XuXu's First Month OR Blowing Raspberries, Making friends

We interrupt the stories about China to update you about our first few weeks at home...
Has it been 3 week already? And almost a month since Lu Jia Feng became XuXu Lynn Denzel (one month on the 17th!).
It's all gone so fast. One kid made life move quickly and now with two it's at light speed! Blogging has really taken a back seat to the kids and sleeping! It took us a week to get over the jet lag and almost 2 before I did not feel sick at all anymore! (That was one of the longest illnesses I have ever had. Over a month!)

Anyway, XuXu's first days in her forever home and as an American Citizen and California Girl have been quite eventful. She has just eased right into it as if she was always meant to be here. It's amazing. When I asked God to prepare her to be a part of our family and help her know that this was her home (almost every night for 3 years), HE DID. Praise God! (I could have been a bit more prepared for parenting a toddler again... but... you can only be so prepared for the unknown ;) ). She seems to be adjusting beautifully.

XuXu's life since meeting us has been full of firsts.
First time off of the Social Welfare Institutes's campus.
First car ride.
First trip to the supermarket.
First hotel stay.
First restaurant.
First plane ride.
First family... forever family... and that was all with out leaving China!

Now that she is home the firsts are just all over the place! (which is so special... sacred... to us, because we have missed so many of her other firsts.) XuXu has met many of our friends and family and given them her standard greeting... blowing a raspberry. (Or a zerbert or making a flatulent noise with her mouth what ever you want to call it.) After she became a bit more comfortable with us, on the first day we had her, that is the sound she made for us and we all laughed... so now that is her way of saying "Hello". Here she is with Bill's dad and they are doing it together...


This is a brief chronicle of the events of the past few weeks and XuXu's firsts.

First car seat ride and did not scream... Hooray! (slept through most of it)
Welcome home and touch the soil in Ventura! (US Citizen Baby!)






Met Grandpa Lynn (above) and many friends, entered her home, played in the back yard, checked out her room, had "In-n-Out!", and slept in her own crib all for the first time!
Ate in her own high chair (and did not scream)
Played with big brother in her "Cozy Coupe" (below)



Watched Zion's soccer practice.
Went with Mom to drop off Big Brother at school (and got a fabulous greeting from the class).
Went to Trader Joe's (Mom's favorite grocery store! and did not scream about being in the cart)
Met Auntie Gwenda (Aimee's sister), Uncle Emilio, Cousin Giada and Abuelita (Bill's mom).




Met Grandpa Denzel (below) and Maria, and watched Zion's soccer game.


Met Auntie Rita (Bill's sister), Uncle Mickey, and all the Diaz cousins (Maddie, Gabby, Michael, Joshua and Jonathan) and had her first egg hunt.
Went to visit a fire station (below) and Children's World park on a mommy and me outing to Santa Barbara (and met many more friends!)




First visit to Santa Barbara! (and first time in the stroller since China and she did not scream!)
First visit to our family doctor.
Went to Pete's breakfast house! (A Ventura local's must)
First visit to an art museum. (below)
First book signing party and meeting with Auntie Stella and Uncle Richard (her God parents)
Introduced to our beloved Bridge (our old church) friends at a park gathering.
Went to her first mommy and me music class.
Went to a welcome party (for her) at Daddy's work.
First movie "Horton Hears a Who!" with popcorn (which I did not notice, there in the dark, that she was chewing up and spitting out all over us!)
First "Pump It Up" birthday party! and first time on a bouncer!
First trip to the beach and first time playing in the sand (got it in her diaper, now she's really a Cali girl) and first time putting her feet in the ocean. (below)






First time Daddy put her to bed (she did pretty well). Mommy even got a night out to play Bunco!
First time in the YMCA childcare so Mommy could workout (she made it through almost the whole class!)

Wow, so many new and wonderful things happening. New foods, new sights, new friends, new home... wonderful new life.
It hasn't come without work and sacrifice and struggle, but nothing this beautiful does... hard work and sacrifice from us, from you, from all the great staff at your SWI in Hefei and from your birth parents (they don't know how much they sacrificed when they they gave you up).
Welcome home XuXu... we will always love you and we will always be your family.

Sorry, been busy.

Hello readers,
I'm so flattered that you enjoy my blog. I have been wanting to create a post for days. Even now these few words has taken me about 20 minutes with trying to deal with two kids at the same time. So... sorry to keep you all waiting to hear about what is happening. I have a half finished post about the last two weeks saved as a draft that I hope to finish soon. I hope I haven't lost too many of you out due to my inability to post. Check back maybe once a week. Once my son is back in school (starting next week 3-14) I should have more time.

Anyway we are well and I should have more of a story and pictures soon.
Here's a picture of XuXu at the music class I took her too on Monday. She enjoyed the bubbles.

Back to the Beginning

I said I would post more about our trip when I got back... so here it is. I went all the way back to us on the plane out of LAX. This is what I would have posted if I was able to get on-line and wasn't so sick and dog tired. So here are photos (with captions) mostly from our first day touring Beijing before we went to get XuXu...


Its very early in the morning and we are on our the first leg of our flight to China, LAX to SF.
Zion was so excited to go on his first airplane trip... but not so excited just a few minutes after leaving the ground. The poor guy got air sick. We found him some Dramamine in the San Francisco airport and he was fine on all the subsequent flights.



This was our first day in China. First we walked around Tienamen Square. We couldn't actually go onto the square because the Chinese "congress" was in session. Then we went to tour the Forbidden City which is at one end of the Square. It was a lot more crowded there this time than in 1993. This is us entering the Forbidden City. (It is called that because only the Imperial Court and the servants of the Emperor could enter, no commoners allowed.)



The Forbidden City is a vast and amazing complex. I like to imagine what it was like in it's glory during anceint Imperial China. The first time I was there in '93 our guide told us that 10,000 people lived within the walls of the Forbidden City. Many of those people were guards or servants.




Above are some of the interesting signs that Bill took pictures of. Sometimes the "Changlish" can be hilarious. I might need to spend more time in the "Hall of Mental Cultivation" after becoming a mom of two! The brain cells are dwindling. And how could you pass up a "Four Star Toilet"! The cultural differences can definitely be "Way Out".

The next photos are from my favorite sight-seeing venture in China. We went on a tour of a part of Beijing called Hutong. The people still live in the traditional courtyard style homes, some of which have housed the same families for many generations. I loved getting this taste of real China. We all piled in bicycle rickshaws and were toured around this quaint and delightful part of "Old Beijing". The ride was fun and exciting and the drivers were very playful, sometimes racing each other.


The first place the rickshaws stopped was where we were to have lunch (photos below). Our lunch was hosted in the master bedroom of a traditional courtyard home and it was cooked by the lady of the house and served by her daughter and our guides. There were three tables with small stools around them set up in the room and the one couch and bed also served as seating. What a gracious display of hospitality. Can you imagine hosting over 20 strange foreigners for lunch in one small room of your home (the room was probably as big as my kitchen.) And the lunch (which was delicious) was cooked on a tiny two burner coal fired stove in a tiny kitchen (about 1/4th the size as mine.) This really taught me a lesson about Christ-like hospitality. Amazing. You can get a sense of it from the photos below.

This is Zion, Bill and I at the lunch.

This is a photo of the part of the lunch where our hostess and local guide proudly told us about her home and family.

Our very gracious hosts.

We then went to visit another traditional home and family. The matriarch of the family (an adorable woman) just loved Zion. She asked him to sit with her while she told us about her home and family. I'm so glad he did without hesitating. (Thank you God!) This family had several pets: fish, turtles and birds. One of the birds kept saying "Ni Hao" (pronounced "nee how" and is "Hello" in Chinese). This experience was such a wonderful part of our trip. It really impacted my heart and increased my love for the Chinese people. Everyone who visits China should have an opportunity to do something like this before it is all taken over by high rises.

Next is a picture of some of the adorable children we met visiting a Chinese preschool. Aren't they gorgeous kids! And so well behaved. Could you imagine an American preschool parading foreign tourists through just so they could check it out!?! NO WAY! But it was good to see. Outside this classroom were baskets of toys and one of them was full of TOY automatic weapons... you'd never find that at an American perschool either.

I just love this picture of an alley way on our Hutong tour. It shows some the charm and simple beauty of China.


After this Zion and BIll went to a Chinese acrobat show. (Zion loved it.) I was too worn out to join them and went back to the hotel to try to rest some, but really only got to lay down (on the stone bed) for about 10 minutes and then had to get in the bus to join those who went to the show for dinner. We all were super cranky at dinner and practially collapsed when we finally got back to our rooms.

Well that was our first day. I'll continue to go through our trip in the next posts.