It's A Wonderful Life

Our 16 year old son, Pierce, has been getting into photography - inspired by our oldest son, Tyler, who is a very talented shutter bug and is good enough that he is starting to get paid gigs.  Anyway, about 10:00 PM a few nights ago, Pierce grabbed the camera and tripod and headed outside.   We had just been discussing increasing our efforts to get the kids in bed earlier, so this late night photo activity seemed to be a violation of our newly determined bed time.  With a little bit of frustration in my voice and probably on my face,  I questioned Pierce about what he was doing.  He just gave me his big "can't say no to me" grin and said, "It just rained and I wanted to get some good shots."  In photography, timing is everything, so I let him proceed.  He didn't tell us what he was planning to get "good shots" of.  So of course when he came back in and posted these photos of Gideon's tree on his facebook page, I had a generous helping of dad&

We've been home for a day now. Simon really likes playing with his big brothers and sisters. He has his own entourage at his beck and call. I had to seek him out a few times so he knew I was still here. Not that he cared but it's necessary for his adjustment. I laid on the floor by him while he played with the trains and he laid down on me. I was shocked!! It lasted about 15 seconds and abruptly ended. I would love to say that he wants to accept me and love me but that's not where he is at yet. He is still angry at me because I am trying to replace his nannies at the orphanage. Simon spent the day wandering the house and discovering new things. He played trains quite a bit of the time and played outside. He is going to love the bikes. He was intrigued by the trampoline but didn't last too long. Niya was on the tramp with him and noticed that after just a couple of minutes he was breathing hard and climbed down. He is fairly good at slowing down when needed but not

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty busy days. Wednesday started early so we could get everything in that Hannah wanted to do. We didn't end up accomplishing as much as we would have liked.  We spent some time on Beijing Road. It is a shopping area that also historical value. In the middle of the road are large rectangles in the ground covered with glass. You can see different layers of the road that date back as far as 900 BC. It is very interesting to see the types of road used and to recognize how old and continuous this civilization is. We didn't get any pictures at Beijing road. We were a little preoccupied at the time. Later that evening we went on a riverboat cruise down the Pearl River. We haven't heard great things about the cruises especially the food served so we have never done it. Doug really wanted to go on our other trips but because of finances, a stingy wife and a sick child we hadn't done it yet. Our guide isn't a fan of the cruises either

We had an early morning appointment at the consulate last Tuesday in Guangzhou.  That is when we take the oath to confirm that all the information in our adoption paperwork is true and accurate.  Then there is an interview and a discussion to make sure we are aware of the special needs of the child so there are no surprises.   We had just heard the previous afternoon from some friends, the Whickers, at the safari park that the government computers were down and no appointments happened for the families who were scheduled for their consulate appointments on Monday.   We then bumped into our guide a little later and he told us the same news.  It looked grim for us to have our appointment the next morning, but he said we would go anyway and hope for the best. So the rest of the afternoon and evening we were contemplating all the options to change our airline tickets, extend our stay, let our older children know so they could arrange their schedules to continue watching the child

I started this post  while in China but the computer was giving me issues and we were too busy to keep trying to fix it. We had a hard time with Skype as well. We think the problems came from the controls Doug's work placed on the computer. We chose to bring his work computer so he could access things and do some work from China. If we were to do it again we would bring our home computer and eliminate all the problems. We took a day to go to the Safari Park. It's actually a zoo but the coolest zoo I have been to. I don't particularly like zoos for a few reasons but the Safari Park is a different story.  Like any amusement park the Safari Park has mascots walking around.  This guy was being pretty cautious with Simon but he was afraid.  Against my shoulder was an anxious smile. Doug and I did a little dance and finally got Simon and the picture in a good position for a picture. The mascot wanted to get a picture with Hannah. He was doing pos