%^$&^%*)*&^&%$$!!! Why can't I post pictures???
I have some really cute ones I want to post from when we had Breakfast with Santa.

Tomorrow Tina is bringing Anslee to school at 11:00am for my class Christmas party. She is going to love it! She came to my classroom the night we had our Christmas pageant and didn't want to leave. The children love "helping" her do things in there and are so excited that she is coming tomorrow. Let's see if I can maintain any control at all.

Andrew's teacher told him yesterday that if you plant a starlight mint in the ground on Christmas eve that some of Santa's magic would fall off his sleigh and turn it into a candy cane. When he told me this last night he said he wasn't going to tell me because he wanted me to be suprised on Christmas morning to see candy canes growing outside. Thank goodness he decided to tell me or he would be one dissapointed little boy!

Here are two cute Santa sights you may want to check out with your children - or by yourself :-)
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/default.php
http://www.claus.com/village.php

I can't believe there is only 5 days until Christmas!
Terri

New rules for Chinese adoptions...

China has decided to tighten the requirements for adoption starting May of 2007. You can read about it here.

Some of the new rules:

No single adults

Couples will need to be married 2 years. If you have been divorced, you have to have been remarried for 5 years

Both parents have to be 30 to 50 years old

Certain medical conditions will disqualify applicants such as: HIV, blindness or low vision, wheelchair dependance, facial deformities, depression or anxiety that requires medication

Severly overweight applicants will be denied (bmi over 40)

Net worth of $80,000 up from $40,000

No more than 5 children living at home

No history of drug use and DUI's will be examined case by case.

Dancing

Keith picked out a Bose speaker to hook my ipod up to so we can hear the music in the house. It is so much easier to put it on the speaker than to try to hook it up to the stereo and the sound is awsome!! I've been blaring Christmas music ~ my current favorite is Chris Issak, but Leon Redbone's Christmas album is my all time favorite.

Andrew and Anslee like my choice in music although I can tell they both think I'm a nerd when comparing me to Keith. When Keith turns on his music they both start dancing and "raising the roof". Yesterday they were dancing over and over to "Jump". Anslee wanted me to keep jumping and if I stopped she would say "jump mama" and point to the floor. When I said it was my turn to pick a song they both were bummed.

Whoever is driving the car gets to choose the music so of course we are usually listening to Keith's tunes. A couple of weekends ago we were driving somewhere and I looked at the car next to us and they were pointing at our car and laughing. I looked back and Anslee is in her car seat dancing and had her hands in the air. She is so funny.

For some reason Blogspot has not let me post pictures the last couple of days but I'll keep posting anyway :-)

A year ago on December 11th

Yesterday was Anslee's "Gotcha Day". I can't believe that she hasn't been with us forever and then again I remember holding her for the first time like it was yesterday.





We celebrated the day by going out for Chinese. Keith got Anslee a silver prayer box bracelet ~how sweet and thoughtful is he?!





Three couples in our travel group already have their dossiers ready and are waiting to adopt another daughter from China. They are so excited about having two children. I think for now we are done having children but you never know what lies ahead...

Terri

Making a Christmas List

Every year I've taken Andrew to Toys R Us to look around and make a tenative Christmas list. This year we tried it with Anslee too. She was so funny. She loooves baby dolls and all their accessories.

We have a friend Julie who gave her two old ones her daughter wasn't playing with anymore. Although they both look exactly alike one has an eye that won't stay open ~ she likes that one the best. When I put her in her crib at night if we couldn't find the one with the lazy eye we'll put the other one in. Even in the dark she can feel around and tell that it isn't her favorite one. She'll throw that one out and say she wants "good baby". So Keith, Andrew and I have to scour the house to find it.

Can you tell she has us all wrapped around her little finger :-)



Terri

Holy Cow!! I can post!!

A year ago today we left for China! From the time we received our referral and saw Anslee's sweet little face for the first time, we were on pins and needles until we left. It seems like it was forever ago.

Test Blog

This is a test

I'm sorry I haven't been posting for so long. For some reason, I haven't been able to write or post pictures. Now I can write but still can't put any pictures up. I'll try to figure out what is going on...

Before and After

House pictures ~ If you click on the pictures it will enlarge them.

This is before... The house was a creamy off white with turquoise (!) shutters. The trim was just a little lighter than the house color.

After... We had the house painted a brownish green (that's not the official color name), the shutters painted a dark bronze, new coach lights and plantation shutters put in. What a huge difference!!

A great blog to visit!

I found this website:
http://www.chinesestarfish.blogspot.com/

The author is a South African woman who decided to open an orphanage in China.

T

Anslee has started putting more and more words together. When I wake her up in the morning she says "night, night blankie" since she has to leave it in her crib. When we leave the house in the morning she says "bye, bye Buter" to our dog Buster. She has the cutest little voice!

Someone asked me this morning what Anslee was doing new. So I told her these things she is saying. Another person was standing next to us and said in a suprised tone "Is she saying that in English?". I responded that No, she is saying it in Chinese. She looked sad for me and said "Oh. Maybe she'll learn English one day". When she walked away we couldn't stop laughing. I guess I should tell her I was joking with her...

The article below is from Yahoo News. I have to say when we saw the Pandas in Chongqing, China they were so huge and cute that they looked fake. I kept thinking at any second the panda would reach up and take his huge head off and we would see it was a guy in a costume. Luckily for me I was able to resist the urge to jump in and pet him!


Panda bites man, man bites him back
Wed Sep 20, 7:41 AM ET
BEIJING - A drunken Chinese migrant worker jumped into a panda enclosure at the Beijing Zoo, was bitten by the bear and retaliated by chomping down on the animal's back, state media said Wednesday.
Zhang Xinyan, from the central province of Henan, drank four jugs of beer at a restaurant near the zoo before visiting Gu Gu the panda on Tuesday, the Beijing Morning Post said.
"He felt a sudden urge to touch the panda with his hand," and jumped into the enclosure, the newspaper said.
The panda, who was asleep, was startled and bit Zhang, 35, on the right leg, it said. Zhang got angry and kicked the panda, who then bit his other leg. A tussle ensued, the paper said.
"I bit the fellow in the back," Zhang was quoted as saying in the newspaper. "Its skin was quite thick."
Other tourists yelled for a zookeeper, who got the panda under control by spraying it with water, reports said. Zhang was hospitalized.
Newspaper photographs showed Zhang lying on a hospital bed with blood-soaked bandages and a seam of stitches running down his leg.
The Beijing Youth Daily quoted Zhang as saying that he had seen pandas on television and "they seemed to get along well with people."
"No one ever said they would bite people," Zhang said. "I just wanted to touch it. I was so dizzy from the beer. I don't remember much."
Ye Mingxia, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Zoo, confirmed the incident happened but would not give any details. She said Gu Gu was "healthy."
"We're not considering punishing him now," Ye said in a telephone interview. "He's suffered quite a bit of shock."

Anslee has a blast when Kayla comes over. Kayla's family was at our house for dinner one night. She kept fixing Anslee's hair different ways and putting her in different outfits. Anslee had a blast. I'm sure we'll be spending tons of $ on clothes and shoes when she is old enough to pick her outfits out!

I LOVE my preschool class this year. I have 7 boys and 7 girls. I have twin girls adopted from China. I also have many siblings of children I've had in past years. I know the parents really well and am friends with several of them.

There has been a few problems regarding the Asian twins. At the beginning of the school year one little girl didn't want to sit next to either of the twins because she said their skin was ugly. After talking to her parents, she now plays with them all the time. A little boy who plays with them told them the rhyme "Chinese, Japanese, Dirty Knees, Look at these" - complete with the motions... I talked with him and he had no idea that what he said wasn't nice. The parents of both of these children were mortified that their children said these things. I did the lesson with a red and green apple talking about how they look different on the outside but the same on the inside just like people look different on the outside but are the same on the inside and that God says we are all wonderfully made... Hopefully we won't have any more issues about this.

I dread the time something like this happens to Anslee. It will break my heart.
T

Sesame Street Live

We were invited to see the show with some friends. I debated going because Anlsee does not enjoy tv at all. We've turned on Sesame Street, Blues Clues, Teletubbies and even Barney (gasp!) but she won't watch any of them. I don't want her to love tv but if she could be entertained by it for five minutes, maybe I could unload the dishwasher without her trying to get in :-).

We decided to go and she LOVED it! She danced and laughed and clapped throughout the show. I was so suprised. It was hard to hold her because she was so excited and wanted to be with the characters on stage. She was adorable.


Anslee still won't watch tv, but she does get excited when she sees Elmo and Big Bird. During intermission they brought out Elmo balloons. Anslee didn't want one near her, but she loved watching them.
T

Eating lunch with Andrew

On Friday Anslee and I went to Andrew's school to meet him for lunch. Anslee loves going and Andrew loves showing everyone his little sister. Andrew enjoys buying the school lunch instead of bringing one from home, but I'm not sure he's eating much of it.

Notice Andrew's red hair? All the children dyed their hair for school that day. He looked hilarious.
Terri

Our backyard

We have a mom deer and her two babies living in our backyard. Keith put out some corn to get them closer to our house so we can watch them from our kitchen window. They usually come to feed around noon and then around 5 pm. We love watching them.

We were going to have our backyard all cleaned out and have mulch put down in the large wooded areas but now we hate to disrupt their habitat. I guess we'll wait until late winter to start clearing out the backyard.

August Moon Festival
by Bet Key Wong

The August Moon Festival or Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most celebrated Chinese holidays. It is held on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month. Chinese families celebrate the end of the harvest season with a big feast. Unlike the American Thanksgiving dinner, the Chinese have mooncakes instead of grandma' apple pie. Friends and relatives also send mooncakes to each other as a way of giving thanks.

Chinese legends say that the moon is at its brightest and roundest on this day. Under this bright autumn moon, friendships are made and renewed. It is perfect for a romantic rendezvous. For many years, Chinese poets write about long lost lovers finding their way to each other on this special night.
The August Moon Festival is often called the Women's Festival. The moon symbolizes beauty and elegance. While Westerners worship the sun (yang or male) for its power, people in the Far East admire the moon. The moon is the 'yin' or female principle and it is a trusted friend.

In fact, many ancient August Moon folktales are about a moon maiden. On the 15th night of the 8th lunar moon, little children on earth can see a lady on the moon. On this magical occasion, children who make wishes to the Lady on the Moon will find their dreams come true.

Sorry I've been MIA. I started teaching preschool on Monday and by Tuesday I felt so sick. I thought it was a really bad cold but when I finally went to the doctor on Thursday I found out I had strep throat (which I've never had!), a sinus infection and double ear infections. No wonder I felt so bad. Since I didn't know that I had more than the most horrible cold ever, I did continue to go to school the entire week but I was careful to wash my hands constantly.

We had meet and greet the Friday before where all the children came to meet us and see their classroom. The Thursday that I went to the doctor one little girl went home with a fever and a sore throat and when another mom came at the end of the school day she said her daughter has had a horrible sore throat since the day of meet and greet. Hmmmm. Wonder where I caught this.

Here is an article that I found on blogging baby. It says that a classroom has more germs than a doctors office!

GERMS GO TO SCHOOL
Before I got married, I never got sick. No colds, no flu, not even a sniffle. Then I married a schoolteacher and now I get sick all the time. She doesn't get sick, she just brings the germs home to infect me. Turns out, she's got plenty left at school. A study from the University of Arizona shows that classrooms are the number one germiest workplace. Surfaces in classrooms have nearly twenty times more bacteria than those in lawyers' offices and seven times more than those in doctors' offices.
The discrepancy is most likely due to sick kids who really ought to be home in bed. According to a new survey released by the Clorox company, almost forty percent of parents admitted that they've sent a sick child to school at some time during the last year. Fourteen percent have sent a child to school with a temperature over 100 degrees. Interestingly, the survey also found that kids would rather get give up being sick than give up homework. The company is trying to do something about the problem by offering a free "Clean Up the Classroom" kit.
Although Clorox found that kids catch an average of eight colds per year and that teachers miss an average of 5.3 days each year due to being sick, they didn't note how many times the spouses of teachers get sick. I can tell you, however, that it's far too many.

Since Summer break is over ~ I'm ready for fall...

There is something I love about each season but Fall is my favorite. I love the beginning of school, cooler temperatures (at some point!), leaves changing colors and Fall activities.

Andrew has had a great first two weeks of school. We went to curriculum night this week and his teacher was asked how the children go about getting a special "gold note" reward. She gave an example of a little boy who had been extra kind to one of his classmates. Afterwards she told me that it was Andrew and she said he is the most kind child she has ever had in her 12 years of teaching. How sweet is that? Now we just need to work on handwriting...

This week we've had our church consignment sale that I help with every year and I've been preparing my classroom for school resuming next week. Anslee's had to be in the nursery a lot. She cries every time I drop her off (which breaks my heart) but when I pick her up she's having so much fun she doesn't want to leave. She starts going to Tina's four days a week on Monday.

Guess who found the markers...

The Hulk

Anslee may be every bit as tough as the Hulk. She loves walking around with these hands on and smashing everything in sight. We may need to get more princess, rainbow and unicorn toys...

When Anslee gets mad at me because I won't let her do something, she runs up to me saying "ouch" and pinches me. I can't decide if she is warning me by saying ouch first or if she is just eagerly anticipating my response to the pain she is going to inflict. She looks so funny and cute while doing it that I have to make myself not laugh. Needless to say she now is visiting "time out" a couple of times a day.

Nation to Launch Monitoring of Birth Gender Ratios

China's government is to begin monitoring of gender ratios among newborn babies and the efficiency of measures against the sex imbalance later this year, said an official in Beijing on Wednesday.

Vice Minister of the State Commission for Population and Family Planning (SCPFP) Zhao Baige said SCPFP and Ministry of Health officials would be dispatched around the country to undertake surveys.

More than 60 expert teams had already started evaluations of gender ratios and trends, and a survey of the implementation of the government's "Care for Girls" program, initiated in 2003.

In China, especially in rural areas, sons are traditionally preferred to daughters, which has resulted in many prospective parents electing to have an abortion if tests show the fetus to be a girl.

As a result, there are 119 boys born for every 100 girls in China, much higher than a global ratio of 102 to 107 boys for every 100 girls.

The "Care for Girls" program, covering 24 counties in 24 provinces, aims to educate the public, farmers in particular, on gender equality, and to promote the social status of women, while cracking down on fetus gender identification and selective abortion for non-medical purposes.

The program will be promoted across the country this year.

As part of the program, the SCPFP has initiated a competition on knowledge of the program in villages, towns, counties, cities and provinces from July to November.

(Xinhua News Agency July 13, 2006)

First Day of School 2006

Andrew's bus stop

Waaaah! This summer went by so quickly. It was so nice being laid back and not worrying so much about schedules.

We went to sneak peak last week to meet Andrew's teacher and see his classroom. I can tell he is going to love his teacher. We looked at the class list and didn't recognize any names. It is amazing out of the 22 children in his class last year and the 10 first graders in our neighborhood that there is not one child he knows in his class.

On Monday when he got off the bus he said he had a great first day and said "First grade is the best grade ever!"

All day Anslee kept saying "DrewDrew" and looking for him. She was asleep when he left for school and taking a nap when he got home. She was so happy to see him when she woke up.

T

I love the mascots for the 2008 summer olympics in Beijing. They are called the Friendlies. I got the green one for Andrew when we were in China. Now I wish I'd brought home all five. It seems like so much more thought was put into these compared to the 1996 Atlanta Olympic mascot. I think Atlanta should win the "most ridiculous Olympic mascot ever" award. It was called Izzy derived from "What is it?". Who thought that was a good idea??
You can see the mascots better on the official Beijing 2008 website.
Like the Five Olympic Rings from which they draw their color and inspiration, Fuwa will serve as the Official Mascots of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, carrying a message of friendship and peace--and blessings from China--to children all over the world.
Designed to express the playful qualities of five little children who form an intimate circle of friends, Fuwa also embody the natural characteristics of four of China's most popular animals--the Fish, the Panda, the Tibetan Antelope, the Swallow--and the Olympic Flame.
Each of Fuwa has a rhyming two-syllable name--a traditional way of expressing affection for children in China. Beibei is the Fish, Jingjing is the Panda, Huanhuan is the Olympic Flame, Yingying is the Tibetan Antelope and Nini is the Swallow.
When you put their names together--Bei Jing Huan Ying Ni--they say "Welcome to Beijing," offering a warm invitation that reflects the mission of Fuwa as young ambassadors for the Olympic Games.

T

My sister inspires me. She has the most beautiful gardens and grows everything imaginable. I want to be able to go into my yard and pick my food instead of going to the grocery store!

Going to the grocery store is one of my least favorite chores (ok, along with doing dishes, laundry, vaccuming, cleaning bathrooms, dusting, well I can't think of one I love) ~ especially when two little ones are with me. Yesterday I went to the store and saw someone elses grocery list left in the cart. I thought for a second about ditching my list and using this one. If I hadn't planned out my menu for the week and taken the time to make my own list, I might have.

Sometime towards the end of the school year Andrew brought home a bean plant he had sprouted. He was so proud of it. We decided to plant it in a planter on the deck and now it is HUGE. It is even growing beans now. I'm not sure we'll get enough to feed the family but we can each have one or two...

He also decided to grow basil and cilantro. I loved looking up recipes to use them in. We used the basil the most. There is nothing better than fresh basil. Andrew loved putting it in our homemade spaghetti sauce. (pictured above) We also made a roasted potato, tomato, garlic, basil dish that was yummy.

The herbs all died when we were on vacation so now we just have our beans to look forward to. If someone has a suggestion on how to cook 12 beans that would be great.

Terri

What'll ya have?!

Anslee finally had her first trip to the Varsity. Can you believe we waited this long? We met my mom and dad there before they took Andrew to my sister's house.

Our table was loaded with food (my family takes food SERIOUSLY). We had chili slaw dogs, chili burgers, fries, onion rings, P.C. on ice and frosted oranges and ate every single thing.

What Makes The Varsity So Special?

(found on their website)
It's the Worlds Largest Drive-In Our Downtown Atlanta location is on more than two acres and can accommodate 600 cars and over 800 people inside. On days when the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets are playing a home game, over 30,000 people visit The Varsity.

Legendary Volume Two miles of hot dogs, a ton of onions, 2500 pounds of potatoes, 5000 fried pies and 300 gallons of chili are made from scratch daily.
Only the Best IngredientsFrank Gordy insisted on the freshest of all ingredients and three to six deliveries per day are routine. When asked what he did with leftovers, he replied "We don't have any."

Car Hops! Identifying cars by number has always been an integral part of the Varsity Drive-In system. "Curb men" would sing and dance their way to fame. The most famous of our car hops was a man named Flossy Mae, who sang the menu to customers for over 50 years. Well known TV and Movie star Nipsy Russell also got his start at The Varsity as car hop #46.

T

Anslee's 18 month checkup

Went great yesterday. She didn't get as upset as usual about the shots. Usually she cries for about an hour afterwards. Today she only cried for a few minutes.

Her height is in the 50%
Weight is 10-25%

The doctor asked lots of questions...
Can she feed herself? yep, with a spoon or fork
Does she help dress herself? yes
Can she run? all the time
Can she go up and down stairs? Yes, but now she refuses to crawl up or down. She walks by holding onto the spindles and alternating feet. (which some of my 4 year olds in Preschool don't do)
How many words does she say? Well, she tries any word we tell her but she says about 50 words by herself... The doctor was suprised and said 50? I said everyone might not understand her but the words that she says we can understand what she is telling us. So I made a list of the words that she knows and are easily understood. They are:
Dada ~ eyes ~ please ~ stairs
Mama ~ nose ~ dress ~ car
Drewdrew ~ ears ~ milk ~ yogurt
baby ~ mouth ~ grapes ~ eat
nitenite ~ puppy ~ Nana ~ up
byebye ~ hi ~ fish ~ bath
shoes ~ down ~ sit ~ dog
diaper ~ pretty ~ outside ~ grass
pool ~ beach ~ foot ~ Mike
light ~ fan ~ poopoo ~ hair
done ~ off ~ peepee ~ bellybutton
ouch ~ me ~ that ~ thank you
welcome ~ okay ~ kiss
She calls Buster "arf". At the beach it sounded like she was calling my mom "gamma" (grandmommy).
She didn't hear English for the first 10 months of her life and now she is saying 5o words!!

At 18 months I think Andrew had 3 words : mama, dada and clock :-)

Anslee is obsessed with shoes right now. She wants them on all the time. It doesn't matter whose they are. Getting her out of her crib this morning she was saying "mama, shoes!"

Can you stand this bragging post?! I'm sure it's annoying, but I'm just so proud of her!!
T

Family

My Mom and Dad picked Andrew up on Thursday and they spent the night with my sister and her family for two nights and then we all met up at the beach.



Andrew and Cuyler are waiting for a bedtime story.
Anslee seems unsure of her uncle in this picture but by the time he left, she adored him!

"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together." Erma Bombeck


Keith makes a great low country boil.

Famous in the Low Country of Georgia and South Carolina. This boil is done best on an outdoor cooker. It has sausage, shrimp, crab, potatoes and corn for an all-in-one pot all-you-can-eat buffet.

Rosemary Beach

We had a blast on vacation this last week. Rosemary Beach was just so beautiful! We played on the beach, found tons of shells, swam out to the sandbar and built sand castles. When we were tired of being sandy and salty we would head to the pool, ride bikes or eat.
Anslee's first look at the ocean. She wasn't scared and enjoyed playing in it for a little while. In the morning before we went outside she would point to the door and say either pool or beach. Now when she see's pictures of fish or fish on tv she points to them and says "eyes". She says fish like "ish". I think she just now is realizing how many things have eyes like she does.
Having fun in the ocean. Andrew would've been happy to stay in the ocean all day (just like his mom!). He loved swiming with one of us to the sandbar. We alsocollected shells and coquinas. At night he watched Shark week on the discovery channel. They had a show about the bull shark attacks when we were in Destin either last year or the year before. Luckily it didn't scare him although we wouldn't let him swim very far from us.
We had so much fun. It's always sad leaving the beach...
Thanks Mom and Dad for such a wonderful vacation!!
T

My little cutie!

Recently every time I get the camera out to get a quick picture of something Andrew or Anslee is doing, Anslee runs and sits by the wall. She tries to get there so quickly that she's run headfirst into the wall several times. This time she made it without injury.

Doesn't she have the most adorable little face?!

Friends

When we adopted from China, there were nine other families with us. Our agency is located in Ohio so most of the families are from that area. The closest family to us lives in Florida. They are also the most similar family to ours. They have a son Andrew's age and they are around Keith and my age. We were so excited to plan a time for them to come stay with us! I'm not sure why some of these pictures are blurry...

Anslee and MaKenna had fun together.

Stephanie and the girls.

Stephanie and her mom brought gifts for everyone. Andrew loved his new shirt. Anslee's shirt has "it's my brothers fault" printed on it.

Both Andrew and Noah adore their baby sisters!

It was a great visit. I wish they lived closer.

T

swim lessons

I love taking Andrew to his swim lessons. At 8am no one besides us and the lifeguard is there. It's quiet, the water is still and the temperature is perfect. Andrew has made so much improvement since the beginning of the summer.

Andrew can now tread water for two minutes

Anslee brings her baby her friend Elizabeth gave her. She has several Asian babies but she only wants this blue eyed one.

Andrew learned how to swim the length of the pool. He can do freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke. He wanted nothing to do with me teaching him to swim. This lifeguard was great! He's ready to go to the Y and pass the swim test there.

Anslee loved watching Andrew swim and would try to pull his head up when he came by. She is a little fish ~ already trying to swim and sticking her head underwater and blowing bubbles.

Remember when I told the story about the grumpy people in front of our seats on the way home from Arizona? Well how much better behaved can you be than this??

Anslee loooooves her dada.

T

An interesting article

Official Calls for More Efforts to Curb Gender Imbalance

Curbing the gender imbalance in China's birth rate must be a top priority of the government, a senior official said in Beijing Tuesday.

The gender imbalance was a complicated issue which needed strong leadership and coordinated efforts from the public, State Councilor Hua Jianmin told a tele-conference marking World Population Day.

Budgets for the government's "Care for Girls" program, initiated in 2003 to promote the social status of women, must be guaranteed by local governments, and departments of family planning, publicity, public security, health and food and drug supervision must step up cooperation, said Hua.

The State Council would dispatch teams to the regions at the end of the year to inspect the work, and would discipline those who failed to do a good job, he said.

More public awareness campaigns on family planning and gender equality were needed and neo-natal services should be improved.

In addition, preferential policies should be ensured for girls and women in healthcare, education and employment. Law enforcement officials must crack down on gender identification and abortion without a medical purpose and the abandonment of newborn girls, Hua said.

China has 80 million one-child families. The gender imbalance has become a serious issue in recent few years because many families, especially those in rural areas, prefer boys to girls.

China has 119 boys born for every 100 girls, while the global ratio is 103-107 boys for every 100 girls.

(Xinhua News Agency July 12, 2006)

We are loving the pool this summer and have even more fun when friends come swim with us. This is Andrew and his friend Matthew.


My friend Julie came over with her children Matthew and Elizabeth. Anslee just adores Elizabeth and tries to copy everthing she does.

Grandma Ruthie and Pop were the reason we all were in Sedona. They celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. Can you imagine being married for 65 years?! I have never seen two people more in love.


Andrew, Anslee and Keith's Aunt Glenda checking out a snake.
Andrew and his cousin Clayton in the pool. Does Clayton look familiar? He played Ethan on the Disney show Lizzie McGuire.
Keith's sister Kathy, her daughter Alex, Aunt Glenda, Uncle Steve and cousin Doug. Anslee is reaching for the pool. She loved swimming.
Eating lunch at the Hideaway. They have the best salad I've ever had. Andrew's other cousin Devin (in the white shirt) was here too.
Andrew loved hanging out with his "big cousins". They were all so sweet to both he and Anslee and played with them constantly.

T

Helicopter Trip over the Grand Canyon

If you are going to the Grand Canyon take a helicopter ride over it! It was incredible. I was concerned I was going to feel sick on the ride but it was so smooth that it wasn't a problem at all.




Nana kept Anslee in Sedona. The ride to the airport was an hour and a half and she probably wouldn't have appreciated being in a helicopter after that.
Andrew loved the trip and thought the Canyon was amazing.