I have been very busy addressing our adoption announcement envelopes and we are pleased to say most of them have made it to our local post office! Hopefully you have already received your envelope but for those that have not you may consider this post somewhat of a "spoiler".

With out further adieu, we are proud to post our Adoption Announcement!
Before posting the above picture we did some rather rudimentary editing & removed personal information. Our good friend Deanna, at The Baby Gardner (thebabygardner.com), created a one of a kind announcement per our request. She took our ideas and created a design we will always cherish!

Our Son...Zach's grandfather, Bop-Bop took this picture on the famed Red Couch at The White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, China. It is a tradition for adoptive families to take a picture of their child sitting on the red couch (at the White Swan) for good luck. We have seen other families take this picture as a group photo with all the children adopted from their child's orphanage. However, we were the only family adopting from Zach's orphanage. And, surprisingly we only saw about 5 other families in Guangzhou (all in various adoption phases) staying at the White Swan. We took many photos on the red couch, but this one is our favorite.

Matt & I wanted to find the perfect stamp to mail out our announcements with. We visited the usps.com website to search for something that would suit our occasion. We never imagined we would find the PERFECT stamp!! I admit I have only visited the website for vacation mail stop! However, I was very impressed with all the different stamps available for purchase! We were jumping for joy when we came across the Commemorative "Celebrating Lunar New Year" Year of the Rabbit stamp! We wasted no time in making the purchase! And, it was issued in our neck of the woods- Morrow, GA! As some of you know, our little family of three was created in The Year of The Rabbit!

Here's a little more information regarding the stamp...
"Issue Type: First-Class Forever Commemorative
Issue City: Morrow, GA 30260
Issue Date: January 22, 2011
Issue Series: Celebrating Lunar New Year
Year of the Rabbit (Forever)
Browse The Postal Store’s Complete Celebrating Lunar New Year Collection This is the Lunar New Year: Year of the Rabbit souvenir sheet commemorative stamps.

On January 22, 2011, in Morrow, Georgia, the Postal Service™ issued a Lunar New Year: Year of the Rabbit Forever® commemorative stamp (44-cent), in one design in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) souvenir sheet. The stamp was designed by Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland.

The U.S. Postal Service® introduced its Celebrating Lunar New Year series in 2008. This is the fourth stamp in that series, which will continue through 2019 with stamps for the Year of the Dragon, Snake, Horse, Ram, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Boar.

Art Director Ethel Kessler, and Artist Kam Mak, who grew up in New York City's Chinatown and now lives in Brooklyn, worked on the new series. The artwork focuses on some of the common ways the Lunar New Year Holiday is celebrated. For the Year of the Rabbit, which begins February 3, 2011, the art depicts kumquats, which are eaten for luck and given as special gifts. The illustration was originally created using oil paints on panel. Kessler's design also incorporates elements from the previous series of Lunar New Year stamps, using Clarence Lee's intricate paper-cut design of a rabbit and the Chinese character — drawn in grass-style calligraphy by Lau Bun — for "Rabbit." "

Now that we have been home for a little over two weeks we are starting to settle into life together. Zach has a few more favorite foods: Mango, Chicken Soup & Vienna Sausages. He has learned some new sign language: Mommy, Daddy, Dog, All Done, Stop, More, Play & Duckie. Zach has learned a lot more words in English: Shoes, Window, Woodpecker, Get-it, Boy, Sierra, Nacho, Penny, Bingo, Book, etc. He continues to surprise us every day! I swear every morning he looks like he grew over night.

Here are a few of our favorite pictures from our trip to China.
In the below picture we are waiting for our consulate appointment. We are standing in the lobby in front of the American Consulate sign.
Zach on the bus ride back to our hotel after the American Adoption.

One of our favorite shops in Guangshou was "Susan's Place". The owners were very friendly and they served us tea several times! In these two pictures Zach is playing with the toys set up to distract children while their parents spend all their money. Zach was very content!

We learned very quickly that our son loves music! Here he is making music out of air

And, it's just how the saying goes, "Like Father, Like Son"

The Fresh Beat Band

Zachary does not sit still long enough to watch television. So, when I noticed that he paused during play to turn and view the tv I quickly started recording! And, we now have the show on our TIVO schedule.

The "Fresh Beat Band" has become a nightly ritual for Zach and hid Daddy! While I cook dinner Zach sits in Matts lap and the two of them watch the show! It started as a distraction for Zach but has quickly become a bonding time for them. Last night the show was on TV & Matt was doing something in another room. Zach ran to his Daddy and attempted to get his attention to get him into the TV room to watch the show with him! It was adorable!!

We have had another fabulous week with our son! He is such a happy & sweet little boy! Up until Thursday Zachary would only hand blow kisses to Mommy & Daddy but before dinner he kissed Mommy & then Daddy on the lips! It was a joyful moment for all of us! A moment I will always cherish!! As Zach becomes more comfortable he is allowing us to hold him longer spans of time. And, the last few days he has stopped crying when being put down in his crib for sleep time! Hopefully that will last longer than a few days! :)

This past Thursday Zachary and I went on a road trip to visit Poppi (Matt's Father). Poppi took us to one of his local parks. Zachary continues to love the slide and swing on the playground.




This playground had an odd swing. I suspect it is either a group swing or possibily a handicap swing for wheel chairs. Either way, Zach enjoyed the extra space!




Last evening, as I planted some plants in our backyard, Matt and Zach played with a rubber ball. It warmed my heart to watch the two of them kicking, chasing, laughing and at times Zach screeched from happiness! He got so loud at one point that one of our neighbors heard all their commotion and came out to see what was going on-- I'm sure he had never heard such noises coming from our back yard before! :)

Early this morning we took Zach to his first Pediatrician visit. And, he got glowing reviews from his doctor.

Being a scrapbooker, I didn't want to miss the photo opportunity. Except I failed to bring a camera with me. Thank goodness for camera phones! The pictures may not be perfect, but the moments were captured!

While waiting, Zach sat in my lap waiting on his name to be called. He was very shy at first. It was right after this picture that I looked down and realized I had my shirt on inside out! It was a funny moment between the two of us because Matt is known to do have done the same thing several times and now he had the opportunity to say "you do it too!". After a quick change in the restroom all was back to "normal".

Zach quickly moved to his own chair between Mommy & Daddy. And, he requested help sliding off and back on his chair. Thank goodness, our names were called soon after :)

After his weigh in (no change in weight from China)and all his measurements were taken (he grew 1.5 inches taller!)Zach asked for his shoes. He does not like to walk around barefoot- especially on cold tile (or any other time for that matter).


Also, I wanted to post a picture of my very first Mother's Day with Zach! It was a beautiful day shared with family and our beautiful, happy son!
Mothers Day picture

Hello friends & family!

We have had a very busy first week at home. I am happy to report that all our laundry has been washed and put away. Slowly we are accomplishing our ever growing long "to do" list during Zach's very short 1.5-2 hours afternoon nap. Often I find myself around his nap time thinking to myself- hmm..."to do" list or a nap for myslef?! Unfortunately a nap wins the majority of the time. Possibly I am still feeling the effects of motherhood (and,I gladly accept).

Here are a few pictures of Zachary's first week home. Our professional photographer (Glen) is no longer around every day so forgive most of the "snap shot" photos):
Sierra wants Zach to share his bottle

Play time in Zach's room

Zach's visit to his cousins

Zach's adventures from yesterday (Sunday):

Here is a video of Zach's activities from yesterday (Saturday). We will have another one for today's activiies tomorrow. Enjoy

Hello from GA! :)) It was a very long, exhausting way by multiple modes of transportation--airplane, train, bus, taxis & automobile that got us home safely.This is Julia and I'm writing from the comfort of my air conditioned home office during Zachary's nap time. We had an amazing trip but we are so happy to be home!!

These last few days Zach has been a very busy little boy! The very first day home we loaded up our SUV (after 20 irritating minutes with the car seat---thank goodness for a calm sister sitting at her computer able to google "trouble shooting" help regarding our car seat)and headed to our local mall to buy Zach proper Stride-rite shoes. He LOVES his new shoes! He would probably wear them to bed if we let him! His foot measured in at 5.5 itty bitty teeny weeny bitty baby inches.


His grand father, Poppi has visited several times & has taken him to our neighborhood park. Zach loved the slide


This morning Zach woke up to have breakfast with his new friend our deck squirrel!

Zach LOVES noodles! So far it appears to be his favorite food! Now, not every noodle will do! He very much dislikes the macaroni noodle. But, adores a thick & long "Japanese Noodle". We found something similar to what he was eating in China. However, it is not quite right. But, he enjoyed his first taste of the American Japanese Noodle for lunch today. Apparently the minor differences didn't discourage him from devouring as much as his belly could hold.

Again, we would like to thank everyone for following our blog! Now that we are home, we are able to catch up on all your comments!

Thank you to my sister Camille for helping us communicate via this blog! As most of you know, we were unable to reach blogger in China. Creating a work around we emailed Camille our blog posts & picture links and she posted all our messages for us. With out her help we would have had a very silent blog. And, after years of "advertising" our blog to family & friends we would have been very sad not to be able to share our trip with everyone back home!

Thank you to Connie, my Bestie, for house & dog sitting for 21 days! We came back to a very clean home with happy Chihuahua's waiting for us! We knew she was taking great care of our fur babies which allowed us to relax & enjoy our first weeks with our son.

Thank you for my Father-in-law for taking us to the Atlanta airport and back! We were over joyed to see his smiling face (along with my sister and her beautiful family) waiting for us in the airport! We wanted to kiss the filthy ground but we restrained ourselves.

Thank you to my parents, Glen & Lynda, for all your help and support in China! We certainly could not have traveled as easily with out you! And, we appreciated your presence, more than you may ever know! And, to my Father for all the beautiful pictures you took during our trip! We surely are blessed to have our own personal photographer capturing every special moment! We will always cherish our memories of you on this very momentous trip!

We hope you will continue to follow our blog! We have every intention to maintain and post as often as possible! Some time soon we will post a few more of our favorite pictures from China!We have quite a few to chose from ;))

A few more random ((adorable)) pictures...

Well, we are back home. Wireless internet was difficult and expensive to come by in Guangzhou, so we went dark as far as this blog went. Guangzhou was a very different experience than Beijing. It was a laid-back town. The people were friendly and there were plenty of interesting little shops to peruse near the hotel. We stayed in the legendary White Swan Hotel, which we found to be nice but rather overpriced and somewhat overrated. We also met some other families that were in Guangzhou to finish the adoption of their children. While shopping, we met and befriended a guy named Dong who owns one of the stores in Guangzhou called Susan's Place. He and Matt bonded over a shared love of the martial arts.

One of the highlights while in Guangzhou was attending a bilingual Easter Sunday service at Shamian Christian Church. We also were able to purchase a Mandarin/English NIV Bible while over there. While In Guangzhou, we finalized the US side of the adoption at the US consulate. All went smoothly on that front. It was as efficient as any bureaucratic process can be.

From Guangzhou, we took a train to Hong Kong. The Guangzhou train station was nightmarish at best. You had to tote all of your luggage up 3 long escalators to get to the train and then board the train with all of your bags and get off the train with them upon reaching your destination. We spent one night in Hong Kong before getting on our flight back to the US. It was a 14 hour flight from Hong Kong to Detroit, Michigan. Zach was amazingly well-behaved on the trip as we took turns dealing with him. In Detroit, we cleared immigration and customs (so Zach is now a US citizen) and then had our final flight back to Atlanta where we were met by Matt's dad and Julia's sister Camille and her family. It ended up being a 31 hour day.

It has been a few days now and some sense of normalcy is beginning to re-emerge. Zach and Matt's dad are fast friends, which is good.

The first couple of days back from China, we were all jet-lagged and irritable. So far, Zach is very unsure about the chihuahuas. They would not hurt a fly of course and want nothing more than to be his friends, but he is not at all receptive yet. It will come, though. Matt has been having very strange dreams and sleep interruptions (not due to Zach) since returning. Last night was the first night that he has had semi-decent sleep. This morning, Matt ran some errands, cut the grass, and did some other yardwork. Julia has been working on continuing to put things back in order after the trip and with the new addition. Zach is presently having his first full-scale chernobyl-level meltdown in response to being put down for a nap. Hopefully this is not setting a dark precedent for days and nights to come. Altogether, things are reasonable, though. Things should continue to improve as normalcy continues to return.

Yesterday, we took Zach along with Bingo the chihuahua to Rabbit Hill Park, which is close to the house. He walked a bit and got to play with some of the lower level playground equipment such as a swingset and a slide. What fun.



Well, I am going to cut this short to try to assist with the meltdown. Pray for us.

After this blog post, we will be traveling to Guangzhou and will have intermittent internet access at best. We may be able to continue with the blog posts, but they likely won't come as regularly.
 
Today, we got up, had breakfast, and did some packing. Michael came by this afternoon with Zachary's passport. We are meeting him in the lobby at 7:30 tomorrow morning to go to the airport to fly to Guangzhou for the final leg. 6 days until we get back to the US!
 
We spoke with Lynda and Glen this morning and we had bad reception but could tell that they were having fun. Apparently Glen and Lynda's window looks out on some kind of town square with a big bell. They woke this morning to gunfire, chanting, and bell ringing. Lynda decided to go out and join the mob. Glen has a picture of her dancing with an AK-47 or at least that is what Julia heard through the bad reception. The call got disconnected and they called back with a better cell and it turns out it was a large bell ceremony that is performed every morning and they got to see it.
 
 Late this morning, Matt logged onto the Delta Airlines website only to find that Zach's reservation back to the US had vanished. Matt got on the phone with Delta reservation support in Hong Kong. Thankfully they actually had someone who spoke good English. We explained the situation and gave them Zach's confirmation number. She saw that, for some reason, the travel agency Great Wall contracts with had canceled his reservation. They were able to reinstate his reservation. We got it squared away and sent a nasty-gram to the travel agency.
 
We spent the afternoon cooped up in the hotel as it has been a rainy day. We took Zach on a walk up and down six of the floors of the hotel and around the lobby and have been playing bottlecap games and finishing up packing. Tomorrow, we blow this popsicle stand for one further south.

This morning we got up to eat breakfast which kind of turned into a comedy show. Especially first thing in the morning, Zach wants to get his clothes on and go. If that does not happen, the consequences are unpleasant to say the least. So, we got in a big rush to get out the door. About halfway down the hall to the elevator, Julia noticed that I had my shirt on inside out. We had hit the call button for the elevator and I frantically took my shirt off in the hall and put it back on only to discover I had managed to put it on the way it had been-inside out. We had to go back to the room because Julia was in hysterics laughing and I needed to adjust my garb. This confused Zachary and he proceeded to have a mini-meltdown.

After breakfast, we met Michael at 9:30 to go to what amounted to a Chinese Wal-Mart. We needed to buy Zach a stroller (we have been using a loaner supplied by the hotel up til now) and we wanted to get him some more snacks. While we were waiting on Michael, we ran into a couple from Spain who have just adopted their second child from China. Their first was a boy. Julia and I both had taken Spanish in high school/college so we were able to communicate fairly well with them. They are from Navarre and were leaving to go to the airport to return home this morning. We wished them a safe trip home.

The Chinese WalMart was an experience. It was like the Wu Mart on crack. Chinese people darting everywhere, jabbering to each other. It was stocked very similar to a Sam's Club. We managed to get the stroller and found him a pack of those seaweed strips that he encountered at the Summer Palace. He has had 2 strips and they seem to be somewhat like catnip for him. Once we returned to the hotel, Matt went to the Subway sandwich shop around the corner and brought back lunch. Zach has crashed for now and we are enjoying some chill time. Later we are going to take Zach to the Baskin Robbins around the corner and see if we can convince Zach of the merits of cold food, as he seems to prefer warm to hot foods. Wish us luck.

...Call me...



Happy Boy!



I can send text messages too!



Check out these Squeaky shoes....hey how'd did it make that noise?? Not sure about these!



Hungry?



My fist Oreo! Look mom taught me this!! And it's YUMMY!

This morning, we went to breakfast and then to Beihai Park. Beihai Park is a park in Beijing that the elderly and retired people seem to gather at to engage in activities and shared interests. In China, women retire at age 50-55 and men at age 55-60. Longevity is considered the key to happiness, so they do these things to try to stay young. While we were there, we saw retired people doing Tai Chi, aerobics, line dancing, ribbon dancing, playing flutes, singing Chinese opera, and playing hacky sack (a lady who appeared to be at least in her 70s was very proficient, working multiple sacks at a time). Some of these activities are not necessarily things these people knew how to do previously. Many of these people are using this as an opportunity to learn a new hobby and socialize. It was interesting observing all of this and it was a pretty and peaceful location.
After returning to the hotel, we ate lunch and Glen and Lynda departed for Xi'an. This afternoon, we camped out in the hotel room and did some early packing and consolidating for our upcoming travel to Guangzhou. We also played an Elmo video on Matt's Netbook and Elmo seems to have captured Zachary's imagination for the time being. His heat rash is completely gone, but he does have some rough, dry skin so we moisturized him after bathtime. He is now playing with his burgeoning bottlecap collection and we are kind of planning to chill out for the remainder of the evening.

Today we traveled to Tienanmen Square and The Forbidden City. Tienanmen Square is absolutely enormous and was made famous by the protest and subsequent government crackdown in 1989. It is an open plaza with a large picture of Mao on the opposite road. The Forbidden City is a long (seemingly endless sometimes) series of plazas surrounded by various palaces and work areas of Chinese royalty. All of the plazas, to a great extent, resemble one another. At times you feel like you are walking through a series of those Russian nesting dolls. When you walk from Tienanmen Square through the full length of the Forbidden City, you have walked a total of over 3 miles. Zach got excited when his stroller was rolled over the bumpy areas of the older bricks, some of which were over 600 years old. Also, during a strong breeze, Glen's Citadel hat was blown off his head, landing in a moat. Our guide, Michael, remarked that the Emperor must have liked and wanted the hat. Maybe we can find him a Communist Party hat to replace it. ;-)

We came back from the trip, ate lunch, and are relaxing in our hotel room. Matt took his afternoon walkabout in the neighborhood around the hotel, going back down to the Wu Mart to get these sweet tea drinks we have grown fond of. Not sure what dinner and this evening will bring yet.

Zach continues to dazzle us. He is very unsure about the Squeaky Shoes we bought him yesterday. He is not interested in wearing them on a regular basis. We had a lot of fun at bathtime last night. He continues to have great sleeping habits (he has slept through the night every night we have had him) and his vocabulary continues to expand rapidly. We are both really looking forward to returning to the United States so we can settle into normal life with our son. That will come soon enough, though, we guess. Tomorrow we go to Behai Park in the morning and then say "Sayonara!" (yes, we know it is Japanese) to Glen and Lynda as they go on a side trip to Xi'an. They will meet up with us in Guangzhou for the final leg of our journey.

Yesterday, we got up, had breakfast, and went to the Lama Temple. The Lama Temple is a Buddhist shrine located pretty close to our hotel, the Poly Plaza. We arrived at the Temple and found numerous Chinese filing in carrying bundles of incense. There were several distinct modules to the temple containing different Buddhas that apparently have different super powers. Some people stopped and bowed and lit incense at the feet of different buddhas, sending up prayers for different needs or wishes. The final module of the Lama Temple contained the world's largest Buddha, which was carved from a single tree.
 
After the Lama Temple, we went to a tea house where we got to see an authentic Chinese tea ceremony performed. It was very elegant and artistically done and we all learned a lot in the process.
 
Today we ate breakfast and went to the Hongtiao Market where we did some shopping for pearls, "squeaky shoes" for Zachary, and a couple of toys (a toy phone and a toy fire truck). As this is being written, we are having a "family picnic" of leftover Subway sandwiches and chips. This afternoon, Matt is going to make another run to the Wu Mart and probably Starbucks.
 
Yesterday afternoon, Zach had his first good bath experience. We hope he is getting over his insecurity about the bathtub. His heat rash is nearly gone at this point as well. This morning, as we were changing his diaper, Zach grabbed Matt's arm and moved his legs in such a way that, unbeknownst to him, he was approximating a jiu-jitsu armbar. He'll be a blackbelt in no time!

Today is Julia's 40th birthday and she will never forget celebrating it in China with our new son. This morning we got up after another peaceful night to find Zach somewhat out of sorts. He was not his normal sunny disposition. This is not to say he was terribly difficult. He was just a little more like a normal toddler than he had been. The heat rash that we had mentioned in previous blog posts had gotten worse. Over the course of the day, we did some research on the internet and confirmed that what he has is definitely heat rash and not a food allergy or other similar malady. The condition can be caused by bundling a child up which prevents sweat from evaporating leading to blockage of sweat ducts, which leads to the rash, which apparently feels somewhat like a nasty sunburn. The Chinese put some importance on bundling small children up in multiple layers and heat rash is a common malady among Chinese children because of this. Julia and I came to a decision that we are going to stop worrying about what the people on the street think and begin dressing Zach in a more American fashion. Granted, we will keep him warm but we are dispensing with the bundling.


Today's activity was a trip to the Beijing Zoo. It was a nice trip which Zach seemed to enjoy but in many ways was kind of sad as well. The zoo here reminded us of the older zoos we saw in America as children. The animals are contained in mostly cement enclosures, unlike the modern American zoos, such as Zoo Atlanta that attempt to better approximate the animals' natural habitat. We saw Pandas, elephants, giraffes, monkeys, lions, tigers, bears (oh my!). Zach actually paid more attention to the other people around him than to the animals. Of all of the animals, the bears seemed to hold the most interest for him. The animals all were pacing and didn't appear to be happy in their situations.



After the zoo, we went back to the hotel and Zach took a snooze. After that, we got up and went down the block to a childrens' clothing store where we bought Zach a few short-sleeve shirts. On the way back, we stopped at McDonalds to get dinner. It was a 3 story McDonalds full of young people and was swelteringly hot. There also were no tables to be had, so we walked back to the hotel where the staff had a rose and a birthday cake waiting for Julia. We ate our food and had some cake while Zach played with some empty plastic bottles, stacking, tossing, and punting.

At one point, Zach found something unbearably funny and threw himself on the floor laughing hysterically and pounding the floor. We have yet to know what exactly tickled his funny bone, but it was a sight to see.

Tomorrow brings a trip to a temple, the name of which escapes us at the moment. More to come tomorrow.

Today has been another amazing day in Beijing. We woke up refreshed after another peaceful night with our Zachary. He has yet to have a bad night or even a truly bad moment, and trust us, he has had his share of opportunities. He truly seems to have an amazingly positive disposition and he continues to pick up English words at a rapid pace. The only issue that we have had is that he seems to have slightly sensitive skin and is prone to break out in heat rash. The Chinese do not seem to believe much in air conditioning, so we have been sweltering in our hotel room and pretty much everywhere we have gone. The air quality in Beijing is quite smoggy at best, so we have both found ourselves very thirsty on a constant basis.

We ate breakfast this morning and met our guide, Michael at 0900. We drove out to a section of the Great Wall that is just outside of Beijing. There was a lot of history and a lot of beautiful scenery in the area. As the wall was quite steep and the steps were very uneven, Julia, Zach, and I elected to stay on the very lowest portion (so at least we could say that we climbed on the Wall), which had some interesting little shops and some shady places to sit. Glen and Lynda climbed up to the first landing and came back down. Climbing up to that point, however, granted them the status of "Hero".








After the Great Wall, we went to a jade store and restaurant where we ate a traditional Chinese lunch in several courses. Since today was Lynda's birthday and tomorrow is Julia's, Michael surprised us with a birthday cake (complete with a lotus flower candle that, when lit, unfolded, revealing several more candles located inside) and a bottle of wine. After eating, we shopped in the jade store. Zach got loads of attention from the women working in the store, and we have come to the conclusion that the little guy is something of a ladies' man.





Our final stop of the day was at the Olympic Village. We walked the village area for a little over an hour, getting a closeup look at the Birds' Nest stadium, the Water Cube, and the cauldron tower that held the Olympic flame. After that, we came back to the hotel and are regrouping in our room. Matt ventured out briefly to a local store to buy a hat as he got very slightly sunburned today and we are going to the Beijing Zoo tomorrow.