Our Journey to Maelin

The Holidays, 2008

2009-01-18T10:53:00.022-05:00

What a great holiday we had! Daddy was off work for the WHOLE TWO WEEKS with Maelin and Mommy, so we had a chance to spend tons of time together! (I'm wondering if Daddy would rather have been at work? LOL!) We had several christmas gatherings, including christmases at Grandma Schmidt's house the weekend before the actual holiday, christmas morning at our house, Grandpa Les and Grandma Pam's house later on christmas morning, Gramps and Gram Minkstein's in the afternoon that day, and at Nana and Papa Gleeson's place two days later. WHEW!!

A couple of weeks before christmas, I took Maelin to the local Sears Portrait Studio to have her holiday pics taken. They turned out sooooo cute -- i had to share a few of them here! (And yes, i'm a rule-follower...i purchased the CD so that i could share these online!)

Coming up soon: CHINESE NEW YEAR!!

xoxo,
Mommy (and the gang)

Thanksgiving Weekend 2008

2008-12-06T11:25:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving Day brought us an extra special surprise -- tons of SNOW!! Maelin enjoyed playing outside in the snow with daddy (making a snowman, being pulled around on the sled) in the morning and early afternoon. Then we got ready and headed to Uncle Jon and Aunt Laura Gleeson's house for Thanksgiving dinner.

The day after Thanksgiving, Maelin and Mommy set up the Christmas tree. Daddy went hunting, so we figured out the lights (go girls!) and decorated the tree, as well. Maelin loved putting ornaments on tree -- all the blue ones here, all the bear ones here...it's a bit of a 'sorting' tree this year!

These cracked me up, so i had to share them!! Maelin has been into her dress-up box a lot since Halloween. I'm not sure what this is, but i'll call it "princess pirate"!!

Now we're busy getting ready for the upcoming holidays...

xoxo,
Shonda

our little fairy

2008-11-01T21:10:00.001-04:00

Happy Halloween!! What a totally fun holiday! Maelin remembered last Halloween enough to be really excited about the whole thing this year. And thankfully Daddy doesn't mind having 'pumpkin carving' on his list of responsibilities :) He and Maelin carved two...both of which were proudly displayed on the front porch until they rotted and attracted the bees. Ugh.

Here's our little goblin! This year Maelin when i asked Maelin what she wanted to be for Halloween, she said that she wanted to wear the fairy costume in the dress-up box under her bed - haha! A money-saver to be sure, but i really wanted to buy her something cuter. So i went on a fairy costume hunt and found this one at The Children's Place. I love that store :)

Maelin spent the morning trick-or-treating and scavenger-hunting at school, and in the evening we made the rounds in North Branch. We started at Nana and Papa's, went to great gramps and gram's house, stopped to see a few aunts and uncles, and then rounded out the night at Grandpa Les and Grandma Pam's place.

the school pic

2008-10-14T17:05:00.003-04:00

Ohmygoodness...could she be any cuter if she tried?!? I just love how her picture turned out this year! And just so you know, i ordered the photo CD with her school pics, so i'm legal having a digital copy of this :)

Things are going really well in school for Maelin. She's right back into the swing of things and loving school. I'll share a couple of cute stories, just because i can ;)

Last week she was saying/signing something that i just couldn't understand....which is really not common, because i truly understand about 99% of what she says/signs. She kept saying, "Where is the speech .....?" and i just couldn't get the last word. The sign wasn't accurate, the speech wasn't helping...finally i figured it out ... she was asking, "Where is the speech THERAPIST?" I didn't know she knew that word!! I was glad to have figured it out, and i was impressed at her growing vocabulary!

Here's another one: today i had a doctor's appointment in the morning, so there was a sub teacher for a couple of hours. When i returned, i found out that some of the students, including Maelin, had not behaved well during Morning Meeting time, and they'd had time-outs. I sat them down and told them that i was sad, upset and embarrassed about their behavior for a substitute. Maelin said, "You sad, Mom?" I said, yes, i was upset with their behavior. She said, "But you still love me." LOL!! Yes, my sweet...even when i'm sad about your behavior, i still love you to bits!!!

That's all for now...

xoxo,
Shonda

18 MONTHS :)

2008-10-02T16:30:00.000-04:00

Happy one-and-a-half years to US!! Some days i can hardly believe that our Little Miss MaeMae has been home that long...and other days i just want to take a nap! LOL! Here's what we've been up to this past month:

We're back to school! Maelin is now in her 2nd year of preschool at the Michigan School for the Deaf, and i am her classroom teacher again this year. She is doing amazingly well...her language, both spoken and signed, is really taking off. I think her signed vocabulary is between 700-800 words. I lost track around 600! She is learning more and more spoken words but still relies on signing often, especially when there's any other noise around.

Look!! Maelin has glasses!! Here's the long and winding story: our journey into the world of vision problems began last spring. At our yearly spring vision screening at school, Maelin failed both the vision and acuity parts of the test. Uh-oh. The nurse initially diagnosed her with 'nystagmus,' which (as i understand it) is an involuntary movement of the eyes, which in itself doesn't impair vision, but doesn't have any treatment, either. Upon our school nurse's recommendation, i made an appointment for Maelin at a doctor in the Flint area who specializes in vision therapy. Getting her to do the eye exam was frustrating and comical - the kid can't see far away, and she can't see close up. For the problems seeing far away -- glasses! The problem seeing close up is called 'convergence insufficience,' not nystagmus. Basically, her eyes are working really hard to come together and focus on something up close, and therefore they shake. The doctor gave me the example of me trying to pick up a 20lb bucket of cement -- my arm muscle would shake with the effort (okay, my arm would break from the effort...!). Fortunately we've caught it really early -- most times it's diagnosed when kids are failing at reading in the 1st or 2nd grades. And fortunately it's treatable -- she needs vision therapy one hour each week for 6 to 9 months. Unfortunately, vision therapy is damn expensive!! We're not sure if our insurance is going to cover a portion of it, but we're hoping!!

Choosing glasses was somewhat of a nightmare. I tried to pick them out myself after the first hour-long vision appointment, but she'd had enough, and i was pretty overwhelmed by all of the new information i'd just received. We took Daddy with us the 2nd time, and Maelin was so uncooperative (which is really unlike her) that she almost knocked over a table at the doctor's office! We ended up going to the optical department of JCPenney's at the mall; we walked in, and Maelin put on the first pair and said, "That my favorite" and we bought them. LOL! They're somewhat purple (somehow i'm going to have to get over the fact that they don't match what she's wearing every day...i may need therapy myself...) and somewhat cute. My biggest fear was/is that the vision and hearing loses are progressive. Ushers syndrome is a scary prospect, but we'll deal with every ounce of everything that is Maelin with all the love in our hearts.

I guess that's all for now. Love to all :)

xoxo,
Mommy, Daddy and bespectacled MaeMae!

Wrapping Up Summer

2008-08-25T20:53:00.012-04:00

Our last "hurrah" for the summer was a family trip to Crystal Mountain Resort, just south of Traverse City. We spent a week with Jim's brother, sister-in-law, two nephews (ages 6 and 3 1/2), parents, sister, and brother-in-law. What a GREAT time!! Maelin could seriously live there! Here's what we did:

We went swimming in the pool near our cabin for several hours each day. Maelin looooved the water, the slide, the fountains, the 'lilly pads,' and the deep water. She's still in a life jacket in water over her head, but she's a total fish and going to be swimming on her own soon! Here's a pic of Daddy coming down the slide with Maelin right behind him :)

The resort has a four-sided climbing wall with varying levels of difficulty. Maelin and cousin Jacob climbed allll the way to the top of the Level One wall (which was about 20 feet up, i think). It was so exciting to yell and cheer them on, and then scream when they finally reached the top to ring the bell!! I love that she's so adventurous and willing to try almost anything!

One day Nana, Papa and the three of us drove up to Sleeping Bear sand dunes for the day. We saw a couple of scenic lookouts, climbed dunes for a while, and went swimming in Lake Michigan. Little Miss Water Bug was in her glory...

Crystal Mountain is a ski resort in the winter time, so they have a couple of different ski lifts in operation. One night we all took the lifts up to a scenic walk and overlook. Here's our happy family :) It was a great week, and we're hoping to go again next year!

On the last Friday of our summer vacation, Maelin and i finally went on that trip to the Detroit Zoo that we've been meaning to do all summer! We went with Aunt Shelli, Uncle Darrin, and cousins Lauren (age 10), Drew (age 6), Adrienne (age 2 1/2), and baby Josie (8 months). We had a really great time, and i'm so glad we took time to do it before the summer got away from us.

We rounded out our summer with a great visit from Mama's friend Maureen and her two kids, Adam (10 days younger than Maelin!) and Allyson, who just turned one. The kids played, the moms chatted, and of course we went out to eat!

And now it's on to our next great adventure -- back to school time!!

xoxo,

Shonda

California!

2008-08-08T22:18:00.008-04:00

Here it is -- our first big family vacation ever! Jim, Maelin and i flew to California on Friday, July 25th, to visit my friend Jan and her family. Jan and i have been friends almost our whole lives (legend has it that our moms met in a doctor's office while we were babies). We really try to visit each other every year or two, but for various reasons, it's been three long years since we last saw each other. What a great week we had with her!! She got to meet Maelin (aka Chatty Cathy), and i got to see her oldest son, 13-year-old Richie, again and meet her youngest, 8-year-old Jesse. Both boys were adopted, so we have lots in common :)

Daddy was DETERMINED to take Maelin to her first visit to Disneyland, so the three of us spent the day there on Sunday the 27th. Maelin loooooved all of the rides and sights, and we really had a great time. We couldn't resist the face-painting booth :)

On Monday the 28th, the 7 of us (Jan, her wife Lauren, their two boys, and the three of us) took the train from Claremont to downtown LA so that we could visit Chinatown. It was fun to walk around Chinatown, shop and see the sights. After the train ride back to Claremont, we drove daddy to the airport and dropped him off :(

While we were in Chinatown, Jan bought Maelin a traditional Chinese outfit that matched one she was wearing. Tooooo cute!!

On Tuesday (after the earthquake - scary for a midwestern farm girl like me!), Jan and i loaded up the kids and headed for the beach! Maelin had a faaantastic time playing in the waves! She spent almost the entire 3 1/2 hours in the water - didn't want to play in the sand at all!

On Sunday we're off to Crystal Mountain, Michigan for a week-long vacation with Jim's family (parents, sister and brother-in-law, brother and sister-in-law, and two nephews). We're looking forward to spending a whole week with Daddy!!

xoxo,
Shonda (and gang)

Summer Fun

2008-07-25T09:36:00.005-04:00

It's been a beautiful summer, and we've been keeping busy during the long days that Baba is gone to work. Maelin just finished Tues/Thurs swim classes at the at the local community center (she wasn't thrilled with them; there's too much waiting and turn-taking. She'd much rather just flail around in the water un-instructed!), and we put up a 12-foot easy-set pool at home, as well. She's an absolute fish and loooooves the water! She's also been on a couple of boat rides with Baba and his friend Bill.

The park has been another summer favorite. We've gone to several different ones, and she always has fun. Invariably, the other kids playing at the park at the same time are 'my friends' :)

We spent a fun day at the Flint Children's Museum -- what a FANTASTIC place for curious little ones!! Admission was only $4 per person; we left after 3 1/2 hours and Maelin was not even close to being ready to go! They have science stuff (energy, five senses), dramatic play (a stage and dress up clothes, a puppet show area), a play grocery store, and a play pizza restaurant. Toooo fun! And on Tuesdays, they open for free!

Here's a pic from the 4th of July :) Maelin was really excited to see the parade making it's way toward us!

That's all for now...

xoxo,
Shonda

When i get big...

2008-06-21T22:47:00.000-04:00

Maelin never ceases to make us laugh -- and her perceptions of the world around her are no exception! We are still firmly planted in the 'why?' stage, and she's constantly asking why she can't do something or have something. Sometimes the answer is, "that's for big people," or "that's for adults," or "you're too little for that." She's composed an ever-growing list of things that she plans to do. They always start with "Me get big, me..." Here are a few of my favorites:

Me get big, me can wear hair gel.
Me get big, me can wear make up.
Me get big, me can use the orange hair spray.
Me get big, me grow boobs.
Me get big, me wear bra.
Me get big, me can touch stove (LOL!)
Me get big, me drive car.
Me get big, me don't have to hold hands in parking lots.
Me get big, me can cook. (Great! When would you like to get started??)

I'm guessing that we'll have our hands full when Miss Maelin hits the teenage years!!

Love to you all,
Shonda (and the rest of the clan)

Smile, Sweet Pea!

2008-04-19T08:50:00.011-04:00

During spring break (end of March), we went to a Sears Portrait Studio in Flint for Maelin's first professional pictures. It's good timing, because her birthday and Gotcha Day anniversary are two weeks apart. The spring dress was a birthday gift from Aunt Tammy, and the traditional Chinese outfit ("my China clothes") was purchased in China while we were there last year.

Maelin definitely enjoyed getting her pictures taken, and we were THRILLED with the results! I may have spent too much money on them...including a CD of all the pictures so that i could post them on the blog!

xoxo,

Mama, Baba, Leslie and Maelin

HAPPY ONE YEAR!!

2008-04-02T23:36:00.002-04:00

I can hardly believe that one whole year has passed since we saw our Maelin for the very first time...I vividly remember sitting in the waiting area at the Civil Affairs Office in Chongqing. We didn't wait long before we saw an adult come around the corner with two little girls. When the first little one rounded the corner and came into view, we weren't sure if it was YuFeng or not. But as soon as the second little girl walked in the room, we knew SHE was our baby! I have a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes just thinking about that first moment...i got down on my knees near her and said, "Hi, baby!" She was unsure of us (and Jim says she had a couple of silent tears but i don't remember that), but the van driver who brought her in kept telling her that we were her new Mama and Baba. We opened her backpack and gave her a baby doll out of it. After a few minutes she also got a sucker out of the backpack, and that was an ice breaker! She let us hold her, and i remember being surprised at how BIG she was!

What she must have been thinking those first few moments...i can't even fathom. Now that i know her and love her so dearly, i can't imagine how she must have felt, having just been taken away from the only parents she ever knew. I hope they tried to explain it to her. I hope they tried to prepare her for the new family she would meet.

Our time in China was busy and exciting, but we all got sick two days before traveling home. Those first few weeks at home were really difficult for me. We were sick, we were jet lagged, our sleep schedule was on China time (12 hrs difference), and she was grieving for her foster parents. The first day Jim went back to work, i panicked! What was i going to do for 9 hours at home alone with Maelin? The time crept by as we played with play-doh, played dress-up, looked at books (although she didn't enjoy this at all in the beginning), took baths (because she DID enjoy that!) and waited for Baba to come home. I must have looked at my watch 100 times a day. I was sooo exhausted... and quite honestly, i missed having a life of my own. I missed reading books and taking naps and going out with my husband and scrapbooking with my friends. My time was not mine anymore, and that was hard during those first months.

Fast forward 365 days...what a difference! Maelin has become such an integral part of our little family that we can't fathom life without her...she is very attached to her 'new' Mama and Baba and no longer grieves for her first family. We often talk about the adoption journey: Mama and Baba were sad because we were home alone with no MaeMae (i don't mention that i used to read books and take naps - LOL!), so we flew to China to pick her up! We also talk about 'other' mama and baba, who took care of MaeMae while she was waiting for us to come and get her. We say that they loved her very much. Academically, she's making tons of progress in her first year of preschool at the Michigan School for the Deaf -- she counts to 20 (in both speech and sign), she recognizes 23 capital letters of the alphabet, tries to sing the ABC song (my favorite part is, "dubba-lou, eck, y, deeeee!"), and has an expressive sign vocabulary of about 400 signs.

Tonight the three of us drove to our homestudy agency in Bingham Farms for our final post-placement visit with social worker Lorie (Leslie stayed in the dorm). Afterward, we went out for a celebration dinner at Joe's Crab Shack in Auburn Hills. We kept telling Maelin, "Happy One Year!"

Thanks for reading, and thanks for staying with us during this incredible journey!

Much love,
Mama, Baba, Leslie and Maelin

Happy Birthday, Sweet Pea!!

2008-03-19T23:08:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe that our little Love Bug turned FOUR today!! She has been looking foward to her birthday ever since she started seeing her classmates have their turn at the birthday thaaang! We've also been working on "how old are you now?" and "how old will you be soon?" She is so excited to tell people that she's four now! We celebrated with a birthday party at school with her classmates, complete with a crown :)

In the evening, we went to Applebee's for dinner, a rousing version of "happy birthday" courtesy of the waitstaff, and a hot fudge sundae!

When we arrived home, Grandpa Les and Grandma Pam came over and gave her a birthday gift -- a big girl bike! No more tricycle for Maelin! She was soooo excited about the bike...she rode it around and around the house until bed time!

We'll have her family birthday party on Saturday with both families. She's looking forward to "many people come my house" :)

Good times, good times.

-Shonda

What happened to January?!?

2008-02-17T15:24:00.016-05:00

I really try to post every month, but January just got away from us! I figured i should post some pictures now or i'll miss February, too!

This picture was taken at a family birthday party for Leslie, who turned SEVENTEEN on January 6th! It's so hard to wrap my mind around the fact that the little 6-year-old who moved in with me over 10 years ago has become a young woman! Happy birthday, Leslie :)

What a great winter it's been! Our area has had near-record levels of snow for the year, and Maelin has had a BLAST playing outside with Baba! (You'll notice that Mama doesn't do much snow...or anything cold, really...i step outside to take some pictures and 'oooh' and 'ahhh' over whatever they're doing, then come back in and thank my lucky stars that Jim likes to play outside!!) Papa brought his golf cart back to our place, so Maelin and Baba ride it around, and Baba pulls Maelin behind it on a sled. When Leslie and Maelin play outside, Leslie makes great snow-creature creations and Maelin 'helps.' :)

Apparently Baba was in need of a 'project' ... he tore up the carpet in the dining room and put down wood flooring. Maelin 'helped' again :)

Happy Chinese New Year! February 7th was the start of the new year in China, and we celebrated with dinner out at a local Chinese restaurant. Maelin said/signed "Happy New Year!" to every worker and patron that she met along the way!

On Monday, February 11th, Maelin woke up at 4:00am sick, sick, sick! She had a fever of 103.something :( I took her to the doctor that morning, and it was just 'the flu,' so no meds or anything. Maelin stayed home from school the whole week and missed her very first Valentine party :( By Friday, she was still spiking 104 temps, so i took her back to the doctor. (They gave her an antibiotic, but probably just so they didn't have to see me in their office again...) Then Maelin was kind enough to pass the flu to both Jim and i, so all three of us were sick for several days. Mine, as always, morphed into bronchitis, so i ended up missing a day of school and getting an antibiotic, as well. In the picture above, Maelin was laying on the floor coloring, when she just rolled over and fell asleep! Being sick sucks, but it makes us appreciate it when we feel well again!!

Coming soon: Maelin's 4th birthday (3-19-08) and the one year anniversary of our Gotcha Day (4-2-08)!!

Maelin's First Christmas

2007-12-29T20:56:00.000-05:00

How exciting Christmas is through the eyes of a child! Maelin has absolutely embraced every aspect of the holiday season, starting with her first visit with Santa! Our lower elementary school classes participated in the annual Breakfast with Santa event, and although i prepped Maelin for it ("Santa will give you a present, but you'll have to sit on his lap..."), i wasn't sure she'd be willing. Fortunately, many of her classmates forged bravely before her, so by the time it was her turn, she was fairly confident no harm would come to her!

Here's the annual Christmas picture that Jim dreads so much each year! I have to start talking about it days in advance, just to prepare him - LOL! I'm sure his reticence has nothing to do with the fact that i'm completely anal-retentive about the whole procedure, from clothes and hair to sitting positions, and that i make him suffer through about 20 shots (and sometimes multiple sittings) before i'm even remotely satisfied. It's for posterity, dammit!!

We're all excited that bowling season has started again, because that means Leslie spends weekends with us! Last week we had an extra-special treat: Leslie's sister Brandi (who is a student majoring in Deaf Education at California State University Northridge) came and stayed two nights with us! We also took advantage of the extra time together for Leslie to open her Christmas gifts, since she won't be with us during the two-week Christmas break.

CHRISTMAS MORNING!! Maelin woke up around 7:45am (yes, we're sure it will get much earlier in years to come...) and was thrilled to realize that it was finally time to open all those presents! She got a few small things (clothes, a snow suit, Magnetix, books), but her 'big' gift was a new kitchen set with dishes and food accessories!

After Christmas morning at our place, we got ready and headed to Grandpa Les and Grandma Pam's house for family Christmas with them. I love this shot of Maelin - i think it captures her excitement about the whole day! In the afternoon, we headed to Great Grandpa and Grandma Minkstein's house for a meal and a few more gifts. We also had Christmas Eve at Nana and Papa Gleeson's house (which was really nice) and Christmas at Great Grandma Schmidt's house last week...WHEW!

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year to all of our dear friends and family out there :)

Love,
Mama, Baba, Leslie and Maelin

Much to be Thankful for...

2007-12-05T21:54:00.000-05:00

WE HAVE A NEW BABY!! My sister Shelli gave birth to baby #4 this morning at 3:56AM! Josie Kate weighed a very small 7lbs 2oz (her other three were 9lbs 8oz, 10lbs 2oz, and 8lbs 15oz, so this one seems so tiny!) and is 19 1/2 inches long. My mom and i (and Shelli's husband Darrin) were there to watch Josie make her way into the world. What a beautiful experience! I am soooo thankful for a healthy baby niece, an amazingly strong sister, and the opportunity to have seen the births of all four of my nieces/nephews!

We were thankful to wake up on Thanksgiving morning to the first snow of the year! A beautiful blanket of snow (just a couple of inches) on everything...and Maelin was sooooo excited! She and Baba spent some time outside making an awesome snowman...

...and sledding down the not-so-big hills around our house! We were definitely thankful for Baba's safe return home after seven days of hunting up north.

While Baba was up north, Aunt Maureen and Adam came to keep us company and stay overnight with us -- we had a blast! We did some shopping, went out to eat, played at home, and best of all, Mama and Aunt Maureen got to stay up until 2:00AM and talk til we couldn't keep our eyes open any more!

We've made a break-through in our nightly bed-time routine. While Baba was gone up north, Maelin and i started working on her going to bed by herself! We played up the fact that she looooves to do things by herself, and she went to bed that Sunday night while i worked on school work at the table. The first night took 45 minutes and she yelled for me three times (but didn't get out of bed), so i considered it a success for the first night! By the third night, she went to bed by herself without any calling out for me :) Buuuuut, then Baba came home the next night, and she thinks she's missing out on something at bed time! Every night she says, "Not MaeMae bed do-by-self!" She's actually done very well, but it's taking time. I'm thankful for the extra time to catch up on things around the house while she's falling asleep!

I'm also thankful for those of you who are still reading our blog :) Last Sunday marked 8 months since Adoption Day (4-2-07), and we appreciate those of you who are still hanging around!

xoxoxo,

Mama, Baba, Maelin and Leslie

Mae's First Halloween

2007-11-04T17:23:00.000-05:00

I mentioned about a month ago that we'd reached the six-month mark since our adoption of Maelin. We had an appointment with our homestudy social worker, who sent a report to our agency in California. Along with the report, we needed a few pictures, so we took an updated family picture last weekend. Aren't we cute?! :) Jim set the timer and we all posed...i figured that Maelin would be completely confused by the timer and no one really taking the picture, but she "cheesed" just perfectly! Now we have a new game: Maelin makes us sit on the hearth in front of the fireplace while she runs over and 'sets the timer' on an imaginary camera, then runs and sits with us, commanding everyone to smile! It's fairly comical!

Maelin and BabaDaddy spent last Saturday afternoon gutting and carving two pumpkins from Papa and Nana. At first she was enthralled, watching BabaDaddy's every move...by the end, she was riding her tricycle around the garage while he finished carving the second pumpkin - haha!

I wondered how Maelin would react to the whole Halloween hustle and bustle, but she did just great! I bought her 'ladybug' costume at Old Navy for $11 (score!), and she was t-h-r-i-l-l-e-d!! The three of us went to a Halloween party at the Deaf Club in Flint on the Friday before Halloween, where she played games and hung out with some of her classmates and schoolmates. It was really a good time. On Halloween day, she wore her costume to school and had a blast trick-or-treating around the school. By that evening, Mama had had enough Halloween, so we only stopped two places to trick-or-treat: Great Gramps and Gram's (Mama's grandparents), and Papa and Nana's house. We stayed at Papa and Nana's house for a while and played with Jacob and Lucas while everyone visited. Then we headed to Uncle Darrin and Aunt Shelli's house for a birthday celebration for Cousin Lauren (who turned 10 on Halloween) and Adrienne (who turned 2 the Thursday before).

Leslie has been staying in the dorm a lot this school year. She comes home one or two nights each week, and Maelin looooves it when Leslie is home! This is the first year that Leslie has chosen to stay in the dorm on Halloween instead of coming home with us...i guess that's a sign of growing up! The end of the first quarter of school is coming up; i've heard mostly positive reports from her 10th grade teachers, so we're hoping for a good report card. :)

With Halloween successfully behind us, we're looking forward to the next big holiday 'first' with Maelin. We're guessing since Christmas involves presents, she'll handle that one alright, as well :)

Love to all,

MamaShonda, BabaDaddy, Leslie and Mae

Random Thoughts

2007-10-19T21:26:00.000-04:00

I've decided that our newly-painted bathroom wall is way too plain...it needs a collage of pictures of Maelin in the tub! Here's the first picture in my new collection :)

Leslie stayed with us last weekend for MSD's Homecoming. We loved having her at home for a few days! On Friday night, she went to the Homecoming dance, which was a 50's theme (hence the white t-shirt, black leather jacket, pony tail and scarf!). But she let me put some make-up on her, and i thought she looked beautiful!

Mama's birthday was this past Wednesday, so we had the Frampton and Gleeson gangs over for cake and ice cream. The kids found a bunch of play sunglasses, and i had a blast recording their silly-ness for posterity!

This has got to be one of my all-time favorite pictures of Maelin and Leslie and i ... just us girls :)

I've had an interesting past few weeks. In addition to having a broken ankle (which is getting much better now), i got two spider bites which required a trip to the doctor, a shot and three prescrptions. We had Maelin's 12th IEP meeting (okay, i'm exaggerating, but you know us, we call them every couple of months just for shits and giggles...) which was extremely stressful, and then, because i don't have enough on my emotional plate right now, my purse was stolen from my classroom on Wednesday morning before school! Leslie's sidekick (pager) was taken, as well, so we've spent the last week or so closing accounts, cancelling credit cards, replacing things and doing damage control. *sigh*... But even in light of the stressful events of late, i have much to be thankful for, and i won't soon forget that.

Love to you all,

MamaShonda (which is Maelin's new name for me...ha!)

Six Months

2007-10-02T21:25:00.000-04:00

Today is the six month anniversary of Maelin's Adoption Day... I'm thinking back to April 2nd and wondering how much she understood of what was going on. Did she understand that we were her new Mama and Baba? Did she wonder where we were going when we got in the van or on the airplane? I'm thinking of her foster parents and wondering how they coped with the heartbreaking task of letting go of such an amazing child. I'm remembering how much our lives have changed in the last six months, both positive and negative. In some ways, it feels like much longer than six months...i can't remember the last time that i had a couple of hours at home to myself...and i'm wondering what the heck i did with all of my free time before Maelin!!

Maelin has started calling Jim "BabaDaddy," which i think is completely adorable! A few times she's called me "MamaMommy," but Jim is consistently BabaDaddy :)

We're in our fifth week of school, and Maelin is doing very well. Getting up at 6:30am isn't always easy, but she loves going to school and talks about her classmates all the time. New signs she's started using in the past couple of weeks: who, which, now, remember, again, bib, forgot, new, said, you, excuse me :)

It's late and i'm exhuasted, so that's all for now...good night!

xoxoxo,
Mama (and BabaDaddy, Leslie and Maelin)

School's In!!

2007-09-10T16:01:00.000-04:00

So we're smack-dab in the middle of a 'fake smile' phase, but i still think she's beautiful on the first day of school! We worked the 2nd half of the summer on earlier and earlier wake-up times so that 6:30 on Tuesday morning wouldn't be a shock to her system, and it was worth it. She was a little unsure of things that first day -- where are we going, what are we doing? But each day since then has gotten better and better. She rides to school with Mama every morning, and after school she takes a van that drops her off at Baba's work. So far, so good! :)

In other news, i'm officially an invalid. We have been trying to spiff up the place, and it was barn-painting-day on Saturday. Most of my friends know that i will go to just about any length to get out of work (ahem)...so i fell off the ladder while painting and broke my ankle! First broken bone of my life, and it really sucks. Trying to care for a 3-year-old has not been easy (hopping and crawling around the house - ha!), and trying to teach six of them during the school day is truly challenging! But my aides have been wonderful (like they really have a choice - grin), and we'll see how things go.

More later,

xoxoxo,

Shonda

The August Post

2007-08-10T20:27:00.000-04:00

Here's my new favorite picture of Maelin! She's sitting on our front porch in her new favorite shirt, which was a gift from Aunt Maureenie :) And when i say it's her favorite shirt, i mean she wants to wear it every day...and if it's in the dirty laundry, she whines for a few minutes until she's sure that i won't just dig it out and let her wear it anyway!

A few weeks ago, we took Maelin on her first rides at a little carnival in Davison (again, the favorite shirt!). She loved the cars, merry-go-round, and slide-ala-burlap-bag, and then went on the big ferris wheel with Mama! I put my arm around her for the first few rotations, and then she moved it away -- no fear at all in this girl! She wanted to ride the bigger rides, but neither Baba nor i would ride them with her!

It's been great to have Leslie with us for a few weeks this summer! We went swimming at the beach, played at the park, and (pictured here with the shirt...did i mention it's her favorite?) rode the Huckleberry Railroad at Crossroads Village. Maelin really enjoyed the train ride :)

We've been doing a few home-improvement projects over the last several weeks -- ripping off wallpaper and painting the bathroom, finishing the upstairs closets, bleaching the gunk off the shingles, experimenting with sandblasting and staining the outside of our house -- and Maelin loves to be in the thick of things! She looooves helping Baba fix things...he says she's going to be an engineer when she grows up :)

I can't believe that the summer is coming to a close! Ten weeks sounds like such a long time, but it really flew for Maelin and i. We've really and truly had a wonderful time together, and althought i'm looking forward to the start of a new school year, i will miss the days at home with Maelin! And just for those keeping track (me!), Maelin's expressive sign vocabulary is at 233 words!! What an amazing little girl...we love her soooooo much :)

xoxo,
Shonda

July already?!

2007-07-13T15:38:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that three weeks have gotten away from me since i last posted here! You would think that i could commit to posting once a week, but we've been so busy! Even if Maelin and i stay home and play all day, there just isn't time to do more than check email. Maybe if we had cable internet i would do it more often, but dial-up sucks, and it takes me forever to get logged in and upload pictures. Anyhoo...

Speaking of pictures, the top one is Jim and i on our 3rd wedding anniversary at the end of June. We went out to eat at Damon's in Grand Blanc while Maelin played at Aunt Laura and Uncle Jon's house (thank you Jon and Laura!!).

The second one was taken just a few days ago; we got together with my friend Kara and her two kids for a day at the beach ... what a great time! (The last picture was taken while we were swimming at the beach also.) Before i realized it, three hours had passed! Anyway, Kara and her kids gave Maelin a new towel, and she looked so cute in it, i just had to get the camera :)

The third picture was taken last night. I wanted to water some of my flowers that i can't reach with the sprinkler, so Maelin kept herself busy in some sand...andwater...and made a deliciously messy mud puddle! She said she was 'cooking' and told me over and over, "Don't touch!"

The next one was taken on the Fourth of July (you can tell i'm pretty concerned about the order in which i've posted them...). The three of us went to North Branch for the annual parade, and Maelin loved it! I think the tractors were her favorite part, but she really liked the horses, too.

Leslie was at summer camp at MSD this past week. She had a wonderful time canoeing, playing kickball, swimming, fishing, and traveling to Lansing to watch a Lugnuts game. Now she's staying the weekend with a girlfriend. They're going to Ohio to hang out on their boat for a couple of days, so that should be fun!

I guess that's all for now. I need to wake up Maelin from her nap if we want any hope of a decent bed time tonight!

xoxo,

Shonda

School's Out!

2007-06-23T21:50:00.000-04:00

Isn't she beautiful?!

I'm so thankful to have survived the last couple of weeks of the school year and made it to the point where Maelin and i have ten weeks to spend together :) We are getting back into the groove of being together all day again -- balancing down time at home with short trips out to keep us busy.

The third picture down is our first time putting Maelin in a dress (she's SUCH a tom-boy and so darn active, they seem impractical except for special occations!) so we could go to a wedding reception. One of Jim's second cousins got married, and we attended the reception in Vassar last weekend. Maelin had a great time dancing -- what a hoot!

Our other recent adventure was a mini-surgery to remove any fluid that might be lurking behind her eardrums and causing additional hearing loss. We arrived at McLaren Hospital in Flint at 5:30am (ack!!) on Wednesday morning, and i walked back to the surgery room with her just before 7:00am. I was really worried about the whole thing, especially the anesthesia, but all went well. The doctor found no fluid behind either ear, so we know that her moderate hearing loss is just what we thought -- sensorineural and not affected by any ear infections. She also got her first hearing aids a couple of weeks ago, so we're working on wearing them more and more each day. She hasn't shown any real responses to them yet, but we'll go back to the audiologist in Flint some time next week for a follow-up appointment.

That's all for now. Maelin is sleeping, Jim is gone to a poker tournament, and i'm exhausted. Good night!!

xoxo,

Shonda

Our New Favorite Thing - Swimming!

2007-06-03T22:02:00.000-04:00

Well, being back to work all day -- especially at the hectic end-of-the-year time -- and keeping Miss Maelin busy every evening leaves very little time for blogging! As you can see from the pictures above, we have a new favorite pastime: swimming! I took Maelin and Laura (bottom picture) to the Lapeer Rec Center on Memorial Day, and we had a grand ol' time! We have been running through the sprinkler at Uncle Jon and Aunt Laura's house, and we ran through one again at Great Grandpa and Grandma Minkstein's (second pic) this past Saturday. The top picture was also taken at their house. In it, Maelin is sitting with cousin Adrienne, also known as 'baby.' Ha! The third picture happened when Baba and Maelin were jousting for the same piece of faux crab meat one night. I thought it was a perfect 'Lady and the Tramp' moment and couldn't resist catching it on film! :)

Maelin continues to amaze me at the rate she's picking up signs! I have several more to add to our tally, but i think we're at about 85 signs now! She's also picking up a few spoken words, but it's just so obvious that she's a visual language learner at this point. Signing has been such a blessing for us! Our communication with Maelin would be seriously limited without it.

That's all i have time for right now.

xoxo,

Shonda

Surviving the First Week Back

2007-05-26T22:04:00.000-04:00

It's been an interesting week! Bright and early Monday morning, i got ready for work and left Maelin and Baba to fend for themselves (Baba wakes her up at 8am, gets her ready for the day, and drops her off at Aunt Laura's house around 9:15am). On my way to work, i heard a sappy country song and started crying ... thankfully, Leslie was sitting next to me, so i had to choke back the tears and kept driving. When i arrived at school, i cried in front of the first person to ask me how i was doing! But the rest of the day was busy and happy, and before i knew it, it was 3:30 and i was jumping in my car and heading off to pick up Miss Maelin! Truly, it is nice to be back at work. I love my job, and i'm happy to be back :) It's hard to know that Maelin is not with Jim and/or i all day, but she's doing just fine at Aunt Laura's house with Jacob and Lucas. She really enjoys having playmates every day. I can hardly blame her -- i'm not nearly as fun as Jacob ;)

Maelin and i have enjoyed spending the long weekend together. It was raining on Friday morning, so we got ready and went to the post office and the grocery store. Baba called us while we were still in Lapeer, so we swung by his work and picked him up for a family lunch :) On Saturday, Stacey (my good friend and MSD co-worker) and her 8-month-old daughter, Josie, came to visit us for a few hours. We had such a nice time visiting with them and playing with the baby!

Funny story: earlier this week, Maelin pointed to bird poop on her swing, and i told her what it was. We cleaned it off and went on with our lives. The next day, she found some on the ladder to her slide, and we identified it as 'bird poop' again. Then a couple of days ago, i was trying to wipe the gunk out of the corners of her eyes, and she called it bird poop!! I had to laugh at that one!

In the top picture, Maelin is wearing a cape and hat that was hand-made by Ellen, who is the great-grandmother of one of my students, Jason. Even though Jason moved to kindergarten this year, Ellen still stops to visit me in my classroom :) If you can see in the picture, Maelin's baby doll is wearing a matching hand-made cape and hat ... thank you so much, Ellen!!

That's all for now. Hope you're all enjoying the long weekend :)

Shonda

The Weekly Update

2007-05-20T09:11:00.000-04:00

It's Sunday morning, and Baba is having breakfast with Maelin, so i thought i'd jump on here and post a few of the more recent pictures of our cutie-pie :) We have been together almost seven weeks as a family. Each week gets better and better as we get to know each other more. She has become a bit of a Mama's girl at night time -- won't let Baba lay down with her at bed time any more! I think it hurts Baba's feelings a little, but it seems logical that she would want Mama when it's 'comfort' time. Baba's expertise lies in the areas of 'fun' and 'outside' :)

Last Monday we finished up Maelin's hearing testing at the audiologist in Flint. When we were done, we ordered hearing aids (our insurance covers most of the cost!!) and made impressions for earmolds. We're hoping to slowly get her used to the hearing aids during the summer months so that, when she starts school in fall, she'll be wearing them full time.

We've also had several 'assessment' appointments with our local school district, in preparation for her IEP. So far, we've met with the teacher consultant for the hearing impaired (sorry, their title, not mine!), the audiologist, a speech/language pathologist, and an early childhood teacher. We have two more left -- another early childhood teacher and one more appointment with the speech/language pathologist. I am hoooooooping that we'll get the IEP scheduled before this school year ends, so that we can get all of the arrangements made before school starts in the fall. Cross your fingers for us!

I am going back to work on Monday (tomorrow) with very mixed emotions. I miss my students and i love my job, so there is some excitement in getting back to work and into that routine. But i have a sick feeling in my stomach at leaving Maelin every day for four weeks. The upside: she'll be staying with my sister-in-law Laura, and if i have to leave her to anyone, i'm glad it's her. Jim is planning to stay home each morning so Maelin doesn't have to get up quite to early. He'll get breakfast for her, get her all ready, and then drop her off at Laura's around 9am or 10am. I'll take off right after work each day and be there by 4pm. And after June 15th, we'll have the whole summer together :)

Leslie is at Desales (in Brooklyn, MI) for an Art Workshop weekend with other deaf and hard of hearing kids. Thankfully, she rode down with one of the houseparents (it's two hours each way!), and she'll ride part-way back with the same woman. We'll pick her up at Great Lakes Crossing this afternoon. Maelin will be happy to see her :)

Take care-

xoxoxo,

Shonda

Mother's Day musings

2007-05-12T17:20:00.000-04:00

We've been so busy over the past several days! If we're not grocery shopping or going to appointments, we're playing in the sand box and feeding the fish in the pond :)

Doesn't Leslie look beautiful?!? The above picture of her is from MSD's Prom, which took place this past Thursday night. Leslie asked me to meet her at the dorm before the prom and drive her there, so i did. (Baba stayed home with Maelin, which gave me some much-needed one-on-one time with Leslie, and a dinner out with my friend, Shelly!) After school that day, Leslie's sister Brandi went to the dorm to fix Leslie's hair and make-up ... WOW!! By the time i arrived, she was all dolled up and ready to go :) We drove to the Prom (which was held at the Flint Association of the Deaf), and i went in with her for a few mintues, before leaving her to hang out with her friends. I haven't talked to her since then, so i'm anxious to hear an update on how things went! :)

We've had an eventful last several days. One day last week, we went to lunch with Kaleb (a former student of mine) and his mom, Barb (the second picture is Maelin with the Wendy's happy meal bag on her head!). Last Saturday, we had a visit from Mama's friend Maureen and her son Adam, who is ten days younger than Maelin. We've been down to visit Jacob and Lucas a couple of times (the bottom picture was taken while playing with sidewalk chalk at their house). On Tuesday, we had a play date with Erin and Ryan and their mom, Cindy (Erin was a student of mine at MSD last year). The third picture was taken last weekend at the kitchen table. I was writing out my bills, and Maelin had to be sitting there with me. The calculator kept her busy for a while, and then we added some stickers, just for fun!

As Mother's Day draws near, i reflect on the happiness that Maelin has brought into our lives in such a short amount of time. But i also think of the two other mommies that she had before me. One of them gave her life -- and we can judge her for abandoning that baby girl, but we don't know what things were like for her. We don't know what a difficult decision it was, or what circumstances surrounded it. We DO know that she placed her baby, bundled and warm, on the steps of the orphanage, with the obvious intention for that baby to be adopted by a loving family and given a better life. I also think of her foster mother, who cared for her for more than two years. I know that she must still be grieving for this beautiful little girl. We've only had her in our lives for six short weeks, and i already can't imagine life without her...

Happy Mother's Day to all you fabulous moms out there ;)

Mama

Tutu Time!

2007-05-02T20:33:00.000-04:00

We loved the sunny days this past weekend and spent lots of time outside enjoying them! On Saturday, Maelin and i went to Great Grandma Schmidt's house to visit with her and to meet Uncle Tom and Aunt Chris for the first time. We had a really nice visit, and Aunt Chris won Maelin over with "This Little Piggy Went to Market" :) Afterwards, we went to Aunt Shelli's house and played outside with Drew and Adrienne (poor Adrienne doesn't have a namesign yet, so Maelin calls her 'baby' - ha!). Maelin had SUCH a great time playing with all the cool stuff ... when it was time to go home, she threw a major fit! But she was asleep in the carseat about two miles down the road :)

On Sunday morning, the three of us did the grocery shopping and ran a few errands. When we got home, Maelin napped and Baba mowed the lawn. That evening, we had a wonderful time when Uncle Jon, Aunt Laura, Jacob, Lucas, and Popa/Nana Gleeson all came over for a cook-out and some family time. Fun! Uncle Jon gave Maelin a golf cart ride (top picture), which is always appreciated! We also went for a walk in the woods looking for morrels, but we didn't find any. (Baba is ITCHING to get up north for some proper 'shrooming!)

So far this week, Maelin and i have balanced our week with some venturing out and some staying home. I find that Maelin really enjoys the times that we go out. When we're home for too long, she gets whiny. Maybe it's because she's such a social person? I'm not sure. I still think it's important to spend lots of time at home, but i'm glad she enjoys our time out.

On Wednesday morning, we went to an audiologist in Flint for Maelin's first hearing test. They were only able to do part of the testing (most children need more than one sitting for a complete hearing test due to the time it requires). So far it looks like she has a moderate hearing loss (50-60 dB) in both ears, with the right ear being worse than the left. The audiologist was concerned that Maelin's tympanogram (which measures movement of the eardrum and can signal an ear infection, and therefore, an inaccurate hearing test) showed a possible ear infection, so we went to the pediatrician that same afternoon. He also did a tympanogram (with the same results) and looked carefully at her ears. He does not believe that she has an ear infection, but rather some significant scarring on her eardrums -- which can affect the typmanogram measurement (i think) and contribute to hearing loss. He referred us to an ENT in Flint, so we'll make an appointment and follow up with him soon. We'll also go back to the audiologist again in a couple of weeks to complete the hearing testing.

I forgot to mention that Maelin and i visited Baba at work this morning (see picture above). She loved seeing him in the middle of the day, and he loved showing her off to his coworkers :) Maelin was much less delighted at leaving Baba at work when we left...again, we had a screaming-crying-fit (until Mama drove up to a park and Maelin got a glimpse of the play equipment - then suddenly the tears disappeared!).

Isn't the tutu picture a hoot?! This afternoon, Maelin and i pulled out the dress-up box (thank you, Aunt Jeanie and Amy!), and she has worn the tutu ever since, except for bath time. She insisted in putting it back on after bath, over top of her pajamas! I'm guessing we'll wear it to bed tonight...!

Time for American Idol and some ice cream for The Three of Us :)

XOXO,

Mama, Baba, and Maelin

Venturing Out

2007-04-26T21:08:00.000-04:00

Maelin and i have had a good week :) We've been venturing out in small ways, but it's been good for Mama.

Monday: we went to the grocery store in the morning (who would have thought that i'd ever think going to the grocery store was a special treat?!), and Grandma Pam was there, so we got to do a bit of our shopping with her :)

Tuesday: we stayed home all day, but it was a really nice day, so we played outside a lot. In the evening, Maelin and i buzzed to MSD so that i could pick up some paperwork for an IEP meeting.

Wednesday: in the morning, we drove over to Grandma Pam and Grandpa Les's house and played there for a few hours. Maelin played really well with Adrienne (my sister's youngest; she's 18 months old). In the afternoon, Shelly, Amanda and Sarah visited us from MSD...it was really nice to have visitors!!

Today (Thursday): i had an IEP at MSD in the morning, so Baba stayed home with Maelin for a few hours. In the afternoon, Maelin and i drove to Flint to pick up Leslie from the dorm. She's been wanting to come home one night this week, so i was glad we were able to do it. Baba had sign class tonight, so Leslie and Maelin and i went to Burger King in Lapeer for dinner (yes, i'm still on the french fry ban ... Maelin had chicken tenders, applesauce and milk :) and the playland. I'm pretty sure that she had never been in a playland like that before, and she really enjoyed it. NO FEAR at all, and it was one of those really tall, large play structures. Mama was a bit nervous, but Leslie went up inside with her, and that made me feel better! When it was time to go, she refused to put on her shoes or coat, so i carried her out (crying, of course!) without them.

As you can see from the first picture, the swing set is done...and it didn't take six weeks - ha! When it was done, Maelin and Baba took the tractor to get a couple of bucket-loads of sand for the little sandbox under the play structure. It has rained a lot since Tuesday, so we haven't had much time to play outside. We're looking forward to more sunny days!

Love,

Mama, Baba, Leslie and Maelin

The Future's So Bright...

2007-04-23T16:03:00.000-04:00

...I gotta wear shades! (Sorry, i couldn't resist!) We have been loving the beautiful weather these past few days. It feels so good to get outside and run around. Jim bought a swing set on Friday, and he's been tinkering with it for most of the weekend. (There are about six billion pieces to it ... look for pictures of Maelin actually using it about six weeks from now - ha!) Grandpa Les, Grandma Pam, and cousin Lauren came over on Sunday morning to help us work on it. Grandma Pam put together a 'radio flyer' wagon (given to Maelin from Popa and Nana Gleeson), and we girls (Mama, Grandma, Leslie, Lauren and Maelin) went for a long walk and took turns pulling Maelin in it :)

Sunday afternoon, we went over to Uncle Jon and Aunt Laura's house for lasagna dinner. They gave Maelin a few birthday presents -- you can see from the picture above that she really liked the Dora sleeping bag! Maelin and cousin Jacob drove his 'gator' around the yard (it's a battery-powered tractor-looking thing). Maelin looooooved it ... so much that when it was time to go home, she screeeeeeeamed, and continued crying in the truck the entire way home!

Baba got to go golfing yesterday (we won't mention that he was gone five hours...), so Mama and Maelin are officially free to cautiously branch out in our visiting and visitors! I think we'll still wait til next week to visit MSD, since there are soooo many people to meet there, but we're looking forward to having friends over for short visits this week. Call and let me know if you'd like to come :)

Love and sunny days-

Mama, Baba, Leslie and Maelin

The Weekend is Here!

2007-04-21T11:21:00.000-04:00

Last night, Popa and Nana Gleeson came over to visit, and they brought a little wagon that holds blocks. Maelin was pretty sure that SHE was supposed to be pulled around in the wagon instead of the blocks :)

Yesterday afternoon, Maelin and i got ready and drove to MSD to pick up Leslie. Maelin was happy to see Leslie again, and Mama is happy that Leslie gets to spend the weekend with us! This morning, Leslie and Baba engaged in a challenging game of chess (we bought her the chess set while we were in China). Baba won, but it was a close match. Leslie is getting better and better the more she plays.

Nana and Popa Gleeson also brought over one of Baba's old toys -- a Fischer Price school house, full of all the goodies that go with it. Maelin has had fun pulling everything out, playing with it, and trying to fit it all back in...over and over and over!

This morning, Baba and Maelin are making a trip to Home Depot so that Mama can post to the blog :) and take a shower (a veritable luxury these days!).

I'm hoping that next week we'll be able to have a few visitors and do some visiting of our own. Baba wants to go golfing tomorrow, but i told him that we needed to talk about Mama and Maelin's house arrest before HE gets to go anywhere!!

xoxox,

Shonda (and Jim, Leslie and Maelin)

Baba's first day back

2007-04-19T14:40:00.000-04:00

Today was Baba's first full day back at work -- and when i say 'full,' i mean it! He left this morning at 7am, and arrived home at 8:30 tonight! Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are late nights every week, and Mama is not happy about it :( I felt like i was just getting used to the three of us being home and getting into a routine, and now i'm trying to keep a 3-year-old occupied for 13+ hour days by myself. Yeah, i know ... all of you who are parents out there are saying, "Waaah, waaah..." but this is my blog, and i can bitch if i want to! (Maybe another Lemony Snicket warning was due??) She was whiny and crabby off and on all day because Baba was gone, and she doesn't understand that when he leaves, he'll be back later. He visited at lunch time today, and she was really excited to see him and play with him for a bit, but when he left to go back to work, she was NOT happy. I had to literally peel her away from the door to shut it! We did have a very nice visit from Grandma Pam (see picture above) this morning, and that helped Mama's mental health, for sure :)

This afternoon, Maelin napped for almost two hours, and then we went for a golf cart ride, kicked around the basketball, and pulled weeds for a bit. Baba is getting a swing set this weekend, so hopefully that will help keep us busy during the long days.

Love to all,

Shonda (and Jim and Maelin)

My Two Girls :)

2007-04-18T19:28:00.000-04:00

I cannot put into words how incredibly wonderful it has been to have BOTH of my girls home for the afternoon!! Maelin and i picked up Leslie from school today (via clandestine Operation Parking Lot, lest someone see us - gasp! ... sorry, i'm being a bit sarcastic because Jim won't let me show her off at MSD yet!). Maelin was sleeping in the back seat (head flopped to the side - see paragraph below), and when she woke up, there was Leslie, smiling and introducing herself. Maelin looked like she was trying to decide if she was still dreaming, or if this person really had magically appeared in the front seat :) The three of us went grocery shopping, where Mae got to sit in one of those plastic car thingies attached to the front of a regular shopping cart, and she loved it. Leslie was incredibly helpful with both Maelin and the shopping (as always), and we had a smooth and effective shopping trip. Leslie has mentioned how impressed she is that Maelin signs so much...i, for one, took that as a compliment! She also expressed some disappointment that the 'deaf sister' we went to get for her isn't as 'deaf' as we thought! I can't blame her on that one!! The four of us ate dinner together, and the girls played with Leslie's robo-dinosaur and looked at photo albums. It just feels so great to have some semblance of 'normalcy' in our home. Small miracles :)

Is it just me, or does everyone's kids' heads flop over to the side when they're sleeping in a car seat?? It is just me, or does that bug anyone else?? I need to invent something that holds her head up when she sleeps in that darned seat. Unless someone else already has. Anyone know of an effective product out there? (Funny how motherhood has brought out the inner inventor in me - ha!)

That's all for tonight. *sigh*

Shonda (and Jim, Maelin and Leslie)

Some blocks, a box, and noodle soup!

2007-04-17T15:09:00.000-04:00

Not much to report today ... i think that's a good thing, because it means we're settling in to a somewhat 'normal' routine (whatever that means with a 3-year-old!). Our night-time routine is going very well: Maelin falls asleep around 9:15pm, and we get up one time during the night to go potty. She goes right back to sleep afterwards, and we wake up around 7am for the day. Yeah!! I never thought i'd be so excited about a sleep schedule as i am now!! She's a bit less cooperative at nap time -- fights sleep, gets cranky -- but we'll get there.

Yesterday Baba went back to work for half a day. Maelin wasn't happy about that at all. I'm not sure if it's because she's gotten used to both of us being here, or because she's worried that one of us will leave and not come back (like when she 'lost' her foster parents), but soon she'll come to understand that he comes back every afternoon.

When we went to the pediatrician on Monday, we were told that Maelin has some fluid in her left ear. We're heading to the local pediatrician (in Lapeer) this afternoon to get it looked at.

I had to laugh at Connie's comment about Mama not being in any of the pictures - haha! I am definitely the photographer in the family -- if it were up to Jim, we wouldn't have any pictures of anything! The other reason is that i look like i've been through hell and back these days, so i'm not posting any of myself! I'll see if i can work on it sometime, Connie :)

Love to all,

Shonda (and Jim and Maelin)

Toppin' the Charts

2007-04-16T18:58:00.000-04:00

We headed down to Bingham Farms for Maelin's first pediatric appointment this afternoon. The first thing they did was measure her height and weight. She was 37 inches tall and weighed 35 lbs. When the doctor came in and saw measurements on the chart, she told us that Maelin is in the 50th percentile for height and above the 75th percentile for weight ... on the American growth charts!! The doctor said, "I have never seen a child adopted from China who measured this high on the American growth charts!" And this is a doctor who specializes in internationally adopted children - ha!! We're thinking of changing her middle name to BuddaBelly. HA!

Hmmmm...what else is new? Jim introduced her to both barbeque sauce and ketchup in the last couple of days. She looooves barbeque sauce (probably just because Baba eats it) and dips everything on her plate in it. She also loves helping Mama with the laundry. She especially likes to throw the wet clothes from the washer into the dryer. Hey, i'm all for a little help! Now, if i could only get her to do the cooking...!

As you can see from the pics above, Jim took Maelin fishing in our pond last night. Thankfully, the fish are very hungry, and it doesn't require much patience to snag one! [And for all those wondering the fate of the fish, we set it free :)]

We're looking forward to seeing Leslie some time this week. Not sure when, because we don't want her to catch our colds. Plus, we're going to have to work out a schedule so that Jim can drive her to school the next morning when she stays over. It will take some maneuvering, but we'll figure it out. I can't wait for Maelin to meet her!

Maelin is able to say a few English words (hi, bye-bye, ow, uh-oh), but she's signing many more - milk, water, more, bed, sleep, ball, eat, wash-hands, bath, medicine, golf-cart, Mama, Baba, airplane, flower, bike, clothes, drink, mine, etc. It's so exciting to see her signing emerge. Whether she has a hearing loss or not, we're using it now to 'bridge' the communication gap, and she'll need it to communicate with 'big sister' Leslie, as well!

I really want to say thank you to everyone who has been so supportive since we've been home and not doing so well. It is said that you know who your true friends are when times are tough. We've had a rough last few days, and i really appreciate the comments, phone calls and positive thought. They mean the world to us.

Love to all,
Shonda, Jim and MaeMae

Trip to Meijer Nets New Bike :)

2007-04-16T10:32:00.000-04:00

After a visit to Grandpa Les and Grandma Pam's house on Saturday, it was obvious that Maelin loves riding toys ... so we ventured to Meijers yesterday morning and bought a tricycle, and then Maelin and Baba spent some time putting it together. (As you can see, she was very helpful - ha!) She rides is all over the house and really seems to enjoy it. The bottom picture was taken just this morning, still in her jammies (and, if you look closely, with cough medicine spilled down the front of her shirt...).

We're going to get the troops ready for her first trip to the pediatrician this afternoon. It's in Bingham Farms (metro Detroit area), and the pediatrician specializes in internationally adopted children. I'm sure we'll take her to a local pediatrician most of the time, but for this first check-up, we're making the drive. She still isn't too fond of the car seat, so we're hoping that she'll take her nap on the way there!

An update on the sleep situation: we decided that we were done getting kicked and thrashed all night long, so last night we put Maelin on the air matress on the floor next to our bed. She slept straight through from 9:30pm to 4:00am, at which time she woke up to go potty. She went back to sleep in her 'bed' next to us with just a bit of help from Mama, and we all woke up happy at 7am :) The Gleesons just may survive after all! ;)

Take care-

Shonda (and Jim and Maelin)

better days

2007-04-15T07:24:00.000-04:00

Fortunately, each day gets a bit better. (I'm still crying at the drop of a hat, though, so if you call to chat, prepare for tears!) We're getting closer to a normal sleep schedule. Not 'there' yet, but it's getting better. Friday night, we went to bed around 10pm, and at 1:30am, Maelin was ready to party. Jim said, "I can't do this..." so i tried something different. I brought her downstairs, but instead of turning on all the lights, making breakfast and playing with her, we kept all the lights off, made some warm milk, and rocked in her bedroom. I kept pointing out the window and saying it was dark and not time to wake up yet. She wasn't happy, but every time she tried to squirm off my lap, we moved to the bed next to the rocker. She soon decided that the rocker was better than laying in bed, so we rocked until she fell asleep. I think she finally fell asleep around 3am, and we slept in her bed until 7am. YEAH!!

Since Jim and i were feeling somewhat better, we decided to make the trip to meet the great-grandparents. First we drove to Grandma Schmidt's house and visited with her for about 30 minutes. Then we drove to my parents house, because Gramps and Gram Minkstein were there. We visited with them for a short time, and then headed home. Just a short trip like that wore us all out completely!

This morning, we need to make a short trip to Meijer (for a non-skid bathmat, a ride-in car, and a couple of other things), and then we're expecting a visit from Uncle Jay and Aunt Tammy (Jim's sister and her husband) before noon. Other than that, we're laying low :)

Love to all,

Shonda, Jim and Maelin

jet lag, mucous, grief and guilt

2007-04-13T13:30:00.000-04:00

Jet lag is hell. All three of us are so screwed up on our sleeping schedule, Jim and i are hacking sick, and i'm all post-pardum emotional on top of it. Ugh. Yesterday was not a good day. (This post may not be the happiest one. As Lemony Snicket would say, if you want to read something cheery, you might want to find a book about happy little elves and put this down now.) There. I warned you.

First of all, jet lag. I thought i was so smart. I thought i had it all figured out. Jim and i got less than an hour of sleep the entire 16 hours of flights; we arrived home at 6pm to our wonderful families, and stayed awake until about 9:30pm. I just knew that we were so exhausted that we'd sleep 'til 8am and the jet lag problem would be resolved. HA. We were awake that first morning at 3:30am, then napped from 12noon to 7pm. Oops. Last night, we thought we were smart again - we stayed awake until midnight, thinking we'd sleep most of the night. Not. The three of us were up again at 3:30am. We all went back to sleep around 8am, and Maelin and i slept until Baba made us wake up at 11am. She did NOT want to wake up ... poor thing! I know that the jet lag thing takes time to adjust to, but damn, it sucks.

Jim and i are both sick. I think the jet lag would be bad enough without the sickness. We're using up Kleenex like crazy - Baba had to make a trip to the store today to buy more! He also got some Halls cough drops and Mucinex. We're hoping we won't need a trip to the after-hours clinic tomorrow. Fortunately, Maelin only has a small cough and runny nose. The medicine we bought in China seems to work well for her.

Grief and guilt. Yesterday was ROUGH for Mama and Maelin. Maelin was very whiny and cried for her foster mom several times throughout the day. Each time she cried, i cried. Each time she cried, i doubted myself for taking her away from a loving family (albeit foster), a beautiful language, and an amazing culture. When we thought she was severely/profoundly deaf, i knew that we'd be giving her a language (ASL), a culture (Deaf), and an education at MSD. But she's not deaf. I think she has a hearing loss, but it's certainly not severe/profound. So instead of my logic of giving her everything, we're taking away. It's hard to be responsible for something like that.

Yes, i know things will get better. Today is already better than yesterday. Maelin is less whiny and hasn't cried for her foster mom yet today. It's beautiful and sunny outside, and as you can see from the picture above, she looooooves riding the golf cart with Baba!! I know that there are many things we will have to give her - language, culture, an education. She'll have opportunities as a woman here in this country that she probably would not have in China. And she already has a Mama and a Baba who love her very much.

We're HOME!!

2007-04-12T03:44:00.000-04:00

WE MADE IT!! We are very sick of travelling and very happy to be home at last! We woke up at 4:30am (China time) on Wednesday morning (which was 4:30pm on Tuesday afternoon in Michigan) to get ready and meet our guide and driver to head to the airport. Our first flight was from Guangzhou to Tokyo -- only 3 1/2 hours. Our departure was delayed a short time due to fog in Guangzhou, but we were only held up about 30 minutes. Maelin did well on the flight. She looked at books, played with the flight safety cards (haha!), and did a sticker book. We had a 2-hour layover in Tokyo, where Maelin ran off her extra energy with trips up and down (and up and down and up and down...) the escalators. As soon as we boarded the next flight (3pm China time, 3am Michigan time), Maelin was asleep. She took a 1 1/2 hour 'nap' and woke up when the flight attendants started serving food - ha! All things considered, Maelin did very well on the 12-hour flight. We played with toys, ate some snacks, walked up and down (and up and down...) the aisles, and when a flight attendant gave her a deck of cards, Maelin and Mama played 52-card pick-up (well, it was actually about 45-card pick-up ... there were a few still left on the tray table!). She cried a couple of times, very briefly, but truthfully, Jim and i felt like crying after being on that plane for so long!

We arrived in Detroit around 3pm (Michigan time); customs and immigration went smoothly, and once we got our suitcases, we were on our way home! Maelin did NOT like the car seat (i'm pretty sure she'd never been in one before), but she cried for a bit and then fell asleep on the ride home.

We arrived home around 6pm to a lovely welcome from the Framptons, Gleesons, and Greschaws! Maelin got to meet Grandpa Les and Grandma Pam, Nana and Popa Gleeson, Aunt Shelli and Uncle Darrin, Uncle Jon and Aunt Laura, Uncle Lance, and cousins Lauren, Drew, Adrienne, Jacob and Lucas! She was a bit groggy at first, but she warmed up pretty quickly. By the end of the evening, she was let a few people hold her, and she was giving out hugs upon request :) In the pictures above, she's with Grandpa Les (my dad) and Aunt Shelli (my sister).

Baba, Maelin and i stayed awake until 9pm, and then headed for bed. Aaaaand at 3:30am, we were all up for the morning! The picture above is Maelin's first Cheerios breakfast - at 4:15am!! I'm sure it will take a couple of weeks to adjust fully to the time change.

If anyone is still out there and interested, i'll probably keep blogging about Maelin's adventures, at least until i have to go back to work in a few weeks.

Love to all,
Shonda, Jim, and Maelin

crisis averted at the consulate

2007-04-10T08:10:00.000-04:00

Okay, i know i said the last post was my last, but i just had to post an update after the consulate appointment this afternoon. We arrived there (by van) around 3:45pm for our 4pm consulate appointment. There were about 40 other families there waiting, as well. When 4pm came and went, we started to wonder what was going on. Finally at about 4:20, a man (American) with a microphone said that he had "some good news and some bad news." Hmmmmm. He said that each child's visa has to be processed throught the computer system in Washington, DC, and the connection between Guangzhou and DC was down. He said they were able to process about half of the visas before the system went down...so about 50% of us would be completing the process and going on our merry way, and the other half would be coming back to the consulate again the next day to try it again. I was on the verge of tears, thinking, "I want to go home!!!" but i held it together. About 10 minutes later, Crystal brought Maelin's visa to us -- we won the visa lottery!! I screamed, i was so happy! So our flight plans remain the same; we board our first plane at 8:20am (China time) and arrive in Detroit at 2:50pm on Wednesday afternoon. YEAH!!

Maelin was too cooped up today -- she sat in the stroller while we shopped, sat in the van to and from the consulate, sat in a high chair at dinner time ... so we had to run laps around the hotel (literally) to burn some of the steam off! She had to just had her bath, and now she's avoiding getting her jammies on. I'm sure she won't be quite as energetic when we wake her up at 5:15 tomorrow morning!

Again, we love you all, and can't wait to introduce you to our little China doll :)

Mama, Baba, and Maelin

Our Last Post from China

2007-04-10T02:08:00.000-04:00

Well, here it is ... our post from China! We meet our guide at 5:45 tomorrow morning (EEK!) and our flight leaves at 8:20am. Our first flight is from Guangzhou to Tokyo, which should take about four hours. In Tokyo, we switch planes and head to Detroit. That's the 12-hour one that we're so looking forward to - not!! But we are definitely ready to come home and get settled into the routine of normal life again.

Last night we went out to eat at a Cantonese restaurant with Kejing, Weifen and Vivian. Vivian was using chopsticks, so our monkey Maelin had to follow suit, of course. We left for the river cruise shortly after dinner; it was alright, but a bit on the long side. The lights were beautiful, but Jim and i have both caught Maelin's cold, so we're stuffy and snotty and have sore throats. We didn't enjoy the cruise as much as we should have.

This morning Guangzhou is rainy and very foggy (and in the mid 60's, dad). We ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant buffet and then did some shopping in the shops along the street for a couple of hours. Maelin took a very short nap, and now we need to get ready for our trip to the consulate.

Thanks so much to everyone for following along our journey! We've enjoyed having you here with us!!

Love-love-love,

Shonda, Jim and Maelin

Sticky Kisses

2007-04-09T01:33:00.000-04:00

Well, we've got them -- our first sticky kisses from Maelin to Mama and Baba!! She imitates virtually everything (which can be good at times, and not so good at others!), but she hasn't reciprocated on the kisses, until today. Just a while ago, the three of us were laying down for nap time, Maelin in the middle, and Baba kissed her on the cheek. Then Mama kissed her on the cheek. The Maelin puckered up and gave us each several kisses on the cheeks! Sticky banana-and-granola-bar kisses ... the absolute best kind!!

Yesterday afternoon, we walked a few blocks to the outdoor children's playground and let Maelin run off some energy. She had a BLAST! The climbing slide structure was her favorite, and she played and played and played. When it was time to go, she refused to come with us, even after Mama and Baba walked away. But when we went back and made her come with us, she did so without too much fuss.

We came back to the hotel room to clean up and then headed back out to get dinner, just the three of us. We went to Lucy's, which serves American quisine, as well. Baba had pork steak, i had a hamburger (which turned into an Atkins burger, because Maelin at the whole bun for me!), and Maelin ate beef and noodles. She LOVED the corn-on-the-cob that Baba shared with her, so we're looking forward to cashing in on some more of that when Grandpa Les and Grandma Pam have sweet corn season! After dinner, Mama needed some ice cream, so we went to the deli shop next door to the hotel, and Maelin and Mama each got a chocolate cone. Yummmmmm!

Today we ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant buffet, then went back to the play ground again, this time with Kejing, Weifen, and Vivian. Maelin was very excited to share her playground with Vivian! We played until it was time to come back and have a nap.

Tonight we go on an hour-and-a-half river cruise; the river is beautiful at night, with all of the buildings lit up along it. We're looking forward to it!

Thanks for sending positive thoughts our way on the paperwork -- we got a phone call from Crystal at 11am today saying that it was all perfect, and we'll have our final consulate appointment tomorrow at 2:40pm.

Another big THANK YOU to our families for cleaning our house while we're gone! It really took a load off us knowing that we didn't need to get that done before we left. We love you, and we can't wait to share our beautiful daughter with you :)

Much love,

Mama, Baba, and Maelin

Happy Easter from the Gleesons!

2007-04-08T02:31:00.000-04:00

Maelin is napping (and so is Baba!), so it's blogging time! Yesterday evening we met Kejing, Weifen, and Vivian and walked a few blocks down the street to a Thai restaurant for dinner. We had curry chicken, something squid, pineapple rice, and a couple of other dishes. Baba really liked the food, but it wasn't my favorite. I think we'll go somewhere different tonight.

This morning at 10am, we met Crystal and the others and hopped into our van for a ride to a Buddist temple. It was very busy because this is the holiday (Ching Ming) where everyone goes to temple to remember family members who have passed away. We each threw one Yuan coin into the 'wishing pot' (Mae with Baba in the picture above), burned some insense, and had a buddist monk say a blessing for Maelin (pictured with us above, after the blessing). Then we went to a store that specializes in ivory and other trinkets so we could do some shopping. Last, we went to the Chen family temple/academy, which is now government property so that people can visit it.

Tomorrow our guide will take all of our paperwork to the American Consulate. We will wait in the hotel room for her call between 10am and 11am. She will either tell us that everything is submitted successfully, or that we need to fix something in our paperwork. Obviously we're rooting for the former! Tomorrow evening, we'll take a river boat tour (one and a half hours) of the Pearl River, which runs through the city of Guangzhou. Our hotel is on the river, and our room faces over it -- beautiful view!

Some people have inquired about Maelin's hearing loss. Truthfully, we're not sure. We watched the ENT do a very basic test on her yesterday -- he got her to look at a colorful toy off to the left, and then he snapped his fingers outside of her view on the left. She did not turn to the noise. When he snapped louder and louder, she finally turned to look. We've done some of the same 'home' testing on her; sometimes she responds, and sometimes she doesn't. We know that her hearing loss is not profound - we're guessing that she has a mild or moderate loss, but we just don't know.

Our communication with her is getting better and better. She doesn't say any words in English yet, but we've learned some Chinese so that we can tell what she's saying ('i want more' and 'that's mine' is what she says about 90% of the time!). We're signing a lot of basic signs with her, and she imitates most of them. She has signed 'brush teeth' on her own, and she signs 'milk,' 'eat,' and 'more' quite often. We're also working on 'bed/sleep,' 'water,' 'no,' 'potty,' etc.

Today is Sunday...Happy Easter!!! We'll be home in a few short days -- yeah! :)

Love,
Jim, Shonda, and Maelin

from Chongqing to Guangzhou

2007-04-07T01:13:00.000-04:00

Sheeeesh! I take off one measly day and get flamed for it -- even by my own parents!! Hahaha :) Actually, i'm really happy that so many of you are enjoying our adoption adventure. We feel good knowing we have so much support from home :)

Yesterday (Friday), we had breakfast with Kejing, Weifen and Vivian -- our last at the Hilton Hotel in Chongqing. Then the six of us went for a walk to buy some produce (Maelin loves bananas). We also invested in two bibs; probably the best 25 Yuan we've spent so far!! And, along with the bibs, voila!! A mystery solved . . . if you scroll down to the very first entry here, you'll see a picture of Maelin (at about age 2 years) wearing an apron and some unidentifiable things on her arms. A set of them came in the package with each of the bibs i purchased, and the light bulb came on -- they are to put on each arm during eating so the shirt sleeves stay clean!! Lemme tell ya, it's the best invention we've discovered in a long time!! Mae is a MESSY eater, and the bib and arm thingies are a savior to the clothing! I think i'll market them in the states...!

We spent our last day in Chongqing visiting a park which contains the highest point in the city. I'm not sure of the elevation, but there was an overlook from which we could see much of the beautiful city. Maelin has no fear of heights whatsoever; she wanted us to hold her so that she could stand on the rails and look over! (That probably makes Aunt Shelli sick just thinking about it!) We also visited a shop in Chongqing where they showed us how they make silk from cocoons. It was a lovely shop with some very expensive things, and Maelin was like a bull in a China shop! She was SO wound up ... she and Vivian were literally running around the place. I would've liked to buy something, but i didn't want it to be a 'you-break-it-you-bought-it' kind of purchase, so we left.

Then we came back to our room to pack and organize for the next leg of the journey. Our guide and driver picked us up at 4pm, and we were checked in and ready to go at 5pm. Our flight left at 6:40pm, and Maelin was rare form. She ran around the airport from window to window, from chair to chair, laughing and testing every limit set before her. After not obeying one of the rules (stay on this side of the rail near the window), she had a time-out on mommy's lap. When she realized that struggling to get down wasn't going to work, she tapped me and said, "Mama, mama..." and when i looked at her, she gave me a huge cheesy grin, as if to say, "How can you put THIS face in a time-out?" It was hilarious! Finally we got on the plane; Jim and i were both in awe at how brave and trusting she was to just get on a plane with people she met less than a week ago. She did fairly well (one brief meltdown when we wouldn't let her take off her seat belt, but she got over it), but it was only an hour and a half flight ... we are DREADING the 12-hour marathon from Tokyo to Detroit on Wednesday!!!

We arrived in Guangzhou at 10pm and met our newest guide, Crystal. She and the driver took us directly to the airport so we could get checked in and get to our rooms. This morning we ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant buffet and met our party at 9:30am. We walked about five or ten minutes down the street (where Maelin got her first ride on Baba's shoulders) to the place where they take the children's visa photos. When that was done, we went next door to the place where they do the medical exams. The place was incredibly crowded, but we got through things fairly quickly. One doctor examined Maelin's physical health, and then we went in to a different room to see an ENT. That doctor thinks that Maelin may have some hearing loss, but, in his words, "It's not so bad." Haha :) They reminded us that their exam was very informal, and that we need to take her to get more testing at home. We will. :)

That's all for now. MaeMae is waking up from her nap, so it's time for Mama to go.

Love to you all,

Shonda, Jim and Maelin

Zzzz...!

2007-04-06T10:28:00.000-04:00

No time for posting pics today ... we're exhausted!! Scratch that -- JIM AND I are exhausted. Maelin's bedtime came and went, and she's going full steam at 10:30pm! We are now in Guangzhou, with our first flight with Maelin successfully behind us. More details tomorrow. Right now, it's off to bed!!

Good night,
Mama, Baba, and MaeMae

The Chongqing Zoo, sucking fingers, and more

2007-04-05T00:24:00.000-04:00

No "tissue alert" for this post! Maelin has tested the limits a few times (come on kid, i teach preschool!), but no grieving meltdowns since Tuesday night. Jim is extra careful not to let her hurt herself, because he doesn't want her to start crying again - ha!!

Isn't the restaurant picture hilarious?!? Now we know why Maelin is off the charts for height and weight for her age -- GIRLFRIEND CAN EAT!!! She was literally shoveling food into her mouth at the restaurant last night. We've got some work to do on manners when we get home, but for now, we're just trying to keep her fed - ha :)

On Wednesday afternoon, we went to the Chongqing Zoo and saw the infamous pandas. I think we saw about six total. They were beautiful ... our guide helped us with saying the names of the animals in Chinese, and panda bear is 'shung mao.' ('Shung mao' literally translates to 'bear cat' - our guide said that when pandas were first discovered in China, the people didn't know if they were in the bear family or cat family, so they named them both.) Maelin really enjoyed seeing all of the animals. We don't know if she's ever been to a zoo or not, but she certainly liked this one. She kept saying a couple of phrases over and over: one was 'wo-pah-ah,' which our guide told us means 'i'm scared' ... but she laughed while saying it, so it was just for drama! The other thing she kept saying was 'locked in!,' referring to the animals all being in cages. At the end of the zoo, there's an art gallery where visitors can buy things. Chongqing's claim to fame in the art world is their "leaf vein paintings." They take large leaves from the Banyan tree (with is the city tree of Chongqing) and soak them in a special acid until all that is left is the veins. Then they apply a lacquer on the veins so they last a long time. After that, they hand-paint a scene or picture on the front of the leaf. Very unique and very interesting!

We have been doing a lot of signing with her. It's hard to tell what she can hear and what she can't. Most times that she doesn't respond, i'm not sure if she's ignoring us (because she can't understand what we're saying) or really can't hear it. She talks a lot in Chinese; sometimes our guide can understand her, and sometimes she can't. We, of course, can't understand much of anything, so i don't know how well she talks or how developed her language is. We will know more when we have her hearing tested at home. Either way, the signing has helped to 'bridge' the communication for us. We sign lots of everyday words as we say them in English, and we've also watched the first Signing Time DVD. She copies many signs, and it is soooo adorable to see her little hands signing!!

We knew that locals would look at us because we are somewhat of an oddity - an American couple with a Chinese daughter. What we did not expect is for people to be upset when they see Maelin sucking her fingers. MANY Chinese people (mostly older women, but not always) come up to us on the street and in stores and tell us not to let her do that. When we just nod and shrug our shoulders, they try telling her to stop. One old woman told us to slap her hand when she sucks her fingers!! Listen, lady...we just got this kid a couple of days ago...we're not going to slap her hand now!!

Well, this is getting long, so i'll stop for now. This afternoon we're going to the tallest point in Chongqing, and tomorrow it's on to Guangzhou!

Oh, before i forget ... could someone at home remember to water the hermit crab at our house?? I put the tank on the kitchen table ... i'm pretty sure that his sponge is dryyyyy by now. Thank you!! :)

Love you all,

Shonda, Jim, and Maelin

Some Highs, Some Lows (tissue alert!)

2007-04-03T22:33:00.000-04:00

We've had many 'highs' on this trip -- the transition thus far has been much better than we expected. But last night we had one difficult episode: Maelin was goofing around in the hotel room, wearing the hotel (adult-sized) slippers and her big backpack (full of all of her new treasures), and she tripped on the rise between the hallway and bathroom and fell on her bottom. It scared her, and probably hurt her bottom a little bit, and she started crying. And once she started, she couldn't stop. She cried and cried and called for her foster mama over and over and over. It was sooooo heartbreaking; i can't even write about it without tears... i just held her and rocked her, sitting there on the bathroom floor, and i cried and cried with her. After about five minutes, the tears got less and less, and she finally stopped crying. This has by far been the hardest thing for me so far. I have this huge feeling of guilt for taking her away from the only family she has even known; we were told by the woman from the orphanage that they "loved her like their own child," and i know she loved them, too. They have given her priceless gifts -- the love, attachment, and a family, when she otherwise would have spent her first three years in an orphanage. The fact that she has known love and attachment and spent time in a family means that she will grow to love us and attach to us. It's so much better and healthier for her in the long run, but we know that there will be times when she misses them and grieves for them. That, too, is healthy. But watching our sweet little Maelin in such pain was harder than i thought it would be.

Now for some happier topics!! Yesterday afternoon, we went shopping with our guide and the Chinese American couple (Kejing and Wiefen) and their new daughter (Vivian). Our bus dropped us off at a huge shopping complex, and we spent a couple of hours getting new things for the girls. Our first stop was shoes ... Maelin was SO excited to get new shoes, and she kept telling every passerby that she had new shoes! We got a pink pair with velcro closure that she wore out of the store, and another pair of tennis shoes that light up (about $20 US for both pair). Then we went to the clothing section and spent about $55 US on three pair of pants and four shirts for Maelin. Then we went to a bookstore and bought a few childrens books (which were ridiculously inexpensive -- just over $1 US each!!) that were in both Chinese and English. When we got back to the hotel, we were all hungry, so the six of us walked across the street to a restaurant and had a delicious traditional Chinese dinner. Chongqing is known for it's very spicy cuisine, but our friends were kind enough to order everything 'mild' for us!

Today we meet our guide at 2pm for a trip to the zoo!! We can't wait to see the pandas :)

Love-love-love you all,

Shonda, Jim and MaeMae

Pics from Day Two

2007-04-02T23:19:00.000-04:00

Some people have been asking for more pictures (you know who you are - grin), and I aim to please! Four more of our lovely Maelin, for your viewing pleasure. Today is Tuesday in Chongqing (Monday night in the states), so we're on day two of our adventure. We woke up this morning thinking Maelin might look over at us and wonder what the heck these strangers with funny eyes were doing laying next to her...we half expected her to cry, but she didn't. She indicated that she needed to go potty, so Mama got her up and took her. The pull-up was dry overnight, so we're happy about that!

We ate breakfast with our Chinese American friends from California and their new daughter. Maelin likes chicken sausage, runny eggs, and pancakes :) We sat next to three American couples who live in Germany (Air Force) that each adopted a 10- to 11-month-old baby yesterday. Jim MAY have talked the guy's ear off about Germany. Just maybe ;)

Jim keeps commenting about how nice all of the people are here. Everyone we've met has been very friendly and helpful, especially since we're foreigners in their country, adopting one of their children, and don't speak a lick of Chinese!

Now that we have Maelin, we're ready to come home!! But no such luck. We are in Chongqing until Friday waiting for her passport. We pick it up Friday afternoon and head to the airport, where the three of us head to Guangzhou. We think it's about a 1 1/2 hour flight.

Thanks so much for all of the comments -- we love reading from friends and family from home! More later-

Love,

Mama, Baba, and Maelin

at the Civil Affairs Office

2007-04-02T18:35:00.000-04:00

Here are two more pictures from "Gotcha Day." The one at the top is just a couple of minutes after Maelin arrived. The driver (who brought her to the Civil Affairs Office) is behind her. I'm trying to bribe her with toys, while the driver kept telling her that we were her new mama and baba. A few minutes later, she let us hold her...but only with the security of the new mei mei (baby doll) and a sucker!!

MAELIN YUFENG GLEESON!

2007-04-02T03:47:00.000-04:00

Words cannot express the absolute joy in our hearts... we have the most beautiful, happy, amazing daughter!!! There were a couple of tears at the very beginning, but she came to both Jim and i after a few short minutes. She is so full of smiles (TWO DIMPLES!!), so curious, and just the sweetest thing we could ever imagine! She does a hilarious "happy dance" when she's excited! (She also does the 'pee-pee dance,' fortunately for us!) We know that there may be tears tonight, but for now things are very good.

I think the height and weight estimates that we got were correct -- she is BIG!! The couple we're traveling with adopted a little girl three months older than Maelin, and she is much smaller. We love carrying her around, but she's so heavy!! The hotel loaned us a stroller for the time we're in Chongqing, so that's going to be helpful!

The woman from the orphanage who brought her to the Civil Affairs office says she does have a hearing loss, and that we need to talk loudly in order for her to hear us. We're not sure, because although 'talkative' certainly does describe her, we can't understand anything she says. The woman from the orphanage said that her speech and language are 'slow' compared to other children her age.

She has a cough and a runny nose, so we stopped at a pharmacy after getting back to the hotel. Our guide showed us which medicine to give her, and when we got back to the hotel, she took it with no problem. We'll have to keep an eye on it.

Baba (daddy) is playing with her in the room right now. She's having a blast going through all of the clothes, toys and books we brought for her. She's currently wearing two pair of her new underwear...on her head! Baba showed her how to put them on her bottom, and she insisted on putting on two more pair at the same time!

*Sigh* ... So far, things are good, and we're all happy. More news to come :)

Jim, Shonda & Maelin

What a day!!

2007-04-01T12:29:00.000-04:00

Well, it's been quite the day, to say the least! We ate breakfast in the hotel again (no squid or ox tongue this time), checked out of the hotel, and met our guide at 10:30am in the lobby. From there we drove a very short distance to the Forbidden City, which is the Imperial Palace. Beautiful, extravagant, huge (dozens of buildings and courtyards like the one to the left)!! We walked around with our guide for more than an hour ... wow, my legs are sore from yesterday's hike up the Great Wall, then the Summer Palace, and the Forbidden City today! Good exercise, for sure!

Our guide and driver dropped us off at the Beijing Airport before 1pm for a short flight to Chongqing. Buuuuuut, Murphy's Law was in effect from the moment we entered the airport! They would not let us check in because we were too early for our 2:50pm flight, so the guide and driver left us to check in ourselves. We did, but when we got past security, we noticed that our flight was delayed until 4:15. A small setback, but we had a nice time in the airport -- we finally met up with the other couple from our adoption agency, so we spent some time getting to know each other. They are a Chinese American couple who moved to the US in the late 70's -- very nice people, and we're happy to be traveling with them! Our flight finally took off at 5:15pm, and it was supposed to be less than two hours. But when we arrived in the Chongqing area, the place circled and circled, but didn't land. Bad weather there forced us to divert to Chengdu, which is further west of Chongqing (at least i think it is!). We landed there, but we were not allowed to get off the plane. We hung out in the airplane for about an hour before they notified us that the weather had passed, and we were okay to head back to Chongqing airport. We finally landed around 11pm, and met our new guide at the airport. Her name is Debra. We hopped in a little bus and headed for the hotel, which is where we are now. TOMORROW IS THE BIIIIIG DAY!!! We meet our guide at 10:30am in the hotel lobby for paperwork and payment (the important part - ha!), and then we ride to the Civil Affairs Office to meet Yufeng at 2pm. That will be 2:00am Monday morning Michigan time, so if you happen to wake up during the night, think good thoughts for us!!

Hello from Beijing!

2007-03-31T13:32:00.000-04:00

Hello from China!!

For some reason, we are having difficulty figuring out the blogging thing from China. All of the characters are squares (not Chinese characters) ... not sure how well this will work, but we're trying!

We can describe our flight from Detroit to Tokyo in one word -- looooong!! Thirteen hours is a really long time to be on an airplane! We were so happy to finally land in Tokyo and have a couple of hours to walk around before our connecting flight to Beijing. We met MANY other couples from the US who are also adopting children from China. Many of them were from Wisconsin or Minnesota, traveling in a group. The flight from Tokyo to Beijing was only four hours, and there was a movie screen for each seat, so we were much happier on that flight – haha!

We arrived in Beijing at 10:30pm on Friday night. (China time is exactly 12 hours ahead of Michigan time, so it was 10:30am on Friday morning for all of you.) When we arrived, our guide and driver were waiting for us at the airport. They took us straight to the hotel, which was about a 25-minute drive. We were exhausted from too much flying and not much sleeping, but we slept somewhat fitfully – our stomachs were just not feeling well from the jet lag and airplane food, and I was so worried about oversleeping! We woke up at 7am to get ready, and we had breakfast in one of the hotel restaurants. Mostly American-like foods (scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage) and some Chinese cuisine that I can’t remember. We are careful not to eat too much or too exotic of foods, because we don’t want to get sick.

At 9am, we met our guide and driver in the hotel lobby and headed for the Great Wall!! What an amazing experience … hard to describe the awesome beauty and incredible workmanship! It was sunny outside, but VERY WINDY and pretty chilly, so we bought a hat and scarf for 50 RMB (about 7 US dollars) before climbing. Anyone who knows my lung capacity (and aversion for working out – ha!) will not be surprised that I had to stop MANY times on the way up to catch my breath and rest my pounding heart! If you see in the picture below, there is a small building right behind us and four ‘towers’ behind that. I made it to the first tower (don’t laugh – it was hard!!), and Jim made it all the way to the fourth one while I waited at the first one, wondering if they had rescue services at the Great Wall. On the walk back down, we asked an English-speaking passerby to take our picture, which is above.

We spent about an hour and a half at the Great Wall, and then headed to lunch a very short drive away. I’m not sure the names of the food we ate, but it was fairly traditional American-like Chinese food: beef with green peppers, pineapple chicken, white rice, etc. Then we bought a few gifts at the humongous gift shop and got back in the car to head to the Summer Palace. This is a lavish group of 800-year-old buildings and courtyards on a beautiful man-made lake where the emperor used to spend his summer months. (Tomorrow we travel to the Forbidden City, which was the primary residence of the emperor during the winter months.)

Back in the car and on to the Pearl Market – a large store selling pearls in all shapes, sizes and prices. (We didn’t buy anything there.) Then the guide and driver took us back to the hotel – I think it was around 4:30pm. We dropped off a few things in our hotel room and then went for a long walk down the street to an outdoor shopping area on a street where cars are not allowed – pedestrians only. Many clothing stores, jewelry stores, souvenir stores, and even a McDonalds and a KFC. We stopped to buy batteries for my alarm clock and headed back to the hotel.

We ate dinner at the same restaurant in the hotel where we had breakfast. We thought they were closed because NO ONE was eating there, but they were open and we didn’t want to walk any further, so we went in. The dinner fare was much less American than breakfast was!! They had shark fin soup, ox tongue (no kidding!!), piglet legs, and squid with mangos! There were a few other things, as well, and we opted for the safer choices (although I did try the squid and really liked it).

Now we’re back in our room, getting ready to prepare for tomorrow. We meet our guide and driver at 10:30am to see the Forbidden City, and then they’ll drop us off at the airport around 1:30pm. From there, it’s a short flight to Chongqing, the city where our little girl has lived her first three years of life. We meet Yufeng in 36 hours!!! I guess that means we have 36 hours to make a final decision on a name – yikes! I’d better go read through that baby name book one more time…!

Our First Picture

2007-03-15T21:12:00.000-04:00

This is the picture we fell in love with. We think it's sooo cute that she's wearing seven layers of clothes!