Thank You For Being a Friend!




Lola Wan is one of Emily's sisters from China. She is the youngest of the group. How is this for the cutest pic. She's smiling at Son #2 who has a way with the ladies apparently. I Emily and Lola had a hoot playing together. It was so nice to see her smiley face. I took this picture while they were both standing by the fireplace...don't yah just love it! One of my favorite pics.


What a week! It was go go go. Emily tried new things, met new friends and saw some familiar faces this week. We brought Campbell ( Emily's boyfriend) home a little Chinese outfit. How cute does he look. It was too funny because both of them were like greased pigs...slip slidding away. The only way that we could get Cam to remotely want to put up with us girls was to feed him Teddy Grahams. Emily never had those before. Bears with sugar yah..guess who loved them. Now that I think about it I loved them too. We went swimming and Emily loved it. Now I did take my boys swimming years and years ago but my how things change. Like the changing room. I went into the changing room late (I know....don't ask) it was a little further than I thought. I rush into the change room a bit frazzled, you see because I am a well kept woman and usually have three men in tow to open doors, carry bags, well just do what I need done. Mama was on her own. Bags and baby hanging off of me and in the family changing room I go. I quickly find my friends from China who are way more on the ball than I am. They have water diapers...what the heck are they? I will be getting some for this week. They are in their suits and babies ready to swim. Now luckily I had our suits on under our clothes and you will better understand why in a minute. I put Emily on the floor which by the way is wet and there is no where to sit her so on the knap sack she goes. I take off my pants just in time for the guy to walk by.....yes GUY! Since when do the guys and girls change together...I guess that's what family changing room means. Well thank goodness I had my suit on because I would have so dropped my pants with men in the room. Mercy what next. So we make it to the pool and it really was lovely. The water was warm, the company was great and Emily did love it. She chattered her teeth a fair bit but for the most part she loved it. Now getting dressed again was another story. I had the brainwave..."ok Julie dress the baby first". Right - Wrong! Now she's dressed I'm soaked the floor is soaked. Oh and I forgot to mention that the shower was like little needles she didn't like it much and in order to wash her off I had to let the shower hit me...so I was pretty much drenched...hair and all. Did I mention I didn't bring a coat either. Man what a laugh. I had to laugh because I'm soaking wet...trying to get undressed hoping the door won't open or a guy walk in...babies on the floor in the tiny change room...and I get a hot flash. Where are my men to pick up my bags, pick up the baby, open the door...ooops forgot I'm alone. My pants were falling down cause I forgot to tie them, I'm wearing a 2xl sweatshirt of my DH's ...hair wet and flat to my head...knapsack on one aim, swimming bag on the other, baby in front...and me walking with my legs two feet apart so my stupid pants won't fall down around my ankles...all this and steam rising from me as I walking to the van without a coat. Let's just say the Tim's I had later tasted really really good. I so suck on my own. God knows that and that's why he put me with such attentive guys. I have to do laundry next week. Yes I say week because I'm behind a week in it. Does the term mountain of laundry mean anything! Not complaining though I actually don't mind doing it. Oh the pants falling down thing....I went back to Weight Watchers. I gave a big story about the binge and how I wasn't ever coming back and that I probably gained yatta yatta...stepped on the scale and lost 2.8lbs...how incredible is that. That is a miracle! My brother and sister-law hit their goal weight this week...not with WW but another place. He lost 100.5lbs and she lost 52ish lbs. I'm so proud of them both. Son#1's birthday is next week and he'll be 18. I truly is hard to believe that 18 years have passed us by. I'm so proud of him. He just received his official acceptance to school and it's official at the end of June he's on his own. I'm surely going to miss him tons but God has great things planned for him I'm sure so I will release him gladly into God's hands. We had our first playgroup on Thursday which was nice to see the babies playing together. I took pictures but don't have them uploaded in time for this post. Emers had her first night terrors last week. I think it was because she missed a few naps. She loves her sleep and catching a catnap here and there doesn't work too well for her. She went ballistic. I tried calming her for at least 2 minutes. She was hysterical. I finally had to sit her on the change table and take her little face in my hands and tell her "it's ok baby girl ,you're here, you're home". That calmed her enough to at least let me console her. On a final note I sent an email out to everyone I had on my address book regarding a research project I'm doing for a book I'm writing. If you didn't receive a copy of the request and explanation make sure you put your email address in the comments and I'll send it along to you. I'm very excited about it. I've had a goob of people sign up to help. More than I thought would. My hope is to have people young, old, male, female from different parts of the world and backgrounds to participate. Please if your able I promise it will be a blessing. I think that's it for this weeks wrap up. Sorry for the delay in posting I was on the move but this coming week should be better. Oh, I have the Global stuff and our China video that I will be posting on Emily's website this week. I will let y'all know when it's done. Have a great night. Mama out.

I'm Back....and wide awake!

Wow where has the time gone. It seems that I'm just coming up for some air! Good thing I bought myself a Grande Low Fat Extra Hot Chai Tea Latte or you may not have heard from me tonight. I'm wired for sound baby. It's after 10:oo and usually I am facing forward snoring at the ceiling by now but I'm probably going to have to take a happy pill to bypass the caffeine. Yikes. My DH had a Caramel Machiatto (probably spelled wrong). His eyes are oh about the size of two golf balls and only not white but all pupil. We've been busy busy. Hope y'all caught the Global special last week. I thought they did a good job. I was a bit disappointed as they removed all references to God from it but we sort of half expected that. It actually wasn't as bad as I thought to watch ourselves on tv but it was stressful leading up to it. Vanity all vanity. Son #1's girlfriend and parents visited over the weekend. We had a great time and it was awesome to get to know them all better. Emily's doing just hunky dorey. She's started to hate getting changed. I've turning into a professional wrestler whenever her diaper needs changing. I'm so glad to see the sunshine as we can poke our heads out the door and see the light! We're both a bit no a lot shack cracked. She's eating and sleeping well and is just fitting in fine like she's always been here. She's gaining weight like crazy. Oh she got two more shots last week. Not as awful as the last time but let's just say the doctor's off the Christmas list. I can't believe that Easter is just around the corner. Time is flying. I'm writing like crazy. Looking for a few volunteers to read some stuff and give me some insight and honest feedback so if your interested give me an email and when it's ready I'll send it off. Emily and I are starting to go swimming next week which should be interesting. She seems to love the water but a big old pool might be a different thing. My little China girl is super super headstrong. Wonder who that is like. She's learned very quickly persistence. It's funny because Son #2 could be left in a room full of alligators and if I said don't touch he wouldn't touch. I'm afraid the alligators would be out of luck with Emers. She'd have them all whipped into shape or beaten to a pulp. We're trying to teach her not to slap faces...yes slap...she draws you in close with the cute patootie puckered up lips and then wham out of nowhere "pow right in the kisser". Oh and the food toss is her new game you know those little cubes of whatever you cut up for her gets chucked pretty much everywhere. Now it's one cube at a time. We start breakfast at 8:00 and finish at oh about 11:30 just in time for nap. Not really but almost. Her new thing is to crawl in the dishwasher. Next time I have to remember to get a picture. When I unload it she loves to crawl on the door the second you turn your back. Her other new thing is to open drawers and close them on her fingers can you say scream at the top of her lungs. Son #2 had the brainwave one day to teach her how to climb the stairs she now has a one track mind....."must reach the stairs"! All and all it's awesome being home. I'm definitely in a routine but it's all good. That's it from our house. Mama out.

Children of the East

We found out from Global that they are going to begin airing our story in four parts starting on Tuesday March 6th. Tuesday is the story leading up to our trip and Wednesday is when we return back and life after China. Don't miss Thursday they will be interviewing Daisy a wonderful young woman who was adopted from China when she was 11. She's 21 now and just a fantastic young woman. Her story is awesome. Friday is the final segment and will show the Chinese adoption community here and how as parents and children we are supported and how the children's heritage is kept alive. It should be interesting. I'm nervous and not really sure why. I hope that it is honoring to the process. I must say that the folks from Global were amazing and they are going to give us a copy of the program and all of the raw footage they took and they also took our China video and saved it to a DVD for us as well so as soon as we get it I will upload the videos to Emily's website. This week has been busy busy. I started running on the treadmill and I've been going to Weight Watchers...so five days of killing myself on the treadmill I get weighed in and I actually gained weight. I of course did what any self respecting dieter would do...I ordered a donair pizza, ate two bags of tortilla chips, half a fruit cake, a pan of rice crispy squares and something that resembled an ice cream sandwich. Now don't worry I didn't eat it all at once I spread the binge out over 3 days but this morning I got up and got back on the treadmill. It's all good....ups downs. Just like life. Everyone just stayed clear. Now did I mention the weight I gained was .4lbs not 4 lbs but point 4. Imagine loosing it over point 4 but oh baby did I. I need to put something in place to stop myself from self destructing like that...how about a muzzle. Just kidding. Life at home is settling in nicely. I'm into a routine now I just need to source out a play group or maybe a swim lesson. Emily loves the water and what better way to remove the worry about living on a lake just teach her how to swim. I'll let you know how that turns out. Well I'd better get supper on the table for my men. This is TV Mama out!