Gettin' Creative

After the kids were all dressed up and finished taking our Christmas card photo, we decided to make a gingerbread house. Dan had picked up the kit at Costco. (Oh, you will never see me making one from scratch)! I started out all controlled, giving them one type of candy at a time, then I decided to let them go for it and I dumped all of the candy in their little bowls. They had an absolute blast! I think it turned out great...and yes! We ate it!

Two Kids at Home...Whoa.

Ya just have to have a bathtub picture! I love how Landree is covering herself in this one. Gavin loves taking a bath! Both of them would be in there for an hour if I let them. 
Playing with Grampy!
Reading together. They do this A LOT. 

Have I said how great it is to be home yet? China is a wonderful country. Lots and lots of magnificent history. But ya know, it just isn't home. 

G and L get along great. Yes, we have had a fight or two over a toy, but for the most part they are wonderful together. Landree loves having a brother. Gavin takes shorter naps than Landree, and it's so cute because he just can't wait for her to wake up. Today I busted him in her room while she was sleeping! I love how he calls her "mei mei" (little sister) and how Landree always refers to him as "my brother Gavin." She will say, "Mama, are we gonna take my brother Gavin to Vons with us?" Cracks me up. 

Ok, that is enough posts for one day.  (I did some major catching up, so be sure to scroll down to see the rest of our pics from China). Maybe tomorrow I will blog about Landree's third birthday. I can't believe my baby girl is three!

And this trip is finished!

My new son and I on the famous red couch.
The kids in our group (as you can see we were joined by more families in Guangzhou) were seated from youngest to oldest. Look how proud Gavin is!
It never felt so good to land in LA! I was so happy! Little did I know the pain in the rear I was going to have to endure through customs...yuck. Anyway, we finally made it home safe and sound. 

I'm going to be really honest here. This was a hard trip. I thought I was prepared, but I wasn't. If you are adopting an older child, please learn as much mandarin as you can! The language barrier was the hardest thing (still is) even though I have an amazing child who is picking up english faster than I ever thought possible. 

On another note, scroll down to see pics from the rest of the trip. I decided to post all of my favorites. I have such a hard time uploading pics to blogger, so this is all I could do. I wanted to catch up from the trip, so I can keep family up-to-date on what is going on at home now. 

And Still Catching Up...

Getting ready for the red couch photo! He was so proud to wear this silk outfit!
Gavin loved the koi pond at the White Swan Hotel. We spent a lot of time here!
How we spent a lot of our time in the room:)

More Catching Up!

The Chen Family Academy
Flying to Guangzhou-he did great for his very first flight!
Cheezin' at the Forbidden City

Catching Up

At the Summer Palace
Beijing Zoo
Running through the Lama Temple. I love this picture!

The Great Wall

This was a really long day. Just to let you all know, we never once did anything in the order that it was listed on our itinerary. This kind of turned out to be a good thing. It was Dan's last day and the entire week he was there was spent doing paperwork. So, I was very happy when the day before, our guide told us we were doing the Great Wall, Jade Factory and Cloissonne factory all on this last day! It was a long, very busy day. Gavin was exhausted by the end of it. It was a beautiful day and we got a lot of great pictures. I love how the fall colors are starting to show! Needless to say, because I had to carry Gavin (he got too winded and believe it or not, he didn't know how to climb steps yet) so we didn't climb the wall too far this time. 

That night ended up being the hardest of the entire trip. Gavin bonded with Danny pretty quick. When he had to say goodbye to him that night, it was awful. He went completely stiff and wouldn't look at anyone. I didn't want Dan to leave either! I'm sure Gavin picked up on my emotions too. By the time he and I made it back up to our room, he totally broke down and wailed for a few hours. It finally stopped when he cried himself to sleep. It was horrible! Funny though, the next day he woke up happy and in a fine mood. It's like he got it all out of his system. Thank goodness!

Hutong Tour

Entrance to the hutong market...no time to shop though!
Getting ready for the tour!
I think my new "Baba" is pretty cool!

So one of the afternoons, Danny, Gavin and I decided to venture out on our own and do a Hutong tour. (Danny was even able to negotiate the price)! So, the three of us climbed into the rickshaw (felt sorry for the poor guy having to haul us around) and an hour later, we were done. It was really cool and I felt worth it! We bought tickets to be able to go into the courtyard for tea (this was a total joke in my opinion), but everything else was great. The three of us were pretty exhausted but we had fun! 

Our New Family Day!

This is the first glimpse we got of our little guy. Look at the "shell-shocked" look on his face. Poor guy...
You can see our guide Michael and the director from the orphanage who brought Gavin to us.
Let the Chinese portion of the paperwork begin...

Well, we are home after three weeks in China! Obviously, I couldn't post to either blog while we were there unfortunately. For those of you who don't know, the server would drop everytime I tried to get on the blog. (As a sidenote, I do not plan on updating the "new" blog-keeping up with two blogs is just too much, so I'm sticking with this one).

So, every few days or so, I will update our trip in order!

This is our second day in Beijing. We met Gavin first thing Sunday morning. He was so inside of himself. He opened up a little bit when Danny handed him his new backpack full of toys! We were happy to receive a bag from the orphanage director that contained the items we sent him in his care package. Unfortunately, you could tell he had never seen these items before. I wasn't surprised to tell you the truth. The good thing though, is that they had two disposable cameras in there with pictures of him in the orphanage. I developed them a week later and I'm really happy with those pics. 

Eventually, the paperwork portion was finished for the day, and we suddenly found ourselves alone with our new son. The three of us went up to our room and played with all of his new toys for hours. Little by little, he became comfortable and let me pick him up. He even gave me a kiss! It was cute. He ate about ten snacks, one right after the other and drank a ton of water. Next thing you know, he is repeating "sow pia" over and over and we had no idea what he was saying. Eventually, we figured out he had to use the restroom! Happily, I discovered how well-potty-trained he is. Thank goodness for small miracles. (He never once wet the bet in China). While I am on the topic of the bathroom, he would also put on his shoes everytime he had to go. I had to quickly break him of this habit, because at three in the morning waiting for him to put his shoes on is no fun!

All in all, our new family day was a success. I will update again probably tomorrow...

Last post (probably) before we leave!

Tying up lots of loose ends around here! Still not packed, but will finish that tomorrow night. Tomorrow is my last day of work (and boy is it a jam-packed day) and we leave on Thursday.



So, we are hearing that people are having problems posting to blogger, so we are going to try something different. We are keeping a travel blog at http://www.sonintheeast.wordpress.com/ Check us out over there, and hopefully it will work.



See you in China!

And Now It's October!

I can't believe it's been so long since I posted last! It has just been crazy busy around here since we got our TA. Dan and I have been so busy at work, trying to make sure everything is in order before we go. Like I said in the last post, we leave October 15th, which happens to be parent conferences! So, all month, I'm doing parent conferences before and after school to make sure they get done! It's gonna be plain nuts. We've also been doing a bunch of little projects around the house. Dan's been working on wiring for electrical in our backyard, putting up a ceiling fan in the patio cover and other odds and ends. I cleaned out our master closet, the linen cabinet in our bathroom and the laundry room cabinets. Next weekend, I'm scrubbing my house spotless. At least that's the plan for now. I pretty much have everything we need to take with us, so most of our shopping is done. Just need to put it all in the suitcase. 

So, we leave Oct. 15th and arrive in Beijing at 5:30 the 17th. (They are ahead of us by a day). 

We actually meet Gavin on Sunday, the 18th-a day earlier than we thought!

19th-Paperwork (does it ever end)?

20th-Shopping for children and TB test

21st-Beijing Zoo (we are going to see if we can pass on this)

22nd-Beihai Park and Dan leaves to go home that night

23rd-More paperwork

24th-Great Wall

25th-Free day

26th-Forbidden City and Tian An Men Square

27th-Lama Temple

28th-Summer Palace

29th-Hongqiao market

30th-Fly to Guangzhou and do Gavin's Medical Checkup

31st-Chen Family Temple

November 1st-Yuntai Park

2nd-4th-American Consulate appointments

5th-Come home!

We are both starting to get really excited-we can't wait!

The Countdown is on Baby!

We got our travel dates! We leave October 15th for Beijing. Monday, the 19th is when we meet Gavin! I'm so excited because Dan is going to be able to go for the first week. Landree will not be going with us and will be staying at home with Nana. She is very excited about this by the way:) I will return home on November 5th. We haven't received a day-to-day itinerary yet, but we did purchase our airline tickets there and back. Our agency waits for confirmation of those flights and then makes plans for our stay. I can't wait! Thirty-one more days!

Beyond Excited! Our TA is here!

Ok, so out of the blue today...we got the call! Our TA has arrived! I was so not expecting this wonderful news today. Our agency called while I was teaching my kiddos. I was dancing around the room while on the phone and they were all cracking up! Ah, what a relief. So...I should find out in the next couple of days exactly when we go, but they said I could go as early as October 9th and as late as October 23rd. I'll take it! It's funny, yesterday I was all down-and-out and today I'm on cloud 9! As a friend of mine said, "What a difference a day makes." No kidding. Let the packing begin!

Beyond Frustrated

So, found out today it looks like we aren't traveling until the end of October AT THE EARLIEST. That's saying we get our TA sometime soon. If we could just get it, then I could at least start counting days. I am just beyond frustrated. I'm pulling my hair out just knowing our little piece of paper is just sitting on someone's desk just waiting to be signed. Never in my darkest nightmare did I think it would take a year from our pre-approval, or possibly longer. Oh, and on top of everything else? Our Power of Attorney will expire during this wait. Guess what that means? Certification and Authentication AGAIN. Sigh.

On a positive note though, as I was eating dinner tonight, watching Landree eat, I thought to myself how lucky we are to have her. Everything we went through was worth every bit of headache. So, that's what I'm trying to remember right now. It WILL happen.

This is where I want to be...NOW!!!

Here it is, the end of the month and we are still waiting for Travel Approval (TA). I am desperately hoping to hear something this week, in order to still travel in September. If not, we won't be able to travel until the end of October. Because we have to be in China this time a minimum of three weeks, the timing has to be just right for the Guangzhou part of the trip. There is a National Holiday in which everything pretty much closes up (including the consulate) the first week of October. After that, there is a huge trade fair and hotel and airfare are extremely expensive and difficult to get during this time. So, here we are. Once again, just waiting. It's so frustrating!!!

Catching Up

Gavin's Room
I painted and "scrapbooked" the letters myself...
The "before" shot
Landree loves her new train table!
It was like Christmas morning!
Landree's favorite pasttime while visiting my parents-watching "Happy Feet" on my laptop!
Reading with Grammie
Celebrating Gavin's birthday
The "FedEx" guy delivering our Letter of Acceptance from the China Center of Adoption Affairs. It was the same guy who delivered Landree's referral!

So, to catch up a bit, unfortunately, it looks like we won't be receiving any pictures of Gavin with his birthday cake. Apparently, they took pictures, but won't give them to the lady who sent the cake because she is not with our agency. Whatever. His orphanage is so conservative! Boo! Anyway, we hope to get the pictures of him when we go to China. I'm just happy he got to celebrate his birthday.

The good news is, we are just awaiting our Travel Approval. All of our paperwork to go has been completed, so once again, we are just waiting to hear something. We are hoping to get our TA by the end of this month for a mid-September travel. It's the exact same time of year that we traveled two years ago to get Landree! Just FYI, it's blazing hot in China at this time of year. But, that just means lighter packing!

I start back to work next week already. I've been working like crazy getting my room ready. Still lots to do! Landree loves coming to my classroom with me and playing with all of my stuff. (I swear sometimes I leave with a bigger mess than I started with). I've also been very busy trying to get Gavin's room ready. I painted and decorated the letters of his name. I have so much fun doing this! I think it turned out pretty good. His room is a transportation theme, with the main colors being red, white and blue. I didn't set out for it to be that way, but that's just kind of the way it turned out. He has the dresser and nightstand from my childhood. The white bookshelf we have had forever from my Uncle Mike and on the opposite wall is Dan's old college table, which happens to be blue and white (and also used to be his old bunkbeds from his childhood as well-his Dad turned them into a table). I'm very happy with how it turned out and I love going in there! Now we just need to get him home!

Hangin' Out in North Carolina

I've been in N. Carolina since last Wednesday. Landree and I are having a great time. My Dad needed to have some pretty important surgery yesterday. It lasted four hours, but he looked great coming out of it! By eight o'clock last night, he was settled in his room. His only complaint was how thirsty he was. You should have seen his face light up when the nurse came in with a Sprite! Too funny. Anyway, he is doing good an I am just plain relieved. As you can see by the pics below, we have been having some fun around here (minus the mosquitos).


Look at all of the bubbles Grampy Jim!

Blowin' bubbles with Grampy Jim.

Dad on his riding mower...isn't he cute?

Landree loves playing with her new Mrs. Potato Head

Walking the trail at Ayr Mount

Landree in front of Ayr Mount-an old historical house in HIllsborough.

More pics soon!