back to China

Shiyu and H with the Chongqing skyline as the backdrop

last dinner in chongqing

Gambay!!!  Drink up:)

our little Chinese girl....Jo-Ma did her hair several days in a row and H LOVED it!!!

Hayden and Jo-Ma....match made in heaven, not sure who had more energy:)

Shiyu and her magwau family(American)

typical Chinese dinner with EVERYONE there and only a few of the dishes have been set out.

toasts and now the table is filling up with food...yes that was our OWN room for dinner with a beautiful view of Chongqing

David toasting Shiyu and sharing really funny stories of her 10 months with us.

Two mothers, two countries and one daughter:)

I finally drank a fair amount of wine!!  See I do drink.

Love this picture and LOVE them.  Shiyu with her aunt and uncle.

I have NO idea what is going on here....but this was pretty much a FULL description of Hayden's personality while we were in china....fierce!!!

Shiyu and her grandparents and my oh my does she LOVE them....and with reason, such kind and sweet people with a wonderful family!!!

Taiwan ROCks the Windy City

I will finish our China trip soon, but just returned from chicago and Taiwan ROCks reunion.  It was amazing and I am speechless at some of things that happened(good) while together.  I will try and share it all soon, but wanted to share some pics.  I will say that TECO which is the Taiwanese govt agency that we all deal with while we are in the process of adopting.....well they were contacted by one of our moms(thanks Suzy) well they came to have lunch with us and brought goodies for the kid's as well as Taiwanese instructors to teach the kids about some culture.  Going forward they would like to participate by offering a full day of culture camp for the kids at our reunion each year.  So to say we are excited and terribly humbled is an understatement. We were even interviewed by several media sources including the world wide press!!  I have NO idea what I said and now am nervous what came out of my mouth!!  LOL

We also raised $1400 for Ronald McDonald house Chicago and St. Lucy's orphanage in Taiwan

The weekend was truly amazing and magical.  We saw old friends and made some new ones and we can't wait for next year.....2013~ we are going to Cali and we are going to Disney!!!  YIPPEE!!

Hayden holding the tail of the lion.

at check in with two of H's favorite mamas..tiffany and lisa.  She is holding her dog pepper that she picked out at American Girl.  If you wonder what Hayden LOVES right now it is all things AMERICAN girl!!!  Will post pics of our lunch there!!

from left to right Tiffany, Me(Hayden's hand) Lisa C(hostess this year) Lisa R, and one of our other mamas that made a lovely Matilda Jane donation to our raffle.

Our chairs and Director Ger.   Suzy and her sweet girl are right next to the director and because of Suzy we are hoping for a lifetime relationship with TECO!!

foster siblings reunited and their relationship has been sealed at this point....serious love fest between these two!!

look at these two!

two little monkeys jumping on the couch(no one fell off, so that was good) LOL

Sleepover with Tyler!!

Crafts with Paigey and Tyler

Time to get this party started!!!

Hayden loves Tyler, but I think his sister Lauren would lose out in a vote:) 

This is pretty much how H spent her weekend!!!

Between Paige and Hayden....hopefully Lauren got her little sister fix:) LOL

China #10 our friend the monk.

Hayden's friend the Monk.  He seemed to have a special place in his heart for her.  We had lunch and 2 dinners with our lovely new friend and enjoyed and felt so honored that he invited us to the temple for lunch, a tour and a special blessing

The entire lunch was vegetarian, but you would never have known it.  Special chefs are brought from Beijing to cook at the temple.  If you look closely you will see sausage, shrimp, fish etc.  It was a delicious lunch.

Nope not one real piece of meat here....but it tasted GREAT!!!  You can do some crazy stuff with tofu.

They are getting ready to build a bigger building and the tiles will be used for the new building. 

Outside the temple.  This is in the heart of downtown Chongqing.

Lighting incense and candles

a very special blessing.  We felt honored that he would want to bless us with a happy, safe and healthy life. 

Having tea at the temple

As we left the temple.  What a wonderful experience and day we had with our new friend.  Hayden kept doing the namaste head bow to her monk friend.

November HUH???

Seriously how are we a week out from Thanksgiving???  I have SO MUCH TO DO and so little time to do it!!  It happens every single year, and there is no one to blame but myself and the fact the the calendar seems to be on steroids!!  What's the rush?? 

So I have nothing exciting or witty to say, report, blog.....just a ridiculous To Do list and not enough time. 

These pics are from us going to the rodeo!!  Super fun, and Hayden loved seeing the animals.....what's  new right??

I have no idea what this face is all about, but it seriously cracks me up!!!

Introducing the cowboys

These bulls mean business!!

Alive and well and better yet we are BACK!

Snowbunny

60' on H's last day in SLC  so off to the park we went!

My angel right before she and her Daddy left for the airport.

My seatmate and dear friend Keri.  She lives here in Dallas and is just an amazing girl and has a beautiful family.  She and Hayden are BFF's now!! 

This is Christy teaching us the 777(our last airplane to learn)

Okay we are back and no worse for the wear(I think) I was in a class of over-achievers and GREAT facilitators and we blew through the training and finished a week ahead of schedule.  So I am home and can't tell you how good it feels.  We had some VERY tough days on this trip with H.  While I still believe it was best for her to go and have her with me, I would say she believes otherwise.  We had a lot of VERY long nights of inconsolable crying and begging to go home, wanting her daddy and her dogs, pleading for me to NOT go to school again.  I will admit that there were a few nights I pretty much sank to the lowest point of my motherhood career(a lot of tears shed from both of us)  I have doubted myself and second guessed our decision to go to the extremes to have her with me almost 90% of the time I was away, but that is what we did, and hopefully in the end it really was the right decison.  We are home, and hopefully will not be faced with such decisions and stress again for at least awhile.  Now we are just trying to acclimate back to our schedule and routine, trying to get back to mommy being in charge and being a good listener.  Life in a hotel is pretty out of whack, so I think a few more days of routine and consistency will be good for everyone. 

I am officially back to active status, I am trained(again) and I graduated from charm school with honors:)  I have my uniforms and ID, and now just need a schedule for March.  BTW it does feel good to know I have a brain and more than a brain.....a working brain.  I think I took approx 22 test and performed 12 emergency evacuations during my time away!!  As my girlfriend Marcy said " I was rocking stew school"  So it is good to know that I know more than the words to all of the Barney songs....I can now evacuate you from a burning airplane in less than 90 seconds!!!

I want to thank to everyone for the sweet notes,  all the little gifts sent to Miss H to occupy her during this transition.  I got so many great texts and emails and phone calls.  My friends here were awesome in offering great support to David who was trying to weather all the winter weather we had here in TX the first and second week I was gone.  We had some rough spots, but because we have such great friends we made it through with few scars.  So thank you to EVERYONE who played a part in this adventure. 

Enjoy the pics, you can probably figure them out without lengthy captions.  We enjoyed Utah and hopefully when H is a bit older we will return for some ski school for her.

Now we are suppose to be starting pre-school next week.  So time to transition again:)  Wish us luck!