Johnson Family

Catching up...

2008-11-23T20:24:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a while since a post... this is some of what we have been up to.....

For my birthday, Travis arranged for Bayard and me to go riding in the dunes at the coast! What a blast! It was just Bayard, his guide, me, and my guide. My guide had us careening around in the dunes! Many places the dunes were well above my head even on the horse-- it was georgeous and so. much. fun. I could do that all day, everyday. I do miss riding. We would go for a ride around and then meet back up with Bayard and his guide-- they were walking. We saw a male elk and around 3 females with a couple youngsters, a bunch of seals, birds...amazing. It was by far one of the best birthday gifts I have ever recieved.

While Bayard and I rode around, Amelia, Travis, and Woobie played on the beach. This is Amelia flying her first kite. What a beautiful day! It is often gray at the Oregon coast...this was a perfect blue sky day. A fleece was still adviseable, but...a perfect August day!

In July, we spent a weekend at our friend's cabin on Puget Sound...this is Amelia playing down in the mud! A bald eagle was nesting in a tree right next to the cabin...and the barking of the seals woke Bayard and Travis up in the mornings (they slept snuggled in sleeping bags under the stars on the deck)!

This is Amelia perched next to our campsite on Mt Adams. The weekend camping trip was great, except for the bugs! They were making meals of all of us! Yikes! A highlight of the trip was the ice cave! Amazing!

Marathon Man, sunshine, snow, hail, sunshine, rain, sunshine, rain....

2008-05-06T20:02:00.000-07:00

Well, Spring is here, sort of. As is Portland Springtime.... the weather keeps you on your toes. Always a good idea to carry a fleece, at least until July. So, what have we been doing? Spending as much time outside as we can!!

We spent this past weekend in Eugene! Yeah! We LOVE Eugene! Why were we there, oh, yeah, Travis ran his first Marathon!!!! Believe it or not, the volunteers in the Eugene Marathon (www.eugenemarathon.com) wore tie-die shirts. I know, shocking. We had a great time. Check out some of the pictures.... he finished in a bit over 4 hours. Not bad considering he has had bronchitis for the last month!

2 kids, 1 dog, and 3 chickens....

2008-04-04T21:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have 3 chickens. Just call us Urban Farmers. That is just one of the many exciting events since my last post in NOVEMBER!! Goodness. Time does just melt on by doesn't it? Well, since November we have almost completed a remodel project -- new kitchen (WAHOO!!!), and finishing the basement (the guys dug out 4 dumpster loads of dirt and rock to make the ceilings a decent height, poured a new floor along with some footings for our house that for the last 80 years has NOT HAD FOOTINGS!!!, and framed up and finished a family room, bedroom, bathroom, laundry room, mechanical room, and storage room!) We are on week 12 and only have a few details left.... we are loving the new space and really enjoying our updated kitchen. I would put pictures in, but... I'd rather show off how much Amelia and Bayard have grown! They turned 5 and 2 in February-- WOW! So, here are a few pictures of them.... I will save pictures of the chickens (Pearl, Flossy, and Mambo) for another time....

Perfection can seriously delay a blog post...so, I am going to forgo trying to make this post more interesting, creative, or even visually pleasing... and just POST IT!! So, hope you all enjoy the pictures... keep checking back, I am going to try to get back to a monthly post....

happy spring!!

One year ago today.....

2007-11-01T13:17:00.000-07:00

One year ago today we were on a plane flying to China to meet Chen Fu Wang, soon to be Amelia Fu Wang Johnson. The pictures below are of Amelia's referral picture (the first picture we got of her before we went to China - she was about 4 months old there), the next pictures are of Amelia in October while we were in Florida.) What a difference a year and a family make!

In some ways it is hard to believe it was an entire year ago. In other ways it seems like a lifetime ago. Lots of changes in the past year.... we grew from a happy family of 3 to a complete family of 4, Bayard gained a sister and became a big brother, we stopped working our family around my job and started working my job around our family when I took the leap to private practice (http://www.practicalparenting2.blogspot.com/) and left my "regular" job... wow, in writing that just doesn't seem like that much. Living it feels much different! Life feels different than it did. Richer. The biggest changes are in Amelia....

We met a confused, sad, mad, grieving, cautious, tenatious, strong baby in China. That baby has grown into a confident, silly, funny, bright, joyful, little girl who continues to show that same tenacity and strength in everything she does! She is such a part of the fabric of our family that it is difficult to imagine us without her. She asks for a hug and then just leaps into your arms and wraps herself around you with a giggle that seems to come from her whole body as she says "Mommy!" and just today "yuv you!" I love you too Amelia.

Monday, November 5th, we will celebrate Family Day, as that is the anniversary of the day we gained a daugter and a sister, and Amelia gained a mom, a dad, and a brother. That long, almost 2 year, wait was worth every second and then some.

sabbatical!!!

2007-10-09T12:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we are well into our 2 month sabbatical. For those of you who are not aware, Travis has had Sept and Oct off -- a perk of reaching 7 years at Intel. We spent Sept hanging out at home, taking some little trips and just enjoying some extended family down time. Then, we headed off to Florida Oct 2 for some extended beach time! So, here we are, looking out at the warm (85 and sunny!!) ocean from Nana and Grandpa's beach condo -- yeah, times are tough.

Our friends the Thurmonds came down from Atlanta to see us for a few days--- they have 2 kids, Jack (4) and Ella (2). Jack and Bayard had fun "riding the waves" --

Bayard has discovered boogie boarding and is LOVING the ocean! The warm florida water and sunny blue skies have been perfect for playing on the beach every day. Amelia has warmed up to the idea of the water-- she really enjoys when the tide is out and the "rivers" appear on the beach! We will try to put some video of that on you-tube -- check back in for that!

We went to St Augustine (a less than an hour drive from here) this week and explored the old Fort that is there as well as the Alligator Farm-- WHOA! The Alligator farm was fantastic!

http://www.alligatorfarm.com/

Alligators, Crocodiles, Turtles, and birds and primates from all over the world! If you are ever in St Augustine, make sure you put this attraction on your list!

Today, we went to an adventure park ... mini-golf, and go-carts... what could be more fun?

Travis, Bayard, and Grandpa are heading to the Jaguars game on Sunday http://www.jaguars.com/

and then we are heading out to Grandpa and Nana's farm in Madison, Florida next week for a few days of tractor riding, porch naps, and just good ol' hanging out on the farm. http://www.madisonfla.com/

That is is for now... the beach is calling.....

September already!!

2007-09-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

Time does fly, particularly in the summer! Fall weather has hit Portland, it is cool and damp outside. Enjoyable really. Travis started his sabbatical at the beginning of the month and we have been enjoying some nice family hang out time. He is off work until the end of October! Wahoo!! We head to Florida for some extended family and friends hang out time as well as a jaunt over to Disney.... Bayard is beside himself with excitement about that upcoming adventure! We are all looking forward to some beach time and more relaxing....

Well, for some reason the blog won't let me put anymore pictures up, so, I am off for now. More to come!

We had some excitement last weekend when Amelia had her first ER visit... she has decided that she no longer wants to go down the stairs "feet first" or backwards, but only wants to tackle the stairs big girl style!! Natural consequences.... a tumble down the basement stairs with the metal edges on them equal a split lip needing 3 stitches!! OUCH!! We have a wonderful children's ER close by -- we were actually in and out of there in one hour!! Unheard of really. She was a trooper. The stitches are out and she has a tiny scar which will likely fade and leave only the story to tell. Big brother was worried about her and was incredibly helpful and empathetic -- they are pretty cute together.

The pictures are just some random ones from the summer. Both kids enjoy some dress up....capes, wizard garb, cowboy/girl, girly dresses, hats of all kinds, etc. Amelia LOVES to change her clothes and then say "mirror, mirror" and go twirl around in front of the mirror and check herself out!! Funny! They spent about 45 minutes upstairs this morning with a clothes basket pretending they were driving in a boat on some adventure. Amelia loves to do whatever Bayard is doing and he is generally really patient with her and finds a way to incorporate her into what he is doing. He really enjoys when she will play with him in one of his imaginary adventure scenarios, of which there are MANY!!!! It is fun to see them getting to be friends. Bayard said the other day "Mom, I think I love Amelia more than anyone else in the family. I just really really love her." And you can see it in the way he treats her. They still have thier moments, but, for the most part, it is great. And it is fun to think of how that relationship will grow as they get older. Good stuff.

Camping, pirates, and fond farewells....

2007-07-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of this month, we went camping at the Oregon coast with our friends the Steiner-Beenes. They have 2 kids, Max (5) and Beckett (3). We were celebrating both Max's 5th birthday as well as getting a chance to hang out before their family moves to China for 2 years! WOW! Well, we had a great time... and Wendy took some FANTASTIC pictures!! Here are just a few.....

The boys found a big tree that had been washed up on shore... it was quickly turned into a pirate ship and a flag was placed on it thanks to Wendy's forethought and creativity (she brought a Sharpie and a pillowcase for just that purpose!)...

The weather can be unpredictable here at the coast. Even in summer, a nice warm fleece comes in handy. We were so lucky. The sand was warm, the sun was shining through an amazingly blue sky, and the wind was blowing just enough to keep the kite up and the pirate flag flying. Amelia played the role of "monster" as in "oh, no, here comes the monster to knock down the castle!" She worked to keep up with the boys, but was also happy to make her own adventures.

We had a wonderfully relaxing weekend just hanging out. Farewell Steiner-Beenes! We will miss you!

Happy girl!

2007-06-27T14:59:00.000-07:00

A few pictures of Amelia after she woke up from her nap today.....

The Rose Festival!

2007-06-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

The Portland Rose Festival (www.rosefestival.org/) was this weekend. As usual, it was spitting rain on and off all day, but, as true NW transplants, that didn't stop us.....

Bayard has been asking about cotton candy and carnivals for MONTHS! So, we hopped on the MAX and headed downtown to the waterfront. We took a good long look at the HUGE ships (thanks to homeland security Bayard now knows what a machine gun looks like-- do we really need that level of protection for that boat? anyway....). Then we headed on down the way to the rides, games, etc....

Bayard was SUPER excited that he was tall enough to ride a good number of the rides....and Travis was SUPER excited that one of those rides was the swings!

As for me, I left the dramamine at home, so Amelia and I did a lot of watching and picture taking.

Bayard was not too keen on the idea of a pony ride, but he was gung-ho for the bungie-type jump! The lady kept asking him if he wanted to go higher and he just kept saying "YES!", she finally said "It just won't go any higher than that!" Bayard was smiling all the way up, and all the way down!! There was a crowd of people oooh-ing and ahhhh-ing! Go Bayard-y!

This is Bayard's first bite of cotton candy. He picked blue. "Is it as good as you thought it would be Bayard?" "Oh yeah, Mom. It is soooo good." Yuck. It tasted like straight sugar, chemicals, and good ol' 70's/80's childhood to me.

After a stop to watch the Dragon Boat races (the pictures of those just didn't turn out, they were just too far away and I got a bit worried about the camera in the drizzle. bummer.) we headed back to the Max Station for the journey home. Bayard is already planning the rides he will go on next year, "when I am 5 and tall enough."

Sun, sun, sun!

2007-05-15T21:54:00.000-07:00

The weather has been so AMAZING lately! Sunshine and upper 70's most days the last 2 weeks! We have had lots of outside time and are really enjoying it. Amelia and Bayard both LOVE to be outside. The beans and nasturtiams on Bayard's "fort" in the backyard are slowly growing. It seems the mice were not able to eat ALL the seeds.... I will try to get a picture of that up soon. The flowers are just blooming everywhere. I adore this time of year.

Anyway, the kids are doing well. Amelia continues to grow and change, her new word is "bubble" and she carries at least one bubble wand around much of the time. Pretty funny. She took her first big spill a few weeks ago... check out the scab on her cute little nose!

Bayard started soccer a couple weeks ago and is enjoying it, however, this week he said "Mom, I don't know if I want to do soccer again, there is just so much running." This is particularly funny coming from the child who also says "Mom, one of my favorite things these days is just to run. I like how my body feels when I run. I think I am definately the fastest person in our family." He will then run laps...living room...dining room...kitchen....hallway.....living room....dining room....kitchen....hallway.....living room.... and so it goes. Often the running experience is augmented by the wearing of a cape which Bayard says "flows behind me in the wind."

Check out the recent pics.... This one of Bayard is in the backyard on his rope swing... a HUGE hit the last couple weeks. The family one is from Mother's Day. We must have taken 20 pictures trying to get it right! It still isn't great, but, it was good enough for the 6 month report we had to do for the adoption agency. Yes, Amelia has been with us for 6 months. Amazing.

Walking, running, easter egg hunting....

2007-04-08T19:40:00.000-07:00

Well, Amelia started walking about a week ago and there is no looking back. She is highly mobile and seemingly enjoying it. She is growing like a weed! Bayard is a running, jumping, climbing, bike riding, cape wearing, poem reciting, 4 year old. Poem reciting you ask? Yes, Bayard has started making up poems and reciting them regularly. A couple nights ago we were on our nightly after dinner family walk and he asked "Daddy, what is a poem?" "Well, Bayard, it is like story with rhymes and words that sound good together." "I think I will make up a poem right now. " And he did... here is his first poem...

The Car Goes Far

The car goes far

The car doesn't go far

The car goes far

Yes! The car goes far

The car doesn't go far

Not bad for a 4 year old! He has continued to develop his craft and is currently enjoying the use of alliteration (we introduced the term the other day after he made one up with a great deal of it and now he has taken it on a challenge to put rhymes and alliteration in!)... He has continued the theme of repetition in much of his "work" as well. Funny kid. We think he is rather clever. We are his parents after all!

We are continuing to enjoy spring. Bayard and I have been working on a fort in the backyard. We put up some tall bamboo poles and arranged them much like a tee pee. We have planted nasturtiums, sweet peas, and sugar snap peas in hopes that all will grow up and all around the tee pee and make a cool hideout. Bayard wanted lots of plants he could eat "so I can have snacks in my fort if I get hungry," so we also planted some strawberries nearby. We are also hoping the mammoth sunflower seeds we planted make it and don't get thwarted by the dog, the mice, the birds, or the slugs! Time will tell. Portland gets greener and more vibrant every day!! Ah, I love spring. I even look forward to the rain now. It seems I have adapted to the climate after almost 9 years in Oregon. Wow. 9 years.

Well, I am going to get off the computer now... so, I will just attach a few pictures and get rolling along....

Spring!!!!!!

2007-03-11T19:49:00.000-07:00

Wow, the weather has just been so nice (yes, still a great deal of rain, but it SMELLS like spring and is warmer!), the crocus and daffodils are blooming, the lilacs are peeking out, and the trees are starting to bud. Portland has to be the greenest and most vivid place on the planet in the spring. Maybe that is just in sharp contrast to the gray winters.... whatever the case, it is just energy-giving!!!!

Amelia is working on walking. She is taking lots of steps, but crawling is still more efficient for her. She did not tolerate day care very well, so, I quit my job at the hospital and am home full time with her now! She seems pretty happy about that. And so am I. I am still doing the private practice, but that is just evenings and occassional weekends, so, no day care required. Big changes! She loves to be outside and is saying "bye bye" , "da da", "ba ba" (which we think is Bayard), "ma ma" and is adding to her signing vocabulary too. She is funny and very determined-- she doesn't often show frustration, she just keeps working on something until she gets it, then, she just looks so proud of herself. Pretty cool. She LOVES to eat. The kid will eat almost anything you put in front of her and she is really digging the sippy cup of water. She is throwing some hissys lately when things don't go her way-- which is great! It is nice to see her expressing her likes and dislikes more strongly instead of just going with the flow so much. She loves the swing at the park by our house and is quite the climber! She also thinks Bayard is very cool, but is not afraid to shriek at him if she doesn't like something he is doing! She continues to be a joy, and a fantastic sleeper! WAHOO!!!

Bayard turned 4 and got a 2 wheeler for his birthday. He is really enjoying it. We weren't sure as he hasn't been a big bike guy up to this point, but, he seems to have embraced being a "big guy" and is excited to have a big kid bike. He only wanted 4 and 5 year olds at his pirate themed birthday party (treasure hunt, pinata, and lots of swordplay and swashbuckling as the kids all came dressed as pirates)-- and is showing a strong preference for BOYS as friends. He still likes to play with Kassy across the street, but sees her as an exception. He is definately moving into boyhood more and more. Very cool to watch. The little boy is moving on out.. here comes the big kid. He is still enjoying swimming and is currently working on the backstroke. He wants to sign up for soccer again and thinks karate would be "cool." He gave away all of his kid plates and cups to some littler boys he knows and only wants to use "grown up stuff" at mealtime. "Thomas and Bob the Builder are for babies mom." Wow. When we decided that I would stay home with Amelia, Bayard said "I think that is good mom. I think she just got confused again like she was in China. If you stay home with her everyday, then she will know that we really are her family forever and she won't get confused anymore. " Ahhh. I love that kid.

Ok... I have a workshop tomorrow night and I need to get some work done for it! The pictures are just ones from this month and some from Bayard's birthday. Enjoy!

Whoa! Time does fly....

2007-02-15T12:00:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been over amonth since I last posted. Whew! In that month, we have battled sickness (ah, winter...), I started back to work 2 days, which means Amelia started day care 2 days, my private practice is growing (yeah!), Amelia turned 1!!! and Bayard is about to turn 4 (on the 20th!), oh, and our 31 yr old furnace called it quits. We have been living with space heaters for over a week while we await the gas company to put in a line to our house! AH!

All is well though. Amelia is weathering day care pretty well-- each time she goes it gets better. Last week was the first week she spent two full days (the week before we did 2 half days). She is very clear (ie: screamy!) that staying there without us is not in her plan for the day, but she settles in and we have a wonderful care provider, so we know she is getting her needs met and will adjust. If you want to check out the school ... http://www.growingseeds.net/ . We couldn't be happier with them. Bayard is in the preschool room and is able to go and visit Amelia during the day in the baby room. Nice.

Amelia is right on track developmentally and seemingly, attachment wise too. What a gift! She is funny and currently loves pointing at everything. She loves books and likes to do the sign for book and then have you read to her. She is signing quite a bit (book, daddy, milk, dog, all done, more) which we think is pretty cool. Bayard is growing up so fast! 4 is a big birthday. He is definately seeming more and more like a big kid. He is funny, creative, bright, silly, thoughtful, and truly seems to enjoy his role as big brother. At school they are wrapping up learning about volcanoes and moving on to learning about Egypt which he is excited about. He was telling me that he really wants to "know more about mummys and sphinxes." They studied honey bees last summer and he was telling me yesterday that "not just bees have a proboscus mom, some butterflies do too, but they just eat the nectar, they don't make honey with it like the bees do." Whoa! He cracks me up.

Ok, well, I guess that is the wrap up for now. I will try to be better about keeping up here....

Christmas, New Years, and 2 front teeth...

2007-01-01T15:01:00.000-08:00

Amelia is working on her two top teeth... wow. She also has a cold. So, snot and drool galore at our house right now. She has also gone from wearing 3-6 month clothes in China to now moving into some 12-18 month ones! A little grower she is.

Christmas was fun... check out the pictures. Christmas jammies courtesy of Aunt Trace... so cute! And what a nice suprise!

New Years was mellow for us... all of us in bed before midnight.

OK, a little girl wants my attention and is making her way under the desk to check out the many cords.... more later...

Christmas Eve

2006-12-24T16:03:00.000-08:00

Here a couple of quick pictures of BWJ and AFJ before we head over to a friend's house for a party on the 23rd. The Christmas outfits came from Nana (G'ma Jeri) and are very cool!

Excitement is growing for Bayard's 4th Xmas and Amelia's 1st.....check back for more tomorrow, including the awesome Xmas PJs that came from Aunt Trace!!

Bayard the rock climber and more...

2006-12-11T15:10:00.000-08:00

So, yesterday, Bayard and a friend of his went with "the dads" to a local bouldering gym to tackle the kid climbing wall there. Travis said it was pretty cool, a big climbing wall just for kids with a good sized area at the "summit" and a big wooden, well shellacked (sp?), slide on the other side for a quick descent... check out the pictures...

And, update on Amelia... she is using signs for "all done" and "milk"... we think she is pretty smart! Check out some recent pics of her too!

Just more pictures...

2006-12-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

ONE MONTH!

2006-12-05T19:54:00.000-08:00

One month ago today, we met Amelia. It is incredible that it was only that long ago. It is hard to imagine our family without her. She grows happier and more animated everyday. Bayard is truly a wonderful big brother... a little something from today...

Bayard, Amelia , and I were in the kitchen today and this is the conversation I heard…

Amelia, you were born in China. Before you were here, I would ask my mom everynight, “Is it morning time in China?” and she would say “it will be pretty soon” and then I would say “Is Amelia getting up now? Is she having breakfast now?” We would talk about all the things you might be doing. Now you are here with our family, so we know what you are doing all the time! I am glad you are my sister. You are going to be in our family forever!

This was followed by a small crisis when Amelia took one of his dinosaur magnets off of the refrigerator..."she has my special magnet! that one is special! she can't have that one! Mom! help!" I reply... "What's your plan Bayard?" BWJ: "We need to put those up high where she can't reach them! She can have the letter ones. I will put those down low for her. There you go Amelia, you can play with those." Ah, disaster averted by the problem solving big brother.

So, life is good. Here are some pictures from today and yesterday...

Back to normal....

2006-11-27T14:00:00.000-08:00

Well, Travis went back to work today and I am home with "the kids"... it has been great! Wow, transition to 2 kids is SOOOO much easier than transition to 1! It doesn't hurt that I am not recovering from pregnancy, labor, delivery, and major emergency surgery all while caring for a newborn... starting at 9 mos old having never been pregnant is actually pretty nice! She is more of a joy each day and Bayard continues to do really well.

It just hit us last night that we missed much of November and Christmas is just around the corner! Those "east coast" gifts have to get moving if they are going to make it in time! Hmmm, we have some work to do!

Speaking of work... I need to get some done while "the kids" are resting/napping...

Ah, sleep. And siblings.

2006-11-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

So, Amelia slept from 7:30-4am, then had a bottle, and went back to sleep until 7am! WAHOOO!!! Life is much better when not starved for sleep. Bayard is so cute with her. I asked him how it was going for him with Amelia here...

"Not so good mom"
"Why? What's up Bayard?"
"I just don't get enough time with my sister. You and Dad get to spend lots of time playing with her and I don't. I want more time to play with her."
"I think we can work that out Bayard."

Funny kid. Not at all what I expected him to say. He is really helpful with her. He entertains her and SO wants to be a part of taking care of her. She is big enough to actually interact with him, so that is nice. He was playing peek-a-boo with her tonight while I was making her dinner and she was VERY impatient! He had her smiling and even laughing. At the same time, he was feeding her the much loved Cheerios. Pretty cool sibling stuff. Bayard starts back on his regular school schedule this week which I think will be good too.

Well, both kids are in bed, so I need to take advantage and have some "me time"....

Oh, here are Bayard and Travis watching the Georgia v Georgia Tech game today...

How cute is she?!

2006-11-20T19:47:00.000-08:00

Well, we are getting to know Amelia more each day, and she is adorable! Happy, smiling, today she giggled!

These pictures were taken in her room at bedtime the second day we were home. I know, those jammies are pretty girly. And how cute is she in them? Sleep is improving each night. We are hopeful for an even better night tonight! She is in bed right now.... sleeping, in her bed.... yes, we dosed her up with Benadryl... for the jetlag, and our sanity... we'll see. We head off to the pediatrician tomorrow morning to check in. I don't think she is going to have much to say as Amelia is looking really healthy and still pretty on track developmentally. Some mild gross and fine motor delays, but nothing really significant. She is still in the window of "typical development" just on the slower end for motor skills. Yeah! She is generally happy, smiley, and fairly easy going. She is quite clear about what she wants and will definately let you know if you aren't giving it to her, but she is quick to recover once it is resolved. She is also doing well on the attachment stuff. Much better than we expected at this point, so that is great news too! She still enjoys time with Travis, but no longer shows a marked preference for him. She is fascinated with Woobie (our Brittany Spaniel for those who don't know him). He on the other hand, showed little or no reaction to her with the exception of resuming the post he had at the highchair when it was last used and giving her face licks to check out the leftovers. She seems ok with that and watches him with great interest. Nice to have an 8 year old "baby/child seasoned" dog as opposed to a 4 year old "new to the kid thing" dog...

Bayard is excited to visit his school for a couple hours while we take Amelia to the doctor tomorrow. He is doing well with the adjustment. As well as can be expected I think. Some boundary testing and meltdowns over things like running out of juice or getting his arm caught in his jacket (things he took in stride before), but, all in all, big brother is coping ok and really likes to play with Amelia and is VERY sweet with her. First thing each morning he comes into our room (where she has generally been spending at least the last 2-3 hours of the night) and just talks quietly to her and rubs her back and sings her songs... "Hello to Amelia, so glad to see you, Good morning Amelia, so glad to see you"... So sweet.

OK, that is it for tonight. I am going to relish in some downtime while BOTH kids are sleeping!

We're home!

2006-11-17T11:51:00.000-08:00

After 26 hours of travel, and two Thursdays (we gained a day on the way back), we are settling into home. Amelia and Bayard did great on the trip back. 3 plane rides, 4 different cities, and 2 different countries. Amelia got her "you are an american citizen" stamp yesterday when we arrived in LA. That was our last big milestone in this process. It is nice to be back, but, I kind of miss that "vacation feeling"... yeah, parts of the trip were challenging, but, there were no dishes to do, no laundry, no bills waiting to be paid, no bathrooms to clean, no garbage to take out... you know what I mean. Bayard, Amelia, and myself slept fairly well last night, Travis on the other hand is having a bit more trouble with the time change. We took turns with Amelia last night, she was still on China time and didn't really go to sleep until about 1am. But, she then slept til 8:30! Wahoo! I think a family nap may be in the cards for us this afternoon...

Amelia is the happiest baby the last 3 days! She is smiley and is liking sitting on the floor and playing with toys. She is fine going between me and Travis now. She has huge smiles when either of us walks in the room and says hi to her. She is able to sit alone on the floor and play while we are in the room doing something else for 5-10 minutes at a time-- that is pretty big progress!

Bayard has been going non-stop today. He seems to be really enjoying playing with his toys and just being at home. Although, as we were leaving China he said "I don't want to go home yet, I love China!"

All in all, we had a great trip. More pictures to come. I think we will keep doing this blog thing... so, keep checking in! Oh, thanks to all who left comments... it helped us to feel more connected to those of you back home. It was fun to think of so many people following our trip and our progress with Amelia!

Kaili

2006-11-14T19:02:00.000-08:00

Kaili is the name of the town that is the capital of the region where the babies in our group are from. Guizhou is the province, and the smaller region (county if you will) is called Qiandongnan. Kaili is kind of like the county seat. It was a 2.5 bus ride each way on windy roads, so we chose not to go, but we really wish we had. Tracey's motion sickness and Amelia still adjusting to us didn't seem to like a good mix for 5 hours in a bus. Anyhow one of the families with us had an adventurous uncle along with them who spoke some Chinese, so these are pics from him. After seeing these we really wish we had gone, but unfortunately it just didn't work out this time. Maybe we'll be able to go again when we get back in a few years.

There are two ethnic minority groups here and there is a good chance that Amelia is from one of them (Dong and Miao). We'll never really know though, Amelia's birth parents and exact town are unknown.

The 3rd picture above is the orphanage where the babies came from. All were in foster care for most of the time, but they all passed through this orphanage and spent some time there.

Many thanks to Mike Bergner for making the trek to get us this info!!

Faster Internet connection in Guangzhou = more pictures

2006-11-14T18:50:00.000-08:00

First pic is BWJ and Amelia sitting together.

Second is loading up to fly from Guiyang to Guangzhou, "taking the 3 ring circus on the road".

Third is from back in Guiyang, at the big central square where they were getting ready for some big Communist Party c weekend event. You can see the statue of Mao in the back.

2006-11-14T18:43:00.000-08:00

Here is one of Bayard and Amelia doing some "shoulder ride".

The other is what I call the "Last Supper". Its all the babies from our adoption group here in the lobby at the White Swan in Guangzhou. Pretty funny. Amelia is the second from the left.

Last Day in Guangzhou

2006-11-14T18:42:00.000-08:00

Wow. What a difference a few days and a new city makes! If you have ever been to Savannah, GA, you can imagine Guangzhou (well, just the little island part we are on). Really, it looks so much like Savannah it is a little eerie. The big trees with the moss, the colonial style buildings. Lots of British and French influence. The hotel we are in, The White Swan (check it out on the web, it is a remarkable place), is on Shamian Island. The Island is very small, you can actually see from one end to the other. It is right on the Pearl River. We have an amazing view of the Pearl River and Guangzhou’s main city across the river from our hotel room. Each night there is a lazer show. Really, I have not been to Las Vegas, but I can’t imagine that it has much more neon than this place. At night, the dragon boats, all lit up, sail around the river for dinner cruises. Pretty cool sight. Oh, and they pipe in music to go with the laser show. Generally it is classical or, believe it or not, opera. Yeah, a little weird. Bayard and Travis took the ferry across to the main part of Guangzhou today. Travis said that part is NOT at all like Savannah, you are definitely back in China over there, no colonialism to make the westerners more comfortable across the river! After being in Guiyang, it has been a nice break to be here. The majority of the families who adopt from China come and stay at the White Swan on Shamian Island, so, it is like adoption Disneyland. The shops and restaurants cater to westerners and the adoption crowd. That is a bit weird too. The first morning we went down for breakfast it was pretty surreal to see all these Caucasian families with Chinese babies/kids. I am not kidding when I say the entire restaurant was filled with us adoption folk. There are 38 families from our agency alone and there are at least that many from other agencies. There are entire floors of the hotel filled with adoptive families. I felt a little embarrassed and apologetic for being a part of it. What do the Chinese really think of us, of this phenomenon? That, along with the t-shirts, and other commercialism around the China adoption experience during this part of the trip have felt a little plastic.

On the whole, China is just so very different. I wish we had more time to really see more than just a few touristy areas. The people have been so warm and friendly, so patient with us in trying to communicate. They are very interested in Bayard and Amelia. Each person who has understood that we are adopting Amelia has had a huge smile and has looked happy for us and for her. I have been incredibly impressed with how the people use the parks. There is a wonderful park next to the hotel here. Each morning there is a large group of mostly older people (all Chinese, whether it looks like Savannah or not, we are still in China) all exercising in synch. Tai Chi it seems to be. There is piped in music and direction coming from speakers somewhere. The playgrounds tend not to have benches where the adults are to sit and watch, but equipment that is meant to be used by adults and children. There are always adults there exercising. I like the focus on keeping the body healthy. Shamian Island is quite clean and there is very little smoking here, unlike in Guiyang. A funny park story… so, we went with one of the other families here (they have 4 kids—8, 4, 2, and the baby- 10 months) to explore this little amusement park part by the river. They had the smallest rides I have ever seen! A little lady was sitting there, just waiting for people to come by to ride the rides. They looked like they had been there since the 50’s. I think she may have been working there then too. She was very nice and friendly and encouraged the kids to ride. So, all the kids, with the exception of the baby hop on this one ride. It is little carriages with covered tops and a bench for 2, meant to go around in a circle. She starts up the ride and White Christmas starts playing! The ride lurches forward and jerks around the track about half way and the lady starts picking up the ride and helping it along! The 2 year old starts crying and bails, the lady motions for the 8 year old to get off, and she keeps pushing it around the track while Bayard and Emma (4 year old) sit with blank faces next to each other in the little car! It was hilarious! The lady was so nice, she had the kids get off and let them ride each of the other rides (only 3 others). The others worked fine. And Western Christmas music continued to play! The kids had a great time. It was definitely a highlight!

Amelia makes progress in settling into our family every day. Today was our best day. She is pretty funny. She is smiling more and today actually seemed to really enjoy time with me. She has some similarities to Bayard as a baby which we find funny. She is VERY vocal (lungs are working just fine…), very quick to let you know when she likes or doesn’t like something, pretty social, enjoys being in a restaurant or somewhere where there is a lot going on, sleeps well (ok, the first year he didn’t, but since then…), is a great eater, and just seems to have a similar temperament. She has a very strong grip, strong legs and arms (she can pull herself to stand, but has very little torso strength!). She has a pretty good attention span. And she seems to like books. We are looking forward to getting to know her more. Bayard is doing well. He has shown some jealousy and has had a couple meltdowns, but all in all is hanging in there. He says he misses Woobie and school. He has said a few times “ I bet Kassy misses me.” For those of you who don’t know, she is one of his neighbor friends. Having Amelia has highlighted how big he is. And it has reminded me a few times that he is still only 3 and still needs us to help him adjust to his new role as big brother. He said the other morning “I think I will take the batteries out of my ears” as he was tired of little sister’s crying. At the same time, he is excited when she plays with him without crying and he just wants to hug her all the time. He and Travis went a bargained for a dragon shirt that I have no doubt he will want to tell everyone about. He is pretty proud of it. He has a heightened interest in dragons since being here. He is planning his dragon costume for next Halloween. He has also discovered “karate guys” and enjoys working on his karate moves. He gets ideas from the Tai Chi people in the park as well as the Jackie Chan movies he and Travis have been checking out on the TV.

Anyway, tomorrow is our last day here. We will be back in Portland on Thursday! (we gain a day on the way back). We have had a very interesting trip. We keep talking about coming back to China sometime when we can devote more time to seeing much more of the beautiful country that we haven’t really been able to see this time. We feel like we have gotten just a snapshot of this huge and amazingly diverse place.

More in person… it is time for bed. We are off to the US Consulate tomorrow to do our last bit of adoption paperwork. See you all soon!

Guangzhou

2006-11-12T19:41:00.000-08:00

Well Guangzhou is very different that Guiyang. Its the 6th largest city in China, about 10 million people is what our guide said. We're staying at the White Swan Hotel which is very western, so much easier to navigate the surroundings. It actually feels like a vacation now. We;ve got a nice room, with a cool view of the Pearl River, the hotel is very large with a pool that Bayard loves to swim in. There are lots of western families with newly adopted babies so its kind of surreal....strange juxtaposition of western onto Chinese.

We've got to do a few more things with the US government leading up to our immigration finalization for Ameila at the consulate on Wed. Then we fly home on Thursday.

Things are getting better with Amelia. She really likes to be outside, go out to eat, be out where people are. She and Tracey are getting closer, but she still prefers me if we're both there. We're still working at it though and they;re having more and more happy times.

Ok this was just a quick post from the coffee shop, we'll write more tonight....

Last day in Guiyang

2006-11-10T04:47:00.000-08:00

This was our last full day in Guiyang. In the morning, we got Amelia’s final documents from the Chinese government, and also her passport. This completes just about all of the Chinese portion of the adoption process, next comes the US side in Guangzhou.

So with one day left to roam around, we went to the book store to try to find some Chinese kids books and also maybe some CDs with kids’ music. Like many of the other things we’ve seen in China, the store was pretty cool, mostly due to the many contrasts. On one hand, they had stacks of new books about how to be successful in business, “Tony Robbins-esque” motivational stuff, newspapers, popular novels, new computers for teaching kids English, etc. But the drain pipe coming out of the building had water and blood running out onto the sidewalk, the floor was dirty, and the official at the checkout line had a thread-bare military uniform that looked 40 years old and he was wearing sneakers. Outside it smelled like exhaust, cigarette smoke, and bad moth ball breath.

We had lunch at the Chinese restaurant at the hotel, stir fried vegetables and dim sum. Pretty good, but so much smoking in the dining room was hard. We decided we needed to get out of the room in the afternoon, so we walked to a new park about 20 mins away, that we had seen on the cab ride to the book store. There was lots of decoration at the entrance; apparently there is the big autumn Communist Party festival/event this weekend. Tracey will probably kick me for telling this story, but when we were in the cab earlier that day and had seen all the decorations, Bayard had asked what they were for. Our local guy Michael said it was for the Communist Party event, and Bayard asked what the Communist Party was. Tracey said it was one of the political organizations in the Chinese government……then we said actually it is THE political organization in the Chinese government. You kind of forget that things aren’t the same in the US. Sure you can go to Wal Mart, but you can’t vote, and 1.3 billion people minus one….is not that big of a deal. An individual person is not as important here as in the US.

Anyhow back to the park. We saw lots of amusement type rides and Bayard and I rode some kind of tank thing with a cannon on it, but we decided not to try the ones that could maim us if they happened to break…remember 1.3 billion minus one. We saw a cool wooded area where about 30 old men had brought their birds in cages and hung them in the trees. The birds were all singing and the men were hanging out, apparently they all come here to take their birds to the park, never seen anything like that before. There was also a market with lots of meat, vegetables, mushroom, dried chili peppers, Buddhist beads, jade, etc. But the one thing that really stood out was the dried hog faces for sale. They were about the size of Frisbees with ears sticking out….whoa. Bayard was really excited that we found a playground, but it was kind of hard to find a piece of equipment to play on because all the octogenarians were using them to work out. One guy was trying to chop down a tree with his fore arms (think Jean-Claude Van Damme movie with a really old Chinese guy) then he made it across about 3 of the monkey bars, finishing his workout with some leg waving while holding on the tree he never could chop down. Bayard finally got going on an apparatus, but then got mobbed by a group of 10 year old girls in matching track suits. I think it was the Guizhou Experimental Middle School, but there are lots of track suits that look alike here. So they were all trying to take pictures with him, pick him up, say “Hello” and giggle. We did pictures with each and every one of them, then he decided he was done with being a rock star, so we headed back to the hotel for dinner.

During this whole afternoon, Tracey was going hard core with Amelia, battling through the screamy times with her in the chest pack. Amelia still has a very strong preference for me (Travis) when we’re both around, so we are trying to get her some more Tracey time to even things out. She is happy, eating well, sleeping well, and has the softest skin you can imagine, very bright shiny eyes, exceptionally strong-willed and squirmy. She is pretty tuned in to what is going on, so we’re off to a good start.

Next stop is Guangzhou tomorrow, it’s the capital of Guangdong province in southern China if you want to check it out on a map or Google Earth.

More pictures

2006-11-10T01:20:00.000-08:00

Here are two more from village the other day...

2006-11-09T18:03:00.000-08:00

Seeing if I can get a few pictures to go up......

More on Guiyang

2006-11-08T23:15:00.000-08:00

So, I left off last night at our trip to the “ancient Chinese village.” We went to dinner that night at a restaurant near our hotel. It was pretty nice and the food was relatively good. Bayard’s favorite was the preserved egg. Really, he keeps asking when he can have more preserved egg. Nice to have an adventurous eater for a kid.

Wed…

We were off to another village. This time of the Miao (like “meow”) people, likely Amelia’s heritage (there are a large number of different cultural groups here within China). Bayard was a little resistant, and to be honest, I wasn’t that excited about another experience like the day before either, however, this was completely different. It was great actually. The people there were expecting us and dressed in traditional clothing and basically put on a show for us. Apparently this group likes to drink, a lot. Our guide gave us the lowdown on the bus before we got there. The tradition is to be greeted by a man with a water buffalo horn filled with rice wine. Each person is to take a sip. It was recommended that we each keep our hands behind our backs as if we touched the horn, we would be expected to “bottom up” or drink the whole thing! The people sang traditional songs and danced traditional dances in which they included people from our group, including me (Tracey)! It seems I am now married to one of the village men. Then, at the end, it was expected that we have a “musical conversation” – they sang a traditional song, then we sing one, etc for 3 songs each. On the bus we practiced three songs that we felt would best reflect our culture…. Picture a large group of Americans singing the following incredibly off key…Jingle Bells, Happy Birthday, and You are My Sunshine. It was pretty funny. They had all of us laughing. Bayard was much relieved and had his share of laughs as well. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

To comment some more on the pollution… the air is rarely clear. It is mostly hazy from pollution and it always smells of car exhaust and garbage and other more unfamiliar odors. On our way to the Miao village yesterday we saw coal mining and power plants set up right next to people’s homes. Many of the young children also wear split pants and no diapers, so when they need to “go” they just stop and squat in the middle of the city sidewalk, then, much of the time, their parents pick it up like we do for our dogs. However, not everyone is as conscientious… There are just so many things here that are so very different from home.

On wed afternoon, Bayard, Travis, Amelia and I took a walk a few blocks from our hotel (toward the Walmart!) and decided to head down this stinky alley way. You turned left off the sidewalk and headed down about 8 stairs into a market. A lady at the front of the market by the stairs was cooking stinky fermented tofu which is quite pungent. Then, we realized we were in a meat market. Clearly, refrigeration is overrated. The meat was all out on tables and hung on hooks. Once we got past the stinky tofu, the smell was actually better than out on the street. What struck me most was not the piles of cut meat, or the hanging ducks and pigs with bodies intact including heads, but the dogs that were hanging, skinned and cleaned, ready for purchase. Yes, I said dogs. I had heard that many parts of China enjoy dog meat, but I don’t know that I really thought it was a mainstream food until yesterday. Such a different culture. This is by truly an adventure. I have never been somewhere where I stand out so much not just in my appearance (I am actually relatively tall here!) but more so in my social understanding/social skills. I have been to other countries, other large cities, but never somewhere where I was this foreign. I keep thinking, there are 4 Chinese for every 1 American. Many more people live like this than how we do. Very interesting.

How is Amelia doing you ask? She is making progress everyday. She smiles more and more. She is very cute! Our day today has had little or no crying! Wahoo! She continues to sleep really well, all night long! And two naps a day! Bayard is very cute with her and wants to help so much! She definitely checks him out. She still prefers Travis, but is continuing to warm up to me. Travis is sleeping with Bayard and I am sleeping with Amelia. Last night she wanted full body contact all night, but slept really well—8pm-7:30am! She wakes up for a bottle at around 4:30 or 5 and then goes right back to sleep. It is great! As for her development, she is sitting up, but is a bit wobbly and can’t get herself there. She is definitely NOT crawling, but LOVES to stand and is pretty stable. We plan to nip that in the bud! No exersaucer for her! Lots of time on the floor when we get home and I am sure she will catch up. She doesn’t seem to have any health issues at all. We sent a camera to her foster family a few weeks before we came on the trip and we had the pictures developed yesterday. Wow. They really loved her. They had a lovely home and she is a beaming, happy child in those pictures. They gave our family quite a gift in loving her so much. I have no doubt that she will be able to settle happily into our family in large part because they made her such a part of theirs.

Today (Thursday) we had a down day. Just hung out and played. Talked to other people in our travel group. Went to the park by the Walmart that the enormous statue of Mao looks over with his hand raised high. There are some grassy areas, but none are available for sitting or walking on, only concrete paths. Again, just different from our concept of a park. Amelia is napping right now and Bayard is watching Dora (the DVD player was a good buy!). We have one more day here (we get our notarized copies of our adoption documents and Amelia’s Chinese passport tomorrow) and then Saturday we are off to Guangzhou for the US government part of the adoption process. We will meet up with a bunch of the other travel groups from our adoption agency. They all picked their children up from different provinces. We are more than halfway through our trip. We are looking forward to moving on to the next phase. Then it is back home. More later….

A few more days in Guiyang

2006-11-08T04:38:00.000-08:00

Well, 2 days have passed without a blog entry. Believe it or not, we have been rather busy. Our second day with Amelia was less screamy than the first. She is definitely checking us out and slowly trusting us more. She is a great sleeper (yeah!) and is eating well too. So, those are two big hurdles down. She has a great affinity for Travis and is warming up to me. She has smiled and played with Bayard some too.

Here is the breakdown of the last two days adventures…

Monday… We met in the lobby of our hotel, all 8 families with babies in tow. We are quite a novelty here in Guiyang. We headed over to a government building to do some paperwork for the adoption. In all the chaos of the day before and our first morning with Amelia, I had completely forgotten why we were going on this outing. I just knew I needed a diaper bag with bottles, extra clothes, diapers, etc – all that baby gear we haven’t carried around in a couple years! We all sat in a dank and stuffy room with intermittently crying babies (Amelia sat happily with Travis the entire time!) for 2 hours signing official looking papers written in Chinese. At the end, we were given a little red book with our official adoption paperwork! “Congratulations! You are officially parents!” we were told. Ah, THAT is why we went on this outing!

The rest of the day was spent around the hotel.

Tuesday…

Back on the bus for a tour to an “ancient Chinese village.” Wow. I wish we could get the pictures to go up on the blog. It was like walking back in time. I don’t even know how to describe it. I would like to say that it was beautiful and paint a more positive picture, but in reality, I found it more sad. There were vendors lined up on somewhat narrow alleys selling “local handicrafts” and then there were food vendors alongside what appeared to be people’s homes. It was difficult not to notice the filth mixed in with everything. Much of the China we have seen seems polluted and dirty to my western eye. This village was no exception. The “squat potties” which are common in China (the clean modern ones are ok, just a porcelain hole in the floor that you “squat” over, no flushing, so they can be fairly stinky even in a clean modern bathroom), but the ones in the village, well, there was a small open air kind of building with two concrete hole/shoots that led out to the field behind the building. There was plenty of raw sewage there to let you know where to go if you needed to, which, unfortunately, I did. On the upside, Bayard found a great wooden sword there he is excited about. He has been doing lots of karate moves and slaying dragons with it (he was inspired to do much karate when we saw the HUGE Bruce Lee statue in Honk Kong—again, wish we could get pictures to go up!). On the downside, Bayard actually got really scared at the village. The people here stare at us a great deal and like to come up and touch Bayard and look at Amelia. They have a different social more around personal space and it kind of freaked him out. Then, just as we were helping him calm down some, an old lady who had most likely never been to a dentist, and had one empty crusty eye socket (yes, I am saying she was missing an eye.) came up and got in his space. He got pretty freaked out. He has been such a trooper this whole time. He is hanging in there.

OK, getting late, will post more soon….

The big day was much sadder than we expected

2006-11-04T22:36:00.000-08:00

We got to Guiyang last night and checked into the hotel. Got the best night sleep so far, everyone made it to about 6:30am. Westerners are much more of novelty here than in Hong Kong. Lots of people look twice as they pass us on the street and many want to touch and hold Bayard. He’s not really digging that, so my new job is to act as his body guard while at the same time trying to be friendly and smile.

Michael our adoption agency rep here let us know that they will bring the babies to the hotel at noon, and that will make a trip to Wal Mart at 9:30am to pickup up supplies beforehand. I thought I had heard him incorrectly…..we flew 7000 miles around the world to go to Wal Mart? But sure enough we found ourselves in the Guiyang Wal Mart this morning right across from a huge statue of Chairman Mao. You can all draw your own opinions about that.

So at 12noon we went down to Michael’s room and everyone gathered in the hall to get the babies. The foster families and orphanage directors were there and they handed over the babies one by one. It was exciting, surreal, and very emotional. These Chinese foster families had been taking care of these kids for over 6 months and now were giving them up to us in a hotel hallway.

We tried to let them know how much we appreciated their taking care of Amelia, but words just didn’t get the feelings across. We did a few hugs and pats on the shoulder as we all took pictures together, but then was it, they went down in the elevator and we went into our hotel room. It was really hard to see them have to walk away from these kids and know that they will never see them again.

Amelia began to cry as soon as they handed her over, which really let us know she was clearly very well cared for. She was very sad and mad to be taken away from her foster family. We wrapped her up held her about an hour and a half until she fell asleep.

She seems healthy, very tuned in to what’s going on around her. We’re thankful to have what looks like a good start to things with her. We've got the rest of her life to have great days, but this one turned out to be much sadder than we had expected with seeing her foster family say goodbye to her.

Don't want to end this on a sad note though, we're very excited and looking forward to getting to know each other over the next week here in Guiyang. Stay tuned.....

We're Here...!

2006-11-03T16:24:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it to Hong Kong. The 14.5 hour flight really wasn’t that bad. Bayard enjoyed a couple hours of Dora the Explorer and Little Einsteins and then slept for about 6 hours. We ate a few times—Bayard was given special “kid’s meal” and it was clearly geared for the “American kid”…mac and cheese, corn dogs, fish sticks and fries, jello, and a Lilo and Stitch backpack with various toys inside! Pretty funny.

The Hong Kong airport is new and HUGE!!!!! Very orderly. Customs went quickly. Then we walked out into the sea of mostly Asian faces with signs calling to those they were meeting. We were greeted by two lovely Chinese women with a huge sign with our adoption agency name on it. It started to get a bit more real at that point. We were the first of 3 families to arrive in that wave of our travel group. The other two came in shortly after us. Bayard made fast friends with Joanne, one of our guides and walked with her through the crowded airport while Travis and I wrangled our bags to the bus. We were off to our hotel.

A 16 hour time difference is a big deal. We are still working on adjusting. We are all pretty much awake at 3-4 am HK time. Bayard is such a trooper! The time thing will get better I am sure.

We’re staying at the Regal Kowloon Hotel and its been pretty nice. The food has been good, lots of different Chinese dishes to try and also some western stuff as well to fill in the gaps. We had a big lunch with the travel group yesterday, Chinese family style with lots of tasty dim sum.

Most of yesterday (Friday) was taken up by the required HK “tour.” A somewhat painful bus ride through the windy and congested streets of HK with the rest of our tour group (8 families in all). For those of us (Tracey) prone to motion sickness, well, it was even more painful. Lots of stops at shopping areas and a decent amount of encouragement to spend some dollars. It gave us an opportunity to get to know our group a bit better and Bayard has made great friends with a 5 year old little girl named Sage who is here to meet her mei-mei (little sister) as well. She was adopted from China 3 years ago. She is adorable and a good match for Bayard. They have been holding hands and chatting all around HK. Our group is full of really nice families who seem to be pretty easy going.

Its been good to have a gradual adjustment to Asia here in HK, still lots of English and western stuff. Our flight to Guiyang is at 6pm this evening, we’ll see how different things are in PRC.

Tomorrow we meet Amelia!

Halloween!

2006-10-31T20:19:00.000-08:00

Well, Bayard had multiple costumes this year. Here are the photos.... they represent Sheriff Dash (a hybrid costume), "Super Metal Man"(all his own design), and Spiderman. Ah, preschoolers, gotta love em. He had a great time trick or treating with the neighbors tonight (he was Spiderman tonight, Super Metal Man for the Lantern Walk (although got out of costume before we got there as Travis mentioned that he may have some trouble if there was lightening, apparently this was a bit too much for the 3.5 yr old to process and realize dad was joking...), and Sheriff Dash for our neighbor's Halloween party on Sat. Fun times were had by all. He is looking forward to next year. Well, I am having a hard time uploading the photos... and I need to get packing...we are leaving in the morning! So, I will try the photos again another time.

More from China!

2 more sleeps...

2006-10-30T20:04:00.000-08:00

So I just checked out the weather for our trip. Here is the breakdown (and the itinerary)...

Hong Kong : 80's and mostly sunny!
11/1-11/4 (in reality, we lose a day, so we are really only there one full day, we get into HK thurs night and then leave for Guiyang on sat 11/4) Friday is a free day to roam around HK
Guiyang: just like Portland! 60's and good chance of rain!
11/4- fly in
11/5- GOTCHA DAY! (for those of you not in the know about adoption lingo, this means the day we meet and "get" Amelia! so, "gotcha")
11/6- appointments related to adoption with the Chinese government and the orphanage that has managed Amelia's care since she was found last Feb. We agree to care for her, educate her, and love her as "our own", etc.
11/7-11/9 (tues-thurs) are down days. We are free to roam around Guiyang, and get aquainted with Amelia.
11/10- we get the notarized documents from the Chinese government that say we are officially Amelia's parents!
11/11- get Amelia's Chinese passport and other official documents (she will have a Chinese passport until we apply for a US one when we get back home). This is also the day we fly to Guangzhou where the US Consulate is
Guangzhou -- 80's and mostly sunny!
11/12 (sunday) - free time in Guangzhou!
11/13 - Amelia gets a physical exam and a photo for her US Visa!
11/14- An appointment at the US Consulate related to legalizing the adoption with the US government
11/15- take the US adoption oath! WE ARE LEGALLY HER PARENTS IN THE EYES OF THE US!!!
11-16- Fly to HK and then on to LA and then back to Portland! HOME AT LAST!

Whew. I am tired already. Did I mention excited too? Here we go.....

2006-10-29T12:01:00.000-08:00

Here are our most recent pictures of Amelia. These were taken on Oct 7 2006. I wonder how much different she will look when we get her next sunday? Wow. One more week!

We have spent much of today looking at all the stuff we are taking with us. Wow. We are working hard on being minimalists, but...all the "what if's" have us packing more than we will likely need, especially in the area of just-in-case medications! We hit the traveler's clinic and they loaded us up. Let's hope we don't need any of them!

We are off to a Lantern Walk tonight with Bayard's school. What is a Lantern Walk you ask... here is what Bayard's school says...

The lantern walk is a time honored tradition that marks the coming of Winter. Parents and children are invited to dress up in their favorite winter costume and take a walk through Fernhill Park. Children walk carrying handmade lanterns. These lanterns represent the warm season that has passed and eternal life. Along the path, “treats” (snacks, polished rocks, shells) can be collected and stored in pockets. The walk ends and families form a large circle and blow out their candles.

Groovy you say? Well, we do live in Portland.

Ok, I will try and post some Halloween/Lantern Walk pictures later.

2006-10-28T21:58:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am figuring out how to load pictures on here. It isn't really very hard... here is one of us in the backyard this August. Hmmm.... this blogging thing is pretty cool....

4 more days til China...

2006-10-28T21:56:00.000-07:00

Well, it is saturday night and we are getting closer and closer to our trip. We meet Amelia a week from tomorrow! Hard to believe. I thought it might make sense to try and figure out this blog deal to let people follow us while we are in China... we'll see how it goes...