Memorial Day Weekend

Lisa is another one of my adoption soul mates. The first picture on this post is Lisa (center), Marie and I. Marie will get special time on this blog someday. Everyone who knows me, knows about my special partner in adoption, Marie. Back to the photo. Lisa, Marie and I used to talk on the phone regularly while we were in the agony of waiting for our referals, and then our travel plans. In this photo, we are on our adoption trip day 1, in the Forbidden City in Beijing, preparing to meet our daughters the following day.

The rest of these photos are this weekend! Lisa, Joe and Ally (a former crib-mate of Amy's), schlepped here from Western PA. It is so nice to have them here. Ally and Amy are a hit together. Ally looks so beautiful and healthy, which is nice to see as she needed crisis care in China. The only thing missing this weekend is Mark, Marie, Malayia and Makenna.

Baby's first California Roll

As you know, we love asian food. Sushi is a passion. We know Amy will share our passion, but we are delaying the gratification of raw fish for the time being. Every time we go to our favorite sushi restaurant, the owner treats Amy to "aged tofu" on the house. Amy eats the soft-centered, breading coated, dried fish-topped tofu in fish brine with rice. She loves it and eats like the world will be devoid of tofu someday.

Tonight she had her first California Roll. She ate the whole thing, as illustrated below. If you've eaten a meal with Amy, you know she is not shy about her love of food. At daycare, at least three of the workers have told me "my daughter can eat". Every day her report says she ate "everything" (and sometimes second helpings). My girl.....

Lastly for now, thanks for checking this blog. We are tickled that you are interested. I printed this blog to date (sans comments) and it took 175 pages of paper!

Love,
Janet and Don

Run for Independence

Amy participated in her second running event today. It was the "Run for Independence" 5K and 1 mile walk. Amy and I walked both. Don flew around the course in 21:48. This race benefits Independence Middle School, and is a fun little community event. Don (Haygood P.T.) has sponsored this race every year forever.

After the race we went to Village Inn for breakfast with the HPT family, and Tio Ben (also a former patient). Amy giggled, drooled and cackled like crazy for her new best friend, Jen.

Blessed Mother's Day - It is now real

Karin has been one of my adoption soul mates. We met through the wonder of the internet, specifically through a message board for those waiting for a referral for China adoption, and even more specifically for those whose dossiers were sent to the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs in April. Ironically, both Karin and I were DTC ("Dossier to China") in March. However, the process slowed down so much, that March DTC'ers could have been April DTC'ers, so many of us networked on both March and April DTC boards.

Karin responded to something I emailed on the message board, and I discovered that she lived in Fredericksburg, VA. I coincidentally had a work obligation in Fredericksburg, and Karin and I met and ate INDIAN food! I knew I liked her when she chose INDIAN for lunch. The dates our respective dossiers were "logged in" (LID) were exactly the same, April 7! What that meant, is that our wait would be very similar, as the progress is predictable from LID.

So Karin and I emailed and called each other, after meeting each other. She helped me immensely with her responsiveness and sensitivity to the neurosis of my wait. We received our referrals on the same date, and coincidentally had plans to meet again in Williamsburg the Sunday after our referral date. We missed each other in Guangzhou by days, but we made up for it today.

I am blessed and honored to have spent my very first Mother's day with dear Karin, easy going Bill and lovely, sweet Maya at Busch Gardens.

Super Saturday

Amy and I took a 5 mile walk today. Along the way, we saw the Caribbean Music Festival, the Monster Truck convention, and a great band at the Hilton outdoor park.

Have you seen a Mullet hair cut lately? Like the duckbilled platypus, the Ford Model T, and the 8 track tape player, I thought the Mullet was extinct. I am here to tell you, that the monster truck event is also the world's largest Mullet gathering. I wish I could have photographed the many Mullet sightings.

There was a good band, playing outdoors in the sunshine, view of the beach, quick reach to the bar at the Oceanfront Hilton. This reminds me we will be spending much time at the beach this summer.

We ended the day with a sunset boat ride. Stay tuned. There will be more pictures on this special weekend.

Double click on the AMC receipt if you want to enlarge

Guangxi trio-This is cool!

Tonight we went over to our friends Bryan and Julieta's for a Guangxi Province reunion. China is big. When we sent out our referral email announcement on 12/8, Julieta called with the exciting and surprising news that baby Zoey was from the same Social Welfare Institute that was named in Amy's referral.

At some point towards the end of our wait for Amy, our friend Judy Williams referred me to a family she had met, who had recently brought home a baby from the same province (Guangxi) as Amy, only a different Social Welfare Institute. Baby Gemma's mommy and I talked and emailed, and tried to get together, before we went to China. However, the weekend we were supposed to get together with Gemma's mommy and daddy, was the weekend before we were able to go to China, so we cancelled, knowing it would only be a matter of time to meet these people who had so much in common with us.

I told Julieta of this amazingly coincidental family who apparently lived in Julieta's neighborhood. Julieta connected with Gemma's family and planned a get-together for all of us. Tonight the Guangxi girls ate lasagne. As you all know, Amy is a great eater and sleeper. Interestingly, Gemma and Zoey are great eaters and sleepers too. Maybe the background makes for easy parenting.

We had a great time today, and we feel blessed to have 2 other Guangxi girls in the area.

Here's a shout out to Louise and John, who are in China right now, and are two days away from meeting darling Michele.

We are in awe with professional photography

A professionally photographed picture is worth a thousand words. We picked photos today for enlargement and framing. These are just some of the DISCARDED PROOFS!!!!!

I'm back to work tomorrow and thankful for the greatest adventure to Shanghai, Beijing, Nanning, Guilin, and Guangzhou. I had lots of time to bond with Amy, learn how to be a mommy, sip expensive coffee drinks at Starbucks, walk the neighborhood, the park, and the beach. I took many regular and hot yoga classes, including an awesome yoga seminar in MD. I visited Mom in MD, and attended my neices' Bat Mitzvahs. We have enjoyed the beach many times. I have read lots of parenting and adoptive parenting literature. I've been to the pediatrician three times, and the lab for blood draws twice. I've had lots of lunches and dinners with friends to show Amy off. We've been to Target ten times and Walmart once. I've received an extraordinary amount of amazing gifts, so much that I've hardly had to buy anything. Amy and I did an 8K, and she has seen 2 IMAX movies. She and I have done baby yoga twice. We have dined as a family at Bella Pasta, One Fish Two Fish, PF Chang's, Sakura, Yamato, Vietnam Gardens, Macaroni Grill, and other eclectic eating establishments. She is at peace at daycare, which gives me great comfort. If we knew then what we know now, we would have half a dozen daughters from China.