Discovery Atlas

On sunday knight 10-1-06 there will be a program on the Discovery Channel, call Discovery Atlas China Revealed meet the people. It will be 2 hours long and looks to be interesting. I have been waiting for it to come on for awile. Here is a link to there site.
Glen
http://dsc.discovery.com

Norah on the brain.

These last couple of months I have been thinking of our little girl a lot. We went to the airport last night to welcome home another family from China with there beautiful daughter, 17 month old Savannah, who couldn’t have been matched with a better forever family. Savannah now has two loving parents and a terrific big sister. The family now has two beautiful daughters from China and told everyone that they would like to adopt again.
At the airport I got to play and color with some of the kids adopted from China that were there from my local chapter of FCC-CA (Families with children from China). We had a big time thinking up things to draw on a blank piece of paper. It was fun and kept the kids busy while we waited for the plane to arrive. Did I mention that we were coloring with markers, everyone including me had marker on thier hands, but we all managed to keep it off our clothes. A local TV station even showed up and did a short interview of the family when they arrived. Who knows maybe someone watching TV last night will now look into China adoption.
As I tried to sleep last night I thought of the events of the day, and my thoughts drifted into thoughts of Norah. I think of her often, she is always on my mind. When we are at the store and I hear a small child laugh in the way that only a small child can, you know instantly when you hear it. It is an unmistakable sound. It brings on a rush of thoughts of Norah everytime. There are constant reminders to keep her close to me and you can forget about me walking past the baby/little girl’s clothes at Wal-Mart all the little outfits get me dreaming of the day when I can shop for clothes with her, not just for her. Lori is still working on Norah’s room in the Beatrix Potter theme. It is coming along well, she is an amazing artist. Soon all the painting will be done and it will be time to start to get some pieces of furniture. We have still been picking things up for her when we see a good deal and know that she will fit into it some day down the road. We have also been working on the house and yard. We are also kept occupied by running our son all over the place to keep up with his VERY full social calendar.
So Dear daughter Norah although you may be put down this night and many nights to come feeling all alone in your crib. Wherever you are in China this night, know that your mom, brother, and I go to bed every night thinking of you, hoping and praying that you are safe. You are so loved by us. Although we are separated by thousands of miles you are always in my heart, and in my thoughts. Although you don’t know it you never go to bed without your family’s love.
Glen

"I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is."

If any of you have seen Forest Gump then you know where that title came from. 16 years ago Lori and I stood before our family and friends and tied the knot. Back then we weren't the smartest kids on the block. We had no idea what the future held for us but we knew that whatever it held we wanted to go through it together. Still to this day we are best friends. We have been through alot together and life hasn't always been easy. We spent the first part of our marriage surviving on hot dogs, top ramen noodles, & mac and cheese. No matter how bad or good the cards were that life delt us we have always stood behind/beside each other. So here's to another 16 years, Lori I love you.

On the adoption front we are 1 1/2 months down in the wait for our referral. We have been working on the house and Lori has been doing more painting on Norah's room. Lori picked up a couple of Halloween costumes to toss into the dress-up box. One is a set of bunny rabbit ears and fluffy tail. The other is a "fairy princess outfit that includes a set of silver and white wings, sparkly wand, and of course, tiara. She remembered how much Brandon liked to play dress up when he was little and thought that she would get a head start on gathering supplies for Norah. We still have Brandon's blue jean and red bandana cowboy chaps and vest that his Grandmother made for him when he was 4. We have been going to FCC-CA waiting families meetings. The last one was on attachment, the lady putting it on did a good job. To find out if there is a local chapter of the FCC "Families with children from China in your area cleck here www.fwcc.org/contacts.html . Kim the lady that puts on our meetings here, is right now over in China finishing up the adoption of her and her husbands second daughter. We will be at the airport to greet them when they get back. I look forword to meeting their daughter when they get home.
Glen

WE'RE OK!

We made it home. We have been home awhile. I have just been busy/lazy about the blogging. It was the trip of a life time and I can't thank my sister and her husband enough. Below are some of the things we seen.

This is Brianne sitting inside one of the rooms at the Porte Nigra in Trier, Germany.





Amanda and Joshua walking around in town on our way to see the Roman tower that was near my sister and brother-in-laws house.















Below are some pictures of the graveyard that is located near the house. All of the graves look like these. They are all landscaped with little watering and mulch stations available for those that come and work on the graves.



































In the towns in Germany they have a thing called junking day, twice a year they stick the stuff they don't want out on the curb. Then anyone that can use it can have it. Anything left over gets picked up by the trash people. They also have people from Poland that come down and load thier trucks and take the items back to Poland to resale them.















We bought a black forest clock while we were there. It's now hanging on the wall between the living room and kitchen. I'm sure that Norah will love watching all the litte stuff that it does and the music that it plays every hour. We got the one that is battery powered because we know that we won't wind one everyday. The clock has a sensoe on it also that detects light. When it's dark the music won't play and the little bird won't chirp out the hours. The picture is of the clock inside it's shipping box.

















This is the Porta Nigra (The Black Gate) It is the largest surviving Roman city gate worldwide. The massive sandstone blocks are held together by iron clamps embedded in lead. There is no mortar whatsoever. It is located in Trier, Germany, the oldest city in Germany.

Roman Bath House

The town of Trier has many different sites to see, below is the bath house.










The Judengasse is where during 1235, four Jewish families had four houses built with a common escape tunnel.


















Below is the 10th largest Roman amphitheater. The picture below shows the area underneath the ampitheater where the gladiators and prisinors that fought in the arena got ready. The structure was built in the 2nd century and was later incorporated into the city wall.


















Here's a shot inside one of the churches. The architechture was amazing. The "pink palace" is the Electoral Palace that holds Constantine's throne room.