Category: Katrine

Happy Chinese Valentines Day!

We just found out today that it is Valentine’s day over here. Downtown Nanning is full of bridal photo stalls and people selling flowers. Couples are walking around in matching t-shirts. At Haagen Dazz there was a beautiful ice cream feast for two.

Also, the moon cakes are already on sale. Apparently, you are suppose to start eating them and giving them as gifts the whole month before the moon festival. Who knew? I don’t know if they would be that impressed with my round cake iced in yellow. I think that it tastes a lot better than traditional moon cakes. Katrine would disagree. She has been having at least half a moon cake each morning for breakfast. Oddly enough, Haggen Dazz also had a beautiful display of ice cream moon cakes.

Oh, in case you are wondering. My toe is much better and the bruise is already starting to fade.
The last photo is all of the stuff that Katrine bought today.

Tomorrow is the day!!!

Tomorrow is the big day.  We leave our hotel at 6 am and arrive in Jiangxi by 9:30am.  Then we will have to get some money changed and have some time to get ourselves settled before we meet little miss Elspeth.  To say we are excited is to put it mildly.  After dinner tonight, we will pack up the suitcases and it will seem quite real.  The end of one long journey but the beginning of another more exciting one.

We spent this morning with a friend from Guangxi.  It was a most excellent visit.  Katrine took to her at once which I think was very helpful in making things run smoothly.  Our friend took us to the little town where Katrine was found.  She asked a lot of questions and took us on an adventure beyond our dreams.  Katrine held up really well and so did mom and dad (our clothes not so much, have I told you how hot it is here?).

I can’t share many details but I can tell you that Katrine got to eat watermelong grown in Wuxu that was picked fresh that morning and man was it juicy.  The ladies at the watermelon stall cut it open for us and we ate it there at the corner.  You were also super happy to spend money on little items through out the day.  I think that buying things with your own money in your home town was the highlight of your day.

Sorry no photos right now.  Glenn and Katrine are at the pool and I am on my way to join them.  Maybe some tonight before we pack up and head out.

Orphanage visit & Yong River

Our visit to Katrine’s orphanage was a huge success. She was left feeling happy and secure in the knowledge that there are people in China who remember and care about her.

After dinner tonight we decided to do something relaxing and not emotionally charged so we headed across the road from our hotel to the riverbank. This river runs through Guangxi into Guangzhou and then to Hong Kong. It also runs right past Yongning Town and the restaurant where we had our lunch today. There is a lovely shaded walk-way. We must have walked for about a half hour. We saw house boats moored at the bank looking like something out of history book. People fishing off of the bank and then putting their catch into little nets just in the water to keep their catch alive. There were also tons of people swimming which is a great way to beat this heat (seriously, you go outside and in like 5 minutes the sweat is running off of you). In Canada, if you go swimming in a big lake you wear a life jacket. Here, if you go swimming in the Yong River you tie an empty plastic drum to you. That way if you get tired you have something to hold on to.


An typical Heather injury and a day of fun in Nanning

Okay, I will start this post off by explaining that I began our visit to Nanning with a typical Heather clutzy injury. We got to our hotel this morning at around 3 am. Exhausted but with the need to check out what appeared to be a really cool bathroom (It actually is. It has a seperate shower stall with wooden slat floor and a rain style shower head. Clean and cool). Anyways, I go to step in to the bathroom and end up kicking the tile step (You can see it in one of the photos below). Well, a lot of jumping and a couple of hours of sleep later and I woke up to a really nice bruise. Check it out! Just like Heather.

Okay, now for Nanning. There has been a lot of construction since we were here 6 years ago. We are staying at the second of the two hotels we used on Katrine’s adoption trip – The Youngjiang. It is clean and has air conditioning. It also has a nice pool that we spent a few hours in this afternoon in an effort to cool off from the heat and humidity. Katrine even made friends with a little girl. She pretended to be a motor and towed the girl around on a floaty making boat sounds. They also shared Katrine’s water wings. I don’t think that the girl had ever seen a pair before. She was really thrilled to be able to swim around without a floaty.

This morning after breakfast, we headed out to the Nanning People’s Park near the Mingyuan hotel (just as dingy as we remembered). The taxi dropped us off at a different gate than we used last time and we discovered that the park is a heck of a lot larger than we had originally thought. Katrine got to try out Chinese play equipment which made her happy and burned off some energy. While in the park we reached White Dragon Lake which is home to large carp. We got Katrine a bag of fish food and proceeded to feed the fish a handful at a time. It was pretty cool to watch the fish bump and forcibly push each other out of the way in an effort to get those food pellets.

Tomorrow morning we are up bright and early to head towards Yongning Social Welfare Institute. Katrine is pretty excited about returning and so are we. Our guide seems really nice and we are hoping that she will advocate for us to see Katrine’s file and get her some answers.

Oh, one more thing: 3 more days until Elspeth!!!!!!!!!

We are in China but stuck at the airport

Okay, we have been up for over 26 hours with only a few short naps so forgive me if some of this does not make sense.  The flight to China was amazingly smooth.  There was one bout of true turbulence which hit right as Katrine was falling asleep on the floor of the plane.  Needless to say that was the end of her sleeping.

Now Glenn and I are just about done and Katrine has built a tent out of a blanket we brought for Elspeth and is playing with her stuffies in it. I wonder how we will all feel tomorrow.

Our flight to Nanning was suppose to be in the air as we speak.  However, it has been delayed by one and a half hours.  Yep.  We are now scheduled to begin the final leg of our journey to Nanning at 11:30 pm (we left Toronto at 1:00 yesterday).  That means we should land in Nanning at about 2 in the morning and it will likely be another hour until we are at the hotel and in our room.  Be glad that you are not going to be spending the day with us tomorrow!

On the plus side, Katrine is stoked to be here and the weather is suppose to be nice in Nanning tomorrow.  Plus, we found a McD’s so I got to eat dinner tonight (yum fries) as I simply did not have the energy to try and ask dozens of questions.

That’s about it.  Don’t forget, Sunday is the big day!!

Uxbridge – Day 2

Okay, so off Katrine goes with her father.  They spend a great morning at the games.  He gets her into her national costume and off she goes to dance.  She dances her flora and lilt great and comes home with two third place medals.  How proud of her am I right now?

Tonight she showed what type of big sister she could be (as if we didn’t know already).  Great.  We had our travel group (minus the Ottawa crew but plus an honorary family who adopted previously from Elspeth’s orphanage) over for a barbeque.  We thought that it would be great to get to know each other and reconnect before we set off in a week’s time.  There was one little girl who came, not yet three.  Katrine was patient with her.  By the end of the night the pair of them were swinging and making “soup” in the kitchen.  Katrine even shared some of her precious watermelon with her.  Can’t wait to see her and Elspeth together.

 

Last Highland Competition & our Garden

Yesterday Katrine danced her highland dances for the last time this summer.  No more Saturday competitions for a while now because….we will be in China!!!!!!  She test drove a new kilt and jacket which fit her better than her green one.  She also danced the best that she has all summer.  Uxbridge was a really big competition but she managed to get a third and two fourths.  She was super excited and very proud of herself.  To celebrate, she went and made pottery with one of her friends.  Yes, they actually had a potter and a wheel at the competition who was letting the kids have a go.  She made a really pretty clay pot…with some help.  Overall it was a great way to end a week of dancing (This week was her dance camp complete with crafts, swimming and bowling….oh yes, dancing too).  Today she is off to Uxbridge again.  This time with Dad to dance her national dances for the first time in competition.  If she wins anything I will post again.  We are honestly hoping that she just finishes each of the dances and has some fun doing it.  While they are there, I am getting ready to have our fabulous travel group over for a barbeque.  It will be nice getting re-acquainted before we travel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As for our garden, I am proud to report that we have summer squash!!  They are little yet but I am watering them diligently.  Keeping our fingers crossed that they will be ripe and squashy before the end of the week.

 

What is new with us

Only three more weeks until we leave for China!! Very exciting.  Everyone is being really suportive and we appreciate it.  It has been a long road, but no longer than the road to Katrine in some ways, and we are almost at the end.  We got a treat a week ago.  It was given to us by a family who had traveled to Elspeth’s orphanage in the spring.  More photos.  Such a serious little girl.  What a gift they gave us with these photos.  It is like a window into her life for two years.  I don’t know if they will every know how truly thankful we are for their willingness to take and share these precious photos.

We have planted our garden as per usual.  However, this year we chose slightly different crops given our travel plans.  We planted mainly squash and potatoes.  We do have two watermelon plants so we will wait and see what happens there.  Right now everything is looking green and leafy but we do not have any flowers yet on any of the plants which is a bit concerning.

We have also been busy out front of the house.  The “Pony House” has made its yearly reappearance.  This year the ponies have been able to upgrade their accomodations.  They now have actual walls (thanks to our new hedge trimmer which works great for trimming unrully flowering trees) and beds (actually piles of dry grass cuttings).  Overall a comfortable abode.

 

What else?  Oh yes, Katrine spent the first week of her summer vacation at skating camp.  Her choice I might add.  She had a grand old time skating at least two and a half hours a day plus off ice training for five days straight.  She must have gone to sleep easily each night! No way, not our girl.  That said, she was always easy to get up and raring to go.  Glenn was at work of course and I spent my first week of holidays organizing our house and getting things ready for us to go.  It will be really nice when the house is finally sorted and the basement set up.

First Dance Competition of the Year and a Surprise!

Today was the Georgina Highland Games as well as Katrine’s first outing as a Beginner!  She was a mixture of excitement and nerves.  Over all, she danced really quite well.  There are definetely things that she can improve on but she did well nonetheless.  Well?  Two thirds in her first outing.  We had been preparing her all week for the distinct possibility that she would not win a medal being that it was her first outing in a new and harder group.  She was over the moon.  To make it better, my parents decided to drive down to see her dance.  She was just happy to have a larger cheering section.  All of the girls from Katrine’s dance school did well which was nice because no one was left feeling left out of the celebrations. Once the girls had got their medals, a whole group of them went to the craft zone to do crafts and get their faces painted.

Katrine also chose to do the mass fling at the opening ceremonies.  Mass fling?  Well it is every dancer that they can convince to walk into the middle of a empty field and then do the fling in front of the crowd.  It is actually really fun to do because it doesn’t matter if you make a mistake or remember all of those things that you are suppose to.  Instead, it is a chance to just dance and entertain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now for the surprise, I woke up this morning and went to check my email before setting off for the competition and what should be there?  Two new photos of Elspeth and a brief update!!  She has grown a whole centimeter and is up to 20 pounds.  Her feet are TINY.  Only 4 1/2 inches long.  That is like 12 month robbies and she is turning two in October.  She has more hair now, all spinky like.  Anyways, I promised more photos once we had some so here they are!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glenn and I?  I got burnt at the competition as is my usual at the first competition of the season.  Doesn’t look too bad though.  How I managed to get burnt with sunscreen on while sitting under the trees remains a mystery to me.  Glenn has cleaned up all of the crap from the basement and has the ceiling painted.  Yes painted.  Tomorrow it will be on to the walls.

Katrine’s First Dance Recital

I know that it sounds wierd, her first dance recital…but you have been posting about her dancing since she was three.  It is true though.  Competitions? Check.  Exams? Check.  Recital?  Not until today.  Her first recital and she was adorable.  I could have just eaten her up.  She danced really nicely (which bodes well for our first competition as a Beginner this Saturday) and finally looked like she has been practising like she has.  Her group even did their Flora, named after the Flora MacDonald who flirted with Bonnie Prince Charlie.  Now they were flirting but they were adorably cute.  At the end of the recital, all of the girls got their exam awards and then goodies.  Katrine went to bed a happy girl tonight.

Last weekend we got to go to Kingston for the annual reunion of the China girls (and boy).  It is a really special time because it lets Katrine reconnect with her Chinese “sisters” and “brother”.  At the same time, we get to see how all of these fabulous kids are doing and also reconnect ourselves.  We catch up on how they are doing in school, with friends and their extra-curriculars.  We also get to share adoption related issues with those who are also living variations of them.  We are very lucky.  We were blessed with a wonderful China family.  The families are friendly and fun and they all really care about our kids.  I mean, they were so happy about adding one more sister to the mix that they enthusiastically asked about our travel plans (August 1) and gave some super sweet outfits.  I have attached a copy of one of the cards which almost made me cry.