All That Glitters . . .

is not old . . . enough!



How did I miss that little girls now wear makeup?? Maybe I've always been out of the glamorous loop. Perhaps the fact that I didn't start wearing makeup until Alex was 2 is tell-tale to my lack of beauty savoir-faire. But I had no idea that first graders were hip to maybelline, etc. And no idea that girl's clothing stores offered free makeovers on weekends. It was arranged that Kate would get to go with her friend Bailey to one such "event". Kate was thrilled. I was apprehensive? And a wee bit scared (for Bailey's Mom who was taking the two friends).

Fortunately the makeup and hair adornement was low key. Although, and you can't really tell in the photo, they only shadowed-up one of her eyes. Is this yet another trend that I have missed the boat on??

Playdate

Our first playdate for Kate at our house. Anada is one of Kate's friends from her last school year. Confusing, I know. She had a few weeks in Ms. B's first grade class at the end of the 2007-2008 school year (just to get her feet wet) and then started up (with Ms. B again) for the 2008-2009 school year. So Anada has moved on to second grade, but is still a good friend of Kate (and her sister Alice quite adores our little bug, too).

Let's Go Home?

Our first vacation as a family of four. Pine Knoll Shores, NC. Just two nights at the beach. And throughout the weekend Kate kept asking "let's go home?".

When we first got our match with Kate in January, we were sent a link to a yahoo group for families that have adopted children from Fuzhou City Social Welfare Institute. We found a group of families that had a wealth of knowledge about both Fuzhou and Nanchang; all those "been there, done that" families sharing their experiences.

We also found that they get together each summer. Hold a reunion of sorts for all these children that called Fuzhou City home. They pick a different location each summer for their reunion weekend, LaLaFuLooza. So cute!


For the 2008 Fu-Fete, Atlantic Beach, NC was the chosen location. Perfect! Friday night was a pizza party at a fabulous park in Morehead City. Loads of fun crafts, an amazing playground and fun music for dancing. Saturday morning Phil and Alex took surfing lessons while Kate and I boogie-boarded and splashed in the surf. Saturday night was a banquet at the North Carolina Aquarium in Pine Knoll Shores. What a perfect venue for a party! We had dinner next to the largest saltwater tank in NC, with all the fishys swimming past. We learned about the aquarium's logger head turtle relocation assistance program and met one of their baby turtles. There was more dancing.



Kate tugged on many heart strings with her excited cries of "Kate's house in China" when she saw pictures on video screens of Fuzhou City SWI. As we were leaving the aquarium that night she grabbed my hand, pointed to the screen and said "Kate's house in China because . . ." and then fell silent. We hugged for a while. Then as we were leaving the building she asked again, "let's go home?"

We're Soaring, Flying

Not just the lyrics to one of Kate's favorite songs, but a daily ritual with the two sibs. We feel a wee bit guilty that we didn't go ahead and build the swing set when we moved in two years ago. "Alex is too big. He'll never use it." Oops. He's out there several times daily, Kate or no Kate. Better late.

First Grade

Our area of NC has been growing incredibly fast. It is evident in the number of new housing communities, license plates from all over the US and the log-jam traffic on roads. The local schools have suffered from the crush, not being as prepared with enough schools/classrooms to accomodate all the kids that have infiltrated. Last year, in an effort to ease crowding and better use existing buildings, our county schools switched to a predominantly year-round calendar. Most kids in elementary school are on one of four tracks alternating in-school weeks with three week breaks throughout the calendar year.

So while it is summer vacation time in many parts of the country, and even for a lot of kids here in Wake county, for Kate it's first grade time! She's been in school now for several weeks and is loving it. She likes her teachers, enjoys the structure, happily takes her Hello Kitty thermos full of noodle for lunch, willingly does her homework with me in the afternoon and loves the school bus.



We are extremely lucky to have so many friends that want to help Kate so finding a couple of bus buddies was a slice of cake. Emersyn and Zoe, two lovely fifth graders, have been crucial to my retaining of sanity with Kate's daily bus riding. They sit with her on the bus, but, most importantly, meet her at her classroom each afternoon to make sure she gets on the correct bus and makes it home!

Friends

We had such a lovely time this past week with our very wonderful friends, Michelle and Emma, who came from St. Louis to visit with us. Thank you, Tom, for sharing them with us!


And thanks to Michelle for the fun iphone photos.

Learning

We're all good. We're all busy. We're learning so much this summer. And we're keeping busy.

Kate has started school. She's in the first grade at our local grade school. She rides the bus. She was taking Spanish. We felt it better that she wait on that one. She's been to two of her classmates' birthday parties. She loves her teacher. And she doesnt' like it when there is a substitute.

She's rapidly learning English. She can say Gabriella and Sharpay (I'm sure I just misspelled her name) and Troy and Chad, and she runs around outside with the basketball yelling "get your head in the game".

I'm learning not to let her temper flare-ups stress me out. Fortunately we're seeing fewer tantrums. There's a power plant we would drive past every so often near Blacksburg that had a huge banner proclaiming how many days they'd been accident-free. As the days accumulate that we've been tantrum-free, I think that maybe we should post it out there for all to see. Then on those days at the bus stop when I'm looking a little worse for wear, the big zero will provide fair warning to any and all. And what a fabulous head's up for Phil. No more shocking awful when he walks in the door. To be fair, they really are very infrequent and the duration with which she puts the house on lockdown has decreased substantially.

I've been working overtime trying to get caught up on our scrapbooks. I'm currently in France and the year is 2002. Although that isn't really how far behind I am. I typically will go from the most recent and work my way back. I'm also trying to figure out digital scraping and using Photoshop. Thank heavens for all those digital scrappers that have paved the way.

The Human Hamster Ball

More Pictures

My dearest friend in the world requested more pictures. Big apologies. I've no pictures of Alex enjoying the lovely alpine dinner of melted cheese, charcuterie and corncihons. I do, however, have quite a few (perhaps too many??) shots of the two sibs engaged in water warfare, with one parched pooch in between.

Sorry about the excessive number of photos. Perhaps next time you'll place a cap on your request. Hugs!

Happy Birthday, Alex

Wow! So hard to believe that 12 years ago today I was officially introduced to the most amazing little person. I'm so proud and dazzled by the person he is today. He is so caring and intelligent and goofy and he makes our lives complete in a way we could never have imagined.

Happy Birthday my sweetest guy and thank you so much for all the joy that you give to this family!!

Why Don't They Write?

One of my favorite movie lines. In our case it's not because we've been scalped, but rather very very busy trying to sort ourselves out.

It's been a full week home and we feel like we're getting to know an entirely new little individual. We still have some of the goofy faces and parroting and laughter, but we also have a lot of whining and a few really good temper tantrums. Fortunately the "good side" seems to be crumbling the hard shell of this strong-willed young lady and she's learning that the tantrums are ineffective in getting the desired results. It's been rather stressful for me, as Alex has always been such an easy going kid. I'm ill equipped at dealing with the strong willed child.

We've discovered that she's fantastic at folding laundry, making her bed and feeding the dogs, but lost when it comes to sitting down and playing. We need to hook her up with some imaginative kids because this chick is severely lacking in the ability to play. Toy sets that we've gotten for her get constructed identically to the picture on the box, then are placed carefully on her dresser never to be touched again. Yet give her a laundry hamper full of clean clothes and she knows exactly what to do. The only exception to this have been her dolls which seem to get new coifs daily.

She's also quite fond of doing whatever big brother Alex is doing. Both on the porch eating popsicles and playing game boy.




Yesterday she had a chance to get creative with sidewalk chalk with a few of the neighborhood girls (Abby, Emma and Emersyn) and today it was wild and wacky with the slip n' slide and Alex, Nolan and Emersyn.




And I feel like a used car lot with all the bikes we've accumulated in the past 48 hours! We started with Emersyn's old bike which is a little large right now for our petite lass. Then we were gifted with a smaller bike that while easier than Emersyn's was still a bit too heavy to manage. Finally, like Goldilocks experienced, the third and smallest was just right! We can pedal and turn without falling over. Plus we have a horn. Easily removable with a screwdriver. Thank God.

Would Somebody Please Make the Bed Stop Moving

When I was a kid growing up in Northern Virginia, we'd take a day trip once a year to King's Dominion amusement park. I loved how when riding home in the car, my body still felt like it was on one of the roller coasters. I could feel the sensations of the drops and turns.

Apparently 27+ hours of traveling, over half of it bumpy, is just like a day at an amusement park (minus the funnel cake). When we finally got home late last night and got settled into bed (even later last night or actually early this morning) I still felt like I was dipping and dropping at 36,000 feet above Russia. I really didn't enjoy it the first time, so I was equally dismayed at having to relive it when all I really wanted was to be asleep.

Kate was a trooper. Slept most of the Beijing to Chicago leg, and was very huggy and happy when she met my parents at O'Hare. Not very happy or huggy when boarded that last flight home to Raleigh from Chicago. She moaned for the first 45 minutes, bored and mad that we were subjecting her to more air travel. But after a trip to the bathroom and some snacks and my ipod, she perked up. She was glued to the window during our approach into Raleigh, mesmerized by all the lights (I'm assuming it was her first night flight).

We were thrilled to see our three suitcases, safe and sound, and even more thrilled to see our friend Amee who came to pick us up at the airport! When we got home Kate explored rooms and drawers, and found the case of hair accessories from Tammi and did both American Girls' hair.





We're off to find some clothes for her that fit . . .

To Market, To Market, To Buy a Fresh Hen . . .

or cooked hen . . .


or hen's feet . . .


or seahorses . . .


or turtles . . .


or snakes . . .


or sugar . . .


or scorpions.




And to top off such an incredible morning of market going, the real highlight of today was our visit to the US Consulate to get Kate's ticket to travel to the States, her US Visa.

The consulate office in Guangzhou was packed with about 40 adopting families, most of whom we've seen around the hotel and island, all ready to take the last important step in this adoption journey.

The director of the consulate office, before ever being employed by the consulate office, adopted 2 daughters from China. Both daughters were from Guangdong province (where we are now), so now they are growing up back in their home province.

After giving us some instructions about our return to the States and going through immigration at the airport, the consulate director had everyone stand. We all took the oath that we would raise these children as our own, never to abandon or abuse. And with that Kate officially became a McKenzie! The minute she walks through immigration at O'Hare Airport she will be a US citizen!

We'll leave here at 6:30am Friday (6:30 pm Thursday in NC) and arrive home in NC on Friday at 9:30pm. A really, really long day of travel. I'm looking forward to being home, but not the incredibly long day-plus of travel it will take to get there. Oh well.