December 2007

December 28th - Happy Birthday to Uncle Darryl and Po Po (grandma)!


December 27th


December 26th - feeling a little under the weather :-(


December 25th - sharing with Daddy


December 25th - at Christmas dinner


December 25th - Merry Christmas, Asia!


December 24th - a practice run to see how the Christmas dress fits


a Christmas photo with Charlie and Santa


December 17th - sitting under a stool


December 15th - Asia and Auntie MoMo watching a hockey game


December 11th - with some snowman friends


December 9th - Asia and Mommy working on a graham wafer Christmas house


December 4th - after she's emptied out 'her' drawer


December 4th - sitting in Mommy's childhood rocking chair

Photos - November 2007

Nov 29 - a bathing beauty!




Nov 27 - Daddy and Asia



Nov 20th




Nov 12th




Nov 8th




Nov 7th




Nov 3 - Asia and Mommy at the Adoption Family Fun Day




Nov 1 - Peek-a-Boo!

Sorry it's been sooooo long....

It's almost been a year since the last posting. Time flies!

I do apologize for not keeping up with the photos of Miss Asia. Long story short, it took six months for Mommyhood to feel really good. The transition from a couple with a dog to a family of three with a dog along with working from home and looking after the house and a little one was a bit overwhelming alot of the time. And it's not like Asia was a newborn -- we jumped right into having a 9 1/2 month old! And maybe (okay, I was) I was a little too optimistic about what I could do each day with Asia...

On the bright side, when I felt good again, I felt so good that I wanted another little one to add to our family...LOL!

I'll post pictures from each month until I catch up and then I'll start journalling again. Enjoy the photos!!

Our first Halloween with Asia

Asia is walking just in time to be Winnie the Pooh for Halloween. I think we can say that's she's officially walking now; it's been a slow process. She pretty much walked around the mall on her own to trick or treat.



Riding on Daddy's shoulder and not scared at all since she's not hanging on for dear life!

Fun in October

A get-together of Families with Children from China in mid-October.

Happy 1st Birthday, Asia! -- another celebration

The second one was at home with family and some friends.

Sorry for the sideways photos....

Finally, an update!!

Asia was a lucky girl to have had two 1st birthday celebrations in the same week! The first one was with some of our camping friends.

More of our beautiful Asia

More of Asia

More Pictures

Pictures!!

Sunday, June 3 in Beijing

We read some of the comments but Chris said to hurry up because Asia won't sit still for so long....Thanks for the comments -- as always, it's great to know that people are thinking of us :-)

Sorry, cannot post pictures as we don't have the card reader to do it. We may get one; we'll see.

Today, the babies had their photo taken for immigration documentation. We had our group photo taken on the steps inside the lounge of the State Guest Hotel. Off to the Jade Factory to learn about jade and some shopping; then the Great Wall of China. We walked for four towers worth and took the trolley down. It was hard for those carrying the babies in the snuglis. The weather was cool and there was a breeze -- thank goodness it wasn't hot and sunny! Lunch above the Friendship Store and Cloisinne (spelling?) work rooms. Good food and then some shopping.

Life is good :-) It feels like Asia has been with us longer than she actually has. She is a happy girl and doesn't seem to have a problem with all the outings and unpredictable eating schedules. We pack so that we can make up bottles for her when we need to. She came to us with two bottom teeth and the upper left (hers) coming in. That one is still coming in and the other front one is working its way out too. She has her formula, rice cereal and fresh fruit and will eat some of what we have at meal times. You should see her eat a banana!

Okay, some tidbits of info to tide you all over until we can post pictures:

- Chris changed the first diaper then no more after that, except for a couple of poopy ones

- left home Thursday, May 24th - almost 900 photos taken by the time we left Beijing on Monday, May 28th!!

- she didn't have good eye to hand coodination when we got her but it's a whole lot better now

- doesn't seem to be able to crawl but she is now rolling over faster -- gotta watch her more closely now when she's on the bed

- she can blow bubbles with her mouth

- young children's sphincters are not mature enough yet so they will likely throw up formula if you lay them down for a diaper change soon after feeding :-(

- she can make a funny face by scrunching up her nose at you and then giggling; she also blinks both of her eyes at the same time at you

- she has a squeal that can be quite piercing

- has been mistaken for a boy (she's not the only one though) even when she's wearing pink clothes

- likes to sit quietly and watch what's going on around her

- knows Daddy and Mommy and hangs on for dear life if a stranger wants to take her in their arms

- Asia's first shower was with Mommy (May 31st)

- nickname at the orphanage is Fee Fee (beautiful)

- reaches out and grabs people as they walk by

Okay, gotta go....time for a bottle and then it's Asia's bed time....

Hugs to all,
Debbie, Chris and Asia

It's official - we're a family!!!

Today was Adoption Day - the paperwork was done to make it official.
Great to read all the comments; it's nice to 'hear' from people :-)
Let me tell you that it's stinkin' hot and humid here! So far, we like Nanning better than Beijing -- it's lush and green. Beautiful.

The Guiping girls got a gift from the orphanage director and we, the parents, recieved many photos of Guiping. There were a few photos of Asia also; one as late as April 2007.

The Gotcha part of Gotcha Day (yesterday) happened very fast. We were a bit late arriving at the place; we went there directly from the airport. Chris says we were in and out in half an hour. I didn't cry as much as I thought I would.

Gotta love Asia's hair! I haven't tried to do anything with it.
Tomorrow we're off to shop at Wal-mart. We need to get some things -- size 2 diapers for one. Oh, I sort of weighed Asia; she's about 16 lbs.

Hey, Val, we got a poopy diaper this morning!!! Yay!!!! We're the first ones. Of course, I cleaned up the poopy part and realized that she'd just peed in her new diaper and all over her outfit so of course, had to change clothes...LOL! For those of you that don't know....the babies usually get constipated and it's a contest to see whose baby pooped first.

Gotta go....more later.
Debbie, Chris and Asia

We're In China!!

Hello to everyone from us in China!! Very long flight - was great except it was turbulent enough that Debbie got sick. Hot here. Yesterday, we went to Forbidden City and Tianneman Square and walked around. Got funny looks due to our funny hats? Or big white guy with short Chinese girl? Or was it because we were holding hands? We went to the silk market and shopped - we were there for 6 hours! It was fun - Chris got into haggling after a while - lots of fun, but exhausting too. We had dinner with Cecile and Marty at Pizza Hut. Chris only slept for 6 hours the night after we got here. Last night I slept for a couple of hours before I kept waking up - Maybe it's due to the excitement that we'll have Asia with us tomorrow night!! We leave for Nanning tomorrow afternoon and receive the babies shortly after arriving.

Getting practice for when Asia's home ??

Good early morning! Not only did Charlie throw up his dinner before we went to bed, he also threw up while we were sleeping. I woke up about 4:30 a.m. when I realized that the duvet/cover was feeling wet -- EW, yuck! Yes, Charlie sleeps on my side of the bed. Of course, I couldn't just put a new comforter on the bed -- it'd been stored long enough that it needed to be freshened up in the dryer first. Chris slept through most of it. When I went back to change comforters, the night table lamp was no longer on -- he'd rolled over and turned it off. He woke up briefly as I was changing the comforter. I'm going back to bed now; it's been an hour....