Sunday, March 12, 2006

Life continues to be busy, what's new? Stacie continues to be exceptionally well adjusted and she is just a great kid. She amazes us with how fast she learns things - she imitates a lot of what she sees us doing. She's also starting to say words, like duck, hi, bird, up, apple, etc. I think she understands most of what we say to her.

The last week of February we went to Florida as a family. For the most part we had good weather. We went to Disney World for a day and Sea World for another day. The other time we just relaxed and had fun.

We also visited with two families that were part of our adoption group in China. Both of them live in the Orlando area, and we had a chance to spend a fair amount of time with one of the families. Both of their daughters are doing very well as well. It was cool to see how all of their girls and Stacie are doing so well. It is a blessing.

Well, I figure it's time to post some more pictures. Attached are two pictures from Florida (Stacie on the beach in Cocoa Beach) and a family picture from Christmas 2005.

Finally, since it's been so long since we updated this blog, I'm not sure if anyone reads it any longer. If you are reading this, please post a comment so that we know you're out there! Thanks.

Gord

Sunday, December 4, 2005

It's been way too long since we updated the blog. It's been a busy fall and now we're into the Christmas season.

Stacie continues to do very well, and she's a joy to have. She is so well adjusted it's really amazing. The other kids have really been good with her, and she's a lot of fun.

She's been walking since mid-October, and she keeps us busy. She also continues to communicate with us using baby signs - she uses signs for the words "more", "thank you", "please", "potty", etc. She likes American food, but she also likes Chinese food - especially steamed rice.

Stacie also is doing well with other kids. When Sue goes to the YMCA she puts Stacie in the kids area and Stacie plays there. We've also put her in the baby area at church a couple of times and she does okay there.

Stacie saw her first snowflakes a few weeks ago, and she was really excited. Sue called me at work and said that she was pointing at them and making a lot of noise.

Attached is a picture of Stacie with her sisters and brother getting a pumpkin.

That's my short update - here's an update from Stephanie, Stacie's 14 year old sister:

(From Stephanie Toering):

What can I say about Stacie? She is amazing, exciting, wonderful, energetic, comforting, and loving! She has adjusted very good at home in the past 3 months. Her smile lights up the room, and when she laughs she starts everyone else up too!! Everyone on my tennis team and all of our friends and family have been loving her unconditionally. It seems like everywhere we go she causes quite the conversation, they say how cute she is, and asks where she came from. We are working on not spoiling her too much, but that is the hardest thing!

Stacie is a wonderful baby, but she is like any other 15 month old. She is exploring her boundaries and wants a lot of attention. She loves to be with kids, but she has learned how to scream! She is getting better, but she still uses it once in a while.

Today I worked in Stacie's nursery room at church, and she does well playing with other kids, but when I went to hold another child, her jealousy showed up. She first made a pouty face, and then she started crying buckets. I shouldn't have been happy that she did that, but I was. It made me feel great that she loves me so much as to do that, instead of just going to another worker.

Stacie has changed our lives forever, and we love her so so much! She has been the perfect match for our family, and we wouldn't want it any other way.

Stacie's proud big sis,
~Stephanie

Sunday, September 11, 2005 at about 1 pm Michigan time

It's now been over 2 weeks since we've been home and I'm finally, finally getting to making a new post. I had planned on doing this within a day or two after we returned, but that trip back really took a lot out of me and I couldn't get over the jet lag for a while. Of course, that doesn't explain why it took more than 2 weeks to do this - I guess my excuse is I'm back to work, the kids (other than Stacie) are back to school, etc.

Anyway, the trip back from Hong Kong to Chicago seemed to take forever. Stacie was actually quite good on the way back - she cried some but not much - but the 14 hour flight plus 1 hour delay on the tarmac beforehand wasn't too fun for me. We were sitting in coach class, of course, and for some reason I have a knack of sitting behind the first person in the plane that wants to recline his or her seat. Well, that was the case again, and leg room was terrible. Aside from dozing off for maybe 30 minutes or so at the most I wasn't able to sleep at all. The movies that were shown on the plane were not funny or interesting and so I couldn't make the time pass that way either.

Well, it's been so long ago and so I guess I don't need to explain more about the trip back, other than to say we ended up running through O'Hare airport to make our connecting flight to Grand Rapids. We thought we would miss the flight because our flight was an hour late, but fortunately our connecting flight was 1 1/2 hour late and so we made the flight to Grand Rapids.

It was good coming home, and we were met by relatives and friends at the airport. After spending some time there, we stopped at Taco Bell on the way home to satisfy Stephanie's cravings. We were met at home by some other friends, and we had a really enjoyable time. Another thing that was great is that almost all of our remodeling and redecorating at our home was completed while we were gone, and it looked great. Thanks to a lot of people that helped out in doing that!

Like I said before, I had a tough time with the jet lag coming back. We returned on Friday August 26 and I took 4 or 5 hour naps on Saturday and Sunday. By the middle of the next week, though, I was pretty much over it.

Since we've been home we've celebrated Stacie's first birthday (again) and Stephanie's 14th birthday and we've also been busy with typical school stuff: Stephanie started high school and is playing tennis, Sarah is busy starting Junior High, and Ryan started 5th grade and is busy with soccer. Sue is busy with Stacie at home and with the kids at school, and that keeps her busy. I returned back to work, of course, and so there's a lot of stuff going on.

The trip exceeded my (high) expectations. There were many things that happened that were such blessings. I could write a lot about these, but here's just some of them in no particular order:

• Sue injured her back just before we left. She could hardly lift her left leg. She took some muscle relaxers but that didn't help. She went to be prayed for at church on the Sunday before we left. Sue can tell you more about it, but the bottom line is that her back was healed and while we were in China Sue felt better health-wise than she has in years.
• Stacie is really a great baby and great to be around. She has bonded very well with Sue and the rest of the family. She is a joy. She will also keep us young because I think she will be an active child . . . . :)
• We had safe travel going both ways and Stacie did well on the return flight (better than I did!).
• The trip itself was great – not only were we able to do some cool stuff (see Tiananmen Square, climb the Great Wall, see Hong Kong, etc.), but in addition we were able to meet a Chinese Christian woman and attend her church. We were able to go out to the countryside and see how those in the country lived. We were able to see different parts of China (Beijing, Hunan province, Guangzhou and Hong Kong). We were able to have some authentic Chinese food (which wasn’t necessarily a favorite of ours, but it still was a good experience). Sue was able to talk with a lot of different people about adoption and why we are doing it. A lot of Chinese women were also very interested.
• We were hoping we wouldn't have to pull the kids out of school, and we didn't have to do so. Our local school district (Jenison) started school after Labor Day for the first time in years, which means that the kids had a week to recuperate before starting back to school. That was great.
• We had a really great group of people to travel with (10 other families). I hope that we're able to keep in touch with all of them by having a reunion from time to time.
• Stacie is having such a positive impact on our family. The kids really love her and she truly is a blessing.

There are many other things we could talk about as well - it was a very memorable time.

I've attached several pictures to this blog - pictures of us outside the Hong Kong airport, pictures of us inside the Hong Kong airport, a picture of us behind a banner welcoming Stacie in the Grand Rapids airport, a close up picture of Stacie, and a picture of Stacie resting on her Aunt Deb while on the grass at my parent's house.

Last but not least, even though I am delinquent in making this post, we're going to try to update the blog from time to time so please check back again! Thanks again for all of the prayers and support, and we look forward to seeing all of you.

Gord

Friday, August 26 at 7 am Hong Kong time

Well, this is it. We've finished and now we're heading home. It's been a great trip and a wonderful experience for us.

We have to leave for the airport at about 9:30 or so and our plane leaves at 12:45 pm Hong Kong time (which is 12:45 am Michigan time) - we'll arrive in Grand Rapids at 5:40 pm Michigan time. The trip over was long, but the return trip will be especially long with a 1 year old. We'd appreciate your prayers that Stacie will do well.

Sue and I will have one final post on our blog once we return giving our thoughts about the trip and the adoption, but for now I better get going to help pack!

Attached is a picture from last night of the harbor in Hong Kong. (There are better views, but almost all of our night pictures showed up as blurry due to the combination of it being night and being on a boat that was rocking with the waves.)

Take care, and see you soon!

Gord

Here's a picture (actually, 2 copies of the same picture) of the kids on top of Victoria's Peak in Hong Kong (see Sue's post earlier tonight for a narrative). For some reason I couldn't add it to her post.

Hi. I haven’t posted in awhile since I have been busy being mom to four children. It is great to see Stephanie, Sarah and Ryan all interacting with Stacie and loving her to pieces. When they go to school Stacie will surely miss playing with them. It was encouraging to see Stacie love both the swimming pool and her bath.

Yesterday was another whirlwind day. We had to pack everything, pick up different things that we ordered such as etchings of the kids, paintings, Ryan’s tailor-made shirt, pearls, etc. and go to the American Consulate. We even had to buy another suitcase! At the American Consulate we received Stacie’s visa and took an oath on behalf of Stacie. So now when we get to the United States she will automatically become a United States Citizen!! Yeehaa!

We quickly said goodbye to our group of 11 families and took a shuttle van to catch the train to Hong Kong. I was so sad to say goodbye to the other families who had gone through so much with us. Again, I was crying (I hate goodbyes). As I looked at each family with their daughter I thought of how here we were only 10 days earlier meeting each other and climbing the Great Wall of China to meeting our daughter’s for the first time to now seeing all of the babies bonded with their parents—smiling and cooing and so happy to be loved. So much emotion and so much we have gone through this trip and more so this past year and a half. It was a very long “pregnancy” but so worth the wait. She is the perfect baby for us. As I look over at Gordon he is sitting on the bed watching TV and Stacie is hanging out with him and so comfortable with him. I have to laugh because she is babbling mamamamama. Oh well, she’ll get it someday.

The train ride last night to Hong Kong took less than two hours and it was a high speed train. It was nice to experience another mode of transportation. We sat with a group of people from Australia.

Today we took a Grayline bus tour of Hong Kong. It was a great way to see the city. Hong Kong is made up of 3 islands, and tonight we took the ferry over from the island our hotel is on to the central island of Hong Kong. The skyline was fabulous. Everything was lit up like New York City. Our hotel is right in the middle of excitement—bright lights and people everywhere.
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Our flight leaves tomorrow (Friday, August 26) at 12:45 p.m. Hong Kong time on United. I would appreciate your prayers again for safety and that no one gets sick on the plane. I am not looking forward to the long flight. I hope that Stacie will be able to sleep on the plane. We fly to Chicago and then to Grand Rapids—arriving around 5:30 p.m.!! This trip has been one I will never forget but I am homesick and look forward to being around family and friends again.

Sue

Tuesday, August 23, 11 am and 3 pm Guangzhou time (post by Gord)

[Note: This is a long post today because it includes Stephanie's post from Saturday/Sunday which never showed up on our blog. If you only have a short period of time, skip to Stephanie's post at the bottom because hers is the more interesting one by far!]

Today’s our second day in Guangzhou. I’ve had some extra time to type up this post both in the morning and in the afternoon because Stacie is taking some naps (Sue said she cried a lot last night, which is unusual). While Stacie is napping, Sue and the other kids are doing lots of shopping at the local mom and pop stores surrounding the White Swan Hotel.

There are some particularly appropriate Chinese souvenirs that we bought today. Each one of us bought a ink stamp-type of thing (called “chops”) which allows you to stamp your name (in both Chinese and English) on letters and anything else you want.

There are a couple of souvenirs that are pretty cool. One of them is a small bottle, and based on a photograph that we provide an artist paints a picture of our kids inside the bottle. The photo isn’t put inside the bottle – it’s just used for the artist to copy to paint the picture. It’s pretty amazing. The other souvenir involves a photograph again, but in this case an artist takes a photograph of our kids and then engraves a picture of the kids on a small stone surface. Again, the photo isn’t placed on the stone – it’s just used for the artist to copy to engrave the picture.

There’s one souvenir that everyone gets for free for staying at the White Swan. We received two of them because we have two rooms. It’s a Barbie doll (an American woman) with a Chinese baby girl. I understand that we’re not supposed to open the box because these are very special. The box says that the doll is presented by Mattel to “adopting parents of Chinese orphan children staying at the White Swan Hotel, Guangzhou, China.” It’s a pretty neat doll and something that I think we will treasure.

There are some things that we’ve learned in traveling to China, and here are just a few:

1. Bring plenty of cash. Fortunately, Sue decided to bring more than I would have. Aside from hotels, there are very few places that take American credit cards. Some take typical American credit cards (Visa, MC, etc.) but only if they are issued in China. We found that out in Wal-mart, which is where I tried to use my credit card but wasn’t able to do so. I didn’t have enough cash in my wallet to pay for the stuff at the check out line, but fortunately one of the members of our group was right behind with cash for me to borrow. The bottom line is you can’t have too much cash in your wallet nor can you have too much cash back at the hotel room.

2. I’ve been able to borrow electricity adapters (from 220V to 110V) at all of the hotels we have stayed in. However, if you have plugs that have a 3rd prong for grounding or if you have a 2 prong plug with one prong larger than the others, then you may want to bring your own converter because each of these have created some problems. Ultimately, though, I was able to make everything work out.

3. Don’t bring a lot of food. We brought a ton of snack foods in the event we needed them for lunch or whatever. We won’t end up eating a lot of them and will leave them here because we need the space in our luggage. We didn’t eat a lot of the snacks because there are grocery stores where you can buy snacks, including some American stuff. The main reason why we didn’t eat a lot of the snack foods that we packed, though, is because there are always Western-style restaurants around. We have eaten two or three times each at McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut. This has been for lunch only, except on one occasion we did eat at McDonald’s for dinner when the kids didn’t want Chinese. We have typically eaten Chinese for dinner. (By the way, Stephanie and Ryan in particular are yearning for Taco Bell right now – Stephanie said she wanted to stop at Taco Bell on the way home from the airport in Grand Rapids.)

I received a question about why we are only staying 2 nights at Guongzhou when others have had to stay longer (sometimes up to 5 nights). Actually, most of our group is staying for 3 nights – we leave early tomorrow evening for Hong Kong, which the rest of the group isn’t doing. As to why we only need 3 nights rather than 5, though, I can’t answer that question. The question was also asked as to how far the new Consulate is from the White Swan. I think it’s about a 15 minute drive, but we won’t know that until late tomorrow afternoon.

I don’t have any new pictures from today that I wanted to post, so attached is a picture with Stephanie and Stacie in the pool in Changsha.

Hey! I was almost done with today’s post when I found out that I could finally, finally access our blog site (which calls into question my conclusion that the blogspot.com website was taboo here in China). I have now found out that Stephanie’s post didn’t show up last Saturday or Sunday when I was having major problems with the Internet. My brother Marc brought the problem to my attention, and fortunately I had Stephanie’s post saved as a Word file. So, the rest of this post is from Stephanie from last Saturday or Sunday, when we were still in Changsha. Enjoy!

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Saturday, August 20, 2005 about 4:30 pm Changsha time


Hey Everyone,

It’s Stephanie! To start, I thought that I liked Chinese food, but that was “Americanized” Chinese food. “Chinese food” is a fish that has the head, eyes, and gills still on it! Doesn’t that just sound nummy!:) Anyways, we have had an awesome trip so far, and if you have time, you can read on what I think about it.

Now, in case you didn’t know, I was the one in the family that pushed this thing along, so if you are wondering what I think of her, it isn’t the brightest question. OF COURSE I am so excited to have Stacie! We couldn’t have gotten a better baby for us if we had hand picked her. She fits right in, and is happy all of the time. She is starting to learn that we are her family forever and that we are not going to let anything bad happen to her. She trusts us, and understands that we love her so much! The Chinese women here are always wanting to hold her, but most of the time she just pulls away…..which is a good sign of bonding. She is one of the brightest one year olds that I have met. She continues to amaze us in everything that she does. It makes me wonder what we were doing without her! Some of her characteristics are starting to show, this meaning, she is very strong willed, if she knows what she wants, she is going to get it one way or another and it is hard for us not to give in to her.

The hotel is beautiful! There is staff everywhere that want to please us by helping in every way. There is so much stuff to do like play tennis, swim, ping pong, get a massage (where my mom is right now), go bowling…(I know, a bowling alley in the hotel, weird!), shopping, eat at the restaurant, and much more! Only one problem, the beds are like sleeping on a wood board.

China is so much different than the United States. Every time that we walk on the streets, it is so weird because we stick out like a sore thumb. Usually, people just look at us because my dad is so tall, but now it is because my brother has blonde hair and blue eyes, me and my sister are wearing shorter shorts than Chinese women do, we have 6 people in our family, and one of them is Chinese! It’s crazy!

If you are ever thinking about adoption please do it, I can guarantee that you won’t regret it!

So much love from the other side of the world,
<3 Stephanie