The Story of Us

First Haircut

2008-06-21T13:02:00.003-04:00

After 21 months, we finally did it. Zoe had her first haircut today. We could not have been prouder, she didn't cry at all. She bravely sat on the chair all by herself and let the man at Cartoon Cuts cut her hair. We got a nice certificate and a lock of her hair as a keepsake. After the haircut she had her favorite mall pretzel, a trip around the carosel (liked it at first then wanted off), and got to play at the little tot playground. She's now fast asleep! Eric is going to take her to the pool later today while I get more packing done. Can't believe we close on the house in a week. They dug the hole for the new house and will be pouring the foundation soon. We're so glad they got started before we moved into the apartment! With a little luck, and a little drought this summer, we may be in by Halloween.

T-shirt

2008-06-09T20:39:00.001-04:00

I'm buying this t-shirt for Zoe from beautifulfutures.com because I think it's ironical :)

When we had you, we had everything....

2008-06-03T14:41:00.002-04:00

I can not believe it's been a year since we first held Zoe in our arms. I remember that day so clearly.... all the fear, all the stress, all the excitment, all the bewilderment that we had flown more than half way around the world to create our family, and mostly all the joy. What a year it has been. Zoe went from being a very quiet little 9 month old, to a very active 21 month old who we call our Ambassador of Good Will for all the smiles, hellos, and blown kisses she gives to everyone. (Of course she's also getting a little closer to two now and is becoming a little more bossy. Yesterday she told me to "sit down mommy." I was thrilled with the three word phrase, less thrilled with the attitude :) ) Zoe also went from being unable to sit up, to running, hopping, and climbing stairs. The transformation has been amazing and everything we had been told about the resiliency of the babies has proven to be true. Our little girl is so strong. She had gone through more in her first nine months than most adults I know. She is my hero.

I've learned so much this year, and I know Eric has too. Although I've worked with kids since I was one, being a parent and having the 24/7 responsibilities is only something you can understand when you are doing it. Even know I tell the parents I work with that it is so much easier for me to tell them how to parent than it is for me to actually do it. There are so many things that I never thought I would do, that I do. A year and a day ago I never would have thought I would co-sleep with my child....or that I would love it. I also never knew I had the capacity to worry to much, to hurt so much when I can't console her, or to love so much. Don't get me wrong, I love Eric so very much. But the love I feel for this child is (as I write and cross out many words) indescribable, as is the gratefulness I feel to her birth parents and country.

This year certainly hasn't been without it's share of ups and downs. A good friend of mine, the father of four, told me when I got married to wait to have children. He said that being a parent is hard and if you don't take the time just to establish your marriage first, you won't be able to tell if it's the marriage, or the parenting, that is hard. Boy, he was right on the mark. There are times when we are scared, or tired, or stressed that we have been less than nice to each other. But we can always look back on those 3 years (seems short I know) of marriage and 6 years of togetherness and remember that we got along really well then..so it's just the tiredness/stress talking. What my friend also should have said is to make sure you really, really love your spouse because there will be days on this parenting journey where you won't like each other very well, if at all...but you'll still have that love. Thank God for that.

This year has been an amazing journey and we're looking forward to so many more with Zoe. I know Eric and I both feel so incredibly blessed to have her in our lives. We must have done something right to have been given the incredible opportunity to be Zoe's parents.

Memorial Day Weekend

2008-05-28T20:33:00.002-04:00

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. On Saturday we went to Maryland to visit with friends and their family. Zoe loved playing with her little friend who so generously shared all her toys! We had great food and great company. On Sunday we went to another friend's BBQ and then off to Eric's parents house for more yummy food. The weather on Monday was perfect for our first trip to our pool. We only have a month to enjoy it this year because of the move. One really nice thing about this pool is all the water features which Zoe really liked. The pool in the new development is alot smaller...but we're just happy that it's up and running being that development has stalled. We're heading to Illinois for my Nana's memorial service on Friday. Hopefully Zoe will be on her best behavior!

First New Home Photo :)

2008-05-20T15:47:00.004-04:00

We put the sold sign on our lot last night and the sales manager took this picture. Tomorrow we go to the design studio to pick out the interior options for the house. Hopefully we'll be in the house in September/October. I'm such a nervous Nelly that I'm going to worry about our townhouse closing until all papers have been signed on June 30th! Anyway, in this picture you can see the tree preserve in the neighborhood. We also have a small tree preserve right across the street so our view will be of the trees. There are also 3 ponds in the development and when we were there last week two Canadian geese waddled down the road. Zoe's eyes got all big and she started towards them. We hope she enjoys living there!

House Under Contract!

2008-05-08T14:03:00.002-04:00

Our townhome went under contract in 4 days. The new owners are going to give us until June 30th to move. We're going to have to move to an apartment for a few months while the house is being built, but if you've got to do it then the summer is the time to do so! Fingers crossed that everything will go as planned and we will actually close on the townhome at the end of June. If all goes as planned we will be moving here (follow link) : http://www.greenemillpreserve.com/

Our builder is Stanley Martin and the home is the Ballou. (The website is a bit outdated, home prices have fallen A LOT).

I think I'm running out of blogging steam. We have our one year anniversary with Zoe coming up on June 3rd. I think that may be it for the blog.

Pigtails!

2008-04-24T20:29:00.002-04:00

Pigtails! The little stinker still won't let me do her hair but she giggles when Miss Amy or Ms. Astoria (her teachers) do it so I gave them a bunch of hair ties and she's been coming home in pigtails. Since she still hasn't had a haircut, she's got plenty of hair for them!

I've lost the blogging bug as of late but a quick update on Zoe...she's doing great! She learns new words every day, is using verbs and some two word phrases, counts to 3 clearly and 4 and 5 are emerging, has her color words (but is still working on matching the word to the color..seems to know green and blue more than others), says her teacher's name, does the body motions to numerous songs, loves completing Melissa and Doug puzzles, knows and can say circle and star and can pick out a square, and just gets taller every day :) Still trying to put weight on her. She eats well but will probably continue to track on the lower end of the weight chart. She's a 18-24 month on top due to her height, but bottoms are 12-18 month and she could probably still wear 6-12 if they weren't so short. Most importantly, and in writing this I'm jinxing it, we've all been sleeping through the night for a while now :) I think she's growing again right now though so that may change. We're looking so forward to seeing all the family out in Illinois in few weeks and can't wait for everyone to meet Zoe! Oh, and our house is back on the market as of tomorrow...wish us luck this time around!

My Excellent News

2008-04-16T14:05:00.002-04:00

No pictures....sorry family....however, I have great news to share. After 9 years of harrassing my boss, I'm finally going to get a 10.5 month contract. So, no more snow days, all the teacher holidays, and only 11 extra working days in the summer. I'm so excited. It's a paycut, of course, but instead of dropping my university teaching like I planned to I'm going to continue with at least the highest paying course to make up the salary difference. 5 weeks off in the summer. I can hardly wait!!!

I can't believe it's been a year

2008-04-09T12:45:00.004-04:00

I can't believe it's been a year since we first saw our daughter's face. At this time last year I had just received the e-mail from our agency telling me that they had our referral. I knew they would call around 3pm so I headed to lunch with a friend of mine who helped keep me calm until it was time to go home for the call. I remember vividly my friend Melanie calling to congratulate me on our daughter. Since I hadn't gotten the phone call yet I told her that we weren't sure it was a girl. I can still here her say "They're all girls!" Apparently she had received an e-mail from our agency saying that all of the referrals were for girls. At that moment I didn't care about anything else, I was so happy to have a daughter. Eric and I would have loved a son with all our hearts, but we were really hoping for a daughter for our first child. Melanie let me go so I could get the call from the agency and with paper and pen ready I took the call. While I had all intentions of writing all the information down, I think I wrote maybe her Chinese name and birthdate. The agency sent our baby's pictures to my e-mail and in the longest 5 minutes of my life I waited for Eric to get home before I opened them so we could see her face for the first time together. Our Zoe. Then the shopping began..and really has yet to end! Every day I'm overwhelmed with the gift China gave to us. She could not be more loved and we could not be happier.

Happy Easter (more pictures)

2008-03-22T14:48:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter!

18 Month Pictures

2008-03-21T20:30:00.003-04:00

As if there was any doubt she was my daughter...you can put a dress on her if you'd like, but the real smiling came when she held the baseball :)

Strawberry cutie

We took Zoe for her 18 month pictures today. She was a bit wary of the process and the photographer this time had less patience than the one we had at her 12 month pictures...plus, they were really busy today taking Easter pictures. We were able to get a few we really liked. The baseball one is my favorite. Eric and I have been on Spring Break this week. What a difference a year makes. Last year on break we were miserable because we thought we would have had Zoe's referral by then. However, we were very well rested. This year we are having a ball with our amazing daughter..but we're exhausted. Zoe's decided that 5:45am is just a perfect time to be waking up. It's a bit early..and a bit dark! Her smiles and hugs make it all worth while and I do have the most amazing husband who knows I need a lot more sleep than he does to be a happy person so he's been letting me sleep in. There are no words to describe how much I appreciate that man.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2008-03-17T20:26:00.002-04:00

Wishing everyone a lucky day!

Father and Daughter

2008-03-17T10:25:00.001-04:00

I just love this picture. My brother recently gave me the pictures he took at Zoe's baptism/first Christmas home. I think this is the best one. Warms my heart.

Nana

2008-03-12T21:10:00.002-04:00

Four generation picture from Zoe's baptism

My wonderful Nana

My Nana passed away last Thursday. She was 94 years old. If it hadn't been for a fall out of bed and subsequent complications at the hospital, she probably would have lived to be 100. I was incredibly lucky to have such a elegant, classy, loving woman as my grandmother for 34 years. I'm even happier that we were able to take the 4 generation picture that is posted above. In recent years my Nana started to suffer from some dementia, and although I doubt she knew Zoe was her great granddaughter, she enjoyed watching Zoe toddling around. My hope is that she's now with my grandfather again, a truly amazing man. My grandparents were exactly what you would want grandparents to be. I attended college a few hours from their home in a small town in Illinois. Some of my favorite memories are going to their house to visit and catch up on sleep. I always left well rested, well fed, and with more than enough gas money in my pocket :) Until my grandfather died during the second semester of my sophomore year they also made frequent trips to campus to take me to lunch. I always invited them to stay longer but they didn't want to interfere with my life. A 4 hour round trip just for lunch. Memories I will have forever. Memories I will be able to share with Zoe someday about how people are supposed to be.

9 Months Together- Half her life

2008-03-03T20:22:00.003-05:00

Then.......

Now...

Zoe is 18 months old today and it's been 9 months since we first met her. As of today she's spent half of her life with us and from here on out she will spend more time in America and then did in China. I have conflicting emotions about that. On one hand, the past 9 months have been the happiest of my life. Eric and I marvel everyday that we were given the amazing opportunity to be Zoe's parents. She is such a joy. On the other hand I'm sad for the circumstances that made it impossible for Zoe to be raised in China. I read the blogs of adults who were adopted from other Asian countries and sometimes there is such anger in them about having been taken from their birth country and raised by Caucasian parents, often in places with few other Asian people. I hope that Zoe will grow up happy and secure in our family. I hope she knows that everyone in her life is just doing the best they know how to do..from the orphanage where she spent the first 9 months of her life, to Eric and I. I was reading a book to Zoe the other day and it's a nice poem about adoption with pictures of both a Chinese mother and a Caucasian one as well as a little Asian girl. Zoe pointed to the Caucasian woman and said, "MaMa." I know she's too young to understand, but I made sure to point out that the other lady was the little girl's China mommy and she also loved the little girl. Adoption isn't a one time decision, it's a life style..one that is often full of trial and error.

Zoe continues to do really well. She's adding new words daily and today said a funny two word phrase...she said "bye-bye dog" while she closed the door on Herman's nose. From the pictures above you can see she still loves her dog, but sometimes he's just in the way. I think she's mad at him for eating two of her crayons yesterday and causing her parents to spend $60 on a 30 second phone consultation with Animal Poison Control. Oh wait, I'm projecting my feelings on to her :)

More Pictures

2008-02-20T20:41:00.002-05:00

Enjoying spaghetti

Being coy

Future jockey?

Zoe and her alligator

The Itsy Bitsy Spider.......

We had a great long weekend! We went to our friends' Melanie and David's house for a Chinese New Year party. It was so wonderful to see the friends we've made on our amazing adoption adventure and to see how lovely all of the girls are! The last time we saw them Zoe was barely crawling and it was so nice to see her able to interact (albeit through toy stealing) with the other girls.

On Sunday Eric and I left Zoe with her grandparents and had a really nice date day. While I missed Zoe like crazy during the day, it was really nice to be able to reconnect with Eric. The weather on Monday was amazing and Zoe and I went to Arlington to meet up with my best friend from high school and her adorable sons. We went to a really fun park and Zoe loved running around. It had been too long since we'd seen them so it was nice to catch up. Today brought snow and cold weather with the change of more bad weather on Friday. With that, of course, comes colds and both Zoe and I are fighting one now....which seems to be par for the course of this crazy weather winter! Bring on the spring.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T17:52:00.003-05:00

Zoe got a balloon (ba-oon in Zoe speak) for Valentine's Day.

Doing her favorite sign "More". As in, I want more of the chips that are in the cupboard that I just opened :)

Hey Big Kids...out of my way!

Loving the slide at the mall!

Xin nian kuai le!

2008-02-07T10:17:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!

February Already? 17 months old

2008-02-03T14:57:00.001-05:00

Brushing my teeth before school (she's a little obsessed with teeth brushing lately)

I have a paper towel roll..........

And I'm not afraid to use it...Attack!!!

Aren't I funny?

Zoe is 17 months old today and has now been a part of our family for 8 months. The time sure has flown. She is absolutely loving her new daycare to the point that she swishes Eric and I away when we come to pick her up. We have her in a Chinese language play/learning class on Saturdays which has been fun. Not sure she's getting much out of it, but we're happy she's able to hear her native language for at least an hour a week. We found out about the class from another adoptive family whose daughter is less than a week older than Zoe and we're grateful they didn't mind us crashing their party :) Zoe discovered the wonders of the toddler playground at the mall today. Our usually shy little girl was fearless wandering away from us and trying to climb up the slide. She didn't even seem to mind the "big kids" who kept crashing into her (now where were their parents?) Eric is a little bummed that tonight's big game won't be featuring the Colts again...but we're going to be rooting for the other Manning brother tonight. Go Giants! (yes, I know, they're going to get killed)

You've all probably read about the snow crisis going on in China right now. Some of the orphanages are in pretty dire circumstances. We're always thinking about the babies in China that don't yet have families and if you can help them out then visit www.halfthesky.com They are raising money to help assist the orphanages during this time (and always) through their Little Mouse Emergency Fund. Thanks!

2008-01-27T15:17:00.000-05:00

Practice.........

Makes Perfect! (notice glob of applesauce on chin)

When I grow up I want to be a teacher like daddy.

Little Miss Sunshine

2008-01-21T20:21:00.000-05:00

2008-01-17T20:50:00.000-05:00

This is "Ma Ball" (how Zoe says "My Ball".) The Dora soccer ball is the only ball that gets the (what seems to be ) possessive in front of it. Yes, she'll be a soccer player yet!

Rolling the ball with daddy

Having fun on the couch

Zoe started her new daycare on Monday. Thus far, it's been worth the 2 year wait. The first day she got down right away and started playing with all the toys and didn't even look up when I said goodbye. The second day she realized I was going to go though and she started crying, which broke my heart. Her teachers say she's such a sweet and easy going girl (of course) who has a lot of fun. She's eating and sleeping well and they are doing all sorts of fun activities. The first day she learned about the letter "O" and colored and octopus. Her last daycare was fine and the teachers were sweet and well meaning, but there was very little structure and very few manipulatives. This has been a wonderful change and hopefully she'll stay with the church program through kindergarten.

Today we had a snowstorm that was very pretty to look at, if not a bit hazardess to drive in. Zoe and I got to watch the snow through the window while Eric had to stay at work, but since both of us are sick we didn't get to get out and play. Zoe actually still isn't a fan of the cold stuff :) That's okay, I'm ready for spring too!

Happy New Year!

2008-01-07T20:04:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year! Hard to believe it's already 2008. January will bring a change for Zoe as she starts her new daycare at the church on the 14th. I know we'll have some setbacks, probably with sleeping, but hopefully they will pass quickly. After battling RSV, Zoe has another cold after getting the flu shot. Again, I'm not a conspiracy theorist when it comes to vaccinantions, but even I got sick after the flu shot. In fact, I got more sick after the shot than I ever have from the flu. Zoe had another doctor appointment and it seems she grew an inch from the beginning of December to January. Her head circumference is now in the 25% so that continues to improve too. Her weight has stabilized some now that she's off formula. She's not so sure she likes milk, but still loves her drinkable yogurt. She's really into stacking blocks now, her record is 6 and tries for 7 but it teeters over :) She also loves inset puzzles, and as always her books. If she has a word (ball, balloon, duck, bubble, etc) she'll point to a picture in a book and label it. Now that her motor skills are well developed, Zoe's language is vastly improving.

In another note, is the writer's strike totally irritating anyone else? I get their issues, but I need my Grey's Anatomy! Call it therapy. Women's Murder Club and Cashmire Mafia may make for good replacements though :)

Loves to play on the stairs (supervised of course)

Sitting in the big person chair

Really loves to push her dolly in the stroller.

Christmas Pictures

2007-12-27T20:47:00.000-05:00

This is actually from Thanksgiving but an activity Zoe continued to demand from my brother at Christmas...blowing bubbles!

Eric, Zoe, and Santa at the daycare photo day. Her second visit with Santa and she wouldn't sit on his lap without daddy being there.

Finally getting to read his daughter, "The Night Before Christmas". My father used to read this story to me on this same couch when I was little. I was very choked up taking these pictures, and sorry again my dad didn't get to meet Zoe.

In her Santa hoody Christmas morning. Herman's stuffed airplane in the background :)

Elf Sized and playing with new toys at my mom's house.

I don't have a picture of this but Zoe proved herself to be a true Hockensmith this weekend. Eric and I had taught her to do the "touchdown" gesture for the college football season so it shouldn't have surprised us that our daughter, who only has about 15 words, watched a football game on the 23rd and again yesterday, listened to the commentators during a score, put her arms above her head and said, "Tutdown!".

Baptism and Belated Merry Christmas

2007-12-27T20:22:00.000-05:00

Zoe was baptized on December 22nd at my mom's house by the Reverend who married Eric and I in 2004. She was a trooper and did really well during the service, even when the water was put on her head :) My brother took more pictures during the day and I will hopefully get a disc from him soon so I can upload them.

Merry Belated Christmas! I do have some very cute pictures of Zoe in her "Elf Sized" t-shirt but I can't find the cable to hook the camera to the computer at the moment. I hope your Christmas was as nice as ours. From the baptism to Christmas evening it felt like we were constantly on the go, but it was so nice to see and catch up with family. This Christmas is especially special as it was Zoe's first Christmas at home. She sure was spoiled. My brother and sister-in-law had gotten her so many toys that Eric and I had to hold off giving her some of the ones we bought her :) More importantly, Zoe had a ton of fun playing with everyone and showing off her dance moves. If possible, she gets cuter and more fun every day. More pictures later! Hope everyone has a very Happy New Year.

A Few of My Favorite Things

2007-12-17T13:21:00.000-05:00

In the spirit of Oprah, I'm always trolling blogs looking for cool things so I thought I'd share what I enjoy as well.

If you are as obsessed with hairbows as I am, you need to check out Charlotte's Bows. http://www.charlottesbows.com/ The bows are dainty (not ginormous like some in stores), stay in Zoe's fine hair, come in a great variety, and are shipped quickly. We have a ton and keep going back for more. They also make great gifts if you know someone who is expecting a little girl.

Praise baby: http://www.praisebabycollection.com/ I've posted before that we're not terribly religious but these videos are amazing. Zoe is not a fan of Baby Einstein but she will sit quietly for the entire 30 minutes these videos are on. She had to start nebulizer treatments this week for bronchiolitis and watching these videos is the only thing that calms her with the mask on her face. I highly recommend, ended up being our best shower gift. Also great for restless late nights.

My Coach diaper bag. Okay, it's a big expense. I'm not even going to link to it BUT how many diaper bags can go from an outing with your baby to meetings with other professionals. It's both my work and diaper bag and I unapologetically love it. And Shawn and Karen, don't even think of posting "I can't believe you..." :)

Things without pictures:

Doodle Doo Designs: http://www.doodledoodesigns.com/ The best shirt I ever got Zoe was the Fantasy football one. Love it!
Hormel foods- They make a great potroast, turkey dinner, meatloaf, ect. Zoe loves them and actually eats meat this way. It's great for nights that we're eating something different from her. 4 minutes in the microwave and done.
Our Maclaren Triumph Charcoal/Pink stroller~ It's pink, I waited forever for a daughter, and as a bonus she actually rides in it without screaming.
Gymboree and Janie and Jack~ I have a shopping problem. See above: I waited forever for a daughter

While I love to shop, is there anything better than giving? Not only does it help others and make you feel good, but it provides a much needed tax break. Two of the charities we support are below. Whoever you decide to donate to, find something that matters to you and do your research. Websites such as http://www.charitynavigator.org/ can help you learn where your money is going.

One of the defining events of my life was losing my sister to cancer when I was 10. We were lucky to live near NIH which also provided outstanding experimental care, but other families traveled from all over the US. Now that I'm a parent, I can't even imagine how my mom and dad went on breathing after Kathy died. St. Jude's is a research hospital that provides treatment to those who can't afford it. http://www.stjude.com/

Obviously the orphans left behind in China are a concern for us. Zoe spent the first 9 months of her life in an orphanage and came to us probably 3 months delayed. Through their Baby Sisters Infant Nuture program, Half the Sky employs, trains and supervises local women to work as full-time nannies, providing orphaned babies the stimulation, bonding and affection that are essential to a healthy start. Children who have benefited from the Half the Sky programs are usually on target developmentally. http://www.halfthesky.com/ For relatively little money you can sponser a child for a year.

Happy Holidays!!

A Few Pictures

2007-12-09T14:39:00.001-05:00

Last Sunday we got together with our local adoption group friends for a holiday celebration. We're finally all home with our girls!

Zoe's first Virginia snow. We're not sure if it snowed in Jiangxi or not, but she's not so crazy about the stuff. We took her outside at 6am (brrr) so we could both experience the moment with her.

Not a great picture, but Zoe is in love with the little chair from Pottery Barn Kids I got her (yes, another X-mas present given early). She feels very adult in it :)

Quick "Phew" post

2007-12-01T14:48:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post to update on two issues that I've been worried about....1) Zoe had her 15 month appointment today and she's finally on the curve (5th percentile) for head circumference. She's 10-25% for weight and 25-50% for height. The weight and head were the ones we were most worried about since our first appointment home from China when the doctor said Zoe was microcephalic (which can cause mental retardation). So HA HA bad poorly informed doctor. Actually when were were in Guangzhou the doctor measured her head and then did it again and asked, "How old is she?" I should have known then about the effects of the malnutrition....but we're good now!

Second, and probably more important since we've known Zoe is developing well.....she's learned to come down stairs safely on her bottom. While I hope she never does it on her own while she's still so little, at least we can relax a little bit. She's so cute...she drops to her bottom like 3 feet from the top of the stairs and then "scootches" (a new vocab word for her :) ) to the top and then comes down. The stairs in the townhome have been my greatest worry so I'm so proud of her. This house is impossible to gate.

Pictures from Thanksgiving Weekend

2007-11-28T20:42:00.001-05:00

I met my uncle Kevin and he and my Aunt Barbara brought me this really cool pedal car. I'm too little to pedal, but I love going for rides!
My first Thanksgiving dinner. I love spiced peaches.

My winter hat. Did I mention I hate hats?

One of my Christmas presents. See post below. My mommy has no impulse control.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

2007-11-21T08:44:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I bet you can guess what we're most thankful for this year.

Really Cool Toy

2007-11-15T15:46:00.001-05:00

I'm so excited about this really cool toy I just bought Zoe for Christmas. It's a giant hugable dinasour that also has 60 different colored balls in it and acts like a ball pit when it is unzipped. I imagine we're going to have 60 different colored balls floating around the basement....but still, it's really cute :)

This has been a crazy week. On Monday Zoe woke up and couldn't put weight on her left leg. She kept falling so I took her to the peditrician thinking they would just tell me that she pulled a muscle. Nope, off to the hospital we went for X-rays and bloodwork with both mom and baby in tears. Zoe, wisely, is not a fan of bloodwork and the tech was not terribly good at finding her vein. It broke my heart to have to hold her down. Then off to X-rays we went where again we had to restrain her so they could get a picture of her hips. I guess there is a common hip infection that kids can get that causes a sudden limp. As it turns out she is fine. We think she may have slept on it funny because for the next couple of days she limped after naps and waking. I was also really stressed because I had work that was due on Monday and I had no choice but to go to the office and get it done. Working mom guilt. I'm so thankful that my mom and Ed were able to come over last minute and watch Zoe for me. I obviously didn't want to take her to daycare if she were in pain.

Thanksgiving is finally upon us. Us 12-month employees really look forward to this 5 day weekend (they give us Wednesday off too). Eric and I are going to take Zoe to daycare on Wednesday and have a date day. We're planning on going to a movie together for the first time since we brought Zoe home. I'm looking so forward to spending the 5 days with Zoe (and for my brother to finally meet her!), but I've missed the one on one time with Eric and can't wait for that as well.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

A little update

2007-11-07T13:21:00.000-05:00

In her sock monkey Nick and Nora PJ's.....this picture doesn't do it justice

Zoe and Daddy were disappointed with the Colts performance on Sunday. (Thanks for the jersey Shawn and Karen!)

It's getting harder and harder to take pictures of Zoe since she loves the camera so much that when she sees it she comes running (yes, we're running now...and still falling) over so quickly I can't get the picture taken without it just being a gigantic one of her head. Her pictures now need to be snapped without her knowing it's coming :)

I found these Nick and Nora Sock Monkey pjs at Target....oh my they are so cute. I need to go back and get a few more pairs. I had no idea they made these for little ones. This week has been a good one. Zoe enjoyed trick or treating at a couple of the neighbors house. My mom and Ed came over for Halloween night and Zoe loved the attention and showing off her bumblebee costume. I think, if our scale is correct, that Zoe has finally topped the 20 pound mark and we can finally turn her carseat to forward facing. She's getting so tall that she's a bit scrunched being backwards. I still think it's the safer way to travel though. Oh, got some interesting info from Zoe's daycare. As it turns out, she self feeds her bottle there and has been doing it for a while. She also just lays down and takes a nap in the cot without a fuss now.....These are not behaviors we are seeing at home :) She still loves mom and dad to hold her bottle and her sleep requires some effort here. She's still facinated with lights and she loves to point them all out saying "Ight, ight". She loves to turn the switches on and off and is so proud of herself to watch the effect. It's the little things I guess :) She's walking up stairs now and tries to reach for the railing which is way too high for her so she needs to take our hands or she kind of goes hand then full foot up the stairs. I won't let her try to come down them yet...our stairs are really steep.

On Monday we found out we had an offer on our house. We put the house on the market in August thinking that when Zoe started walking we'd be out of space, and we'd had some repairs done on it so we thought why not? We'll we're not close to being out of space and we love our home so we were a bit taken aback by getting an offer in this horrible market. Luckily the deal isn't going through as the buyer can't afford what our bottom line is. It was very enlightening as we found ourselves 99% happy/relieved and only 1% disappointed not to have to leave. I think we'll probably stay here until 2009 and then re-evaluate if we decide to add another kiddo to the mix. It's hard to move when there is little or nothing on the market that you like better than what you are currently in ;)

Happy Halloween!!!

2007-10-31T20:27:00.000-04:00

Our Bumble Bee

A Decision

2007-10-29T14:35:00.000-04:00

We need to make a decision soon about whether or not to change Zoe's daycare provider. I put her on the wait-list at a Luthern church daycare 2 years ago and they've told me they will have a spot for her in January. This is one of the best daycares in the area (clearly, if the wait is 2 years) so I know it will most likely be a good change. The problem is I love her current teacher. I know that in the spring Zoe will be switching out of the young toddler class anyway; but, I feel like she's been very well taken care of in her class and that the staff at her current location is very nuturing. I don't even watch the webcam anymore since I know she's fine.

The huge plus of the church daycare is that it will be 5 minutes from the house and 2 minutes from my office and assigned schools. Right now I'm driving Zoe 20 minutes to daycare and then, on the days I don't have meetings at a school near the daycare, I'm turning around and hurrying back another 15 minutes in my original direction to get to work on time. Eric's school is closer, but we can never seem to get Zoe up and ready by the time he needs to leave to get to work. I'm torn on the religious aspect of the church daycare as well. I am not a religious person. I think religion is great if it keeps people from doing bad things that, for not the fear of eternal damnation, they would be doing....but I'm a person who really wanted the Darwin fish magnet on the back of my car in college.

However, I can conceed that I could be wrong. With that in mind we're having Zoe baptized in December (although at my mom's house by the minister who married us instead of in a church). I also guess I like the idea of "Jesus time" (on the daily schedule) so that she gets exposed to religion and can make her own informed decisions when she's older. Still...I'm sad about pulling her from her current place and know that she's going to go through yet another transition in January if we do. I hate to get back to the place where she's crying every time I drop her off.

First Football Game at Indiana University

2007-10-23T19:49:00.001-04:00

My two fans

Going to the game

Checking out the flowers on campus

In front of Showalter Fountain at IU

Zoe did great on her first trip after coming home. She slept on the plane ride there, let us enjoy the ENTIRE football game without much complaint (even clapping with the fans), and slept like an angel at night (in the king bed with us). The flight home was a bit trickier but by that time she deserved a bit of restlessness. It was wonderful to be back on campus and spend time with friends who live in Indy.

Weekend Pictures from Petting Zoo/Pumpkinville

2007-10-16T19:50:00.001-04:00

What are these??

Hanging out in the hay

Look, a goat!

This seems like a really big apple!

A Week in Review...

2007-10-12T20:01:00.001-04:00

Wow, these weeks are flying past. The weather has finally turned colder here so Eric is excited. It feels like real football weather now. Poor Zoe was sick again this week. She was having some tummy trouble so she got to stay with grandma for a couple days. I know she had a great time! My mom and Ed had come over on Monday to watch Zoe so Eric and I could have a much needed date. Zoe was so excited to see my mom. I think her stranger anxiety is now completely gone as she even went willingly to the contractor who came to the house to give us an estimate on some granite. It definitely makes leaving her easier since she happily goes with someone else now.

For the past week or so I noticed that Zoe was doing things that looked liked signs. I asked her teacher and sure enough they have been working on them with the class. I had thought that Zoe was just showing me her mouth but turns out she was saying she was hungry. Oops :) She also knows the signs for more, please, and thank you (I think that's the one that looks like she's blowing kisses). Tonight she did the sign for drink..and since I finally clued in I was able to get her what she wanted. She's also added "baby" and what sounds like "bear" to her verbal words. We read "Going on a Bear Hunt" like three times a day so it wouldn't surprise me. There is a dog in the book that looks like Herman that she or I point out on every page so what sounds like "bear" is usually directed at Herman. Unfortunately Zoe had a bit of an accident today. Her walking has gotten so much better, even in shoes. She did take a bit of a spill today and got a cut on her lip, poor baby. Between being sick and her little accident she crashed tonight at 7pm. I have a feeling one of us is going to be up at 4am :)

If you want to find something....

2007-10-05T21:07:00.001-04:00

Post that you have lost it!

We found our camera so we can finally take pictures of Zoe's first walking attempts. She saw these pictures in the digital camera monitor and proceeded to give herself countless kisses :) Can't say she doesn' t have a healthy self-esteem!

Uh Oh!

2007-10-03T10:47:00.001-04:00

Uh Oh is Zoe's word of the week :) She's been saying it for a couple months but now she's added hand gestures so it's adorable as in "Uh Oh (shoulders shrugged, palms up)". It's a very fitting word as in "Uh Oh, Mommy and Daddy lost their digital camera and therefore haven't taken any pictures of me in a month!". We have no idea where the camera went to, we're hoping it wasn't stolen during our Open House. The Gods must have been smiling on me though because even though we had a memory card from China and Zoe's birthday in the camera, I had finally uploaded all the pictures to the computer so we lost nothing. Thank Goodness. I'd be beside myself if those pictures from China and Zoe's first few months were lost. We need to get another one before our trip to Indiana for the IU/PSU football game. We need to document Zoe's first football game. In case you're wondering, she's rooting for IU. They are playing better than Penn State this year anyway :) I can't wait to take her to the bookstore on campus and get her outfited. It's, of course, my dream that she'll want to go to school there when she's older...but if it is like it was when I was there then there is not much of an Asian population. I'm sure my parents hoped we'd all go to Illinois but that didn't work out for them either (although Kathy would have gone there had she lived).

Not much has been going on this week. I was so sick on Thursday/Friday that I had to take off of work but send Zoe to daycare since there was no way I could have cared for her. She's not one to let me use the restroom by myself and let's just say I needed to use the restroom by myself :) It was either food poisoning or the stomach flu but either way taste aversion has kicked in to the last thing I ate before getting sick so Starbucks is not completely banished from my life. I can't even look at the sign. For insight into how parenting is going for us at times, Eric actually said as I was sick, "You know I'll kill you if you're pregnant, right?" I think Zoe may be an only child. She's the little love of our lives, but boy this is work :) She's as active as ever, loving to take her steps (still not a great walker but getting better each day), and climbing up the stairs and generally everything else in her path. She's got the body builder thing going as she's power squatting down to pick up heavy (for her) objects and then attempting to walk them over to us. I don't think she realizes that she has to learn to balance just herself first for walking before she can balance with other items. She keeps us busy with constantly wanting to be read to. I've had to wedge the books into the shelves to keep her from getting them all the time. She takes one out, brings it to us, claps her hands so we'll read it, climbs in our laps for the story and then goes to get another one. Over and over. Over and over. I know more stories by heart now. I hope she continues her love of books but there are only so many times you can read them! (as I told this story to my friend who has grown children he proceeded to recite from memory stories he read to his kids 20 years ago)

Oh, one last thing. Zoe stopped crying when I drop her off at daycare. She willingly goes to Miss Cindy's arms and waves bye-bye to me(she also says Bye with a southern drawl). For all the guilt I felt when she cried..at least I didn't have the "Don't you love me anymore?" feeling :)

Food

2007-09-25T10:32:00.000-04:00

Food is a popular topic in our house being that Zoe has gone from eating everything fed to her to being quite the picky little eater. I think part of her slow down was getting to her weight set point and also realizing that hey, even if I don't eat everything right now they'll be trying to shove more things into my mouth in a couple of hours :) It amazes me how quickly she has adapted to the American diet. I had to ask people at work yesterday if it is really possible for kids to live on chicken tenders, fish sticks, goldfish crackers, mango, and cheerios. I was pleased that so many people said, "Yes!". Notice that all of Zoe's preferred foods range from brown to orange? Creepy. Yes, Zoe is given all sorts of healthy things are her plate as well (broccoli, green beans, etc.), she just ignores them and pushes our hands away if we (God forbid) try to put it in Miss (food only) Independent's mouth for her. She actually loves all things Italian and Eric often reminds me that the Chinese invented the noodle. Lasagna and spaghetti are hits in our house as well. She had her first grilled cheese last night and gobbled it up. Grapes are apparently back on the acceptable list as well, having been banished for a couple weeks. We got some spinach into her last night by disguising it in a less healthy "brown" crust. She's so funny when she's eating something she really likes. She stuffs so many pieces in her mouth it 1) makes me incredibly nervous about choking but 2) makes her look like a hamster. Our freezer and refrigerator are stocked with new foods for Zoe to try. I took her to the grocery store and if she said, "mmmm" after looking at something (e.g. the grapes) it went into the cart.

I mentioned that Zoe is independent when it comes to wanting to feed herself but forgot to mention that at the doctor's office they noted on her physical form that she had "severe separation anxiety." I had to agree being that she hates the doctor's office since they always poke and prod (or stick water in her ear to get the wax out), and her morning crying at daycare. However, this morning I dropped her at daycare and she did her usual protesting and crying (no tears) as I left. I had forgotten something and had to go back to the classroom not 15 seconds later and she was SMILING and playing. Boy, those manipulation skills develop quickly. Oh and she finally started taking small steps over the weekend. I think her record is 4 at a time (small steps). You'd have to see Zoe get from sitting to standing to believe it but she completely rolls over her ankle to put her foot flat when standing. It's like watching an NFL horror film where they go in slow motion to detail exactly where the compound fracture occurred..only it doesn't seem to bother her. Ick.

Bubble pictures and weekly update

2007-09-21T20:15:00.000-04:00

I don't think we bought any of the pictures above from our photo shoot last weekend but they crack me up. At least we have proof she can visually track :) This week went well for Zoe. She spent Monday with her grandma in Leesburg and had a great day. She did really well in daycare this week but only had to go until Thursday since I took today off to spend with her. Today was Zoe's 1 year check up (the dr.'s are booked which caused the delay). She's now 19 pounds and 29.5 inches tall. She's gained 4 pounds since coming home. The doctor was really pleased with her growth and all the cool things Zoe can do. She's gotten very good at getting from her behind to standing without pulling up but will still only take steps either with her push toy or holding our hands. When you ask her to walk to you when she's standing and not holding on to anything she kind of chuckles at you..pretty funny. She grabbed her hair today when I asked her to show me where her hair is (she combs her hair when I say, "Comb your hair" so I took a shot). It was probably a fluke, but still cool. She loves it when I sing, "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands", and she claps in all the right places :) Other than that a pretty dull week....oh, Zoe is back on antibiotics for a sinus infection but I told the doctor no more amoxicillian so it's something different this time.

Zoe also got her MMR/chicken pox vaccination today. For those of you who don't know the MMR is the one that people thought caused autism. I do not believe this to be the case, particularly since they removed the mercury from the shots. I work with children with autism and their families. Again, I do not believe the shots cause autism; HOWEVER, when someone is about to put something into your own child it's amazing how quickly you challenge your own beliefs. I hemmed and hawed over allowing the shot because if I'm wrong and something were to happen to Zoe because of something I allowed I would be incredibly distraught. I went ahead and allowed the vaccination, but I'm not thrilled about it.

It's been a year this week since my dad died which has been hard for me, I don't know where the time went. It's also college football time and that was always something that he and I bonded over. The Illinois/Indiana game is this weekend which is our alma maters (and my mom's) playing each other and a game that Eric and I would go see with him in Illinois. I kind of just list Zoe updates for family (and friends) on this site but my dad's been on my mind a lot lately. I'm sad he never got the chance to meet his exceptional granddaughter. He did contribute to her quilt though which I'm thankful for and I've got to get on that and get it sent out to be made. Eric and I still need to choose our fabrics...talk about procrastination! Everyone enjoy their weekend!

One Year Pictures

2007-09-15T12:07:00.000-04:00

Smile!

Cheeky monkey (our pet name for her)

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

Sitting pretty

We took Zoe today for her one year pictures. Thank you Karen for the recommendation of Picture Innovations! We got some great shots of Zoe, more than blogger will let me post. We got some really good ones with bubbles. Don't worry grandparents, we're going to flood you with pictures :)

Zoe had a really good week. She's now pretty much exclusively finger feeding. She doesn't want anything come from us on a spoon and really if she can't pick it up herself she just doesn't want it :) Hard to imagine that just a couple weeks ago she finally started eating Cheerios on her own. She's also working really hard on standing up without pulling up on anything. She's been successful a couple times but she's still off balance. She wants to take our hands and walk every where so I think she's motivated to get moving.

Zoe is still struggling with her stuffy nose but seems to be getting better. I went to the doctor yesterday and found out I have bronchitis and siniusitis so I'm hoping that I don't pass it on to her. We have Zoe's one year doctor appointment on Friday so we can get her all checked out then.

Update :)

2007-09-07T11:16:00.000-04:00

My mom sent me an e-mail telling me that I needed to update my blog about daycare so here goes :) The first day went okay. She didn't eat or sleep for them but really loved the stroller ride with the other kids and their nature walk. Yesterday was much better. She ate more food for them than she has for Eric and I in a month and took a 2.5 hour nap. She cries a bit when I drop her off and pick her up but I think that is to tug at mommy's heart strings. I can watch her on the Toddlercam and know that she is having fun. Plus yesterday she was smiling and playing when I was there and watching her and didn't start crying until she saw me and came crawling over with her arms up. Pathetic :) Her teacher is seriously wonderful. She is exactly what you would want, warm and fuzzy and clearly enjoys Zoe. She has three boys of her own and there are only two girls in Zoe's class so I think she enjoys her girl time :) There are people who are born to work with a group of small children all day (note: I am not one of them) and Zoe's teacher definitely is. I don't worry about her care at all. The first day I had the toddler cam (yesterday), everytime I looked (which was pretty much every 10 minutes) Zoe was either in her teacher's lap or being carried by her. Now Zoe is one of two in the class who can't walk yet so she needs more care, but still it was wonderful to see the amount of attention she is getting. Also, her language is getting so much better. After her first day of daycare she was making sounds I had never heard her say before and she is following more simple directions without gestures or prompts.

Of course the negative of daycare is illness and Zoe is fighting either a cold or allergies. It seems a bit early for a cold from daycare to have shown up, and I'm having a real hard time with allergies so that may be it. Her sleeping was terrible last night but if you can't breathe, it's hard to sleep.....and eat. To be fair, she was going through a terrible sleep pattern the week before daycare too. I'm so looking forward to the weekend with our little angel. Next week Eric will do the daycare pickup so that will extend her time by a managable 1/2 hour. I can go to work later than he can so it still makes sense for me to do drop off....even though the center is 3 mintues from his school and about 20 minutes out of my way :)

Update: So not allergies. Got a call as I was leaving to go pick up Zoe that she had a temperature of 102. Our baby's first temperature at home with us. Those germs worked quickly! I guess what does not kill us, strengthens our immune system :)

Happy Birthday Zoe!!!

2007-09-04T13:40:00.000-04:00

I'm so excited it's my birthday!!

I love my new toys!!

A pensive moment :)

I do not like hats!!

Just a quick post with birthday photos. I can't believe we have a one year old. I know two of hte pictures are sideways but I'm running out the door. Zoe's first day of daycare is today and I'm leaving work early in a minute to go pick her up (scheduled, not because they called :) ). It's nice to be back with adults...but I really miss my little girl! I bawled at daycare this morning and she looked at me like I was crazy...she was already having fun on the floor with her new teacher and another little boy. She got so excited when she saw the other kids. Fingers crossed the rest of the day went as well...

In China, It's Zoe's Birthday

2007-09-02T15:35:00.000-04:00

It's September 3rd in China, Zoe's first birthday, and somewhere in the Jiangxi province a year ago a woman had either given birth to, or was preparing to give birth to, the little miracle in my life. I imagine she's thinking about Zoe today too. I can't imagine going through an experience such as childbirth and not thinking of the life you created. I hope somehow she can sense that Zoe is safe and happy. I imagine she has no idea that the child she created is living a life half a world away. Maybe she is at peace thinking that Zoe is being cared for at the Fengxin SWI, maybe she even walks by every now and again. We'll never know the reasons that Zoe was abandoned. It is easy to blame the political situation in China for her abandonment, but it's possible that Zoe was given up for reasons thousands of American birthmom's relinquish custody of their children every year. Giving Zoe up may have been the most difficult decision of her life, or maybe it was the easiest. We will never know and honestly, the only person on this half of the world who needs to come to terms with the reasons, or lack of knowledge of the reasons, is Zoe. Adopting from China is unique in that there is no paper trail, we'll probably never know who Zoe's birthmother and father are...but how can I not know two people and yet know them so well. I know they are beautiful and smart. I know that they are probably shy at first but warm up quickly to strangers. I know they have a curiosity about the world and a desire to share what they are thinking . I know they probably have laughs and a crooked smile that lights up the room they are in. I know this about them, because I see them in Zoe every day. Who Zoe becomes will be influenced by the four parents who have made her life possible. I only hope she is able to take the best traits from the four of us to become her best person.

The one last thought I have stems from the blogs or stories I have read where adoptive parents have an anger towards their child's birthparents for abadoning them. I've read where people have said that they, under no circumstances or political pressure, would ever abandon their child. To them I say, "There but for the grace of God go I." It's easy when you're sitting on this side of the fence to make those comments. There are two truths I do know about Zoe's abadonment. One is that her birthmother did not have to sacrifice her body or her life for nine months to give birth to Zoe. The second is that, upon knowing she would not raise Zoe, she did not have to place Zoe so lovingly in a safe location where she would be so quickly found. Those two choices have made our life complete. And for those two choices I will forever be profoundly grateful.

So with all that I made a decision that every year on September 2nd (the 3rd in China) I'm going to write a letter to Zoe's birthmom telling her about the year Zoe has had. I don't imagine I will ever give them to her or anyone in her family; although genetic testing being what it is, but maybe the letters may mean something to Zoe when she's older. September 3rd in the U.S. will always be about Zoe, but it seems right to reflect on her birthmother and father on the 2nd.

You've Come a Long Way Baby

2007-08-30T12:50:00.000-04:00

Enjoying her birthday present (I just couldn't wait and gave it to her early :) )

A round of applause please!

Today I took Zoe to Eric's school for a visit. The teachers were all so amazed at how different Zoe is now from when they first saw her when we came home in June. It got me thinking about everything this amazing little girl has accomplished in the 2.5 months she's been home. She went from a (dr. diagnosed) malnourished little peanut, to a chubby cheeked, well...she's still a little peanut. She may be rear facing in the carseat for a long time as she quickly got to 18 pounds but now her appetite has really slowed down.

When we first saw Zoe she could only sit unassisted for probably 10 seconds. Now she cruises around the furniture, stoops to pick something up, gets back up and continues on. She's standing alone for longer periods of time (when motivated) and the other day shuffled between the coffee table and couch without holding on. She would bring nothing to her mouth and now she self-feeds finger foods (when motivated). She had no idea of midline, and now she claps her hands. Zoe was so quiet at first I thought she may be deaf...now she babbles with inflection (particularly at Herman when he goes for her toys) and has said the word "up" appropriately. Her receptive language and grasp of English has truly amazed me. She developed the one finger pointing a couple weeks ago and now points at everything and seems to want it labeled for her. She also likes to point out all the trees and lights :) Most importantly, she went from complete apathy towards Eric and I, to loving us as her parents. In China Zoe often reached out for the other Chinese women (on the airplane, in restaurants, etc.) as they looked like her nannies in the orphanage. She and I were shopping at the outlets the other day and a very friendly Chinese couple came up to her and the woman reached out for her. Zoe grabbed on to me and buried her face in my chest. I'd always read about how quickly the girls develop once they got home, but Zoe has really exceeded my expectations, particularly lately. It's also been so nice to get updates from her China orphanage sisters and know that they too are doing beautifully.

In other Zoe news..she's cutting two bottom teeth. She had one rough night after 10 nights of blissfully sleeping through the night and we were afraid her ear infection was back until we saw the tiny tops of her new teeth poking through. Thank goodness for baby Tylenol! We're expecting some regression when daycare starts but hopefully it will just be for a little bit. I guess my next post will have pictures from her birthday. I can't believe she's 1 already!

An Apology...

2007-08-27T21:15:00.000-04:00

I'd like to issue a formal apology to anyone to whom I gave unsolicited parenting advise over the years. I'm sure phrases such as "you need to", or "you should" have rolled off my unknowing tongue. See, as a psychologist I know what I SHOULD do for Zoe but really, all that goes by the wayside when it's your kid. When the amoxicillin hurt her belly and she wouldn't eat...I knew I should only feed her in the high chair (she'll eat when she's hungry) but no...since she's my kid and I was worried it was perfectly acceptable to feed her while she stood standing in the refrigerator :) Hey, anything to get her fed and keep up her weight. So to everyone without kids who has uttered the words "you need to", or "you should" to me over the past three months...I know you mean well, but talk to me when it's your own kid who's struggling :) I now completely understand when the parents that I work with occasionally used my least favorite phrase in meetings "Do you have kids?". Before I thought it was irrelevant...now I know it's the most relevant question they could ask. My answer, of course, used to be "No." Now it will be, "Yes, I understand.....and you still need to not let them set fires :)

2007-08-22T17:58:00.000-04:00

Hmmm, what's for dinner?

I think I can, I think I can....

Phew, I made it!

Okay, so I just realized that all of today's pictures are of Zoe's backside :) I do really like those Princess pants though. Eric is now back to work..just in time for Zoe to decide that napping is optional. I go back on September 4th and am getting pretty ready to go back. I know the first couple weeks of daycare are going to be an adjustment, but I think Zoe will really enjoy being around the other kids. As you can see from the pictures she's gotten very good at climbing our very steep stairs. We had her climb them a couple times yesterday and then she slept 11 hours straight....boot camp for babies :) She's also finally able to self-feed with things down to the size of 1/4 a Cheerio. It's not perfect every time, but a HUGE improvement. The amoxicillin she had to take for her ear infection really did a number on her belly. She's been refusing foods that she once loved lately and is really prefering liquids and carbs like crackers. We're hoping she gets back to normal soon, but in the meantime I should buy stock in Yobaby drinkable yogurt. She won't take the regular stuff with a spoon but will still drink it happily through the bottle or sippy. Her language skills continue to develop and she's able to follow some one step directions without prompts or gestures. We were playing with her Little People cow today and she said "Moooo"...or maybe I imagined it :) I've finally been getting my "mama". Her first birthday is coming up and we're going to do a very low key affair with just family since I go back to work the next day.

Ladybug or Bee?

2007-08-16T10:51:00.000-04:00

Two of the front runners for Zoe's Halloween costume.....ladybug or bee?

Who Needs Sleep?

2007-08-15T20:31:00.001-04:00

I'm posting the lyrics to a Barenaked Ladies song because it most aptly describes life in the Hockensmith household at the moment. Who knew someone only 28 inches tall could wreck such adorable havoc.

Who needs sleep?(well you're never gonna get it)
Who needs sleep?(tell me what's that for)
Who needs sleep?(be happy with what you're getting
There's a guy who's been awake
since the Second World War)

A Day of Milestones

2007-08-09T20:14:00.001-04:00

A family photo taken on Saturday.

Zoe had a little bit of a better night last night, but she still woke up around 2am and needed to be comforted. We're hoping that having another whole day on the antibiotics (which she hates, by the way) will make tonight even better. The medicine is killing her appetite though which doesn't make me happy. This is a little one who doesn't need to lose any weight.

Today was a very exciting one for Zoe :) She stood on her own for at least 15 seconds, much to the amazement of Eric and I. Her balance is getting better every day and she loves to practice. Then she figured out how to crawl up the step between our living room and dining room. The thing she did that impressed me the most happened after her bath today. I always comb her hair and say "combing Zoe's hair" and then comb mine and say, "combing mommy's hair", and then give her the comb which she puts in her mouth. Today I did that little routine with her and when I gave her the comb she combed her hair!! Then I said, "Comb Mommy's hair" and she put the comb in my hair! Okay, when I say comb I mean she put the comb to the side of her head and ran it up and down(several times actually) not that it actually combed it but hey, she knew what it was used for! Her combing actually took out a few hairs on my head :)

Ear Infection

2007-08-08T11:23:00.001-04:00

Our poor baby has her first (diagnosed) ear infection. On Sunday night she started shaking her head back and forth, and I wrote yesterday how clingy she's become along with the lack of sleep. I took her in to the doctor today and she said that Zoe has an ear infection in the right ear and her ear drum has been perforated. This is the first time that a doctor has been able to look into her ears since she's always had so much wax (something they don't tell you about adopting an Asian child....hard ear wax) so this could have been going on in a more mild fashion for a while. She's now on antibiotics and isn't such a big fan. The doctor said this could explain the new clingy behaviors and her waking up in the middle of the night to sit up. Laying down causes the pressure to build up so she's in pain when she wakes up...poor baby!!!

The good news was that we did a weight check and Zoe is now 18.4 pounds....3 full pounds heavier than our doctor appointment in Guangzhou! The doctor was really pleased with her growth. We go back in three weeks to check her ear and for her 12 month appointment. While I've been less than pleased with the doctors we've seen in the practice before today, I love the receptionist and the nurses. Today we say a new doctor who happens to be Asian and she was so great with Zoe so I think I'm going hold off on switching practices and just request her from here on out.

What a big girl :)

2007-08-07T15:01:00.000-04:00

Zoe finally drank, unassisted, from a sippy cup today. She finally held something on her own. Big moment in the Hockensmith household! For some reason we're back to having sleep issues again. We had 2.5 blissful weeks of slumber, but for the past two nights she's woken up for two hour stretches. Part of the problem is she has become really, really attached to me so when she sees me at night, and then I leave the waterworks start. When we first brought Zoe home she really couldn't have cared who held her but now she's very much a mommy's girl. She's always checking back on me when she's playing, plays a game of tugging on my shirt when I pretend to turn my back on her, and holds on really tightly now when I'm holding her. All of this is wonderful, as long as it's not a sign of insecure attachment, but I go back to work in less than a month now so I'm worried about that. She clearly loves Eric but doesn't seem to mind if he comes or goes from a room so he may have to do dropoffs on workdays. Oh, and she just pulled up on the coffee table for the first time (had been doing it on us and the couches so now my pictures and candles have to come down :) ).

Eric and I are considering moving again. We had priced new homes in the area in March but since we didn't want to have to move with Zoe into an apartment we passed on them. The developer had some spec homes available so we met with our realtor about those. I don't think those are going to work but he mentioned that with all the foreclosures and slow market in our area that a current home owner or bank in the case of forclosure might be willingly to accept a contingency contract whereby we buy their house if ours sells within a certain timeframe. So, we're going to get some work done on the house and look into that. Everyone that has been over lately can attest to the fact that we just don't have enough usable/kid friendly space on the main level. When we have playdates we have to have our guests sit on the floor in Zoe's room as it's really the only place 4 adults and 2 kids can fit. We're in a good position where we don't HAVE to move, and we love our house, so we'll see. Zoe's clawing for the computer so no pics today.

2nd Month Anniversary/11 month Birthday!

2007-08-03T11:44:00.000-04:00

Just a few quick pictures of the past week.

Our very handsome nephew with Herman

Wow! We've had a very eventful week and a half. Eric's older brother came into town with our nephew for a week. It was so wonderful to see both of them, it had been too long. Herman already misses all of the attention Miles gave him. Thank you so much Miles for taking such good care of Herman and for playing so well with Zoe! Zoe's great aunt was also in town (don't let the "great" part make you think she'd old...she's a very hip younger 40s :) ). We're so glad she was able to meet Zoe, and we hope she takes her brother's advice and decides to move closer! We are looking forward to a trip, hopefully soon, to San Francisco to visit her.

Over the past week we also were able to meet our friends' daughters who recently returned home from China. Ava, Sarah, Indigo, and Catherine are all so beautiful and we're so glad they are finally HOME!! One last couple should be receiving their referral next month (finally!) and then all of our friends will have their babies.

Zoe continues to do really well. She's 11 months old today. She's now been with us for 2 months. Her receptive language grows every day. Eric has taught her to high five just in time for football season. I think her first words will be "Go Colts!" Actually, I hate to think that they will be some other phrase muttered by Eric during the Colts or Penn State games :) Zoe did say bye-bye clear as a bell last weekend though which was cute. She will look at Eric and say "Da" now; although I'm not sure if she really gets it. She's finally started to say "Ma". She imitates hand movements and raspberries, and it's so cute when you ask her to repeat something because you can see her trying to get her mouth into the right position. She understands "put it in" and "take it out" now. Self-feeding is still a challange for her but as she gets more comfortable with putting toys and objects into her mouth, I'm sure it will develop soon. She's eating graham crackers, wagon wheels, and bites of goldfish on her own. She's doing pretty well with a sippy cup now, although she doesn't hold it by herself. She gets stronger every day and requires less help from us to stand. Looking back at pictures from 2 months ago, it's hard to believe that she's the same kid!

The best news of the week is from my one of my friends who found out that her family has been matched with a birthmom (domestic adoption) who is due really soon! I'm hoping and praying it all works out for them. I'm not sure if she still reads this blog but for her I'm including one of my favorite (although cheesy) adoption poems (she gave me the Legacy of the Adopted Child poem at my shower which is my all time favorite and in our nursery). I can say that the "life gave me the gift of you" part is absolutely how I feel about Zoe.

"I didn't give you the gift of life
but in my heart I know
the love I feel is as deep & real
as if it had been so.

For us to have each other
is like a dream come true.
No, I didn't give you the gift of life
Life gave me the gift of you. "

author unknown (until someone tells me)

Isn't she just so cute??

2007-07-24T12:43:00.000-04:00

This is the picture we used for her adoption announcement (to be sent out soon!) Isn't she beautiful? (I can brag 'cause I had nothing to do with her good looks :) ).

Eric put Zoe in her laundry hamper when we were folding her clothes. I love the look on her face...ah, melts my heart.

Just hanging out!

We had a great weekend. Eric's brother Corey was in town for the first time in a long time. We're so happy that he and his girlfriend were able to meet and spend some time with Zoe. We have more family coming in this weekend and my brother will be in town soon too. We know everyone is so excited to see Zoe and it's hard to keep reminding everyone that they can't hold her and cuddle her as long as they'd like because we're still working on attachment. Zoe is great, and will go everyone easily....but that's not necessarily a good thing because at this age she should be having some anxiety about people other than Eric and I. That said, she really does seem to know we're her parents and loves to have our undivided attention!

Zoe's crawling continues to get better and she's pulling up on the furniture a lot more. I'm not in any hurry for her to walk, I really love this stage and I don't want her to grow up too quickly! Everyone who knows me knows that I do not like, or really see the purpose in :), newborns. Floppy heads are not for me.....but after about 7 months.....it's just so fun! She had a few wonderful nights of sleep and then last night was bad again. We're not sure what's going on. She seems to have the jiggy legs and can't get comfortable when she tries to put herself back to sleep on her own (around 2amish). Sometimes I can hold her and she'll relax but other times, like last night, she just wants to play.

So I still haven't uploaded all of our pictures from China yet but I'm thinking about making a video/picture slideshow of our Metcha Day up until Zoe's first birthday. Does anyone have a suggestion on the software to use? I've heard about Nero 7 but wasn't sure if there was something easier (or cheaper) out there. I do want to use three songs for the background though ("Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World";"Lullaby" by Dixie Chicks; and Rascal Flats "My Wish".)

Yesterday I put a call into our early intervention program...just 'cause evaluations are what I do for a living and hey, it's free. I spoke with the coordinator and after talking about what Zoe is doing the coordinator essentially told me to not waste their time with an evaluation right now. That made me feel good :) Zoe finally put something other than a graham cracker in her mouth yesterday. She ate a Gerber wagon wheel all on her own. She's also been exploring a lot more with her mouth which has been wonderful to see. We think that either she didn't have the opportunity to, or was chastized for, putting things in her mouth in China. She also seems to have found her thumb, which is gross, but it's hard to reward her for putting one thing in her mouth and then tell her to take someting else out :)

Zoe in her room

2007-07-18T18:04:00.001-04:00

Zoe showing me her puzzle box. She's taken a great interest in the pieces the past couple days

Read this one Mommy!

Her crib :) I put her on the horse the other day and she loved it! Her hands are still a little too tiny to hang on by herself.

By far her favorite toy. A day without piano is like a day without sunshine. She will play with this for at least a 1/2 hour very contently.

All done..... ;)

Video Attempt

2007-07-18T08:39:00.000-04:00

My first attempt at posting a video. It's of Zoe crawling and Hermie giving her kisses :)

Welcoming Home New Friends

2007-07-13T11:14:00.000-04:00

The first of our October 28th friends came home on Wednesday. Welcome Home Shawn, Karen, and little Ava! I think everyone else comes home today or tomorrow. We're so excited to meet all of the new additions to your families and hear about your adventures in China!

Zoe has had a great week. She's trying to pull up on things now, is crawling better, and is taking steps while holding on to our hands. We enrolled her in a Little Gym class for 10-18 month olds. Boy, some of those little ones can move quickly! While she's probably not getting much out of it motorically (although her crawling did get better after watching the other kids), and she's by far the smallest kiddo in class, she absolutely LOVES watching the other children. Speaking of being tiny, we finally moved her into 9 month Carter clothes this week! She's definitely been putting on weight.

I've been working on getting her to wave hello and goodbye. Last night she waved goodbye to her Pap Pap on her own Eric tells me. She also waved bye bye to Eric and said "b" as she did it as I took her up to bed...so cute! Her sleep is still hit or miss. Last night was good for her, bad for me. I get the bedtime to 5am shift with her. She was up a few times until 4ish but then slept in until 7am. She actually pushed the button on her Ocean Wonders mobile to play the lullaby song on her own at 4am. I worry about her if she's quiet for too long and I also have a hard time going back to sleep anticipating the next cry :) However, those days she is up at 5am I love giving her to Eric and sleeping in until 9. It's a trade off. There are no words that can make me love Eric more than when he says, "I've got her hon, go back to bed." I'm so lucky, make that we're so lucky, to have him.

2007-07-08T18:19:00.000-04:00

Her cute dress on the 4th of July.

The obligatory bath photo. Protecting her modesty with a pelican

Thanks cousins Chris and Meghan for my adorable towel set!

This is what happens when daddy feeds me

10 Month Birthday/Together One Month

2007-07-03T09:40:00.001-04:00

Wake me up when you're serving something good!

Looking cute at the zoo

Pandas without the 14 hour plane flight!

Mommy, Zoe, and the elephant

Look how happy I am watching Mickey Mouse!

I can't believe we've been with Zoe for a whole month. The time is passing so quickly. Having both Eric and I at home for the summer has been such a blessing...particularly with being able to switch off night/early morning duties. Yesterday we had a rare humidity free July day in DC so we took Zoe on her first zoo trip. She was more interested in people watching rather than looking at the animals, but Eric and I were able to see the baby panda (not such a baby anymore) for the first time. Who needs a 14 hour plane flight to see the pandas? :)

This weekend Zoe decided that it was time to find her voice. She only was saying a few sounds until Saturday when a bunch more just came spontaneously rolling off her tongue. It's so cute, it actually sounds like she's saying "blah, blah, blah". Of course she threw in the da and pa sounds just for Eric. She's also experimenting with volume now...she's only quiet when sleeping :) She also put a graham cracker to her mouth all by herself! She's not so good at taking a bite (can't get the angle), she's just gumming it, but a great step nonetheless. She's such a good natured baby, and it's so nice to be able to go out with her without her fussing too much. She also showed herself to be a true Holloway/Hockensmith at heart....we had the Mickey Mouse show on tv and she just went nuts for Mickey and Pluto. Maybe I can convince Eric to take a December trip to Disney after all? :)

Tomorrow is Zoe's first 4th of July. More pictures to follow.

Bathing Beauty or Computer Geek?

2007-06-30T10:37:00.000-04:00

On my way to the pool!
Just my toes in first please!

Daddy makes the pool feel safe.

Mr. Gates, are you hiring 9 month olds?

We took Zoe to the pool on Thursday, probably the worst weather day we've had since we've been home. She now loves to splash in the bath so we thought it would be safe. After a few minutes she seemed to really enjoy it! Of course it then started to rain :) This weekend is supposed to be very nice so we'll probably head back.

We had our follow up Dr. appointment on Friday. She's gained 7 oz in two weeks which the doctor was pleased with. All of her bloodwork thus far has come back fine. We still need to have some more tests done this week. The doctor noted that Zoe has better iron levels than most American kids. He was surprised she wasn't anemic at all. Thanks Enfamil with Iron! The doctor also told me what Eric and I have suspected, Zoe has hyperflexive joints. He said that she will probably be extra flexible her whole life and it should serve her well in athletics, should she decide to pursue that. The doctor wasn't surprised when I told him that I get nervous dressing her because her limbs seem to get into positions that are highly unnatural!

Zoe's made a lot of progress on her pursuit of crawling. She is able to get from point A to point B...but not as efficiently as a full crawl. She does this thing where she gets into a crawl position, crosses her legs in the back, and kind of hops. It will happen soon enough and then we'll really need to baby proof!

I don't think our 10/28 friends are able to read the blog in China, but if you can...our thoughts are with you as you finally meet your daughters tomorrow and Monday!

A couple pictures

2007-06-27T16:38:00.000-04:00

My two favorite people

Holding her toes while she sleeps on her daddy.

Brave Girl

2007-06-26T11:38:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we took Zoe to get the bloodwork done she needs to check her health and to make sure that the vaccinations she received in China were effective. She was such a trooper. There were two kids before her who just screamed and screamed...but were too dehydrated to get their blood drawn. We were very nervous. Well, Zoe screamed but we were able to get the first 1/2 of the testing done. She was such a brave girl. We should have the results by our growth check appointment on Friday. I put her on a scale (not a terribly reliable one) and it said she was now 16.5 pounds which would mean she's gained a pound in a week and a half. She's definitely filling out, but I'm not sure she's gained that much :) After the lab appointment we took her to the mall to get her a baby laptop. She loves pushing the keys on the expensive one so we thought she might enjoy it...she does. However, she fell asleep on the car ride to the mall and Eric and I were able to enjoy a nice lunch (relatively kid free as she slept in the stroller) at the Cheesecake Factory. Funny how your relationship changes after a baby, we finally get a free moment, and we spend it talking about how cute she is! Yesterday afternoon she played with the twin boys who live next door. They are only 17 days younger than Zoe so it's so nice to have them nearby. Their mom has been very helpful with parenting tips for me!

Today we're going to stop by the outlets before heading to lunch at Eric's parent's home so Zoe can meet her great Uncle and third cousin (I think that's how it works....second cousin once removed?) We also are going to have some of the artwork we bought in China framed for Zoe's room. The little angel is currently asleep in her stroller. She has this thing now where she will only nap if we're moving (in the stroller or car). The class I'm teaching starts tonight. It seemed a good idea at the time to teach, but now I'm regreting it. Luckily it's only until the first week of August.

The best news is that another 4 couples from our Mid-Atlantic adoption group are now either in China or on the plane to Beijing!! Hurry home guys, Zoe can't wait to meet her new playmates!

Fun with Food and Friends

2007-06-23T13:56:00.000-04:00

I took this picture this morning after Zoe slept 11 hours straight!! She wasn't the only one who has happy! We're trying to encourage self-feeding :) She apparently has no sensory issues with food..she loves to eat everything and squish it between her fingers (particularly her morning oatmeal). She'll pick up any food product (Cheerios, Gerber bites, graham crackers) but so far I can't get her to put them in her mouth herself. We're getting her to at least put her hands on the bottle when we feed her, but again, not real interest in doing it herself yet. She does love to play with her food and loves to look in the containers to see where everything is coming from!
These pictures are from our last night in Guangzhou. We had a pizza party in our room with some of the families that hadn't already left for the States. Zoe is playing with her friend the beautiful and silly Emma Rae. I love the last picture, it always makes me laugh :) We need to get Zoe into a playgroup here so she can go back to interacting with kids.

8 hours of sleep

2007-06-22T18:37:00.001-04:00

I got 8 hours of sleep ;) Zoe slept through the night. Well, she had one little tiny cry at 1am but was easily reassured and quickly fell back asleep until 6am. She took a major nap yesterday afternoon from about 2:30-5:15ish so I was worried she wouldn't sleep...but apparently that rumor is true..they sleep better when they nap. Who knew? She had two one hour naps today, and I'm not counting on another good night of sleep, but she's proven she can stay in the crib all night. We're so proud :)

A Girl and Her Dog

2007-06-20T19:45:00.000-04:00

Seriously, how cute is this? We're still struggling to get on some sort of a schedule. While she napped easily in China, Zoe fights taking naps here. She plays hard all day and then falls over asleep at 7:30pm. Come 2:30am, she's wide awake. She will fall asleep a couple hours later, but it's not easy. I know she's not getting enough sleep, although you wouldn't know it to see her play, but we can't really do sleep training with her because of the adoption issues. We've tried to make her stay in her crib and stay with her, letting her know we're there, but it's just brutal. In the week we've been home, we've had one good sleep night. She's also teething again (that would make 6), and is having some reflux issues as we've switched her to the American formula (Enfamil) and dropped the rice cereal in the bottle so that probably isn't helping as well. I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Eric and I both think she's gained weight since we've been home. She has a little buddha belly and eats like a champ. She loves oatmeal, all fruits, and Yobaby Yogurt is apparently baby crack..she can't get enough. She's sitting completely unassisted now, belly laughs at Peek-a-boo, and easily switches toys from one hand to another. She couldn't even bang the toys together 3 weeks ago. She gets into the crawling position but pushes herself on her belly backwards which just frustrates her to no end :) She loves to grab on my fingers and pull herself up to a wobbly stand. She smiles all the time now, quite the change from China where she was more reserved. She loves, LOVES the dog (not that you can't tell from the picture).

All is well here, and we're settling in to being a family. Sleep issues are our last major hurdle for now :)

It's Nice to Be Home!

2007-06-14T21:02:00.000-04:00

It's so good to be home, and drink from the faucet. Thank you everyone for your e-mails. I'm sorry if I don't send personal e-mails yet, we're just exhausted. I think I fell asleep with my eyes open today. Zoe's little body thought that she should be up at 3am this morning and she just couldn't be reasoned with :) She just went down for, hopefully, the night.

For those of you who didn't see the Red Carpet pictures I'm attaching them here. Zoe is in the middle. If anyone from our travel group reads this blog, thank you for everything. We're so glad to have shared this experience with you and we hope you had an uneventful and safe trip home.

Free Day

2007-06-10T23:16:00.001-04:00

Today is a free day. Our guide took our paperwork to the American Consulate and we're just waiting on his call to make sure everything was done correctly. This afternoon is the "Red Couch" photo with all the babies. I think we're going to dress her in one of the silk outfits we had made for her in Nanchang. She's been very fussy the last two days. She's cutting another tooth and, on top of her possible sinus infection, she's been unhappy at times. She really enjoys the Swan Room in the hotel, a room set up by Mattel for the little ones. It's nice to go down there and mingle with the other families as well.

Tomorrow is her swearing in at the Consulate so that when we land at Dulles on Wednesday she'll become an American citizen. I can't believe we leave the day after tomorrow. Sometimes it feels like we just got here, but others it feels like we've been here forever.

Sorry no pictures, have to run to give Zoe her bath.

Guangzhou

2007-06-09T19:43:00.000-04:00

I can't begin to describe how beautiful this hotel is, it's really wonderful. The service is incredible. When we leave our room, the lady who works on our floor has already called for an elevator and escorts us in. The food is amazing at the breakfast buffet, the room has air conditioning, it's just luxury. Although I've never been to New Orleans, Shamien Island makes me think of what New Orleans must look like. When I told that to someone who has been there, they said this island is much cleaner. The trees have that moss in them, the streets are clean, and the people are so friendly. It's also really, really humid :)

Yesterday Zoe had her medical checkup required by the American Consulate. She's medically sound and a whomping 15 pounds. That means she has tripled her birth weight already. She is also 27 inches long. The doctor didn't see signs of an ear infection but did notice she has a lot of wax in her ear which may be affecting her hearing a bit. He said to take care of it when we got home. She has an appointment with her pediatrician on Friday so we'll get that taken care of. Yesterday was a day of firsts for Zoe. She sat quietly and contently in a high chair for the first time, she took a bath with me (there is no baby tub here) and didn't cry, and most importantly (and TMI probably) she pooped without intervention for the first time. In the adoption world, that's a huge thing. She slept nine hours last night but woke up around 6am. We thought she wanted to start her day but after her bottle and changing she was still fussy so she's now back asleep (and so is Eric).

Today we are going to the pearl and jade "mall." I'm particularly excited about this portion of our day. We completed all of the paperwork we needed to for her visa yesterday so now we wait for that to come through. We still can't read blogs here so I haven't been able to keep up. I hope all of you 10/28ers have made your travel arrangements.

We made it to Guangzhou!

2007-06-08T19:06:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Zoe's first plane flight. She was so wonderful. Didn't even cry or fuss which makes me think that she doesn't have an ear infection after all. My ears seemed to hurt worse than hers. Eric and I had to sit apart so she was all mine for the approx. 2 hour flight. We sat next to a wonderful Chinese young woman who spoke English beautifully. She asked why we chose China and about the adoption process (e.g. Is it harder to get an American baby than a Chinese baby?). She told me that she and her husband are hoping to start a family soon so she went to get the license from the government giving her permission to have a baby. It was a very interesting conversation.

On our last day in Nanchang we just did a little shopping. Zoe had slept 12 hours the night before so her schedule was a bit off. I hope she's trying to kick this cold. I don't really want to put her on the antibiotics. I can tell I'm getting her cold and while it feels icky, it also feels run of the mill so far. We just want to get her home. Driving into Guangzhou seems like paradise compared to Nanchang. We booked a suite at the White Swan and it is about the nicest room I've ever stayed in. We got in so late last night that I had about 30 Pringles and 3 Oreos for dinner. I can't wait to try the breakfast buffet I've heard so much about.

We have to get Zoe up to start her day. Today is the "medical" exam, which from what I hear is a joke. China must be on to all the bloggers here. We could all view our blogs until a couple of days ago, but now we can only post to them. Sorry no pictures, I'll try to do better later :)

Last Full day in Nanchang

2007-06-07T02:48:00.000-04:00

I can't see my blog so I don't know if this will post or not. We had an amazing morning. We went to a village outside of Nanchang today. It was not part of the GWCA expereince but we asked our guide to arrange it and we split the bus fee. We weren't able to go to Fengxin, where most of the girls are from since it is a long way away, but this village is apparently representative of villages in the area. From what our guide told us, the families rent the land from the government for growing crops. The families also build their house and all generations live in the same house. Our guide went to one family and told them who we were and why we were there. I think we were a show for the villagers as they all came out to see us. A woman in our group had the wonderful idea and foresight to bring a Polaroid camera. She was able to take pictures of the village families and give them a copy. It may be the only family picture these people have. If you have yet to travel, it's a great idea you may want to copy. They were so appreciative and really enjoyed having their pictures taken. The rooms in the homes were small and pigs and chickens were right outside (the pigs in a small pen, the chickens roamed free). Rice fields were all around. I'm so grateful we got to see what life may have been like for our daughters. Hopefully this will keep Eric and I from taking too many things for granted. Our guide said the annual income of a family is 10,000 RMB which is roughly a little over $1,000. In China, the fine for having an additional child is 10,000 RMB for the first child and 100,000RMB for the second child over the limit. One family today have twin boys...quite the blessing as they are both male and only count as one child. I have to go sign paperwork so I'm going to try to post this now. This is our last full day in Nanchang. Tomorrow we're going to a porcelin shop and then off to Guangzhou. We're all ready to move on I think.

I'd like to thank the makers of Fleet..

2007-06-06T08:45:00.000-04:00

for giving us today's poop. Well it was a momentous occasion today, unfortunately we had to use the laxative but all is well ;) What a difference a day and a schedule makes. The orphanage gives you a basic schedule. Say it's like getting the operating instructions on a Civic, but you'd purchased an Accord.....similar but different. Zoe, we've found, is a three nap a day girl as opposed to the one nap that the orphanage told us about. Usually we're out and about for the first couple naps and she falls asleep in the Ergo carrier on me, but she also falls asleep around 2:30 every afternoon. She's also really easy to get to bed at night, she likes it when I sing her lullabys (as in Hush Little Baby don't you cry, I forgot the words to this lullaby....)
Today was another 1/2 day tour of "a very old building" in Nanchang. It was very pretty. The group photo is from outside the building. Inside it's essentially 5 floors of gift shop. Nanchang is well known for its porcelin. I wish there was some way to get all of it home, it's beautiful! We bought Zoe a very nice porcelin chopstick set.

When we got back from the tour we went with another couple to a place called Tiffani's around the corner from the hotel where they make traditional silk suits and dresses. We purchased a suit and dress for Zoe as well as a wall hanging and a baby bracelet with her Chinese name on it all for only $100. No one in our adoption group price haggled so we all got things for free. As one dad on the trip pointed out, a sure sign you've overpaid :) Still, it's so cheap!
After exploring the street around the hotel after shopping, and realizing that it just wasn't that safe, we hopped in a cab and went to a more swanky part of town to get McDonalds. Seriously, the best filet of fish and coke I've ever had...and not just because when walking through town we saw fried duck heads in the window :) The reason I call this part of town swanky is because they had air conditioning (a rarity). If you look at the second picture that's posted, it's of a building from that street and then the apartment building next to the street. There is so much poverty here, it's very sad. We saw a man digging through the trash for food, and eating the trash with chopsticks.
Zoe is doing so well. She has been sleeping through the night and now she really loves her floor time. She's building up her core strength and can do short periods of unassisted sitting. When she's on her belly she can reach for items and bring them to her. She sort of gets up on her knees and I don't think it would be too long after we're home before she figures out the crawling thing. She has such a wonderful little personality. It seems she's always happy. She's so interested in what is going on around her. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that we got back the 3 rolls of film the orphange people took of Zoe. The orphanage looks just like the pictures, rows and rows of cribs. We got pictures of her nannies as well. It is priceless to have pictures from that time in her life.

I saw that referrals had come out..congrats to all the new parents!!!

Nanchang Adventures

2007-06-05T02:45:00.000-04:00

Hi. After finally getting 4 hours of uninterrupted sleep last night, I'm starting to feel better. Zoe slept from 8:30 to 6:30am. She did wake up twice but Eric (world's greatest father and saint) was able to get her back down in about 15 minutes each time. Poor little thing has a cough which wakes her up.

Right now Zoe and her daddy are taking a nap together so I thought I'd catch up on the blog. This is actually a big moment. Until now she would only nap outside of our room. When we pulled into our hotel in Nanchang our guide told us about a baby once who would scream whenever she was in the room..outside of the room fine, inside she'd scream. Guess which baby we got :) We actually had some successful floor time today.

Yesterday we went to the Walmart in Nanchang. Unless the Walmarts back home have suddenly started allowing their customers to choose which live animal they wanted slaughtered and hacked up in front of them.....it's not like your typical Walmart. There was also this smell which i can not describe except to say it was putrid. Forever now when I smell something bad I'm going to refer to it as "smelling like Walmart." In fact today I ate something and said, "it tastes like Walmart smells." Two thoughts kept running through my mind in the store..1) Which one of these is not like the other ones, and 2) have you ever felt like everyone is staring at you? For the most part everyone was very friendly. They came up and read the card our guide had given us describing that we were adopting her. There was one younger woman who just glared at us and the thought crossed my mind that of all the thousands of people in the Walmart, maybe someone had abandoned her baby. We had a group dinner last night at a local place our guide took us too.

Today was a relaxing day. We went to Elephant Lake and there is a palace there to celebrate Taoism, I believe. Very pretty. An older man came up to us, read our card, and gave us the thumbs up sign. It's nice to know the adoptions are accepted by the older generations. We went to lunch at a fabulous place. I ate the best shrimp, heads, shell, and all. All of our group meals have been served in a manner to share. All have also cost only 5$ per person. At home that meal would have run 40-50 dollars easy.

Real quick to answer Melanie's questions.....the money was no big deal after all my stress. Our guide took everyone's money and presented it as a group (I think, he had the money anyway). The legal fees were converted to yuan before we paid those. Oh for Shawn and Karen, Zoe fits into the 6 month onesies..but the 6 month sleepers with feet don't fit because her feet are too big. Our girl has clown feet...just like her mommy.

I also wanted to say real quick to those of you coming next month, particularly those who don't have kids yet....when you first get your girls you are on survival mode. I wasn't prepared for that. I don't know what I thought, but we did bring US videos to watch "after she feel asleep". I can hear the BTDT parents laughing. She goes to sleep and 5 minutes later I'm right there with her. You stress when they don't eat, you cry when they cry at the baths and diaper changes because it's all new to them and they are scared, you worry about pooping. You hate to give them Western meds with no guidance and doctors back home with a 12 hour time difference. You're in a strange place where people don't speak your language and you can't read their characters and you have a little person just handed to you and off you go. Your hotel room isn't home. I'm sure the experience is different for everyone and if you're in a place that's more Western than Nanchang it may be a bit easier....but maybe not. Every day gets better, easier..but your first couple days may be different than you imagined. It's completely and totally worth it, but I would never say that it's been easy.

Officially ours

2007-06-03T23:46:00.000-04:00

We completed all of our province paperwork this morning. Zoe is legally ours. We're on a lunch break now but are going to go to the Walmart in Nanchang this afternoon. Zoe was a great sleeper last night. She fell asleep at 7:30pm, had about a 1/2 hour wake up at 11:45 and then slept until we woke her up at 6am. I have a feeling that was a fluke. She's doing better with the bottle and just took some rice cereal with a spoon. I think she thought the spoon was really cool. Still no #2 (which those in adoption world know is important) but I have suppositories on stand by for tomorrow if need be. Since she liked the spoon, I may try to give her some prunes tonight. We had to give her some Tylenol cough and cold today as most of the babies have a cold. No fever though which is good and I'm trying to get it under control so it doesn't spread to her ears. She had her first bath with us today....she's not a fan. She is loving the Stacking cups though and right now she is listening very contently to a Chinese lullaby CD. I think right now she is fighting a nap. She slept during our appointments this morning. On an aside, of all the wonderful things the Chinese do well...air conditioning isn't one of them. Seriously, it's miserablely hot and humid in the buildings. Our hotel room is also a bit warmer than we'd like. We're going to crank that AC this summer at home.

Nanchang is definitely different than Beijing. While Beijing just felt like any other large city, Nanchang really makes us realize we're in China. In Beijing there is so much construction and a lot of things are in English so you kind of forget you're in China. You can't do that in Nanchang. Oh, one really interesting thing we've noticed...all of the maniquins (sp?) are of Caucasian people, even the ones selling traditional Chinese ware. Anyway, I'll try to post more pictures tomorrow. This is such an amazing, wonderful, (stressful at times) experience. It's amazing how quickly you can fall in love.

Zoe

2007-06-03T08:04:00.000-04:00

We have Zoe. We arrived at the hotel in Nanchang around 2:20pm. The men went off to buy formula and water while the women set up the diaper bags and got the rooms ready. At 3:30 we were on the bus headed to the Jiangxi Civil Affairs Office. When we walked in I knew her right away. She's on the nanny's lap to the left. I knew her eyes. We were the 3rd to get our baby. She never cried in the Civil Affairs Office, but she also didn't make any noise. She was very observant. One of her room mates was crying and when I brought Zoe over to her they reached out for each other. That made me cry. Of course I was sobbing when we first got her anyway. We made it back to our hotel room before the crying began. It didn't last too long. She likes to be held and walked around the room. To anyone coming to Jin Feng hotel, if you can swing it get a suite. The regular rooms are very small and it's nice to be able to do the pacing without leaving the room.
I'm exhausted so I'm going to cut this short tonight. Zoe crashed about an hour ago which means she'll be wide awake in the middle of the night. I'm waiting for Eric to get back from signing paperwork before it's my turn. The pictures are obviously from today. The last picture has Zoe doing this really cute thing where she lifts her leg straight into the sky. She's either got gymnast or ballarina genes :) She thinks it's hillarious when Eric tries to imitate her. Oh, she's able to wear Carter's 6 month onesies. She's long but thin. She flips over like a little acrobat though and likes to pretend stand. She can sit up by herself for short stretches. We're working on the feeding issues as our first bottle wasn't too successful. She took her liquid vitamins like a champ though. Tomorrow is the official signing of the paperwork to make it all legal.

Beijing

2007-06-02T07:21:00.000-04:00

What a wonderful and long day. We went to bed last night at 7pm but were awakened by a phone call from our guide, Michael, at 8:15pm. After that I didn't fall asleep again until after 10. Eric and I were both wide awake around 1:30. We forced ourselves to stay in bed and managed to get some more sleep on and off until about 5am. We left for our Beijing tour at 8:30 and just got back a few minutes ago. Today we saw Tianamen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall. The picture above is from Tianamen Square as is the one below of the child in split pants. All of us in the group have noticed that many families have little girls. The preference for boys does not appear to extend to Beijing.
My intentions of going through China squat-potty free ended quickly in the Forbidden City. Note to future travelers...go to the bathroom in the Forbidden City. They are the cleanest restrooms you will see all day. They do have Western style toilets too, but since there is no such thing as a line in China you just have to push through and get what you get. Once you do it once, it's no big deal. I actually find it harder to keep my mouth closed in the shower than I do to use a squat potty. Do make sure you bring tons of Purell and tissue though. I also would advise against open toed shoes :) All the bathrooms today did have doors. Flushing is apparently at user discretion :)
So to all you 10/28ers..the gauntlet has been thrown. Eric and I and our fellow travelers made it to the 5th tower on the Great Wall. Let us know how far you make it next month.....when it's hotter. The Great Wall is a misnomer. It should actually be called the Great Steps. Holy Cow! My legs are burning. Use the restroom right before you start climbing the wall. Your legs will be so shaky after you climb up and down that using the squat potty will be much harder :) I can't describe how amazing it is to be in China and actually be on the Great Wall. Unfortuantely there is so much pollution in Beijing that even on a "clear" day, everything looks pretty hazy. We did the tour today with everyone who will be traveing to Nanchang tomorrow. They separate you in to groups based on your orphanage. It's really great though since we did spend about 10 hours getting to know everyone before we all get our babies tomorrow. Everyone we're traveling with is so nice, we're very fortunate.

Our room service just arrived. We're going to eat dinner and watch some of the NCIS DVDs we brought with us. Our last night as just a couple. I'll post again after getting Zoe settled tomorrow night (if I'm not too exhausted).

We're Here!

2007-06-01T05:17:00.000-04:00

Just a quick post to say WE'RE IN CHINA!!! The flight actually wasn't too bad. Saw a few movies and tried to get 4 hours of sleep but got two. The big tour of Beijing is tomorrow so hopefully I'll post pictures of that tomorrow. Off to get ready for dinner (so weird it's 5am at home).

And we're off...

2007-05-30T13:04:00.000-04:00

Well, not today but I won't post again until we're in China (and that's if I can figure it out :) ). I can't believe I got to type those words, in China. This weekend was so nice. Aside from Saturday and our many home appointments, we were able to relax and enjoy our last weekend as "just a couple." I can't believe we'll have Zoe in just four days. If you read this blog, please think good safe plane thoughts for our trip ;) I think I'm so anxious about the traveling part (packing, paperwork, flying) that I sometimes forget there is a baby attached to this! I hope the TA's arrive for those of you still waiting soon! Eric and I will spread the word to be on the look out for you in a few weeks.

It's Always Something....

2007-05-26T14:59:00.001-04:00

So with less than a week before we leave to get Zoe, I'm downstairs and notice a rather large water mark on the ceiling. I'm typing this while the plumbers are here fixing a leak that has apparently been going on for quite some time. With all the packing and running around we've been doing, this is just bad timing. On the other hand, better to find out now than to come home from China with the basement ceiling falling down! This is our final weekend to relax. I actually cried a bit last night thinking that this was our last Friday night as just a couple. Don't get me wrong, I'm beyond excited about getting Zoe; but I also love my life with just Eric and I (and Herman). I think I just needed to have a transitional moment....the first of many I'm sure!

I had a major shopping find yesterday. Okay, not major but it made me happy. I finally found powered electrolye packets. I had been looking all over for the Pedialyte ones but couldn't find them. Yesterday I found a generic brand at Rite Aid. I also picked up the final med I needed, lice meds (ick, like scabies, ick). I figured that if it was the one drug I didn't bring, it would be the one condition she had :)

Well the plumbers are almost done. Between that and getting our carpets cleaned today, it's been a very expensive Saturday!

Drugstore

2007-05-23T17:41:00.000-04:00

I'm a little worried I'm going to be stopped at customs for drug smuggling. Just a sampling of the wonderful Western drugs we are taking to China with us:
Infant Tylenol
Infant Tylenol + cough and cold
Pedicare infant decongestant
Baby Vicks (not a drug but still)
Amoxicillan
Scabies meds (ick, ick, ick)
Antibiotic ointment
Infant Motrin
Eye solution
Oral rehydration salts
Children's benedryl

I feel like there are more but I can't remember. We have all the above in adult formulas as well (except for the scabies meds :) ). I really, really tried to pack lightly but Zoe's bag is pushing 35 pounds...all this for one 8 month old. I found an extremely helpful pharmacist at the Harris Teter near us today who was helping me with dosing information. It's scary to be thinking about giving medicine to a child where all the box says is "under 2 contact your doctor." The Orphan Allies kit had dose information for the things they provided but I was unsure about the rest of it. We're getting the carpets cleaned on Saturday and then I can spread out Eric's and my stuff and get the rest of the packing done. I went to Old Navy and bought some of their t-shirts for dirt cheap. Essentially it's going to be the same style t-shirt, different color for the entire trip :)

Does anyone know where I can get a three prong adaptor? Best Buy? Also, how sure is anyone that the black box that is part of the computer cord is actually a converter?

Busy!!

2007-05-21T13:16:00.000-04:00

This weekend was wonderful but very busy. We went to our friends' (Ellen and Rick) home for a baby sign class. Ellen has the most beautiful nursery that I have ever seen set up for her daughter. She's such a talent AND she can also cook! Ellen and Rick hosted the rest of the October Mid-Atlantic crew (except for 2 who are in China) for a baby sign class. It was very interesting and something that I think Eric and I will try with Zoe. We relaxed a bit on Saturday night. Then on Sunday my mom and her boyfriend came over to help us set up the blinds in Zoe's room. Ed and Eric tackled the blinds while my mom and I went to BabysRUs to get Zoe a pack and play. I LOVE the pack and play! I bought a Graco model that has the diaper changing station, bassinet and play yard. It also plays classical music and nature sounds :) It will be nice to have some place to put Zoe where I know she will be safe if we're busy cooking or something. It took Eric and Ed a little longer (like 4 hours longer) than they thought to put up the blinds. Apparently the wood in our house is not only termite resistant, it's power drill resistant as well :) The blinds are up now and they look fantastic.

Today I sent off the rest of the money to our agency for our travel fees. Our travel coordinator accidentally upgraded us to a suite in Zoe's province but we're going to keep the upgrade :) I also ordered a Panda Phone so we can make calls home while we're there. I had to e-mail the panda phone folks and they got right back to me...but at the end of the e-mail they wrote..

Thank you for placing your order and have a safe trip? (question mark). When you're afraid to fly, it's not so great to see a question mark at the end of safe trip ;) Zoe is pretty much all packed. Despite warnings, I'm packing one bag for her and one bag for Eric and I. I just don't want to have to rummage through two bags looking for things. It's a nonstop flight so hopefully the bags won't get lost. (Remember Seinfeld?...JFK...Honolulu :) ).

A frequent question...

2007-05-16T19:29:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one who keeps getting asked if I get to name the baby? It's a well-intentioned question, I'm sure. It's especially amusing when they ask after I tell them her name is Zoe Katherine.

A little over two weeks....

2007-05-15T13:53:00.000-04:00

In a little over two weeks not only will I get to finally hold Zoe, but I will finally (FINALLY) have a long term absense from work. I haven't had break over 5 days since our wedding 3 years ago. While I can not wait to get my hands on our little girl, today I'm actually more excited about the break from the job. I love my job, I really do. I really enjoy working with and helping the kids and their families. The administrators I work with are top notch, and the teachers are pretty great too (being that I met Eric at one of my schools years ago :) ). However, when I decided to get my Ph.D. in an area of psychology I was drawn to the education field for the same reason as most folks....say it with me......summers off, snow days, spring break! In Northern Virginia it is very difficult to find a 10 month job so here I am schelping away in a 12 month administrative contract (has to do with the federal law IDEA which goes by actual calander rather than school calander year). No summers off, no snow days, 2 days for spring break. It starts to get draining working every day with kids where something has gone wrong. Obviously as a school psychologist I don't get asked to consult on the happy, straight A children. We've had a lot of crises that have required responding to in the past month, and it's starting to be very draining. I really need a break.

Since Eric and I both work for the same district we get 12 weeks of shared leave between us for FMLA. Our 2 weeks in China counts as 4 weeks of FMLA leave. Luckily our trip falls at the end of the school year so Eric won't have to cut too much into my leave time, but it's important for him to be home with us when we get back for the bonding. I've also been saving leave for years now knowing about our situation. Once I'm off FMLA I can take annual/sick leave since I have been accurring the days. This way I will be able to be home with Zoe until after Labor Day. Otherwise I would have had to have gone back at the beginning of August...and I would have been very grumpy. But it all worked out and now I can't wait to go!!

Pictures from Shower!

2007-05-12T14:00:00.000-04:00

For some reason blogger is really slow today so it would only load these 4 pics. The top one is of our cake. I am a pastery person..I am a fan of anything made flour, eggs, and sugar :)
This is the line that everyone hung their 100 good wishes quilt squares on. The wishes were so original and many of my friends gave me pieces from their own kids' baby blankets, which made it even more meaningful.
How cools is this gift presentation? One of my friend made a clothes line out of ribbon and used clothes pins to attach baby clothes. I may have to steal her idea sometime. So creative!
This is just me...but look whose picture is on the table! I had no idea they made copies of Zoe's picture.

CA and flights!

2007-05-10T14:04:00.000-04:00

We got our CA confirmation today and our flights are booked! I'm so excited and scared to death all at the same time! Those of you who know me know I'm terrified, absolutely terrified, of flying. Now you would think that a valium or something would help but I'm too much of a control freak to take one. I need to be aware in case we need to make an emergency landing. Yes, I realize there is something wrong with me :) I would like to thank the powers that be for giving Washington Dulles the nonstop to Beijing flight. It's the take offs and landings I'm not a fan of. (ugh, I hate ending sentences in prepositions).

In other exciting (for me) news, my classes are finally over for the semester! I taught 5, count them 5, graduate courses this spring. Two of them were on-line so they probably count as 1/2 or 1/4 classes but I still had to participate in online discussions and grade assignments. Last semester I taught 3 classes (1 was online) but the university I do the majority of my teaching with ran into a bind at the last minute filling adjunct faculty positions so I helped out. It's good experience (not that I ever want to be a full-time professor) and I know I will not have the time to carry anywhere near that load after we bring Zoe home.

I still need to post pictures of the shower and will do that soon. I also need to write the thank you notes from the shower but that is another story.

TA!!!!

2007-05-07T15:27:00.000-04:00

Woo hoo! TA has arrived! Now we just need to wait for our CA but we may be leaving a week earlier than we originally planned! I gotta get a move on...both at work (to tie up loose ends) and in the packing realm.

I had a meltdown at my not so friendly, very poor customer service bank today because they wouldn't help me with the new money issue. The people at our credit union were so fantastic though. When the tellers heard what I needed they all opened their drawers and were flipping through the money looking for "good" bills. I wasn't even a member! Of course I promptly joined the credit union. What wonderful people!

I'll post pictures later of my shower. I have to tell you, it was overwhelming in such a wonderful way. There were about 30 friends and co-workers that attended. My friends Beth, Wendy, and Amy threw me the shower. We had wonderful Chinese food! They also had ordered special fortune cookies that had sayings with Zoe's name in them. Everyone also brought a quilt square for Zoe's 100 Good Wishes quilt. I was so choked up when I read over them. My friend had also made me a, for lack of better word, fancy copy of the Legacy of the Adopted Child. That poem always makes me tear up. Zoe is going to be one well dressed little girl. We also got some very cool toys. Herman does not quite understand why he's not allowed to play with them. He's going to have some adjustment issues :)

Sorry for the typos, I'm sick again (I think it's just allergies) but I have "medicine head" from the antihistimines :)

Waiting on TA/ My baby is 8 months today!

2007-05-03T12:54:00.000-04:00

Have you seen all the gorgeous babies that were referred this month? Wow! Congrats to all the new mommies and daddies! I'm so happy that the CCAA mailed the batch off before the holiday. I know this is going to be a very special Mother's Day for a lot of us.

We're still waiting and waiting on our TA. The first two weeks after we saw Zoe's picture were like a dream. I barely slept and was so excited. I now feel like I've gone back to pre-referral status. It's really too hard to keep up excitement for 7-9 weeks :) I love looking at her picture but wish I had more, or different, or older, ect. She is 8 months old today and I can't wait to hold her. Some others with our referral date got their TAs on Tuesday so I know ours will or should be coming shortly after the CCAA returns from their week long break.

My friends are throwing me a baby shower on Saturday. Ironically, I'm going to be one of the only people at my own baby shower who is not pregnant :) That's a bit odd don't ya think? Eric's school threw him a shower on Tuesday and we got a lot of BabysRUS gift cards. I think we'll be able to put those to good use! One of the best gifts was a baby relief kit full of baby meds, which coupled with the one from Orphan Allies, makes us good to go on that front. I have a doctor's appointment today to get a script for my own antibiotic. I keep telling Eric he needs to go too...I'm not sharing :)

YES!!!!!!

2007-04-30T10:20:00.000-04:00

Referrals are reportedly in the air with a cut-off date of November 1st which means.......

Shawn & Karen, Ellen & Rick, Melanie & David, and Pam & Robert are FINALLY going to see their little one's faces this week! I can't stop smiling for you all and can't wait to see the pictures!!

Happy early Mother's Day to you all!!! Woo Hoo!!!!!!

And Toni and Tom....they are in to November now.....your turn is coming soon!!

The Crib is Up!!

2007-04-29T17:33:00.000-04:00

A big hooray to the fact that we assembled the crib today. I can't say it was a smooth process, but it's all good now. The room now actually looks like a child is going to live there! I hung a really cute mobile...I know, I know you're not supposed to have a mobile for a child that can stand. Well, I don't believe that she will be able to stand so I think we're good for a little bit. It's really cute and.........it's from PBKids :) I've been reclaiming the closet in Zoe's room by finally putting all the books onto the bookshelf. Although I previously didn't think it was possible, I now believe that it is possible for a child to have too many books :)

Eric finished painting the room on Saturday. I'm so proud of him for his great job! We had a date night last night...went to see "In the Land of Women" and then went out for dinner. Okay, it cost $16.00 for a matinee....what has the world come to! Talk about inflation. The movie was good...but not $16.00 good. I think we'll be a DVD family.

The weather has been beautiful today. Eric has some burgers on the grill and we're going to eat out on the deck. My public service announcement for the day is that we found 3 (yes THREE) ticks on Herman this weekend. Get your dogs vaccinated against Lymes disease if you haven't already.

Okay, I think that's it for now. I would like to make a post on entitlement .....as in what people believe they are entitled to from China, and why they believe they are entitled to more ( or sooner) than the next person....but I'll leave that for another day :)

Stuff for the nursery/bath

2007-04-25T12:58:00.000-04:00

I ordered these letters from Blissliving.com for the bathroom to go with our ducky theme. I also ordered the wall letters to spell out Zoe's name from them as well.

We're still putting the nursery together but here is what the crib and bedding will look like. The bedding is French Rose from PBKids (my favorite store) and the crib is their sleigh crib in expresso. All of the other furniture is in this dark wood too as we ordered it when we didn't know if we were getting a boy or a girl.

More Clothes from Friends!

2007-04-24T15:53:00.000-04:00

When we got home from our trip to State College this weekend we were surprised by a gift for Zoe from our friends Melanie and David. Thank you! We love the dresses. They are so cute! I particularly love that the white dress is from a company called Maggie and Zoe :)

Nothing new on the adoption front, just a little bit of frustration. I thought we had been told to expect to travel about 6-8 weeks from referral but have come to learn that it's actually 6-8 weeks from the date the CCAA receives your acceptance. Since Great Wall is one of the last agencies to send back the acceptances (for good reasons, they want to make sure everyone is comfortable with their referrals) we will probably be one of the last to travel. I talked to someone in our travel department and she said that she thought we'd travel in June. I know it's only about a week or two difference, but after seeing Zoe's face all we can think about doing is getting to her.

I sent a care package to Zoe at the orphanage today...or I tried to anyway :) We had been told to claim $0 for the value of the package but the post office wouldn't let me saying they had been told not to allow this as the box would likely cause suspicion at customs. So I said it was worth $1..but don't know if the orphanage will have to pay tax on it, or if they do if they will. I may go ahead and do the Great Wall care package just to cover all bases. I really want the orphanage to know how much we already care and love her! Oh, I ordered the newspaper that Zoe's finding ad appeared in from Brian Stuy (sp?). I think it's important part of her history. I also ordered the medical kit from Orphan Allies so we'd have some medicine (and more importantly dosage information) for the trip.

Hope you all are having a great week!

Look What Zoe Got!

2007-04-19T12:40:00.000-04:00

We have met some of the most amazing people on this adoption journey.Above are the adorable outfits that our friends Karen and Shawn sent to Zoe , and below are the adorable outfits and super fun bubble machine and bubbles that our friends Ellen and Rick sent. It's so wonderful to have so many people adopting from China at the same time in the area. I know our daughters are going to be good friends.

Right now there is not much going on. We will be waiting for the next three-four weeks for our travel approval at which point our agency can make our consulate appointment. I'm not sure how the May holiday in China will affect us getting our TA. I hope everything, referrals and travel approvals, arrive before the CCAA breaks for the holiday :) Eric and I are heading to Penn State this weekend for the Spring game. We've been trying to go for the past three years but this is the first time the weather is supposed to be warm and sunny! I went to PSU for graduate school and it's always nice to get back to Happy Valley.

A request for PBKids

2007-04-16T13:45:00.000-04:00

First, I have to say that I LOVE Pottery Barn Kids. I love the furniture, I love the toys, I love the bedding, and now I love the clothes they have. What I do not love, however, are the directions they include to build their furniture. First, if you're paying whatever ridiculous sum of money to purchase a crib, bookcase, nightstand, etc.....it should come assembled. Knowing that it didn't, I still chose to purchase it because (well, I got 40% off from a friend) remember, I love their things. I, however, am a word person not a picture person. I wrote a dissertation in words, not in cave drawings. I could not follow the pictorial directions to assemble that dumb bookcase. I had to remind myself that it was not very maternal to swear like a sailor while creating a nursery for my child. I put it together, realized the shelves were on backward, said some not so nice words, cut my hand trying to unscrew the bolts from the death grip, and then recreated it from what I thought it should look like, not the directions. Problem solved. Zoe now has a nightstand and a bookcase. I will tackle the crib next with Eric's help (he was taping the room for painting while I was doing the bookshelf....but did help when I had my minor meltdown about putting it together backward....he's a saint).

I'm at work now with no picture access, but my next post will include pictures of the adorable clothes Zoe received in the mail from our friends Karen and Shawn. It was Zoe's first mail! Thank you guys!

We also returned our referral acceptance to Great Wall. They received it and processed it today. They will send it off to China tomorrow. With the May holiday we do not know when we will get our travel approval, but we are hoping to travel the last week of May/first week of June. If we travel then or later I will be able to stay home with Zoe all summer and not have to go back until after her 1st birthday on Labor Day!

Finally the weekend..

2007-04-13T17:42:00.000-04:00

Ah, it's been a whirlwind of a week! My feet have barely touched the ground. We've updated our registry to reflect our new baby. Pretty much everything we had registered for was for a toddler. I'm having to learn about bottles and baby food but loving every minute of it. We received the translation of Zoe's growth report today. Actually a former student of mine who is native Chinese came and looked over the untranslated reports today first so she was the first to give me the scoop. Medically everything seems to have been translated correctly which is a relief. I cried when she was telling me about Zoe's finding. The details of Zoe's first days are not something we're going to share, even with family. It is Zoe's story, and if she decides to tell it someday then that will be up to her. I did learn that Zoe's name Yuanguo means "garden fruit or round fruit". My student thinks it's because she has a little melon head :) I also learned that it is not two words as I had written it (Yuan Guo) but one word (Yuanguo), although it is two seperate Chinese characters. The guo part of her name is hard for me to pronounce so I'm working on it. I think it is said with the third tone, which is one I have a hard time hearing. My friend was great though and tried to spell things phonetically in English for me. Zoe apparently loves music and being outside (not translated but in the documents...I suggest getting someone fluent in Mandrin to look over your documents). A little bell is her favorite toy so we're going to be on the look out for a similar toy. She likes to play with her caregiver, is very clever, quite lovely, and quiet. She reportedly sleeps through the night (10 hours) but we'll see about that....that would be lovely :) Other than that she's like a baby...she eats, pees, and poops. We're so in love with our little peanut...or I guess I should say melon! :)

Shopping!!

2007-04-11T14:54:00.000-04:00

First, don't worry about the broken blind. We're getting cool new ones from Pottery Barn Kids :) This picture doesn't really do it justice but Eric and I put a serious dent into the Visa on Monday. I hadn't allowed myself to do really any clothes shopping for Zoe since we weren't sure if she was going to be a boy or how old she was going to be! It was so fantastic when shopping to finally be able to answer the question, "How old is your baby?" We ended up buying mostly 6-9 month clothes with an occasional 3-6 if it looked big. We live about 8 miles from the Premium outlets so most things came from Osh Kosh and Carters. I did a little ordering from Baby Gap yesterday too :) Our little one may be more of a peanut than I originally thought! We got her medical report today. It seems that at closer to five months she was 12 pounds. I'm not sure really of the dates though since the evaluation and blood work were done on two separate days and I'm not sure which is which. It looks like she's on the 10th percentile for Southern Chinese girls in all areas (weight, height, head circumference). Now Eric and I are not large people, but we're not petite ones either :) I think we may have a gymnast or a super quick soccer forward (my personal preference :) ) on our hands. The medical report is all in Chinese except for the list our agency gave us of medical features with the words "normal" next to it. I was going to have an international adoption doctor look at the file but I don't really know what information he could give us. She looks alert (and is looking into the camera.good sign..had to note that as a school psychologist). I am having a friend who is fluent in Mandarin look over the report just to make sure that something wasn't left untranslated....but it would have to be something HUGE to cause us concern and even then, we're already so in love with her. My mom is coming over tonight to see the pictures of her first grandchild tonight. I can't wait for her to see Zoe and all her adorableness.

The past few days have been a blur. If I did minimal work while waiting the past few days for the referral, I'm really doing nothing now. I think about this little girl all the time. I did not think that I would be a person who got attached to a picture. I really just don't bond like that. However, I was walking Herman yesterday and had to cut it short so I could go back and see her little face again. It's like the high you get when you're first falling in love. It's so wonderful. I can't tell you how lucky we feel. We also got hard copies of our pictures today so I immediately went to Target and made copies on the Kodak machine. My super great secret pal Magi had given me a photo key chain a while back and I'm going to put Zoe's picture in it so she's with me now no matter where I go. I think about Zoe's birth mother a lot too and wonder what wonderful features Zoe got from each of her birth parents. I hope they have peace with their decision to give her away, and I hope they can somehow sense that their daughter is going to be so loved by us.

Friends

2007-04-10T13:04:00.000-04:00

Before I made the next of what will likely be a bunch of posts about Zoe, I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone for their good wishes and support. I've been very lucky in my life. I've made wonderful friends who have helped me through some very difficult times. Yesterday, however, I learned even more about friendship. It may be difficult to be there for a friend when they are going through hard times, but it is even more difficult I imagine to be there for them when they are happy when you yourself have been disappointed or are upset. So Karen, Shawn, Ellen, Rick, Melanie, David, Pam, Robert, Toni, and Tom......thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your phone calls and e-mails of good wishes yesterday. Our joy right now is great, but it will be even greater when we finally see the faces of your little ones next month. You are all exceptional people, and we and our daughter are lucky to have you in our lives.

Introducing Zoe Katherine Yuanguo

2007-04-09T15:28:00.000-04:00

Sorry the pictures are so small!! She's currently in the Fengxin SWI in the Jiangxi Province. She's 7 months old!! Born 9/3/06. She is quiet and fond of her caregiver. And she's a peanut! At 3 months she was 12 pounds and 24 inches. We are so blessed and so thankful.

Happy Easter

2007-04-08T09:05:00.000-04:00

Happy Easter! I hope everyone has had a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. Eric and I went out and registered at BabysRUs yesterday. That is quite an adventure! Some good friends of mine are throwing me a shower in May (assuming our referral arrives soon). I also found a fabulous new sweet treat to help with the blues...........Edy's Slow Churned "Take the Cake" ice cream. If you love the cake batter ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery, you'll love this. It tastes like yellow cake batter with icing and sprinkles. Eric is disgusted, but I LOVE it!

Where is our referral?

2007-04-07T10:23:00.000-04:00

Well, I guess the next post wasn't about our child. This has been an incredibly frustrating week. First I listened to someone on RQ when I should have known better and believed that referrals were coming on Monday. Then the terrible rumors that our friends with 10-28 LID weren't going to be included. And finally, referrals started showing up yesterday, but only for one agency or affliates of that agency. Other agencies, including ours, have said that they don't have anything in the air...which means that referrals probably won't come on Monday either. This process has become so vastly different from what it was when we started and even as we sit on the cusp of getting a referral, I'm not feeling joy..I'm feeling down. I know that some of it comes from the fear that we're not going to be able to share our referral day with our 10/28 friends who have really been the only thing making this wait bearable. I don't understand why things have to be so secretive. I don't understand why they have to be so hard or stressful for us and our friends. My father passed away in September without meeting his grandchild, and friends have lost significant people in their lives during this wait, wasn't that hard enough? This month to month of not knowing is too hard. It's like with infertility and wondering if you're pregnant.. is it this month? no. Is it the next month? no. Until you get to the point that even when it's finally your turn you can't trust it. I'm not sure how we will talk to our child about this wait, except to tell him or her that there has never been a child more wanted or anticipated, or who had more people praying for his/her safe arrival into our home. We have Easter together as a family tomorrow and everyone has been instructed to not say, "oh we were hoping to have heard by now." I just can't take that. I'm sorry for the tone of this post, I just needed to blow off some steam. I guess it's like I told Eric yesterday though when he was so frusrated.....we can be happy and enjoy the day.. and referrals aren't coming today, or we can be unhappy and miserable.... and referrals aren't coming today. Either way, referrals aren't coming . Pity party over. Time to go enjoy the day :)

Well, you can't say it's not suspenseful.....

2007-04-05T12:42:00.000-04:00

So, nothing again today. I now really think it will be next week, probably Monday since I'm ridiculously busy that day with meetings I can't get out of. Eric is upstairs painting the kid's bathroom a wonderful shade of Pale Daffodil. He needed a project :) The pics are of the bathroom accessories. Yesterday I cleaned out two of our cabinets to make room for toddler plates and snacks. We have more cabinet space than I originally thought...well, once I decided to finally get organized! The rumors today have been bad, especially for our 10/28 friends, but in the end I firmly believe we will all be celebrating together. I can't imagine they will only do 2 LID..it just doesn't make sense.

On the home front, we priced out a new home and with it "loaded" we are still within budget. However, the problem is selling our home (which I think wouldn't be a problem) and having to go someplace else for a while. I just can't do that....not with being a new mom. It's better for me to only do one stressful thing at a time, even if it's good stress. The home is really beautiful, but the model we like has three bedrooms and I'd really like four since we hope for two children and I'd like a guest room upstairs. I am hoping to only move one more time and don't want to outgrow the house. Plus, if we wait and save even a few more months we can get something a little larger so that's the plan for now. I know someone who is building a new home and since they closed on their house they need to live in a hotel for 2 weeks and then another short-term place for 2 months....we would be asking a lot of our child who has already gone through so much adjustment. Eric and I also talk about relocating to Indianapolis (I went to undergrad at IU) or a suburb of Boston so who knows where the wind will take us :) Here's hoping my next post is about our baby!