HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHRIS!

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Uncle Chris turned four this week. Elle is going in order of birthdays as they occur, and since she turned four, everyone else is turning four this year too. I love it that Chris is four and I'm still only three because his birthday came first. :-) I'm sure he's thankful that I didn't take a picture of him and post it here though, so its ok. The only photos I have from his party are of the five savages.... You can see how easy it is to get a good pix of them all at the same time (NOT!). It was still a good time.

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Baby Calf

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With Spring Break, Elle helped Grama this week with the baby calves...

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Baby Chickens

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ElleAnna helped us with twenty new baby chickens this week. She had to count them and pet each one before we put them into the small pen. They are so cute when they are tiny and yellow!

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Sweet Baby Lamb - BEFORE the Photos Below

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Thanks Dalton for letting ElleAnna pet your baby lambs! These photos were taken about ten minutes BEFORE the wild and insane collection in the next two posts below.

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Pretend Car Crash

Alex thought it would be funny to lay on the hood and act like he'd gotten hit by the car. That shot was good. Then Bryant yells at me to look inside at the driver's face... What a crazy woman she is!! Can you tell that there is never a dull moment?

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Some WILD Photos

Happy Birthday, ElleAnna Suo!

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All Elle knew was "All body sing Happy Birthday to me" when I laid her down to bed last night. She had drank her glass of chocolate milk and wanted rocked. I was pretty sure that she was not asleep when I took her to bed, but she had one arm hanging down and hadn't moved for a long time. As I stood over her bed, still holding her, I said "You're faking" and this huge grin spread across her face and she started giggling. Then, she started chattering away about her birthday again, as if she'd been quiet too long and had stored up all the thoughts she needed to say.

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Dayton announced his arrival at the party by shouting "SURPRISE!" He had been practicing "Happy Birthday, Elle" all week, so he was primed and ready to go.

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Grama's cake (actually made by the best cake lady on earth, Karen) was a huge success. It was Kai-Lan. Of course, unless you'd watched the show, you had no idea who the little girl in pig tails was, but that was ok. She was still cute.

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When it came to the gifts, Dayton watched very closely, trying very hard to keep his hands on his lap. Conlee was excited to see too and is always a good helper, especially for his special friend Elle. As for Elle, she did her usual, stacking the gifts, being careful with the paper. She got lots of neat things, although, Dayton claimed the Sleeping Dora and wanted to take it home with him.

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The cards, however, were another story. She pretty well shreds the envelopes to get to the card. I think her favorite was Ranelle's - It sang the "Move it, Move it" song and had the Madagascar characters on it. Elle's taking that card to school today to share with her friends.

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Here's some photos from our evening to share with you. I am sure that as the day goes on, Elle's birthday adventures are just beginning! She is going to celebrate at school today too. We had to do her party last night because Daddy and Bryant have a big forensics meet today and won't be home until well after bedtime tonight. That's ok though, just makes Elle's birthday celebration last even longer!

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Singing Happy Birthday, Elle

March 6, 2009

Lots of things this week... Nothing incredibly huge, just lots of things.
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I blanketed the cyber-world with my plea to find any other Panjin SWI children. I sent an e-mail to every adoption agency in the United States that works with China to process adoptions. 99% of my responses were negative. None of them had children who had come from Panjin. There isn't even a Yahoo group for Panjin's SWI - and there is a Yahoo group for EVERYTHING. I took it upon myself to create one - maybe someday there will be many members. :-)
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I did learn, however that there are least two other children who have been adopted internationally from ElleAnna's orphanage. The most shocking part about that is both of these children were matched through the same adoption agency as the one we used for ElleAnna. One was the little boy that I had suspected (7-8 years old, brought home about two weeks before we traveled to China to bring Elle home). The other was a little girl adopted last summer. I have asked our agency to get in touch with those two families and see if they'd be interested in having a connection with us. It would be neat for our three children to have photos of each other - maybe they even know one another?
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I am working on getting a camera sent to Elle's orphanage and asking the staff there to take photos of sites and hopefully faces, that Elle may find familiar. Even if she doesn't recall it, I am hopeful that we can have some information to give her about her past. In addition, I have a Facebook "friend" who is currently in China. She is going to see if she can also get photos (at least of the outside) of Elle's former home.
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I am hopeful that some of these connections will prove to be positive and fruitful. Keep your fingers crossed!!
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRAMPA!

Elle has known for a while that first it was Daddy's birthday, then Grampa's birthday, and then it would be hers. She is convinced that they are each turning four. "Daddy be four, Grampa be four, then Elle be four." Ken's birthday was late last month and my Dad's birthday is today (don't tell him that I told you).

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ElleAnna called Grampa before 7am today just to sing him happy birthday. When she was finished singing, I heard him say "Thank you, Sweetheart." Immediately, she started asking me if she could push the button to hang up. We got a new cordless phone recently and she loves to be "in charge" of the buttons now.

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Here is a photo of Elle with Grampa. He always has two or three things in the bib pocket of his overalls and Elle has to check every time she sits on his lap. His cell phone is there, usually a pen/pencil, and then, the little black book where he writes cow numbers in. She reads to him from the little black book during basketball games. She also likes to change the ring tones on his cell phone, but we try to discourage that. :-)

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Happy Birthday, Grampa! We hope that you have a wonderful, safe, and uneventful day - since your birthday is usually jinxed, but that's a whole post of its own.

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Panjin SWI, Liaoning Province

As I have followed the Henderson's blog (see below), I have become even more determined to learn what I can about ElleAnna's orphanage. We have sent her SWI (Social Welfare Institute - AKA orphanage) one letter and they have replied - on friendly terms. Now that we have established that connection, I want to have them use a disposable camera and take photos of the places and faces that Elle would hopefully find familiar. Unfortunately, its been over a year, so even Elle's memory may not be as clear even if we showed her pictures. There are agencies who will assist with getting pix taken at orphanages, but so far, I have not had any luck arranging for that camera/photo shoot. Usually, its done when the child you are adopting is still at the SWI, but for many reasons, we were not able to do it then.

I have searched several different websites and databases to try and find other families who have adopted from Panjin, but there is no one. Even a general internet search of her "home town" gives very limited information. Its not a tourist location, its just an "ordinary" place. I did find someone on Facebook (an amazingly frightening resource) who used to live in Panjin. She has offered to help, but I am not sure how far to pursue that connection. Right now, I have posted on all the main "adopting from China" yahoo groups to see if anyone knows of any other children who may have come from Panjin. We'll see if I get any help from that.

When we were getting ready to travel, there was another family already in the Liaoning Province adopting a boy, probably age 7-8. It was my understanding that he was also from Panjin, but that may not be true... If it is not true, then I don't know of any other children from ElleAnna's SWI who have been adopted internationally.

I just wish that I could find some resources to help us!
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Two Special Blogs for You to See....

This family is in China right now. They are adopting a son - from the same province as ElleAnna. I have enjoyed following their blog and "chatting" with them about Shenyang. In fact, today's pictures are rooms where we have been also as we traveled to bring ElleAnna home. Some familiar faces as well. In the Chinese adoption community, the Liaoning Province is not one that referrals come from very often, so its a rare connection that we have.

http://www.hendersonhomeonline.com/

This young couple doesn't even know me, but I know LC's Mommy's family very well. LC has been through a lot, and still has more battles to fight. Her cute smile is amazing though!

http://lcgrace.blogspot.com/

Please feel free to follow these blogs as I do... Families are made in so many ways - Unique and always amazing!
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