Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Way behind, trip to WI


And the computer isn't helping. Only four out of 10 images loaded. Anyway. In August, Lela, Lian and I flew out to visit my parents in WI on Southwest. The flight was fine, except that 2 baggage checkers for 5 planes doesn't cut it, so we got to Chicago, but our suitcase didn't. Luckily the next flight was 2 hours later, so I only had to hang around the baggage carousel (since we were no longer ticketed and couldn't return to the food court) for that long with a couple of kids who had been up since 4am. Finally we were out of there, driving our rented PT Cruiser to Madison, arriving mid afternoon. The car had satellite radio - Cool! but no list of stations. At least it wasn't all country.
We had a great time and did all the requisite fun stuff, the zoo, the zoo, swimming, playground, the Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival, shopping the real Lands End outlet,the Farmer's Market, dinner at the Ginza with the flaming volcano of onions. Lela and Lian spent a lot of time just being silly with grandma. I missed almost all of the Olympics, as I was doing bedtime alone. I also found that sleeping three in a bed, even king size, is not to restful if the other two are thrashing, flipping, heat seeking missiles. I'll try to post more later.


Just got the news about Sarah Palin




The zoo has a new children's play area with climbing tower, slides, bridge. I had to drag the girls away to actually look at animals

Help I'm stuck. It was so humid that Lian, instead of speeding down the slide was glued by her damp rear and had to inch down.


Lela the Lion.

Mother's Day

Last spring while riding the train home from the city where I had just handed in the last of Lian's paperwork, I had nothing to do since I had gone through all my reading material while waiting at the Chinese Embassy. I got out a notepad and this poem started to flow and practically wrote itself. Adoption can be bittersweet as there is no gain without a loss.
http://www.emkpress.com/mothersday.html

Lian on left in yellow

Lian on left in yellow
about 14 months, with her friend Hailey

Lian at 6 months

Lian at 6 months
Who could resist that smile?

Lian at 4 months

Lian at 4 months
Right after surgery for her lip

Sha'anxi Province Map

Sha'anxi Province Map
HanZhong in lower left

China Map

China Map
Sha'anxi Province in center