Week 2
posted by mgallman @ 9:20 PM
4 comments
Monday, August 29, 2005
Growth Progress
We are going to try to take a picture of Mina once a week to see how she changes with age. Everyone keep saying how much she changes everytime they see her. We dont notice these changes so much since we see her every day. So, we decided to do this project. We have week 1 and week 2 so far...
posted by mgallman @ 9:15 PM
0 comments
The latest news...
Well its been a while since the last post. I know most of you have quit watching the blog but for the few that keep watching, here is an update.
Mina is doing great. She continues to develope and learn new things. She is almost walking. She actually can walk on her own but when she sees that she has walked a little, you can see the "oh shit" on her face and she sits down. She can give kisses and hugs but of course it is on her schedule.
Mina is a great eater. There are not too many things that she wont eat. Strawberrys are on thing for sure. She likes strawberry flavor, but not the real thing.
She usually goes down for bed between 8 and 8:30 and is up between 6 and 7am. Not too bad. We are down to one nap a day for a couple of hours in the early afternoon.
I have been taking her to the pool and she loves the water. She really likes the deep end. The kiddy pool sucks. I hold her and we move though the water. She loves to be thrown up and caught. Ill leave her drop till just her head is out. We are working on kicking alittle.
Suz is falling into motherhood quite well. As with all new jobs, the first week is rough and you always have to try different things to see what works and what doent but she is doing a great job. It is really tiring this parent thing.
Other than that its the usual kid stuff. We (Susan and I) go around singing the silly songs that all her toys play. You just cant get them out of your head. We are even starting to get some of her books memorized.
Thats all for now. I will keep updating the blog but please, if you are reading and viewing the pictures (Stacy), please post a comment from time to time so I know someone is out there reading.
Michael (Susan and Mina)
Mina is doing great. She continues to develope and learn new things. She is almost walking. She actually can walk on her own but when she sees that she has walked a little, you can see the "oh shit" on her face and she sits down. She can give kisses and hugs but of course it is on her schedule.
Mina is a great eater. There are not too many things that she wont eat. Strawberrys are on thing for sure. She likes strawberry flavor, but not the real thing.
She usually goes down for bed between 8 and 8:30 and is up between 6 and 7am. Not too bad. We are down to one nap a day for a couple of hours in the early afternoon.
I have been taking her to the pool and she loves the water. She really likes the deep end. The kiddy pool sucks. I hold her and we move though the water. She loves to be thrown up and caught. Ill leave her drop till just her head is out. We are working on kicking alittle.
Suz is falling into motherhood quite well. As with all new jobs, the first week is rough and you always have to try different things to see what works and what doent but she is doing a great job. It is really tiring this parent thing.
Other than that its the usual kid stuff. We (Susan and I) go around singing the silly songs that all her toys play. You just cant get them out of your head. We are even starting to get some of her books memorized.
Thats all for now. I will keep updating the blog but please, if you are reading and viewing the pictures (Stacy), please post a comment from time to time so I know someone is out there reading.
Michael (Susan and Mina)
posted by mgallman @ 8:42 PM
4 comments
The next set of photos are from Mina's development report from the orphanage. They are in chronological order.
posted by mgallman @ 8:40 PM
0 comments
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Friday, August 05, 2005
First full day home...
Hello all,
Well today was a long day. We are still on China time. We went to bed last night around 10pm but Mina was up by 12am. Suz got her back to sleep but she was up again around 2am and rearing to go. So we just got up. We went shopping at 6:30am. There is no one else in the store at that time. It is a good time to go. We took a nice long nap from 10am till around 3pm. We had dinner and some play time and finally got her down around 9pm. Hopfully she will sleep through the night. Her usual sleep time was from 8:30 till 6:00 or 7:00am. Overall it was a good day. We are all getting use to being home again and Mina is loving all the toys she has.
I am posting some pictures that Mina's foster parents gave to us. I hope you all enjoy them.
Michael
Well today was a long day. We are still on China time. We went to bed last night around 10pm but Mina was up by 12am. Suz got her back to sleep but she was up again around 2am and rearing to go. So we just got up. We went shopping at 6:30am. There is no one else in the store at that time. It is a good time to go. We took a nice long nap from 10am till around 3pm. We had dinner and some play time and finally got her down around 9pm. Hopfully she will sleep through the night. Her usual sleep time was from 8:30 till 6:00 or 7:00am. Overall it was a good day. We are all getting use to being home again and Mina is loving all the toys she has.
I am posting some pictures that Mina's foster parents gave to us. I hope you all enjoy them.
Michael
posted by mgallman @ 8:33 PM
0 comments
Thursday, August 04, 2005
Morning crowd playing badminton along Pearle River in Guangzhou
posted by mgallman @ 9:02 PM
0 comments
Our Wuzhou adoptive family photo. We are right in the center....
posted by mgallman @ 8:59 PM
1 comments
We Are Home....!!!!!
Finally. We arrived today (Thursday) around 6pm from Los Angeles. Just a short 3 1/2hour trip... Not bad compared to the 13 hour trip from Guangzhou to LAX. Everything went pretty smooth. We are so happy to be home. Our own food, our own bed.
Thanks to everyone who met us a the airport. Mina did great and after a short shock of all the attention, she was walking around and smiling at everyone. After we got home, Susan's nieces played with her for quite a while, while we talked with the parents. She did really well playing with the girls and seems very comfortable with the house. I’m sure we will have a few issues to work out in baby proofing the house but that goes along with the territory.
I will keep this sort as I am oh so tired and will have more energy tomorrow to keep everyone updated on the last leg of the trip.
Michael Susan and Mina
Thanks to everyone who met us a the airport. Mina did great and after a short shock of all the attention, she was walking around and smiling at everyone. After we got home, Susan's nieces played with her for quite a while, while we talked with the parents. She did really well playing with the girls and seems very comfortable with the house. I’m sure we will have a few issues to work out in baby proofing the house but that goes along with the territory.
I will keep this sort as I am oh so tired and will have more energy tomorrow to keep everyone updated on the last leg of the trip.
Michael Susan and Mina
posted by mgallman @ 8:50 PM
1 comments
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Our last full day in China
Well it’s kind of hard to believe but this was our last full day in China. Tomorrow is our swearing in at the US consulate. We will then get all of Mina's final paperwork for her to go to the US. When we land in LA on Wednesday night she will be an American citizen. We leave Guangzhou at 9pm and arrive in LA around 7pm. Petty cool. We leave later than we arrive. Hmm, must be some kind of time warp. Anyway, we are staying the night in LA and have a 12 noon flight to St. Louis and should be in around 5:45pm on Thursday. As much as we have loved China, we are ready to come home. The hotel room is getting much too small and Mina needs some new toys to play with. There are only so many times you can read the same 12 page picture book. We miss real American food, TV that is not in Chinese, and most of all our own squishy bed. The beds here are rock hard. Suz misses the cats and we all want you to meet Mina.
Today was again a pretty mellow day for the most part. Mina and I went for a walk this morning while Suz waited in the room in case there were any problems with any of the paper work. We had our group photos at noon and that was a fiasco. Our group of 14 families was kind of large so trying to get all the babies in one photo was very difficult. Suz and I just kept laughing at the whole event. It was kind of a joke. We made a trip to the 5 banyans Buddhist temple in the afternoon. It was very beautiful and serene, and hot. We made our food sacrifice to Buddha and lit some incense for Mina. We had one of the monks bless her. This would have been her religion had she grown up in China and we felt it was important to do this. In the evening we had a nice but hectic dinner with all the families that came to China with our agency. Over 57 families. It was a Cantonese style Dim Sum dinner. A lot of different things to try and it was all very good. After that we did our last minute shopping and called it a day. Mina was a bit fussy today. I’m not sure what her problem was. Just an off day I guess. She really struggled going down for her naps and at bedtime but I guess we should get use to that.
Nothing much else to report. This will be the last post from China. If I am able I will try to post on Thursday night from LA but I’m not sure if I will have internet access at the hotel. We will just have to see. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon in St. Louis...
Michael, Suz and Mina...
Today was again a pretty mellow day for the most part. Mina and I went for a walk this morning while Suz waited in the room in case there were any problems with any of the paper work. We had our group photos at noon and that was a fiasco. Our group of 14 families was kind of large so trying to get all the babies in one photo was very difficult. Suz and I just kept laughing at the whole event. It was kind of a joke. We made a trip to the 5 banyans Buddhist temple in the afternoon. It was very beautiful and serene, and hot. We made our food sacrifice to Buddha and lit some incense for Mina. We had one of the monks bless her. This would have been her religion had she grown up in China and we felt it was important to do this. In the evening we had a nice but hectic dinner with all the families that came to China with our agency. Over 57 families. It was a Cantonese style Dim Sum dinner. A lot of different things to try and it was all very good. After that we did our last minute shopping and called it a day. Mina was a bit fussy today. I’m not sure what her problem was. Just an off day I guess. She really struggled going down for her naps and at bedtime but I guess we should get use to that.
Nothing much else to report. This will be the last post from China. If I am able I will try to post on Thursday night from LA but I’m not sure if I will have internet access at the hotel. We will just have to see. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon in St. Louis...
Michael, Suz and Mina...
posted by mgallman @ 6:33 AM
3 comments
