Time passes quickly and now it's time to take the kids back to have their first look at the country they were born in.  We are all a little excited and I'll be updating as we go.  Feel free to leave comments!  xx

A fantastic thing

Is this a fantastic thing?  It might be!!

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Signs

So, I went to the Borders Books and Music that was closing near my house. They didn't have any more books that were interesting to me, but they had these signs. I bought them for $10. I have no idea what I'll do with them, but I think something will come of them.

My Lederhosen coin purse.

This little gem was found in my Grandma Hertha's house when we cleaned it out after she died. My Grandma Hertha had a treasure trove of odd things in her house, and fortunately, I got to keep several little strange items. I'll have one or two more to show. This little coin purse was found full of 1964 quarters. Most of them I still have, some I have given as a gift. The 1964 quarters were the last ones that were mostly silver and they shine up really nicely with a polishing cloth. I don't think they're really very valuable, though. Anyway, here's the lederhosen coin purse: OK, so the video flips the words and you can't see them. On the front it says, "Welcome to Würzburg" then, on the back it says, "Be Happy When the Pants are Full". When you open the fly flap it says, "Well, What did you expect?"

The Marble Ramp Music Maker

I am going to have this lovely item be the first in the series of "Odd things that I Own". I call it the Marble Ramp. It has a great story to it.

Jorg and I were living in China in 1998. We had become very good friends with one of my students, her name is Xiao Yuan. (Say-more or less- Shee-ow You-en), and she invited us to visit her and her family when we were traveling through southern China for Spring Festival (Chinese New Year). She lives in Chong Ching, which is the capital city of Szechuan Province. We were SO excited to visit her and see her home town, and it's a rare occasion to be able to go to someone's house and visit with them in a casual atmosphere.

We were going to be back packing around Yunnan Province after we visited with Xiao Yuan, and as you may know, backpacking for 4 weeks, can be a challenge to pack for. Weight is a huge issue, as is the amount of clothing and the general size of your load. The general rule is, if you don't want to carry it, don't bring it. So- we packed as lightly and as efficiently as we could.

Our visit with Xiao Yuan and her family was fantastic! Xiao Yuan's father is a well known Beijing Opera singer, and is quite famous in the area. He was so happy to sing us some Beijing Opera tunes and is, in general, a lovely man. Her mother was kind and pulled some secret strings so that we could stay in a cheaper hotel than we had originally planned on (which is a great story in itself, maybe another time). We had some amazing food (hot pot with meat, blood pudding, pig ears, mushrooms and vegetables) and were so fortunate to be able to spend the beginning of the new year with this family.

On the occasion of our last dinner together, Xiao Yuan's father wanted to give us a gift, and he pulled this magical object out of a bag. It was fantastic! It was made of plastic, with metallic shiny parts. In the front are clear plastic items, one is a series of 3 plastic harts stuck together, with holes in them that could be used as a pencil holder. There's also a light at the bottom of one of the tubes that makes it glow red. The other clear plastic bear with a red bow on its ear. The little bear also functions as the "on" switch. At the top of the ramps there is a butterfly with colored plastic "gems" that is perched on a spring thingy that makes it wave back and forth. The crowning glory is a golden cupid, with his bow ready to shoot unsuspecting victims. He spins with the music. And the MUSIC is so amazing! It's a beepy rendition of The Lambada. Amazing...just amazing. Have a look at the magic--

I was in LOVE with this little thing. The only problem was--we now had to drag it around Yunnan province for the next 3 weeks! I had to repack some of my things and shift around the load. Then I had to find a cardboard box that was sturdy enough to withstand some shock. This was fairly easy to do. I did treat my bag with great care for the duration of the trip and would pull out the music ramp frequently to check that it was still working. Amazingly it survived. And now, nearly 14 years later, I still cherish this strange little object.

Culture up the ying-yang...

Today we took the kids to a dance class to learn a little Chinese dance. In 40 minutes the teacher ran over the dance moves and then the kids performed the little dance for the parents. It was so stinking cute, I couldn't believe it. I had to be careful to actually watch the kids instead of getting caught up in the video taping process. This was a "friends of FCC" event. There were a bunch of us adoptive parents there. I only talked to a few of the parents.

There was a phenomenon in China that I noticed many, many times. Back in 1990, it was rather uncommon to see back back travelers in China. I had been in China for about 7 months and was eager to talk to "Westerners" and couldn't wait to just talk with other people who were from the states or Europe or whatever. When I would see another Westerner, I would try to make eye contact, a connection talk about something...ANYTHING! If it was a teacher, even better, we could share "war stories". So many times, though, the other Westerner would walk by and not even make eye contact. It was as if they were upset that there was another Westerner in the city ruining their "Asian Experience".
I had a similar feeling from some of the parents at the FCC event today. The feeling of "I'm more Asian than you and I'm the one providing my child with the REAL Chinese experience". Some guy was telling me about how he went and spent 4 days without his adoption group in Guilin and how he skipped going to Beijing. Wow, dude...that was totally daring and different. I wanted to say, "You know, brave dude, I've spent 2 years in China. I've been to places you don't even know exist. Don't brag to me about your Asian experience". But I just smile and nod. Their daughter probably knows how to say, "Ni Hao" and can say "Xie Xie" (pronounced shay-shay). Their so very Chinese and culturally in touch. OK, I'm not being very nice. It's better than nothing. In the end, everyone had a good time, the kids were adorable and I got some cute pictures. Sometimes this journey takes me to strange places.

And now they are 5...

Laina turned 5 in December. Min turned 5 in January. They are both so very pleased to be 5 years old. They learned how to ride bikes last month. Min learned how first, and Laina learned a week or so after. They both are learning their alphabet letters and like to practice writing their names. They go to Tiny Tots two times a week for 3 hours at a time. They're really looking forward to going to Kindergarten. Getting into the mind of a 5 year old is a challenge at times, but they're really interesting little kids that I get the amazing chance to parent. Oh yeah, and they're the cutest things ever!

It's been awhile!

Yeah, so it's been a while since I've blogged, and I miss having something to go back and look at. Let's catch up---

Last summer: bought a house in California. It's a rather ugly house, but we're working on it. Take a look:
Here's the living room before we started working on it



Here it is now that we had the fireplace re-faced, the fireplace surround re-faced, and the floor put in:



Check out the awesome kitchen:


We're going to have to live with it for a little while. In the mean time, I've re-grouted all the counter tops because the counter tops were disgusting. The grout was all rotted out and there was slimy gross junk deep in the cracks. So at least the kitchen is clean.

Here's the glorious powder room with a fantastic plastic gold tone mirror. Fan-frickin'-tabulous. Honestly, people paid good money for this look.





Here's the powder room after I got done with it. I still haven't added in the cabinet knobs or the mirror or the towel holder. I'm using the cabinets for linen storage, since there isn't a linen closet in the house. The room also houses the laundry/dryer.



Check out the dining room. Note the fantastic wallpaper on the ceiling and walls. There's are special accents such as the gold tone crown molding and the candle looking chandelier with grapes all around. Yes, it's lovely.




So, since we couldn't stand to have such a lovely room in our house, we stripped the wall paper and painted, put strand woven bamboo flooring down (that dark blue carpet was just too fancy for our taste...) and we're still picking out the perfect lighting fixture.

So the house is one thing that's been occupying the time.

I'll blog again tomorrow--I have so much to blog about!!

Bad Bloggy Momma

Yeah, so I haven't updated in a while...sorry...

We've been a bit busy. We're moving. Not far from here, but to a "new " house. We bought a house in the hills and moving day is 2 days away right now. Our house is a "cosmetic fixer" which means it looks a all sorts of bad inside. The yard is huge and the house is big and we're all happy with it.

Since the last post, we've been to San Diego, Universal Studios, here and there and have had bunches of stuff going on. So--how about a picture or two?

Here are the girls at Universal Studios meeting a doggy friend at the "Animal Actors" show.



Here's Min with Laina in the background at the beach in San Diego. It's funny to think that just a year ago, Min HATED the beach with a fierce passion. Now, she loves it.



Laina went to Lego Land with Daddy. I stayed at home with Min. Here's Laina on a ride:


Next time: our new house...

The wait of a Lifetime...

Look at this Picture. It was taken on March 15th, 2006. Laina had been home for 6 months and we still lived in Portland, Oregon. Laina was 15 months old. Since then we've moved. We've traveled back to Portland several times. Friends have gotten married and had babies. We've added Min into our family. I'm starting to think about the girls starting Kindergarten in the year 2010. I'm starting to think about starting back to work when the girls are in school. Our lives are quickly moving forward and things are looking bright.

There are a group of people that we have something in common with that have had their dreams and plans put on hold since the date that this picture was taken. On March 15th, there are at LEAST 25 families that had their dossier logged into the Center for Adoption Affairs in China. We know that 25 people reported to the Rumor Queen that they have their Log In Date on March 15th, and more people haven't reported. Right now, China has given referrals of babies and children to the people who have logged in their paperwork up to March 6th, 2006. They turned in their paperwork just one year and 2 months after we turned in our paperwork for Laina and they're having to wait for 3 YEARS or more before they can see their child's face. We waited for 6 months. The slowdown is just so long. Many families are going to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel before too long, though. At least 83 families are going to be getting their referral at the beginning of April. I hope that more than that will be processed.

How did we get Min home so quick? She was a special case called "waiting child". We had identified her off of our our agency's "waiting child" list. We filed our paperwork specifically for her, and because of that the process moves much faster. Even so, it was a year in process, including gathering all of our dossier documents.

One of my secret joys is seeing the faces of the babies that are matched with new parents and watching the families go and get their new babies. It's a fantastic journey that I love to watch from afar. Check out this page and watch the babies come home. There should be a new group of babies matched to their parents coming in the beginning of April.

So...all 2 or 3 of my blog readers that are waiting for your babies, my thoughts are with you, and I'm also counting the days/months/years along with you.