Sunday March 13th - 16 Sleeps to Departure!

Looking back on this wait to travel period, it's creeping up on me so quickly yet I am always reminded when I look at Lilah's photo that she's changing every day and I'm missing it. I find that hard at times, but take comfort in the fact that for the moment she's in a premium facility. I wonder if she has much hair. I wonder if she's crawling yet. I wonder what she'll think when she sees a big bald white guy, a white chick with blue eyes and a cute little girl with hair, eyes and skin like hers. Hmmmm. . .

If you are a weekly reader, I should let you know that I posted a couple of messages midweek regarding our itinerary. To read any historical messages, just click on the title of the message on the left side of this page. I've been getting lots of positive feedback regarding this website and how easy it is to navigate -- glad to hear that you all like it so much.

Our big news in the past few days is that our family has been featured in a local magazine. Several months ago, a reporter contacted me and about writing an article on international adoption. Given that I am always hesitant to allow someone I don't know write about such personal information, I am happy that she agreed to allow me to proof-read the article to check for appropriate adoption language before it was published. We try so hard to make our girls' lives easier, we didn't want the article generating comments from folks who are not educated about adoption. Needless to say, the reporter did a terrific job and we are thrilled with the article. My favorite picture is on the front page of it . . . in China . . . Naomi laying on Joel's chest with the biggest grin on his face. The article can be found in "Go Magazine" for those in Northumberland County. All others will have to wait until Northumberland Publishers update their website (http://www.gomagazine.ca) next week to see the article. Two other families in our playgroup who adopted from Korea are also highlighted. The editor of the magazine has asked us to solicit "Letters to the Editor" from friends and family, so if you are interested feel free to contact her at khawthorne@northumberlandtoday.com with your comments.

Just this afternoon we choked back our first doses of Dukoral (oral vaccine to protect against travellers diarrhea). The berry flavored fizzy stuff did not go over very well with Naomi and I had to syringe the entire 50 mls into her mouth. Not sure how much of the vaccine she got -- but she sure loved the smarties between each syringeful! One more dose next week . . . any volunteers to try to get her to drink it now?

I've posted some new photos below. Naomi is really enjoying the outdoors and we built a couple fo snowpeople on the weekend. The end result was a snowball fight with the snowpeople being the only one's left standing! There is also a photo of Naomi with Teresa Barbosa and Mya Meredith at our Travelgroup gathering last weekend. Teresa will make a fabulous mom, as you can tell from the grins on the faces of these two gals! Finally, there are two pictures posted of the new stroller. Naomi has really taken a liking to it and she has put her "baby Lilah" doll beside her in the stroller. Apparently she's already chosen a side. Then, just to prove that she's really an acrobat, she decided to crawl into the basket underneath the stroller. Naomi makes it look much bigger than it really is!

So the countdown continues!
Karen