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

More Teeth

It has happened again...the tooth fairy had to make yet another visit to our house this week! :-) On Sunday afternoon, Claire was rough-housing with her big sis when all of a sudden I hear this: "Allyson! You knocked my tooth out!!"

Claire was SO excited and came running to show me her second baby tooth. She wasn't mad at big sister at all, but was really thankful instead. lol And did I mention how she also isn't bothered at all by the blood in her mouth? Funny kid!

It didn't take long for the two girls to sit down together and write a letter to the tooth fairy. The following is the note that accompanied the (now in a ziploc bag) little tooth:

Dear TF:
This is my 2nd tooth.
I want $10 - ten dollars - please!
Love, Claire

She didn't get quite that much, but it was still much more than the quarter we used to get. I need to have a talk with that "TF".....

Back To School

Our summer is officially over as school started yesterday. I sometimes feel bad because the girls didn't have a "normal" summer due to Randy's vision problems (meaning I was his chauffer for work...still am), and then fil's declining health. The girls were troopers through it all though....but they were definitely ready to get back to school!
As part of our annual tradition, we spent time together as a family shopping for new school supplies. The girls had fun looking for each item on their list. Then, we had to label and organize everything...for a picture of course!
Let the madness begin!!

Baby Teeth

Claire has been hoping for a loose tooth for the longest time! She can't stand that her sister has braces and she doesn't. It seems that every time we visit the dentist or orthodontist, she says she has a loose tooth (but she really doesn't).

Well, about a week ago, she complained of a tooth hurting when she bit into an ice cream cone. Dad checked, and sure enough there was a loose tooth! When we looked closer, we could see the new permanent tooth had already started coming in behind the baby tooth. Claire was SOOOO very excited and expected the baby tooth to fall out the next day...that didn't happen, but she wiggled it off and on the next few days. Last night to my surprise, Ally came down the hall screaming, "Claire pulled her tooth!"....followed quickly by Claire - carrying that precious tooth in a bathroom cup. :-) She carefully placed her tooth in a ziploc baggie and put it under her pillow. The tooth fairy was so proud of her for pulling the tooth on her own that "he" left her a whopping $7 !!! I guess the tooth fairy must live in an area with high inflation! lol

Wild Things

The girls and I went with the church group on a "Terrific Tuesday" outing....this particular week's event was the Wild Wilderness Safari. It was so much fun listening to the LOUD screams from the girls as the animals approached our car during our drive through the place. Even though you are asked NOT to feed the animals, it is apparent that some people do, as the animals walk right up to the window and stare at you. I think the loudest screams the girls let out were when we drove by the caged baboons...and then the baboons proceeded to present their brightly colored bottoms to us! Lots of "eeeeewwwwwwss!!!!" were heard then! lol
After the drive through, we parked and had a picnic lunch with the group. Then, we were off to the petting zoo. The girls took turns petting sweet baby leopards - the babies were just tuckered out though and slept silently as the girls touched them. The baby goats were a different story though! They were ALL about getting petted, and more importantly, trying to eat pretty much anything they could get their mouths on! lol
We had a tender moment with a mommy kangaroo and her little joey. The baby was in the mommy's pouch and would stick it's head out and stretch while we petted it.
~~~A fun day near the end of our summer vacation.

20 Years Together....

Today is our 20th wedding anniversary...wow! Twenty years ago, we were 20-somethings who really had no idea what we were getting into. Twenty years ago, we were best friends. Twenty years ago, it was just the two of us...renting an apartment and starting our life "together".
My, how things have changed, yet remained the same. I'm *still* not sure we know what we were getting into, but are having fun trying to figure it out, day-by-day. Thankfully, we are still best friends. We are now a family of five (& hopefully someday six), living in a home we designed.
Things haven't always been easy, but life *isn't* always easy. Sure, we've had our disagreements now and then, but we've learned how to compromise and make things work. We've had our struggles with infertility, and we've been blessed three times with the awesome work of our God....our beautiful children - Emily, Allyson and Claire!
I am so very thankful for all that we are as a couple, as well as what makes us individuals. Gosh...feeling very sappy tonight!! lol

Sewin' & Mowin'

Emily has been learning a lot this past week. She has wanted to help mow the lawn for the longest time, but we kept telling her she wasn't big enough. Well, now that dad has some health issues and can't ride the mower for awhile, she finally gets to help a little. Emily REALLY wanted to try mowing....so dad told her she could give it a try while he supervised (don't worry...the mower has a safety seat that automatically shuts the unit off if her bottom leaves the seat). She did a great job and is already looking forward to the next time.


Emily has also been asking me to teach her to sew, SO we pulled out the machine and let her go to work. She practiced just sewing straight lines and then I suggested she try making a simple lap quilt (handy since we have a friend with a quilt store!). We showed her the pattern she would be making and then let her choose the fabric...bright, fun colors of course! She caught on very quickly and had her blocks sewn together in no time. I can't wait to post pictures of her completed masterpiece.

Camp is Fun !!

We attended China Heritage Camp last weekend, and as usual, the girls had a GREAT time! They had sessions in Kung Fu, dancing, cooking, language, shadow puppets, crafts, music, and SO much more.....just a fun weekend immersed in Chinese culture. I worked in the lower camp, so wasn't able to get many photos of the girls, but *did* manage to sneak this one of Claire during a break. I think she was having a good time. LOL

Birthday Wishes

It's hard to believe that Allyson is 9 years old. Seems like just yesterday that she was being placed in my arms. Wow, the years have flown by, and that little baby is growing up so fast!
We told Allyson she could choose dinner on her birthday.....she chose El Lorito. Wonderful choice since we love the food. Only catch is that this restaurant is an hour from us! We worked it out though, so Allyson was able to enjoy her beloved rice (she only ordered rice and beans! LOL). For her cake, she chose a little puppy cupcake that she enjoyed ALL by herself! :-)
Her birthday party was an overnight slumber party at the Embassy Suites (thanks to a free night we won during a church event). The kids all had a great time swimming, and then we returned to the room where they had a makeup contest (w/o using a mirror), and decorated pillow cases, before painting their nails just before bedtime.

How Tall ?

The girls and I did a fun little height chart on the internet yesterday. Just a prediction of how tall they might be when they grow up. Here are the results:
Emily - 5' 4.5"
Allyson - 4' 11.5"
Claire - 5' 3"

So, it looks like Ally may be the more petite of the girls (which is how she appears currently as Claire is quickly catching up to her). I've told her this is a good thing though....just think of all the cute petite clothes she can buy! :-)

Happy 4th of July !!!

I've traveled to China 4 times, and Randy has been there many more times. Randy has also traveled to several other countries as well.
It's always fun to travel, but there is NOTHING like coming HOME to the USA. God has truly blessed America, and we are SO fortunate to live in such a wonderful country.
With all that being said.....just wanted to wish everyone a safe and happy 4th!! Go out and celebrate with a sparkler or two! :-)

This is a pic we took of the fireworks celebration in Colorado during our vacation there last year.....hoping to get good pics this year as well.

A Few More Photos

China vs. U.S.A.- Emily's thoughts

I would definitely choose to live in the U.SA. than China. China is a wonderful place, but I like much more things in the United States than I do in China.The things I really missed were..... My SOFT bed, my 3 dogs, my sisters, the food- especially MEXICAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I missed using water from the faucet and regular toilets!!! As you can see, I missed ALOT of things! I missed a lot more, but I can't think of all of them right now. Something I really like about China is that when you shop in China you can bargain. I wish we could do that here. Than I wouldn't be so concerned about money. I also like that there are a lot of interesting places you can go see. Unlike here, where we just go to the park or something like that. Another thing that I really liked was the hotels that we stayed in. They are VERY nice. Except the breakfast wasn't very good usually. I am never going to complain about where I'm living again!! The houses there are just so different from here. I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad to be back home!!!! When we got into the XNA airport, I was shaking because I was so anxious to get home.
I know I'm totally changing the subject, but I forgot to tell you about the meals in China. Or, let me put a little more detail into that subject. It was DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn't actually try everything but everyone who did said it was bad. For our last meal with the group, we ate DUCK, DUCK, and MORE DUCK!!! I didn't eat any of the "side" dishes of duck, but I did try the main duck. didn't want to eat the duck, but I wanted to be able to say that I've eaten duck. It was okay, but not that good. Some of the other dishes of duck was lemon duck, fried duck, peeking duck, and SO much more. The food that THE CAT names in HONK JR. is actually real!!! Ever since I've gotten home, a lot of people have been telling me that I'm invited to their house to have dinner and their main dish is going to be DUCK!
When my parents take Allyson and Claire back in a few years, I hope I get to come too because I think it would be cool to come back to China when I'm a teenager.
~Emily Rodgers~

Reflections

We've been back home in the USA for a week now. By about the 5th or 6th day home, we were finally feeling rested and back to "normal" (well, as normal as we get anyway! LOL). I truly love being in China and around its people, but I must admit it's great being "home" again. Some of the things I missed and tend to take for granted:

1. my kids! wow, a phone call just doesn't do it...and it always seems they've grown so much when we return
2. tap water - just knowing you can turn the tap to get a drink if you're thirsty is such a good feeling....oh and brushing our teeth with tap water - ahhhh! Having to swish your toothbrush around in a small cup of bottled water just isn't the same.
3. my semi-soft mattress - the beds in China are HARD and left clothing seam lines impressed on my skin. After a few days, my sides felt bruised. I'm a big dummy though because I knew about the beds and should have taken a small inflatable air mattress.
4. air conditioning! Although most buildings in China have a/c, it just isn't the same (they don't keep it as cool), so I was still sweating.
5. blue skies - because there is so much pollution, it's rare to see a blue sky.

I am also thankful....for so many things, but here are just a few:

1. God - for without him, I wouldn't have these 3 little blessings I call my kiddos.
2. my kids! I love, love, LOVE them and am SO lucky to be called mom many times a day.
3. my dh - yeah, he's impatient, but otherwise a pretty great guy and a wonderful dad.
4. the USA - we are SOOOOOO fortunate to live in such a place believe me!
5. Dillon International - such a great adoption agency
6. Rebecca Hackworth - she's a wonderful example of Dillon's commitment to helping children
7. our travel group #1 - the Wood and Gary families are such great people to travel with....they'd have to be for putting up with our crazy clan for 2 weeks!! :-)
8. Bridge of Love Adoption Services (BLAS) - they did a wonderful job of putting our trip together, and did so many wonderful things to welcome our children "home" to China

Gosh, there are SO many other things and people that I'm thankful for, but I'm running out of time and need to get to the dentist's office this morning. Hopefully, Emily will jump on in a bit and write down her thoughts.

Heading Home!

We actually slept in since we didn't have to be at the airport until noon. We left Beijing around 4:30 p.m. on Monday, June 18th and arrived in San Francisco in the afternoon on the 18th (hey, how did we manage that?!). Our bodies sure knew we missed a day there somewhere!

One dad in our group kissed the ground when we landed in SF...too funny! Would you believe that the food choices on the flight were either fish or DUCK?! There was NO way we could eat more duck, so we chose the fish....also a bad choice.

We had really great connections in San Francisco and Dallas so we didn't have to sit in the airports long. Emily spotted a Subway in San Francisco so we grabbed a sandwich before boarding our flight. Wow, I've never seen that kid eat a sandwich so fast!! LOL Randy was glad to have a Diet Coke too. Can't believe I forgot to take a picture though!

We made it home around 10:00 p.m. - we were greeted by our two little munchkins at the airport.

The jet lag has set in, but I've finally managed to get the blog updated a little. Will try to add a few more thoughts about the trip in the next few days.

Last Tour Day in Beijing

Yet another early morning for a 1-1/2 hour bus ride to the Great Wall. We went to the Badaling section of the wall, which is an area Randy and I haven't been to before. There were TONS of people! We climbed to the first tower and bargained with a peddler - got Emily a little brass certificate that says she climbed the wall. They originally asked $150 yuan - we got it for $10 (about $1.31 U.S.). We were the first from our group to the first tower, and since we only had an hour at the wall, we decided to go back down and do a little shopping (bargaining). We met our group on the way down, and Emily decided to go back up with them.


Our lunch stop was at the Friendship Store, which was also the home of a cloisonne factory. This was very convenient for sales. :-) Lunch was better that most of what we had been having...or maybe I was just really hungry. :-) After lunch, we browsed the aisles and aisles of cloisonne. Even though there was no bargaining at this store, we ended up buying a few small gifts anyway. We even grabbed an ice cream cone on the way out (tasted close to our ice cream at home!).



The next stop was the Summer Palace. Again, tons of people....and again, we were rushed. The palace grounds are huge. Oh to be able to own such a place just for vacations - what a life those emperors had! We rode a dragon boat across the lake before making a mad dash for the hotel.





We were to originally have had about 3 hours to prepare for dinner, but ended up having only 30 minutes. That made it really fun (not) to get rid of the sweat stained clothing and dress for dinner! We somehow managed to take a 2 minute shower though! All of the girls wore their new dresses that BLAS arranged for them...they all looked lovely.


Dinner was at a restaurant that specialized in Peking Duck. Practically every dish on the table was some sort of duck....who knew you could fix duck SO many ways! Our hosts for dinner were very prominent in the adoption world -- the director of BLAS, as well as the Vice-Director of the CCAA. We sat at the table with Cecilia (our BLAS guide in 2002) and the BLAS director. Before we started eating, the director looked at us and said something in Chinese. Cecilia translated for us and said that he specifically wanted her to be our guide on our next adoption trip (Randy had told him what a good job she did when we were there in '02). Cecilia does the planning now though, and not the adoption group guiding, but said she would be happy to be our guide when we return.



After several duck dishes, we thought the meal was almost over...but we had a surprise coming! Two chefs walked in with trays of the whole ducks! They proceeded to carve and chop away at the ducks and presented them to our tables. The BLAS director then showed us how to wrap the meat into a little burrito shape and eat it.


After dinner, everyone took photos of the kids in their Chinese clothing, and then photos of our hosts. BLAS presented all of the kids with a final gift...a pillow that represented one of the 2008 Olympic mascots.