Momma, Gink Gocs!

Molly's favorite shoes are her Gold Crocs. She wears them everywhere with everything, and quite frankly, they are looking a little ragged. I had hoped that they would make it through the summer, but recently came to the realization that it aint gonna happen. So off to the mall we went.

Imagine my surprise when I found out that it was already too late to buy summer colored Crocs in Molly's size. It's the end of April for crying out loud! Molly was less than thrilled that we left the mall Crocless and kept whining Neeeew Goooocs! all the way home.

When Molly went down for her nap, I hit the Internet searching for the illusive summer Crocs in toddler size 6/7. I finally found a site that had three pair left, so promptly got out my credit card and ordered those puppies.
Side note--Do you ever wonder if the Internet site says: Quick! Only 3 pair left! as a way to get you to buy their product immediately?...If that's their game, it works on me. My palms get sweaty and hands get shaky as I am ordering, just hoping that I get one of the last pair left. In reality they probably have a warehouse full of them. There is a sucker born every minute. But I digress.

In less than 24 hours (I am a preferred customer and get free express shipping) I had the Croc box in hand. I handed it to Molly who eagerly opened it.
The first thing out of her mouth was:
MOMMA, GIIIIIIIIIINK GOOOOOOOOOOCS!
I think the picture say it all. She is one happy little girl today!

Day 395

As of today, we have been a family for 395 days. What's the big deal? Why is this statistical fact important enough to warrant a blog post?

Because the first 394 days of Molly's life were spent here:

She has now spent 395 days here:

One day longer than she did in Dongguan, Guangdong PRC.
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She has spent one more day in this crib:

than she did in this one:

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And that milestone brings more comfort to me than I can explain. Knowing that my sweet little girl has more memories of us than of anyone else, knowing that she has had a family longer than she has been without one, knowing that she is more loved now than she has ever been in her life is monumental. From this day forward, the gap between being an orphan and being a daughter will continue to grow. Miracle do happen. For her and for us.

Molly at 2

A two year old. Holy cow, I have a two year old! How (and when) did that happen? Somehow, when you live day in and day out with your child, you don't notice how much they change. Then you do something like dress her in a pair of pants that fit last last month only to find they are 2 inches too short this month. All of a sudden you are smacked in the face with the reality that your baby is growing up. It's kind of bittersweet.

How has Molly changed? Well let's see....

She's got a lot more hair! And she's done some growing, too. A year ago she was 28 inches tall, weighed 18 pounds and wore 9 month old clothes. Now she is 33 inches tall, weights 24 pounds and wears 18 month old clothes.

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She's gone from having one lonely bottom tooth on gotcha day to having 16 perfectly crooked pearly whites. She will even let me brush them, too. Three months ago it took two of us to accomplish this task. One person to pin her down and pry open her mouth and the other to do the brushing. Yea, yea, I'm sure she'll have some kind of issue that she have to seek counseling for over this. It wasn't one of our finer parenting moments, but at least she won't have any cavities.

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Molly still sucks the first two fingers on her left hand. It seems to bother other people more than it does us. Maybe we should care, but we don't. That's what she did to cope in the orphanage, and now that she has to cope with us as her parents, she'll probably suck those fingers until she goes away to college. Seriously, she does suck them a lot less now and I am sure she'll give them up when she is good and ready.

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Molly has blossomed into this wonderful, independent child. We go to toddler time at the library twice a week. Most kids sit quietly in their mother’s laps and listen to the librarian as she leads the activities. Not Molly. No, Molly marches up to the front, stands right next to the librarian and takes over. She leads all of the hand motions to the songs and rhymes. She loudly ooohs and aaahs over all of the books and dances to the music. She has everyone in the group cracking up! About every 2 minutes she points to me (sitting in the back of the room) and loudly says “Mamma!” I pretend to be embarrassed but in actuality, I am probably the proudest parent in the room. That’s my kid up there—the self-assured, confident, funny little girl in pigtails.

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On the flip-side, Molly has now entered the era of "I need to control EVERYTHING in my life." She even wants to be in charge of deciding when I can use the bathroom. Everything we do during the day needs to be her idea. If she doesn't initiate it, she has to back up and replay the entire scene so that she can be in charge. If I get her shoes, she'll carry them back to the closet, close the closet door, stand there a few seconds, and then open the door and get her own shoes. Picture this type of behavior for just about every action that you undertake in any given day. (A lot of the time it is pretty cute, but when you are in a hurry, it gets pretty annoying!)

I am drawing so very clear lines for her. She can be in charge of some things, but not others. She tries to cross those lines, of course, but she has a teacher for a mother. I have way more experience in standing my ground! I think that she is learning that she can't mess with the momma as much as she would like!

Molly has now moved into pretend play. She loves to copy things that adults do like sweeping, cooking, and washing dishes. Any ideas on how we can sustain this behavior for the next 20 or so years?

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Miss Molly also loves to dress up in her chef outfit, diva clothes or old Halloween costumes. She can spend hours shopping for play food with her grocery cart and taking care of Baby. Hmmmm, why is it that kids can't wait to grow up and adults wish they were young again?

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It appears that we have an adrenalin junkie on our hands. Molly is a total thrill seeker. She loves to be tossed high into the air and jump off of anything she can climb. For example: TAKE OFF!

STICKING THE LANDING!

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She has an incredible amount of coordination and no fear... a dangerous combination. At the park she will swing on the big girl swings, screaming "more," until she is a lot higher than I care to see her fly. She climbs to the top of a 15 foot slide and slides down 4 corkscrew turns to the bottom and then runs to "do it again!" I have resorted to taking an aspirin a day to stave off the heart attack that I am sure she will cause one day. Good Golly!

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Molly's speech is also developing. In fact, you no longer need the Rosetta Stone to decipher much of her language. She has a lot of single words and is now pairing them together into 2 and 3 word phrases. Her favorite phrases begin with "Mamma." Mamma, truck! Mamma, flag! Mamma, puppy! Mamma, baby! She never loses the enthusiasm for announcing every single thing that she see to me. She will also pair words like big truck, or yellow flower, or more chocolate!

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I continue to call Harvard using the speed dial setting on my phone as Molly shows moments of brilliance (indulge me here, I'm a first time mom). She can identify and say the names of all of her colors. She understands the concept of numbers--she will point to her eyes and say, "two eyes," or look at the dinner table count the plates and say' "three dishes." It is pretty amazing to see her math mind. Please God, just don't let her be an engineer. I can only stand one of those in the family!

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I am happy to report that Molly is a world class sleeper. 10+ hours at night and 3+ hours at nap time. I lay her in her crib, sing a few songs, kiss her goodnight and I'm out the door. I do try to keep her on a sleep schedule, but if I have to deviate from it, no problem. In her mind crib=sleep. If I put her in there, she will sleep. Amazing. I typically have to go wake her when it is time to get up. Yes, I know that I am extremely lucky and I do thank God daily for the incredible sleeping baby.

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I'll close with a list of some of Molly's favorites at age 2:

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Favorite Song: La La Loo ( a Chinese lullaby)

Favorite Foods: Noodles, rice, broccoli, cauliflower, melon, yogurt, oatmeal and eggs (Gee, things haven't changed much there in a year! She is still a picky eater. I was a picky eater growing up. I hated the hassle of it even as a kid and I swore that I would make sure that my kid ate anything. Guess that didn't work out too well.)

Favorite Book: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Favorite Toy: Baby, her baby doll and Gymboree bubbles (the Cadillac of bubbles)

Favorite Shoes: Gold Crocs

Favorite Comfort Items: Boopa and Le-le. Boopa is blanket made for Molly by a very special friend. Le-Le is a baby sized pillow made of pink toille fabric.

Favorite Place to Hang Out: Outside--park, backyard deck, zoo, playground. Anywhere but cooped up inside the house.

Happy Anniversary Miss Molly!

Somehow destiny comes into play.
These children end up with you and you end up with them.
It's something quite magical.
~Nicole Kidman

March 29, 2007
In a hot, stuffy room of the Guangzhou Civil Affairs office, Tony and I (along with 16 other families) waited not-so-patiently for destiny to unfold. Soon the time came, our names were called and little Guan Hai Yan was placed into our waiting arms. It was magical. Of course it was kind of hard to feel the magic on account of all the screaming. Yep, we got the screamer on the group and she exercised her lungs for the first 2 hours. We didn't care. We were in love. She was the most perfect, most beautiful, most incredible thing that we had ever seen.

March 29, 2008
Molly Michelle Hai Yan woke up and played quietly in her crib. When we walked into her room, she jumped up, flashed her million dollar smile and giggled. She still is the most perfect, most beautiful, most incredible thing that we have ever seen. There are times when we look up from whatever we are doing, catch a glimpse of her and have to pinch ourselves to make sure that we are not dreaming.

The past year has been beyond what we ever imagined it could be. Molly amazes us every day. She is smart, funny, self-confident, and loving. She is strong-minded, opinionated and vocal--and we wouldn't want her any other way. She is a blessing that is far beyond what we deserve and are so proud to be her parents.

Happy Gotcha Day, Miss Molly. Your mommy and daddy love you so very much!

2007 2008


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Easter 2008

Easter 2007 found us in Guangzhou, China. We had a new baby in our arms and a look on our faces that was a cross between total euphoria and dazed cluelessness! We were thrilled to have Molly in our arms, but holy cow, we had Molly in our arms! We spent Easter just trying to figure out what the heck we were suppose to do for this helpless baby! It seemed as though Easter came and went without much fanfare.

Fast forward: Easter 2008. We still haven't totally figured out what the heck we a supposed to be doing for our daughter, but we have a lot more confidence than we did a year ago. So bring on the holiday!

Molly enjoyed dying Easter eggs...

Digging through her Easter basket....

And hunting for eggs.

Now if I can just explain to Molly that M&Ms are not one of the five basic food groups!

It was a holiday of joyous memories for our little family. What a difference a year makes!

Happy Easter to you all!

Shuffle Off to Buffalo

Going to Buffalo for three cold, snowy days in March was the realization of a dream for me. Well, it wasn't exactly going to Buffalo that was my dream, but rather who I met while I was there.

Early on in our adoption process, I met Amy. She was also adopting from China, using the same agency and had her paperwork logged in with China about the same time as ours. We got to know each other through an online Yahoo group and found out that we had a lot in common.

Throughout the long and often painful wait for our daughters, we leaned on each other for support. We exchanged countless emails for over a year and a half; sharing tears, joy, hope and a lot of dreams about our future daughters. One of our dreams was of the day when we could sit and watch our daughters play together.

In December 2006, Amy and her husband Nigel received their beautiful daughter Hayee.

And in March 2007, Tony and I received Molly.

We now had our girls. It would seem pretty easy to bring them together, right? Not exactly. Amy and I live three states apart--over 10 hours to drive. And on top of this, Amy and I had never met in person!

For months, Amy and I continued to talked about our dream. We soon realized, however, that it was going to be a lot harder to accomplish than we thought. Driving long distances with babies, used up vacation banks, and lack of funds were all roadblocks. But we kept dreaming.

I am overjoyed to report that from March 10-12 Amy and I fulfilled our dream! We took out a map and found a good halfway point between our houses: Buffalo, NY. That was the place where we would meet. Who cared that it was March and Buffalo is one of the snowiest cities in America. We had a dream to capture!

And capture it, we did! Molly and I met Amy and Haylee in the lobby of our hotel. The girls were a little unsure of each other at first; Amy and I weren't. It was like we had been friends for a lifetime. The girls quickly followed suit. Within an hour, they were chasing each other around, imitating each other and discovering all kinds of mischief together. Amy and I just sat back, with tears in our eyes at times, and took it all in. We were at the end of a very long road. A place we often thought we would never reach.






The beautiful thing about this dream is that it can now live on. We had so much fun together that we are looking forward to our next trip together. Let's just hope it's somewhere a little warmer than Niagara Falls in the dead of winter!
(Yes, it's as cold as is looks!)


Thanks for the memories Amy and Haylee!

Happy 2nd Birthday Molly!

One year and 29 days old.
That's how old Molly was when she was placed in our arms in that hot, crowded office in Guangzhou. We missed her first birthday by 29 days...29 stinking days.

Molly's Children's Welfare Institute did a wonderful job caring for her, but they had too many children and too few staff members to be able to celebrate birthdays. I'm sure that is why her 2nd birthday felt so important to me. It wasn't just any birthday. It was the first time that anyone celebrated her birth. And if any birth deserved to be celebrated, it was this one. This little girl has so completely filled our hearts. She has enriched the lives of everyone that she has touched. A celebration doesn't seem like enough...she needed an extravaganza!

Well gee, that put a little pressure on the party planner, didn't it? And the party planner (me) was a novice at planning children's parties. Let me just say that I was just a wee bit stressed about the preparations for this party!

Jeez, where do I start?

A theme. I needed a theme. Since Molly doesn't watch TV (yep, I'm one of "those" moms), cartoon and television characters were out. Her favorite things at the moment were school buses. That didn't seem like an appropriate theme. Hmmmm. Well, Chinese New Year had just passed, and with our trip to Colorado we missed celebrating it. How about using that for a theme? Perfect! I even had cute outfits to dress her in for the occasion. Now on with the preparations.


Decorations. Have you ever tried finding Chinese New Year decorations the week after Chinese New Year is over? Not gonna happen. And with the party only a week away, I was in some deep doo doo in the decoration department. Luckily a friend mentioned the Oriental Trader catalog and they had what I needed. The express shipping needed to get the decorations delivered in time for the party cost more that the decorations themselves, but what the heck, I had decorations.


Cake. That's easy. We have a little privately owned grocery store in town. They make awesome cakes. I'll just stop in there a few days before the party an order one, I thought to myself. And that's just what I did. And when I told the gal in the bakery that I needed a cake with an Asian theme, she looked at me like I had a third eye. Apparently they don't have a lot of requests for Asian themed cakes in this small Midwestern town. Go figure. After looking through numerous books and talking with two different cake decorators, we finally were able to come up with the perfect cake.


Food. Well this was a no-brainer. Chinese food was the way to go. Despite my elevated stress level, I was a risk-taker and tried a restaurant that we had never been to before. Score one for me, because the food was awesome. In fact it is all everyone could talk about at dinner. Who knew that the best Chinese restaurant in town was next to Kroger less than a mile from my house. I think the employees of Dragon House will get to know me on a first name basis in the very near future.

Guests. Do I go for the big bash or for the smaller, private affair? Seeing as this was my first attempt at party planning, I opted for a small gathering: Grandmom, Uncle Jack, Aunt Karen, cousins Allison and Matthew, Tony and myself. And the guest of honor, of course!


Gifts. Luckily this one pretty much took care of itself. Packages started arriving by mail weeks before Molly's birthday. Family and friends were very generous. And I never have a hard time shopping for my daughter. The hard part is applying the breaks!



So there we had it. The planning phase of the party was done, and I was pretty pleased with the results. Not too bad for the novice party planner...now on with the show!

Molly has a great time from beginning to end. She loved dressing up.

She loved being the center of attention.

She loved her gifts.


And she loved her cake and ice cream.



There were giddy squeals all evening long. One of the biggest squeals was for a pair of floral short overalls and a blue shirt--a gift from my mom and dad. She carried them around for half the night, until I hid them so she would open other gifts.


I am glad that she liked the outfit, I really am. But it was killing me. Blue? My little girl loved something blue? I have worked so hard to make her passionate for pink and she went ballistic for blue. Good Golly Miss Molly...what is a mother to do?

Happy Birthday, Lil' Pumpkin!

(Remember, you can click on any picture to make it bigger!)