Chinese New Year and Other Winter Fun

In February we celebrated Chinese New Year with a bunch of other families who have children who were also adopted from China.  Below is Natalie doing crafts with some of the other kids.

We had a couple of decent snows last winter which equated to 8 days of school missed.

During brunch at the Purple Cow Natalie ran into an old friend.

Natalie taking care of her little stuffed Newfoundland dog, aptly named Seadog (she recently started calling him "Seed"...his nickname she says).  I love how caring she is to people and her little "babies".  Natalie made Seadog a comfy bed, covered him up and left out plenty of food and water for him.

Dancing down the hallway

Ready to go to the Chinese Lantern Festival at school.

We were fortunate that Natalie's teacher was so open to celebrating different holidays in the classroom.  For CNY we took mandarin oranges and red envelopes for each child.  We also read a couple of books about Chinese New Year.  For the lantern festival a couple of weeks later each child made a lantern and then we had a parade with one child dressed up as a dragon and the kids all walking on bubble wrap to simulate firecrackers.

Celebrating the Year of the Snake

Gary, Natalie and I recently attended a Lunar New Year celebration to ring in the Year of the Snake.  It was a multi-cultural event for adopted children from all countries.  Everyone brought ethnic food inspired by their child's birth place.  There was an amazing Tae Kwon Do demonstration, beautiful African dancing, the traditional dragon dance, the parade of nations, a snake toss and lots of other activities.  As usual, Natalie was clinging to us at first, but she quickly loosened up and had a good time.


My favorite picture of the night


Watching the dancers








Happy Chinese New Year!

Sing Me to Sleep

Da Mu Ji is a simple song about a Big Hen that says:  "I have a big hen, I love her, She loves me."  It's Natalie's all-time favorite song.  Her second favorite is "Bye-o-baby".   You will hear bits and pieces of these songs in this little video. I love how caring Natalie is with her dollies.  Sometimes she says her dollies are sad and she will hug them to her chest, pat their backs and croon to them "It's ok dolly, ohhhhh, it's ok".

Happy Birthday to the Babies of the Family

2 years ago today, a woman somewhere in the Jiangxi Province of China gave birth to a healthy and beautiful little girl.   For some reason unknown to us a decision was made by this woman, her husband and/or her in-laws, to abandon the little girl.  Although it is against the law to abandon a child in China the person that left the child took the risk of choosing a safe public place where the baby would be found quickly.  The infant entered the Shangrao Social Welfare Institute and was named Ling Wan Han.  We all know this beautiful, precious girl as Natalie Wanhan.

Today on her birthday I am sending loving thoughts to a mother and father in China who will never know this amazing child.   It is a bittersweet feeling...I feel sad for their loss and for Natalie's loss but so grateful that they gave Natalie life.  They must wonder what became of the newborn baby they abandoned.  I wish that they could know how loved Natalie is by her Mama, Baba, grandparents, Auntie, teachers, classmates, family, friends and of course her sidekick Louie.


One of Natalie's birthday presents is the shirt she is wearing to school today which reads "Anyone who thinks diamonds are a girl's best friend hasn't met my Newfoundland"

Louie just turned 4 years old a few days ago.






Another of my January Birthday sweeties joins in the love fest


Natalie is all bundled up and ready for school.  She will probably be running around all day pointing to her shirt and saying "Doggie!  WOOF!"

Happy Birthday My Dear Gary, Natalie and Louie!  
I love you all so much and I'm grateful for every day that I spend with you!

Celebrating The Year of the Dragon

After celebrating Chinese New Year five times without our daughter, the celebration this year was a revelation to Gary and I.  Seeing the festivities through Natalie's eyes made it so much more fun for us.  The Year of the Dragon is considered to be the luckiest in the cycle of 12 zodiac years.  Considering that it is our first full year home with Natalie it definitely feels very lucky to us.


Natalie was too excited to be still for photos.


The celebration we attended this year was an international one - not just Chinese.  We got to sample many different cuisines.  Natalie's favorite thing was the noodles - surprise!  Her second favorite was a Korean rice cake which you will see her holding in the video at the end of the post.


The event took place on 1/20/12...exactly two months after the date we arrived home from China.  It is amazing how much all 3 of us have changed during that time.  Gary and I are both wrapped around Natalie's little finger and delighting in all of her smiles and laughter.  We, like most parents, think she is the most amazing child in the world.

Natalie has come so far out of the shell that she was hiding deep inside when we first met her.  She still wants Mama and Baba close by (which is a sign of good attachment), but she is becoming a little more adventurous and more friendly to new people.


Natalie's very favorite part of the evening was the entertainment section that featured Irish Dancers.  The edited video below is more about Natalie's reaction to the dancers than the dancing itself.  I'll have to make another video of the full dances.  They were so fun to watch. Natalie definitely thought so - she was clapping, cheering and at times doing her own little jig.  At the very end of the video you can hear Natalie shouting "Yay!"

Buddhism & Chinese Folk Art

I forgot to mention that yesterday we had our appointment at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou.  It was THE big appointment that our whole trip was scheduled around.  I spent quite a bit of time the day before preparing paperwork to meet the stringent requirements of our government so that Natalie will be allowed to enter the U.S. It will also allow her to automatically become a U.S. citizen upon our arrival in Chicago. Thankfully, our CCAI guides did a very thorough job of walking us through the paperwork and double checked to make sure everything was correct. We made it through our appointment with no problems.  This afternoon we will receive Natalie's Visa from the Consulate.  Tomorrow we leave Guangzhou and will take a train to Hong Kong where we will spend one night before flying home.

Our first stop during our tour today was the Liurong Buddhist Temple, home of the Six Banyan Pagoda.




A modern monk texting on his cell phone


The three Buddha statues each have their hands arranged differently.  From left to right they represent the Past, the Present, and the Future.




Mama and Baby under the Bodhi Tree




Stone carving on the temple wall


Next stop was the Guangdong Folk Arts Museum which is housed in the Chen's Ancestral Hall. The Chen's Hall is the most elaborately decorated building that I have ever seen.
















Notice the hold Natalie has on Gary's finger :)




The embroidery is exquisitely detailed and looks like it was painted




When you examine it up close you can see the individual threads which comprise these amazing works of art.


Guangdong Province is the second most famous province for porcelain.  The most famous is Natalie's Province of Jiangxi.


Bonsai tree