A Day Trip to Zhujiajiao- Ancient Water Town

A few pictures from a great family outing. We went 70km west of home to an ancient watertown, where all of the buildings and town are connected by small canals rather than streets. There are a surprising number of these towns around, I suppose since Shanghai is actually part of a giant river delta and much of it used to be under water anyway. And we rode from there out into the surrounding countryside on a beautiful, perfect day.

After wandering through villages on our bikes for most of the morning, we came upon a yacht club! It was a very nice lake, but what a yacht club is doing here this far inland I have no idea. Anyway, we decided this would be a good place for lunch.

You can see in this next picture, Wade has not yet picked up on the American culture of smiling for every picture. Funny, these little things that we just take for granted as being routine are not routine for someone from a different culture!

We cooled off with ice creams or smoothies walking the village. We skipped the local munchie that was sold in practically every third shop - which is a barbequed pig's foot.

It was a great family day.

School Days

Field Day - Oh how I loved field day at school when I was a kid! Wade was sure excited that he got to have "PE" all day long at school on Tuesday. It was only his third day at Yew Chung but you would never know it by how he jumped in with all he had. It turned out to be a beautiful day despite the cool, rainy day the day before. I showed up to cheer him on and to meet his teacher in person. I was able to just hang out with Mrs. Seiler on the field in between events and get acquainted. I was also able to spend time chatting with his English teacher whom I know from church. They are both impressed with this young man and his love for school. Wade is giving it his all during the obstacle course and drop kick competitions. He had never kicked a rugby ball or an American football for that matter. His first try was a bust. Luckily, he had three chances and the last two were quite respectable.

Check out that shot put form! He did quite well in this competition. There is some hidden power packed in that little guy.

Wade had to run the 400M race right after lunch. He was not too optimistic about his ability to do well in that race. He kept patting his stomach and saying "bu hao" (not good) before the start of the race. I was so proud of him all day. He was so easy going and never showed a bad attitude about anything. He gave it all he had and didn't seem to be bothered when he didn't do well up against the other kids. He was a big winner in my book!

On Thursday, it was Industrial Revolution Day at school. All the kids were to dress up from that period for the day. All the other moms had weeks to prepare a costume but I found out the day before. Luckily, my neighbor Jennifer came through at 8pm with a suitable costume. The hat really made the costume, but we couldn't convince him how great it was. He wore it out of the house that morning, but I am sure he stuck it in his backpack the minute he was out of sight and it never saw the light of day again. He also had swimming in PE that day which he absolutely loves. He came home saying it was a very, very fun day at school.

A Special Day - April 23rd

The day had finally arrived - Wade's first day of school at Yew Chung International School. Here he is all dressed up in his uniform. He is such a handsome boy! He was so excited he could hardly stand it. It was a bit difficult to get him up since he didn't get to sleep the night before until almost 3am. We had a six hour delay in our flight time out of Guangzhou. It was a frustrating experience at the airport but the next day more than made up for that. Rich took him in and took care of some business details at the school office while Wade waited for his classroom "buddy" to arrive and show him the way. This buddy would show him the ropes and help him navigate the day.
It was also a special day because Lance turned 13! Another teenager and counting. What a wonderful young man Lance is. We were excited to share this special day with him and celebrated by going to his choice of a restaurant which was tex-mex. We all pigged out on some wonderful 'American-style' Mexican food. We then came back for a tiny piece of creme De menthe cake (because we were all stuffed). This cake is a family favorite and often requested. Thanks, Mom for the recipe you included in the gift recipe book for my wedding shower 24 years ago. It is still going strong!

Lance has developed an interest in the guitar in recent months and we decided it was time that he have one for his birthday. He decided on the electric variety and is itching to get going on lessons. We are not an instrumentally musical family so we are placing our hopes for some musical talent on Lance. Wade is also showing a strong interest in music and will get to take guitar lessons next year at school in music class. He is thrilled at that prospect.

Happy Birthday, Lance!

3rd Day in Guangzhou

It's the third day in Guangzhou and we have an appointment at 3:00 to join with 30 other adoptive families here to finalize their child's visas. But before that, we had the whole morning and part of the afternoon to enjoy so I planned for us to go to a very large park which included several lakes, hills, an amusement park and a giant pool. I had Wade bring along his swim trunks "just in case." We took the subway again (since I am an expert at it after yesterday) and had a much shorter ride to the park. The park was busy with seniors and grandparents with their grand babies. The park was definitely not how it was advertised. The amusement park was not running and the pool was no longer. Many things were run down and old and a bit of a disappointment after such a beautiful safari park yesterday. Wade was impressed with this old airplane in the park. He really loves airplanes now since he has ridden in them. The park had no entrance fee so I guess the government is using their money to get things ready for the Asian games hosted here in November. We left the park earlier than I had planned and went back to a nice Thai restaurant near our hotel for lunch. It was a relaxing lunch and then we had some down time before our guide picked us up at 2:15 for our trip to the consulate.

At the consulate, each family is called forward to sign a final document in front of the consular officer. Wade was actually the one to sign. After each family signed their document, there was a welcome and congratulations speech given by a consular officer and then we all raised our right hand and swore that all the information we gave regarding our adoptions was true. Tomorrow we will pick up Wade's Chinese passport with the visa to the US and then head to the airport for Shanghai. He will officially be a US citizen as soon as he touches US soil this summer. We have completed a long, arduous process with the paperwork to bring Wade home but it is worth every minute of our time and I would do it all over again. Seeing him enjoy life as part of a family is such a tremendous joy!

Wade and Mom in Guangzhou

Wade and I traveled to Guangzhou yesterday to obtain his American Visa in his Chinese passport. He was so excited about taking another plane trip that he counted down the days until our trip and talked about it all the time. Unfortunately, we had to sit on the plane at the gate for 2 hours before we were released by air traffic control. I still don't know what the problem was....Anyway, we arrived at the hotel with only a half hour to spare before we were to go with our guide to the medical exam. We had just enough time to grab a Subway sandwich. Luckily, it was right next store to the hotel. The visa process lasts four days beginning with a medical checkup at the same clinic we took Elise to for her checkup 11 years ago. I couldn't believe it, but it had not changed one bit since that time! Wade was really nervous about the exam, especially at the prospect of getting shots. I didn't think he needed any since his pediatrician in Shanghai said he was up to date. The American gov't has specific guidelines about immunizations for immigrants and so we found out that he needed a tetanus and flu shot. As you can see, he was very brave. He isn't even sore today. The last time I had a tetanus shot, my arm was sore for days.

Wade checked out healthy all around and he is on his way to getting his visa!

This morning we went out to Starbucks for breakfast. Wade didn't think much of the breakfast choices there but it was the nicest Starbucks that I have ever been in! After we had a bite, we went for a walk around this quaint little island called Shamian that we are staying on. We had found a nice park by the Pearl River yesterday and saw that it was very busy this morning. There was so much going on. These ladies were doing a dance with these paddles and ball.

Most of the people in the park are retired and were out getting their morning exercise. We saw groups of people playing a hacky sack type of game, doing Tai Chi, rehearsing songs, dancing in groups and visiting with friends. It was quite a festive atmosphere. I have seen this in other Chinese cities as well and find that it is quite inspiring. They are getting exercise, socializing and enjoying community. It would be nice to see Americans doing the same thing. Seniors might be healthier and happier if they copied theses practices.

I was not impressed with two swimmers I saw in the Pearl River getting their morning exercise. The water is filthy. Wade even made a comment about it. We both saw a boat coming and looked at each other wondering if the boat saw the swimmers or if they were going to get run over.

More diligent seniors getting their morning exercise. It is quite a sight to see as they use these machines set up in the neighborhood. It certainly is not Lifetime Fitness but they make good use of these contraptions.

Something else that we happened upon were training exercises for these military personnel. They were practicing fighting techniques. It looked as if some of what they were practicing was crowd control or mob control techniques. Guangzhou will host the Asian Games this summer and they were probably getting prepared. The Asian Games must be quite an event because this entire island is under renovation. Every street, sidewalk, fountain and building facade is being redone. This island has a lovely French Colonial history to it and when it is done, it will be beautiful. For now, it is a disaster zone. I don't know where they come up with the money to do these kinds of things, but like in Beijing for the Olympics or Shanghai for the World Expo, they go all out to make a good impression at whatever cost.

After our walk we went back to the hotel to get ready to leave for the Safari. I had planned to try out the subway since it was going to be over an hour by taxi to the park. I guess I was feeling brave using the subway in a new city and not being used to taking it. I did manage to mess up my first purchase of subway tokens and had to get some help. After that, we were on our way. We even had to transfer trains (scary for me) but managed to arrive at the safari with no further problems. There was even a free shuttle bus for the park at the end of the subway to take us in.

I must say that this place was impressive. It definitely rivaled any zoo that I have ever been to. It was huge and the number of different kinds of animals was amazing. They had a huge walking safari and then the driving safari where you got on a train car and drove through the safari. They must have a good breeding program going with the numbers of animals that they had there. These white tigers were majestic!

Wade was definitely not in the mood for pictures today. He kept saying it was too hot. After leaving the wintry Shanghai weather, I thought it was wonderful. It was a humid 78 degrees but to him it might as well have been 105. After listening to him complain over and over, I finally threatened to take him back to the hotel. He shut up after that.

The panda exhibit was wonderful and we just happened to get there at dinner time. They had several well done exhibits but curiously enough, after each exhibit, you had to walk through this beautiful and enticing store with all kinds of stuffed animals and such to exit the exhibit. What marketing they have here! The day turned out nicely and I definitely outlasted Wade. We made our way back by subway (much easier on the return) and crashed in the hotel for a while before heading to Lucy's (American style food) for dinner. Wade still managed to order a spicy Chinese dish. We sat next to a family from Shanghai who were there finishing up the adoption of their daughter. We had mutual friends and they even recognized me. They attended our church for a while before switching to a different fellowship. It is a small world indeed. It was yet another blessed day.

Last Week on the Homefront

This past week offered a mixed bag of happenings in the Allen household beginning with the arrival of our friends, Todd and Shandy Bolton and their two girls. We met up at church on Sunday and went out to dinner and for ice cream. Todd and Shandy were in Shanghai to choose a home and firm up plans for their daughters' schools. These fellow Michigan friends have been living in Germany for close to four years and will now relocate to Shanghai in July. We are very excited to have them here and to continue our friendship in person!

Rich and I celebrated our 24th wedding anniversary on Monday the 12th. We went out to celebrate with a steak dinner at one of the local restaurants. We continue to be amazed at how blessed we are in our marriage and give thanks to God for the gift. We are still in love and loving it!

Last week at school was spirit week and one of the days was Wacky Day. Here Lance and Elise are making the most of the day. Other days included, 'dress like your teacher day,' favorite cartoon character day and quadruplets day. The high school even had a cross dressing day. Some of the kids (not mine) went all out with the makeup and female body parts. Who authorized that one?!!!
Wade was home with mom again and would much rather have been in school. He occupied himself with building K'Nex creations and mostly launching them down the stairs. He also was a big help around the house helping me at the store, washing vegetables, doing the trash, grating cheese and cutting vegetables. I tried to find things to help him occupy his time as our ayi has been out on medical leave and we are doing things around the house the old fashioned way. I also had him doing some math fact sheets which he is quite good at. On Friday, we visited his new school, Yew Chung International School to finalize his acceptance and take a tour. We filled his lunch card and got his new uniform. He is very excited and will start next Friday, April 23rd.

On Thursday, we said goodbye to our driver and friend, Ding. Ding has been our driver for over two years. It was a sad parting on both of our parts. He really took very good care of our family and was a good and safe driver. We will miss him. We ordered a new transit van to accomodate our growing family (9 passenger) and the company that leases the vans is a different company than leased our S-max. Hence, we had to be assigned a new driver with the new company. We currently have a 12 passenger van until our new van arrives in a couple of weeks. Mr. Tsai is our new driver and speaks very good English. We are happy with him so far.

Lucas flew off to Seoul on Wednesday with his varsity soccer team (he is not in the above picture) to play in the Asia Pacific soccer tournament at Seoul Foreign School. Neither Rich nor I were able to attend this time but wished we could have been there to cheer them on. Unfortunately they lost some hard battles against some big, tough schools. They did however, earn the highly respected sportsmanship award and we are very proud of the Concordia boys.

Stacia was in the Shanghai neighborhood at Shanghai American School from Thursday through Saturday running in the Asia Pacific track meet. She ran two races a day and placed high enough in the 400M, 200M, and 100M races to go to the finals for each of the races. She did well and came away with a bronze medal in the 200M final. Stacia earned the only medal for Concordia's track team in the meet. Great job, Stacia!

Bursting Out All Over

In addition to all the Wade fun we are having, the rest of the kids help make life an adventure in many ways. So we will take a break from the adoption update for some other interludes.

Stacia joined the varsity track team this year for the first time. This is new for Concordia; in fact, the school does not even have a track! They practice on the sidewalk or in the gym, and it was a short season with a couple of "friendlies". Shown here are pictures from the year-end city meet. She ran the 100m and 200m, and she is fast! She earned two bronze medals in the two events, only 0.2 seconds behind the winner in both events. Not bad against the city competition from across Shanghai. With a little experience, she is going to really give them trouble.

On the same day, Lucas was across town playing in the city-wide soccer tournament. He was called up to the varsity about two weeks ago. They were in serious need of some defensive help, so Luke "The Wall" Allen was just the antidote they needed. He jumped into a starting position the first game, and has never been taken out of a game since.

Here he is #14, doing some banging with the (huge!) kids from the Shanghai German school. The Concordia team played a great tournament, ending up fourth place in a shootout after time expired. Of course, the tie score of the final after regular time and overtime was 0-0...the Luke man was on defense the whole time!!

Lance earned a special honor this week -- he was named to National Junior Honor Society. It is the Middle School (Junior) version of the high school equivalent, awarded to a few of the students based on academic grades plus leadership and service participation. It was an exciting accomplishment as much as any...but sorry, no good pictures to go with it!

We are grateful to be parents, it is fun to see the kids make their own mark in the world. We are most proud of all for the way they really stick together and love each other, and each of them have shown that all again the way they have handled Wade's arrival.

Wade, for his part, got his first big taste of being the little brother -- he had to sit (well, run around, actually) and watch the events and wish he was in them! He can't wait for his chance.

Hope your spring is as bountiful as ours here in Shanghai,

Love the Allens.

Goofing off!

Lance and Wade have had some hilarious times playing around on Lance's computer doing photo shop. Here they switched hair. Lance also managed to lose an ear. Amazing how different people look with different hair. Wade doesn't care for this picture but I wish you could have seen them on the floor sitting together laughing so hard!Things continue to go well here. Wade has really enjoyed so many new things. He has taken to our western food quite well. The other day he poured himself a huge glass of milk for breakfast. When he first got home, he didn't like it. Now it is no problem to have him drink milk. He also enjoyed two bowls of cereal with strawberries the other morning. He loves ice cream and has had it almost everyday. I am not too impressed with his favorite flavor which is green tea ice cream. He is lamenting the fact that we are now out of this flavor. We still do have chocolate which is a close second. Tonight he asked me what we were having for dinner and I told him Taco Soup and showed him a picture. He got excited and said that he liked that. How would he have ever had Taco Soup before? I guess he just liked the look of the picture. He did chow down on the soup at dinner too. Lance and Elise were off of school for the past two days because of conferences so Wade had some playmates. He has not started school yet and I am hoping for next week. We are waiting to be contacted by the principal for a final confirmation on his acceptance. He is really excited to start school yet a bit anxious about all of the English. We think he will do well once he gets going. He absolutely loves anything that has to do with the computer and lets us know how to navigate if he is watching over our shoulder. He is currently doing typing games with English words on the computer next to me.

We are again so pleased with how things have gone in the adjustment for all of us. This is what we asked people to pray for. God is good. Wade fits in well here. He is happy and comfortable. He is laughing and making me laugh. He willingly does chores that I ask him to do. We are in training mode but he doesn't mind being corrected. He wants to please. One of his biggest objections has been the dentist. We have made two trips so far with a third scheduled for Sunday for fillings. I don't blame him, who likes the dentist? He got a cleaning with a fluoride treatment and some sealant done on four of his molars the other day. It was all he could take. I saw tears for the first time. We stopped for the day and said we would do the other molars another time. He will start orthodontics in May. Oh my, he hasn't seen anything yet....

I think I am falling in love....I can't wait for everyone to meet him!

Tomb Sweeping Day

Today was a traditional holiday in China called Ching Ming or Tomb Sweeping Day. The people are supposed to go and visit the graves of their ancestors, cleaning them up, leaving decorations and setting food out for their ancestors to enjoy. Many families will picnic at the grave sites. Today on our bike ride we encountered a small cemetery and recognized the streamers on the graves as part of the tradition. Everyone had the day off of school or work so we made plans with our friends the Liptaks to take a family bike ride out to the ocean. It was a beautiful day and everyone made the long trek without complaint. Wade did just great, staying at the front of the pack most of the time.

At our destination we snacked and chilled out on the wall facing the sea. So many ships were coming and going and the airport was close by as well. Lots of locals were there watching us more than the ships. There is no beach anywhere in sight but I am not sure that you would want to swim in that water anyway.

The long trip to the sea and back was lined by many flowering plants and trees. People were out working in the many gardens we saw. We were quite a group and the cause of numerous, long stares by local people. For one, we all had helmets on and the locals don't wear bike helmets. They get a kick out of seeing foreigners in out of the way places - but who are those three Chinese children with them? They truly must wonder.....

As I mentioned previously, Wade is a big Spiderman fan. Today we put up some things in his room that we had purchased months ago for him. He was absolutely delighted! I couldn't be happier that my purchases for him would be so well received.

Happy Easter

A very blessed and happy Easter to everyone - He is risen, He is risen indeed! Spring is in full bloom here in the neighborhood and all around Shanghai. We are enjoying the beauty and new life all around us. Wade's new life with us continues to unfold with new experiences for him everyday. Yesterday Rich involved Wade in making grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone at lunch. He really seemed to enjoy being taught how to make them but more surprisingly, he enjoyed eating it more. The Chinese typically do not eat sandwiches or cheese but he has taken to these things quite readily. I have been asking him to drink a little bit of milk at lunch and dinner and he has obeyed (sometimes holding his nose). We are trying to have him work into these things. He has probably had a deficiency in calcium among other things so with the change in diet, we expect to see him sprout up quickly.

I asked him to help me make the pizzas for dinner and once again he jumped right in following all of my instructions. He said he liked all of the ingrediants (mushrooms, onions, green pepper, ham, pepperoni) except the olives. We made him a customized half of pizza with only a few olives (we are making him at least try these things). When it was time to eat, he didn't even notice the olives and went back for a fourth piece full of olives!

Lance and Wade have had some fun times of connecting with each other. Here they are checking out the Guiness Book of World Records. There was a lot of chatting going back and forth in Chinese as well as giggling so I just had to snap this shot.

Our dear friends from our (not so) small group wanted to welcome Wade home. Our friend Carol ordered these lovely Easter/spring cupcakes and a welcome message for Wade. Everyone was so wonderful in greeting him and rejoicing in his arrival after waiting with us for almost a year. Wade was a bit shy and overwhelmed, but I pray that he sensed God's love for him through these precious brothers and sisters.

This morning we began our Easter celebration with a big breakfast. Yes, we broke out the pancake griddle and proceeded as if Wade would enjoy them as much as we would. Rich had the pancakes going and was adding chocolate chips in some as well as dried blueberries in others. Wade was at his side. I was cooking the bacon and had my fingers crossed that he wasn't grossed out by a family favorite. The other kids were getting the table ready and pouring the juices. We sat down for our feast and Wade was given a pancake in the shape of a W. He didn't hesitate a bit with the pancakes and enjoyed the breakfast as much as we all did. Seems as if he isn't afraid to try new things and has found out that he likes most of what we eat so far (except the milk).

After breakfast, Lance took Wade outside and introduced him to all of the toys in the garage. It was precious seeing Lance teach him some new things such as hopping on the pogo stick and throwing a football. I am positive that he had never seen an American football much less thrown one. His determined spirit comes out again as he trys these new things. Later he got to go swim at the fitness center. The swim coach was there giving lessons so we set Wade up to begin to learn how to swim next week.

We celebrated Easter at our afternoon service at our church, Abundant Grace. It was a beautiful service for us, but poor Wade didn't understand too much of what was going on. Yesterday we had bought him a children's Bible story book in Chinese and brought that along. He read it for a little bit during the service and Rich pointed out to him the Easter story. He managed to doze off a bit and fidget a lot. We had a baptism service after church which we stayed to watch and celebrate with our friends. Madelyn, the daughter of our friends the Liptaks', was baptized. We had a friend who spoke Chinese to explain to Wade what was going on during the baptism. We all went out to celebrate at an Indian restaurant afterwards. It was a great evening that finished up with a game of "Wahoo" as our Grandma Kiest would call it. A game that used dice, marbles and a game board was perfect for Wade with no English required. Before bed, I once again gave detailed (charades) instructions on how to wash in the shower. This morning we heard him get in the shower but figured that for the 30 seconds he was in there, he probably didn't get that clean. Oh the joys of parenthood.......until tomorrow.