We're Here!!

We left DC around noon on Wednesday and arrived here in Beijing around noon Thursday. The flight was great; well as great as a 13 hour flight can be and we've managed to stay awake all afternoon.

We decided to forgo the cab ride to the Olympic venue area. One high speed flight a day is our limit. Instead we wandered around the pedestrian area that's a few blocks from our hotel. We're in a very trendy part of town. Everything is glitzy and new. Loads of Olympic souvenirs to be had. I love the Beijing mascots, the Friendlies! Oddly, my two guys don't see the charm in the cute, colorful cartoon pandas. If only Min were here with me . . .

Today is the Day!!

We leave town this evening, the final leg of our nearly 3 year journey to Min! Our flight to Beijing leaves tomorrow and we will be in BJ around noon on Thursday.

Our hotel is across the street from the Forbidden City, so when we get to the hotel and get checked in we're planning on heading out to explore! We've got to do what we can to try to stay awake until Thursday night and hope we sleep through the night. Wishful thinking, I know. Most likely we'll get checked in and go straight to bed!
We are also hoping to go check out the new Olympic stadium in BJ, the one dubbed the Bird's Nest.

Another cool structure that has been built for the Olympics is the aquatic center, The Water Cube. Hopefully we can grab a cab and head over there Thursday evening!

Looking forward to posting from the road! See you in Beijing!

Waldo

Alex' sixth grade class at Exploris has been tracking and studying Eastern Box Turtle populations near Lake Raleigh. It has been a year long ongoing study with the students finding turtles, recording data about the turtle's size and appearance, and putting a transmitter on the turtles so that they can track their movements and habitat choices.

A few weeks ago a reporter and photographer from the News and Observer (our local Raleigh paper) joined the students on their Waldo search. Follow the link to the article to learn more about the students' Waldo studies. Also click on the "related content" link about halfway down the page. There you will find 11 photos of their field work and Alex is in one of them!!

Waldo Article

Jiangxi

Min is currently living in the province of Jiangxi, highlighted in pink on the map.

Although little known outside of the province, Jiangxi cuisine is rich and distinctive. Flavors are some of the strongest in China, with heavy use of chile peppers, pickled and fermented products! Looking forward to some fabulously spicy food!

Jiangxi is the main area of concentration of the Gan varieties of Chinese, spoken over most of the northern two-thirds of the province. Examples include the Nanchang dialect, Yichun dialect and Ji'an dialect. The southern one-third of the province speaks Hakka. There are also Mandarin, Hui, and Wu dialects spoken along the northern border. With all this in mind I'm feeling less guilty about not knowing more Mandarin!

Jiangxi is well known for their incredible porcelain. Apparently the thing to get will be a tea set (child's) for Min. It'll be fun to take her around and let her choose one to bring home!

A little Jiangxi claim to fame: in 2007, Jiangxi (specifically the Zhelin Reservoir, about 40 km from Nanchang) was the filming location for the fifteenth series of the show Survivor. Too bad we don't/didn't watch the show. Maybe we should rent that series?

Our Itinerary

We have our detailed travel plans for our time in China! We'll be doing quite a bit of sightseeing and touring over the 2 weeks of our visit. So much icing on an already very sweet cake! The highlight of the 2 weeks will be on Sunday, May 11 when we finally get to meet the newest McKenzie! We are all very anxious to reach that moment.

We have 3 full days in Beijing. We'll go to TianAnMen Square and the Forbidden City. We will visit the Great Wall. We will be ferried by rickshaw through centuries old Hutong neighborhoods and visit the Temple of Heaven. And we'll get to see a Chinese acrobat show. Hopefully we'll also be able to check out the "Bird's Nest" that has been constructed for the Olympics that is 100 days away.

While in Min's province we've got two days of sightseeing set up for us and a free day to enjoy the sights (aka shopping!). Apparently there is a shop directly across the street from the hotel where we will be staying that makes the traditional Chinese silk dresses with next day turn around. We choose the silk and they will make the outfits. I believe that we will be visiting that store! Plus, they also provide free finding ad services.

We will be in Guangzhou for 5 days and have alot of paperwork and a medical visit for Min's US Visa. So far there isn't any sightseeing set up for us but I know from having followed other family's journeys that there are loads of interesting markets, great parks and a zoo. I also know that it is incredibly humid there so we may just hunker down at Starbucks sipping iced lattes and people watching.

Single Digits

OK folks, we are down to single digits in our countdown to China! I cannot believe that we are so close to such an amazing event and I am still capable of normal daily functioning. Of course a broken table this weekend could be indicative of some stress simmering within. Hmmm.

The Perfect Gift

We just found out that we will be meeting Min a day earlier than what we had originally been told. We will meet her on Sunday, May 11. Mother's Day!

Only 15 Days Left to Pack

Even in the best of situations I loathe packing. I'd much rather drive than fly because I can toss all those last minute things into the car. I like to have shoe options. I like to have clothing options. I'm not good with having to fit things neatly into a suitcase (or 2 or 3). I love traveling, but hate the packing.

This trip is really going to challenge my travel preparation issues. We've been told to pack light which I find laughable when you see the piles of things we need to take for Min, official paperwork, the gifts for her caretakers, gifts for officials and our coordinators, toys and activities for keeping 2 kids cooped up a small hotel room happy for hours on end, the meds that will help alleviate all sorts of ailments, and clothes and toiletries for the 3 of us. Add to this the fact that domestic China travel only allows one checked bag per person. And before you reach for that body-bag sized duffel realize that there is a 40lb weight limit per bag.

When I start posting photos of the trip I think our attire will quite nicely illustrate how we managed to get everything to China. I just hope for the sake of our fellow travellers that our return flight to the States is not full.

Bridge Building State Finals

Last week Alex' Bridge Building Team competed in the state finals. The state is divided into four regions, with teams from both middle and high school at the competition.

Our bridge team spent the month in between events fine tuning both the bridge and the skit. The bridge we entered this time was 10 grams heavier than our previous entry, our engineers having determined the additional weight was a necessary trade off for a more secure structure. The face paint created this time for Yodaneer was a much nicer shade of green (that was the only change for the skit group . . . "if it ain't broke. . .").

Once again our skit crew wowed the crowd with their production of Star Bridge . They won best presentation and were awarded a check for $100 from the NC DOT! While our new bridge did much better than last time, the extra bulk on the bridge didn't translate into being the strongest of the 4 entered.

Everyone had a great time and the best part is that everyone is excited about being back for next year's team! Alex even has a title for next year's skit: Star Bridge II: Return of Darth Deadload!

The Hat, the Helmet, and the Headband

Easter Egg Hunt

Some pictures from our Easter Sunday at Ron and Amee's house. Alex had a great time with his friend Colin, and Colin's sisters, Alyssa and Taylor, who were visiting from Illinois. Thanks to Erin for the information on making photo collages!

World Autism Awareness Day

Our son is on the spectrum. He wasn't diagnosed until the age of 10. He has Aspergers/HFA. We love the person that is our Alex. All his amazing abilities and unique interests and ways of viewing the world make our world much more colorful. Sure, I'd love for social interactions to be easier for him but in our mind his autism is not a disease, it's a difference. A difference that makes him who he is.

We have friends who have a different view of autism. They have children on a different part of the spectrum. They love their children. Love the unique people that they are but want more for their children. The want to see more time and research put into autism studies to see what can be offered to enrich their children's lives. They would like to see a cure.

For us a cure would mean our son wouldn't be who he is. It would be like taking him away from us. But a cure for our friends would allow their children to develop into who they could be and would give so much more of them to their families.

Congratulations! It's A Girl ('s Room)!

A few signs of the upcoming arrival of Miss Min Xiu!

Travel Dates!!

We have our official travel dates and our consulate appointment! We will leave for Beijing on Wednesday May 7 and we will be a family of four on Monday May 12. Our US Consulate appointment has been scheduled for May 20 and we'll return to the states a few days later.

Min Xiu Updates

We received updated photos and measurements of our XiuXiu! She is currently 19 kilos (almost 42 pounds) and 111 cm tall, so she is a size 5/6.

We have heard that our travel approval should be arriving in St. Louis (where our agency's office is located) today, but we will still need to wait for the consulate appointment to finalize our plans and purchase those tickets.

Our Incredible Bridge Building Team

The North Carolina Department of Transportation sponsors a bridge building competition and invites middle and high schools from around the state to participate. Teams are judged on their bridge (which had to be light and strong), an oral presentation and an essay.

Our team started meeting after school once a week in October. Students were challenged to build a bridge that was both light and strong, using balsa wood and glue. It had to have a clear span large enough for a 3" cube to pass under and space for a 2" cube to "drive" over the bridge. Everyone designed, then built, then weighed and finally stress-tested their bridges. The winning bridge was designed by Sarah Beach and Tanika Bantukul and they spent the next couple of months working to improve upon the design for entry in today's regional competition.

The rest of the bridge building team devoted themselves to the essay and the oral presentation. The group of students who were in charge of the presentation decided to do a skit based on Star Wars with characters Obi Wan Compression, Darth Deadload, Yoganeer and Luke Tension (Alex). Their skit was fantastic and did a great job of explaining the engineering behind bridges!



Our bridge was one of the lightest, but unfortunately was not strong enough to be the winning bridge. We were surprised and thrilled to learn that our essay and skit earned enough points for our end of day total to edge out the competition and win the middle school division! We now have one month to strengthen our design for the state competition in April. Great job team!

It's Official

Lauren Min Xiu McKenzie

We've been holding tight to some news. Some wonderful news that after our experience with GuoXin we felt we needed to wait until sharing. Wait until we had our official referral from China. Well today we got the call from our agency that the Seeking Confirmation Letter had arrived from China! They are going to overnight it to us and we should have the official referral tomorrow for our 8 year old daughter, Fu Min Xiu. She is currently living in Fuzhou (pronounced Fu-Joe) City, in Jiangxi Provence. We should be traveling mid-May to meet her and bring her home.

Happy Valentine's Day

Will you be my Valentine?
I know that I am yours.
You are like a tossing sea
And I am like your shores.

You are like an endless wave
And I your waiting sand.
And I will wait forever for you
To come and take my hand.

I will wait forever, yet
You are a part of me.
I hold you in my arms, while you
Come to me endlessly.

Will you be my Valentine?
I know that I am yours.
I love you with a love that waits
A love that time endures.

36,000 Doughnuts

It was no place for the faint of heart. Four miles. A dozen doughnuts. One hour. The fourth running of the Krispy Kreme Challenge took place this weekend and we were just the idiots, 4 of 3000+, to participate.

What started as a gag (no pun intended) among fraternity brothers at NC State has seen each year double the previous in number of runners and this year's earnings for the Children's Hospital of NC was $20,000.

You start at the NC State Belltower and run 2 miles to the Krispy Kreme store in Raleigh. You eat a dozen doughnuts. Then run back. And you have to complete the challenge in under an hour.

We (mostly Phil) had been planning and training for this thing for months, including a morning where we ate some doughnuts mid run. But in the past month and a half I had slacked off quite a bit and wasn't planning on actually running. Plus Alex hadn't been running regularly for a while so I figured he may not be able to run the full four and was prepared to meet the guys at the doughnut shop and shuttle Alex back to the start in the car. What I didn't know until Friday morning was that my brother, John, had signed up for the race and took the red eye from Seattle Thursday night to surprise me for my birthday. So at 5pm Friday evening I signed up to run.

It was cold Saturday morning. Well, cold for here. I think it was 31 when we left the car to head over to the Bell Tower. But the party atmosphere at the start area helped to keep us warm and helped to distract us from the calorie laden task ahead. Alex and I ran together with Phil slightly ahead and John a minute or two ahead of him. When we reached the Krispy Kreme the parking lot was already full of people in various stages of sugar high. We found John with his box of doughnuts, 10 still to go. He had managed to pull away from us during the initial run, but 10 minutes later all four of us were leaving the sugar encrusted parking lot together. I shudder to think what that says about our ability to pound the junk food. Oh, and for those of you thinking what horrible parents we are, Alex only ate 2 doughnuts. Not a dozen.




The run back wasn't too bad at first (at that point downhill) until we heard someone yell "Uggh!!" and looked back to see why. Fortunately no one in our group saw their doughnuts reappear although there were people using the numerous lined trash cans to ease their stomachs.

John was the only one of us to complete the challenge in under the hour (:59). Alex came in a few minutes after him and Phil and I brought up the rear in 1:07. Remarkably we all felt fine throughout the day and there were no ill effects the next, either. We'll see if today sees everything catch up with us!


The winner of the challenge finished in 31:20. And his prize . . . doughnuts!