Jetta turns 2!

This past Thursday was Jetta's 2nd birthday. It is hard to believe that she is already turning 2. The last year has gone by way to fast. However, she is getting so big and talking so much, she is alot of fun.

Since Thursday was her birthday, we actually celebrated on Saturday. It was a very busy week for me, I spent most evenings shopping, preparing, decorating, etc., as I wanted it to be perfect. I'm sure friends, cake and presents would have been plenty for Jetta, but since she didn't really understand what it was all about on her first birthday, I wanted this one to be extra special.

So, I decided I was going to do a Mickey Mouse theme and Mickey Mouse it was. As many of you know, I am a huge Mickey Mouse fan, so I had alot of stuff to help the theme along. There were plenty of Mickey decorations, but we also had Mickey Mouse themed food. Fortunately, I was able to shop for much of the stuff I needed while we were in Disney, as it made it much easier.

She had 5 friends over and she was excited to see all of them. At first she wasn't quite sure to think of them being in her house, but soon warmed up. As I took her downstairs, she finally got to see all the decorations, her new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse tent and everyone who came to share in her special day.

We all ate and then it was time for cake and presents. She was very excited with her cake and even helped blow out the candles. As Daddy and Grandma Vaughn cut cake, Jetta decided to help herself and dug in with a spoon, very cute. Once we all enjoyed some cake and ice cream, it was present time.

Her friend Ava helped her open her gifts and they seemed to have alot of fun. Jetta loved all her presents. Once we finished that, it was time to play and play they all did. They played themselves out. It was nearly 7:30 when everyone left and Jetta was exhausted, but had a very good day. I know this cuz she fell asleep almost immediately, and when we went to move her, she was talking in her sleep and she said "Ava", so I know she was dreaming about the day and what a good time she had.

It was another very special day for me, as now I have had her for than a year and have got to spend many special holidays, day, etc with her and now can just look forward to all the rest that are to come. Also, thanks to my very special friend Jen who came over early that day and helped me prepare alot of the food...you're the best, I love you!

Yo Gabba Gabba....

Some of you may not know who or what Yo Gabba Gabba is and there are days I wish I didn't. However, the Sunday after we returned from vacation, we took Jetta to her first live show, which was Yo Gabba Gabba. That day I really enjoyed it, as I watched Jetta as she realized what was going on. Her face was great, so excited, eyes so big and just smiling.

The show wasn't real long, but long enough for her to have a great time. She was up dancing on my lap, clapping and just enjoying the whole, as were all the other kids that were there. I was very surprised to see how many people were there. After all, this is a show with 5 characters, Muno - the red one, Foofa - the pink one, Brobee - the green one, Plex- the yellow robot, and Toodee - the blue cat and of course DJ Lance. DJ Lance is originally from St. Louis, so he was very excited to be able to perform at the Fox in his home town.

As a parent, you always wonder what your kids will enjoy and for me I was hoping it wouldn't be Barney, so needless to say I'll take Yo Gabba Gabba. It honestly is a good learning show for kids. They teach alot of good lessons, have bright colors that they kids like as well as alot of music to dance to and all of you know what a dancer Jetta is.

So, all in all, it was a really good day and great to watch her be so excited. Again, this is what it's all about. Needless to say, she had a very big, busy week, but she was such a champ and took it all in stride and she made my vacation one of the best I've ever been on.

Our first family vacation...CA or bust!

Since we earned so many frequent flyer miles on our trip to China, we decided to reward ourselves and take our first vacation as a family. We decided we would visit California for a variety of reasons. First, we were hoping for some nicer weather than what St. Louis had to offer. Second, we wanted to finish out our tour of all the Disney parks in the world...yep world. After visiting Disney in Anaheim, we will have seen all the parks in the U.S. and Internationally. So, since CA was going to offer both of those things, it was decided.

When planning our trip, I didn't give much thought that the week of March 13th to the 20th, would pretty much encompass Spring break for most schools. However, I should have. My only thought was, we have to fly before the 25th, before Jetta turns 2, so we don't have to buy her a ticket.

Well, needless to say, the airport was a lot more busy than I had anticpated when we got there at 5:00 a.m. on the 13th. I thought I was well prepared, I had checked in online on Friday, as well as paid for our bags. Thinking that would put me ahead of the game. Well, it didn't. When we arrived, we went to the curbside check-in location, expecting to be able to check-in. The agent there so kindly told us, United doesn't have curbside, you'll have to go inside and check-in at the ticket counter. Well, when we walked in, we new this wasn't going to go well. The line was outside of their ropes and at this point we had just about an hour to catch our flight. As we waited in the line, an agent started to ask for passengers who had a 6:00 flight (I thought, finally, we are going to get out of this never ending line) for Chicago.....and we had a 6:05 flight to Denver. So, I asked him, what about the 6:05 to Denver and he just said "you'll have to stay in line". I thought, interesting.....6:00 Chicago, 6:05 Denver....what's the difference. I guess the difference was, they would make their flight and we wouldn't. Yep, we missed our flight. At the time we didn't know we were gonna miss it, but once we cleared the ticket line, only to give them our bags to head to security (since we were already checked in and our luggage was paid for), the security line was never-ending as well. So, finally we asked the TSA agent, can you do anything for us, we have a 6:05 to Denver and he so kindly said "No....you have to stay in the line"....again, not sure what the deal is with Denver flights having to "stay in line".

So we finally cleared security at 5:50 and realized that we were departing at Gate A21, which of course was the farthest gate away, all the way to the end of Concourse A. So, Shannon, the runner he is (NOT)...took off for the gate, while I gathered myself, Jetta, the carry-on bags, Jetta's stroller...you get the point and headed towards the gate. He got there at 5:55 and the gate agent proceeded to tell him, "I'm sorry you've missed the flight, I gave your wife's seat away!" Yep, 10 minutes to spare and she had already given my seat away. Mind you the plane was still sitting there, not even getting close to pulling away.

So, as I approached the gate, he told me, we missed it, she gave your seat away. Needless to say, I was shocked. Not that that wasn't bad enough, but then she proceeded to tell us that all the flights that were leaving that morning and early afternoon were overbooked and the earliest she could confirm us on a flight was 6:30 p.m......yep, 12 hours later.

Now, any of you who have traveled with kids knows, 12 hours in an airport is not gonna turn out good. So, once we conceeded to the fact that we weren't leaving any time soon, we headed home and headed back to the airport later that day to catch our 6:30 p.m. flight! The only good part of missing our flight was while we waiting to board our evening flight, football star, Jerry Rice was there and was going to be on our plane. We didn't get to get a picture, cuz he was signing autographs for the soldiers and taking pics with them, but I told Jetta, honey you don't know who that is, but he is somebody and he looked over and said, "she is beautiful"....Shannon hoped to get a pic of him with her, but he had to board the plane. So, I guess it wasn't all that bad after all...missing our flight, at least we got to see someone famous.

Fortunately once all that drama played out, we landed safely in San Francisco and got off to a much better start. Our first day in San Francisco we did so much walking, I thought my feet were going to fall off. It felt like everything was miles apart, but I think it was just the fact that we were exhausted from the day before and having been up for nearly 22 hours. Jetta was a trooper, she handled the flight very well, no crying, no fussing, nothing. Just like our trip home from China. I wasn't sure this flight would go the same since when we traveled home from China she was still trying to figure us out. However, she was great, we even had a lady compliment us on how well behaved she was. Phew....got lucky on that one! However, the best part is, she just kept saying "airplanein"....not airplane, but "airplanein"....to cute. Once we got to SF a pilot saw her while we waited for our bus to the hotel and he gave her her first set of wings and a trading card. She loved them.

We started out by heading into the city and doing some sight-seeing on Sunday morning. The bay was right outside our hotel, so we got to take some of that in before we headed into town. Once we arrived in town we headed to Fisherman's Wharf. Jetta was very excited, as they had a huge carousel that she got to ride. Then we walked around and finally found the sea lions that were all lying on the pier. It was very neat and Jetta loved them. After we finished the pier, we headed over to our tour to Alcatraz Island.

We got to take a ferry across the bay over to the island, Jetta really seemed to enjoy the boat ride and kept saying "bath" and I told her, that is a really big bathtub and not very warm! Once we got to the island, they let us off the boat and got to head into the prison. Needless to say, Jetta didn't get any of this experience, which was witnessed by the fact that she crashed out and slept the whole time we were there. However, it made our tour much easier, as we didn't have to entertain her. The prison was much smaller than I had imagined, at its max only housing just over 200 prisoners. A few other points were fascinating to me. First, the 4 most notorious prisoners really didn't commit all that bad of crimes. I guess "the bird man" did, but Al Capone was there for tax evasion....well, there are many people in the world today who are guilty of that, such as Nicholas Cage and I'm sure he won't spend hard time in a Federal maximum prison. Then two of the others were there for attempted kidnapping...yep, attempted and finally "the bird man", he committed murder. So, all in all, their crimes compared to today's criminals are nothing. Secondly, the fact that many of the prison workers, guards, warden, cooks, and their families, all actually lived on the island. Very interesting to me. They stated that it was quite nice and rarely did they lock their doors. So, all in all the tour was great and I'm glad we took the time to do it.

On our second day, we did alot more sight-seeing. We climbed a never ending hill (a typical street in SF) up to Alamo square where we got to the see the 5 houses that were used in the filming of Full House. The beautiful Victorian style homes, known as the Painted Ladies, which were all very well kept and I'm sure had a very nice price tag (actually, I went to a local real estate website for SF that had one of the houses nearby the 5 houses - it was a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, just less than 2,000 sf - for the very affordable price of $1,495,000 - I guess I won't be moving out there anytime soon). We then made our way to the cable cars and rode them down the very steep hill to Chinatown, where we took a tour. It was very neat to see. We even got to visit a fortune cookie factory....I use factory loosely, as there were only two women working there, but they were sitting at their station actually folding the cookies as they came off the press. I'll include a picture so you can see. It was a very manual process and the next time I eat a fortune cookie, I'll remember those ladies.

After we finished that we headed back to the trolley and headed to Ghiradelli square (a chocolate company), which I'm not really certain if they make or have ever made the actual chocolate there. However, the sign was neat to see and smelling the chocolate at the stores was great. We bought a few pieces and it surely was good. From there we headed back to the pier and then took a cab back to the hotel. After two long days of walking the very hilly streets of San Fran, we were ready to head to LA and Anaheim so we could visit Mickey Mouse.

We got up early the next morning, headed to the airport to pick-up our rental car so we could head out. However, since we hadn't actually gotten to see (up close anyway) the Golden Gate bridge we opted to drive into the city and to drive over the bridge. It was amazing. So big, so beautiful. As we made our way across Shannon snapped a few photos and then we turned around and headed back across so we could head to LA. Definitely glad we took the time to drive across it and to see it up close.

We drove down to LA/Anaheim and got into LA at just the perfect time. I'm being a bit sarcastic...it was right at 5:30 - 6:00 p.m. ......the LA rush hour! However, from what I'm told, rush hour begins around 3:00 and lasts till 7:00 on weekdays and begins around 1:00 and lasts till 9:00 on Fridays. That's a bit longer than what we're used to in St. Louis. So, as we approached LA we found ourselves right in the middle of it all. It honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe it's because I live in a bigger city or have lived in Japan and sat in their traffic, but really had expected it to be worse.

However, it did take us an hour and a half to go approximately 30 miles. The crazy thing is, while you are in this traffic, it actually moves. However, one thing I finally realized was, that there was a carpool lane and by definition (2 or more people in the car) we could use it. So, I jumped in it (crossing the double yellow lines - which I'm sure was illegal) and things moved much more quickly. Finally, I got back out (again crossing the double yellow lines) and was finally approaching our exit to Disney. The area around the park (which you can't see at all from the road) was very beautiful. There were alot of people moving around, but you could tell they were all happy and had been to the happiest place on earth. We got checked into our hotel and headed out to get a bite to eat. We headed over to Downtown Disney and ate at the Rainforest Cafe. Jetta wasn't much of a fan. The monkeys scared her, so I had a little monkey of my own, with a desparate monkey grip around my neck, in my lap the whole time we ate. After dinner we did some shopping and then headed back and called it a night, as we knew tomorrow was gonna be a big day....Jetta's first visit to see "Mouse" as she calls him.

Once we got up and got moving, we headed to the park. It wasn't to far from the hotel, so we just drove over and parked, figuring we could leave when we wanted vs waiting for the hotel bus to pick us up. Once I got our tickets and we made our way to the gates, Jetta saw Mickey on the hill and had the biggest smile on her face and eyes wide open. We headed in and took a few pictures and figured we'd head towards the rides. We knew it was gonna be a hot day, as the weather man was calling for temps in the 90's....the hottest day they had so far this year....I guess I picked a good day to visit the park huh? However, it really wasn't that bad, with no humidity the heat was a bit easier to tolerate. Not that it wasn't hot, it just wasn't hot and sticky.

As soon as we got into Tommowland Jetta saw "airplaneins" and just kept saying it. We opted to start with Buzz Lightyear vs the "airplaneins", cuz the wait was much shorter. She wasn't quite sure of that ride, so then Shannon decided he would stand in the line with her and they would ride the "airplaneins". Once they finally got on, she loved it. Her face was full of surprise and I just stood there and laughed. She was so adorable. Just seeing her that happy, made me happy and brought tears to my eyes. I thought to myself, this is what it's all about.

We then decided we'd ride a few more rides, eat lunch and reassess how it was going. The day went by fast and before we knew it, it was time to call it a day. We headed back to the hotel and grabbed a bite to eat. Another great day, but just a few more days left.

When we got up on Thursday morning, we knew we had to get going, as we were headed into LA for a tour of Hollywood and Movie Star Homes tour. The day was going to be long, but we knew it would be fun. We headed in and again, hit rush hour, only this time it was the morning rush hour, mind you it was 9:00, so I'm not sure why all those people weren't at work. Anyway, I remembered my little trick from when we came in and found my way into the carpool lanes (this time legally though) and we were in LA before we knew it. Once we got there, we headed out with Mark, our tour guide and 4 other people on an a/c bus, however today was much cooler....in the low 80's....figures!

Our first stop was Venice beach.....not what I was expecting when it came to a CA beach. There were alot of homeless people, all offering some kind of advice to earn money or to get a beer. That seemed to be the goal. We made our way around the beach a bit and then headed back to the bus. From there we headed over to Santa Monica beach, which was what I expected when it came to a beach. It was much nicer, cleaner, etc. We could see the pier from where we were and Mark told us, that is the place that you see in the sitcome "Two and a Half Men". It was very cool. From there we made our way past 31 movie star homes, some of which we could see fairly well and others were well hidden. We didn't get lucky enough to see any stars leaving their houses. Oh well, it was just neat to see how they live and to see just how big some of the houses were.

From there we headed down Rodeo drive which was much smaller/shorter than I expected. It was really only about 3 city blocks long. Mind you, in that 3 city blocks, you could spend enough, that you wouldn't need anything more. At the end of Rodeo drive was the Beverly Wilshire Hotel (the one in Pretty Woman - I was very excited to see this, as that is one of my all time favorite movies. From there we headed into Hollywood.

It was very interesting to see. It was much smaller, more compressed that I had envisioned. When you watch things on tv it seems as if the stuff is very spread out. I'm sure some of it is, but within one city block, there was the Kodak theatre, Graumann's Chinese theater, El Capitan - the world famous Disney theater, part of the walk of fame and many souvenir shops. The walk of fame was a bit worn down....mind you they have earthquakes daily, but I would have thought they would have been better kept. We made our way up onto the breeseway of the Kodak theater, so we could view the famous "Hollywood" sign. Of course took a few pics and just enjoyed the fact that we got to see it. Our time was limited there, so that was pretty much all we got to see.

From there we headed back and then headed back to the hotel. Again, right at rush hour. The next day we would be heading back to San Fran and finishing out our vacation. Our drive back was good, we took a different route and happened across a 145 store outlet mall....needless to say, we had to stop. Got some great bargains. Got back to San Fran around 7:30, checked-in and then headed out for dinner. We went to a local Mexican restaurant and the food was amazing, the best Mexican I've ever had and by far the best meal I had the whole trip.

Now just to make it to the airport in time to catch our flight back to St. Louis and we could call it a trip. Well, we made it there in plenty of time, but when we saw the security line, we thought, here we go again. I am not joking, the line was about 3 city blocks long......and I looked at my watch and said to Shannon...."we have 2 hours till our flight and if this moves like the St. Louis line did, we are going to miss our flight home". However, unknown to me there was a family line...one of the nice TSA agents came up to me, tapped me on the shoulder and said, "you don't have to wait in this line - we have a family line" , "go up to to the purple sign and you'll get right through". Now that's how you do it, no lines, nice people, unlike our experience in St. Louis. We got through security in a matter of minutes and was happy to know that we would make our flight and not be facing another 22 hour day. We made our flight, made it home safely and had a great time.

Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to share our first family vacation with everyone and give you a little background to the pics I will attach. I hope you enjoy the pics, cuz we definitely enjoyed the moments that are captured.

One year ago!

I can hardly believe it is already time for me to make this post. My how the time has flown and I wouldn't change a thing, well maybe one thing....I would try to slow down time, as the last year has gone by way to fast.

One year ago today, I woke up in a hotel room in China knowing that this was the day my life would change forever. I just had no idea how much it would change and how it would change for the better. This was the day that we were going to pick Jetta up and to start our life with her. The day was so much more than I could have ever expected.

As we arrived at the building to pick the girls up, my stomach was in knots, not knowing what to expect (thinking to myself - before long I'm gonna be a mom). As we got out of the bus that took us and made our way to the elevator, we all were looking at each other, smiling, knowing that we were just moments away from meeting our girls.

As we got off the elevator, there was a sea of other adoptive parents, either having just received their babies, or others who were waiting. As I surveyed the room, I saw alot of parents holding their children and remember thinking to myself, that will be me soon. I also thought, I wonder how it feels for the child, scary, unsure, probably not even realizing what was about to take place. Most of the parents had big smiles on their faces and/or tears running down their cheeks, all finally happy that they had their child.

As we made our way into the waiting area, there was a door that had curtains hanging from it, with just a small crack allowing us to sneak a peek and hoping to catch a glimpse of our babies. As several of us were peeking in, a man came over to the curtains and pulled them closed. We kind of looked at each other and was wondering if any of them were our babies.

As we stood their patiently waiting (again by this time I think I was just numb from the fact that this was soon going to be the moment I had been waiting so long for), I remember our guides coming out to tell us that it wouldn't be much longer, but that the girls hadn't arrived yet, as they were stuck in traffic. We all just kind of laughed and thought, what is a few more minutes.

As we stood there, we talked amongst ourselves, trying to take our minds off of the fact that our babies weren't there and that they would soon be arriving. Before long, we noticed a group of people getting off the elevator and in they came, walking past all of us, holding 8 beautiful little girls. We all just looked at each other and immediately looked to find our guides hoping they would give us the look that let us know that those were our babies. However, I don't think any of us really needed that, cuz as they went by, we all surveyed the babies and each saw our daughters. While we only had two small pictures, that were months old, but we just knew.

I remember Shannon coming over to me and saying, did you see her and I said I'm not sure, but I think I did. He said, "she was the one sleeping in that man's arms". First of all, we were very surprised to see men carrying the babies in, but come to find out there are several men at the orphanage and all are involved with the girls care in some way or another. The man who carried Jetta in, ironically, is the orphanages accountant. Strange that the orphanages accountant would travel with the group, but since they were bringing such a large group of babies, they needed all the help they could get. At the time this was all taking place I didn't know this, but recently I found out, and found it so strange that the man who carried my daughter in was the accountant...call it whatever, but they say that red thread exists and me being an accountant, figured this was just one more red thread moment and knew that Jetta was meant for me.

As we saw them be whisked by and taken behind that daunting curtain, all we could do was try to compose ourselves. We didn't even have them and we were crying. Just knowing that in a matter of moments they would be placed in our arms. Our guides finally (I say finally, but it was probably a matter of minutes, but seemed like hours) came out and told us what the order would be for them bringing out the babies and I was going to be number 2. I couldn't believe it, I just had to wait for one other baby to make her way through the curtain and then Jetta would be on her way out.

The first baby came out, Desneiges, and then it was my turn, before I knew it, out came this beautiful baby girl. She had on a white pair of pajamas that were sizes to big for her (which today still fit her), then I saw those big brown eyes and I knew for sure it was her. As they placed her in my arms, all I could do was cry and hug her. I held onto her so tight, trying to let her know everything was going to be alright. She was sucking her thumb, but as Shannon made his way over, she managed to take it out of her mouth and gave us her first smile. Then we knew it was going to be alright. She let Shannon hold her right away, which was good, but then I wanted her back. I could hardly believe that all of the waiting was now over and now I could start living my life with her as a part of it.

As all of the familes got their babies, we all just enjoyed that moment, talking with each other, looking at each others babies, knowing that now our families were complete. Shortly after we got all the babies, it was time to head back to the hotel. We all agreed that after we got back, later that afternoon we would all meet up in the lounge and see how things were going. Jetta was amazing, she adjusted so well and was such a happy baby. Everyone made fun of us, cuz she seemed to be farther ahead than most of the babies. I remember Abby joking, "where is Jetta, did she walk back to your room?"

Well, that was just the beginning of the first year of her being a part of our family. As many of you know, she has adjusted very well, better than I could have ever imagined. There have been so many special memories, all of which I have tried to share throughout the past year. I'm looking forward to the next year and all the years to come. The past year has been amazing, so much more than I could have ever have dreamed of.

Jetta is pure joy (even though she's about to turn two). She is a very smart, inquisitive, outgoing little girl. I of course think she is the most beautiful baby ever, but I guess that's what moms do. I could bore you with many other stories from over the past year, but I won't. I just want to thank all of you for following along and for supporting me throughout this amazing journey.

And to Jetta, honey I love you and am so grateful that I have been given this amazing opportunity to be your mommy. I can't wait to experience your life with you and hope that you will always know how much I love you.

I'm going to post a few pictures from our Gotcha Day as well as some of my favorites from the past year, many of which I've posted before, but it allows you to see just how much she's changed and grown since the day we got her. I did take a picture of her this morning, and will try to post it later tonight, so we have a picture from last year and a picture from today.

Tonight we will go out for Chinese and celebrate this special day. I know she won't understand what it all means, now, but one day she will and I truly hope she always knows that her birth mother gave her this opportunity to have a better life and that I am forever grateful to her for giving her this chance and for China, choosing me to be her mom. I don't know that words can fully express what the last year has meant to me, but as I sit here and finish typing this, I have tears in my eyes just remembering that special day, one year ago and how wonderful my life has become since that day.