Accounting for the time change, as I sit here and write this post, it is 930am on April 8th in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province, P.R. China.
Six months ago at this moment we were meeting the other families from our wonderful travel group in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Hotel and would be with our little girl in about two hours. She was awake at her orphanage having no idea of the sea change about to hit. Turns out, those of us at the Crowne Plaza were equally ignorant of what was to come.
Remember this:
Rested, relaxed, NOT responsible for another human life 24h per day...
For as happy as we were to be on that plane going half-way around the world we were clearly missing something, and that last little piece of the puzzle was only a few hours away on Oct 8th. These six months have been nothing short of amazing. I will not try to be poetic about this fact. Go to a Hallmark card store and find the cards about love and thankfulness and you will have a pretty good idea of what I am talking about.
These days we prefer this:
Maybe it would be fun to share the more humorous lessons from the last six months.
1)
Dirty diapers make me gag....every single time....without exception.
Confession: I Febreezed my toddler a few months ago because of the stench. She thought it was hilarious until the Febreeze hit her eyes. It stung. She cried. I dry-heaved.
2)
Working out is much different now. Before we used to work out in a CrossFit gym (ours was full of skinny tattooed hipsters pushing themselves to the beats of Eminem and Linkin Park until they puked like me changing a diaper). A few months ago I realized how different my life had become as I was trying to do push-ups in the basement. Mind you it was not on some dirty concrete floor, it was on modular tiles. Not black asphalt modular tiles, brightly colored tiles with letters and shapes. I just could not do very many and it became apparent that it was probably the toddler running into me at full speed and giggling. And what was that faint rhythm in the background? Motley Crue? Snoop? U2?
Nope. It was Angela @#$%^-ing Landsbury singing Beauty and the Beast on the DVD running in the background.
3)
I bought the Dark Knight Rises DVD as soon as it came out in December. I have not yet taken it out of the wrapper, but...
I did just finish watching that vixen Angela Landsbury again serenade the happy couple in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and....
Last week I watched a new cartoon, Sophia the First (think Mother Theresa as a Disney princess) and had one of the songs stuck in my head for three days.
4)
Remember the 'Klepto' post from China? Remember how we wrote this off as a one-time thing? Check out the video below to see how she tried to get her Easter basket. This was from the Peep Store at the Mall. Disturbing surveillance camera video:
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It is not a stretch to say that we are having an absolute blast watching the personality begin to bubble out of this cute little thing. Everywhere she goes she loves to walk out in front of us and it gives me the opportunity to see the reaction of passers-by to this adorable little ball of spunk. The finger wagging and giggling are literally irresistible.
I had to take a short break to kiss the Queen goodnight and now she is sitting in bed with mama reading books and making barn animal noises (the kid, not the wife). This means that with the time that has passed we are exactly six months into this whole parenting thing as of this moment. Someday, I do hope that our when our daughter looks back at how her life has transpired she believes that she is lucky. If she feels half as lucky as I do sitting here then we will have done OK by her.
Some of the pics from my phone over the last six months:
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| OK, so you gave me to the rank amateurs? |
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| Don't let go buddy! Not sure who you are but I am WAAY off the ground right now |
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| Chris: "eehh...what now?" Sarah: "you think I know?" Maddy: "hey that guy over there with all the older kids looks like a good fit...hey buddy! Want another one?! These two schmucks totally didn't plan beyond the 'Pick up baby' step..." |
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| Did my vote on where to live get lost in the mail? Did you see the update pictures where I was in sandals and tan? |
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| I cannot wait until I am one hour into my skiing career and already better than both of you. |
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| I come all the way over from China and they can't beat a #4 seeded Michigan in the Sweet 16.....and I am MOVING THERE!! |
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| Are you hiding food from me? |
c
