I Got "G"!!!!

Great Wall China Adoptions
This is the adoption agency that David & I used to complete our family. Without them, Erin wouldn't be a part of our lives. Nor would we have the lifelong friends that we now have.






Grapes
I love grapes!! In fact, when I buy grapes, I buy bags of them - green, purple, red, black. It doesn't matter because I love them all!














Great Wall of China



When David & I traveled to China in 2003 to adopt Erin, sightseeing wasn't allowed due to SARS. We decided that we would love to go back & see the The Great Wall when Erin is older.









Glitter


I love to work with glitter when I do projects with my students. It's messy but everyone has so much fun with the stuff.

Visiting Susan & Her Family

Julianna & Erin - The Yangchun Cuties!

And just what do you say here???

The weekend of February 11th Erin & I visited our friends Susan & Art & their family. We try to visit them on their turf once a year since they come down to visit us so frequently. Our visit usually coincides with Chinese New Year. Susan & I usually have a great time just zoning & doing nothing other drinking our chai lattes from Starbucks. Yummy! We're so addicted that our girls know to let us be comfy when we're sipping away.

Our girls have a great time together which makes it especially nice for the adults. Susan's girls always make Erin feel like another sister when we're all together. They play outside (weather permitting) & just have a "grand ole time." I love to sit back, chat with Susan & hear the girls laughing.

Chinese New Year Celebration!

Erin & I went to Spring Hill the weekend of Feb 11th to celebrate Chinese New Year with our friends the Fremers & the rest of the FL Great Wall families. Wow! What a wonderful weekend we had.

Saturday we met Snow Wu (the president) & LeighAnne Baseflug of Great Wall China Adoption at the airport. Their plane came in right after ours. It was a pleasure to meet these very special ladies. They came in for the FL CNY celebration & were quite surprised by how large a gathering we had. LeighAnne read a book to the children during our party, & Snow took pictures with a number of the families.

This CNY party is an annual event & put together by Susan with help from many other people. In fact, some of my friends from S FL also came up for the party. Marc Weinstock was an AMAZING emcee! I'm not allowed to show the video of Susan doing the chicken dance. Snow mentioned that she had never seen the chicken dance or heard "YMCA" at a CNY celebration! The families all had a wonderful time, & best of all, we raised a substantial amount of money to be donated to Love Without Boundaries.

Then & Now

January 2007

August 2006

August 2005

April 1, 2003 David & I got a referral of the most beautiful child to come from China - Chun HuaXu now known as Erin Chelsie. We fell in love immediately!

Every once in a while my friend Sandra does a retrospect of her girls, & I always enjoy it. Today I thought I would finally do something to see how Erin has changed. I usually save all of the pictures from a year onto a cd & put the cd away for safekeeping. That made it hard find anything older than 2005. However, I can definitely see Erin changing just from August 2005 up till a month ago. I just love seeing how she has grown!

Erin has been home sick this week running really odd fevers. She's running anywhere from 99.8 - 100 during the day & will be pretty cool to the touch. Around 2:00a.m., she spikes all the way up to almost 102!

David stayed home with her Monday & Tuesday while I took over today & for tomorrow also. Erin loves going to school & knows that if she has to stay home, there is no going outside to ride her scooter or her bicycle. However, she knows that time with Daddy means watching "rubber monsters" on tv. Being such SciFi fans, David & I found a way to have Erin watch the shows & movies (within reason of course) that we both enjoy. She is totally transfixed when we put on Babylon 5 or Harry Potter or even any of the Lord of the Rings movies! Staying home with Mommy, on the other hand, means playing with play doh & coloring. And then there's the food. Since Erin's such a horrible eater, David & I tend to relax the rules when she's sick just to get her to eat. This week Erin has even been hungry enough to eat!

I'm hoping that tonight her fever doesn't spike too much if at all. The dr told us that this bout of funky fevers with no other symptoms is going around. Supposedly it ends in 72 hours. I'd like for that to happen. My poor girl is usually pretty happy & content to amuse herself. When she's sick, I can't even go potty without her crying for me. I hate seeing her so miserable.

Just - "Stuff"

Erin has been in a silly mood lately. There's a lot going on here & we really encourage her to show how she's feeling - as long as it's not a tantrum that is.

She is working very hard in school right now. Her grade level is one of 3 that will be putting on a show in school. Each grade level represents a different country, & they get to sing some songs from that country. Erin's grade is representing Italy. Just ask her how Italian people say good morning, & she will smile with a huge grin & say "Buon Giorno!" I love that her preschool does this although I have mentioned that I'd love to see them do China. Her teacher for next year, Miss Cindy, told me that she has done China in the past & would consider it for next year. I'm not holding my breath since she really can't accomodate just one parent. But it would be fun - especially if the show was around Chinese New Year again!

I went to a Spa Night this past week at the synagogue. It was a fund raiser for the ECC (Early Childhood Center). Talk about a nice mom's night out. I had a neck & back massage, a hand & foot massage & my polish changed! I love getting spoiled on the odd occasion. I even won tons of stuff! Erin got a really cute tye-die t-shirt with baby bugs & baby taz embroidered on it, a huge basket with one of the Barbie 12 Dancing Princesses & matching vanity. For myself I won a free sitting at a local photograpy studio that one of the moms works at. Okay, so I'm bad. I outbid my friend Viv. I couldn't help myself! We had Erin's 4 year portraits done, & they were horrible!!!

Of course we also had some wonderful news on the friend's adoption front. Our friends Candy & David finally received their referral after a 16 month wait!!!! Rachel is just beautiful. Now we just have to load Rachel up with some adorable outfits. I know her FCC family is just dying to shop for them.

Erin Loves Her FCC Time

Once a month we go out to dinner with a bunch of families who have adopted from a variety of Asian countries although most are from China. In addition, once a month on a Saturday, we attend a play date at a local park.

It's always nice to see Erin with a group of children where she doesn't stand out. Of course, it's also nice that I don't have to explain to anyone that, yes, my daughter looks Oriental & then have to explain that it's because she's from China. Thankfully, I don't get too many foolish questions once they hear Erin is Chinese.

These are people who have fast become a support group for me in many ways. I don't have to explain to anyone why I don't have bio children. They understand why I'm so nuts about Erin's sleep issues. They know why I've chosen a particular pediatrician - even if there are closer ones to my home. These same people understand that I cry at the drop of a pin looking at my daughter & their children too just because the day ends in "Y."

Maybe that's why I love my FCC time too.

Sweet Amanda is Here!

Yesterday we went down to Miami to visit my brother & his family. We have been blessed with an addition to our family. Amanda was born January 10th at 10:31 pm & weighed in at 7lbs 11oz. Erin was super excited to go visit her cousin Seany (as she insists upon calling him) & to meet her newest cousin Amanda.

Erin was 20 months when Sean was born. We went to visit them in the hospital & my brother & SIL were sweet enough to let David & me hold him. He was absolutely a sweet little angel & barely peeped. Erin was decidely not happy with either of us holding Sean in our arms.

Fast forward to 2007, & along comes Amanda. Unfortunately, Amanda has some jaundice issues as do many babies, & I wasn't comfortable holding her even though my brother & SIL wanted me to. Erin had no problems & couldn't wait to get her hands on Amanda. It was so funny when my brother pointed out how yellow Amanda is. Erin piped in "Just like me momma!"

I took what seemed like a gazillion pics yesterday & ordered them immediately. There's even a cute photo of my SIL with her 2 babies that I'm so in love with. I can't wait to get the pics & mail them out to my dad & stepmother. I know they're going to fall in love with Sweet Amanda.

What a day!!

What a day!! I don't even want a redo. I just want to go on to Sunday!!

Erin was just an absolute sweetheart this morning. Even though she was up early as always, she chose not to wake either David or myself up. She did get into our bed & play with her cards but was so quiet I didn't notice her until I turned over. She even let me go back to sleep until 8:00!! When I got out of bed, she was in her room playing nicely. Then she told me that I was proud of her for not waking us up.

We left the house around 9:45 to go for breakfast. Too bad I had to go with a migraine. After breakfast we went to buy Erin some new sneakers & sandals. Have you ever been shocked to find out you were totally wrong about the size you had your child wearing? Erin has been wearing size 8 - 8.5 shoes for a while now. It turns out that she is now a size 9. She never told us her feet were uncomfortable & was willing to put on the same size shoes. I'm so glad I remembered the shoe sizer in the store. Too bad we walked out with so few pairs - 2 pair of sneakers & a pair of sandals. Don't worry though! Imelda Jr will be back at Payless on Monday when they get their new shipment in. David is already thanking the stars above that he doesn't have to go shoe shopping.

When we got home, David went to pick up our lawn mower from Sears. I gave Erin her bath so we could go visit my brother & his new baby daughter. Amanda was born January 10th, & Erin is so excited that she actually got into a bath willingly. During bathtime, Erin & I kept hearing strange noises coming from all of the drains in the house. I opened the shower door to find water bubbling up. Too wierd for me so I told David to deal with it when he got home.

By 12:00 we had the City come out to verify there was no problem with the line in the streets. Nope. The problem is in our water line. (BTW, at this point my migraine is hammering away at me, & the meds weren't helping.) We called a local plumber to come out. He got to our house at 7:00 pm!! Yup. Tree roots are invading. He fixed the problem for us - $400 later.

Now it's 10:00 pm, the lines are drained & I still have that darn migraine. However, I am determined to go meet my new niece tomorrow! My brother sent pics, & she's really cute.

Back to WW & Hoping I Can Do It

Well, I'm committing to weight loss AGAIN. I went on WW back before we adopted Erin, & I lost about 30 pounds. Much of that weight came back as we tried to get Erin to eat real food. Now she's home 3 1/2 years, & I'm tired of being fat. I'm not expecting miracles - just an awful lot of hard work. I hate to exercise, have no metabolism to speak of & like food.

I went back on WW since I was pretty successful last time. This time David is trying to do it with me. It's the end of day 1, & I already want to hurt him. He gets 44 points a day. I get 29 points a day. He's trying to convince me he's not hungry, but I know my man. You can't be married 18 years to someone who is a nighttime nosher & believe that he's not dying to munch on his arm. I'm glad he's trying WW since his meds make weight loss so hard.

I'm also hoping that Erin will see us eating better & maybe be tempted to try a vegetable. That girl will eat nothing that is green! Not even grapes. Although my friend Debbie tells me that when she watches Erin at her house, her son Jonathon can get Erin to eat salad! I tried that logic last night when I offered her a veggie. She looked at me after I offered her some veggies & said "NO." ARGH!!!!

I've Been Tagged

Okay, so my dear friend Sandra decided to tag me. This is such a fun way to get to know your friends & other people. Here I go.

A - available or taken: Available

B- best friend: don't really have one

C- cake or pie: cake

D- drink of choice: coffee and coca cola

E-essential item you use everyday: planner

F-favorite color: purple

G-gummy bears or worms: as long as they're not red, I don't care

H-hometown: born Brooklyn, NY & currently living in Coral Springs, FL

I-indulgence: manicure & pedicure

J-January or February: February - the month we went DTC!

K-kid's names: Erin (4)

L-life incomplete without: my family & friends

M-marriage date: August 28, 1988

N-number of siblings: 1 brother

O-oranges or apples: I have to choose!?

P-phobias or fears: leaving Erin to grow up without a mother

Q-favorite quote:

R-reason to smile: Erin & David

S-season: I live in FL where we have only 1 season - hot. Ugh! Up North I just love autumn with the changing colors.

T-tag 3 people: Angel, Lori, . . .

U-unknown fact about me: I'm fairly shy.

V-veggie I don't like: carrots

W-worst habit: unnecessary guilt

X-xrays: Yup. Too many to count!

Y-your favorite food: Sushi & Thai

Z-zodiac: Aries

Happy 2007 from Erin!

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2006 Leaves Us

As 2006 leaves us, I'm sitting here thinking of the past year & wondering about the changes 2007 will bring.

In 2006 many of my FCC friends have been united with their own little blessings. I have been overjoyed to see new children come home & change the lives of their Forever Families. In 2007, I hope to see more families united. There is nothing quite as special as holding our children the first time & introducing them to family & friends.

In 2006, I picked up some new hobbies - blogging & scrapbooking. While I am by no means anywhere close to an expert in either hobby, I'm having a total blast. I don't get a chance to really scrap at home, but when I do, it's nice that Erin likes to sit with me & make her own creations. Her teachers warned me that Erin likes craft time at school, & it's the same at home.

David & I have decided to finally do something about our long-term love of trains. In 2007, we are building an N-scale train layout. As usual, David is doing the technical & manual labor. I'm going to have a blast picking out all of the buildings for the layout. Erin is even into this hobby with her own train setup.

I don't believe in making resolutions. As a teenager & young adult I always made resolutions for the following year. The adult in me finally realized that each time I made a resolution, I was disappointed when I didn't follow through on the commitment. Now I just think about the things I would like to accomplish but don't get crazy when things don't go the way I had planned.

So. Out with 2006 & in with 2007. Bring it on! I can handle it.

Wishing you all a very happy & healthy 2007!

Hantelech, Feeselech & Tuches

Yesterday I had to work late so David picked Erin up from our friend Debbie's house. When I called to tell him that I was on my way home, David couldn't wait to give me some important, earth shattering news. One of the hardest things to teach a young child who is learning Hebrew is the "ch" sound. It doesn't sound like the"ch" in Christmas or the "ch" in chunky. It's a gutteral sound that many people have trouble making.

When Erin was getting into David's truck, she showed him her hands & said "Daddy, these are my hantelech (little hands in Yiddish). David then taught her to say feeselech (little feet). She pronounced both words perfectly. Then she pointed & showed David her "tuches."

Go ahead & laugh, but these are the little things in life that we all smile with pride about. Besides, how could you not laugh? I did!

Chanukah Fun

Erin loves Chanukah!! Yes, as you can see, she has a blast getting presents. However, my darling daughter also looks forward to saying the blessings each night & saying "Happy Chanukah Momma & Daddy!" David & I are filled with such pride in Erin. This is the 1st year that Erin was able to chant each of the blessings right along with us.

Each year, on the first night of Chanukah, David makes latkes (potato pancakes) for dinner. Erin's 1st year home, she was eager to try them since she had recently started eating real food 100% of the time. Last year, she wanted nothing to do with them. This year, she couldn't get enough sour cream on them!

My friend Vivian & her daughter Kerri gave Erin 2 books for Chanukah this year. I can now officially recite "I Have a Little Dreidel" all on my own! It seems that Erin loves the song so I had to read the book at least 3 times each night. Not such a bad tradition at all.

I can't wait to see what next year brings us at Chanukah time!

Well, curiosity wins at the Museum of Discovery & Science also! Erin loves to see how things work. Since we're on vacation, we decided to play tourist at home! The weather outside was totally yucky (wind & rain) so this was the perfect place to visit for the day.

David & Erin love to do things together - plant, trains (okay I love that one too!), cook, models. I like to sit back & watch them enjoy themselves together. This was the perfect day for that.

Butterfly World

Wednesday was Butterfly World day. In the 18 years that the place has been here, we hadn't made the time to just go. We were always too busy. Isn't it funny what happens when you have a child? All of a sudden there's time to do plenty of things you wouldn't do before. We're loving every minute of it!

Erin was really excited to be going here because she loves butterflies. However, when we walked through the doorway to the exihibit, she froze. All of these butterflies just come flying over, & it really alarmed her. We've been working on teaching Erin to not be afraid of new experiences. It took a while, but the beauty of Butterfly World won.

Erin had a wonderful time just taking in all of the sights. Her favorite part of the day was going back & forth on the suspension bridge. The first time she went over it, it was as if her troubles were tossed into the pond below. She was smiles & sunshine the rest of the day.

5:30 am Appointment to Play!1

This is Erin's train table. She woke up early the next morning (5:30!) so she could play with her trains. Can we say obsessed???

Trains, Trains, Trains

Erin loves trains.

That's not really a surprise in my house. David & I are into trains also. In fact, I have my own train set - the Hogwarts Express from the Harry Potter movies. I've been trying to convince David that we don't need our dining room table anymore. No, I don't want to get rid of it. I'd like to turn it into my own train setup! I'm getting there. He's almost convinced.

My friend Lisa C found a train table for $20 at a garage sale a few weeks ago. Knowing how nuts we are, she picked it up for us & had her hubby bring it over for Erin. Tonight I surprised by taking it in & helping her set up her trains. She had so much fun playing tonight.

Cookie Comes for a Visit

Each week someone in Erin's class gets to take Cookie the stuffed dog home for the weekend. This was Erin's weekend to have Cookie visit. Imagine my surprise when Erin brought in the cutest little stuffed dog with the most horrible floral aroma. The last little girl decided Cookie needed a bath & washed him with some floral perfume soap. First thing we did was try to de-perfume Cookie with a turn in the dryer. Nope. It didn't work at all. Cookie still smells like a florist shop. However, Erin had so much fun taking Cookie around with her all weekend. Erin decided the best time was when they got to snuggle & sleep at night.