White Fence Farm, part II

Snuggling with daddy on the back porch (love the rockers!)
QQ was thrilled to watch the square dancers.
I asked her to sit on the steps of the gazebo while we waited for Daddy, and she decided to take a moment to smell the flowers. In the third photo, you'll see her get in a little too close...and if you click on the fourth photo, you can see the spray of pink geranium petals that ended up in her mouth.
"A" for enthusiasm.
Doesn't she look fast in that last shot? A little carousel-horse racecar driver.

We didn't get a chance to take a carriage ride, but it sure is pretty, no?
From the farm, we headed west to Redrocks, with every intention of seeing The Princess Bride at their film on the rocks series.
The light was spectacular over the foothills.
And the valley view from the redrocks park was amazing.
QQ was having the best day of her life, from the looks of it.
We had blankets, juice and snacks in our shoulder bags.

Riding on daddy's shoulders amid all this gorgeous scenery was the cherry on top of the cake of her awesome day!
QQ particularly admired the couple on the top right, who arrived on a very stylish vintage motorcycle. Along with her abiding love for various sports, Q is a bit of a motorcycle aficionado.
It's a good thing the scenery speaks for itself, because after climbing the many sets of stairs up to the amphitheater, we discovered that the tickets we had needed to be traded in at the box office for a different set of tickets in order to gain entry to the sold-out show. Hmmmmm...can you say "red tape"? It's a good thing that QQ didn't know what she was missing, that we'd already had such an awesome day, and that the view is mostly the best thing about the redrocks amphitheater, anyhow, otherwise we would have been rather ticked off. As it was, we went home happy and at the homemade peach cobbler we'd taken to-go from the White Fence.

The White Fence Farm

Recently, we took an evening off to have dinner at a strange and kind of wonderful place called the White Fence Farm, down in south Denver.
This actually happened the day before we heard the terrible news about the hospital contamination, which threw us for such a loop. It was such a happy day, spent as a family, but I didn't have the heart to post the pictures after what we saw in the papers when we awoke the next morning.
Now, emerging back into the light of our life, I'm delighted to review them again with joy.
This is the playground area, which is the first thing you come to when you arrive at the farm. I loved this gingerbread treehouse.
While waiting for a table, we stepped out back to the farm's version of a petting zoo, which features the biggest and sweetest bull I've ever had the pleasure of meeting.
Having grown up partially on a cattle ranch in Southern Colorado, I am used to seeing bulls in action...bulls fighting, bulls tending their harem, bulls threatening younger bulls. I have never before met a bull who would eat out of your hand, and let you pet his cheek afterward.
Seriously, look at that face. Never had a mean thought in his life.
There is, however, a sign telling you that you pet at your own risk. Which is only as it should be.
I love feeding goats. I love their little split lips and the gentle way their noses tickle your palm.
I also love feeding sheep, and their cute, innocent, wide-eyed faces. OK, that look of innocence is probably just the sheep version of greed, but it's cute nonetheless.
Once seated, we set about selecting our meal. The White Fence Farm specializes in fried chicken - but this isn't just any fried chicken. This is fried chicken the way it ought to be - pure and fresh as the day is long, sizzling on the outside and tender as clouds on the inside. Chicken is really what you want to order when you go to the Farm. Yes, there are a few (very few) other options, but chicken is - trust me - what you want. With your chicken, you get a set selection of side dishes straight out of another time and place: pickled beets, kidney bean salad, fresh cole slaw, home made corn fritters, and cottage cheese.
Yes, I said "cottage cheese".
When was the last time you had cottage cheese?
And yet, it is curiously appropriate here.

In the above photo, QQ is matching a piece of fried chicken to the cartoon chicken on the restaurant's business card. QQ is a matcher. It's her forté. It's what she does, what she enjoys, and what she excels at.
As good as the fried chicken was (and it was goood!) I'd have to say the best thing on the menu is the homemade corn fritters. They are time-sensitive, so you have to eat them quickly. It's rather like eating sugar-coated cumulus clouds, if you get them straight out of the frier. They're nothing short of amazing.
I had to sneak a shot of the menu, because it's so funny. Click on the photo to zoom in on it.
I mean, when was the last time you saw the word "highballs" on a menu?

After a good meal of (let me emphasize) fried chicken, one is free to explore the various buildings and upper stories of the farm. A small museum of artifacts from a simpler time is one of the many highlights.
I particularly liked the different types of shirt collar.
Having perused the various barns and buildings, we headed back to the petting pens. OK, I may have forced that issue. But...I mean, look at those sheep! Could you have resisted?
For a couple of quarters, you get enough pellets for a long and satisfying feeding session.
I was thrilled to introduce QQ to the miryad joys of feeding livestock by hand.
For her part, Q was more interested in going around and reading all of the signs.
Meanwhile, Mommy remained riveted by the greedy muzzles of various goats and sheep.

I have a small confession to make: I kind of have a thing for sheep and goats. Shortly after these fond photos were taken, I gave in to temptation and kissed one of those sheep right on its nappy little nose.

And I don't regret it. I'm not proud. I'm willing to admit my weaknesses.

Here QQ is pointing out the trademark chicken on one of the signs...delighted to match it once again to the chicken she'd seen on the menu and business card.
Meanwhile....yup, mommy is still zeroing in on sheep.
Q hoping that the sheep will lick the dirt off her hands. Q isn't fond of dirty hands, and is always looking for someone to cleanse her.
In an era where most animal-related attractions are rife with industrial-sized bottles of hand sanitizer, the Farm uses an good old-fashioned pump with well water to wash little sheep-licked hands.
That makes me happy.
We took this picture for Dick....you know who you are ;)
A beautiful doll-sized barn, complete with straw on the floors inside.
And then QQ spotted the best wildlife of all...this miniture bunny, sneaking out from its den to nibble some sweet grass.
This guy was maybe the size of the palm of my hand. When approached by a rabid toddler with a fetish for bunny rabits, he turned tail and sped to safety.
Here he is viewing the world from the safety of his bunker.

More on the White Fence to come....I had too many photos for one post, once again!

Good news!

I have the best possible news to report: we got a call from the hospital today - Q's Hep C test came back negative. Needless to say, the relief is bigger than any words. After a week of dark days, I can't tell you how it feels to be able to look at that happy little face and not feel like crying inside.

I would be jumping and crowing with joy were it not for the fact that there are others out there who have not had good news. No report yet as to how many tests have come back positive since the screening began here in Denver, but I know that if I were one of those people (or their loved ones) consigned to a lifetime with this disease thanks to the thoughtless actions of an addict, I would want those who were luckier to show respect. So while my joy for the sake of our daughter is bigger than the universe right now, I still feel the shock of those lives that have been affected by this nightmare.

I feel really at a loss for words to express how grateful I am for the health of our happy, joyful, vigorous, loving child. Instead I'm posting this picture from our adoption week in Guangzhou. Some will recognize this as the infamous "red couch" at the White Swan hotel, where adoptive parents have their first family photo taken with their new child. Of course, we were all a little shell-shocked at this point, not least of all (I can only imagine) little Q. As new parents, no matter how well-prepared and schooled, it isn't easy to wrap your mind around the fact of having a stranger's child placed in your arms, of becoming, in the matter of an instant, a parent to a child that you did not grow in your own womb. Imagine how much more difficult to be that child, handed to a pair of strangers who look, smell and dress unlike anyone you've ever seen before, snatched from everything that is familiar to you and those people who have cared for you, and carried halfway around the world, to a place where nothing tastes, sounds, smells or looks the same. I can think of it as feeling like some sort of alien abduction.
And yet....the child in this picture, with her then-unrepaired cleft lip and palate, had just been given a second chance. Where her birth parents had been unable or unwilling to keep her, she was given a second set of parents - two people who love her more deeply than life itself, who dote on her, who can't tear their eyes away from her, whose lives revolve around her. Where she was born with a physical condition that would have made life extremely difficult for her in her own country, she was given an opportunity at the best surgereons, the best therapists, the best education. Where she had spent the first 11 months of her life flat on her back in a crib, with limited nutrition and meager resources, she now has the world at her feet - hiking, traveling, swimming, horseback riding, good food and a family who loves her profusely.
Here in this picture is a child on the brink of a second chance at life. I am so glad that, in giving her that chance, we did not inadvertently expose her to a disease that might have affected her for a lifetime.

My heart is with those who were not so lucky, and as one friend said recently, the world will always be a little darker now that we have come so close to something so nightmarish as this. It will be a challenge not to be fearful after what we've seen this past week. That said, the world will also always be a little brighter, thanks to the gift of this one child's healthy life.

Taking some time to mend

Taking a break....something really terrible has happened to our family, which will have to remain private for now. I am by nature a great optimist, and usually I am in love with life, the world, and everything in it. But to be brutally honest, my faith in the human race has been shaken considerably this week, and I just don't have the will to blog at the moment. I am wishing you all well, and hope that things will turn out for the better, and that my faith in humanity will eventually mend. For now, I'm going to need to take a step back.

Peace - M.

update:

My husband suggests that I clarify that no one is hurt (per se), and we're all together and OK at the moment. What happened was the selfish act of a stranger, a drug addict, a young woman with no regard for human life, who endangered thousands of people at a local hospital this past year while stealing narcotics to fuel her addictions. It was the hospital where Q had her cleft surgeries. The news just broke yesterday, and we will not know for a couple of weeks whether Q has been affected. Needless to say, we are devastated, horrified, angry and shaken. Whether or not QQ has been affected by this, there will turn out to be innocent people who have been. I'm really too angry and disillusioned to speak rationally about what is wrong with the medical system that allows this kind of thing to happen (a great deal more often than it should in recent years, it seems). Maybe someday I can talk about it with a more rational mind. I have no doubt there will be more than one lawsuit in this case (the perpetrator is currently in custody) but there is no way to compensate for an innocent child (or anyone, really) being endangered like this just when she was starting out on her second chance at a long and happy life. It's appalling. There is no justice to be had here, and no way to repay the victims. It's just a senseless nightmare. Needless to say no one is celebrating in this family today.

Good grief, Charlie Brown!

So, the other day we were drove down to the Southwest part of town to have dinner at a weird and wonderful place called the White Fence Farm...but that's really another story, which I will post about comprehensively at a later date (keep an eye out for it, 'cause it's gonna be good.)

OK, back up a bit. The fact is, I am once again so hopelessly behind with my photos that I'm jumping around wildly in sequence from one post to the next. I have a few big things to cover before I get to the day we visited the White Fence - including the surreal vintage carnival of Lakeside with my mum and Q, not to mention the end of our railroad day, during which we spent some time photographing "living ghost-town" of Silver Plume (also both weird and wonderful!) and saw some of the sickest storm clouds this side of the Wizard of Oz. Toto, we are definitely not in Kansas anymore.

In any case, I had to post these photos first, because....well, because I have no willpower. None whatsoever.

So, to start right smack in the middle of a story, the above photo shows the place mat that you get when you sit down to eat at the White Fence Farm. As you can see, it does double duty as a map of the premises, so if you want a little sneak peek at what you're in for during that future post, click on the photo and take a gander at the map.
Here is QQ inspecting her place mat while we wait for the main course. Nothing abnormal there. Just trying to decide whether she wants to visit the aviary first, or the OK Corral.
And then this happened.

It happened so fast - right in the middle of my taking a bite of a particularly crisp and steamy homemade corn fritter - that I had to throw down my corn fritter, snatch the camera out of my lap with greasy hands, and snap away without any time to adjust for lighting or sharpness.

I mean, how is one to anticipate the moments that follow?
It's like that Monty Python line - no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.
Let me tell you, if the Spanish Inquisition had had a QQ on their team, no one would have stood a chance against them.

Could you, for instance, hold your ground in the face of......
...THIS???????

Seriously??
At this moment, I opened my wallet, handed over all the credit cards, gave her my car keys, and signed a statement saying I was her slave for life.
After that, she paused briefly for effect, and....

......wait for it...........

ARE...YOU.......KIDDING............ME??????????????????????

There's no hope for us. Not a single chance. We're doomed.

Bathing beauty

QQ has been taking swimming lessons this week. On her first lesson, she learned to go underwater while holding her breath. On her second lesson, she learned to kick her feet.
She also just looks really good in a bathing suit. Aunt Chrissie recently sent a box with a few of cousin Isacah's outgrown suits in it...just in time for Q's debut in the pool!
(Here she's pointing out our wedding picture, btw. She loves to look at old photos of us.)
I think this leopard print looks particularly fetching on her...not many of us can pull of leopard print!

Notice I finally brought in the vintage school desk for her to use? She is just now tall enough! I never did get around to painting designs on it, but for the time being it looks good enough as is.