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We're in Seattle!

We started off the day with a great breakfast at Fat Jack's and were very moved when the wait staff picked up our check in anticipation of our trip.

We almost missed our connecting flight to Seattle because we had to circle around in Atlanta because if weather. Amelie and I waited for the stroller off the plane and Allen went ahead to the next gate to tell them we were coming. He called in a panic saying leave the stroller (no one seemed to be in a rush to get it) or we would miss the flight. We ran (luckily the gate was close). At one point, I was running with Amelie under my arm like a sack of potatoes. But, we made it and the rest of the flight was smooth.

It was good to have a decent night' sleep to help break up the trip.

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Girls Day

Today we had a girls day out with me, Amelie, Ging, Nana, Amanda and Emerson. Amelie and I had been talking for a while about having a girls' day so we could get our toes polished with lucky red since we'd be heading to China shortly after.

We all met at Lakeside Village and took over for a while. The best part was watching/listening to Amelie chatter away with her nail tech about her upcoming trip to China. When the nail tech asked Amelie why she was going to China, she told her it was to get her little brother. The tech then asked Amelie how old he was and what his name was. Amelie told her, then was very precise when saying his name so the tech could know the proper pronunciation "Han Min" Amelie said carefully and slowly a number of times.

It was a fantastic day of pedicures, shopping and a movie (Amelie wanted Nana and Ging to see African Cats since she had already seen it and loved it so much). We got to follow it up with swimming and pizza at Lenny and Amanda's. Pretty great way to spend the day!

On another note, Amelie is somewhat anxious about the trip to China and is more frequently saying that she doesn't want to go. She asked me the other day if someone could just bring Han here. When Allen or I talk to her about why she doesn't want to go, she says she will miss her family and her animals. Last night, when Lenny gave her a hug good bye, she said something to him about forgetting her while she was gone. He, of course, assured her that wouldn't happen, but it does shed some light on what may be worrying her about this big trip.

We realize the trip to China may be a bit overwhelming. Perhaps due to the fact that is out of the country which is big enough, but also she knows this is where she was born and has some history here. It's hard to know what exactly she must be thinking, but we do know it's a lot for a 5 year old. We've been trying to be sensitive about this and let her talk it out as much as she needs to. We also make sure to talk about plans we have with family and friends when we get back so she can know for sure that we do actually plan on coming back to the world we know and love.

Weekend Getaway for 3

This weekend we decided to do one more family vacation as just the 3 of us. It also happened to coincide with my birthday and Allen's last week working for big Corporate before we start our joint venture of a home-based business together, so we had a lot of reasons to celebrate.

We went to Redington Shores Beach near St. Petersburg and had a wonderful, relaxing, close-knit family weekend. It was important to us that we had that one-on-one time with Amelie before we become a family of 4. She's been our one and only for so long and the center of our attention. Her world is about to change in some big ways, albeit positive ways, they're still big changes for a little girl (as if traveling out of the country isn't a big enough endeavor, she's about to get a sibling which, in and of itself is a big change - particularly when we don't know what sort of adjustment issues there may be).

We're definitely not high rollers in this family, we had a perfect blend of relaxing on the beach building elaborate sand castles, boogie boarding (Amelie is a surfer at heart I can tell), playing frisbee and walking around the shops at John's Pass.

Travel plans are set

It's hard to believe that in less than 3 weeks time we'll be on or way to China. In less than 1 month's time it will be Gotcha Day.

Nerves have set in. Nerves of excitement to be sure, as well as nerves of worrying about getting everything done for work while we're gone do I don't worry about customers, and mostly, nerves that I'll forget something important along the way - some form that needs to be brought or notarized before we go, some medicine that I can only get here, our some wad of cash that will go towards a major fee while we're there. I'll be more obsessive than Santa in checking my lists (not just twice, but too many times to count I'm sure.)

But mostly, I'm just impatient to get our boy and nevermind the rest.

Well, here are some fun pictures....

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More about our little Han

Tonight I decided to go back through Han's growth report (it's a good read) because I like to and, it had been a while.

I'm posting an excerpt from this report that relates to his post-surgery progress:

He is active and likes to be held by others, can imitate adult’s action and drink 220-250ml milk per time. After operation for 4 months, we did the examination for him in People’s Hospital of Deyang City again. Results of operation of his had been improved. This time Min Han is not different from before, he has extroverted disposition; every day the caretaker took him to downstairs to play, he does what adult do; his condition is improved well slowly; he can sit on the baby walker to go back and forth; he likes to watch TV, listen to music and play with toys. In Sept.2009 we took him to Cardiovascular Hospital of Chengdu to recheck; the doctor found less reflux flow of bicuspid valve; after we know the result we go to consult a doctor; the doctor said his ill only is slowly nursed back to health, and do not over-exercise; we follow the doctor's orders, especially take good care of him. Now Min is already 2years and 6months, he can go upstairs and downstairs; his intelligence development and physical state are normal; he can observe the facial expressions of adults, can speak father and mother, brother and sister; he likes to play with the same age children. Recently we did PE for Min Han again: height: 87.5cm, weight: 11.4kg, head size: 49.8cm, chest size: 51cm, and has 20 teeth; drink milk 200-250ml per time. He likes playing in the yard every day and is very independent; he often play with toys carefully in the bed alone, and can learn to have a meal by himself, drink milk with holding bottle. Now Min Han is a sensible child and the caretakers in the welfare institute all love him

Class Presentation

Amelie wanted to bring our big red leather-bound book of beautiful color photographs from throughout China to school recently. I said we'd need to check with her teacher first and suggested we both do a presentation about China and showing the pictures from the book. Amelie was very excited about this idea and even more excited when we got approval from her teacher.

We focused the presentation on the cities we'll be seeing on our trip. We started off by showing the globe and having the kids point out Florida and China so they could see that China was on the other side of the world from where we are now.

We showed Beijing on the map of China and asked if anyone knew of anything really big in China. One of the kids yelled out the Great Wall, so we showed pictures of the Great Wall and mentioned the fact that Amelie would get to be there. We talked about the Forbidden City and how, a long time ago, there could be a child actually ruling China. The kids got a kick of of this!

We then showed Sichuan on the map and pictures of the Sichuan countryside and the pandas.

We talked about Hunan and how it was known for it's great artwork with silk. We talked about silk worms (at which the kids yelled "Ewww!"). We then showed pictures of the process of how the cocoons are taken to the factories and made into silk.

Amelie had a great time and did a great job presenting by walking the pictures around the circle so everyone could see what we were talking about. The kids were very interested and asked a lot of questions and made some observations (some were even on topic!).