Lost Children of the Coal - China

A short documentary from China about one amazing Mom, taking in 30 abandoned special needs kids.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QijM72iwSs

Agency Picnic

Obligatory Ferry shot.

John Lawson Park

The spider web was intimidating at the ferry, but pretty cool at the beach.

Capilano Suspension Adventure

What a cool idea, love this picture, Gunner looks fabulous totally looks like he's posing!

Lian and Lili, Changting girls, 9mo. apart in age.

The Suspension Bridge.

Jia fell asleep as we got there, everyone went ahead and I settled into a rocking chair, prepared to read a novel on my phone/kindle and Jia woke up suddenly and said "where da' bridge, Jia go on da' bridge", so we caught up to the group.

The Tree Top walk, lots of sections leading to platforms up in the trees.  Very beautiful, nice and cool on a hot day but not very adventuresome.  I was pretty grateful for how safe it all was.

Nice stroll through the forest floor on nice walkways.  My kind of hiking.

The Cliff Walk.  Little more adventuresome, but still ubber safe.

Community Appreciation Day at the Zoo.  Lots of booths set up to explore.  Jia and May played in the bouncy castle and did the slide for quite a while.

Big girls wanted to try it too.

Proof they aren't always such BIG girls!

Yes folks, she did swing that mallet on her own, couldn't ring the bell without help from Daddy though.

Roar!!  I bite you with my white tiger tooth!

Pretending to be a moody sulky teenage criminal.  Sure hope this is the only time we see this!

This was a cool thing, bungee cord tied around their waist, you run as far as you can and put a bean bag onto the Velcro on top to see who places it the furthest and then the bungee snaps you back to the back wall.   Lili made it a couple feet into the Velcro area, Fei and Jade could barely move.

Look...Lili is pushing Jia...it was a rare zoo spotting for sure.

Ready for lunch.

Love May's smile in this one.  Jia wouldn't look at me, as per usual.

Another rare sighting.  Jia is just so thrilled when Lili lets her play with her. 

We got up very early Sat. morning and took the ferry to Vancouver.  Went to our adoption agency picnic.  Perfect weather.  We haven't been for a couple years.  There were a lot of families there.  Mostly with little kids.  Mostly adopted from the States.  Some Asian kids from Vietnam.  The only other family there with Chinese kids were the family we met there from Lili's adoption group.  Wild.  I remember days when most of the kids at these events were Chinese.  Amazing how fast adoption trends change.  The park they chose was awesome.  Playground was a big hit with Jia.  Didn't take many pictures. 

We had hoped to just have our family fresh in every ones minds so that in case there was an impending adoption coming up they'd remember all of us :)  Touched base with Marg so that went well.  Mission accomplished.

From the picnic we left with our friends and spent the day at the Capilano Suspension Bridge.  I thought it looked like an adventure and was worried about taking Jia there.  It was totally safe, big wide walkways through the tree tops.  Didn't see anywhere for her to escape or get hurt.  It was nice and cool in the forest and I'd totally go there again.  Had dinner out with friends and then a quick trip to Ikea, where I got some Christmas shopping done for Jia.

Hotel we usually go to by the zoo was great.  Had the pool to ourselves.  Then Sunday we met friends at the zoo.  Jia was so thrilled to see the animals.  She had her face painted like a tiger and that was pretty cool.  She kept asking Fei to get her mirror out and show her.  She was thrilled to see her friend May again and has been talking about her since.

It is a staggering amount of work to pack up a family of five to go anywhere overnight.  Same amount of work for one night or twelve.  Sort of exhausting to do that much work for two days, one night.  Much easier to use the RV that is basically packed already.

Oh, and we're officially over 40,000 viewers on the blog.

A few Sept. pictures.

She isn't just playing, she actually washed the dishes!!  I dried.  She did a pretty good job too, only had to reject a couple dishes.

I was calling her and calling her to look at me, no way, she was very intent on her job.

A peaceful day at the park, had to wait for school to get back in to get one of those lazy summer days.

Make Moose Antlers.  Silly kids.

I think these two look so much alike.

Jia's 1st dance class.

Not quite sure what to do while they wait for Shelley, apparently lifting their skirts was the answer.

Lili quit dance.  Fei wouldn't go without Lili.

I was putting a gentle push on Fei during the summer to go back to dance, because I know she loves it, she's genuinely good at it and she has six years under her belt.  I took flack from other Moms telling me I had to let them quit.  I 'did' let them quit.  I was pushing for her to go back.  I wanted Fei to know that she could be strong enough, brave enough to go back without Lili.  That we would all support her, even Lili.  The second Lili and Fei saw Jia in her first class, they both wanted back to dance.  The pipes call to them :)  So, I told Shelley that Lili didn't want to dance the year end show and didn't want to wear frilly pink and she told Lili that 'what ever it takes'.  So, against all odds, all three are with Shelley this year!  I'll get to see my big girls help their sister when they perform...hee hee hee...so gleeful.  I asked them not to go for me and they both said they love to dance with Shelley.  They seem happy and have all enjoyed the last two classes.  The smiles in the last picture say it all.

Toppy and Binoo

Out of our minds excited, waiting in the theater to see Toopy and Binoo!   Not sure who is more excited me or Jia!  These are the moments to live for.

Having trouble holding the chair down :)

The joy and rapture of seeing her favorite characters on stage, priceless.

 

End of summer and back to school.

A geocache to start the hike.

Gorgeous waterfall behind the kids that you can't see in this picture.

And another one!

Love all the expressions.

Miss Jia is all about her bike right now.

That time just before dinner when the adults aren't really paying attention...the best hour of the day when you're camping :)  Jia is usually the first one to yell 'CAR' and she scurries off the road, leaves her bike behind though. 

Eric gave me a lazy morning and took the girls golfing, he said the putter went in her hand and that was that.  No further instructions necessary.  Wonder if she had the putter backwards the whole time?

I'm not so fond of beach days...stinky, critters, seaweed, sand, windy...ya' not my thing but even I'll admit it's pretty to look at.  Lacie and I are tucked up against a log, in charge of the blanket and snacks.

Kids are just having the time of their lives.  The goal to build a structure that withstands the tide coming in.  They draw a warning line and then work like mad at the end.  They broke their record and kept above water for 40minutes this year.

Meiling passed her favorite dress to Jia.  Most kids would say "look my dress has Minnie Mouse on it".  Not Jia, she said "Look, I am Minnie Mouse and I live in Disneyland, welcome to Disneyland Mommy!".  She was Minnie right up until she needed a bum change and we put jammas on her.

First day back to school.

Miss Fei, age 9, grade 4.

Miss Lili, age 10, grade 5.

The new dance costume for dance class with real highland shoes!

How cute is this picture?!  Seriously, cutest kid in the world.  She had all of us in stitches last night dancing around the kitchen.  Until she needed a bum change and we put jammas on her.

I feel like we only had half a summer. A China trip in the middle really ate up most of July. I want a summer re-do. The girls weren't happy about being back to school. Not unhappy either. They only went for a couple hours yesterday and are back full time today. Lili (grade 5) got the teacher and 5/6 split she wanted and is happy about the kids in her class. We're crossing our fingers for her today that she'll stay in that class. Fei (grade 4) got the right teacher but isn't with the kids she wanted and is on the higher side of the split, which she isn't thrilled about. I'm pretty happy she isn't with a certain kid with a mother we're pretty happy to be away from and we love the teacher. I can understand Fei not wanting to be with grade 3's when she was already bored in school but I'm having a hard time mustering up concern when really, it's the better of the two choices. Who knows what will happen by the end of the day.

The big news of the day: Jia starts Highland Dance classes today! She is way beyond excited. Talking non-stop about it, asks every time we get in the car if we're going to dance class. Shelley gave her dance shoes last year that were too big, they are a bit big this year but they'll work. We bought her a new hot pink plaid skirt yesterday and Fei dug out an old leotard dance top for her. She is sooooo cute!! I'm sad to miss her first class. Hoping Eric and the girls get some pictures. We tried out her outfit last night and got a few great pictures.

Fei wants to dance, doesn't want to go without Lili. Not sure what will happen there. Her first class is today. I'm planning to take her. Lili has stopped talking about Kung Fu. Might set up a trial for her and see how that goes. Piano starts tomorrow and they're both happy about that. We're signing Jia up for a Tues. morning music class so that Eric can take her for the next few months. I usually take her on Sat. but we have so many obligations through Sept. and Oct. that she would miss too many. I'm not thrilled to be missing this time with her but happy for Eric that he gets to sing and dance with her.