Double Happiness

Gotcha/Metcha Clothes

Family FotoFun Friday Challenge #29 
Post your pictures on your blog and leave a link and a comment here before 5/4/2007.

This week's photo challenge is "Gotcha clothes".  Want to play?  Here are the very simple rules.

People say they have skinny kids on Gotcha day and they post pictures to prove it but I almost never see it.  Maybe because photos add ten pounds so, if you only weighed 19 to begin with, you end up looking normal?

I decided, in honor of Maddy's 8 month anniversay of our first meeting, that I'd dress her in her Gotcha clothes and see how much she's changed.  I was drawn to do this because I'd been thinking about her Gotcha day a lot over the past week or so.  Another family adopted a little girl around the same time that we adopted Maddy.  They met her in the same room, adopted her in the same room, stayed in the same hotel.  But they didn't keep her.  I can't 2nd guess their reasons but it really made me think about Maddy since every adjective they used to describe their new daughter could have easily been used to describe ours.

I remember it like it was yesterday.  They carried her in and my first thought was that she looked prettier than her referral pictures (if such a thing was even possible!) and my second thought was that she looked much, much, MUCH, skinnier!  So skinny, in fact, that it was hard to not gasp when we undressed her back at the hotel room to give her a bath.  Her back bone stuck out and had little scars where the boney protruberances had met with hard objects in recent months.  She was 25 months old and potty trained but had a butt the size of a newborn!  She was average height for a Chinese girl but her weight didn't even register on the charts.  She had a good appetite and was in Foster Care so what happened?  Did they intentionally starve her? 

It took Maddy about three days to cry.  Until then, she was compliant yet expressionless (except for rare instances when Gwen would make her laugh or smile).  She was filthy and covered in little sores that couldn't heal because she'd constantly pick at them.    She let Daddy tend to her basic needs.  She didn't tolerate me at all and that was the case until long after we were home.  Bonding has been a process that took the best part of six months but we've arrived!  She finally accepts affection and even seeks it out!  She's talking and running and jumping and eating!  She's a happy little girl and she owns our hearts!

Gwen was just a couple of months past her first birthday when we met her but she weighed a healthy 22 pounds!  She's even "healthier" now (that's what we're calling it!) at 35 pounds!  It was pretty easy to put Madeline into her Gotcha clothes because they'd only aged 8 months (and were large to start with) but Gwen has been our girl for 19 months now!

This really was the very last time we might ever hope to squeeze her into those clothes!  And it sure was a squeeze! They were TIGHT!  But I'm really glad I made the time and took the pictures.

Family FotoFun Friday Participants

1. Rachel Grace Li 2. Raising Cami Rose 3. Search and Destroy Twins 4. The Princess and the Pea 5. Twins! 6. Ryleigh Teague 7. Allison & Quinn 8. Cannon Fishbowl 9. Just Keep Swimming 10. Our Three Daughters 11. Sophie and Sage 12. Waala Family Adventures 13. MississippiZen 14. A Kerrnal Journal 15. Motherhood and Other Ramblings 16. Sophia\'s Journey Continues

17. LadyBug Journals 18. Davis Days 19. Hearts in China 20. Journey with AnnaClaire 21. Zoe\'s Place 22. Bang the drum and Shout! 23. Chopsticks & Tabouli 24. Our Adoption Trip In China- Mei Jun Qian- Mia Kennedy Gifford 25. Hiking Through Life with Ian and LiLi 26. Two "Twin" Terrors 27. mexican chopsticks 28. Loving Gracie... Paperwork Pregnant No More! 29. What\'s Katie Doing Now? 30. kathy 31. Now We Are Six 32. Avery FuMeng

33. Salsa in China 34. Shelly 35. Journey to Sarah Lu 36. With 6 You Get Eggroll 37. Ni Hao Brown Cow 38. The Life and Times of Chloe and Pearl 39. Ladybugs & Dragonflies 40. Our Madden Clan 41. Life with Emilia 42. stacie 43. She\'s a-DORI-ble!!! 44. All About Chloe 45. Rony 46. Journey to Gianna 47. In My Life

Sponsor a child?

We sponsor the foster care of a little boy from Maddy's orphanage in QinZhou, Guangxi, China.  We get quarterly reports and pictures of him and it's something we always look forward to.  The cost is pretty minor -- especially considering how far those dollars go and how much foster care affects every single minute of a child's life (as opposed to living in an orphanage). 

The family portrait pictured here is of the family who sponsored Maddy when she was in foster care in 2005/2006.  They also adopted a little girl from QinZhou.  It wasn't just their dollars that touched Maddy's life.  This family is part of her history and she'll, someday, understand how significant a role they played in her happiness.

There are a few kids from Maddy's SWI who don't have sponsors.  If you're interested in helping (tax deductable, of course), here's a link to see their pictures:  https://www.grace-hope.org/(cqxuajar25kj3l45tozb0eq2)/Waiting.aspx?OrphanageID=9.  If you decide to sponsor a family, please post a little comment so I'll know this blog post made a difference.

Toddler Art

Family FotoFun Friday Challenge #28 
Post your pictures on your blog and leave a link and a comment here before 4/27/2007. 

This week's photo challenge is "Toddler Art".  Want to play?  Here are the very simple rules.

Gwen and Maddy made an awesome picture (actually, several!) and didn't make a mess.  Do my kids have remarkable self control? Or was there other magic at work?   

If you've tried Color Wonder, then you know the secret.  I just wish they had this amazing stuff when my teenager was a toddler and drew a huge M on the wall with a yellow permanent marker and proudly announced that it was "McDonalds" (Get it? Golden Arches).

When Michael was three, he drew this "Happy Monster". It's always been one of my favorites!

If your babies are budding artists, share some of their artwork and post your link (and a comment) below. 

Family FotoFun Friday Participants

1. Journey with AnnaClaire 2. Journey to Sarah Lu 3. season star 4. Motherhood and Other Ramblings 5. The Cady Chase 6. Raising Cami Rose 7. Just Keep Swimming 8. k2 9. Twins! 10. Random Thoughts

11. mei mei journal 12. Search and Destroy Twins 13. Chopsticks and Tabolli 14. waiting4news99 15. Allison & Quinn 16. She\'s a-DORI-ble!!! 17. mommy24treasures 18. Christine 19. Our Adoption Trip In China 20. The Princess and the Pea

21. Bang the Drum and Shout 22. Sophie and Sage 23. LadyBug Journals 24. Two "Twin" Terrors 25. Rachel Grace Li 26. roylunsford 27. Our Journey to Gracie 28. Lori 29. 4 3=chaos

Pets

Family FotoFun Friday Challenge #27 
Post your pictures on your blog and leave a link and a comment here before 4/20/2007.

This week's photo challenge is "pets".   If you don't have a real live pet, a stuffed animal will do. Want to play?  Here are the very simple rules.

If you like super-cute babies, sweet kitty-cats, and/or Tom Jones, you'll LOVE this video.  You might have to click the arrow twice (for some reason, I always do).

That's Gwenny last June.  (What a difference ten months makes, huh!)  And that's Kitty, our Japanese Bobtail.  Originally, Kitty was named Baby but that got pretty confusing when Gwen showed up and claimed that name for herself.  So, kitty became "Kitty".  I think it suits her.

Ten months ago, Kitty had only one little Princess to deal with but now, with two little girls around, Kitty is a little bit less willing to sit still and appreciate frequent sessions of tough lovin' which often include ear and eye exploration and backwards fur petting.  But she's remarkably mellow and she puts up with much more of it that you'd expect a cat to.  (If I can manage to capture two 2 year olds and a cat in one picture, I'll post it.)

As spring teases us with sunny warm invitations to come play in the backyard, our Monkey Girls are always asking to go out.  They can open the sliding door to the backyard but can't seem to find the same enthusiasm to close it once they're out so Kitty is getting frequent tastes of delicious freedom.  She''ll be seven this Thanksgiving and she's spayed so she's not really keen on wandering.  Our 19,000 square foot yard is fully fenced and offers lots of fun sights and sounds and smells but we hope she's not inclined to hop the 6 foot fence and see if the green grass on the other side is tastier (and, therefore, better to vomit onto our pale grey carpet). 

Someday, we hope to get a dog.  Since I'm a big James Herriott fan, I've read a lot about this breed and have come to love the idea of getting a Border Collie.  But there's currently enough poop in my life so I'm not looking to get a dog until there's someone else who's willing to scoop! 

Family FotoFun Friday Participants

1. Motherhood and Other Ramblings 2. Journey with AnnaClaire 3. Random Thoughts 4. She\'s a-DORI-ble!!! 5. Just Keep Swimming 6. Desiree 7. From Here to There, The Ladybug and the Dragonfly 8. Hearts in China 9. Twins! 10. Oohs and Aahs 11. Julie - Nathan\'s Mommy 12. My Cup Runneth Over 13. Rachel Grace Palmer 14. The Boy and the Bulldog 15. Mei Mei and Jie Jie (Search and Destroy)

16. Ladybugs & Dragonflies 17. Loving Gracie... Paperwork Pregnant No More! 18. season star 19. Chopsticks and Tabolli 20. mommy24treasures 21. Mountains and Mountains & Oceans and Oceans 22. Cannon Fishbowl 23. mexican chopsticks 24. Our Three Daughters 25. MississippiZen 26. Lilly\'s Pad 27. The Princess and the Pea 28. 4 3=chaos 29. A Kerrnal Journal 30. Journey to Sarah Lu

31. LadyBug Journals 32. Avery FuMeng 33. The Life and Times of Chloe and Pearl 34. Alyson & Ford 35. Sophie and Sage 36. 2china4ayla 37. Journey to Annalisa 38. Smith Family\'s Adventures 39. twinchatter 40. Our Adoption Trip In China 41. Don & Be 42. Journey to Gianna 43. Rhianne Comes Home

Easter 2007

This was Gwen's 2nd Easter but her first Easter Basket so that means that it's a first for BOTH of our girls!  They didn't get much candy.... mostly toys and stickers.  But they LOVED it!

We took more than 700 photos.  We didn't set out to do this.... it just happened that way.  I should point out that we have a huge flash card and our camera can take pictures as fast as you can press a button.  So 700 photos didn't take much time even though we could only do 300 at a time.

The first 300 had incredible content (I mean really REALLY good) but there was a flash malfunction so those photos were overexposed and almost completely ruined.  Still, I'll share my favorite.  It's a photo of Maddy that Andrew took on the top of the new play structure in our back yard.  It has a red canopy that that gave everything a pretty red glow.  But the photo was very horribly overexposed so I enhanced it to bring Maddy's hair and eyes back into view but that left her lips really faded.  So I added some cyber lipstick and the result was pretty stunning.   Click <here> to see.

The next 300 were snapped pretty fast as the girls weren't interested in cameras anymore.  Most were destined for the recycle bin as soon they were uploaded but we got one or two good ones before wardrobe malfunctions started to occur. 

Since only a few of those came out, one last attempt was made to get some good pics of their dresses.  Those final 100 netted some fairly good results but they weren't spectacular and I think we only saved one.  We called it a day since we were really tired and just wanted to collapse on the sofa and watch Monster's Inc.  So that's what we did!

The dress Gwen is wearing was purchased in Guangzhou, China, very soon after we adopted her.  It looked SO big on the hanger and I really didn't think it would fit her for many years.  But it's nearly too small for her now.  This is the last time she'll wear it before handing it down to Maddy.

Maddy is wearing the pretty rose dress Gwen wore this time last year.  She's just as beautiful in it!