Our First Christmas

It's been a busy week at our house. Our first Christmas with Bryn was everything we thought it would be. We've now started our own family Christmas traditions and will carry on some of the traditions of our childhoods. Girard made a gingerbread house, we went to look at Christmas lights, played all the classic carols, read The Night Before Christmas and put out cookies and milk for Santa.

It didn't take Bryn very long to figure out what gift opening was all about. She opened some of her gifts Christmas Eve, which is tradition in Girard's family, and after she went to bed Girard and I opened ours so we could concentrate completely on Bryn Christmas morning. By then Santa had been here and she opened the rest of her gifts, which is the way we did things when I was a kid (many, many moons ago). By Boxing Day she was looking for more! She had a great time and so did we.

We've also had a lot of family come to visit in the past week and a half (with more to come this weekend) and it's been wonderful for all of us to have them.

These photos include our first Christmas visitors, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. More to come soon!


Cousin Anna and Bryn share some pre-Christmas cuddles.


Auntie Simone gets a big thank you hug for the present.


Dad and Bryn check out our first gingerbread house.


Our first of many family Christmas photos.


Bryn plays with her first new toy.


Whad'ya mean they're not for me?!


Christmas morning, still half asleep but awake enough to notice something new under the tree.


All dressed up for her first Christmas dinner.


Having a visit with Great-Grandma.

Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a peaceful, magical, love-filled Christmas.

Extra-special wishes, big hugs and much love to our travel mates as you spend your first Christmases with your precious daughters. We miss you guys!

Love,
Girard, Raelene and Bryn

Dad's Twelve Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my daughter gave to me, her unconditional love.

On the second day of Christmas my daughter gave to me, two pony tails and her unconditional love.

On the third day of Christmas my daughter gave to me, three stuffed bears, two pony tails and her unconditional love.

On the fourth day of Christmas my daughter gave to me, four hissy fits, three stuffed bears, two pony tails and her unconditional love.

On the fifth day of Christmas my daughter gave to me . . . five big bear hugs . . . four hissy fits, three stuffed bears, two pony tails and her unconditional love.

On the sixth day of Christmas my daughter gave to me, six pairs of Robeez . . . five big bear hugs . . . four hissy fits, three stuffed bears, two pony tails and her unconditional love.

On the seventh day of Christmas my daughter gave to me, seven wishes on stars, six pairs of Robeez . . . five big bear hugs . . . four hissy fits, three stuffed bears, two pony tails and her unconditional love.

On the eighth day of Christmas my daughter game to me, eight jumps on my back, seven wishes on stars, six pairs of Robeez . . . five big bear hugs . . . four hissy fits, three stuffed bears, two pony tails and her unconditional love.

On the ninth day of Christmas my daughter gave to me, nine rubber duckies, eight jumps on my back, seven wishes on stars, six pairs of Robeez . . . five big bear hugs . . . four hissy fits, three stuffed bears, two pony tails and her unconditional love.

On the tenth day of Christmas my daughter gave to me, ten belly laughs, nine rubber duckies, eight jumps on my back, seven wishes on stars, six pairs of Robeez . . . five big bear hugs . . . four hissy fits, three stuffed bears, two pony tails and her unconditional love.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my daughter gave to me, eleven hugs with mommy, ten belly laughs, nine rubber duckies, eight jumps on my back, seven wishes on stars, six pairs of Robeez . . . five big bear hugs . . . four hissy fits, three stuffed bears, two pony tails and her unconditional love.

On the 12th day of Christmas my daughter gave to me, twelve goodnight kisses, eleven hugs with mommy, ten belly laughs, nine rubber duckies, eight jumps on my back, seven wishes on stars, six pairs of Robeez . . . five big bear hugs . . . four hissy fits, three stuffed bears, two pony tails and her unconditional love.



To Bryn this first Christmas:

Holy infant, so tender and mild.
Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.

Love Dad

Christmas Letter 2007

This year’s Christmas letter is being written in a different set of circumstances in our home. Changes have taken place, things we aren’t used to having to deal with, and we are still trying to wrap our minds around the concept. I refer, of course, to the fact that Girard’s Fantasy Football team is one of the worst in the league this year, and he won’t make the playoffs. These are happy times for us, but it would be even better with a winning Fantasy Football team.

This year we welcomed Bryn Jenna CaiXing Hengen into our meagre existence, and that has made all the difference in our food and water bills. Not only that, but when Girard is alert enough after yet another night with not enough sleep, he secretly sizes up other people’s strollers, and feels stroller envy when someone has a really nice model, with the fancy big inflatable wheels and cool brand name. One benefit, though, to having a youngin’ is that when you’re walking in the mall, everyone is looking at our kid and her stroller. Nobody even notices the stroller pusher, so that allows us to walk around uncombed and unshaven (one of us, at least) without a care in the world.

Without a care, other than the hundreds of things we think could befall Bryn at any given moment. This is no exaggeration. We’re obviously new to the parenting thing. At our age we should be getting fitted for bifocals and bionic knees, but instead we now chase after our little girl, hoping for the best, hoping we don’t screw this one up. Girard just wants to rest, as he is even more tired than normal, but no such luck. Now he has to create as many objects as he can from a 24-block set, or sing (or in his case, recite) kids’ songs he doesn’t even know. Raelene has been doing most of the heavy lifting in the parenting department, which is typical, being that women are better at it than men. In a moment of weakness, men are apt to be more concerned about an upcoming second down conversion than whether the gate at the top of the stairs is closed.

We travelled to China in early February. We had an anxious night in Beijing before we met Bryn the following day. We flew to a tiny city of four million in southeast China called Nanchang. Bryn is from city of one million — hardly even a hamlet — called Xinyu, located near Nanchang, which is the capital of the province on Jiangxi. It’s a poor region of China. Sights, sounds and smells assaulted our senses, and that was just the stuff coming out of Girard. But Jiangxi is Bryn’s first home, and we came to really love it and its people, who might not have much, but they enjoy each day with a smile and good humour. Our society, with everything we can imagine available to us, could learn from that. We spent four nights in Nanchang, blissful and stressful times, and returned to Beijing for six more nights before departing. We had the good fortune to share our experiences with 11 other amazing families who have now become part of our extended family.

Bryn didn’t seem to mind us at first, but she was wary. It didn’t matter, she was our girl, and in time she became comfortable with us, and we with her. In no time we saw her first steps, her eating with a spoon, her first words, and her first timid walks outside. She’s very shy and not in a rush to fling herself headlong into anything (much like her parents). Despite that, she is now a non-stop talker, counter, reader, singer, runner, crawler, player, dancer, colourer, eater — you name it, she’s doing it. We started a blog when we returned from China about our life with Bryn, and if you are interested the address is http://littlemissbryn.blogspot.com.

This Christmas season we wish all the best for you. It’s a time of glad tidings — and we have more than enough to share. In fact, we’re positively radiating glad tidings, as hard as that is for people who know Girard to believe. We hope some of it rubs off on you during the holidays.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and healthy, happy New Year.

Looking Back

One of Bryn's referral photos and her Chinese name.



A year ago today we saw our daughter's face for the first time. Since we didn't have a blog back then many of you don't know the events of the months leading up to that day. Let me fill you in...

After sitting on the fence and thinking about it for over three years, we finally decided in February of 2005 to adopt a baby from China. That March we chose our adoption agency, Family Outreach International (FOI) and had our first meeting with our provincial social services office. The first week of May we had our first of three home-studies (which, coincidentally, were the only three days since we've lived here that our house was spotless). The paperwork and legwork was endless -- police checks, forms, meetings, interviews, physicals, photos -- on and on it went.

Finally on Sept. 5, 2005 our application for a baby was logged in with the Chinese Centre of Adoption Affairs (CCAA). The official wait had begun. When we had our first home-study we were told the wait from log in (LID) to referral (the day we would receive photos and information about our baby) would be from six to nine months. Yikes! We were shocked. We didn't expect it to happen so fast. Suddenly we had so much to do. The shopping and planning and wondering and worrying and the decorating (and redecorating) of our baby's room began.



Then came the delays. China was deluged with applications from all over the world from people like us who wanted to adopt one of their children. Each delay made us more frustrated, more anxious and, I hate to admit it, really grumpy.

On Nov. 30, 2006 the CCAA posted on its website that babies had been matched to all families with LIDs up to Sept. 8. We finally made it! Since we hadn't had any official word from our agency, we were a bit reluctant (pessimists that we were) to believe we were actually in. The next day, a Friday, we had an email from FOI confirming that we actually had been matched with a baby. It was a looooong, agonizing weekend waiting for word from our provincial office telling us they had our referral. The call came Dec. 4 at 9:30 a.m. Our file was in Regina and likely wouldn't be in Saskatoon until late that afternoon or the next day. They did, however, have a fax of our baby's picture. Did we want to come down and see it or wait until the next day when the color photos and the rest of the information arrived? Haha! What a kidder.



I've never seen Girard move so fast. Twenty minutes later we were looking at our beautiful baby's face for the first time. Yu Cai Xing, which translates to "colorful star", couldn't have been a more perfect match for us. We knew that the second we saw her. The six to nine month wait had turned into 15 long months. Funny, though, at that minute it just didn't matter. And we weren't grumpy anymore. We had, or almost had, our baby and we already loved her to pieces. We'd have to wait another two months until we held her in our arms but she was already forever in our hearts.

Now here we are a year later. A year older. A year wiser. And a year more in love with our colorful star, Bryn.




Happy "One Year Later" to our extended family in our travel group...enjoy reliving the moments. We miss you guys.