Double Happiness Down South

Interesting Article

2009-10-11T07:18:00.001-06:00

Interesting article about Chinese adopted girls returning to China for homeland tours and how China has changed...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cc97dd18-a719-11de-bd14-00144feabdc0.html

Happy 60th Anniversary China!

2009-10-01T11:35:00.003-06:00

Today is National Day in China and it also happens to be China's 60th Anniversary.
I found a link to this comparison of China then and now. Pretty interesting stuff...

Concert in the Park

2009-07-29T15:10:00.005-06:00

Last year the Shell in Overton Park was renovated and they started having concerts there on the weekends. At 5 on Saturday they have a children's concert and we'd been saying for a long time that we wanted to take the kids. Well, we finally did... of course it had to be the hottest day for it! The Funzzies performed and the kids loved it. We hope to go back again when the concerts start up in the fall... hopefully it will be cooler!

Father's Day

2009-07-29T14:58:00.006-06:00

For Father's Day we got together with some friends and took the Dads to our favorite restaurant for brunch. They have live music and the kids got to go up and participate. Owen thought it was just the greatest to be able to help bow the violin! Cackie just loved the whole experience and wants to go back every week to see her friend Joyce Cobb who sings.

Yard Work

2009-07-16T17:24:00.004-06:00

Just pictures of some of the work we've had to do in our yard. Michael put on his waders one day and started to cut back the stuff growing in the pond. It stunk soo bad! But the fish have liked it much better since he did that.

Then, one day he came home to find a huge limb had broken off one of the trees. He and Zack spent a Saturday morning cutting it up and hauling it to the street.

Cackie's Graduation

2009-07-15T17:41:00.006-06:00

The Thursday before Memorial Day Cackie officially graduated from Pre-School. snif, snif... we can't believe how grown up she is getting. Next stop Kindergarten!

May 2009

2009-07-15T14:59:00.007-06:00

In May the weather started getting really nice and we began spending more time outside. We have a lot of yard in this house, so we're never lacking for something to work on.

I was glad to finally be finished with my class and able to spend time working on anything but school!

On May 5th we celebrated the one year anniversary of Owen's Gotcha Day. We couldn't believe that it had only been a year... it really feels like he has always been with us. We took him out that night for Chinese food...

He likes soup now!!!

Cackie likes fortune cookies!

Cackie found a friend while we were out shopping

My little goof balls!

Four Years!

2009-07-15T14:57:00.005-06:00

On April 19 we celebrated the 4 year anniversary of Cackie's referral. While we were waiting between referral and travel we received updated pictures that were taken on her referral day. So, each year we take a picture on April 19th. I can't believe how much she has grown!!!

Easter 2009

2009-07-15T14:50:00.006-06:00

My parents & sister came to visit for Easter. It was threatening to rain, but we did get in a couple pictures in front of the house.

March 2009

2009-07-15T11:30:00.021-06:00

February wasn't terribly exciting around our house, I was working on school and Michael and the kids were keeping themselves busy.

But, February sure went out with a BANG! It started snowing on Feb 28 in the afternoon and didn't stop until sometime overnight. We ended up with about 6 inches of snow! The kids loved it, I loved it, the dogs loved it!

To make it even more special, March 1 was Owen's 4th birthday and his first celebrating with us! We had to keep reminding him that he shouldn't expect snow every year on his birthday. We took him out for a family lunch and he got to open his presents after nap. I think it was a pretty awesome day for him.

We had his birthday party at Chick-fil-A a few weeks later. He really enjoyed that!

Playing Catch Up

2009-07-15T11:25:00.008-06:00

It's been a long time since I've posted anything, so now I'm playing catch up.

The last time I included any pictures was from Chinese New Year. At that event we had a family photo taken since we were all dressed up. It's one of the few pictures I have with all of us in it!

Then in February the kids had these photos taken by Lil' Angels. I just love these!

Long Time No Blog....

2009-04-07T18:11:00.002-06:00

I know it's been a loooonnggg time. School has just kicked my butt this semester, I really haven't done much of anything else. But I'm going to try to do better about updating, even if it's just little things here and there.

So, here's something little.... I love the conversations that Cackie & I have in the car on the way from school to gymnastics. Sometimes the things that she comes out with just amaze me! Tonight she wanted to make sure that I knew that the salt in saltwater comes from the sand. Two seconds before that she was telling me how one of her friends had pulled her hair earlier in the day... random stuff, but I just love it.

One thing that she loves to talk about is how much she wants to go on an airplane again. I tell her that we don't have any airplane trips planned right now, but that Ill let her know when we do. Then she likes to talk about "when she goes on an airplane to get her baby".... She seems to think that all babies come from China and they all come home on airplanes. Gotta love the logic of a four year old!

Happy New Year!

2009-01-25T17:40:00.004-06:00

Happy Chinese New Year!
This is the year of the Ox,.

According to Wikipedia... The Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. This powerful sign is a born leader, being quite dependable and possessing an innate ability to achieve great things. As one might guess, such people are dependable, calm, and modest. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient, tireless in their work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint.

To celebrate the year of the Ox we had our Families with Children from China celebration two weeks ago. The kids had a great time and we got to officially introduce Owen to our FCC community.

The kids will wear their Chinese silks to school tomorrow and they are having a celebration at St. Jude that I'll be able to attend, but that's about all the celebrating that we'll do this year. We did make Chinese soup and spring rolls for dinner Saturday night, so I guess that counts, too.

Besides Chinese New Year we've been quite busy around here. My classes have started back and the marketing class that I'm taking this semester is quite intense and time consuming.

We had some unfortunate news a week or so ago when we found out that Michael would no longer be working for the engineering firm that he had been contracting with. He still has his firm, but with no new projects on the horizon the future is starting to look bleak. He's been working hard pursuing new projects and we're hopeful that everything will be all right.

The kids have been trying our nerves quite a bit. They are both going through phases of arguing and making bad choices. There have been a lot of bad choices around here and I'm starting to feel like a warden in my own home. Just today we caught them playing with water from the bathroom (again) and their activities have been severely limited all day. We're starting to see that this is a "downside" to having virtual twins. But, in the end we love them dearly and just try to explain to them h0w we want them to make good choices and love us. We just keep telling ourselves... this too shall pass.

Enjoy the pictures! I'll update as I can, but this is a VERY busy semester for me and my blogging time may be limited!

Another one of my favorite pictures

2009-01-06T19:03:00.003-06:00

This is another one of my favorite pictures of the kids. I was trying to get them to pose in their silk Chinese jackets and this was what I got. Cackie just threw her arm around Owen's shoulders and grinned that sly grin of hers. The look on Owen's face cracks me up... it's a cross between "hey dude" and "wassup".

Don't they look cute together? They're practically inseperable and you can tell in this picture how much they really love each other.

Santa Picture

2009-01-06T18:59:00.003-06:00

I almost forgot to post the picture we got of the kids with Santa. We went to the mall after church the Sunday before Christmas and despite not yet having any lunch the kids were in a great mood. I think the picture pretty much says it all...

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T21:48:00.016-06:00

OK, this is another “catch-up” post. We’ve been busy, busy, busy around here and I’m honestly glad that things will start to calm down now.
So, what have we been up to? Well, a few weeks before Christmas we had a very busy Saturday with Christmas activities. In the morning we had breakfast with Santa at St. Jude. This was Owen’s first experience with Santa and we were quite anxious to see how he would do. The breakfast wasn’t anything to write about, but the kids had a great time and we got a nice family photo with Santa. Owen did wonderfully and was soo excited to see Santa. It was a good morning for all of us.

Cackie & Michael having fun at Breakfast with Santa

Owen & Mommy having a great time, too!

The kids in the new Chili's Care Center at St. Jude

That evening we took the kids to an event called “Alpine Village” at a local church. Cackie loved it last year and this year was not a disappointment. Both kids and all our friends had a great time. After the village we went to dinner with some friends, it ended up being a very late night but we all had a great time.

Fun at Alpine Village

This is my FAVORITE picture!

They loved these rocking horses

After that busy Saturday we kept very busy until Christmas. The day after my birthday we hosted a holiday party for Michael's office. I took that day off and cleaned the house from top to bottom (well, I didn't do anything on the 3rd floor since it's just storage... but the first & second floors were spotless!) I was soo worn out by the time our guests arrived and by the end of the night my feet were killing me. We had a great time, though! There were two other kids who were a little older, but Cackie & Owen took to them right away. This was actually one of the best things that could have happened because the other kids LOVED being able to go outside and play with Bruno & Jackson. (We had 60+ degree weather that evening and it was quite pleasant). Cackie & Owen spent a lot of time out on the deck with the dogs too and it really helped Owen to overcome his fear of them! Since that night he has asked us numerous times if the dogs can come in the house and play! (Best Christmas present that Michael & I could have asked for!)

The next day we all went out shopping. It was quite an experience! The kids wore us out and we were glad to get home to take late naps.

Christmas was very exciting at our house. We were excited about Owen’s first Christmas and couldn’t wait to see him open his gifts. Michael’s Mom, stepdad and son Zack came over in the morning and we enjoyed brunch with my family and watched the kids open their presents from Santa. Just after noon the in-laws left and we started in on the rest of the pile under the tree, but it wasn’t long before the kids (and everyone else) started to show signs of needing a nap. So, that’s just what we did… we put the presents on hold and headed for rest. After nap we finished up the pile under the tree… just about the time the sun started to go down. It was a great day! We were all still in our pj’s and we were soo relaxed!

Putting out "reindeer food" on Christmas Eve

Opening their Christmas Eve PJs

the tree before we dove in

they like their new bean bag chairs

Barbies and Thomas, oh my!

That evening we snacked and watched Kung Fu Panda with the kids and then the adults enjoyed Wall-E after the kids were in bed. Unfortunately I had to work the next day, so I couldn’t stay up late, but Friday was an easy day at work.

On Friday evening we were lucky to get a visit from Robert and Aimee. Robert was a volunteer at Owen’s orphanage and would occasionally send me little updates about him while we were waiting. We got to have lunch with Robert when we were in Tianjin, so it was great to see him again and share Owen’s growth with him.

After we recovered from Christmas we started getting ready for our New Year’s Eve party. We had a great party with some of our FCC families. The kids enjoyed themselves playing on the 2nd floor and the adults got to sit and enjoy ourselves downstairs. I’ve come to enjoy these get-togethers so much because we have all become such great friends. All the kids stayed awake until midnight and it wasn’t until 2am that Michael & I climbed into bed. It was the perfect way to start the new year.

Since then we’ve taken time to relax and spend some time with the kids. This week things will start to pick up at work for me and I’ll start my next class the next week. Michael will start getting busy with home improvement projects and the kids keep us busy all the time, so it was nice to have this weekend to relax.

Happy New Year everyone! Here’s to a wonderful 2009!

Enjoying blackeyed peas on New Year's Day

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-12-18T16:09:00.002-06:00

This is what my crazy husband brought me today at work for my birthday! There are 36 in total, one for each year! You can't even see them all in this picture. I had to put them in a plastic recycle trashcan to get them all in water, lol! Needless to say... he surprised me! After he gave me the roses he took me to a great little Italian restaurant for a yummy lunch and tonight after Owen's gymnastics we are all going out for sushi and my favorite dessert... cheesecake tempura!

Now the only other thing I want for my birthday is for my daughter to behave. For a week now Cackie has gotten U's in conduct at schoool (unsatisfactory). We've tried everything in the book to get her to "use her listening ears" and improve her conduct, but nothing so far has worked. So today I used my birthday to lay a guilt trip on her.... I told her that the only thing I wanted for my birthday was for her to get an E (excellent) in conduct. I'll leave work in a few minutes and will hopefully be met with good news!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Cackie was well behaved and that Velcro Boy doesn't make another appearance at gymnastics!

Stay tuned...

Velcro Boy and Silly Girl

2008-12-12T12:22:00.005-06:00

Back at the first of November we signed Owen up for gymnastics lessons. He enjoyed watching Cackie at her lessons for months and a couple of times he tried to sneak into class with her, so we figured it was time to get him involved in his own activities.

The only problem was that we wanted to have the kids in separate classes to eliminate fighting and give them each an opportunity for "alone time". Unfortuntately that meant that Owen would have to take lessons on Thursday nights at 5:30 and Cackie would continue her lessons on Tuesdays at 6:30.

Trying to get into a routine we planned things so that I would take the kids to their lessons and Michael would spend time with whichever one didn't have a lesson. This was working well until a few weeks ago when Cackie and I were about to leave the house and Owen attached himself to my leg and started crying. Michael freed me from Owen's grips so we could leave and says that within a few minutes Owen was fine.

Of course, this concerned Cackie and we had a long discussion in the car about Owen crying and how she didn't want him to cry, etc.

This happened a couple more times, but nothing big. Then last week Owen and I were at his lesson, he ran his 2 warmup laps around the track but when it was time to go off with his coach and take his lesson he suddenly became attached to my leg again.He started screaming "I want my Mommy" (this always freaks me out and makes me afraid that someone will think I'm abducting him). I begged and pleaded with him to calm down and go do his gymnastics, his coach even begged and pleaded with him but no luck. We went and got dressed despite the fact that I kept telling him that he was going home to go to bed. We had one brief minute where he wanted to go and join the class, but that was quickly over when he actually had to detach himself from my leg!

We went home and I didn't quite know what to do. I was worried that something was wrong, but he had really enjoyed the lessons before and couldn't figure out what happened. It was certainly becoming apparant that Owen needed some time away from Mommy, though.

So, this week when Cackie went to her lesson on Tuesday we made a big deal about her going to gymnastics and how much fun it was, etc. To help things even more I had Michael take Owen to his lesson last night. My not being there helped a lot! He enjoyed his lesson and was excited to show off his smiley face stamps to Cackie when he came home!

Since Michael & Owen were off at the gym together I took advantage of the opportunity to spend some time with Cackie. I picked her up from school and we headed out to do a little Christmas shopping and then to the dreaded grocery store.

On the way to the store I explained to her that we were looking for presents for other people and at first she didn't like that at all, but it didn't take long for her to understand how nice it was to give presents to other people. She very thoughtfully picked out a present for Owen and was very excited. It's something that she can enjoy as well, but she was adamant that Owen will really like it and she wanted him to have it.

I had a lot of fun out with her and I think she enjoyed it, too. At the grocery store she didn't want to get in the cart and tried to convince me that she's too big to ride in the seat. She's got a good point there, she almost doesn't fit in the seat anymore! But, I made her squeeze in because I didn't need to worry about her wandering off. As we were walking around she kept putting her hands on either side of my face, squeezing my cheeks and saying "OOH Mommy, you're soo CUTE!" It's really funny when she decides to get silly like that! We also had a good round of a game where we call each others names in silly voices back and forth. I'm sure the other shoppers didn't appreciate it, but we had a good time!

Tonight is Parent's Night Out at school, so the kids will have a little pajama party while Michael and I go out and get some shopping done.

Tomorrow will be a busy day for us... We have breakfast with Santa in the cafeteria at St. Jude (this will be Owen's first opportunity to see Santa) and then in the evening we're going with friends to a Christmas Village at a local church. Cackie loved it last year and we're all anxious to see if Owen enjoys it, too. I'm hoping to see more of Silly Girl this weekend and a little less of Velcro Boy!

I did it!

2008-12-08T21:23:00.015-06:00

I did it! I walked 13.1 miles in 3:36!

Saturday was a GREAT day! It was sooo cold, but I got my butt out of bed and we all headed downtown to Autozone park to meet up with friends before the race.

This is Jennifer and I warming up at the ballpark.

The race officically started at 8AM, but it was a wave start, so I didn't actually get started until close to 8:25. Here's one of the groups heading out before me, there were nearly 14,000 people racing!

Here I am at the starting line, you can't tell but I was sooo cold!

I had my cellphone with me and was able to call Michael at different points during the race. He tried to meet up with me at mile 5, but the police had the roads blocked off and it made getting around town very difficult. They were able to meet up with me between miles 6 & 7 and I was soo happy to see them!

They were able to make their way around between miles 8 & 9 to see me again. Here's a great shot Michael got while they were waiting...

When they saw me here Cackie got very excited. She ran up to me and gave me a huge bear hug. Only problem was that my hips were starting to ache and if I stopped I wouldn't have been able to start again. I almost knocked poor Cackie over trying to get her detached from my legs!

The last 4 miles or so went pretty quickly for me. There was lots of traffic on the street and soo many people were out cheering the runners and walkers on. I was starting to hurt in my hips, but I had no doubt that I was going to finish. In fact, the last mile or so I was passing people who just couldn't keep up any longer.

Here I am just crossing the finish line.

Michael said I had this big smile on everytime he saw me.

The best part was getting to hug my kiddos when it was all over!

I finished just after noon and the kids were starving, so Michael took us out to lunch. After that we all took a much needed nap! I was lucky enough to get a massage appointment for that afternoon and that helped my recovery a lot! The rest of Saturday I did absolutely nothing, which is not like me at all. I was just too pooped and achy!

Sunday I was pretty sore, but I tried to keep moving as much as I could. Yesterday I didn't hurt much and today I'm hoping to get back out and do some walking!

The race was a lot of fun and I really hope to be able to do it again next year. It has me motiviated now to get back to exercising and maybe next year I'll be able to get an even better time!

I've Decided to do Something Crazy!

2008-12-01T21:49:00.002-06:00

I've decided to do something crazy!

Some of you may know that back in August I began a training program to run/walk the St. Jude Half Marathon. But, then in September I started to have problems with my left ankle and after an MRI found out that I had a couple of stress fractures and had to quit training. Well, there has been lots going on between then and now and I just haven't had time to get back into training. I figured it was just a silly dream to do a half marathon and it was time for me to get back to reality and focus on all the other things in my life.

But, the thing is that I work at St. Jude. I’m constantly hearing information about the upcoming events and the Marathon/Half Marathon is a pretty big one around here. When I heard the news that the Half Marathon was sold out I felt guilty… just before I got hurt I signed up for the Half Marathon to help give myself a goal and motivation, I even signed up to be a St. Jude Hero because I believe in what we do here at St. Jude. Once you are signed up to be in the race your spot is taken and can’t be given to anyone else even if you don’t show up to race.

So, that race registration has been burning a hole in my brain. I keep thinking I’ve signed up and no one else can take my place. Our old house is right in the middle of the race course, so over the years we’ve tried to go out and about on race day and have seen the participants, some running and a lot of them walking along just to be a part of the race. I keep thinking about those walkers and I’ve told myself, I can do that!

So, this Saturday I will get out of bed early and get out into the cold morning to be at the starting line downtown (anyone who really knows me will know that getting up early and out in the cold will be half the battle). I’ll walk for as long and as far as I can. There are no promises that I’ll finish this race! But, the whole time I’m walking I will be thinking about the reasons why I’m there… because I believe in the mission of St. Jude and want to do something else to help, because I’ve been blessed with two beautiful children who are happy and HEALTHY, because there are children out there who not as lucky as my children and they need the best medical care available, because I never knew my grandmother but she believed in Danny Thomas’ mission and would send money to St. Jude and lastly because I’m blessed to be able bodied and can get out and do my part, even if it’s just a little bit.

If you believe in me and want to support me in my dream of becoming a St. Jude Hero, please log onto my website www.stjudeheroes.org/users/dwalls and consider making a donation. If you can’t make a donation, please let me know I have your support… leave a comment here, each one will help motivate me on Saturday!

One Year Ago Today...

2008-11-20T13:17:00.001-06:00

One year ago today around 3:30 pm, my life was changed forever. I was at work and had just finished cleaning up one of the cubicles to get ready for a new co-worker in my department. I had sat down at my desk and my cellphone rang. It took me a second before it registered that the area code was from Colorado and my heart skipped a beat when I answered and realized that it was Pam from the waiting child department on the other end.

I don't remember much about the conversation, but I remember her telling me that she had a sweet little boy who needed a Mommy & Daddy. She emailed me his pictures, but warned me that they were not the best she had ever seen.

I was in shock and didn't quite know what to do. I opened the email to find this picture...

I called Michael after that, he was home with Cackie who was sick that day. I was crying, of course, and he immediately wondered what was wrong. I told him that I had a picture of his son and I could tell that it took at second for the news to register with him. I was glad I wasn't the only one in shock over this!

I went home shortly after that and we had many discussions. We took a few days to think about this little boy and how he would change our lives. It took us a little longer than we would have liked, but all this happened just 2 days before Thanksgiving. I remember when we finally heard from our pediatrician, we were out eating dinner and we were soo glad to hear that she said we needed to bring this little boy home. We had already come to that decision, but just needed that last bit of confirmation before we jumped in. After we got home from dinner and had put Cackie to bed I called CCAI and left a voicemail for Pam, I just couldn't wait till the next morning to call!

Today that sweet little boy is my Owen and I can't imagine what our lives would be without him!

P.S. On that day, one year ago, after I called Michael and shared my shock with him, I went back into the cubicle that I was cleaning out just to check and make sure I had put everythinig away. Sitting right in the middle of the desk was a little red string off of an interoffice envelope. I knew deep in my heart that the red thread was at work.

ARRRGH!

2008-11-14T12:44:00.003-06:00

Anyone remember the movie "The Money Pit"?
I'm beginning to think we're starring in the sequel that is being filmed by candid camera!

First, the previous owners left us with a horribly green pool. Actually, it was a beautiful green color, just not something you would ever want to swim in. We were soo frustrated with trying to get the sellers out of our house and get moved in that we just let it go. Finally, two weeks ago we were able to get some pool guys to come out and winterize the pool, at a cost that was much greater due to the fact that it had been neglected by the previous owners.

Then, there's been the issue our guest house. The previous owner's had a renter there and had told us before closing that he had moved out.... not true! He finally moved out the same weekend we moved in, but now we've been left with his disgusting mess and the previous owners never came forward to give us the cleaning deposit that they collected from him.

We also have electrical issues in the family room that was added on to the original house. Let's just say that the electrical wiring is sooo not to code (this is where having an engineer for a husband is a GREAT thing!). We found one electrical outlet behind the dishwasher in the wetbar that was SPARKING!!!!! YIKES!

Now, our latest issue is a leak.... it's in a lovely spot, just off the kitchen in the breakfast room. I came home the other day during a rain storm to find the ceiling leaking. It has continued to leak steadily, but it's not raining any longer. Michael has been working on drawing up the layout of the house and it looks like the issue is not the roof (a good thing?), but that it's the toilet in the master bath. We are very unhappy with the master bath and bought the house knowing that we would be changing it up and expanding it, but we weren't quite prepared to do it right now.

Oh, in addition to the leak appearing the other day. It kinda looks like this is not the first time it has happened. It also appears that there may be termite damage in the ceiling of the breakfast room (hmmm, termites like moisture).

So, right now the ceiling is falling in my breakfast room and there's an awful wet, musty stench throughout the whole house. I'm just praying that it's not termites and that we can get it fixed and cleaned up soon (and that we can stay sane in the process!). Fingers Crossed!

6 Months!

2008-11-06T13:27:00.004-06:00

Six months ago yesterday was Owen's gotcha day!
In six months he has gone from this shy, careful little boy who was scared of just about everything...

To this little ham who loves to see his pictures on the camera, is still kinda scared of animals but is very curious about them, thinks his big sister holds the moon and stars and loves to jump, run and play!

Wow! What an amazing 6 months it has been! A lot has changed in his life, but he takes it all in stride and brings smiles to everyone's faces. We love you Owee!

So, as a celebration of his 6 months home we are starting him in gymnastics lessons tonight. He's always wanting to take classes with Cackie, but we were a little worried that a class together would be hard on them and the coach. Hopefully he'll enjoy tonight and will want to do more. Cackie won't be there with us tonight which I hope will give him a chance to open up and enjoy his own thing.

Cackie & Owen Tearing Up the Polls

2008-11-04T21:06:00.003-06:00

Well, the polling booth at least! Yesterday Michael went to pick the kids up from school and came home with this great story...

The teachers were planning a voting activity for today and had fashioned a voting booth out of a large cardboard box. Well, when Michael picked the kids up they got a little out of hand (who, my kids?) and were fighting over a spot in the voting booth. In the process of fighting they knocked down the booth and tried to tear it up. If I remember correctly, when Michael was telling me about it he lovingly referred to Cackie & Owen as "numbnuts".

Today I'm happy to report that the polling booth was intact and that the kids had overwhelmingly voted for mint over strawberry... um, I mean Obama over McCain.

Never a dull moment here!

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T08:42:00.000-06:00

Thank You Good Samaritan!

2008-10-27T16:35:00.002-06:00

I have a bad habit that has got to stop! My bad habit it that I will use my credit or debit card for something and instead of putting it back in my wallet, I will put it in my pocket and move it to my wallet later. I do this a lot at work when I go to the cafeteria for lunch. I'll take out my debit card and forget to put it back in my purse. Often I'll forget to take it out of my pocket and the next day I'll go to get lunch only to realize that I have no debit card.
Well, my habit gets even worse... Last week I filled up my car with gas and instead of putting my American Express card back in my purse, I put it in the pocket of the jacket that I was wearing. You can guess what happened next... the card fell out of my jacket pocket and I never knew it. I actually discovered it when I was trying to buy something online, I have the card number memorized and when I went to complete my transaction it came up as rejected with some note about a lost card. I went searching for my card and couldn't find it. That night I called American Express and sure enough I had lost the card and some nice person had called it in to AmEx. They cancelled my card and are sending a new one. I got sooo lucky! No fraudlent charges and all the mess that goes along with that, I just have to wait for my new card to arrive.
So, THANK YOU whoever you are that took the honest approach and called in my lost card! I SOOOO APPRECIATE YOUR HONESTY!!!!

May 14 Pictures

2008-10-24T05:54:00.002-06:00

Yes, I'm really catching up on pictures! Here's a slideshow of May 14, our last full day in China. At the end there is a picture of us on the plane on our way home. Then there is a picture of Chris Douglas Roberts, Michael got to meet him in Chicago when he got stranded there trying to get our painting back. The last picture is the balloons that our friends brought when they met us at the airport. The kids lost control of them at the airport and they were there on the ceiling when Michael finally arrived home.

May 13th photos

2008-10-24T05:51:00.002-06:00

I'm catching up on photos from our China trip. Here is a slideshow from May 13. This was the day that we had the red couch photos and then went out to dinner at the Thai Restaurant.

It's a Gloomy Day

2008-10-23T13:30:00.004-06:00

Here in Memphis it's rainy and gloomy. I needed something to help cheer me up, so I thought I would share some old pictures. These are from May 12th when we were in Guangzhou. Enjoy!

9-1-1

2008-10-21T07:24:00.005-06:00

You may have missed it, but two weeks ago it was Fire Prevention Week. It presents the perfect opportunity to teach preschoolers about fire prevention and how to handle a fire emergency. You know... stop, drop and roll... and how to dial 9-1-1.

Well, Cackie apparently learned her lessons at school well since she dialed 9-1-1 at least 4 times this morning while she and Owen were downstairs watching TV and Michael & I were upstairs getting ready!

I got downstairs to find the phone on speaker and when pressed Cackie admitted that she had played with it. I hung up the phone and it immediately started ringing I picked it up and Michael also picked it up from upstairs. On the line was a Memphis Police dispatcher asking if everything was OK because 9-1-1 had been dialed. I reassured them that our 4 year-old had learned how to dial 9-1-1 at school and tried to practice on our house phone. When we hung up the phone immediately rang again. It was another dispatcher telling us that the police were on their way since someone had dialed 9-1-1 at least 4 times from our number. Within seconds Cackie was in the corner!

I had already decided that she was going to have to tell the police officers what she had done when the phone rang again. The police were verifying that everything was OK and that we did not need officers dispatched to our house. Michael apologized profusely and that must have done the trick since we never saw signs of the good boys in blue.

Needless to say, I'm now glad to be at work! Michael hopefully brought her little mishap to the attention of her teachers, we sure can use their help in reinforcing that she made a VERY BAD choice!

More later about our weekend and Cackie & Owen's mishaps with the lotion bottle at my parents house....

Boots are in style this season, right?

2008-10-16T11:31:00.004-06:00

I sure hope they are in style since I'm sporting this nifty one...

I know it's no excuse, but this is one reason why I haven't updated lately. I've been running so hard I broke my foot!
No, not really. Actually this is what exercise will do for you! Back in July I started a women's running program. After a few weeks I lost a little momentum and then picked it up again just before the program was over. So, when I found out that our gym was starting a program to train for the half marathon I jumped at the opportunity. I was doing great, feeling good and was motivated when my ankle started to hurt. I took a few days off and it didn't get any better so I made an appointment with an orthopedic doc. He took some xrays and found nothing, so I was scheduled for an MRI. The MRI showed that I have a number of horizontal stress fractures in my foot and ankle. Yuck! I went for about a week after that just wearing a brace on my foot and it started to hurt more and more so I called and asked for a boot. It's soo fashionable, dont'cha think? Tomorrow I go for a bone density test and hopefully that will provide some answers as to what's going on.
In addition to my foot woes the kids are keeping us ever busy, we've moved to our new house and I'm halfway through the fall semester in my MBA Finance class. Just a few things keeping me away from the computer!
The move went OK. It wasn't the smoothest, but once we got through with dealing with the sellers it has been a lot better. There are a lot of things around the house that need fixing or updating and I keep telling Michael that this house needs him. It will take some time and a lot of hard work, but I have no doubts that it will be absolutely beautiful when we are finished.
This weekend we are headed to Knoxville for the Tennessee vs. Mississippi State game. My Uncle Donald is coming down to visit and it will be the first time Owen will get to meet him. We're looking forward to getting away and might not know what to do with a little free time on our hands.
That's it for now. I'm soo tired I'm having trouble keeping my eyes open! I stayed up too late last night watching the Phillies win the NLCS and was soo excited that they're going to the World Series that I had trouble falling asleep. Go Phillies!

All better!

2008-09-10T09:02:00.003-06:00

I know it's been a long time since I've posted here. We've been staying busy with lots going on and I just haven't had much time to spend on the computer. I'm going to try to do better to keep this updated.

I'm soo happy to share that right now I'm sitting on the couch while Owen lays next to me watching his favorite Little Einsteins. We've been home about half an hour from having his ear tubes put in, adenoids removed and his circumcision done. He's doing wonderfully right now, even if he does look a little pitiful and groggy. He's already told Michael & I both that he loves us and gave Michael a big kiss. I'm very excited to see the changes that the ear tubes and adenoids bring.

So, to back up a little... we followed up with the ENT a few weeks ago and even after 2 months of medication therapy it was obvious that Owen had a lot of fluid in his ears. The doctor told us that he would definitely need tubes and his adenoids removed. We had to wait a few weeks for our appointment with the pediatric urologist, but then it all came together quickly. The two doctors were able to work out their schedules so that they could take care of everything during the same surgery. This was a relief to us since he would only need to be put under anesthesia once.

When the ENT doc was finished he told Michael & I that there was quite a bit of fluid in Owen's ears and he probably had about a 25 decible hearing loss. He's sure the tubes will help a lot and expects that Owen's speech and pronunciation will take off! The urologist said everything went just fine and the only restriction is that Owen needs to keep off of bikes & tricycles for a couple of weeks.

So, now that is behind us and we are very happy!

We've been up to all kinds of other things around here. Two weeks ago we were on vacation at Dauphin Island, AL. We ended up leaving home a couple days late because tropical storm Fay was coming through and there was a little bit of storm surge that we were worried about. The rental agency was able to change our reseravations, so leaving a few days late wasn't a big deal. But then we had to leave a day early because there was a mandatory evacuation because hurricane Gustav was headed that way.

In between the two storms we had a great week at the beach. The kids absolutely LOVED it and wanted to spend all their time swimming and playing in the water. We got to see all kinds of sealife (hermit crabs, sting rays, blue crabs, fish, dolphins) both on the beach and at the SeaLab on the island. We also got to spend some time with my Uncle Bruce and the kids had fun, even though his dog Bruno scared Owen.

The week that we went to the beach, I also started back working on my MBA. I'm taking a finance class this semester and I'm already behind, no surprise there! It will be tough to keep up, but I always enjoyed finance, so that will help me to get through.

We're also in the process of packing and working on all the stuff needed so that we can move. Right now we are scheduled to close on Monday morning. We don't have all the paperwork, etc ready yet, so who knows if Monday will be the day or not. In the meantime we'll keep packing. The house is an absolute wreck because of the packing, at least when we move we'll have a little more room with all the boxes around.

I guess the last bit of big news around here is that Cackie has been moved up at school and is now in the big kid preschool class. It was time for the kids to finally be separated and it's turning out to be great for both of them. I've attended preschool parent meetings for both of their classes and there is a lot of excitement in both of them. Cackie is going to start having "homework" each week and in a few weeks her class will be taking a field trip to the fair!

OK, Owen is starting to stir a bit and needs some mommy loving. I have a ton of pictures from this summer that need to be added, it may take a while with all that we've got going on, but I will try really hard to do that.
Till later....

Moving on Up....

2008-08-06T12:25:00.005-06:00

So, it's official... we're moving! We came to the final agreement with the sellers this weekend so that means it's time to start packing. Ugh!

This whole thing is really a huge surprise to us. We got back from China and started talking about our plans to add on to our house, because it was very obvious that we needed more room. But, since our lives have been so busy with work this summer we never got any further than just talking about our plans.
Then just before Cackie's birthday, Michael told me about a house in our neighborhood that was just put up for sale and that it had always intrigued him and he wanted to see it. So, we called our realtor and she took us by to check it out. It turned out to be a great house with a lot of potential, but it's potential could only be reached through lots of time, hard work and MONEY! It was really just too much for us to even consider and it didn't meet all of our needs so we knew it wasn't meant to be.
But, it did get us thinking about what a good market it is to buy in right now and we looked at some listings online to see if there was anything that interested us. We identified a couple and had emailed our realtor about them, but just hadn't been able to set up a time to get together to see them.
I was also looking at the ads in the Sunday paper and came across an open house that sounded interesting (it was like 105 degrees that day, so the pool sounded wonderful). I had to go into work that morning for a little while, but then after I got home and the kids woke up from their naps we decided to go ahead and check out the open house. We walked in and within a couple of minutes I was totally in love! By the time we left there Michael & I both knew that we wanted to buy the house. In fact, I remember us walking down the front sidewalk to leave and he said... let's buy it!
That was Sunday and by Tuesday night we had a contract to buy it! On the 8th we had our home inspection and some things were identified that needed to be taken care of, so we came to an agreement with the sellers and we're set to close on the house on September 15th!
We're all really excited, but know that we have a TON of stuff to do before now and then. We leave on Saturday for our vacation at Dauphin Island, so that's a whole week lost packing. We need the time away, though and the kids need some Mommy & Daddy time.
For now we are going to keep our current house and try to rent it out. We've had someone express interest in it and hopefully that will come to fruition.

So, that's about all the news on our new house. Well, except for the fact that it was featured in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago! How cool is that??!!!

Go here to check it out... New York Times Great Homes and Destinations

We can't wait to move in and make it our own!

Been Working Too Much!

2008-08-01T11:55:00.003-06:00

Yes, I've been gone for a LONG time because I've been working too much! Michael has been working too much as well, so we've been a pretty grouchy bunch around our house.
I'm finally getting some relief from my work, YAY! Michael should be getting some relief real soon.
Even though we've been working a lot we've still had a lot of stuff going on around our house. We celebrated 2 months with Owen, the 4th of July, Cackie's 4th birthday, our 9th wedding anniversary, the kids and I took a weekend to visit LaoLao & LaoYe, we're buying a new house & moving and we're about to celebrate 3 months with Owen!

I'm hoping to get some time this weekend to share more about what we've been up to and on our big upcoming plans. I've also got quite a few pictures that I'm hoping to get posted to share.
One thing that is for sure around here... we're staying busy!

Rebuttal

2008-06-24T07:59:00.000-06:00

A rebuttal to the idiot at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

http://www.popehat.com/2008/06/23/mike-seate-of-the-pittsburgh-tribune-review-doesnt-approve-of-your-familys-skin-color/

This makes me MAD!

2008-06-24T07:56:00.002-06:00

I first read this article on Saturday night and it just made me soo mad! This guy is a total idiot (I wanted to use another word here, but decided against it).

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/seate/s_573477.html

Booked!

2008-06-20T11:19:00.002-06:00

For one week, later this summer this beautiful house will be our home! That's right... we're headed to the beach! I can't wait! We haven't been to the beach in years and neither Cackie or Owen has ever been, so it should be an awesome week.
It's also motivation to keep watching what I eat, maybe I'll be able to treat myself to a new swimsuit!

Progress

2008-06-20T11:04:00.003-06:00

Open... a simple little word, but music to my ears yesterday.

I was loading the kids in the car after picking them up from school and while I was buckling Cackie in Owen hands me his little bag of Teddy Grahams and says "open".
I was soo excited! I ran around to his side of the car, opened his Teddy Grahams and gave him a big kiss! I think I'll remember this like I remember Cackie taking her first steps.

Later, after we were home Owen came running from the kitchen saying "water". He wanted a drink of water and told me instead of grabbing my hand and dragging me into the kitchen. Yay!

The best part of the day was when he copied me and said "night night, love you" as I was tucking him into bed. Small steps, but we're getting there!

I was outnumbered...

2008-06-18T11:11:00.002-06:00

and I survived... SORT OF!

Last night was a first for us. It was the first time Michael had to go out of town since Owen has joined our family. It was the first time for me to be the sole caregiver for more than a couple of hours.

Things went pretty well, thankfully! Of course Michael's trip coincided with a busy important day for me at work where everything came down to the last minute and it was also the day that I had to take Katie to the vet for her monthly shot, oh and then it was also the night of Cackie's gymnastics lesson, no biggie! I'm happy to report that the work got done, Katie got picked up from the vet and taken home and we all got to gymnastics early. After gymnastics I treated the kids to McDonald's and they even got to bed before 9 pm! Whoo hoo for me!

When Michael is not home I never sleep well, but was surprised that I slept until I was awakened to screaming at 4 am. I rushed down the stairs to figure out WHO was screaming and wouldn't you know it, once I turned on the hall light they stopped screaming! I checked on both kids... Cackie appeared to be sleeping and Owen was readjusting himself, but seemed fine and didn't respond when I spoke to him so I figured it was just a dream. I kissed them both, left the room and headed back upstairs. Just as I was about to climb back in bed the screaming started again! I still couldn't figure out which one of them it was, so I raced back downstairs, turned on the hall light and they stopped!

This time Cackie had her eyes slightly open and looked at me. I asked her if she was the one screaming and she just looked at me and said "Good Night". Owen was out, so I knew it wasn't him. I headed back upstairs, the whole time praying that whatever the problem was had passed.

I never heard from them again the rest of the night, and I would have known since I only got little cat naps until I had to get up at 6:15. I need 7 to 8 hours a night, so it's killing me now that I didn't get it. I'm soo glad Michael will be back tonight!

This morning went much better than expected, we were all out of the house by 7:30 without any major tears or arguments! How I did that I'll never know! Maybe I should play tonight's Powerball, it may just be my lucky day!

Watch This!

2008-06-16T08:40:00.004-06:00

This is a new documentary that will show on PBS tomorrow. Looks very interesting!

I'm back!

2008-06-13T11:50:00.000-06:00

No, we haven’t fallen off the face of the earth… we’ve just been very very busy trying to adapt to our new lifestyle. I’ve been meaning to sit and update the blog for days, but just haven’t found the time. Rather than try to write out a super long story about everything, I’ll give an overview of what we’ve been up to…
• We had a great Memorial Day weekend, very busy but a lot of fun. Friday night we took the kids to a baseball game. We sat on blankets on the bluff and had a really great time just playing and hanging out. That Saturday we worked on stuff around the house, trying to return things to normal and just stayed home. It was nice to have one day to not have to run out and be anywhere by a certain time. That Sunday we went to church and then went out to our favorite catfish restaurant for lunch, yummy! Late that afternoon we met friends at our favorite brewpub for a quick bite before we all headed over to the members party at the zoo. We love the zoo members parties because it gives us the chance to do the zoo at night. They also let the kids “swim” in the big fountain at the entrance and it’s usually packed full of kids having a great time getting wet. We ended up spending most of the evening at the fountain letting the kids enjoy the water. Cackie was actually more hesitant than Owen about getting in, what a change from three weeks before! After the zoo we headed for ice cream, always a favorite of everyone in our group. On Monday we picked up some BBQ and went to spend the day with Michael’s Mom & Stepdad. The kids were a little tired since we were there during nap time, but they had a great time showing off for everyone!

• The first week home Owen & I spent most of our days running errands and trying to get things accomplished around the house. It seemed like we were out every day with one thing or another. On one of our trips I bought a pool for the kids and they’ve really enjoyed spending time in it in the afternoons.

• Our second week home I ended up working from home, trying to stay caught up on my deadlines. Our busy time of year is approaching fast and the last thing I needed was to fall behind on my work. I also had quite a few appointments that week… follow up with my ENT surgeon (my nose looks great and he doesn’t need to see me for another 9 months!), dental cleaning and my first visit to the orthodontist (more on that later). Owen went with me to these appointments and was really well behaved. I was worried that he would freak out with my dental cleaning or my ENT appointment, but he really didn’t seem to mind at all.

• On Friday, May 30 we celebrated Cackie’s 3rd Gotcha Day! To celebrate I picked her up from school just before lunch and all had lunch at McDonald’s instead. After lunch we headed over to the zoo to spend the day with Tamela & Gili. It was a good day, the only downsides being that it was HOT and Cackie didn’t have her “listening ears” on. (Owen’s lucky because right now it’s hard to tell if he has his listening ears on or not, lol!) After the zoo we headed home to cool off in the pool and then when Michael got home we all went out to the Italian Festival. Afterward I asked Cackie if she had a good Gotcha Day and she gave me a definite YES!

• Monday, June 2 was the day that I was most anxious about… it was Owen’s appointment with the cleft lip/palate team and it went really well! They were impressed with how well his lip repair looked and after investigating his palate they believe that only his soft palate was cleft, not his hard palate. That may be the reason why the repair was done when so many others were not. The team of doctor’s was wonderful, we were very impressed, and they said that they will not need to see him until next year when we can see how much he has grown and evaluate his needs at that time. I did speak with the speech therapist at length and will be contacting him to get Owen evaluated once he is fully speaking English on a regular basis. The team did recommend that we get him fully evaluated by an ENT specialist to rule out any hearing issues and we have an appointment for that later this month. They also recommended that we get Owen into a pediatric dentist to get his teeth cleaned, which we will do ASAP.

• So once Owen was cleared by the cleft team we didn’t hesitate at all getting him started in school. He started on Tuesday, June 3 for half a day and then went full days on Wednesday, Thursday & Friday. I think he was soo happy to get back into a school routine, he loves it! It’s like he’s always been there, he fits in and gets along with the other kids so well. The teachers even told me that he had soo much fun on splash day that he cried for 15 minutes after they made him come inside. Now, after 2 full weeks there I know he’s having a blast… he has all the bumps, bruises and scrapes to prove it!

• My last week at home was a busy one. I did a little more catch up work and once Owen and Cackie were both in school I spent a whole day shopping for groceries and things we needed around the house. My greatest accomplishment was getting everything totally moved between Cackie’s old bedroom and the new bedroom for the kids. They have a ton of toys and enough stuffed animals to sink a ship! It’s soo nice now to have all their clothes and toys organized and easy to find. And, judging from how much they get out their toys and play with them, I think they really like playing in their new room.

• The Friday before I went back to work I had an appointment with the orthodontist to get my braces put on. I’ve needed to do this for over 2 years and had kept putting it off. I have TMJ problems and wear a mouthpiece at night to keep me from grinding my teeth down to stumps, but unfortunately I lost my little case with my mouthpiece in it somewhere between Memphis and Beijing. The whole time in China without my mouthpiece caused my jaw to become increasingly sorer, so I decided to dive right in and get the braces put on. The first few days were really no fun and I kept wondering why I had done this to myself. But, by the 4th or 5th day I wasn’t hurting quite so bad. Now the biggest annoyance is having to constantly clean out food from the braces, yuck! I also can’t eat popcorn! I LOVE popcorn and don’t know how I’m going to make it for 18 – 24 moths without it.

• In addition to getting my braces put on, that same day I took the plunge and got my hair cut. I went all out, or maybe I should say “all off”. It’s already way too hot and I was tired of having hair in my face, so I went ahead and got my hair cut real short, very similar to how I wore it a lot in High School. I feel soo much better now and LOVE that it is so much faster getting ready in the morning!

• Today is the end of my first week back to work and I can honestly say that I’m glad to be back. I really love the group that I’m working with and they make work fun, I missed them while I was gone. Owen has now been at school with Cackie for 2 weeks and has had accident reports each of the last two days. Apparently he is a bit of a klutz and keeps running his head into the cabinets or cubbies (just like I did as a kid… hey genetics ain’t everything!). Cackie is having a more difficult time adjusting to everything than Owen is. She‘s not really able to fully express herself yet, either so that makes for a lot of whining and fussing around our house. It will take some time, but I know it will get better.

That’s about everything we’ve been up to. Tonight were going to try to spend some time with the kids and go out to dinner. Tomorrow while the kids are napping I’m going with a friend to see “Sex and the City” (yay!) and then those same friends are going to come over for dinner and the kids will play. Sunday is Michael’s day… he gets to decide what we’ll do.
I’m hoping that I’ll be able to stay more up to date now. I’ve got some pictures to update and I still have some from our trip that I’ve never posted. I’ll work on that this weekend. Till then…

We're Home!

2008-05-21T05:30:00.002-06:00

OK, we've been home almost a week. Things have been soo crazy around here that I just haven't had time to sit down at the computer and post.
I started writing out the story of our trip home (it didn't exactly go as planned), just need to find a little time to sit down and finish it up.

I've been spending time trying to get things in order around here. The house is an absolute MESS! We never organized the kids room with their clothes & toys before we left, so that just adds to the disorganization. Thankfully I've got the major laundry out of the way, of course it probably needs to be done again.

Both kids have already been to the doctor... Cackie got to visit the Saturday clinic because we discovered some nice spots all over the back of her throat. We got her tested and it's just a virus, no strep. Owen had his first checkup yesterday and passed with flying colors. He has a little bit of an ear infection in his left ear but that should be cleared up after a couple days of meds.

Like good Memphians we've already introduced Owen to BBQ! On Sunday since we couldn't go to church because of Cackie's throat we went to the zoo and then had BBQ after. That was a busy day and both kids were in desperate need of a nap when we got home (mom, too!).

I think we're pretty much back on Memphis time. It didn't take too long, really. I think we would have been back on normal time sooner if it hadn't been for Cackie's cold and the fact that Michael & I were feeling a little yucky, too. I think getting home in the early evening and getting to bed shortly thereafter really helped with our adjustment.

OK, gotta get the day started. Lots to do... hopefully I can find some time in the next few days to finish my story of our trip home and post any pictures I missed. I've got hundreds of emails to catch up on, so I'm working on that, too.

Headed Home!

2008-05-14T08:15:00.002-06:00

We have a very bittersweet feeling right now... we can't wait to be home, but we hate to leave China that has such a emotional bond with us. It's tough taking a child from their home country. I just hope that we can continue to teach Cackie & Owen to love their birth country.

We are packing our final items and will head out very early in the morning, so this will be our last update from China. I never got a chance to post the pictures, I'll do that once we get settled in Memphis.

We can't wait to see and hug everyone! We are soo anxious to get home, sleep on softer beds and get into a routine.

See everyone in Memphis!

Love,
Deanna, Michael, Cackie, Owen & Caryn

We're Safe!

2008-05-12T23:49:00.003-06:00

Wow, we've gotten a number of messages about the earthquake and I can say that we are totally and completely safe!

We actually didn't even know about the earthquake until around 10pm last night when Caryn was checking messages and had an email about it. When it actually happened we were all napping and never knew a thing. Most of the places in China that felt it were much farther north of us and we're only on the 9th floor of a 20+ floor building located on an island, so any chance for us to feel anything would be minimal. We were surprised that we didn't hear anything about it when we went out last night. We took a Pearl River cruise and there were a couple small TVs onboard, but no one ever said anything about it.

We're glad that we are safe and from a quick check of some websites it sounds as if the orphanages in those areas are OK. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the people in Sichuan province and all the aid workers who are doing all they can to help.

Yesterday we had our first official business to do here in Guangzhou. Michael & I took Owen to get his photo taken for his US visa and then we went on to have his medical exam done. It all went well, but Owen seemed to be concerned with all the cries of the children who were there waiting with us. Owen's official statics are 14kg and 96.5cm (30.86 lbs and 38 inches).

After that we did some shopping and walking and then headed back to the hotel for a nap. We woke them up from nap a little early so that we could have some swimming time. The weather was a lot warmer and that helped because the water was still pretty cool. Owen once again screamed his head off when we got in, but we wouldn't give up on him and kept working with him. By the time we were done he was holding onto my shoulders and kicking his legs behind him or hanging onto the side of the pool and kicking behind him. We are soo proud of his progress!

We didn't have much time at the pool becuase we had to eat something quick and be ready to meet Kris, Jim, Austin, Owen and Jocelyn to do the Pearl River tour. It was soo cool! We're really glad we decided to take it. The whole waterfront was lit up and all the buildings were brightly decorated. The kids really enjoyed running around on the boat deck and seeing all the bright lights.

Once we were done with that it was time to get to bed. We thought we might actually get the kids in bed early, but of course that didn't happen. Oh well!

This morning was our consulate appointment, we didn't actually go but Jocelyn went for us to file our paperwork. Michael stayed in the room in case there were any questions and Caryn, Cackie, Owen & I went out and did a TON of shopping. After a while Michael caught up with us and we headed to the Starbucks oasis.

Right now the kids are napping and we'll be waking them shortly for our red couch photo. We all have new duds to wear and I'm hoping for good pictures.
I'll come back later and post photos. Gotta go exchange some money... pearl market shopping this afternoon!

May 11th Photos

2008-05-11T09:18:00.001-06:00

Photobucket Album

May 10th Photos

2008-05-11T09:07:00.001-06:00

Photobucket Album

May 9th photos

2008-05-11T09:01:00.001-06:00

Photobucket Album

Happy Mother's Day from Guangzhou

2008-05-11T07:10:00.002-06:00

Sorry that it's been a few days since I updated. We've been busy and travelling and there just hasn't been time to get on the computer.

For our last day in Tianjin Helen brought us Owen's passport! Yay! That was the last thing that we needed before we could leave Tianjin! Most of the morning we just spent in our room playing and starting to get our bags packed. For lunch Helen took us to a hotpot restaurant. It was soo good! We had never tried hotpot before, but we definitely want to do it again, Yummy!
On the way back to the hotel after our lunch we stopped in at a cross stitch shop and I got 3 great kits to make. Two of them are emperor and empress designs that I can give the kids when they get married and one is a beautiful flower design for me to hang in the house. Once I get done knitting Owen's blanket I hope to get started on that one.

After our nice long nap we met Helen and took a taxi to the Tianjin Cultural Street. It was full of little shops that sold all sorts of trinkets, most of them were little souvenirs but some were traditional crafts or foods native to Tianjin. We bought a couple of little things and Helen treated us to some candy and a twisted baked snack that is a local favorite. It sort of reminded me of a chinese pretzel with sesame seeds, very yummy! After wandering around there and playing in a park area a bit we decided to walk back to our hotel. It wasn't very far, but it was rush hour so that was a little nerve wracking. From there we went to dinner at a dumpling restaurant because eating dumplings is a lucky way to begin a new journey (this is why it is tradition to eat dumplings at Chinese New Year).

There are many things that I love and try to understand about the Chinese culture, but one that I will never get used to is the squatty potty. In my opinion they are just GROSS! Why women put up with this is beyond me! It doesn't help that Cackie has a potty fetish either! At the dumpling restaurant Cackie of course had to use the bathroom and it was the nastiest, dirtiest squatty potty that I had ever seen. It is not easy trying to teach Cackie to use it and the end result was wet pants and a sick mommy, yuck! Good thing I had enjoyed some dinner up to that point, cause there was no more enjoying after that!

After that we headed back to the hotel to finish packing and for the second night in a row the "hotel police" called to tell us to close our door (our rooms were not connecting, so we had to flip the latch to keep the doors open slightly to go between the two rooms). When that started we were REALLY starting to get ready to get out of Tianjin!

So, on Saturday we woke up early to get ready, pack the last minute items and have breakfast. We were ready a little early, but were anxious to get to Guangzhou so that was probably why. We headed to the airport and got there too early to check in. After waiting a little bit we got in line just a few minutes before the check in counter opened. Good thing we were there early... we had a number of luggage issues because they have changed their carry-on policies recently and ended up needing to check some bags that we had not intended to check. Then, they had Cackie's last name spelled "Wills" which was going to cause problems going through security and it took a while to wait for that issue to be fixed.

Once we got all the tickets straighted out we entered the security mess. They kept scanning our bags, making us take out certain items and insisted that we had lighters in our backpack (they were matchbox cars!). It wasn't as crazy as the train station (thank God!), but it was still crazy! Owen is very attached to his backpack and we couldn't get it off him to go through security without a whole lot of screaming so that didn't help matters.

We made it through security just in time to board the plane and get situated. There was a little delay leaving the gate and we finally left around 1:00. I was sitting between Cackie & Owen and Caryn & Michael were in the row behind us on the other side of the isle. Thankfully just before takeoff Owen crashed and Cackie was just a few minutes behind him. They both missed the meal service, but I think they really needed the nap more. Owen woke up about an hour later and Cackie was about 45 minutes behind him. We didn't arrive in Guangzhou until 3:30, so there was still quite a bit of time to keep the two of them occupied. Owen became facinated with the safety instruction card and Cackie liked the airsickness bag (we're so glad we didn't need either of them!).

When we arrived we gathered our multitude of luggage pretty easily and found our guide Jocelyn waiting for us. We loaded everything up into the waiting van and headed to the wonderful White Swan hotel. On the way Jocelyn went over our entire schedule with us and uttered some of the best words we'd heard in days... Papa Johns! (any guesses on what we had for dinner?) The ride was about 40 minutes, but the time passed pretty quick.

We were soo happy to arrive at the comfortable White Swan. Jocelyn was able to arrange connecting rooms for us and they are a lot larger and more comfortable than the room we had on our last trip. We immediately gathered all our dirty laundry and headed out to drop it off. On the way we stopped by the indoor waterfall and pond and ran into our friends from Beijing... Kris, Jim, Austin & Owen! We were soo excited to see them and catch up with them. They could totally relate to our train station frustration which made us all feel better. We were soo excited to see them we almost forgot about our laundry.

We finally gathered everyone together and headed to take our laundry and get a few things from the 7 Eleven. When we got back to our room we called Papa John's and ordered pizza and cheese sticks for dinner. It arrived via bicycle messenger and Michael went to the lobby to pick it up. When he came back to the room he was laughing hysterically because he had a bit of a language mix up when ordering the cheese sticks... they had asked him how many pieces he wanted and they told him there were 8 pieces, so he ordered 8 pieces of cheese sticks. As it turned out he actually ordered 8 orders of cheese sticks! Needless to say we got our fill of Papa John's! The kids ate at least two orders of cheese sticks each! Owen loved it!

With our bellies filled we fell asleep easily!

Today we woke up a little late and after getting ready went to enjoy the wonderful breakfast buffet. We really enjoyed it and the kids were pleased with the variety. After breakfast Caryn, Owen & I met Jocelyn and took a taxi to the local arts & crafts center. We did some good shopping, especially for items we wish we had bought last time and were back to the hotel just a little over an hour later. Owen was soo sweet the whole time, he rally wanted to be held and Jocelyn was nice enough to keep him busy while we were busy shopping.

After we got back to the hotel we gathered up Michael & Cackie and went out to explore the island a little. We stopped at Starbucks to get a little comfort fix and the kids enjoyed some hot chocolate. By then it was time to head back for a nap. It didn't take too long for the kids to fall asleep and we enjoyed the opportunity to do a little work in the other room.

When they woke up we got ready and headed down to the pool. Cackie of course dove right in and really enjoyed the little kiddie pool. Owen was very scared and timid at first, but we worked with him and after a short time he was splashing everyone and even walking by himself across the kiddie pool. It was fairly cool and overcast today and it didn't take long for both kids to have blue lips and start shivering. When we got out we enjoyed playing with some bubbles and we found out that Owen can blow! That's a good sign for a cleft kiddo and it was good practice for him to blow the bubbles.

After we were done at the pool we got dressed and headed back out to take the kids to the outdoor play area on the island. They both loved it, especially the slide. All that playing and we started to get really hungry so we headed back to the hotel to clean up a little and pick up our clean laundry. I had wanted to go to the great Thai restaurant here, but they were full so we ended up eating dinner at Lucy's. Owen cleaned his plate... the grilled ham and cheese was a huge hit. We had made a number of friends in the time that we've been here and they all seemed to show up at Lucy's just after we did.

We then decided to head back to the hotel and made a side trip to the playroom downstairs. The kids had a lot of fun, Cackie was wild and crazy and Owen was more reserved and paid attention to details. I think they are going to be a good fit for each other. When we had finally worn them out we headed back to the room to get ready for bed. They are now both sleeping in the other room like little angels. What a happy Mother's Day this has been!

I'll work on posting links to our photo albums. It's taking a little longer than I had hoped. Stay posted for those! We've loved hearing from everyone and send everyone our love!

Thurday in Tianjin

2008-05-08T02:49:00.005-06:00

Wow, I can't believe that it was last week that we were at the Temple of Heaven! What a week it's been!

Today we woke up and got started late. It was nice to be a little relaxed. Cackie took a shower with me and then Michael was able to get Owen into the tub with him. It started out as a fight, but by the end of the bath he was laughing and smiling. Yay! Maybe that's another small victory.

We went down and had a really nice breakfast and Owen ate a reasonable amount. I think he's starting to realize that there will be plenty for him and he doesn't need to stuff himself.

After breakfast we pulled out the double stroller and went out for a walk. We walked to a little park that is attached to a hospital down the street and did some exploring and then we went down to the river that is nearby. They have a very nice river walk area with a HUGE ferris wheel on a bridge over the river. We had a good time just walking along and looking at the different people.

This afternoon has been lazy for us, first we had a nice long nap and then we've been hanging out playing and watching TV. Now we're trying to figure out what to do for dinner.

Just one more full day in Tianjin. On Saturday we head to Guangzhou where hopefully we won't draw as many crowds. It will be nice to be in a familiar place and see some friends.

Thank you for all the comments and messages! We love hearing from everyone and feeling connected to back home. Just one more week and we'll be back!

Another Day in Tianjin

2008-05-08T02:20:00.004-06:00

I feel like all we ever do around here is eat! I guess it just seems that way because we're not used to being so lazy and relaxed.
Yesterday we got up early to eat breakfast so that we would be ready for lunch at 12:15 when we were to meet Robert.
Helen was not able to go to lunch with us, but thankfully Robert can read and speak chinese. Otherwise we would have been lost! We had a wonderful lunch with Robert and got the opportunity to learn some about the orphanage and how things work there for the children. He couldn't tell us anything about Owen's foster family, but did say that he's one of the first in his "kindergarten" class to be adopted and he figured that some of the other children would be adopted soon. It was really a good time and we are soo thankful for having Robert to share information with us and be there to help the children.

After lunch it was naptime and we all were able to get some good rest. I'm really getting used to these 2 hour naps in the afternoon! After nap we went swimming! Owen was really scared at first. We all went to sit on the edge of the pool, but he stood off in the distance near the lounge chairs. I coaxed him into my lap and we used his dumptruck to bring water over to dribble on him. I inched slowly closer to the pool and by the time we left he was sitting with me on the edge with his feet in the water. A smalll victory maybe?

After swimming we went out pick up the cameras that we had sent in care packages to Owen. Only 2 of the 3 cameras processed, but there are some great pictures in them. There are a couple pictures with Owen's foster mom, his teacher and maybe his foster dad. There are also a couple pictures with 2 little girls that I will share with the Tianjin group after we get home.

After that we did some walking around to see if we could find somewhere to eat. We had asked Helen about a "western" restaurant and she suggested McDonald's, not exactly what we had in mind. So, we did some walking to see if we could find a good place to eat. We came across a "western" restaurant and decided to give it a try. It wasn't exactly what we consider western... we had some sort of italian cod, chicken curry, beef & pepper stew and spaghetti with meat sauce. Thinking about it now, it's the craziest meal we've ever eaten! At least it wasn't too bad and Owen was introduced to spaghetti (sort of). The kids were being good (well as good as they could be) so we went to McDonald's to treat them to ice cream. The McDonald's was like walking into a sauna, it was easily 85 degrees in there, so the ice cream was VERY welcome!

We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for bed. It was nearly 10 pm at this point and we were all beat. We had a quick screaming session with Owen when we had to take something away from him, but then it wasn't too long before we were out for the night.

Sweet dreams from Tianjin!

All About Owen

2008-05-06T20:45:00.002-06:00

Well, today is day 3 of life with Owen. I haven't had a lot of chance to write things down, but we only have one thing planned for today (lunch with Robert), so this gives me a chance to write down some things about Owen.

He LOVES his backpack! He's very attached to it and if we try to take it from him he can get quite upset. He carries a couple matchbox cars, a magnadoodle pad and his camera in it. He has worn out the batteries in the camera, mostly just playing with it, but sometimes intending to take pictures. I need to charge the batteries when we get a chance.

He can be quite insecure. We think that he's worried that things will be taken away from them and he'lll never see them again, so once something is given to him it takes a lot to get it back.

Occasionally he will show frustration with Cackie. She is having pretty rough time with all this. If Baba or I show too much attention to him she has to jump in and try to get us to pay attention to her. Sometimes when she does this Owen can get testy and will try to push her away.

He does not like cats or dogs. We recieved a letter from his foster family that said this, but we saw it in action last night when we went out for a walk. A cat jumped down from a brick wall and ran under a car about 30 feet away and he started to pull back and wouldn't walk forward. Then, later we were walking past a shop that had a dog sitting out front and she screamed and pulled away. (this is going to make life at home VERY difficult!)

He knows who MaMa and BaBa are and can point to us both in person and in pictures.

He's pretty tiny. He is tall and has a big belly, but his arms & legs are very skinny. On Monday we changed him into some shorts that I had from Walmart that said 24 mos, but they almost fell off of him. We had some other shorts that were 3T with elastic waist and they fit him a lot better. Unfortunately he had two messes and we had to make a trip to Walmart to get some extra drawstring shorts for him. So, we may need to do some shopping when we get home.

He has the cutest little dimples!

He is not fond of the bathtub. Monday night we tried to give him a bath and it ended up in a screaming match. Last night tried again, but he had his backpack on and wouldn't give it up.

He is a very neat little boy. If he takes something out he puts it away when he's done. If I open a drawer to put something away he does not like it if I leave the drawer open, he immediately comes behind me to close it. He also tries to close the doors at the hotel entrance whenever we go in or out.

He LOVES to eat! The only things so far that we could not get him to eat are soup and some broccoli at breakfast this morning. So far he has eaten corn, spare ribs, shrimp, asparagus, spinach, lamb, chicken, pork, eggplant, rice, noodles, eggs, watermelon, potatoes, carrots, snow peas, apples, bacon, sausage, steamed bread... pretty much everything we give him. He eats so much at one time that his belly is rock hard by the time we leave the table.

He is extremlely careful when walking around, especially on stairs. He probably hasn't had much exercise and his muscle tone is low, but that shouldn't take long to correct.

He likes cars, crayons, coloring and playdoh. But he really doesn't like things that make too much noise and this morning he freaked out when I brought out some light up balls that have tentacles like an octopus. He seemed to like the light part, but once all the tentacles came out he started screaming.

He has a VERY loud scream! This morning we went to wake Cackie up and something in the dark room scared him and the scream was ear piercing! A few minutes later someone from the hotel came walking around the floor and we had to wonder if it was because of his screaming.

He is a very sweet and loving little boy! He will walk up to us and and hold up his arms wanting us to hold him. He's even started giving us the cutest little kisses.
Yesterday we had to wake him up suddenly from his nap to go and take care of some paperwork. We thought we were going to do that today, but things changed and we had to move quickly. He was such a good boy, didn't cry, scream or anything. He just went with the flow and wanted to explore everything he could.

All our paperwork is now done. He's officially ours, we're just waiting in Tiajin for his passport to be issued. We should get that on Friday and then on Saturday we will head to Guangzhou to get his US Visa.

Here are our pictures from yesterday. The camera battery died, so we didn't get too many.

We have Owen!

2008-05-06T02:38:00.002-06:00

We've been together for over 24 hours now and things are going really well!
We've been soo busy going here and there or trying to get kiddos to nap, etc so it's been hard to sit down at the computer and get this posted.

We went to the orphanage at 11 am yesterday and Helen brought us two bags full of stuff for Owen. One was full of all kinds of snacks and treats that he likes and the other had one of the boxes that we had sent to him with some of the clothes and toys that we had sent. The photo books that I had sent him were also in the box and some of the pages looked really worn, at least one of the pictures was even missing, so I think he was able to look at the books a lot. We were also excited because the Tiger doll that we had sent was dirty and looked played with.

We were shuffled from one room to another and then we were finally taken upstairs so that the orphanage director could speak to us. A few minutes later they brought in Owen and another little girl that was being adopted as well. I went to him and he just leaned on me. I know it was overwhelming for me, so it must have been for him. We pulled out one of the photo books and he pointed to his picture and said "HangHang", then when I asked him to point to MaMa and BaBa he pointed to our pictures.

We were only in that room a few minutes longer and then we were all shuffled out to leave. He started to cry a little while we were in the room, but one of the nannies came over to talk to him and that seemed to make it all better. When we got into the car I sat in the very back with him and he started to say a few things, but Helen really couldn't understand what he was saying. Helen did ask him if he was hungry and he said yes. It was past his normal lunch time, so we headed back to the hotel to drop some things off and then we went down the street to a restaurant for lunch.

We had told Helen that Cackie liked corn, so she ordered a corn dish for us that was VERY good and HangHang LOVED it! He easily ate 3 or 4 whole bowls of it, plus lamb spare ribs (right off the bone!), some sort of fried chicken, rice and steamed bread. The only thing that he had no interest at all in was the soup. Every time we tried to give him soup he would shake his head really hard! We couldn't believe how much of everything else he was eating! Now, looking back on it, I think he was afraid that we would take something away and that he had better eat while it was there.

We were able to get him to giggle and smile during lunch and we had a really good time. At one point Helen was able to get him to laugh with his mouth open and we were given an AWESOME surprise... his palate surgery has already been done! We had no clue about this at all!

After lunch we headed back to the hotel to try to lay down for a nap. We had to close all the blinds, turn off all the lights and Michael, Cackie, HangHang and I all laid down on the bed together for a nap. Good thing we were able to get a king size bed! We napped for not quite 2 hours and then we had to go out to meet Helen.

Before the nap we tried to let him take off his long sleeve shirt and sandals, but he would have nothing to do with it. After nap he allowed us to go ahead and change him into a tshirt, shorts & the sandals that I brought. I was soo glad we were able to do that, poor guy was getting really hot.

So, we met Helen and we all headed down to the McDonald's to use their play area. The play area wasn't much, but it was just enough for Cackie to run and have some fun and HangHang did some loosening up and playing. Helen treated us all to ice cream sundaes and it was soo cute to watch him eat it. He wouldn't let it out of his sight. Then Helen gave him a french fry and he loved it too! Nothing like creating a monster early, huh?

We played at McDonald's for quite a while, it was soo hot in there I thought I was going to melt. When we were done we stopped to buy a couple of drinks and we put HangHang's orange juice in a soft spout sippy cup for him. He LOVED that cup and wouldn't give it up. It seemed as if he was using it as a pacifier, but that was OK. He was riding on Michael's shoulders and loved it!

We got back to the hotel and none of us were really hungry (HangHang's belly was still tight!), so we just played a while. Then, Michael & I tried to give him a bath, but he definately did not like that! He watched Cackie take a bath after him and that seemed to help ease his fears. We'll try again later!

After bath we got the kids ready for bed and tucked into the big bed together. We tried sitting in the room with the lights out, but the two of them were getting into mischeif and wouldn't be quite. We finally got them to calm down, but they still laid there awake. Michael & I went out in the hall with the door propped open slightly and they seemed to calm down a bit more. We sat out in the hall until just after 10 and then got into bed with the kids. HangHang was still awake, but fell asleep fast once we were there with him.

I've attached two slide shows with all the pictures from the day

May 2 Pictures

2008-05-04T19:43:00.001-06:00

Photobucket Album

May 2 photos

2008-05-04T19:40:00.001-06:00

Here's a link to our photobucket album of pictures from May 2

http://s204.photobucket.com/albums/bb142/dcwa123/china%200502/

Almost up to date

2008-05-04T19:10:00.004-06:00

Well, we haven't had much opportunity to get online and then last night when we tried the internet connection in our room was not working. Michael has headed to the front desk to see if we can get it fixed, but meanwhile I'm in Caryn & Cackie's room where the connection is working.
I've posted what I've written about the last few days, but I'm still behind on pictures. Our camera takes such high resolution pics that it can take a lot of time to upload them. I'm working on it now and will post photos as soon as I can.

Right now it's 9:15 am on Monday and we are to meet Helen in the lobby at 11:00 am to head to the orphanage. I think it's pretty close by, so we should probably have Owen with us not too long after 11. Michael and I are both pretty nervous this morning and Cackie is being VERY talkative, so I suspect she is starting to realize that things are about to change.

I'm off to work on pictures and will send an update later as soon as I can.

May 4

2008-05-04T19:09:00.001-06:00

Today was the most stressful day by far! I’m glad it is behind us and I’m praying that the rest of the trip is not nearly as stressful.
We got up at 6 am just like the last 2 days, but instead of eating breakfast at the hotel for $20 a piece we went to McDonald’s and we all ate for less than $10! We could just kick ourselves for spending so much those other days, oh well! Last trip we never ate at an American restaurant and we had really wanted to avoid it this time, but it just didn’t make sense to us to not go.
Across the street from McDonald’s was a bank and we got quite a shock when we saw the armored car “brigade” that was lined up out front. It was almost scary! Now that is some bank security!
After breakfast we headed back to the hotel to do our final packing and were ready early when Helen arrived at the hotel to get us. We had a LOT more luggage than Helen had planned on and we had trouble getting it all packed into the van. We headed to the train station and of course got caught in a traffic jam. Helen jumped out of the van to find some guys to help us haul all our luggage because as we found out later the train stations in China are not traveler friendly.
We got out everything out of the van and as we started heading toward the train station I asked Cackie to give me her hand so that I wouldn’t lose her. She has had more than her share of stubborn moments and decided to have one right there on the street. When she refused to give me her hand I grabbed it out of pure fear that she would get too close to the street and she started to throw an absolute fit! She was screaming and the whole moment became 100 times more stressful that it already was. While trying to contain Cackie in her fit, we were trying to keep up with Helen and the two dudes who had taken off with our luggage. Then as we entered the train station we had to put all our luggage through a luggage scanner, but everything was moving at 5 times the pace of what we went through at the airport. After hoping that we had gathered everything up we had to go up an escalator with everything, all the while Cackie is drawing attention to herself because she is screaming and Michael & I were starting to get very nervous that someone was going to accuse us of kidnapping her. At that point I was about to lose it and we put her in the stroller to help contain her. She was not happy about that, but we were now in a HUGE crowd of people and we were doing everything we could to keep it together.
As we headed toward the gate I can now understand why there were cases of people being trampled in the train stations earlier this year around Chinese New Year. I can now truly say that I know what cattle feel like when they are being herded! It is hard enough keeping up with 4 other people in a crowded place, but when you add in all the luggage it is crazy! Once we got into the gate for our train, then we had to rush down a huge flight of steps and race to the opposite end of the train to get to our car. We jumped on the train just as they were ringing the bell to let us know that the train was about to leave! We had to cram the stroller in a tight space and pray that the rest of the luggage had made it on the train.
The trip to Tianjin was just a little over an hour and the train was very smooth. We totally needed that after what it took to get on there! But, the fun wasn’t over yet… we still had to arrive and get off the train. Knowing that it was going to be difficult to get everything off we planned to split up and Michael & I would get part of our stuff and Caryn & Helen would get the rest. We were able to get everything off and Helen found two more guys who could help us to haul everything. This time we first had to go up about 3 flights of steps, turn a corner and then down 3 flights of stairs, not easy with all the stuff we had. Then, as we were trying to exit the train station amongst mass chaos a woman at the gate tried to stop me as we were going through. I pretty much looked at her like a crazed woman pointed toward Helen and pushed through the gate. I know she thought I was a lunatic pushing a double stroller with only one child and loaded down with 3 or 4 bags. Maybe tomorrow I can laugh at that thought!
Trying to get to the car wasn’t much easier. We were mobbed by people running toward us waving their keys trying to get us to hire them and other people who wanted to help us carry our bags, etc. We finally made it to the Buick minivan and we literally almost didn’t get everything into it. After about 20 minutes we arrived at the good ole Holiday Inn (how ironic is that for a family from Memphis?) and got checked into the hotel. We pretty much dropped off our stuff in the room and then met Helen back in the lobby to go out for lunch. The lunch was at a local restaurant and we really enjoyed the lamb, shrimp and eggplant that Helen ordered. Cackie had to go to the bathroom while at the restaurant and Caryn took her to the rest room to find a squatty potty waiting, yay!
After lunch we headed back to the hotel to unpack and relax. We met Helen again at 7pm, intending to go to dinner. We also needed to take some laundry to be done. So, we headed off to the cleaners and halfway there Helen tells us that the laundry in China does not do socks or underwear. We never had that problem on our last trip, so it was a bit of a surprise to me. Then she tells us that we have soo many clothes that we probably won’t get them back for 2 days. I only had one day of clothes left, so that started to get me a bit irritated. We had really good experiences with the laundry on our last trip, and I hadn’t really prepared for this. So, after that we decided that none of us were really very hungry and we just went to the store to pick up a few things and then head back to the room.
We sorted out the dirty laundry and washed it all in the tub. Cackie had a good time, but it was a little annoying to have to go through the process. So, now we’re munching on snacks and we’ll be heading to bed soon. We leave the hotel at 11am to go to the orphanage and we get Owen! I’m glad today is behind us and I’m saying my prayers that tomorrow is a much much better day.

May 3

2008-05-04T19:08:00.000-06:00

Still getting caught up… So, what does someone who has developed a fear of heights do while in China? They climb the Great Wall in a thunder & lightening storm, of course!
On Saturday we met Helen at 8:30am and headed to pick up Kris, Jim & Austin at their hotel. It was very cloudy and much cooler than it had been on Friday. We were headed outside the city to visit the Great Wall and traffic was pretty congested. On the way there it started to rain and we were getting worried. But, first we stopped at a jade factory for a quick tour to learn some about jade and, of course, to do some shopping.
We loved all the jade at the factory and got a few very nice things to have as reminders of this wonderful trip. Just about the time we were leaving the jade factory it started to rain really hard and there was even some thunder and lightning, but Helen checked and was told that it was not raining at the Great Wall. So, we headed on. As we were driving it was like all of a sudden the scenery changed from city to country side and then to very tall mountains. The mountains were VERY steep and it was all soo beautiful.
We started to catch glimpses of the Great Wall and we all started to get excited. Of course, it had started raining by that point and pretty hard, but we were all soo excited that we didn’t think it would matter. The temperature had dropped a lot by that point and truthfully, we were not prepared for that. If it had just been cool it wouldn’t have been so bad, but the rain on top of it made it quite uncomfortable. We put Cackie in the backpack carrier on Michael’s back and each of us had umbrellas. Helen told us that she would give us 2 hours to climb up to the highest tower and back.
So, we started off… getting to the first landing wasn’t too bad. It was a little tough on Michael with the extra 40 pounds on his back, but we stopped at the first landing and took some pictures. From there it was pretty much straight up and none of the steps were the same height. We got about 1/3 of the way up the next section and Cackie started to complain that she was getting cold. She basically had long shorts on, so I could totally understand. Both Michael & I were getting soaked and it really was getting tough for me to breathe with this cold I have. Then some lightning flashed, thunder rumbled and we looked at each other and said “forget this”. By this point Caryn had gone on ahead of us and we were able to catch her attention to let her know we were headed down. The funny thing is that fighting the mass of people was just as hard going down as it was going up. When we finally got to the bottom we found the little snack stand and were able to get under some shelter. I went into the souvenir shop and got two really cheesy “I climbed the Great Wall” sweatshirts for Cackie & I because we were soaked and cold and found some hot tea to help warm us up. A few minutes later Kris joined up with us and we all found Helen in the van. We were soo happy to be in that cramped little van just getting warm! Not too much longer Caryn, Jim & Austin showed up soaked to the bone and looking beat. They had gotten pretty far, but not all the way to the top. After getting them some warm clothes we left to get some lunch.
Our lunch was in a restaurant that is attached to a cloisonné factory. First we got a quick tour and demonstration on how cloisonné is made and then we headed to the restaurant. We had a great lunch, tried a very strong Chinese liquor (reminded Kris & I of very strong tequila) and the kids even got to enjoy some French fries! After lunch we got to do some shopping for cloisonné and then it was back on the bus.
We headed back into Beijing and got the opportunity to get a quick driving tour around the Olympic complex. We couldn’t stop to get out of the van, but our driver tried to go slowly so that we could get some good photos. Unfortunately I was only able to get some video of this because our camera had gotten soaked and the lenses were pretty fogged over from climbing the Great Wall. The stadiums were all pretty cool looking. The venue where the swimming and diving events will be is really cool, it looks like water bubbles from the outside! The birds nest stadium where the opening & closing ceremonies will be is also amazing to see in person.
At this point we were all getting pretty silly and I did some filming of the crazy drivers in China and we had a lot of good laughs. We didn’t realize it, but before we knew it we were at our next destination. We arrived at a tea shop for a traditional Chinese tea ceremony. We tried a number of different teas and learned the proper ways to make them. Cackie had had her moments all throughout the day, but she was pretty good through the tea ceremony. She tried all the teas and liked the black tea the best. The favorite part of the whole ceremony for everyone was when they showed us the “happy baby” which is a clay figurine of a baby that has a “special” way of helping you to know if your water is hot enough for making tea. I soo wish that I had that on video! The kids were hysterical and put some pressure on us to shop when they found out that you get a free “happy baby” with any purchase. Of course, that wasn’t a problem… I love tea and was happy to get some to take home.
After the tea we headed back to our hotels to relax and get ready to leave Beijing for Tianjin. Packing all our stuff up was quite an ordeal! The majority of our clothes were dirty by this point, but we had done quite a bit of shopping and had 4 silk blankets that we had added to the multitude of other stuff that we brought. After we got most of our stuff packed we headed down to a restaurant that Helen had recommended and had a wonderful dinner. The beef & black pepper was fabulous and the broccoli was soo yummy. It was also a lot cheaper than the other meals that we had had and we kicked ourselves for ordering room service those 2 nights. Poor Cackie was extremely pooped by this point and almost fell asleep in her food. She crawled into Michael’s lap and was out in seconds. Poor kiddo had changed her body clock 13 hours and gone 2 days with no nap, it was all catching up with her and she just couldn’t take it anymore. We weren’t too far behind her, which is why I’ve been so far behind in getting this updated!

May 2

2008-05-04T19:06:00.001-06:00

OK, I’m a day behind so I need to get caught up… On Friday we met Helen at 9 am and were very excited to get to meet Kris, Jim & Austin our travel mates. Austin is 9 and he and Cackie hit it off immediately! They are from Florida and are adopting a 4 year old boy from Dailin.
Within a few short minutes we arrived just outside the Tiananmen Square area. It was crazy packed with people and Kris and I were walking along trying to keep up with Helen and the kids, but talking the whole time getting to know each other. She asked me what we were naming our son and when I said Owen her mouth dropped open… they are naming their son Owen, too! How weird is that? We’ve decided that there is definitely a red thread involved and that we were all destined to meet. (now after spending 2 full days with them, we’re seriously thinking about an arranged marriage for Cackie & Austin, lol!)
So, anyway… we walked through Tiananmen Square and it was packed full of people. There was a very long, slow moving line in one area and Helen told us that it was the line for people to go in and pay their respects to Chairman Mao because his body has been preserved in a glass coffin inside. We would have liked to go in, but you can’t carry cameras, wear jewelry, etc. so it just wasn’t possible.
After walking across Tiananmen Square (where we got LOTS of curious stares from all sorts of people) we headed across the street to the Forbidden City. I’ve seen tons of pictures of the Forbidden City, but they are VERY deceiving! I’ve always envisioned it to be mostly the huge red building with Chairman Mao’s picture on it, that couldn’t be any further from the truth! The reality is that the Forbidden City is HUGE! Now I can fully understand why it was called a city. There are a number of different gates and courtyard areas that surround the different temples and buildings. The only disappointing part was that we never actually went into a building to do any touring. There was one area where we could see the personal living quarters of the Emperor, but only from behind glass.
Touring the Forbidden City was very exhausting, especially when touring with a hyper, rambunctious, cranky, thirsty 3 year old (note to self… always carry a bottle of water in China!). At other times it was comical and lots of fun because the Chinese people were fascinated with Austin. They treated him like a rock star, wanting to get their picture taken with him, etc. Cackie was also very interesting to them because she was obviously Chinese, but spoke perfect English, so she drew quite a bit of attention, too. By the time we were done we were soooo ready for lunch. Helen had arranged lunch for us at a local restaurant and it was very good. We had a super spicy kung pao chicken, Chinese cabbage, pork with vegetables, egg with mountain vegetables and soup. We really enjoyed it and were super stuffed when we left.
But, they day had just begun… after lunch we visited a silk factory and learned about the silk making process from cocoons to the final product, especially their famous blankets. Of course, after they showed us how the silk was made they had to sell us some. We bought some absolutely beautiful silk blankets with silk covers that I can’t wait to get home and snuggle in.
After the silk factory we went to tour a Hutong area. The Hutongs are the old traditional housing areas of Beijing. In the past they were where multiple generations of one family would live in separate housing units surrounding a single courtyard, but now they are multiple units each with a different family. The Hutongs have many modern conveniences, but no restrooms… that is shared in a common public area. We were invited into the home of one of the families and we got the chance to sit down and talk with them and learn a little about their lives. It was very interesting and extremely humbling.
The best part of the Hutongs was the Rickshaw tour that we got. We got a tour of the maze of the housing area, both to and from the home of the family that we visited. Cackie loved it and we got to see a lot of what life is like in the Hutongs.
When we were finished at the Hutongs we then headed to the Chinese acrobat show. It was AMAZING! Cackie was totally mesmerized by the whole thing. Unfortunately it was just before the end of the show that she totally crashed! Poor girl hadn’t had a nap all day and had been going and going non-stop. Michael carried her out of the theater (a major feat in itself) and he held her until we got back to the hotel, but first we had one more stop to make... Helen took us to a local restaurant that is famous for its Peking Duck. We had a number of other dishes, too (soup, beef & potatoes, duck liver pate, cabbage, chicken & vegetables). It was all very good, especially the duck. By the end of the meal we were soo beat that we could barely stay awake. Poor Michael was not only tired, but he was also carrying all 40+ pounds of Cackie!
Needless to say after dinner Helen took us back to our hotels. We got in, got Cackie changed and into bed (she hardly woke up for that) and then we headed to our room. By 9 pm I had crashed HARD! Apparently Caryn came into our room twice, one time used our hair dryer, but I didn’t know a thing about it, I was dead to the world. So, that’s why I didn’t get this written and updated on time. Michael took a TON of pictures, so now I’ll go through them and see if I can post some to share.

May 1

2008-05-01T18:44:00.001-06:00

It’s Friday morning as I write this, so I need to catch up on what happened on Thursday.

Michael and I ended up waking early and that’s when I took advantage of the quiet to write about our flight here. My head was killing me at that point and I took a nice hot shower to help clear it. We woke the girls up around 6:45, they had slept well and were ready to start the day. After getting ourselves ready we headed downstairs to the breakfast buffet.
Breakfast was really good and filling, it included everything from pancakes, French toast and scrambled eggs to steamed pork buns, fried rice, egg rolls, noodles and pork dumpings (that’s what the sign said, let’s hope they just lost the “l” in translation since they were quite tasty).
We met Helen in the lobby at 9 am and she had our car and driver waiting. Cackie was in a much better mood and Helen could see what we meant about her being full of energy. We all climbed in our bus and headed for the Temple of Heaven. The Temple grounds were huge with lots of park settings and TONS of people everywhere. When we first walked in Cackie froze in her tracks, mesermized by some ribbon dancers. It was amazing to watch through her eyes the beauty of the dance. Then as we walked a little further we saw different groups of people practicing Tai Chi Bo. They were holding some sort of racquet and balancing a ball on the racquet while moving in a synchronized rhythm. It looked really easy, but I’m sure that it was MUCH harder than it looked. One man approached us with his ball and racquet, giving us the opportunity to try it ourselves. We all declined the opportunity to make fools of ourselves!
We saw a number of other groups gathered on the grounds, some were signing opera and playing musical instruments (Cackie really enjoyed this, too) and some were playing shuttle cock or hackeysack. The grounds were beautiful with lots of green grass and many beautiful large trees.
Helen led us into the temple and described the significance of many of the aspects of the temple. The tiles and much of the decoration is in a blue color to signify respect to the gods, this is in contrast to the Forbidden City which has lots of golden color to signify the emperor or royalty. In the areas where the emperor would walk or have ascess the steps and tile formations are all in multiples of 9 because 9 is a very lucky number in China and signifies greatness. But, in areas where the common people would walk the steps and tile formations were all in multiples of 10 because it is seen as less dominant than the number 9.
The Temple of Heaven grounds are actually made up of multiple different temples, each has a significance to give thanks for a good harvest. We didn’t visit each little temple, you can’t go inside just wander around and fight your way to catch a glimpse of what is inside. There were lots of steps and Cackie was in heaven when she was given the opportunity to run and be free. After exploring part of the ground, Helen took us to a small studio where local art students are given the opportunity to sell their work and earn some money. The artwork was all soo beautiful and we splurged and bought a gorgeous oil painting of a child in a traditional tiger hat. We bought a couple of other small items, each soo beautiful.
Cackie was really well behaved through all that, so Helen treated her to an ice cream treat. Let’s just say that Helen has definitely found the way to Cackie’s heart! We wandered the grounds some more and Helen took us to the area where the emperor would stand and speak to the masses of people. It is in a large circular area and there is a raised stone platform, just big enough for one person to stand on. There were lots of people gathered around it, each taking their turn to stand on the stone and have their picture taken. We tried to get Cackie to stand on it, but she started to get ornery and there was one man taking more than his fair share of time, so we left that area.
When we exited the park we were bombarded with people selling cheap souvenirs and books. There were even men with these oven type cookers attached to their bicycles and tons of baked sweet potatoes piled on them. They smelled soo good, but if you risked stopping to purchase one you would have been bombarded by the other vendors.
After a few minutes we found our car and driver and he took us back to the hotel. We had thought about going to lunch, but none of us was really hungry. By the time we got back to the hotel I was starting to feel really bad, almost like this stuff had gotten into my chest. So, at that point all I wanted to do was lay down and rest. It was time for Cackie to take a nap anyway, good timing all around. We went back up to our room, Cackie watched a movie on her DVD player and we turned on HBO to some Julia Roberts movie. We all just chilled out and relaxed, still trying to adjust to the time change. After a while Caryn & Michael went down to the little market for a few things and Caryn went off on her own to explore the Prada and Gucci stores. I think she quickly caught on that there wasn’t much she could afford and just enjoyed the window shopping.
Pretty much the rest of the afternoon we rested, Cackie took a good nap and didn’t want to wake up for anything. We tried to bribe her that we would go swimming in the hotel pool, but even that couldn’t wake her up. Finally, around 7 pm we got up and went out for a walk. We sort of followed the crowds and came to the huge shopping district here. It was really cool to be walking along enjoying ourselves, actually we were doing the same thing as all the local people.
About this time Cackie started acting up some, not wanting to hold our hands, whining a lot, etc. I think there are a lot of things going through her head, I can only guess what is going on but I suspect that she’s having some emotional trouble with things. Anyone who knows Cackie knows that she loves to be the center of attention and will do just about anything to be seen as such, but here that’s not the case. It’s Aunt Caryn, Mom & Dad who are the center of attention and I think some of that is hard on her. I also wonder if she’s starting to realize that although we are all people, she does look different that Mom & Dad. Here she shares features and can associate physically with the Chinese people, but she does not speak like them and cannot interact with them. I wonder if at some level this is bothering her and she just doesn’t know how to express it. She does get some attention, but I think it’s mostly because people quickly realize that she is adopted and they want to stare at the Chinese girl who has caucasion parents.
On our way back to the hotel we stopped in a tea shop to get some tea to take back to the room. Drinking lots of tea and staying on top of my medication seem to be helping me feel better, so I wanted to keep that up. After that we headed back to the room and ordered room service again. We ate western food this time, hamburgers, club sandwich and grilled cheese. The hotel actually has a very limited Asian menu and we wanted something different than the night before.
After dinner, I was feeling really bad and I think I basically passed out on the bed. I remember hearing Michael and Caryn take Cackie across the hall to their room and then the next thing I remember was the room being dark. Thankfully I got some good rest and am feeling quite a bit better this morning. We ordered room service for breakfast and as soon as it gets here I’ll take my meds. Hopefully that should carry me through the day. We have a very exciting day planned… Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, a traditional lunch, Hutong tour and an acrobat show and Peking Duck for dinner.

Enjoy the pictures!

We're in China - April 29 & 30

2008-04-30T17:09:00.004-06:00

Getting ready to leave

We’re here! It’s now about 3:45 am on Thursday and I’m having trouble sleeping, so I figured I’d get up and write out our story so far. (Michael is semi awake, so I’m sitting on the floor of the hotel room around the corner in the doorway. I think Cackie & Caryn are sleeping, they are in a room across the hall.)
So, our journey began at 2:30 am on Tuesday. Michael & I were excited and anxious and actually got up a few minutes before the alarm went off (quite an accomplishment at 2:30 am!) We got ourselves ready and it wasn’t until 3:15 that we woke up CackieDoodle. She was a little cautious at first, but quickly figured out what was going on and started giving out high-fives to all of us! She dressed quickly and was excited to be leaving.
Dad & Michael got all the luggage piled in the 2 cars and we headed off to the airport just before 4 am. When we arrived in the terminal it was absolutely packed with what looked to be some sort of high school group, I immediately started praying that they were waiting on the AirTran check in to open and not United (my prayers were answered thankfully!)
Now, I had searched the United website to try and find out what time the check in at Memphis opened and couldn’t find it anywhere. The only thing I could find was that you had to check-in 2 hours prior to an international flight. So, that meant we needed to check-in at 4 am. Turns out that the check-in counter doesn’t open until 4:30, ggrrrr. But, hey we were the first in line!
Caryn, Michael & I stood with our luggage at the check-in counter, not willing to give up our precious spot and watched the TSA staff prepping the security machines for the day. That was a TON of fun, lol! We all joked that at4:29 a door would finally open and a United employee would appear to start helping us. It was hilarious when this guy who looked like Morgan Freeman (remember this, it comes up again later) wearing a United sweater opened the door and walked toward us. Caryn described it as an “aaahhhh” (insert angels singing) moment! He took care of us and got us checked in all the way to Beijing. We scored a minor victory when he weighed our luggage and each of the 4 pieces was under 44 lbs! (the weight limit for in-China flights is 44 lbs per bag and we wanted to be prepared for that when we fly from Tianjin to Guangzhou).
After we were successfully checked-in we stood and hung out with Mom & Dad while we eyed the security line to make sure it wasn’t getting too long (we wanted to beat that school group through security). After a while it was time to go and fight the security mess. That was quite the ordeal, I have no idea how we would have done it without Caryn being there! After we got into the concourse we spotted the wonderful oasis of Starbucks and quickly got in line for a much needed caffeine boost.
When we arrived at the gate and got settled, Michael pointed out that we needed to get a gate check tag for the monster stroller. I spotted a girl at the counter and started to head that way, but got distracted watching a story on CNN. A few minutes later I headed to the counter and there was “Morgan Freeman” waiting to help me out. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself that it was like the movie “Evan Almighty” where Morgan Freeman, “God”, is everywhere and everyone at the same time.
We actually went outside to board the plane in Memphis, after having to navigate down a flight of stairs while carrying our multitude of bags AND the double stroller, that was a lot of fun, NOT! Our flight to Chicago was uneventful, just as we wanted it to be. When we arrived in Chicago it took some navigating but we were finally able to make it outside the security gates to meet up with Uncle Donald. They weren’t very accommodating to passengers spending time with non passengers, so we basically sat on benches outside of the check-in/security areas and had coffee and bagels.
We were able to spend a couple of hours with Uncle Donald and let Cackie blow off some steam. She loved seeing Donald and would just run over to him and give him big hugs! I’ve got some great video of Cackie & Caryn acting silly that I might just sell to the highest bidder, lol!
About an hour and a half before our flight we said our goodbyes to Uncle Donald and headed through the security maze again. It went a little easier that time, but not much. When we finally arrived at the gate there was a sign stating that they would check-in each person and verify that they had a valid visa before you could board the plane. When we did this we took advantage of the opportunity and asked about getting our seats moved around (when our seats had been assigned in Memphis, Cackie & I were together, but Michael was a couple seats down the row and Caryn was behind us.) At first the lady told us that the flight was overbooked and there was nothing she could do. She suggested boarding and then seeing if others around us were willing to switch. But, thankfully another lady at the counter overheard what we were asking and said she would take care of it. She did some searching, reseated 4 others and was able to get us 4 seats together in the center section of the plane quite close to the boarding door and directly in front of the bathroom area. This ended up working out great because we didn’t have anyone behind us banging on our seats and since we were near the front of the plane most of the foot traffic came from behind us. (Kudos for United on this one!)
By the time we boarded the flight Cackie was doing anything she could to fight off sleep. Poor girl was going on adrenaline and was starting to get out of control. Michael, Caryn & I were all pooped and couldn’t wait to get off the ground to get some sleep. The plane was loaded, we pushed off from the gate and taxied down the runway for a while before the Captain came on and said that we were headed back to the gate. There was some sort of electrical problem that needed attention.

Waiting for the electrical problem to be fixed.

Hours later after a meal.
At first they thought it was a “backup” system for the plane, but they later found out that it was a necessity and a crew had to be sent over to the international terminal to swipe the necessary part from another plane there. This ended up taking nearly two hours, the whole time which the plane got a little warm and we all struggled with not falling asleep. Thankfully Cackie had conked out by this time and we all dozed off and on for a while.
Finally, about 2 hours late we took off and they rushed meal service to us. Cackie had been complaining that she was hungry, so we woke her up and tried to get her to eat. She was NOT happy with us, but did eat a little when we promised her that she could watch a movie.
The flight itself was uneventful, just VERY LONG! Cackie did really well overall. She watched most of “Finding Nemo” with Caryn and did some coloring and practicing on her writing. I could tell that she was missing her friends already when I gave her a little notepad and she would tear off pages, color on them a bit and then say “this is for Alex, this is for Jessyln, this is for Jackson”, etc. By the time we left the plane there were lots of notebook pages scattered around our seating area, lol!
It wasn’t until the last couple hours of the flight that Cackie finally crashed hard. We tried to wake her up for the final meal service because she kept saying she was hungry, but she would have nothing to do with it. She was soo zonked out that Michael had to carry her off the plane while Caryn & I schlepped the majority of our misc baggage. Thankfully they had the stroller waiting for us, so he was able to settle her down in that. We made it through Customs with no problem, took a “train” to the luggage terminal and found that all 4 bags arrived safely!
We found our heavenly guide, Helen, easily as we were exiting the terminal and she guided us through the maze of the masses of people. Lines and waiting order do not apply in China, it’s everyone for themselves when in big groups, so it wasn’t easy to get us all onto the same elevator. We got a nice tour of each floor of the terminal, since someone had pushed the wrong button and we went down instead of up, so we were especially glad to have Helen with us! She took us to our waiting van and we all piled in. Then the real adventure of the day began… I turned in my seat to look towards Caryn & Helen and couldn’t help but laugh at the expressions on Caryn’s face. Driving in China is like nothing I have ever experienced and Caryn was getting a really nice introduction to it. We spent most of the trip riding on the shoulder of the road, dodging in and out of other cars! I couldn’t watch most of it, too stressful, so mostly gave Helen my full attention. Caryn later said that she could no longer complain about Dad’s driving, that compared to this it wasn’t soo bad after all!
Helen is awesome! She had an itinerary planned out for us listing all the sights we will be seeing on Friday and Saturday. There is another family from Orange Park, FL arriving on Thursday and we will be touring Beijing with them. She told us about some of the things that we will be seeing and really scored with us when she said that she likes to take families to eat at places that are not touristy, but where the local “real” people go. We LOVED that and are all excited about experiencing more of the “real” China. The only downside was when she warned Michael against drying the different foods from the street vendors. He has hoped to be adventurous, but she strongly warned that those vendors are not very sanitary. Helen tried real hard to win Cackie over, but Cackie was being especially grumpy and didn’t warm up much. We warned Helen that she is not normally like that and to be prepared for her to be a bundle of energy after getting some sleep! Grumpy Cackie after arriving in Beijing.
We didn’t really have anything official scheduled for today (Thursday) because we wanted to adjust to the time change, but Helen really wanted to take us out and make sure we got to see something, so we planned that she will take us to see the Temple of Heaven this morning. A really nice bonus to our trip! That will take a few hours and then we can come back to the hotel to rest and maybe do some exploring on our own.
We finally arrived at our beautiful hotel, Helen got us checked in and she & Michael went around to a grocery store to get us some water while Caryn, Cackie & I headed up to the room. Only trouble was that our room number is 2405 and the elevator only went to 19! So we rode around a few minutes trying to figure it out when we ran into Michael back down in the lobby. We just couldn’t get enough elevator riding, so we went on the same adventure again. I’m sure that we looked like the 4 Stooges to anyone who was watching us! We were just soo beat, nothing was making sense to us. Finally with the help of someone from the front desk we found our separate wing of the hotel and caught up with the bellboy who had been searching for us to let him in our rooms, lol!
It was about 7:30 pm by the time we finally got into our room and we quickly unloaded what was needed to feel like humans again. We each took showers and that helped our outlook on things a whole bunch (in the van on the way to the hotel Cackie actually would not sit in BaBa’s lap because she said that he didn’t smell good!). Around 8:30 we ordered room service (prawn & pepper stir fry, prawn dumplings, vegetable dumplings and fried rice). It was YUMMY! Nothing special, but it hit the spot for us. After that we tucked Cackie into bed across the hall and within minutes Michael & I were asleep ourselves, even despite the fact that the beds are like bricks with sheets, lol!
He slept well most of the night, I did a bit of tossing and turning, but I think a lot of that is due to the sinus funk that I have developed. I honestly haven’t felt this bad since my surgery, so I think I’m going to start taking my antibiotics this morning to ward off any problems.
So, that brings us to now… I got up at 3:45 am and started writing this. Michael was up about 30 minutes later and now it’s almost 5:30 am and I’m sitting on my bed next to the window watching the sun rise over Beijing. Pretty cool! The view outside of our hotel room

The city so far doesn’t seem to have as many large buildings as Hong Kong, it seems to be more spread out. I think some of that is because they are trying to preserve Beijing as a more “asian” look and feel, not just big skyscrapers. Most of the buildings I can see from here have the curved ceramic tile rooftops, and there is a beautiful flowering tree just across the street. This area definitely caters to tourists and the very wealthy. On the way here we passed a Rolls Royce dealership, a Ferrari dealership and lots of high end shopping stores. That should provide for some cool walking and window shopping later!
I’ll try to update again later after we do our touring. I’m excited to meet the other family coming in today and we can’t wait to see what Helen recommends for lunch and dinner dining!
Love to everyone!

China or Bust!

2008-04-28T20:47:00.003-06:00

We'll we're just about off! We're about to head to bed for a quick nap and get up really, really early.

Next post we'll be on our way!

Countdown Complete!

2008-04-28T20:39:00.002-06:00

We've completed our countdown to China. See the link here...

ONE!

2008-04-28T10:19:00.001-06:00

In less than 24 hours we will be on our way!

I'm at work now, everything is finished, even took care of our last minute banking needs at the credit union... now I'm just here for a little longer available to answer questions. When I leave here I'm headed to Michael's office to have lunch with him (yummy Mexican!) and then I'm off to finish up some stuff. Just a few last minute items to pick up and stuff in the suitcases.

Then at 3pm I've got my monthly massage scheduled! That is going to feel sooo good. After that I'll work on some things at the house and pick Cackie up from school.

Tonight we plan to go to Bosco's for dinner. That is where Michael & I went almost 3 years ago the night before we left for China to get Cackie. Guess we're being superstitious, but we want everything to go just as well this trip.

The only really hard thing to do today is get the carryon bags packed. I've got to figure out how to get everything I need in my stuff, but once that's done we're ready to go.

My mom & dad will get here this afternoon and will take us to the airport sooo early in the morning. Our flight leaves at 6 am and we need to check in 2 hours ahead of time, yuck!

But, once we arrive in Chicago we have a couple hour layover and my Uncle Donald will be meeting us there to spend some time with us. Cackie is totally excited about that, but I think she's expecting him to go on to China with us, lol! She's gonna be disappointed!

I hardly slept last night, even though I was absolutely exhausted, so maybe that's a blessing and I'll be able to get to bed early and get a couple of hours in. That would be really nice. Although, I don't really expect to get much sleep, I'm pretty much at the point of overwhelmed excitement and I don't know if sleep will happen.

I hope to get in one more post before we leave. Stay tuned...

TWO!

2008-04-28T10:01:00.000-06:00

We survived Sunday! One day closer to leaving!

We went to Church, something that we haven't done much this year because of all the work around the house that we've had going on. It was nice to be there. Before the end of the service, Pastor Martha shared with everyone that we were leaving on Tuesday and soo many people shared their congratulations with us and said they would keep us in their prayers. That was especially nice!

After Church Michael, Cackie & I went out for BBQ! We were trying to get in some of the foods that we won't get for a few weeks and BBQ fit the bill nicely. Later in the afternoon our friends Tom & Libby called and wanted to meet us at Baskin Robbins for ice cream. That was a wonderful treat on a Sunday afternoon!

The rest of the day we ran a few last minute errands and worked on getting everything packed. We're just about done, just need to get our carryon bags organized and any last minute items.

THREE!

2008-04-26T20:37:00.002-06:00

This evening...
Me: "OMG! In 3 days we're going to China"
Michael: "Don't worry, that's nothing compared to the fact that we're bringing home a little boy."

He's sooo right! Getting to China will be a breeze. Hopefully bringing Owen home will be as well, but we just can't be sure right now.

So, we're just 3 days away! Last night was our last night just Cackie, Michael & I. Cackie & I got home a little late, but then we headed to the store to do some last minute shopping for Michael's items. After that we had a great dinner out. It was a really nice night together.
This morning we got up early and headed to our favorite coffee shop for breakfast. The last time Michael & I had been to this coffee shop was on 5/25/05, the morning that we left Memphis to get Cackie. We can't believe that it's been soo long since we were there, but we vowed to take both the kids back real soon!
We had a great morning until my mother in law called to say that my step son was creating problems. All I can hope is that he at some point realizes where he went wrong and corrects his mistakes. Then, we headed home and found a horrible surprise. Our sweet Baby cat was laying in the street across from our house. She had been hit by a car and was long gone. She had grown on Michael & I very much, especially in the last few years and we will miss her terribly. Baby cat, your biscuits were the BEST!
After we got over that, Cackie & I headed to Hallie's birthday party. It was wonderful to be surrounded by such great friends and have such a good time!
After we got home and Cackie went down for her nap, Aunt Caryn arrived. It was then that soo much of this became real. We're going to China!
Caryn & I worked on getting the majority of our misc stuff into our suitcases and now we're really close to being ready to go. Tomorrow we will finish up the packing, run a few errands and that's about it.
Whoo hoo! We're just hours away from heading to China!

Days till China updated...

2008-04-26T20:35:00.001-06:00

I've updated our countdown slide show. Check it out here...

FOUR!

2008-04-25T11:59:00.003-06:00

It's starting to really sink in that we have just 4 days to go! I'm just about finished up with all my miscellaneous tasks at work, so now I'm there to answer any last minute questions and help out in any way I can. I work all day today and as I keep telling everyone... at 12:01 pm on Monday my buns are in my car headed home!
Tonight will be the last night that it will just be me, Michael & Cackie. We're hoping to do some things around the house, make some dinner and chill out the rest of the evening. Maybe we'll get the blinds hung in the new room and Cackie can spend her first night in there.
Tomorrow I think the true reality will really sink in. My sister will get here sometime tomorrow afternoon and we will begin the final packing process. I'm really hoping to be done with packing by the time we go to bed on Sunday. It will be nice on Monday to take care of last minute items, go out to dinner and try to get to bed early.
That's about it for now. I wanted to post early so that I didn't forget again! I've got pictures to post, but they're at home :-(

FIVE!

2008-04-25T11:26:00.003-06:00

Well, I missed another day... wish I could say it was because we had our noses to the grindstone and we got tons done, but nope. My in-laws came over to spend a little time with Cackie and we went out to dinner with them. It was a good night. It was nice to veg out a bit. Michael & I even got to watch my two favorite shows (Grey's Anatomy & ER) after Cackie went to bed. I got a good amount of work done on Owen's blanket, too. I'm almost 2/3 of the way finished, it will definitely keep me busy on that 13.5 hour flight to Beijing!

Speaking of Cackie... I'm starting to get quite perturbed with her. Yesterday I picked her up from school to find her sitting on the bench with the teacher, not running around playing with the other kids. It seems that she had a problem with spitting yesterday and wouldn't stop, even after she was repremanded a number of times. Oy Vey! What is going through her little mind?
I know this is all in reaction to the changes that are about to take place, heck her whole little world is going to be rocked upside down in a little more than a week, but what's with starting this crap soo soon? She's had no TV for two days now and won't get any on Friday either.
She had asked if she could take her favorite yogurt treats to school on Monday to share with her friends before she leaves and I had agreed whole heartedly (how do you disagree to a kid taking yogurt to school?), but I've warned her now that if she doesn't behave there will be no yogurt treats on Monday. Maybe that will help to get through to her. We'll see...

SIX!

2008-04-23T19:56:00.002-06:00

Oh my goodness! Six days left!
Today was not a good day, one that I'm glad to have behind me.
My nerves, anxiety, stress and everything has gotten soo built up that it's been making my stomach hurt all week. Today, it made me downright sick! I think I may have a touch of a stomach bug, too and that definitely didn't help matters.
I ended up leaving work at lunch time and came home to rest (be closer to my bathrom) and work from home. Michael had been out for lunch and stopped by to check on me before he headed back to the office and his first reaction was "wow, you're pale!" Not what I really wanted to hear.
So, I rested up some then got up and did some work from home. My cleaning girls come tomorrow, so the rest of the evening has been spent getting stuff put up and out of their way.
I have little to no energy, it's amazing I got it all accomplished! When I'm done here I'll eat a little white rice I made and then head up to bed. Hopefully this is all behind me and tomorrow I will feel a ton better (fingers crossed).
Michael made huge strides tonight and got the bunk beds put together! Cackie can't wait to sleep in her new bed tomorrow! I didn't take pictures tonight, but I'll do that tomorrow.

We got another bad report about Cackie today. More time in the blue chair! We had already determined that she would get no TV tonight from yesterday's behaviour, but now there will be no TV tomorrow either. We've done a lot of talking about her behaviour, but who knows what;s getting through!

Oops, I missed Seven!

2008-04-23T19:47:00.003-06:00

I never got a chance to post yesterday...
I left work early for an appointment and then picked Cackie up at school. I decided to skip what was to be my last Chinese class so I could take Cackie to gymnastics and Michael could work on stuff at the house. It worked out well, she got rid of some of that super energy and Michael was able to get a little more work done in the bedroom.
After that I was just too pooped to even get on the computer. We were in bed just after 9:30!

We're starting to see some bad behaviour coming out of Cackie. She had to sit in the blue chair twice today and when I arrived to pick her up she was doing time on the wall outside. Apparently she is doing a lot of talking back, not listening and making bad choices. She's been doing a lot of the same at home, too. We're really trying to work with her to work on this, but it's tough to correct, especially just a week before our trip. Hopefully by the end of the week we will see some improvement.

EIGHT!

2008-04-21T12:08:00.002-06:00

Whew, eight days to go! I can't believe it, but I'm actually glad to be back at work today. We worked soo hard on stuff this weekend that I'm seriously pooped. My concentration level at work is not 100%, but at least I get to sit down and rest! (On Saturday, while we were on our way home from the birthday party Cackie told me that she didn't feel good. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "I think all my energy is gone." Boy, I can relate to that today!)

I've become addicted to a podcast series by Seth Harwood and listening to that has helped me to stay focused on work and get some stuff accomplished. I'm also keeping my handy little notepad right beside me to write down any last minute things that I can think of. My brain is super muddled right now, I will die if I lose this notepad!
On a positive note, the weather here is absolutely gorgeous today! I stepped out to get some lunch and didn't want to go back to my desk. I should have stayed and eaten outside, but I wanted to do this post, so Blogger won.
Tonight I get to look forward to paying bills, yippee! The best part is that it will be the last time I have to worry about that until after we get home.

3 year anniversary

2008-04-20T19:18:00.004-06:00

I didn't forget! I'm just a little late posting it...

Yesterday we celebrated the 3 year anniversary of Cackie's referral. It's really hard to believe that it's been 3 whole years. We have a tradition of taking a picture of her each year on April 19. The "updated pictures" that we received of her after referral day just happened to be taken on April 19, so here are 4 years worth of Cackiedoodle...

Days till China II

2008-04-20T19:01:00.003-06:00

Room makeover

2008-04-20T16:25:00.003-06:00

The new room is just about finished! We are soo happy with how it has turned out. There are still a few small things to do, but for the most part it's ready to move in.

We will move the chests of drawers in tonight and this week Michael will work on putting the new bunk beds together. Once all the furniture is in I'll add new pictures

NINE!

2008-04-18T12:22:00.003-06:00

Wow! We're now in single digits!
Today we go A LOT accomplished and the freak out feeling from yesterday is almost gone.
Cackie & I took a trip to Walmart to pick up the remainder of the items we need. It feels really good to almost have everything checked off that list.
Michael did a whole bunch of odds & ends around the house, including hanging the closet doors in the kids room and installing the baseboards.
We still have a bunch to do, but it's getting better.
We're down to a pile of stuff in the middle of the office floor and I now need to start splitting it out to the different suitcases. The hardest part right now is planning the clothes we need to take. The weather is a little cooler than we have here, and we may need to take some pants to get through the cooler days. I'm watching the weather intently this next week.
OK, gotta get back to working on Owen's blanket.

TEN!

2008-04-18T12:21:00.002-06:00

Major stress setting in today! Still soo much to do and I feel like we are running out of time.
This morning Cackie & I went to a birthday party and headed home just after lunch for her to take a nap. After nap she & I went out to do some last minute shopping for miscellaneous stuff.

Michael was able to get the floor of the bedroom finished and the dresssers are drying from their coat of poly right now. He also did a bunch of misc stuff around the house as well.

Tomorrow we still have a lot to do, but hopefully it will be more manageable. Part of my major stress today is that I spent so much time with Cackie and she just doesn't shut up! I feel horrible saying that about my child, but sometimes I just need a few minutes to just enjoy the quiet!
That's all for now, I'm pooped and need to get some rest. Tomorrow we're in single digits!

Eleven days to go!

2008-04-18T12:16:00.002-06:00

Eleven more days! We're really starting to get excited and concentrating is becoming much harder!
Right now I'm not sure what little task will get worked on this evening. Gotta see how everythinig falls together. There is supposed to be a "carnival" at Cackie's school this afternoon, but it has been raining so that may be cancelled. We still have some last minute shopping to do and there are all sorts of things around the house that need attention.
I do hope to get some pictures posted tonight. If not tonight then this weekend, I promise!

Catch up!

2008-04-18T12:11:00.002-06:00

Oops, I missed day 12! It was a busy day, so here's a quick recap...

Cackie had her St. Jude Trike a Thon at school. She was sooo excited to be taking her trike for the day and the kids had a great time. Both Michael & I got to drop her off because we were headed to our last minute pre-trip doctor appointments. Glad to have that out of the way!
Work was just crazy for me... it's been a long time since it's been that crazy!
After work, Cackie & I got haircuts! Michael was very nervous about Cackie getting her hair cut, but he remarked last night that she looks really cute. I got a picture, but will have to post it later.
The most exciting news of the day was that Michael got the floor in the kids room stained! Yippee! So, all we have to do is poly it and we can move the furniture in!
Things are starting to come together and it really feels good!

Don't Forget to Take Your Vitamins

2008-04-16T11:35:00.002-06:00

Thirteen days to go! Yippee!

I woke up this morning to a surprise email from the American who volunteers at Owen’s orphanage. He wanted to share that he had seen Owen yesterday and that he is doing well. The bad news is that he doesn’t think that Owen has received any of the packages that we have sent to him. It sounds like there is still a possibility, but we may never know for sure. Either way, at least we know and I still have plenty of time to reprint most of the pictures to take with us. We want to be able to show him pictures of his MawMaw, Grandad, LaoLao & LaoYe and of course all the various animals around our house!

The rest of what he shared is why we need to make sure we’re taking our vitamins. Here’s what

he wrote…

"His teachers, I think, find him a bit of a handful. They were wondering when he was leaving. I am not entirely sure if this is because they don't want to be surprised or because they are looking forward to a little rest. (Hmm... maybe I shouldn't tell you things like that...) "

I started laughing when I read this! This totally could have been written to describe Cackie. Sounds like he & Cackie will be double trouble! I’m going to make sure I warn the teachers at school when I pick Cackie up today. They’ve handled her well, so I have complete trust that they can handle anything!

Today is my day to start packing. We’re leaving work early to attend Chuck’s funeral and after that I will head to the house to start the massive task. I have a lot of downsizing to do, ought to be fun!

Aunt Caryn's Blog

2008-04-15T12:16:00.002-06:00

Yippee!! Aunt Caryn is going to China with us! She's getting excited about the trip, too.
It's not often that one gets an oppportunity like this and we're glad that Caryn can go with us to learn about her niece & nephew's homeland and help haul luggage!

Thank you to everyone who donated funds to help her make this journey. We all appreciate the love you have shown for her.

She's started a blog to document her journey. Check out the Vol Princess at Princess of All Things Orange.

14 days

2008-04-15T12:02:00.002-06:00

Just 14 more days and we'll be on our way to Beijing! We're excited, but at the same time we're thinking.... only 14 more days to get stuff done!
Major packing mode is starting to set in. I'm making mental lists, checking our central checklist and trying to think of every little thing we might possibly need for the trip. It's exhausting!
Tonight I can't get much done... Michael takes Cackie to gymnastics and I have my next to last Chinese Class. But, tomorrow... watch out! I need to spend the evening going through all the stuff we have, start condensing it and making my final shopping list.
This weekend Michael will be working frantically to get the bedroom floor stained and the finish put on it. That's a big chore and I'll be there to do anything I can to help move things along.

Last night we went out to cross two things off my to-do list and we ate dinner out. Cackie was in a really good mood and it was fun to just sit and laugh with her. We kept telling her she only had 3 more weeks as an only child. She still doesn't comprehend what all this means... poor girl is going to have her whole world rocked! I'm starting to say my prayers every night that our transition to a family of four goes well for all of us.

14 more days!

Heavy Heart

2008-04-13T19:01:00.003-06:00

I've been meaning to write my thoughts for a few days, just haven't had much motivation to do so. The last few days have been very hard on me and my heart is very heavy right now.
We've been very busy at home and at work and I was soo looking forward to having a good end of the week and getting on to the weekend. I left the house on Friday and decided to be bad and go by McDonalds to pick up some breakfast (hey, I was sick of dry cereal!). So, by doing that I got to work a few minutes later than usual, but not bad at all.
Just moments after I arrived at my desk one of my co-workers came by to tell me that I need to go see our Controller about something. This person is not one who would usually come to me to tell me to see the Controller and I could just tell by the sound of her voice that something was wrong. Fears started racing through my head and I had no idea what I was about to hear.
She told me that one of our Senior Accountants, Chuck, had passed away the night before while playing softball. At that point, I felt like a daggar had hit me.
Chuck was just 32 years old and had been at St. Jude for just a little over a year. In January he and two others had been re-organized and started reporting to the same boss as me. That meant that we did some cubicle shuffling and Chuck had moved back to my little corner of the office. Actually, I had moved to a new cube and he had moved into my space.
The last few months at work have been a LOT more fun. A HUGE reason for this was Chuck. He was funny, smart, a goofball and an all around good guy. He had a 3 year old son, just a few weeks younger than Cackie, so I would often talk to him about having a boy and what to expect, etc. Just last week I trained him on how to take over a few things while I was out of the office on leave to get Owen. It's so hard to believe now that he won't be there to exchange stories with and laugh and shoot hoops with our Nerf basketball net.
One reason that this hurts so bad is that it's not the first time it has happened. In December 2005 I came into work on a Monday to find out that my right hand man, the guy who took on soo much so that I could take time off to be home with Cackie had passed away suddenly at home. Clint was just 29 and died suddenly of an anuerism. His death was a major shock to all of us and to this day, I think about him often.
Then 6 months after Clint passed away, one of our employees who had only been there a few months died in a 4-wheeler accident. Jason was young as well, maybe his early 30's.
And now Chuck.
So, my heart is very heavy now, full of grief. How does this happen to one office, three times within a two and a half year period?
I'm partially dreading going to work tomorrow. But, on the other hand, I look forward to being with my friends who are grieving with me. One thing I have learned through all our losses is that I work with some super amazing people. In reality we spend more waking hours together than we do with our spouses or other friends and I am soo blessed to have such a wonderful group of people to work with. And no matter what, even though we hurt so bad when we lose someone who we are close to, I won't stop getting to know my co-workers and caring about them.
Please keep Chuck and his family in your thoughts and prayers. I for one will miss that big goofball!

DTC - Days till China Slideshow updated

2008-04-13T18:59:00.001-06:00

I've updated our Days till China slideshow. You can go here to see it.
Enjoy!

Heartbreak

2008-04-10T07:54:00.001-06:00

This was forwarded to me by a friend. I couldn’t not post it. It says soo much…

On Heartbreak, Basketball, and a City Divided

By Srinivas Ayyagari

No doubt this will be among the more ridiculous things I've ever written, but in the maudlin sentiment of now, it rings true. That said, I would appreciate it if no one ever asks me about any of this ever again.

You may notice that Memphis Tigers fans take their basketball a little too seriously. But if you understood the relationship between the city and that team, you wouldn't be surprised. Many people dismissed Coach Calipari's underdog talk as a motivational gimmick this year, and to some extent it was. But Cal is above all things perceptive, and he knew how to seize the heart of a city with his words.

There are only two blues that matter in Memphis: the kind you play on a guitar, and Tiger blue. If you're born and raised in Memphis, and you have no other allegiances, you root for Tiger basketball; that's just the way it is. Imagine if most Carolina grads stayed in and around Chapel Hill, or most Kansas grads settled near Lawrence. Memphis is a small college town of a half million people, most of whom are from around there, most of whom will stay nearby. A great portion of the city is run by people who graduated from Memphis. A lot of us leave after high school and never return. But most carry the spirit of a city that has for many decades searched in vain for healing, and validation.

Memphis is in a lot of ways a crucible for this nation's deepest scars. We just observed the 40th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination. We still have cotton exchanges on Front Street. We have a riverfront park named after the founder of the KKK. We have square mile upon square mile of devastated ghetto, both north and south of a downtown that has been "redeveloped" or "gentrified," depending on who you ask. We are about as perfect an example of the patterns of white flight as you could hope for. We have a public school system in serious crisis. We're always near the top of the nation in the murder rate. We are a city derided in the region for being too black and too violent. We are in a region derided by the country for being too racist, too dumb, and too poor.

The racial divisions alone have plagued everything about our city's politics, and psyche. It is a city where black and white work side by side, in the same offices, in the same jobs, and yet live in different worlds when they leave. And over everything hang the ghosts of 1968 riots, of bitterness over the corrupt administration of the current black mayor, the first one ever elected in Memphis.

So if it seems that we turn almost obsessively to something that brings the city together, I don't think we should be blamed. Memphis is a basketball town in the football-mad South, always will be. Everyone can talk Tiger hoops, because everyone's been talking Tiger hoops for so long. The 1973 championship game run came only 5 years after King's assassination. The team featured local black high school legends, and the city rallied to them. Same with 1985 Final Four run by a team from a city riven as much as any other by crack and its violence. Tigers have always been Memphis kids, from the ghetto, from the suburbs, from white Memphis and black Memphis. Sure the campus is as divided in some ways as the city, but it is at least a concentrate of the community united by the Tigers.

We don't recruit locally anymore, but that spirit that the Tigers are Memphis kids still remains strong. So in 2008 we have a team with a hulking 24-year-old senior from the worst of West Baltimore; a junior All-American from the Detroit playgrounds; a freshman prodigy from Chicago's South Side. And each time these black kids from the roughest neighborhoods come back from a road trip, or sets out on one, they get hugs from little old blue-haired white women decked out in Tiger blue; these same women grew up in segregation and probably supported it. Maybe their parents hurled epithets at the Little Rock Nine. Maybe they cowered in fear at the rioting in '68. Maybe today they clutch their purses a little when they see a black teen. But in those send-offs and greetings, they find in those kids only people whose success they pray for. At least in those moments when the Tigers are playing, the richest white suburbanite in Germantown and Cordova can have the same passion, directed to the same place, as the teenager from Orange Mound. What's more, they can see that same passion in each other.

So when we hear the slights directed at the Tiger team--too many tattoos, too undisciplined--we hear echoes of the slights against the city--too small compared to the big cities, too "urban" for rural whites, too much crime, too much racism. And in defending the Tigers against fans and the media, maybe we're striving to defend where we're from too.

Memphis needed that title last night, because we needed something untainted, simple, proud. Our jewel of a Civil Rights Museum arose from the blood of Dr. King. A basketball title is one thing that would lift the hearts of Memphians of all colors. And if basketball can make black Memphis and white Memphis, rich Memphis and poor Memphis, stand next to each other and cheer for a week or two, talk a little hoops at work, and after, then that's worth more than another banner at UCLA, another great year at Carolina, another title at Kansas. I don't pretend that individual fans root for Memphis out of some great need for reconciliation, racial or otherwise. The motives are as varied as the people who have them. What is important is that there is something simple for all of them to get behind and agree on.

Carolina, Kansas, and UCLA are to college basketball what New York, Chicago, and LA are to U.S. cities. They are a cut above, entrenched, and never in danger of being replaced or surpassed. Another skyscraper in New York doesn't mean much; the same one would transform the Memphis skyline. Similarly, a Tiger title would have done some real good in a city that yearned for it. We all know those programs and those cities will keep on getting their accolades, their chances, their titles, and probably soon, probably next year for at least one of them. They have their storied past: Dean Smith, Michael Jordan, James Naismith, Phog Allen, John Wooden, Bill Walton, Lew Alcindor. They have their 17 odd titles between them. It could happen again for Memphis next year, but it's just as likely it may take another 25 years to get to a Final Four. These are rare chances. We needed this, because we don't know when we'll be back. We don't know when we'll be able to get together again like this.

So if it seems like Tiger fans care a little too much, it's because, well, we do.

Go Tigers Go!

2008-04-05T18:36:00.003-06:00

Photo from ESPN

Go Tigers Go!
Guess what we'll be doing on Monday night?? Go ahead.... guess!
We'll be watching the Memphis Tigers play for the National Championship!

We're a happy bunch in our house right now! Cackie has been loving how we're jumping around and dancing! She says we're silly, lol!

We splurged earlier this week and gave ourselves a present. Turns out it was the greatest thing we could do for ourselves... we splurged and bought ourselves a 42" LCD HDTV! We had told ourselves that if the Tigers made the Final Four we would treat ourselves, so Sunday night after they stomped Texas we starting checking out the LCDs. Michael went out Monday night and bought it for us and finally this morning I was able to get us an HD cable box.
We LOVED watching the game on it! It was totally worth the splurge!
And, now we get to watch the Tigers play for the National Championship on it!
Whooo HOOO!!! GO TIGERS GO!

...more updates coming later - we've got some celebrating to do!

DTC - Days till China, that is...

2008-04-02T20:00:00.003-06:00

Hi Owen!

2008-03-30T16:41:00.002-06:00

I've been trying to post this for a week! Finally it worked!

Last Saturday we pulled out the video camera and were talking to Cackie about Owen. Here's some of our conversation...

What a Week!

2008-03-29T20:43:00.003-06:00

Just a warning... this is going to be a long one!

So, last Saturday my sister was here and we took advantage of the opportunity to go and do the major shopping needed for our trip. We stripped the OTC medicine department of Walmart! I think we got just about everything we needed. We got a couple of other things, too... care package stuff to send to Owen and some clothes we needed for the trip. After that we headed to Target to pick up some other stuff... more clothes, a few things we couldn't get before. After that we were almost beat and headed out for some lunch. Nice juicy cheeseburgers revived us and we headed to Costco to get some other stuff. After that the car was full and we had to head home!
On Sunday we went to church and then had a wonderful brunch at the U of M Holiday Inn. We were stuffed and could barely stay awake to watch the UT game that was in progress when we got home. I did a bunch of knitting on Owen's blanket during the UT & Memphis games, which was great.
Monday was soo busy at work that I almost forgot that I was waiting on a call from CCAI! But, by Tuesday I was super anxious for them to call and was sooo glad to find out that our Gotcha Day will be May 5th!
From that point on I started working furiously on trying to get us booked on the "perfect" flights to China. On Friday I finally heard back from the "alternate" travel agency and they had really good flights for us.
At one point I had been trying to use our AmEx points to get a better deal on flights, but on Friday afternoon the return flights that we wanted started to disappear! So, we ended up booking the flights that we wanted with the travel agent and we'll use our AmEx points to get discounts on our Beijing hotel.
So, from Tuesday on we were preparing all we could do to get get ready to leave on 4/29.
Oh, OK, we had to watch UT get whooped on Thursday night!
On Friday we took Cackie to Michael's Mom's and then headed to the Honda dealer to buy 2 company cars for him. (The gas savings alone will be a HUGE help!) Then we went out to dinner and watched the Tigers on to the ELITE EIGHT!
On Saturday we got a bunch of painting done in the new kids room. Michael was able to get the ceiling patched and painted and then he was able to get the accent wall painted with the base coat. I worked on the dressers that needed to be painted and basically got all the painting done.
Now we're off to bed.... gotta rest up for tomorrow's work!
I have a bunch of pics to add, I'll just have to add them tomorrow!

Cinco de Mayo is the Day!

2008-03-25T08:10:00.003-06:00

Do the Chinese celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Not sure, but we're gonna find out! May 5th will be Owen's Gotcha Day! YAY!
CCAI is now requesting our consulate appointment for May 13, 14 or 15 and once we have that we can book our flights! They don't anticipate a problem with getting our first request since it's soo far out. So, now the countdown begins! I'm beyond excited right now!

March Madness!

2008-03-20T19:36:00.002-06:00

Well, I've decided that filling out the NCAA tournament bracket is 100 times easier than trying to arrange flights to China!
I finally heard back from CCAI yesterday, they had just received confirmation that the paperwork processing in Tianjin will take 5 days, not the 7 days that they had been told. That's good because it cuts two extra days out of our trip!
So, I started discussing travel dates with them... we already knew that we didn't want to travel at the end of April because of the trade fair in Guangzhou and there's also the issue of the International Labor Day holiday from May 1st thru 4th. We should be able to travel during that time and do our touring in Beijing, but the big question is will the orphanage let us have Gotcha Day on May 5th just after the holiday?
We really don't know the answer to this, so CCAI is going to have their Tianjin rep contact the orphanage to find out. If they say yes, we'll plan on leaving the last week of April and have Gotcha Day on the 5th. If they say no, we'll leave the first week of May and have Gotcha Day on the 12th.
Hopefully I'll hear something tomorrow, but I really expect it to be Monday. Once we get that confirmation we can request our consulate appointment and then start booking our tickets.
In the meantime I've been trying to figure out flight options for us. We got super spoiled on our last trip when we flew Singapore Air, I just don't know if we can fly a United or Northwest. The quality of Singapore Air just blew the US airlines away!
There's the possibility that we can use our AmEx points to get discounted tickets on Cathay Pacific, just need to know dates before I check on availability!

Picture Blog Updated!

2008-03-20T19:29:00.002-06:00

I've caught up! I can't believe it!

I try to keep our family picture blog over at http://wallsfamily.blogspot.com/ up to date, but it can be really hard. I've been trying to catch up over the last few weeks and tonight I finally got caught up. Go check it out...

2008-03-19T07:34:00.001-06:00

For all those who have lost in five years of a senseless war. I honor your sacrifice, pray that we change our priorities and bring our troops home.

Our Little CowGirl

2008-03-17T12:03:00.002-06:00

This is the Lil' Angels picture that was done at Cackie's school. Isn't she just the cutest? She's full of herself, too, lol! I just LOVE these Lil' Angels photos. Can't wait for next year's picture!

Blast Off!

2008-03-17T11:48:00.005-06:00

As promised, here are finally the pictures of Cackie & Owen's new bathroom. This was my first attempt at stenciling and now I'm hooked! It was really easy to do... I even made the stencils myself! I still have some work to do, one wall needs moons, stars & planets added and most of it needs the accenting of the planets. But, I'm really pleased with how it's coming out. Cackie LOVES it and that makes me feel good!

Love my new look!!!

2008-03-16T18:12:00.003-06:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you Rebecca! She did an awesome job on my new blog look.
I love it! I'm soo thankful that she was able to work with my 3 column blog. I highly recommend Rebecca if anyone is looking for a blogover!

Snow

2008-03-13T20:53:00.001-06:00

Snow!

2008-03-13T20:04:00.004-06:00

As I sit here writing with the front door open enjoying the 60 degree temperature it's hard to think about snow. But, just last Friday it starting snowing here in the early afternoon and before it ended overnight we had about 6 inches piled up.

It was AWESOME! I grew up with snow and I tend to miss it when the weather gets cold. But, one good snow a year would be enough for me. Usually we don't get one good snow, heck... this is the most snow I've seen since I lived in Knoxville and we got 3 feet!

Friday night Michael & I stayed up late watching the snow fall. On Saturday we got bundled up and spent about an hour making a snowman and rolling around in it with Cackie. She thought it was the greatest thing ever and was quite disappointed when the poor snowman fell over and melted on Sunday.

Enjoy the pictures! It's fun looking at them and thinking of how beautiful and fun our snow was.

Travel Approval is Here!

2008-03-13T10:59:00.003-06:00

Our TA is here! Whoo hoo!
CCAI is trying to nail down some info about how long it takes to process the paperwork in Tianjin and should have that info early next week.
So, no planning travel dates yet. But, it's coming very soon!!!!

Owen's Finding Ad

2008-03-13T07:26:00.004-06:00

Last week we received Owen's finding ad!

For anyone who does not know what a finding ad is, here's the scoop from http://www.research-china.org/...

Since 1999, the orphanages in China are required to run a provincial newspaper advertisement for children that are found and brought to their orphanage. We call them "Finding Ads." These ads contain information about where and when the children were found and which orphanage is caring for them. Originally these were text-only ads, but most provinces now include photographs in their ads. These photographs are usually the earliest available pictures of the children, some from as young as a few weeks old.

I contacted Brian Stuy at http://www.research-china.org/ to see if he could get a copy of Owen's ad. He does not normally have ads from Tianjin, but does have a few and Owen's was one of them.

Here's what the ad says...

On March 4, 2005 a baby boy was found in the passageway of the Test Department o the 3rd Central Hospital, Tianjin City

He was about 4 days old (estimated)

He has a cleft palate and lip

Name now: Wei Jian Hang

We don't know what his name was before he was sent into the institute.

I'm so thankful to have this ad and to see what his cleft looked like before surgery. To us, the cleft doesn't look too bad. Not sure if that means we should be hopeful that his palate is not to bad, or even if the two are related.

Either way, we are very thankful for Brian and his services!

Another Day.... No TA!

2008-03-13T07:21:00.002-06:00

This wait for travel approval is starting to get really tough! Even though we likely won't travel until early May, I want to know when we are going!
I spoke with CCAI on Tuesday to do some "pre travel" planning. They are hopeful that TAs will come by the end of this week. That means today or tomorrow. Stay tuned to see if they were right...