Update on China

I recently got a few questions about our China adoption, so I thought I'd update our status. It's been 2 years, 4 months+ since we started the whole process. We have a log-in date of 7/2/07. At that point, the backlog was about 595 days. Since then, the backlog (with regard to getting to us) has gotten down to 469 days. They are referring about 4.2 days per month. According to some calculations, at this rate we can expect a referral in 2017. By then, E will be 14 and M will be 12. I have no clue where we'll be in life at that point, whether we'll want an infant (as we originally requested), etc. Our options are to just wait it out and see how long this actually takes, switch our request to a special needs child, or drop out of China altogether. There's no charge for waiting, so I suppose we'll stay in line and see how long it takes to inch forward and go from there. If things speed up, I'll give more frequent updates; otherwise, once a year should probably do it. Sigh.

First Swim Class

Today the boys had their first swim class. Actually, E had a few classes a couple years ago, but it wasn't enough at the time to get him swimming on his own. Both did very well, no fear, just jumping in, and in E's case, lots of dogie paddling. Hopefully we'll have some video of the little fish later this summer!

New Mother and Mother's Day

The last couple of weekends have been very eventful and special. First, little Colin was born last Sunday. He is ridiculously adorable, and Cristina is an amazing mom already!

Yesterday the boys and I meet some friends out at Kanapaha for their (once every 3 years?) luminary walk. Cara was kind enough to delay our movie night and come along. It was beautiful and fun, though I feel we now need to go back during the day so we can more of the gardens. Later Cara and I saw the new Star Trek movie, which was amazing.

This morning we went to Lake Alice for some pictures and then to Emelianos for our traditional Mother's Day brunch. Boy am I going to miss their crab cake eggs benedict!

Merete Mathewos Van Camp-Goh

It's official, Merete is now officially a Van-Camp Goh! Today we finalized his adoption, a tad over 6 months after we brought him home. Judge Davis was very nice, and Mrs. Connrad even gave the boys some toys :-)

Afterwards we headed down to the farmer's market for snowcones, snacks, and fun times with Camille and her kiddos.

At this time I'd like to give a shout out to Camille, who has become a master on braiding hair:

After the kids got tired from all the dancing and playing, we headed off to Emilianos, our favorite celebratory restaurant.

A very exciting and full day (although we didn't have time for ice cream, so I still owe the boys that treat - because of course that's one thing they'll never forget!)

It's Getting Hot In Here

So long cool crisp air, and hello hot humid summer! Thankfully it is still bearable in the early morning, but the hot is creeping in earlier and earlier now.

I looked up more information about Bluebirds (not Blue Birds) and found out they can in fact lay eggs more than once a year. So according to the online instruction, we cleared out the first nest to make room for a new one. The male's flying into the window may well be a strange mating behavior to attract females.



Friday night the boys and I went to O2B's international night. We visited Africa, Egypt, Ireland, Italy, Cuba, and Japan. Africa by far had the best food, perhaps because most was unfamiliar and exotic. My contribution (South African Pot Bread) was uninspired but the rest was awesome. I really hope to get the recipes for the curie bites and the Japanese green tea pound cake. The boys enjoyed making crafts from the different countries, and Elijah got to catch up with some old friends.


At Westside, and apparently across the US, the USTA is begining a new kid's tennis program called Quick Start Tennis. Smaller court areas, lighter balls, fun activities...all to get kids playing at an earlier age. The boys tried it out at a free preview even and had a great time! Unfortunatly, the cost and timing of all of this means we probably won't have them join right now, but maybe next summer after we're settled in Wilmington.

Blue Bird Family

In mid-February, a couple of blue birds started making E's birdhouse their home. They both brought twigs and pine needles to the house, thought he male spent way too much time flying into the living room window. After a while things got quiet, so we took a peek and saw little eggs! Maybe a week or so ago, we saw the mommy bird fly to the house, then suddenly heard this chorus of little babies chirping, and man where those little guys loud! After the mom flew away, I went by to check out the babes. When I got closer, at least three little beaks came out, open and chirping away! I wish I had brought the camera, because as soon as they saw me, the ducked back into the house and never came out for me again (I tried not to take it personally). So for about a week or so, both parents went in and out, feeding the kids. On Tuesday, the babies started peeking their little heads out, so long as I was standing inside watching from the window. At some point on Wednesday, they must have flown away, because as of today, the nest is empty. The parents are still hanging out though, and I saw the dad bringing in some more twigs today. He's also started flying into the window again (he hadn't done that since the eggs appeared). I have no idea if maybe they are rebuilding the nest for other eggs (do they have more than one set a year??) or maybe this is some sort of actual empty nest syndrome?? Regardless, I've enjoyed the little blue bird family!

April Belt Test and Black Belt Ceremony

Today Elijah tested for his blue-white belt and I received my black belt (3 long weeks after passing the test). Elijah did very well, and I really enjoyed everything about the ceremony, especially being with the kids I've tested with all these years. In addition to our group receiving their first degree black belts, several others received their 2nd and 3rd degree black belts. These are truly a great group of people and it was fun to be here while they got promoted. Here are a couple of videos of the Van Camp related action (I've got all the whole ceremony on tape if anyone reading this wants the video of themselves or their kids).



\