For those in the “adoption community” – you may skip this short introduction… The Red Couch Picture is really kinda weird. I am not sure how it all started, but it has somehow become an adoption tradition. We dress these babies up – be it in matching outfits or in “traditional” Chinese dress – and make them sit on the Red Couch in the lobby of the White Swan hotel. We hope for the best – smiling babies who are more than thrilled to sit for a series of pictures by moms and dads. However… most Red Couch pictures have at LEAST one crying baby included in the mix! Today – Amy was the crying baby! Actually, one of the other little girls in our group cried a little, but Amy didn’t care for the outfits and she didn’t care for the pictures!
It was fun, though.
I also got some pics of my three kids (I still love the way that sounds!!!) in their orange Chinese clothing! For those who don’t know me – orange is one of my favorite colors!!! And when I saw these orange outfits in Jordon’s… well… I was sold!
It was another day of firsts for Amy, as well as TONS of major breakthroughs! You know – when you have a newborn, there are lots of firsts, but they come in a natural progression. But when you adopt a toddler, the firsts just race at you SO fast that it’s hard to take them all in!
At about 11 am – after the Red Couch picture fiasco – I decided Austin needed some special Mommy-time. Amy was playing VERY contently with Daddy and Ashleigh so I took the opportunity to sneak out! The plan was that we would meet up with them at Lucy’s for lunch at noon. Chris was nervous, but offered it the ol’ college try anyway.
An hour later… Austin and I had run into another family from our group and invited them to join us for lunch. We were waiting to hear a screaming Amy. It never happened. We saw Daddy, Ashleigh and Amy walking out of the hotel and coming our direction. Now – Amy DID have all her stacking cups and her links and her little spoon from Pizza Hut with her, but she was very happy. Come to find out – she NEVER cried. Now, she wouldn’t let Chris hold her, but she did take huge steps forward today in her relationship with Daddy.
After lunch we all went swimming! Amy hasn’t been real fond of taking a bath since we got her so I wasn’t expecting swimming to be fun for her at all. In fact, as we walked closer to the baby pool she looked and me and said with gusto “no!”. However, it didn’t take her long to put her feet in and start kicking and splashing! She never got all the way in, but she enjoyed kicking in the water for more than an hour!
After swimming we decided to try Pizza Hut one more time! This time we sent the daddies in the taxi and had them bring pizza back. This is the last night all four families are here. We all crowded into our room and kicked back together and enjoy pizza, pop and fellowship. It was just amazing to think about where we all were two weeks ago! To look around and see four smiling little girls with their families is just SO cool! And to see these little girls blossoming into the little girls they were always meant to be… a miracle! We are truly blessed.
Enjoy the pictures! They just keep getting better and better!
For Mrs. Hall and Mrs. Jordan’s classes… In China we aren’t using dollars. We are using the Chinese currency called Yuan. Mr. Lakey goes to the currency exchange in the morning or at night and gives them crisp, brand new US dollars and the banker exchanges them for Yuan so we can shop, eat our meals and take a taxi. The rate of exchange for Yuan is $1 US = $8 YUAN. So if Mr. Lakey gives the banker a $100 bill, he gets approximately $800 YUAN. A can of Coke costs about 5-8 YUAN; a Beijing Olympic T-shirt cost about 25 YUAN and a taxi ride to McDonalds costs about 10YUAN.
My three kids in my favorite color!!!
one MAD little princess
three little Chinese sweethearts
all done swimming
It's not the Red Couch, but this picture seemed to go a bit better...
