From Wuhan to Waynesville -- A Christmas to Remember

The holidays are basically over, but I wanted to take a moment to remember this Christmas because it was the first Christmas that Minsy has gotten to experience in her life, I'm sure.  I'm not sure what I expected from Minsy as we went through our various Christmas traditions and rituals.  For our older children Christmastime is full of so much excitement and anticipation.  We even feel that as adults.  I still remember Herman and my first Christmas together when we woke up at 2 am and ran to the living room because we were so excited to open presents.  That continues to this day -- although both Herman and I are way slower as we shuffle in that direction.  But for Minsy?  Well, she had no idea what was going on as we went about celebrating the holidays in our different ways.  I think that everything is still so new to her.  She can't recognize special occasions so much because almost every day is a special occasion to her.  The first time I took her shopping for groceries at our local Wal-mart was a new experience for her.  The first time we headed to the library.  The first time she got to eat lunch at the school with her big brothers.  All of these seemed a bit extraordinary to Minsy.  So how was Christmas going to be any different?  She seems to approach all of these new experiences in the same way.  She sits back and quietly observes things for a bit, processing exactly what is going on around her.  Then she jumps right in and makes the most of whatever experience she is having.  She is not really a timid child, but she does take a moment to figure out how things relate to one another before she enters the fray.

So this year we didn't know what to expect with her experience.  We wanted it to be a really fun and exciting experience for her, but at the same time we wanted to make sure that it wasn't horribly overwhelming.  Luckily things were pretty tamed down compared to some years, so she wasn't thrown too many traditions to try and process at one time.  We had our fairly normal Christmas Eve celebration where we read the Christmas story from Luke in the Bible.  Normally we have the kids act this out, but I think that we were all a bit worn out with the period costumes after coming up with costumes for our ward Christmas party a few weeks earlier.  The kids got to participate in a live action recreation of the nativity story then, so we were simply happy to listen to the story this evening.  We opened our Christmas ornaments for this year that recognized special events of the year.  This year JoJo got an ornament since it was his first year starting kindergarten, and we got an ornament of a little girl in a stocking with Minsy's name on it.  We have been saying that Minsy was our big Christmas gift this year, and I thought that that ornament fit the occasion perfectly.  We also got a horribly gaudy looking ornament when we were in Wuhan of the Yellow Crane Tower.  It really is an ugly thing, but it was the best thing we could find when we were in Wuhan.  We wanted something that would remind us (and Minsy especially) of where she came from.  So after the ornaments were placed on the tree we sat down to watch the new Christmas movie that we got for this year.  This year we got A Very Muppet Christmas Movie.  It definitely was not the best Muppet movie ever, but it was fun to see the old Muppet theater from the old tv show.  Through all of this Minsy just wandered among us, having no idea that this evening was any different than any other evening she has shared with us since joining our family.  She just headed to bed with all the other kids, having no idea what was in store for her in the morning.

The morning arrived, and like every Christmas for the past fifteen years at least Herman and I battled kids to try to get everyone to stay in bed for a few more precious moments.  And like every Christmas for the past fifteen years we failed miserably.  We gathered the kids for our annual Christmas stair step photo where the kids are lined up from oldest to youngest.  This year because we are still waiting for our new camera to arrive we were only able to use Herman's iPhone for the photo, so it isn't the clearest picture ever, but I love seeing all of the kids lined up this way once a year at least.  It made me a bit sad this year as they posed to think that we would not have very many more years when we would be able to have all of them standing together like this on Christmas morning.  This passage of time sometimes gets me a bit verklempt and makes my happy family moments touched with a bit of sadness.  **Sigh.**  But life is all about seizing the day and making the most of these moments as they happen, so I put on my happy face and we headed to the living room for the chaos of discovering the magical presents left during the night.

So how did Minsy react?  There were no squeals of delight or tears of terror.  There were no questioning glances thrown our direction when she saw our living room transformed into a miniature ToysRUs.  She simply did what she has been doing for the past six weeks.  She stopped to look around at everything and everyone.  She processed what she saw, and then she allowed her older siblings to guide her to a pile of gifts where she found a Fisher Price tea set.  This was not originally on Santa's list at all, but a week earlier when she was playing at a friend's house she found this set among the toys there and fell in love with it.  I knew that this needed to be under the tree this year, especially since I had gone a bit overboard while we were in China and purchased a bunch of tea sets for myself.  They are lovely, but Minsy can't play with any of them. This set was perfect for her.  She must have poured each of us a pretend cup of tea twenty times a piece that morning.

When the morning was done and we were left to clean up the wrapping paper and boxes strewn all over the house I thought a lot about how this day must be like for Minsy.  Today she didn't really understand exactly what was going on around her.  She didn't know to be excited or worried or surprised.  But I think that she could feel just how much we love and appreciate her being a part of our family.  I think that she was able to feel like she was truly a Blau.  We are not kidding when we say that Minsy was our big gift this year.  There isn't a present in the world that can compare to the joy of bringing her into our family.  I believe with all of my heart that we were led to find her.  She was meant to be in our family.  She just started out life in another part of the world, and we had to go to a bit of work to get her with us.  But now she is here.  This time last year she was living in Wuhan, and considering her personality, I would say that she was probably enjoying her life very much.  But she didn't have a forever family.  We were here, in the middle of a process to find her and bring her home.  I am so grateful that she is here with us this Christmas.  We may be a blessing to her as we provide her the love and nourishment of family relationships, but she has been the greatest blessing for us.  We have had to reach inside ourselves and find more -- more love to give, more sacrifice to make, more happiness to share -- and as we have found more to provide for her, we have found that in return we have developed a better person within ourselves.  Our family is richer for having Minsy in it.  What more could we ever ask for this Christmas?

So now we head into a new year, ready to face anything that comes our way.  It is good to be a Blau this Christmas!

All Better Now

I discovered a new way to manage my photos -- Picasa.  And I LOVE it a bunch.  But, in the process of organizing things through this program I inadvertently removed a ton of pics from my blog that I had just added to our China trip blog entries.  So . . . after a couple of hours of resticking all the right photos where they belong, I think I have my posts back where they need to be.  So if you were interested in seeing any of our photos but were greeted instead by a ton of black triangles with exclamation points, now you can check things out and see what we really looked like on our trip.

I especially recommend the video of Hyrum eating a scorpion at the bottom of the entry here, our Great Wall expedition here, or my favorite entry about getting separated on the subway here.

Enjoy!

China Pictures Finally -- Part One (Beijing)

I finally found time to add pictures to my blog posts about our China trip.  Here are links to the entries about our days in Beijing.  Click on a day to see the blog post.  Enjoy!

• Ni Hao China!
• China Day Two -- We Conquered the Subway and Found the Church
• China Day Three -- The Great Wall
• China Day Four -- The Grand Adventure
• China Day Five -- The Day Where We Walked, and Walked, and Walked, and Walked, and Walked
• China Day Six -- Just Stay Alive! I Will Find You!
• China Day Seven -- Temple Day
• China Day Eight -- We saw pandas!

Wise Men Still Seek Him

"...They presented gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

These are not the gifts Jesus asks of us.

From the treasure of our hearts Jesus asks that we give of ourselves."

--President Thomas S. Monson

On this beautiful holiday let us remember those around us who are suffering, hungry, cold, sick, sad, or afflicted in some way.  Let us not judge them or blame them for their struggles.  Let us serve them in love as we give the greatest gift we have to give -- ourselves.  Merry Christmas from the Blau family to all those who have enjoyed reading this blog this year!  I'm not sure if I know all of you, but I hope that you've gotten a taste of who I am as I've babbled some of my crazy thoughts on here throughout the year.  Have a wonderful Christmas day and a blessed new year!

We Interrupt Our Christmas Preparations So That I Can Do a Little Happy Dance

I've got to bring this video out of the archives for my Christmas happy dance today.  When the kids brought the mail inside today I found a very awesome surprise . . . my autographed copy of My Tattered Bonds, by Courtney Cole.  I had to stop cooking to do my little happy dance in the style of Snoopy:

This was the first opportunity I've ever had to be a beta reader for an author, having the chance to read a book before publication and give my opinion to her of the strengths and weaknesses of the story.  Luckily My Tattered Bonds was a wonderful book to review.  Here's the link to my review here. 

Here's Courtney's autograph on the first page.

And there's my name on page 200.  Yea!

I do highly recommend this series.  It throws a bit of a supernatural time travel sort of element together with great ties to important historical and mythological events.  It definitely won't appeal to everyone, but I did enjoy it a lot, and it caused me to re-acquaint myself with mythology, Cleopatra, and King Arthur throughout the four books in the series.  It is ultimately a love story about all that a woman will do to save her family -- her husband and her daughter -- from the forces that fight against them.  Check out the series on goodreads here.

What a fun thing to find in my mail the day before Christmas!  Thank you Courtney for adding to my smiles today!

On Peanut Butter Fudge and Christmas Memories

I have always loved holiday baking, but I have always found myself waaaaaay overwhelmed with the whole idea of it.  I may have fantasies of being that wonderful mom who just bakes away all day, much to the delight of my absolutely perfect-in-every-way family, but the reality is that life often takes control, and the baking just doesn't get done.  If I even attempt to make a stab at it I often end up as a very grumpy elf or in tears by the end of the day.  Herman often has said that he would much rather have a happy mom than lots of goodies for Christmas, so after years of attempting to create the perfect Christmas yummies I finally decided to sit back and relax about the whole thing.  If the candies were made, hurray!  If the divinity turned into a gooey mass of nothingness, oh well!

This should have been a year when the holiday baking took a back seat to just living life.  I have had a hard time getting ready for Christmas at all this year.  I think our month in China threw me off a bit, and I feel like I missed a month somewhere.  It feels like it should be Thanksgiving.  I did finally go out and do my Christmas shopping a few days ago.  I have never put it off this long, and waiting until the end means that I have to suffer through the crazy holiday crowds.  I said after pushing through the mass of humanity in Chinese shopping areas I would never again complain about Christmas crowds at the mall in Springfield or at our Wal-mart (oh, how I hate Wal-mart!).  But I think I have noticed that the huge crowds here aren't as friendly as the ones in China for some reason.  I think that it might be that we are just not accustomed to these sorts of crowds, so they make us grumpier.  In China that's all they experience, so they just deal with them.  For whatever reason, I still ended up complaining about the crowds.  Oh well.  I survived and our shopping is done.

But that brings us to the last three days at the Blau house.  Even though I am still getting myself together after the addition of Minsy to our family and our month-long trip to get her, I found that this would be the year that I would go all out and bake.  I'm not sure what came over me.  It really isn't the best year for this.  Herman is right in the middle of a killer diet that has already led to him losing more than 20 pounds.  Yea!  He doesn't want to eat all of this stuff.  I am trying to lose my "adoption pregnancy" weight as well, so I don't want to eat all of it.  The kids would be more than happy to eat it all, but I'm not a total martyr.  Laney has been completely gung ho about Christmas traditions this year, almost demanding that we establish lovely new traditions like so many of the wonderful bloggers that she follows.  I keep telling her to write them down and use them with her own family when she gets older.  We already have enough fun things to do.  But still I think she is a bit disappointed that we aren't nearly as cool as some other Christmas enthusiasts out there.  Darn you Pinterest for giving her all of those ideas that I will never be able to meet!  But, anyway, I thought that Laney might really enjoy making some holiday breads, cookies, and candies with me.

Well, I went on Allrecipes and made a good list of things that would be fun to make and headed to Wal-mart to grab the ingredients I would need.  I collected everything and headed home, only to find that Laney was already pulled in several different directions with babysitting for others and other activities.  Still I decided to just do a thing or two at a time and see where I ended up.  Unlike previous years, things worked out wonderfully, and I was able to make so many things.  Even my divinity, which hasn't turned out right since I was a teenager, actually hardened as it should have.  I have worked fairly steadily for the past three days, even managing to take time away to keep the house relatively clean and the clothes laundered.  The kids have all bathed, and there have been no major calamities that have befallen us.  It is a real Christmas miracle!  I don't know what happened.

This morning I was finishing up the bulk of my pre-Christmas cooking, and I decided to make peanut butter fudge.  I settled in, threw on another Jane Austen BBC miniseries, and got to work.  As I taste tested my creation I was thrown back into a memory of Christmases long ago as a child when we would travel to Iowa to visit my Grandma and Grandpa Landis.  I remembered Grandma's peanut butter fudge.  I don't know exactly why this memory came to me.  I think that it is because although we made and ate a lot of homemade candies at our house, we never made peanut butter fudge, so Grandma's peanut butter fudge was unique.  The taste of it stuck with me through all of these years.  I still remember the feeling of coming to their house and seeing the holiday yummies laid out on their kitchen table.  I still can't hear about mincemeat pie without thinking of Grandma and Grandpa Landis -- probably because I was never brave enough to try it.  The name made me think of candied beef for some reason, and that thought totally grossed me out.  I still have never tried the stuff.  Maybe I'll be brave about it someday.  But I do remember Grandma's candies.  As I tasted my own little treat I thought of her and smiled.

Remembering this Christmas memory because of food made me think that there might be some importance to all of these goodies that I'm making.  We don't really make these sorts of foods any other time during the year, and maybe as my kids are older and away from home they might think of our family Christmases when they were younger and remember this time with some fondness.  Maybe they'll travel home for Christmas and share the joys of the season with us, and their children will think of these candies and goodies when they think of their super awesome Granny Blau.  I don't know.  I'm just feeling a bit nostalgic today.  I'm just happy that taking this time to make a ton of very-bad-for-you sweets brought back warm memories of Christmases long ago.  We may add a few pounds this week, but it's worth it, in my opinion, just for the opportunity to create new family memories for my children while I remember the memories of the past.  Merry Christmas!

And, by the way, does anyone want a plate of yummy goodness?  We have lots to spare!

Happy 6th Birthday JoJo!

Today we celebrate JoJo's sixth birthday.  I can hardly believe he is six.  I think he'll always just be my baby boy, even when he is a man taller than his mama.  I admit that he has been horribly spoiled compared to the other Blau children.  There is a saying in the Blau household.  Dad will ask, "What do you get when you cry?", and the kids know that the answer is "nothing."  This is our quick way to stop any whining crying that occurs when the kids don't get their way.  But it has been a joke of the older children to ask, "What does JoJo get when he cries?", and they all exclaim, "whatever he wants."  That's not totally true, but it is true that we are probably a bit more laid back about parenting with him than we were with the older kids.  I think he has still turned out wonderfully, so hopefully it hasn't harmed him too much.  He does know exactly how to wiggle his way into my heart, almost leading me to forgive any mistakes he might make.  He knows I can be a complete sucker when it comes to him. 

JoJo still has an amazingly high voice compared to the other kids.  When I was pregnant with him I ended up having several seizures in the middle of the pregnancy, so I had to begin taking anti-epilepsy medication.  My primary care doctor prescribed a medicine that seemed to say that it was okay to use after the first trimester, but after JoJo was born I went to a neurologist, and she about freaked out when she heard I had taken that particular drug during pregnancy.  Apparently that is a big no-no, and it can cause huge problems in babies when their moms take the drug while pregnant.  It seems like JoJo has turned out just fine, though.  We've always wondered if the one problem that occurred because of the drugs was his super high voice.  If so, considering all the other horrible problems that could have occurred, I think that we'll count our blessings.  His voice does make him ten times cuter in my eyes, I'm afraid.  It probably is just his little quirk, and it will clear itself up once he reaches puberty, I'm sure.  I have to admit, I'm afraid, that I'm a bit sad for that to occur though.  I love his little voice!

So, in honor of JoJo's sixth birthday, here are six things that I LOVE about my little JoJo:

1. His perfect JoJo hugs that he gives me every morning
2. His amazing ability to do math problems in his head
3. His eye rolls that he throws out when he is being silly
4. His enthusiasm for things as he yells that it is "so awesome!"
5. His love for his big brother, Hyrum
6. His ability to see just how much he means to me, and instead of exploiting that, he simply gives me hugs and says that he will always be my little boy

I love my JoJo!

JoJo and his big brother Hyrum
on the first day of school

It's the Little Things

It has been easy for me to get bogged down with all of the things that I am not doing right now.  I can start listing all of the things that might not be going right in Melissa Blau World, and I'm sure I could come up with a mighty large list.  But in the midst of all of this chaos (and right now a very UNorganized chaos) I have been able to see a few little things that show that some things that I am doing (or at least moderately involved with) are moving right along as they should be.

First of all . . . Minsy:
Minsy doesn't say very much right now, either in English or Chinese, but she is definitely able to get her point across.  She is able to ask, "Where is JoJo?" constantly when he is at school.  We have learned to call him "He Who Must Not Be Named" because Minsy will get a bit upset if she hears us talking about JoJo, but there is no JoJo in the immediate area.

Minsy has learned to fold her arms when we pray.  I am totally convinced that that is because of excellent nursery leaders at church because we were not having much luck with this, but last Sunday she came home and was quite gung ho about showing off her new talent with us, delighted to hear our squeals when she folded her arms during the dinner prayer.

Minsy also loves to say Jesus over and over.  I think the real thing here is that Minsy LOVES babies, and this weekend we got out our Little People nativity sets which I absolutely love.  Minsy fell in love with the baby Jesus piece, and Hyrum explained that this was Jesus, so Minsy has been running back and forth to each of us, beaming for joy as she shows the Jesus piece and says, "Jesus, Jesus" over and over again.  It's quite adorable.

Minsy loves looking at pictures of people she knows and especially of herself.  We made a little album of pictures they took of her in China, and she laughs and smiles at this album a bunch.

Minsy has developed a bit of an obsession over The Fresh Beat Band TV show.  She really doesn't like watching TV much, whether it is in English or Chinese, but she LOVES watching the Fresh Beat Band episodes that I uploaded to my iPhone for JoJo a year ago.  She loves to dance to their incredibly hokey music.  If she is ever in a rare and difficult mood it only takes a few minutes with Kiki, Marina, Twist, and Shout for Minsy to be in a little bit of heaven on earth.

Next . . . Laney, Savannah, Spencer, Katie, Hyrum, and JoJo
I don't mean to totally lump these six together as The Rest of the Blau Children, but we are still in the "getting to know you" phase with Minsy, so we are pretty focused on her accomplishments.  But that doesn't mean that the other Blau children are not rocking the world in their own ways.  Today Laney and Savannah were singing O Holy Night with some accompaniment on the computer, and it was absolutely gorgeous.  It brought tears to my eyes as I listened.  Laney is a great singer, but so is Savannah.  She has a beautiful voice, but when she sings she is often doing so in a mocking way, adding tons of vibrato and things like that. Still, even in her silliness it sounds divine.  I love hearing them sing together.  Also, it was an absolute joy to attend a Waynesville High School jazz band concert last Thursday and hear Savannah kicking it on the piano.  She is just a freshman, and she is replacing a young man who is an amazing legend of music genius in the Waynesville schools who graduated last year and is now impressing the people at UMKC's school of music.  So she has a lot to live up to, but I think she's doing great.

Spencer is becoming quite a good trombone player.  I never thought he would really get very far into instrumental music because I thought he would be more interested in sports.  He still is an amazing soccer player, but they don't have school teams until high school for that.  He has ended up loving his instrument, and he spends more time practicing it than he spends on his other homework.  I would have never guessed.

Katie is super involved with her friends.  She obviously got the social gene that does not exist in my system.  I have been so impressed with her friendship with a little girl who has some mental problem that keeps her from speaking to most people, whether adults or children.  But for some reason she has latched onto Katie, and they are bffs.  Recently this little girl was diagnosed with diabetes, and Katie has spent a long time learning about the condition and what she can do to help her friend.  She monitors her friend's diet better than her friend does.

Hyrum is my little man who talks like a thirty year old many times.  He is always quick to try to make things better when he sees a problem.  He is my child who will spend hours cleaning his room without any help from others if he thinks that the messiness is making me sad.

And JoJo, my baby boy, will be turning six tomorrow.  I told him that he can't grow up.  He needs to stay five forever because I need my baby boy.  He just looked at me and said that I could call him five if I want, and he would always be my baby boy.  Awww!  Love him!

And then . . . My Primary Class at Church
I teach the class of nine year olds at church, and they can be a rowdy group.  There are a lot of boys who don't really know the meaning of the word reverence, and I often feel as if I am herding cats each week as I try to calm everyone down enough to feel the Spirit during the lesson.  On a side note, I love this commercial, and it accurately depicts what my class feels like many Sundays of the month:

One week a couple of months ago I finished my lesson only to find that the class thought that the main message of the lesson was that the apostle Peter was a total hottie.  Geesh!  I obviously failed that day.  Well, today I was teaching a lesson about the gifts of the spirit spoken of by Paul in Corinthians, and, Holy Cow!, I had everyone's attention for the entire lesson.  They acted as if I was speaking the most important words ever spoken.  They started sharing personal experiences that matched our lesson topic, and they listened to each other with rapt attention.  I was shocked beyond words.  What happened?  How was my lesson different today than in the past?  I don't know, but I'll say that if I can teach like that for the rest of my days on this earth I will consider myself totally blessed.

Of course . . . My Totally Amazing and Absolutely Perfect in Every Way Husband, Herman
It has been a crazy few weeks for Herman's schedule at work and at church, but I am happy that he is a forward thinking man who is looking ahead two steps before he takes the next one.  He really tries to do what is right for our family, and that makes it easy to partner with him in all of our adventures.  I posted this on facebook a couple of weeks ago, but I'll say it again:  One of the reasons I love my husband?  He told me that the wrinkles I get by my eyes when I smile are beautiful.  Herman never gets really gushy with romantic sentiment usually, but sometimes he says things that just knock it out of the ballpark.

And finally . . . We're Talking About the Little Things Here, So I Have to Say . . . Peter, Paul, and Mary
Peter, Paul, and Mary?  Well, I love my Christmas albums . . . a lot.  I usually just thrown all of them on a playlist and shuffle the songs, mixing up different albums and styles.  But today I was in the mood for my Peter, Paul, and Mary Christmas album.  It is not a typical Christmas album, and it contains many unusual songs that others really couldn't pull off, but Peter, Paul and Mary do amazingly.  It just reminds me of being home at Christmas as a little girl.  My parents had this album, and when I say album, I mean album, or as my kids once explained "those really big black CDs."  We listened to this a bunch during the season.  My parents didn't have my obsession with Christmas music, so we didn't have 100 different albums, but this is one we had, and I love it to this day.  It reminds me of my very wonderful parents!

So I close my little message of the little things that make me happy with a special video of one of my favorite songs from this album, "A Soalin'" by Peter, Paul, and Mary.  Enjoy, and take a few minutes this day to think of the little things that bring joy to your life this Christmas season!

Any Way You Say It . . . I'm Still Overwhelmed

oprimido   oorweldig   不堪重负   overvældet   submergés   συγκλονισμένοι   圧倒   перегружены   abrumado   överväldigade   kuzidiwa

There are lots of ways to say it, but I am just plain overwhelmed.  I am in that horrible place where there are so many things to do that I can't attack any of them.  I just close my eyes and run away and find myself doing things that aren't really helping to solve the problem.  Here I sit blogging, and yesterday I sat reading.  Although they are lovely activities, they aren't getting me out of this pile of responsibilities that is loading me down.

BUT . . . I think we have turned a corner.  Last night I had an activity with my wonderful activity day girls, but it just completely fell apart.  The girls were just bouncing off the walls.  I couldn't calm everyone down.  Katie was in tears.  It was definitely the least effective activity I have hosted since I accepted the calling to teach these young ladies.  As I sat there desperately trying to have an activity focused on the true meaning of Christmas and watched the girls literally doing cartwheels and making horribly inappropriate comments I could just feel my blood start to boil.  I stopped myself and took a gigantic cleansing breath and in that moment as the air entered my lungs and slowly exited I had a small little epiphany.  It was like the moment when a drug user hits rock bottom and realizes that something has to change if they want a productive and healthy life.  I wasn't that bad off, of course, but I saw that I needed to do something to get back on track.  I do really feel just like I do after I have had a baby, but I don't have the luxury of the fantastic nap schedule of a newborn where I can at least catch up a bit with what I need to do or maybe just catch a moment to breath.  I have a "newborn" who is really three or four and who gets into everything and requires constant attention.  I'm not complaining at all.  It has all been worth it, and Minsy is a joy, but I just have not been able to really catch up with life after returning from China almost a month ago.  As I sat there last evening on the verge of losing it, I think that I got the answer I needed to get things back on track.

I have been staying up late into the night to enjoy that bit of time when the kids (and sometimes Herman) are asleep.  I have always been a night owl, and I love the peace of the night when I can have a little bit of solid Me Time.  Well, last night I got the impression that I needed to switch things around and instead wake up earlier to have that same Me Time.  Laney and Savannah are waking up at 4:30 to get ready for seminary each morning, and I have been mostly sleeping in until later in the morning when the younger kids wake up to get ready for school.  I decided that I needed to change that and instead wake up when Savannah's alarm goes off.  That will give me a good amount of time to get myself together and ready for the day before everyone else is up and moving around.  This is going to take a bit of work to get me on a new sort of schedule, but I feel like this is what I need to get myself back on track.

So today begins a new day.  It is December 14th.  I haven't done any Christmas shopping.  I haven't sent out Christmas cards.  My bathroom could be an excellent testing ground for students in infectious disease classes.  My dining room floor is covered in smashed Christmas candy.  The basement is looking like a blast zone.  And I can't even begin to talk about the mail and bills that I have put off for too long.  But today begins a new chapter in my post-Minsy adoption life.  I'm getting back on the FlyLady bandwagon, and I'm tackling this mess.  Fingers crossed!

Dawning of a New Melissa Day
Can You Feel the Magic?

Happy 17th Birthday Laney!!

Well, it's two days late, but I had to include a post celebrating Laney's birthday last weekend.  I can hardly believe that I have a 17 year old young woman.  It seems like only yesterday that we brought her home, having absolutely no idea what we were doing.  I am convinced that those who come to earth as the oldest children have an extra dose of strength thrown into their personalities so that they can withstand all of the mistakes that their parents make while we try to figure out the whole parenting gig.  Laney is a young woman full of strength and goodness who really does try each day to make the right choices.  She loves to talk about what a terrible daughter she was during her 7th and 8th grade years, but if that was her worst I will take that any day.

Laney has really tried to look to other people lately and see what she can do to help.  She has an energy and enthusiasm that can't be matched as she has played and worked with her new little sister.  When she saw that JoJo needed some extra attention she made plans to take him shopping with her so that they could plan a fun family activity together.  She loves to check out Pintarest to get all sorts of crafty ideas for her to try out because she is absolutely convinced that she needs these skills if she is going to be a good wife and mother someday.  I try to point out that although I love crafts, I'm not the craftiest lady on the planet, and yet I have managed to be an adequate mom and wife.  But Laney doesn't want to be adequate.  She wants to be extraordinary.  I think she is well on her way, and if she ends up doing better than me at all this then I think I have succeeded as a parent (or I'm just so bad at it that she can't help but do a better job).

So for Laney's 17th birthday . . . here are 17 things I love about Laney:

1. Her Compassion
2. Her Humility
3. Her Kindness
4. Her Sense of Style
5. Her Smile
6. Her Enthusiasm
7. Her Testimony
8. Her Need to Succeed
9. Her Extraordinary Friendship with Savannah
10. Her Big Dreams
11. Her Willingness to Do What is Right
12. Her Taste in Music
13. Her Ability to Befriend Those Who Need Her
14. Her Amazing Chocolate Chip Cookies
15. Her Poise in Difficult Situations
16. Her Beautiful Singing Voice
17. Her Love for All Things Good in Life -- Especially for Us, Her Family

Minsy's Month of Merriment

One month ago our sweet Eliza Ruth QingMin Blau entered our life.  If I had to dream about how this month would have gone when I thought of it in the months before we met Minsy, I would have never imagined that our first month together would have gone as it has.  It hasn't been perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it has been close to it.  She has seemlessly entered our family as if she was always meant to be there.  I haven't really taken any time to update the blog on exactly what type of little girl Minsy has turned out to be so far and how she has adjusted to life in our big, boisterous family.  Today we had a social worker come by for our first post-adoption home study visit, and we had lots of opportunities to reflect on the past month as we spoke with her about our experiences.  I want to make sure that those same thoughts are documented in this forum so that my extremely faulty memory can always remember them. So here goes . . .

My first thought when I saw Minsy on Gotcha Day was, "Holy Cow!  She is sooooo tiny!"  That is the truth.  She is super, super tiny.  It has been a difficult thing to wrap my mind around at times.  I knew that her measurements seemed small when we got her referral several months ago, but I never really understood quite how small she was until I saw her up close.  All of the pictures we had received of her before the adoption were deceiving because we were unable to judge her height with any sort of perspective.  If she had been standing next to a car or another adult or something like that we could have seen just how small she was.  As it was, we were shocked at her size.  I went to China knowing that the Chinese people were naturally smaller than Americans, so we weren't going to find a child the same size as our kids were when they were four.  I also knew that many children who are adopted from China from orphanages can be delayed in size and development by quite a bit.  So I thought that I would be prepared to see a smaller child.  But when I thought smaller, I was thinking maybe a child the size of a three year old.  What I found was a child more the size of a small two year old.  I looked right over her when we arrived because I thought I would be looking for a taller child.

So with Minsy being so small I have had to work through several things in my head.  The biggest thing is that my head tells me that I am dealing with a small toddler.  I feel like I am working with a two year old, so I often find myself babying her a bit more than she needs me to.  I start feeding her or carrying her everywhere or changing all of her clothes for her.  It's hard not to do this because my head keeps telling me that this is something that she requires me to do.  But if she is really four, or even if she is closer to three, then developmentally she should be able to do a lot of this.  When I do it for her I am not doing her any favors.  I'm not ready to get hard core and force her to do everything herself.  After all, she is still transitioning to our family, and she needs a little adjustment time.  Plus, I am sure that her foster family in China has probably been doing a lot for her as well because she seems to expect us to be doing all of this stuff for her. 

As I work to give her a little bit more responsibility to do things for herself I see that she is capable of doing some things.  And yet she seems to be very delayed in doing what a child of even three years old should be doing.  I'm not too worried about it right now.  I will give it several months and see what happens as she gets more accustomed to life in the US.  The reason that I am thinking about it now is that we are seriously questioning whether or not Minsy's age is correct.  Because she was abandoned at an older age the orphanage estimated when her birthday would be.  They thought because of her teeth development and her ability to say "mama" that she was fourteen months old.  For that reason they gave her the arbitrary birthday of September 1st, 2007.  We just can't believe that that is the right age.  We are thinking that we need to have her be three years old instead.  It would still make her extremely small for a three year old, but it would make her developmental delays more realistic.  It would give her an extra year before she would need to enter school, and that could only help her in the long run to have that extra time with me at home as she catches up developmentally.  But this is a major decision to make, and we will not make it lightly.  Currently we are waiting to get Minsy on our insurance, and then we will consult with our doctor to see what he recommends.  If it ends up that Minsy is going to stay four, then she will be working with some seriously delayed developmental issues that will need to be quickly addressed.  For now we're just working with what we've got, and we'll press forward, helping her to do the best that she can.

As far as intelligence goes, it seems that Minsy is doing quite well.  Of course, she has the obvious developmental delays, and that can often show mental delays in children.  However, I get the feeling that Minsy's delays are because of a lack of exposure and assistance.  With loving guidance and support from us and our community of support that surrounds us I have no doubt that Minsy will catch up quickly to get to be where she needs to be.  She has figured out our system of living fairly quickly.  It helps that there are so many other children to follow around, so she just joins right in.  I did notice when we were in China that she was very attentive to those around her and answered the questions they posed to her when she was asked.  It seems as if her language, even the Mandarin, is pretty choppy for a four year old.  I am not sure if she always has had issues with language or if the latest problem is simply a result of being uprooted and dropped into our world with only English being spoken.  I wonder if she knows that Mandarin is obviously not being spoken, but she also knows that she doesn't know English, so she is simply just speaking a choppy version of the Mandarin she knows as she tries to transition herself into our language.  I don't know.  I'll feel a lot more confident in what her spoken language abilities are as she learns English more and more.  For now it is difficult to assess just how well or poorly spoken she is since I do not understand any of the Mandarin that she is speaking.  I just know what Chinese sounded like to me as we were there last month, and Minsy's Chinese seems to be only single words or occasionally two words, and if she is four she should be using more than two word sentences, even in Mandarin.  So we'll keep watching this and see where she ends up.

Other than her size I have also been concerned about the thin hair she has on the top of her head.  I have had children who have had slow growing hair.  Laney hardly grew any hair at all until she was five years old.  So I wasn't exactly really concerned at all about her hair growth at first.  However, Minsy has a hair growth pattern that is a bit odd.  Besides her hair being generally thin all over, she is able to grow hair on the back of her head.  But on the top it is extremely thin.  It makes it seem as if she has a bit of a mullet going on.  I wasn't sure quite what to think about this.  Was this something to worry about or not?  Well, last night I decided to do a bit of research on the subject.  I found that many of the things I have noticed about Minsy are a huge sign of malnutrition.  I'm certainly not ready to make that call.  Malnutrition can happen for a variety of reasons, not only neglect.  But still, I wish I had a better understanding of what Minsy's life was like in foster care in Wuhan.  I had my own idea of what her foster family was like, but what if I was completely mistaken?  It is just as possible that her problems are a result of what happened in those first months of her life before she was abandoned.  Or she might have some sort of medical condition that is preventing her from obtaining necessary nutrients from her diet.  Here again, I'll need to check in with our doctor to get his expert opinion.  For now I'm just going to have to do my best to give her the best food I can.  Hopefully we can see an improvement of her size and thin hair fairly soon.

 Minsy's personality is absolutely amazing.  She has been smiling since the day we met her.  She is able to find joy is some of the simplest things of life.  Her absolute favorite thing in the world is bubbles.  She laughs and laughs whenever we get them out.  She also loves to see her picture or videos of her that we have taken.  They fascinate her and are a quick way to bring a smile to her face if she is sad.  She has gotten along really well with her brothers and sisters.  She absolutely loves JoJo, and other than Mama, JoJo is her favorite thing to say.  It isn't so much that she plays with JoJo.  It is more that she needs to know that he is near.  She is not happy when he leaves for school each day.  We wonder if she is concerned that he won't return because when he gets home from school it is a literal party atmosphere here.  She screams for joy and jumps up and down as she greets him.  Today she pretended to call him on the phone.  She also gets along very well with Laney.  It has taken her a bit longer to attach to the others.  She does love to sit with Savannah while she plays the piano, and she thinks that Spencer can be very funny.  Those relationships will come, though, as she spends more and more time with us.  She does do a very good job of letting us know what she needs.  She has no problem letting us know her feelings in strong ways.  I was expecting a shy, reserved child, but I have found Minsy to be strong and very opinionated when it matters to her.  She fits into our family very well.

I was a bit worried that Minsy would not really attach to us very deeply.  It seemed for a bit as if she was content to simply head off with anyone in the area.  That's a bit scary to think that we are interchangeable with any other couple out there.  So I've been paying a lot of attention to how she reacts to others in public.  It is true that she does seem to go with others a bit more readily than our other children ever did at that age.  But that is happening less and less as she gets to know us more.  Last Saturday Herman and I had to head to Lebanon for meetings and left all the kids at home, and it was the first time that she really freaked out about me leaving her.  I had originally thought that this was something that I didn't want to see, but after having her for a month I recognize the positive sign that it is when she is unhappy for me to leave.  It shows that I am not just another person hanging in her vacinity.  I am her mama, and she wants to be near me.  Yesterday we headed to East to see a music program by Hyrum's class, and while we were waiting Minsy wandered around the gym while we watched her.  She was confident enough to walk throughout the area, but she would constantly return to where we were sitting to check in and make sure we were still there.  That was a healthy development to see that she understood that we were people who she needed to return to, even as she had the confidence to walk a little away from us.  We still have work to do to develop the sort of lasting bonding relationships that will be healthy for Minsy into the future, but we are well on our way to developing those bonds.

So Minsy has been a Blau for a month now, and the experience has been a smooth one.  We are still keeping ourselves alert, recognizing that issues may arise in the future as Minsy becomes more comfortable with us and better able to express her feelings about different topics relating to her adoption.  I am happy to have found that I was able to really bond with Minsy almost immediately.  I'm not just talking about her feeling comfortable with me as the primary care giver.  I mean that Minsy has found a place in my heart that seems to have been reserved for her from the very beginning.  I don't look at my children and think that there are my six children and then Minsy, my adopted child.  I look at my children and see seven children.  They are all mine in my heart, and I don't see any difference in my love for any of them.  This experience has been the most magical of any that I have found myself in my entire life.  I feel as if we have been given such a wonderful gift with the addition of Minsy into our family.  It is as if she fills a hole in our existence that we never even knew was there.  Things are not perfect, but they have never been perfect with any of our children.  We all just plug along, doing the best we can, finding joy in each other's company as we walk this world together.  So . . . one month down, eternity to go!  She's a true joy in my life!

The Story of a Tree

Minsy checking out our tree.
Sorry for the graininess.  Still having to rely on
the iPhone for pictures until we replace our
camera that died in China. : (

When Herman and I were married more than 18 years ago the very best present we received for our wedding was a set of ornaments at our reception in Denver.  The couple who gave them to us had been married a very long time, and they included a note with the ornaments saying that they had a tradition of getting a brand new ornament each year of their marriage to signify the events of that year that they had spent together.  We loved those ornaments and decided to make that a yearly tradition for us each Christmas.  Every Christmas Eve we sit together as a family, read the Christmas story from Luke (and usually get the theater adaptation as well put on by our younger children), and then we open our ornament for the year.  Each year we have chosen an ornament that represented some significant event of the year.  Our first Christmas ornament was for our first Christmas together as a married couple followed the following year by a "Baby's 1st Christmas" ornament for Laney's birth two weeks earlier.

And so our large ornament collection began.  I love decorating our tree each year because I feel like it is an opportunity for us to reflect on the wonderful experiences and blessings we have had as we have traveled through life together as a family.  I pull out the 1st Christmas ornament for each child, their first year in school, the year Herman was hired to teach Spanish for the Waynesville schools, whenever we have bought a home, our fun vacations, and on and on.  Each little ornament warms my heart a little bit more in the middle of a cold autumn day as we decorate our tree for the season.

Savannah holding her braces ornament
in 2009
when she got braces.

Our tree isn't the fanciest tree in the world.  At a certain point we'll have added so many new ornaments that it might even appear gaudy to the world around us.  But to me it is a symbol of the accumulation of a lifetime of memories with the people I love most on earth.  It isn't just a fancy tree to decorate the Blau house for a month out of the year.  It is a temporary monument set up to recognize the birth of our Savior and the blessings in this life that we are able to enjoy as a family because of His gift to us.  We have now had nineteen wonderful Christmas seasons together as a family, and I know we are in store for many, many more.  So today I'm grateful for my little tree and the memories it holds of my wonderful eternal family!

Thoughts on Another Blau Family Adventure

When I started dating Herman almost nineteen years ago I knew that life with him was always going to be an adventure.  He has always been a bundle of energy and enthusiasm, encouraging me to take the turns life throws at us and see where we end up with smiles on our faces.  From the very beginning I knew that life with him would never be boring, and I knew that I always had a choice whether to have a bit of faith and walk through life with a smile on my face, or I could go through that same life kicking and screaming and making a fuss about where the Lord was leading us.  I decided early on in my marriage that I was going to do my best to be a smiler.  There have been times when I have had to talk myself into a smile.  I can't honestly say that every single path we have found ourselves on has been my ultimate first choice for a path.  Sometimes the road is a bit bumpier and curvier than I would prefer.  But I have found that as Herman and I work together and try to find the positive in every situation we encounter, we are able to grow as a couple, as a family, and as individuals.  That way of thinking has gotten us through lots of adventures in the Church.  It has carried us through Herman's time spent as a seminary teacher and my time working on girls camp.  It has most recently carried us through his time serving as a bishop.  It has taken a situation that might have been difficult for a young (or youngish) family, and made it into a blessing in our lives.  I have never, ever felt as if supporting Herman in his church callings has ever been difficult for me.  There might have been a time or two when I wanted to sigh a bit because he was pulled away from us when I wanted him to stay, but ultimately those times were few and far between.  The callings that both of us have held have not hurt our marriage or family.  They have strengthened them.  So I have a great deal of faith in the blessings that come when we are willing to accept the challenges that the Lord places before us.  There is only one answer when He calls, and that is "Yes." 

So that leads to the events of today.  Part of me feels like I shouldn't even mention anything about it.  After all, in the Church there are no callings that are more important than others.  Our way of thinking tends to want to order things in a pattern of seniority similar to what we see in most organizations like our government, our military, our businesses, etc.  But in the Church I don't really believe that things work that way.  There is a system of organization that keeps order and regularity throughout the units through the world, but the reality is that whatever position we hold, whether it is as a primary teacher or a clerk or a librarian, or a bishop, or whatever, we have the opportunity to better the life of the people in our care.  That job is essential for each person who is blessed by the service performed by us in those callings.  Each act of service done is equally able to touch the lives of the people around us.  So no one calling is more important than another.

But today Herman was called as 2nd counselor in our new St. Robert stake presidency.  It will be a new sort of adventure for us as he does his best to fulfill his calling.  I am thinking that it might not be as time consuming as his time as a bishop.  He will certainly have some long Sundays, but there might not be as many extra days spent in serving in this calling.  We'll see how the schedule pans out.  We'll be ready to handle whatever comes our way.  I was a bit sad as I sat with Herman in the congregation as the meeting began today, holding his hand like we tend to do while waiting for meetings to begin.  Then Herman leaned over to say that this would be the last time that we would sit together at a church meeting except for General Conference for a few years.  I have always enjoyed sitting with Herman in stake conferences.  It used to be because I was just so happy that there was another set of arms to corral the kids.  But as the kids have gotten older and less prone to diving head first over the pews on a whim I have simply enjoyed being able to just sit next to the man I love/adore/admire/trust and hold his hand or rub his shoulder or lean my head on his shoulder.  It isn't like I don't get the chance to do that every day of the week, but I just enjoy sitting in a church meeting and feeling like we are experiencing the meeting together.  When Herman is on the stand, whether it is as a bishop or now as a member of the stake presidency, we have to rely on our super secret facial twitches and hand signals to communicate across the aisles.  We'll get the job done, but it isn't quite the same as sitting side by side. 

But I was terribly worried when Herman got called as a bishop.  I was worried that it would take so much time that it would harm our family.  I was worried because I thought that I now needed to have an immaculate front room to accommodate all of that people who would drop by the house unexpectedly and who would be expecting to find a perfect clean home of a bishop.  Instead I have found that in the four years that Herman has served as a bishop our family has been richly blessed.  Yes, he has had to spend some long days serving in his calling.  He has occasionally been called away unexpectedly to help someone in need.  But the blessings we have received as a family have more than made up for any slight inconveniences we have encountered along the way.  It is a calling that I would never actively seek out  for our family, but it is one that has brought us so many blessings.  I have seen the spiritual growth in all of us as Herman has served in this capacity.  I am sure that we will find the same sort of blessings as Herman serves in this new position. 

So today we embark on a new journey of church service.  I have always been so grateful to the leaders who have called us to our various callings that they are always sure to emphasize that our callings are never meant to supercede our responsibilities to our families.  Family is always the most important things.  When President Moe called Herman as a bishop he made sure to tell Herman to always take the time to let us know that we are important.  When Elder Gonzalez called Herman this weekend, he said that same thing.  I am grateful for their encouragement in this matter, but I have never, ever had to worry about this.  I always joke with Herman because when other men get up to speak after receiving callings they are always saying how much they love their wife, but Herman never really does that.  But I am only joking with him when I tease him about this because I never worry about his feelings for me.  He shows me through his actions every single day that he adores me.  He is my prince, and I am his queen.  I never worry that I will be neglected or unappreciated as he serves in these callings. 

Today after Herman was called he headed to the stand.  President Moe gave his final talk and then they called me up to bear my testimony.  I really wish I had a better memory for what occurs in those moments.  I have no idea what I said.  I made my way up to the stand and passed Minsy off to Herman since she was clinging to me pretty much, and I didn't have the older girls to take care of her while I spoke.  I have never spoken in stake conference before, so I have never looked out over the congregation from the front.  When I got up there and looked out over the group I was a bit shocked at the number of people looking at me.  I have spoken to that many people before, but the lights were lower so I didn't have to focus on any faces.  I just decided to focus on the top of the heads of two of my friends in the middle of the auditorium, and my nerves calmed a bit.  Then I spoke.  Who knows what I said.  I sure don't.  But I didn't see any looks of horror on any faces as I headed back to my seat, so it must have turned out okay. 

Minsy made it further into the meeting than I was expecting.  I didn't know how she would handle having to be quiet and mostly still for two straight hours.  I expected to have to drag all the kids out into the hall after a few minutes of the meeting.  But Minsy made it all the way until the last half hour of the meeting without having any problems.  I had to stand with her for the rest of the time.  She was super wiggly and really needed to take a nap, but there was too much going on for her to really calm down.  I managed to keep her happy until the end of the meeting, but I was unable to really get much out of Elder Gonzalez's talk at the end there. 

Minsy was really fighting her fatigue by the time the meeting ended and we headed to a meeting room to set apart the new stake presidency.  All of the new presidency members were there along with their families.  I was the only one there with a wiggly, semi-crying child.  I didn't want to ruin the moment for the others by having a crying child in the room, so I ducked into the hall while President Nigliazzo and President Jones were set apart.  I was a bit sad that I missed that while I was out in the hall, but it all worked out.  Luckily, I was able to be there when Herman was set apart, and it was a nice thing to witness.

So now Herman will soon no longer be Bishop Blau.  He will now be President Blau.  As we were driving home I was talking to the kids and said that President Blau doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as Bishop Blau or Brother Blau.  JoJo just looked at me and said, "Don't worry Mom.  You can still call him Herman."  And that is true.  He is still, and will always be, my Herman.  This is another new adventure for our family, but we have faith that it will be an exciting adventure with lots of blessings in store.  I can't wait to see where this new adventure takes us!

Back in the Saddle Again

We've been home for more than a week, and it has been harder than I expected to get myself together here at home.  I really should include a picture of my bedroom here.  It seriously could be a good candidate for the Hoarders TV show.  We, no kidding, now have narrow paths leading to various spots in the bedroom.  I can barely see any carpet because of the mountains of things littering the floor.  There is all of our unpacked baggage from China, clothes that are dirty, clothes that are clean, discarded take-out containers, and on and on.  My little pug is even afraid to venture in here.  My kitchen is not much better.  Despite doing as little cooking as possible in the past week and using lots and lots of disposable containers (don't judge me too harshly) the kitchen looks like a nuclear disaster zone -- definitely a rubber gloves zone.  And I could go on an on.  The house is a disaster.  I have a month's worth of mail to go through.  I need to update all of our financial records.  I need to upload all of our trip pictures.  I need to get Christmas cards ready to send out.  Argggggggggh! 

Okay, time to breathe.  It'll be fine.  This jet lag from the return trip is a killer.  I'm sure glad that we had Thanksgiving break at least to give us a bit of a breather before we had to head back out into the world, but I am still suffering extreme fatigue from the whole trip.  I go to sleep at 8 pm each night and wake up around 3 am each morning.  Then I spend the  entire day either fighting fatigue or taking quick half hour naps every couple of hours or so.  It isn't exactly a schedule that is conducive to getting a lot done. 

Yesterday, despite the mountain of a mess that sits in this house Herman and I decided that we needed to take a quick trip to St. Louis to go to the temple.  I really, really didn't feel like going.  I was convinced that I would fall asleep during the session or spend my entire time worrying about everything waiting at home that I should be doing.  But as is often the case, when I don't feel like getting out and going, that is when I most need to go.  So we left super early and got there for the first session, and we were able to get back home in time to pick everyone up from school.  So it was a nice quick trip.  I won't exactly say that I got a good dose of relaxation while I was there, but I did feel like I got grounded, and that is what I really needed.  I just need to recalibrate a bit and start fresh.  So that is what I'm ready to do today.

The kids have been in school for the past two days, and all of them were able to re-enter school without any problems at all.  Everyone had been dropped but Savannah, and she was the one I worried a bit about since she was required to do all the work she had missed, but she found that she had actually been given more homework during our trip than her classes were able to cover while she was gone.  So she's a bit ahead.  The rest of the kids do well enough in school that they were able to jump right in and catch up without problems.  Hurray!

As for Minsy, she is doing wonderfully!  I'm going to devote a whole post to her in the next week or so when I have more time to sit and really try to articulate what a wonder she is.  But she has entered her family as if she was always meant to be here -- and to be honest, I know that she really was meant to be here all along.  It has been a bit of a transition just getting used to having a younger child in the home again -- worrying about crayons on the wall and spilled cereal in the living room.  But I can handle that.  She's a gem for sure!

Now I'm off to tackle the disaster that is my home.  I'm just going to have to take the FlyLady approach today.  This mess didn't get made in a day, and it isn't going to clean up in a day either.  I'll just keep smiling.  It'll get done.  I'm sure I'll need to take a few breaks during the day to add a couple of posts that I have floating in my head, so keep reading.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was the type of day that holidays are meant to be -- a day to just relax and spend time with the ones we love without drama, just reflecting on the wonderful blessings of our life.  So, with that in mind, here are a few of the things I have to be thankful for this day:

• My own personal Prince Charming, my sweet Herman, who loves me so much that he was willing to take me to see a movie that he really can't tolerate at all, just because he knows that I love the books so much.  He sat through Breaking Dawn, Part One with me this afternoon and managed to only groan a few times.  
• My super awesome sister-in-law, Laurenda, who drove with her family all the way from Kansas just to make Thanksgiving dinner for all of us so that I wouldn't have to cook and clean the big dinner so soon after returning home from China.
• My great mom-in-law, Nandy, who volunteered her home for the dinner so that dinner wouldn't mess up our house.  
• A great bro-in-law, Jason, who has a gift for discussing the finer philosophical points of The Twilight Saga -- and he's not even mocking me when he does it.
• Wonderful nieces who are great friends with my younger children and make it a party whenever they visit.
• My mom and dad and brother, Ryan, who have watched Brownie and Max for the past month while we have been traveling, and who have kept them a few extra days while we have gotten re-adjusted to Missouri life.
• My big, wonderful and happy family.  Hurray for a family without drama (most of the time)!
• My daughter, Laney, who cheerfully volunteered to watch all the cousins so that Mom, Dad, Laurenda, and Jason could have a sweet Thanksgiving date.
• My daughter, Savannah, who managed not to kill me as she drove us to Nandy's house for Thanksgiving dinner -- my first time driving with her since she got her license (and I only screamed at her a couple of times in the process).
• My son, Spencer, who can wax poetically about the smallest details of combat missions in his war on Russia as well as the current football games without missing a beat -- at the same time as he strongly argues that showers are an unnecessary habit for humans (until the future if he wants a girlfriend, I'm sure).
• My daughter, Katie, who gives me pause almost every day as she emerges from her room with a new fashion creation she has made.  Unfortunately she was born into a family with a fashion backward kind of mom.
• My son, Hyrum, who has such tender feelings toward everything around him and wrote the sweetest Thanksgiving play for us today about the Peanuts gang.  Unfortunately, due to scheduling difficulties we were unable to see it, but you can bet that the play will be filed in my memories collection of papers.
• My son, JoJo, who still runs to the door to give his mama a big hug and kiss as I am leaving for my sweet date.  He knows the best ways to sweeten me up.
• My newest daughter, Eliza (Miss Minsy), who has just jumped into the Blau family seamlessly.  She is willing to be a part of any crazy traditions that we might have.  She had her first Thanksgiving ever today, and she tried all the food a little bit.  She loved the green beans the most, but she was willing to finish her turkey, potatoes, and roll.  She smiles and giggles a lot and only pauses to cry once in a while.  What a joy to have her in our family.
• I am grateful that we are finally getting over our jet lag and getting into a routine again.
• I am grateful for two washers and two dryers that allow me to do a week's worth of laundry in only a few short hours, and I am super grateful that I don't have to drop the laundry off at an expensive laundry service any more.
• Today I can finally play my Christmas music without feeling guilty.  I've always thought that the Christmas season shouldn't begin until after Thanksgiving.  No one else in my family agrees though.  I'm the last holdout, but today I broke out my Straight No Chaser, Harry Connick, Jr. and Josh Groban Christmas albums.  They'll ring in my Christmas celebrating until I add my other Christmas music later this weekend.  I love Christmas music!
• I am also grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who gently guides us in our life to be where we need to be when we need to be there so that we can reach our full potential in this life.  I have seen His hand in our life so much in the past year, and I have to be thankful for all that He has done for our family to get us here today.

That's just my short list of things for today -- I could go on and on and on, I'm sure.  I hope that everyone has had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day and has taken some time to remember the blessings in our lives.

Homeward Bound!!

Headed home!

Last night was a crazy night for me.  I was up super late doing final packing for the trip today, and I was so tired when I finally laid down that I was really over tired.  I couldn't relax at all.  On top of that natural insomnia that came because of my packing and travel anxiety I was suffering with a horrible cough.  I could not shake the stupid hacking.  I never have any problem at all while I am up and walking around, but as soon as my head hits the pillow I can't stop coughing.  I was up all night.  I think that I finally got to sleep around 4:30 in the morning.  That was not going to lead to a good day for flying since we needed to be up and out of our hotel before 8 am.  I was going to have to get up early for the last second packing we needed to do in the morning.  Ugh!

Our last subway line.

We were able to get things all packed nicely and ready to depart on time.  We caught three cabs outside our hotel to drive us to the Kowloon airport express line of the metro.  With all of our luggage it made it necessary to use three cabs, so we had Laney and Savannah take their own cab.  They did a great job on their own, and we all showed up at the right spot.  The nice option that this airport express station of the subway offers is that we were able to check our bags and check in for our flight there at the subway station so we didn't need to haul all of our stuff on the subway line.  They just had a line that would take our stuff all the way to our flight.  That was a tremendous blessing because it opened our arms up and it gave us the chance to check our large family in without the larger crowds that are present at the main airport.  So I pulled out our nine passports for what would be the first of about twenty times I would need to display them all day, and we were on our way.

Our last trip on the subway.

We took the subway line all the way in to the main Hong Kong International Airport facility.  We passed through security there, and I have to say that I loved the process there so much better than what we face when we travel in the US.  They were pretty thorough, but they were relaxed with smaller lines and friendlier workers who don't seem quite as frazzled as some of our TSA agents can look sometimes.  We didn't have to take off our shoes (the most ridiculous requirement of our security practices in my opinion).  I still felt totally safe after the experience.  The lady assisting customers through the process even sent our family to the priority line set up for diplomats since we had so many children.  That made things go nicely.

After getting through security we headed to our plane boarding area.  We made it just on time and arrived just as the plane started boarding.  I'm not exactly sure why this was, but the boarding of our large plane in Hong Kong seemed so much quicker and more orderly than the boarding of our large plane had been in Chicago.  It was a relatively relaxing experience here in Hong Kong, and that is saying something when I am loading up a family of nine. 

Getting ready to board.

This plane ride was my biggest fear of this trip other than my fears that Minsy would have a difficult transition to our family.  We were going to be on a plane for fourteen hours with a little girl who really would not be able to understand us as we tried to help her to stay calm and seated througout the flight.  I anticipated lots of crying and screaming that would disturb all those around us and make for a miserable experience for Minsy.  I tried to prepare things to help prevent this, but there was just no way to know what to expect.  I am happy to say that the flight was absolutely amazing.  Minsy took a few naps here and there, but she remained awake for a majority of the trip.  She really wasn't wiggly at all.  She was happy to sit with us and play with items in our area.  She liked going between the three sections of seats that our family occupied, so she was never really bored too much.  She sat with me most of the time, and this prevented me from getting the sleep that I really needed, but I tried to nap when she did, and it worked out okay.  We sat by friendly people who enjoyed talking with the kids, and that made things easier as well.  Several people on the two flights we took today spoke about how well behaved our children were and how attached Minsy seems to be with all of us so quickly.  I really appreciate those compliments.  I'm not sure that I have anything to do with it, but I am grateful to have such good children, especially on a crazy long trip like this one.

Hyrum and Minsy on the flight to the US.

When we arrived in Chicago we had to go through immigration and customs.  I was a bit nervous about both of these processes because I wasn't sure just how complicated dealing with the government agencies would be with so many of us traveling.  The first thing that we had to do was to go through immigration to get our passports checked and stamped.  I wasn't quite sure which line to enter because they had a lines for citizens and lines for visitors.  We had eight US passports but one Chinese passport for Minsy.  I wasn't quite sure where she fit in yet.  Although we had done her immigration work in Guangzhou, she wasn't technically a citizen until she got through immigration in the US at the airport.  I chose to go through the citizens line and luckily ended up with a super nice immigration worker.  He did all of the family US passports and sent everyone but Minsy and I on to grab our bags from the baggage area so that we could take it through customs. 

This immigration worker wasn't exactly sure what to do about Minsy, so he grabbed a guy who did know, and he led us into an immigration room next to the entry lines.  We were able to step to the front as Minsy's name was called.  He had taken the brown sealed envelope we received in Guangzhou with strict rules not to open it.  This guy opened it.  I really hoped that he was the person authorized to do that.  I still wasn't sure.  But soon he called Minsy and handed her her Chinese passport and said that she was all good.  All good?  What exactly does that mean?  Did that mean that she was now officially a US citizen, or did that mean that she was a resident alien who was free to visit the Statue of Liberty or Mount Rushmore now?  I asked if that was all we needed to do, and he said that yes, her passport was now her greencard. 

So now Minsy is a US citizen.  Hurray!  I'll admit that I was a bit underwhelmed with the process here.  I remember when my brother Bryan became a US citizen after being adopted from Vietnam.  I was pretty young when it happened, but my memory was of him being in a large room with several other people of different nationalities, and everyone raising their hands together as they became citizens.  I remember that all of us got a small American flag.  I kind of wanted something more official like that.  I guess that our ceremony in Guangzhou was kind of like that, without the flag.  Maybe it was just a different sort of process since we did it overseas in China rather than when we arrived in the US.  Either way, it's okay.  The important thing is that Minsy is now a citizen.

After immigration we headed to customs.  I thought that this was going to be a major pain because we had so many purchases from China.  I thought that they would need to go through all of our luggage.  It was going to take forever.  I have heard nightmares of the kinds of experiences that people have had in customs at airports.  Well, for us we were kind of at the end of the line because of our extra time spent working on Minsy's immigration status.  Still, the lines were smooth and quick.  When it was our turn the worker took our paper that said that we had nine people traveling with us.  They asked if it was true that we really had nine in our family because they said that they don't really ever see those sorts of numbers before.  Once they saw the size of our family they just waved us through without looking at a single thing.  They just took our word for it that we weren't smuggling merchandise into the country.  I'm not sure if they just didn't want to deal with a large number of people in our group, slowing down the rest of the line, or if it was because we looked like such an innocent family, or maybe they have some sort of system to notice the type of people they need to check.  I don't know.  I was just glad that it went smoothly for us.

I thought that we were done having to go through security, but for some reason in Chicago after arriving on an international flight we still need to go through security at the airport again.  The security line in Chicago was chaos compared to the system in Hong Kong.  There is not enough room for what they are trying to do.  But the workers were super nice to us and very patient, and we made it through.  Last time for awhile, thank goodness.

Waiting in Chicago for our flight to St. Louis

We left Hong Kong at 11 am on Monday, and through the miracle of time changes, we arrived in Chicago at 11 am on Monday.  It's like magic!  Unfortunately, although the clock made it seem as if we had traveled from China to Chicago in less than a minute, our bodies were still on China time, so we were really messed up.  We did okay on our trip to the US, but it really hit us on our trip from Chicago to St. Louis.  We managed to keep all of the kids awake in between flights, but as soon as the plane pulled away from the terminal all of us were asleep.  We didn't even notice the liftoff.  The flight from Chicago to St. Louis is only 45 minutes long, so we didn't have much time to sleep.  I was able to wake up about halfway through the flight, but everyone else was out cold.  Herman woke as we were coming into the St. Louis airport, but the kids didn't budge.  The flight pulled up to the gate, and everyone got off, but we could not wake the kids up.  Finally we managed to get most everyone off the plane, but Katie would not wake up at all.  I poked and prodded her for several minutes but she wouldn't move at all.  I was already carrying Minsy, so I couldn't carry her.  I managed to finally rouse her into a sleepwalking state, and we got off the plane. 

And this is how we all behaved on our trip from Chicago to St. Louis:

With groggy eyes we shuffled through the airport and got all of our bags.  None were lost at all on the flights.  Hurray!  My brother, Joe, picked us up after keeping our van with him while we were gone.  We smashed ourselves and our things into the van, and after dropping Joe off at work we were on our way home.  The kids slept most of the way.  I was a little  worried about how Minsy would do on the two hour drive home because she was going to be in a car seat.  In China they do not use car seats, and in most places they don't use seat belts either.  But luckily Minsy did great on the drive.  She only cried a bit after waking up in the middle of the drive, but I switched seats with Laney to sit next to her and comfort her, and it worked out wonderfully.  We stopped quickly in St. Louis to get some fresh Krispy Kreme donuts to feet our craving some horribly bad-for-you fried, sugared yummies. 

When we arrived home we let Minsy explore all around.  She has been wonderful.  She fits right in.  It is almost like she has always been here.   We are now hanging out, planning on spending the next several days to try and reset our internal body clocks to Missouri time.  In addition we need to get used to this cold weather.  When we left Hong Kong this morning (er, yesterday) it was 75.  It was 40 degrees when we arrived in St. Louis.  It was a jarring experience.  But this colder weather will  help our heads wrap around the fact that it is already Christmas season now.  I missed almost all of November here.  Hopefully we can get ourselves together soon so that we can get the calming influence of a regular schedule into Minsy's life.  That will help her feel comfort in our home more than about anything, I think.

I have loved keeping this blog of our trip.  I will probably not write each day after this.  I have to do a lot of catchup and add some of my reviews of books I read on my trip onto my goodreads.com reviews on this blog.  I will also take the next few days and fix the formatting and add pictures to all of my China trip entries.  I can't wait to show some of the sights that I have only described so far.  I hope you enjoy all of it.  For now, I'm happy to go to my own bed for the first time in almost a month.  The Great Blau Family Adventure Through China 2011 is officially over.