My two China Treasures - Peyton Brooke and Spencer Ling

Peyton's 6th birthday

2010-02-05T21:57:00.001-06:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Can't wait!

2010-01-02T21:36:00.001-06:00

That's My Daughter In The Water

2009-12-27T21:15:00.001-06:00

Make a Smilebox photobook

HIppapoo!

2009-12-21T05:43:00.003-06:00

Spencer telling me about a hippopotamus but he calls it a hippapoo!

Great song! Makes me teary :-)

2009-12-11T21:19:00.000-06:00

Our Christmas tree

2009-12-06T18:27:00.000-06:00

"Dear God... please grant me the ability to ignore my OCD and leave my tree with all the ornaments at the height that a 5 year can decorate... Amen"

Putting up the Christmas Tree

2009-12-06T15:35:00.000-06:00

Pulled out the box with the artificial tree to set up and then left the room for a while. When I came back this is what I found. Spencer had unpacked it, put the stand together, assembled the pole correctly and then was assembling the branches. He has never put a tree together before nor seen anyone do it as far as I know. Dang that boy is too smart!!!!

Traditional Chinese kitchen in Nanfeng

2009-11-27T22:41:00.000-06:00

Nanfeng! Where my baby girl is from!

2009-11-27T22:36:00.000-06:00

Shenyang! Where my baby boy is from

2009-11-27T22:18:00.000-06:00

Birthday wish sent by Spencer's Foster Parents in China

2009-11-15T17:19:00.000-06:00

Karate kid

2009-11-15T17:17:00.000-06:00

The song on my flashplayer, Fireflies, is Peyton's current favorite

2009-11-15T17:12:00.001-06:00

More pics from the arts festival

2009-11-15T17:00:00.007-06:00

This boy, Taeyang, reminds of what Spencer may grow up to look like :-)

2009-11-14T22:44:00.000-06:00

At the Pensacola Arts Festival

2009-11-14T22:36:00.001-06:00

Dedicated to Peyton and Spencer who are cooler than the flip side of my pillow!

2009-11-14T22:19:00.002-06:00

For my babies ....

Halloween

2009-10-31T21:57:00.000-05:00

My little cowgirl an dpower ranger

2009-10-31T21:51:00.001-05:00

Grinning ear to ear riding the ferris wheel

2009-10-31T21:20:00.000-05:00

View from the top of the ferris wheel

2009-10-31T21:18:00.000-05:00

Ferris Wheel

2009-10-31T21:16:00.000-05:00

Fair ride

2009-10-31T21:14:00.001-05:00

Merry Go Round

2009-10-31T17:41:00.001-05:00

Birthday Party

2009-09-12T20:31:00.003-05:00

Spencer's 5th birthday dinner - South of the Border

2009-09-12T20:27:00.002-05:00

Peyton asked if her birthday could be in Mexico too!

Lady bug love

2009-09-12T20:22:00.002-05:00

First Day Song

2009-08-24T21:57:00.002-05:00

First Day Of Kindergarten

2009-08-24T21:54:00.001-05:00

She started school this morning,
And she seemed so very small.
As I walked there beside her
In the Kindergarten hall.

And as she took her place beside
the others in the class,
I realized how all too soon
Those first few years can pass.

Remembering, I saw her as
She first learned how to walk.
The words that we alone made out
When she began to talk.

This little girl so much absorbed
In learning how to write.
It seems as though she must have grown
To girlhood overnight.

My eyes were blurred and hastily
I brushed the tears away
Lest by some word or sign of mine
I mar her first big day.

Oh how I longed to stay with her
And keep her by the hand
To lead her through the places
That she couldn't understand.

And something closely kin to fear
Was mingled with my pride.
I knew she would no longer be
A baby by my side.

But she must have her chance to live,
To work her problems out,
The privilege to grow and learn
What life is all about.

And I must share my little girl
With friends and work and play;
She's not a baby anymore --
She's in Kindergarten today.

First Day of Kindergarten

2009-08-24T21:49:00.003-05:00

A day at the Gulfarium

2009-08-04T18:47:00.004-05:00

"Crazy Hair Day" at school

2009-08-04T18:45:00.000-05:00

Let me tell you about how an orphan that changed my life......

2009-07-28T18:26:00.003-05:00

"Warner Bros. new horror movie Orphan proclaims that it must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own. Let me tell you about how an orphan changed my life..."

After years of hoping for a child of my own I was blessed to be moved towards adoption. All the fears of being a Mother to “someone else’s child” surfaced. Oddly enough, once I signed the papers with the adoption agency and was notified that I was on the waiting list, I realized then that I was a Mother. A Mother to a child in a distant land, far away across the ocean. Immediately the Motherly instinct kicked in and I was worried. Who is feeding her? Who is watching over her? Is she crying and is anyone going to comfort her? The wait was agony. I had no idea what she looked like, what she smelled like, the sound of her cry or giggle. The only connection I had was to look at the moon at night and know that she could look at the very same moon. To know that God must be watching over her.

When the time came, when my name was called, and she was placed in my arms for the first time, it was if I had known her my whole life. She WAS the child I had always dreamt of. She WAS my own. Maybe not of my flesh and not of my bone, but certainly my own. The fact that I was afraid to Mother “someone else’s” child is so strange to me now. She is my child. As a matter of fact the likeness between her and I is scary. And the life inside her is awe inspiring. She taught me that I could open my eyes and my heart to an older, special needs orphan.

That child is my Son. A little boy whose pictures came with those haunting vacant eyes that the older orphans all have. He has grown so much and love and joy flows from him freely now. My life has truly changed forever. People often tell me that my children are so lucky. I think I am the lucky one.

Spencer, myself and Peyton - silly kids!

2009-07-13T19:49:00.000-05:00

Peyton and I

2009-07-13T19:48:00.000-05:00

Josh and I

2009-07-13T19:47:00.001-05:00

My Nephew Josh on his 18th birthday

2009-07-13T19:45:00.000-05:00

Posting Links...

2009-06-20T11:33:00.002-05:00

I have tried every way in the world but I cannot get this blog to post a link to save my life....ggrrrrr!!!!!!! So you will have to paste the address below to see the newsletter that Peyton is on. :-(

2009-06-20T11:24:00.000-05:00

Peyton made the CHI newletter front page!!!

2009-06-20T11:18:00.002-05:00

http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001L55c0z5d5Wmelt26KlDWzPxgwmnNEXiBpW3NjJaxuWG6e5H-ZGfw9ahDQ_U7W4dGwNXYs4Q-zjG-HyBRVbJot-BtZTyqCZs8dR84AMxiAIJg2pIGsVZ8GIw414g3uXwp

Awe!

2009-06-08T05:15:00.000-05:00

Juan Sebastian de Elcano docked at the Port of Pensacola

2009-06-08T05:12:00.001-05:00

sliding

2009-06-08T05:07:00.002-05:00

2009-06-08T05:05:00.000-05:00

2009-06-08T05:04:00.000-05:00

Gone Fishin'

2009-06-08T05:03:00.001-05:00

2009-06-08T05:02:00.000-05:00

2009-06-08T04:59:00.001-05:00

2009-06-03T05:54:00.002-05:00

Showing off one of her graduation presents

2009-05-31T11:06:00.001-05:00

She had been begging for a topsy turvy tomato planter and was thrilled to get one!

Pre-K graduation

2009-05-31T11:04:00.000-05:00

Literal interpretation

2009-05-31T11:02:00.001-05:00

In an effort to get Spencer to clean up I told him to "get those toys off of the floor!" You get what you ask for right?

hhhhmmmmmmm......

2009-05-31T10:57:00.001-05:00

My girl walks a fine line between girlie and tomboy :-)

A tribute to the country that gave me so much...Remembering the victims of 5/12/08

2009-05-11T21:13:00.000-05:00

Getting ready for VPK Graduation

2009-04-26T07:38:00.002-05:00

"Jammin"

2009-04-20T05:00:00.002-05:00

Me feeding squirrel in my back yard

2009-04-20T04:58:00.000-05:00

At the park

2009-04-20T04:53:00.001-05:00

Weekend fun!

2009-04-20T04:45:00.003-05:00

Krispy Kreme!

All dressed up

2009-04-13T12:34:00.007-05:00

Coloring eggs

2009-04-13T12:05:00.004-05:00

Spencer excited

2009-04-13T12:04:00.000-05:00

Easter 2009

2009-04-13T11:41:00.006-05:00

Excited about the Easter Bunny leaving baskets on the door step

Spencer's Foster brother

2009-04-05T13:13:00.002-05:00

Spencer's Foster Family

2009-04-05T13:11:00.003-05:00

Received an e-mail from Spencer's Foster family. This is them vacationing on Hainan island in China

New school pics

2009-03-26T10:06:00.001-05:00

Beach pictures

2009-03-14T08:32:00.005-05:00

A return to her orphanage - 16 year old adoptee

2009-03-01T10:14:00.002-06:00

One family: What I learned by returning to my orphanage
By Zoë Rose Xia Shi Ting Guastella
Mon Feb 23, 2009, 11:04 AM EST

Cambridge - Last summer, two friends and I returned to the Wuhan Child
Welfare Institute in China to work. This was difficult to do because
it is against Chinese law for foreigners to work in a state-run
facility. We got special permission because the orphanage was once our
home. As the first children to be adopted from China in June of 1992,
we were also the first to pave the way to return. This fall, we raised
$25,000 through Families with Children from China for heart surgeries
for these kids. The following is excerpted from a series I wrote for
the China Connection, a journal for adoptive parents, and the CRLS
Register Forum.

With only one year of high school Chinese under my belt, I walked into
the toddler room of my orphanage and wondered how I would be able to
communicate.

I found five teachers in bright yellow T-shirts playing with special
needs kids, which, because China is more prosperous, are now the kids
available for adoption. Some had Down syndrome, others cerebral palsy,
deafness, autism, or dwarfism, to the extent that I could determine.
And they were the cutest kids I'd ever seen.

Let me tell you about Lap Plopper. Her name is Wu Feng Gui. She had
three pigtails, one for each year of her life, and was born with Down
syndrome. Like all the children in the orphanage, she had been
abandoned to the care of Director Li, the kind-hearted woman who is
now responsible for them all.

I sat down cross-legged on the floor to be at her height Lap Plopper
took one look at me, waddled over, and plopped her naked bottom in my
lap. "Ni hao," I said softly into her ear, and she thrust out her arms
and laughed. Her top pigtail tickled my nose. Maybe I'd said "hello"
strangely or maybe she just enjoyed the triumph of her conquest. Soon
other toddlers crawled my way as they, too, wanted to investigate the
American newcomer. For that point on, communication was not a problem.

When I was in China, I discovered that children with disabilities were
something other than their labels. To me, each child was totally fun,
amazing, and adorable. There was Wu Zhong Hang, an intelligent and
extremely helpful Albino boy, who looked like a California tow head
and who drew a heart and put his name in Chinese characters in it, and
then gestured for me to do the same. I took one look at his face and
thought that he could be adopted in the West in a minute. I wondered
what would happen to him.

I wondered about all of the children. Some were very intelligent:
would they be grouped with children with greater needs or be given a
chance to succeed? Some seemed to have disabilities that could be
fixed, like a cleft palate. Others, I felt, would be in the care of
the state forever. Quickly, I came to realize that each child has a
story and that my friends and I, who had been adopted 16 years
earlier, had our stories too, yet ours were ones with happy endings.
We had families in Cambridge, Brookline, and Newburyport. For these
children, the next chapter of their stories was not so clear.

My experience with the older girls was more complicated most of them
had no special need except their lack of parents. They were anxious,
interested, shy, quizzical, and looked at me as "one who got out." And
while they're treated well, they are not applying to college. And all
because they were abandoned girls who didn't happen to be babies when
an adoption application arrived: it's hard to imagine being too old
for something when you're only nine years old.

We danced together. We laughed a lot. We stumbled over Chinese and
English. I had brought a bag of donated swim suits, goggles, and caps
and taught six how to swim. And as a tribute to the Beijing Olympics
they actually learned the elementary backstroke, despite being
terrified of getting in the water. But always there was that look in
their eyes. We all understood the powerful role coincidence had played
in our lives.

On my last day in Wuhan, I heard good news. One of the older girls,
whom I taught to swim was going to be adopted by a family in San
Diego. I also learned that the files of my albino boy, Wu Zhong Hang,
had been sent to the authorities at Civil Affairs who assign children
to families. I certainly hope he gets a loving family.

On the day I left, I met up with Lap Plopper, whom I hadn't seen in
several days. I wondered if she would remember me. She held out her
arms and I picked her up with a rocking hug. When her teacher told her
"it's time to go," she buried her head in my arms and shouted, "Bu!"
(No!) and I thought, she understands! She used her words! Hurray for
Lap Plopper!

I left knowing that she, like Wu Zhong Hang, Director Li, and so many
others, will never leave me. We are forever one family.

Shortly after writing this, I found the name of the policeman who took
care of me on March 6, 1992, when I was found. His name is Ge Zhiyong
and he is as far back to my beginnings as I've been able to trace.
While in China, I also found a note from my birth parents who were
victims of a flood. I hope to look for them one day!

Clip from The Apostles of comedy

2009-02-07T14:24:00.000-06:00

New haircuts!

2009-02-02T06:16:00.001-06:00

12 Girls Band

2009-01-31T14:17:00.000-06:00

Chinese New Year

2009-01-28T06:13:00.002-06:00

We had a great turnout of our local Families with Children from China. The owner of Sake Cafe was kind enough to want to throw the kids a party. 19 Families and 26 children from China attended.

Peyton turns 5!

2009-01-18T21:22:00.000-06:00

New years story

2009-01-05T22:00:00.002-06:00

Incense Sparklers

On New Year's Eve Tim and I bought the kids sparklers. I was more worried that Spencer would not like them but he LOVED them. Peyton on the other hand was very afraid and hid in the house while Spencer and I ran around the yard waving our sparklers. When we came back inside she cried because NOW she wants to try one. But I had run out. So I quickly tried to come up with something and remembered I had incense sticks. So I told her I had a special one just for her. I lit it and she was so happy! She ran around the yard waving her incense stick and saying how much she loved it and that it smelled good :-) Here is a pic.....

Original Video

2009-01-03T12:00:00.000-06:00

For those who still wait........

2008-12-26T22:04:00.000-06:00

All I want for Christmas

2008-12-25T22:02:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T14:56:00.002-06:00

Santa!

2008-12-21T21:46:00.000-06:00

A new day has come

2008-12-18T06:04:00.001-06:00

I made this slide last year showing my first day with Spencer

Make a Smilebox slideshow

OK I will try posting it again.....

2008-12-18T05:58:00.001-06:00

Slide show I made while waiting for Spencer

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Future Rockstars?

2008-12-07T10:28:00.001-06:00

Peyton's first Christmas

2008-11-30T09:12:00.002-06:00

This year will be Spencer's first real Christmas (on Christmas day). Here is a picture of Peyton's first Christmas... so pretty...

Thanksgiving pictures

2008-11-27T17:02:00.000-06:00

My two little Indians

2008-11-22T12:51:00.003-06:00

They had to dress like Indians for school so I made some costumes for them.

Peyton's finding spot in Nanfeng

2008-11-10T20:04:00.001-06:00

According to the police report Peyton was found just hours old by the gate you see in the back of this picture...

Happy 4th Gotcha Day Anniversary

2008-11-09T10:37:00.001-06:00

Peyton and her foster Mom

Buster 4/4/94 - 11/7/08

2008-11-08T11:13:00.001-06:00

Marshmallow toots

2008-11-05T22:14:00.001-06:00

Peyton and Spencer eating marshmallows last night when Peyton toots right on camera!!!

Carnival Parties

2008-10-26T10:04:00.000-05:00

Fall Carnival

2008-10-26T10:03:00.001-05:00

My girl!

2008-10-26T09:59:00.000-05:00

Student of the week Award

2008-10-23T20:19:00.003-05:00

Peyton received the "student of the week award" at her preschool.

Registration web ste

2008-10-19T13:28:00.002-05:00

A new website for children adopted from China. A great way of connecting with other parents who have adopted from China. It's Our Chinese Children (http://www.ourchinesechildren.com)

Birthday parties

2008-10-12T16:13:00.000-05:00

Haircuts

2008-10-12T16:12:00.000-05:00

Seafood Festival 2008

2008-10-12T10:18:00.001-05:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

School pictures

2008-09-30T19:19:00.001-05:00

The fire department visited Pre-school

2008-09-28T15:39:00.000-05:00

My two China Treasures - Peyton Brooke and Spencer Ling

Peyton's 6th birthday

Can't wait!

That's My Daughter In The Water

HIppapoo!

Great song! Makes me teary :-)

Our Christmas tree

Putting up the Christmas Tree

Traditional Chinese kitchen in Nanfeng

more Nanfeng video I found

Nanfeng! Where my baby girl is from!

Shenyang! Where my baby boy is from

Birthday wish sent by Spencer's Foster Parents in China

Karate kid

The song on my flashplayer, Fireflies, is Peyton's current favorite

More pics from the arts festival

This boy, Taeyang, reminds of what Spencer may grow up to look like :-)

At the Pensacola Arts Festival

Dedicated to Peyton and Spencer who are cooler than the flip side of my pillow!

Halloween

My little cowgirl an dpower ranger

Grinning ear to ear riding the ferris wheel

View from the top of the ferris wheel

Ferris Wheel

Fair ride

Merry Go Round

Birthday Party

Spencer's 5th birthday dinner - South of the Border

Lady bug love

First Day Song

First Day Of Kindergarten

First Day of Kindergarten

A day at the Gulfarium

"Crazy Hair Day" at school

Let me tell you about how an orphan that changed my life......

Spencer, myself and Peyton - silly kids!

Peyton and I

Josh and I

My Nephew Josh on his 18th birthday

Posting Links...

Peyton made the CHI newletter front page!!!

Awe!

Juan Sebastian de Elcano docked at the Port of Pensacola

sliding

Gone Fishin'

Showing off one of her graduation presents

Pre-K graduation

Literal interpretation

hhhhmmmmmmm......

A tribute to the country that gave me so much...Remembering the victims of 5/12/08

Getting ready for VPK Graduation

"Jammin"

Me feeding squirrel in my back yard

At the park

Weekend fun!

All dressed up

Coloring eggs

Spencer excited

Easter 2009

Spencer's Foster brother

Spencer's Foster Family

New school pics

Beach pictures

A return to her orphanage - 16 year old adoptee

Clip from The Apostles of comedy

New haircuts!

12 Girls Band

Chinese New Year

Peyton turns 5!

New years story

Original Video

For those who still wait........

All I want for Christmas

Merry Christmas

Santa!

A new day has come

OK I will try posting it again.....

Future Rockstars?

Peyton's first Christmas

Thanksgiving pictures