Sam & Dave Plus 2

What a difference a year makes

2009-05-21T15:44:00.004-04:00

Seriously. What a difference. I know I have been the biggest blogger slacker ever. I don't know if it's not having time or not having energy or maybe just not having anything good to say but I have fallen off the face of the blogger world. I have to admit that I really didn't even come on here to blog, haha. Yep, I'm admitting it. I've been working on Maya's Lifebook and couldn't for the life of me find pictures from our trip to Thailand. I had a light bulb moment and thought, hmm, the blog? Thank God for the blog! As I was searching for the photos, I couldn't help but read the entries from when we first got Maya. I'm so glad I wrote all that stuff because my memory is failing me. I use to have such a great memory but now it's gone. Not sure where it went but I wonder if it's with my patience. Anyway, it was really great reading how far we have come and how truly blessed we have been. My heart breaks for all of my fellow adoptive parents to be who have all been caught on the seemingly never ending wait to China adoption :(

Speaking of adoption, we are still waiting to finalize Maya's adoption. The bureaucracy just never seems to end. I have to remind myself that nothing good is ever easy. I only hope for one small favor and that is to finalize the adoption this year so we can use the Adoption Tax Credit for 2009. Unfortunately for fellow adoptive parents, the Tax Credit is set to expire in the year 2010 unless something gets passed before then. Fingers crossed for all you guys.

The girls are up from their naps. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from our zoo trip last month. Fun times! Still hard to believe that Maya is 3 and Julia will be turning 2 in August. Time flies!

More News

2008-11-26T08:13:00.004-05:00

It looks like the protesters in Bangkok are still occupying the airports and now there been reports of several explosions. I can't imagine what a financial toll this will be on tourism. Tourism is the #1 money maker over there. I'm hoping they can come to a peaceful resolution soon.

In other news, this is just too funny to not share. These guys are GENIUSES!

Zoo solves mystery of celibate polar bears

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) -- Puzzled zookeepers in northern Japan have discovered the reason why their attempts to mate two polar bears kept failing: Both are female.

The municipal zoo in the city of Kushiro in Hokkaido brought in a polar bear cub three years ago. They named it Tsuyoshi, after the popular baseball outfielder Tsuyoshi Shinjo, and waited until it reached reproductive age.

In June, the zoo introduced Tsuyoshi to its resident bear, an 11-year-old female named Kurumi, and waited for sparks to fly.

But much to the disappointment of zookeepers, Tsuyoshi never made any amorous advances toward Kurumi.

Earlier this month, zookeepers put Tsuyoshi under anesthesia to get to the bottom of the matter. That's when they made their discovery: Tsuyoshi is a female.

Still, the Kushiro zoo plans to keep Tsuyoshi because he -- or rather, she -- has become immensely popular with visitors.

"I have rather mixed feelings, given the need for breeding, but Tsuyoshi is an idol for Kushiro," Yoshio Yamaguchi, head of the Kushiro zoo, told Japan's Kyodo news agency.

Tsuyoshi will even keep her name.

"We will not be changing it to 'Tsuyoko' since it is loved by citizens (by the current name)," Yamaguchi said.

"Ko" is a common suffix for a Japanese female name.

Meanwhile, Tsuyoshi's "brother," who was adopted by another zoo, has also turned out to be female, Kyodo reported.

-- CNN's Chie Kobayashi contributed to this report

And I wonder why the adoption process has slowed down in Thailand

2008-11-25T13:26:00.002-05:00

Protesters swarm Thai airport, takeoffs suspended

By AMBIKA AHUJA, Associated Press Writer Ambika Ahuja, Associated Press Writer 15 mins ago

BANGKOK, Thailand – Anti-government demonstrators swarmed Bangkok's international airport late Tuesday, halting departing flights, as opponents and supporters of Thailand's government fought in the streets of the city.

Political tensions simmering for two years have boiled over in recent months, but Tuesday's violent confrontations in Bangkok — which saw protesters using slingshots, knives and gunfire on a busy street and tourists caught up in the airport chaos — marked a dramatic escalation.

Minutes after outbound flights at Suvarnabhumi International Airport were suspended, hundreds of demonstrators — some masked and armed with metal rods — broke through police lines and spilled into the passenger terminal.

The airport manager said authorities tried unsuccessfully to negotiate with the protesters, who accuse Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat of being a puppet of his disgraced predecessor and have occupied his offices since August, demanding his resignation.

"For the safety for passengers, we have to stop flights out of the airport temporarily until the situation returns to normal," the manager, Serirat Prasutanon, said in a statement. He said incoming flights were operating and that the provincial governor asked the army to help police.

The siege of the airport appeared aimed at Somchai, who is scheduled to return late Wednesday from an Asia-Pacific summit in Peru. Protest group spokesman Suriyasai Katasila said the airport will be shut down "until Somchai quits."

Travelers seemed bewildered at the turn of events.

"This is the first time I have seen anything like this. I am glad that it did not turn out violent," said Daniel Garmona, a tourist from North Carolina who was waiting for a flight back to the U.S.

Using trucks and cars, demonstrators blocked highway access to the airport, the transportation hub for millions of tourists who visit the country each year.

The airport siege followed a clash earlier in the evening between opponents and supporters of Thailand's government.

Members of the anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy were returning from a rally at the smaller Don Muang airport, when government supporters threw rocks at their truck.

Alliance members responded by firing slingshots and a half-dozen shots with two pistols, according to footage on Thai PBS television. Alliance supporters then surrounded a motorcycle taxi driver and held a knife to his throat. After the driver fled, the protesters battered several motorbikes with steel rods and set fire to another one.

Tuesday's clash was the second time in recent months that the two sides have fought and marks the first major violence since Oct. 7, when street battles with police and anti-government forces left two people dead and hundreds wounded.

In a Sept. 2 clash between the two sides, a government supporter was beaten to death, while two alliance members were killed last week in grenade attacks.

Police Col. Piyapong Ponvanich said 11 people were wounded in Tuesday's fighting, most of them government supporters, some with gunshot wounds.

Somchai's party, which draws support from the Thai countryside, was the top winner in a December 2007 general election, and its coalition government is entitled to a five-year term. But it can dissolve itself and call new elections, be forced out by a vote of no-confidence or be toppled by a coup — as have 18 other Thai governments since the absolute monarchy was abolished more than seven decades ago.

The rivals in the latest tensions are fairly easy to distinguish — the protest alliance favors yellow shirts and their rivals red ones.

Political tensions have been simmering since 2006, when a similar protest campaign against then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra — accused of corruption and abuse of power — led to a military coup that deposed him. Further efforts to cripple Thaksin's political machine failed, and his allies won in the 2007 vote.

The protesters accuse the current prime minister of acting as a proxy for Thaksin, his brother-in-law.

Protesters seeking Somchai's resignation have occupied his Bangkok offices, known as Government House, since Aug. 26, forcing him to relocate to a makeshift office in the VIP area of the former international airport at Don Muang.

Thailand's economy, already struggling amid the global downturn, has been hit hard by the political turmoil. The state planning agency said Monday it grew at its slowest pace in more than three years this past quarter.

The country's $16 billion a year tourism industry — already suffering from months of political unrest — faced a potentially serious blow. Suvarnabhumi airport is the world's 18th largest in terms of passenger traffic, handling over 40 million passengers in 2007.

Deputy Prime Minister Chauwarat Chanweerakul said the government will refrain from using force to end the impasse.

"They need to stop taking over important places like airports. We will try to negotiate with them to end this siege, because it is not acceptable. It is hurting the economy, and it is hurting the country badly."

A Follow-up

2008-11-21T13:15:00.004-05:00

It dawned on me that I never mentioned how the yogurt incident ended. Well, I didn't exactly laugh my ass off but I did chuckle. It was nearly impossible to not giggle. Anyway, believe it or not, she finished all of her yogurt with no incident. Amazing.

Speaking of food, just wanted to share this easy carrots recipe that was a hit with the little ladies. It is so simple and oh, so good. I expected no less from my favorite chef, Ina Garten.

Roasted Carrots

Prep Time:: 10 min
Inactive Prep Time:: 10 min
Cook Time:: 20 min

Level:: Easy

Serves:: 6 servings

12 carrots
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill or parsley

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

If the carrots are thick, cut them in half lengthwise; if not, leave whole. Slice the carrots diagonally in 1 1/2-inch-thick slices. (The carrots will shrink while cooking so make the slices big.) Toss them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Transfer to a sheet pan in 1 layer and roast in the oven for 20 minutes, until browned and tender.

Toss the carrots with minced dill or parsley, season to taste, and serve.

My only change was that I used baby carrots because that is all I had on hand. I ended up cutting them into thirds so they would cook better. Softer carrots seem to work much better on my kids.

Yes Siree, She Showed Me

2008-11-20T13:08:00.003-05:00

Both of my wonderful daughters are studying in the practice of "punkness". The older one is currently working on perfecting her new found abilities. It is truly enough to make one certifiable. I know people say with parenting to keep a sense of humor. But when you find yourself battling it out with a 2 and a half year old over everyday things, it's just not so funny sometimes.

Fortunately for me, there are moments like this one that just make you smile. Yesterday, Maya pretty much fought me on food all day. I know it was my fault. I shouldn't have told her to get her hands out of the maple syrup. She obviously was not happy with me about it because the moment I said it, she shoved her plate of blueberry pancakes into the center of the table. She followed that up by pushing her chair, while still seated, as far away from the table as possible. Of course, the next step was obviously to take off the bib and toss it on the floor. Oh yes, happy day for Sam!

I should have known I was in for it when it came time for afternoon snack. After about a half dozen spoonfuls, I could tell that she was quickly losing interest in eating her yogurt. Because she had not eaten much of anything all day, I thought I'd bargain with her. "Alright Maya, if you eat your yogurt we'll watch Sesame Street. Julia is almost done and when you finish, we will all go watch Elmo". Yes, she's got a thing for Elmo. Anyway, you would have thought I had found a master switch in her with those words because she was pissed! She gave me this look like I was making her eat a turd or something. I kind of gave her this look like, Uh huh, yep, you heard me missy! It was like a showdown of looks in my kitchen. The next thing that happened was a first in our house. Maya picked up her spoon filled with yogurt, lifted it over her head and FLUNG IT!! I had never seen her do this before but let me tell you, I laughed my ass off. Even Julia was looking at her like, Dude?!

Yes, it landed on her head and proceeded to drop onto her face. She showed me!

I just had to save this moment in time. One day she will thank me for it. Okay, maybe it will be more like, "Uh yeah, thanks a lot Mom".

Loy Krathong

2008-11-17T14:31:00.010-05:00

On Saturday, we celebrated our very first Loy Krathong (stateside for my Mom & I). It was a great success! We look forward to making it a new family tradition every year. My parents came over to help us celebrate which was a good thing because my Mom did all of the work in getting everybody's floats together and not to mention all the fine foods she came bearing.

The floats turned out beautifully. My mom used flour tortillas as the base and decorated them with banana leaves, Gardenia leaves, flowers, moss, incense and candles. The tortillas were shaped into boats and Mom placed rice into the centers to hold up the candle & incense.

She brought over a few unfinished floats so the girls (and D & I) could put the finishing touches on our own floats.

The girls loved decorating their floats. It may be questionable whether they enjoyed playing with the props more.

At dusk, we trekked down to a nearby river. Fortunately for us, there's a fairly good size river less than 10 minutes from our house. It started raining on our way there and the wind picked up as well so it was a fairly quick event. We lit the candles & the incense, re-lit the candles, re-lit the candles again... you get my drift. We finally gave up. We all made a wish and then set our floats (and our troubles) into the river.

No event would be the same at our house without a big feast. As always, we were not disappointed. I made a couple of dishes and my mom brought over a ton. It was so good. We ate leftovers for days!

These Son in Laws were the winners. Who doesn't like a deep fried boiled egg with a tangy sauce? Absolutely delicious.

We rounded off the meal with Papaya Salad (Som Tam), Panang Beef, Sweet Pork, Fried Sea Bass, Sauteed Veggies, Spicy Bamboo Shoots and Jasmine Rice. Yum! Yum!

Sign the petition!

2008-11-12T14:58:00.001-05:00

School Daze

2008-11-06T13:58:00.004-05:00

D & I had been talking about taking Maya somewhere a couple of mornings a week. She would really just blossom with the extra socializing. And Mama here would welcome the break once in awhile. Being a stay at home mom definitely takes a toll on the old sanity. It's a very rewarding job but there are no weekends and man, the employees can get downright unruly! Don't get me wrong, I love my girls but sometimes you just need a break... and wine.

I called every place in our town checking out the options. I ended up deciding on this one church with a preschool program. They offer a 2 yr old class 3 days a week from 8:45am to 12:15pm. On Wednesdays, they attend the chapel. I'm not Baptist but that's okay. This self proclaimed Cafeteria Catholic is A-okay with a little Baptist chapel time. I took the girls this morning to check it out and it's perfect!

We all walked in and Maya warmed right up. She even sat at the table with the other kids and played with the puzzles. The 2 year old class is one room with about 7 kids and 2 teachers. I noticed a play kitchen, a ton of books, floor mats, a sink and a few other things. Perfect. One little boy got very chatty with Maya. We couldn't understand him as I think he must have been speaking Maya'ese. I'm not quite fluent in that language yet but it seemed very important.

As we were leaving, I recognized a teacher from the 3 year old class. She was the wife of a co-worker of mine back in the day. We chit chatted a bit and then she introduced us to her son... yes, the same chatty little boy in Maya's new class. What a wonderful coincidence! Needless to say, we are all very exciting about school! That's all Maya kept saying on the ride home, "school" actually more like "sko" and well, "eat". It was lunchtime.

I spoke to the director about Maya's situation and we are going into this very, very slowly. As of now, we are only committing to one day a week. I just don't know if she's ready for it and frankly, if they're okay with one day a week for now, so are we. It's super reasonable too which is a huge bonus. Would you believe it's only $50 a month for the one day week, 2 days is $100 and 3 is $150. I thought those were great prices. The Director was very accommodating, she told me that they are very flexible and are willing to work with us on whatever we decide to do. I love it already. Not to mention the huge bonus of getting rave reviews from a teacher who actually works there and feels confident enough to have her son in a class there (and not one she teaches).

I may not need a lobotomy after all! Happy times! Happy Mama = Happy Husband :)

Halloween 08

2008-11-04T13:45:00.003-05:00

Halloween was fun! We got the girls dressed up in their costumes. Maya loved the dressing up part. D & I are a couple of idiots. Maya was not a fairy after all. It wasn't until the next day about lunchtime that we realized that Maya was not a fairy for Halloween but actually a Butterfly! We just thought it was cute that the fairy costume came the antenna headband. Duh.

Julia was cat. A very cranky & sick kitty cat. Come to find out today, she was suffering from a double ear infection, roseola, cut her first molar and a chest cold/cough. Poor girl. She was a trooper though.

We didn't venture far from the house. Maya was a little spooked by other people's costumes. We met our neighbors and their children outside and it scared the bejesus out of Maya. D had to hold her because she was really freaked out. Julia jumped at the first site of our neighbor's son in his Scream mask but that was it. She was unfazed after that. Maya was not digging it. After awhile, she seemed to be at ease with it and really enjoyed it all. Fun times!

Let The Festivities Begin

2008-10-29T14:34:00.011-04:00

We've got some fun stuff coming up soon. Of course, we've got Halloween right around the corner. We're really looking forward to getting the girls dressed up and taking them Trick or Treating to our neighbors. Maya is going to be a fairy. We tried it on her and you should have seen her eyes light up at not just the wings but the wand! What is it with kids and objects that can actually cause damage? Little Julia is going to be a kitty cat, with no ears most likely. Her costume has a matching headband with cat ears that Julia just hates. I'm hoping we can keep it on just long enough to snap a few pictures. I'll be sure to post them if I manage to get lucky.

Just a couple of weeks away from now is the Thai festival of Loy Krathong. Loy Krathong is an homage to the Goddess of water where floats are set adrift into the river to symbolize washing away your troubles. As a child living in Bangkok, I have fond memories of making floats and setting them into the river. It has been over 30 years since I've last celebrated Loy Krathong and I am so looking forward to making it our new family tradition. Plus, you guys know how we always love a good excuse to chow down on some Thai food! My Mom found some cardboard circles to make the floats out of but I haven't completely ruled out trying to come up with a bread option. We're going to be setting these things into our local river so I'd like to be as eco-friendly as possible. I know the cardboard would biodegrade after awhile but perhaps bread would be a better option as it would turn into fish food in no time. I've got a couple of weeks to come up with something and a menu! Would you believe that I just trialed Julia on fish & fish sauce? There are just too many Thai dishes with fish sauce as an ingredient that I couldn't avoid it. She's got to be able to join in the feast, especially considering how much she likes to eat. Fortunately, she passed that one. Woohoo!

With that, I am going to leave you guys with a few recent pictures of the little ladies. I use the term "ladies" loosley right now because a. they both have colds & coughs b. Julia is sprouting some molars and c. Maya has gone full force into contrary mode. So yes, "lady", may not be quite the right term for these guys right now :)

Weird

2008-10-23T15:04:00.000-04:00

Woman jailed after 'killing' virtual husband

By MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Writer Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press Writer 1 hr 51 mins ago

TOKYO – A 43-year-old player in a virtual game world became so angry about her sudden divorce from her online husband that she logged on with his password and killed his digital persona, police said Thursday.

The woman, who has been jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his ID and password to log onto the popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in May, a police official in the northern city of Sapporo said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of department policy.

"I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations.

The woman, a piano teacher, had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said.

She has not yet been formally charged. If convicted, she could face up to five years in prison or a fine up to $5,000.

Players in "Maple Story" create and manipulate digital images called "avatars" that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting monsters and other obstacles.

In virtual worlds, players often abandon their inhibitions, engaging in activity online that they would never do in the real world. For instance, sex with strangers is a common activity.

The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married to kill the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his online avatar was dead.

The woman was arrested Wednesday and taken 620 miles from her home in southern Miyazaki to be detained in Sapporo, where the man lives, the official said.

The police official said he did not know if she was married in the real world.

Bad online behavior is usually handled within the rules set up by online worlds, which can ban miscreants or take away their virtual possessions.

In recent years, virtual lives have had consequences in the real world.

When bad deeds lead to criminal charges, prosecutors have found a real-world activity to cite — as in this case, in which the woman was charged with inappropriate computer access.

In August, a woman was charged in Delaware with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met through the virtual reality Web site "Second Life."

In Tokyo, a 16-year-old boy was charged with stealing the ID and password from a fellow player of an online game in order to swindle virtual currency worth $360,000.

Virtual games are popular in Japan, and "Second Life" has drawn a fair number of Japanese participants. They rank third by nationality among users, after Americans and Brazilians.

Let's Save Some Money

2008-10-22T14:05:00.005-04:00

During these uncertain economic times, it makes me think twice about how we spend our money. We feel very fortunate that D makes a good living and that I am able to stay home with the girls but you just never know what can happen. D works in an industry that is directly affected by the Housing Market and we all know where that is, yep, the crapper. So, rather than take it all for granted, we've decided to make some changes while the getting is still good. Pre-kids, living off of Ramen Noodles and PB&J sandwiches everyday if you had to, was always an option. But with 2 little ones to feed (and both in diapers to boot), it's just not somewhere I want to go plus I'm out of college now, heh.

With that said, we are trying to save every extra penny for that just in case fund. You would be surprised what you could do if you put your mind and willpower to it.

These are some of the things that we've started doing recently. I'm sure I will think of more and will post as they come along.

D takes not only lunches to work but snacks too. You would be surprised how the little snacks add up. A quick stop to the gas station for a soda. a bag of chips here and there, 75 cents into the vending machine, it really all adds up. The best part is he's been eating so much healthier and has lost weight doing it. He looks great!

Turn off the TV, lights and unplug all appliances and other electronics and appliances when not in use. Even though the power switch is off, it is still drawing energy so unplug it if you're not using it. I had been very cautious this past month and actually noticed a difference in our bill. I compared our monthly power bill to that from the same time last year. We had consistently been paying about $30 more from the same time last year until last month. It was only $3 more! How about that for a $27 savings. I know, I know, big deal, $27, but hey, it adds up! So turn it off and unplug it!

Shop & compare rates and I mean all rates. When was the last time you shopped for insurance? Auto & Homeowners insurance rates can be pretty competitive, so make those calls and you would be surprised at how much you could save.

This goes the same with home phone, TV, internet. I knocked $30 off of our Time Warner bill in July just because I asked. I called and asked for the retention department. If your area has competition for Cable, phone and etc, this will work for you. They'll offer you a deal. I have gotten a deal every time I called, some are better than others and be careful of getting into a contract that you may not want to follow through on.

Meal planning: I've always been a meal planner but have stepped it up a bit. If you don't have anything quick to eat, you are more likely to pick up convenience foods and they quickly add up. Not only do I plan out our menu for the week, I freeze foods and stock the freezer for that rainy day. I also stock up on things when it's on sale, especially the supermarket loss leaders like meats. I will scan the first and last page of the Supermarket mailers and plan my meals around that.

Coupons: I had tried using the Grocery Game but it didn't end up working out for us. I buy too many specialty & organic foods to make it worth our while. They do offer a free trial offer of a month. If you get the Sunday paper or are not opposed to buying it, then give it a whirl for a month. You have nothing to lose. For now, I just google for printable coupons for the staples - trash bags, Windex All Purpose Cleaner, Yo Baby Yogurt, Organic Milk and etc. Just last week, I found a $2 off coupon for Windex All Purpose Cleaner any size. I was pretty happy about that one. You laugh but hey, it adds up!

Speaking of the freezer, the freezer has become my best friend. I freeze anything that can be frozen. My favorite to freeze is probably baked goods and the girls lunches. If I buy rolls or bread from the bakery, into the freezer it goes. Before doing this, we were throwing out so much. This is especially important for organic goods. It just doesn't have the preservatives as the commercial goods so it goes "green" quick (pun intended). When defrosting, you can either pull it out about 30mins or so before ready to eat and it should defrost in time or better yet, just slice it and toast it. Something that I plan on doing from now on is freezing leftover veggies. In a quest to minimize the amount of food that gets thrown out, I have decided to start freezing all leftover veggies. These are good vegetables but somehow always get forgotten about in the back of the fridge. If I had stuck them in the freezer, they could be thrown into soups, pot pie, chili or something, anything really. The other day we had 3 bananas getting ready to go bad. I decided to whip up some gluten & corn free banana bread. I froze half of the loaf for later and we ate the other half. It was delicious and fairly healthy too (I even snuck in some Flax Seed Meal).

In a quest to also save time, I make a huge batch of pancakes for the girls (thank you Joy of Cooking for the very flexible pancake recipe) and freeze them in a ziploc bag. Not only does this save time and money but I know they are healthy. The last batch I made I used brown rice flour instead of regular flour, added blueberries and a couple of teaspoons of Flax Seed Meal which is a great source for Omega 3's. Now, I always have a goto meal or snack for the girls. I do the same for homemade biscuits and cookies. I freeze the biscuits and cookies precooked and preportioned. All I do is stick them on a pan and cook them about 5 mins longer than the recipe calls for. Perfect!

Consolidate car trips. It costs money everytime you get in the car so make each trip count. Do you really need to go pick up that item today when you're headed out tomorrow anyway? At $3 a gallon, those extra trips start to add up. I had an appointment with the photographer last week and planned my Trader Joe's trip along with it. That was almost 65 miles roundtrip that I saved.

Speaking of Trader Joe's... I comparison shop my groceries including wine and have found that TJ's can't be beat on some items (Walmart beats everybody else in the other stuff). I collected a stack of our latest grocery receipts and went through the most commonly purchased items. It was very-eye opening. TJ's had the best prices on Organic Applesauce, block cheeses with limited ingredients, frozen vegetables and wine just to name a few. Even if you don't buy the 2 (2.99) buck Chuck, there are still great deals on good wines. I enjoy a Pinot Noir that they carry and it's $5.99, they also have a great Chardonnay for $4.99. Got to love that. I also buy 3 or 4 bags of frozen red, yellow and green peppers for under $2 a bag every time I go. I also buy Buffalo Burgers and their Chili Lime Chicken Burgers, these make great lunches or last minute dinners for us. We usually have buns in the freezer and lettuce and tomato in the fridge plus they are much healthier alternative to fast food! I try to make a Trader Joe's trip once a month (when I am headed that way anyway) and stock up. There's just no reason not to.

Online Coupons: I buy alot of stuff online. Many people will say that you end up paying more because you can't catch a good sale or whatever. I have to disagree. Everytime I make an online purchase, I do 2 things. I always google for an online coupon code. There's just no reason not to. I usually find anywhere from 10%-30% off coupon codes. For Father's Day, I bought D a new putter. I wanted to get him a good one so it would last awhile plus I wanted to splurge a bit. It was his first Father's Day and we had just gone through so much. Anyway, I found the club I wanted at Dick's Sporting Goods for $150. Eeek. Not really what I wanted to spend but that was what I wanted to buy him. I googled "coupon code dick's sporting" and would you believe I found a 30% off coupon + free shipping. The total came to under $110. Not bad for a few minutes of work. The second thing that I usually do but couldn't with Dicks, is I go through a site that gives you cash back for clicking through their site. I use Fatwallet.com but there are plenty of others out there. Every time I go to purchase something online, I go through Fatwallet first. For instance, if I were to buy something from OneStepAhead.com and if I went through Fatwallet first, I would get back 5% of my purchase. After awhile, it really adds up.

For just good deals in general, I always check Fatwallet.com and also Slickdeals.net. Love them both.

With all that being said, I am going to leave you guys with one of my latest favorite freezer food lunch (and sometimes dinner) for the girls. It's my version of Chicken Nuggets. It's not the healthiest but definitely healthier than eating out and so easy. The good thing is you can identify every ingredient and truly know that it is indeed chicken. The best part is you can freeze them and just pull out and heat what you need. I make a batch every Sunday. I threw a few nuggets in my salad today and it was great.

Chicken Nuggets

1 pack of boneless skinless chicken thighs (I like to buy the All Natural/antibiotic/hormone free) Trimmed of the fat and cubed (boneless skinless breasts get too dry)

1/4 to 1/2 stick of unsalted butter melted in a bowl (you may need more depending on how much chicken you have)

Crushed Brown Rice Crispies (this is Julia safe so is what we use- but you can use crushed corn flakes, seasoned or unseasoned breadcrumbs, whatever)

Freshly grated cheese- I either use Block Sharp Cheddar or Parmigiano Reggiano or both. I have tried using the Kraft pre-packaged grated cheese and it just sucked. I think it must be the anti-caking ingredients in the pre-shredded/grated cheese that ruined it. I don't know but I won't do it again. It wasn't good.

Of course, I don't have any exact measurements. I would say try it with equal amounts of both or somewhere close to that. After you make it once, you'll get the hang of it and tweak it how you like it.

Melt the butter in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix together the cheese and crushed cereal/breadcrumbs. You can season it how you like. Salt & pepper is usually all I add if that. Garlic and onion powder would also be good options.

Working in batches, add the chicken to the bowl of butter and coat entirely. Remove the chicken and coat it in the crumbs & cheese mix making sure you cover it well. Place the chicken on a cookie sheet and bake it at 375-400 for about 20 minutes or until done. I wing it everytime so check the chicken to make sure it's cooked.

When cooled, place all of the chicken into a freezer safe container and stick it in the freezer. All you have to do then is pull out some nuggets when you want them and nuke them for 30 seconds to a minute depending on how many you're warming up and your microwave.

The girls love these and I do too. I love knowing that if we get back to the house late that I can always whip up lunch in a minute and it's not crap. Throw some nuggets in the microwave, slice some bananas (or dollups of applesauce), chop up a few cherry tomatoes and they are good to go!

What was I just looking for?

2008-10-21T14:31:00.006-04:00

Thought twice about posting that news article, so instead you get some rambling. We're going through some weird times right now. I have heard some mention of Great Depression 2.0. While the thought of a Great Depression is not funny at all, the sound of Great Depression 2.0 is just funny to me. 2.0, ha. That's our legacy I guess, well, our generation (assuming you're close to my age). We were the Atari babies and I loved me some Atari. I was the Atari Pacman champ in my house despite what my brother may say. I'll also never forget opening up the Commodore 64 for Christmas that one year. Now that was an awesome Christmas! Then there was my Nintendo Mario Brother's addiction in college, followed shortly by my Sega Mortal Kombat recurring thumb injury. And now look at me, on the internet blogging about about GD 2.0. heh.

I was going to post about being frugal but I'll save my money saving tips for another time. Instead I will digress which is nothing new these days. That's been happening to me all of the time lately. I initially thought it was the stupidity that comes with pregnancy and follows with motherhood but I may be wrong. I was watching the Colbert Report the other (love that show by the way) and some guy was on there pedaling his book. The book was about how the Internet is changing the way we think. I'm not talking about perception of things, I'm talking about the nuts and bolts behind it. His claim was that the internet age is changing our brain. He believes that the internet has ruined our concentration and created short attention spans. I can see where he is coming from. Think about the time you spend on the net. I know with me, I can start out reading an article about the economy and end up somewhere completely random like trying to figure out how to make creamed spinach in a matter of minutes.

I know you guys know what I'm talking about. It's like driving down a road with constant detours only to find you are on the opposite end of the world. I can't help it, I always have to look things up. There's just something about finding out the right answer. Perfectionist? Perhaps. Curious? Maybe. OCD? You never know.

But you know, when I do end up looking it up something else piques my curiosity - another detour- then another- then another. After awhile you forget what you were looking up to start with. Anyway, the guy was saying how he has a hard time reading a book these days because of the concentration required. It was an interesting perspective especially since I was able to relate to it so well.

The overall interview was actually quite funny. Stephen Colbert was playing with his iPhone the entire time he was interviewing the author (I had to look it up just now, ha, his name was Nicholas Carr and the book is called The Big Switch). You can get the jist of it all at this article he wrote for the Atlantic magazine http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

That is if you can focus long enough to read it!

Business as usual

2008-10-20T14:17:00.004-04:00

After talking to my best friend Mary, I've decided I'm just going to keep on - business as usual except for any sensitive subjects. There's not much going on the adoption front right now so it shouldn't be an issue. We're just waiting on final approval from the adoption board and then we are done! Yes, folks, I said DONE. We were told that within 2-3 months after the final post adoption home study, our approval should come in. At that point, we are legally able to petition to our state court for finalization. I think it's going to be strange to not have anything to wait for. Doesn't it seem like D & I have always been waiting for something?

I have to share a story that would explain my cautiousness. I am a member, rather lurker, of a Thai adoption group and have been since we decided to adopt. Last year, a member of the group, had to do the unthinkable and send her child back to Thailand. It's a rather long story and my details are fuzzy. The gist of it is she was a 15 yr old girl with special needs. The adoptive mom was posting on the boards. Rubbed somebody wrong. Next thing you know, rumor had it that some not so nice things were found out about the mom and someone reported it to their adoption agency. Yes, power of the internet is amazing. I remember thinking, "Ah, porn. Yes, it must have been porn. You dirty girl!" But would you believe I was wrong, turned out the mother had put out an ad looking for some "girly love", I believe she was married at the time. Interesting...

After the agency was informed, they stated that they had no choice but to send the child back to Thailand. It was really such a sad situation. The 14 yr old had been with this family for awhile, over 6 months and possibly almost a year (like I said, my details are fuzzy- the memory isn't so hot these days). The girl did not want to go back. Not to mention when she did go back to the children's home that it would be awhile before she got adopted or possibly not adopted at all - things aren't quick in the adoption world- a 15 yr old isn't exactly what people have in mind when they adopt a child. Nevertheless, that is what was done. I believe the last I heard was the girls was doing okay. She's still in the home but doing okay.

Don't get me wrong, I don't have any ads posted and no, no porn either, thank you very much! We don't have anything to hide but you can never be too cautious either. Hmm, that's a contradiction isn't it? Anyway, it just makes you think twice.

What's Cooking?

2008-10-18T10:42:00.003-04:00

This is totally random but I was typing up a few crock pot recipes for a friend and thought I'd share a few here. The crock pot has become my friend. I often feel like all I do all day is cook (sometimes this is actually the truth). I cook from scratch because of Julia's issues so any help I can get to spare some time in the kitchen is much appreciated.

This is one of those recipes that does just that. Plus, the leftovers are yummy and the girls both dig it! I use Organic Tamari- Wheat Free soy sauce, Trader Joe's Ketchup (no high fructose corn syrup) and it's Julia safe, woohoo!

I hope you like it as much as we do.

Sesame Pork Ribs

3/4 C brown sugar

1/2 C soy sauce

1/2 C ketchup

1/4 honey

2 tbs white wine vinegar (red wine vinegar works fine or even rice vinegar)

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tsp salt

1/4 to 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (I omitted it b/c of the girls- can always add it at the table)

5 lbs country style pork ribs ( I always just buy a big pack and have no idea of the weight)

1 medium sliced onion

Garnish: (I only do this if I have green onions on hand)

2 tbs sesame seeds, toasted

2 tbs chopped green onions

In a large bowl, combine the first 9 ingredients. Place onions in the crockpot, add ribs and pour sauce over.

Cover & cook on low for 5-6 hours or until meat is tender. Serve over rice and garnish w/ sesame seeds & green onions.

This one is not Julia safe but was a savior when I was pregnant. I would make a huge batch and freeze it into a few meals. Then come a busy day, pull it out of the freezer, heat it up, cook up some egg noodles and serve!

CROCK POT BEEF STROGANOFF

Chuck Roast or Stew beef (trimmed of visible fat and cubed)
1 pkg. Onion soup mix
3 cans cream of mushroom (cream of chicken or celery or any combination works just fine- Reduced Fat works great)

4 stalks of celery- chopped

1 onion- chopped

Crushed garlic
Sliced mushrooms

Place everything into crock pot. Cook 8 or so hours on low.

Serve over egg noodles. This can be made and frozen to be heated up at a later date.

If you don't have celery, onions, garlic or mushrooms on hand, it still comes out good. I'm a huge fresh garlic fan but once again, it can be left out. Try it once and you can tweak it to how you like it.

Just a brief update

2008-10-17T10:55:00.002-04:00

It's been awhile since I have blogged. The major catalyst for this was the following email we got from our agency in September.

There's still some political unrest over there but things have gotten a bit better. I'm still not really sure what to do but I just thought I'd share this.

Dear Families,

News of political unrest in Bangkok is at the forefront of international news this week as a state of emergency was declared in the capital city on Tuesday. We are all saddened by the news of violence on Monday night resulting from a clash between pro- and anti-government protesters. The Prime Minister has indicated that this state of emergency was in place to help restore order and should only last a few days.

The U.S. State Department has not issued any travel warning for travel to Bangkok or Thailand in general. In addition, we have consulted with our Thailand contacts and they do not anticipate any immediate impact on international adoption in Thailand. We do not expect any changes or disruptions to your adoption process.

The current situation is a good time to remind all families that, as is general precaution for all international adoption, we strongly discourage families from posting details about their adoption process on the internet. This includes posting information on personal blogs and public forums.

As always, we will continue to keep you updated on any developments that we expect could impact your adoption process.

The Thailand Program Team

Birthday Pictures

2008-09-04T09:31:00.011-04:00

Busy Busy Busy

2008-09-04T09:10:00.002-04:00

The last couple of weeks have been super busy. It all started with Julia's birthday and is ending with me doing a consignment sale. Julia's party was a lot of fun. The food was abundant and the company was wonderful. D's parents and my sister and her family drove down for the party. It was great to see everybody. What more can you ask for? I'll post pictures later.

I made a corn free, dairy free, wheat free cupcake for Julia and topped it with some Julia safe frosting. She loved it!

This past weekend we had my Dad & Stepmom down for a visit. We had a nice weekend with them. The girls really enjoyed it. Always nice to see the family.

Yesterday, I took Julia in for her Allergist appointment. It went surprisingly well. Julia has no known food allergies, not even to wheat, milk or peanuts. And yes, not to corn. How about that! I do have to explain that a bit though. They only test for known foods. Corn Syrup is not a food. Corn, yes, corn syrup, no. They did test her for corn - the edible crop- but not for the manufactured corn derivatives with additives. So, overall we got good news. The Doctor did mention to us though that even though she tested negative to Wheat & Milk does not mean that she's not gluten intolerant or lactose intolerant.

The testing Julia had was purely on her back. It's not capable of determining what sort of digestive reaction she could have to the food (which was the prior problem with oats & dairy). The bad news is the Doctor has recommended that Julia avoid all food additives, preservatives, corn syrup, dyes and MSG. The doctor also gave us a prescription for an Epi-Pen. D & I both gladly accepted that prescription. You can never be too cautious with these things. Her reasoning for the Epi-Pen was because Julia had had an episode of a hives outbreak. She got a few patches on her face and stomach from an exposure to High Fructose Corn Syrup. Just to be on the safe side, she recommends an Epi-Pen with any prior hives outbreak. Fine with us.

Where does that leave us? Honestly, I feel like we're not too far from where we started out. It still means more of a whole food approach and still means slow introductions of new foods (one new food per week). I have not seen many processed foods that do no contain additives, preservatives, dyes or corn syrup. We're still going to be lacking in the convenience department until I can get out and do some product browsing at Trader Joes &/or Whole Foods. But overall, we're so glad that we had that testing done. I do wish it could have been more thorough but still glad.

Happy Birthday Julia!

2008-08-22T10:29:00.004-04:00

I can not believe our baby girl is 1 today! The time has just flown by. I have to admit, I'm a bit saddened by it. She's just not a little baby anymore. My little baby is turning into a little girl right before our eyes. She's changed so much through the year. She's been so much fun lately, she's so interactive (with a stress on the active part). She's only content when she's moving or standing (or eating). We're having a birthday party for her tomorrow and hopefully I'll get around to posting some pictures from it soon. Until then, here are a couple of recent pictures of our little monkey:

This was taken yesterday. I was unloading the dishwasher and Julia kept pulling herself up to a stand on the dishwasher door. As I was unloading the silverware caddy, our little monkey had climbed onto the door and got herself stuck. I had to get a picture:

Parts is Parts

2008-08-14T13:23:00.003-04:00

Where's your...

We got video!

2008-08-06T09:22:00.005-04:00

My new camera takes video so I've been playing around with it a bit. It's not the best quality because I have a Cheap Charlie SD card but it works!

Hello, Julia!

Umm, I think that's MY book

Lastly, Maya is two (and is very interested in a mark on the wall with a bonus Julia drive-by)

Random Pictures

2008-08-05T08:23:00.006-04:00

The newly brave Maya hitting the big slide:

Julia on a mission!

Maya with her cousins on our 2nd beach trip. She had the best time and now LOVES the beach. She's such a little peanut and boy does she look cold!

This is Julia's second time pulling herself up to a stand right before our 2nd beach trip. She's been quite the little monkey ever since.

Corn, Corn, Corn

2008-08-04T14:29:00.005-04:00

I am so overwhelmed by corn. It is in EVERYTHING! I'm not talking about your old run of the mill corn on the cob. I am talking about genetically engineered feed corn that gets modified into everything and anything possible. If you are in the US, you are being inundated by corn and don't even know it.

This all started because of Julia. Julia has some issues with corn. The only way we found out is when we were getting ready to go to Thailand. I was exclusively nursing Julia but wanted to introduce formula to her for the trip during times that I was unavailable. We knew going into it that Julia had some sensitivities (most likely dairy & soy) so we shopped around for Hypo-allergenic formulas. The top 4 are Similac Alimentum, Enfamil Nutramigen, Nestle Good Start and Neocate.

We trialed her on Nutramigen for quite awhile until one day we started noticing that her face would get really red after drinking it. After a lot of going back and forth between different formulas, we discovered that Julia had issues with Nutramigen. Long story short, Nutramigen's #1 ingredient is Corn Syrup. That set off red flags for us with corn. We trailed it again several months ago and the same reaction.

A few months ago, Julia was teething (multiple teeth at once) and was in pain. I grabbed a Minute Maid Fruit Pop out of the freezer and just let her gum it (not opened). I figured it would feel good on her gums. Julia managed to cut into the wrapper with her teeth so I ended up taking it away from her and throwing it out. About an hour or so later, we noticed Julia had 2 rash-like spots on her face and a rash on her stomach. I checked the ingredients on the ice pops, High Fructose Corn Syrup. AH! Corn again!

The question that pops up now, is how deep is this corn allergy? We're scheduled to see an allergist on Sept 3rd for testing so we'll know more then (maybe). I began to do some research into corn allergies and corn derivatives. It absolutely blew my mind.

Did you know that corn is the #1 crop in the US? Did you know that corn is the most "government subsidized" crop? Did you know that the type of corn that is grown is not even edible by humans! How about that, huh? I became even more disgusted when we recently watched the movie King Corn. Please check out this movie. We just got it from Netflix but you may be able to catch it on PBS
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/kingcorn/

It will open your eyes. It really is everywhere: our foods, Vanilla Extract (the alcohol is from corn), lotions, toilet paper, deodorants, meats (in addition to being corn-fed, they coat it with a solution that contains corn), shampoos, diapers, baby wipes and anything with plastic film (corn starch prevents sticking). How about organic bananas? Yep. They spray the bananas with a corn-based solution to help ripening. Honestly, I could go on and on. The worst thing though is baby formula.

Would you believe that Alimentum is the ONLY formula on the market that does contain any corn. Not just any Alimentum either, it's only Alimentum Ready To Feed liquid. Is that not insane?! The sad part is Alimentum is milk based and Julia does have issues with dairy. We only feed it to her because we have no other options. She tolerates it much better than she used to. I'm sure some of you are thinking, why don't you just nurse her? Well, I wasn't winning there either. She would react to foods in my diet. I lost over 10 pounds trying to limit my diet while nursing. It wasn't healthy for either one of us. We both lost weight.

We're really trying to limit Julia's exposure to corn and all corn derivatives. This is definitely an allergy we would like for her to outgrow (for her sake). We had no idea how hard it would be. I found some corn-free sites that have really helped determine what products are actually corn-free. It's nice to go to the supermarket and just pick up things rather than check my corn allergen list for questionable ingredients. The list is soooo long.

Look at this crazy list! Check your ingredient labels when you have some time. It's absolutely amazing how many things contain corn. Just unbelievable really. (small disclaimer here: That's not to say that everything here is corn based but odds are high that if you see say alcohol on the label that it IS from corn)

Corn Allergen List

Acetic acid
Alcohol
Alpha tocopherol
Artificial flavorings
Artificial sweeteners
Ascorbates
Ascorbic acid
Astaxanthin
Baking powder
Barley malt
Bleached flour
Blended sugar (sugaridextrose)
Brown sugar
Calcium citrate
Calcium fumarate
Calcium gluconate
Calcium lactate
Calcium magnesium acetate (CMA)
Calcium stearate
Calcium stearoyl lactylate
Caramel and caramel color
Carbonmethylcellulose sodium
Cellulose microcrystalline
Cellulose, methyl
Cellulose, powdered
Cetearyl glucoside
Choline chloride
Citric acid
Citrus cloud emulsion (CCS)
Coco glycerides (cocoglycerides)
Confectioners sugar
Corn alcohol, corn gluten
Corn extract
Corn flour
Corn oil, corn oil margarine
Corn starch
Corn sweetener, corn sugar
Corn syrup, corn syrup solids
Corn, popcorn, cornmeal
Cornstarch, cornflour
Crosscarmellose sodium
Crystalline dextrose
Crystalline fructose
Cyclodextrin
DATUM (a dough conditioner)
Decyl glucoside
Decyl polyglucose
Dextrin
Dextrose (also found in IV solutions)
Dextrose anything (such as monohydrate or anhydrous)
d-Gluconic acid
Distilled white vinegar
Drying agent
Erythorbic acid
Erythritol
Ethanol
Ethocel 20
Ethylcellulose
Ethylene
Ethyl acetate
Ethyl alcohol
Ethyl lactate
Ethyl maltol
Fibersol-2
Flavorings
Food starch
Fructose
Fruit juice concentrate
Fumaric acid
Germ/germ meal
Gluconate
Gluconic acid
Glucono delta-lactone
Gluconolactone
Glucosamine
Glucose
Glucose syrup (also found in IV solutions)
Glutamate
Gluten
Gluten feed/meal
Glycerides
Glycerin
Glycerol
Golden syrup
Grits
High fructose corn syrup
Hominy
Honey
Hydrolyzed corn
Hydrolyzed corn protein
Hydrolyzed vegetable protein
Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose
Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose pthalate (HPMCP)
Inositol
Invert syrup or sugar
Iodized salt
Lactate
Lactic acid
Lauryl glucoside
Lecithin
Linoleic acid
Lysine
Magnesium fumarate
Maize
Malic acid
Malonic acid
Malt syrup from corn (barley malt is fine)
Malt, malt extract
Maltitol
Maltodextrin
Maltol
Maltose
Mannitol
Methyl gluceth
Methyl glucose
Methyl glucoside
Methylcellulose
Microcrystaline cellulose
Modified cellulose gum
Modified corn starch
Modified food starch
Molasses (corn syrup may be present; know your product)
Mono and di glycerides
Monosodium glutamate
MSG
Natural flavorings
Olestra/Olean
Polenta
Polydextrose
Polylactic acid (PLA)
Polysorbates (e.g. Polysorbate 80)
Polyvinyl acetate
Potassium citrate
Potassium fumarate
Potassium gluconate
Powdered sugar
Pregelatinized starch
Propionic acid
Propylene glycol
Propylene glycol monostearate
Saccharin
Salt (iodized salt)
Semolina (unless from wheat)
Simethicone
Sodium carboxymethylcellulose
Sodium citrate
Sodium erythorbate
Sodium fumarate
Sodium lactate
Sodium starch glycolate
Sodium stearoyl fumarate
Sorbate
Sorbic acid
Sorbitan
Sorbitan monooleate
Sorbitan tri-oleate
Sorbitol
Sorghum (not all is bad; the syrup and/or grain CAN be mixed with corn)
Starch (any kind that's not specified)
Stearic acid
Stearoyls
Sucrose
Sugar (not identified as cane or beet)
Threonine
Tocopherol (vitamin E)
Treacle (aka golden syrup)
Triethyl citrate
Unmodified starch
Vanilla, natural flavoring
Vanilla, pure or extract
Vanillin
Vegetable anything that's not specific
Vinegar, distilled white
Vinyl acetate
Vitamin C and Vitamin E
Vitamins
Xanthan gum
Xylitol
Yeast
Zea mays
Zein

2 down one to go

2008-07-15T14:58:00.011-04:00

We had our second post adoption home study visit on Sunday. It was surprisingly uneventful. I tried to get some scoop on the recent case/ lawsuit against them but our social worker knew nothing (at least that's what she told us). She did say that she was having to follow-up on cases monthly now instead of the previous bi-monthly.

For all those that are wondering, the wedding(s) planning is going well. Our social worker's youngest daughter is getting married this Saturday at the local Country Club. Would you believe one bottle of wine for the reception is $32? Aside from them forgetting to print Grandma's name in the program for the church, everything seems to be coming along. Oh goody ;)

We have one more visit with her in September. After that report is received by our Thailand Adoption Agency, they will send us Maya's original (Thai) birth certificate. As of now, all we have are copies. Our agency is actually the official "guardian" of Maya until we finalize. Once we receive the original birth certificate, we can start legal proceedings in our state. We are really hoping there isn't too much of a delay within our state's court systems and we can finalize the adoption this year. We are so looking forward to having Maya be legally ours and not to mention the nice tax credit on 2008's taxes.
What else is going on...

Ah yes, Dave turned 40! We celebrated with a party at our house. Friends and neighbors helped us ring is Dave's

On Sunday, Dave adorned himself with proper over 40 attire (Thanks to the Gradys for the socks & slippers, HA!):

We celebrated the 4th of July by attending the local parade. It was cute. I didn't get any pictures of the parade but here are the girls:

The funny thing is Maya was dressed the most festive out of us all and she's not even a US citizen! Later that afternoon, we went to the town park to check out the pony rides. We weren't sure if Maya would actually get on a pony but we thought she'd at least get a kick out of seeing one up close. Sadly, when we got to the park, there were no ponies. Some kid, who seemed to be running the show, told us that the pony canceled and they were trying to find a sub. The ponies were a no-show. Got to love small towns.

We ended up just letting Maya play at the playground and then headed home.

I ended up taking the girls to this same park the other day. Maya is getting so brave. There's a slide that's got to be at least 15 feet high. She climbed up the stairs and went down the slide alone! This is so huge for her as she freaked out the first time she went on a baby swing. She must have gone down this slide half a dozen times. She loved it!! She loved it so much she didn't want to leave. Literally, did not want to leave. Can I just say HUGE tantrum?!!? The biggest one I have ever seen. She dropped to the ground and would not move. Crying. Lovely. It was a battle but after about 5 minutes, we finally got into the car (where she proceeded to cry the entire way home). Fun times, fun times.
Maya has actually been doing really well these days. She's become much friendlier. I remember the first couple of months she would really panic when strangers spoke to her. Now, I often see her smiling at strangers and she is the one initiating it. Very cool. The tantrums have also come down to a minimum (sometimes). I probably should clarify. The numbers of tantrums have decreased but the intensity has increased.

Maya's eating habits have gone down hill. She's not the ravenous little critter we first brought home from Thailand. She's becoming much pickier these days. She loves fruits and vegetables but the meats not so much. I find myself trying to pack in her protein with peanut butter, beans and eggs. Sometimes she will eat meat but it's got to have sauce of some sort on it or be really tender.

Overall, I think she's doing okay. She's almost completely out of 12-18 clothes except for a few outfits that ran big. I can definitely tell that she's gotten taller. Weight wise, I don't think she's gained much maybe a pound or two? I weighed both girls yesterday and would you believe that there's only a pound and a half difference between them? Maya still weighs more but it won't be for much longer. Chunky Monkey Julia is gaining on her!

Speaking of Julia:

We have crawling. It's army crawling but it's motion! She does try to get on her hands and knees and rock but that's as far as that goes. She has also learned to clap, wave and here recently, pointing. Within the past week, Julia has finally been able to get to a sitting position from her belly. She definitely won't be walking by her 1st birthday as she is still not able to pull herself up or cruise furniture. Can you believe our little baby is going to be 1 next month? I still can't believe it.

Feeding time has been more interesting. Julia has begun boycotting all baby food. It's a battle to feed her from a spoon these days. She much rather prefers picking up the food herself and piling it in. Sometimes she actually gets the food in her mouth.

(the apple was purely for entertainment purposes- she didn't eat it- she tried though)

News story

2008-06-30T14:57:00.003-04:00

I was reading the paper yesterday when I came across a crazy article. If you guys are local then you know the story that I am talking. An adoptive mother was just on trial for murdering her adopted son. Horrible story. My heart breaks for all of the children. The mother was just sentenced to life in prison last week, I believe.

When I came across this article, I was floored. The story I knew but the players involved, I did not. The article is here:

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/paddock/story/1124238.html

And yes, that is one of our agencies! I did a double take trying to find our social worker's name but no, it wasn't her.

Here's another article dealing specifically about the agency. Apparently, the biological grandparents are suing the agency. What a tragedy.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/paddock/story/1124105.html

Just so, so sad.

Again?!

2008-06-27T13:41:00.002-04:00

On Tuesday, my sister, my mom and nephew stopped by for a visit. Christine, my sister, gives Maya a hug hello and looks at me and says, wow, she's cutting 2 molars huh? HUH?! She's cutting two molars?? Well, sure enough, there they are poking halfway through the gums. We had no idea. Yeah, she was a little needy, emotional and throwing a few more tantrums than usual but she's a 2 year old AND a girl on top of that. That explains everything and nothing all at once :) Who knew?! I just can't believe that this is the second time this has happened to us. Dave's mom told us that Julia's first two teeth were cutting. Are Dave and I clueless or what?

Back from the beach

2008-06-24T08:49:00.012-04:00

The best way to describe our trip would be stressful fun. We left on Friday at about 3pm and hoped that the girls would nap on the way down. But once again, our child who refuses to sleep in case she misses something did not disappoint us. We always cross our fingers and think Julia will sleep in the car, HA! It never fails. She ended up fussing the last hour of the trip. Fun stuff.

There was a bit of excitement on the ride there. There was a small CO2 tanker in front of us on the highway. He was all over the road. He kept going over to the shoulder and then would jerk back on to the road. At one point, the guy almost smacked into a parked car on the shoulder. Scary stuff. We finally were able to pass him and when we did, would you believe that the guy had his head laid back on the seat and was ASLEEP!! He could have killed somebody for crying out loud. We fulfilled our civic duty and called *HP (this is the 911 for Highway Patrol) and reported him. I hope he got off the road without actually hurting anybody. Crazy.

We got to our hotel and got the girls' pack n plays set up. They were giddy, giggling like school girls. You can tell from these pictured how wound up they were:

They didn't sleep very well either night. Julia would end up moaning, groaning and whining for like 40 mins before conking out. Maya would fall asleep easier but would be up tossing and turning throughout the night. It was her first time away from her crib and she did not sleep well.

Saturday we were up at 6:30 am (Thank you, Julia). Took the gang downstairs for breakfast. After breakfast, I put Julia down for her nap and Dave took Maya to the beach. Maya loved the beach! We couldn't keep her out of the water. HAHA, yeah right! She hated it! It scared the crap out of her. She cried and screamed. After some time, Dave was able to get her to play in the sand but far enough away from the water. Storm clouds started rolling in at this point. Talk about torrential rain. It was pouring cats & dogs by 9:30am. Ughh. We decided to take the girls to the Aquarium. It was raining so hard on our drive!

The Aquarium was fun. Maya was a little spooked at first by all of the big fish. She screamed her head off when we saw the alligators. After a bit, she started to enjoy all the fish. There was a huge tank of fish, shark, eels and other sea critters that both girls just loved. They were mesmerized.

The weather cleared up a bit that afternoon and we ventured back out on the beach. Maya was still scared to death. We got Julia to dip her feet in to the ocean. She was scared at first but after a few minutes she loved to hang Superman style and grab at the water coming in. Maya was screaming so we packed up and headed to the pool. Maya once again, was pretty spooked at the pool. She was crying and screaming, "No! No!". Dave & Julia got into the pool and she screamed even harder. At this point, I just grabbed her and brought her in with me. She LOVED it! I held her and she was splashing and kicking. She loved it. We were never able to get Maya in the pool in Bangkok but Julia was a regular water rat at the hotel. She loves the water.

:

This is from Saturday afternoon. You can see her red eyes from crying. Poor girl.

Saturday night, we got the girls dressed up for dinner for my birthday. The girls were good and Maya ate like a champ!

We have two more beach trips planned this summer. I think each trip will get better. Maya should be used to the water and sleeping away from home by the 3rd trip, hopefully.

The saving grace for us for this trip was our balcony. Dave and I were able to hang out on the balcony after we put the girls down. Good stuff! The trip overall was nice. Relaxing not quite but it was still fun. We made memories! One thing that we are happy about is that the girls were so good in the restaurants. We ate out 6 times this weekend and things went really well. I think it's a mix between Dave & I getting more skilled and the girls getting used to eating out. Either way, it's been really nice.

4 days

2008-06-13T09:59:00.003-04:00

4 days. That's what it took for Maya to get back to normal after our little break on Saturday. My mom said that Maya handled it well, no tears just smiles when she woke up from her nap and we weren't here. Dave and I were only gone for about 2.5 hours. We were too worried as to how Maya was going to react to us being gone when she got up from her nap. We did a little shopping, grabbed some lunch and headed home. Everything seemed fine when we got home. Maya did seem to cling to Dave a little more than usual but nothing too crazy. That night when we went to put her down for bed, she cried. She cried for a few more minutes. I must have gone in 3 or 4 times before she finally fell asleep at about 9pm (we put the girls down by 7pm). She woke up crying at about 1am and then was up for the day at 6am. This girl usually sleeps like a rock from 7pm-8am so this was out of the ordinary for her. Even for her nap the next day, she cried and only slept for about 45 minutes. This trend continued until Thursday.

Poor girl. We knew it probably wasn't the best idea but man did we (I) need a break. I know what happened too. Poor Maya was afraid to go to sleep because she didn't want us to go away. Next time we leave her it will be when she's awake. It will probably be a few weeks, if not more. I don't think she's ready right now.

Taking a break

2008-06-07T07:17:00.002-04:00

Today is going to be the first time that we are going to leave Maya. Dave and I are going to do a bit of shopping and grab some sushi for lunch. My Mom is going to come over to watch Maya and Julia while we head out. I hope Maya handles it well. The girls go down for naps at 1pm. My Mom is going to be at our house at about 12:30pm or so. This way Maya will get to spend some time with her before nap time. We figure we'll skip out when they nap. It's probably not the best way but it's the easiest way. Wish us luck!

Catching up

2008-06-06T13:25:00.006-04:00

The girls have been keeping me busy! They are both all over the place. Maya more than Julia, of course. That's another story. Julia is still not crawling. She can go backwards on her back and roll all over the place. It's hard not to become a neurotic parent when it comes to development issues. I will have to admit, both Dave and I have been working with her. It's sad, I know and I'm sure once she starts crawling I'm really going to regret it. But, what can you do? I will learn my lesson the hard way.

Julia update: I was completely wrong about her teeth. I said it was the top two teeth next to the front ones. Well, it's not just those. It's all 4 of them and possibly the two next to the bottom front too. She has been a mess these past few weeks. 2 of them have already cut through and a third is in the final stages. Her right front tooth is coming in last. That definitely explains her horrible sleeping habits and her fussiness lately. Poor girl. She has become very friendly with Baby Motrin. We like Baby Motrin.

Maya update: Maya is really coming along well. She's down to about one or two timeouts a day and a handful of tantrums. It's funny, well, not really funny haha but funny, because I see the tantrums brewing. She gets this look in her eye. Dave and I joke around and say, here come the horns! We're such sweet parents aren't we? heehee. She still sleeps like a champ. I get so amazed because she goes down for her nap & to sleep at night without a fight. I think a routine has been so great for her. She's the type of kid that needs one for sure.

We're gearing up for a weekend at the beach in two weeks. I wanted to go the beach for my birthday so we decided to take the whole family. This will be the first time that Maya will be sleeping away from home not to mention the first time she will see the ocean. I anticipate her freaking out at first sight. I'm hoping after a few hours that we're able to get her feet wet!

I finally got my new camera. I'm very excited about it. It takes really great close-up shots. Perfect for the little chickadees. I just got it today so I'm still trying to learn how to use it. Here are a couple of shots that I took this morning.

You can almost make out Julia's nubs in this one.

Oh I almost forgot. Maya has a new favorite word, elbow. I think it's my favorite too. She says it funny. She says, ell-BO. I swear she has an accent. It's really cute.

9 months today

2008-05-22T14:34:00.012-04:00

Here are a few recent pictures of the girls:

My little peanut turned 9 months today. Julia went in for her Dr's appointment and my little peanut weighs a whopping 21 pounds. Haha. Little piggers! I stuck Maya on the scale while I was there and she's almost 24 pounds. It's kind of funny that my 9 month old and my 2 year old almost weigh the same. BUT, they are both healthy so I am not complaining.

Julia had a great checkup. Everything seems to be at status quo. She is starting to sprout some new teeth this week. She has two on top that are starting to break through. The funny thing is they're not the front teeth, they are the ones beside them. We may have a little Vampire on our hands!

28 out of 30

2008-05-19T08:20:00.003-04:00

For the last 28 out of 30 days, Maya has had the same exact breakfast. I feel a little guilty about it but she gets excited about it every morning. It's like clockwork. When I go get her out of bed, first thing she does is point to her closet and say, "shoes". Well, it's more like, "brooos" because she can't say "sh". Then she looks up at the butterflies hanging from her ceiling, points and says, "butterflies". Once again, more like, "bah flaa". Then when I start to change her diaper, breakfast comes in. She starts to say, "eat". I say, "yes, eat breakfast". She says,"nana". I say, "yes, banana". Maya then says, "cereal" or something along those lines. I repeat her. Sometimes, if she's in the mood she will try to say "bottle" and then do the sign for milk.

So yes, for 28 out of the last 30 days, the girl has eaten cereal (cheerios) with slices of banana for breakfast. The only reason she didn't have it those two days is because we were out of something. She had oatmeal instead, which she gets equally excited about. I'm just waiting for her to outright refuse her breakfast one morning but it has yet to happen. She actually gets excited when she watches me get her breakfast together. You would think it was Christmas morning or something. Ooooh, cereal...again! Woohoo!

Post-Placement Meeting Part I

2008-05-15T12:47:00.002-04:00

Thailand requires 3 post-placement meetings with a social worker before they will approve finalization of the adoption. Technically, for now, we are only Maya's guardians. But once the 3 post-placement reports are completed (takes at least 6 months), our agency will provide us with the approval we need to finalize the adoption in our state.

We had our first post-placement meeting with our social worker yesterday. And like clockwork, our social worker did not disappoint us. She updated us on the latest family news. Let me see if I can recall it all:

Both daughters are now engaged. One is getting married in July and has invited 400 people to the wedding. The husband was in a fraternity and has kept in touch with everybody he has ever known.The bridesmaid dresses are ordered but there were some issues. The other daughter is bigger than the rest of the girls and there were some issues finding dresses in her size. The two girls got into a big fight at a bridesmaid shop and she had to step in. The shoes were a bit of an issue too as she wears a size 11. The other daughter is getting married the week before Christmas. That wedding should be smaller. Blah, blah, blah...

She's too funny. She did ask lots of questions about Maya's adjustment and wanted to see her bedroom. Our meeting would not be complete without a crazy comment or two. Our social worker asked about her language development and whether she was speaking before we got her. To be exact, she asked, "Was she speaking Chinese or something when y'all got her?" We told her yes, she was speaking Chinese but not a word of Thai. We didn't say that but we really wanted to.

Fun times.

Happy Mothers Day

2008-05-11T05:57:00.001-04:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, mom's to be pregnant and paperwork pregnant) and all of the moms who have lost their angels.

Thinking of you all today!

Digital Camera

2008-05-09T10:02:00.002-04:00

I am in the market for a new digital camera. I would like a point and shoot that has some manual controls. Right now, I am looking at the Canon a 720is and the Fuji s700. If anyone has either one of these cameras I'd love to hear what you think of them. I've got a budget of under $200 so my options on a "prosumer" camera are somewhat limited. I'm also checking out the Canon 570is, Nikon s210, Fuji 40fd and the Canon SD1000. Any recommendations?

Are they twins?

2008-05-08T21:01:00.002-04:00

If I had a dollar for every time I heard that, I would be rich. It's crazy. I don't think they look alike at all let alone being the same age. It never fails, every time I am out with the girls someone stops me. Even more so if I have them in the side by side double stroller. It's pretty funny. One day I am going to say yep, they're twins and this one over here is the older one...by 16 months. Let's see how they react to that one.

We can stand

2008-05-06T14:22:00.003-04:00

There's no crawling or walking yet but Julia loves to stand (with some help). It's pretty funny because sometimes when we go to sit her down, she locks her knees and won't bend her legs. She becomes stiff! As long as there is something to support her, like a hand or a table to lean on, she can stand pretty well.

Julia is not crawling yet but she is perfecting the roll. She's pretty quick and can get to almost anything unless it's right in front of her. She hasn't yet figured out how to go forward.

Party, party, party

2008-05-06T13:53:00.012-04:00

Little Maya finished up Birthday week with one last party. We had family and friends over to help celebrate. Maya and her parents had a great time! Here are some pictures from the party.

Major Progress

2008-04-23T08:57:00.002-04:00

Maya is really making great progress (aside from her sweet introduction into the terrible twos). On Sunday, I left her home with her Dad for almost 3 hours while I did some shopping and she didn't freak out. Last night, Dave took her to the Little Gym for a trial class. She has never left the house without me before so it was a little bit of a scene when he tried to coax her to leave with him. He finally had to pick up the screaming Maya and put her in the car. She calmed down eventually.

The class is 45 mins long and consists of some gymnastic skills, aerobics, songs and other structured group activities designed to burn a ton of energy. Dave said the first 15-20 mins of the class she was pretty timid and didn't really get into it. He said the last half of the class, she started getting into it. She even got on the balance beam and hung from the monkey bars. She really loved it when they rolled out a zillion balls. Dave said she absolutely loved it and he wants to sign her up for it. The class is only once a week and it's fairly reasonable. We figured it's a great way for her to burn up some energy and to also socialize with kids her age, plus it's fun!

8 months old

2008-04-22T19:04:00.004-04:00

Julia is 8 months old today! I can hardly believe it. We rang in her 8 months with some amoxicillin. Julia ended up with a double ear infection after getting over her first cold & cough. She's a trooper though!

Happy Birthday Maya

2008-04-21T16:28:00.010-04:00

Today Maya turned 2. We started the birthday festivities this past weekend when Dave's family came down. We had Dave's family& my parents over for a birthday party for Maya on Saturday. Maya loved all the great stuff she got! She especially loved the ice cream cake she had. It was the first time she ever had ice cream. It was really sweet to see Maya with our nieces. She was a little shy at first but within hours she warmed up to everyone.

Tonight, we're celebrating with some Thai food and birthday cake #2 for her. On Saturday she gets to have cake #3!

The honeymoon is over

2008-04-18T10:37:00.002-04:00

Someone has stolen our sweet little Thai girl and replaced her with a 2 year old punk! HA! I'm really serious though. Everyday is a battle. I still can't figure out if it's adoption transition or just the terrible twos. I doubt we'll ever really know. She can be such a sweet girl one moment and then bam! the horns come out! Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating but not by much. These past few days have been hard because everything is a challenge with her. I know she can sometimes be jealous of the attention Julia gets so that's part of it. But, it still doesn't stop her from throwing tantrums when it's just her and I. Dave and I were talking the other day and we should have known this was coming. We can both remember an update we got from the orphanage while waiting to travel that stated something along the lines of "she knows how to cry to get what she wants". Heh, heh, and we thought it was cute?! Silly Sam & Dave.

Just Ridiculous

2008-04-14T13:01:00.007-04:00

I'm sure some of you have been hearing a lot about BPA or Bisphenol-A these days. It just seems that it's in everything. A common use of it is in baby products. Doesn't make any sense to me but yes, baby products. You try to do the right thing and take of care of your kids but sometimes you just can't win. For those not familiar with BPA. Here's a blurb from a borrowed website:

Bisphenol A is a hormone-mimicking chemical used in polycarbonate plastics and resins commonly used for items such as shatterproof baby bottles. Bisphenol has estrogenic properties which, in animal tests has shown to cause a bevy of health problems such as an increase in prostate and breast cancer, uro-genital abnormalities in male babies, a decline in semen quality in men, early onset of puberty in girls, metabolic disorders including insulin-resistant (Type 2) diabetes and obesity and neurobehavioral problems such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Research is showing that when plastic containers, mostly those used to hold liquids and foods, are leeching Bisphenol into the foods and liquids they are holding. Heating food and liquids with these plastics is shown to increase the leeching of this contaminate.

Many companies use this chemical in their packaging including cans, soda cans, and plastic food containers. There is a risk of absorbing this chemical through the use of containing foods and liquids but can also leech into our water systems through landfills.

From another website: There are 7 types of plastic. Look under most plastic products and in the recycle symbol, there should be a number that indicates the type of plastic it is made from. Numbers 5, 4, 1 and 2 are safe for food. 3, 6 and 7 are not, with 7 being BPA.

The Today Show also did a segment on BPA last week. Once again, repeating the warnings on the numbers 3, 6 and especially 7. The guy pretty much said run from a 7.

My friend Steph had sent me a great website months ago about BPA and safe plastics. I thought I was pretty informed on the subject or so I thought.

I've been making all of Julia's food from day 1. It just seemed to be a healthier alternative. It's really not too time consuming either because I tend to batch "cook" and freeze it in cubes. One of the things that my book Super Baby Food recommends on not making yourself for Julia's age range is carrots. Apparently, carrots have a very high nitrate level. This is one food where the author recommends on purchasing the food or avoiding it until the baby is a little older. The baby food manufacturers monitor the nitrate levels on carrots so buying jarred carrots for baby is supposedly a safer option.

The other day at Target, I was walking by the baby food section and thought, hmm, carrots, why not? I bought about 6 little packs of Gerber Organic Carrots. I figured going organic could only help. Julia probably had 2 or 3 packs of the carrots when it dawned on me to check out the number on the bottom of the plastic packaging. My mouth about dropped. Would you believe it was a 7!?!? How about that for ridiculous, organic carrots are packaged in a container that is made from polycarbonate plastic, yes folks, Bisphenol-A. Nice, huh? I'm still shaking my head at that one. I guess it's going to have to be organic carrots in glass jars from now on.

If anyone is curious, here's a great list on BPA free baby bottles & sippy cups (but no baby foods ;)

Is that a light at the end of this tunnel?

2008-04-12T17:33:00.011-04:00

What a week! Maybe I should really say what a "6 weeks"! I'm sure you guys may have started to worry after my silence after the last posting. No, Dave has not committed me yet. We were close though! Just jokes of course. Things are going much better than they were.

Highlights of the week:

Last Sunday, we had a visit from a few of close friends of ours. Weaz, Steph, Eric and little Maeli brought Maya an early birthday gift. It was a sand and water play table. She loved it!! What a great gift it was! It's really cool to see her with all of these new things. She loves the sand. She tried to eat it and we all tried to tell her no. The following day we were playing with the sand outside and once again she tried to eat it. I finally just said, OK, go ahead. You should have seen her face when she stuck that shovel in her mouth. Too funny. How else is she going to learn?

This is really a low light. Julia got her 1st cold. She took it like a champ for the first few days until her nose became stuffy. That was horrible. She screamed her head off for about 20 minutes at a time off and on until I finally was able to put drops into & suction that little nose of hers. Not fun. Little Julia was very needy this week. The more I held Julia, the more Maya wanted to be held. Those poor girls had a hard week (not as hard as their Mom or their Dad for that matter- he had to hear all about it!)

Maya loves cats! It was so cute. I swear Maya has been sneaking and watching wrestling in spare time. Her grabbing this cat was reminiscent of the sleeper hold. She loved it! She squeezed it and pet it like no tomorrow. It's a good thing our neighbors' cat likes to be held or we would be dealing with major blood loss! I wanted to take a picture so badly but I knew as I got up to get the camera she would have followed me. You have to realize that the week or two before, our neighbor Kelly "introduced" the cat to Maya and she was curious at first but then panicked when the cat got closer. Once again, major progress Little Maya!

Major lesson learned for Sam. I have learned to use my "no's" wisely. This girl is stubborn. I know my parents will say," Heh, heh, payback time, baby!" but man, she is STUBBORN! Add a big fat "No, Maya" to it and it's time to put on our gloves, Ding Ding, Round 1! Needless to say, I have to pick my battles. If she wants to put her hat and shoes on to eat breakfast, so be it. Accessories & pancakes it is!

She likes our dog! This is great news. She's been really afraid of our dog until now. I had both girls outside on the deck while Maya played in the sandbox. Our dog came up on the deck and got into Julia's face. Julia started laughing, giggling, petting and grabbing at our dog. Maya was watching Julia and saw how happy she was to see Cody. Next thing you know, Maya is reaching out for Cody and petting him. They are friends now! This was over one month in the making and to think all it took was for the reaction of a 7 month old. Who knew!

HUGE, HUGE, HUGE, did I say HUGE? Yes, major step here folks, HUGE. Big mama left the nest today and was traveling solo. To say it was much needed would be the understatement of the year. This was the first time that I have left the house alone in 6 weeks. I have to give major kudos to my wonderful husband. Neither of us were sure how Maya would react to my absence but he encouraged me to leave anyway. He wanted me to get some alone time, do some shopping and no time limit enforced! I was gone for about 2 hours and Dave was left with both girls (and both awake!). Maya cried for about 5 minutes straight after I left. After that, she would go to the door, point and say, "Mama" about every 15 minutes. Dave said she never cried after the initial meltdown though just the visits to the door. This was music to my ears. Let me tell you, I love my daughter but you really need a break sometimes to re-energize. It's so hard sometimes. It worked out great today though. Dave gave both girls a bath (and separately, too), fed them snacks, played with them outside and even did the dishes. It was funny though, when I came back, Maya wanted Daddy to hold her. How about them apples!

3 Years Old?

2008-04-04T05:54:00.002-04:00

I just found out that you can't enroll a child into preschool until they are 3 years old. Sigh. Can you tell I've had a rough week? This parenting two kids under the age of 2 is hard work! The thing is when it was just Julia, Dave would take her for a few hours on the weekend so I could get a break for a bit. But with Maya, we just can't do that yet. I'm not sure when the 'proper' time is but reading a fellow adoptive parent's blog, it seems as though her adoption therapist told her & her husband at 2 months to begin to leave their daughter for a few hours at a time while they got away. The 2 month mark doesn't seem so far away. 4 weeks from Monday but who's counting. Dave's hoping I last that long without having to be committed! ;)

What do we have here?!

2008-04-03T09:46:00.006-04:00

That's right folks. You are seeing that right. Huge night for us last night. We used bath time as leverage. HA! Maya loves to take baths. I brought her into the bathroom and Dave gave her the bath. I even left the room. I was still in her line of vision though. She cried a bit. Not your "Help me! I'm scared to death!" kind of cry but more like, "You're not my Mom" whiny cry. We didn't give in. I stayed within eyesight the entire time in the bath because we just didn't want to freak her out. Dave broke out some new bath toys and she was actually happy at one point. He was even able to get her out of the tub, brush her hair and get her dressed. The highlight of it all was he actually got to hold her and she was okay with it! He was so happy!

Good times.

Moving along

2008-04-02T10:15:00.003-04:00

Monday will be 4 weeks since we got our little Maya. It's been a hard month to say the least. I do feel as though all of our hard work is starting to pay off though. When we think back to the first week that we got custody of Maya, we think Wow! We've come so far. 6 months seems to be a magical number with International Adoptions. I can just imagine what we'll say in 5 more months. Come talk to us in September.

Maya is starting to become a lot more comfortable in her surroundings. The more comfortable she gets the more she becomes a true toddler. I swear I am so shocked that her first word wasn't "no". I did watch her pretend play by herself the other day. She was babbling something and then I saw it. She started wagging her finger and shaking her head no. I don't know if I can take the credit for that one but I certainly saw myself with each wag of the finger! It was a proud moment. Haha

Things with Maya and Dave are progressing well. We wish the process would move quicker but we're impatient. A friend shared her 16 month old son's Russian adoption story with us and boy was it enlightening. Their son rejected her and attached to the father. Unfortunately, he continued to reject her for almost 6 months. The crazy part is she was his primary caregiver. She was a stay at home mom to a child who did not want anything to do with her. She said it got to a point where she did not even like the child any more. She was being very candid with me and I appreciated her honesty.

Far too often you get people who paint such a rosy picture with International Adoption when in reality, more than often it's just not the case (at least with older children). She said that he did finally come around to her. It happened when she went back to work about 6 months post adoption. She dropped him off at daycare for the first time and he clung to her. She said that was the turning point. From that point on, he was different with her. She said that her son is still more attached to her husband than her but other than that, things were great.

After hearing her story, Dave and I realized that things really could be a lot worse. Maya is not violent, she doesn't harm herself, she listens (for the most part), she's healthy and she's so sweet with Julia. We're very lucky. She likes Dave now but just won't let him hold her. She even shows excitement when he gets home from work. Of course, we're still cheering him like he won the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes or something. He loves it! Don't get me wrong, she has her a lot of issues but in the grand scheme of toddler adoption these issues are minor.

She's still sleeping fairly well. She sleeps about 12-13 hours straight at night and one nap during the day. It's great. She sleeps better than Julia. I am still laying down on the floor in her room, only for bedtime. When she falls asleep, I set up my "dummy" and sneak out. It's been working for the last 3 weeks so we'll keep doing it for a bit longer. Maya did wake up in the middle of the night screaming on Monday night. She was very, very hard to console. We're still not really sure what it was (night terror, separation anxiety, afraid of the dark?) She finally fell back asleep at about 4am. I don't know if I mentioned this before but Maya always wakes up weepy. Sometimes she's crying, sometimes she's whimpering. Until this morning. For the first time ever, this morning when I went into her room she was smiling. It was a great sight.

My friend Karen lent me Baby Einstein's Baby First Moves DVD for Julia. I put it on for Maya the other day and she loved it. It's perfect for her really. It's simple English and elementary enough for her to pick up things. She learned how to clap yesterday by watching this DVD (I had to work with her a bit but still). I'm trying to teach her how to wave and there's actually a lesson on the dvd. Perfect. She's really picked up a lot in the past few weeks. She can walk up stairs now (down she's still a bit scared so shimmies down on her butt). She can't jump yet but loves it if I hold her hands and do it for her.

A huge accomplishment is utensils. She is starting to master a spoon! This is really great. She was making such a huge mess at every meal. Ughh. Yogurt was ridiculous. She would get a big spoonful and then turn it towards her mouth and proceed to dump it all over her. It got to a point where I didn't even want to give her a spoon anymore. Let me tell you, she was so mad at me. She pretty much threw a mini tantrum in her booster chair. Of course, then I felt like I couldn't give her the spoon because she'd win! Finally, it dawned on me. What am I doing?? Here I am battling a 2 year old on something that's developmentally good for her. Sheesh. It's hard not to get sucked into the mentality of a toddler sometimes. So yes, after she calmed down and basically forgot about the spoon, I gave it back to her. I guess all that work paid off because last night at dinner, Dave and I both noticed how she's getting so good at maneuvering the spoon. She hardly spilled anything!

Our little girl is making giant steps. Now, if we can just figure out a way for me to leave the house without her for a few hours without traumatizing her we'd be in business.

On the 12th Day

2008-03-29T09:42:00.005-04:00

she slept! It really did take Julia 12 full days to get over jet lag. The 1 day recovery for each hour of time difference rang true for us. Unfortunately for us, Julia is now teething and was up at 2:30am the next morning! It's always something isn't it? She fell back asleep quickly though so not as bad as it could have been. Last night we were graced with almost 9 hours of straight sleep. I can't remember the last time that happened. I think both of the girls were exhausted from their visit with Nana & PawPaw (Dave's parents) and all the new goodies they brought. They also were up later than usual, maybe we should do that more often!

Maya is starting to really come around to Dave. She's been letting him feed her, change her and even putting her into her booster seat to eat. Although, I have to say, she may let anybody put her into her booster seat. The girl loves to eat. I can't say that enough. She LOVES to eat. She gets all giggly and smiley when it's time to eat. It's too funny. Not only does she love to eat, she can really pack it in. Maya is starting to get a belly! The other night we didn't feel like cooking so ordered some Chinese food. I had to get a picture just to show you guys how much she can eat. Keep in mind that she had a afternoon snack of strawberries and a side vanilla yogurt to dip them in (she is hooked on dipping) and some crackers about an hour and a half or so before.

Before & After:

Yes, it's a lot of rice. She loves it though. She must have had it for every meal in the orphanage. When she has it now, she eats it like she hasn't eaten for days. This meal was also followed by Daddy feeding her some Gogurts. Our little piggy!

Pictures

2008-03-26T11:07:00.018-04:00

Maya pointing out the big monster aka the Dog

This was a pretty cute scene. Julia kept trying to get Maya's egg. Maya was not a happy camper about it.

Getting By

2008-03-26T09:16:00.002-04:00

These past couple of days have not been so bad. I'm almost afraid to say it because I don't want to jinx myself. Honestly though, the nights are worse than the days. Julia is still getting up at night. The times have changed a bit but she's still not sleeping through the night yet.The girls have been pretty easy to manage during the days so far (knocking on wood). We even got out of the house a couple of times yesterday.

Julia has been napping twice a day and Maya napping once a day. They both nap at the same time in the afternoons so I get a little break. It's been pretty nice. For Julia's naps, I have been putting Maya in her crib but then getting her out when Julia goes down. For the 2nd nap, I put Maya in her crib and leave her with the door open. She eventually falls asleep.

Maya is still waking up crying every time, naps and in the morning as well. I think it's a mix between getting disoriented and getting emotional. She's pretty easy to calm but it's just the initial crying, whimpering that gets me. I feel bad for her. Julia still doesn't seem phased by her new sister. We're lucky in that Julia is a very easy going baby. There doesn't seem to be any jealousy at all with Julia. Now there's plenty the other way around. Maya sometimes does not like to share me. She's getting a little better in this department. I think she's finally realized that this is the way it's going to be.

Maya's starting to pick up on some more words. She can't say many of them clearly but at least she's trying to say them. We are continuously working with her from morning to night. Sometimes she goes on these streaks where she just loves to point, hear us say the words and try to say them herself. It's pretty cute.

After Maya's dinner, Dave has been spoon feeding her these Go Gurt things. It's yogurt in a plastic tube geared for kids. Really, it's sugar with a splash of yogurt in a tube but she LOVES them. Dave's been doing this for the past few nights and it seems to be helping her warm up to him a bit.

A friend of mine had a great idea. She suggested making Maya a small photo album that she can carry around with pictures of Dave. This would get her used to seeing Dave. We'll try it, it couldn't hurt.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. Sadly, we never made it to church and never got the girls dressed up. We were still so exhausted plus the girls didn't get up until late. My mom and stepdad came over with dinner and Easter baskets for the girls. Out of all of the stuff Maya got, I hate to say it but she loved the little plastic eggs the best. She plays with those things all day. She even took a couple in the bath with her.

We're still just taking everything day to day. It's hard trying to figure out what the right thing to do is. I'm still really coddling Maya. She's just so fragile. We don't really know what else to do. Is she too fragile for a bout of "tough love"? We just don't know. I do know that I am carrying her a lot less. Now, I usually only carry her when she's going to her crib or coming out. All in all, I feel that we're making some progress. We're told that these things take time. It's just so easy to get impatient and want things right now.

One Day at a Time

2008-03-24T12:10:00.003-04:00

That's been the motto in our household. We're all still trying to adjust to normal life here. Dave's back to work now so I've got both girls to take care of. When Dave was home he pretty much looked after Julia while I took care of Maya. Needless to say, I really miss him and I'm sure Julia does too! We're still trying to get a routine together but right now it's a little difficult because a certain little one is still suffering from jet lag. I read somewhere that it can take babies one day per hour of time difference. That's 12 hours = 12 days. We're up to 9 days now. Julia does seem to be getting better, if you call getting up from 10pm to 1:30 am instead of 1-4am better. We keep saying that once Julia gets back on track things will be easier, I hope this is the case.

As for my first full day alone with the girls, let's just say this is hard! I think Dave will have to commit me when this week is up. I've got Maya suffering from extreme Separation Anxiety and Julia who is fighting sleep and both of them seem to get great enjoyment out of crying at the same time and at full volume. I just have to laugh at it sometimes, either that or I'd be crying too, ha! The naps are the hardest part of the day. Julia has been a pill and Maya doesn't want to be alone. If Maya is in the room with Julia, Julia won't sleep. So, what I've resorted to is putting Maya in her crib and going to put Julia down for a nap. Maya cries for a bit but if her door is kept open, she calms pretty quickly. We'll see how this goes for now.

Maya is making small steps each day. She's still pretty hot and cold with Dave. She still won't show him any affection and depending on her mood, will ignore him altogether. I know it's really hard for Dave to deal with but he's being very patient with her. I have to laugh to myself because I know how this is going to pan out in the future. Dad is the big softie around here so it won't be long until little Maya figures out she can score big being Daddy's Little Girl. For now though, we're not really sure what else to do but to keep doing what we're doing and hope that eventually she will warm up to him. If anyone has any ideas in this department, please let us know.

Last week, we took the girls and went out for sushi. Maya was a trooper! She had her first taste of sushi and she liked it! She had a California roll minus the seaweed (I thought it would be choking hazard so I took it out) and some eel. She ate it all! Her appetite never seizes to amaze me. I pray that she continues to go through the toddler years open to trying new foods.

Maya's language development is moving, slowly but still moving. She can say baby, dog, Julia and ball and know what they mean. We're working hard on "more" right now. As much as she eats, we need to get this one down quick! She sometimes still insists on pointing and grunting, so we're trying really hard to get away from that.

This has actually been a big week for Julia. Julia turned 7 months old. The time just goes by so quickly. We started her on solids last week. We had waited until the Bangkok trip to start her on foods. Julia has/had some food sensitivities and we just didn't want to deal with all of it while traveling. So far she's loving sweet potatoes and bananas. We're going to try butternut squash next. Julia also got her first haircut. The poor girl has been walking around with a mullet, we just couldn't do that to her any longer. I just trimmed the long "newborn" hairs that never fell out along the back & sides. It really wasn't much but she looks so much better.

I've got some more pictures to post and a Bangkok wrap-up that I wanted to post. I will try to get them posted when I have a few spare moments. Right now, the girls are asleep and I need a nap!

Oh, I forgot to update Maya's test results. We're still waiting on all the blood work to come back but we do know that she doesn't have Tuberculosis. Whew.

Maya Photos

2008-03-19T14:23:00.008-04:00

4 Days

2008-03-19T13:12:00.002-04:00

It's been 4 days since we got back to the States. We're all still trying to kick this jet lag. OmoMaya seems to be doing ok with it. I think the fact that this kid can sleep anywhere, anytime has really helped things. Julia on the other hand, not so good. She's up from about 1-5am nightly, well, daily. Dave and I are still just so exhausted but I think once we get Julia back on track, things will be much better.

Little OmoMaya is adjusting well. She had her first Dr's appointment today. The poor thing got jabbed 3 times with a needle. She was a mess. The Dr wanted to check her prior immunizations/vaccinations so that required quite a bit of blood. She also got a needle in the forearm checking her TB status. Her paperwork states that she has been vaccinated against TB but everything is double checked when it comes to International Adoption. The Dr said that with some countries like Russia, they automatically re-vaccinate. He wasn't so certain about Thailand. Nobody seems to have a clear cut process on Thailand as it seems to be an obscure place to adopt from, maybe I should say was an obscure place to adopt from. With all of the delays in China, Hague Convention issues with Guatemala and possible shut down in Vietnam, adoptions through Thailand have hit an all time high.

Anyway, the blood work was a nightmare. The phlebotomist had the hardest time trying to find her vein. She stuck the needle in, found the vein but then lost it. At this point, Maya had lost it too. I was holding her on my lap and another nurse was holding her arm, while the 2nd nurse tried to find the vein. After about 40 seconds of the nurse digging around, the nurse started panicking, literally panicking. Her hands started shaking and I mean shaking! I have never seen anything like that before. I know she felt bad but come on Lady! I'm thinking to myself, "Get yourself together would you!" The scene from Airplane where they all get in line to "calm" the woman freaking out came to mind. Sheesh. After still no luck on the right arm, she pulls out the needle and says she wants to try the other arm. Thank God for little OmoMaya that this vein was a nurse's dream. They had to get 5 vials of blood so this wasn't a walk in the park. After a minute, she was done. Phew. Little Maya walked out the door with so many bandages it had looked like she was beaten!

Overall, the pediatrician said she looked great. She does have excema on her face and a little on her neck. She has a little bit of fluid in one ear but it could be because of the bronchitis she was getting over in Bangkok. The only other thing she had was wax build up in her other ear. The Dr prescribed a some drops to clear that up. When we were in Bangkok, Maya sounded pretty rough. Her lungs were full of congestion. You could actually hear her lungs cracking. Dave and I were pretty concerned about this, not only for her health but also for her exposure to Julia. We tried to do our best to keep the separate, including separate toys. Our Agency rep got us some antibiotics to clear it up in case it was viral. Some thing worked because the Dr said her lungs sounded great. He even said there was no need to keep the girls apart. Good stuff.

The Dr's main concern was Tuberculosis. Maya was vaccinated against TB as a baby as Thailand is a country that sees their fair share of TB cases. As a precaution, regardless of prior vaccinations, they test all international adoptees. Maya got the TB test on her forearm. I always remembered getting a tine test as a kid, you know with the 4 prongs? Maya didn't get that. She got a needle injected directly under the skin of her forearm. Anyway, we go back on Friday to check the results. We also have to bring some stool samples to check for parasites. Fun fun. heh.

The Dr made an interesting comment. He said that she 'looked' smart. I never knew you could see smart. He said that she had bright eyes and he could tell that she was smart by the way she was taking things in. Who knows if there's any validity to that comment but hey, as a proud parent we'll gladly accept that compliment.

Maya is transitioning well. She starting to become a lot more at ease. She doesn't scream when getting into her car seat anymore but now just whimpers. Hey, progress is progress. She is coming around to Dave a lot more but still no hugs. He's been able to interact with her more so this is really great news. Dave's latest thing is bribing her for kisses. It's very sweet. She loves potato chips and whenever Dave's eating them, which is pretty often because he loves potato chips even more, Maya wants some. She will look at me and point and I tell her to ask Daddy. She will then walk over to Dave and point. He then asks for a kiss on the cheek . The first few times she would balk at him. Here, lately, she has been putting her cheek up to his. It's so cute! It's getting better with those two. This morning Dave got her out of her crib. She screamed big time but then calmed quickly when she saw me. We were giving her her space with not too much change so now we're thinking we may try to just force the issue a bit, a tiny bit. Nothing too drastic or anything but Dave may start getting her out her crib.

Maya has also started to come around more with Julia. She is still very jealous of Julia when I carry her but it's getting better. I'm still worried about trying to put Julia down for naps when Dave goes back to work. Dave has been putting Julia down for almost all of the naps so this hasn't been too much of an issue. I did try once yesterday to put Julia down. Because Maya panics if I leave the room so I may have to try to put Julia down with her in the room. The downside is then Maya cries because I'm holding Julia. Patience right?

Maya did the sweetest thing last night. Julia was in her high chair and dropped her toy. Maya bent down, picked it up and put it on her highchair tray. It was cute. A few minutes after that, I had stepped outside just for a second to go feed the dog. When I came in, Julia had 4 toys on her tray. Maya had actually put 2 of her own toys on Julia's tray. Very cute.

Maya has become more curious about the dog. She's not as fearful of him so this is a good thing. He has come very close to her and she froze just like a popcicle! But, hey she didn't cry! Progress!

Overall, she seems to be getting a lot more comfortable in her new home and her new family. She's a very inquisitive little girl and we can literally see her try to soak everything in. Her eating habits are still going pretty good. We've been trying to feed her a ton of variety and she seems to be pretty accepting. So far our little girl is quite the international eater. She's already had Thai, of course, Chinese, Mexican, Japanese and Italian. The only thing that she wasn't too fond of was applesauce. Strange because yesterday Dave gave her apples and she loved them. We just chalked it up to Toddlerhood and we'll try it again.

Stroller

2008-03-17T10:55:00.002-04:00

US Airways found our stroller and delivered it last night. It was a pleasant surprise!

Home At Last

2008-03-16T10:25:00.000-04:00

There's just nothing that compares to being home and in your own bed. We're all home and trying to get settled in. Maya slept pretty well last night in her crib. I stayed with her in her room until she fell asleep and then snuck out. I needed some sleep so badly and my bed was calling me. Before I left, I set up some pillows and threw a blanket over it to make it look like I was still in there. I was desperate at that point. Something worked because she didn't wake up until about 7:30am this morning.

Julia was so happy to be home. Dave got the biggest kick out of her because when he put her in her car seat at the airport she giggled and grinned. She knew she was home! Julia hit her crib at about 9pm and didn't wake up until 10:30 this morning. Poor girl was exhausted.

Thailand was really great. The people are just incredible; so nice and willing to do anything for you. Dave keeps saying that he wants to move there. He absolutely loved it. The love that the Thai's have for children is palpable. It's this love for children that saved us from missing our return flight home.

I think the last post left off on Thursday so that's where I will follow up.

While we were waiting for Maya's visa on Thursday we sat at a cafeteria and just hung out with the girls. We had a sandwich bag filled with Goldfish for Maya. Let me tell you, this girl can eat some Goldfish. We just handed her the bag and let her go. Big mistake!! One by one, she started shoving the Goldfish into her mouth. Literally, stuffing them in until she was gagging. We had to take them away from her and only give her a few at a time. She would point at the bag for more. We kept telling her to finish what was in her mouth and then she would get more. Between gestures and repeating the same words, she finally understood. She would eat the Goldfish that we set down in front of her, open her mouth to show us she was done and then point for more. Of course, there were times when she hadn't swallowed them yet. That's become a regular thing now. I don't know if she's hoarding food or what, but she loves to keep stuffing food into her mouth until she gags. Now, we repeatedly have to ask her to show us her mouth. Nothing like seeing chewed up food on a regular basis.

After we got Maya's visa on Thursday, we went back to the hotel and the girls got some much needed naps. We went out to dinner and did some shopping. Maya is becoming so great at eating out and just being in public period. She's also showing us daily just how smart she is. We were playing around in the room when Maya started pointing at things. Everything she pointed to we would say what it was like 3 or 4 times, at one point she started to say the things. It was awesome. The highlight of it all was when she grabbed this little pig. I said, Pig, Pig, Pig. Within seconds, she looks up at me and says PIG. Dave was in the bedroom and heard her clear as day. It was just amazing. I know I'm like a broken record but she's very, very smart. She's just absorbing everything like a sponge.

Friday we got the girls all suited up and ventured down to the pool. Julia loved it, Maya not so much. This is as far as we got with her:

After the pool and some naps for the girls, we went souvenir shopping. We took the double stroller but once again, Maya wanted no part of it. Dave said to me that we really needed her to get used to the stroller because it would make things easier on us at all the airports. Every time we had tried to put her in it before, she screamed her head off. I knew Dave was right so I just did it. I picked her up, put her in and strapped her in. She wailed but the instant we started moving, she stopped. She loved it! One small victory for us!

Friday night we packed up and hit the road at about 9pm to catch our midnight flight out. We got to the airport at about 10pm to find it absolutely packed with people. The airport was so busy. Dave and I are both stressed out and kept watching the clock. We had not checked in and still needed to go through Immigration and security in 1.5 hours.

We stood in line at the Thai Airways check in panicking. After about 20 minutes, a Thai Airways rep spotted us and called us to the side. He said, Baby? (as he was pointing to Julia) Come with me. He pulled us out of line and brought us to the front. As we're checking in, the counter agent asks us for papers for Maya. Um, what papers?!? The only papers we had was a sealed envelope that was to be opened by Immigration States-side. Another small panic here for us as we started rummaging through all of our luggage trying to find something, anything that would get us out of the country with Maya. We finally come across a piece of paper from the board meeting that was just what we needed. We were able to check in and get all of our seats. Thank God.

Next stop was the Immigration line. Another huge line. We try to find a spot in the sea of lines while maneuvering the double stroller through. Once again, we get spotted by an airport agent. She doesn't speak any English but motions for us to follow her. You betcha! She points us in the direction of a really short line designated for delegates. Got to love it. At this point, it was 45 minutes until take off and still the security line. Definitely stressed but ok, we can do this. We finally get called up by the Immigration officer, hand him our passports and Maya's Visa. He asks us for our departure sheets. Departure sheets? Um, what departure sheets. He proceeds to hand us 4 slips of paper that need to be filled out with everybody's identifying information including passport numbers. Oh jeez.

Dave and I hurriedly scribble the much needed information and hand them over. He then tells us that he needs to take individual photos of Dave, Julia and I. Tick, tock, clock is ticking. He takes the pictures and tells us we can proceed but I must take Maya to this other window. I take Maya over to the Thai citizen/visa desk. The agent was working with another woman and we had to wait. The stroller was kind of in the way so I maneuvered it a bit to where the stroller was almost directly in front of the desk. The woman glances over, sees Julia (who was sleeping at this point) and Maya in the stroller and mouths "baby". She stops what she is doing with the woman she was helping and grabs Maya's Thai passport out my hands. She proceeds to stamp and mark the necessary paperwork and sends me on my way. Woohoo.

Dave is carrying 2 carry on bags and Julia's car seat and I'm pushing the girls in the stroller as fast as I can. Off to our gate with 25 minutes and counting. Figures that our gate is on the far end of the airport. As we're trying to find our gate, we realize that each section has it's own security. Perfect. How busy can it be? We're huffing and puffing to our gate when we spot, Section D on the signs. Sweet! Almost there. As we start to get closer, we begin to see a crowd in the distance. Oh, we think, they must be getting ready to board their plane and just gathering. As we inch closer, we realize we are dead wrong. Section D security was packed and I mean packed! Oh no! 20 minutes to go and we are seriously panicking. We talk about whether we should approach one of the officers and let them know our situation or asking the people in front of us if we can cut them in line. We decide to just wait it out and see what happens as the time gets closer. You want to talk about adrenaline.

Surprisingly, the line is moving. 10 minutes to go to take off and we're making progress. We finally get to the head of the line and start putting our stuff on the belt for the x-ray machine. At this point, we were going to use all we could to save time. Julia was still sleeping in the stroller so I kind of turned it a bit so they can see her. I point to her and ask if I have to take her out and collapse the stroller to put through the x-ray machine. She looks at Julia and makes the "aww" face and starts looking around for a spot for me to squeeze through. We weren't going to have to deal with taking the girls out and collapsing the stroller. I ended up pushing the stroller, the girls and all through the metal detector. I swear only in Thailand. You got to love it though. The actual gate was about 30 feet away. Would you believe we all got on the plane at 12:00am for our 12:05 am flight? I can not even describe how relieved we were.

We find our seats and get the girls situated. We bit the bullet and bought seats for the girls as well. It wasn't cheap but it was the best decision we ever made. We had the four seats in the center row to ourselves. We out Maya in an aisle seat, me next to her, then Julia and then Dave in the other aisle seat. We weren't sure how Maya was going to do being belted in and not being in my lap, but she did great! She was just so interested in all the stuff going on, the tv in front of her and the people around her that I don't even think she noticed that she was belted in. I gave her a bottle so she would have a way to 'pop her ears' during the ascent.

I have to mention that this girl can sleep and I mean sleep. I swear she must have slept 15 out of the 17 hour flight, no exaggeration either. One couple stopped me to tell me how good Maya was being. I guess being at an orphanage with all those children, you learn to sleep through anything. She did get to eat though. I don't know if I mentioned this before but they feed you very well on Thai Airways. The menu consists of a choice of two options for each meal. There was normally an Asian option and another option. One meal we had was Salmon Souffle, that was followed by a Thai chicken curry. The food was pretty good too considering it was airplane food. They always came around with wine, drinks and then Cognac after dinner. The meals included fruit, crackers & cheese, rolls or croissants, an entree and a dessert followed by coffee or tea.

On the flight home, Maya ate fresh mozzarella and grape tomatoes in a basil vinaigrette, pork noodle stirfry, steamed carrots, broccoli, vegetable fritatta, sausage, fruit salad, cheese & crackers, yogurt with fruit, chicken thighs in a hoisin sauce and creme brulee. We are so proud of her that she is so willing to try all of these new things even more proud that she eats it! You should have seen her eat the creme brulee. I would give her a spoonful, she hadn't even close her mouth before she was pointing for more. Speaking of more, I had been teaching her the sign for more. Would you believe that she actually signed it?? I about fell out of my chair. We haven't seen her do it again but hey, we'll take it!

I did want to add this little story. Maya was sitting awkwardly in her seat. Her leg was sticking out in the aisle. I didn't realize this until people tried to walk by and had to move to the other side to get by. When I noticed, I picked up Maya's leg and moved it back to the front. As soon as I did that the little bugger moved her leg right back to the aisle. I once again picked up her leg and moved it, this time followed by a "No". Well, the little stinker did it again. Once again, picked up her leg, moved it and followed with several firm, "No's". Well, our little toddler Maya, while looking straight at me with a smirk on her face, proceeds to inch her leg back out slowly. What a punk!!

The flight itself went great. Both girls were just so exhausted that they slept the majority of the time. Perfect. We got into NY at about 7 am. We had do go through Immigration for Maya. This time all of our documents were accounted for. They processed her Visa and Maya was allowed to enter the country! Yeah Maya! My Dad and brother picked us up from the airport and took us to my Dad's house while we waited for our next flight at 3pm. Dave and I were worried about how she would take being strapped into the carseat. Well, let's just say she's predictable! She screamed her head off for about 5minutes. She finally gave up and just looked around.

We had a great visit with my family. It was a nice break from our traveling. Maya got to meet her Grandpa, Great Aunt Karen, Uncle John, Aunt Kelly and cousin Leah. Our almost 4 year old niece Leah just loved being with Maya and Maya adored Leah. It was very sweet to see the two of them together. Leah was very motherly to Maya and Maya couldn't get enough of it. Very sweet. Dad cooked us up a great meal and we got to fill our bellies before leaving.

We headed to the airport around 1pm. This time we got there with plenty of time to spend. We had both girls in the stroller so it was easy to get around. Unfortunately, we had a layover in DC. The layover was pretty uneventful. There was a slight delay but we got on okay. We gate checked our stroller like we had done the entire trip so we can use the stroller right up until the we board. It worked out great until now. When we got off the plane at our home airport it was pouring rain. The plane was one of those commuter planes that let you out on the tarmac and you have to walk up the steps into the terminal. Because it was pouring rain, they made an announcement that all gate checked luggage would be placed inside at the baggage claim so we wouldn't have to get wet waiting for our bags on the tarmac. We head over to the baggage claim and within minutes spot all of our bags. Hmmm. No stroller. We wait and wait, still no stroller. Wait more, no stroller. After an hour of waiting and dealing with the baggage department, yes, they lost our stroller. Can you believe we go halfway around the world with this stroller and they lose it at our home airport?!?

We called this morning and still nothing. Sigh. They are still looking for it but we don't have much faith. Because it was gate checked, it doesn't have our flight info tag on it. I did put one of those little paper tags that you put your info on that the airport hands out. So, maybe. We loved that stroller too. Hopefully, they can find it but we're not holding our breath. We were just so glad to finally be home. To think we left at 9am on Friday Eastern Time and got home at 9pm Saturday night. 36 long hours.

Maya is doing really great. She's doing much better with Dave. She pretty much will let him do things for her: anything and everything but no affection and hugs. Dave is taking it really well. I feel so bad for him, I know all he wants to do is hold his little girl but he's being very patient and giving her her space. She will come around. She's doing so well already considering the short time period. I doubt it will take much longer for her to open up to Dave.

Maya is a little freaked out by our 100lb dog. They haven't officially met and probably won't for a couple of days. We do notice her getting more curious about him so that's a good thing. Maya is adjusting to her new home nicely. She's loving all of the toys and random things around. She seems to also be getting comfortable with her crib. I just put her in it for nap and she didn't cry when I set her down in it. I was shocked. Of course, I did stay in there until she fell asleep (the room, not the crib, heh).

We want to thank our wonderful friends for decorating the house, surprising us with gifts and by straightening up our house for us. It was so sweet of you guys. We also want to thank you for stocking the fridge with all of the wonderful goodies. You guys are the greatest! What a sweet surprise it was to walk into Maya's room and see those beautiful butterflies! We absolutely love them but not as much as Maya. She keeps pointing to them. Karen- Maya loves her new pajamas & shirts! They are so pretty! The snacks came in handy too!

We want to send huge thank you's to our terrific neighbors for taking care of our dog while we were away. We appreciate so much! Thank you, thank you and Mr. Cody Brown thanks you!

We are so happy to be home and can not wait for each and everyone to meet our little addition. I know Maya is just going to love you all as much as Dave and I do.

Thanks again for everybody's support. We could not have done this without you.

Some Pictures

2008-03-15T23:05:00.001-04:00

Here are a few pictures. The ones with Maya in pink are from "gotcha day" and the ones with her in yellow are from the Thai Adoption Board Meeting. I have some more pictures and latest update to post tomorrow.

The Missing Post

2008-03-15T22:54:00.000-04:00

This was the message that was supposed to be posted the other day. Some of it may be repetitive but in greater detail:

Monday:

Monday morning we headed over to the orphanage at about 10am. We were both so nervous it was ridiculous. Between the excitement, the anxiety and throw in some added stress because our cab driver got lost big time and we were late, Dave and I were a mess! We finally show up about 20 minutes late. The orphanage/ children’s home is situated in a fairly large residential home. When we got there all of the children were playing on the porch, we spotted Maya instantly. She was so sweet. We walked up and she walked away. She’s a very timid little thing. The director Saovanee told us to take pictures of her with our digital camera & camcorder and show them to her. It’s funny how even in Thailand kids love the digital era. Dave tried to do this initially but she wouldn’t go to him. They told me to try and she actually sat with for maybe 5 seconds. Saovanee proclaimed, she can go with you now because she didn’t cry. They told us that Maya is very, very shy and has some stranger anxiety. I keep calling her Maya but I have to admit, we have not called her Maya yet. Her nickname at the orphanage is Omo. That’s all they have ever called her. We didn’t want to totally screw her up so we’ve been calling her that. We’re going to start calling her OmoMaya soon and then eventually drop the Omo.

On the flight over, Dave asked one of the flight attendant what Omo meant. She said it’s a laundry detergent. We all thought well, maybe we’re not saying it right. Needless to say, when we got to the orphanage we asked. Yes, laundry detergent. There’s a laundry detergent named Omo with a slogan whiten things white or something along those lines. Saovanee named her Omo because she’s white, as white as a Thai person can be. It’s nothing that we would have noticed but after they said that, yeah, I guess she’s a little paler in comparison. It was funny though.

We probably spent about 20 minutes at the home most of the time was spent going through some paperwork with Saovanee. Saovanee gave us all of Maya’s medical records, photos since she was a newborn, information on Maya’s mother including photos, Maya’s passport and more legal paperwork. After this, Saovanee told us we needed to leave soon. She didn’t want Maya to think that we were just volunteers. Here’s where it got really, really sad. Maya was scared to death. She knew something was up. A cab pulls up for us and a couple of the nannies tell her it’s time to go. She freaked out. Dave and I felt horrible. It felt like a kidnapping. Maya would not go in the cab at all and started to panic and fight against the nannies. They told us to get in the cab. We both get in and then they picked up Maya and put her in the cab on my lap. She completely broke down. She wailed while holding onto me so tightly. Dave and I felt horrible. Our heart was broken for this sweet little girl. She cried for just a quick few minutes and then it was almost like she went into shock, catatonic-like. I swear it was as if she knew that she was never going back there again.

I can only describe that entire day as bittersweet. Maya was a mess the rest of the day. She was just devastated and freaked out. She did not eat the entire day, as much as I tried she just wouldn’t do it. I did get her to drink this formula that the orphanage gave us so she got some nourishment. She cried most of the day and would not let me out of her sights, usually not out of my arms. She fought sleep that night so I stayed by her side the entire time. At about 11pm, she followed me into the kitchen area and stood there. As I turned around, she started to vomit on the floor and on herself. She seemed fine afterwards and hasn’t done it again. Poor sweet Maya. She was just so sad and just so scared.

You have to realize that she had never really left the confines of the children’s home except for some blood work and to get her passport. Now, not only was she with complete strangers but she had the entire world to absorb. I’m talking the little things that we all just take for granted, a car, people walking, elevators, crowds, random noises and etc. She completely freaked out when we went up the escalator at the hotel. I mean freaked out. She almost leaped out my arms to have Dave hold her. The biggest hurdle has been her exposure to men or rather lack of. They don’t see many if any male volunteers at the home so spending 24/7 with Dave has been a huge shocker to her. She still hasn’t warmed up completely to Dave but she is coming around. She’s not crying every time when he comes around her so we are making HUGE strides. It will take time but she is going to LOVE her dad. Monday was a hard day for all of us. Maya finally fell asleep at about midnight. Julia woke up at about 1am and was up to about 5am. I ended up sleeping for about an hour that day. It was tough dealing with everything on so little sleep. To be brutally honest, at one point that night I thought to myself, what have I done? I think we’ve made a huge mistake. After saying that, I have to follow up with I am so happy to have this little girl in our lives. Each day I have seen her grow so much. It’s absolutely amazing. She’s going to fit in to our family perfectly!

Tuesday:

On Tuesday, I took Maya along with our on-ground agency rep to get some photos done for her visa and then to the hospital to get an exam for the visa. I was so exhausted but we had to get this stuff done. Dave stayed back at the hotel with Julia. It just didn’t make sense the drag the entire Griswald family out. We were gone from 12pm to about 5pm. The Immigration office needs a physical exam and current vaccinations in order for an orphan to be let into the country. The day went great. I actually got a little glimpse of her true personality then. At one point, she was actually walking in front me alone. This was a huge step. She had wanted me to hold her constantly and I mean constantly. I can’t even walk away without her crying. So, she goes with me everywhere, yes, even the bathroom. Heh. I think the poor girl is afraid I am going to leave her so she has become attached to my hip. This is actually a good thing when it comes to adoptions. She’s let me do everything for her: change her, dress her, give her bottles and feed her food.

Wednesday:

This day was huge. We had our meeting in front of the Thai Adoption Board at 9:30am. This is where the Thai government approves your adoption. We had my mother watch Julia this morning. The 3 of us and our rep, John headed over to the meeting. It was a little nerve-racking to say the least. Dave was at ease but I wasn’t. This was huge! Anyway, we get in front of the Board and it was kind of funny. I wish I would have taken a picture. It was me, Dave and Maya sitting at this long table. Across from us were probably about 16 people sitting in 2 rows. We all had microphones in front of us, like at the UN. I cracked up when I saw this because they were like uh, 15 feet from us, max, maybe even less. We could have just spoken and they would be able to hear us. Maybe it was an intimidation thing, quite funny though. They would each take turns asking us random questions and then we’d answer and then silence while someone else thought of another question. There were questions like, Why Thailand? Why did you adopt when you did? What are our plans for education, specifically kindergarten? (I thought that was odd- not even college but kindergarten) We answered them as best as we could. We told them it was all none of their business. Haha, just jokes of course.

We told them that we felt very strongly about education and that our plans were for college for her, I am part Thai, gave them our fertility saga blah blah blah. At one point, they asked what we called her. We told her Omo, like the detergent. They got the biggest kick out of that story. They would take turns saying, “Omo!” into the microphone, watch her turn to them and all start cracking up. They must have done it about 6 times. Too funny really. It was a very conservative group so this was a huge ice breaker. After everything was said and done, there was a bit of silence and the woman in charge spoke into the microphone, “We trust you and we approve you. We also want you to come back and adopt a boy next time.” What a relief and what a compliment!

After the meeting, we headed back to the hotel, got Julia and took a taxi to the Homeland Security office to get approval to apply for a visa. We had a ton of paperwork to turn in and evidently, some things were missing. Our rep John, is a 60 yr old Australian that takes no crap, really funny guy actually. He got a little lippy with the “gatekeeper”. I don’t know if that was that or just bad luck but after all the paperwork was corrected; we ended up waiting an additional 2 hours. We were the first adoptive parents in that office and the last ones out (there were about 5 families that were adopting from the States all at the same board meeting). The crappy part about waiting is that if you didn’t have approval by 3pm, you had to wait until the next day to make an appointment at the US Embassy for the visa application. We were at the office at 1pm and did not get in for an interview until 3:30pm. We knew we were screwed and would have to make two trips the next day or wait a very long time. We had Dave holding Julia who was way overdue for a nap, Maya who was tired and was not letting me put her down and me trying to juggle paperwork. Not pretty. I don’t know if they felt sorry for us or didn’t want to hear Julia crying anymore but all of a sudden a woman comes out with our approval and says that she called the Embassy and that they are waiting for us. It was 3:45pm so you can imagine how psyched we were to hear this.

We trek over to the Embassy which is right across the street and submit all the paperwork. Once again, missing document: Maya’s birth certificate. Argghh! The agent must have felt sorry for us (Julia & Maya both not doing well at this point or she was ready to go home herself) but she let us submit it all without it. She told us to bring in the birth certificate tomorrow for our appointment at 9am. Woohoo!! What a day. We ended up back at the hotel at about 5pm, everybody was exhausted. All that was left for us to do at this point to get Maya into the States was to get in for our visa interview in the morning.

We had to do something to “fix” Julia’s schedule so we decided to take the gang out that night for some shopping and dinner. We brought a double stroller with us but Maya won’t go anywhere near it yet. We put Julia in it and I carried Maya. I would put her down and get her to walk often though. She got really brave several times and walked quite a ways away from me. Huge strides- pun intended. I know I mentioned how the Thais love Farang babies before but man, last night Julia reached celebrity status. Dave and I were at a sunglass stand in the shopping center when a small crowd gathered around the stroller. Next thing we know, people started taking out their cell phones and taking pictures of Julia!! It was the most bizarre thing. Dave looked up at me and just started cracking up. It was hilarious.

We ended up going to a Japanese restaurant that night. Two really big things happened. One, Maya let me put her down in the chair next to me instead of sitting on my lap. Yeah, Maya! Number two, she ate and okay, number 2.5, she fed herself! In case you were curious, she had some vegetable spring rolls (the fried ones) and some Yakitori (Japanese style chicken). This girl has made major progress in just two days. She comes out of her shell a little more each day, a tiny bit. We can’t wait for her to take to Dave but we’ll take what we can get right now. She’s a smart girl though and it won’t take her long to figure out that she could have Dad right under that little thumb of hers.

Thursday -today-

Long story short, after spending the morning at the US Embassy we got her Visa!!! We can leave the country now. All of our paperwork is done! We feel like we had a boulder lifted off of our shoulders. Maya did pretty well today too. She sat in a high chair at breakfast and ate a ton of food: eggs, bacon, potatoes, sausage and fruit. The girl loves her fruit. She also has a thing for freshly squeezed orange juice. Little snob.

Random thoughts:

Julia has done amazing on this trip. We are so proud of her. Even with all of her lack of sleep, she’s still a happy little camper. Dave said he’s so proud of her that he’s going to buy her something. It starts.

Maya is a champion sleeper. This is where the orphanage pays off. The girl can sleep through anything. The funniest thing is we don’t know if she’s fighting sleep or if she’s freaked out but she falls asleep standing up. She stands against the narrow side of the crib and leans back so her arms are resting on the top rails, she looks ‘cool’. Anyway, as starts getting drowsier, she starts wobbling forward. I’ve tried to lay her down but she gets right back up again. She catches herself and rights herself up but then the drowsy’s hit again. This time she falls on her knees. This goes on a couple of times more until she falls over completely and stays there for the night. She doesn’t hurt herself or anything because she hits the mattress. Does it make us bad people that we laughed? ;)

Every day is getting better. Maya is slowly adjusting, grieving but adjusting. I have to say, we are now 100% that she belongs to us. She is our daughter.

Still here

2008-03-13T09:40:00.000-04:00

I am so sorry that we haven't checked back in sooner. Things have been so crazy since we got Maya that I haven't gotten a chance to get to the business center to use the computer. I had this really long post that I typed out and it's now gone. Rats! This one may be shortened a bit.

As you guys know, we got Maya on Monday. It was bittersweet. The whole process was kind of crappy really. We went to the orphanage at 10am and spotted Maya immediately. She's a little thing! We sat down and tried to get her to come to us. She was not having it. She's a scared little girl so is not very fond of strangers. They told us to break out our digital cameras,snap some photos and show her her picture. Dave tried it and she would not go to him at all. They then told me to try it and it worked, for a moment she sat next to me and then she was gone. We then watched her for a bit longer, not much, maybe 5 minutes. The Director, Saovanee, called us into her office to give us some paperwork. She has a nice collection of Maya through the years and even a photo of Maya with her mother. She also provided us with all of Maya's birth mother's information address, ID # and everything. She asked us to promise her that when and if Maya wants to contact her birth mother that we go through them first. This was pretty understandable so we promised. After all of the paperwork was wrapped up, say about 10 minutes, we headed back out to where the children were playing. We sat and watched for another 5 minutes when Saovanee said, "It's time to go". It was that quick.

They called us a cab and as soon as the cab showed up, they pretty much shoved us out of the door. They told told us to get into the cab. As soon as we got into the cab, they 'shoved' a screaming, kicking and crying Maya into it and shut the door. It was horrible. Dave and I felt like we were kidnapping this poor child. I can't even tell you how tight Maya clung onto me. She wailed and tears ran down her face for about a couple of minutes. She also shook. Then it was the weirdest thing, it looked like she went into shock. I would describe as almost catatonic. No expressions, no movements, nothing. I think she knew that she was never going to go back there again. We were so heartbroken for her. We still don't understand why they do that to their children but it wasn't our place to say. Saovanee is the boss and these were her rules. But if you ask us, there's definitely a better way to handle things.

She spent the rest of the day in between tears and attached to me. She wouldn't eat a morsel and barely drank anything. She finally fell asleep from exhaustion at midnight. Poor girl. The last few days since we got her have gotten progressively better. Baby, baby steps. She's still not comfortable with Dave at all and will not let me leave her sight. We're working on it though. Every day we make a little progress. On a good note, she's become a champion eater. They pretty much ate only rice and a meat or egg and rarely some fruit at the children's home. It's pretty cute to watch her eat all of these things that she's never tried before. She also never fed herself at the orphanage. We spent yesterday showing her how to feed herself and she took off. So not only has she become a champion eater but she's also feeding herself. Yeah Maya!

She hasn't shown any interest to Julia but Julia on the other hand just wants to grab her all the time. Maya's not really sure what to think of her. I doubt she's ever seen such a big baby in her life. Life has changed for sure. The first day was so, so rough. We were still battling jet lag and Julia's horrible schedule that I swear we weren't going to survive. I do have to say that each day gets better. To watch Maya absorb everything like a sponge is just amazing. She's a smart little girl and a very fast learner.

I have a bunch of pictures to upload and will do so when I get back. I may try to post them tomorrow but I don't know if we'll have time. We fly out tomorrow night at midnight and have a ton of things to do before then.

An Update

2008-03-09T21:08:00.001-04:00

The last few days have been so crazy. We were suffering from some serious jet lag. I don’t think it would have been so bad with just Dave & I but add Julia to the mix and things got a little hairier. She still doesn’t have her days & nights I order but each day it gets better. Last night she actually slept from 8pm to 1:45am then back down from 3am to 6:30am. Better. At this point we’ll take what we can get.

The flight here was 17 hours long and to be honest, it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. Major props to Thai Airways, they really made things comfortable. We were so worried about Julia holding up on the flight. Come on, who likes to fly with a crying baby?! How about a crying baby for 17 hours?! We were so worried about it that Dave grabbed a ton of ear plugs from work just in case. That was a great ice breaker when we started handing them out before the flight took off. People got a kick out of them. Fortunately for us, they were never used. Julia was not an angel by any means but she really wasn’t that bad. She just didn’t sleep much and would yell, not cry but yell. One of us would get up and walk with her. Needless to say, we quickly became friends with flight attendants. At one point, the head flight attendant took Julia from Dave and started carrying her around. It was pretty funny. We did feel a lot better about things when we landed and a couple that was sitting in front of us turned around and said, “She really did great”. That was sweet of them.

The flight itself was bearable. Each seat came with its own TV screen. This was great. There was a huge selection of movies, tv shows, games and etc. Great time killer. The service on the flight was outstanding. We were served 3 full meals, a couple of snacks, non-stop drinks including wine with meals and a couple of rounds of hot towels. Would you believe the flight attendants evens changed their outfits twice?!

The hotel has been great too. The room is so nice and huge! There is a sliding door separating the bedroom from the living area and this can not be more on time. We also have a full size refrigerator and a microwave. I can not tell you how perfect this has been for making Julia’s bottles. The Pathumwan Princess Hotel is inside a shopping center and wow, this shopping center is crazy. It reminds me of Chinatown with all of the stalls. It’s 8 stories tall and has everything you can imagine. It’s a little overwhelming though.

Speaking of overwhelming, the Thai’s have some strange fascination with Farang babies. Farang is the Thai slang term for the white folk. I don’t think I can describe how how much they love farang babies. It’s very strange and borderline creepy. We can not walk 20 feet without getting accosted by Thai women trying to touch Julia. It’s killing me! Julia loves it though but mom, not so much. I don’t think I ca carry enough anti-bacterial wipes. Yeah, I’m neurotic so what! Seriously though, it’s ridiculous. They touch her hands, legs, tickle her, play peek a boo. One woman even kissed her hand. You should have seen me after that one. Sheesh. She was in her stroller so she was easy game. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very endearing but slightly out of hand.

I have to briefly mention the food. Dave and I have been chowing on some serious Thai food. Oh man, it’s just so good. The first night though we learned a major lesson. Dave and I are not prudish when it comes to spicy food. We ordered a couple of Thai dishes that usually aren’t too painful back home. Well, let me tell, the two of us CRIED throughout our meals. It was soo ridiculously hot. It was to good to not eat so we just kept eating it. We’re a couple of masochists sometimes. I swear I could picture the chef saying, “Heh, heh, heh, silly Farang .”

On to more important things, in 2 hours we will be meeting our daughter. We head over to the children’s home at 10am Bangkok time. While you guys are sleeping, we will become a family of four! Dave and I are nervous. Even more nervous since our Rep told us yesterday that he thought we might have a hard time with her. We’ll do whatever we can to make things easy for her. That’s all we can do right now. Hopefully, everything will work itself out in due time.

I will try to check back soon with pictures from our day and our new daughter.

We're Here!

2008-03-08T20:02:00.000-05:00

We are finally here！We got to our hotel, Pathumwan Princess, Saturday at about 7pm Bangkok time (we're 12 hours ahead here). The hotel is great, the room even better!
The flight was actually not as bad as we thought it was going to be. I will have to get to you guys on the details as I am being rushed right now.

We will post more later. I really just wanted to let you guys know that we made it here okay and have settled in. We meet Maya tomorrow!

Here We Grow

2008-03-05T21:09:00.000-05:00

We're on our way to Bangkok, Thailand this Friday morning at 11am to go get daughter #2. We are flying to NY Thursday evening and spending the night with Samantha's dad so we can be at JFK bright and early Friday AM. We are so excited and nervous. It's a non-stop flight from JFK to Bangkok totaling 17 hours. Baby Julia is going to go with us too. We just couldn't leave her home while we went halfway around the world. I haven't even left her for one night yet. Yep, just couldn't do it. So this will be our first family trip. I don't think it could be any more fitting. It won't be easy but nothing good is ever easy (for us at least).

Here is a recent picture of Maya. She will be in 2 yrs old on April 21st.

We meet Maya on Monday morning at 10am or Sunday night at 10 pm (EST) for you guys on the East Coast. There is zero transition time. We go to the orphanage, meet her, fill out some paperwork and then leave with her. Dave and I are really worried about this abrupt transition. We hope things aren't as bad as we think they're going to be. How does that saying go? Expect the best but prepare for the worst. That's us. We're also worried about any paperwork snags that may arise at the US Embassy or the Immigration office in Bangkok as we try to get a Visa for Maya. We think we have everything we need but you just never know with government paperwork.

Please send us all of your positive thoughts and prayers that things go well for us on this trip as we need all the help we can get. Hugs & kisses to all. The next time you see us we will be a family of FOUR!