Andy took this video of a street in Hong Kong when he was there a couple of weeks ago. This was on a busy shopping street but not during a special occasion.

I think my anxiety was justified. Luckily you get used to the crowds quickly.

Andy took this photo at the hotel he was staying at in Guangzhou. They are getting closer, but China still doesn’t “get” Christmas.        

Andy ended up having to make another trip to Guangzhou (pronounced Goo-ANG-joe) for work.  He volunteered to share his “communte” for this week’s Mini Adventure Monday.  I think the mini can be dropped on this occasion.     Where Are you Going Again? That is usually the response when I tell somebody that I am [...]

View of Andy in Hong Kong

And now, as I am home each day with my lovely baby and each moment I spend time with our bouncing toddler I remember those children at the orphanage in Shanghai, China. Their desperate longing for attention and human contact taught me a crucial lesson about how important my interactions with my kids is to their development.

As I wake up from a morning nap with Eloise on my chest, I do not feel bad about not putting her in her crib to ensure she will be able to nap independently.

When Belén wants to tell me about something, I stop what I am doing, kneel down to her level and listen.

And nearly every time, I think back to those kids in Shanghai and ponder the irony…the lessons I learned from them were vastly more important to me than my impact likely was to them.

Travel Rerun: Harbin Snow Sculpture of a Woman

Location: Harbin, Heilongjiang, China

Latitude: 45° 45′ 0 N, Longitude: 126° 39′ 0 E

We knew and worked with most of these people when we were living in Shanghai and it was fantastic to see them again! Our new addition since then, Belén, was a huge hit, especially with the ladies, two of whom brought her new stuffed animals.

My Shanghainese friend Cathy is in the US right now and buying bags worth of goods both for herself and also her friends and coworkers to take back to China.  I am always curious what foreigners stock up on when they come to the US and this time she surprised me.  One of the biggest [...]

It was a bold move by the Norwegians and it makes me happy. It’s not that I believe every country needs to operate like the United States…nothing like that. I just applaud freedom of speech and someone who has struggled non-violently for that right which we in America believe so basic.

Each day he asked me to send lots of pictures and tell him how Belén was doing, but after awhile it felt like I was rubbing salt in the wounds. This past Tuesday night over Office Communicator, I told him that Belén had just said, “meow.” (Yes, she is really into animals, all because of Peek-a-boo Barn.) Andy’s response was, “I am going to walk in the door on Friday and she is going to say, ‘Dad, where the hell have you been?”