Magnolia's Nani has arrived and is here to stay until mid July.

We are all so happy to have her!

On the island this weekend we discovered a new restaurant that opened in the original island schoolhouse. They happened to be celebrating the Summer Solstice on Saturday night so we were glad we stopped by. There was live music, a bonfire, and great ambiance. We had so much fun! We also met a couple in the coffee shop who was visiting the island to do some bike riding. After talking for a while we told them to stop by later for a glass of wine. They did and we had a great time getting to know them. Turns out that Pam sings and plays the guitar. She joined the band on Saturday night (see photo above) and we had so much fun listening to her play.
On the way up to the island we stopped at an ice cream stand. They had a huge playground that we played on to burn some energy before getting back in the car. The other photos include Magnolia and George napping on the hammock in which she woke up and threw up everywhere! She ate too many blueberries and I think got a little motion sickness, poor thing! When we arrived Friday night we found an ant farm and spent some time watching all of the ants. We also discovered that the Washington Hotel is making croissants on Saturday mornings, yum! And I found an antique dresser and mirror for Magnolia's big girl room in the years to come. As always, it was a great time!

Swimming

It has finally been warm enough outside to fill up the pool. Magnolia is such a water baby, she loves it! I taught her to kick her legs and she's gotten pretty good at it. Now if only the lake would warm up soon... Have a great weekend everyone!

I recently gave Magnolia my doll from my childhood.

I think she loves her as much as I did!

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day

Magnolia & I have been busy working on a special Father's Day for George. Here's Magnolia drawing his card & I ordered these for Sunday breakfast. The fact that George has to ask me where everything is in the fridge I was surprised that he spotted these in the freezer right away! Oh well, he's REALLY excited about them. We're heading up to the island tonight. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend & Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to you Dad, I love you!

Play Date

Magnolia and I had a play date with neighbors and friends yesterday at our favorite store in town. It was wild and sharing was out of the question. Magnolia especially loved the little kitchen & I had a nice time chatting with my friends.

Magnolia, Jillian, & Charlie

The season on the island has begun and so begins our summer enjoying as much of it as we can. The ride over on the ferry is always such a perfect time to take a deep breath, slow down, and transition to a weekend of a much slower pace. While George took Magnolia to the upper deck, I blissfully sat in the car alone watching the sun set over Lake Michigan. It was very windy and rainy most of the weekend but it happened to be the most relaxing weekend I've had in a long time. With no TV and no computer we all did a lot of reading. We also made our usual rounds to the coffee shop, bookstore, grocery, and hardware store. It is always so nice to be back and we'll be back again very soon!

Magnolia singing through the balusters.

George helping Magnolia navigate through plants almost as big as she is. He was building her a sandbox out of cedar logs.
A visit to the loudly bleating goats at the hardware store.
Magnolia immediately remembers her drawer in the kitchen & her magnets on the fridge.
Hope you had a great weekend!

One year ago today was one of the most amazing, thrilling, and beautiful days of my life. It was the glorious day that the phone rang and we heard on the other end, "You have a daughter and she is beautiful." George and I sat at the kitchen counter with the phone on speaker and just started to cry. There she was, the little girl we had waited so long for. In that very moment she came alive, she became real, and she was ours. The other details just didn't seem so important. The fact that someone told us we had a daughter was all we needed to hear. We just wanted to see her face and hold her. Within minutes we got the email that had the very small photo of Jiang Cheng Ling and we knew that was her. That was our daughter. George started crying but I just squealed with delight at this little tiny thing that had such a serious look on her face with round cheeks, rosebud lips, and a beautiful head of hair. It was love at first sight and I couldn't contain my happiness. I was on cloud nine for a long time and sometimes I think I still am. :) I have never in my life been as happy as I am now having Magnolia June Ling.
(You can read about last June 6th here, here, here,and here.)

Magnolia today

June

I can't believe it's June already! We had a nice taste of summer this weekend with lots of sunshine and warm weather. It's so nice to be practically living outside.
My find of the week at a garage sale. Can't wait to fix it up!


George built Magnolia a sandbox this weekend. She LOVES it. I love it too. We put it under our birch tree so it's nice and shaded.

I forgot we had this table. It was in the basement holding blocks. I realized it would make the perfect water table and it did. She LOVED this too.
The other thing we discovered is that she loves ribs. Here she is having one outside.
Hope you had a great weekend!

Memorial Day Weekend

We spent our Memorial Day Weekend in South Bend & St. Joe, Michigan. I had the chance to visit my grandpa with my sisters and mom and then see him again at the White's house. It was so great to see him again and I was amazed how great he looked for just turning 90! St. Joe was such a cute town and we all had a blast there. Magnolia loved seeing 9 of her cousins, she's really starting to remember them! Thank you Strickler Family & White Family for having us. It was so nice to see you! Thank you Mom & Dad for everything! Thanks again for getting shoes for Magnolia! (I forgot to pack a single pair of her shoes. We put her in the car very early in the morning still in her sleeper. On our first rest stop I started to get her when I heard..."shoes?")

Notre Dame

We went to South Bend this past weekend to visit family. We lived here for about 4 years when I was little and it's where both of my parents grew up. Among the many stops we made through town, Notre Dame was one of them. It's Papa's Alma mater so he bought all of the girls pink Notre Dame caps. We walked around campus and Papa gave us a little tour and history. It was a beautiful day and we all had so much fun. We spent the rest of the weekend in St. Joseph, Michigan to visit my brother and his family. My sisters and parents made the trip too. Check back soon for more pics of that part of our trip.

Lilah, Magnolia, Ellie, Lily, & Willa
Magnolia & Papa
Ellie & Curtis Magnolia & George
The Golden Dome

(My sister's account of the visit is written much better. You can read it here.)

19 Months

19 months St. Joseph, Michigan May 26, 2008

Dearest Magnolia,
Yesterday you turned 19 months old. How can I stop you from growing so fast? The things you have learned this month are jumping with both feet and climbing. You are climbing everything: stairs, chairs, ladders, slides, tables, you name it! You have gotten really good at climbing at the playground just to be able to go down the slide. We've been playing outside a lot which you love. You say "side?" and run and get your shoes. When we come home from running errands I can't just bring you in the house so I let you stay and play in the garage while I watch you from the kitchen. It's always a struggle to get you back in the house. You've been so active I feel like I'm constantly feeding you just to keep you at your current weight. You still love salty foods and like your mommy, you LOVE doughnuts. You do not like bland foods, you want flavor and spice! You just learned to slurp your soup when I recently gave you some tortilla soup and that made me laugh! You now say mommy and daddy rather than mama and dada. You will say anything you hear and continue to be a little mimic. Your daddy and I counted at least 30 words in your vocabulary. You are also saying phrases like: All gone, I don't know, I know, & do you? Every time I cut an avocado in half you do the sign for alligator. Recently your daddy and I were listening to Splendid Table on NPR and the trivia question was: What's another name for an Alligator Pear? The answer: avocado! You knew that answer all along! Today we were looking at bugs and I showed you a caterpillar. You kept doing the sign for alligator and I couldn't figure out why until I realized caterpillar and alligator sound alike. I love to see the world through your eyes, it's much more interesting. You are so easy, we can take you just about anywhere. You adapt so easily to any situation which continues to astonish me. You are very curious and very busy. You do test me trying to figure out your boundaries but when I say "no," you listen. You sang your first song the other night. We were playing and suddenly you started singing and swaying. When you stopped I asked for you to sing another song and you did! It was the sweetest thing. You really love cats, especially Nani's cats. Every time they ran away you cried and wanted to find them. We also saw a mommy mallard and her newly hatched ducklings in our neighbor's yard. You really wanted to get near the mommy duck who was not happy we were peering into her nest. You have recognized the letter "o" for a while but now you know "m." You also recognize numbers and when you see them you count, usually out of order and always skipping 7 & 8. Books continue to be your favorite things. You love Go, Dog, Go! and you can say it too! You also really love We're Going on a Bear Hunt & Goodnight Moon. I love watching you grow and learn. You continue to amaze me all of the time. You are the light of our lives and we love you so very much. Happy 19 months. xoxo mommy & daddy

Readoption

On May 14, 2008 Magnolia June Ling was readopted in the state of Wisconsin. She happened to be sleeping in her daddy's arms through the whole thing. The judge said he usually has the child come and hit the gavel three times to make it official and then give them a lollipop. Well, we certainly couldn't allow Magnolia to miss that so, we woke her up. She didn't skip a beat, hit the gavel and took her lollipop gratefully. It was all done in a matter of minutes and before we knew it the Bailiff was walking us down to another floor as we watched our case get sealed and filed away for good!

Why Readopt? "First and foremost, readoption prudently secures the recognition of a legal parent/child relationship under U.S. law, thus eliminating reliance on the ongoing validity of the adoption laws of the foreign country. Whether a state recognizes a foreign adoption decree or not, readoption is a practical means of documenting the parent/child relationship under U.S. law... it is important for every child adopted overseas to obtain an English language vital record that establishes the child's date of birth, place of birth and legal name." AdoptiveFamilies.com

By readopting we were able to obtain a U.S. Birth Certificate for Magnolia. Among the many reasons she will need a U.S. Birth Certificate, using it for school admissions and driver's license (eek!) are the most immediate.

Elizabeth & Rob

I finally had a chance to put together a slide show of the wedding. It was gorgeous and I'm afraid my photos don't do it justice. The ceremony and party just flew by and I wish I could rewind the clock. I met some of Magnolia's admirers (via the blog) and wish I had more of chance to talk to you. Thank you for introducing yourselves and continuing to follow along our blog, I'm flattered! I had no idea how hard it would be attend a wedding with a toddler until we got there and our seats were in the front row. We sat for all of 2 minutes before I knew it would be trouble. Magnolia was actually quiet, she was just very busy and refusing to sit still so I ended up watching the ceremony from a distance with one eye on Magnolia. The other thing I wish I knew was not to wear heels if you take your toddler to a wedding, especially if you haven't worn them in over a year! I think it all came down to the shoes, the heels really slowed me down! Magnolia had a blast...eating two egg rolls at the reception and cutting a rug in her pjs which I regretfully missed. I also realized it's impossible to say hello to people, keep an eye on a toddler, and take photographs all at the same time so, I didn't get the photographs I wanted. I should mention that George had a small part in the wedding so I was without his help...all of these things I never took into consideration! Our camera battery died after the fire truck photos so anything taken after that was taken on our other camera which does not compare. So, like I said, these photos do not do this wedding justice. It was even more beautiful and magical in person. George's mom did all of the flower arrangements and they were SO beautiful. White paper lanterns lit by candles hung from the trees. The tables were on a terrace under a big tent and the tables were lit with votives. The music was great and everyone was dancing. It was such a fun time! Congratulations Elizabeth & Rob! We are so happy we were there to share in your day! We wish you two the best! xoxo
note: this video is 7 minutes long, if you want to get straight to the wedding fast forward to about 3 and half minutes. enjoy!

Friends

While we were in St. Louis we met up with friends Ben, Bridget, Tim, Jen, & their baby, Libby.
It was so nice to catch up with everyone!

Libby is such a little cutie!
George, Ben, & Tim
Bridget & Magnolia