And the Winners are....

I originally had 2 key fobs and was able to get another, so Grace drew 3 names. We put the 31 names of the people that wanted to be in the drawing in a bowl...

Grace picked the 1st one....Felicia of The Fleur-de-lis Cottage.

Second one...Kimberley of The Seventh Diamond!

And the last one....Lisa of The Long Road to China!

Congrats to the winners! I wish I had enough for everyone. This was great fun for us and please look for more giveaways in the weeks to come. You all support me so much and I want you to know how much you all mean to me! I'll be contacting the winners today. And thanks to my assistant, Miss Grace. ;)

Have a great weekend!

Update on Will and Thank You!

We are home! We were up really early, got Grace over to a friend's house who was taking her to school, woke up Will, changed his pull up and put him in his car seat. We are fortunate that the Children's Hospital here is only 25 minutes away. The hardest part was probably William not being able to drink anything this morning. Will turned on the charm for the nurses and pretty much figured something was 'up' when the anesthetist walked in the room in scrubs and a head cover. Anyway, his tubes are in...he's eating, drinking and a happy little guy back in his own home. Thank you for your heartfelt thoughts and prayers, they have been so appreciated and felt. I worked here for quite a few years as a Registered Nurse in their NICU and Peds units, and I can't say enough about children's hospitals in general. They do it so well as far as caring for children and supporting families. Above pic was taken last week, right now he's wearing his Superman cape. Lots of hugs, kisses and snuggling for Will this afternoon!

A request for Will

This Wed. Jan. 14th William is going to have ear tubes placed in both ears at the Children's Hospital here in Madison. I haven't spoken about it on my blog, but Will has had 6 ear infections in 6 months. Will has been pretty miserable when he gets them with high fevers and discomfort. His ENT doctor felt that it was best to put tubes in his ears and it's pretty much standard practice with cleft affected kids. So that's what will happen here. I know it's not a big deal and it's a common procedure that's done but Will has had 2 big surgeries in China and I don't know how he'll react to this. The best part is that they are letting me carry him into the OR and stay with him until he's asleep. I know he will be okay, but it's part of being a momma to worry a bit and hope he's not too afraid. I ask for your prayers as he'll be under general anesthesia for a little while and it's hard for kids this age to transition to the awake state afterwards. We appreciate all good thoughts and prayers for our little guy...and hoping these ear infections are behind us now.

My daughter

'A daughter is a gift of love.'
~Unknown

'If I keep a green bough in my heart, the singing bird will come.'

~Chinese Proverb

This incredibly beautiful little girl is the child I hoped to have for many years. When you meet Grace in person you see qualities of serenity, peace, kindness and absolute love. Grace is the perfect name for her. I think her personality comes forth in photos, but I'm not sure. Grace has had many changes this year with going to China and getting a new brother and starting Kindergarten. She has faced them all head on. She loves William with all her heart. She adores school and is starting to read. Grace has an infectious laugh and it comes easily. She swims like a fish. She loves to have fun. She is a sensitive soul, just like her momma.

Favorite Photo Friday...snowy day with Will

Will is just not sure about Winter and all that goes with it...snow and cold. He has been pretty reticent to go outside until yesterday. He wanted to wear his rain boots instead of snow boots and that was fine with me.

He loves to make footprints in the snow. He went outside twice yesterday, once in the morning and then in the afternoon so you can see the difference in the above photos and the one below in the light.

'Mom, I no yike(like) the cold!'

Please keep entering the drawing on my previous post for the key fob, or leave a comment on this post if you're interested.

Giveaway!

Brighton "China Tales" key fob.

Miss Grace holding key fob, it's about 3 and 3/4 inches long.

To celebrate the new year and the upcoming Chinese New Year which begins on Jan. 26th, I'm doing a giveaway of the above key fob. You can put your house and/or car keys on it, or not use it for keys and hang it from your purse or tote bag. There's a little clip attached to it. I have 2 of them, so 2 people will get one. It's very sweet and has 3 charms hanging off of it. A fish(commonly seen in Chinese art), the round charm has the Chinese character for 'happiness' on it, and the third charm is an adorable little girl wearing a pink enamel dress. Please leave a comment if you'd like to be entered in the drawing, your comment needs to be linked to your blog so I can notify you when you win. I will be announcing the 2 winners in about a week...on Friday, Jan. 16th. Grace will be drawing the names!

Bringing a little of China into your home

Eggshell pottery bowl from Jiangxi Province where Grace was born. The ceramic pieces come packed in wonderful boxes, but we still hand carried this back on the plane. Way too fragile to ship.
My dining room, showing a table with an antique teapot, Tang horse(new) and red lacquer box (about 40 years old). The box has an image of a Phoenix on it. The green horse sits in a window, Grace was born in the year of the horse.

Antique jade incense burner that normally sits in a cupboard in our dining room. The lion represents power and it was usually reserved for royalty. We bought this piece at an antique shop in Guangzhou. It's small, only about 4 inches tall.

Antique cloisonne urn (bought in Will's province), it sits on our mantel. Also folk art print hangs in our family room with 2 others. I love the vibrant colors and primitive style. The red dragon box on top of our armoire in our family room was bought from China Sprout.

Our hallway on the landing going upstairs. The celadon green vase is an antique piece from China, the emperor next to it is from Pier 1. The scrolls(4) have a whole story behind them, found them at a little shop in Nanchang and they are original watercolors. The artist and his wife invited us in for tea and we stayed about an hour. Negotiate for everything you buy (that part was fun for me).

Some of Grace's room. Asian toile print on her duvet cover, a Chinese kite and old cupboard on her dresser with her baby shoes from China and a panda teapot.

These are 2 of my most treasured possessions, a tea set from Grace's province and silver bracelets that were given to her by our guide when we traveled in 2003. I put them in a shadowbox and keep them on my dresser but they will be Grace's someday.

Master bedroom and I used a toile print with an Asian theme for the duvet. Also the print above the bed is of boats on the South China Sea.

We started the process to adopt Grace in the summer of 2001. Of the many questions asked of us in the interviews for that first home study, I distinctly remember our social worker asking us if we had any Chinese art or anything with a Chinese theme in our home. I had to think about it a bit and told her no. Our social worker was born in Korea and adopted by an American family here 40 some years ago, recommended to us that it would be a good idea to start reading about China, some of it's history and bring something into our homes that we loved from that culture. I took her suggestion to heart and since that day have read about China and it's history and people. I wanted to learn everything I could about my daughter's birthplace. My daughter and son both had a history before they came to live with me. And so will yours. So I started to learn about Chinese art and the different themes of nature, how flowers and fish are frequently used, the Lion, the Rabbit, the Phoenix and the Dragon and what they represent. Those are just a few. I firmly believe that it's important to have a part of China's (or your child's birth country) culture in our homes. The above pictures show how I've brought some of China to my home. I can't explain my style of decorating other than it's eclectic and reflects our life, our travels and our family's history I suppose. I've been to China twice and I've been fortunate that my husband has traveled with his work quite a few times to China, Korea, Japan and Singapore and brought some things back too. But you can find Asian style items in antique shops and flea markets and in stores like World Market, Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Gumps(in San Francisco), stores in Chinatown in any major city and my ever favorites Target and Pier 1. You can find Asian inspired fabrics at any fabric store and if you're crafty you can sew something or if not, have it made. There are also websites like....Gumps, Wisteria and China Sprout.Start out small...maybe with one inexpensive item and see if you like it. My home by no means is all Asian in style. Grace and William actually play with the ceramic Fu (good luck) dogs that are in our entryway. When you travel to China buy what you can fit in your suitcases and ship some things home too. You'll see colorful folk art paintings, paper cutting, Chinese knots, embroidery, ceramics, jade carvings and jewelry, cloisonne, calligraphy, silk fabric, ink and wash paintings and countless other art forms. Your child's province will have something specific that it's known for. Grace's (Jiangxi) is known for a specific type of pottery. Will's (Fujian) is known for it's tea. I encourage you to celebrate your child's culture.

First post of a new year

For the new year and my first post of 2009, I thought I'd celebrate by completely changing my blog. I also added a quote right below the header...it's a part of the Robert Frost Poem, "The Road Less Traveled." In one of my very first blog posts I spoke of taking the road less traveled and what that meant to me. If you want to take the time, you can read that post here. But basically I feel that the road less traveled for me has been my journey with adoption to my 2 youngest children. I never in a million years thought that in the middle part of my life that I'd be a mom again. It's amazing and humbling that we think our life might be a certain way...in my case, I couldn't have anymore children... and God had different plans. This road has made all the difference in my life. Thank you for supporting me on this journey with William and now I look forward to doing the same for all of you who are waiting for your children. 2009 is going to be a great year, I firmly believe that!
To continue my New Year's celebration I'll be doing 2 give aways this month, so please look for them. And I want to mention that the very talented Jennifer did my blog re-do...I think it's awesome and very "Gail." Thank you Jennifer!