lifelove&Piper

More Pics from the Zoo

2008-06-24T11:08:00.001-07:00

Good Times at the OKC Zoo

2008-06-24T10:55:00.000-07:00

We went to the zoo in OKC last week. I love the zoo. I think I might love it more than the kids. Maybe my attention span is just a little longer. To their credit, it was a little hot. It was one of those mornings with a 40% chance of rain in the afternoon, high in the upper 80s. I was hoping for a cooler, cloudy morning. It turned out a little hot and muggy. We did have a good time though. Our friend, Diane and Sophie Fosmire joined us. They were in town to drop off Libby for her big trip to Trinidad. Lizzie met us with Mallary and Jayce and they joined our "zoo group". We ended the day with ice cream and other various treats at McDonalds. I thought I was going to "run" by the mall and pick up something, but when I realized I was outnumbered 5:1 I thought better of it and just headed home!

More Pics of Leonardo's Fun

2008-06-24T09:31:00.000-07:00

Fun at Leonardo's

2008-06-24T09:16:00.000-07:00

Piper enjoyed a play date with Amy at Leonardo's. Sunny and I had a good time too! The girls loved playing in the sand at Adventure Quest and the dress up costumes indoors. Sunny moved to Enid a couple of years ago from Nanjing, which is the capital city of Jiangsu Province (the province Piper is from). She has a daughter just a year older than Piper and they play pretty well when it's just the two of them. Piper is still very clingy and when Sydney's around, so we scheduled this get together while Sydney was at church camp. It worked out pretty well. Sunny has agreed to tutor Piper in Mandarin. Now we just have to get Piper to warm up to that idea. She's a little slow in making new friends, but she's making progress.

High School Graduations

2008-06-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

We had lot's of places to go and people to see this year. OBA and Pond Creek had their graduations the same night. We went to OBA's graduation ceremony and dropped by to see Preston and Jamie at their receptions. On the way home, we stopped in at the Steffens to congratulate Kara. Sydney and Piper crashed and burned. It was a very late evening and this picture pretty much describes how we were all feeling! Whew!

Go Carts after Promotion

2008-06-24T08:57:00.000-07:00

Sydney's class celebrated their promotion with lunch at Pastimes and some good old fashioned racing at Comet Go Carts. Piper even got in on the fun. Check out Harley showing the kids his moves with the skip bop thingy majigger (sp?).

Catching Up

2008-06-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

I'll try to do a little catching up. Life got very hectic as school was ending and I didn't do a great job of keeping the blog updated. Soon after school was out, our computer had some serious problems that took a couple of weeks to get straightened out. So anyway, I'll give some brief descriptions with lots of pictures to get you caught back up! Hope you're having a great summer! We sure are.

This first set of pictures is from the 6th grade promotion at Emmanuel. There are group pictures of the entire 6th grade class as well as Sydney's class (Mrs. Brakhage's class). A group of girls sang Circle of Friends by Point of Grace. By the way, Piper knows EVERY word to this song now after practicing many times with Sydney. Too cute! The last photo is of Sydney with her good friend Hyunji. It's off to junior high for you girls! Hard to believe.

Fun in the Sun

2008-05-12T20:08:00.000-07:00

We are sure loving the beautiful weather. Piper is still loving the trail-a-bike. She's been on rides with Dad, Mom, Sydney, & Hayden. She loves her new jersey & shorts from Micah & Jennifer. Thanks guys, they are adorable! Now she really looks like one of the gang. She got a real kick out of the padded shorts. She went on and on about them; even gave them a pat or two once she got them on! Everyone went (okay, back up, I said everyone but I really mean just the kids) went for their first swim of the season at Uncle Steve and Aunt Linda's house this past weekend. Mallary & Jace were there for a visit so that made it even more fun. I think Piper really enjoyed the hot tub more than the pool; still a little cool that old swimming pool. She was all about the gear though! Hope everyone had a great Mother's Day. We sure did, and you know we had to go out for Mexican food at Cafe Garcia's. Delicious!

Fun, More Pics

2008-05-04T20:57:00.001-07:00

Having Lots of Fun

2008-05-04T19:47:00.000-07:00

Things just keep getting better and better. I can report that we have been three weeks now without a crying spell; no more waking in the night either. She is having a great time at school. We had the journal that was sent home with her from her foster parents translated. She was in the second year of kindergarten in China this year (they have three years of KG) and apparently the children in China go to school until 5pm each day. In other words, she was very used to the "school routine". She has done fantastic. Her class has a field trip to Winter Livestock on Tue. of this week. I'm anxious to see how she likes that. :) It's her turn to bring snacks this week, so of course, we are starting off with the famous peanut butter cookies! We went to aunt Linda's surprise birthday party this weekend and got in a little bike time too. Piper loves the trail-a-bike. She likes to race the boys too! Harley turned 15 Saturday. I can hardly believe it. Time is flying by so quickly. He and Sydney both did really well at Tri-State this week; ones, ones, and more ones! I included a couple of pictures of Piper "pouting" on the way to church this morning. Harley had jumped out and scared her before we left and she was not happy! She decided to sulk and covered her face with a coloring page. When we stopped to get gas in Pond Creek, Kevin took her paper away and told her to straighten up. She decided to use the next available thing (her hands) to cover her face until, I'd say, about Kremlin. :) I almost hated to take her picture, but it was just too funny and I couldn't resist! I wish all my children would protest this silently. Hmm.

First Week of School (Last Week) :)

2008-04-29T19:33:00.000-07:00

The first week of school went better than expected. Piper did great! In fact, she is always ready to get up and go in the morning. I think she was excited about getting to go with the big kids. Her teacher really bragged on her color by number artwork (so of course I included a picture!). I was going to post a picture of her "first day" at school, but that Kodak moment went a little crazy. I'm not the one who drops the kids off at school in the morning, so I thought I'd snap a picture at pick up time. Now I don't know if she is just completely sick and tired of posing for pictures or if she was just monkeying around but she decided to do a backbend in the middle of the sidewalk at dismissal. Of course, she bonked her noggin on the sidewalk and ended up with a big goose egg on the back of her head! So much for the Kodak moment. We ended up rushing back over to my office for an icepack and off to the store for some children's ibuprofen. :) Never a dull moment. Anyway, the "dressed for school" pose was taken at home (safer) before school the second (oh well) day of school! Emmanuel had their spring program last Fri.; Piper's first week of school. We weren't sure if she was ready for this but sure enough she came through with flying colors. She stood right up there with the rest of the group and even tried to join in at times. She is so funny. She's learning new words every day. Important things like "don't touch me" and "cool it", "stop it Hayden", etc. She popped into breakfast yesterday morning on her own and took one look at the pancakes Kevin had made and said, "Chocolate chips?! Thank you!" Never a dull moment.

Blog On; More Pics, of Course!

2008-04-20T14:22:00.001-07:00

Blog On

2008-04-20T13:29:00.000-07:00

A lot has happened since the time I last posted. Let me start by apologizing and telling you that it was not my intention to cut the blog so short. Unfortunately, I left my camera on the plane when we landed in San Francisco April 3rd. I have called the "lost items" hotline many, many times but it is sadly just a pre-recorded answering machine type service. It grimly states that if you haven't heard from them (United Airlines) in ten days, assume your item lost and contact your insurance company. I'm pretty sure that at this point, I'm not going to see that camera again. The bad thing is that it had all of my digital media in it with my pictures on it! Drat! The good thing is that since I decided to do this blog, I had uploaded most of my pictures to my computer and still have them. Whew! I also had the good fortune of traveling with Robyn Kimberlin who is a camera officianado (?sp.)! Anyway, she made a cd for me of the pictures she had taken of our family with around 250 some odd pictures which are absolutely beautiful. Thank you Robyn. By the way, I've got another camera now. :)

I'm going to "try" to keep this short. I've not posted in a couple of weeks, so there are many things I'd like to share but will just shoot for the overview and try to catch you up as the weeks go by. First of all, the two weeks since we've been home have flown by! Piper is doing really well considering all of the changes and adjustments she's had to endure. She was not a happy camper when Sydney went back to school. She asked for her about every hour on the hour the first day. She did seem to understand what was going on though and finally settled into a routine. Sydney celebrated her birthday last weekend. Piper was a little overwhelmed with the large crowd in our home, but did enjoy the little ones. She was also more than happy to help Sydney open up presents! :) This week alone we have visited her classroom, visited the health dept. for her first round of immunizations (ouch!), visited the dentist for the first time, and traveled to Shawnee for H.S. State Vocal competition (way to go Harley!). She has really been a trooper.

She rode the horses for the first time yesterday with Sydney, of course! We got a trail-a-bike for her so she can ride along. She loves it! She and Sydney are jumping on the trampoline right now as I'm posting. She really is a little daredevil; fits right in doesn't she? My goal is to post a time or two each week. If you've been used to checking daily, you may want to go with weekly now. I did decide this was a much better alternative for me than scrapbooking or journaling; just not my thing. It will also keep me motivated to continue taking pictures. Hope you enjoy! We always enjoy hearing from each of you whether in person or by your comments that you're following the blog. Thank you all for all of your continued love, support, and prayers. It means so much. I hope you like the new title. It just seemed to fit.

Swearing at the Consulate

2008-04-02T09:16:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's not what it sounds like. For those of you who've been here and done that you know what I mean. For those that haven't, part of the adoption process is the appointment at the American Consulate here in Guangzhou. All of the parents from the group go to the consulate at the same time and receive their child's visa stamp for the passport and swear an oath as a group that the information that has been provided is correct. We all stand up and raise our right hand and do the "swearing in" at the same time. It was pretty cool. The drive to the consulate took longer than the actual swearing in itself. Note the food delivery "vehicle" parked by our bus just outside the consulate; picture of Paul, Avery, Kevin, Sydney & Piper after the swearing in; picture of our little ham showing off her "magnet earrings". Thanks to Robyn for the pictures. :) After we returned, Robyn, her mom, and Sydney and I decided to take a taxi into town to try to find another Olympic store. We did manage to get a cab and get to the shopping area where the store was supposed to be?. However, we did not find the store. Anyway, not quite what we had in mind. There was a teeny, tiny little store with a few coins and such. Definately the smallest we've seen. What we did find was that we do not communicate well in Chinese, even with our miming. Also, there were few Chinese people we found that could speak even some broken English. All in all it was an interesting adventure, but not very successful. We are packing up tonight and leaving EARLY tomorrow morning at 5:15am. Our luggage has to be outside of our room at 4:30am. That is ridiculous! Oh well, looks like we'll have lot's of time to sleep on the loooooong plane ride home and I did pack along the Benadryl! :) See you all soon. We arrive in OKC @ 7:00pm Thursday evening.

Dinner at Lucy's; again I know

2008-04-01T06:04:00.000-07:00

We had dinner at Lucy's again tonight. I've got a shot of Sydney with our lemon iced teas. They are so good! I've started ordering one everytime we go. Robyn's aunt Kathy got me hooked. It's the largest drink I've been able to get my hands on over here. There are no fountain drinks here; at least we've not found any. So, in other words, no refills. The drinks are brought in a can or very small glass. Not nearly enough to drink for me, so when we discovered the tea we were thrilled. They bring a tiny little pitcher of what we think is honey or something similar to a Karo syrup to sweeten the tea; yummy! Kevin, Harley & Paul all ordered an extra order of fries tonight at dinner; oink, oink (sounds like the Oreo story from yesterday doesn't it?). That was okay though because Piper loves fries so she and Sydney were happy to help them eat some of those extra fries. Come to think of it, Piper loves anything that you can dip in ketchup. She'll even clean up the extra ketchup with her spoon, fingers, whatever. You get the idea. On the way back to the hotel, we stopped in to see how our stone carvings were going. I've got a picture of the artist actually working on Sydney & Piper's carving. Amazing! I have to tell you what Piper told the woman in this same shop last night. She said, "Tell my mom that I don't like eggs." I've been putting scrambled eggs on her breakfast plate every morning hoping she might try them. No eggs this morning! :) She is too smart.

Guide to American Consulate

2008-04-01T05:51:00.000-07:00

We were grounded to our room for a few hours this morning while our guide went to the consulate on our behalf. She wanted us to stay near the phone in case there were any questions. It turned out to be a good time to just hang out and have a good old fashioned family dog pile! Piper also did some body surfing on Kevin. She's really warming up to him. He'll tease and chase her and she screams and then comes back to ask for more. :) Not too sure what she and Hayden were up to. Maybe just monkeying around?! Megan, I threw in the picture of the local pharmacy for you; thought you'd enjoy it. :)

Dinner at Cow and Bridge

2008-03-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a group dinner at Cow and Bridge this evening. It is a popular Thai restaurant for adoptive families. My biggest concern was being able to order something that didn't set my mouth on fire. Fortunately there were little chile peppers next to the menu items to indicate the degree of heat in the dish. I chose one with no peppers. :) Funny, Hayden sat down the table from me and ordered the exact same dish and neither of us knew. We have great taste in food because I think ours was one of the most liked. We all shared a little so we could get a good sampling from the menu. Hayden & I had the grilled chicken wings served in a half pineapple. Very good. Sydney had the biggest bowl of soup I've ever seen! Piper, well now, I've thought for a while that she was ordering things she liked because she could read the menu and communicate with the waitresses. As it turns out, I don't think she's eaten out much and she just orders something she "thinks" looks good or will be good. She usually turns her nose up at what she orders and we have to eat her order and she eats with Sydney! Oh well, it works out just fine. She shares quite well and if she smells it (this is the test) and doesn't like it, she's more than happy to turn it over to someone who'll take it. I've included a shot of Robyn & Harley trying to decipher the ticket and Piper up to her usual antics. She's such a ham! I nearly forgot to mention that evidently Harley & Kevin got a somewhat smaller portion than they expected and Harley says as we're leaving, "Okay, now what are we having for dinner?". He and Kevin did a 7-11 raid and brought back a stash of Oreos and some other items which were not disclosed to me. I don't think they were even going to tell us about them at all but I thought I heard a knock at our door and Sydney stuck her head out to see if they were back. As it turns out, they didn't come to our room at all but she just happened to see them get off the elevator and head down the hall to the boys room with an arm full of goodies. Of course, she took off after them and raided the "snack stash". Good work Sydney!

Pictures on the Red Couch

2008-03-31T06:21:00.000-07:00

Pictures on the Red Couch. The infamous Red Couch. There are actually many red couches here at the White Swan. We took pictures on two different couches today. One with the whole travel group and one including only the two babies ( & Sydney) from our province. Our guide also snapped a few of the families with the babies. Obviously, we weren't aware of this because you'll notice Kevin & Harley are not in the photos. :)

Medical Exam

2008-03-31T06:04:00.000-07:00

Today was the medical exam. It went really well. I think all of my school nurse friends will really enjoy this post. I love the vision screening; hands! She told our guide that she was a big girl and didn't cry like the babies. :) Today it rained most of the day. We had lunch at Lucy's again. On the way there, Piper got upset about something (no one was quite sure) and ran about a block from us back toward the hotel. We watched her and thought she would come back but when she didn't, Kevin went back and scooped her up. She had a little crying fit but seemed to ease back into things as we went on and had lunch. We just try to minimize the drama and carry on with business as usual.

And a few more

2008-03-30T08:33:00.001-07:00

More Pics

2008-03-30T08:25:00.001-07:00

Breakfast at the White Swan and More

2008-03-30T07:44:00.000-07:00

The breakfast was just as we had been told; out of this world! We arrived early as our guide suggested and were seated with a window view of the Pearl River. There were soooo many choices of foods, both Asian and Western. We met a woman seated near us from North Carolina. She was here for her third Chinese adoption. She and her husband have three grown boys and now have adopted their third daughter from China. She told me that the last daughter they had adopted they also named Piper. She was 2 1/2 yrs. old when they got her and she said it was very, very, hard. She told me that she screamed the entire time they were in China as well as hit, bit, spit, etc. She said it took about 9 mo. for her to really settle in with them. I felt somewhat relieved after talking with her to know that our experience has been relatively easy compared to that. She also let me in on a nice word pronounced (sorry I don't know the real spelling) an-jing. She said it means quiet. We have used it sparingly and only when it's been really important for her to be quiet and let me tell you she has responded very well. Today was her birthday and it really was a great day. I can feel her relaxing and really beginning to bond with each of us. Your prayers are truly being answered and I want to thank all of you for your love and care for our family. God is good, that is no doubt. It was a nice surprise to get her "White Swan" barbie today since it was her birthday. For those not in the know, the White Swan barbie is a caucasian barbie with an Asian baby in her arms. She was thrilled. We sang the happy birthday song again. Our day started with a guided tour of the Chen Academy. It was once a private school for only families with the last name of Chen (which is actually the first name in China). It is now a museum displaying art and art history of this area. You'll see one picture of Piper holding the umbrella over little Avery, the Kimberlin's daughter, just outside the academy. You'll notice everyone is getting tired of mom taking pictures! We did a little shopping this afternoon and bought her a birthday dress as well. Lunch was at Lucy's again. Everyone enjoyed some apple pie and ice cream after dinner and Kevin and I enjoyed some coffee. Sydney and I had an interesting experience around dinner time. We decided to do carry out and bring the food back to the hotel. It was a little wet and drizzly today and we thought Piper might be tired and enjoy eating in. Well, we popped in a restaurant across from the hotel that looked very busy. We were surprised to see some of the menu items. We did find some things that sounded good to order and sat down to wait on them to be prepared. As we were seated, we noticed some of the menu items "looking at us". We were waiting right in front of the fresh snakes, eels, frogs, turtles, etc. They were dinner but just didn't know it yet. Sydney turned her back and faced me. She said, "I just can't take it mom, the snakes are just too creepy!". As I was fumbling with the take out sacks and the umbrella, I managed to spill about half the container of our rice right onto the front step of the restaurant on our way out. I thought I was going to die! How embarassing! The ladies at the door were very nice and helped me to "get it back together" so to speak and we were on our way. We had our dinner "around the table" style with everyone sampling a little of everything. We used the chopsticks they sent and even the coffee spoons in the room. It was a good day. Oh, Dad, I included the shot of the snooker parlor for you. We spotted this on our way back to the hotel from our tour this morning. I thought you'd get a kick out of it. I hope you're all doing well. Julie, thanks for the update on Flake. The orphange director told us that Piper loves dogs. Boy, that's a good thing, don't know what we'd have done if she didn't!

more pics of first day in Guangzhou

2008-03-29T06:03:00.001-07:00

Here in Guangzhou

2008-03-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

We flew into Guangzhou this morning. We were a little nervous about the flight with Piper. She really did well. We gave her the window seat and there were no tears the whole trip! She was very happy with the snacks and drinks they provided. She does love to eat. For such a tiny thing, I don't know where she puts all of the food. Then it was lights out for the rest of the flight. :) The White Swan Hotel truly is as beautiful as we had heard. It was a welcome change from the last hotel in Nanjing. We have much larger rooms. They have two bathrooms and a living area. It's nice to have a little extra room. Guangzhou is much more westernized. There are many, many other families here at the White Swan for adoption as well as many business people staying in the hotel. We are no longer quite so conspicuous. Our new guide, Michelle, is very nice. She gave us a tour of the local area and pointed out some places to take laundry (much needed; we took a load right after the tour - the lady at the laundry said "Large family!"). There is a Starbucks about a block away and of course the famous Lucy's. We had dinner at Lucy's tonight. Piper licked the opening of the ketchup bottle as well as the lid. I'm not sure if she's ever eaten out in a restaurant before or not (I think not). I know she'll come around with some patience and consistency. Please continue your prayers for her and for us. This is a very hard transition for her. I hear the breakfast buffet here at the White Swan is like none other. We'll know more tomorrow!

More Birthday Photos

2008-03-28T07:13:00.000-07:00

Birthday Dinner

2008-03-28T06:40:00.000-07:00

The birthday dinner went really well. The restaurant was beautiful and the food was fabulous. It was interesting trying to get seated, however, because the table was in a hole so to speak. The tabletop was actually at floor level. It was sitting in a sunken area in the floor. The seats were cushioned with backs but with no legs. I've included some pictures of Kevin trying to get out of the table and they are pretty self descriptive; funny too! Oh, we were either supposed to wear shoe covers or put on slippers when we went into the dining room we had reserved. Well, the shoe covers were much too small for Kevin and Harley's shoes which our waitress thought was very funny. So they had to put on the slippers with their feet hanging off the back. :) Piper actually new the tune and the words to "Happy Birthday" so she sang along with us. She had a great time blowing out the candles and opening her gifts. She was way too excited to even taste one bite of her cake! She gave it to Kevin. The cake was very beautiful and very good. It was a yellow cake very light in texture. The frosting was a dream whip style and it was topped with fresh fruit. The fruit was layered in the cake as well. Very good! I put in a picture of our guide, Grace, reigning in Hayden. She's a very fast learner! We're off to Guangzhou tomorrow. Please pray for our travel. Piper is very high strung and the airports/flying have me concerned a little. She's not much of a sitter. Kevin said today that he wondered how it is that we flew half way around the world to adopt a child that is a Chinese carbon copy of the ones we already have. Not too sure, but I know one thing - she is a live wire!

Fuzi Temple

2008-03-28T00:52:00.000-07:00

It looks like we might take three steps forward and two steps back for a while. She cried herself to sleep last night asking for her foster parents. It was pitiful. Then, she woke up with the same mood and continued to cry this morning. She and I stayed in the room for breakfast. By the time 9:30 rolled around, she was ready to go again. Quiet, and solemn, but ready to go. We visited a local temple; kind of. As it turns out, according to our guide, the temple is not so popular but the location is a very popular shopping area. Just as well for us. I'm not so sure I would enjoy visiting a Buddhist temple. We took our picture near a golden leafed tree (it is meant for luck). Piper enjoyed taking turns riding on Harley & Hayden's shoulders. She really preferred Hayden's (I think his proximity to the ground is better for her!). Everyone had fun dancing to some groovy music in a store we were looking in (similar to the Buckle, very hip). We snapped a shot of a local Burger King as we were leaving. Thought you'd get a kick out of it, especially Grandma & Grandpa Downing. We are celebrating her birthday tonight at dinner. It's a couple of days early, but thought it would be easier here than in Guangzhou. Our guide here has only two families and in Guangzhou our guide will have many families. We bought a birthday cake for her at a local bakery (much smaller than the birthday cakes we are accustomed to). We have dinner reservations at a local Korean barbeque restaurant. Our guide wondered if we should have it at McDonald's for Piper, but since she won't eat anything there but the french fries I thought we would eat somewhere she might like. She loves meat so maybe the barbeque place will be a hit. Who knows. I'll post after dinner.

Afternoon Trip to Guitar Shop & Bike Shop

2008-03-27T04:16:00.000-07:00

After lunch, we took a stroll to see some stores we had spotted on one of our bus trips. Harley played a little guitar in a local shop here. He bought himself an electric tuner. Sydney picked up some pics. We took a look at the bike shops. They were primarily mountain bikes shops. No wonder! I don't know where on earth anyone would ride a road bike around here without getting flattened! I'll include a shot of some "bike parking" we spotted on our street tour. I can tell you that bikes and scooters are a major mode of transportation around here. It looks like Specialized may be putting in a new store here in Nanjing soon. Hayden & Piper were up for the photo opp. anyway!

Mexican Food Part II

2008-03-27T04:12:00.001-07:00

This one is for Grandad (Yes, I did eat Mexican food in China)

2008-03-27T04:00:00.000-07:00

My grandad was very worried that I might not make it for two weeks in China without Mexican food. It is my very favorite food! :) Well, I'm writing this post especially for him so he can see that I DID have Mexican food in China. Right here in Nanjing across from our hotel. Now, remember, it was prepared by Chinese folks so not quite the same but very good anyway. Piper had her first American dish (if Spaghetti counts as American). I figured noodles were a good first bet for her! She is really pleased with herself for being able to use the fork. When we go to breakfast here at the hotel each morning, she always chooses the knife and fork over the chopsticks. :) We had a group dinner and a great time while we were there.

Museum part II

2008-03-27T03:57:00.001-07:00

Trip to the Museum (We became the exhibit)

2008-03-27T03:22:00.000-07:00

We started our day this morning with a trip to the museum here in Nanjing. It started very quiet but things changed rather quickly. :) We saw the artifact room displaying the wood laquered items and started in the jade room when the fun (or not so fun) began. Apparently, we chose field trip day to visit the museum. There was a group of high school students touring the museum as well. When I say group, by the way, I mean hundreds of students. It didn't take very long before our group became the "exhibit". Several of the students wanted to try out their English on us. There were a few of them who spoke quite well. ALL of the students, it seemed, wanted their pictures taken with us. While it was fun and all seemed quite harmless at first, it sort of turned into something quite overwhelming! It was never ending the numbers of students who were wanting pictures taken with us. It was to the point that we couldn't even continue the museum tour. Robyn and I were both trying to purchase clay dolls for the girls that are the chosen art for this province. We did get the job done, but only with the help of the little Chinese women selling the dolls literally shooing the students away from us. By the way, the clay dolls are made in Wuxi City which is the city where Piper was born. Piper was very annoyed by the students and angry because they continued to want Sydney to be in the pictures, but didn't want her. Grace, our guide, sat her under the stairwell until the commotion subsided a little and she began to give a few of the students a piece of her mind. I'd give a hundred dollars to know what she was telling them. Whatever it was, they sure gave her their full attention. The students were actually very nice and well intentioned, and I can't say that I blame them. There were just soooooo many of them! We had an abbreviated tour. That's okay because, honestly, I couldn't see Hayden or Piper's attention holding out for the full tour anyway! :)

Day in the Park part VI; long post :) lot's of pics

2008-03-25T23:24:00.000-07:00

Day in the Park part III

2008-03-25T23:18:00.000-07:00

Day in the Park part II

2008-03-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

Day in the Park

2008-03-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

We had a beautiful outing in a local park today with our guide, Grace. You'll notice in the first picture our guide holding the newest and most uncooperative member of our family still for the "kodak moment". :) It was a nice break from the tight quarters of the hotel rooms and much less crowded than the busy streets of town. It was absolutely beautiful. The park was very large with a lake as well. Piper, Hayden, & Sydney were able to ride some amusement rides in the park. Sydney got to take Avery (she is the daughter of the Kimberlins, our travel companions) on one of the rides. Harley finally got his "bonding moment" when we were in the large bird area. Piper discovered he was her best chance to be safe from these very intrusive and hungry birds! Near the amusement rides were these giant inflatable balls that you could climb inside and they would zip you up tight and send you out over the water. Now this was a good time! The day was beautiful. I thank all of you for your thoughts and your prayers for our family. God has blessed us beyond our imagination.

And a few more

2008-03-24T23:16:00.000-07:00

More Pictures

2008-03-24T23:12:00.000-07:00

New Day

2008-03-24T22:48:00.000-07:00

I thought we might wake up to tears this morning, but we had a pretty good start to the day. I will back up a little and tell you that she did not appreciate a shower last night. The shower turned quickly to a bath. :) She pointed and clearly told me in Chinese (not that I understood a word) that she did not like the water coming from the wall onto her face. Her body language I understood clearly. So, we resorted to cup rinsing. This was all after we pulled off her four or five sweaters and three pairs of pants. She did brush her teeth, although she didn't seem sure of what the toothbrush was for. She enjoyed brushing my teeth as well and of course, the spitting was fun. She slept with Sydney and slept well.

We all woke up around 5:30am this morning. Everyone was happy! We had a good time playing with the dolls and the beads in bed and posing for photos. The morning routine went pretty well and we were able to get her dressed, teeth brushed, hair combed, etc. The visit to Civil Affairs for the official adoption paperwork was scheduled for 8:30am. It was as I had expected. She had a mini-meltdown when we returned to the office. It was the same place we picked her up yesterday and I think she thought she might get a chance to go home when we returned. She cried and begged for her foster parents. However, it subsided fairly quickly and we were able to refocus her on some of the activities we had done with her last night. We brought the beads, leap pad, dolls, etc. Once again, the beads saved the day!

Afterwards, we returned to the hotel for a couple of hours to kill some time before lunch. We found that she enjoys the roadrunner and coyote! Who doesn't? She also likes Cheerios. This was an important discovery because aside from the Chinese biscuits we bought yesterday and some McDonald's french fries, we hadn't found much she would eat. The Kimberlin's had brought Cheerios for Avery and found that she absolutely didn't like them so they thought Piper might like them. Sure thing.

We went to lunch at the same Japanese restaurant that Sydney and Grace had eaten at the day before. It was great and even better Piper ate, and ate, and ate. I don't know where such a little body put all of that food. And she is fantastic with chopsticks! She also enjoyed her desert entirely.

We stopped by the fish pond at the hotel on the way back from lunch. Right now we're in the room and Piper has not stopped talking. I thought Sydney might be the biggest talker I know, but I'm not convinced anymore. This little sweetie never stops. I think she might teach us Chinese as we teach her English! She is busy right now organizing her "stuff" and making sure Hayden doesn't touch it!

More Pictures

2008-03-24T05:54:00.001-07:00

Real Gotcha

2008-03-24T05:19:00.001-07:00

Now, I know you're probably just getting up if you're reading this. Technically I should have had something posted long ago, but we were not even remotely prepared for our Gotcha experience. Now, I knew that there was a very good chance that she was going to have a hard time with today. Let's just say I might have underestimated "how" hard of a time she would have. The orphange director literally "pushed" her in the door screaming and she was even trying to run back outside. She screamed for I don't know how long; screamed and cried and shook her head. She had brought a book along from her foster parents with their names and phone numbers in it. All she kept saying to the director is that she wanted to call them and I think she told him she wanted to go home. When he told her we were her mama and papa now she shook her head, cried, screamed, etc. She wouldn't let any of us touch her. Finally, after the director sat and tried to reason with her, she and Harley got to goofing around with the doll we had just bought for her. We picked it up just outside the Wal-Mart in a little shop. It was a soft doll and what happened was that when we tried to give it to her she threw it. Well, Harley picked it up and threw it right back at her! :) Let the games begin. It became this throwing, roughing around match and she actually let us all touch her at least a little bit. You'll see in one shot she's biting the doll's foot and tackling Hayden. Now, it was no easy task to leave and she was not wild about me sitting next to her on the bus. All the way back to the hotel she cried and said she wanted her mama and papa. For those that may not be aware, she was in foster care for four years with the same family. She kept telling the driver and Grace, our guide, that she wanted her mama. Grace and the driver both told her I was her "better" mama (this is how they translated to me) and she told them, "no!". She cried for two hours straight. She was still crying at the hotel room. We all just sat on the floor and she cried, and cried, and cried, and cried. She finally let me console her and hug her, but she kept begging to call her mama and papa. It was very heartbreaking. We tried everything, and I mean EVERYTHING we brought to console her. FINALLY (thank you Diane & Paige) she got interested in the communication book we brought along. Now, she didn't really want to communicate, but she DID want to take all of the cards off and put them on the velcro strips in the back. Then she would take them from there and replace them to their places and then start on another page, etc., etc., etc. I think she did every page in the book. Then on to coloring, poly pockets, leap frog, & beading (she loved that Diane). Then she just kind of skipped from one activity to another. No more crying, at least not for today. Or not now anyway. It's getting close to bathtime, bedtime, etc. and I'm not real sure how it's all going to go but I'll sure let you know tomorrow. Oh, did I mention that by the end of this she had called Kevin "papa" and me "mama" several times quite clearly and specifically? Well, this has been one exhausting day! More posting tomorrow. Oh, by the way, I did not take any pictures of the yucky times, just the good ones. :)

Trip to Wal-Mart

2008-03-24T04:53:00.000-07:00

Well, I think the photos describe our trip to Wal-Mart. It was quite an experience. I thought I would include a shot of the ladies restroom. Now, the restrooms over here in general are an experience all of their own. I remember being told about the squatie poties, but definately don't recall the "no toilet paper" part. I mean none. And, if you bring your own, which you must, it gets thrown in the waste basket. Some kind young lady in the Wal-Mart restroom was nice enough to show me which coin went into the "tissue" vending machine in the bathroom. :) We bought Piper several books that have both English & Chinese illustrations. We picked up some "biscuits" which were listed as one of her favorite foods (biscuits are more like shortbread cookies). We were also able to get some great authentic Chinese food at the deli for about a dollar each. Oh, I forgot to mention the escalators. They are flat going up and down to accomodate the shopping carts. We've seen these in several stores that are multi-level. Wal-Mart is one of these stores. It's two stories with the grocery on the lower level and other items on the second floor. This was all a nice diversion while we waited for our "real" Gotcha moment. And let me just warn you in advance, it was a "real" moment!

Gotcha.....not really

2008-03-24T04:36:00.000-07:00

Our Gotcha appt. was for 10am this morning. Well, everyone made it but the kiddos. It was a very deflating experience to say the least. We and the other family we are traveling with to this province showed up and waited for about 45 min. before we were told to come back at 2pm. I thought poor Robyn was going to lose it. This is their first child. In the spirit of trying to pass the time and keep everyone's mind occupied, our guide thought we would like to visit the local Wal-Mart. And so we did. See the next blog for more details. "Gotcha Day, the Real Thing" to follow. :)

Dinner at Pizza Hut Last Night

2008-03-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

We are so adventurous! We had dinner at Pizza Hut last night; Chinese Pizza Hut. It was really quite an experience. It was the most upscale Pizza Hut I have ever been in. One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. I asked our guide if all of the Pizza Huts were like this one. She said the one in Beijing is. I told her this is certainly NOT like the stores we have in the states. The waitresses were so cute. Very young and dressed very beautifully. Hayden said they weren't wearing the "Pizza Clothes" like the ones in the states. We all laughed. Sydney and Grace ate at a Japanese restaurant and had dumplings with noodles. Grace was very impressed with Sydney's use of chopsticks! I told Grace I was surprised that they had Japanese restaurants here. Our last guide, Veronica, told us that most Chinese still have very bad feelings towards the Japanese. She did say that they were more accepting of them as tourists and didn't dislike the people so much as the government. Grace said they like the Japanese food too! They also had a Korean restaurant we passed by yesterday. The last picture is of Hayden just outside the hotel. They have a cute little fish pond, full of fish. Kevin & I were up at 3:30 this morning and Hayden was in our room bouncing off the walls by 5 am! We still aren't fully adjusted to the time change. We have two rooms at our hotel; one right next to the other. The rooms all have doorbells here; the kids are having a ball with that! Let me just say that their idea of a full sized bed and ours are not the same! :) The beds are at best oversized twins. I am real pleased with the internet service here. It's much faster than Beijing. I can't view our blog as you do, but I do receive e-mail at my yahoo address for each comment you post so I can view the comments that way. It makes it seem like we are not so far away from you! We're getting Piper this morning around 10am! More post and pictures to follow.

Day in Nanjing

2008-03-22T23:07:00.001-07:00

We finally made it to Nanjing. We had to leave the hotel at 5 am this morning to make it to the airport on time. As it turns out, our plane was delayed about 45 min. Go figure! Oh well, we were all so happy to be going that it wasn't much of a setback. The plane was fabulous and they served us breakfast with our choice of Western style (eggs & sausage) or Chinese (congee). Our guide, Grace, met us at the airport full of smiles and energy. She and Sydney are out right now shopping for a suitable adapter for the laptop. After getting settled in at our hotel, she took us to a local grocery for some needed items (water, etc.). The picture of Grace and Sydney is in the store. A clerk in the store who spoke very good English was asking a lot of questions about us. I visited with her for a good little while. When I told her Kevin was a farmer she said, "Oh, he's a peasant." Hmm. We also stopped on the street to purchase some tomatoes from a local vendor. The little boy you see just behind Hayden in the picture was really interested in Hayden but just a little bashful! His dad said it would be okay if Hayden gave him a piece of candy and that seemed to warm him up a little. :) I took a couple of pictures of the traffic and as you can see the cars, bicycles, and pedestrians all mix it up quite a bit. Nanjing is not nearly as crazy as the traffic in Beijing, but keep in mind the population is about half. Tomorrow is Gotcha Day! We are leaving the hotel at 9:30am. Yippee! Please continue your prayers for her and all the transitions she will be making.

2008-03-22T22:48:00.000-07:00

I wrote this in Beijing this morning, but wasn't able to post until we arrived in Nanjing. :) It's 3:30 in the morning here, but I was up, so here goes. We've had a great time while here in Beijing. The hotel is absolutely beautiful. The breakfast buffet was like nothing I've ever had before; fantastic! Now, you can't drink the water without boiling it in the provided kettle. We went first thing down to the local grocery store and bought up some bottled water along with some Coke Zero and Vanilla Coke! We had a great time on our tour yesterday. The driver even took us by the Olympic Complex; it was too hazy for pictures, sorry! Our guide here in Beijing has been fabulous. Her chosen American name is Veronica (sorry but I can't spell or pronounce her Chinese name). She is a native of the city. The tour was exhausting, however, and when we arrived back at the hotel no one was up for going anywhere for food. No problem, Kevin and I just went down the street to the local McDonald's and brought food back to the room. Thank goodness they had a picture menu! The locals are all very friendly. Hayden even got a little taste of fame yesterday when some Chinese who were touring asked for a picture with him! Well, we're off very early for Nanjing, so I'm going to get everything packed up! More tomorrow.

We made it...sorry for the delay in posting

2008-03-22T07:04:00.000-07:00

We made it and everything went really well. Kevin made a friend on the plane, we took in a few movies, and we all enjoyed ALL of the food they kept bringing, and bringing, and bringing. Hayden said, "I don't think this plan ride is so bad after all. I could really get used to this!". The man Kevin met is from Durango and said this is his families 5th trip to China for vacation. They love it. The woman who sat behind us is a Chinese woman who lives in Buffalo NY and teaches Chinese at a local high school. We met another man who is an American English teacher living in Beijing and teaching English to corporate folks. However, good times aside, we were all very glad to get OFF of the plane. 15 hrs. is just too much! The ride from the airport to our hotel was wild to say the least. The driving is very scary; the rules of the road just don't seem to apply here and everyone is VERY liberal with the horn. Hayden was so tired, however, that he just slept through the whole thing; I'm including a pic of this 'cause I just couldn't believe he could sleep through all that! :) I'm posting this Saturday evening. A lot has happened since we arrived, but as you may have guessed, I was experiencing some technical difficulty with my computer. Well, actually, it was my adaptor. The one I bought was not a three pronged adaptor and just wouldn't work on my computer. I borrowed one today and plan on buying one tomorrow. Today was tour day and we sure did! We started early and toured Beijing. We took in Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall of China. I had a real Kodak moment in the Forbidden City. I nearly passed out cold! I had to get down on my knees and take off my sweatshirt and gloves; I really thought I was going to go lights out! I don't know if it was from the time change or what but it was definately very embarassing! I was able to get my bearings after a minute or two and we got on with our touring. Needless to say, everyone was asleep on the bus ride home! Tomorrow, we leave at 5 am for Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province. We will get Piper Monday afternoon. I can't believe it! I am so tired, but so excited that it's hard to sleep well. I do need to get packed up and get to bed, but will try to post more tomorrow now that I know what equipment I need to make this thing work! :)

2008-03-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

Matching Outfit

2008-03-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

For those inquiring minds, here's a couple of photos of the outfits the girls are going to wear on Gotcha Day. Sure hope Piper's fits! We'll know soon! :)

Well, we're packed...I think

2008-03-18T22:20:00.001-07:00

Well, it's all in there; maybe too much in there. We weighed each of the suitcases and the big ones all came in at just under the weight limit. I may have to decide what we can all live without and pull a few items. We must have room for extra things to bring home! After all, the dollar value is 1:7. The kids have all multiplied their spending money by seven to see how much "Chinese money" they have! :) We're leaving first thing Thursday morning; we're crashing at Kellen's tomorrow night. I can't believe we're this close! In less than a week, Piper will join our family. I'm feeling a little wacko! It's a little scary thinking I might leave something important behind. Really though, so long as I get Kevin, the kids, & the all important paperwork, I understand I can buy most anything there, even at Wal-Mart if I want to. Well, I don't think Wal-Mart will be on my top ten list of places to visit in China but you never know, it might come in handy!

We have Confirmation!

2008-03-11T19:56:00.000-07:00

We received confirmation from the American Consulate in China yesterday. Our appointment is scheduled for April 1, 2008. Our agency's travel agent had e-mailed a tentative itinerary by yesterday evening and we got the details ironed out this morning and purchased our plane tickets. Our travel will go something like this:

March 20th-Leave OKC for Chicago; leave Chicago for Beijing
March 21st- Arrive in Beijing & hopefully have some time to rest and recuperate
March 22nd-Tour Beijing with other families in our agency with agency guide
March 23rd- Fly to Piper's province, Jiangsu; capital city Nanjing
March 23rd or 24th-GOTCHA DAY (This is when we meet our little Piper!)
March 28th-Fly to Guangzhou
April 1-American Consulate appt.
April 2-Adoption oath at Consulate; pick up her passport and visa
April 3-Fly from Guangzhou to Hong Kong; Hong Kong to SanFrancisco; San Francisco toDenver; Denver to OKC; whew! I'm already tired just thinking about it!

**Neat website describing her province and city (Wuxi City is where she is): www.jiangsu.net

**Please pray for safe and easy travel and Piper's comfort level during this whole process. Thank you all so much for your support & prayers!

TAs FINALLY Arrive!

2008-03-07T18:52:00.000-08:00

TAs arrived late this afternoon - YEAH! Thank goodness we won't have to wait out the weekend. Our agency has requested a consulate appointment for us in China the week of April 1st. If this appointment is confirmed, our travel departure will be March 20th. Yippee! It looks like we will spend her birthday and Easter in China. :)

Patiently Waiting..... Okay, not really

2008-03-05T20:54:00.000-08:00

I'd like to tell you that I'm patiently waiting, but I'm really not. Tomorrow is Thursday and I really thought we'd have some news on our TA. Nothing yet, but I did e-mail our travel advisor this morning (poor woman) and she kindly mailed back that they would be here this week. So, there you go. By the way, it's not just me. Kevin tells me he has to fight the urge to check phone messages and home e-mail at noon! Can you tell how ready we are! :)

Stamped Passports

2008-03-03T17:36:00.000-08:00

Well, our passports arrived today with their visa stamps. Whew! One more little detail taken care of. I tell you, it's a leap of faith to stick those things in the mail knowing that you must have them to travel. Of course, you must also have the visa stamp, so really there is no option. Thank goodness our agency now takes care of this little detail also and hand carries them to the Chinese consulate in Houston for us. No word on TAs but I'm still hopeful it will be very, very soon. Tommorrow? Following the Johnson's blog has been very exciting for us. It gives us a peek at what we will soon experience for ourselves. We are so anxious to meet her for the first time!

Care Package Etc.

2008-03-02T19:29:00.000-08:00

Her care package made it to China Friday morning around 9am. I feel like it will certainly make it to her before we do. Thank goodness. You work so hard to put it all together and then send it off on a wing and a prayer. We have been praying over that package, by the way. :) We sent an outfit to her that Sydney also has so that they can match on Gotcha Day. We even sent matching shoes; now that was just a shot in the dark on the size! We sent many photos of the house, her room, ALL of her new brothers, her sisters, Kevin & I, even the dogs and cat. Our agency provided Chinese labels for everything. Well, everything except the horses. We just hope she knows what they are! We sent her a stuffed horse to love on; he's very soft. We sent along chocolates and candies for the nannies as well as a disposable camera in hopes they would snap a few pics of her with friends, nannies, etc. I have to thank my mom for helping with the individually cropped pictures. I had tried and failed at that task. Sometimes having a family is kind of like having your own network; it's a GOOD thing! My mom said that the changes I made to the comment section DO make it easier to post a comment, so feel free! I'm going to call it a night and have sweet dreams about TAs early this week! :)

Changed comment settings & other tidbits

2008-03-01T08:01:00.000-08:00

I changed the comment settings to make it easier for you to post a comment. I've had a couple of people tell me that they had a hard time. I think the change should make it easier. I also added a streaming radio that should play automatically when you open the blog, hope you enjoy it. We don't have any news yet on our TA. I still think it will be around the first part of next week. We got an e-mail from our agency making sure we had finalized our room selections and are getting necessary travel paper work ready to go. I'm so ready to go, but also a little nervous about all that lies ahead. Our prayers for Piper for the last two years have been that she will feel comfortable with us right away and just feel like part of the family. We don't want her to have to feel anxious or scared. I know the transition will be hard for her, but we just want her to feel at ease with us. Please pray this for her along with easy and safe travel for all of us. I've noticed her picture is headed south with each new post. I guess I thought things would travel the other direction. That's what I get for being a new blogger. I'm going to try to individually scan her pictures and place them toward the top of the page. Check back later to see if I was successful! Harley got sick last Wed. night. We thought he might have the actual influenza, but thankfully he was tested and does not. Just some other nasty little virus. He's feeling much better now. Hopefully we can all stay healthy through our travel. I hear on the news that the State Health Dept. of Oklahoma is saying that things are only going to get worse. We are having an epidemic of influenza. I hope that you and yours are healthy and well!

No word yet....

2008-02-26T18:42:00.000-08:00

No word on TAs (travel approvals) yet. I'm really thinking it will be sometime next week before we hear anything. And about that travel... we are taking everyone except Kellen who can't get away from work - what a bigshot! :) Anyway, I'm wondering as I'm driving them to school this morning and they can't keep their hands off each other or their bickering to a low roar, what am I nuts? I'm getting ready to set off on a 13 hr. plane ride to China with these guys?! It looks to me like a nice dose of pre-flight Benadryl is in their future.....or maybe mine!

We finally have her!

2008-02-25T16:20:00.000-08:00

We've waited so long, and she's finally arrived! We're proud to announce the newest addition to our family, Piper Grace Downing. Her given Chinese name is Xi Weili (Xi stands for Wuxi, Weili means beautiful). We received our referral on 2-4-08. We hope to travel mid-March. She is everything we'd hoped for. She's active, extroverted, talks in a loud voice, and loves to eat. Now you know she's going to fit right into this family! No wallflowers around here!