Enough Strawberries for Apple Pie

Aloha! Callie turns 4!!

2010-01-28T11:57:00.007-05:00

What's the next best thing to being in Hawaii when you are buried in the snow in Western NY? Why having a hula party to celebrate Callie's 4th birthday!! I can't believe my little Callie is 4. She is finally big enough to fit into 2T clothes. She is tiny but tough. She's like Mighty Mouse.

She and Carys dressed in hula outfits. We had Ham Hawaiian style, fruit kabobs, flip flop cookies, and cupcakes. The girls did hula dances and played Limbo. It was a fun evening for all of us.
Callie with Cade being silly
Callie had a little trouble getting her four candles blown out
Posing
Am I cute or what?!
Flip flop cookies
Ready for present opening
Apparently Carys does not yet understand that at a birthday party only the person whose birthday it is gets presents
The Zhu Zhu pet was a big hit. All the kids love it.

Happy Birthday Callie!!

One Year

2010-01-24T08:57:00.012-05:00

We celebrated Carys's first family day a couple weeks ago.
December 29th was our one year anniversary of walking into that cold bleak office in the civil affairs bureau in Hangzhou China. My very very first impression of her was that something was really wrong with her and they hadn't told us. LOL!! Come to find out she had pneumonia and was feverish and drugged up on about 5 kinds of Chinese cough medicine! Poor thing. No wonder she was so out of it!! And it didn't help that at some point in China she had knocked out a front tooth. It made her seem extra goofy. Haha!
She is such a different kid from then. She was so quiet and shy. She also couldn't run or jump or climb stairs. When we got home we found out she had a pretty large hole in her heart that they conveniently forgot to tell us about. She had spent most of the time very tired. No wonder so many pictures we had of her in the orphanage were of her laying in the floor!!
See the baby laying in the floor in the background. Yep. That's Carys.
We also had to take care of some other gross stuff she brought home. Giardia (stomach parasite), pin worms, and Molluscom (bumps from the wart family). One year later we have almost gotten rid of the molluscum that she gave to Callie.

Last February we had her heart repaired. Luckily they were able to go up through a vein in her leg to plug it. We have one follow up in about a month and then that is it. They said she will be no different from any other kid. Well, heart wise anyway. ;) After her surgery her energy level shot up.

Carys had her first experiences at church. She loves her Sunday school class and singing church songs. Especially "Jesus Loves Me". She is a girly girl and loves wearing dresses to church. She wants her hair to be longer so she can wear "ponies" in her hair like Callie. It's getting there.
We celebrated her third birthday last March.
She is such a big girl we thought she was maybe older than they said but we did a bone age xray that said she was right about three. So her birthday of March 14 is fairly accurate give or take some either way. She was found on March 14 2007 so the orphanage gave her the birth date of March 14 2006. I kind of hate that they made her birth date the same day she was abandoned. We don't know where she was that first year of life. She was healthy and well fed when found so I think they took good care of her. She was abandoned inside a hospital in the children's hospital section. I can't help but wondering if they realized the hole in her heart was not going to close on it own and they could not afford to have it repaired. There is no health care in China. We will never know but it's what I would like to believe. More than anything I wish they knew she is happy and healthy and loved.

Crays celebrated her first Easter with us. I made the cutest dresses for her and Callie. She loved visiting the Easter bunny and getting lots of candy in her Easter basket.
She spent the summer learning to run in the yard, jump on the trampoline, navigate stairs, and swim in the pool. She went on her first trip to Memphis to visit grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We are so happy she was able to meet her Great Grandma J before she passed away a couple months later.
Getting dirty in the backyard

Preschool started this fall and she loves loves loves it! She and Callie are in the same class.
Ready for the open house at school.
First day of school.

Halloween was another first. she was so excited with her candy corn princess costume. She didn't understand trick or treating at first but once she realized they were giving out candy she was all game!!
First Thanksgiving rolled along. Lots of food so our girl was as happy as can be. The girl loves to eat!!
Her first Christmas was a blast. She learned to sing lots of Christmas songs. She loved telling everyone what Santa says (although she wasn't too sure about visiting him at the mall). Presents of course were a big hit.
Carys (with paint on her face) loving some presents.

Last year we spent New Years in China. This year might not have been as spectacular as seeing fireworks over West Lake in Hangzhou but it was so nice to have us all here together this year!

I can't believe how much Carys has changed over the past year. She has gotten so much stronger!! She is still a bit behind with gross motor skills but I think one more summer of running and jumping outside and she will be pretty much caught up. She also gets physical therapy twice a week and goes to preschool, gymnastics, and swim class which help a ton.
Callie and Carys having some gymnastics fun.

After a fight with the insurance company Carys got her new myoelectric prosthetic arm. Still pondering how I feel about the arm (or the "open/close" as Carys calls it). She is so functional without it. They tell us that she needs to learn to use it now so she can decide when she is older if she would like to use it or not. Most people born with upper extremity limb differences choose not to use a prosthetic. I understand now seeing how the thing mostly gets in her way at this point. It has been a huge pain in my arse that's for sure. It was great a first but the prosthetic guy made a new "experimental" socket that supposedly can be made to open up as she grows. Great concept but in practice has not worked as desired. The thing has been in the shop more than on her arm. Extremely irritating. We just got it back again and it fits better but now she can get it of herself. Which means 30 mins into wearing it she takes it off and hides it. Little stinker. So time will tell how things go with that. I think she will want it for some things like riding her bike and stuff. Guess we'll see.
Along with physical therapy she gets occupational therapy twice a week. They work on her fine motor skills and work on using her prosthetic (when it is not being fixed). She has a speech delay. Not sure how much is due to being a real delay, an institutional delay, or a delay caused by switching languages. Or all three. She understands everything we say but when she talks she adds all this babble in between the words. Makes her come off as being pretty clueless when in fact she is quite bright. So she gets speech twice a week too. So that is services 6 times a week for 30 minutes each, on top of everything else we have going on. Luckily it is free through the state and they come to the house, but yes it is a pain. My hopes are that she will graduate from PT after the summer and speech by a year from now. She will get OT for a very long time due to her limb difference. Looking forward to this summer though as services are through the school district and do not run in the summer. I think it will be good for all of us not to be tied down to her therapy schedule.

She is a sweet sweet girl. She never had any trouble attaching to us. She loves to snuggle and get and give hugs and kisses. She came up to me the other day and and hugged and kissed me and told me "I wub you". Talk about melt your heart! She is really good natured unless she thinks she's been wronged. Like if one of the other kids takes her toy or something. And then oh my! The drama!! LOL She is also big on tattling. The other kids don't get away with much when she is around! She has come out of her shell and is so social and loves playing with her siblings and other kids. She fits so nicely with our family. I just can't imagine life without her. It has been a beautiful year with her and we are so blessed!

Happy family day anniversary Carys sweetie!!

Heard around the house this week....

2010-01-17T09:29:00.002-05:00

"Get that knife out of your nose RIGHT NOW!"

"I did put my pants on. I turned them into invisible pants."

"When I eat Lucky Charms my pee smells like Lucky Charms."

"Who farted?" (Heard at least 22 times)

"What smells?" (Goes along with the above)

"Hi. My name is Bob!" (Kyan said this one)

"I'm not Kyan. I'm Marfin Lufer King"

"Get your hand out of your underwear." "But look, there's a hole to put my hand in." "Oh well how convenient for you. Now get your hand out of you pants!"

"Super nubby power!"

"Zoe you are the bestest dog ever. OW! Zoe you are the worstest dog ever!"

"I said I was sorry in my head so it wouldn't wake her up!" (After Kyan stomped on a sleeping Callie)

"Kyan if I catch you writing on the furniture again you are going to be in BIG trouble." "How do you know it was me?" "Because you wrote your name!!"

"I don't want to be bootiful. I want to be AWSOME!!"

"It my birfday today." "No it's not your birthday yet. Your birthday isn't until January 27th." (Heard daily since December 1st)

"Dad. I think I'm going to bawf." Followed by immediate barfing.

And a few more

2010-01-09T18:31:00.004-05:00

Quinny
Cade
Ky
Callie
Carys
Silly kids
Getting ready for Christmas dinner
And Callie took this picture of Zoe that is too cute. All the craziness going on and she is just sitting there with her back to everyone staring at nothing. Silly dog.

Chistmas Joy

2010-01-06T18:42:00.002-05:00

One of my fave pics from Christmas of all 5 kids.

Awwwww....Kyan is so sweet!

2010-01-05T20:37:00.001-05:00

When he is sleeping anyway. ;)

The Teensy Tiny Puzzle

2010-01-04T21:04:00.004-05:00

We'll one of my New Years resolutions is to blog more. We'll see how long that lasts. Today's post is a pic of Quinn trying to work the tiniest puzzle ever. It even came with tweezers to pick up the pieces. We worked the outside and then were half blind so we set it aside for later. I kept worrying I was going to sneeze and blow all the pieces away.

Poor Carys

2009-10-09T07:50:00.002-05:00

Apparently Carys is having some severe fall allergies. The doc put her on prednisone. Hope it helps!!

Bionicle girl

2009-09-17T08:19:00.003-05:00

Here is Carys with her new myoelectric arm. Or her "bionicle" as Kyan calls it! We had to fight for her arm with the insurance company. We were denied twice, appealed twice, and finally got the approval. She's just had it a couple weeks now and is still getting used to it.

Such a cutie!!

Using two hands to hold her cup.

Back to School Feast

2009-09-07T18:49:00.004-05:00

OK so I have about 8 months to catch up on but I'll just jump right in with the present. I swiped this idea from a blog I read (and that most of you probably read too - if not take a peek - what an amazing person http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/ )Anywho - the idea was just too sweet. We had a grand back to school feast for the kids complete with crowns and our best China (which hasn't been used in years!). The kids loved it! We had turkey and corn on the cob, mashed potato's and gravy, peas and broccoli and since it was also Caden's birthday (Happy 8th birthday Caden!!) we had a cookie cake and cupcakes for dessert. He are some pics of the feast -which my Dad redubbed "A Thanksgiving for a mom". So true! I am READY for school to start! :)

The kids had fun setting the table.Our theme for the 2009-2010 school year "Be Kind to Others".Quinny going into 5th grade
Caden (the birthday boy) going into 3rdKyan starting 4KCallie starting 3KCarys starting 3KThe young uns

Back to school cupcakes. Carys dropped them (luckily while they were still in the box!) so I had to kindof scrape the icing back on. LOL

Now to get everything ready for Caden's first day tomorrow!

1,2,3,apple?

2009-05-05T11:35:00.003-05:00

Yes - I know it has been a million years since I posted but just had to say how perpetually amusing Carys is as she picks up English. The other day I heard her say 1,2,3.....apple.....9. Just now she said 1,2,3,4,apple,9,poopy,10. LOL She was talking to my Dad on the phone and he said "say what I say" 1. Carys says 1. He says 2, she says apple, he says 3, she says apple. Too funny. Then when I tried to talk to him she said "My turn pleash". I promise to post pics and more stories soon and catch everyone up. She is doing fantastic though!!

We're back!

2009-02-24T18:25:00.001-05:00

Carys did very well! I am worn out so will post more tomorrow.

Off to the hospital for Carys's surgery!

2009-02-24T05:49:00.001-05:00

We are heading out for Carys's surgery to repair the "gap" in her heart. We have to stay over night but will update as soon as I can. Thanks for all the prayers and kind thoughts!

Formula for Orphanages in China

2009-02-21T08:40:00.003-05:00

Love Without Boundaries has a great new program where you can donate formula to a specific orphanage. It's a great way to help the little ones still waiting plus you get to send pictures of your child and a personal message. We sent some to Callie's orphanage in Yangxi, Guangdong in honor of her third birthday. We sent these pictures:
This is the picture they sent us right before we traveled to get her. Isn't it so cute?!
And a little montage from her birthday. How can she be getting so big?! *sniff*

We let the orphanage know she is healthy and happy and loved. Now I don't expect them to remember every kid out of there. In her baby room (one of two) there were like 48 kids and two or three workers! But there were hardly any kids there with limb differences and she was a rowdy one so maybe they might remember her. Even if they don't it was a fun thing to do and I'm glad to know it might help a little.

If you haven't ever checked out Love Without Boundaries give it a look. They help in SO many ways from medical programs to nutrition and education programs to foster care and much more. With them you know your money is going where you want it to. You can even donate to a specific child's surgery or care and they will send you regular updates on that child. They get medical care for children who would not receive it otherwise. They get children healthy enough to be submitted for adoption who otherwise would not have had the chance. I simply can't say enough good things about them!

We plan on sending formula to Carys's orphanage for her birthday next month. :)

The most difficult names in the known universe

2009-02-18T16:37:00.002-05:00

We have apparently named our children the most widely mispronounced names in the universe. In my defense our last name is really common and I wanted them to have something a little different. Little did I know....

So here is a little tutorial.

Quinn - ok so no one gets this one wrong. Score 1 for us!

Caden - "Kay-den" not Aidan, Hayden, or any other -den. Also not Kate or Katie. (Puh-leaze!)

Kyan - It's like Ryan with a K. Pronounced the same way. But NOT Ryan. It is also not Ki-YAN, Kee-an nor is it Cayenne (he is not a pepper). Well he is a fiery redhead....

Callie - "Cal-lee". Not Kay-lee or Ky -lee or any other -lee. Also not to be confused with Collie. She is not Lassie. Well she is a little lassie. But definitely not the dog kind. Although she does like to crawl on all fours and bark and stick her tongue out and lick people. (But that is a different story.)

Carys - "Care-iss". Rhymes with Paris. My Dad said we should have spelled it Karis but we really wanted the true Welsh spelling. Even though she is Chinese. ;) It is not car-iss, care-a, car-a, carries, carrie, car-yahs, or any of the other 1 million thing people have turned her name into. Carys. Rhymes with Paris. The end. It's not rocket science. (Although when the same person mispronounces it 10 times after I have told it to them you would think it is.)

PS - my mom will read this and say "I told you so" as she would have preferred simple names like John or Fred or Sally. But she will have to admit the names do fit the kids. And the kids even fit the names! Here are the name meanings:

Quinn (short for Quinlan) means "strong and well formed"
Caden means "wild goose" (although he doesn't like that so he tells everyone it means "awesome")
Kyan means "little prince"
Callie means "beautiful"
Carys means "to love"

See! We did pick good names after all! :)

Happy Valentines Day!!

2009-02-15T09:01:00.004-05:00

Valentine's Day is the perfect day for:
Flowers from your true love....
Your true love posing with the flowers from your other true love....
A baby in the flower box....
Yummy greasy heart shaped fried eggs....
Finding a Deviled Egg in your fridge from Thanksgiving that has shrunk to the size of your thumbnail....
Baking a Red Velvet heart shaped cake....
Icing one up to give to a true friend....
and keeping one to enjoy for yourself!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Caden at "Make and Take"

2009-02-13T12:22:00.007-05:00

Cade doing some cooking. With me artfully cropped out of the picture because seriously, I don't know what I was doing but I look like a cross between a hunchback and an escapee from the lunatic asylum. And these pics went out to the whole class. Oh joy!

Good thing they give you gloves!!

Cade and some buds. He is always such the ladies man!

Bunch o' food and Carys's surgery date

2009-02-11T19:40:00.002-05:00

We got a call today from the cardiologist's office. Carys is scheduled for Feb. 24th at 7:30 for her heart cath procedure. Glad to have it so soon. Just want to go ahead and get her mended and be done with it. Glad it seems simple but pretty nervous about her being under anesthesia and all. My mom has an appointment for a mammogram the day before (8 year breast cancer survivor!) and the day after she has all her bloodwork at the cancer clinic. I think that is what she said. I know it is something before and something after. So if you'll keep us all in your prayers those three days that would be great!!

Tonight Caden's class had a party at "Make it and Take it Gourmet". (They are studying measuring). It's one of those places where they have all the ingredients out and you put your meals together and bring them home to pop in the freezer. It's not super cost effective - I could make things for cheaper - but it was really fun and there is something comforting about having loads of dinners ready to pop in the oven! (Of course we had to do a lot of rearranging to fit it all in our dinky freezer!) The potions are very generous. Should totally be enough to feed the 7 of us and probably have a little left over lunch. Caden had a blast measuring everything too. I could see going back every once in a while. I forgot to take my camera but hoping Cade's teacher will e-mail some and I will post a picture of Cade cooking up a storm!

Cardiologist appointment

2009-02-10T12:42:00.003-05:00

I took Carys for her cardiologist appointment today. They did an EKG and an ultrasound. She was SO good for all of it. The doctor says she has a PDA (patent ductus arteriosus). I'll try to describe this correctly - the aorta takes blood from the heart to the body, the pulmonary artery takes blood to the lungs. Before you are born there is a shunt, like a little tunnel that connects the two. When you are born it closes up. Or doesn't which is what happened with Carys. Sometimes it will close up over time but since she is almost three the doctor said it is not going to in her case. The chambers of her heart are slightly enlarged from having to work extra hard to get the blood where it is supposed to go. Right now blood that is supposed to be going to her body is being routed through the artery that takes blood to her lungs. If left unchecked it could cause damage to her heart and lungs which is why it needs to be fixed. Luckily it sounds like a minimally invasive procedure. They insert a wire in a vein in her groin, feed it up through the heart, and release a coil that closes the gap. And then she is all fixed and doesn't need to worry about it any more. The doc said it will just be an overnight stay and there really isn't a recovery time it is so unobtrusive. The doc said if you had to pick a heart issue this is the one you would want. He is consulting with the surgeon who does these (he said he has done hundreds) and they will give me a call as to when it needs to be done. Since none of this was disclosed to us in her referral info we had no clue what was going on so you can imagine some of the things that went through our minds. We are bummed it is something that needs intervention but SO glad it is something supposedly simple!! The doc said there is nothing structurally wrong with her heart which is also a relief. I'll post when we here when the procedure is scheduled.

Happy Birthday Kyan! (finally)

2009-02-07T10:23:00.008-05:00

What a week it has been. We have all been sick. Cade and I with strep throat, Kyan, Carys, and Mike with colds, and poor Callie with hand, foot, and mouth virus. Quinn is always our healthiest kid and has so far missed out on being sick. (Knock on wood.) I thought I was tired of doctors appointments before but I am really tired of them now! We had three more this week. Callie went on Tuesday for a throat culture. No strep. She just kept getting worse though and on Thursday night I noticed blisters all in her mouth and canker sores on the inside of her lips. Her breath stunk to high heaven and her gums were swollen up to the top of her teeth. I thought it was the hand, foot and mouth but it was SO much worse than when my other kids had it so we took her in on Friday to make sure. Yup - that's what it is. Since it is a virus there is nothing to do but wait it out. Even with popsicles and throat numbing suckers she is miserable. To top it off on Wednesday I went to change Carys's pull-up and there were WORMS in her poop! Tiny white wiggly worms. Yuck yuck and double yuck. It didn't creep me out as much as the Caden lice fiasco of '08 but it was close. So off to the doc we went again so they can tell us she has pin worms. And that when one person in a family has them they treat everyone. Oh joy!

So with that all going on Kyan had his birthday "delayed". His real birthday was Tuesday the 3rd but I was so sick that day we decided to do it the next day. Well then he was sick and slept all day on Wednesday so we decided to do it Thursday. We were all still pretty under the weather but pulled it off anyway. Ky seemed to think hos birthday lasted three days. LOL

Here are the pics:
He had a knights and dragons theme. I thought this cake would be the death of me. My cake was too moist and it slowly collapsed in on itself as the decorating progressed. And trying to keep the towers from falling over - ugh.
Ky seemed quite pleased though!
Cade and Ky
Fav pic of the Brothers Silly
Beautiful Carys
Callie joined the party for a minute even though she felt bad.
Blowing out the candles.
The gang minus Callie who was throwing a screaming fit. Not sure what that look is that is passing between Quinn and Carys. Quinn had just gotten up from a nap and was not awake yet.

Yesterday Quinn had his class play at school. It was called "100 Years of Peace". He was the "Admiral" (a very important role *brag-brag*) and at one point he had rubber chickens thrown at him. LOL He did a great job!! Here are some pics:
Quinn at the helm of his ship.
Quinn (in white) and his best friend Zach (who played a "Fisher Folk")
Quinn, Zach and their good friend Aidan. (Who was also a "Fisher Folk")

So next week we go to Carys's cardiologist appointment on Tuesday and Quinn has a doc's appointment on Wednesday. Really hoping that we will just have those two and nothing unexpected pops up!! Thank God we have good health insurance!!

A little tired of doctor's visits

2009-01-31T18:37:00.002-05:00

I feel like I have been to doctors offices more in the past week than I have in the past year. Oh yeah - I have! Both the older boys had dentist appointments. No cavities. Yay. Carys also had a dentist appointment - just a visual check to look at the missing tooth gap and look for any signs of major decay. (She can't have a cleaning until we find out what is going on with her heart. I guess some conditions require antibiotics prior to any dental work.) The dentist said it's been missing for a while as the gap has closed in quite a bit. She said they don't do anything until her big teeth come in. No visible signs of decay. She will have a full cleaning and exam in March.

Friday I had the follow up with the international adoption doc. I asked her to tell me twice what was going on with her heart. According to the chest xray it appeared the upper right part of her heart was enlarged. That would be the atrium. The doc said that makes her think it was a valve or a shunt. However - she was surprised that the EKG was completely normal. If part of the heart was enlarged she felt that would make the EKG irregular. She did say it is sometimes hard to get an accurate picture from a chest xray because a child moves and breathes as the xray is taken and it can alter it. I think the only reason they did this step was to see if she needed to be fit in the children's heart clinic immediately or if their first available appointment was fine. We will be going on the 10th for the ultrasound and the doc said they will be able to tell everything from that and will sit down right then with us and explain everything and what, if anything, needs to be done. I don't feel hugely worried as she appears so dang healthy. She runs around with the other kids and doesn't get winded or change color. The doc seemed to agree that if it were something serious she should show signs and that she would be so huge. She is a robust little girl!!

All her blood work came back good. Negative for all the diseases they checked for, no anemia, and lead level is 4. Anything under 10 is considered to not need treatment and under 5 is considered not to have long term effects. She said now that she is here it will continue to drop. Her blood titers showed she has no immunity to Hep B. That means she was not immunized in China like the orphanage said. I thought this would be the case as in her booklet all the vaccine notations were marked with a "chop". A red stamp with the docs name. Except for the Hep B notations. These were hand signed in a different hand from the rest. Also others on my orphanage yahoo group have had the same thing happen. Luckily though she had immunity to everything else meaning the vaccines were effective. So she just had to have the Heb B vaccine and we went ahead and got the Hep A one out of the way too. She had gained a pound since she has come home. LOL She likes to eat! She has this weird bump on her eye that we are to keep an eye on. She might need to go to the dermatologist for it. It wasn't in her referral pics so the doc said it is probably a wart or some other long name. Gross. She finished her meds for the Giardia. They will do two retests in the next couple weeks to make sure it is gone.

I think that was about it. She continues to get used to her new environment. She is so mellow and so sweet. We are all quite enamored with her!

Friday night we had yet another doctors visit. I had to take Caden to the after care place. He has strep throat. Blah. I really hope the rest of us don't get it! Started him on antibiotics and he already feels better today. Cade has really bad eczema on the backs of his knees and the crooks of his elbows. We use Elidel to keep it at bay. He hasn't had a break out in a while so we haven't used it. He let it get so bad before telling me!! He had scratched himself bloody and raw so I asked the doc at the aftercare place if she could refill our Elidel prescription. She did but when we got to the pharmacist they told us that our insurance requires prior authorization for that. How stupid is that? So they have to fax a form in to the doc to sign and then it goes to our insurance who has to approve it. Shouldn't the prescription be approval enough? I mean they wouldn't give it to us if we didn't need it. So now we have to wait while poor Cade is still scratching. I am using cortisone but it is not very effective. At least he is on antibiotics for the strep so maybe he won't get a skin infection. Of course all this could have been avoided had he told me before it got so bad. Or if I had remembered to refill it before he had another flare up. Sigh.

We are busy this weekend around the house. We are gearing up for Kyan's 4th birthday on Tuesday, trying to clean up our messy abode, working on Cade's Manatee project for school, and trying to keep Quinn under control. It's not a full moon - what is up with that? Ah - I see it was a new moon on the 26th but this is already the 31st. Hmmmmm....... Sometimes I feel as if I am the mother of a werewolf. I can usually pinpoint full moon and new moon to the day based on my eldest moods. Double sigh.

No pics tonight. Will have lots after Ky's birthday.

Happy Birthday Callie!!

2009-01-28T11:00:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was our sweet Callie's 3rd birthday! She is growing so fast. She wanted a "Princess" party so we did a Cinderella theme and I made a princess cake. Although it looks more like a '50's prom queen. Ah well. Callie loved it. Here are some pics from the big day.
The princess cake
The skirt is the cake part.
We had pink chocolate lollipops
and teeny tea sets.
The birthday princess.
The real Callie!
Callie is mad because she doesn't want sister in her pictures!
With the bribe of a lollipop she quickly puts on a happy face!
Not fighting - Callie is trying to put her arm around Carys.
Cade jumps in.

Carys having some "tea".
Singing happy birthday.Blowing out the candles.
Fav pic of Quinn. My mom is going to say he needs a haircut when she sees this!
Fav pic of the girls!

Hospital tests, Giardia, heart issues, and one sweet girl!

2009-01-28T10:07:00.004-05:00

Carys has been adjusting so nicely. She is so mellow and such a sweet girl. With Callie as wild as she is the two of them balance out nicely. The have some sister issues occasionally but are really doing quite well. Carys is eating well and sleeping well and loving her new brothers and sister. She is having fun with all the new toys and picking up a few words in English. She can say mama and daddy and knows who is who. She says milk, more, baba (sippy cup), bye bye and hi. She repeats tons of words. She calls fruit by their different Chinese names but will repeat what we call them in English. She understands a ton of what we are saying.

Last Friday we went to the hospital for all of Carys's tests. She had her blood work done (they redo all the tests they did in China and do a full work-up), a bone age xray (of her wrist to determine approximate age), a chest xray to check out her heart (because of the murmur), and an EKG (also because of the murmur).

Carys took it all like a champ. She was so good and sat so still for everything. Even her blood work! She whimpered but did not cry. She showed so much courage I treated her with a big pink frosty cupcake. So we headed out to the car and I go to get her out of the stroller and (I am such a terrible mom) whacked her head on the trunk of the van!! I can not believe she didn't cry the whole time at the hospital for all those tests and I whack her head and make her cry. I felt SOOOOOO bad! But she stopped crying quickly when I held out her ooey gooey cupcake. So I buckled her all in and I am about to start the car and she starts crying this gut wrenching cry. I look back to discover .... the top has fallen off her prized cupcake! I picked it up and tried to show it to her but by that point she was utterly heart brokenly crushed. It was the saddest thing ever. She cried for a while then just gave up and went to sleep poor thing.

We heard on Friday afternoon that she has Giardia. A stomach parasite that she got from drinking untreated water at the orphanage. It doesn't affect her as her body is so used to it but if she were to pass it to us it would be nasty. Luckily it is only passed by her poop so we are being extra hygienic while she is being treated and skipping the baths with the other kids. They'll retest her after she finishes the meds to make sure it's gone. This wasn't a huge surprise as most of the other kids from her orphanage were coming home with this. Not a huge thing. Just something to be taken care of.

We got her bone age results and her birth date is accurate. She is just a big girl! 40% on the American charts! The doc has referred us to a cardiologist for her heart. I'm still a bit confused about what is going on with that. We see a International Adoption specialist when we first are home from China. She is just much more thorough with the testing and knows signs of things to look for in orphanage kids. That being said the practice is not our favorite. All communication is through the nurses. Our regular doc always makes the calls himself. No way would he leave it to a nurse to call and tell us our daughter might have issues with a heart valve!! So anyway - I am not sure what is going on. I don't know if they saw something on the chest xrays that leads them to think it may be a valve - like could they see a valve that looked weird? Or did the chest xray look ok - so maybe now they need a closer look at the valves? At any rate they sent all the info to the kids heart center at the Children's hospital and they said they would see us on Feb 10th. I am assuming if it was something hugely serious they would see us sooner? I asked the nurse and I think it sounds more precautionary than anything. Let's hope so. We see the doctor on Friday to go over all the testing we have had done. After that I am hoping we will be able to switch to our regular doctor.

I am a little miffed that the orphanage did not disclose any of this to us. It sure would have been helpful to know what testing they had done and if they knew what was going on. Ah well.

She is the sweetest thing ever and so cuddly. We just love her to pieces! Here are a couple pics. We are having camera trouble so I don't have a ton.
The aftermath of hospital tests and the infamous cupcake episode.
Bruise on her forehead from hitting her head on the trunk. *sniff*
She had to try a glove on her nubby. We use these to change her poopy pull-ups so we (hopefully - fingers crossed) don't get Giardia.
Babies piled up in the bed.
Cade made the kids a picnic at the teeny table.
Cade is serving them out of the "market".

Back to our regularly scheduled programing

2009-01-18T15:48:00.004-05:00

It's amazing what a little extra sleep can do for your disposition! Quinny (our early bird) is spending the weekend with a friend so I got to sleep in some.

I have a great picture I intended to post here of the three little kids all piled up and sleeping in our bed but the camera card is missing! Some child has been playing with the camera. Will hunt it up and promise to post it soon.

I was also going to post a pic of Carys in her Sunday best but I just looked over and she has stripped down. (How can she do that so fast?!). We went to church for the first time today. Kyan, Callie, and Carys are all in the same church class. We haven't been in 3 weeks since we went to China and it was someone new in there and I think we threw her off coming in with 3 at once. LOL (Plus we were late - will we ever get used to getting so many kids ready? Not that we were really punctual before....)

Carys did very well and did not cry at all. I'm not positive that was a good thing. It was a convenient thing but with the whole bonding process going on you worry a little when they have no issues separating from you. I think though in this case it was maybe (hopefully) because Callie and Kyan were in there. I was peeking in the window and saw her realize we were gone. She was looking all over for us and looking sad then she noticed Callie and went and stood next to her. She was all smiles when she saw us when we were picking her up. I think that's a good sign.

This was Carys's first experience with a group of other kids (besides her orphanage friends) and at first it was like she had a little fan club. Three or four kids were absolutely amazed at her hand. Or lack of hand. I was about to say something to break the ice when one little girl says "Why she only have one hand!?" We have found through Callie that little kids want to know 2 things. 1. Did something bad happen. 2. Does it hurt. So I knelt down and held Carys's little arm and said how she was born that way and how it doesn't hurt and they looked a little longer and then seemed fine with it. I think the teacher felt a little awkward at first (she was an older lady) but handled it well and said she would be able to do anything the other kids do. I think a lot of adults are thrown off at first when kids say something. Parents in particular seemed mortified. But seriously little kids are so curious and so honest it is just the most natural thing in the world for them to notice and comment on things like that. The girls are going to take theirs cues from us about this so we just keep it light and factual. And once we explain it has always become a non issue with the other kids. Honestly I think it is more the adults that have issues worrying that it is going to be a "disability" or "difficulty" when it really isn't at all. It doesn't take long though before our girls show them whats what. Including us! I knew they would be good with what they have being that way from birth, but they constantly amaze me.

I am off to print out some maze pages for my kids. Kyan has a maze book that he doesn't want to share because "Jesus gave it to him". Whaaaaaat? I told him I thought I bought it at the bookstore but he could not be convinced. I also told him that if Jesus did indeed give him the book he would want him to share but that didn't go over well either. Hmmmm. Strange child. So I will just print a bunch and happiness shall reign again.

I promise to post that pic as soon as I find the camera card. Or buy a new one. The pic is on the internal memory as well. Just have to get it off there.

Oh, and Mike is at a movie right now and when he gets back I get to go. Yay! What a nice little break. What ever shall I see?

Oh my. I just noticed Caden has fallen asleep at 4:45 in the afternoon. He is never going to sleep tonight. Time to wake him. As he always says to me "Wakey wakey eggs and bacon!!"

Insulted

2009-01-17T19:09:00.003-05:00

Can I rant just a little more about preschool? Well I am anyway.

So as I was writing my post last night I was being sent an e-mail from Kyan's teacher at preschool (also the education director). She basically stated that the school would not accept all three of my children in the same class next year. She felt my girls needed to be in the "younger" class. Let me just say the class I wanted them in has a cut-off of May 31st of this year. Meaning the children must be three by that time. Callie turns three in a couple weeks and Carys March 14th so they are both well within the age range for the class and would most likely not even be the youngest. I signed them up for school Dec 1st and they are just telling me this now. Two days after meeting Carys for the first time. The co-teacher - would have been their teacher next year was all "Oh, she's missing her whole hand?" and to be honest I don't think she even realized Callie was missing fingers until then. I am left to assume that for some reason they thought my girls couldn't keep up with their peers? Now I could be completely jumping to conclusions but what the hell?! They place twins in the same class and I have a friend with triplets who looked at the school and the kids would have been in the same class. So what else am I to think? Do they think they are "disabled" because of their hands or somehow delayed because they were institutionalized? I simply can not fathom any other reasoning. If it was just that they didn't want the girls in with Kyan (which in my opinion is stupid and should be MY decision anyway) then they could have offered the girls that class and Kyan the afternoon class - the one with older children. But nope - we were not given that option. This makes the school impossible for us as I would not be able to get childcare for the kids when I had to work in each of their classes. Now none of this really matters as we had already decided to send the kids somewhere else but I have to say I am offended. They don't even KNOW my girls! We are constantly being told by Callie's teachers (at a different preschool - one we LOVE but that will not work for next year) how amazing she is and how her fine motor skills are even better than many of the kids in their older class. She is so smart and social and just loves school. I am constantly being amazed by Carys and just how much she can do. The kid can even dress herself! Kyan has issues with that and here she is missing half an arm and can do anything she sets her mind to. No matter how they came up with their reasoning and even if it has nothing to do with the girls, I have put so much time and money into that school that I am just completely amazed and insulted. All I can say is that they had better give me back my $150 registration fee that I paid or I am going to be majorly miffed.

So there it is. Now I have to put up with them for the remainder of the school year while Kyan is there. Oh joy! I thought about pulling him out but don't want to punish him because of my bitterness so I will just suck it up. I am having a really hard time letting go of my anger though and not taking it as a personal affront.

Like I said - it works out for the best. I stopped by our Y and they happen to have classes where all three kids can go at the same time. Cal and Carys in the 3 year old class and Ky in the 4 year old class. Plus it is 30 minutes longer! Yahoo. And I don't have to buy snacks umpteen times a year for the whole class, or clean the building, or participate in mandatory fundraisers, or be on a committee, or work in the class half of my life. And to boot the kids go to swim class once a week, plus get gym and Adventure Center time. Sounds great to me!!

Tired

2009-01-16T18:07:00.003-05:00

I am still SO tired!! I won't be posting pictures tonight so if that's all you are after you can stop reading now. ;) I've taken quite a few Flip-Cam videos but not nearly enough pictures since we got back. I feel like I have been walking around in a daze. I am looking forward to this weekend when I can maybe catch up on some Zzzzzz's.

Carys has done really well with the transition. She and the younger 2 kids are a riot. She just follows them around and chatters in Chinese. The other day at preschool Kyan told his teacher that his new sister only talks in Chinese. So they asked what he says to her and he said"Well I don't talk Chinese." Too funny.

Speaking of preschool can I rant for a minute? Prepare yourself. It's a long one.

The preschool Kyan goes to is the one both my older boys attended. It is conveniently located right around the corner. We love the teachers and the school but the only problem is it is a Co-op. Which means that the parents are hugely involved. Which is great. To a point. This is our 5th year there and each year the amount of time involved has increased hugely. So there are a certain amount of days when you have to go in and work in the classroom, you have to be on a committee, and there is the annual cleaning day. Not to mention about 5 million fund raisers some of which you are obligated (required) to spend time and money on. Plus the tuition is actually MORE than the other non-co-op preschools in the area! We had sent Kyan there this year cause I thought it would be fun to meet new people - one good thing about a co-op is you really get to know the other moms. However - I am the only one with a bizarre amount of kids as no one else with this many is stupid enough to go to this time-suck of a school. So we have not had ONE SINGLE play date from there as no one wants to play with my million children apparently. Hmph!

So I was already disillusioned when the straw that broke the camels back came. We missed the very mandatory annual cleaning day at the school because we were in China bringing home our new child. Let me just say in a side rant that this cleaning day is the stupidest thing ever! They have the entire school show up at once to do it. So it is so packed out you can hardly move. Every parent I have EVER talked to there has said they would much rather just chip in and have a cleaning service come. I have attended every single cleaning day when my other kids were there including one where I was 8.5 months pregnant. Yes - they even made me go that time. On those days if a parent didn't show up they usually had a take home job like take home a bin of toys and sterilize it. No biggie. So here we are not home even a week and dealing with jet lag, and the kids and me having colds, and I get an e-mail from the co-chair saying I can either pay $50 for missing cleaning day (and yes they knew why we missed it) or for my "take home" project I could spend the day cleaning out the social hall closet. Now this "closet" is like a big huge room with all sorts of stuff including ride on toys! "Take home" project? What - am I supposed to form a black hole that will suck the "closet" into my home? I was beyond irritated. Not to mention that this year my committee is "Publicity". The head of my committee showed up while we were in China wanting us to make and place signs for the school open house. Less than 1 week away. With absolutely no notice. I think she was really put out that we weren't here. Again - was I supposed to magically transport home from China to perform this task that we had no idea we even had to do? Who am I? Jeanie?

(Can you sense how bitter I am right now?)

So anyway - now we are looking into preschool options for next year. The kids are close enough in age that they can all go together. After 10+ years of ALWAYS having at least one child at home at all times I really really really want a couple hours a week to myself! I absolutely love the preschool Callie goes to but it is farther away and there isn't a class they can do together. The one we want that is close to us and really good is kind of hard to get into (because so many people want to go there) and I have three I need to get in so we will see. It would be an ideal situation. They get the kids in and out of the car, no committees or cleaning days or mandatory fundraisers..... what a dream. Why oh why did we not send Ky there this year?! That way we would have been sure to get them in next year. I will be a stress bucket until we get them all signed up somewhere. Fingers crossed for the school we want!

OK sorry for the rant. It's been brewing for some time.

So now back to Carys. We took her to her arrival exam today at the international adoption doctor. We had a bit of a shock/surprise when the doctor informed us she has a pretty significant heart murmur!! The doctor did not seem hugely concerned as her color and size are good, the heart beat is regular, and her femoral artery pulse is strong and steady. She did say though that she wants us to have it checked out to make sure no valves are involved since it is so loud. She said many times kids out grow these things and no intervention is needed. This is of course what we are hoping/praying for. We go next week for a chest xray and EKG and will go from there. She seems healthy as a horse which is comforting. This is one of those things you have to prepare for when you adopt internationally but China is usually really good about reporting things like this so we were caught off guard a little. Even our doctor was surprised it wasn't in her file. So - please keep her in your prayers that this will either be a non-issue or at least something easily fixable.

She did well at her exam but did not like having her ears cleaned out (good grief I have never seen that much ear wax in my life *shudder*) and they tried to do her blood work which was a no go. She only has the one arm and it did not want to give up any blood. Since we have to go to the hospital for the tests anyway I asked her to stop and we would get someone from peds or the NICU to come down and do her blood work. Plus I can pump her up with fluids before time. Poor thing. She was so sad. She bounced back quickly though and was chipper this afternoon. She has been sleeping very well so far. Hallelujah! Callie STILL doesn't sleep well! It's a long weekend with MLK day being on Monday. Unfortunately the kids are out of school but Mike is not off work. Wah! I'll try to get some pictures taken and posted this weekend if I can ever get my energy back. ;)

HOME

2009-01-10T20:09:00.000-05:00

We are home! Now if we can just get Quinn out of the Detroit airport where he and my niece are stuck for the night we will all be together! I am just too tired to post more but will update just as soon as I get some rest!

We fly home tomorrow!!

2009-01-08T08:29:00.002-05:00

Can't wait to see the kids and introduce Carys! Today we shopped and went to the US consulate for the little ceremony and we picked up Carys's visa and the paperwork we hand over to immigration when we get to the US. Sooooooo glad to finally have her with us and be done with paperwork!

This will be the last post til we get home as we are leaving so early in the morning we are going to pack up the laptop now.

If you have been following along would you please leave a comment? We would love to print that out and let Carys see how many people were thinking about her! You don't have to have a google account - you can just use the anonymous selection. Please please please.

Here are a few pics to tide you over:

Cade and a baby from our travel group.

Carys and two kids from our travel group on the White Swan "red couch"
Carys rocking the stringing beads. While I was sitting there thinking about how to show her how to do it she starts popping them on. Is this kid cool or what!

Will post when we get back. Prayers for safe travel are much appreciated!! Thanks for following along!

Out and about in Guangzhou

2009-01-07T18:39:00.007-05:00

OK I totally crashed out last night before I had a chance to blog. Here's a recap.

We had a nice day out and about in Guangzhou. Mike had to go to the consulate at 8am to sign and notarize the vaccination affidavit. (If you are an I800 family waiting to travel be sure to bring this document even if your agency tells you that you don't need it! It took Mike three hours to get this done! Seriously though - if the consulate wants this why don't they put it on your document checklist!!!!!)

While Mike was at the consulate Caden and Carys and I walked around the island and did a little shopping. We can back to meet Mike and then picked up where we left off. After lunch we went to Yun Tai Park. We went here last time we were in Guangzhou and loved it. Caden enjoyed it but I was sad to see the huge greenhouse structure (which was so cool last time) was under construction/renovation. We still had a great time. It was a beautiful day. We walked up 18.5 million steps to the top of the mountain and were treated with a great view of the city. By the time we got back it was almost six and Caden wasn't feeling well and had a little fever. He has picked up Carys's cold and has been sniffling and coughing the past few days. We've started him on the antibiotics we brought for him so hopefully he will perk up quickly. So anyway, we stayed in the rest of the night so he could rest. And so I could crash out early. ;) Mike brought us partries from the White Swan bakery for dinner.

This morning we are going to the Pearl/Jade market to get some pearls and a jade bracelet for Carys to have when she is older. Then we are going to the shopping street that is off the island. The guide said all our paperwork was fine at the consulate so today we have to go to a little ceremony there and get her Visa. Yay! That will be the last thing we have to do here for the adoption and we will head home early in the morning. We will miss China but I am so excited to see Quinn, Kyan and Callie!! I have missed them so much!!

Here are some pics of our day in no particular order as we have to run:

The kids love these koi ponds

Cade strollering as he didn't feel well

Carys's loves the fishies

She wasn't sure about the whole walking on grass thing. I think she wasn't sure what it was!

Mickey mouse garden clock

I think caden thought this statue was going to fall on him

Made it to the top of the mountain

Up the mountain we go

Mike and Snoozy Susie

Can you see Caden crawling combat style so he can pop out and scare Mike?

Gaint rock about to eat Caden

Ostrich tree

Big tree on Shamian Island

Cade wanted me to post a pic of his french fires. he was very excited to have french fries!

Onwards

2009-01-06T07:15:00.008-05:00

OK here is two days worth of blogging rolled into one. It's 8pm here and I am already so ready for bed so I will try to make it quick. LOL Who am I kidding?

First of all here is a pic just for my Dad cause he collects music boxes. I thought this one was pretty. It probably costs a bazillion dollars.
On our last day in Hangzhou we checked out of our hotel and visited a Buddhist temple. I can't remember the name right now. It was a pretty long walk to it but we went through an interesting neighborhood. It was almost like a gated community, nice and quiet and backed up to the mountains. The temple was huge. And very incensey. I bought a really cool bracelet made up of 18 different kinds of seeds. I mean it's not like I'm going to pray with it. So I can justify it right? It's really cool.
Community we walked through on the way to the templeStatues carved into the mountainCade on some treacherous stepsSo pretty and peacefulOne part of the templeBig Buddha - this one represented the "North" part of the worldOK this was actually made up of LED lights not candles, but inside each little light section was a tiny Buddha. You couldn't take pictures inside the actual temple so I couldn't get a close up but it was really cool.Bigger Buddha

After that we went to a tea village. It was neat but because it is winter it is not the season to pick tea leaves. Our guide did say that women pick the leaves and men dry it. She said in ancient times the women picked the buds and leaves with their mouths so as not to damage them! Now they have special gloves. ;) I don't think you would enjoy the place if you aren't a tea drinker. The majority of it was sitting in front of a tea master who was trying to sell you lots of tea products. Of course we are tea lovers as well as suckers so we left with early harvest green tea (the best), tea candy, and tea cookies! Good grief!
Green tea bushesTea bushes all terraced onto the hillMan drying tea in a hot wok

We at lunch at a local place. It was basically a local farmers house that they had set some tables up on the second floor for a makeshift restaurant. When we ordered the chicken soup the owner hollered something down to the second floor. In my head I felt like she was saying "Run out back and kill us a chicken!". The soup came and it was really good. But I sort of got turned off when I saw the head floating around in there. Of course Mike thought it the best photo opportunity. I love being married to a nut case!
View from farmers upstairs balconyCade eating with a big wooden rice paddleMy maroon of a husband. I swear he just had me take this so he could use it for his facebook profile!

Where our chicken probably came from. Seriously - this is the hill in front of the house. Can you see the chickens running around?

After lunch we went to a traditional medicine museum. I couldn't get into it though as I wasn't feeling well beacuse the "healthy fresh food at a farmers house" left me feeling queasy. Maybe I should have asked for some starfish and seahorse gruel or whatever it is they would give me for a sick stomach.
Giant pills. Cade said "How did they swallow those?!" And Mike said "Well they didn't go in your mouth." Oh the humor in that guy. Can you hear my voice dripping with sarcasm?
Who knows what all this is?!Got anything for my stomach back there?Lady buying some starfish, spiders, and tigers paw for some ailment. Nah. I have no idea what she is buying. But I can guarantee you it's going to taste nasty when she stews it all up.

We stopped by the police station in the afternoon to see if Carys's passport was ready. It was. Yay!

Then we went to visit a market street with fun shopping and souvenirs. After shopping til we dropped (Re:30 minutes) we hit the road to the airport and caught our flight to Guangzhou. I have to say by this point I was so sick of the fog and the freezing and tired of there never being heat ANYWHERE. I was cold to the bone by the end and so ready for warm Guangzhou weather!!!!

Flight was uneventful. Carys let me buckle her in and behaved really well. We met up with our guide and two other families from our agency and checked into the White Swan hotel. Huge famous hotel for people adopting from China. We actually didn't stay here last time. We got a suite at the Victory Annex and LOVED it. But the group was booked for the White Swan. It's actually really nice if a bit overpriced.

This morning we headed over to get Carys Visa pics and then did her medical exam. You have to do this to get her Visa. Normally it is an in and out kind of thing. But we are a "Hague" family (remember all those news regulations I mentioned went into effect April 1st and are really all a big pain in the......). Well part of the new regs state that Carys has to be up to date on all her vaccinations before entering the US. Sounds reasonable but the problem is they REimmunize her for some of them! When we got Callie we saw our International Adoption doctor within a week of being home. She ran all kids of tests to make sure she was a-ok including TITERS which show which diseases you have immunity to. Which in Callies case meant none of the vaccines she had done in China had to be redone because she showed they were effective and she had immunity. No immunizing unnecessarily. Any she needed we could space out. And of course insurance would pay for it. Well with Carys they forced us to let them give her SIX immunizations at once! I did make them show me all the vaccines as they came out of the sealed boxes and check the expiration on each one. It is the consulate approved clinic but I still wanted to make sure. Then I kept all the inserts from the boxes, to show my doc, who made the vaccines and what they were - even though they gave me a vaccination record book. There really is no choice in the matter. You do it or you don't get the Visa. Period. And it cost us about $250. Grrrrrr......... Carys however took it like a champ only whimpering a bit. Poor thing. So far she seems to feel ok. Hope she doesn't start feeling crappy right here at the end of our trip.
Weighing and measuring (30 lbs and 35" tall)Preparing for shotsPoor little butterfly covered boo boos!

Ironically we found out we need a "Vaccination Affidavit". It's something that the non-Hague families have to have but was not on our consulate checklist. Well apparently we need it anyway. It is something saying we promise to have her vaccinated (ironic after they just pumped enough vaccine in her to inoculate a rhino!). Since we don't have this Mike has to go to the US consulate in the morning with our guide to have it done. We've run into a couple other families here that this has happened to as well.

The weather outside is just wonderful! About 70 degrees and sunny. We loved just walking all around. We are staying on Shamian Island - an island in the sense only that it is surrounded by some canals and the river. It is so clean and peaceful with not much traffic and not a whole ton of people. It's really just a big tourist island.
Lovely (and warm!) Guangzhou (our little Shamian Island oasis)

We ate lunch at one of our favorite restaurants the "Cow and Bridge". It's a thai place. We LOVE their spicy coconut milk chicken soup and fried pumpkin and Cade was thrilled that they actually had french fries with ketchup!

We have always heard of this fabulous "toy market" here in Guangzhou. We tried to go to it last time but our guide wasn't sure what it was and we wound up at an 8 floor building filled with every kind of junk imaginable. 99% of which was wholesale. So even if you could find the 1% of cool stuff it is invariably only for sale if you want to buy and million and 2 of whatever it is. So I asked our guide this time about the "toy market" and she said "Oh yes!" and wrote down the address in Chinese to give the cab driver. We were all stoked for some cool quirky Chinese toys full of lead and chemicals only to discover when we got there...... that it was the same place! ARG! I am absolutely convinced that this "toy market" is like a mythical holy grail! If anyone out there knows where to buy some cool toys in Guangzhou please tell me! And don't tell me it's the One-Link toy market. Cause that ain't it!

Then we got out and couldn't find a cab. We'd be standing there waiting and see one coming and someone would dash out and snake it. This happened at least 5 times. I was ready to go all angry American and pound the next person that did that. Finally after 9.7 million years we got a cab and headed back to the hotel. But what should have been about a 5 minute drive took 30 minutes because it was rush hour. And I am convinced the driver took some obscure long way to charge us twice as much as he should have.

But here we are. Snug in our "concrete with a blanket thrown on top" beds.

Carys is playing with her "Adoption Barbie" that Mattell and the White Swan provide to the kids and chattering away in Chinese like crazy! Maybe if they had listened better at the orphanage they would have realized we have a little chatter box. Her favorite phrase sounds like "I yow baba". Which means "I have Daddy" Not "I have a daddy" but "give me that daddy!" She loves her daddy. Maybe because he is the only one strong enough to carry her gazillion pound self around all day. Or the only one sucker enough to do it. ;) She is giving her Barbie kisses and getting kisses from her. She is starting to get all wiggly like a typical 3 year old but is still so mellow. She did get on to Caden yesterday for taking her toy. She was all shoving on him. LOL And yesterday Caden took her cup to put more juice in and she started crying and crying. She was MAD thinking he swiped her cup! She is changing more and more each day but is still such a sweetheart!

OK - I have to go to bed. Tomorrow Mike goes to the consulate to do the vaccination affidavit and then our guide takes all our stuff to the consulate to get the visa process started. Then we have the rest of the day to shop and sight see. We are here til Friday morning and then we head home. I love China, Guangzhou especially, but I am missing my Quinny and his video games, and my lovey dovey Kyan, and my wild child Callie sooooooooooooooooooo much!! Can't wait to see them all again. I miss you my little dumplings!

We made it to Guangzhou!

2009-01-05T10:27:00.002-05:00

Anyone mind if I skip posting tonight and do it in the morning? I am just beat. It would probably sounds like gibberish anyway. So tomorrow then.

What, no elevator?

2009-01-04T08:14:00.011-05:00

This morning we went on a boat ride on West Lake again (part of our guide package). Unfortunately it was misting rain and so foggy you couldn't see a thing. It was a big covered boat with a bunch of other people. Waste of time with the weather bring what it is. We were really glad we took the little boat the other day when the weather was nice and you can see so much more with the little boat. We did get to see the fish pond we had wanted to see earlier.
Our boat (and Caden walking the plank)
Carys - getting more and more personable every day!
Cade looking through the window at Carys
Birdie whistles aka noise makers (what were we thinking?)
Fish pond
The JAWS of the fish pond!
What a ham!
Walking in the rain

After that we visited a pagoda. It was very pretty and 13 floors high. Caden was totally ramped up to go all the way to the top. The guide was so not. So up we went, hehe. We did give her the out of waiting for us at the bottom. ;) Going up (and up and up) was a bit tiring as all the stone steps were like a foot tall! We were really glad we went all the way up as the view was gorgeous. Even with the fog. The way down was easier but seemed so treacherous!

Ceiling of pagoda
Steep steps
Foggy day
View from the top

After the pagoda we visited the silk museum. It was very interesting but usually they have live demonstrations with live silk worms but they said not in the winter. But we saw that the other day so we were good.
I really liked the displays of tiny embroidered silk purses
and the tiny tiny shoes for bound feet (on the right). For comparison the two things on the left are ear warmers.
This pictures is for my friend Amy M. from MCA. How would you like to thread that baby!?
But isn't the fabric beautiful!

The driver and guide dropped us off at a restaurant for lunch. Apparently a day of sightseeing means three hours. Hmph! We had a great lunch though and had this
OK - so it looks a little weird with the fish head sticking up and the tail and all but it was seriously some of the best fish we have ever eaten.

After lunch we walked the streets window shopping and bought a few things. Then this evening we went to a show. It. was. AWESOME! There were acrobats and kung fu guys and dancers. The kids loved it. They even had these clappy hands you were supposed to use to clap with. Caden of course was in heaven. Anything that makes noise! We took lots of pics and video but they don't do it justice with all the lighting and colors there were. Definitely a must if you visit Hangzhou. I think the place was called the Dong Po theater or something like that.
Clappy hands
Happy girl

Caden mesmerized

Pic of the day:
Carys loves her daddy

Tomorrow we check out of the hotel and do some sightseeing in the morning and are supposed to pick up Carys's passport in the afternoon. Our flight is scheduled to lave Hangzhou at 6:30 and arrive in Guangzhou at 8:30ish. We are really excited to go to Guangzhou. We were there the whole two weeks last time and love it so much. Plus it is supposed to be in the 70's. Oh yeah!!!! Can't wait for some warm weather!!!!!!!

Lost in Translation

2009-01-03T09:47:00.012-05:00

We made our second trip to Wuzhen today. It was quite interesting as we were the only people who spoke English in our group, including the guide. I wouldn't say the language barrier was an issue really but it did lead to some confusing moments. Luckily one of the other members of the group spoke a little English. She was able to at least tell us "meet here at 13:50" and "we only stop here for toilets" when we stopped at some miscellaneous building on the way. Mostly we just kind of went where the tour guide pointed and made some guesses as to what we were doing. Most of the signs in the different parts of Wuzhen are in English as well so even though we didn't under stand her spiel about the different things we could read the signs and get the gist. Caden spent most of the day looking like this though:
I'm not sure if he was worried we would get lost or that he would get lost or what. I kept telling him they would not leave without us and even if they did all we had to do was call our guide (we have her cell) and she would send the driver for us. We were not going to be lost forever in China!

We saw lots of exhibits that we didn't see the last time and went farther into the actual town itself. At around lunchtime we had free time to explore the town and shops and have some lunch. We ate at the same place for lunch but it was still hard to order. I had my phrase book and would point to things trying to get the same thing we did last time. We really wanted the great soup we had last time but my phrasebook does not have the word soup! We did manage to mime soup but it was not the same soup.

This trip made me realize a true Chinese/English dictionary would be helpful. The phrasebook we have really stinks. It doesn't have half the things we try to look up. Last time we were in Guangzhou the whole time and had our guide 24/7 so we didn't need anything like that. Plus it seems most people in that area spoke at least some English. Used to so many tourists I guess. Here it is rare. At one point we were in one of the shops and the women who worked there gathered around us just talking away. They kept feeling in Carys's sleeve and peeking up in there wanting to know where her arm was. They kept asking us what sounded like questions and I kept thinking "You can say it as many times as you want but we still are not going to have any clue what you are saying!". I think I now know a little of what Carys must be thinking when we talk to her!

All the shop keepers did know exactly what "how much?" means. LOL They would whip out their calculators and type a price. Then you would type in what you wanted to pay. You go back and forth until a price was reached. I am the designated bargainer. I'm really good at it but it always feels so awkward. The same feeling you get when you are trying to buy a new car. I must not be my fathers daughter. We would go to flea markets when I was little and his eyes would gleam at the delight of striking a deal. He loves it! So we did some wheeling and dealing and bought some goodies. One of the coolest things we bought was a teeny handmade model of a loom. It is about 8" long and maybe 5" high. It really works! It has thread all strung through the heddles and the treadles move up and down and it even has a teeny tiny shuttle. It is the cutest thing ever. (I weave - I have a BFA and my emphasis was weaving and book arts - we have a loom at home - although with all these kids I don't have much time to use it.) Anyway it cost $7.50. Can you believe it? I couldn't even bring myself to bargain for that it was so cheap. We also got some cool handmade bamboo toys for the kids which set us back about $2.75. I love when we find cool things for cheap!
Bamboo toys bought from a little old man
Coolest teeny tiny loom ever

Caden got to go on his boat ride on the canal and he loved it! We had dressed with more layers so were nice and comfy.

On the way back the tour made a stop at a silk market. We had no clue where we were or what we were doing there but with some hand gestures realized we were going to tour it and could shop. They had displays of silk worms and had workers out there soaking cocoons and removing the larvae then they would stretch the silk over the forms. They showed us how they make silk batting for comforters. There was also a display of how they got the silk off the cocoon for thread. Cool stuff.

They took us up to the showroom for clothes. It was huge. Then they had models walk on a catwalk to show us different fashions. It was too funny. I bought Carys a silk nightie and a batiked shirt. Caden had to have some pj's. We found some boy ones with pool balls on them. He was a riot when we got back to the hotel and he was modeling his jams and slipping around everywhere. Hilarious!
We had a great time and were very pleased to make it back from the land of non-English speakers without getting lost.

Tomorrow we have our guide and driver again and are going to tour West Lake and do some other sightseeing I think. (We have had more days in Hangzhou than most people I think. It's because three days have been a government holiday.) The guide called and said to bring an umbrella as it might rain. Hmmmm.....wish we had actually thought to bring one.....

I am freaking a little because my batteries ran out on the camera and I can not find the Lithium double A's anywhere. We bought some regular ones but for some reason they don't make the camera work. It's like they don't have enough charge although we haven't has that problem at home with regular ones and they make the flip cam work. Hopefully we can find something to make the thing work. Eek! Anyway, here are some pics from today. I always have a hard time picking pictures to post. Quinn and our family back home follow along so I try to put lots for them to see. I take like a couple hundred a day though! Hallelujah for digital!
Cade found a lollipop and I found some candy for Carys. Her eyes lit up and she snatched it out of my hand. She must know candy when she sees it!

Washing clothes in the (not so clean) canalWuzhen streetWuzhen alleyVery bizarre and slightly creepy opera play Carys checking out the operaWe visited this Taoist temple and I was just happily snapping pics. Mike walked up and said I don't see anyone else taking pictures. I finally noticed a teeny sign that said "no photos taking". Oops.They were handing out prayer cards and praying and lighting incense to the statues. Not the above ones but some huge ones farther in. Caden wanted a card and I explained to him it was like we were in a church but not one that has the same beliefs as our church. I told him that it was interesting to learn about other religions but to just remember they are different from ours and what we believe. I told him that the cards were prayer cards and they were using them to pray to the statues not our God and did he still want one. He said no thanks. Good boy!I just love this blue fabric they are famous for in Wuzhen!Caden gets his boat ride finally!Houses along the canalThey hang up everything outside. Including their meat. Ugh.And their undies. Snicker!These guys were dredging up stinky muck from the bottom of the canal.Later we saw them carrying it in huge buckets.......and dumping it in the bamboo grove. Fertilizer?Stabilizer? Who knows.More washing. In the same canal all that gunk came out of.Fruit tree way up on a roof.
And a kitten on the roof. Dinner? Just kidding.This one's hard to see but it is a family having lunch and the little boy is covering his eyes to hide.Raw silk hanging out to dry.Cade in the bamboo grove.Carys has really attached to daddy. Must be because he has had to carry her all day in Wuzhen twice now! He was really getting her to belly laugh tonight. Her personality is coming out more and more each day. She is such a sweetheart!Cade and some tourist boys. The older two were really excited but the little guy in front was mad his dad drug him over for a picture.Cade sat down on some steps so Carys had to sit too. Of course here she is falling over.Stretching silk.We tickle Carys's nose with these little dangly things on her hat. So she started tickling daddy's nose!Absolute favorite pic of the day!!!!!

Hanging in Hangzhou aka The Cotton Candy Experiment

2009-01-02T07:05:00.011-05:00

We hung out in Hangzhou today. We have gotten pretty good at getting around. We have our guide or the front desk write the Chinese characters for where we want to go and then on the way back show the taxi driver the hotel card.

This morning we went to the Century Mart. We needed a sippy cup for Carys as I managed to forget to bring any. It was a huge grocery/department store. Four floors high. For friends back in Rochester each floor was the size of Wegmans. The first floor was fresh food and wet foods. Second floor dry goods. Third floor clothing. Fourth floor was kids stuff, toys and things like kitchen appliances. I have never seen so many kinds of rice cookers in my life! There were steep moving ramps going to each floor. I felt like that little mountain climbing guy on that Price is Right game. Yodelayhehoo! Luckily we didn't fall over the edge.

The fourth floor where we got the sippy cups was weird. Each little mini section had it's own worker who would write a ticket out for you. Then you had to take all the tickets to the cashier and then go back and get your stuff. But we had picked something up from the first floor and when we went back down to pay for that they still went all thorough our paid-for stuff and checked each item on the receipt. Wouldn't it be faster to just check everything out at once?

The amount of people in that place was insane. I told Mike it was like Wegamans the day before Thanksgiving times 5. Or Black Friday at Walmart at 4am. Times 5. And no - I have never been to Walmart on black Friday but I can imagine it. It was really neat to look around at first. We got Carys's sippy cup and some cool toys for the kids. Then I was ready to get out! Too many people! Then we got outside to find I had lost my scarf. It's been really cold here so I needed my scarf. I decided to brave the masses and run back in and buy one. So up to the third floor I go and hunt around as my phrase book does not have the word scarf in it. Stupid phrasebook. Found one but then had to mine "ticket" to the worker who sent me to someone else, who sent me to someone else, who mimed that I didn't need a ticket for that particular item. Apparently only some of the things on the third floor need a ticket. Hmph.

After we escaped for good from the Century Mart we ate at Papa Johns. Yes - I know I said we would never do it. Why go to China to eat American food? But it was right there and I needed a break from dumplings and dim sum. We enjoyed our pizza although who would have thought it would be so hard to order just a cheese pizza? "No cheese? No sauce? What sauce? Cheese? No cheese?" You catch my drift. We did finally convince them that occasionally people want just plain ole cheese pizza.
Delivery anyone?

Carys after our Century Mart experience
Mad that she slept through pizza

This afternoon we walked all around West Lake. It was cold but just stunning. Pictures just don't do it justice. Caden had a fun time eating candied strawberries on a stick and blowing bubble with his new bubble thingy. At one point a young Chinese guy and an older man stopped us to practice their English. Apparently there is a place in the park called "The English Corner" where they gather to practice English with each other. It was quite a funny conversation and we got the "But this looks like a Chinese baby?" question again. LOL They didn't understand the phrase "adoption" but understood "orphan" and "now our daughter". The older man was curious why we would adopt if we had children. Actually we get that from Chinese Americans at home sometimes too. I always just let them know we wanted more kids and wanted to give a child a family who needed one. That seems to suffice although they still always seem puzzled by it. By the time we finished talking a crowd had gathered. Must have been for Caden SuperStar.
Fans of Caden's
West Lake
Chinese Good Year Blimp
Boats ready for a ride
Bubbles and Strawberries
I have no idea. Creepy.
Cade and Chinese Snow White giving the peace sign
Pagoda Boat

There was a fountain show at the lake and lots of neat things to look at. We walked sooooo far that we decided to take a boat ride back to where we started. Only the boatman didn't speak English so he took us waaaaaaay over to the other side of the lake. It was a great ride but dark and freezing by the time we got there. Thought we'd freeze our buns off by the time we caught a taxi.
It was daylight when we got on the boat.

West Lake sunset
And near the end of the seemingly neverending boat ride

We had dinner our at a restaurant our guide suggested that was over a hundred years old called Lou Wai Lou. It was HUGE. And quite good. Now we are back and about to crash out.
You aren't getting these chopsticks Dad
Poor Caden at dinner - pooped out

Carys has been adjusting a little better each day. I would never have thought a couple days ago that she would be where she is now. I'm telling you the child was like a vegetable the first few days. Luckily I've read oodles and oodles of adoption stories that are all over the spectrum so knew it was in the norm but you just don't realize how completely strange and disconcerting it is until you experience it. But she was just the sweetest thing so we figured either it was a phase or it wasn't. We'd just deal with whatever was ahead. I have to admit though that I am so happy she is starting to come out of her shell. It was breaking my heart to see her so shell shocked. Her cold and cough are much better and she had been fever free the past two days.

We've discovered she can say a couple of words. I SWEAR she said mama and dada once today. Or maybe wishful thinking but hey - it sure did sound sweet to our ears! She also would hold things out to us then snatch them away or we would pretend to take something from her and she would giggle and say something that sounded a little like "I you". Which we found out is the phrase "I have" in Chinese. My dad will be so proud! For some reason he gets the biggest kick out of teaching the grandkids to say "mine!"

And now for the laugh of the day. While we were walking around the lake Caden had to have some cotton candy. I tried to give some to Carys and a lot of laughing followed. First I held it out and she closed her lips tight and scrunched up her nose. Then I finally got her to hold some and she tried to wipe her nose with it like it was tissue. I had to pry some in her mouth. She then decided she liked it and reached over and snatched some when Caden wasn't looking. Only it got stuck on her upper lip and instead of just pulling it off with her fingers she kept try to get her tongue to reach up there and lick it off. It was just a riot!
Giddy over the sugury goodness
No way
Hmmmm......
Do I use this to wipe my runny nose?
I like this!
Help! There's something on my lip!

Tomorrow is another free day, We were really bummed that we missed out on so much in Wuzhen so decided to book a tour through our hotel. It was half the price we paid to our guide. The only catch is that we go on a tour bus which I am sure we will be the only Western people on and the guide only speaks Chinese. I had the person at the travel office write the Chinese characters for "Where do we meet?" and "What time do we meet?" to show her once in Wuzhen. Don't want to miss the bus back to the hotel!

That is all I can think of. Except that we did laundry today and I probably could have bought a new wardrobe for what we paid to have it done. Extortionists!

I am beat. Will post tomorrow when we get back from Wuzhen.

As always - thanks for your comments, thoughts, and prayers!

Wuzhen - aka Caden SuperStar Town

2009-01-01T06:50:00.019-05:00

We went to Wuzhen today. It was awesome! It is a very old town set up so you can walk through the streets and buildings and see how they lived in China in times past. It is also a working town so people live there and as you walk down the alleys they all had their doors and windows open so you got a peek into their lives. It is a very popular domestic tourist site. We were the only Westerners there. Caden was an absolute super star! We had told him he would be popular with local people in China because he was a Western kid plus he has the red hair. We've had a couple people stop and take pictures of him or sneak pics. He is our energetic mega social kid and quite the ham. He loves it! Well in Wuzhen the tourists went nuts over him! One person would stop to take a picture and people would rush over to get their chance to take a picture. He had his own paparazzi following! Here are just a couple of the pics we took of people taking pictures of him.

One stops to take a pic

The others jump in
Everyone gets into the action

Cade posing patiently

It was absolutely hilarious. And they would all crack up when the would say "Hello" and he would say "Ni Hao!"

There were lots of neat things to see in the town (besides Caden). Here are a few things:
Caden and our guide

Dried ducks
Wuzhen is famous for the hand batiked and dyed blue and white fabric. It was gorgeous hanging in the sun to dry. We bought two outfits made out of this fabric for the girls, a purse, and five little stuffed animals - all for about 25 bucks! Total!Cade helping out with some weaving

Lots of souvenir shops. We had a great time at these!

Man with Fu Man Chu beard metalworking

Chinese medicine shop (display)

They had all these ancient beds on display. This one had three entrances. One to take off your shoes, the next to take off your clothes, the next was where the chamber pots went, and the last was the bed.

They also had beds for unmarried daughters. Apparently the daughters could not see men and therefore not go out of the house until they were married (at about the age of 13 or 14). There were also double beds called brother beds for sons.

Mike carried Carys at first but then she wanted to walk.
She is a bit uncoordinated on her feet. Not sure how much has to do with her little arm. Maybe she is off balanced a little. She definitely needed help with any type of steps. I think she has some gross motor delays but I feel like that will come along quickly. Especially with our wild crew at home!

We had a great lunch at Wuzhen. Nothing too weird! Unless you count lamb. We ordered dishes special to the area and it was very very good. We had a great time walking around but we had not planned on it being so cold. It was freezing even with the sun up. We had really really wanted to go on on a boat ride, to see a shadow puppet play, and one or two other things but our guide was too cold and wanted to get back early. Considering we set this side trip up and paid extra I was a little annoyed and Caden was disappointed. I'd say we had a really great time though and we are so happy we went. We had one interesting interaction with an older wealthier woman. She was very very nice but interested in us. She asked where we were from and we said NY USA and she said "Oh so very far!" then she looked at Carys and said "But this looks like a Chinese baby" and we said yes she is. She looked confused so we had our guide tell her we adopted her. She said "Oh! But someday you bring her back?". I couldn't tell if she meant bring her back to visit China or bring her back as in bring back our Chinese girl! LOL

We had some interesting conversation with our guide on the way there and back. We were advised not to discuss politics or policy but she brings things up sometimes. I think because she is so young she likes to talk about things and doesn't have any hangups about it. She was talking about the one child policy. I think she thinks it strange that Westerns think the policy is strange. She said some people think it is cruel but they have so many people in China that the population just has to be controlled. I think for the younger generation especially it is just the norm and accepted with no problem (for most anyway). She did say that if you are wealthy you can pay for permits to have a second child. She said the wealthier you are the higher the fee. It sounds like it is very very expensive. In the Western provinces in farming communities and such if you first child is a girl you can try one more time for a girl. From what I have read many of the girls for adoption from those areas are second, third, etc children. She said in Shanghai the rules are different. I guess there are so many young people there who are waiting longer to get married or deciding not to have children that they have a policy that if you are young and both parents are citizens of Shanghai and are from one child families they can have two children. I guess they are concerned about having not enough laborers in 20 years or so.

I'm not sure how this topic came up but she mentioned how difficult it is to officially join the communist party. She was saying you apply and they do all these checks on you. How you did in school, what your marks were, if you are a working person how your job performance is. They check to make sure you have no other affiliations and check the background of your family. If you had a family member who was against the party you would have a very very difficult time joining. You can never have been arrested for anything. After about 6 months to a year you get kind of a probation standing. Then they do all the checks again. After maybe a year or two you will be officially a member (if everything checks out). Who'd have thought it'd be that difficult? Interesting stuff.

On a lighter side we talked about wedding traditions. We talked about how it is bad luck to see the groom on the day of the wedding. They don't have that custom but have one where it is bad luck for the brides feet to touch the ground before the ceremony. The groom goes to her house and gives her a piggy back ride to the car and then again to the ceremony. Can you just picture that in a big wedding dress!

Carys is doing much better. She is really coming along when we are all in the room together. We got lots of smiles and even some belly laughs today! She had a flashlight that she was turning on and off and Mike would jump when she did it and she would just crack up. She also was very determined to put her pajama shirt on herself. The first bit of spunk we've seen out of her! She would snatch it away and giggle. It was quite the show. She is just the sweetest thing. We are so very very blessed! Here are some pics from today:

Snoozing on the ride to Wuzhen. She has been a good sleeper so far. Hope I didn't just jinx us!
Playing keep away with her shirt
Snaggletooth

Here are some pics of the view from our hotel and the ride out to Wuzhen:
Views from our hotel - that is West Lake
Bunch of pointy roofed houses. It is a huge sprawl of new development. She said these are farmers houses! Apparently the "farmers" in Hangzhou basically oversee laborers. Different from the very poor farmers we saw in Guangdong province.
Our guide said maybe 3 generations might live in one of these. One generation on each floor.

Tomorrow we have a free day with no guide or driver. Guess we will explore Hangzhou and try not to get lost!

I also wanted to say we are enjoying everyone's comments SO much! We don't have time to reply but we read every one and are so touched to have so many people thinking of us!!

Back in Hangzhou - Happy New Year!

2008-12-31T17:04:00.009-05:00

Well we've already had our New Years here since we are 13 hours ahead. Our hotel room over looks a huge lake and there were fireworks to watch from our window. Then we immediately passed out again. LOL

Here is a funny. We discovered why the electricity was out in our room when we woke up yesterday. And why we couldn't charge our laptop. Mike has set the voltage converter to the wrong setting and the converter had melted and blown a fuse! What a maroon!

So yesterday morning we went to the police station to apply for Carys's passport. Someone from the orphanage went with us because our guide said the first time she went by herself and she and the family waited all day and then were told to come back the next day. Same thing that day. Their number wasn't called until the third day! The family had to extend their stay because of it. So now she takes someone from the orphanage who speaks the Wenzhou dialect and she just kind of buts in line and gets things done. So we were just there for an hour or so. The guide also said it is not up to the individual orphanage as to whether or not you have to go to the child's town to apply for the passport like we thought. It is up to the individual CITY. She said there are a couple that are very strict and Wenzhou is the strictest because they have so many businessmen. You MUST apply in person. So that made a little more sense.

After we got the receipt from her passport we visited the orphanage. We got to visit the toddler room where she had been. Most were much smaller than her so I think her group was either in a different room or maybe a lot of them had been adopted. They did go in another room and bring a little boy out that was her size. They said he was her friend. He was too cute. they got him to clap along to songs. The babies just all came up and stared at us. One little guy launched himself at Mike and wrapped his arms around him. Oh it was so sad! We said if they would have let us we would have taken him too! ;) They pulled out chairs and all the babies ran over and sat in them. Then they were all serious and looking like they expected something. It was all so sweet. And sad. I just wish for them to all have the love of a family some day.

We got to see where Carys slept. I also asked them what happened to her tooth but no one had even noticed it was missing. They tried to tell me "Oh it just hasn't come in yet". Since she already has her 2 year molars I seriously doubt that. She knocked it out at some point and no one even knew. It made me sad. I had worried that the visit would upset Carys but she just seemed out of it. I had the feeling we could have walked away and left her there and she wouldn't have even noticed. I think from what they said she is painfully shy and quiet. She did not talk much while at the orphanage, although she understood everything they said to her. I think the problem was she is so shy and compliant that she was ignored. I don't think she was talked TO very much. It's like she is just going through the motions of being a child. We did get a couple of grins out of her in the van on the way back to Hangzhou. But it's like she didn't want us to see her grin so she would bite her bottom lip to keep from it. With her one big front tooth and the one missing it was hilarious. So we kept laughing which made her want to grin so she kept doing it which made us laugh harder. Also when we bathed her (which she loves) she gave us lots of little half grins. When she was all dried off she was just in a pull up (although she is daytime potty trained) I was tickling her with chop sticks and we got our first giggle. It was precious. I do think we have a bit of a road ahead of us to get her to trust and feel again. We'll take any little baby steps we can get!

After we visited the orphanage the directors took us out to lunch. That was certainly a cultural experience! We sat at this big round table with a lazy susan in the middle. they brought out dish after dish after dish. I'd never seen so much food! We had such interesting delicacies as: shark stomach, stir fried bamboo, little clams served cold which when opened I saw were raw and bloody - Ew!, intestine - but the guide didn't know from which animal, jellyfish soup, some kind of clear jello looking stuff with some kind of seafood in it - Mike said it looked like barnacle jello, and fish with scales. Since we were guests we felt obliged to try everything. We also had lots of stuff we really liked: dumplings, little fried pumpkin cakes, pork, fried rice, noodles, beef etc. It was a really cool experience.

When we got back to the hotel we hit a tiny snafu. We had requested a room with a lake view this time. The other room overlooked the parking lot. They told us the room would be smaller but that we would be able to fit the roll away and baby bed. OK - it's a teeny room and there was neither baby bed nor rollaway. It was such confusion trying to talk to the staff who really does not understand English. We called our guide who came back to straighten it out. At one point there was our guide and three women all chattering and pointing in Chinese trying to figure out how to get everything in the room. They wound up having to take a little table and two chairs out. Then they put the rollaway in and tried to give Caden a comforter that was all stained with big brown spots! Yuck! I pointed it out to our guide who held it out and I think scolded them. They brought us a different very clean one. I am REALLY glad we had the guide. It would have taken us hours to straighten that out. Finally we got it fixed though and the view is just gorgeous. There is the lake and mountains and lots if the city. Plus we got to see the fireworks!

We have the next few days off while we wait for the passport so we set up s side trip with our guide to a town called Wuzhen. Here is the Wuzhen website: http://www.wuzhen.com.cn/wuzhen.eng/ It looks awesome!

OK - here are a bunch of pics from the past two days. All out of order because I don't have time to organize them.

Farmers house
Church - our guide said Wenzhou actually has a very large Christian population because so many people travel and bring religion back with them.
Little miss serious
What are you looking at?
Almost a grin
Funny tooth grin
Haystack
countryside
more countryside
gianourmous shrimp
bunch of food
clothes and jackets hanging out at the Wezhou orphanage
Carys's bed
Babies all lined up in a row
Cary's friend
Little guy who attached himself to Mike
Local boy on a bus

Carys trying not to grin
Local people - look how bundled the baby is. I figured out why the are so bundled. They don't turn the heat on anywhere - the police station (where we applied for Carys's passport), the restaurant, the orphanage, the car - we froze all day.
Snacks at the expressway service stop
Chicken foot anyone?
Snoozing on the way to Wenzhou

Countryside
You can't really see this one good but we did see cemeteries after all. Really old ones where the tombs were all terraced into the hills.

Wenzhou

2008-12-30T17:06:00.004-05:00

We made it to Wenzhou. I was too tired to post last night. Yesterday morning we signed the papers to make the adoption official. Yay! We went back to the hotel to get our stuff ready and we were going to walk around and eat but Carys had fever and fell asleep so we just hung out there. Another thing I wish I had brought is baby Tylenol. We brought baby Advil but it would have been helpful to alternate the two so she didn't have to wait 6 hours for fever meds. That afternoon we went to the notary to pick up all our notarized documents. The notary here in China is different from in the states. It is a government job, very official, and also expensive. Our guide told us some interesting things about government jobs. She said they are very hard to get and pay a lot of money. She said the are very very picky and do all sorts if back ground checks on you and even your family members. You must be affiliated with the communist party and if you are affiliated with the communist party you can have no other religions, Christianity, Buddhism, etc. She said people have to go through all these different applications processes and exams that may take up to a year or two and then you may have 1000 applicants competing for one job. Interesting stuff.

The trip to Wenzhou was really long. It was so neat at first but because we didn't leave until around 3pm and it gets dark around 5 we weren't able to see much. The first couple hours were neat though and we saw some of the countryside and mountains although much of the route was developed into towns and cities. My morbid side came out and I noticed we didn't see any cemeteries. The guide said it is now a rule that you must be cremated. We stopped at two service plazas which reminded me of the stops on the NY thruway but the snacks included things like stinky tofu (the actual name of the dish according to the guide) and vacuum packed pig and chicken feet. LOL

Carys's fever finally broke on the ride out and she seemed to feel better although she slept most of the way. She is still very quiet and withdrawn although she perks up a bit when we eat and when she is playing in the tub. She hasn't spoken except maybe twice it sounded like she was talking to herself. The orphanage people said she is very very shy and very quiet. I feel like she probably fell through the cracks at the orphanage in favor of more boisterous children. She has not cried although if she gets worried when we put her down or she thinks we are leaving the room without her she makes some sad noises. She is a very "obedient" child. And I don't mean that in a good way. You hold food up and she opens her mouth and eats. You put her on the potty and she goes - even if it is the tiniest bit. I keep wondering "Is she really hungry or is she eating because I want her too, does she really have to go to the bathroom or is it because she thinks I want her to, etc." It is like she is resigned to doing what is asked of her. It's very sad. I had worried about taking her to visit the orphanage because I thought it might confuse or upset her. I feel better about taking her now. I'd like to see SOME kind of emotion in the kid. Now I do realize we are only going into the third day and it is certainly not out of the norm for her to act this way. (Our Callie, the screaming banshee certainly proved to us that the child you meet is not necessarily the child you are going to go home with. They are grieving HARD). Never the less I am hoping the visit might snap her out of her trance a little. We are really loving her though. When we were in the car yesterday she really snuggled in and laid her head on my chest. She let me give her little kisses all over her sweet face.

We rolled in about 9pm and ate at the hotel restaurant. They were having a wedding party in the main restaurant so we had this private dining room which had a TV so we got to watch Chinese Sponge Bob while we ate. Hilarious.

I've always read on people's blogs about the beds being hard in China. I always thought "What are they talking about? How hard could they be?". Well the hotel here in Wenzhou has answered my question. Think concrete slab. Literally! I can't even imagine why they would make a mattress like that. You'd be better off on the floor. Kind of glad we are only staying the one night. Our electricity went out in the middle of the night, including the heat. We called the "English hot line at the hotel but they didn't speak English. LOL! They sent someone up. When you walk in the door of a Chinese hotel you put your room card in a slot to make the lights and things come on. The guy kept taking the card out and putting it back in. Then he said "be right back". So he brought another guy who did the same thing. Then again "be right back" then a THIRD guy came only to do the same thing! It was an absolute riot. You've just gotta love China. They did finally get it going - I think they realized it was not the card but a fuse. (Go figure haha). So here I sit with power to blog. Until the battery runs out cause we are having trouble with the convertor.

We go this morning to apply for Carys's passport then we will visit the orphanage and go to eat lunch with the directors. Then there is something we do this afternoon. I can't remember what. And then we drive back to Hangzhou. Will post again then.

Here are some pics. If I can get them loaded before the power goes out on the laptop.

Good thing we brought some tights

2008-12-29T21:05:00.006-05:00

OK we have been scolded not once, not twice, but three times (all in Chinese) because we are horrible parents and do not have 23 layers of clothes on our children. LOL! Today two ladies came up to us pulling on Carys's pants and holding up 1 finger as in "only one layer!" and wagging their fingers back an forth. I should mention Carys had on thick pants, socks, shoes, a shirt, a jacket, and a heavy LL Bean winter snow coat. I told Mike that was it! She is not leaving this room without the ribbed tights we happened to bring with us under her pants and her jacket on under her coat! And maybe even an extra shirt on for safe measures! :)

I give up on Caden though. Caden absolutely will not wear long sleeves. Ever. He says he gets too hot. He has a thick winter coat and is old enough I feel to decide if he is cold or not. I thought the ladies in the hotel shop were going to fall out. They were gasping and pointing to his shirt sleeves. He simply replied "Hey - I'm from New York." As if that was all the explanation needed. Too funny.

We also had a very unique cultural experience at the Chinese pharmacy. You should have seen us pantomiming Vicks vapor rub! (For Carys's cough) He finally seemed to understand what we were saying but they didn't have anything like that. He gave us some Robitussin which we already brought with us but we got it in case we run out. When we were checking out we saw some chapstick that said Mentholatum so we got that to put on her upper lip. Maybe it will clear her out a little. She had some fever this morning but we gave her some Advil and Cough and cold meds and she seems much better.

(Note to families waiting to travel - we brought cold cough and congestion meds and fever meds but I really wish we had brought some baby Vicks vapor rub. That always soothes my kids coughs. You might want to add it to your list.)

When I was lotioning up Carys I noticed a mark and little bruise on her foot that I am pretty positive looks like an IV mark. (Her skin was SOOO dry and she seemed really dehydrated - she has been taking fluids like crazy since we got her). I specifically asked if she had ever been sick enough to be in the hospital and they said no except for her surgery on her hand. They also said she has had this "little cold" for only 1 day. No way. I am positive the kid has had pneumonia. This has obviously been brewing in her for a while. I think she is on the mend with the meds we are giving her but I sure would have appreciated a little more information about what has been going on. I am just glad we have her now and can hopefully get her feeling better.

Something else I thought of that makes me laugh - when we were doing the adoption proceeding they ask questions like "Do you like this baby" and "Now that you have seen the baby do you still want to adopt". Well the notary lady leaned over and whispered conspiratorially "Do you know she is missing her hand?" I just calmly said yes but Mike and I cracked up later. Mike said I should have gasped and said "WHAT!" and started looking around for it. Somehow I don't think the notary would have found our humor amusing. ;)

Pics from breakfast:

Some really cool fish in the restaurant. They just hover there looking like they are fake fish.

Yummy!

4 am and awake - again

2008-12-29T16:36:00.002-05:00

LOL I always seem to wake at 4 am in China - even with some "Simply Sleep". Cade is up with me watching a DVD. I just thought of some bits and pieces to post.

Carys has slept all night although she has been coughing a bit. I heard her hack something up and then she slept much better. I did notice she sleeps with the top of her head pressed right up against the crib and rubs her head back and forth sometimes while she is asleep. So we know where her little bald spot came from. ;) She actually just woke up and is lying in bed with Mike. Hope she goes back to sleep!

The Chinese really bundle their kids. It was about 45 degrees out yesterday. Coming from Rochester that was pretty warm and comfortable for us. Carys had on thick quilted 2 piece long johns, really thick quilted puffy corduroy pants, a sweater (which one of the nannies hand knit - that was just the sweetest thing to me), a thick winter coat, and to top it off - snow boots! And they were all boys clothes! Even the sweater was blue. Too funny. She was sweating like a pig. We brought her a coat so gave them hers back and will return the boots when we go to the orphanage. I am sure they have a greater need for them than we do. They also brought her a tiny backpack. We opened it up and there was a pair of "megabot" panties and the rest was stuffed FULL with snacks! Cookies, crackers, juice boxes, you name it. It was the cutest little thing. No wonder she is a hefty girl!

Another cute thing - we gave her a little flashlight we had brought with us yesterday. I think she liked it better than the toys we brought (although she loves the shape sorter too). She was pointing it all over. She would tuck it under her "little arm" to walk around. We've noticed she tucks things there and stores them. :)

Well, I'm going to see if anyone will go back to sleep. We've got about another hour and a half before breakfast. Which is included at our hotel and is very yummy! I love eating Chinese for breakfast! Dim Sum and dumplings, little tiny spring rolls and sweet rice rolled up in some kind of leaves and cooked. I am making myself hungry!

Will post more later.

It's a girl!!!!

2008-12-29T08:20:00.008-05:00

We have a new daughter! She is so sweet. She is not at all sure of us yet but it is going well.

We traveled to the Civil Affairs office this morning at 9am. Our guide took us to a small room where the director of the orphanage, a nanny, and two people from the notary office had Carys. Our first look at her was of her standing there eating a cookie. Then she burst into tears. The nanny swooped her up and said something in Chinese and then pointed to us and said "Mama and Baba." She stopped crying but was still not too happy with us. Luckily we were the only family there (so different from when we adopted Callie - there were like 30 families in a huge room and all the kids were screaming). It was nice and quite and we were able to take our time getting to know her. I sat beside her and then she let me hold her. She was the opposite of our screaming Callie. She completely shut down. It was really sad to see. Her little head was all tucked down and she was like a little statue. I felt like I could have posed her in any position and she would have just stayed that way. I could see her little eyes flicking back and forth between us though and taking everything in. We signed all our paperwork and then headed back to the hotel. Here are some pics at the Civil Affairs office.

Carys and her nanny

Daddy and Carys
Not so sure about big brother Caden

We came back to the hotel and got to know each other. Health wise she is ok. She does have a nasty cold and chest infection. She is very wheezy and rattly in her chest and has a cough and runny nose. We've started her on the antibiotics we brought as she sounds terrible. She is a BIG girl. I think she weighs about 30 lbs. She is the same height as our four year old but is heavier. She is very filled out. She is estimated to be 3 this coming March. We think she might be closer to 3.5 or 4. We've seen video of her when she first came into the orphanage and based on that I don't think she is older than 4 though. Our IA doc wants to do a bone scan when we get back to get an estimate. That will be interesting. She has been eating really well for us and has proven they were correct when saying she was not picky about food! When we were asking questions about her they said she had surgery on her hand at one point (she has a thumb and pinky and part of an index finger on that hand). This was news to us and I can't tell what they did. We are visiting the orphanage day after tomorrow and will see if they can clarify for us. I also intend to ask them where her front tooth is as it is missing! One of the big ones in the front. We noticed that when we got to the hotel. I wonder if it got knocked out. I know her original medical report says she has 20 teeth and since now she has 19 I am thinking it was there at some point. She also has a bald spot on the top of her head. I wonder if she rubbed her head back and forth on something. I have noticed she does some rocking although she will stop when we pick her up. They said she is very quiet and shy. She understands everything they said to her but they say she doesn't talk much. Not sure if that is because she is quiet or if it is an institutional delay or a real speech delay. Time will tell. Although when we pushed her in her stroller tonight she was babbling about something. It was so CUTE!!

We decided to see if she would like a bath. She really liked it! She was amazed by the bubbles and played with her little toys. The corners of her mouth kept trying to turn up into a grin but she would stop herself when she saw us looking at her. She was very very serious today and still quite withdrawn but perked up at times. We took a really really long nap this afternoon. All four of us. It was nice to get some rest.
Bath time!

This evening we decided to walk around the town and get something to eat. Last time we came to China we were in Guangzhou the whole time on this little "island" where it seemed almost everyone was a tourist or adopting. Everything was set for foreigners and most people spoke some English. Plus we had a guide 24/7 to translate. Here we were the only non-Asian people we saw all night and our guide is local so not with us all the time. We found a restaurant that looked promising. They didn't speak English and didn't have menus. You just kind of walked around with one of them and pointed to food displays. I let Mike pick things out. I think I'll pick next time!! He picked some kind of fish which came with the heads on. It was actually pretty good. Then they brought some dish that had crab and tiny baby clams and to top it off - chicken feet! LOL We simply could not quite figure out how to eat the crab and Mike tried in vain to figure out how to eat a chicken foot. The little clams were yummy though and the cabbage in it. He did pick some great soup. It tasted very much like chicken soup but there was also some kind of giant vertebrae in there. Maybe pork? Mike showed me the giant vat it came out of. It was huge! They could have stuffed an entire cow or pig in that thing. Which they very well might have! We also got white rice and Carys and Cade enjoyed having rice with the broth from the soup poured over it. I'm sure the warm broth was good for Carys's cold. We also had fun looking at all the things you could choose to eat. Here are some pics.
The restaurant. Just noticed the name. Fitting as Carys's Chinese name is Le Xiang!

Mike's food choices. Can you see the chicken feet?
Fishys
Cade in front of the giant soup urn!!

But hey - he could've picked any of these things:
Eels
Larvae
Weird shell things
Bunch of strange things. Gotta love the restaurants in China!
Cade in front of the food aquariums
Yummy soup and rice
My favorite picture of the day! Cute cute cute!

Well, that's about it for today. We are about to hit the hay. Carys and Mike are already asleep. Tomorrow we go sign more paperwork at the Civil Affairs office. We go in the morning and again in the afternoon. Then we make the 5-6 hour drive to Wenzhou where we will spend one night. Apparently it is up to the individual orphanage in this province as to whether or not you have to go to the child's town to apply for the passport. Carys's is one that makes us go there. Why they choose to make the poor children make that long drive is beyond me but it will be nice to see her town and visit the orphanage while we are there. And to see some of the countryside. We won't get there til 9 or 10 and are not sure if we will have Internet but if we do I will post. The day after we head back to Hangzhou and check back into the same hotel. Insanity. Ah well!! Will update as soon as we can!

4am and awake

2008-12-28T15:54:00.004-05:00

I crashed hard when we got to the hotel and now am wide awake. I've been up since 4am and now it's 5. We need to get up at 7:30am to eat and get ready to go get Carys. Yay! I can not believe we are so close. Poor Carys has been traveling all night by train to get to Hangzhou. And she has no idea of the upheaval that is about to happen in her life. Poor thing. Even though I know it is best in the long run I feel sorry for what she is going to go through trying to figure things out in the next couple days. At least we have adopted before from China and know a little about what to expect. Callie hated us at first and screamed non stop for 5 days. She was on the extreme side of transitioning. I feel like if we all survived that we can make it through this and are better prepared to help Carys through it.

The flights all went ok with the exception of a couple snafus. Our airport at Rochester is NEVER crowded but when we got there yesterday it was a madhouse. It took forever to get through checking in and security. We were some of the last people on the plane but we made it at least. My sister and Quinn were able to fly out at the same time and arrived safely in Memphis. The flight had to have been the bumpiest flight I have ever been on. I am a white knuckle flier as it is. Not fun.

We had a five hour layover in Newark and were able to wind down and eat and walk around for a while. The flight from Newark to Beijing was awesome. We had been prepared to see a couple of movies in flight like last time but the Continental flight we were on had direct tv screens in front of every seat. There were about 300 movies to choose from as well as tv shows and even games to play. It made the 14 hour flight soooooo much better! I spent way too much time watching movies instead of sleeping though. ;)

The biggest snafu was when we got to Beijing. They absolutely would not let us board the flight without THEIR paper tickets. (Hainan Air). Which the travel agent said we didn't need. We had the e-ticket print out and even showed them the receipt from Rochester saying we were checked through. They could even see our reservations on their screen. No go. We had to have the tickets which no one ever sent us. Luckily the agency has sent a guide to help us make our connection or we would have been lost. As it was we had to rebook and repay for the flights. If our travel agent doesn't get one of them refunded I am going to be hugely miffed. The main thing though was that we did indeed make the flight (barely) and arrived in Hangzhou. All that really matters is that we made it here safely and can get our daughter.

We checked into the Lakeview hotel here in Hangzhou. It's nice and clean and the rooms are decent sized. Our guide here is so nice and really a fun person. She chatted us up the whole way. We are just so glad to be here!!!!!

We talked to Quinn and he is have a grand time with my parents and hanging with my sister and his cousin. Callie is actually doing much better than expected. Nana makes lots of food so she is in heaven and having a great time. Feed the girl constantly and she is in heaven! Kyan is sadder than we thought he would be. We talked to him though and told him we were going to buy him some goodies so he perked up.

Guess that is about it. Going to try to catch some Zzz's before we have to get up. Next time I post we will hopefully have Carys in our arms!!!!!!!

Made it to China

2008-12-28T08:25:00.002-05:00

Too tired to post after 26 hours of traveling. Will post more tomorrow. We get Carys at around 9am! (Which would be like 9pm there.) Yay!

And we're off

2008-12-27T04:37:00.000-05:00

so long as the flights cooperate

Packing up! Leaving in the morning!

2008-12-26T19:39:00.004-05:00

Well we are finishing packing up. My sister made it here to escort Quinn back to Memphis(to stay with my folks) but their flight got delayed for four hours which meant the would miss their connection in Detroit so they are here until tomorrow. They get to leave the same time as us so we all get to leave the house together at 4AM! UGH! Ah well. I can hopefully sleep some on that 13 hr flight to Beijing.

I broke my little baby toe and it hurts likes crazy and is all black. Hope it feels better for all that walking we are going to have to do! At least it wasn't my leg or something though!

We will be blogging in China if the internet cooperates. If for some reason we can't post onto blogger (it happens sometimes in China) then we will post to our old travel blog at:

http://www.adoptionjournals.org/visit/pieberry

Journal Identifier: pieberry
Password: callie

We will only use that one if blogger isn't available.

We can't wait to finally meet Carys! I just can not believe we are so close! Please keep us in your prayers for safe travels and on time flights! Also for the safety of Quinn down with my folks and Kyan and Callie here with the in-laws. Especially Callie who is not used to being away from us.

Ready or not Carys here we come!

Merry Christmas Eve!

2008-12-24T19:42:00.002-05:00

Lots of festivities going on in our house. We have opened our gifts to each other and are about to make some chocolate peppermint cookies for Santa. Now if these kids would just go to bed so Santa could come already!

We are also tidying up and getting ready for Nana to come tomorrow night. Only 3 days til we leave for China! Guess we should go ahead and pack! Busy busy busy!

Timeline

2008-12-19T21:38:00.008-05:00

So here's our timeline for Carys:

3/28/08 - first saw Carys on a listing and inquired about her
3/28/08 - learned another family was already proceeding with the adoption
3/31/08 - learned the first family might not be able to proceed
4/13/08 - learned the first family could not proceed - immediately said YES!
4/14/08 - LOI - Letter of Intent sent to China - started home study update process
4/28/08 - PA - pre-approval from China to adopt
5/29/08 - Immigration forms filed (new Hague compliant process)
8/5/08 - FINALLY - Immigration approval (new process sucks)
8/15/08 - DTC (Dossier to China)
8/19/08 - LID (Log in Date for China)
11/13/08 - LOA (Letter of Approval from China)
12/12/08 - TA (Travel Approval)

It looks so simple all written out like that. It doesn't show all the drama. Like that our local agency forgot to request our fingerprint updates from NYS. For 2 weeks. Or that we found out just as we were going to send our application to immigration that new laws had been passed that went into effect 4/1/08. We learned we had to get child abuse clearances from every state we have lived in since we turned 18. For us it was Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alaska. That we had to add a bazillion very specific things to our home study. But the process was so new that NO ONE knew what they were looking for. That instead of filing to our local office and getting our approval in one week like we did with Callie it would take 2 months. But hey - we lucked out! People are now waiting 3-4 months! They do not expedited for waiting children. So there may be hundreds of people filing for children who have not been identified, and who may not even be born yet, in front of you in line. When we started there were six, yes SIX, officers working on applications for the ENTIRE country. For a process that was set up to protect children, and have their best interests in mind, it makes you wonder.....

Or how about when we were first DTC people were getting their LOA's in about 70 days. While we were waiting it shot up to 100+ days. That TA's normally come in 3 weeks but our took 4.

But - that's the way it goes. There were also many blessings along the way. We were LID in a couple days instead of a month later like with Callie and PA came in 2 weeks instead of 6. People visited the orphanage where Carys is and took lots of pictures for us and we were able to find great pictures of her on peoples blogs. We found out a week ago that the orphanage donation fee is going up by $2000 on Jan 1st but if we get out when we are supposed to (please oh please oh please let the winter storms be gone by the time we leave) we are scheduled to get Carys on Dec 29th. (If we were delayed and it was after the first....well....I just won't even think about that right now......)

So anyway - you take the good with the bad in the adoption world. And trust me, I read alot of adoption blogs. We just had a few irritations and delays. Some people have some incredible difficulty in their journeys. And often heartbreak. So I would say our process was not bad at all.

So a little about Carys. We chose the name Carys (pronounced care-iss) because I thought it was pretty and it went well with the other kids names (Quinn, Caden, Kyan,Callie). We chose to use the traditional Welsh spelling. It means "to love". And we do indeed love her very much! Quinn requested to choose her middle name and he chose Avery. What a great job he did. Carys Avery is a beautiful name for a beautiful girl. She will supposedly be 3 in March (a month a half younger than Callie). She was estimated to be a year old when she came to the orphanage. We think she might be a little older. From the measurements we've gotten she is Kyan's size. For comparison we think she will wear 3T clothes. Callie wears 18 months. Although Callie is really little for her age. She is from the Eastern coast of China. She is missing her right hand and forearm just below the elbow and the middle three fingers on her left hand, although it looks like she has part of her index finger. It is said to be congenital. Most likely amniotic banding like Callie. She is said to be quiet and a bit shy (wonder how long that will last with our rowdy bunch) and likes to listen to music. Her orphanage is in a wealthier area. In comparison Callie was from a very poor farming community. There are tons of children with no "special needs", almost all girls, in orphanages in that province. Where Carys is almost all the kids in her orphanage are "special needs". It is less likely in that area for a child to be placed in the orphanage for simply being a girl. Although it certainly happens. Callie's "finding ad" (in China it is illegal to "abandon" a child so they are left in (hopefully) safe places anonymously. The orphanage places an ad in the paper with a picture and the finding location of the child in case a relative wants to step forward to claim the child - rarely happens that anyone comes forward) anyway - Callie's finding ad had row after row after row of babies found in about a months time in the immediate area. Maybe 50+ babies and children. Carys's ad had 8 kids. Because her orphanage has so many special needs kids they have received lots of donations from various causes. It almost looks like a Gymboree play place. The kids are out and about playing and I think Carys go to a little class with the other kids her age. But hey - there are still a ton of kids and only a few "nannies". No matter how many toys an orphanage has it doesn't take the place of a family. Does do my heart good to see her out and about though. Not in a tiny crib like Callie.

OK - I am getting more and more long winded. If you've read this far kudos to you. So as a reward I'll post some of the pics of Carys we've gotten over the last couple months. Can't believe we are supposed to leave in 9 days!!!!!! Whoooo Hoooooo!!!!!

Referral picture - first picture we saw

Another referral pic

The picture that stole my heart. I love that impish look on her face as she tries to swipe that toy from another kid. And her freshly shorn hair sticking up all over. This was the pic that confirmed in my heart that she was the one. Our daughter.

Having a snack

Rockin with some buds (in the blue dress)

Pile up on the slide

Looking sleepy

That's her in the back lying on the floor. Love this pic.

Doing some more lying on the floor. Maybe she will be a good napper.

Photo taken by some very nice people who visited the orphanage. They even mailed me a "drawing" that Carys made!

And my new fave photo taken just about a week and a half ago.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ready to finally hold her in our arms!!!!!!

Travel Dates!!!!

2008-12-17T09:58:00.001-05:00

We leave Dec 27th, get Carys on the 29th, and fly home on the 9th! Here is our itinerary:

12-28, arriving Hangzhou
12-29, meet with your daughter, proceed with adoption registration and notary
12-30, travel to Wenzhou in private car, apply for your daughter's passport
12-31, travel back to Hangzhou
1-1, rest and free activities
1-2, rest and free activities
1-3, rest and free activities
1-4, visiting Western Lake and Liu He Tower
1-5, visiting Ling Yin Temple, receiving your daughter's passport, fly from Hangzhou to Guangzhou
1-6, physical exam, taking pictures for visa application, visiting Walking Street
1-7, apply for visa at 9:00 a.m. visiting Liu Hua Hu Park
1-8, visiting Liu Rong Temple, picking up your daughter's visa in the afternoon.
1-9, leave Guangzhou back to the States

More later!

Christmas pics!

2008-12-12T16:54:00.004-05:00

I took pics for our Christmas cards last night. We also went to see Santa and actually had no criers this time! I'll post that pic later. Here are the young'uns in front of the tree.
Quinny. - I had just woken him up so he looks a little dopey
Cade a posin
Ky the star
Callie the little princess
Carys waiting in China

Introducing Carys

2008-12-11T21:03:00.003-05:00

OK. So I've hinted around but since we are hopefully leaving for China in a few weeks (we were expecting our travel approval last week - oh where oh where is it!!) I thought I'd better actually make an announcement about our new daughter. I'll bore you with all the technical details later. We took the kids to see Santa tonight and took our Christmas card pictures so now I just want to go pass out. But I shall leave you with this. I woke up so extremely discouraged about how long this process has taken us (we've been working on bringing Carys home since April!) but opened my email to find the sweetest thing. A reminder of just why we are doing this and that once she is finally in our arms all the stress and worrying and waiting will have been SO worth it.

Soon sweetheart. We are coming for you soon.

All I want for Christmas....

2008-12-05T10:29:00.003-05:00

is my two front teeth....

Now that winter is upon us...

2008-11-23T09:37:00.002-05:00

...the puppies and kittens come out to play!

Lying on a sunny beach....

2008-11-21T16:54:00.007-05:00

....is what I wish I was doing right now.

Instead this is what we see when we open our front door:
Which means we have to do this anytime we go anywhere:
Times 4.

It takes us forever to get out of the house.

Sunny beach...sunny beach... sunny beach...

What? What did you say?

2008-11-15T10:16:00.003-05:00

So I heard Kyan talking to himself. He has a big imagination and often chats with himself, or his fingers which are little people, or his legos, etc. So I hear him saying "What? What did you say? I can't hear you! What?". I look over at him to find this.
I guess gumdrops can be used for many things....

Gobble Gobble!

2008-11-11T14:53:00.003-05:00

This year Callie started pre-school. Just one day a week for two hours. Having a child with missing digits makes a few things go through your head when they start school. The main thing of course is what other kids may say or do. Being in a two year old class we don't really have to worry about that one yet. Kids that age simply don't notice. Usually it's kids over the age of 4 or 5 who begin to notice. In the event that a child seems curious we keep it simple and matter of fact. Little kids seem to always have the same concern. "Did something bad happen?" and "Does it hurt?" So the couple of times it has come up we just say that was the way she was born but it doesn't hurt her and she can do anything they can do. We hope Callie will see it's no big deal. It is what it is. So far that works great. But like I said, it doesn't really come up yet with kids her own age. In fact, Callie herself has not yet seemed to notice she's missing some fingers.

One thing that went through our heads were the multitude of finger plays. 10 Little Pumpkins, 10 Little Horses, 10...10....10. What happens when you only have four little "pumpkins"? And what about the inevitable hand print turkeys?! Do you say something to the teacher? Do you let it be?

So I asked the people on my yahoo group and the overwhelming consensus matched what Mike and I ourselves were thinking. You let it be. It is what it is.

Now our approach may change as she does. There will be times when we DO need to step in especially if something seems to be bothering her or if she seems to be having trouble dealing with an issue on her own. But for now I talked to Callie's teacher and explained the missing fingers and what we say to kids who are curious. I explained that there is nothing she can't do and please do not give her any more help than any other 2 year old might need. And I left it at that. We would just watch and see how the teacher handled it on her own and how Callie adapted to that. So far the class seems to go along just as it always does. 10 little pumpkins and turkey prints and all.

It probably won't surprise you to know that the finger plays are her favorite part of the class. She gets into them with gusto. And that hand print turkey? I walked into her class to get her the other day to find her grinning from ear to ear proudly showing me her art work. And I have to say, this is the cutest darned turkey I ever did see!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY QUINN!!

2008-11-10T13:40:00.008-05:00

November 10, 1998 at 2:45 in the morning we welcomed our first born child into the world. I thought he was the most beautiful thing I had ever laid eyes on. How is it possible that he is now 10 years old?! It seems like yesterday. I always hated (and still do) when people would come up to you and say "Enjoy it now, it goes by so fast". Like that was something I didn't already know! It's like I just turned around and that wide eyed curly haired toddler was a big 10 year old. One more turn and he'll be all grown. It's a bittersweet thing that's for sure.

We had Quinn's party on Friday. He had his friends Aidan, Zac, and Kali over to help him celebrate. There was lots of jumping on the trampoline and playing of video games. We ate pizza and saw the movie "Madagascar 2". Quinn is our sensitive and emotional child so you never know if his party will be a bit much for him but he had a wonderful time this year and thoroughly enjoyed himself as did the other kids.

Quinn wanted a Super Mario party so I made him a Mario mushroom cake.
Love the bunny ears!Why can't we ever get Callie to keep her clothes on.
Make a wish!
And here are some pics from last years celebration since I never posted them then. He had his friends Arthur and Jeff over and we saw the "Bee Movie". It was a Pokemon party!

Birthdays Part III (September 07 and 08)

2008-11-09T18:47:00.007-05:00

September 7th 2007 and 2008

Cade's 6th and 7th birthdays. Caden is our bundle of energy. He is always on the go, almost always happy, and enthusiastic about almost everything. That makes his parties high energy and lots of fun.

For Cade's 6th birthday he had his friend Jimmy over. We ate at a local burger place and I can't for the life of me remember what movie we saw. I'm sure Mike took them and fell asleep like he always does so he isn't much help. Hmmmm. Ah well.
Arg! It's a pirate party!

For his 7th birthday he had his buddies Mackenzie and Josh over. We saw the movie "Fly Me to the Moon" and ate at Red Robin.
His friends energy level matched his own so it was quite the party!

He wanted a "Webkinz" theme. I have to say I probably like this cake the least of any I've made. The laptop wouldn't work so we had to guess at the colors and Cade had very specific ideas about which colors and where they should go. He also didn't want fondant so I had to pipe all the little icing dots on. The kids loved it however and it tatsed great so I guess that's what matters most!
It's a good thing cade only has a birthday once a year cause his parties wear me out!!

First braids

2008-11-07T18:25:00.003-05:00

Her little braids are so cute I just want to eat her up! Just about two years ago we got update pictures of her in China and they had shaved her head bald! Braids seemed so far away at the time, as did she. Now here she is all snuggly and warm in my arms and with braided piggies to boot!

Birthdays Part II (February 08)

2008-11-06T21:13:00.005-05:00

February 3, 2008

Kyan's birthday is exactly one week after Callie's. He had a wonderful 3rd birthday celebrating with a monkey cake.

He actually had two cakes because his Grandmother and Grandad came to visit and Grandmother can't eat chocolate. No one seemed to mind having two yummy cakes to eat.

Blowing out the candlesSmiley boy
Big brothers like to help with presents

It was a lovely day.

Birthdays Part I (January 08)

2008-11-04T19:40:00.009-05:00

So since I took a break from blogging for a while, and since Quinns birthay is next week so birthdays are on the brain, I thought I would post some pics from the kids last birthays. OK - Mostly I just wanna show off the cakes I made. But I'll include some pics of the kids too. :)

January 27, 2007

Our Callie turned 2! This was a hugely happy moment to be able to share this milestone with our girl as her first birthday looked like this:

We were SO sad that she had to spend her first birthday a world away from us!

What a difference a year makes:

I like cake. And every other food known to man. Food is my life.
I am very serious as I eat my cake. Because food is the center of my universe. I like to eat 8 times a day. And sometimes I even need soup at 3am.
Present opening is also a very serious endeavor.
Hey - this baby kind of looks like me.
And of course the only picture she is smiling in she is holding a big wooden play knife. Hmmmmm....

And of course the cake. One of my favorite ones I've made.
I put the chocolate on the tiny m n' m ladybugs with a tooth pick! Sigh - I loved this cake.

Look for February 2008 tomorrow.

Punkins

2008-11-01T21:25:00.007-05:00

Cade and I went into the Hallmark store the other day and I spotted Hallmark magazine. My first thought was "Who in the world would buy Hallmark magazine?!" But then I noticed the cover and it had some awesome pumpkins on there. When we got out to the car Mike gave me a look like I was nuts for buying the magazine but then he noticed the pumpkins too and he was equally impressed. Actually the magazine was really good. Some cool crafts, recipes, and stories about interesting people. Go figure. Anyway - here is my take on their pumpkins.

Jack Skeleton Head

A pumpkin cottage fit for a mouse(part of the "window" had already fallen off)

And Quinny's pumpkin he carved all by himself!

Of course poor Quinn's was the only one we found splattered in the street the next morning. Those ungrateful teenagers. After we gave out huge handfuls of candy to everyone cause we accidentally bought too much. Hmph! I went out this morning and got rid of the "evidence" before Quinn could see. ;) Actually that reminds me of a funny Mike story. One Halloween we stayed up late watching tv. All of a sudden Mike jumped off the couch and ran out the door. I could hear him yell something and then he came back in laughing. Amazed by his bizarre behavior (although with him bizarre is usually the norm) I asked what was up. Apparently he saw someone on the porch trying to steal our pumpkin. He startled them when he opened the door and they dropped the pumpkin. So Mike snatched it up and ran after them out into the street and with the pumpkin held over his head started yelling "You want a pumpkin! Come back here and I'll give you a pumpkin you punks!" He still cracks up about it. He said it's just the sort of thing that would've happened to him as a teenager and he thought it was so funny to be on the other end of it now. Honestly I think he still is a teenager sometimes! Ahhhh - gotta love him.

Here are the kids scooping punkins. Except for Quinny. I must've been dressing the others kids in their costumes while he was doing his. Oops.

What do YOU grow?

2008-10-30T13:38:00.005-05:00

Mike, Callie, Kyan, and I went to the pumpkin patch with Ky's preschool the other day. The farmers wife did a little talk about how pumpkins grow. She asked the kids "Do you grow anything at home?" To which Kyan jumped up excitedly, pointed at Mike, and shouted "Yes! Daddy grows a beard SEE!!"

What do YOU grow at home?

I'm a Great-Aunt!!

2008-10-29T11:07:00.004-05:00

My first Great-Nephew arrived late last night! Welcome baby Eli! I can't believe the wee one I used to baby sit is now 24, married, and has a wee one of her own. I'm feeling a bit old! A big congrats to Sherri and Shawn! Too bad little Eli will be crawling by the time we get the chance to go down South to visit him. *sniff*

Of course no one down there has managed to send a pic to us yet. Hmph!

Update! Finally a pic! I just want to pinch those chubby cheeks!

Happy Almost Halloween!

2008-10-27T13:05:00.005-05:00

We took the kids to the town Halloween fest so we had a pre-Halloween photo-op. The kids were such a huge hit last year as the Wizard of Oz characters. Alas, they would have no matching outfits this year. The little rebels. I made all the costumes again this year with the exception of Quinn's. I made the coolest costume EVER for him but, being a typical almost 10 year old boy, refused anything that was not his own idea. Hmph! And since he waited until the last minute we had to buy his.

So here is dracula
and Caden as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (he's our strange child...)
and Kyan our parrot (wearing the coolest costume I've made yet )

and Callie, our little flower fairy
and here's the whole gang. (With the exception of Carys who is still waiting for China to tell us we can come get her!)
We also got some great pics of Kyan and Callie at the preschool trip to the pumpkin patch.
And last but not least, our trip to pick out our pumpkins. (Minus Quinn who was "busy".)

HaPPy HaLLoWeeN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yuletide Bliss

2007-12-24T21:53:00.001-05:00

My blogger pal Wade was wanting a pic showing my kids in their yuletide bliss. This about sums it up.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

2007-11-05T08:54:00.000-05:00

The children on the way to Oz. It was down to the wire but I sewed like a mad woman and got the costumes finished. I have to say I am very pleased with how they turned out! They were a huge hit at the town Halloween party and at trick-or-treating. Callie figured out after about the third house that they were giving out free candy and was all over that. She'd shove her way through the big kids and hold out her hand. It was a riot. Here are some more fall pics.

Ky and Cade painting pumkins

The gang. Do you know how hard it is to get a picture with all 4 kids actually looking at you at the same time?

Callie aka Dorothy

The boys

Isn't this the sweetest face ever?

Awwww - this one too!

Is there anything to eat in this pumpkin?

My Dad's New Toy

2007-10-18T18:11:00.000-05:00

My Dad standing with his pride and joy. My nephew-in-law Shawn is in the drivers seat.

Healthy Girl

2007-10-11T08:14:00.000-05:00

I found this pic of Callie we took in China. She was just so tiny. You could see her hip bones and her ribs poking out.
Here she is now, complete with some chubby rolls!

First post-placement visit

2007-10-08T08:56:00.000-05:00

We had our first post-placement visit with our social worker on Thursday. You have to have two for China, one at 6 months and the other at 1 year. Of course Callie has only been home 4.5 months but our agency wants it this month. Maybe to get to China by the 6 month mark? Anyway - it went well and it was nice to see our social worker again. She's really nice. We still have to get some pics together to send with her report.

Thursday was also a special day for another reason. It was one year to the day that we first saw Callie's picture on rainbowkids! We had started the adoption process for Ethiopia (non-special needs) and our social worker had finished our home study that day and faxed it to the agency. It was evening and Mike was at school and I decided to take a peek at rainbowkids. Then I saw her. I read she was missing three fingers on each hand and brushed that aside. She was so very perfect just as she was. My heart started pounding and my hands started sweating. I was shaking. I don't know what it was about her. I'd looked at hundreds of listings before and never felt that way. Maybe it was that little grimace in one of her pictures. She was sitting in a walker and had this look like "eeehhh - why are you putting me in this thing and taking my picture?" My boys had made that face so many times. Maybe it was just because I knew she was our daughter. But we had just finished all that work for Ethiopia. We couldn't just switch. Could we?So I closed my browser. And within the next 15 minutes opened it back up 5 times. So I e-mailed the agency. Someone had probably already asked to move forward with her I thought. Then Mike came home and I showed him her picture. He immediately said "e-mail them." I grinned and said I already did. The next morning we still hadn't heard from the agency so I e-mailed again. And again that afternoon. Our agency is awesome but you have to remember when they do a photo listing they may get dozens of e-mails from people, most of who are "looky-loo's". So I called them. And got a machine. (Turns out they were having a staff meeting.) So I started dialing every extension. I was a woman obsessed. I finally got someone and they gave me the cell of who was in charge of the Waiting Child program. I got in touch with Michelle who would be our fantastic contact at the agency and she e-mailed me Callie's file with her medicals and pictures of her hands. I barely looked at it. There was nothing in there that could have stopped us from moving forward. So I called Michelle back and asked how it works. She was in China - did we even qualify for China? We did. I knew others had her file and didn't know if we would have to wait til she heard from them or what. No she said, it's whoever says they want to move forward first. I practically screamed "We do! We do!!" And so we did. We switched everything to China and the new agency Villa Hope, and our wonderful social worker was so supportive. And the rest is history. Seven months later we met our daughter. Here we are one year after first seeing her with our sweet pea home and doing great!! It still amazes me. Astounds me actually. I get teary just thinking about it.

Here is the link to my original post back in October of 2006. http://pieberry.blogspot.com/2006/10/is-this-really-happening.html

Here are the pictures that stole our hearts.
And our silly girl now.

Surgery details

2007-10-06T18:59:00.000-05:00

Callie is doing great. Much better than I would be doing! Her hand is all bandaged (thank goodness it's not the thumb sucking hand!!) Every once in a while she will bump it and hold it out and kind of whine but other than that she goes on like normal. We won't see it until they unwrap it in about 10 days. We have to wrap a baggie around it when she eats to keep it clean. We had to give her a bath tonight and I taped the baggie on and held her arm up but it still managed to get a little wet so we might have to take her in before then to get it changed if that happens much. So here's the scoop on how it went.

We had to be there at 5:45 am. We don't live near family so my poor friend Mary had to be here at 5:30 to watch the boys who were so excited that she was coming that they were all awake and raring to go when she got here!! (We owe her so big!) We met with Callie's doctor, the anesthesiologist, surgery nurse, and a pediatric PA before the surgery. Everyone was SO nice. They let me go back to the OR with her while they put the mask on her face and stay until she fell asleep (about 30 seconds). I don't know that it actually helped calm her as they made me wear a "bunny suit", a full zip up suit, and it made her MAD! She kept yanking on it and yelling nay nay nay! Then to make it worse they put a cap and mask on me. She was just furious. But I talked soothingly to her over her screams while she breathed the gas in. It was so sad, the mask muffled her screams so it was just this little wail and slowly her screams stopped and her breath started hitching and they sent me out before they put the breathing tube in. It was really hard. She just looked so tiny there. And I hated to leave her. My family is very nervous about anesthesia. It's a long story but the gist of it is that my older brother Brian went in for very minor surgery and due to doctor error (he removed the breathing tube too soon because he was in a hurry to get to the next surgery) and hospital neglect (they ignored his alarms in the recovery room for 10 minutes) he was left in a vegetative state for 16 years. He died the day before Kyan was born. So you can imagine what all was going through my head. We were comforted by the fact that everyone was so nice and that she had her own nurse who would never leave her side. There was never a time when she would be left alone and the anesthesiologist would stay with her until she was awake. They would come get us once she was awake enough.

The surgery took a little over two hours. It was such a relief for them to page us and tell us we could come be with her!! She was screaming her head off and quite out of it. Part of that was because they put the IV in her thumb sucking hand so it was all bandaged. I told the anesthesiologist she sucked that thumb so they could put the line in her foot but I don't think he understood why I was telling him that. She did finally fall asleep though and took about an hour nap. She was much better when she woke up. It was funny though cause you could tell she was doped up and she would look at us and just grin this goofy grin. She was quite tired for the rest of the day but slept well (for her) and has been her cheery self today. We've been keeping her on ibuprofen and that's seems to be all she needs.

It's so nice to have this surgery out of the way. The doctor thinks this will be all she will ever need. Mike and I have talked a lot about how much we want to put her through and the reasons behind our decisions. This surgery was necessary to eliminate the nub that was causing her pain and to improve function in that hand which is why we did it. We've decided that since she is amazing with her hands that this will be the only surgery she has, as at this point there is nothing else to do that would improve function. We aren't going to put her though a surgery just for aesthetic purposes. There is nothing she can't do, in fact her fine motor skills are actually better than some of the other kids her age!! There are two "constriction bands" on her fingers - one on her right thumb and one on her right index finger. It looks like where a too tight ring has been. We will need to watch them as she grows and when she gets into school if she has pain while writing a lot then we would need to have a little work done. However the doctor thinks this will not be something that will need to be done, and by then, it would just be a local anesthesia. So long story short, we are in all likely hood done.

Here are some pics of our little bandaged girl.

Surgery Update

2007-10-05T13:07:00.000-05:00

We are home and Callie did great! I'll post details later.

Randomodium

2007-10-03T20:26:00.000-05:00

Random goings on:

My blog had done something weird so I picked a new template for now.

Mike thinks we might be cursed. A few weeks ago I fell down the stairs (from the top) and bruised my tailbone and threw out my back. Had to go to the ER. Recovered from that and then Callie accidentally hit me in the eye with a DVD disc and made a deep cut in my cornea. Agony. It was really bad. Took a good week to recover from that and it's still a bit blurry in that eye. We had to cancel our planned trip to Hershey PA. Thank goodness we hadn't told the boys we were going! During that time Callie fell and hit her forehead and had to have it glued. Here I was with this huge bandage over my eye and I told mike he was going to have to take her in cause the doc was going to think he was beating us or something. LOL After taking care of the kids by himself so much Mike said he didn't know who was more cursed - me or him! After my Dad called today and told me my teenage nephew cut the tip of his thumb off on the meat cutter at the deli where he works, Mike thinks maybe it's my side of the family. Dad said he did think he dated a gypsy once. ;)

The boys have started school. Quinn is in 4th grade, Caden in 1st, and little Kyan goes once a week to 2-year old preschool. So far they seem to be doing well. The boys are also taking art classes and swim lessons.

Caden turned 6 on September 7th. I can't believe how big he is getting! He's such a sweet funny guy. We have yet to have his friends over for a party. We'll take care of that in the next couple weeks. We did get a store bought cake and went out to eat. Grandmother and BB came to visit. He lost his first two teeth the other day. I hear him yelling "my tooth came out, my tooth came out!" and then he said "It wasn't even the wiggly one!" Whaaaaaaat? He had tried to open something with his teeth and the tooth that was just a teeny bit wiggly popped out! About an hour later I heard him say " my other tooth came out, my other tooth came out!" Thank goodeness it was the wiggly one!

Callie Callie Callie. What can I say? She is just a little ball of spunk. She keeps us rolling with laughter. She is always up to something. She loves music and drawing, jumping and dancing, singing and her dollies. She loves our little dog Zoe and claps her hands to call her and yells Zo Zo. She is picking up words - mama dada baby more baba hot no-no that hi bye. She is starting to be less clingy around the house and she and Kyan are getting along better. She can still get really mad sometimes. Different from a normal toddler. She'll hold her moth open wide and we say "she's going to blow!"She'll turn almost purple before the rage comes pouring out. That's how her head gash happened. Mike had to set her down for a sec and she didn't want to be put down. She threw herself onto the ground and wacked her head on the baseboard. I really think a lot of it is just adjusting still to the loss of everything she had previously known. The toddler way to grieve. Luckily those are happening less and less often and we can usually settle her down pretty quickly. She has otherwise attached very well. She loves to cuddle up and loves hugs and kisses. She will crawl up into our laps and just melt into you. She likes to give kisses. She likes to stand at the door when the boys get on the bus and wave byebye. She squeals and jumps up and down when they come home from school. She is getting bigger. Still quite small for her age but chubbing up and is a bit over 20 lbs now.

If you are the praying type we'd appreciate your prayers on Friday. Callie is having hand surgery. We met with the hand specialist and agreed with his opinions on what needed to be done. Her left hand (missing middle three fingers) is fine as is. The right hand (missing the last three fingers) needs just a little work. There is a nubbin in between where her ring and pinkie fingers would be. There is no bone in it - it's maybe the size of a very large pea. He said it is constricting the nerves there and it needs to come off so she doesn't start to avoid using that hand. He is also going to deepen the webbing a bit between the little bit of fingers she does have so that when she wraps her hands around something she has a better grasp. This will also make her hand more natural looking and be less of something that kids would point out when she gets into school. So - the surgery itself is pretty minor but she does have to go under anesthesia so we are of course anxious about that. I'll keep you posted on how it all goes.

Guess that's about it for now. I'll leave you with a funny comment and some pics!

The other day Mike was in the line at the grocery store and Caden leans over to Kyan (age 2) and says very loudly "Kyan, pull my finger!" :) BOYS!

I don't know why my pics are all out of order but I am too tired to fix them. Here they are.

Yummy!

I like to drive Hold my hand Mommy Cade and Callie

Cadens lost teeth

BooBoo
My shirt says "I do all my own stunts!"
Kyan's first day of school
I like Chinese food

My legs are too short for the peddles!
I'll help you
What kind of engine does this thing have?
Caden learning to ride
First pair of tightsCallie and Ky waiting for the bus to get their brothers

Playing with the big boys gameboys
Happy Birthday Cade!!

Cade and Callie

Apple-pie cookies for the first day of school
Quinnys first day of school
Cade's first day of school
Brothers

What it's all about

2007-08-29T19:12:00.000-05:00

Pics!

2007-07-24T17:28:00.000-05:00

No time to post but here are some Callie pics!

Frederick Douglass?

2007-07-23T16:24:00.001-05:00

Caden is doing a play this summer and he landed the part of Frederick Douglass. Well .... they do seem to have the same hairdoo afterall. Heehee.

Back to blogging!

2007-07-22T20:11:00.000-05:00

Well, I hope to blog more frequently. We'll see if the kids cooperate!

It has been a wild and crazy two months since returning with Callie. I tease Mike that I don't know if it was going from 3 kids to 4 that was hard or going from 3 to Callie! LOL She is a firecracker that's for sure. Explosive personality in a tiny little package! Seriously though - we are just loving her to pieces. I told Mike the other day I can't believe she's only been home for two months. It seems like she's always been with us. She is such a joy. She loves to be held (she's breaking my back!) and she'll walk up to me with her little arms raised and say "MAMA!". Awwww....talk about metling my heart. Sniff! She can also say Dada, no no, uh oh, and thank you. She loves pushing her little dollies around in her stroller and she loves music. She has pretty much stopped biting but she has a temper that will knock your socks off. She has mastered the art of tantrum throwing. Then when she's happy she gives you a smile that makes her look like a little angel. The older boys love her and she's kindof growing on Kyan a litttle bit. She went so quickly from being our "adopted" daughter to just our daughter. We are so in love with her. I still look at her in amazement and think of all the things that God had happen to bring her into our family. Our lives just wouldn't have been complete with out her.

OK - here's what you've been waiting for. New pics of our sweet pea!

Princess Callie
Sweet girl
What a ham!
Baby ballerina

More to come soon!

China Travel Blog!

2007-05-11T22:24:00.000-05:00

You can find our travel blog here: http://www.adoptionjournals.org/visit/pieberry

Journal Identifier: pieberry
Password: callie

We will try to post daily!

Ready to roll !!!!!!

2007-05-11T22:15:00.000-05:00

We are leaving for China in less than 12 hours!! INSANE! It's been a busy two weeks. The boys started TBall, Hedgie came home, our 10 year anniversary was yesterday, Nana and Grandma H flew in, we went to the circus, we kept the boys out of school today for family fun day, and we have had a million and one things to do to get ready!!

We will have our Callie in our arms in just 3 days!! Actually 2 cause we cross the date line. it's already Saturday in China. We meet our beautiful daughter for the first time on Monday May 14th. I can't believe the time is finally here!

Please pray for us during this time. Pray for the boys safe keeping and that they will handle us being gone ok and that Mike and I will come safely home to them. Please pray for Callie as well. Her life is about to be turned upside down and it can be quite traumatic for these little ones at first.

Thanks so much for all the prayers and good thoughts through out these past months. It's what got us through the wait. Please follow our journey in China. I'll post the link to our travel blog next. We've heard blogger can be really iffy in China so we will be using a different blog. Love you all!

A secret surprise!!

2007-05-06T09:30:00.000-05:00

We opened our door this morning to find a present! Someone left an adorable outfit for Callie (which we will take to China by the way) and a book about colors!! It was such a nice surprise!! There was no card so we don't know who to thank. If you are reading this, thoughtful person, we thank you very much from the bottoms of our hearts!! It was a wonderful way to start the day.

Dates!!!!!

2007-04-25T21:05:00.000-05:00

We have dates!!!!! We will leave here the 12th of May, get there the night of the 13th, and have Callie in our arms the 14th!!!! WHOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!! That's just 2.5 weeks!!!!!!! I have to admit that I am going to be missing my boys sorely on Mother's Day. And Callie too of course. We'll just have to celebrate the day before with the boys and the day after with Callie!!!!!

CA confirmed

2007-04-25T10:18:00.000-05:00

Whew!! Finally! Our CA is confirmed for May 23rd. About a week later than we had asked for but we are very happy with it!! We should hopefully hear tonight when we can leave to get Callie. The consulate appointment is one of the last things so about two weeks before that we should be going. Somewhere around the 11-13th I think and maybe get Callie the 13th or 14th? Not sure - will have to wait and see. So that's just about 3 weeks and hopefully we will finally have our baby in our arms!!

More waiting.........

2007-04-24T22:06:00.000-05:00

Ya know what? I am SICK of all the WAITING!!!!!! Seriously, after 6 months I am on the verge of wigging out. We still have not heard when our Consulate Appointment will be. And of course I hear all these rumors on our yahoo board about how backed up they are. I even heard one person say ALL the CA appointments are booked for May. The latest person to post said they got their CA confirmed for the 23rd and that they were booked up solid until that point. I just want to finally KNOW when we can go get our child!!!! And I am bummed other people have gotten their dates confirmed and we are still waiting. Come on already!!!!! I know I should NOT be complaining as I know we are lucky to have our TA and lucky to at least be getting close to getting Callie but my patience has gone out the window. And I want to strangle my husband for his seemingly never ending supply of patience. Why can't he rant and rave and bug out like me? ;)

TRAVEL APPROVAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2007-04-23T18:42:00.000-05:00

Our travel approval came this morning!! Now we just get our Consulate Appointment confirmed and we will have our exact dates of travel! Our agency is asking for a CA of May 17, 18, or 21. I've heard those days are pretty booked though so we may have to take a day or two after that. We are hoping that since we are a single family they will be able to squeeze us in somewhere. (Please please please - the 17th would be PERFECT!!!!) If we get a CA on the 17th or 18th we will probably leave May 6, get there May 7, and hopefully get Callie on May 8. (Just 2 weeks from now!!!!!) If it's the 21st or later the date we leave here will just be pushed back a couple days. So either way we are looking at SOON!!!!!!!! YAAAAAYYYY!!!!! We should hopefully get out CA confirmed in the next couple days. I'll keep you posted!

Waiting waiting waiting

2007-04-20T22:32:00.000-05:00

Still waiting.....

Visas are here!

2007-04-16T08:47:00.000-05:00

Whew - it's good to have our passports back in our hands!! They have the big Chinese visa sticker in them so we are set to go! Yippie! Now if only our travel approval would get here!!

Virtual quilt

2007-04-15T16:04:00.000-05:00

Mike made me a really awesome virtual quilt for Callie's "One Hundred Good Wishes" quilt. It's really cool. Check it out: Wishes for Callie