Ellen's birthday & Rick's retirement

Ellen and Rick had their families in town to celebrate Rick's retirement. They hosted a bbq at their home for Ellen's birthday and we had a lovely evening with them. The girls enjoyed their dress-up shoes. That week we were honored to share in the wonderful ceremony for Rick's retirement from the Coast Guard. Ellen had planned every detail perfectly, right down to the red, white and blue M&Ms in the glass star dishes! Congratulations to Rick on his retirement and our thanks for his years of service.

An evening with Sarah and a birthday party

The weekend started Friday evening with a zoo picnic held in appreciation of the volunteers so I headed up to that after work - it would have been more fun to be there with David and Indigo, but although spouses are invited, wee ones are not. It was nice to hang out with some fellow volunteers and talk zoo and conservation. I also had a zoo shift on the weekend. On the Saturday afternoon and evening we had a total blast when we got to babysit Sarah while Rick & Ellen had a night out. It was so fun. We took the girls down to the lake where they ate some rocket popsicles and then had a lot of fun swimming. We had dinner together, lots of playing, dancing to our favorite "Jambo", baths and pjs. One of the funniest things of the night was when there was a bit of a spill and David bought up some of cleaning rags - which all happen to be old or stained t-shirts. Well, one of the t-shirts did not get used to clean up the spill and Sarah took a liking to it and wanted to wear it - fashion maven that she is. Well, it's a t-shirt that had the word DEMOCRAT on the front - we had to take a photo of that for her parents. By the time Rick and Ellen arrived, Sarah was now bathed and in her jammies but when we told them the story she wanted to wear the shirt again. So, much to Rick's chagrin, Sarah wore the shirt home - we thought it was hilarious. After that, every time Ellen tried to wash and return the shirt to us, Sarah would want to wear it - such a cutie pie.

On Sunday we had a really fun birthday party for our friend's son David. It was all Diego themed and our friend Becky did an amazing job. The kids got to decorate little vests made with brown paper bags with Diego themed and animal stickers. Indigo loved it. Also, they had some exotic animals come for a demonstration at the party and so we got to see a snake, a box tortoise, a hedgehog which was too adorable, a parrot, and a Madagascar hissing roach. You can see the birthday boy in his green Diego shirt sitting with his big brother and watching the animal critters. It was a really fun party and we all had a super time.

Fourth of July weekend

Uhh, about five months ago we celebrated 4th of July weekend! How amazing to think that last 4th of July we were in China and had only had our precious girl for three days. We started our long weekend on the Thursday night by going down to the lake and enjoying the beach. David thinks this story is hilarious - after I came out of the lake, up onto the beach, I had water dripping from my bathing suit. Indigo shouts out, in front of everyone and the lifeguard - mommy is peeing! Isn't it wonderful when they are talking! On the 4th we had a lovely neighborhood parade and marched from one beach to another. Later that day, Rick, Ellen and Sarah came over for dinner. Unfortunately it was kind of rainy but the girls still had a blast playing inside together. We have fireworks in our neighborhood which are displayed over the lake and we sit and watch from our beach and so we went down there (with it being rainy) with umbrellas and the three of us huddled to watch the fireworks. Indigo really enjoyed them. We also enjoyed celebrating our friend Subir's 40th birthday party which was really fun. It was held at a minor league ball park and we all had a meal together and then watched a game. The 5th was also our 16 year wedding anniversary.

July 1, 2008 One Year Anniversary of Gotcha Day!

WOW! One year of having our precious daughter has arrived; it seems both that the time flew by and that we have had her forever. So much has happened in this year. It's hard to fathom our lives without Indigo. It was really wonderful because Mom and Dad were here again, this time, just back from Alaska and about to go to England. They looked after Indigo on the 1st and got to spend the day with her while we worked. We left work and met them with Indigo at the most fantastic Chinese restaurant. We had an amazing meal including the Peking Duck and some delicious Shanghai lamb dish. After a wonderful celebratory dinner we took Granny and Granddad to the airport to fly off to England.

We are posting photos of one year ago (well, let's pretend I am up to date) on July 1, 2007 when our daughter was placed in our arms. What a day that was. We left Beijing with the families that were headed to Jiangxi (13 families); it was hard to separate from the two families in our group who were heading with another group to Anhui province, but everything was suddenly happening and we could not believe that we were going to have our daughter. I will never forget that day and words will never be adequate enough to describe it. We arrived in Nanchang, the capitol of Jiangxi and all got on a bus; Kathy our guide was telling us all what to expect. We went to the hotel where we would be staying for the next 5 days and were able to take a fast shower and gather the baby essentials and then before we knew it, we were boarded on another van to head to the civil affairs office where we were getting our babies. As we arrived, there was a van where we could see a lot of babies and we all choked up. One guy who was really the comic of our group, just broke up sobbing which was just very emotional. We were laughing and crying as we made our way up in the elevator. We entered a hot, hot room filled with babies, many of them crying. I think with our group and with families from another agency there were about 21 families receiving their babies. All we had ever seen of Indigo were our few referral photos of a baby that was much younger when the pictures were taken than she was at now 13 months. Honestly, it's quite awful to realize that you won't recognize your baby. We were told that once we knew which was our baby we could be with them but under no circumstances to take them from the caregiver until all paperwork had properly changed hands, all identifying the parties, matching passports etc. So, even though it seemed crazy, it was all very official. I was pointing out a baby to David that I was sure was Indigo, and then Kathy our guide was tapping us and saying, David and Melanie, this is your baby. We turn to see this tiny solemn little face looking at us. Her hair was in two tight pigtails with green rubber bands. She was not crying but she did look like she did not want to let go of the person holding her. David was showing her her picture which was on his t-shirt. We actually had our paperwork done very quickly, probably one of the first families, and then they handed her off to us. I took her and just held her close to me, but not saying too much, just petting her and holding her tightly. She did not cry at all but I think she was too shocked. She did cling to me like a limpet and holding her was just the best feeling ever. We took her to a less crowded part of the room and just held her. You can see from the photos how she was watching everything going on. The orphanage gave us several of the items we had sent ahead for Indigo including a photo album with photos of us, the grandparents and the pets. Also, a giraffe we had sent with teething parts and taggies on it, and best of all, the disposable camera we had sent to have photos taken of her and answers to questions we had asked about her daily habits and routine. Also, in some photos you can see her holding this little purple thing - that is a pencil sharpner, still in its packaging. When we sent the care package for the orphanage we had included a lot of pencils etc. for older children - we had put in several pencil sharpners and they obviously given her one in the packaging and she was really attached to it. After some time we reboarded the bus, this time with our precious cargo. Indigo drank some water from a bottle. Once back at the hotel, Kathy took the husbands to shop for the formula that the babies were used to and I stayed with Indigo in the room. I changed her into new clothes since she was so hot and sweaty but tried not to do much else that would be too much stimulation. She hated having her clothes taken off but did seem to feel so much better once the new clothes were on. What will never cease to amaze me is that by later that afternoon she was already sitting up and engaging and playing and smiling! It was just incredible. We just felt so lucky. It's impossible to relay with words the experience of this total miracle - I know that all our fellow adoptive families will concur. So enjoy the photos of her on July 1, 2007 - Gotcha Day and one year later on July 1, 2008 - my, how she has grown!

The next day was super special and wonderful. Indigo and I got together on July 2 for a Gotcha day celebration and picnic with three of the moms with whom we had gone to China and brought home our daughters. The girls had the most wonderful time tearing around the grass and then we went to a national park that is an old working farm. The girls had a blast chasing chickens and seeing the big Belgian draft horses, going on a tractor ride and petting cows at the end. It was a wonderful and special super day being with these families whom we had come to know through our long long wait for our girls and with whom we had traveled to China for the most momentous and joyous occasion of our lives.