Playdoh!!!

 I don't think she has ever played with anything like playdoh before, she was a little  unsure what this stuff was. We played together for a while, matching the letters and making different shapes.

 What a cool toy from Uncle Jeff, Auntie Melissa nad cousin Kaleb, thak you so much !

She played with it for only a little time, then I heard "mommy, to messy" Then she wanted to clean it up and dance to her mandarin music. I think we have a performer on our hands.

Our 1st Chinese New Year Celebration

 We were very excited to pack Miss Diva up and head to our first Chinese New Year celebration. We tried some chinese food we normally don't try, curry fish balls, was one, I didn't care for it to much but miss diva enjoyed them.

 This is the senior dance! They were the first to perform. This is how the seniors in China get some of their exercise. I am thinking Thai Chi is another huge exercise , we saw a lot people doing thai chi in parks and in front of  temples while in China.

  The traditional lion dance. While watching this, it kind of gave me a peaceful feeling. Very interesting to watch.

 This group of girls were doing a traditional mongolian dance, I was very interested to this considering miss diva is from Inner Mongolia. The dance is to show how proud they are of there beautiful land and culture.

 These girls were very cute. There is a girl in this group that was room mates with Libby while in the orphanage in China. She is the girl behind the biggest girl in the front, slightly to the right , in the back roll. She is so adorable.

                                                                Mongolian dance

 It was interesting to see that Miss Diva new these moves and was dancing right along with them. The vice president of the chinese cultural centre came to chat with us after. Asking how old she was and if we would be interested in enrolling her when old enough. Absolutely!

Every year, there is a different animal that is the symbol of that year. This year it's the dragon. Also, red in china means good luck and yellow smybolizes the dragon. This is why this group has red and yellow ribbons. Each year the red ribbons will remain but the yellow will change to the colour that symbolizies the next animal which is the snake.

Musical Girl

 Miss Diva really enjoys her music, she gets totally absorbed in it. Whenever there is music or singing, she stops to listen or watch. This does my heart good because I really enjoyed playing instruments, when I lived in Newfoundland, I was apart of the junior and senior bands in my school. My favourite was the saxophone. She is such a pleasure to have around and I am so pleased to be her mommy. She is a pure joy!!!!!

                           totally playing to the cd music that is playing in the background

                                                              love you Yan Yan

The Park at the end of our Walk...

 walking up the steps to go to the slide, she was very excited to go sliding. Maybe a sliding afternoon is in store for us!

                                                  Here she goes ...she looks a little unsure....

                 She was having a blast in this fish...it rocks back and forth and she loved it in there.

                                                              going for another slide

 Yan Yan and Baba going for a slide together...she really liked it more when someone went down the slide with her

                                                                    mama's turn

                              listening to her friends on the other end of this talking to her

A walk in the Bush

Jason and I took the daycare kids and Miss Diva for  a walk in the bush across the street. We had a lot of fun looking at animal tracks, playing on the fallen trees and looking for different animals. Lots of memories.

 We found a park at the end of our path we were walking on.....so that means.....we had to stop and play.

 On our way home, we walked a different direction, Jason had mentioned that he saw a fort or something, so we went to check it out. Miss Diva wasn't so sure about this thing..

Here she is standing in front of the entrance to the fort, she still has some anxiety about being left. She starts to cry if she the last one out of somewhere..afraid she is going to left there. Not a chance. We keep telling her she is stuck with us forever.

Miss Diva...

 Here she is going for a walk with her baby and dressed like a diva. She loves to dress up.

                                                         Look at those shoes, funny girl.

 This picture makes me chuckle when I see it, she clipped her dress up earrings to her piggie tails because she didn't want to lose her pretties that were already in her ears. She is so much fun to play dress up with.

                                                             look at that bling!

New Years...2011..2012

As I sit here, taking time to reflect on the year gone past, it's been a rollercoaster ride of a year. We started this year knowing we will finally get to see and hold our precious daughter. That was enough to get excited about 2011.

While waiting for our LSC (letter seeking confirmation) and our final travel plans, I lost my uncle Bert. He has been ill for a while and he is in a better place. This made me stop and think how precious life and family really is. We miss you Uncle Bert!

As time approached for our departure date for Beijing, Jason and I were getting more excited as the days passed. We continued to follow our daily routines and did our everyday living musts!This was really hard. Staying focused was hard when you mind and heart was on the other side of the world. Finally May 5th came, Jason and I boarded the plane for Beijing and fell in love with a country and a little princess. We never dreamed that we would be so eager to return to a country that seemed to so far away and so different from our own country. We cannot wait to return to China, it's a beautiful country, the scenery was amazing, the people we friendly and most importantly, it's our daughter's homeland.

I read Rumor Queen religiously, I read the Inner Mongolia Yahoo group posts daily and try and stay on top of daily happening in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, just for our daughter. I remember sitting in the lobby of the Sheraton hotel, when our guide came and told us about a little boy who was abandoned the night before, in the park near our hotel. I asked Sandra if I could have the newspaper with the article regarding this little precious little boy. I brought this newspaper home with us, just to show Madisyn later on in life. This little boy is still in the orphanage that Madisyn was in, he will probley be there for another year or so before he is made paper ready for adoption. Another year without a family and another year living in a institation. This makes my heart ache, I know that my heart would love to bring another child home but things are changing in the adoption world and making it harder!

My new years resolution is to help those less fortunate and the orphans of the world. I somehow want to offer my love, life and time to the orphans of China. My heart was broken to see all the children living in Hohhot SWI, that it has changed the way I feel about life, love and family. For those people who have donated money on Madisyn's behalf to half the sky foundation and other foundations, we cannot thank you enough. This is the greatest gift you could have given us as a family.

Happy New Year to you and your family and lets remember those who have a family waiting or maybe no family at all.

God Bless,
Emily