Baby Benwa

Summer Feasts and Fun

2010-07-13T15:42:00.002-05:00

OMG, can't believe it's been since April that we posted! Hopefully, someone is still looking... Laina is growing up so fast. This age, from 3-4 is so very much fun. She has an infinite imagination and it is so fun to see what she comes up with. When she says, "I have an idea...", everyone listens. Here is a photo of one of her more unusual napping places, right smack dab in the middle of the sliding doorway to our deck. She was so cute that no one minded. I woke her up one morning recently and her first words were.."you are wrecking my stew.." She was cooking in her dream. We had her Aunt Kathy and Uncle Tom for a visit and we enjoyed a great Lobster Feast, complete with corn on the cob and freshly caught striped bass, coleslaw and blueberry-peach pie for dessert. YUM. Laina eats her own lobster, and loves all seafood. She and Kathy had a "Mad Face" competition, not sure who won, but here's one of Laina's.(I won't post Kathy's because she is my big sister and well, her mad face can still scare me) We also had a nice visit with Grandma and Grampa and we went with them to a "Reptile and Bird World" that everyone enjoyed. Laina got to pet some baby owls. And of course, we went to the 4th of July Parade and Laina had a terrific time.This year, she brought her butterfly net to catch the candy and stuff that they throw from the floats, it worked out great. They would all aim for her net. Here's our annual photo of Laina with our dear friend Nancy. We are all having a good summer so far and the fun isn't over yet. In August we have our China Reunion, more family visits and an actual vacation to Maine for a few days. We'll take lots of pictures!

Catching Up

2010-04-17T11:29:00.003-05:00

I'll try and tell you about some of the hightlights of our life with Laina from the past couple of months. In March, our good friends, Kristin and Brian welcomed their beautiful daughter, Alice Anne to the world. Laina went with us to visit. After she inspected the baby's tiny body parts, she asked,"Does she talk?" I said no, not yet. "Does she walk?", no, not yet Honey. Then she turned to the grownups in the room and said "Can somebody handle this baby so Mommy can go outside?". I guess the baby isn't too exciting yet! Laina is a Big Girl now, totally potty-trained. She just decided one day to wear underpants and hasn't had an accident yet. One time she went and sat on the potty but decided she didn't have to go after all. I said "False Alarm". A few weeks later, she went in and came out quickly and said to me, "Just an alarm clock Mommy." We went on an early spring beach walk and Laina found some cool caves to climb into under the cliffs. She also has learned to ride her trike this year. She finally had her first haircut in March, it has grown in beautifully and she loves to have braids and hairdos, although it is hard to sit still for them. I went to dress her one day in some brown leggings and she asked what she had done wrong. Apparently, wearing brown is a punishment to her! She also informed me that she needs more dresses. One day I was playing with her and she wanted me to wear dressups. Of course, I don't fit hers so I was putting on tiarras and beads, etc. Well, she said "wait her Mommy" and went to my bedroom closet and grabbed my bright purple dress and came back to the living room with her hands on her hips, saying "WHERE are your high heels?". I don't really have any, she couldn't believe it! We had a fun Easter, Laina decorated eggs and we all went to a really fun Potluck Brunch and Easter egg Hunt. Laina wore her high heels and a beautiful hand-knit purple cape from our friend Anne, and some cool sunglasses. She even brought extra shoes to change into from time to time. It was quite a fashion show. One evening, she was carefully folding things and putting them into a little lunchbox. I asked her what she was doing and she said, "I am going on a trip to Hyannis and this is my suitcase." Inside she had all the perfect things, a dress, some underpants, a toy cell phone, some jewelry and a big magnet in the shape of lips. She had on a ballerina dress, some high heels and sunglasses. All of her pretend trips are either to Hyannis, New England or Australia or China. She recently was given a beautiful "Madeline" doll house from our friend Holly and her daughters(Thank you so much!) She loves it and so now we are changing teeny doll clothes and serving teeny cookies on teeny plates and talking in teeny voices....I have lots of photos, so here's a nice spread of pictures for you.

Chef Laina

2010-02-21T12:57:00.003-05:00

Like most parents, we fantasize about what our daughter will be when she grows up. When we ask Laina, she has a different answer each time. Recently I asked her and she said a "Restaurant Lady", she has been enjoying anything that has to do with cooking(and eating!). Here is a photo of her first 'meatball lesson' with Daddy and another one of her making play dough pastries. She has incredible endurance when playing with play dough as you can see, she has a lineup of plates and is even pretending to use a tool from her doctor kit to decorate with. Tea parties are a regular event and always have been, in this photo she has invited Nick, our kitty, to have some milk which he was happy about. I also have a cute photo of her carrying wood in for our wood stove, she was so very proud to be able to lift 3 at once. Another is of her with her new baby doll.
Lately she has been talking about China little bit. A woman at a store recently asked her her name and she said "Laina, but my China name is Lai Fu Na". She often says to me when I am kissing her goodnight, "China kids are in the day now and I am going to sleep, and when I have wake-up time they go to bed". I showed her a nice photo book about her province and we saw some beautiful ladies and she said "I look like them, I am beautiful too, right Mommy?" I agreed wholeheartedly! She has finally made a breakthough with her potty training and has worn undies(Princess ones of course!) all of this week, except for sleeping. Yippee!!

OOh look at her

2010-01-15T14:10:00.004-05:00

Here we are again at last. I find it very difficult to keep up the blog right now, Laina is so fast and independent. She won't let me take her picture if she doesn't feel like it, and the photo opportunities are trumped by my need to watch her. Here is a cute photo of her with her Grampa at Christmas, relaxing on the couch. She adores him and especially likes when he reads her stories. Another one is of her with a new Birthday Cake toy she loves, wearing a new nightie, both from her Auntie Pam and Uncle Paul. Another is of her with her new "puter" from Santa and wearing another new nightie that Grandma made. This one she has been putting on after school just to hang around and be comfy, she likes to twirl in it too.I somehow ended up with a "girlie Girl"; I am a woman who lives in jeans and sweatshirts and works as a housepainter. The last one is of her in some dress-ups, very sparkly. I try and remember funny things she says, there are so many everyday. I recently had my appendix out and tried to simplify my explanation to her but she was still wondering about it a few days later. She said "Mommy, did the doctor take out your stomach?" I said No, of course not Honey. I really need that to eat. Then she said "Did he take out your heart?" I said "OH no, sweetie, just the appendix which I didn't need." Then she finished with "Then you still love me and we can get some chocolate, right?" WOW, she really has a way of working things out. Her mind is on overtime and we really have to stay alert to avoid being tricked by her roundabout ways to get what she wants. Her ego is very healthy too. She gets all dressed up and then asks if we will say "Ooh, look at her!She must be a Princess, for real!" when she walks by. She also asks us to say "Bravo!" when she does a pretend show or a trick. I guess all 3 year olds are self-centered though so we are not worrying....yet.

Monkey Business

2009-11-25T15:18:00.003-05:00

We are here, we are here! What can I say? Laina keeps us busy and life in general just seems to fly by so quickly. I find it difficult to spend time at the computer. Laina is a lot of fun at three years old, she has an extremely active imagination, it's hard to keep up. She invents a lot of things and we really have to try and remember them, because she does and they come up in our everyday play. For instance, she starts all her pretend games with "How about..., one day she said "How about you see a Hatzig bird", and I replied "What's a Hatzig bird?, her answer was "Hatzig birds are born with hats on so it is fun to see them and their different hats". A cool concept. This was about a month ago, and this morning she said, "Mommy, how about some Hatzig birds are lost and want to come in our house and live with us.." You really have to pay attention! She was a very cute monkey on Halloween, so there's a picture of her in her monkey hat. She helped her dad make applesauce, and of course wore her kitchen clothes...dressups are very important these days. There's another photo of her just hanging out in her favorite dancing attire. I am also including one of her with her training chopsticks, showing us that she can pick up a single pea, and another of her hiding in a recycling bag. One evening I heard Jimmy laughing to himself and asked him what was so funny. He just pointed and there on the telephone table was Laina's Little Mermaid phone, in our phone charger! It wasn't beeping very well and I had told her earlier in the day that it probably was running out of batteries. She obviously "gets it ". That's all for now, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Flower Girl

2009-09-29T12:43:00.005-05:00

This post is one of 2 I intend to post today. Our neice, Sarah, recently got married and asked Laina to be the Flower Girl. She was very proud and excited to do it. I helped her prepare by telling her about her "Princess" dress and how special she will be to be in the wedding party.It was all I could do to keep her clean for the hour before the ceremony that they were taking pictures of the bride, her and the bridesmaids. There was a frog pond and she so-o-o wanted to pick one up. They gave her a "magic wand" made of real flowers and glitter and she walked down the aisle with her cousin, Jacob, who is just a little older and was the Ring Bearer. They held hands and rang all the bells and whistles on the Cute-ometer! The Groom and Ushers wore kilts, as did Jacob, which made him even cuter. Laina felt so important that when thy were giving the vows she stood RIGHT THERE and couldn't be cajoled back to us. She turned around and wagged her finger and whispered "No, Daddy, they're getting married!" and pointed to them. She wanted to hear every word. At the Reception, she was anxious to dance and kept asking me, "when can we dance? Can we dance now? ", eventually of course, they let us and she started by trying a slow dance with Jake. She held him tight but he kept his arms straight down, I think she was a little too enthusiastic! And then, "Mommy, I need to take off this hairband, and these shoes, and these tights, so I can DANCE! Oh, and can I change into a dancing dress?", she was so funny. I luckily had predicted this and had another, loose dress so she could show off all her moves. She and her Dad really rocked the house and I have a funny picture of them, standing in front of the fans, cooling off. All in all, she was a beautiful Flower Girl and a good girl and we all had a fantastic time. Congratulations to Sarah and Bill! And special thanks to John and Betsy for sharing their photos with me.

Happy Third Birthday

2009-08-27T13:01:00.005-05:00

Laina just turned 3 years old on August 12, it's hard to believe.She woke up that day and looked at her self and then said "Look Mommy, I'm enormous!" Yesterday she got out of bed and went to the potty by herself, she wants to choose all her clothes, and is basically wanting to do everything all by herself all the time. It's a challenge to encourage her but at the same time educate her on how things should be done. I have a lot of photos, we had a fun backyard party for her on Saturday the 15th and invited about 10 other toddlers. They had a great time in our 2 kiddie pools. We also had cupcakes at home on the 12th and gave her a new tricycle. She got a cool "make your own "saxaphone game from our friends, Robin and Hollis and she and Jimmy had fun making a double one.We had a lobster Feast and I have a picture of her with her Uncle Paul. There's a funny picture of her in a very small plastic bowl that I had given to her to play with on a hot day out on the deck. I found her sitting in it and then jumping out and sitting on the deck. When I asked her what she was doing, she said "making butt prints". Sure enough, there were some cute little, heart-shaped butt marks.She even got everyone to play this game at the Day Care. We also recently went to a Fair and took a couple of pictures of her on some rides with her friend, Ivy. There's a shot of her trying on some grownup sunglasses and maybe more...

Laina Marie-About to be 3

2009-08-07T09:20:00.004-05:00

Hi everyone; We are still here, just busy busy. We are having a fun summer,the weather finally feels right. Laina is so very busy, it is exhausting just watching her. She is climbing everywhere, learning to skip and gallop. She has to do everything herself, like pick out her clothes and getting into her car seat, etc. We are constantly challenged by her unique ideas for playing pretend. I recently had to be a "scorpion named Jose', a zebra who lives under water and a carrot that talks when somebody tries to pick it. I am posting a bunch of photos for you: Laina and her Day Caregiver, Nancy at Fourth of July, a tea party with her little friend Brooklyn, painting at her easel, crabbing with Daddy, posing with both of us before going to a wedding, and riding on a boogie board. Maybe even more! Her third birthday is next wednesday and we'll be having a kids' party next weekend. We are doing kiddie pools, bubbles and water play. Laina can entertain herself with our hose for a whole afternoon lately. Last year she wanted nothing to do with the water so that's a new world for her. She blows bubbles and tries to swim in the tub or pool too. We are still working on potty training, getting rid of the pacifier, and big-girl manners. She has told me that she wants a big-girl bed now. She also informed me the other day that "I don't want to be an animal doctor anymore, I want to be a fairy". I told her that maybe she could be both, heal the animals with her wand...not sure about the fairy business, but a magic wand could sure come in handy!

There's a First for everything

2009-05-24T13:27:00.004-05:00

Laina has been a very busy girl. She had her first dentist visit and actually behaved. She usually freaks out and has a tantrum whenever she is at the doctor's so we were thrilled. She also had her first pony ride. She was so excited about it that she woke up before 5 a.m. and asked me "did the pony rides start yet? Will they have a big one? I want a big horse! I had to calm her down and tell her that it didn't start for hours and that we'd get there as soon as it opened. That same day, after the "real" pony ride, she also wanted to ride a mechanical horse outside a local market and then her wooden Rocking Horse, named Grandma when she got home. She informed me that Grandma now needs a saddle too. We've had at least one early beach day when some good weather snuck through, and some good clean fun at the playgrounds around here. She is at a "look at me!" stage, doing lots of jumping and twirling and climbing tricks.She adds after we watch each of her extraordinary feats, "babies can't do that!". Today we were mowing our lawn and she wanted her toy mower, so the 3 of us were all mowing it was very cute. She's growing out of all her clothes suddenly, jumping from 18-24 mos. to 3T. She wants a ponytail very badly so we are letting her hair grow, it's all over her face because she's too active to ever keep a barrette in. We lose one just about everyday. I'll throw in a couple extra photos to make up for the long time between posts.

Puppies, Horses and the Easter Bunny

2009-04-17T12:21:00.003-05:00

We've had a busy holiday. Laina went to see the Easter Bunny and had some fun at a Merry-Go-Round and Game room with our friends, Jeff, Marjory and their son, Luke who is 1 1/2. They stayed for the weekend and we all had a great time. When we were sitting next to the Easter Bunny for our photo, she stared at him and then suddenly said, "Thank you for the basket". It was so sweet. She really liked riding the carousel this year, last year she was a bit scared. She also rode a little car in the game room and tasted cotton candy for the first time. Yummy! A little while ago, my photographer friend, Lisa, invited us to a photo shoot at the beach where she was taking photos of 11 Black Lab puppies! Yup...11. Laina had a great time running around with them(so did we of course).

Refinalized

2009-04-09T08:01:00.005-05:00

Yesterday we went to refinalize Laina's adoption.This is not required as when an adoption is from China it is finalized when you are there, and she became a U.S. Citizen as soon as we hit U.S. airspace on the way home. However, Laina has a Chinese birth certificate and the U.S. requires this refinalization in front of a Judge to get her a U.S Birth certificate. Everyone recommends it since it will make her life easier, getting enrolled in school, getting her driver's license and everything else you need it for. It gave us a sense of closure and we had friends come with us. Also, today is the anniversary of Gotcha Day, the first time Laina was put in our arms. We have so much to be thankful for. I think I'll keep this post simple, with a photo of us yesterday at the courthouse with the judge and maybe a couple of photos from the actual Gotcha Day 2 years ago. The best day of our lives!

Chicks and Chips

2009-03-24T07:48:00.004-05:00

This past weekend we attended a Family Day for the local school to celebrate spring. They had Face Painting, bean bag games, egg decorating, tissue paper flower making, and baby animals, as well as some other things. Laina had no interest in anything but the animals. We went into the room with baby chicks that the kids could hold and she held one, ever so gently in her arms for almost 45 minutes! It was so relaxed that it fell asleep and she absolutely refused to put it down. She was kissing it and cooing, it was so very cute. I had a hard time getting a picture because of the crowd. The yellow chick is the one she fell in love with, the brown is the first one she held.(we tried to get her to the other games at the fair but she just wanted to go back in with the chicks). When we got home later, we made some cookies and took a photo of her in one of her aprons with a chef hat on. She came up with the idea to make Daddy a really Big Cookie so we did and he was very happy about it as you can see. Laina was not happy at that point, it was naptime so she "hid" behind him and did not want to have her picture taken. At two years old, she can be an angel one minute and then suddenly turn into a big grouch, but we are managing. We've had to start time-outs and occasional loss of priveleges that she really wants, like books at bedtime.She told Jimmy one day that he wasn't the Boss, and when she is really angry she says "You're not my friend!". She is really testing her limits! The joys outweigh the frustrations always though, and she is growing up and learning quickly. What a kid!

Jammin'

2009-03-08T15:16:00.003-05:00

Hi; Here we are again. We have been very busy lately. Our most recent adventure was a trip to the New England Aquarium on Feb,28. We had a great time, Laina was very excited and kept running ahead, coming back and grabbing my hand to see the next thing. Her favorite things were the penguins(when we arrived, they were feeding them). and the jellyfish. She liked to have them swim by her face up against the glass. Unfortunately, our camera was acting up and we have no pictures of the event. I have been trying to post some that were emailed to us by Uncle Paul, but something is glitchy. Hopefully I can figure it out.For now, you'll have to see some that were taken here at home. One is of her playing her guitar for me, and some are of her eating a muffin with jam, lots of jam...and playing at the sink, and wearing an envelope hat. We have been enjoying a couple days of nice weather, Laina and I went to the swings yesterday and she was practicing pumping all by herself. She likes to sing the whole time she swings so it is great fun to be there with her. She absolutely will not leave the playground until she has been on ALL the things either. If we miss one, she will remind me at home,"We forgot to climb the dinosaur Mommy!" She counted to 14 yesterday, all by herself, so I think we've overcome the number 12 hurdle. She had been stuck there, saying 11 and then 8. We have also noticed a great interest in letters and reading, she pretends to read "grownup" books and must have one of mine for the game. We play pretend a LOT, Jimmy and I must always be ready, at any time, anyplace, to instantly become a bear, a baby, an alligator, a lost kitty, or anything. It's very tricky sometimes. A funny new game is playing "babysitter". It's funny because when my friend, Wendy babysat for us, the power went out. Poor Wendy had an irate and bossy 2 year old yelling "Put on my Winnie the Pooh Light NOW!", and she didn't know where our candles or anything were. So now, when we play babysitter, Laina means "Get the flashlight, and pretend the power is out". I laugh every time!

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T13:13:00.003-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day! Laina had a party at school yesterday and this morning her Daddy gave us both flowers and candy, and together we gave her some stickers and small stuff. Today we went to a local puppet show and tonight we'll have a special dinner, so we are all having a very nice day. All Laina is interested in is the candy, of course. Every couple of minutes she says, "can I have some candy now?, how about some chocolate? Where are my treats?"..the sugar radar is ON. Here're some photos for you. One is her photo from yesterday in her heart shirt for school.One is of her painting, with 4 brushes at once! One is in her "Lounge Singer" getup, she asked special permission to get on the table, "just for a minute, for my show", and a couple of other fun outfits she put together. Thanks Holly(and Holly's Girls) and Betsy, and Grandma for all the dressups, as you can see, they are getting some attention! She is very independent lately, trying to put on her clothes and doing a lot more by herself. She feeds the cats every morning and has informed us that we can give away her high chair to another baby. She helps me all the time, and also has started brushing my hair. She finally has some hair herself and will let me put barrettes in it sometimes. Seems like progress! She uses the potty 1 or 2 times a day, when we mention it, but has not started telling us when she has to go.She asked me why boys have "peanuts" and recently pointed some out to me on a nude male statue in a local statue park, so we are having some more talk about bodies. She asked a pregnant friend if she could see her baby so we had to tell her it was still growing in there. She also told her Day Caregiver, Nancy, that "I was born in Mama's arms, in China" Gave me some big warm fuzzies to hear that!

Gung Ho Fat Choy

2009-01-26T13:15:00.003-05:00

Today is the Chinese New Year and that is the traditional greeting which means "may prosperity be with you". This is a very important time of year in most of Asia. It is a time to celebrate new beginnings,and fresh starts. They celebrate for 15 days and here are some of the traditions and preparations: cleaning the house to "sweep away the bad luck from last year", getting haircuts and new clothes for a fresh, clean start, decorating the house with red banners and scrolls for good luck, placing live blooming plants around the house to symbolize renewal, and handing out red envelopes with money inside to all the children for good luck. We had a little family dinner celebration last night with some chinese food, decorated the house with lanterns and dragons, and gave Laina a couple of small gifts(at 2, money isn't all that interesting thank goodness). We started learning to count to 10 in Mandarin, and read some Chinese New Year stories we found at the library. In the coming years we intend to learn more about it and attend some of the parades and festivities in Chinatown, or with our China travel group and all of the kids. Tomorrow they will make paper lanterns at Laina's Day Care and read some of the stories I have to the other kids. In the Chinese zodiac this is the year of the Ox. The Chinese observe a 12-year cycle in which each year is named after a particular animal. Laina was born in 2006, the Year of the Dog, Jimmy is a Rabbit and I am an Ox. I used to have a link for the zodiac for you to click on, just scroll down on the side of the blog. Hopefully it works. So we wish all of our family and friends "Gung Ho Fat Choy" today and hope for a fantastic New Year for all of you!

Glamour Girl

2009-01-15T12:06:00.001-05:00

This one speaks for itself.

Holiday Happiness

2009-01-01T12:17:00.005-05:00

Happy New Year! The Benoits have had a terrific Christmas and winter so far. Laina enjoyed the holiday much more than last year when she was sick all Christmas Day. Some memorable moments this season: We read some Christmas cards to her and explained that "Peace on Earth" is when everyone likes each other and everyone is happy and that it might be a good thing to ask for from Santa. We were in the Post Office and someone came up and asked "What do you want from Santa this year,Laina?" and her response was "Peace on Earth and a couple of toys", and added "an alligator and a duckie". It was very cute. She made her first snowman, as last year we didn't get much snow where we live. After we came inside, we looked out the window at him and she said, "That's my first snowman in the Whole Wide World". On Christmas evening, we went to visit with our friends next door and their daughter had a new pet gerbil named Dolly. Laina asked to hold her and was very gentle with it, petting her with one finger and talking like a Mommy.."It's okay, Dolly, I'm holding you". Very sweet, she is not afraid of animals at all, sometimes teases our cats a little too much but is generally very gentle. One of her special gifts this year is a toy horse barn and paddock made by her Uncle Rob and Aunt Betsy.One of the photos is of when she flipped the roof open and put the horses up there.They also made her a Super Girl cape and accessories that she likes a lot. She played some new musical instruments while wearing her cape, it was a good show.There's also a photo of a really nice balloon puzzle that her Gampa made and a couple of other shots. Photo opportunities are many but I am often just too busy with her to pick up the camera.Today I am unable to crop or brighten or edit the photos for some reason so they are not as good as they might be. We'd welcome any good pictures from the family. We hope that all our friends and family are weathering the storms, and that 2009 will bring good fortune, health and happiness to us all.

Giving Thanks

2008-12-06T15:32:00.002-05:00

We hope everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving. Laina did, although she came down with a terrible cold that day(sorry to all of you that caught it!)She met her Aunt Mary, cousins Lee and Greg, and their wives, Emily and Heather, for the first time. We were all so happy to see more of our extended family. The picture I took isn't great, but I'll post it anyway.
People have been asking for more funny stories, here's one that I told some of you already; Laina recently went for her annual physical and vaccinations. She was absolutely miserable, crying and sobbing "No, no, no"...the Pediatrician who is very nice was asking me some basic questions, and she said, "Is Laina putting together a couple of words yet?", Laina looked at her, stopped crying, then scowled and turned to me and said, very clearly "Mommy, I want to get OUT of this hospital!". We laughed, the Doc had to turn away so Laina wouldn't see her giggling. She has LOTS of words. She told Jimmy that the Doctor "hurt her with a pin!" She has started focusing more on art projects and coloring, etc. Here's a picture of us playing with stencils. There's also one of her giving one of her fingerpaintings to her Grandma, or Memmere'. She also spends some time "reading", and looking at her books by herself and making up stories. This morning, her story was " Once there was a Mommy, a Daddy and a Laina, and they went to Ice-Cream Island. They saw animals and it was fun". I think I would like that island...

Racing Rabbit

2008-11-12T12:48:00.004-05:00

Here we are again, at last! Amazing how little time a mother of a 2 year old has. I am extremely thankful today that I have a day off and she has Day Care. I miss her and feel quite boring by myself but I can catch up with a lot of things. Here's some pictures of her in her Halloween Mouse costume. She started with a tiger one but screamed that it was "biting" her and I had to get it off her quickly. Guess it was a prickly edge of a velcro strip or something.We tried a comfy mouse suit given to her by Aunt Betsy and as you can see in a picture with her Daddy, she was especially pleased to have a tail. This costume lasted all day long and into an evening party also. She took off the ears though, we can't get her to keep anything on her head or in her hair. Another photo is of her doing her "laps" in her bunny towel. This is a regular after-bath event, she gets energized and dons her Super Buny cape and runs around the dining room table. There's a couple of other cute ones, taken at the playground in town, finger-painting at home, and in a pretty flowered dress. She is very entertaining lately and I try to remember the funny things she says. She gets very relaxed as she is swinging on the playground, and some funny questions start flowing, like: "Mommy, do Dragons like macaroni?", "Does Old MacDonald have monkeys?", and when I asked her what her favorite color was, her answer was "Rainbow". I love that!

My Little Mommy

2008-10-06T13:08:00.004-05:00

Taking care of our kids is a very busy job. Laina is constantly putting her babies(mostly Lambie and the cat) to bed, and cooking in the kitchen and giving them medicine because they are sick and telling us to "shush" with her finger at her lips because they are sleeping, etc. She received two beautiful cradles for her birthday, one from her Grampa and Gramma, and one from her "Auntie" Kristin. She loves and uses them both and needs them because she has lots of babies. She just got a new Lambie, in hopes that she would retire the old one but she won't, when she was smaller we could just tell her that Lambie had a "Super Tubbie" and she'd be psyched, now she is onto our tricks. Lately, she has been bringing her stepstool all over the house so she "helps" me in the kitchen. I'll post a couple pictures of her doing that, and playing with her cradles too.
One morning I told her that we had the day off together and asked her what she'd like to do and she looked up at me with a totally serious, and hopeful face and asked..."how about going to a monkey parade?" Her imagination is on full speed all the time. She is also going into a kindergarten once a week, not because of her genius(although of course we think she is brilliant!), but because her Day Caregiver, Nancy does something at a school once a week and takes her along. She loves it and we like that she is getting a "sneak peek" into school. Her vocabulary is amazing us everyday, and not always the way we want. I took her to see the big waves at a local beach after a storm and she looked and said "Oh My God!" very loudly when she saw them. Could be worse so we all try and curb our "potty-mouths" so she won't mimic us. Sorry about the whole month going by between blogging!

Laina the Kid

2008-09-07T15:26:00.003-05:00

Laina announced from her carseat,"Mommy, I'm a kid, not a baby" and added for emphasis "Jack is a baby" He is a 1 year old at her Day Care. She is super busy, getting into everything. She mimics a lot of what we say and when she is relaxed at home, talks endlessly. In front of strangers she still freezes up, but it takes less time now for her to warm up to them. This past week she had her first overnight away from us. Jimmy and I had a "date night" and she stayed over at her Day Care. It worked out great, she already naps there and just loves Nancy. I found that I missed her, even though I enjoyed relaxing. Things are pretty dull around here without her! Today I am posting a family photo of Jimmy's Mom and Dad's 60th Anniversary, one of her with our cat Luna in a box, one of her in her Birthday Tutu, and one of her sitting on a big dirt pile at her Aunt Pam and Uncle Paul's Camp. She had a lot of fun there, swimming and playing in the sand with her cousin, Jacob.

Peek-a-Boo, Look who's 2!

2008-08-17T20:22:00.003-05:00

Laina turned 2 years old on August 12. She is an amazing little girl and we are more in love with her everyday. Her vocabulary is excellent for her age, especially considering that she didn't even hear the English language until she was 8 months old. We gave her a tiarra to wear at her birthday party(with visiting family at our house) and she found her own unique way to wear it. Every day she surprises us and makes us laugh. I'll post that and one of her eating her favorite food, watermelon.All the pieces of melon in the picture are hers and she finishes them all. Another picture is just a really nice shot of her looking around a post that her cousin Amy took. Love it, Amy! Thanks. She does so many funny and new things each day. Yesterday, she walked away from Jimmy in the yard and just marched over to our next door neighbors' house. Jimmy called out to her "where are you going?" and she answered "visiting" and went right up to their front door and inside. They are close friends and she knows them but this is a huge change from the girl who doesn't go anywhere by herself. We have to watch her carefully but that's our favorite thing to do anyway! It's the Laina Show! Lately she has had a fascination with bugs and worms(calls worms, "slimeys" because of the worm on Sesame Street. We look for them and she inspects all the creatures we find very carefully. A magnifying bug jar was one of the gifts we gave her, and she 's having fun looking up close at all sorts of toys and things too. Maybe a budding scientist, who knows?

The Big Sand Box

2008-07-28T15:04:00.003-05:00

Hi; Laina has been enjoying her summer. This year she is more interested in the sand than the water and calls the beach the "big sandbox". Here's a couple of pictures of her playing and watching the sunset with us, one of her with her friend Colin, and also one of her in her sandbox at home. We built it within our fenced garden area which works out great! I can enjoy working in the garden and still be close, while I know she is nearby and safe. In a couple of weeks, on August 9, we are going to have a reunion with the extended China group of 28 families. It will be so much fun to see them all together, all but Laina will be 2 or older and she'll turn 2 herself on the 12th of August. They are very fast at this age but hopefully we'll get some good photos, especially with the "Guangxi Girls", our four girls from the same province. Can't wait to see them all! Some recent milestones for Laina include; jumping (and actually getting her feet off the ground), walking heel-to-toe across a beam without holding anyone's hand, climbing everything, saying "please" and "thank you" and "excuse me" and even "I'm sorry". She has too many words to count now and speaks in full sentences quite often. She can handle the stairs without holding hands and is getting better around people she doesn't know, although she still waits to get to know people before she really speaks to them. Enjoy the new pictures!

Sleeping Beauty and the Kiss of Prince Taylor

2008-07-05T13:50:00.004-05:00

Laina had a fantastic 4th of July. We went to the big parade and she seemed to enjoy it a lot.Jimmy marched with a fife and drum corp on the second time they came by(our parade route goes in a big circle so you get to see everything twice) , it surprised her to spot him and she started yelling "Daddy, Daddy!" and I had to run after him with her in my arms, weaving through the crowd until he was able to glance her way. We met with her friend, Taylor at an annual party and we asked him to give her another kiss, like last year. She didn't want to at first, until we said she could wear his beads.Then she said okay. The power of jewelry, eh girls? Later, she fell instantly asleep in the car for the ride home, closing her eyes and murmuring.."where Taylor go?"... Jimmy took a shot of her sleeping that really shows how beautiful she is. I love it and just printed it for a frame. I also took a shot of Laina with her Day Caregiver, Nancy, who she really adores and you can tell just by the way she looks at her. Laina knows that Nancy is my name too and today she addressed me as "Mommy Nancy, my Mommy". OOps, just put up the wrong picture with Taylor, so I'll add the kiss shot too. There's a photo in last July's posts of the two of them in the same spot. Check it out by going to the Blog archives and searching by date. This is also the way to read about our China trip to bring Laina home in April 2007.

Summertime.....and the Livin' is easy

2008-07-01T19:21:00.002-05:00

Summertime has finally arrived. The first houseguests have started to come, the first zucchini was picked tonight, the first sunburns have come and gone, Laina is brown and swimming at Day Care, life is good. We are incredibly busy with Laina, work, and a revolving door of guests. Our first were Nancy's Mom and Dad. There's a photo for you of Grampa reading a bedtime story to her. He's a great storyteller and we all enjoyed it. Laina got a beautiful, handmade wooden rocking horse from Jimmy's Mom and Dad, brother Richard, and his wife Mary. We'll post a picture of Jimmy and Laina having a horse race. One night, recently, Laina saw not only her first rainbow, but actually her first 2 rainbows. Look closely at the photo of her and Jimmy. We also had an actual family time at the beach one Sunday and there's a picture of her there. She calls this photo "Daddy's Hand" and laughs and points at it. We'll be going to a 4th of July Parade and having more guests so hopefully we'll be posting lots more photos soon. It's great for her to socialize and get to know everyone in both of our large families. This year she remembers all of the names(with a little practice looking at her family photo album) and asks about people. She'll say something like "Robert home?" when she's thinking about her cousin who was recently here.She has been talking very well, and has a very rich vocabulary with full sentences. One morning I caught her raiding the cabinet before breakfast and getting out a big box of animal crackers. I said "No, no, Laina, you can't have cookies for breakfast." She looked at me very seriously and said "Just a couple of monkeys, Mommy." We laugh a lot around here, and she is starting to show a good sense of humor, as well as a strong will and defiant streak that is in anticipation of the "Terrible twos", but mostly she is even tempered and so much fun to be around. Enjoy all the new pictures, more to come!

Weekend Fun

2008-06-02T12:45:00.002-05:00

Here's some new photos for you. The first one is Laina with her first bandaid. She had a bad bugbite on her head that she kept scratching. I gave her a little travel mirror to see her bandaid and she was thrilled with it. She tells me constantly now that she has a boo-boo and needs another one! She is running around a lot now and will suddenly just fall asleep. She likes to play in "holes", which are just spaces that we make in between piles of pillows. There's a shot of her in a pillow hole, fast asleep. We went to the beach and she had a terrific time and actually wore her sunglasses. I will post a picture of her with Jimmy at the beach and one of her in her glasses. There's also one of Laina and her Daddy asleep on the couch. He and Laina are alike in that they really like their naps! When you play hard, you sleep well. We are currently working on tooth-brushing and washing at the sink, counting and letters, she is trying her potty chair sometimes, lots of pretend eating and tea parties. Today she was crawling around and meowing like a kitty, and also puts her toys to bed and pretends to change their diapers. We get to hear a lot of singing and she seems to have an ear for music, gets the melodies and sounds like she is on-key. Lately I have been playing more grown-up music and she is just fine with that and is learning some of the lyrics to the music I listen to, not just the kid stuff. On June 12, she will be 22 months old. Wow! Two in August, hard to believe, it goes so fast

Mom's Days

2008-05-10T13:54:00.005-05:00

We're still here! So sorry to take so long between posts. Here's some new pictures. Laina is just growing like crazy. She has sprouted out of all her clothes and so now I am starting to open up the "Big kid's clothes" that people have given us. She is talking extremely well and sings all the time. We are having so much fun watching her. She is doing puzzles, building towers, playing dress-up, having tea parties and doing so many things. We have recently visited some spring lambs and some baby chickens so there's a photo of that.Laina likes to wear my radio-headphones that I bring to work(I am a house painter) so I'll post a picture of that. She cuts quite a figure with a full tummy! There's also a cute one of her playing with Nick our kitty.As you can see, her hair is finally growing and tends to stick up a lot. I have been thinking a lot about Mother's Day and feeling incredibly happy about our little family. We are just so in love with Laina, it is hard to imagine life withour her. I love being her Mommy. She has now been home for over a year and we have definitely completely forever-bonded and it feels FANTASTIC! Every day is Mom's Day.

Guangxi Girls

2008-04-10T19:57:00.004-05:00

We have been very busy lately, every weekend there has been reason to celebrate. First we had a reunion with our Guangxi families. This would be our four families, and our "Peeps" who were together in the same province to bring our girls home. I am posting a photo of the four of them, in tee shirts that Bella's Mom, Tina, had made up. They say "I'm a Guangxi Girl" and have their American names in English on the front and in Chinese on the back. Laina is the yawning, but clapping one. From left to right, they are: Roma, Laina, Bella, and Jianna. We had a wonderful visit and hope to get together often. Yesterday was our official "Gotcha Day" anniversary from when they were placed in our arms. What an amazing time the last year has been. We can't imagine our lives without Laina. I will also post a photo of Roma and Bella just because it's cute! This past weekend Laina and I went for a "Girls Only Weekend" with her Aunt Betsy, to visit Grandma and Grampa and her Aunt Kathy, and anyone else we could see on our journey. It was great to show everyone how much she has grown and we only wish we could visit more often. Traveling with a 20-month old is a real adventure! She was well-behaved though and managed the long drive like a champion, sleeping almost all the way; only waking up for a little singing and a snack now and then.I'm having a little trouble with my photo program, so that's it for now. I hope to add more soon. We have had a fun couple of weeks but right now, I am just so happy to look into the baby's dimly lit room and stare at her beautiful sleeping face and feel thankful.

Hoppy Easter

2008-03-24T15:29:00.005-05:00

Laina enjoyed her first Easter celebration since she came home(last year,Laina was placed in our arms on April 9, but at home it was April 10, Easter Day 2007!)This will always be a very special time for our family. This year, we had some friends visit with their baby, Luke, who is 5 months old. We went to see the Easter Bunny and they both had their first Merry Go Round rides. I did not get a good photo at the carousel, but here's one of Laina in her bunny ears, which she wears around a lot. We all have them and she likes us all to march around with musical instruments and have a parade. Parades are a nightly event in the Benoit household and Laina always leads the way. Jimmy and I make up silly words and sometimes manage to cook and set up for dinner as we shake our maracas and keep marching through the kitchen! There's another one of her with Jimmy and the Easter Bunny. I will post a photo of Luke with his cool glasses on, with his Dad Jeff, and one of Laina, reading a story with Luke's Mom, Marjory. It was a fun and busy weekend and it will be hard to get back to work tomorrow. We have a Guangxi reunion next weekend though, so there's something great to look forward to. Also, Laina and I are going to have a Mother/Daughter weekend at her Grandma and Grampas house the weekend after that.Should be a lot of photo opportunities coming up!

2008-03-17T09:02:00.004-05:00

Hi everyone; Laina is finally napping so I can catch up a little! She is transitioning from two to one nap so I never know lately when she'll take one, or for how long. She has 2 new teeth, the lower canines are just peeking out. I think that makes 15, but wouldn't gamble on it. She is talking up a storm! Everyday there are new words, and lots of singing. In the car she just sings away from her car seat, mostly Happy Birthday, or The ABC Song, with a few 'doo-dahs' for effect.Today I will put up a picture of her riding a train at Day Care. Her Caregiver, Nancy always has special things for them to do on different days. This was also "pajama Day" so she's all comfy in feety pj's. Another shot is of her in her glamour Girl sunglasses on the swing with her Lambie. This toy is in many pictures, it is a "Lambchop" puppet and has become her special comfort thing. I can barely wash it.She likes to make us smell her for some reason, which is probably a familiar friendly smell to her, but can be well, umm, kind of yucky. And you have say "ummm, very nice, or something special about Lambie after you smell it. She makes me check the dryer every couple of minutes when the Lamb is in there.I was trying to post a video but haven't figured it out yet, so may be able to do that later. As we approach Easter, and our 1 year anniversary, we are amazed at how she has blossomed and how much in love with her we are. We feel so very lucky to have her in our lives and our family. Soon, we have a reunion with our group of 4 babies from the same province in China, Guangxi, and their families. We are really looking forward to seeing them all. When you share something like this, you really bond for life and we hope to keep them in Laina's life and ours, forever.

2008-02-24T10:22:00.002-05:00

So sorry, it has been too long since our last post! Laina is getting much "busier", running and exploring everything. She has been getting ideas...like standing on something to get to something else. We have to watch her very carefully. There's new bumps and bruises more often as she finds her way, but she is doing very well over all. Now 1 1/2 years old, she has lots of teeth. In fact, I'm not sure how many, maybe 13, and she wants to eat everything we eat, and also does not want cut-up little baby bites. She has tons of new words, more than we can count and she sings all the time.It's so much fun!Here's some pictures for you; there's one of her riding in her wagon, swinging on the new swings in town(she was the first one on them!), riding in a box with my sister Betsy's dog, Sophie and a cute one of Laina and Jimmy playing with stickers.

2008-02-03T15:19:00.000-05:00

Although I posted yesterday, I decided that since it was a "flashback" to give you some new stuff too. Here's Laina in a cute purple dress, one of her with her Grampa, one of her outside in the snow, and one of her with her buddy, our cat Nick who really seems to like her and is very tolerant of her crawling all over him as you can see.There's also one of her in her new beanbag chair from Christmas. She likes having her own spot to sit and she plays on it a lot too.Lately, she has been getting very brave about climbing on things and wants desperately to go down the stairs. It gets scary sometimes! She has progressed a great deal with her dexterity and is doing a lot of puzzles and shape sorting. We sing the "Happy Birthday" song a few billion times a day, with an occasional burst of "Twinkle, twinkle little star"-she is getting more words everyday and fills in with her own sounds but she is starting to get the melodies.I could listen to her all day. My radio broke in my van and I don't even care!

Flashback

2008-02-02T12:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, February 1, was the anniversary of our "Referral Day". This is the most exciting day for an adoptive family as it means you are finally matched to your child. We had heard through the rumors online and from emailing other families that the referrals may come on February 1. It was a Thursday. They said that they were being delivered by DSL to the agency, but then they would all(28 families total) have to be translated before anyone was called so there was nothing to do but wait...We decided that we probably wouldn't get "the call" before the afternoon so Jimmy went to work for a while. We tried to conference call but that didn't work between the phones we had. We then planned that I would take the call if it came and record it, call Jimmy right away and tell him everything, then he'd listen to the recording when he got home. I had my coat on to go out for a quick errand at 10 a.m. and the phone rang! It was our Social Worker and I scrambled to sit down and get the recording going and get my pen out and try to slow down my heart rate. She told me as much as she could about our baby and I called Jimmy right away but couldn't get him! I left a crazy voice mail and waited, clapping and jumping up and down all by myself because I was so excited. No call back...I was literally trotting up and down the stairs chanting,"call me, call me..", my adrenaline was so high.Finally I tried another number at the jobsite(after leaving 2 more voice-mails I think), got the Foreman and told him to get Jimmy to call me right away. He did and we were both so excited, he came home right away and had pink balloons to put outside. We spent the rest of the day calling everyone we knew, hugging and staring at the scribbled information I had written. It was amazing. The hardest part was that we couldn't see her pictures until Tuesday! That was a long weekend but so full of joy too. Today's post is the original referral photos that we were given that Tuesday, February 6 last year. The Social Worker left us alone in the office for privacy and handed Jimmy the manilla envelope. We looked at our beautiful baby and cried with joy. We are so blessed with our Laina. It was the birth of a family, what we call in the adoptive world our "Forever Family".

New Year, New Teeth and more news

2008-01-14T14:44:00.000-05:00

Well, here we are in 2008. Nothing can top the excitement of last year but we're off to a good start. Laina is doing new things everyday. She now has 11 teeth, and more coming soon. She is doing Ring Around the Rosy and dancing a lot. She sings to us, and everything is the tune of Jingle Bells(Just like Elmo does it). She says a few 2 word phrases and they all have to do with food. At Day Care and now at home too, she announces "Snack Time!" when she feels sure the time is right. She is growing taller and is running out of feety pajamas quickly. We play tea party everyday with her toy dishes and there's lots of play-eating (as well as the real thing.) She sleeps pretty well, about 9-10 hours usually with a couple of adjustments during the night; you know, blankie rearranging and binkie maneuvers...She is also working hard at learning to jump, which is just the cutest thing you've ever seen. She throws her body up but doesn't get any air, but she laughs and loves it and keeps trying and trying. She puts all our coins in her nice piggy bank that she got from our friend Alexandra. I'll post a photo of that. I have a cute one of yogurt-eating. We are still encouraging the spoon but she likes to use all her senses to really experience a meal as you can see.You'll have to imagine all the lip-smacking and "nummy" sounds... She was inspired by her Daddy to try coloring with her toes, and actually did pretty well and since then, she has been trying to do a lot with her feet. Yesterday she wanted to try playing the piano that way! Well, it's almost time for her to get up from her nap. She wakes up and shouts "All Done!" (This is cute, except for at 3 or 4 a.m.) Enjoy the pictures!

Christmas continues

2007-12-29T14:04:00.001-05:00

oops, I forgot to add a couple of pix. Here's the grocery cart one(Thanks Aunt Ronnie, she loves it!) and my favorite one of her sleeping under the tree...I'd add some with other people in them but, well, hmmmm...don't seem to have any of anyone else!

First Christmas

2007-12-29T09:47:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone, here are some photos of Laina's first Christmas. We spent the whole weekend celebrating with both Jimmy and Nancy's families and that was loads of fun. We were very wiped out from all the festivities and as it turns out, Laina got sick on Christmas day and spent a good part of the day sleeping under the tree. I got all weepy when I was looking at her there and all I could think of was that she was the only present we could possibly need. It's been an incredible year for us, bringing home Laina is really a dream come true. 2007 will always be my favorite year, although I realize that there's lots more amazing times to come with our daughter! Here's a few photos, and I am including a couple of "runners-up" Christmas card shots too. By the way, if you are friend or family and did not receive a card, please don't take it personally. I ran out of steam, but not out of cards! Feel free to ask for one. Let's see...there's a picture with Daddy under the tree, a picture sleeping under the tree,a picture of just how much energy she had to open her stocking, and just for an action shot to liven things up, I will add a running photo with her new grocery cart. She is a very fast shopper! Happy New Year !

All I want for Christmas

2007-12-11T07:55:00.000-05:00

These 2 photos speak for themselves...we went to see Santa for the first time this past Sunday. All Laina wanted to do was climb the little stairs to the Santa chair, as we waited in line we had to keep retreiving her. I also got a cute shot in her fish tubbie. We've found that this inflatable fish works out great as a tub for her, it is safer and smaller and FUN. She has always loved the water and has no problem getting her face wet(or drinking it!). The hard part is getting her out. Enjoy the photos, more to come...

Firsts and Funnies

2007-12-07T11:10:00.000-05:00

Laina has been doing "firsts" everyday now, it is hard to keep track of them, especially new words. When she gets hold of a new word, she likes to practice it and she does this by SHOUTING IT! For a while, she was Baa-ing like a sheep really loud,and still does especially when you drive by a field. Then it was "apple", everything was an apple until we almost couldn't wait for the next word. But one day, she had pulled my hair that morning and I said OW! She thought that was pretty funny and did it again. So...we had a nice little talk about bodies and boo-boos, etc. End of lesson. Then we went to the grocery store...She started yelling OW,OW,OW until customers and employees were looking down the aisle at me with daggers. A store worker came up to me and asked "Is everything all right?" I was mortified but also trying not to laugh as I carefully explained that it was just the "word of the day". Laina was smiling so I think they believed me..and it helped that there was a big milk poster in the dairy aisle and she decided suddenly that yelling MOO would be fun too! Here's some new pix for you..one is of her when I gave her a whole banana to hold and eat instead of cutting it all up. Another is of her first touch of snow with Daddy. We only got a dusting but she really liked it and now she checks out the sliding glass doors all the time to see if there's any out there.We are supposed to get a little tonight so maybe tomorrow there'll be a little to play in. I will also include a photo of her with her Day Caregiver, Nancy, who she likes very much. We are lucky to find a really great place where she goes 3 days a week.Laina has really blossomed since she's been playing with the other kids, doing organized activities and learning from the older ones there. We both just wish that we could be flies on the wall so we don't miss anything.

Tunneling for Trouble

2007-11-18T20:48:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone. We have been recently assured that, yes, someone is "out there" still looking at our blog. All viewers have not been lost! Hi to my sister Kathy and her friends at work who check in with us regularly.(Don't tell the Boss!) Laina is becoming such a personality. She is having fun in tents and tunnels, jumping on pillows and much more active play. She also is showing her imagination by marching her animals and pretending to feed us, etc.(Yummy, ABC food, if you know what I mean...) Tonight at dinner she had a big half of a slice of carrot and was driving it around on her high chair tray like a little orange VW Bug, complete with engine sounds, it was very funny. We attended a potluck party with the AFTA group we have here, that stands for "All Families Touched by Adoption", it was a lot of fun and we feel so lucky to have this kind of group to get together with. Laina was one of 4 new kids adopted, and they got a cake with their names on it and lots of attention. I am posting a group photo of most of the kids at the party,Laina is the teeny red person in the middle, surrounded by 5 other little ones also from China and many other incredible kids from all over the world. There's a nice close-up of her beautifulness, and a couple of her recent tunneling adventures. One we made from the couch at home and one is at the Family Center where the party was held. Now, Get back to work Ladies!!

BOO

2007-11-04T07:34:00.000-05:00

Laina's first Halloween was a busy one. We borrowed some costumes(Thank you Holly, aka the Halloween Queen), tried on some old family favorites, and had a great time. Here are some pictures. First she was a puppy but alas, the costume was too short and she said NO. Got a photo anyway...Next, she was a bumblebee for a birthday party, we put the hat with antennae on her and she said NO. We took a photo anyway...Next she tried on a hat herself, got a cute photo of that. Then finally we realized that we had received an awesome lamb costume at the baby shower and although it was too big, she said YES! And what a cute lambie she was. We went to the pumpkin patch and she picked her first pumpkin and she was also a pumpkin herself at Day Care where they made Halloween cupcakes, had a singalong in costume and she came home one tired out li'l punkin.

Beaded, Beautiful, Beachy and Brilliant

2007-10-23T14:49:00.000-05:00

Laina has been keeping us so busy, Wow. She moves really fast these days, and she's curious about everything. Her 8th tooth just finally came in after a few sleepless nights. We've all recovered now, and things are back to our usual comfortable chaos. I have a few new pictures for you. She's just so beautiful I can hardly stand it. There's a new pink coat shot, one of her in her beads that she likes to wear all the time, a picture of her in her hippie vest on the grass, and a cute one of her on the beach just yesterday. We have finished our post-placement requirements this past Friday when we had our final Social Worker visit. Next, we are going to re-finalize the adoption in the local court so she has a U.S. Birth Cretificate. This is not required and she is "officially " ours already. She even has a U.S. Citizenship certificate and a letter from President Bush. We got her a SS number too. I think the re-finalization will give us a sense of closure and a sort of "ceremony" here. The birth certificate will, of course, make it easier to enroll her in school, etc. This past Sunday we visited with Laina's friend, Bella. She is a child from the same orphanage as Laina and we traveled together to get our babies. They had a good time playing and we all enjoyed the visit but we forgot to take a picture of them together, RATS. But here's the photos I promised..

Twirling

2007-10-05T08:59:00.000-05:00

Wow! October already. On October 20th, Laina will have been home for 6 months. It's hard to believe. Feels like she has always been with us... As you can imagine, Laina is growing now by leaps and bounds. She is not only running around, but also can walk backward, and twirl in a circle. The big kids at Day Care are great for her to be around, everyday she learns more just from watching them. There are new words all the time, I'd say she has at least a dozen now and she's mimicking all the time. There are 6 teeth in and more on the way. She'll eat anything, and I mean anything, but she is learning to put things in the basket when we tell her it's trash. We have given away the first batch of clothes that she's grown out of. Here's a picture of her with her favorite articles of clothing..SHOES! Also one of her with her Grandpa(Bampee) and Grandma(Mamma), and a cute one of her in her Saturday jeans and sneakers. I have had trouble finding time to post, but will make a better effort. One thing is that our computer is in a guest room and we have had a lot of people visiting lately. More arrive tomorrow and I'll be taking some new pix with her Aunt Kathy, Uncle Tom and cousin Robert to post next time.

Bubbles

2007-09-17T07:57:00.000-05:00

Laina received a "gazillion Bubbles" machine and we tried it out one day. She loved it of course, although she wanted to put her mouth up to the gizmo and eat them! Here's a shot of her playing in them. We've been very busy with guests and will be until after Columbus Day. Laina is in Day Care for 3 days a week and I am getting back to work. She loves the Day Care place but we wish she could tell us stories of her day. It feels very wierd not to know what she did every minute!Oops, she's awake..gotta go!

Daddy's Little Girl

2007-08-31T08:49:00.000-05:00

We're ba-ack..sorry for the long break between posts! Laina is busy, busy. We have had a fun month of August, Laina has had a couple of birthday parties, we had a China Reunion with the families that we traveled with, we've had house guests and of course, the little one is running everywhere. Today I am posting a couple of cute pix of her with her Daddy. One is of them watching TV, he gives her an old remote and she thinks she is changing the channels, it's pretty funny. Another is of when she just suddenly fell asleep on him. There's a photo of her with her cousin Jacob at the window in their diapers and a great one of her on a Rocking Horse. As you can see, she controls the world with her pointer finger and is leading the charge! I have also included a picture of her in her new duckie slippers that she loves, from our friends Stephanie and Annabelle. She is doing so well. There's 2 new teeth coming through on the bottom, she is mimicking a lot of words and is really cruising around steadily now. I am starting to dread Day Care starting in a couple of weeks, it is so fun to be with her everyday. We'll only do 3 days though and I guess it will feel good to get back to work and be with grownups once in a while. I guess...

Laina's First Birthday

2007-08-15T14:12:00.000-05:00

Wow, our first kids' party. It was a lot of fun, a bit chaotic but in a good way. About 20 kids came, although some left and others came as they needed naps, etc. The kiddie pool was a huge success. I am posting a picture of Laina in her party dress at the very beginning of the day and then the only one I have of her eating cake. Jimmy moved the cake a bit too close and she dug right in! We did give her a piece to eat with her hands, as tradition goes but I need someone else to supply a photo of her in all her chocolate glory. There's a picture of Laina and me with our friends, Silla and her baby, Isabelle, whose bday is this month also. There's one of kids watching the cake show. Another is of some kids in the pool, and there's one of our new kid in town, Cameron, who was recently brought home from Vietnam. She's a real beauty and already knows how to turn a camera into a phone! I didn't have time to pick up my camera much but we all had a great time and everyone gave Laina really nice presents too. We opened them that evening, after her long nap and want to thank everyone so very much for them and for making the effort to pack up the kids and come over. We all had a really fun time!

More Laina

2007-07-30T09:10:00.000-05:00

Oops, I missed a picture that I said was there yesterday of her and I at the beach so here it is. Also added a funny one of her cousin Jacob, who is actually about 19 months old when he was feeding her a huge bite of breakfast. I handed him the spoon when he indicated that he wanted it, thinking that he wanted to try her food himself, instead he gave it to her! She ate it and thankfully didn't choke, and he gave her some more. What a big boy!

Baby Girl Walkin'

2007-07-29T18:46:00.000-05:00

Today, Laina took her first steps! There were about 4. Lately, she had been doing a new crawl, sort of a hop-a-long with one leg tucked underneath and one stretched out. She has now decided that crawling is just not the way to travel. Her cousin Jacob was visiting with his grandparents for one night and she saw him walking. He's about 16 months old. We all saw her do it so it was good family excitement, and boy, was she proud of herself! We didn't have our cameras for the first time but I am posting a photo of her standing all by herself that we took only moments ago to verify her achievements. There is a photo of Jacob at the beach, one of Laina and I as she was trying a drink of my vitamin water. Another is of her and her friend Taylor(the boy she kissed on the 4th of July,xxoo) They had a playdate and I guess all the fun in the kiddie pool was pretty exciting because this is how they ended the lunch date at the table. I think there's 2 more..one of her with her first raspberries, YUMMY! And one just to confirm with all the other mommies that we shouldn't let Daddy pick out the clothes for her to wear when we are out. Stripes and plaids?!

A Girl's Best Friend

2007-07-13T09:01:00.000-05:00

Before a girl gets diamonds, she also likes things that are soft and cuddly.This is a cute photo of Laina and our big, nice kitty named Nick. They have really bonded. He lets her poke and inspect all his body parts, even when she pulls his tail pretty hard. He cries when she cries and sometimes it's like I have 2 babies!The second is of Laina and her stuffed flamingo, aka Pinky. She was originally scared of him, and cried when we took him out of the gift bag, but as you can see, he has proven to be a great pillow. Also, we have some major progress in the crawling department. Laina has invented a sort of inchworm technique where she kicks her feet so her butt is in the air, then pulls with her hands to move forward. She still wants only to walk, and can do that pretty well holding someone's fingers. It is difficult now to get her to sit down and play, just always wants to be on the move.I don't have a crawling photo yet, but hopefully I can get one soon.

More China, At your request

2007-07-09T09:40:00.000-05:00

On our first 3 days in China, we were in Beijing. This is before getting the babies. They kept us very busy every day; this is when we went to the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City among other things. Here are some photos; one is of Jimmy in front of the massive portrait of Chairman Mao, another is of some guards that posed for me(a couple of them got all serious and puffed up their chests).One is of our agency guide and Pediatrician,"Dr. Steve" with our friend Peeps and a guard. That photo was taken at the Guard's request. There are a couple of the Forbidden City too. One, not a great photo but it shows the imperial chair at the "Hall of Supreme Harmony" and above it hangs a bronze ball that looks like a giant pearl. Supposedly, the ball will fall on any "Pretender" to the throne and crush them. There are many Halls and many thrones, used for different functions and ceremonies. We were zoomed through the whole place at a frantic pace, following our guide, just barely seeing him sometimes up ahead of us. There is a photo and in it you may see a pink flag way up ahead, that's what I am supposed to be following. Our guide, Tom was very nice and informative but FAST. The 28 families were divided into 2 buses. The other bus group actually did lose some people! They made their way back to a restaurant that we had been to the evening before somehow and made their way to the hotel from there. We managed to stay with our group, but felt as if we didn't absorb half of what we saw. It was all very impressive and the history just wraps around you. We just recently watched the movie "The Last Emperor" just to see all the places we had been. The movie was filmed on location within The Forbidden City and really gives you a sense of what it was like for the Imperial family to live there, and never go outside the walls.

Laina's first 4th of July

2007-07-08T13:13:00.000-05:00

Laina went to her first 4th of July parade and loved it! We went to our friend, Laurel's house where the parade actually goes by twice. Jimmy was asked to be in it and march with a fife and drum corp from Fall River. He was given the uniform to wear from an older man who stripped down to his tighty-whiteys right there and handed them over! He was having knee surgery soon and really didn't want to march anyway. Jimmy really enjoyed himself and wants to do it next year too. I'll put up a picture with him. Laina clapped and waved a lot, she especially responded to the horses as they went by, and a huge inflated rat that was on an extermination co.'s truck.Laina also met a nice baby boy named Taylor, we put them in a chair for some photos and they were very funny together. She actually leaned over and kissed him. My photo isn't great, but you get the idea. We caught some beads and wore them, and stayed until the very end. As soon as she got in the carseat she was sound asleep. We have also been playing in our new kiddie-pool and she loves the water. She is taking a long nap as I write this, she was splashing and kicking so hard that she wore herself out.

Funny Face

2007-06-28T08:56:00.000-05:00

This is a photo taken by our friend Sandra, of Laina in China. She made this face all the time which cracked everybody up. She still does this one, as well as a lot of new ones she has invented! We have a lot of laughs playing mirror games.

Imperial Dinner

2007-06-28T08:34:00.000-05:00

One night when we had been in Beijing for a couple of days, we decided to break away from the group and go out to a restaurant.This is before we had the babies. Our friend, Sandra(aka Peeps) found it in a travel guide, I believe it may have been called the Imperial, but I'm not sure. The taxi cost about $2 and it seemed like we drove all around the city. We had been a bit disappointed by the food served to the group in the hotel, it seemed "cafeteria style" and very americanized, there was nothing exotic or unique to us. This place was incredible, it was on Beihail Lake, with an impressive entrance manned by guards and women in full traditional dress. We were escorted to the restaurant down a lovely walkway lit by Chinese lanterns. There were meals to choose by the group, in other words, you would order together a "page" from the menu that would be served to us on the center "lazy susan" for evryone. There were 14 courses and it cost about $12 US. Jacqui and I ordered tea and the waitress served it to us in a beautiful, long-spouted teapot.Must have been a hard technique to learn! I am posting and using some pictures taken by Sandra as well as some I took myself. This is the place that offered "Camel Paw, Deer Lips, Deer tendon," and all kinds of crazy sounding stuff. I don't remember exactly what we had (not those things!)but it was all delicious!

Laina Lately

2007-06-20T13:21:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone, here's some new pictures of Laina. We went to a BBQ hosted by our friends John and Jacqui, who traveled to China with us to bring home their daughter, Roma. It was so great to reconnect with them and now we are more anxious than ever to see the rest of the group at our reunion in August. Laina has 2 new teeth on the top as you see, and she is growing by leaps and bounds. We have been able to turn her carseat around as she weighs over 20 pounds now! One of the photos is of her under the couch, this is her crawling method, unfortunately she pushes backward and often ends up under things. Another is of her and her Aunt Betsy, one of her with her first corn lolly, and of her in Roma's kiddie-pool(she loves the water!) and maybe more...

Kids in China

2007-06-13T08:17:00.000-05:00

Although there are children abandoned and in orphanages in China, when we were there we saw only people who cherished and adored their kids. There is no doubt that the people love their babies. The policies that control the number of kids a Chinese family can have are strange to us and hard to understand. One thing our guide Glenn told us was that when someone had twins , it counted as only one birth. I saw some adorable twins in a shop one day and here is the picture. Another strange story...we received a photo album of Laina as a gift from the orphanage director and when we opened it, there was a picture of her with an IV in her head. It freaked us out, of course, we were worried that she had had an operation, or had a medical condition that nobody told us about. Our guide explained to us that it is common practice to receive an IV treatment, at any age for a cold or flu. The IV's are put in the babies' heads so they won't be as inclined to pull it out. We were near a hospital one day, when going to all the kids' "finding spots"; one of the girls was found right outside the emergency room under an umbrella. There, we actually saw a cute little boy walking around with his mom, with an IV in his head! Later, we saw them heading home, so we felt reassured about it. I took his photo too. I am also posting a photo of a group of school kids in uniform, walking down the street one morning. There is a man on the sidewalk, I thought he was a beggar but Jimmy thought he was praying..maybe both? I'll see what other pix I can find of kids too.

Time Flies

2007-06-08T12:55:00.000-05:00

Wow! I can't believe a week flies by so fast. Laina is a fascinating person, quite distracting in the best sort of way. She is great, has gained a few pounds since she came home. She has to be rear-facing in her car seat until she hits 20 pounds, so Jimmy is fattening her up! It will be more fun and more comfortable for evryone if we can see her, and she can look at us. Here's some new pix of our little beauty, she has recently attended an art opening, a wedding shower, and a wedding, so we have had the chance to dress up a little and get out some of her cute chinese outfits. She also likes playing with my big straw garden hat too. After this, I'll tell a China story...oops, I messed up a photo, I'll do it again but you may get 2 the same, I'll try and fix it.

More Laina

2007-05-25T08:28:00.000-05:00

Hi; I got distracted by the babe last night before I could get a post about her on here, so here it is. She is doing so well! She now has had many "firsts"; she claps and waves, is learning to blow kisses, raises her arms up when her Daddy says 'Touchdown!', and has new syllables everyday. She has always hated being on her stomach, so hasn''t been crawling yet. We have started to do a little everyday and now she can wiggle there for a few minutes without getting ornery. She drums a lot, loves all percussion instruments, and dances as she sits, which we jokingly call the "bar-stool boogie". We'll be seeing all her China friends soon at a reunion this summer, can't wait! It will be so fun to see everyone and how the kids have grown and blossomed. Here's some pix; One of her with our friend Emma's daughter, Kyra, also from China, another is of Marguerite, our next door neighbor and future babysitter giving her a bottle, a third of her with Uncle Paul, and one of her with her Aunt Mary. She has begun to get a little more "clingy" with me, but still lets everyone hold her. Today she will put on one of her beautiful China outfits and go to my friends' art opening with me. Should be fun and we'll bring the camera!

Music in the Park

2007-05-24T16:33:00.000-05:00

Another fun part of walking through the beautiful "Peoples' Park" in Nanning, is that people were playing all sorts of music there. Some seemed to be just playing for the fun of it and enjoying the day, others seemed to be practicing and were very serious about it. We hear "folksy" stuff, with traditional Chinese instruments, there were singers, flutists, hammer-dulcimers, all kinds of percussion, and more. The park is large enough that everyone can pick a picturesque spot under a tree by the water and not overlap each other with sound. Here are some pictures, including an interesting closeup of the actual sheet music someone was using.

Today's China story

2007-05-21T19:46:00.000-05:00

In all the parks we went to, there were beautiful lakes or large ponds. They were well-landscaped and often had little paddle boats or other boats to rent. We once saw a mother letting her little boy who looked about 5 years old, drive a regular small motor boat. She was a lot more confident than those of us he was heading toward onshore. He made a turn and we all survived. One thing that was fun to watch were the children feeding the fish. This is encouraged and the fish get pretty fat! They pigpile on top of one another into a big mound of fish mania, thrashing and fighting for the goodies. The kids love it of course!I am posting a picture of little girls buying their food for the fish, the fish pigpile and a family on one of the boats. Enjoy.

Aloha

2007-05-21T19:30:00.000-05:00

At Last! We are back on track after some "technical difficulties..so sorry about that. This past weekend Jimmy's family hosted a "Welcome Home Laina Party" on the Cape, it had a Hawaiian theme, complete with Leis for the ladies and shell necklaces for the men, tropical food and fun for all. Laina was a good girl and everyone just loves her already. Here are some pix..one is Laina looking beautiful in her new hat(did not want to wear the sunglasses, she has her limits!) another of her with her cousin Megan, and a third with her Uncle Tom who hosted the party. Today, we had a visit from our Social Worker. After you bring your baby home, there are still steps to take to make it all final. We'll have about 3 visits at our home and one at the Agency, we have to provide photos for them and keep our Social Worker updated about Laina's health, development and general progress. This is called the Post-Placement period and lasts for 6 months. It is nice that they look out for the kids wlfare and check up, but we are anxious to get her a Social Security number and feel as if the U.S. recognizes her as OURS. She traveled home on an immigrant visa and has her own Chinese passport. We are, of course, considered her guardians and she is even covered with our health insurance already, so it's not all that difficult. I'd like to tell more China stories, but Laina is what it's all about, y'know! Maybe you'll get 2 posts tonight to make up for my slacking there for a bit...

Mother's Day

2007-05-13T11:25:00.000-05:00

Today is my first Mother's Day! Laina woke up with a smile and said "mum-mum" to me, but also to the cat, her breakfast, and her daddy...oh well, it's a start. She is doing just great, survived her first vaccinations and is now sleeping through the night. She slept 10 hours straight! Yippee. Even Mommy feels human today, it really helps. Some people have said that they miss the China stories on the blog so I'll tell some more. We certainly have enough pictures. One photo today is of our bus group before we got the babies, I wish we had thought to take an after-shot with the babes but we didn't. Another photo is of a countdown display that they have in Beijing on a large building in Tannamen Square to count the days until the Olympics. The whole city is being re-vamped and beautified. There is construction everywhere, and all kinds of landscaping too. At least there seems to be lots of jobs; our guide said that with a large population like they have, it can be hard to find and to keep your job. There is always someone else who says they can do it better, or who can work longer hours, etc. From our bus window one day, Jimmy snapped a picture of some chefs in-training. The guys with the tallest hats are the head Chefs and the others are trainees. I also snapped a photo of an elderly man pedaling his wife behind him in her wheelchair, we saw all kinds of rigs attached to bikes and scooters, I wish I had done a whole series of just those. We saw a man one day with what looked like a king-sized mattress on a teeny cart behind his bike, and many people with loads so large you couldn't see the bike at all. We saw many people with babies on their backs, pets on the handlebars and groceries on their shoulders. I feel so frivolous with my soccer-mom van!

Laina The Lion

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

Today I had to take Laina down to the Outpatient Lab at the hospital for her blood tests. The adopted children from China have to be tested for many things, among them are HIV, Tuberculosis, Hepatitus A and B, and Lead poisoning. She was an angel in the waiting room, charming everyone by waving and smiling whenever they looked our way, and then we were called in.....she screamed and GROWLED like you wouldn't believe when they had to take her blood. We all survived but I overheard people talking in the hallways afterward, wondering what was happening to THAT BABY, and thank God they were done doing whatever it was! She can really rock the house! We were fine as soon as she was sitting in my lap, having a lunch-bottle; casually pretending that it couldn't possibly have been US causing all that rucous. I amposting a few family photos, as last weekend we introduced Laina to all kinds of people. One is of her with Aunt Betsy and her dog, Summer. The second is of Grandpa and Laina, the third is of her cousin Jacob and her at the piano, another is of her and her Aunt Trish. There is one of her and her cousin Amy also. She was really great about letting everyone hold her and feed her, we are happy about that because we are both from big families who love babies.

Mirror, Mirror

2007-05-03T09:03:00.000-05:00

Wow! May 3rd already, I can't believe we have been home almost 2 weeks. Laina is doing very well, she is a joy to be around. Yesterday she discovered herself in the mirror, and the day before she discovered her tongue so now she sticks it out all the time, including at her reflection in the mirror which makes her crack up! I will post a picture of her, but I couldn't catch the tongue. I am also posting a couple of pictures of the Guangxi Girls, the other 3 cuties from Laina's Province. They are Roma, Jianna, and Isabella. We miss them and hope to have a get-together soon with them and their families. It will be fun and meaningful to keep in touch with all of them. Everyone got along fantastically and we can't wait to see them again!

Settling In

2007-04-29T19:22:00.000-05:00

I promised to keep this going, so I apologize for the delay. We have been busily settling in with Laina, and introducing her to all her family, neighbors and friends. She is very willing to be held by strangers and is quite sociable with everyone. I am attaching a few photos tonight. One is of Laina with me, she is in traditional dress and we are at a Buddhist Temple for a blessing of the babies. Another shot is of a beautiful Pagoda roofline in a park that we went to in Beijing. The details in the architecture are so beautiful and intricate. The third shot is a picture of our first hotel room in Beijing, the linens were very soft but the bed was not! Pretty, though, and the amenities were everything you'd expect in a nice hotel in the U.S., we had a blow dryer, 2 bathrobes and slippers, an in-room safe, TV, phone, lots of complimentary toiletries, a mini-bar with snacks and soda as well as liquor, big towels, and regular housekeeping every time we went out. I will put one more photo up tonight, it's of a ribbon-dancer in the park. There were so many activities going on there, lots of musicians and dancers of all sorts. The ribbon dancing is beautiful in the sun and looks like fun. I have been working on photos, downloading them and cropping them, etc. It's a bit of work with almost a thousand pictures! More to come!

Day Four at Home

2007-04-23T17:26:00.000-05:00

Laina is settling in pretty well, although Sunday night was the first night we actually slept more than 2 hours since we got back! She is still on 'China Time' and wants to sleep all day and play all night. We are all a little dazed but trying to enjoy the nice weather and take some short walks and get out to visit. I am posting a picture of Laina and our kitty, Nick, to show how they stay close, he really seems to like her. We introduced her to our piano today, Jimmy recently acquired this old player piano from 1920, and just for fun we opened it up for her. She loved it and banged away at the keys. She likes anything that makes noises so maybe she'll be a musician some day...who knows? It is so fun to see her inspect new things. I'll put up a picture of her at the piano too. Just finished downloading all 953 photos from China, so I can easily find something to show you all from our trip! Our group will be sharing pictures also, since we couldn't help but take pix of the other families and all the cuties. Here's one of the mommies and the girls at the entrance to the zoo in Nanning. It was a really nice zoo, but no pandas, and the famous Asian elephants were inside where we couldn't see them. We did go to a dolphin show, and saw monkeys, lion, tigers, exotic birds and lots of other things. While we were there, a young couple came up to me and asked" will you take picture?', I said sure and reached for the camera, but he indicated that they wanted to take a picture of ME! I smiled and stood there, and now I wonder what story they will tell when sharing their photo albun....a white amazon woman? A frizzy-haired freak?(it was very humid, and anyone that knows me, knows that my hair is kind of, well, fuzzy and huge in that weather) We'll never know..

Homecoming

2007-04-21T11:49:00.000-05:00

Home at Last! We made it back mid-afternoon yesterday and were welcomed by our Waiting Parents Group with a banner, flowers, toys and hugs. Laina was squeezed by all and didn't mind a bit. A few tears were shed, as we all share our adoption experiences together and understand the long road it can take to bring your baby home. Laina seemed to settle right in. She decided the car seat was a sleeping place, thankfully. She enjoys the kitties and claps when they come to her. Nick, our big male tabby seems to like her and rubs up against her even though she grabs him pretty roughly. We introduced her to a few new toys, including a bouncy seat that she absolutely loves. We are all a bit out of sorts with the time change and all, so today we are doing a lot of napping and slowly starting to unpack. Laina is taking her first nap in her own room. She slept in our room last night, since she was used to being next to us in a crib in the hotels we decided that was the comfy place to start, besides the fact that we feel the need to admire her every few minutes! The sun is shining, as soon as Laina and Jimmy wake up I hope to take a stroll around the neighborhood and visit a couple of people. I just posted a bunch of photos so make sure to look around the blog, there's some new stuff. I am going to try and post a video of her in the bouncy seat, hope it works! You should be able to click on the still photo to get the video to start. We intend to keep posting so our family and friends who are not nearby can enjoy the Laina experience from afar.

Back to America

2007-04-20T21:07:00.000-05:00

We slept well at the hotel, but arrived there late so didn't see anything but our eyelids until breakfast. Had to once again, have bags ready and gathered for the buses to the airport. Most, but not all of the families were on the same flight home, so some goodbyes were said for those who went other directions. The airport was frustrating and very hot. We had to go through immigration and customs and check our bags, get our seat assignments, etc., with babies and documents, etc. Jimmy and I were unable to get seats together, and it's a 13 1/2 hour flight back to Newark! Other people were actually assigned seats away from their kids, as young as 2! It was a madhouse and there was a little 'road-rage' but we all finally got on the plane and played musical chairs with people until we were together. Jimmy and I got very lucky and a Chinese woman gave us her window seat next to Jimmy and took my icky center seat between 2 other people. We sat with a nice businessman named Don who said not to worry about him, and to get up whenever we needed to and I could even use his tray table if I needed to when Laina was in my lap. She was an angel, she couldn't have dreamed that she'd be so easy. The flight was gruelling, I was so uncomfortable and hot and tired of sitting. Laina, however, got laid on a makeshift bed of our tray tables and slept like a log! 10 hours out of 13! The rest of the time, she either had a bottle, was walking the aisles and going to get changed, or watching Tom & Jerry cartoons on the little portable DVD player we had bought. The stewardesses all said that she was the best and we proudly agreed. Many families had screaming babies, sick, and frustrated other children along with them, and were still seething from the airport frustrations. It was a tough trip and we were all overjoyed when the long flight ended. Jimmy, Laina and I had one more short flight to T.F.Green airport in Rhode Island, but we were happy to stretch and lounge during our layover. The last flight ended up being delayed and we didn't reach RI until midnight. We were starving and Laina had more formula and the grownups had burgers and fries from an all-night Wendy's before trying to sleep on American-time so the jet lag wouldn't be so bad. China is exactly 12 hours ahead, so day is night and night is day, it is a very difficult adjustment. The king-sized bed was soft and cushy so we managed a few hours and got up early to head for home at last.

Back on the Bus

2007-04-20T20:48:00.000-05:00

The next morning we had to have all our bags packed again and left outside our rooms for the bellhops. Jimmy and I had to buy another small suitcase after all the shopping we had done! We had an excellent breakfast(the best buffet of the trip) and put all the babies in traditional chinese finery for a group photo, posed on a large red couch. This was, of course, a zoo. The babes were climbing all over each other, little ones were toppling and mommies were trying to hide behind the couch and hold their kids without being seen, it was pretty funny! Laina sat cooly in the front and only started crying when all the other babies did.By the way, there will definitely be more pictures posted, I am essentially sleep-walking here, and have not downloaded off the camera yet, so keep looking for the next couple of days and scroll down as I can add photos to the appropriate posts that I've written already. After the Photos in the hotel, we all got ourselves and stuff back on the buses to go to the Six Banyan Temple to have the babies and families blessed by the Buddhist monks there. It was beautiful and quite moving for both Jimmy and I. Afterward, we strolled the courtyards and other areas within the temple grounds. We loaded back on the bus and headed for lunch. The trip seemed to have caught up to some of us, as we realized that the journey was soon ending, the adrenaline was waning and our minds were settling on going home to our new lives with our children. We went to a Park called the Five Rams and wandered a bit but some of us just found a nice spot to sit with the kids. We were basically spending time until the appointment at about 4 p.m. at the Consulate. Finally we were on our way and arrived at the Consulate building. We were told to bring only our passports and our babies, no cameras or bags inside. We were ushered through the building to a large room.Family by family, we went up to a glass-enclosed counter so they could make sure that we had the right babies, etc., then we were all told to stand and raies our right hands for the swearing in ceremony. It wasn't long, but it made our adoptions official in China, so we all cheered and congratulated each other afterward. We were given Laina's passport and immigrant visa to have and to use taking her out of China. We have alot of beautiful, official documents from this process. The Chinese love their papers! After the ceremony, we got back on the bus and headed for the airport to fly to anothe hotel near the airport in Beijing for the final leg of our journey to bring Laina home.

April 17 in Guangzhou

2007-04-20T20:36:00.000-05:00

The next day we were confined to the island in case problems came up with our paperwork which was being processed via our guides elsewhere. We didn't mind because we had some exploring and shopping to do, we knew it might be our last chance since we were only there for one more night. The hotel is beautiful, there's a huge indoor waterfall, shops inside with extraordinary things; jade sculptures like a miniature horse, incredibly ornate ones like a cornicopia of fruit and foods all done in different colored jade, ivory and other stones. Some sold for hundreds of thousands of US dollars and were museum quality. There was a playroom, game rooms, a massage parlor(Jimmy enjoyed a good massage there, but no one walked on his back as he had been wishing for), hair salons, restaurants and shops all within the hotel building. Outside, we rented a stroller(for free actually, from the place we had our laundry done) and enjoyed checking out the island. The vendors and shopkeepers are very forward and greet you on the street and proclaim the beauty and low prices in their shops; we soon learned that most of the shops carried the same products and we could easily bargain down the prices. Something I had bought for 120 Yuan at the Jade Factory I was able to purchase another here for only 30!(120 Yuan is about $15 US, 30 would be about $3.50). We found there was a Starbucks, which was out of place but we really appreciated a good cup of coffee at last! That day Jimmy and I also found Lucy's Cafe that had an American burger on the menu for lunch. It tasted great after 3 meals a day of Chinese food. We loved the food there, but needed a change sometimes. After getting our laundry and other things in order, we met up with the whole group to walk to a Cantonese Restaurant for dinner. We had babies, 28 of them, in strollers, etc. and suddenly the skies darkened and a squall kicked up, we had to make a mad dash for it in the wind and rain, laughing and screaming all the way. I put Laina inside my windbreaker with just her head poking out and she was giggling the whole time, the hostesses had a good chuckle at our appearance at the Restaurant. Dinner with agroup like that takes some time so after that, it was back to our rooms, baths for the babes and bed for all.

The Story Continues

2007-04-20T19:42:00.000-05:00

Hello; Sorry we couldn't post for a few days, we were rushing around from place to place and couldn't get to a computer, so we'll try to catch up. Let's see..on our last night, we all met as usual in a large dining room, where we had the place to ourselves. Glenn had put a beautiful "love ball" as a centerpiece in the table. We had a gift and a tip to give Glenn and we all told him how much he had meant to us, and what a great guide he had been. He said we were one of the most memorable groups he had ever had. Our friend, Peeps, had a hidden talent that she shared with us, she could do ventriloquism! She got Zacchary on her knee first, then Bob, then Jimmy, and then Glenn. She made them "sing" funny songs and there were a lot of laughs as everyone tried to be the "dummy".I videotaped it too. The next morning, April 16th, we had to leave so after dinner we all headed to our rooms to pack, most of us had our doors open and everyone was trying to give each other things to lighten up the suitcases, and were also tyrying to drink the last of the wine they had bought.We were all laughing and deciding what we could ditch out of our stuff. Things like a jar of peanut butter, paperbacks, other American snacks and some miscellaneous toiletries,just didn't make the cut. There was a lot of discussion about the weight limits of the bags and trying to convert from the metric system on the scales in our rooms.
We had to get all our bags packed and locked, meet the group for breakfast, and get to the airport for a 10:20 flight to Guangzhou. We were all a bit sad to leave Nanning. It was a beautiful, clean and friendly city and we were really getting comfortable there with our little group. At the airport we had to say goodbye to Glenn and get ready for taking our babies out of their Province for the first time. They all behaved, Laina slept like a log and we arrived a couple hours later. As we entered the airport, another plane was also unloading with some of the other families from our extended group. We all started laughing and crying and meeting each others' babies and then the babies started up, so soon everyone was crying and hugging, it was unbelievable! We managed to all the luggage and everone on board the 2 buses and headed for the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. The White Swan is located on Shamian Island, a 44-acre area of old mansions built by trading companies from Britain, The U.S., France, Holland, Italy, Germany, Portugal and Japan. It was initially set up as an enclave for foreign merchants. These buildings have since turned into Government buildings, churches, and hotels and loads of little shops, galleries, and eateries.In the center of the island runs a long park with courtyards and playgrounds and landscaped grounds to stroll. The afternoon we arrived, we had to check in all the families and get all the luggage brought to the rooms, etc., the lobby was a complete madhouse! We had about 1/2 hour to get "settled in" and meet back downstairs. We walked a few blocks to the office where we had the visa photos taken for the babys' immigrant visas, and then walked to another building for their medical check-ups. The clinic was quite clean and well organized. There were 3 stations to go through, the first one was getting the height, weight, length and also the baby's temperature. The second was the eyes, ears, and throat place where they basically played a toy keyboard and made sure that the baby responded and followed things with her eyes, etc. We started at that station and Laina absolutely HATED the ear probe gizmo, and she started screaming bloody murder and never stopped until all the checkups were done. The third station was basically a body look-over. Although she was ornery, Laina passed and calmed down as soon as we left. After we got back, Jimmy took Laina and went along woth some other daddies to the pool. Nancy had to go to the "white-out"party, where we have to fill out multiple forms and applications for the baby's visas. That took 2 1/2 hours, and we all definitely used the white-out a few times! For supper we were given a pizza for our room and sleep came pretty early.

Last Day in Nanning

2007-04-15T03:28:00.000-05:00

We've had another busy day. This morning we went to a Buddhist temple on the highest point in Nanning. Everyone was lighting incense and bowing, there were other statues of Buddha's students from the stories and legends. Jimmy went up to a monk with Glenn, he requested him to bless and wish the remainder of Burge's ashes a safe journey, wwhich he did; he said a prayer, rang some bells and blessed him with something like holy water. He also patted the picture and gave Jimmy the Thumbs-up sign which was a sign to Jimmy himself because Burge always did that. They had beautiful things for sale, there was a lot of incense burning, we were not allowed to take pictures as it is bad luck to take photos of the Buddha and considered disrespectful. We climbed the tower at the highest point, but it was a cloudy morning so the views were hidden. Then we went down the hill to a beauful park, where strolled around. Jimmy had fun with some old chinese ladies, posing for pictures with them. They seemed thrilled and smiled the whole time. We saw children in a huge plastic bubble, like a gerbil ball, actually out on the water, seemed like fun but must have been hot in there! From the park, we went to lunch. It as one of the first times we were in a restaurant with a lot of other people. There was a lot of staring. At the end of the meal, Sandra, or "Peeps", and Jimmy decided to try some of the local delicacies; scorpions, worms, ants, bees, and Jimmy's favorite, big crunchy black beetles. Yummy! Then we went on to the famous Nanning Market, a large area of vendors selling just about anything ; trinkets, bunnies, birds, dogs, jade, coins, plastic junk, lots and lots of beaded jewelry, everyone picked up some treasures to help us remember our time here. Our suitcases are definitely going to be over the weight limit! I will be adding some photos later on today. Laina seems to love the outdoors and just coos the whole time we are strolling and everyone wants to hold her, which we allow since she doesn't mind. She has started clapping, and is smiling a lot more. Tonight we have to try and pack to head into Guangzhou for the final visas for the babies. We'll stay at the White Swan Hotel for two nights, which is a beautiful place that really caters to the international adoption families. We'll have pictures with the whole extended group, do any last-minute shopping that we can and will have a couple of appointments to complete Laina's documents. For some reason we could see the blog today, not sure why.Thanks for all the great comments! It was the first time since we left that we could read them. I have edited a few things, Laina only weighs 15 pounds by the way, I blame my mistake on the anxiety and sleep deprivation from the first night! There is the Prime Minister staying here so a lot of bigwigs are around the hotel, and there's a red carpet in the main lobby that no one can go on but him. We just met a nice family in the gift shop who will be getting their baby tomorrow, amazing to share these life-changing times. We cannot express how polite and friendly the Chinese people are here, we feel very welcomed and do our best to be as respectful and kind as they are. Tonight is our last dinner with Glenn, it will be sad but also celebratory of all that he has shared with us. Not really looking forward to getting on a small plane with kids and luggage tomorrow, but it's only an hour flight. Our Laina is usually a very content baby but we will give her some drops for ear pain just in case.Getting up early so the next post will be from Guangzhou, hopefully we can figure out a computer set-up. Can't believe we'll be heading home in less than a week, everything seems surreal! Oh, also wanted to mention that not one person in our group has been sick at all, we just don't drink the water. We are now sleeping well as are the babies, and the food is great so we are eating well too. Really didn't need all the snacks we brought and they will probably be left behind to make room in the bags, among other things!

Laina's Hometown

2007-04-14T08:39:00.000-05:00

Today has been a journey of finding every detail about Laina that we can. Our 4 family group had to divide into 2 vans and go separate ways to seek out our daughters' abandonment sites.We were met at our hotel by Mary, a very sweet, soft-spoken woman and a smiley bus driver that came up to about Nancy's waist. Our agency guide, Pat came along as well. The city of Laibin is about 2 1/2 hours from Nanning, so it was a long ride. Mary told us that Laibin is not a big city, and much poorer than what we have seen so far. It was actually more modern than we expected, online I had seen streets with water buffalo and dirt roads, but inside the city was fairly bustling. There were a lot of motorbikes, as there is everywhere here, and in Laibin there are a ton of them with little green roofs that act as taxis. We are not allowed to go to the orphanage, or even to get get out of the van near it. Our driver pulled over across the street and we had to take pictures through our open windows. A man in uniform came up to our window and said "what are you doing?' and then spoke to the driver so I think we were in trouble, but mission accomplished, we continued on to explore the area. We went to the hospital area where another baby had been found and many people come right up and stare at us until we smile and say hello. Woman with their babies often come over to smile and coo. Some very cute elderly women came over and Mary told us that they had never seen foreigners before. Laibin is not exactly a tourist spot! We had a great time with the locals.Jimmy wandered a bit and found a baby store where I bought a beautiful quilted, silk outfit for Laina, red with blue dragons, it was 60 yuan, or about $7.50. We went next to Laina's spot and were both moved by the enormity of how we will be changing her life. After taking pictures, we decided to go to a restaurant for lunch and Mary found a hotel that looked fairly clean and decent and the food was delicious. The waitresses and patrons obviously enjoyed watching us and Laina got passed around as usual. After a lunch of 'congee', a sweet sesame pork rib dish, some steamed pumpkin, a platter of sizzling beef with peppers and some steamed pork, and rice,and some small custards, we asked to go to a local outdoor market. This was a market for food and 'commodities', there were rice stands,sugar cane, nuts and beans and spices, and also a rather unsavory, and unrefrigerated assortment of meat, and I'm talkin' pig-heads, snails,all kinds of fascinating things we never think to eat. We often had school children say hello and run away giggling. The elderly people are as interested in us as we are them, they shyly stare until we speak to them.The entire market was buzzing, all eyes were on us. Aman tried to sell Jimmy some live chickens. Mary and the driver seemed anxious to go so after lots of picture-taking, we started back to Nanning. The other group wasn't back yet, so we decided to change our usual routine and go down to Pizza Hut. Yup, we really needed some American food, and it turned out to be a really great night. The square of eateries,a neon blazed shopping and gathering area of about 6 blocks square, including McD.'s, and KFC, was a large area totally crowded with teenagers. A group of about 6 kids came up and told us it was one girl's birthday and asked us to sing, which we did. We had to wait 20 minutes for our table so we stood outside the door. Suddenly we were surrounded,the people were crowding around us, at least 4 or 5 people deep, it was so funny. Felt like a Rock-Stah! All the kids want to practice their English, it was really fun. Jimmy took some pictures and they ttok some of us and the birthday girl,and then we went in and thoroughly enjoyed some pizza and beer. All the time, Laina and Isabella are being cooed over and patted. Luckily, they don't seem to mind. Laina loves riding in the stroller and puts her little feet up and kicks back to enjoy the scenery. It is now about 10:00 p.m., my family is quiet and soon I will be too. Tomorrow is our last day here in Nanning, we will be sad to go. This is an absolutely beautiful place. No pix tonight, the other group has not returned and so I can't ask to use Peeps'laptop. Hopefully tomorrow! Heard you are having sleet and rain, and maybe a storm back home, glad to miss it! Maybe we'll stay a while....

Yiling Caves

2007-04-13T02:39:00.000-05:00

Today we went to a place called Yiling Caves. The mountains of Guangxi are famous for the limestone formations and ancient caverns. When you see a traditional chinese painting of steep mountains, with farmers in the valleys working the fields with water buffalo, this is the area that inspires that. It is exceptionally beautiful, very green and lush. The farmers here are very poor, these are minority people who still farm and live in the same ways as generations before them. An average annual family income in this countryside is about 5000 Yuan, or approximately $625 US. We feel very excessive in our Reeboks and toting fancy cameras, etc. The caves are over a million years old, it took us over an hour to tour only one area. We went down deeply, on steep stairs and winding pathways. There were stalagtites and stalagmites all around, but the formations here are each unique, many are named for the resemblance to things.I was astounded by one that looked like a huge old man with along beard, and another that looked like 2 men playing chess. There are a lot of myths and fairy tales about the formations. Inside, you are sometimes in almost complete darkness, except for colored lights up in nooks and crannies to illuminate some of the most fascinating ones. It was really incredible. Also at this area the people perform Bamboo Dancing, Primitive dancing in furs with large bamboo drums, we had ginger tea and some local delicacies to try, and 4 women sang a folk song for us. Glenn said that when someone sings to you, it is common courtesy to also give them a song in return. Everyone was shy, but Jimmy started up with "Yankee Doodle" and we all sang and everyone cheered. A woman came over and put a "love-ball", a very fancy decorated ball on a string with multiple tassels, around his neck. They took a sort of 'Touristy' photo of us inside the cave that we could buy and we did get ours.(less than $2)On the way back to the hotel, Glenn let us pull over to take some photos of the farms and people with oxcarts on the street. We came back for lunch and talked about our journeys tomorrow. We will be dividing into 2 groups to go to the areas where our babies were found,so Jimmy and I with Laina, will be going with a couple Bob and Tina, their 6 year old son Zacchary, and new baby Isabella to the city of Laibin. A local guide will help us find places to go, and Pat will be with us also.This will be meaningful for us to tell Laina about when she is older, so we hope to find something special to get there for her, and maybe we will go by the orphanage too. On Sunday we will go to the mountains, and in the afternoon to the local outdoor market for shopping, then on Monday we leave Guangxi and head toward Guangzhou to meet back up with the other families. I am in my own room, it is naptime for daddies and babies, after resting, we plan on going for a walk around the neighborhood, just the three of us.That's all for now. Forgive me if everything is just in one long column, I cannot use the Layout feature, and also cannot view the blog or the comments. At least I finally managed to get the prompts in English!

The Great Wall

2007-04-12T01:32:00.000-05:00

Nancy's Dad asked about our day at the Great Wall. We went there on Easter Sunday, with all 27 families, in 2 buses. This was the day before "Gotcha Day" so most of us were thinking about the babes and getting anxious, but it was an amazing place to see and we wouldn't have missed it. First, we stopped at a jade factory, where they carve, and of course, sell, beautiful jade and other things at a place referred to as The Friendship Store. We found some fun gifts but the jade was pretty expensive. At most places here, you do not handle the merchandise yourself. Clerks will be right with you as you walk around and they will point out things. If you pick something, it is written on a receipt, you pay at a cashier when you are done and then get your items. We went from there directly to the Great Wall. It was very crowded as it was a nice, clear, sunny day and we were all getting hungry and cranky and looking for bathrooms. We finally crept up to the parking area for buses, shared any snacks we had and headed up. The views are so overwhelming, it was so huge and with such history around us, we were totally awed. Cameras were all out, including video. We went out as a group but some tired quickly and found viewpoints to rest. Jimmy and I and some others from our Guangxi group decided to climb as high as we had time for, and boy was it a climb! The stairs are all different widths and heights, sometimes more of a ramp. There are handrails but they are set down low and awkward, especially coming down! But if you get going down a ramp too fast, they are life-saving. There are vendors and craftman all over the wall, they trap you when you are catching your breath and hawk their wares. Many beautiful things but we must shop carefully for packable items. An old man was playing a sort of flute and Jimmy decided to try one, as he can play the fife and many wind instruments. Well, you should have seen the man's face when Jimmy caught on to it and played a quick little riff! We are having so much fun with the people here. Some pose themselves just near enough so they can get us in the background of their pictures, others ask outright to pose with you. Jimmy decided to have some fun with it and jumped into a couple of their pictures, and everyone got a good laugh. I had to use the bathrooms, and I can't write exactly how that was, but let's just say...crowded place, porta-potties, chinese style, which is a hole in a plastic floor to squat over, unisex, hot day...oh my! Purell me quick! The people don't wait in lines either, I had to touch the door of one or old ladies would charge right in before me. I find I can be a bit intimidating because I am taller than most everybody, it sometimes works to my advantage. We finally gathered the group back at the buses and we went to "lunch" at about 3 p.m., thank god we had found some ice cream at the wall. From there, we headed back into Beijing to see an acrobatic show which was quite impressive. There were unbelievable balancing acts, feats of strength, contortionists, bicycle acts, etc., and it was all in colorful costumes and impressive sets. We were all whispering about packing and going for the babies in the morning so it was a bit much after such a busy day.Throughout our journey, we are sprinkling some ashes of Jimmy's dear friend, Burge, and we know he would truly appreciate where we have traveled and places we are going. So much emotion on this trip, it is hard to put into words.Today is Thursday, the 12th, it is 3 p.m., we are hanging out as Laina the Lioness is napping. Jimmy just went for a massage downstairs, it cost $150 Yuan, or a little less than $20 for 45 minutes. I think I put an incorrect conversion on a previous post. The yuan is approximately at 8 yuan to one US dollar. Once you get the landmark numbers it's not too hard. The internet costs 20 yuan, so that's only between 2 and $3 a day. Most things are reasonable but you still must be careful. We got a carafe of coffee one morning and found we paid over $6, and it isn't very tasty at all. This morning we went for a 'stroll' through the local park, right near the hotel. It has a lake in the middle, beautiful landscaping and stone carving, arched bridges, orange carp in the water, musicians everywhere playing all kinds of instruments, some ladies were singing very operatically to impress us so we clapped enthusiastically. Laina was Princess for the day, getting lots of kisses and cheek-squeezes, all the old ladies want to fuss with the babies and try to talk to us. The young people want to practice their english and say hello. Jimmy had a long talk today with the bellhop at the front door, who asked if we knew Yao Ming, the basketball player who plays with the Houston Rockets. This afternoon we are having some personal time to catch up, clean up, and take naps. Tomorrow, a trip to the famous mountains of Guangxi and maybe some caves. Sounds great to us! Laina loves being outside and watching everything. She had her first baby belly-laugh this afternoon and we just melted. We are total putty. All the babies in our group are gorgeous; we have Laina, Roma, Isabella, and Jianna..we call them the Italian connection. They like each other and share toys easily. All 4 have seemed to double their appetites, we just eat and eat. Each day there are breakthroughs. Today Jianna, who had been reserved and watchful started giggling and running around. Each has her own transition to make. Some were in Foster care and are a bit sad leaving loved ones, but all are starting to bond well with Mommies and Daddies. Our Wide Horizons guide, Pat, flew in today after helping a family who traveled alone, so now we have both Pat and Glen to play with. It is fun for her to meet all the babies today and catch up with all of us. Wow! I guess you are getting some info today, eh?

Our Girl

2007-04-10T18:36:00.000-05:00

It is early morning on Wednesday,I think. It seems that the whole family needed to catch up on sleep, we slept about 11 hours and the little lioness is still just about to wake up and give a good morning growl. She sleeps on her back, spread-eagle, with her arms wide like an angel. Soon, we'll dress and go down to breakfast. There are 3 meals a day here for us; breakfast is a buffet with all kinds of interesting things, some Chinese and some american style. There is a chef with a very tall hat who will make eggs and other things, there are servers who will bring you coffee and high chairs and 'congee' for the babies. It is a sort of rice-porridge, served warm. Things can be added to it for different flavors. Jimmy and I make an effort to try different things all the time. At lunch and dinner, our group of 4 families meets in a dining room and we are served a selection of large plates on a lazy susan that everyone shares. There is usually a nice balance of poultry, beef, veggies, duck, tofu and noodles and a fried rice of some sort. For a few days, there were french fries and we mentioned to our guide Glen that there seemed to be an impression that Americans eat them at every meal. Since then, we have not had any. Yesterday we all went to Wal-Mart. We cause quite a stir wherever we go. Lots of people stare and some even come up and adjust the baby's clothes or blanket. They bundle up the little kids like they are in a blizzard. The little ones wear 'split-pants and some are trained to go to the bathroom when being held over the toilet and signaled by a whistle. Good thing our friend Hugh, who whistles all the time isn't here, things could get messy! Our guide is man named Glenn, he has only ever left China to spend time in Australia so his English is spoken with a combination of a chinese and an aussie accent, very fun to listen to. When we first received the children and got back on the bus(we went to another hotel), Glen offered to sing lullabies in Chinese, it was so nice. The main one that worked is basically "Frere Jacques", so we hum that a lot to calm her still. We are all starving so that's it for now. Hello to all our loved ones and to our kitties!

It's All About Her

2007-04-10T03:38:00.000-05:00

We finally have a free moment and the means to communicate. Our hotel here in Nanning has computers in the room! Yippee!For 20 Yuan a day, or about $2.50, not bad to connect to the world. We just want to talk about Laina. She is awesome! Although she came to us with an ear infection, things are looking up in that aspect already. She is gorgeous, which we knew already, but really and truly amazingly so. She has a hot temper and growls when she's angry, baring her tiny 2 bottom teeth, perfectly appropriate since she is a little Leo, born in August. She doesn't have much hair still. She weighs in at 15 pounds and is the littlest in the group, as well as the loudest! Her caregiver said she was the loudest of all. Today we went to the Civil Affairs Office and were interviewed by officials and granted our Adoption Decree. It's official!They took a picture of us together and we signed lots and lots of beautiful rice paper documents with our signatures and also our thumbprints. Laina signed with a foot. They did not need Jimmy's foot, although he made sure to ask! After that, we went to a Notary office, where they asked us more questions and we signed and printed our thumbs on more papers. We promised to love and care for her as our own, promised not to neglect or abuse or abandon her, and pledged to give her everything possible. We passed and on Friday we'll get our official copies. We were able to have a talk with her main caregiver, our guide Glenn interpreted. She gave us our disposable camera back, we have to develop that, and surprised us with other gifts too. It turns out that she was with a foster family for a time, a couple with a son, and they sent a photo album for us! She also gave us Laina a beautiful book about the area where she was found, with a meaningful and poetic inscription. Today has been another amazing day in Nanning, tonight we have a birthday party with all the kids, there is a one year old today. Tomorrow we plan a trip to the zoo. More posts to come!

Gotcha Day

2007-04-09T08:29:00.000-05:00

Hello out there! At last! Our beautiful baby is in our arms. She is a perfect little beauty. Today we experienced the most amazing moments of our lives, tears of joy that keep coming. All 4 families received the babies successfully, it was an incredible and miraculous thing to share. I will try to put a photo of the three of us here, although we have tons of photos, we may have to add them later. It is late, the baby is finally asleep after crying for hours,we are exhausted beyond belief, but also ecstatic. I am in someone else's room so I have to be quick and am anxious to sleep before another big day tomorrow, standing before the Civil office of the Guanxi Province, to "show our purpose, our promise and our pledge. Moe later!

Beijing-Day2

2007-04-07T19:23:00.000-05:00

We are unable to get to our blog from the business center so I am depending on the kindness of other people to go in their rooms to post. Also, we cannot view the blog or your comments from here. Yesterday, we went to a beautiful park called Jingshan Park in the early a.m. People were exercising, doing Tai Chi, sword dancing, ribbon dancing, playing instruments, all kinds of things. One man was doing cartwheels down the path and a boy from our group joined him, which drew a big crowd. We are taking tons of pictures but can't send thm yet, so sorry. Later, we went to The Forbidden City and Tiannamen Square. It was absolutely amazing! So much history and such a unique culture. There are street vendors everywhere, they don't all take no(or Bu) for an answer. We broke away from the group for dinner last night. We went to place where all the servers were in traditional costume. We have tried many cool foods, this a.m. I had a pastry stuffed with dates, pork dumplings, marinated eggs, steamed vegetables and a couple sweet rolls. Everything was delicious! Last night they served crispy duck, abalone, chicken in an orange sauce, many unidentifiable and very delicious things. There was "camel paw" on the menu but we did not try it! The people are very nice, young folks like to say hello and giggle when we try and answer in Chinese. They really stare at us, and the elderly ladies will actually grab the young kids in our group and give them big kisses, one little blonde girl in particular.Today we are about to head out to visit a jade factory and the Graet Wall. It is hard to concentrate on all these trips when all we can think about is that TOMORROW we will see our babies! We fly out at 7a.m., arrive in the Province around 10, and get the babes in 'the afternoon'.We will have a guide there named Glenn who we have heard is really great, and has a nice singing voice too. Our small group is totally bonding as friends, we are so happy about it all, can't believe we are here!

TheFirst Day

2007-04-06T17:09:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone; We made it to Beijing, safe and sound. The Capital Hotel is very nice. In our room there are bathrobes, mini-bar, frig., safe, all kinds of luxuries. Today we are up early, going to a local park before breakfast. Later, we have a child-care class and a trip this afternoon to the Forbidden City. Tomorrow the Great Wall. We are taking tons of pictures already, but haven't figured out how to post them. I am borrowing a laptop in our friends' room. All the people in our group are fantastic! The city is under tons of construction, getting ready for the 2008 Olympics, everyone is busy, busy. More later!

THIS IS IT!

2007-04-04T06:38:00.000-05:00

Today we are starting our trip to China! Just can't believe it is finally happening. We are so excited, it is so amazing. We will be blogging along as we go..there are computer centers in all of our hotels. We will also be checking our emails for those of you who want to do that. Tonight we will stay near the airport so we can get up for our early flight, and tomorrow we will fly from Newark directly to Beijing! Whoopee! Yay! Yippee! Sorry, no photo today, I have to go sit on my suitcase. We think we have everything..we think. We'll miss our 2 kitties terribly but they are in good hands.They know something is up, better make sure that THEY are not in the bags! Might not be able to blog until Friday, your time. We will be exactly 12 hours ahead of you. Laina, we are on our way, can't wait to have you in our arms!

Three More Days!

2007-04-01T05:39:00.000-05:00

Sorry there hasn't been much posting on the "Blob" as one of our friends calls it, we are suddenly busy, packing and organizing, washing baby clothes, decorating her room, making list after list after list.....It is tricky to fit all the stuff we'd like to bring in our allotted bags. Our checked bags can only weigh 44 lbs., and then we have a carryon each. We have documents, cameras, medications, diapers and diaper bag, baby carrier, clothes for all of us, baby bottles and formula,and of course, we want to leave room for all the stuff we'll buy over there, so we pack and then take some stuff out and try again. Luckily, there's Wal Mart and lots of places to buy whatever we don't bring over there, as well as laundry in the hotels. We are shrinking our stuff with "packmates"; those cool bags that you roll the air out of. Today we put the car seat in the van.I just tried to take pix in Laina's room but it is very small and hard to get a decent shot, so here is a photo of a funny thing that Jimmy gave me for my birthday last year, called "The Wheel of Responsibility".Only 3 more days!!Yippee!

Itinerary

2007-03-25T07:08:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone; Jimmy and I finally have our itinerary, here are some of the highlights... We leave the U.S. on April 5th and fly from Providence to Newark, and then Newark to Beijing. We arrive in China on Friday in the afternoon. The next day, we are going to the Great Wall with all the 27 families, definitely can't wait to go there! On the 8th, we will be going to the Forbidden City and an Acrobatic Show in the evening. On April 9th, we will fly with only 3 other families to Nanning in the Guangxi Province and in the afternoon, we will finally have Laina in our arms! You will all be asleep after eating your chocolate Easter Bunnies...We stay in that area for 7 days, getting to know our babies and doing local sightseeing, etc.,as well as getting legal documents, etc. From there, we fly to Guangzhou, where we will meet up with all the families again, this time, with all the new children. The Consulate is there, we will have the 'swearing in ceremony' and enjoy that beautiful area for 3 days and then on the 19th, fly back home.We are so excited we can't even stand it! The next 11 days are going to go by in a blur. Laina, here we come! Here is a nice photo by a man named Frank Pettit, of the Hills of Guangxi.

Other China Babies

2007-03-22T16:18:00.000-05:00

Hi All; Just thought you might appreciate these China cuties! 16 panda cubs, including 5 sets of twins, in Sichuan, China. I just might stay in China as this guy's assistant! I love the little one looking in the box.(Thanks for the photo,Sarah.) We are busily finishing Laina's room, will post a photo when it's set up. Packing, making lists, getting ready for our meeting tomorrow; we are psyched to meet the other families that we are traveling with, 27 families in all. Wow!

Blog Visitor Tips

2007-03-21T18:46:00.000-05:00

Jimmy and I love to read the "comments" from our posts, you can just click on the word 'comments'and type a message in the box that comes up. Also, did you notice that the Weather Girl on the right side of the blog changes her clothes? We added a Chinese Horoscope link to click on too; look up your birth year for fun. Jimmy is a Rabbit, Nancy is an Oxen, and Laina is the Year of the Dog. Looks like we'll get along just fine! China, Here We Come!

China Bound

2007-03-21T17:08:00.000-05:00

Finally we have our travel dates. as we thought we'll be leaving Providence R.I. on April 5th at 6:00am (which means at the terminal@4:00) for a short trip to the beautiful city of Newark N.J. then a 4 hour layover and then board our plane, and proceed directly past go, to BEIJING. Haven't gotten our in- china itinerary yet, expect that and all the other relevent info on Friday. Now the real journey begins.
Will be back sometime......maybe!This photo is of a village near where we'll be heading in the Guangxi province........beautiful hey.

Almost Time to Go!

2007-03-20T08:21:00.000-05:00

We still do not have our exact travel dates, but we do have our Consulate appointment scheduled in Guangzhou on April 17. This means we can figure on going somewhere around April 3rd-6th-ish..SOON! YAY!We are energized now, finishing Laina's room, making piles of stuff to pack and lots and lots of lists. In Beijing, where we start our trip, the average temperature in April is a low of 47*F and a high of 67*, and in Nanning, where we will go to get Laina and stay for a while, has an average of 77 high and 65 low. Sounds pretty good! We were able to send a Care Package to her at the orphanage; in it we put a disposable camera, a toy, a blankie, a 'Baby's First Photo Album' with pictures of us and our families, etc. and some candy for the people who open the package. All we really care about is getting that camera back! We had a friend translate a letter inside asking them to take pictures of her, her caregivers, her friends and her cribmate, etc. This is something that other adoptive parents have done in the past and got back much-cherished photos of the time before bringing the baby home. I like to put a photo on my posts so here's Laina again just because she is so beautiful!

Paper Cutting

2007-03-11T16:05:00.000-05:00

This is a photo of a paper cutting that hangs in Nancy's parents' dining room. They traveled to China more than once, but this cutting was a gift for their 50th anniversary from their friend, Pei Ying, who was a guide on one of the trips. Paper cutting was invented during the Han Dynasty(207 B.C. - 22 A.D.) In Chinese, the cutouts are called "window flowers". No matter how complicated, every design must be cut out as an unbroken, continuous peice and requires extensive patience and creativity. In this one, there is a Dragon and a Phoenix, as well as chrysanthemums. The Dragon and the Phoenix often serve as metaphors for matrimonial harmony, and the 'mums' are a symbol for long life. Enjoy!

A Friend for Laina

2007-03-07T20:54:00.000-05:00

I am attempting to post today from "afar" to practice before the trip. This is a picture of my friend's daughter, Annabelle who was born in the Hunan Province. She is adorable! And what a good helper with opening presents at the Baby Shower; I think she was hoping to take this doggie home...Laina and I will definitely have 'play dates' with her and her Mom, Stephanie.

Packing and Planning

2007-03-02T07:47:00.000-05:00

Here's an update: We now have a Travel Meeting with all of the families that are traveling with us(27!) scheduled for March 23rd. Still no exact travel dates but we have been in touch with our agency and they are trying their best to make our appointments in China for early April, as there is a large Trade Fair in mid-April there. Meanwhile, we are making piles of stuff to pack, reading up on the regulations for carry-ons and baby formula and making shopping lists! Today, I will sort all the baby clothes to bring to China from the Shower, which are still "on display"! We can't seem to put them away, guess it makes us feel closer to her. We assembled a new high chair at the table, can't wait until she is in it! For fun, here are some of the cute "fortunes" that were inside homemade cookies at the shower...

" Diaper spelled backward is repaid. Think about it."

"Children are a great comfort in your old age, and they help you reach it faster too"

"You know your children are growing up when they stop asking you where they came from and refuse to tell you where they are going"

" In raising my children, I have lost my mind, but found my soul"

Surprise!

2007-02-25T09:10:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday, my very best friends, family and neighbors threw a surprise Baby Shower! I was kidnapped and given a fortune cookie that read "Nancy, you are being shangheid, put on the blindfold". I was taken to a friend's house where about 40 of my favorite people had gathered, including my sisters and friends that had to travel quite a distance to come. It was so great! The girls had decorated the house for Chinese New Year with dragons and silk, there was incredible Asian type food and loads of fantastic gifts for Laina! She has a whole lot of terrific "Aunties" just waiting for her to come home; we feel so lucky to have such a supportive community and circle of friends. Thank you everyone, Jimmy and I are very moved by the show of support and amazed by the gifts. I tried to take a picture of it all, but there is no way to get them all in, but here it is!

Happy Valentine's Day

2007-02-14T16:08:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone; The question you all have been asking, is WHEN? We are currently waiting for all 27 families that received their babies' referrals to complete and return documents of acceptance. Each family has medical reports reviewed and things like that. As soon as we all have sent them in, then the travel arrangements are made for the whole group. The agency makes appointments for us at the Consulate office as well as other places, they make our airline reservations, our hotel bookings, buses to take us everywhere, etc., so there's quite a bit for them to do. Once in China, we break into smaller groups and travel to the Province where our children are. Jimmy and I are with 3 other families so it's a nice small group. We have been in touch by email with them already and will meet the extended group at a mandatory Travel Meeting 2-3 weeks before the trip. We hope to go in early April and will get the word out as soon as we know so you can follow our journey on this blog.Meantime, I'll try and find things to add so the blog doesn't get too dull. Here's a somewhat sad face on the third photo we received, but she's still so gorgeous!

Laina the Beautiful

2007-02-07T09:31:00.000-05:00

Wow! Yesterday was an incredible day. We were surprised by a call from our agency in the morning that they would be ready to see us after all; this is after 2 appointments had been cancelled and we had been told to plan on Wednesday. What great news! We raced there of course and finally found out all about our gorgeous baby. We were also told the wrong birthdate by a few days, she was actually born on August 12, 2006,,so she's a few days younger. We can't take our eyes off her photos, today I will put copies all over the house(she is already my screesaver!) Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy!

Speechless

2007-02-06T21:35:00.000-05:00

Looking at her face for the first time, words cannot express the joy we feel today.

Laina Marie

2007-02-06T21:23:00.000-05:00

Hurry Up and Wait

2007-02-05T17:02:00.000-05:00

Well, it seems that we will not be able to see our Laina Marie's face until WEDNESDAY! There are alot of families whose packages must all be translated before anyone can see them. We are going crazy with the anticipation, this is really torture. Not much we can do about it though, they are working very hard at the agency to get them all done.Sorry, everyone, we'll post the photo as soon as we can!

Naming the baby

2007-02-03T20:40:00.000-05:00

We have finally decided to call our baby by the name Laina Marie. It seems a nice combination of her given name from China and a family name. So, now we have a name but still no face! Our Social Worker is not sure that the documents will be ready for us on Monday, so we may even have to wait until Tuesday. Photos will be posted as soon as humanly possible. Thank you everyone for the calls and sharing the excitement with us. What an incredible few days this has been!

News

2007-02-01T14:36:00.000-05:00

We got THE CALL today! Here is the basic information, more to come: We have a baby girl. Her Chinese name is "Lai Fu Na" (pronounced Lay-foo-na), she was born on August 6, 2006 (really young, we are so happy for that) in the Guangxi Province in southern China. We will go to our agency on Monday to see the photos and get the rest of her information. It's going to be a long weekend. We'll post the photos and everything after that. We are so excited. I received a funny error message with my first draft of this note, it said I couldn't use exclamation points. Guess our blog was on excitement overload, so you'll have to imagine lots and lots of exclamation points when you read this.

Rumors

2007-01-31T16:43:00.000-05:00

Today, there are rumors all over the internet groups about the possibility of referrals arriving at agencies TOMORROW! Don't know for sure so we will be going nuts all day wondering and jumping when the phone rings. Supposedly, our agency calls with the basic info(given name, date of birth, province)on the same day that the packages are received. Then, we have to wait for them all to be translated before we can go in and see the photos and all the information. Going NUTS with the anticipation...

Baby Quilt

2007-01-30T10:51:00.000-05:00

This is a beautiful quilt that Nancy's Mom made for the baby. It has squares that open up(with velcro dots) to reveal pictures hidden underneath. She did a terrific job and we will always cherish it. Can't wait to peek at the pictures with our baby!

Waiting and Wondering

2007-01-30T09:16:00.000-05:00

Well, no news yet. I was hoping to have some info to share with my mom on her birthday, which is tomorrow.Rats! I have repaired the link to CCAA if anyone had trouble with it. You have to hit the "english" button, but it connects now. I am about to attemp to post a map of China. Every time the phone rings, I get butterflies in my stomach until I see the Caller ID is not the agency. I am trying to keep busy but I feel so distracted; just doing my chores and projects like a robot. Will the call come this week? Who knows? Hopefully this weekend we can finish putting in the last window in the baby's room, I am anxious to set it up, have the furniture, have the paint, have the motivation...
not sure if I have enough PATIENCE!

Update

2007-01-24T07:06:00.000-05:00

This is where we stand in the process as of today... We have a "Log-In-Date" or LID of September 29, 2005. This is the date that our application was translated and approved by the China Center of Adoption Affairs, or CCAA. Approximately each month, the CCAA puts out a report on their website of the applications that have been matched to children, this is called the Referral. The last report was on January 3, and stated that they had processed the applications through the LID of September 27, 2005. That was a crazy day! We were dissappointed that they came so close, and excited that they came so close. Now we feel that we can safely assume that we will be included in the next batch, possibly by the end of the month. This means like, NEXT WEEK!! It finally seems like it will really happen. When we signed up for the China Program, the wait between your LID and your referral was only about 8 months, we have now waited 16 months.
So, what happens next? Well, we will get a call from our Social Worker with our baby's given name, gender, date-of-birth, province of birth and how many families will be in our group to travel to that province. We set up an appointment with her to meet at the agency in about 2 days to review the photos and especially the medical report. This will be the first time we see the photos. (That is going to be 2 LONG days!) Then, we have 7-10 days to get the medical report reviewed by a Pediatrician and to sign off on the Acceptance Certificate.Then, there are travel meetings where we go to the agency and meet the other families and discuss all the information about the trip. They will give us packing suggestions and lists for reference, answer our billion questions, etc. After that, we wait for our Travel Assignment which can take 6-8 weeks to put together. We expect to travel in late March or early April, but that is just speculation right now.
We hope to learn how to manage this blog from afar and post pictures and notes on our trip. Today, I will post the link to the CCAA and try to put some China info on the blog, like weather and time, etc.