Two Newfs, Two Humans & Two Rivers

On October 1st, the day after we saw Natalie's face for the first time, we decided to take the new pedestrian Two Rivers Bridge for a test walk. The bridge crosses the Little Maumelle River and takes bicyclists, runners and walkers directly to Two Rivers Park which is nestled between the Little Maumelle and the Arkansas Rivers.




Twilight over Pinnacle mountain


After crossing the river we took a nice walk on one of many beautiful trails.








"When can we go back?"

What's in a Name?

Natalie's given Chinese name, which we will keep as her middle name, is Wan Han.  Although our adoption agency gave us a translation of it, I was having a hard time putting the meaning into words until I did some research on the characters myself.

 

Wan, the first character, literally means 10,000, but the figurative meaning is infinity.  It is considered to be a very auspicious and lucky number.  The Forbidden City is said to have 9999 1/2 rooms - one half room less than the 10,000 rooms that are in heaven according to ancient Chinese culture.

Han, the second character, means contain.  When I first heard this I thought it was a very strange meaning for a name. Now I understand that the two characters are meant to always be interpreted as a set.

When Natalie arrived at the orphanage she was given a name which says she contains an infinite amount of luck and good fortune...a beautiful name for a very special little girl.

Caring From the Other Side of the World

Natalie in August 2011 reaching for someone...wish it was me!

Two days after we got our referral for Natalie I sent her a care package containing a soft cuddly blanket and two of her favorite kinds of toys: a stuffed animal and a musical toy.  I also sent a couple of disposable cameras in hopes that her foster parents will take pictures of her and return the cameras to us.  The photo album we made several months ago to familiarize her with our faces was also in the box.  The chocolate truffles are for her foster parents - I hope the weather is cool enough now to keep them from melting.

Enough Red Threads to Make a Quilt!

“An invisible red thread connects those destined to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle but never break.” -Ancient Chinese Belief

Since last Friday we have seen so many signs which tell us that Natalie Wanhan, was meant to be our daughter.  One of the first things we learned when we got the referral call for Natalie was her birthdate of January 27, 2010 - the same day as Gary's father's birthday!

This picture was taken on August 10, 2011.  Natalie was 18 months old at the time.

Another red thread...Gary, Louie and Natalie are all Aquarius and born in late January. (Katie and I are both October girls.)

During this long wait I have made some very dear friends who were also logged into the China adoption system in July of 2006.  Three of those women will be traveling with us in China to meet their daughters.  All three of them have daughters in the same orphanage, but Natalie is in a different one.  I had so wanted her to have that connection with some families from our close knit group, so when I first learned this I was a little sad.  But very soon thereafter I learned that several families in our group who are leaving for China this week have daughters from Natalie's orphanage.  There are estimated to be 1,000 orphanages in China so it is truly miraculous that Natalie will be able to share this connection with some girls in our little group.  There is a chance that one of these families might get to visit our sweet girl and take some pictures for us next week.

Now, the next incredible red thread... I was recently contacted by someone who adopted a daughter from the same orphanage as Natalie's in August of this year.  She said she thought she had some pictures of our daughter and she sent them to me.  I confirmed that "YES! That is our Natalie!"  I was so thrilled to get the most recent pictures I have to date of Nat. The above picture is one that she sent.

Even better than the pictures though was finding out that her daughter is Natalie's foster sister.  I didn't even know that Natalie is in foster care.  Now we have pictures of her being held by both her foster mother and father, pictures of her with her foster sisters, and a connection to Natalie's past.  This is such a wonderful gift for our family.  The person that traveled in August had previously discovered another of the five foster sisters, so if we can find the other two in the next several months these girls will be able to have a lifelong connection to their whole group of foster sisters.  We are just thrilled about this.  I know it is going to mean so much to Natalie as she grows up.

Now for the grand finale of the Red Threads:  What does the above picture have in common with the two below?

Natalie's Room


A stunning red thread.   Do you see it?  It truly blew Gary and I away when we did.  There is no doubt in the world that this precious little girl is our daughter.  Amazing!  Yep, that's our baby :)

All About Natalie

Seeing our daughter's face for the first time yesterday, magically wiped away our 6 year, 8 month wait since we made the decision to adopt in the beginning of 2005.  All those years of waiting - sometimes patiently and sometimes agonizing over the slow process - make complete sense now.  If we had gotten our child match earlier we wouldn't have been chosen as the parents for Ling Wan Han.  Gary and I both feel a connection to Natalie already.  Even though we haven't met her yet we just sense that she was meant to be part of our family. Her Auntie Leah said the same thing.


The following pictures were taken May 30, 2011.  Natalie was 16 months old at that time.

Here's what we know so far:

Natalie is in the Province of Jiangxi in the Shangrao City Children's Welfare Center which has a nutritional program sponsored by Love Without Boundaries.  I was so happy find out about that.  She drinks milk and a rice-based formula.  She also eats porridge and noodles.

Her favorite activity is to play outside and her favorite toys are the musical ones.

Natalie is a deep sleeper and she is potty trained (her Daddy was particularly happy to hear this).  She can walk if someone holds her hand.   She is a talkative, extroverted girl who likes to play with toys and gets along well with others.  

I am so happy that I have been crying off and on since 10:30 yesterday.  My heart is just so full of joy that my body can not contain it.   Natalie Wanhan is a dream come true.  I am so ready to love her and do my best to give her the nurturing she needs.

Introducing Our Daughter Natalie

Natalie's referral photo.  I'm guessing she was about 12-14 months old at the time of this picture.
We are SO Happy!!!  More details to follow very soon.

Stay Tuned For a Very Joyous Announcement :)

Can you guess what it is?  :)  For now I will say that I am floating on a happy cloud and we should have wonderful information to share by tomorrow or Friday.

Coffee with a Canine

Do you want to find out the answers to intriguing questions such as:  "If Hollywood made a movie in which Katie and Louie could talk, who should do their voices?" and "If Katie and Louie could change one thing about you, what would it be?"?  If so, check out my interview by Marshal Zeringue at his Coffee with a Canine blog where he sounds out humans while they take their canine friends on coffee dates.  It's a very cool blog...lots of fun!  It's also a great distraction while we wait for China to match us with our daughter.

New AKC Therapy Dog Titles: THD

Hooray Katie and Louie just received a new title from the American Kennel Club. It's THD which stands for Therapy Dog. To qualify for the title dogs must be certified by an AKC recognized therapy dog organization (TDI - Therapy Dogs International in our case), they must be AKC registered or listed and they must have completed 50 verified therapy visits. Our Newfoundlands automatically qualified because they already met all of those criteria.

Katie and I went to our favorite nursing home tonight. I always dress her up when we go there because the elderly people get a huge kick out of seeing her with ribbons in her hair. We had not visited in a while because of the heat, so Katie was super excited to see a bunch of her human friends again.

Louie posing with his patch

Now Katie and Louie's official names and titles are...

Wilbon's What a Wonderful World RE THD TDIA CGC

& Wilbon's Katie Scarlett O'Hara RA THD TDIA CGC

Katie giving Mama some therapeutic kisses

Newf Evacuation

Right around bedtime last Friday night a big thunderstorm swept through the area. As we settled into bed there was an enormous booming noise and in the same moment our power went out.

Gary and I got out of bed and put batteries in Louie's emergency fans. Because Louie is about ten times more heat sensitive than Katie, we usually direct the fan air flow towards him. Katie was peacefully sleeping on the floor on my side of the bed without any fans while Louie was lying in front of his 2 medium sized and 1 small fan panting lightly. Admittedly, these fans are not very powerful but they are much better than no fans at all. However, Louie quickly became dissatisfied with the lack of air flow and started getting restless. Plus I think his body heats up the floor so he moves from place to place trying to find a cooler patch of hardwood to lie on. It was a terrible night for Gary and I because we had to listen to Louie shuffling around from place to place and he makes a lot of noise each time he plunks down on the floor. Everytime we would doze off for a few minutes we would be awakened by a high pitched little whine. Louie was definitely playing up his role as the baby of the family. I think Katie was the only one who managed to get any sleep that night.

The next morning the temperatures stayed down, so our house was reasonably cool. Louie was still dissatisfied, but he certainly wasn't in any danger of overheating. But by noon even Katie was panting a tiny bit. Gary had the great idea to ask Bonnie and Bill, Katie & Louie's breeders, if they would let our Newfs stay in their air-conditioned barn. We called them and they agreed that we could bring K&L over.

The set up at Wilbon's Newfoundlands is so nice. Usually the Newfs are paired up two to a run like Katie and Louie were that day. Inside the barn there is enough room for two Newfs to stretch out and enjoy the cool air conditioning and many fans that are scattered throughout the room. I'm sure Louie enjoyed that because it's cooler in the Newf barn than it normally is in our house. Each kennel has a dog door so the Newfs can go outside when ever they want. The runs are nice and long and when the weather is cool enough the Newfs love to race each other up and down the runs.

When I first arrived all of the Newfoundlands were snoozing away. One by one they slowly woke up and tails started wagging as they asked for some attention. I gave each one some love and then went back to the car to collect Gary, Katie and Louie. Although there were five intact males in the barn (including Louie) there was no growling - I don't imagine there are very many other dog breeds where this would be the case. Newfoundland dogs are generally just easy going. We are still cautious though and never allow Louie direct interaction with other intact male dogs.

Katie and Louie went into a run right across from their mutual father, Loki. We filled a giant bucket full of water for them and headed home.

We returned about 5 hours later and you can see Katie and Louie's reaction in the video below. I think they missed us a little bit; we missed them too. The house felt empty without them. 

Near the end of the video when Louie is facing right, the dog he is greeting is a big intact male. Notice that both dogs are wagging their tails very prominently to the right. From the NY Times article "If You Want to Know if Spot Loves You So, It's In His Tail", "When dogs feel fundamentally positive about something or someone, their tails wag more to the right side of their rumps. When they have negative feelings, their tail wagging is biased to the left." The article discusses some interesting research about left brain vs. right brain asymmetry in dogs.

Many thanks to Bill and Bonnie for letting Katie and Louie visit their Newf barn and their wonderful Newfies.

A Lovely New Newf Book

Meet Bernice. She is a big Newfoundland dog who often gets confused with a bear. Sounds familiar to us :)

I recently bought this book as a gift for Gary and Natalie. I know they will read and re-read this beautiful story together many times over the years. It's a perfect book for Natalie, who like Bernice, the Newfoundland dog in the story, may feel different at times from other children. It sends a positive message that being different is not just ok, but that it can really be quite wonderful! Gary loved the gift. He ooohhhhed and aaahhhed over the stunning watercolor art and was moved by the heartwarming story. A frequent line throughout the book "Oh my gosh, it's a bear" is one we have heard literally hundreds of times over the years when we take Katie and Louie out for walks. If you happen to read a copy I would love to know what you think of it.

The Final Countdown to Natalie

Way back on July 22, 2006, our dossier (a huge packet of information containing just about every detail of our lives) was recorded in China's adoption system. That date of 7/22/6 became our log in date, which is referred to in the China adoption world as LID. Your LID is what determines when you will be matched with your child. At the time we got our LID, China had just issued referrals of LIDs through 7/13/5. That means that there were 364 calendar days that had to be covered by China referrals from the time that we started in 2006 until later this year when we will receive our referral for Natalie.

I made a paperclip chain of 364 clips to represent each of these days that was between us and our daughter. I hung it over one of the doorways in Natalie's room and as you can see in the picture below, it was so long that it draped over the doorway twice!

Here is the chain today. There are just 9 paperclips remaining until the final clip is reached. It has taken over 5 years for us to get to this point.

To give you an idea of the history of the speed of referrals, here are the average number of calendar days covered each year since we started our adoption process.

2006 12 days/month

2007 8 days/month

2008 6 days/month

2009 3 days/month

2010 5 days/month

2011 ytd 6 days/month

For us this most likely means we will get our referral in the batch after next. Hopefully around the end of September we will get to see sweet Natalie's face for the first time, find out how old she is and where she is currently living in China. It has been the longest journey of my life, but I know Natalie will be worth every moment of waiting.

Soon this blog will shift from "All Newfoundlands all the time" to "Natalie and the Newfoundlands' Great Adventures". I'm getting so excited.

To tide you over until then, here is a video of two sweet Newfoundland dogs with an adorable 16 month old little girl. Too sweet...

Enough Fur for Two Dogs!

Better late than never, I guess. Now that summer is more than half over Louie has finally "decided" to blow his coat. All of this fur came off of him in 20 minutes.

Hopefully Louie will be a little cooler now. You would think after all that he would look naked, but he still has tons of fur left.

If you are curious about how I got so much hair off of him so quickly. Here is a picture of the tool I used:

It's a grooming rake with rotating and retracting pins. It conforms to the dog's body as you use it, so it's pain-free. Katie and Louie seem to enjoy being groomed with it. When Newfoundlands are blowing coat I have found that this tool removes undercoat faster than any other.

Summertime and the Living is [Not] Easy...

Summertime in Arkansas is usually not very pleasant. Unfortunately, this summer seems worse than normal. Our temperatures for the last several weeks have been in the upper 90's to 100's. One recent afternoon our heat index reached 111. Yikes! We go for a walk every morning at 6:00 a.m. but it's still around 80 degrees at that point so our walks have been short. Due to the lack of exercise we have been trying to find ways to keep the Newfs entertained. Katie and Louie play hide and seek the kibble most nights before dinner time and often have wrestling matches in the living room trying to burn off some of their Newfie exhuberance.

Below are some low key shots of two Newfoundland dogs staying mellow and trying to keep their cool in the blistering heat:

Below is Katie trying out our new retaining wall. Louie used to frequently walk on top of the old one that was made out of railroad ties, but Katie never would. Now that we have the new stone wall Katie is getting on it, but Louie wants nothing to do with it.

When Katie reaches the end of the wall she sits down and then pivots 180 degrees on her behind so that she can get off the wall the same way she got on without having to jump down. These Newfs can come up with some interesting maneuvers sometimes.

While we are at work during the week Katie and Louie spend most of their time in the dog room - sleeping I suspect. The room has a giant dog door so they can go outside whenever they choose, but they prefer to stay in the air-conditioned room with 3 fans blowing the cool air on them.

Besides the heat another thing we don't like about summer is that the dogs occasionally get hot spots. Louie recently developed a small one on his leg. I wrapped it up to keep him from licking it. The vet said we would need to apply bitter apple spray to the bandage to get him to leave it alone, but he underestimated our Louie. While I was treating him, Louie never tried to take the bandage off. What a good boy! Now he's all healed up. I truly don't think I've ever encountered another dog as patient and tolerant as Louie. He will let you do anything to him including putting goofy hats on his head as you saw in the 4th of July post.

Louie loves the cool tile floor.

Louie spends a few minutes outside each afternoon waiting by the gate when he knows it's time for us to come home.

Newfie 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

Love and Licks from Katie & Louie

Nesting for Natalie

A robin and her 3 chicks just vacated this nest right outside our back door. This mother's sturdy, sweet nest has been an inspiration to me.

I've spent quite a bit of time this weekend working on child proofing the house. During my breaks I put together a photobook that I will send to Natalie in China as soon as we receive our referral. Usually the nannies at the orphanages or the foster mothers will show pictures of the children's new parents to them. Hopefully when Natalie sees us in person for the first time our faces will be at least a little familiar. I also plan on sending a little stuffed animal with our scents on it. While we are in China with Natalie we will show her pictures of her grandparents, aunts, dogs, etc.

With the Newfs especially, I want to prepare Natalie as much as possible. A good friend of mine had the idea that we show her videos of us playing with Katie and Louie. Natalie will at least be able to see them and hear them a bit before she has the shock of meeting the Giants in person.

Here is Natalie's Family Book in a slideshow format. The music in the background is "This is Home" by Lucy Kaplansky, a wonderful artist and fellow adoptive China mother.

Wow! They Really Are Water Dogs!

During a recent trip to Lake Bennett in Woolly Hollow State Park we discovered that Katie and Louie are real water dogs. Newfoundland dogs are known for their love of water and have a history of water work including saving drowning victims. Katie and Louie had been in the water a couple of times before and didn't seem to be overly excited about it.

Louie's only time to get to retrieve the dumbbell. Katie got it the other 49 times we threw it.

This time though something just clicked and suddenly Katie, a Newf girl who doesn't even like to fetch, was begging us over and over to throw the dumbbell for her to retrieve. If we didn't throw it quickly enough she would start to whine. If we hesitated further we were treated to some very loud and indignant Newfie barks. I think it was the most enthusiasm I've ever seen from her.

Then, like a true Newfoundland hero dog, Louie came to Gary's rescue three times when he was "drowning". Gary decided to go into the lake by himself and told me he was going to pretend like he was having problems just to see what the dogs would do. As you will see in the following video, Louie's water rescue instincts kicked right in without any prior water training. It was absolutely amazing to see how Louie, without hesitation, got to his Daddy as fast as he could and then allowed Gary to gently hold onto his sides as he pulled him into the shore. Once their feet could touch bottom Louie turned to Gary as if to reassure himself that his Daddy was ok and gave Gary sweet kisses.

These dogs never cease to amaze us with their intelligence, loyalty, bravery and sweetness. We are extremely blessed to have them as friends and part of our family.

Katie was completely enamored of her floating dumbbell toy.

Even out of the water she didn't want to let it out of her sight.

The car ride home was a great time for a nap :)

Big and Little Sights In the Backyard

Our Newfoundland dog, Louie, wasn't quite tall enough to see over our 6 foot high privacy fence.

So, he figured out that if he stood up on these bags of stones and then propped one foot up on the water hose hanger he could stretch his neck long enough to check out the activity in the neighbor's yard. Clever boy!




After the excitement next door died down, Katie and Louie supervised Gary and I while we did some weeding in the yard. While I was cutting back some ivy, I found this little turtle.


I named him Terrance before we released him into the wilds of our front yard where he will have yummy hibiscus flowers to eat.


We hope you all are having a great weekend. Love, Charity, Gary, Katie and Louie

Natalie's Room Has Received the Newf Stamp of Approval

Natalie's room is all ready for her...well except for toys to fill her shelves and clothes for her closet.

Katie checked everything out.

She gives the room a big white paw up (since she doesn't have a thumb).

The owls are in honor of Natalie's new Grandmother.

This is where Natalie's toys will be stored.

Louie thinks the new rug is a great snoozing spot.

Katie shows Louie there is room on the new rug for two Newfoundland dogs.