Not Tired

She didn't think she'd be able to fall to fall asleep tonight, have to read in bed for a while....

A Note For My Teacher

Explained

Gwen, explaining to me why I must surely love her the best~ "I'm the special-est, because I'm the smallest and adopted, the only one."

Scott and Gwen, Boracay, 2011

Field Day

It was a beautiful afternoon for the elementary school's annual field day competitions today! The K-4 graders were divided into mixed age group teams to participate in a wide variety of relays and other games, moving from station to station. Eighth graders ferried the elementary groups from one game to the next, which meant that Seth got to be outside enjoying the sunshine today as well. I watched for a while, loving Gwen's grins and enthusiasm!
The three-legged race is always a fun one!
Two students had to pull a third- as the smallest, Gwen got to be pulled. :-)
I think she thought she was helping her team win this tug-of-war game...

Daddy Daughter Dance~ At Last!

Just like it was for Madelyn a couple years ago, the Daddy Daughter Dance has been much anticipated by Gwen. In fact, being able to attend this event is the one reason Gwen wanted to join Girl Scouts this year. We had found a special dress for Gwen in a Barbie store we went into on a whim a few months ago, and we borrowed high heeled shoes from our neighbor. I took Gwen to get her hair done a couple of hours before the dance~ she couldn't wait to get home to show it to Daddy!

She couldn't help spinning and posing for me for pictures, and then she and Daddy were off to the ball!


Scott described the disco themed dance as "quite a party". There was lots of food, bubble machine, glow sticks, and a DJ that kept the dance moving with limbo, the macarena, YMCA, and the like. Gwen showed me all the dance moves she learned when she got home. :-)
Gwen's friend Audrey joined Scott and Gwen for several dances.
What kind of dance is this, Daddy?
So fun! This special night will be talked about for a long time to come.

Year of the Rabbit Celebrations

Chinese New Year is being celebrated in full force! We arrived back in Shanghai this morning, just in time for the loudest fireworks night of the entire holiday. It's the night of the money god... so according to legend, if your fireworks are the longest and the loudest, the coming year will be one of prosperity. The explosions have been going on now for several hours, and will likely continue through the night tonight.Below is the picture of the ship I promised in another post about Chinese New Year decorations. This was constructed completely of white styrofoam outside a small mall near us, then painted red. It stands about twenty feet high. It's fairly impressive, for styrofoam!
The day before we left for the holiday break, Gwen's class had a CNY party, complete with dumplings, oranges, lantern making, story telling, and red envelopes with gold chocolate coins inside. One of the well loved traditions of CNY is to distribute red envelopes of money to children, unmarried young adults, and employees.
Gwen and her friends display their lanterns... some a bit creatively!
I am mulling over lots of things about our CNY trip to Boracay and what we experienced there. The beautiful faces of the many children we interacted with at the feeding sites are going through my head. Hoping to post about some of that soon. In the mean time, I'll be listening to fireworks!

Morning and Lunch

The kids are slowly getting over jet lag. They've been up quite early for school every day this week, which has had some real benefits. One is that there is plenty of time for us all to have breakfast together, another that there is plenty of time to get school lunches packed.

This morning I came into the kitchen to find Gwen's lunchbox out and ready on the counter. "Gwen, you made your lunch already?" I peeked inside to find four marshmallows, a drink box, the rest of the gummy bears left from Christmas stockings, and her favorite, a packet of plain tuna.

I amended the contents only slightly. :-)

Look Who Came For Christmas!

Day Trip to the Past

Yesterday I was in Henan province. It was a day trip, just a 90 minute flight there and back, and my task while there was brief. Just get one picture taken. No big deal, right?

I haven't mentioned Baobei Foundation here much, maybe not at all by name. If you'd like to check it out officially, you can look at the website, which you can find by clicking here. I have a volunteer position with Baobei that has filled quite a bit of my free time during the day while our kids are in school. I've gotten to visit lots of babies in the hospital, orphaned little ones that Baobei brings to Shanghai for neurological or gastrointestinal surgery. I've cuddled infants who couldn't eat all day before their surgery. I watched IV lines started and checked out healing incision sites. I've helped settle these little ones post surgically into foster care with expat families. I've visited these families, gone to physical therapy appointments, searched through Baobei's stash of equipment and clothing, and had meetings where we discussed new children coming and who will next care for the ones we have in Shanghai now.

But a couple of times now I've been privileged to be a small part of one of our Baoebei babies being adopted. Yesterday was one of those times. I traveled with Lily, one of our local Chinese Baobei staff, and a toddler Baobei who is about to have his adoption into his expat foster family completed. We had to return to the city he came from to have his picture taken for his Chinese passport, one of many steps leading up to finalizing his adoption. The actual taking of the photo took only a moment, but we carefully brushed his hair over beforehand, having had to wake him from a sound sleep on my shoulder. The photographer called to him, he looked, and the camera clicked. Then we stood in line for a turn to sit at the police counter with him on my lap while they looked at him and stamped and signed various papers that would ultimately release him from the jurisdiction of the province and allow him to be adopted. Of course everything was said in Chinese and only interpreted to me here and there, so I was just a warm body to hold this Baobei and carry him from place to place, comforting and entertaining on the way.

By 8 PM last night we were back from the day of travel for the photo, and our Baobei (did I mention Baobei means "precious child" in Chinese?) was safely back with his foster family, soon to be forever family. I was left to wonder who took Gwen to get her passport photo taken before her adoption. Did she fall asleep on their shoulder on the way to the police station? Did they smooth down her hair? Did she wonder what this outing from her regular surroundings at the Yibin Social Welfare Institute would mean?

As I look at her little round face on the Chinese passport that she left China with in December 2005, I wish I could read more in her face. I wish I knew more about what came before the day we met her. At least now I know how one more piece of her story happened. Someone dressed Gwen, who was then Wang Yu, in a bright red jacket that day. They took her to the police station. They held her up on the little stool, reaching over to keep her balanced in view of the camera, but with their own body out of the photo. They waited with her to sit at the police counter. Was she a wiggle worm, a ball of energy? Unless she had just woken from a nap like our Baobei yesterday, I'm sure she was!

The look on her face in this little passport picture looks uncertain, her eyes are looking off to one side. Was she wondering what was happening, what was about to happen?

I'm going to show her this picture when she gets home from school today. I don't think she'll remember a thing about it. But I know just a little bit more than I did before, and I kind of like that.

Fall Photos

Every now and then I find among my children a willing model... such was the case with Gwen a week or two ago, and low and behold we actually had a few moments before church where we were both put together and had time for me to get these shots. I love the missing two front teeth look, and as there's no sign of either tooth making an appearance any time soon, it may be Gwen's signature style for a while. I don't remember the other kids having both teeth missing at the same time like this for any length of time. Cute, cute. :-)

Another One Gone

Group Effort, Minus Mom

Gwen has been working on learning how to blow a bubble with gum all summer. Caleb was a most patient coach at the outset... I found it nearly impossible to explain how to do it, so I was happy to have him as her instructor. She got the basic idea a while ago, but couldn't produce much of a bubble. The last few weeks it has finally come together. I spent several frustrated minutes last week trying to snap a photo of her bubble before it popped... in the end, Madelyn got this shot on her first try. :-)

A New Space in Her Mouth

We finally got the top tooth out! Of the five teeth she's lost now, Gwen has not pulled one out on her own. This top tooth had hung on a long time, driving me crazy! Finally on Sunday night she said, "Mom, can you just take it out?" I was more than happy to oblige.
Tonight we had a little fun taking pictures of this new hole in her mouth. :-)

Big and Little

This morning, the second day of school, Gwen requested that Caleb (not Mommy- gulp!) walk her to school. At least I got to man the camera...

Whirlwind of Fun

We had such a fun couple of days with the China sisters last weekend. Our girls were busy, busy!
It was neat to see the girls all relating to one another so quickly. I know kids of this age generally do feel comfortable with age mates easily, but I have to believe that these girls have a special bond.
We played at the beach... building a dam, swimming, hunting for shells and lake glass, and sculpting mermaid tails in the sand.
Kate escapes from the bonds of her mermaid tail!
Alia models her tail.

Kimberly and Gwen conversing on the break wall.

Jumping on the bed in the hotel where our friends were staying was a popular activity!

Kate's mom had these initial shirts made for all the girls, including the big sisters. Here are Alia and Gwen with their big sisters, Kela and Madelyn.
Alia and Gwen both have March birthdays, and had the same Chinese surname when they joined our familes. Being the same age, they would have been in the same play and sleeping rooms at their orphanage. They clearly knew each other and enjoyed interacting together in the days we spent together while their adoptions were processing. Alia is a good 3-4 inches taller than Gwen, but Gwen can proudly claim being older by a couple of weeks. :-)
Dinner was a casual one, at Five Guys for yummy burgers. We also had some coloring time so the moms and Dean could chat. :-) Here is our whole crew, minus my girls. I guess they were still coloring!

Last stop on our full day of playing was a visit to a playground that squeezed out the last bit of energy our girls had. At one point they ran around together in a little pack, saying it was time for a "China sisters' meeting". Apparently that meant the other three girls would run after the one in the lead to the leader's chosen destination.

Madelyn and Kate take a ride together.
Kimberly on the zip line.
Gwen gets a big push from Dean, Alia's dad.
It was a wonderful reunion. People have related the bond of families that adopted together as being like all being in the delivery room together for the birth of your children. A group birth experience sounds a little funky, but our four families were all in the same room at a civil affairs office in the Sichuan province when we met our daughters for the first time four and a half years ago, and that did create a special tie for all of us. The girls all knew each other before we had even seen their faces!

Thanks, everyone, for making the effort to gather the Sichuan girls, China sisters, this summer. Let's do it again. :-)