amount from HGTV and then we can add to the budget? The one downer is that I'd have to be on TV. I would hate that, but I think it would be worth it to have her design my living room, dining room or kitchen. Beauty comes with pain right? Have to go a friend is coming by for a glass of wine!

From a4everfamily.org

2006-11-16T19:15:00.000-05:00

This article really hit home. It really made me see adoption through a babies eyes.

Imagine for a moment…

You have met the person you've dreamed about all your life. He has every quality that you desire in a spouse. You plan for the wedding, enjoying every free moment with your fiancée. You love his touch, his smell, the way he looks into your eyes. For the first time in your life, you understand what is meant by "soul mate," for this person understands you in a way that no one else does. Your heart beats in rhythm with his. Your emotions are intimately tied to his every joy, his every sorrow.

The wedding comes. It is a happy celebration, but the best part is that you are finally the wife of this wonderful man. You fall asleep that night, exhausted from the day's events, but relaxed and joyful in the knowledge that you are next to the person who loves you more than anyone in the world…the person who will be with you for the rest of your life.

The next morning you wake up, nestled in your partner's arms. You open your eyes and immediately look for his face.

But IT'S NOT HIM! You are in the arms of another man. You recoil in horror. Who is this man? Where is your beloved?

You ask questions of the new man, but it quickly becomes apparent that he doesn't understand you. You search every room in the house, calling and calling for your husband. The new guy follows you around, trying to hug you, pat you on the back,...even trying to stroke your arm, acting like everything is okay.

But you know that nothing is okay. Your beloved is gone. Where is he? Will he return? When? What has happened to him?

Weeks pass. You cry and cry over the loss of your beloved. Sometimes you ache silently, in shock over what has happened. The new guy tries to comfort you. You appreciate his attempts, but he doesn't speak your language-either verbally or emotionally. He doesn't seem to realize the terrible thing that has happened...that your sweetheart is gone.

You find it difficult to sleep. The new guy tries to comfort you at bedtime with soft words and gentle touches, but you avoid him, preferring to sleep alone, away from him and any intimate words or contact.

Months later, you still ache for your beloved, but gradually you are learning to trust this new guy. He's finally learned that you like your coffee black, not doctored up with cream and sugar. Although you still don't understand his bedtime songs, you like the lilt of his voice and take some comfort in it.

More time passes. One morning, you wake up to find a full suitcase sitting next to the front door. You try to ask him about it, but he just takes you by the hand and leads you to the car. You drive and drive and drive. Nothing is familiar. Where are you? Where is he taking you?

You pull up to a large building. He leads you to an elevator and up to a room filled with people. Many are crying. Some are ecstatic with joy. You are confused. And worried.

The man leads you over to the corner. Another man opens his arms and sweeps you up in an embrace. He rubs your back and kisses your cheeks, obviously thrilled to see you.

You are anything but thrilled to see him. Who in the world is he? Where is your beloved? You reach for the man who brought you, but he just smiles (although he seems to be tearing up, which concerns you), pats you on the back, and puts your hand in the hands of the new guy. The new guy picks up your suitcase and leads you to the door. The familiar face starts openly crying, waving and waving as the elevator doors close on you and the new guy.

The new guy drives you to an airport and you follow him, not knowing what else to do. Sometimes you cry, but then the new guy tries to make you smile, so you grin back, wanting to "get along." You board a plane. The flight is long. You sleep a lot, wanting to mentally escape from the situation.

Hours later, the plane touches down. The new guy is very excited and leads you into the airport where dozens of people are there to greet you. Light bulbs flash as your photo is taken again and again. The new guy takes you to another guy who hugs you. Who is this one? You smile at him. Then you are taken to another man who pats your back and kisses your cheek. Then yet another fellow gives you a big hug and messes your hair.

Finally, someone (which guy is this?) pulls you into his arms with the biggest hug you've ever had. He kisses you all over your cheeks and croons to you in some language you've never heard before.

He leads you to a car and drives you to another location. Everything here looks different. The climate is not what you're used to. The smells are strange. Nothing tastes familiar, except for the black coffee. You wonder if someone told him that you like your coffee black.

You find it nearly impossible to sleep. Sometimes you lie in bed for hours, staring into the blackness, furious with your husband for leaving you, yet aching from the loss. The new guy checks on you. He seems concerned and tries to comfort you with soft words and a mug of warm milk. You turn away, pretending to go to asleep.

People come to the house. You can feel the anxiety start to bubble over as you look into the faces of all the new people. You tightly grasp the new guy's hand. He pulls you closer. People smile and nudge one other, marveling at how quickly you've fallen in love. Strangers reach for you, wanting to be a part of the happiness.

Each time a man hugs you, you wonder if he will be the one to take you away. Just in case, you keep your suitcase packed and ready. Although the man at this house is nice and you're hanging on for dear life, you've learned from experience that men come and go, so you just wait in expectation for the next one to come along.

Each morning, the new guy hands you a cup of coffee and looks at you expectantly. A couple of times the pain and anger for your husband is so great that you lash out, sending hot coffee across the room, causing the new guy to yelp in pain. He just looks at you, bewildered. But most of the time you calmly take the cup. You give him a smile. And wait. And wait. And wait.

--Written by Cynthia Hockman-Chupp, analogy courtesy of Dr. Kali Mille

Holy Smokes!

2006-11-02T09:23:00.000-05:00

Wow! The 25th, one big fat extra day! No, that is not sarcasm you hear. The 25th is great, there are tons of people with LIDs on the 25th. It was a welcome surprise, even more so to all of the 8.25 LIDs! I can't wait to see photos! So many people that we have endured this wait with will have their babies today and tomorrow. Gives me goosebumps!

There was actually a little rumor that the cut-off was going to be September, yes September, 24th. This rumor turned out to be wrong and let me say, I'm really not disappointed. I would have freaked out if we had gotten a referral today.

After a year of whining and obsessing over this long wait I can honestly say I'm NOT ready! Our I-171 paperwork had to be re-done and is still not been sent in to USCIS. Our social worker has it and is waiting on our Highway patrol clearance. So, we would have been freaking out over that. Our orig. paperwork expires on Nov. 24th. We would have had to bribe, sweet talk and beg USCIS to expidite our papers. I would have been a wreck, unable to fully enjoy being a Mom for the first time.

I was not so concerned about the unfinished state of our home. I figured we would get it done and if not, Sofie could bunk in our room for a few weeks in her crib - which is actually the plan anyway. But, yes I'd rather bring her home to a perfect house, with a great room all ready for her. So now I have a month or 2 more to make it perfect.

I'm sure many people wonder why someone with a year's worth of time on her hands has waited to the last minute to prepare for a baby 6 years in the making? Can you say JINX? I'm still a little worried something will go wrong. But am forging ahead, full of blind faith that this process will eventually work. Watching families formed month after month helps me believe it will!