Travel !

All of our tickets are booked ... the three of us on July 19th leave Toronto. The FOUR of us leave Beijing on July 31st.

Counting down the days ...

New kid, new house ... why not ??

So, things are never dull around the Casa de Webster ... just over a week ago, we hopped in the car to look at a development built by the same company as our Toronto house. Nice area, all sold out .. no biggie. We weren't going to buy, just out looking ... Kurt suggests we take a drive by the lake and see what's there. We do, we see a few signs. The sign in front of this house happened to be lying on the ground, we didn't think anything of it ... kept driving. Stopped at an open house, left, drove by this house again, sign was up ... same realtor. Back we go, in we go ... back the next day with our realtor and the rest is history ! I guess it was meant to be ...

Timeline:
                   Maine for a week.
                   Back to Toronto for Kurt's graduation, packing, cleaning, moving things out,paperwork, visas, etc.
                   Maine for a couple of weeks with Lauren and Scott and Camp Ka-Ve for Luolin ...
                   Back to Toronto, board dogs, pack bags and head to China to get Rui Nash ... returning to Toronto after 11 days ...
                   Maine bound with everyone to have some family bonding time with the new little man ...
                   Back to Toronto to close on the new house ... begin the move
                   Back to Maine
                   Back to Ajax, to the new house and start school !

WHEW.


                 

Squeeze Day

We already have a "Fin Day", and having a "Fins Day" would be too confusing ... So, I think that July 21 will officially be "Squeeze Day". Being this is the first time we get to give Rui Nash a big, old SQUEEZE, it just seems fitting ...

80 days until we travel to China

Here we go again !

80 days until we make our way to the other half of the world to meet and bring home our son, Rui Nash Julius Webster.

Back in September, I was mindlessly surfing the internet. I must have been feeling a bit nostalgic, and went to the Great Wall China Adoption page. They had a new feature for waiting children, which included pictures ... Click, click and there was this face ! I continued on, read his description only to find out that he has the same condition in his legs as Luolin does. I took it as a sign.

After talking it over, the process began to bring this little boy home to our family.

We hoped that we would be able to use the agency that took us to China the first time. Being in Canada, we wouldn't be able to. We kind of found out the hard way, after putting in an initial application for Rui. Not being able to use our agency, we had to locate one in Canada. We were fortunate enough to find one that took control and was quickly able to bring Rui's file to them. We did lose him for a few hours, which was horrible. After finding his file, the process began. We had our home study done and took parenting class. After completing both, the ministry saw that we were "fit" to adopt and Rui became a part of our family.

We have waited for our travel date, which came yesterday, July 19th, 2014.

We will spend 11 days in China, starting in Honk Kong and Shenzhen so Luolin can see "her China". If nothing else, we will visit her her orphanage from the outside to give her some answers to questions she has asked over the years. Next we will begin our trip north to Nanjing to get Rui and take care of the paperwork, exams and all that goes into the adoption process. Last stop will be Beijing and the Canadian Consulate. Here we will get his Canadian passport, finalize the paperwork and board our flight home to Toronto. After that, back to the lake in Maine for the rest of the summer.

As our trip gets closer, I will update the itinerary and any news we might have !

... should be so much better than I have been !

I looked at the last date and thought, gee, I need to update this more often !!
Luolin is blossoming into quite the young lady ... she is 5 going on 19 ... Senior Kindergarten is going well, she is a fantastic swimmer and loving her weekly trips to the Royal Ontario Museum for their Saturday Morning Club.

Life here in Toronto is going well for our family here. Dylan is in his last semester at Seneca, Kurt is working hard and I am learning the ways of being a non-working woman. Lauren and her husband, Scott, have moved to south Florida and are enjoying the tropical lifestyle. We stay connected through technology and try to visit each other when we can. We still will be summering in Maine at least for 2012, with a family gathering sometime in July. 

October 2011

Once again I find myself asking ... "Where does the time go?" Here we are in October of 2011.

We have all found ourselves in different spaces and places. Kurt, Luolin and I are at home in Toronto, Dylan is also in Toronto studying psychology, and Lauren and Scott have moved south to Florida.

Luolin is doing great ... enjoying senior kindergarten. She takes swim lessons and is a busy as a 5 year old can be. She was fitted today for her third leg socket which will be for her "swim leg" that will venture into the pool, beach and anything wet !

Luolin

Luolin Jr. Kindergarten 2010-2011

August - December 2010

It has been a very long time since I have sat down to update our blog ... since I last wrote, 3/5 of the family has moved to Toronto. Luolin is in Jr Kindergarten and Dylan is in his first year at Seneca College. Both are enjoying their new surroundings and doing quite well.

Lauren and Scott were married on July 17th. The wedding was beautiful - small and casual at Reid State Park with a luau reception under the tent in our field at the lake. They are still living with me in Winthrop. Scott is still keeping the prisoners in line at the jail and Lauren is at the GAP, Sears photo, working on her own photography business and heading back to school to become a certified teacher.

I am still teaching in the US. This will be my last year with RSU #4 as their 5-8 health teacher. I'll miss the kids, but not the politics that come about with working in a small school system.

The new house is still a work in progress ... someday it will be finished !

Happy Holidays to everyone ... may 2011 bring you much happiness and joy!

Summer begins ...

Long time, no update !

Things are going well ... we are crazy busy with moving to Toronto and to our summer place ... all of the boxes have arrived and are slowly being unpacked ... it is a process !

Luolin is doing well ... she is due for a "new foot" in the next week or so and possibly a new socket in the very near future. She is growing like a weed !! It amazes all of us how she has grown into such a "little girl".

Now that we are living at the lake and the weather is coming around, there is far more to do outside ... look for more pictures and posts as we gear up for another great Maine summer !!

Fin Day !!

Smilin'

Hanging with Sissy and Rosco

Today we celebrated our first year anniversary of having Luolin in our lives. We have made March 2nd, "Fin Day" in honor of The Fin !!

A year ago today ...

Hard to believe this was us a year ago in Chicago on our way to China. So much has happened with our family this year including Luolin !

Lauren is engaged and will be married on July 17. Dylan is in his senior year, graduating in early June. Our house in Toronto is finished. Kurt lives there almost full time. The rest of us get there when we can ... Luolin's surgery was successful and she is now a very mobile almost 4 year old.

I am sure that's not all, but those are the biggies !!

It has been such a long time !!!

Wow ... I can not believe we are coming up on 1 year ... 1 year since our journey to China to meet and bring home our small wonder ... the time has just flown by. There are really no words to describe it all either ! Here are a few shots of Luo this fall and winter ...

Thanksgiving in NYC complete with a trip to Tiffany's ... in the pink tutu was our first professional photo shoot ... with Daddy at Dylan's soccer game ... after the big snow storm with Dewey the Husky and mom ... first time out on her new cross country skis ...

Magic Leg Day is Finally Here !

This was the proto-type leg we tried first. The foot was the wrong color ...




























Here she is with her leg. She grabbed it from Mark with a smile as large as her birth country !













First with the walker and after about 10 minutes ...















she was off and running !

The cast is off ... the journey continues ...

Tomorrow

The hospital called last night to ask a million and one questions and give some pre-op directions. They did say that we would be getting another call today with more information and more questions ! (Is that possible???)

We have gotten the fabric for the upper part of the magic leg. We settled on pink cammo ... hopefully we can match the aluminum shaft part to the fabric ...

ONE, yes ONE more day !!!

Not counting today because it is half way over ... we are down to 1 day !!!

We need to be at the hospital by 8:45 for her 10:00 appointment. Looks like Wednesday will be an early one !!!



This is out toga that turned into a loin cloth ... you can see the cast beginning to unravel!

2 1/2 days ...

We are into "cast-off" week ! Yeah !! Good thing because I swear mold is beginning to grow ... nasty!

5 days ...

5 days and counting down ...

6 days and counting ...

Here is the cast at just about it lowest point ... it has been vomited on, urinated in, gotten wet in the bath and is coming unwrapped ...

Count Down to the Cast Off !

One week from tomorrow ~yeah.