THE BIG MOVE

Just a heads up to all our family and friends that we will be moving this weekend! (I've still got loads of time to shop for Christmas gifts, right?) Our new house is amazing and Riley is very excited to finally be able to ride the school bus every day.  Boy, is she in for some disappointment.  Her own room will more than make up for it.  So, it looks like Santa Claus will be able to come down an actual chimney to give the girls their gifts this year and I can't think of a better 40th birthday present for me!  Here's hoping Hannah will actually be able to sleep in her new room.  She's always been fine when we've traveled and stayed in hotels, so I'm feeling optimistic. Keep your fingers crossed that the next 5 days go really smoothly!  Enjoy some pix from when we first looked at the house back in September!

20 more days...

Santa Claus came to town tonight and the gals were jazzed!!  They bundled up, walked down to the Hudson, got their hot chocolate, listened to Christmas carols and finally, after the tree was lit, the big fat red man arrived bearing candy canes. (Hannah's favorite part)  I love the little village I live in so much on nights like tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you all had a very happy Turkey Day!!  We did- a nice day of rest amidst the chaos.   We are moving into a new house before Christmas!  So, we have bought a second car(the new house is not near the train station), picked up hundreds of cardboard boxes from friends who've recently moved and begun filling them, not to mention finally dealing with RE-adopting Hannah(it's a long story) and retreating Hannah with meds because an old parasitic friend from Dongguan is revisiting her intestinal tract!  It's been a little hectic.  Everyone is happy for the move, though.  I may have to shop on Christmas Eve this year - unprecedented but necessary, I think.  Enjoy the pix of the holiday.  I may not be posting until the new year, so Merry Christmas too!!

Happy Halloween!

Wow - what a whirlwind weekend!!  The gals had a blast as a "fire devil" and a butterfly - marching in the Cold Spring Halloween Parade, trick-or-treating(Hannah says"trick or treat" clear as a bell because of the resulting candy) and partying with so many friends.  Rob is currently away in sunny Florida working on the "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" tour but returns home this weekend.  We're missing him big time.  Lots of people are now coming to check out our condo but no sale yet.  Looks like 2009 may be the year of the big move.  I'm crossing my fingers that we're in the new house before Hannah turns 3.  My personal favorite part of this year's Halloween was drinking egg creams and eating candy while watching "The Nightmare before Christmas" with Riley on Halloween night.  Enjoy the pix!

Liberty enlightening the world

We did one of those touristy things that you never do because you're from the place and visited Lady Liberty yesterday.  Riley got really into it and being up close with a statue that large really is pretty amazing.  Hannah preferred the wide open spaces of Ellis Island.  Perhaps she can relate to the "immigrant experience" :) Got to admit that seeing the history of how open minded and welcoming our country has been to foreigners in the past gives me hope for its future.

You know fall's here when...

you go apple picking!!  We did our annual trip - this time to a great orchard in Newburgh.  I made sure to get lots of pictures of Milo and Hannah because about a year ago, we did the same thing, so I think I'll try to make it a tradition.  The weather was incredibly beautiful and all of the kids had a great time.  We are all happily settling in to the routines of school and work and I am really enjoying teaching dance again.  I didn't realize how much I'd missed it.  I'm so happy that autumn is finally here -my favorite season!!!

One Year Ago Today...

We became a family of four.  And it fits.  All of the chairs at the table are taken.  Riley has someone to play (and fight) with.  We all laugh a lot more than we used to.  Life is much more chaotic, but somehow just right.  Hannah was the missing piece of our little puzzle.  Thank you China for choosing the perfect child for our family.  She is amazing.

First day of school!!

OK, today was the 3rd day of school, but I can still blog, right?  Riley has begun the 2nd grade and is off to a great start.  I am so relieved to have more structure in the day and less sisters fighting in my living room.  We'll see how happy I am once I get back to work next week.  I have really enjoyed all the free time with the familia.  I am, however, excited to get back into the studio and dance, though!  Bye bye summer!  Hard to believe we were still in China this time last year.  So nice to be home with the WHOLE family walking her to school on the first day.

GOTCHA!!!

It's a wonderful day in our house - the one year anniversary of Gotcha Day!!  One year ago, Rob and I were in a crowded, hot Civil Affairs office in Guangzhou nervously waiting for them to bring in our new daughter.  She was serious, pale, quiet and curious.  She loved the box of raisins that we gave her once back at the White Swan hotel.  She would not stand up and didn't make a sound.  Wow, how things have changed!!!  She is still curious and loves to eat but Hannah En Ming is silly, has a savage tan, is very funny, LOUD, and runs just about everywhere she goes.  Today we just marveled at how far that she's come and fell in love with her for the 365th day in a row.  Happy Gotcha Day Hannah!!!  We love you so much!!

1 Year since we boarded the plane to China!

Can you even believe that a whole year has passed since we got on the plane to meet our feisty toddler?  Amazing!  Now it feels like she has always been a part of the family and we can't imagine life without her. We just returned from a wonderful vacation in northern Vermont.  We'll post some pix from that but for today just thought I'd post my fave one of the girls from last week.  We love you Hannah and Riley!  What a pair!

What a difference 11 months makes!

Just wanted to post a couple of pictures that show how different Hannah and friends are now that they are with their "forever families".  Lily and Bella are to Hannah's right in the famous "red couch" photo.  The girls are all thriving now and it's wonderful and amazing to think about the journey that they've taken in the last year.  We are all so blessed to have them in our lives.  They are true survivors.  It's so fantastic to see the light in their eyes that wasn't there when we met them.  God is good.

Happy 1/2 Birthday, Hannah!

Just wanted to do a quick post to wish Hannah a Happy 2 1/2 today! Yet another milestone is reached.  She spent her day happily playing with a couple of her old pals from China who came up to visit!  Lily and Bella played at the Tots Park, ate pizza, visited Chuang Yen Monastery and picniced by the Hudson River with all of us and Hannah really had a wonderful day!  It was so great to spend time with our friends and get the girls together again.  All of them have come so far since we brought them home.  Just to update everyone - Hannah is trying hard to swim, chattering up a storm with lots of 2 word "sentences", still eats us out of house and home, loves to "sing" the ABC song and cracks us up daily.  I can't believe that she is 2 1/2 already!  Still seems like yesterday that I saw her face for the first time when she was just 16 months old and fell in love.

Happy Birthday Daddy, Aunt Chris and America!

Well we had a very nice July 4th with a trip to Papa Walt and Robin's for a big triple birthday bash! Fun,fun fun with cousin Paige!!! Rob and Riley are out enjoying the fireworks as I write.  We wanted Hannah to get some decent sleep, so I'm home enjoying some alone time.  Now that Riley has her own blog, you know most of what we've been up to but I do have to say life is so different, in a good way, when you don't have to go to work!  I am really loving all the time that I'm getting to spend with Riley especially.  She is such an amazing kid and I'm so proud of the person that she is.  We finally booked our vacation and the winner is Vermont!  We're going to stay in Burlington for a week and bike, hike and tour the Ben & Jerry's factory for sure.  I am very excited to get away from it all and go someplace cool in August.  Riley is doing her "Snow White" thing for now and we had fun at the lake the other day.  Hannah continues to crack us up and amaze us with all her new words.  We are so lucky and blessed.  Summer.....I love it!  Happy Birthday Rob!!!!

Are you ready for the summer?

Wow, what a busy month it's been!!  The Moms/kids camping trip was a great success - Riley and I had some very good bonding time and learned a lot about making fire.  Riley's soccer season has wrapped up and we're proud to say that her team lost only one game the entire spring!  Riley turned out to be an exceptional goalie.  We've done lots of swimming at the lake and trips to Splashdown already and it's not even the 1st day of summer!  The weather forced us but we're very glad to oblige.  I'm so glad that our friends the Shuks coerced us into getting a season pass for Splashdown - so worth it!! I went on a field trip to Constitution Marsh with Riley's class and we collected bugs from a stream and examined them.  Very cool. Riley and I also checked out an old favorite movie of mine at the library - Buster Keaton's "Sherlock, Jr."- and Riley giggled her way through the whole thing.  So satisfying to share favorite things with your daughter.  I made it through the big dance recital which had it's debut on an actual stage this year.  Riley did fantastically well as did all of my students.  We also celebrated cousin Paige's 4th birthday with her which was a special treat for all of us!  Riley had her piano recital and again did a great job and celebrated with a night out to dinner with Grandma, Grandpa, Papa Walt, Robin and Carm.  Rob enjoyed a wonderful Father's Day BBQ at my cousin Noreen's and got a new itouch which he adores which came with our new Mac!!  Yes, we've made the big jump to Apple because our PC died for the umpteenth time and we have just had it.  So, I'm typing this on our fancy new system.  It's really nice.  I haven't been too good about taking pictures of all these events and some are still trapped in our dead PC but I will post what I have left in my camera.  Last day of school is just 6 days away!!  My last day of teaching is tomorrow!!  Hooray for summer!  I am so excited to have less to worry about for a good 9 weeks...  Enjoy the sun!

Happy Belated Mother's Day!

OK, so I'm more than a little late on this one but I personally had a fantastic Mom's Day this year and I hope all you Moms reading this did too! Got to sleep in, order any breakfast I wanted, went out to lunch with my hubby, the girls and the Grandmas, and got to chill out and read a magazine while the kids played at a kids museum. Bliss. I had no responsibilities that day and man was that nice. Back to reality now, though, and I'm 11 days away from running a dance recital, 2 days away from a camping trip with Riley and only 5 weeks away from the last day of school!!! How did this happen? Hannah continues to grow in ways we never imagined - she's chatting up a storm and comes out with new words every day, she is such a snugglebug and loves giving us hugs and kisses and she's occasionally asked to go on the potty with actual results! (I am so completely not getting my hopes up on that last one though, because Riley faked me out with that action when she was only 19 months old. The diapers didn't leave the house until she was over 3.) We also enjoyed seeing the family for cousin Carolyn's communion. The girls had a blast. Life is good.

Riley's Birthday, Part 2

The sun came back for Riley's "Family Party" on Sunday and a great time ensued! We were so sure that it was going to rain that we set up the party at the dance studio, but the sun broke through so we ate there and then moved the whole gang out to Mayor's Park for kickball, potato sack races and cake. Perfect! It was so wonderful to see all the kids having so much fun and it was really nice for Rob and I to catch up with our old friends who traveled from NJ. All in all, a fantastic celebration for Riley's 7th birthday!

Hooray for Spring!

Well, we've had a wonderful week off from school and work and lucked out with some fantastic weather. Hannah is the most excited about finally getting outside to play, I think. She literally dances around when I out her jacket on to go out now. She LOVES the Tots Park and she was a true Bissinger(in the sense that she loves to travel) as I dragged her all over the tri-state area. We hit the Bear Mountain Zoo, the New York Aquarium at Coney Island, took a train to the playground in Peekskill and took in the Liberty Science Center in NJ. All of the trips were great. The only bad news of late is that both girls have serious seasonal allergies and the high pollen count really made them feel terrible for a couple of days. I am so proud of Riley because even on Benadryl, she scored a goal on her first day of girls spring soccer!! She rocks. Back to school tomorrow and 9 more weeks until the wonderful freedom of summer. Will post again after the big family party for Riley's birthday next week. Til then, enjoy the latest pix.