Hide-Seek-Chase

This is what it looks like when Abigail plays her version of "hide and seek" (you hide, she seeks, you chase)!

Hide-Seek-Chase

This is what it looks like when Abigail plays her version of "hide and seek" (you hide, she seeks, you chase)!

Reunion with fellow Adoptee!!

We were privileged to have the opportunity to spend part of today with a family we met when we were waiting for our flight from Seattle to Beijing last December. K and S, a wonderful couple, were actually from our same city and we were elated at the thought of being able to get to know them, and for our girls, of the same adoption group, to get to see each other periodically as they grew up. Unfortunately for us, K and S were quite literally in the process of moving over a thousand miles away, having the stressful job of closing on a house while in China adopting and getting to know their daughter!

With their old friends still in our home city, K and S brought their children for a vacation to visit and we got to see them for the afternoon. It was fun and interesting to watch Abigail and their daughter, E interact with each other. When E crawled comfortably in my lap (a very loving and affectionate child), Abigail went crazy with jealousy. Abigail, who just last week really started picking up on the concept of “mine,” was not interested in sharing her people, toys or house with such a close rival!

I really enjoyed talking to S, as though we were old friends; it was so easy, I suppose, because we sort of share one very intimate part of each other's lives, however brief the experience was. What I probably enjoyed the most, though, was seeing how much E has grown and changed since we last saw her in January. Seven months ago she was very withdrawn. Now she is a curious preschooler, almost 2 years older than Abigail, and her command of the English language is amazing. (I could understand her when she spoke. No one but family can yet understand Abigail!) E really seems thoughtful, introspective, patient and observant about her world. She was the kind of kid who always seems to be thinking something and you just want to know what is going through that head!

At the end of the day, S and I agreed that we are the two luckiest families with two of the most amazing girls ever! (We do know we are a slight bit biased!) We tried to get the girls to pose for a picture together to commemorate the reunion, but they had other ideas. Abigail scowled for about 40 of the 47 pics we tried and E was busy examining other neat things in our yard. Kids really are a blessing!!

Reunion with fellow Adoptee!!

We were privileged to have the opportunity to spend part of today with a family we met when we were waiting for our flight from Seattle to Beijing last December. K and S, a wonderful couple, were actually from our same city and we were elated at the thought of being able to get to know them, and for our girls, of the same adoption group, to get to see each other periodically as they grew up. Unfortunately for us, K and S were quite literally in the process of moving over a thousand miles away, having the stressful job of closing on a house while in China adopting and getting to know their daughter!

With their old friends still in our home city, K and S brought their children for a vacation to visit and we got to see them for the afternoon. It was fun and interesting to watch Abigail and their daughter, E interact with each other. When E crawled comfortably in my lap (a very loving and affectionate child), Abigail went crazy with jealousy. Abigail, who just last week really started picking up on the concept of “mine,” was not interested in sharing her people, toys or house with such a close rival!

I really enjoyed talking to S, as though we were old friends; it was so easy, I suppose, because we sort of share one very intimate part of each other's lives, however brief the experience was. What I probably enjoyed the most, though, was seeing how much E has grown and changed since we last saw her in January. Seven months ago she was very withdrawn. Now she is a curious preschooler, almost 2 years older than Abigail, and her command of the English language is amazing. (I could understand her when she spoke. No one but family can yet understand Abigail!) E really seems thoughtful, introspective, patient and observant about her world. She was the kind of kid who always seems to be thinking something and you just want to know what is going through that head!

At the end of the day, S and I agreed that we are the two luckiest families with two of the most amazing girls ever! (We do know we are a slight bit biased!) We tried to get the girls to pose for a picture together to commemorate the reunion, but they had other ideas. Abigail scowled for about 40 of the 47 pics we tried and E was busy examining other neat things in our yard. Kids really are a blessing!!

Our Little Bookworm

Lately the only "toys" Abigail (age 20 months) is interested in (besides Elmo and Grover) are books. She reads them for the half hour after she wakes up in the morning. She devours them at the Children's Museum. When we tell her we are going for a car ride around town, she runs to one of her piles of books and grabs one to read in the car and she spends the whole trip reading it. She gets so immersed in her books that she walks backwards until she bumps into something to sit on; she is probably usually hoping for one of us, but she'll use a chair, fireplace, or even stranger's lap (again at the Children's Museum) if it is a place she can read her book. She reads to us. We read to her. She reads to/with Grover and Elmo. We read after bath and before bedtime and she can't get enough. Of course, Larry and I are delighted beyond belief that we have a little nerd on our hands!!! It really makes the whole nature/nurture angle interesting.

Anyhow, this is how we found her this evening after she fell asleep:

Our Little Bookworm

Lately the only "toys" Abigail (age 20 months) is interested in (besides Elmo and Grover) are books. She reads them for the half hour after she wakes up in the morning. She devours them at the Children's Museum. When we tell her we are going for a car ride around town, she runs to one of her piles of books and grabs one to read in the car and she spends the whole trip reading it. She gets so immersed in her books that she walks backwards until she bumps into something to sit on; she is probably usually hoping for one of us, but she'll use a chair, fireplace, or even stranger's lap (again at the Children's Museum) if it is a place she can read her book. She reads to us. We read to her. She reads to/with Grover and Elmo. We read after bath and before bedtime and she can't get enough. Of course, Larry and I are delighted beyond belief that we have a little nerd on our hands!!! It really makes the whole nature/nurture angle interesting.

Anyhow, this is how we found her this evening after she fell asleep:

Happy Match Day!!!

One year ago, my brother Jim and his awesome wife Steph, my dad, my husband and I were on a bike trip from Pittsburgh to Washington DC. The trail was very rough. It was hot. But we were having an experience to remember together. Then the trip became the trip to remember for a lifetime!

The last night of the trip, we gathered in one hotel room drinking ice coffee and eating pizza delivery when our agency called my cell phone to ask why we never accepted the "little girl with the cleft" whose file had been sent to us. The file was going to be returned or given to another family if we didn't want her.

Wait wait wait! Back up. We never received any file! We did receive one phone call a week earlier saying "Hey, this is (name of a women who doesn't work there anymore). Give me a call." That was it. And we returned the call. Twice. But never received a file. Or a return call. We never knew our girl was waiting.

Anyhow, all water under the bridge at this point, but her file was sent to us right away and we all gathered around an ipod to look at the first photos we would ever see of Abigail, our daughter, niece, granddaughter. Jim and Steph said that they can't wait to tell Abigail someday how her normally intelligent parents became stumbling and stupid in a matter of minutes, staring at her pictures, reading and rereading all of her medical records and information.

Here is a picture of Abigail today, holding one of her referral pictures.
Happy match day, Kiddo!