Catching Up

Been a slacker. Resorting to the bullet list to catch up.

• Went to see the Peking Acrobats on Jan. 30th. Insane what some people can do with their bodies-I'm happy when I can bend over to tie my shoes without blacking out! I swear to you there was a guy holding and twirling an umbrella while a girl was riding a unicycle on top of it. Just bizarre.
• Left for CA the next day to join in my sister's college graduation festivities. It was great to see the whole family again.
• While there, Matt and T did some snowboarding with my brother, I caught up with an old friend over pedicures and breakfast, and we decided to go to American Girl Pl*ce before A was too old to appreciate it. The place was over the top-cafe, theatre, nursery, salon, even hooks in the bathroom to hang your doll on while you take care of business. We picked up an Asian Bitty Baby for Meili and let A spend her report card money. It didn't stretch too far at that place but was a great time.
• Came home from AG Place and checked the RQ site from my MIL's office. Found out that we passed review! I cried tears of relief and when I broke the news to Matt he said, "What does that mean?" Pretty typical...
• We celebrated Chinese New Year at a library downtown with some activities sponsored by the local Chinese Cultural Center-great resource! There was a Lion Dance, story-telling in English and Chinese, face painting, all kinds of crafts, Chinese calligraphy, etc. We waited in line for a guy to do our names in calligraphy. He spoke about as much English as I do Chinese but there was a lady with him and she would pronounce your name phonetically in English so that he could represent each syllable (I guess) with a Chinese symbol. When I gave them Meili's name, his face lit up and he said, "OH!!! MEI. LI. Means beautiful!" I'm so glad that she will have a name that is recognizable to Chinese ears! It was bittersweet to be surrounded by beautiful little Chinese girls on the day that marked one year since sending our dossier to China. Most of them had Chinese parents but I did notice a father holding a Chinese baby that had obviously been adopted recently. She was pretty, but very serious. The mom came over and asked the dad, 'How is she doing?' at which the little girl's face lit up like a Christmas tree and she flung herself into her mother's arms. I lost it.
• The next day the celebrating continued as we were invited to a neighbors house for dinner. They had 2 students with 'Up With People' staying with them and one was 23 year-old 'Spring' from Beijing, China. It was great to talk with her. She is a beautiful and intelligent young lady, about to begin coursework for a Master's in Economics/Southeast Asian Studies at Beijing University. I wasn't going to bring up the adoption topic for fear of it being awkward for her but she brought it up so I went with it. She is an only child because of the one child policy and says that the policy is not as strictly enforced nowadays. I expected her to tell me that it was because of the growing gender imbalance in her country but learned that there is concern in China about the huge population of older citizens with a lack of a younger population to support it and keep the country's development on track. I was also surprised to hear that the government is actually pushing for people who are well-educated to have 2 or 3 children in hopes that they will raise children who will be equally educated and help the country's economy continue to grow. I asked her what the 'word on the street' about international adoption was in her country and she said 'nothing.' It's just not discussed and what little she knew about it, she had learned since coming to the US. Very interesting.
• I joined the 'chub club' (aka Weight Watchers) almost 2 weeks ago. I lost 6.2 pounds the first week and will weigh in tomorrow night to see how I did this week. I'm hoping that I can get 20 pounds off before we go to China-less of me to drag up the Great Wall and a great excuse for a new travel wardrobe!

I guess that's about it. Time to see if I can get Xander down for a nap before the older kids come home from school. Will post pics later.