Sunday April 28,2012
The Jinjin Adventure continues:
Our Jinjin is now 6 1/2 years old, 43" tall and 43lbs. She is in kindergarten, and is about to loose her 1st front tooth. We called her "Ellie" until March 2008, when one morning, her daddy was caring her over his shoulder and as they descended our staircase she hollered back to me "Mama I'm JINJIN"
We were correct when we called this blog, "The Jinjin Adventure" as the last 5 years have truly been
an "E" ticket ride.
Nothing prepared me for parenthood. I don't think anything can. Sure I was in the big sister program for  9 years, had two nieces live with me at different time, opened my home to a  high school senior one summer,  but that is not parenthood. I have longed for the intimacy of raising a child. The specialness of being "mom".  But Jinjin has made me more than that, she has bestowed upon  me
the Honorable name of "Mama". My days begin with the music of her little girl voice calling my name.
When I witness the pure joy in her face when sees me on the days I pick her up from school, or the pride in her voice when when she tells her friends "My Mommy.."  I cannot define how I feel  except by this sentence;
"that is why I wanted to be a mom, this is why I am a parent"
Once Diane Keaton told a reporter she was too old to be a parent.  (She adopted her 1st child when she was 51 and another child a few years later) I thought that was a foolish thing to say, until I lived it.
Not really too old, but different than a 40 or 30 year old parent. Tired, Yes. Worried about my life expectancy, Yes. But in many ways I am wiser, and try harder to be younger or young at heart.

Jinjin asked me to begin this blog again. She wants us to have a "Jinjin Experience" every year for her birthday.  I have the privilege of the Jinjin Experience every day.
Today she was my "personal shopper and model advisor", as we shopped for clothes for me at Chico's. Jinny,put together outfits for me, and instructed me how to pose in each outfit when I modeled the  outfits for Daddy.  She has quite an eye for fashion, and great comic sense for poses.
I am tired now, and ready to go to sleep.  It is only 9:20, and I can still still hear her talking in her bedroom to Paul. 
She is not ready for sleep but both Paul and I are.
Good Night

We're back. It is 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night, and Ellie still won't go to sleep.
She is ready to party, wearing her hat and a maraccha in each hand, I think she wants to start a conga line.
Any joiners?
We are so tired.... it is now 11:00 a.m. Sunday on China Time. She only slept 5 hours last night, with a one hour nap this afternon. As she dances around our living room I finally can view our blog...what happened to the photos? You certainly can see my chin.....but what about Ellie's sweet face?
Everyday she has another new expression.
Please Stay Tuned.. We will learn how to make a slide show later this week and post it to our blog.
Our daughter is a true delight.

Baby Blessing

http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z178/maybeapril07/ellieinchinaweek1111.jpg

What has happened here???

Egats!!! There are toys all over the floor, my bag is filled with diapers, toys, and cheerios, my peacefull bath in now taked in tepid water and shared with a little girl and 2 yellow rubber 4" men
Instead of reading a book in bed, I walk the halls with a crying baby at night, until she relaxes to sleep.
What happened to my life????
I AM A MOTHER!
I have never been happier in my entire life.
Hope the photos come through in America.
We spend our days making this little girl happy, and finally yesterday we heard her 1st giggle!
I tickled her under her arm, and a few minutes later she lifted her arm for me to tickle some more. She is really cute. A bit camera shy, so we have not been able to capture all her adorable expressions, which are increasing every day. She really is s a baby still, which is fine with me. I worried before I met her about attachment disorder, and it is recommened to regress you child back to babyhood..... no need to regress this one. She lets me feed here give her a bottle. Although she really does not care for her formula any longer. She eats so much! And cries if she thinks we are leaving the table before she is full.
Here are some new photos!

whoa ellie!!!

hullo from china everyone!!!
we've just returned from a full day of shopping on bejing road with d'lee's wonderful uncle charles & his beautiful wife amy, who are vising us & helping us learn to bargain. ellie is enjoying her new stroller as it allows her the opporunity to lounge as she is wheeled about & she appears to be quite fashion conscious & loves new the new clothes we buy her & the toys too, but she doesn't speak yet. she communicatess via whimpers & tears, & we are quickly learning to adapt to childspeak. it's a rather easy language to understand. her hair is longer than the the first pictures we had received. she has now been with us for 5 magical days. each day is a new adventure & she is getting more used to us each day. she has completely charmed her way into our hearts!!!
she loves to eat and especially to walk & get out & about. we are having a great time with her. sorry for the delay in our postings as we were busy bonding with her & getting our computer working & online, but more will be coming shortly!!! take care everyone.

Finally we get to write!

Here she is! Our little Ellie ( aka Jinjin) We thought about calling her Jinjin, but the pronouncation in Cantonese is very difficult for us to say let alone remember.
She is the perfect daughter for us. I do not know how the matching process works, but everyone in our group has the "perfect" daughter for them. Ellie is very independant.
She is called "the walker" She loves to walk all over the hotel. The 1st night there was great intensity in her walking, like she was searching for something. The 2nd day we had to return to the Civil government building and finalize some papers.(the building and room where they presented her to us the day before) All the care takers were there from her orphange, plus the 8 families in our Gunagzhou group.
There was a lot of noise and confusion going on as I watched her slowly shut down.
She stood in the center of the room and rocked side to side, shifing her weight from right to left, with a blank stare on her face. My poor little girl, she had no idea what was going on, who she was supposed to be with, or what she was supposed to do.
Each evening at 6:00 p.m. we all meet in the hotel lobby to go to dinner. Some of the other children have that "march of peguin" walk. It is not that they are shut down, just learning to walk. It is actually sort of funny when by accident they line up ( 2 or three in a row) and rock and walk...just like the Emperor Peguins in Antartica.
She is a very sweet little girl. I have been sitting her on my lap and feeding her at mealtime. The 2nd evening she tried to feed me! Paul was so happy this morning when she gave tried to put a grain of rice in his mouth.
Just like her mama, she grinds her teeth, but Ellie really grinds, so much so that when Paul and I first got her alone we thought someone was playing the castanettes. We looked at each other in shock "did that horible sound come from our daughter?" OH, it must hurt so much! It's like she's eating her own teeth. Today is day 5 with her, and she has only done this a few times today. As soon as we get home, it is off to the dentist! Mama and Ellie will have matching night guards.
We are meeting my Uncle Charles and his wife in just 20 minutes. They flew down from Shanghai to spend the weekend with us. I will give details of how I have a Chinese Uncle in my next post.