It is hard to believe where the summer has gone. We have had so much fun with Lauren, exploring lots of new things with her. Having Paul home with us has been wonderful and a help to me and has allowed us to do more things together as a family this summer.

Fall brings changes for us as Paul returns to work. He has accepted a position with the University of Waterloo as Manager, Science Computing and starts on Sept 5th. He is very excited about this new opportunity and especially happy he is only 5 mins from home - no more commuting to Toronto each day. This will be an adjustment for both Lauren and I not having him around during the day but will be good so we both get into a better routine before I go back to work in January.


During the past two weeks we spent a day at the African Lion Safari and the Toronto Zoo with friends. Lauren just loves animals so she had lots of fun. Daddy taught her to roar like a lion!


We also spent a day at the farm with my Grandma and Papa. Papa was combining but Lauren would not go for a ride but did sit on the combine. She also spent time with the kittens.

We are getting close to our six month post placement report that we must submit to the China Center of Adoption Affairs (CCAA).

Life at home has changed a little (so, it's changed a lot) and there is not as much free time (we are on a schedule now) and things are a little messier (until we clean them up). Grocery bill is a lot higher (a lot of fresh fruit) and we are not as mobile as we use to be. Aside from that, everything has been wonderful. Lauren has been a unbelievable joy for both Sandra and I. She is happy and healthy and full of wonder.

We had a busy summer with many events including a 5 day camping trip and a week at a cottage. We have taken her everywhere with us and she travels well and we schedule around her sleeping patterns.

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.

International Hotel in Beijing, China (40.044438,116.367188)
Click the LAT/LON coordinates (WGS84) for our current location
Sunny, 3C, Winds NNW 10 km/h

Summary: Last minute items before we head out for the bus to go to the airport.

Details: We are in the final hour in of our hotel stay in Beijing. Our bags have already been transferred to the airport and we are awaiting our 11:00 AM bus transfer. It is a little sad leaving China but we are ready to come home. Sandra is feeling the effects of a cold that is running through our group, but the baby and I are doing great. We are not looking forward to our 13 hour flight as the children will make an already long trip all that much longer. Hope to see some of you are the airport in Toronto tomorrow. Sandra and I will both write our reflections and thoughts on our trip after we get back. Thanks for joining us in our journey.

These shots were taken in the hotel restaurant and in the lobby as we waited for the other families to check out and meet us at the bus. We are very releaved to be finally traveling home.

International Hotel in Beijing, China (40.044438,116.367188)
Click the LAT/LON coordinates (WGS84) for our current location
Sunny, 6C, Winds NNW 10 km/h

Summary: A non-tour day to do some shopping at the local department and Friendship stores.

Details: Another non-touring day that let us go out on our own. After breakfast we headed out across the street to the Henderson Shopping Mall to buy some last minute items. We ended up at the Starbucks having coffee with anther family in our group. Later in the after noon we made the 20 minute walk to the Friendship store, which is sort of a government run store that has all types of Chinese gifts. We ended up buying a number of things. We have 1 suitcase that is full of items we have bought. We got Lauren's passport back today with a freshly applied Canadian Visa on one of the back pages. We now have all the paperwork and clearances now to return back home.

In the evening we headed back to this area to have dinner in a western restaurant. Sizzler, TGI Fridays and Pizza Hut all had wait times over an hour. We ended up eating back in the hotel. After dinner we packed our suitcases for tomorrow mornings 9:30AM pickup at our hotel room. We need to be checked out and on the bus for 11:00AM.


Link to full size version for auntie Laurie

I also took the group shots for everyone that wanted to participate. It was taken on the second floor mezzanine in our hotel. We started to take a picture of just the babies but it tuned chaotic within a minutes. We salvaged the shot by getting the Moms to hold their babies for the series. If you click on the picture it will load the full size picture into your browser. When it is finished loading, use the file menu on your browser and 'Save Picture As..." to get your own full resolution copy. Repeat for any/all pictures in this series that you wish.

International Hotel in Beijing, China (40.044438,116.367188)
Click the LAT/LON coordinates (WGS84) for our current location
Sunny, -3C, Winds NNW 12 km/h

Summary: Day tour to Tian An Men Square, the Forbidden City and A Peking Duck dinner where we celebrated Lauren's first birthday.

Details: Cold and windy was the best way to describe today. Both Sandra and I pulled our lining out of our jackets before we left for our day trip. Today's weather was much colder than yesterday and we suffered through the entire 2.5 hour tour.

Tien An Men square is very big and flat (world's biggest public space) with the center piece being Mao's Tomb. There were many local people and tourists milling around. This square sits between the old Forbidden City gates and the current one. Both are pictured below. Many places in the Forbidden City were covered and currently under renovations for next years Olympic game in Beijing. A little disappointed about the Forbidden City but I think it was because of the cold and the wind blowing so much dust in the air. I was so bad that we have people in the group leave the tour and head back in taxis to the hotel.

In the evening we had a excellent Peking Duck dinner on the 7th floor of the Silk Market. We ordered a cake for Lauren and had the entire group of 28 families sing Happy Birthday for Lauren and Emma that were both have birthdays today.



I also successfully completed 2 geocaches, Tiananmen and Case Closed (there are only 106 in all of China) Photos are at the cache zero-out point. Information on what geocaching is can be found at Geocaching.com.