Glamour Girl-isms

Some of the things that the glamour girls say crack me up and other things really make me think before I can answer.

It has been really cold here and while I was getting breakfast ready one morning Mia was complaining that she was cold, so I told her to go get under the blanket in my bed where her Daddy was still sleeping. Of course, he wasn’t sleeping long with Mia in the bed. So, they started chatting. All of a sudden Mia sat up, looked at Chuck and asked, “Daddy, where are your jammies?” I entered the room just in time to hear her question and burst out laughing. Of course that led to a game of trying to figure out who took Daddy’s jammies! I promised Chuck that I would add a disclaimer that he does not sleep in the nude, but he doesn’t wear a shirt.

Emily was congested and not feeling well again earlier this week. She was up at 4 AM one morning coughing, so I was sitting with her for awhile after I gave her medication and a drink of water. She had complained about having to take medicine and I was explaining that the medicine was necessary to help her get better. She was quiet for awhile and then said, “Mommy, I thought that Jesus healed everybody.” Gulp…pause…think, think, think. I finally pulled together an explanation saying that the stories that we have been reading about Jesus healing the sick all took place while he was here on earth. But, since he’s in heaven now, we need to pray to ask him to help heal us, so the healing might take a little longer.

These two girls are my joy, my reality check, my humor, and the loves of my life (in addition to Jesus and their awesome Daddy). I am so blessed!

More Like...

The House o’ Germs rather than the House o’ Glamour around here, which explains my lack of blogging! Everyone has been sick including me and a sick Glamour Mommy is not a good thing. I’m crossing my fingers when I say that everyone seems to be on the mend. We have had a rough couple of months, but hopefully the arrival of warmer weather will have us healthy for a good long stretch!

Although there was illness, we enjoyed dying eggs for Easter and having an indoor egg hunt!

We were supposed to go camping last weekend with our friends Robyn and Erin and their families, but had to cancel because of…illness. After reading Robyn’s post, we’re almost glad that we were sick! So glad y’all weathered the storm and made it home safely…except for Erin and Bob’s tent!

Even though we didn’t get to camp, we had S’mores on Saturday night. I had all the fixin’s and was determined to introduce the girls to their first S’mores. The photos say it all…

Finally, I’ve been working on a pretty big project that I plan (hope) to tell you about it in the next few days. I’ve been having a great time with it and I’m excited to share it with y’all!

Speaking of sharing…the system that tracks my blog showed that there were 128 visits to My Glamorous Life last week. Hello! Don’t be shy! Let me know that you’ve stopped by to visit and how you found me if you aren’t a real life friend. And, invite me to come by to visit your place, if you have a blog. I’m not fishing for loads of comments…well, maybe a little…but I really would love to know who is stopping by!

Baby Sister Jing Yong

On November 2, 2006, I introduced our baby sister Guo Jing Yong.

We recently received an update about Jing Yong. This is the report that was written on September 30, 2006 by her nanny Wang Da Yu.

"Jing Yong is now more than seven months old, and she is able to roll herself easily in bed. She tries to fetch her favorite toy by bending down till her stomach reaches the floor. She is able to sit for a while, but still she has difficulties to sit straightly. She is able to play toys with both of her hands, and she often strikes the toys. When I call her name, she immediately looks up at me and smiles to me, making the sounds “ah ah” to me. When I reach out my hands to hug her, she will also reach out her hands to hold my hands tightly. She will also become so excited that she keeps kicking her feet.

In the next three months, I will help her learn to crawl and stand."

Due to the costs associated with sending color photos of the sponsored children, Half the Sky has shifted to emailing quarterly progress reports. This quarter we have a black and white photo of Jing Yong, but next quarter we should receive a full color report via email. We can’t wait!



Jing Yong turned one on February 15th. At the time that this report was written by Da Yu, Jing Yong would have been at the age of possibly being referred to a family for adoption. Has she since been adopted by a family in China or the United States or Canada or somewhere else in the world? I search the adoption groups every month when referrals are announced looking for her name. We may never know where she grows up, but she will always be remembered by our family and she will always be one of the glamour girls.

Boots!

Although it was sunny and in the 70s today, Mia decided that she needed to wear her boots today...all day...even while she napped! Pop Pop snapped these photos and they were too cute...I had to scrap them right away!

Papers: Oooh La La kit by Leah Riordan, Swirl Frames: Aqua Dreams Kit by Gina Cabrera, Font: You Are Loved by Kimberly Geswin

Happy 4th Birthday Emily!

Although Emily was thrilled to pieces to finally be four, I’m still in disbelief (denial) that my first baby turned FOUR years old on Saturday! Since both girls celebrate their birthdays so close to Christmas and the New Year, we decided early on that we would keep their birthday celebrations a small family affair (with a bigger ½ year party in the summer). When we first met Emily at 11 months old she weighed 15 lbs. and was 27-1/2 inches long. Today she weighs 32 lbs. on a heavy day and is 39-1/2 inches tall.


Emily chose Olive Garden for dinner and Daddy made her birthday cake in the afternoon. After stuffing ourselves with salad, breadsticks and pasta, we came home to open a few gifts, sing Happy Birthday and enjoy Emily’s birthday cake choice – chocolate with white icing!

At the ripe old age of four…Emily is anxious to go to school (we’re looking for a preschool now where she will start in August), she recognizes all the letters of the alphabet along with their sounds, she is starting to spell simple words and wants so badly to know how to read (we’re working on it!). She can spend hours (if only Mommy would let her) playing with the Leapster L-MAX that Santa delivered on Christmas morning. She also enjoys cooking in the new kitchen, and still loves to build things with Mega-blocks. She continues to adore Winnie the Pooh (one of her first loves and first words), and can be found sleeping with a menagerie every night including Lumpy the elephant, Shamu, a colorful caterpillar, a giraffe, a little lamb and quite often a selection of books!

Emily loves…Lumpy and her blankie (can’t go to bed without them), movies, talking…a lot, all vegetables, but broccoli, carrots and peas most of all, looking at the moon, Peanuts (as in Charlie Brown and the gang), chocolate, gymnastics, swim school, anything glittery, her baby sister (most of the time), rock music (yea, that’s my girl!), learning Chinese, her best friend ever...Mollianne, coloring, and singing.

She is not so fond of…going to bed, cleaning up, and her sister’s fascination with her toys.


A Peanuts clock for my room!















A porcelain doll from Grandma and Grandpa.














A new game for my L-MAX...can I go play now?!














Silly sisters!














Blowing out the candles...














Let's eat!














Happy Birthday Boo! Mommy and Daddy love you to the moon and back again…and then, some more!

Happy Birthday Mia!

My BABY turned TWO today! How can that be? Just yesterday, she was swimming in 9 month size clothes and today she fits perfectly in a size 2T. On the day that she was first weighed and measured at the social welfare institute, she weighed 6.93 lbs. and was 19.31 inches long. Today, she weighs 28.5 lbs. and is 34-1/2 inches tall.

At two Mia loves…Pooh, her blankie, milk, her big sister (most of the time), cooking in the play kitchen, yogurt, Rice Crispies, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day for lunch, any carbohydrate, swinging, dancing, forward rolls, swimming, laughing, singing and talking a lot.

She’s not so fond of…vegetables, Daddy in the bike helmet, having her diaper changed, and sitting still for too long especially at the table.

What we hear most from Mia…Mooooooommy! Daddeeeeeeeeee! Emi! I don’t know. I did it! Pooh!? Blankie!? Do you want some? I can do it! Hello, Pop Pop (into her play phone). Read it! Delicious! Beautiful! Love you!

Her favorite songs…Row, Row, Row Your Boat, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and Rock-a-by Baby

Photos from today...



















































































































Happy Birthday, my sweet and silly baby girl! Mommy and Daddy love you all the way to the moon and back again and then some more!

Celebrating Three Years...Part Three

I can’t believe that it will be Christmas Day a week from today! It has been obscenely warm – in the mid- to high-seventies – for the past week and it does nothing to get me in the holiday spirit. As much as I love living in this southern climate, I would like a chill in the air at this time of the year. So, I’m going to turn up the air conditioner and the volume on the radio that is playing non-stop Christmas music that will sadly and abruptly end early the morning of December 26th.

Here is the last section of what I wrote in December of 2004, on the anniversary of our first year with Emily. If you’ve missed parts one and two you can read them here and here.

Being an American in China with a Chinese Baby

Long before we submitted our dossier to China, someone told me that once we came home with our daughter, we would lose all anonymity. Being an American in China with a Chinese baby certainly doesn’t give you any opportunity to blend in. We quickly got used to being stared at while we toured and shopped with our daughters. We were often stopped by groups of people who wanted to look at the babies and touch them for good luck. As we expected, we got the thumbs up several times and older women made sure that the girls were sufficiently bundled.

One of my favorite interactions was while we were shopping at the Shangxiajiu Pedestrian Mall in Guangzhou. A young girl, probably a college student, came up to me and said, “Your baby looks Chinese.” I told her that my baby is Chinese. I explained that my husband and I adopted her in Hunan province so now she is our daughter and that we are taking her to the United States. The young student’s eyes grew wide; she reached out to touch Emily and said very slowly, “She is such a lucky girl.” Her simple words were so powerful and held so much meaning beneath the surface.

I learned from our guide that it is very difficult for young Chinese women to get a visa to come to the United States. She explained that the government is worried that the young women will get married when they are in the United States and not return to China. I was dumbstruck that most young people in China would not have the opportunity to come to the United States or a European country to study or simply take a vacation. We witnessed hundreds of Chinese waiting for visa appointments when we went to the American Consulate in Guangzhou. Our guide told us that the people that we saw standing in line at 10:00 in the morning had probably been waiting for several hours since the early morning and only a small fraction would be granted a visa.

Coming Home

I was surprised by the rush of emotions I felt when the plane lifted off from Tokyo. I wiped tears from my eyes when we said good-bye to our two guides at the security check point in Guangzhou on our way to Hong Kong. I wiped tears from my eyes again as we said our good-byes to our travel mates when we went our separate ways at the airport in Hong Kong. But, when that plane lifted off from Tokyo, I sobbed. It’s difficult to put the variety of emotions that I had at that moment into words. I wept for Emily’s birth parents who will never know that the tiny baby who was left at the gates of an orphanage is on her way to America. I wept for the babies who would never have someone to call Mommy and Daddy. I wept with joy for the gift of the beautiful child sitting on my lap who looked at me and everything new around her with wonder. I was happy and I was sad all at once. I was happy to be going home, but I wasn’t sure when I would be able to go back to China and experience more of my daughter’s birth country. I was happy for all the new friends that we made during our trip, but uncertain when and if we would ever see them again. I was relieved that everything had gone smoothly while we were in China, but scared about what daily life would be like once we got home. Going to China to adopt our daughter Emily certainly wasn’t a vacation, but it was an unbelievably amazing and fulfilling experience.

Our story certainly doesn’t end here. In fact, it’s just beginning.

Celebrating Three Years...Part Two

On Thursday night we went out for pizza to celebrate Emily’s Family Day – yes, pizza. I asked her if she wanted pizza (our normal Thursday night out) or Chinese food. She chose pizza, but was most interested in getting back home for the pink frosted cupcakes with sprinkles.

We sang “Happy Family Day to you…” to the tune of Happy Birthday and she blew out a candle. Then, she opened a gift that we bought while we were in China three years ago – a Hello Kitty utensil set with a fork, a spoon and pink chopsticks. I had to quickly wash the spoon so she could use it! This was the first year that we gave her one of the many gifts that we purchased on our two trips. We chose not to give her gifts to celebrate her first and second year because she didn’t understand what family day really meant. After we finished our cupcakes, we watched the video of the day that we held Emily for the first time.



Here is part two of the story of our journey to parenthood…

Our Introduction to Parenthood

Did we sleep? Of course not! When our daughter slept, we were either trying to get organized for the next round of feeding/changing/touring/paperwork or we were hovering over the crib marveling at this child who they were going to let us take home. Several times during our two weeks in China, we would become giddy with the thought that this little girl was truly ours. She was going to call us Mommy and Daddy.

We were thrust into parenthood before we had time to catch our breath. There wasn’t a nurse on call who could help with feeding or take her to the nursery so we could get some rest or clean up messes. Our first morning as a family, we were enjoying breakfast in the hotel dining room when Emily suddenly started vomiting. Without even thinking about what I was doing, I put my hand out and caught her vomit before it hit her or the floor. That was just the first of three public vomiting episodes during our trip! Several families in our travel group dubbed me a five star Mommy for my quick reflexes and instinct!

During the next 11 days, we got to know each other. We may have made a few mistakes during our first few days as new parents, but we’re not quite sure. If we did, it doesn’t seem to have had any effect on our daughter. She quickly and whole-heartedly attached to me and wanted nothing to do with her Daddy while we were in China. Thankfully, we talked about the possibility of her attaching to one of us and not the other. However, talking about it didn’t prepare me for the physical toll that it would take on my body. Several nights, I would wake with a start because my arms would start twitching and I felt like I still had Emily in my arms. We took all our cues from Emily and slowly introduced her to the stroller, which she would eventually ride and sleep in. It was impossible to try to get on any type of schedule while in China. Again, we took our cues from Emily. We fed her as close as possible to the schedule provided by the orphanage, but would feed her more when she wanted more. She slept while we were on the go, usually with her head on my chest while we rode on the bus. We put her down every night at the time indicated by the orphanage; however, she didn’t sleep the 12 hours that they said she slept each night. We were usually up two to three times every night for a feeding, but she would go right back to sleep once her belly was full.

Our First Crisis

Emily had a cold when she came to us. It quickly moved to her chest and she developed a horrible cough. On our third night together, she started coughing so hard that she threw up – all over herself and all over me. It was close to 2:00 in the morning, by the time we got everything cleaned up and then, she just lay in my arms crying and whimpering. I have never felt so helpless in all my life, which made me start to cry. Daddy came to the rescue and called our pediatrician back in the U.S. Thankfully, we caught them just before they left for lunch. Our pediatrician was wonderful. She listened to Emily coughing over the phone and suggested that we start her right away on the antibiotic that we took with us. So, there we were in the wee hours of the morning, mixing the powdered antibiotic with bottled water. We laugh when we talk about it now because we had to mix the powder with 50 ml of water and we only had a 3 ml dropper to measure the water. The two of us sat there counting out loud together. Within 24 hours of starting Emily on the antibiotic, she was doing much better. I really appreciate it now when Emily gets sick and I can make an appointment to see the pediatrician within a few hours.

******************************************

As we watched the video on Thursday night, we marveled at how tiny Emily was when we first met her. She had chubby cheeks that were deceiving because the rest of her was so small...only 15 lbs. at 11-1/2 months. Although she is still quite petite, she has grown so much in the past three years...and so have we. We love you Boo!


Coming next: The final installments…Being an American in China with a Chinese Baby and Coming Home.

Celebrating Three Years with Emily

Today we celebrate the three year anniversary of the day that we first held our daughter Emily. On the anniversary of her first year with us, I wrote about the journey that led us to a conference room in a hotel in China where we finally became parents. It’s a six page story, so I thought that I would break it down into a few segments starting with making it public and our “gotcha day,” which we now call our Family Day. That way, you won’t have to send out for lunch while reading it and I’ll have blog content for a few days while I try to finish up my Christmas to-do list! Enjoy!

December 14, 2003...seconds after being placed in my arms















And, now...














Once we decided that we were going to adopt a baby girl from China, we were giddy with excitement!

Making it Public

We had a family vacation planned early the summer of 2002 and decided that we would share our news with most of our family then. Since we had been trying so long to become parents, we wanted a special way of telling our families. I made note cards that read, “When a child is born, invisible red threads reach out from the child’s spirit and connects to all important people who will enter the child’s life. As the child grows, the threads shorten, bringing closer those people who are destined to be together. Please pray as we begin our journey to bring home the daughter who grows in our hearts, and to whom you will be an important person.” There was silence as everyone read their card and pandemonium ensued once our message began to make sense. My dad cried, my mother-in-law screamed, and my sister-in-law didn’t quite get it at first. She thought that I was pregnant and couldn’t figure out why I was drinking a margarita!

On that day, our adoption journey publicly began. A few days later, we were doing some shopping and ran into a family with twins who they adopted in China. This is really the first time that we met someone who had adopted their children in China and the first time that we told someone outside our family that we were adopting. We entered a whole new world with its own unique language. My husband enjoyed telling people that we were expecting and then, watching them look at my (relatively) flat stomach. We started to meet others who have adopted or who know someone who has adopted.

Friends with biological children told me how lucky I was going to be not having to experience labor and delivery followed by those first months home with a newborn. I’d now like to tell those same friends that getting your child in a hotel in a foreign country isn’t exactly free of stress or fatigue. However, like those who have gone through a pregnancy, labor and delivery, I quickly forgot the anxiety of the long wait for our referral and the grueling 24 hour trip to China when they placed our daughter in my arms. Our “gotcha” moment was not what I thought it would be. I played it over in my mind several hundred times during our wait. I imagined crying uncontrollably, maybe even falling on the floor, when they handed my daughter to me. But, I didn’t shed one tear! I was in awe of this beautiful, screaming child who I held in my arms. It was almost as if I was outside of myself and some sort of instinct took over.

Gotcha Day

Our gotcha day started early in the morning with a short bus ride from the Sino Swiss Hotel in Beijing to the airport for our flight to Changsha, the capital city of Hunan province. This is where we would meet our daughter, whose face we memorized from her tiny referral photo. Our flight out of Beijing was delayed and our group lounged on the floor of the crowded airport while we waited to learn when we would finally be on our way. We took pictures of each other, wrote in our travel journals, shared our stories, and made small talk. When we finally made it to Changsha, we boarded our bus for a 45 minute ride to the Gold Source Hotel where we would meet our babies. By the time we got off the bus, checked into the hotel, found our rooms and our luggage was delivered, we had about 10 minutes before we had to report to the conference room on the 29th floor. I was still in disbelief that we were actually going to become parents in a few short minutes. The nine families in our travel group milled around the conference room, checked that our cameras were ready to capture the moment, and engaged in senseless chitchat. A few minutes after arriving, we could hear babies crying in the hallway. That’s when I got that feeling in the pit of my stomach and I thought that I was going to cry. I vaguely remember our guide calling one or two families to come forward for their daughter. Then, I saw her! As soon as the nanny carried our daughter in the room, I knew that it was Emily. I heard the nanny say, “Dong Tian” very quietly and before our guide could say our name, I rushed forward to take my daughter into my arms. She was crying very hard and she was the most beautiful child that I have ever seen. She continued to cry, with a scream thrown in every once in awhile, and push my face away for close to two hours. Some time during those two hours, my husband called his brother to tell them that we had Emily. It was 4:30 am in Texas. I tried to talk to my sister-in-law, but couldn’t hear her with Emily crying in my arms. I carefully removed the heavily padded orange coat and pants that Emily was wearing and discovered that she had on two more layers. Her hysterical crying started to subside and was replaced with periodic gasps and hiccups. She finally fell asleep in my arms. I placed her in the crib provided by the hotel and we hovered over her just watching her sleep.

We were parents!

When Emily woke, she was much more relaxed and happy. We carefully peeled off the remaining layers of clothing to uncover a child much tinier than we expected. We gave her a sponge bath on the bathroom counter and dressed her in an outfit we brought from home, which was much too big on her. The two of us couldn’t stop staring at her.

Coming next…Our Introduction to Parenthood and photos from the Family Day celebration that we'll have tonight.

It's Snowing! Look! It's Snowing!

Emily was so excited about the snow (really ice mixed with a few flurries) that she couldn't take a nap yesterday. She was up and dressed again after laying in her bed for about 3 minutes, looking out the window for another 40 and then, taking another 3 minutes to slowly creep out of her room. When I woke Mia from her nap, I bundled them up in two jackets each because we don’t have “real” winter coats and we went outside. It was still flurrying and Emily started running around the yard yelling, “It’s snowing! It’s snowing! Look Mia, it’s snowing!” Mia wouldn’t step off the patio and kept repeating, “Snow!” When they called Grammy and Pop Pop last night, Emily told them it was the first time that she ever saw snow. And, in reality, it is the first time that she’s ever been out in the snow. She had chicken pox when it snowed in February of 2004 and she was sick last winter when we had a dusting of snow. Hooray! She was healthy enough to go out in the snow yesterday. And, I let them go because who knows if we’ll see any more snow this winter! Enjoy the few photos that we got in the 5 minutes that we were outside…not kidding! The first photo was taken at 4:40 and the last at 4:45! It was about 30 degrees and windy…BRRRRR!

All bundled up! Let's go Mom!














Look it snowed in my house!














I think I'll sit in the snow. Emily recognizes that's not such a good idea when you no longer wear a diaper.














Let's go in...it's ccccccccccold out here!














The perfect night for soup and grilled cheese sandwiches!

On another note: Obviously, it's a good strategy to call out your lurkers because they just might leave a comment. Love ya Cathy (and Lisa because I know you're out there lurking too...your sister told me)!

Isn't It Ironic and Decking the Halls

This weekend while I was cleaning our bedroom, I decided to clean out and organize the drawer in my bedside table. I keep hand lotion and lip balm in there to use before I go to sleep as well as a few random books and magazines that I’m in the process of reading.

Way down at the bottom I discovered my copy of Love and Logic Magic for Early Childhood. I bought this right before Emily turned two and she has been reaping the consequences…I mean benefits…ever since.
















When I picked up the book, I noticed a black smudge on the front. I wondered to myself what it was as I rubbed my finger over the mark. As I rubbed, I discovered that there was actually a lump underneath the smudge. Now, what could that be? I opened the front cover to discover this…
















Raisins and Cheerio's!

Believe it or not, this is not the handiwork of the child who you might think would do this…you know, my youngest child who mangles glasses. I know this because I do not allow the two of them have snacks in my bedroom. Obviously, I shouldn’t have let Emily have snacks in my room while I was in the shower!

I just had to laugh!

Decking the Halls...

We spent this weekend decorating for Christmas and I will post a few photos later this week. In the meantime, I want to share one of our favorite family traditions...

Each year Christmas since we have had Hattie (2002), we look forward to taking photos wearing the deer antlers. Before we had children, we would put them on Hattie and try to get her to sit still for a photo. Now we take photos of the children and ourselves wearing them! Isn't it a lovely heartwarming tradition?

Mia...in motion as usual!















Emily...striking a pose.




















Daddy...being his usual goofy self! Good thing he doesn't read my blog!




















No photo of Hattie this year...and no photo of me...we have our dignity!

I know it's a little early...

But, the radio stations are playing Christmas songs, there are Christmas trees in every store, some houses in the neighborhood have lights up already and the house o' glamour will be decorating for Christmas in two days, so...


Yup, the glamour girls paid a visit to Santa today! It is a huge step that Emily is actually sitting on Santa's lap and not screaming. That drama has been taken over by Mia who was quite happy waving at Santa from a safe distance. As soon as I started to walk toward him, she wrapped her legs around my waist and was not letting go. Add to this the blood curdling screams and it was obvious that she was not going to sit with Santa! So, we tried to get a photo while we also tried to get Emily to talk to Santa. She may be sitting on his lap, but she was not going to talk to him! None of the overpriced photos turned out very well and the photo taking woman was quite snarky with me, so I don't feel bad about not making a purchase. Erin was able to snap the above photo as a cherished memory of Christmas 2006!

Since I had the girls dressed in cute red shirts (that you can't even see), I took a few photos when we got home...

Wishing y'all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

My Glamorous Friday

I went to Dr. No Longer Makes Me Sweat this morning for a quick check of my foot. It has been 9 weeks since I had the surgery and 3 weeks since I started wearing “the sneakers.” And, because I know that you have been coming back daily to see if I’ve posted more about my foot, here is the update…

My foot looks great and I have very little swelling (hardly any at all today). I can go back to Mommy and Me swim lessons with Mia as long as I wear water shoes and I don’t jump. And, I can wear other shoes as long as I wear the toe
spacer and the shoes that I choose aren’t high heeled or pointy toed…guess I’ll have to wait to buy those Jimmy Choo’s! My next visit with my awesome doctor is on December 8th, when we will schedule the surgery for my left foot. Betcha can’t wait for those posts!

So…I left the girls at home while I went to the doctor’s office this morning. Chuck was working from home, so I popped in the ultimate babysitter into the DVD player and went to my appointment. I return an hour later to find Mia poking her finger through the empty space in her glasses where a lens should have been! Now, these aren’t the glasses that she mutilated on Sunday. Today she was wearing her other glasses. I search the playroom for a few minutes before I find the lens under a book. Once again, my head almost popped off! The lens, which had been completely scratch free when I left the house, has little scratches all over it. I ask Mia, “Did you have this in your mouth?” And, she replies, “Yes, bite mouth,” with a sheepish grin. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!

To my real life friends who I am seeing tomorrow night…please don’t be alarmed if I just sit in the corner rocking back and forth clutching my bottle of wine!











She may make my head pop off, but dang isn't she cute!

Mia...The Year in Pictures

One year ago, we held our youngest daughter for the first time in a conference room at the Hunan Civil Affairs office in Changsha, China.

June 2005 Fu LiJun at Hengdong SWI














November 9, 2005...Moments after Chuck put her in my arms















December 27, 2005...Mia Li's first birthday




















February 10, 2006




















April 11, 2006...Mia's first time in the sandbox














July 8, 2006...Mia and Emily's 1/2 year birthday party














August 14, 2006...Bangs and bedtime silliness















September 14, 2006...Ready to slide















October 11, 2006















November 2, 2006




















Our family of four...my life cannot get any more glamorous!














Visit my Talking About Adoption blog to read about the day that we held Mia for the first time.