China Heritage Tour

We recently received the flyer announcing Dillon International's 2008 China Heritage Tour. (Permission received from Dillon prior to posting this on my blog.) :-)

If anyone is on the fence about if/when to take their children back to their birth country, I highly recommend going...and doing so before the children are teenagers. Emily was 10 when we took her to China in June of this year (you can read about some of our trip in the June archives).
Emily was at a really good age to understand what was going on, without all of the "emotions" that usually come during the teen years. Our return visit to the orphanage and finding site is something we will always treasure. We really enjoyed being able to experience our return trip with other adoptive families as well.

We can't say enough good things about our tour experience. The Dillon staff member (Rebecca) who accompanied us on the trip was so wonderful and even lent a shoulder when we (the adults!) needed our cry time. OK, I'll admit it, it was the parents who were emotional when we visited the orphnaage and finding site...but the kids handled it very well! :-) Emily announced again yesterday that she is looking forward to going to China again soon.

If interested in learning more about the China Tour, you can visit the Dillon site here.
Note: I'm not being paid to advertise for this agency....I'm just a happy customer who has been blessed by adoption. :-)

Photowalking

Emily and I went photowalking yesterday (both of us armed with a camera) and took lots of photos. We just focused on things that caught our eye and tried to get some different shots. At first we thought our neighborhood was a bit on the boring side and there was nothing to photograph (empty lots, etc), but we got a new perspective when we started looking at all of the "little" things in life. So much beauty lies around us each day....we have so much to be thankful for! And yes, we did photograph some trash in the empty lots - it even takes a pretty picture! Looks like we'll be walking with trash sacks this week!

Here's a slideshow of the photos I took during our walk:

And here are the photos Emily took. I thought she did an amazing job...she may just become our new family photographer!! Not bad for a 10-year-old eh? (Ok, so she'll be 11 next week....yikes!) :-)

By the way, I first read about photowalking here: http://scrapbooklady.typepad.com/katie_the_scrapbook_lady/2007/09/photowalking.html

IKEA Photo Project

Thought this was a really neat photo project.....
Even if you decide not to participate by uploading photos, the daily photo assignments will give some great ideas for taking unique and fun photos!
The project is for this week only (Sept. 17th to 23rd)....we're in the middle of the week already, so I need to hurry and catch up!! They also have a great section on photo tips from the pros.

http://www.myamericaathome.com/index.php

I'd love to know if any of my friends do this...please drop me a line and let me know! :-)

Bake Sale

Our school had its first fundraiser last week, and I was asked to make something for a bake sale. I didn't have a lot of time, so I made things that were easy.....lemon bites, funny face sugar cookies, and s'mores on a stick. (I ended up adding "hair" to the face cookies after I snapped this pic.)
I was able to get all of these done in 2 hours. Everything was packaged in pretty colorful baggies and labeled with a computer-generated tag. I didn't stay for the sale, but the lady in charge said these items sold out very fast.
Getting hungry now....I think there are some graham crackers and chocolate left...and maybe some marshmallows too. yummmmm

Bad, Bad Blogger

It seems that we've had so much going on lately that I haven't had the time or energy to blog....or maybe I just haven't felt like writing anything interesting. :-[
I'm not even sure I can remember what we've been doing for the past few weeks, but I'll list what I can think of (since this is my way of recording the events of our life). :-)
Let's see....the girls started piano lessons. I know that Randy is so happy to see the girls playing on the piano that once belonged to his grandma. I think Grandma Ruth would be happy to know they're continuing on her tradition of making music.

We hosted Claire's China travel group over the labor day weekend...for our annual "gotcha day" (aka adoption day). It's wonderful to see the Nanping girls - how they change and the bond between them grows each year. This was our 5th year to celebrate - of course with a Chinese meal, cake and presents!! I can't post photos of the events because I need to respect the privacy of the other children and their parents....but trust me, there are some really cute photos of some really cute kiddos!

Miss Emily was selected to participate in the middle school choir. She was very happy that her audition went well. Way to go Em!

Emily also applied and was accepted as a member of the student council....looks like she's going to be a busy kid this year!

OK, that's it for today. I'm tired and "The Biggest Loser" is coming on....man, how I wish I could be on that show! I can't imagine seeing myself in those skimpy spandex clothes and stepping on the scale in front of everyone though...ewwww! :-O