Eiffel tower, mini cars and buildings

Pictures of the Eiffel tower.


































Glen and Brandon LOVE mini's and smart cars and they were in great abundance everywhere that we went in both Germany and France. The little black mini was parked in front of a cafe near the tower. We aren't sure who it belonged to but we were very glad that it was there to look at. The same goes for the little smart car.
































Over by the Notre Dame cathedral we took pictures of the buildings that are right on the Seine River. The funny thing was that a lot of the buildings are not square, they appear to be leaning and they are built one right on top of the other. We saw quite a few roof top gardens. Lori would have loved to have been able to go see them but we were in a hurry and I'm sure that they were privately owned.

Notre Dame, narrow streets, and sleept train passengers

These are pictures of the Notre Dame cathedral. We were able to walk throught the cathedral for free and look at the stained glass and amazing architecture and stone work. The figures carved into the front and around the outside of the perimeter are VERY detailed. The one figure on the left in the picture of the four stone figures standing together is standing on what appears to be a king. We aren't sure what that's all about but I'm sure that is significant to the period.




























Below are the pictures that we took of the extremly narrow streets that are located near the cathedral. Some of them have shops further down in the alley. The one with the scooter shows just how narrow some of the streets are.
































On the way home on the RER (the train system we rode from Disneyland Paris into the city and back) everyone was tired. Brandon and Amanda fell asleep and only woke up when the train jerked to a stop.

Headline News - Boo gets sick, sees German Dr.

Brandon started feeling sick the first day we were here. We had hoped it was just jet lag or climate change but by day two he was not feeling well at all, so Lorieann found a German Dr. that was located in the little village we are staying in and could see him that morning. The people at the medical office were very nice and lucky for us, they were able to speak English very well. They wrote us a prescription for some antibiotics that we could pick up next door at the pharmacy. At the pharmacy they told us that they didn,t have the antibiotics there but could order it and it would be there by 3:00. Lori and Lorieann went back to the pharmicy at 3:00 and were told that it was accidentally taken to another pharmacy but they could get it back to their pharmacy by 6:00 that evening so Lorieann and I went back at 6:00 and it was there. It was a good thing that we took him to the Dr. because that night when Lori took his temp. it was 103.9 so we gave him some Tylenol and had him take a warm shower which helped bring it down to 98.7 but he still felt pretty rough today so we let him sleep for most of the day. Below is a picture of Brandon on the exam table in the Dr.s office and Lori sitting beside him. Brandon didn,t feel much like smiling.





















We went to Kaiserlautern today to run errands with Stephen, Lorieann and Joshua and saw this really neat building (pictured below). We also saw a fort that was just sitting smack dab in the middle of a bustling city.















If you look in the upper middle of the picture you can see the skyscraper which was located less than a block behind the fort that was built several centuries ago. It's strange to see the old and new so close together.







50 CENTS for a potty breack. By the fort was this public restroom that you pay 50 Euro cents for. The doors at the front open up like an elevator and the bathroom is just on the other side of the doors. Once the doors close you have like 20 minutes to ....uhm.. take care of business, if you know what I mean. There is music playing the whole time and when your done all of the handwashing, water, soap, and dryer are activated by sensors that turn them on when it senses your hand under the appropriate appliance. So you don't have to touch anything. It was also very clean, as is almost everything we have seen so far.


















We also walked down a shopping area that doesn't allow vehicles, only pedestrians. There were shops on both sides and it was fairly crowded but interesting none the less with all the new little shops mixed in with street vendors and fruit stands. We had a lady approach us and say some not so nice things about the military to us, I guess because she heard us speaking English to each other. Guess you can't please everyone but she was rather rude and cursed several times. The incident really stood out because our interaction with the German people so far has been very welcoming and warm. They really are amazingly nice people and we refuse to let one person ruin our perception of an entire countries population. I just hope that people of other nationalities that visit/reside in the U.S. can do the same.

The rest of the day was spent running errands and visiting a German toy store and grocery. We had Bratwurst and some little pork steaks on hard rolls that were amazing. We also gorged ourselves on some plum tarts and a type of filled cake that they called beesting. (I know that's probably not how you spell it). Branson seems to be feeling a little better, which is a good thing since we are going to spend the day in Paris tomorrow.

1565 Castle Burg Nanstein in der Sickingenstadt Landstuhi

We had our first German adventure yesterday. My sister, her husband and all the kids went to the castle near their house. The earliest date that we saw on the actual castle itself was 1565. The photo on the bottom of the page shows the town, Landstuhl, below the castle. The castle sits up on a hill apparently for defense purposes.

The picture to the left is of a fountain that is located near the front inside of the castle walls. People have been throwing euros into it so of course the kids were all trying to figure out exactly how they could boost each other up into the fountain to hit the jackpot. Of course this was nipped in the bud quickly.



The picture below and to the left is just inside the tourist entrance on what we assume is the back of the castle. The block layers building the castle were probably glad to see all of the existing stone that they could just build around instead of having to bild it all up with blocks. The picture of the cavern is underneath the castle. We had the kids stand in the middle to give some perspective to just how big it was. There were holes at the top of the cavern that were either for ventilation or "pooping" according to which kid you asked.

To the left is a picture of what the kids were guessing/hoping was the "torture chamber". In the picture are from left to right Stephen, Amanda, Lorieann, and Glen. It was really dark in there but luckily the flash on the camera made it look like daylight. The picture below is of the back side of the castle were you go in to pay your entrance fees to the grounds. There is also a little open air cafe sitting to the right of this that we didn't take a picture of.

The archway that Glen, Brandon and Lori are standing under has a keystone that has the date 1565 carved into it. What was funny is that before Stephen took the picture of us he had to move several bright blue trash bags from behind us to keep them out of the picture since they didn't look like they belonged in a castle at all.

We Made It!

The flight was 9 hours and 30 minutes long from Atlanta, Georgia to Frankfurt, Germany. The seats were REALLY close together. We all watched Over Ther Hedge and then attempted to sleep. Everything here is so clean and the weather is perfect. It hasn't been over 70 yet. My sister in law does not have air conditioning which seemes strange to us coming from Arkansas but it's common here and there hasn't been a need for it. They also have these cool windows that lean in to ventilate the house. I'll get some pictures of them and post them later. They recycle everything here. In the airport the trash bins are seperated into paper, glass, aluminum, and plastic. It is expected of the residents to seperate out their garbage and participate in the recycling.

Yesterday we rested and only took an hour long nap trying to adjust to this time zone. Brandon woke up this morning with a sore throat and head/neck ache. Hopefully it's just from travel and not the start of a cold. We gave him some Advil and a cough drop and will hope for the best.

We finally got to meet my sisters husband, Stephen, and Brianne and Joshua. We also got to see Amanda who is just a little bit older than Brandon. We haven't seen her since she was a baby. Everyone is doing well and were very gracious about having their home invaded.
Glen

We are off to see a castle that is over 1000 years old today.

Tall fences = good neighbors

I am so happy, I just got done with the fence before we went on vacation which is pretty good because it has been 97-99 degres here for the last month. Now the landscaping that we have done to the backyard lloks even better and I don't have to see the neighbors yard if they decide not to mow it for a month or so. With the fence done we can now add more landscaping that we have been wanting to put in for a while. We will be leaving tomorrowfor the big trip and hopefully cooler weather. I just checked the weather in Frankford, Germany and the high is 71 with a low of 64. YESSS! I work outside for a living and have been melting for the last 2 months, so the trip will be good in so many ways. Luckily Lori's brother will be living at the house while we are out of town to keep an eye on the pets and property. Well I'm off to pack. I will post from the trip.
Glen

Below is a link to a TV news station that did a report on six girls adopted from china four years ago at the same time that are still friends today. There is a commercial first but then the video report starts. http://kare11.com/video/player.aspx?aid=31053&bw=

Know what you may have to deal with before you sine up.

Attached is a letter from Amy Eldridge from Love Without Boundaries. She brings up points that all adoptive parents should know. With all children you need to be prepared for what can happen, even if when you go over to China you are handed a perfectly healthy baby. You had better be in the mind set to take care of a sick child just in case that is the outcome. The article is about disruption. There have been a couple of people who have disrupted there adoption in China because their child was not the perfect baby that they imagined they would get. When in reality all the child needed was some love and attention in order to thrive and make up lost ground as far as development is concerned. I have seen many babys come home from China that were perfectly healthy from the beginning, but I also know that that is not always the case. Amy says the rest better than I can so here's her letter. Glen



I have been so saddened by this situation. I most definitely wish there was a way to educate ALL adoptive parents about the truths of institutional care, however I have come to realize in my daily work that there are just as many parents who are not online reading everything they can find on adoption as are.There are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of parents out there who have no idea what life is like for a child in an orphanage, and who head overseas to pick up their "China doll" only to be handed a baby who is unresponsive, thin, unable to eat..and on and on and on. While adopting my son last month, I walked several times over to the White Swan to talk to parents, and over and over I spoke with moms and dads who had no clue whatsoever about the issues their kids were having. I heard so many times things like, "she won't eat solid foods" (oral aversion), "she has no muscle tone" (muscle atrophy from lying in a crib all day), "she won't smile" (pure grieving from being taken from her foster mom). I guess since I live China 24/7, I assume everyone adopting does, too, which is not the case.I talked to at least a dozen parents who didn't even know their child's orphanage name, and while I gently said "you might want to memorize that for your child's sake", at the same time I was trying to process how many parents get all the way to China without ever reading about post-institutional issues. It was sobering to me.Babies in the NSN as well as the SN path can have issues with attachment, motor skills, emotional issues and more. I think all of us on the WCC list acknowledge that, while also acknowledging that all children (whether bio or not) can have these same issues. Living in an orphanage of course increases the odds.I think the easy out is to say that agencies have to do more, as well as social workers, but I do think that most of them do try to give information to the parents but often parents don't want to hear it or else think it won't happen to them. Again, I am often surprised to talk to parents leaving soon and to realize they are not prepared. One family was adopting from our foster care program, and when I told them that the child was dEEPLY attached to the mom, the father said, "guess she might cry for an hour or so then?" An hour or so? She had been in foster care for over a year! I tried to explain that this little girl was about ready to lose everything she had ever known, and that they should not expect her to be sunny, happy, and full of personality after an hour. I told them to please remember the 72 hour rule.......that after 72 hours they would probably see her spark, but that she would probably grieve for a long time after that as well.I think for many adoptive parents, they just don't want to read the "bad stuff", and so I do think that ultimately it is the parents who are at fault for not doing more to educate themselves. There certainly are books galore out there about post-institutional issues. I equate this to when I was pregnant with my kids and I would read "What to Expect When Expecting", and I would get to the C-section part and always skip it. Each and every time I would jump to the next chapter as "that wasn't going to happen to me". Well, on my fifth baby, when they were rushing me in for an emergency C section, I sure was wishing I had read that section earlier! But at that point in the OR, while they were strapping my hands down to the table, it was too late, and so I felt complete panic when I could have been prepared. I think adoption from China is very similar to giving birth.. it is much more rosy to only read the happy stories on APC, but I now encourage every family I meet to read the harder ones as well, because if you are the family who is handed a child that is limp and listless and who looks autistic, what you have learned in the past will help you make the right decision for your family during those very emotional first few days.I have been called many times in the last few years by parents in China worried about their children. I agree that having a support network to help you through the initial time is essential. Everyone should go to China with at least one phone number of someone they can call if they are panicked upon meeting their new child. I remember feeling so alone when I was handed my daughter and she was so tiny and limp. Because our foundation often helps with the kids who have been disrupted, I am aware that sometimes there are children who have much more serious issues than originally reported..and that is such a hard thing for a parent to get to China and then discover their child is truly autistic or has serious mental delays. I think everyone on both the China and international side would agree that it is absolutely wrong of an orphanage to not be honest in their reports, and no one would excuse that, but I also know without a doubt that the majority of kids who are disrupted are just suffering from institutional issues and would catch up quickly in a loving home. It is always a very sad day for the orphanage and everyone involved when a child that they know is absolutely fine, but perhaps thin and grieving, is returned by their new parents for being "delayed".I think far too many people believe their child's life is going to begin the moment they meet them. The truth is, and everyone must realize it..a child's life is going on RIGHT NOW in China, and all of their experiences are shaping who they are. The vast majority of aunties that I have met in China are such kind and caring people, but it absolutely is not the same as having a mom and dad at your beck and call. I have had new parents call and say "we didn't think living in an orphanage would affect her at all", and those statements truly puzzle me. How could they not contemplate life in an orphanage? Walk through Babies R Us and you will see every gadget known to man to make our children's lives here as ideal as possible. Now Americans have two way video monitors, so that when baby awakens not only can mommy see when to immediately rush in and comfort him, but she can talk to baby so that he doesn't even have one single second where he feels alone. How many new parents would have a newborn and then put that baby in a crib 22 hours a day on their own? How many would only feed their baby, even if they were really crying hard, every 8 hours? Or prop the bottle in her crib and then not watch to see if she ever really ate? Of course no one would do that..we feed newborns on demand, comfort on demand, love continuously..and whether people want to recognize it or not, that is NOT the life of an orphan in an institution. ...even when the aunties are as good as gold. I remember one night when I took some volunteers in for the night shift in an orphanage, when normally just a few aunties are working. One mom looked at me with tears in her eyes as she slowly realized that it was absolutely impossible with just two hands to feed every child, to comfort every child, to soothe every baby who was crying. She said her heart was aching to realize that her own daughter most likely had many, many times where she cried without someone to comfort her.....and she told me that for the first time she finally understood why her daughter had such a deep seated fear of being out of her mom's sight.The aunties are trying their absolute best, but that doesn't equal mother/child care. I remember being in an orphanage in the north this past winter and the aunties were so proud of how they had 6-8 layers of clothes and blankets on every baby to keep them warm. They were swaddled so tight that they couldn't move, but it was freezing in the orphanage and so the aunties wanted the babies to stay as warm as possible. What alternative did they have? It really was freezing there..I was cold in my wool coat, so the babies couldn't be up and about with just 1-2 layers on, with the ability to move their arms and legs. To stay warm they had to be immobile, and so of course all of those kids have weak muscle tone. But the aunties were truly trying their best, and when a parent is given one of those beautiful children on adoption day, I am sure they will go back to their room with concern and say "she can't sit up by herself..she can't put weight on her legs". That is absolutely the truth, but she also survived 10 degree weather in a very cold province and she will catch up soon enough with parents to encourage her.To not acknowledge that living in orphanage circumstances can cause lower body weights, low muscle tone, inability to make good eye contact is very sad to me. Can it be overcome? Most definitely! The one thing I have learned over and over again about the kids in China is that they are fighters and survivors. But for some reason, people seem to want to ignore these issues in public forums.Recently, one of our medical babies that we had met several times in person was adopted, and we all knew that this child was a "spitfire". When the family arrived and spent a few days with her, they decided she was too much of a handful for them and they wanted to disrupt. She absolutely was not what they expected. When they called their agency, they were told they had two choices: adopt the child, bring her to the US, and change their expectations of what they were hoping for, or adopt the child, bring her to the US and the agency would have a family waiting at the airport to adopt her locally. Option three of leaving the child in China was never once given. I admire that agency so much, as they were thinking of the child and the child alone. The family followed through with the adoption and handed the little girl to a new family upon her arrival in the US. As horrible and tragic and emotional as it was for everyone involved...I still feel this was the right decision for the agency to make. It was done in the absolute best interest of the child, who had waited a long, long time for a family. I wish more agencies would advocate for the rights of the child, instead of always seeming to give in to the parents, especially in those cases when they know with absolute certainty that nothing is permanently wrong with the child. Recently with another disruption, the agency I spoke with told me that it was "easier" to just get the family a new baby. Sometimes easier does not equal right. The first baby who was rejected has now been labeled "mentally challenged" even though the agency knew the child was really going to be okay.I think all of us, who do realize that delays occur and that babies can usually overcome them, should be these children's advocates by continually trying to educate new parents on what to expect in China. By helping them be better prepared, we just might help stop a disruption in the future. I love Chinese adoption with my whole heart, and it is my life's work..but I also want every family who goes to get their baby to go with their eyes open and to be as emotionally prepared as possible, for the child's sake.
Amy E"

LID 7-22-06

We got word today that we were Logged in at CCAA on 7-22-06. Which I am really glad to hear because I think our dossier was one of the ones that got logged in during the move that CCAA made to their new building. We are now finally in line for a referral. I am going to down load the LID packet tonight to see what CCAI is predicting for the wait as of now. I hope it has not gone to longer than a year, but it's anybody's guess right now.






In other Big news Lori got the job on the OR heart team! She starts tomorrow. She is so looking forward to being in the OR even with all the new things she will have to learn. She will be a circulating nurse in the OR and also learn to scrub in and pass instruments when she is not circulating. Her regular hours are great, 6:00 AM to 2:30 AM. She will have to be on call alot but that goes with the territory, and they compinsate her for being on call. With matters of the heart things don't just go bad between the hours of 6:00AM and 2:30AM. As Lori sees it if they have to call her into the OR on her time off someone is having a whole lot worse day then she is and the least she can do is go in and try to help. Luckly with the job that I have I can deal with anything that comes up with Brandon or Norah so some one will always be available for the kids if they get sick or whatever. Congradulations Lori. You will do great!

Finally, we have been planning a trip to Germany to see my sister and her family for over a year and the time has come to make the trip. We had hoped to be DTC before we went and that has happened so now it is time to go and enjoy ourselves. We plan on going to Paris while we are there and also see some castles that Brandon wants to see. I am going to take Brandon's laptop with us when we go so I can try posting from another country for practice.

Glen

WE'RE DTC!!!

As of 7-8-06 we are done with the paper chase and our dossier is in China. We are so relieved that we are now just days away from our LID(Log In Date). I am still hoping for a July LID. I will have to wait to see how that all pans out. We were told that it usually takes just under 4 weeks for LID from the date of DTC (Dossier To China) but it can take up to 8 weeks to find out when that date is/was.
We have done a little work on Norah's room. Above and below are some pictures of that progress ( I keep posting the pictures twice for some reason). We are painting the room in a kind of Beatrix Potter storybook theme. The wall art that, Lori is working on, will include the flopsy bunnies, Mrs.Tittlemouse, song birds (the little bird in the picture has found one of Peter's shoes that he lost while running from Mr.McGregor), Mr.Jeremy Fisher, Tom Kitten, and of course Peter Rabbit. To bring it all together we will have all the soft stuffed animals to go along with the books to read to her. I know from raising Brandon that for kids anytime is storytime and they LOVE to be read to. We love to read as well, so books will be a big part of Norah's life. She will have a fun and colorful room to play in and have the big dreams of a little girl stepping into the stories of Peter Rabbit and his friends.
Glen

Older boy adoption video

Here's a video I came across with the adoption of an older boy. The kids look so happy to be getting another brother. The boy has a look of shock at first but thats to be expected with the new turn of events in his life. But with all the sisters and new brother he will have plenty of help becoming accustomed to his new world.
I have an update to post on Lori's Interview for the heart team but I have to keep it under wraps while we wait for all the details to be worked out. All the hard work and countless hours Lori put into school are paying off. On the adoption front we haven't heard any news other than they got our dossier and everything is there that they need to look at. At least we didn't forget anything. All though we did have to send more photos of family life stuff. I don't know why, we sent them exactly what the paperwork asked for but we took some more photos anyway and express mailed them to ccai, so hopefully that's it.
Glen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWJi5W4TFsw

Things are looking bright!

I took these photos of flowers in our backyard. I think I will frame them, they look neat to me. Things are moving along now, we got our I-171-H last Thursday and mailed it to the Chinese consoult office in Houston to get it authenticated by Friday. Houston got it back to us by this Friday, so it only took 7 days which is not bad at all. Lori and I went through the check off sheet again to make sure that we had everthing, then we went to Mail Boxes Ect. to photocopy everything. Then after the marathon photocopying session we checked everything against the checklist again. I recommend doing this if you fixate on things like I do, it will help you sleep wile your dossier is going through critical review at your adoption agency. Then we shipped it off to CCAI via Fed-Ex for the white glove check aka critical reveiw. Our dossier arrived at the adoption agency on Monday at 10:23 AM. I can't tell you what a relief it is to get to this point. There's a definite sense of calm that comes with the completation of your dossier. With that said here's what happened this Monday night(the same day that the agency received our completed dossier).
I was sitting on my couch trying to figure out when we might be LID and my loving wife said oh, so now we are going to be doing this for awhile. Meaning, I see now that we have got our dossier done you have just changed obsessions without even a days rest inbetween. I love that woman, but I'm starting to think that she knows me way to well. The ink wasn't even dry on the photocopies of our dossier yet and I had moved on to DTC AND LID. By the way, according to my calculations, I know we will be LID sometime in July and that's such a good feeling. Now I'm going to try and relax because we are in for a LONG wait.
Below is a video some one posted on MSN China adoption group. It is shot inside Yangxi SWI, by an adoptive father. Although this may be hard to look at, I thought I would share it here. If any of you have heard that there are fewer orphan children in China and that is why the wait is getting longer, according to this video I don't think that is the problem there are still many babys and kids that need good families and homes. This is one orphanage and is not necessarily the way that they all look. If our daughter comes from this orphanage, I now have a look inside that I might not have gotten otherwise. I would want to know where she lived the first part of her life, so if your daughter comes from or came from this orphanage this is where she spent her days. Tonight as I lay in my soft bed I will think of the babys in Yangxi SWI and the rest of China. Norah we will be there soon......



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some dossier photos

Dossier photos