Love & Happiness

4 years! Yup! 4 years!

2012-01-22T20:24:00.007-05:00

I can't believe it has been 4 years since we meet our daughter. She is amazing.

She has grown 45 lbs and 10" in the past 4 years. That is a lot of growing! I wish we could measure how much she has learned. I wish I could write all the words she has learned, but that would be impossible. But one big milestone is that she is hearing when things are said wrong. This is really great and shows a new milestone in her learning. For example, we were listening to a video from a few years ago. In it she said "I grow" instead of "I grew." As we watched the video, she pointed out her mistake from a few years ago.

The other day I told her that if we could grade her in the "growing up" department, she would get an A+. She is social, happy, involved in everything... I mean everything... and she is compassionate, caring and just all around a great kid.

We enjoyed watching some old videos and seeing the changes. The first one is from today and the rest are some of our favorites.

Jan 2012 Home 4 years

May2011 3 years 4 months

Bit - aug 2010 - 2 years 7 months

Feb 2008 just home

Our little running girl

2012-01-13T21:55:00.000-05:00

ZuZu is running track and doing great! One of her races is the 50 yd dash. She ran 9.6, then the next week 9.3 and this past week, 8.9!

Our little sharp shooter

2012-01-13T15:23:00.001-05:00

She is quite the shooter. She made it to the 300 club after 4 weeks of shooting. The 300 club gets your name on the "Wall of Fame" - And twice she was "Top Shot" with adjusted handicap scores!

Magic Card Trick

2011-11-23T16:46:00.002-05:00

from ZuZu: Hello people!!!! I got a really cool magic trick that I want to show you. Click on the video and hope you enjoy it. Bye! ZuZu

ZuZu, Dogs and Chickens

2011-11-21T07:56:00.004-05:00

Looking adorable!

ZuZu cleaning the barn, Woody wanting to be with the chickens and Morgan... well he is eating grain

Woody still wants to be with the chickens, Morgan looking for more grain.
ZuZu peaking her head out from cleaning the barn, Morgan off to find more food and Woody, you guessed it! Still waiting to be with the chickens, not just looking at them.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-08T07:18:00.002-05:00

These are from the day she went to a halloween/birthday party.

First day of 7th grade/middle school

2011-08-31T07:13:00.001-04:00

All I can say is... phewwww we made the bus! Ok and I will add, did you notice two backpacks? One for school (way heavy) and the other for field hockey, which starts right after school. Middle school, here she comes!

Beautiful Horse + Beautiful Daughter = beauty

2011-08-21T22:09:00.003-04:00

The day after my mom passed away I was at my parents house. A friend came by and asked if my daughter would like to go with her to see her horse. My daughter loved the idea. And I was glad my daughter could get a break from all the hanging around we were doing. I think it was love at first sight.

I think she is looking at ZuZu.

Tribute to my Mom

2011-08-19T12:24:00.004-04:00

Tribute to my Mom

Many have said how strong I have been over the last few days. I am not, but if it appears so, I believe I am getting it all from my Mom. A friend recently said about my Mom, “Beverly McKeon was one of the strongest, bravest, funniest, lovingest, greatest ladies I will ever know. Safe home, Bevy”

How do you sum up, in one paper, one speech, the greatest person, in my humble opinion, that ever was? But all of you already know how great my Mom was. She was either your wife, mother, grandmother, NiNi, great grandmother, son-in-law, sister, friend or she was Auntie Bevie.

My Mom has always been there for me, as well as she was always there for everyone she knew. I could never list the endless list of people that she took into her life and home. So I am going to share a story that I think sums up this part of my Mom, this is what a friend wrote to me; “I loved your Mom. I’ll always be so grateful for those years when I was alone and your family included me in holiday celebrations just like I was one of the family. The Easter I made the “healthy” mashed potatoes and everyone ate them anyway. Christmas when I had a stocking just like the other kids was such a surprise and so very special to me. I’ll always remember Bev.”
There is another part of my Mom I was trying to find the words for. And yet another friend was able to help me with that. When we were talking the other day she said to me, “Your Mom always had a way of turning a difficult message into a softer one.” My friend is so right. Anytime I needed advise, or if there was something difficult that had to be said, she had an amazing and supportive way of doing this.
There were so many things my Mom loved throughout her life. It was always full of kids and love. You could always find her playing board games with the kids. I will miss watching her enjoy losing while playing checkers with my daughter. Without a doubt, her favorite time of year had to be Christmas time. The joy she got from giving to all the kids at Christmas was amazing. I asked my daughter, thinking it was only fair to get a childs opinion, the first thing that came to mind when I mention NiNi, she said “The fun we had.”

Mom loved Chalker Beach. She loved having visitors down and spending time with them at the beach. I am sure many of us here have our own stories of the great times at the beach with Bevie. Just the other day a special friend of my Moms shared one of her stories. It brought me such joy to hear that story. For me, it was visiting my Mom in Sept at the beach, when the beach was empty. Many times just the two of us on the beach, chatting and reading. I will always cherish those times.

Mom loved so many things, watching girls’ UCONN games, scrabble, outings with her sister, and so much more…. Mom loved people and she loved life. She could go anywhere and come home knowing a new person. She genuinely like to get to know new people and had an amazing ability to do so with ease.

Mom, you will always be loved and forever missed.

Sunday Morning Fishing

2011-07-20T11:12:00.005-04:00

Ocean Fishing part 2

2011-07-12T21:04:00.002-04:00

Here is a video and the post below has the pictures.

Ocean fishing

2011-07-12T20:47:00.006-04:00

ZuZu went ocean fishing today and had a blast. That daughter of mine loves.to.fish! She caught her first striper and we now have a freezer full of fish.

ZuZu steps up to Middle School

2011-06-26T16:23:00.003-04:00

ZuZu graduates Elementary school! It was a great afternoon full of lots of certificates for all her hard work. We are so proud of the work she has done over the last 3 years.

She received her certificate for completing 6th grade, the Presidential award for Outstanding Academic Achievement, and for her class she got a certificate for most improved. She went up 2 reading grades in one year! She also received a certificate from her gym teacher for student of the year in Pe/Health! Along with her band certificate for playing the sax. Now I see why it feels like we are so busy all the time!

Fishing ~ Bullhead

2011-05-30T12:29:00.005-04:00

The bigger the fish, the bigger the smile! 1 lb, 10 oz bullhead
The pictures of Woody are from the day before when they were fishing off rocks at the river. The bullhead was caught from the boat.

And the bullhead will be todays lunch. And he came at the cost of 7 stitches in Rich's hand. He was trying to sharpen the blade and well oops.

Chinese Phrase

2011-05-26T21:50:00.002-04:00

This was already on face book, so if you saw the answer on face book, no cheating....

How things have grown

2011-05-25T19:14:00.004-04:00

ZuZu riding her bike and talking about how things have grown and changed.

I thought it would be fun to link to a post to when she first learned to ride a bike in May 2008.

Softball Season

2011-04-29T20:36:00.003-04:00

Survivor Girl goes fishing

2011-04-22T22:28:00.001-04:00

Fishing season is here!

2011-04-22T21:08:00.005-04:00

Survivor Girl shows you how to open a coconut - follow up post

2011-04-03T12:06:00.001-04:00

So after the last post where Survivor Girl had opened the coconut but I didn't get it on video, we did a new video with her actually opening it. Stay tuned for more episodes from Survivor Girl.

My survivor girl

2011-03-26T17:11:00.003-04:00

The video speaks for itself. Except it is 2011, not 2001. It was cold, my brain must have froze....

And I don't mean the show "Survivor", I mean shows like Bear Grylls.

And as it turns out and she explained inside, there are lines around the coconut and you gently crack along the line.....

Misc Birthday pictures

2011-03-18T18:47:00.003-04:00

Morgan eating cake, wouldn't be so bad, but that was just the first of 3 people that fed him. :) Lucky Morgan.

New hat!
Playing with Woody ~ looking for his ball

Birthday Dinner

2011-03-18T18:32:00.003-04:00

On ZuZu's birthday we had lobster. Her fav. She got a new hat with a rainbow trout fish on it and a Wii fishing game.

Birthday party

2011-03-18T17:44:00.004-04:00

We had family over last weekend to celebrate ZuZu's birthday and a good time was had by all! The battery died on my camera before I got pictures with the balloons. After we got changed into our comfy clothes I realized we had ZuZu's camera so we took some pictures. I can't believe the difference from 2008!

New Basketball sneakers - 10 in the first half!

2011-02-12T15:17:00.004-05:00

It was a great game today! ZuZu scored 10 points in the first half of the game!. Out of the first 12 points, 10 of them were hers! We were so excited for her.

She has worked really hard this season and it has paid off.

Here is a picture of her after the game started at half time. One of ZuZu's teammates saw that I was taking a picture and got her to smile. Speaking of teammates, ZuZu has a fantastic team this year. They have done a great job. They practice hard, play hard and seem to have a fun time doing it. Their coach has done a great job as well. Way to go!

8 Point game!

2011-01-23T12:22:00.008-05:00

ZuZu had an 8 point game on Saturday! I cropped a few pictures from one a video and they are blurred but here they are. And here is a short video from after the game. It was a lot of fun to watch and she had a great time playing. We loved watching her smile after she stole the ball and or made a shot!

Making one of her shots

After one of her shots

During the game

video after the game

The day we met.....

2011-01-20T22:34:00.005-05:00

The day we met… and the 3 years in between...

When I came up with the name for the post I had the grand idea of putting together a slide show of pictures of the last 3 years. Not going to happen. But really, isn't that was this blog is?

On January 20, 2008 our lives changed forever. It has been an amazing 3 years full of love and laughter.

Some days it feels like our daughter is growing by the minute, she has grown 8 ¾” and 38 lbs in the last 3 years. But her real growth is shown in the beautiful person she is. She is a funny girl who loves life. She is caring and helpful. She is smart and determined and we love her to pieces.

Happy Day we Met!

Training Center Visit

2011-01-01T12:04:00.005-05:00

ZuZu has a millions smiles and faces she makes. ZuZu wants to be a Canine Police Officer when she grows and last week when we went to the State Police Training center to see where her Uncle works I saw a whole new smile. It was priceless. Needless to say we all had a great time.

Sledding

2011-01-01T12:00:00.003-05:00

Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T22:16:00.007-05:00

We had a great Christmas with family. Here are a few pictures of our day.

Wii Games!

Magic Stuff!

Fishing Stuff!

More fishing stuff from Ni Ni

learning about my cell phone....

showing the gang magic tricks................... (in background her cousin Dani with her baby and Morgan the dog and Baba's legs)

Rose reading to Ni Ni

ZuZu showing Pamela how to use her new game

Morgan taking it all in

Woody not so sure about things

Woody is all done

ZuZu is not all done! She is taking on Uncle Bob.... guess who won?

More Wii games....

adding these, they are from Christmas Eve. ZuZu and Uncle Eddy are teaching each other card tricks - they were on my old camera

Happy Birthday on the Sax - for Ye Ye

2010-11-18T19:34:00.000-05:00

Halloween 2010

2010-11-07T11:46:00.010-05:00

ZuZu wants to be a Canine Officer when she grows up. She was a police officer and Woody was a fire dog. I have to admit, she looked really good! A friend loaned us the outfit and she looked very legit.

And rough times for Morgan with his allergies. The shirt was to cover a hot spot on his shoulder that he was able to get at with his back paw. We got a few days of warm weather, one humid one and he got 3 hot spots instantly. Poor guy.

6th Grade Class Trip

2010-10-17T11:15:00.008-04:00

ZuZu went on her 6th grade class trip last week. Her words were she had an exciting time!
She went to an ecology school on the ocean in Maine. She loved every part of the trip, but her favorites were the beach and the tide pool.

Camping Trip 2010 part 2

2010-08-23T23:17:00.003-04:00

It appears you need a face book account to see the face book pictures. So here is a slide show of the pictures from our camping trip, see post below.

Camping Trip 2010

2010-08-23T16:21:00.006-04:00

We had a great trip. Took the boat out on it's Maiden Voyage. Rich did a great job on building the boat.

Here is a link to the pictures I hope it works. (maybe my non-facebook friend, L can tell me if the link works?) I made the face book album public. Here are a few pictures in case you don't want to follow the link.

Watch out Lucy

2010-08-08T19:09:00.002-04:00

Hot dogs cooked on the fire with the dogs

2010-08-08T18:13:00.004-04:00

After a basketball game last fall we had hot dogs over the fire and ZuZu shared with the dogs.

How sad is this? Last winter I had planned on making ZuZu this picture and it took me this long to get it done! At least I got it done before the next season.

Motogyro Fall 2009

2010-08-08T15:50:00.003-04:00

Pictures from the Motogyro Fall 2009

Outfit from China and Morgan needs blog time

2010-08-08T13:12:00.003-04:00

Our buddy the turtle

2010-08-08T12:24:00.004-04:00

At one of our fishing spots there is this snapping turtle that comes to visit. He appears to know that if he comes he will get fed. So we catch fish and he gets fed. (ok, they catch fish, I watch)

Clara comes to visit

2010-08-07T21:48:00.007-04:00

We had a short, but great visit with our cousins this weekend. They came with the new addition to the family, Clara the 16 week old Pug. Isn't she the sweetest!

Bass & a Bullhead!

2010-07-25T18:01:00.002-04:00

ZuZu has been doing a lot of fishing this summer. She catches lots of fish, mostly perch, blue gill and sunkist. Today she and Rich went to the river and she got a bass and a bullhead! She has been waiting to get both. I am so excited for her! Wish she had the camera.

Morgan the wise old soul

2010-07-16T16:45:00.005-04:00

It has been a long 9 or so days. Last week Morgan decided to help himself to our left over corn on the cob. He ate 3 of them. I was so touched by what our vet wrote that I wanted to share it.

"Morgan was an absolute dear today, as always. Nothing concerning was found on physical exam or abdominal radiographs. It appears this wise old soul knows enough to thoroughly chew corn cobs to ease their passage. It would be fine to slowly and gradually reintroduce his regular food to the bland diet over the course of the next week. Adding a spoonful of yogurt with probiotic or an Acidophillus supplement daily may be helpful. As always, call anytime with a worry but you no longer have to worry now."

Looking for movie help

2010-07-06T09:05:00.003-04:00

The comments are not showing up yet, but the movie has been found! Thanks guys!

The Thirteenth Year

Ok movie experts. ZuZu saw the end of a movie and wants to see the whole movie. She thought it was called 13 years but I can't find it under that name. I think it is a Disney movie. But not 100% sure.

It is about a boy who when he is in the water he is a fish/mermaid. When on land a boy. He sort of has to pick between his fish mom and human mom. His human mom can fix him and he has to explain that to his fish mom. Any one have any thoughts? I did some searches and will look around later with her on the internet, but thought I would give this a shot as well.

It was on this past weekend. Maybe I can find a TV Guide on the internet, but I am not sure if they have the days already gone. It would have been Sat or Sun.
Thanks
Kate

First Fishing trip on the ocean

2010-07-03T13:15:00.007-04:00

By now most of you know that ZuZu loves to fish. She told me the other day that when she grows up she would like to travel the world fishing. She has become good friends with Rich's friends. They all share the love of fishing. They love to teach her and she loves to learn. On Friday they took her to the ocean for her first ocean fishing trip to catch stripers. Rich and ZuZu got up at 2:00 am, drove 2 hours to the ocean to meet their two friends. The sea's were a bit rough for ZuZu but she toughed it out and did great. Sadly, no one got a single bite. Looks like they will have to try again for that first striper. She does look like a natural.

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T15:00:00.003-04:00

Just one of the cool things ZuZu made Rich for Father's Day. This was a picture she took with her DSi. Then she added the hearts and stars.

Race Weekend Last Fall

2010-05-31T10:20:00.005-04:00

At one of the race weekends last year, ZuZu had a great time learning all the trades of a race mechanic. I finally got around to getting pictures scanned that her YeYe took. Enjoy!

Spring pictures

2010-05-15T22:27:00.001-04:00

Happy Mother's Day from ZuZu

2010-05-09T09:39:00.003-04:00

Here is the beautiful email card ZuZu sent to me.

Dogs Boots

2010-05-02T10:58:00.004-04:00

25 months, 36 lbs and 8 inches

2010-04-19T08:37:00.004-04:00

Wow! We know how much ZuZu has grown, and we get comments all the time. So I decided to compare.

At placement:
60 lbs and 53" 4'5"

Now:
95 lbs
5'1" 61"

She grew 8" and gained 35lbs!!!! Here is a current picture.

I couldn't get it exact, but look at where her head falls in the window in the background! I really wish I had her stand in once place, camera in another and took pictures as time went on. We did the measure her against the door thing, but the camera thing would have been cool.

Happy 12th Birthday ZuZu

2010-03-14T15:41:00.002-04:00

ZuZu turned 12 this month. We had a great weekend full of parties. I will post more pictures later but wanted to get at least one up from each party.

Basketball season is over

2010-02-27T10:11:00.006-05:00

ZuZu had a great time playing basketball this season. She did fantastic and really improved over the season. We had a lot of fun watching her play and seeing how hard she worked and how much she improved over the season.

Catching up, Ice Fishing, Sledding

2010-02-18T20:25:00.000-05:00

A little catching up.

Sledding, snowmen and snow forts

2010-02-18T14:49:00.003-05:00

Hanging in the truck

2010-02-18T14:02:00.002-05:00

More Sax Playing and adoption talk

2010-01-24T18:38:00.003-05:00

Here is another video of her playing Sax. I think this was the second one, redo, but I really liked the first one as well.

How Lucky are we?

2010-01-20T22:00:00.007-05:00

I will write a 2 year post but in the meantime I wanted to post pictures.

Jan 20, 2008
The day we meet

Jan 20, 2009
Photo Shoot

January 20, 2010
Hanging with Morgan

How to communicate with your new adopted Child

2010-01-18T23:10:00.001-05:00

How to communicate with your new adopted Child and how to learn new things like the Sax.

Basketball

2010-01-17T11:06:00.005-05:00

She loves basketball and is doing great! She is really good at getting the ball from the other team and getting it to her teammates to make a basket.

My camera, actually hers, mine fell out of a hot air ballon and isn't great. Anyway, her camera is not made for sporting events so the quality is not great.

Boat Name

2010-01-08T20:57:00.003-05:00

Uncle Bob helped ZuZu design the sign that will be painted on the boat.

ZuZu's Fishing Boat

2010-01-07T22:15:00.001-05:00

ZuZu's Fishing Boat is almost done.

Christmas 2009

2010-01-02T16:02:00.005-05:00

Somehow in the excitement of the day, I forgot to take out my camera at my parents and Rich's Moms house. Bummer. Still some great shots.

CAWLI article

2010-01-02T15:30:00.001-05:00

Here is a post that I just posted on blogger. I dated it 9/1/09 because that is when it should have been posted. It is a copy of an article I wrote for our adoption agency CAWLI.

2009 Calendar

2010-01-02T13:17:00.004-05:00

Here is a slide show of the calendar I made for grandparents for Christmas. On each page I put at least one picture from 2008 and one from 2009. It is not great quality because it is a scan of the finished photo project.

Too sweet for words

2009-12-11T11:26:00.006-05:00

Trying to make some things for Christmas and found this video. And by the way, it is 12 months of a project, itis 11:45 and I am only on April, I must stop looking at videos.

I left out that they were tapping trees for Maple Syrup

What happened?

2009-12-09T20:13:00.001-05:00

I swear, I DID NOT BLINK. When did my little girl grow up?

This was from a wedding this past November.

Some qucik updates

2009-12-02T22:41:00.005-05:00

A random picture of her new school bag.

Zuzu made high honors last quarter! This is the first grade they do honors and high honors. High honors is all "A"'s. We are so proud of her and she worked so hard to get it.

She just started playing the sax and she and one other new girl have been asked to join the Christmas concert for one song. We are so excited for her and getting the camera/video ready. :)

She started basketball a few weeks ago and her first game is this weekend. She is LOVING it and doing really well at it. Again, getting the camera ready.

Feeling so sad that I don't get the time to post more often. I have so many pictures and videos to post. If only there were more hours in the day or I didn't need to sleep. :)

Thanks Molly for razzing me into a post. :) And congratulatins on your award. I love reading your site and following your journey.

First Sax Lesson

2009-10-06T19:55:00.005-04:00

Zuzu had her first Sax lesson today. I think she is a natural.

This will make more sense once I get the video uploaded. Having trouble trying utube and should show sometime today - wed.

What a ride

2009-10-04T12:49:00.005-04:00

Here are more pictures from the Family Day taken by Zuzu's Uncle. Be sure to see the two new post below. He is so good with a camera it makes me want to buy a new camera and take a class.

Frisbee with her cousin

2009-10-04T11:39:00.002-04:00

A few weeks ago Rich and I had to go to a memorial service, Zuzu went her with her Nie Nie to a Family day in town. She meet up with her cousin and had a great day. Her Uncle took these fantastic pictures. More to come.....

5th grade and the Sax

2009-10-03T16:48:00.003-04:00

Zuzu started 5th grade and is doing great. She is enjoying being back with her friends and adjusting to 5th grade. At our school in 5th grade you can take an instrument and Zuzu has decided on the Sax. We picked it up last Thursday and her first lesson is Tuesday at school. She is so excited and in my humble opion is doing great. When we picked it up her teacher told her to start practing putting it together and apart and to practice blowing. Here is a video of one of her first attempts.

20 months, 24 lbs and 5.5 inches later

2009-09-01T14:02:00.001-04:00

This is a copy of an article I wrote for the CAWLI newsletter in Nov of 2009.

In January of 2008 my husband and I went to China to adopt our daughter that we fell in love with after reading two pieces of paper and looking at two pictures. When we got the paperwork from Meg there was a picture of our daughter on a boat, was it a sign? I thought so and still do today. My husband loves boats and is building Zuzu her own fishing boat. When Zuzu walked into our hotel room in China, my heart melted. When my husband knelled down next to her on the side of the bed to color with her, my heart melted some more. For the last 20 months my daughter has continued to melt my heart on a daily basis.

The last 20 months have been the best 20 months of my life. Being a mother has been better than I could have imagined. I had done a lot of research before our daughter came home. I followed a lot of blogs, read lots of stories and was as prepared as one can be. Yet it was still lots of hard work, but the rewards are endless.

Some might think that adopting an older child you will miss out on all the first, but I don't see it that way. There were so many first with our daughter and there are more to come. The first time she gave me a hug, the first time she said "I love you". the first time she said "I missed you", the first time she cried, the first time she got hurt, the first time she caught a fish, the first time she went to school, the first time she went on a bus, the first time she went to a friends house without me, the first time she held her arms out to me from her bed and was able to show me she needed me to stay and then just the other night when she said "please stay" at bedtime.

Don't get me wrong, adopting an older child is hard work, but adopting any child is hard work. We have the advantage that my child could tell me what she was feeling. Even before the English skills are what they are today, I think she did a great job via pictures and questions with our electronic translator of telling me what was wrong. Once she learned the language she had the skills to think about her feelings and share even more.

In the last 20 months our daughter has had two birthdays and is now 11 years old. She has grown 5.5 inches, gained 24lbs and is growing into a beautiful young girl. In addition to her physical changes, she has grown as a person in so many ways. She is doing well in school, she has friends of all ages, she likes sports, she loves to fish and she is happy to be part of our family. There are things in her life that are harder because of her past, but we work through them and she learns from them, we all learn from them. My husband and I are so proud of her all the time. She works hard at everything she does. She is her own person and I wouldn't change that, she is perfect just the way she is.

I am surprised at how hard it is to write this article. Over the last 20 months I have kept up 3 blogs in relation to our daughter. One is for the general public and we started it with our trip to China and it is to share pictures, videos and stories with friends and family. The second is private and only visible to me and my daughter when she is older. It is called "Just for you". Here I share stories with her that she might not remember when she grows up but she might not want to share with the general public. The third is by invitation only and is called "Just for Friends". Here I journal about things related to older child adoption and attachment and her general adjustment. Many times I would sit down to share with my friends and while doing so I would learn as I was writing. It was one of the many therapeutic things I did, especially early on. In any adoption it is so important to have a support system in place. We had our social workers and others that had been there done that and they were all such a help to us during the early days. But I also found the journaling that I did to be very valuable.

As I get ready to close my article and feeling like I am not doing our story justice, I thought I would share the first post after we had met Zuzu. (click on the link to go to the post)

I went into this adoption journey knowing it would be hard work. I had no expectations of my daughter. As I was writing this article, my daughter was outside on the step with my husband and his friend who is also her friend, he is 78 years old and one of her fishing buddies. Who would have thought that my daughter would be out on a step looking at pictures of fish with her father and their friend? It is something I could not have ever imagined, but here it is, part of our life. And I need to add that this person is an old timer, he doesn't open up to many. Doesn't go to people’s house for holidays, is not married and sort of just sticks with his fishing buddies and works and fishes. But my daughter has shown me a side to this man I didn't know. At Christmas time he bought her gifts (fishing stuff of course) and a card. It was priceless. This beautiful young girl has touched so many lives in the past 20 months, and the amount of support we have received from friends and family is amazing. She has changed many lives.

Hanging with the Boss at the races

2009-08-24T09:14:00.003-04:00

Zuzu went to the races this weekend with Rich. She loves driving around with Bette and seeing all the sites of the track.

Aug 2009

2009-08-16T15:48:00.004-04:00

At the bottom of this post is a slide show with some misc pictures from swimming, our trip, a farm visit and a visit with my niece's family and some pictures with the dogs. If the slide show goes too slow, you can click on each picture to see it. You can click on the slide show to see it bigger in the screen.

First some pictures from today, a hot day and everyone getting wet, the garden, Zuzu and the dogs.

And be sure to see the post below that I posted earlier today with a few pictures from our trip from a second camera.

Trip - Camera 1

2009-08-16T15:13:00.006-04:00

I didn't crop anyof the pictures, but if you click on the picture, it should open up to a bigger version.

Zuzu worked hard and got her Junior Ranger badge and patch. She had to complete a bunch of pages in a book about the park and animals and trees and more. She and Rich went on a few hikes to help them with the book.

Zuzu with her friends, I really tried really really hard to get them to all smile, a real smile, at the same time.

So then I went with, ok, everyone make funny faces....

Zuzu and her friend while at our camp ground.

Swimming & how I changed my blog layout

2009-07-22T21:15:00.005-04:00

I think this is how I last changed my blog.
Go to Customize
Pick new template
pick Minima Stretch (2nd row on my computer)

Here are some swimming pictures.
Loving it!

In she goes!

Summer Vacation

2009-07-19T21:11:00.001-04:00

You may end seeing these again, but before summer is over, just wanted to give a peak at what we have been doing.

Swimming lessons and fishing. And other stuff, but that is the main two things.

BTW, she is doing fantastic with swim lessons.

The Scandal & China's One Child Policy Written by a friend Leigh

2009-07-09T11:26:00.004-04:00

Forward: A friend of mine wrote on another board about a scandal going on in China right now. While writing and answering someone's question, she did a great job of talking about China's One Child Policy, I asked persmision to copy her post and here it is.

The Scandal and China's One Child Policy
Written by Leigh

FWIW, here is my version of China's One Child Policy and the unforeseen consequences.

China's One Child Policy is actually just a guide line policy and it is for the most part left up to local family planning officials to enforce however they see fit. Like anything else in China, there is a great variety in how often and how strongly it is enforced.

In theory, the One Child per Family rule made alot of sense in China in 1979 when it was implemented. China was facing mass famine and social unrest because the country had a population too big and too poor to feed. So the rule made sense. They desperately needed to curb their population growth and to a large degree, they have succeeded. However, there have been many, many unforeseen consequences of this rule including the way in which it has been enforced.

In China there is no social safety net for people in their old age and traditionally, boys take care of their parents, not daughters. Therefore, most families prefer to have a son. Also there is a bit of snobbery about the blood lines and carrying on the family name, so there's that too. So, if you desperately needed a son to take care of you, in effect as your social security, and you were only allowed to have one child, and the child you had was a girl, and you lived in China and the pressure on you was extraordinary to produce a male child and btw you agreed with all these cultural policies, I'm not saying you would, I'm not saying I would, but this is why many, many people abandon their girls and hope for a boy on the next go round.

The exceptions to the one child policy are farmers- who are allowed to have two children if the first is a girl and also the ethnic minorities like the Miao, the Buyei, the Dong, the Uyghurs, etc, who are allowed more than one child. Recently, they started allowing only children who are married to only children to have two kids. This was in response to the pyramiding of society wherein one child has to take care of two parents and four grandparents.

Another unforeseen consequence of this policy is the horrendous gender imbalance that China is now facing and which is projected to get worse over time resulting in tremendous social unrest in the future.

So you see that there have been many consequences of the one child policy.

The family planning officials, on the other hand, were more likely interested in their place in party politics in their zeal to enforce the one child rule. If their village had over quota births, they could be demoted or fined themselves. Their place in the party was safe as long as their village was on target with their birth rate. So back in the old days, like the 80s and early 90s, it was not unheard of for family planning officials to force women to have abortions if they were pg w/their second child or even to kill the infants in front of their mothers as a way of enforcing the rule. Sterilization was forced upon repeat offenders. This --fortunately-- for the most part, does not happen these days.

Starting in the 80s with the appearance of cheap ultrasound technology, many, many couples began having an u/s with the sole purpose of sex identification and then aborting the fetus if it was a female. U/s for sex identification is now illegal in China and in fact, if a woman needs to have an u/s for any reason during the pg, two doctors must be present, the monitor must be turned away from the woman, the session is video taped and at no time is the woman allowed to know the sex of her child.

Anyway, this is all to explain the one child policy and to show you some of how it came about and what actually happens in the country because of it.

In the cases listed in the article about the scandal in Guizhou, the family planning officials removed the "over quota" children from the households and took them to state run Social Welfare Institutes, which is what they would normally do if the parents could not pay the fines for having over quota children. The illegal thing here is that they then processed these children as orphans and offered them out both domestically and internationally. The birthparents, in some cases, were told that they could get the children back when they grew up or they could get them back when the families could pay the fines. Obviously neither happened. And the totally illegal part was when the family planning officials and the orphanage personnel split the fee that adoptive parents are required to pay.

You have to keep in mind however, that many of the birthparents of overquota children are more than ok with giving up the child if it is a girl. In fact, I read another article where one of the BPs involved in this case said it was fine by him that they took his DD as he desperately needed a son to help him out in his fields. And ps, he had two more daughters after the one who was taken away before he finally had his son.

For a bit of perspective on this, it might help to read the story Lucky Girl by Mei-Ling Hopgood.

So really, it is a horrifying prospect to us, the idea of having our children taken away from us against our will, but remember, we are seeing it through the lens of our lives here in America. This is a complicated story with very few winners and many, many losers, first and foremost those losers being the female children in China.

Woody - such a rough life

2009-06-21T14:16:00.002-04:00

Someone should save this dog from his horrible life.

Having to share the couch?!?

First Play

2009-06-18T22:32:00.005-04:00

They had a play at school today. It was so cute and so much fun to watch. Zuzu did great and seemed to really enjoy herself.

I have a few videos but not sure how to put them somewhere so they are not public since there are other kids in them. I will figure out something and let you know. I am thinking Face Book since it is by membership only. Yes that is what I will do so if you want to see the videos, send me an email or leave me a comment and I will email you the facebook link. Or better yet, join facebook and look me up.

Emotion Chart

2009-06-02T21:39:00.004-04:00

When we first came home we, well not at first, it took a while to think of it, but a few weeks in, I did think of it and it was one of the best idea's I had. It really helped us figure out what Zuzu was going through. There were times we thought she was mad but she was really sad.

Anyway, I can't find the one I used but I used similar images I still had and created a new one for a friend. I had them on every floor so when she started to get upset I had it really handy.

If anyone wants one send me a comment and your email and I can send it to you in a pdf file or a jpg file.

First Boat & First Race

2009-05-30T22:21:00.006-04:00

And we went to two races so far. I think the pictures from the first race are on Zuzu's camera. So they will come later. Here are a few from the second race and we stayed overnight. It was a fun time by all.

At the first race in the hotel the next morning. Notice a second Pooh bear? NieNie was at a flea market and heard him calling. He is Pooh's cousin and he stays at NieNie's except for a visit here or there. I offered to take him in our home, but Zuzu said he wanted to stay at NieNie's. but he did have a good time at the Race with us for the weekend and then went back to his home.

Hanging out waiting for Baba to race.

On the drive up, looking cool.

Rich is building Zuzu a boat. Here is a slide show of the boat. It is almost done, except for the painting of the name. Zuzu's Fishing Boat.

And we intended to take a picture of our house when the tulips came up. Ooops, they didn't stay around long enough, or time flies by too fast. And by the time I get to take pictures of the garden and all the nice stuff, it will be winter. Well maybe not that far behind.

Frog catching

2009-05-23T20:44:00.003-04:00

Zuzu loves to catch frogs. She went fishing this morning and they caught some fish, haven't gotten the details yet. This afternoon she caught a frog in YeYe's pond. This was a big one and she is proud of her catch. The frog was returned unharmed to the pond after the photo shoot.

First Softball Game

2009-05-02T13:34:00.011-04:00

She is doing great at softball. We have had a few games now. She has gotten on base a few times by hitting a few times with awalk. She has gotton on base more than she got striked out. She has come home a few times. The smile on her face is priceless when she come across home base. I can't wait to see her first homerun.

watching the ball and only hitting when in strike zone
hitting the ball. Next we work on power
She is great at being ready in the outfield, with time and practice I think she will be as good in the outfield as she is hitting.

I think it was the second night that one coach said to me that if we had a game ball (we lost) that it would have gone to Zuzu. The other just beamed about how great she did. Then the next game asked if we had another of her.

As with everything she does, she puts her heart and sole into it.

Pictures are edited to take out the other kids.

click on slide show so you can see bigger version.

I have a video but don't want to post with other kids in it. (Some people are not comfortable with it so I always play it safe and just don't post any pictures/videos with other kids unless I get the parents permission) Anyway, if you are interested, let me know and I will send you the video.

Visit with Uncle Bob & Nap time with Morgan

2009-05-02T13:17:00.003-04:00

We had Uncle Bob and Ye Ye over for dinner and there was some serious racing going on.

Math Facts Multiplication & Div 6's

2009-04-19T12:17:00.003-04:00

Zuzu took her Math Test on Friday. It was Multiplication on one side and division on the other. It was 6's. She handed it in and Mrs. Milligan said "Zuzu you need to do the other side.". She said this because Zuzu was the first one to hand it in. Zuzu said "I did". And Mrs Milligan didn't remember for sure but thinks she got 100%.

Now as amazing as that may sound to you all, some of you may be thinking but math is the same from English to Chinese and it is. But Zuzu had very little math skills when she came home less than 15 months ago. For example, she knows her multiplication facts better than her addition facts. But we can work on the others over the summer.

Homerun in Softball

2009-04-08T21:49:00.002-04:00

So Zuzu has started playing softball. It is a town league and we have gone to 3 practices. Right now we are practicing indoors which can be tough in a small space, but she is learning and having fun. It can be a bit confusing since she is learning more than just skills, but when to throw it where and move here or there and which base is which and where is home. She does however know what a homerun is. We have learned a thing or two from Wii.

So part of practice is setting up a small field inside and having the girls play a game. Usually the coach hits the ball out so he can aim in and set the girls up to learn specific task. Tonight they tried something new and pretty cool. They take this small plastic golf ball and play a game with that. Instead of the coach hitting, the girls hit and pitch. Zuzu got a try at pitching and I think she likes it. So she finally got her turn to bat and missed the first one or two, she previously made a joke with baba about a home run. The next thing we know she wacks this little golf size ball in the air and all the way to the other side of the gym and it hits the wall in the air, a home run! She had no idea what she did and stopped at second and the coaches yelled it was a homerun and to clear the bases and off she ran. It was so great. Besides her experience on Wii, she has only hit with a bat one other night at practice for about 10 minutes. She did great that night, but this was just fantastic. It is great to watch her each week and see the imporvement. And each night I ask her if she had fun and so far it always a "YES!".

Sorry, no pictures. Will try to sneak the camera next week when we play outside.

Hanging out

2009-04-02T10:29:00.005-04:00

Zuzu has her own camera, and here are a few pictures from it. The ones with Pooh were ones she took using our tripod.

Harry(see some of his pictures at bottom of blog) our Golden that passed away, is rolling over in his box seeing Woody on the couch. Before Woody, no dogs on couch. You can see that has changed.

Birthday Party's

2009-03-17T09:25:00.008-04:00

Zuzu turned 11 this month. My little girl is growing up so fast. The party's were both so much fun. We had a party for her with some of her friends and they played twister, had a bingo game, busted open a pinata, ate cake and pizza. The best part was watching them towards the end when they made their own fun playing musical chairs in our living room. Then the next day we had her grandparents over.

I quickly picked out a few good pictures. I have decided to stop making excuses about time, there just isn't enough of it and will post a few of each event and as time permits go back and post more so this can be a journal of sorts for Zuzu.

Edited to add: My friend Leigh was right, Pinatas are evil. They lure you in with all that candy and stuff, but in the end, they are just evil. :) Leigh, how is that? Is this ok? oh, and the simple "you were right"!

Family party

Kids Party

Fly Tying Class for Fly Fishing

2009-02-28T10:08:00.005-05:00

Rich and Zuzu took an 8 week fly-tying course. They loved it. When they signed up I thought it was a one night thing and then later realized it was 8 weeks. Each class was two hours long! Thanks Uncle Don for suggesting it, you are the best!

This is a picture of the Fly's that Zuzu tied

This is a picture of the Fly's that Rich tied

A dear friend is fighting Burkitt Lymphoma

2009-02-22T22:09:00.006-05:00

My dear friend Deana is fighting Burkitt Lymphoma. I met her online about 3 or 4 years ago. She is an amazing person. She is a Mom, Wife, Daughter, Friend and she gives all to what she does in life. She is kind and sweet. The amount of support she is getting locally from friends and family is a tribute to what a great person she is. I have never met her in person but feel I have known her for years. We have followed each other in our journies to build our families through adoption. Before we adopted Zuzu, watching and reading about life with her first son is one of the many that kept my spirits up. I now enjoy watching the updates on both her boys. She and her husband now have 2 boys. They are 4 and 2. They need their Mommy to stay around in this world a long long time. If you want to view some pictures of this beautiful family, visit:

http://www.socalreynolds.com/public/Welcome.html

Another friend Denise recently wrote the following update: "Our Prayers are Lifting Deana Up; Please Keep the Healing Thoughts Coming. I just got off the phone with Deana and the difference in her voice, spirits and attitude was a 180 from Friday! Our prayers are lifting her up and she's ready to fight. Tomorrow is a big day because the oncologists from her current hospital and MD Anderson will be formulating the next steps in her care plan. There is no time to spare as she needs to begin the next treatment which was originally slated for Monday. Jack and Deana have an appointment in Houston on Wednesday a.m. if the next step takes her there. Jack will update the caringbridge site tomorrow when they have confirmation from the doctors on what Deana's next treatment will be and where. Please keep sending healing thoughts and pray that the doctors can find a new direction to treat Deana so she can continue to parent her beautiful boyz (as she is truly amazing). Kudos to Jack for rallying Deana's spirits and for persisting even when she was at a low point. My continued gratitude to the many CA angels who watch over Deana, provide meals for the family, care for her children and drive her to the doctor. Thank you Abby for spending time with Deana today and documenting on video, happy memories in the couple's lives. That in itself made a world of difference to the entire family. Peace and Gratitude, Denise and ALL who love and are praying for Deana "

So I ask you, if you are a facebook user, please join our support for Deana at

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/225649/48576045?m=2c16bad3

or find me as a friend on facebook if we are not already friends, by searching for Kate Demetrius. Then go to my profile and you will see a link to the cause.

If you pray, please pray for my friend and her family.

I am still here!

2009-02-18T10:04:00.004-05:00

I am still here, just been swamped. I am a sub at her school and between that and my other job running our business and well being her mom, not much time. Plus I wanted to give some time to her one year annivsary. :)

Here are a few pictures to hold you over. I have lots of post to do, Chinese New Year Party's, Ice Fishing, Pooh has a visit and a magic video. Till I get to each post, here you go:

The day we met

2009-01-20T02:00:00.003-05:00

On January 20, 2008 we met Zuzu, our daughter and the love of our lives.

One year, 12 months, 52 weeks and 365 days later.....

That day, waiting in the hotel room for Zuzu to arrive I was never so excited and so nervous in my life. Before I met Zuzu, I felt I knew her already. I had already feel in love with her long before we met. Never could I have realized how strong that love would grow over one year.

How does one even attempt to cover the past year.

For me this has been the best year of my life. Full of love, tears and so much happiness. There have been lots of first along the way and we cherished each and every one. The first bike ride, the first snow man, the first water park, the first sled ride, the first fish she caught, the first time she saw the ocean, the first time she cried, the first time we cried together, the list could go on and on.

My daughter is full of so much love. I have learned so much from her in the past year and I know there is more to come. She brings so many people so much happiness and I believe she feels the same way. I love watching Zuzu just be Zuzu. Jumping around the kitchen playing with Pooh bear and being silly.

For Rich, I can only assume that based on his love for her, asking about her when he is at work, taking her fishing, wanting to spend as much time with her as he can, that it has been wonderful. I love nothing more than watching her jump into his arms for a hug. Just this week, he was standing in the kitchen and she jumped in his arms and hugged him and kissed him and said "I Love you Baba". (Sorry Rich, but I have a captive audience and they want to know these things.)

My daughter is many things, as you all know she is beautiful. For those that don't know her as well, she is also smart, strong, compassionate, caring, hard working and funny. And for those that know her well, you know she is not afraid to speak her mind, especially now that she has learned English so well. And she is really very funny. She has such a good sense of humor. I think these traits will bring her very far in life. I just hope not too far from Warren, MA.

I can't speak for Zuzu. We have talked a little about the one year mark from when we met, but for now I don't think she wants to dive too deep into looking back at the past year. As her Mom I can tell you this. She is happy to be a part of a family, happy to part of our family. She made us a family and she is happy to be here. But this day must also be hard for her on some level. One year ago today she left all she knew. Everything that looked and smelled like she was familiar with for 9 years was gone. Her friends were gone. Her China Mom and family (Foster Mom) were gone. Her close friends at the SWI were gone. When she left she never knew if she would see or talk to any of them again. Over the past year she has kept in contact with them all via phone and letters. We have been blessed that we made contact here in the USA with some of her friends from Xinyu that were adopted here in the USA. We had visits with one friend and plan to have more this coming year.

The past year has been an amazing year of learning for Zuzu. Learning a new language, what it meant to be part of our family, learning to eat new foods, learning how to grieve for the loss of her friends in China and so much more. She did all this while she grieved for the loss of her friends. She did all this and more with strength and pride of an adult. This will always be a special day for us.

I want to thank all the people that have followed our journey over the past year. As of Mon night I have 10,745 vistors from 33 countries. I ask that you take a moment to leave a comment. It would be such a treasure for Zuzu to have in the years to come. And yes, I will continue to blog, but I thought being the one year mark from when we met it would be a great time for some of you to say "Hi".

Melamine Information

2009-01-01T10:48:00.000-05:00

Melamine Information

I am taking the Melamine Information off my side bar and placing it in a post. Hopefully with this new gadget, it will still be easy to find.

http://melamineinfo.org/

/>

Click to join ChinaMilkIssue

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jepXlNEQt98ROZlc62vz50pMbXJQD95F66A01

http://www.in-forum.com/ap/index.cfm?page=view&id=D95F69F80

Post 3 of Christmas

2008-12-31T13:29:00.002-05:00

The day after, Zuzu with her Wii and the dogs exhausted!

Post 2 of Christmas Day

2008-12-28T11:39:00.003-05:00

Here is a video. Sorry that so much of it is dark. Didn't think to turn on all the lights and didn't want to stop filming. The best parts are in the begining.

Post 1 of Christmas Day

2008-12-28T11:30:00.004-05:00

Still so much to do, but for those that are waiting, didn't want to keep you guessing. Here are two pictures of Zuzu opening her big gift from Santa and one picture with her cousin that I love so much, it is so cute with her snuggling up to her. I will post more pictures and videos later.

Where did the name Zuzu come from?

2008-12-23T14:23:00.002-05:00

Not that anyone has asked, but since it is that time of year, I thought I would tell the story. When we got the information on Zuzu, we didn't know how to pronounce her Chinese name YuZe. I had a few Chinese people try to tell me but it didn't stick in my head. Even if it did, I didn't say it correctly. So while we waited for our daughter we needed to call her something and it felt wierd saying her Chinese name wrong, knowing we were saying it wrong. Rich loves the movie It's a Wonderful Life. In the movie the little girl is named Zuzu. There is a scene with her and her petels from her flowers. So Rich started refering to her as Zuzu and it stuck. It felt right because not only was it his favorite movie, but we felt that it was the begining of a wonderful part of our lives. So while in China we were attempting our best effort to call her by her Chinese name since that is what she knew for 9 years. We all knew that we did a bad job at all our attempts at Chinese, including her name. The sad thing is that Rich and I heard it said differently and would say it differently. Eventually we started calling her Zuzu and it is what she has always wanted to be called. She has always had the option of many names, including her Chinese name, but to date she prefers to be called Zuzu.

FYI: Zuzu's Chinese name is YuZe, sounds sort of like You Zur.

Happy Holidays.

Christmas Card

2008-12-16T11:24:00.003-05:00

It took 3-4 photo shoots to get our Christmas Card done. The last one was done after much begging. As you may figure out, it was difficult to get Woody and Zuzu in the same picture, looking at the camera at the same time. Never mind the first silly attempt to get Zuzu and both dogs at the same time. What was I thinking. Below is part of the Christmas card (they will be a bit late but not as late as I have been in the past). And then a slide show of the other pictures that didn't make the cut. How does one pick just one when their daughter is that beautiful.