On May 17th there will be a Northern California get together for the local families that have adopted children from the city of YiYang, in the province of Hunan, in the country of China.
This will be a great event! So if any of you out there have kiddos from YiYang, Hunan, Please send me an email. That is if you would like to come and visit. Then I will send you more info as to the where and time.
YiYangers get together! May 17th! Email me! NOW!
schimoo @ earthlink . net (just clear all of the spaces)
Birthparents. Over the past couple of days Suzanne has been talking about her birthparents. Well not so much talking but saying that she wishes that she lived with her “real parents”. When we heard her say that we quickly let her know that we are her real parents and there is nothing wrong with wanting to know, or find out about, her birthparents. Apparently she has been thinking about the subject for a while. This week at school she shared with her class that she was adopted from China and also shared that she was taking saturday Mandarin classes and counted to ten in Mandarin.
Liz picked her up from after school day care and she told Liz that she shared this information. Liz praised her for doing a great job and then Suzanne started to get a little bit sad. Liz started probing, like any good mother would do! Suzanne then stated that she wished she could be with her “real parents”. Well the discussion then started. They both talked about the good and the bad. The nice and the hard. The fun and the not-so-fun. What Suzanne was trying to say is that she wanted to know her birth family. Well, so would we! Unfortunately, being that China has the one child policy, most likely that will never happen. I am not saying that when she gets older that she can’t search for her birth family, I would love it and support it wholeheartedly. What I am saying is that statistically the chances of finding a Chinese birth family is very slim. There are groups that if your child was in a foster care system in China they can help find the foster family. Suzanne was not one of those children. But we do know that she was at least loved for a little bit before she was left to be found. I don’t really wish to share that part of her story with the entire world so I will not go into that part. Lets say that we know just a little bit of information about her start in the world.
We do know that she is a affectionate, bright, beautiful and thoughtful child. Smart only touches the surface of this little kiddo.
Okay, so I have been waiting to post this until I could find the actual photo. But I can’t find it, so I post the news anyway.
Suzanne’s picture is in the latest Adoptive Families magazine. It is on page 31 with the story titled “Raising Asian Children”. She is the one in the cute pink dress with her legs crossed.
A great photo for sure. For those of you that do not get the magazine I will try to scan and post the front page of the article so all the world can see my beautiful kiddo!
I kind of re-worked the girls’ bathroom. I pulled up the old Linoleum and put down vinyl tiles. We added a shower curtain and new shower curtain rod. We also added new towels and hand towels, etc. Suzanne is now taking showers. It is pretty cool. She gets really excited about getting into the shower and washing her hair and just being a big kid.
Here is Suzanne after finishing her first shower!
I took a video of Liz talking her through the hair washing and body washing etc.
It is really cute listening to her giggles and just plain having fun.
Sydney just wanted to see how this shower thing worked so she sat and watched as Suzanne did the whole shower thing and decided that she didn’t want to take a shower like her big sister.
Of course, all of this was in preparation for the parents new bathroom. We are going to be updating our bathroom. Same tiles as the girls bathroom and changing out the cabinets and counter top!
Wish me luck! (of course I will post before and after pictures!)
Please take a moment to read the story of strong parents that have lost a child.
They have gone through something I hope no one else will ever have to go through, a loss of a child. They have set up a fund to help other parents cope with losing a child.
Here is a link to a Guest Post on Dan’s All That Comes With It blog. It is a post from the parents of little Joseph. Just click on the link, oh and have a box of tissues handy … Just In Case!!
We spent a great day out today.
Started with a quick breakfast and out to drop Liz at the dentist.
The girls and I go to a close by park and have a blast.
We pick up Liz a little while later and go to buy some new stuff for the girls bathroom. The girls get to choose their own shower curtain for their bathroom. They actually picked something really nice and of course pink.
Now we are off to drop sydney at dance class. While Sydney is at dance Suzanne, Liz and I sit at a coffee shop and spend some quality time.
Pick up Sydney, and head home. On the way home the girls BOTH fall asleep and we decide to stop at a home store to look for additions to the girls bathroom.
Finally we arrive home and change for dinner. We have a family tradition to eat chinese food on our Gotcha Days.
Invite close family friend and enjoy each others company and Suzanne gets to open a gift that we purchased in China specifically for Gotcha Day. (Pictures to follow!)
Enjoy this quick video snip from Gotcha Day March 24th, 2003.
Yup! 6 Years. WOW!
Our little girl has been with us for 6 years.
Below is a video of Gotcha Day for Suzanne.
It is so hard to believe that we have been a family for 6 years.
On this day, 6 years ago, we were flying from Beijing to Changsha and getting so nervous. Liz and I really did not tell each other how nervous we were, we just were! Getting to the hotel, unpacking, sitting around and then … in came Suzanne.
Really neat and seemingly so natural. As if flying half way across the world to meet your daughter is natural, at least for us it was natural. It seems like a lifetime ago, and then again it seems like yesterday.
She is a champ.
She is an artist.
She is a scholar.
She is a sister.
She is a sweet person.
She is now becoming a young lady.
She is our daughter!
She is ours!
Happy Gotcha Day Big Peanut, Love you lots!
3/24/02 - 3/24/08
First thanks to those of you that commented on the new header.
Glad all of you like it!
Second, Suzanne has lost yet ANOTHER tooth! We are finally rid of the shark tooth!Yeah! (and yes the Tooth Fairy did visit.)
Third, I am up on Dad Bloggers today. A little post about Sydney asking about her birthparents.
Just goes to show you what little kids can think about during any conversation.
Enjoy.
Just a little light reading for Sydney at bedtime!
