Feb. 22nd

Today was all about Addison.  Everything she knows about her role in our family is about to change, so we gave her a special treat with a little surprise!

"Why is Micky Mouse on the train mommy?"  The windows on the subway train that takes you to Hong Kong Disneyland in the picture below were what she was referring to in Mickey Mouse being on the train.   A great way to start the day; Addison was excited just getting on the "Mickey Mouse train" as she called it, having no idea what was in store for her!

 

 

 

Not until we read her this sign did she figure out what her surprise was and what we were doing today.

 

These next two pictures are worth way more than a thousand words, or any amount of money!  They are all anyone would need to see in order to figure out that this little girl was absolutely thrilled about going to Disneyland!!! 

"Look mom, over there, it's Ariel"

 

"And over there, that's a picture of Cinderella, look mom do you see her!?!"

 

  

Addison got all dolled up as Snow White (By the way, not her favorite princess.  That would be Ariel.  But Snow White was a far more reasonable idea when it came to walking around dressed up as a princess all day in the park).  They did her hair, her make-up, the whole works.  She was absolutely breath taking.  We had brought Addison's dress, magic wand, shoes...everything with us, which we found out not everyone does.  The boutique sells everything a little girl needs to dress up like their favorite princess but one thing - the shoes.   So that only goes to reason why the ladies making her up were enthralled with her shoes.  All nine other ladies putting togehter other little girls stopped and dropped what they were doing to come check out Addison's shoes, they ooo'ed and ahhhh'ed over them.  Jen was a little embarrassed, but Addison was just soaked it in.  I suppose it's because the shoes are more for the pictures after they get dolled up and not so practical for walking around the park.  They just use a plain gray pair for every princess; gray goes with any princess dress, and since most parents weren't buying them at the boutique, they quite selling them.  Apparently just about everyone, but us, buys everything right at the boutique instead of bringing it with them, who knew?     

 

 

 

 

We were able to take in the Golden Mickey's musical show, during which Ariel was suspended from the ceiling swimming around the stage.  Ariel was one of about 10 different musical numbers that featured different Disney characters through the songs from their movies.  When we got back to the hotel we asked Addison what her favorite thing from Disneyland was, she said, "Seeing Ariel!"

It was a great day!  A long day, but a great day none the less.  Once again we have a tired little girl tonight.  She woke up to eat supper, but was fast asleep in mom's arms before we left the restaurant.


Good night all!
Jason, Jen, and Addison

Feb. 21

We started our trip to China on Tuesday to go get Tovin, whom as you know is the little boy we've adopted.  The actual day on which we see him in person for the first time is this coming Sunday, to pick him up, if you will, in more ways than one.  In the mean time, however, following a suggestion from our adoption agency we are spending a few days to take in his culture, not to mention Addison's once again, before we get Tovin.  When that time comes we will need to focus all of our attention on our little boy, to start the bonding process.  We know when that process starts, things for everyone and details of everything on our trip will need to change.

So...right now we are in Hong Kong, mainly for something we knew that Addison would thoroughly enjoy and treasure for the rest of her life.  Also, it is something that we thought we could give her as a gift because she is so special to us, not to mention that she has been asking, practically begging to go, for about the past four months, thinking that she might have the chance to go to Florida.  Thats right, tomorrow we are taking her to Hong Kong Disneyland, and she has no clue :-)  It's going to be a special day!!!

Today we took a ride in a Crystal Cabin cable car (named so for it's see through glass floor) up a steep hillside to see Big Buddha.  Big Buddha is, by all accounts, huge!  It is definitely a tourist trap, but it is also the home of an active Buddhist monastery.   "Once merely a remote monastery hidden by lush, mountain scenery, the Po Lin Monastery made it to the world map when the extraordinary Tian Tan Buddha statue (informally known as the Big Buddha) was erected in 1993." (google - Big Buddha)

We also took in a short tour through the fishing village of Tai O and were able to ride in a boat on a tour of Lantau Island and out to sea to spot and watch pink dolphins.  We did see two pink dolphins from a fair distance but Addison wasn't so sure what she was looking for so she missed the two times they surfaced.  We enjoyed our walk through the local specialty market and ate in a back alley eating establishment - not so sure if it was an actual restaurant or just someone's home set up with lots of tables, etc.  I could talk about the food and how good it was, but I'm not even sure what it was that we ate.  All I can say is that if you like Chinese food in the states, you should make the trip to the main land someday, it will be worth your time!  

Once again Addison was her sweet little self today, right up to the time when she figuratively hit a brick wall and zonked out.  She's been sleeping since about 6:00; she missed supper and our stroll through parts of downtown, which included a ride on the longest escalator system in Hong Kong.  It really wasn't too exciting, so we only went about half the distance of it's total length and I bet we rode for about 15 minutes.  

It's now about 11:30 and everyone is asleep except for me.  We're all tired, and we have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.  

Thanks for reading our blogspot, and enjoy the pictures!  We sure are having fun creating those memories.  

Jason, Jen, and Addison.

p.s. - here's a shout out to my 7th and 8th grade Health students!  Rock on!  And, let's see, 8th graders.....Reed, stop talking so everyone around you can pay attention; and yes Noah you can tell  Dylan that I like to talk!  7th graders.....Anna, quite please everyone else is trying to read this too; and Natalie, Mrs. Kainz say's hi!


In the Crystal Cabin cable car.

Awesome story:  Addison is sometimes a scaredy-cat and covers her eyes when she sees statues.  It took me awhile, but I was able to talk her out of some of those fears enough today so that she uncovered her eyes even when we got up close to Big Buddha.  I told her that Buddha was just like Jesus and that he loved her and would never hurt her.  Later on Addison saw all the people that were kneeling down to pray to Buddha, and before I knew it she joined them, paying attention to how they held their hands and everything.  She turned around and said, "Daddy, what do I do."  I told her to say a prayer.  She stayed there for about another minute and said, "Ok, daddy, I'm done."  I picked her up and made a point not to ask her what she prayed for.   As we walked around to look at the back of these three statues below she whispered in my ear, "Daddy, I asked Jesus to watch over us on our trip, and then I said, Jesus, I love you and I know that you love me,  and I know that Buddha loves me too.  Can you watch over me, and can you watch over Buddha because he loves you too.  Amen!"

I'm not sure if that is the first time anyone has said a Christian prayer in a Buddhist temple before, but even so, I'm guessing that both Buddha and Jesus understand.  A little later, the Chinese tourists that were burning incense in the open square praying to Big Buddha were serenaded to more than one of Addison's favorite Christmas songs - it was awesome!

Here's what a tired 4 year old looks like at the supper table.  We ate at the Hard Rock cafe and Addison couldn't have cared less!

Good night all! 

Feb.19-20

Tuesday/Wednesday:

Just arrived in Hong Kong, was 2:20 Thursday morning when we started putting this together, (12:20 in the afternoon back home, CST).  We left for the airport at 5:15 am on Tuesday and flew to Chicago with not problems.  Addison was given her wings at check in, and was invited to the flight deck by the pilot for a look around.

In Chicago we were supposed to have a 3.5 hour layover, but that’s not how it worked.  We knew in Minneapolis that there was going to be an hour delay because of mechanical issues.  We arrived at our gate and people watched, and meet a group of clowns going to the World Clown Convention in Singapore.  The clown with the orange hair made an Ariel out of balloons for Addison.  I think Addison was a little excited when the clown gave it to her. 

We boarded the plane at 1:45 and waited for the mechanical papers to be processed.  The first officer got on the intercom and announced that because of this delay the flight crew went illegal…basically if they would have crewed our flight they would have had too many hours in the air.  They asked all of us to get off the plane with all of our items to wait for the new crew.  The new departure time was set for 5:45, so we boarded the plane at five.  We were all on the plane, and the new first office got on the intercom, and announced the flight attendant crew was now illegal.  We were able to stay on the plane while the new flight attendant crew was assembled.   We finally pushed back from the gate at 6:45 and arrived in Hong Kong at 11:45.  Our first stop after getting off the plane was to the restrooms.  Check out the picture below…loved the bathroom stalls in HK!

We made in through customs in about an hour, and were ready to go to our hotel for the night!  It was seriously 1:01am when we went to the hotel shuttle desk, the nice man behind the counter said “oh, so sorry, the last shuttle went out at 1:00…take this card to the blue taxi and go that way”.  We went downstairs to the blue taxi line, handed the card to the drive and away we went to the hotel.

Our hotel is beautiful, and right on the water.  We can’t wait to see what it looks like when it's light outside.

Our day was long and full of adventure!  Addison did an amazing job traveling today, and really was a trooper.  The five of us (Addison's Uncle Jay and Aunt Sheila came along to chase Addison!) really seem to be great travel partners…we can’t wait until there is the sixth member to our travel party.  We are one day closer to seeing our sweet Tovin’s face.

Tomorrow we are off to see the Big Buddha and visit a local fishing village.   It’s really late and Addison is eating Teddy Grahams…

Oh…we’re getting up in 4 hours!

Good Night!

Gotcha Day has been scheduled!

We received an email from our adoption agency...Tovin's Gotcha Day is February 24th!  That means that his world will soon be flipped upside down - we can't wait!

As of right now, we are thinking that we will fly out on February 18th - the exact same day that we left on four years ago to get Addison.  

Newest Pictures of Tovin

Jen and I sent another cake, I believe it's the 3rd one we've sent, for Tovin and his friends to share.  We were able to get a few pictures of him as well; check out those pink snow pants - awesomeness!  Addison can't wait to tease him about these pictures.

New Pictures:

Tovin's 2nd birthday!

Jen and I sent Tovin a birthday cake via a man in China - it was delivered on his birthday March 23rd, and the care package we sent about 4 weeks ago showed up the next day.  When he delivered the cake, he was able to snap some pictures of Tovin enjoying his cake.  

Can only assume that this is Tovin's nanny or the director of the orphanage.  It's nice to have a picture of them together - at least he'll be able to have some pictures of his past.  Guessing that the card is from the man who brought the cake explaining that it was from us.

Gotta love boys!  We're so used to Addison being so particular about things, I can't wait to join in a mess once in a while!

We'll be coming soon enough bud; hang in there til the paper work gets done.  Love Mom and Dad!