One year ago today!

It was one year ago today....December 23rd.....that we heard the first rumors that China may have matched us to a baby.....that soon, we might get to see the beautiful face of our daughter. We heard more rumors for a couple of days and then after Christmas we did get to see a black and white version of her photos. We fell in love instantly and we have just been swept away with love ever since! Jamie was a Christmas blessing to us last year in photos.....and this year in person! For us this is just the happiest Christmas EVER!

Merry Christmas to all of you!

Let's get Ready to Tumble!!!!!

Jamie goes to the "Little Gym" with Mommy and Daddy every week and she loves it! She gets to run around and tumble, and best of all she gets to be with other little kids and I think she loves that part the best! She has been on the receiving end of many hugs and kisses and lately she has been doing quite a bit of hugging and kissing herself! The kids are all adorable and it is nice to be building a little playgroup of familiar faces.

Last week one of the Mom's shared a story with Barry......when she went in (the morning of tumble time) to wake up her little guy she asked him.......where are we going today? and he replied, quite happily.......Jamie's house! We all got a kick out of that and yes, tumble time does feel like Jamie's house.

It was hard to pick just a few shots from tumble time so here are way too many pictures.......enjoy!

Bubbles! Jamie loves bubbles!

Ball time is a lot of fun, they throw them, kick them, sit on them and once or twice they have been known to accidently deflate them!!! These are great soft balls that make it very easy for these little ones to hold on to them.

Ok, this one was really blurry but it gives you the feel of just how much she loves to run around this place! She is on the go......

Favorite activities incluce the balance beam,

socializing in the tubes.....they are planning the day's activities!

Crawling through tubes and boxes.......

and just plain having fun!


Parachute time!!!!!

All in all, a good time was had by all! See you again next week!!!!!!

Six Month Anniversary Today!

I cannot believe that this amazing little girl was placed in our arms 6 months ago today! Even more amazing is that 6 months ago she was a baby, and now she can use a step stool to wash her hands in the bathroom sink!!!!!

Our Jamie is now 18 months old, 33 inches tall and weighs 23.5 pounds! She is still in a size 12 months (and can still even where some of her 9 month onsies) but she is just growing like a wild fire! She has always kind of said Momma and Dadda but now she really knows what they mean and who we are! We have heard an assortment of other words and she says them pretty clearly but she seems to say them once and then moves on to new words and we don't hear them again! We have heard somewhere around 15 distinct words but these have been the most used:

Bubbles

Down

Duck (this one she says every day!)

Momma

Dadda

Cat

Go!

Jump!

She loves Tumble Time at the Little Gym and now she will do somersaults all on her own. She has a great group of little friends at the gym and they are all now stepping up to the next age group class.

She loves music! Her favorite is Mr. Steve (Steve Songs). We have his only DVD and she wants to listen to it evey day! He is fun to listen to, even for adults so we really don't mind! Barry even has some favorite songs!!! :)

Here are a few photos from the last 6 months.........

With Grandmom visiting the travelling Weiner mobile!

Reading books with her buddy Ailene!

Admiring (translated: how can I pick them) the daisies in the front yard

On the phone....she is very busy!

In the park with daddy!

Reading the morning paper with daddy!
At the beach, and flying a kite with Uncle Chuck!

Jamie has had enough of me being on the computer for one morning and I really must go.....hope you enjoy!

It is August....I just don't know where the time is going!

My little cutie on the beach.....17 Months old!

Longwood Gardens for a Steve Songs (Mr. Steve) concert......Jamie danced all night and waved at Mr. Steve until I thought her arm would fall off! Video of her dancing will be coming shortly!

A little photoshop fun with a blown out overexposed picture......

She usually stops doing whatever she was doing as soon as she catches sight of the camera but here is a quick clip of what she learned how to do today! Every day is something new, and it is usually pretty funny!

Enjoy.......

Happy Father's Day!

So, here is what I was doing this evening when I should have been sleeping! I think the background could have been a bit more Opaque, but I am still happy with the results.....

(you can see the original photo in the post below this one if you want to compare...I'm going to sleep now!)

I hope some day to have time to do more than just throw up the pictures.....you know maybe tell a story or even.....edit the photo's and put them in pretty frames!!!! :) But alas, for now I just have time for pictures! The first set is at the park with some of our "bestest friends" and travel mates, and the second set is swimming in Uncle Chuck and Aunt Maureen's pool! We had a blast on both days!!!!!

Only have time to post pictures.......

Enjoy.....

She loves her books! Thanks to Aunt M and Uncle C for these!

This one reminds me of the 80's Aerobics craze! ha ha

My girl loves her balloons!

Cute outfit from Aunt Cindy and Uncle Bruce!!! We had days in the 90's in April and we were very thankful for these cute little outfits!!!

Ok Carol....hope you are happy! :) Maybe some real posts soon!

My daughter has filled my life with more joy and happiness than I ever could have imagined! I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day, and for all my friends who are still waiting to hold your babies in your arms....may you have speedy referrals, and safe and speedy travels!

Happy Easter!

We were not at all interested in posing for a picture today....we were much more interested in Daddy taking the picture. So, this is the best we could do.....maybe next year!

Jamie had a wonderful first Easter! We went to her Aunt Maureen's and the Easter Bunny had left her a gift basket with lots of goodies. She got to meet and play with more cousins.....and she even got to meet and play with a 2nd cousin!!! A great day was had by all and we were home and in bed for a (decent) night of sleep by 7pm!

I hope you all enjoyed your Easter!

Only have time to post pictures.......

Pictures from home! I don't have time to add stories but then again, the pictures are self explanatory and all you want to see anyway!

Enjoy!!!

Citizenship!

Today our daughter becomes a US Citizen!  We take the oath this afternoon......then we head (by bus) to Hong Kong.  We spend tonight in Hong Kong and then catch our flight to home in the morning!

 

Signing off from Guangzhou!!!!  The next time you hear from us we will be home in the US!!!!!  We promise to add more pictures of our trip when we get home. 

 

It has been quite an experience, and we are just so more than blessed by the presence of our daughter.  She is a beautiful soul and we are better for being a part of her little life.  We look forward to sharing her with all of you!  We are very proud parents!!!!!

More paperwork!

Hello everyone! Hope the rains and winds are stopping in the northeastern part of the US soon, we understand that it has been bad and we are worried about all of you!



Happy Birthday Mom! Jamie sends you kisses!!!! We will be home soon to deliver them! :)



Yesterday was her medicals and while it was very scary for Jamie, it wasn't much better for Mom and Dad! We were almost last, (which is a change for us, we are usually second) and it was difficult to watch the families go behind the curtain and then hear the babies scream and NOT know what they were doing to them. For those of you who will be travelling to China after us....they really aren't doing anything horrible! There are three rooms that you go into, one is ENT and they make sure that your baby is hearing and reacting to sounds. Then they look in the ears, throat and eyes to make sure everything is ok. The second room is just height, weight and temperature (taken by arm pit). The last room is the worst....you strip the baby down and he palpates her abdomen, looks at all the extremeties and he did something else but I don't remember. Honestly not terrible but the babies all have previous experiences with medicals that make this very scary for them. As soon as they see the nurse they cry!



Today was paperwork for the consulate and our facilitator will deliver all the paperwork to the consulate tomorrow. We must stay in our rooms while he does this because if he has any problems or questions he will call us. Then in the afternoon there is a meeting in his room. The rest of the day is ours and we will probably wander the shops near the hotel and do some light shopping. We need more diapers, baby food and wipes for the trip home as well as some small souveniers!



Our trip is winding down and we are all gearing up for the trip home. We are metering out our clothes because there isn't enough time for another laundry run and starting to plan how to pack all our new purchases. It is good to be planning for our trip home...we are all ready!



In the meantime we had some fun in the playroom today and here is Jamie getting ready to walk home.....

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



If you are having trouble with any of the videos, you can try going to youtube and doing a search for bfellman. When I searched our 3 videos were the first to come up.



Enjoy!

Day of Travel

Yesterday was a full day of travel and confusion and by the end of the day.......we were exhausted and the baby was WAY over tired. 

 

We ate a very light breakfast in the morning because we thought we were flying at noon, and we would eat on the plane.  We packed our bags, had them in the hall by 10:30 and met our group to go to the airport.  We did not have any of our passports as the facilitator had all of them so that he could get the babies passports and all our tickets for the flight.  We were handed her passport as we stood in the security line and boy did that create a hubub!  We were all so excited to see their Chinese passports, and wonder if we would get to keep them, and look at their cute little passport photos......then look at each others......that none of us really looked at our boarding passes.  Boy were we surprised when the first family (we are family #2 and we do everything in order) got to the security checkin only to find out that there boarding passes weren't necessarily in their names and that families were not sitting together (again)!  Jamie and I were together and Barry was one row behind us in a window seat!  Can we say more hubub!!!!!  Our facilitator pushed us all through security and then looked at all our boarding passes and made notes in his little book.  Then, he came back and gave us one new seat assignment for all of us?????  Well, this didn't make any sense either so we sat in our original seats and then just moved around amongst ourselves as we needed to make it all work.  Whew!  Oh, and the flight wasn't until 2:45pm and no food on the plane....Ooops!!!!

 

We got to our hotel at 4pm, (absolutely beautiful!) checked in and then went to our room to eat a little and try to put a very tired little baby to bed.  It took a little bit to figure out the new crib but Daddy was able to get the sides down so that Mommy did not have to grow longer arms!  Our new room (a junior suite) is beautiful, but definitely meant for adult travelers.  We have gorgeous marble floors and cast iron/glass coffee tables and lots of hard wood and marble furniture.  It is a baby mine field!  I neglected to appreciate just how softly padded everything was in our last hotel!

 

Our group is out touring today and we have opted to skip the tour.  The skies are either very overcast, or there is a lot of smog out there and Barry wasn't comfortable taking me and my breathing difficulties out into so much smog.  We also wanted to give Jamie a day of uninterrupted naps.  We wandered the shops of the hotel, the wood furniture is amazingly beautiful here and Jamie took her first nap in the stroller.  Now we will play a little in the room and then maybe walk a little outside of the hotel this afternoon.

 

Tomorrow I don't know what they have in store for us but whatever it is, it will bring us one day closer to coming home and right now.......that is the goal!!!!

 

Love you all, enjoy your day!

Today's Activities

Today is a quiet day.  Barry will be going up to do paperwork with Der and one member of each family.  The rest of us are playing with the babies.  We tried a little play date yesterday in the playroom that the hotel has but there wasn't a lot for our age babies to do in the room.  Today we will probably gather our stacking cups and key rings and head off to someones room and try another play date.

 

Yesterday we went sightseeing in the "country side",   we stopped on the way to buy "treats for the kids in the orphanage"  this confused us greatly.....and then we found out that our visit to the countryside was actually a visit to an orphanage (not ours) in the country.  I cannot begin to describe the emotion of the visit.  It is just something we will have to talk about when we get home.  I wasn't wild about taking Jamie here because I was VERY worried about it confusing or scaring her.....I think I was right.  All the babies had a rough afternoon and evening.  They all seemed to be cranky, crying and more solemn again.  We had her laughing and giggling again by dinner but there was a definite difference in her demeanor.  She slept all the way through the night and didn't get up until just now (8am).  A new day!

 

Tomorrow we leave for Guangzhou!  It will be the first time we take Jamie on a plane, and definitely the first time she has been on a plane.  We are looking forward to Guangzhou!!!  One, because it is another major step closer to coming home and two because we are hoping it won't be as much of a "city" atmosphere and it might be a little quieter.  There are a lot of honking cars outside our hotel room and it is very noisy here.  We have enjoyed our time in Jiangxi but we are ready to move on!!!!!

 

Jamie is up and I must go........enjoy your day!

For todays viewing pleasure, a little taste of the "Hard work" that we are doing in China.

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

A day sightseeing...

Today we went to Teng Wang Pavillion, and then off to an Italian restaurant for dinner. Who would have thought....good italian food in China! :)

At the Pavillion they put on a little show for us, Opera singing, theatrical dance and a chinese band. Jamie loved every minute of it, she danced and sang right with them. She is such an easy baby, I cannot believe how blessed we are to have her. She was amazing at dinner, we gave her a bottle and then when our dinner came I gave her a big piece of pizza crust and she gnawed at that for the rest of the evening. She is just way too adorable for words!

Tomorrow we are headed off to the country side. Our facilitator used to be in the Chinese Opera and he has promised us a performance in the country.....this should be good!!!!!

Now it is time for a quiet cup of tea and then off to bed....sleep while you can!

Gotcha day video

Good morning from China! We posted a video of our "Gotcha Moment" on youtube for you all to see....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOm7i5yCclk

Hopefully you can make that work!

Not much to share today, we are playing, eating and seeing some sights. We have learned to clap, taken 3 steps and we just sing and dance all day! Ok, we cry a little too but mostly only when we are tired, hungry or when Mommy has had the nerve to leave the room!

Today we are going to see the Tang Wang Pavillion, we are going in the afternoon because our morning excursion was way too cold yesterday. I had trouble enjoying the sights because I was so worried about Jamie being cold. It was blustery yesterday and we were over water, with the babies in strollers. What a sight we all were to see! The older Chinese woman scolded every one of us for not having the babies dressed warmer. We had them bundled and covered in multiple blankets but it was still cold. We will try to do better today.

Must run, Jamie is destroying Barry'sw Newsweek and I must rescue it before it is shred's! Love you all, and we cannot wait to introduce you to our daughter!!!!

We are a family!

What are you doing reading this??? Just look at the pictures! These are from yesterday, in the last photo when she had just been handed to Barry. This is a picture from a day we will celebrate every year...we call it "Gotcha Day".

The other two photos are from back at the room when we snuggled and played with her and got her to even giggle with us. She sings, she puts her hands up in the air and she dances, and she just has the sweetest voice I have ever heard.

This morning we put her pretty blue dress on her and her tights from Aunt Carolyn and we had the official ceremony. We were asked if we would educate her, love her and never abandon her. They weren't hard questions to answer....we are now officially the parents of Jamie Lyn Fellman and we will belong to her forever!

Then we went to the notary office, they took family photos for her Adoption Certificate and her passport. We will stay in Jiangxi while they process the paperwork and when they are done they will give us her passport (Chinese passport) and then we will leave for Guangzhou. In the meantime we are sightseeing here in Jiangxi and just spending some good snuggle time with our little girl.

Thank you for all of the comment messages, we love reading each and every one of them. It is truly like having you here to share in this experience with us. Love you all...goodnight!