Pour quoi pas?

Another image I've been saving but haven't posted yet....my Dutch friend Margriet saw this sign while on vacation in France, and thought of my Paradise Alley photo. I love this. For those who don't speak French, this street is called "Why-not Street".

Memories of my former city

I was going through some of my picture stacks and found this photo that I'd been searching for a while back. It's a window at ABC Carpet & Home, creator of my favorite window displays in all of Manhattan. When I lived in the city, I used to walk by ABC windows several times a week just to draw inspiration (although I could afford nothing in the store, and so generally avoided the interior). I took this picture a couple of years ago when M. and I went to visit my mother just after Christmas. It was a January window, and I think my all-time favorite. If I could, I would make Flynn's room look like this.
I love living in Denver - really, genuinely love it, on a daily basis. Denver makes me happy in a way that New York never did. I don't miss living in "The City". But it's nice to get back from time to time, to soak up some of the sheer wealth of creative energy that exists there.

Our girl of much beauty

Another Xuzhou mom, Sue, who is currently in China with her family to pick up their daughter Jia, visited the orphanage yesterday and took these lovely pictures of QiuQiu for us. I am so touched and humbled that she did this. In the midst of the journey of a lifetime, with her entire family there, and a new daughter to lavish with attention, Sue not only took the time to write to all of us waiting Xuzhou families, but also to take pictures of each and every one of our children while visiting the Xuzhou SWI.

She posted those pictures this morning so that all of us could have an update on our children. She took several, of which these are my favorites.

I am so very grateful to Sue for going above and beyond to do this, and I have so enjoyed watching her own journey to her beautiful Jia, who is truly a child of light - full of such a brave and happy spirit. I feel like Jia is just the right child for this generous and loving family.

As I pore over these new pictures of our QiuQiu, my first thought is: She's already grown!! The last pictures I saw were taken only two or three weeks ago, and she already is bigger and has more teeth! This thought came to me with a jolt, and for the first time I felt really impatient - really in a hurry to get there and scoop her into our lives. The idea that in just a handful of days she has already grown and changed without us watching over her is quite startling to me, and really brings home the fact of how quickly children grow and develop at this age. I want to be there to see each new tooth, to watch her try out her limbs and learn new skills.
The wait affects everyone differentely, and for me the hardest part was the last few months before we received QiuQiu's referral. Since the referral, it has not gotten harder for me (as it does for some people) but easier. I feel calm in the knowledge that she is there, healthy and real and in a good place, and that we will be with her before long in the scheme of things.
So this is the first time that I have felt a real jolt of urgency, a visceral impatience. I want to stay calm and in peace during this time, because I want to be in a good place, emotionally, when we meet her. I want her to feel our calm and our happiness, and take strength from it. Also because I (we both) have a lot of work to do and a lot to accomplish before we travel.
But I do hope that our approvals come sooner rather than later.

Finally, a picture of the baby room in QiuQiu's orphanage.
Thank you, Sue, for taking these wonderful pictures!

Update: Sue, dear-heart that she is, wrote something about each of our children on her blog. Here's what she wrote about our QiuQiu:
"Maia, Flynn Ava is a knock out! She has beautiful eyes, I know you can see that in the photos but in person, she is just breath-taking. Her head of shiny black hair helps too! She seemed content and liked the attention. oh, and green is her color!"

Gifts for our girl

OK, so I was finally able to take a better picture of the beautiful antique gown that Maryellen sent for QiuQiu. It took just the right light to pick out some of the detail, since the needlework is so very delicate...but I think you can see some of those tiny tucks here! So fragile and lovely.

And here's a cute little outfit that my sister-in-law sent the other day. The goldfish is particularly appropriate since we just put three new koi in our outdoor water garden....still very skittish but doing well so far!

And more good wishes in the mail for QiuQiu - she is so showered with good thoughts that I think she must be able to feel the love even across thousands of miles!
(ps - Vivian, as you can see I'm still wearing my adoption bracelet 24-7!)

I have lots more news and pictures to post... but have not had time since we've had a couple of busy gardening/project days. I'll post more tomorrow. In fact...thanks to a wonderful and dear-hearted fellow Xuzhou mom who's in China right now, we have MORE new pictures of QiuQiu to show! So keep watching this space.... ;)

Garden season

I have spent the past few days falling in love with one of our rose bushes.

This bush did not bloom so fully last year. I don't know if it was my extremely inexpert trimming that did the trick, or just the particular quality of the season, but this year it has bloomed to extravagance.

Of all our roses (white, red, fuscia, pink), these are my favorites...with their color like a sunset over the ocean. They also have a perfume so pure it's almost painful - a smell you hardly dare inhale for its briefness and its perfection.

I can see the other bushes preparing for a banner blooming season, dozens and dozens of tight buds ready to unfurl. But this one is my true love, and I felt the need to appreciate and photograph every individual bloom as it opened.


Just look at that perfection. This is a rose utterly languid with the knowledge of its own beauty.


Our largest bush, ready to bloom. This one will be fuscia, and will light up the front of the yard like a christmas tree in another couple of days.

Flowerpots on the stoop.


And strawberries. We planted these last year, and this year they have really showed promise...big, tight green fruit, rife with seeds...

...and then one morning, the first splash of red showing among the flowerbeds.

Here's a closeup. This berrry (and, in fact, all of the berries on this front plant) was eaten by robins today. Only the plants closest the front door are still heavy with fruit. But you know what? I almost don't mind. Just to have grown these fruit is satisfaction enough.

My beloved rose in full sunlight.



Iris, bearded with gold.



I even love the way the allium look after they have gone to seed...like something from the modern art museum!

A typical Colorado summer sky...full of thunderheads!

Actually, our whole neighborhood looks like a garden these days. This house has the flowerbeds that I covet. They must order a gross of bulbs every year. Next year, I aspire to their gardening prowess!

Blogs that make my day!

So, Vivian over at Life With Kerri was so sweet as to nominate me for a blog award today, and apparently my mission is to name five blogs that make MY day (without re-nominating Viv, which is too bad since she certainly does make my day...and quite often, I might add!)
Now, the toughest thing about this task is the number. Five is WAY too few. You may not have noticed, but I love to blog, and I love to read blogs. On the right you can see a partial list (partial because I can't ever keep up with linking my favorites) of my daily blog log. I have so many beloved blogs that choosing five is a truly ludicrous exercise. So I'm just gonna close my eyes and take the leap. I will try to list blogs that I don't mention all the time (because there are some that I do) and not all will be adoption-related. Here's a very random five that raise my spirits at the moment:

- For Zoey: because Stacie takes such beautiful pictures, because of her dear heart and infectious joie de vivre, because of her beautiful smile and heartfelt words and (needless to say) because it's such a joy to watch Zoey grow!

- Musings: because she always finds the most wonderful things from every corner of the world. Every day I check in to see what gorgeous poem, what stunning photograph, what mystical tradition from abroad she has come across today. Because she has an artist's heart and mind. Because her intelligence and her beauty of spirit always shines through. Because she shares my vision of the world. (We won't mention how she makes me shop. That's definitely a problem.)

- Bean's pad: because she is a friend from the past and I enjoy having a window on her new life across the miles, because of her diligently green lifestyle, her love of nature, and her appreciation for the simple pleasures, because of her beautiful boy, her clean and lovely Swiss style, and her inimitable sense of color which always makes me smile.

- Lanterns and Lotus Blossoms: Because Heather's two beautiful girls are always so lovely together, like something from a fairytale! Because of her gorgeous and lush style, her bright colors and her constant sense of fun.

- Four Little Hawks: because sweet Jen has such a beautiful and generous heart, because her pure spirit shines through everything she does, because she is a dog lover like me and a wonderful mother (oh, and she has a beautiful Xuzhou boy, like our QiuQiu!)

...and, if I might be allowed to break the rules just a little, I want to add one of my new favorite design blogs to the mix:

- Bloesem Kids: this is not someone I know, but a blog that I love to follow as I create a world for our daughter. Brilliant and unique ideas for kids' rooms, one-of-a-kind toys and handmades, and off-the-beaten-track book reviews. If I need inspiration, whether it's for a children's illustration or for Flynn's nursery, I can always find it here.

Vail, in brief

So, after our Memorial Day barbecue, we headed straight for the mountains. The heavy drizzle on the front range intensified as we climbed into the mountains, making for some dramatic views.

Fortunately, the skies were clear on the western slope, opening into idyllic spring mountain weather. UNfortunately, by the time we arrived, my toothache had spread to a full-body infection, and I was an invalid for the first 24 hours. I have never had my wisdom teeth removed (I have a big mouth, apparently;) nor have I ever had so much as a cavity. But once every five years or so I get an infection in the very back of my gums. This one was particularly bad, and in the morning I had to drive to the clinic for antibiotics. I am anti-antibiotics (can I say that?) and haven't taken them since I had strep throat about 15 years ago. I was amazed how fast they worked on my infection. Within hours, I was comfortable again, if weak as a baby bird.
So...this is how I spent my "weekend" in Vail.
Actually, it was kinda nice...I didn't realize how seldom I just spend time on the couch with my feet in my husband's lap.

...and my dog looking after me, of course!

This was my only view for the first 40 hours...not that it's a bad one!

Shhh...don't tell grandpa! BAD Sam. Thinks he owns the place.

A sconce in the hall.

By the second morning I was able to take Sam out for a walk around the base of the ski slope. He was pretty excited, although he had a hard time understanding why we couldn't go all the way up the mountain.

Pretty flowerbeds.

New Aspen leaves...just opened and still brilliant green.

On our final day, I was able to muster enough energy to do the very bottom portion of one of our hiking trails. I was tuckered out after about a quarter mile, but it was clear even from there that it's gonna be a banner year for wildflowers in the mountains.

Can't WAIT to take my mom up there later in June for some real hiking...must have been all the snow last winter, because the flowers are bigger and more plentiful than I've seen them this time of year in quite a while.

M and Max admiring the spring runoff.

Sam, mid-leap!

Finally feeling better.

Heading home...too soon, but it was a nice, relaxing weekend!