Happy Citizenship Day, Eliana!

One year ago tonight, we were landing at JFK airport in Queens, New York on fabulous Cathay Pacific Airlines, nonstop from Hong Kong (and Disneyland)! We were quickly processed through US Customs and Immigration and - like magic - Eliana became a US Citizen! We spent the night near the airport before heading home to Virginia the next day. Can you believe it? Eliana has been an American citizen for one WHOLE YEAR!

I really do have pictures to post - I swear, I do! My class finals and project due dates are next week, then I will get a break for about 4 weeks before starting up one summer class. I hope to be able to catch up!

Here is a random assortment of pics as a teaser!...

A couple from Chinese New Year - Year of the Ox

Our little gymnast...

Loving my big brother

Greeting Cousin Drew when he came to visit us for spring break. Eliana apparently thinks he now lives in our backyard. Every time she wants to go outside, she asks if Drew will be there. Too cute!
Hugs, Laura Beth

One year anniversary - You've come a LONG way, baby!

One year ago today in Guangzhou China, we met our sweet Eliana ZuGuo face to face for the very first time. What a long way she has come in so many ways! One year, almost 9,000 miles and 2 surgeries later we can not imagine our lives without our little girl in our family. I will try to post more pictures over the next week. Here are a few photos from April 7th last year and over the past few weeks to show just how much she has grown and changed over the past year - WOW!

Today, April 7, 2009, in her "Gotcha" day outfit from one year ago for comparison.

She has had a 30% increase in body weight and 13% increase in height over the past year. She now weighs 25 pounds and is 34" tall.


She still loves lollipops and can still be bribed with them! After the Purim Carnival, March 8, 2009

Ben and Eliana April 7, 2008 - they both look so little to me now.

Ben's and Eliana March 29, 2009 at Ben's piano recital - they have BOTH changed a lot in a year!

It is a big deal that she can now make this "O" shape with her lips!

Waiting for Ben so we can go home.

Ben and Eliana - Mount Vernon, March 2009. Eliana's height = Ben's inseam!

With a special friend (thanks for the sweater, glad you got a new one too)! Hope is 3 months older and a full head taller than Eliana!

Eliana can often be found performing - singing, dancing, or being generally entertaining.

Eliana in her Purim puppy mask (made at preschool), March 2009

Cutting a rug at the preschool Purim Party, March 2009 (Queen Esther disguised as Princess Jasmine from the Aladdin movie - as close to Persian as I could get) !

Our princess, dressed for the temple Purim carnival, March 2009

My friend and fellow adoptive mom, Monica, lives in California and hand knit this cap for Eliana and mailed it to us. Eliana loves it - she often just wears it around the house! (By the way, I got a great cap, too - thanks Monica)!

Bundled up for first big snow day, March 2, 2009. Her favorite knit cap is under the fleece hat which is under hood. She is also wearing two pairs of socks, two pairs of pants, two shirts, a snow bib and a coat!

Eliana's crazy balloon static hair, with cousin Drew at Red Robin on April 4, 2009

We are now potty training - thus the panties and no pants. (Did I mention that she loves her cap?) I know she is not supposed to sit like this, but she does it no matter how many times I rearrange her legs.

Looking back to one year ago today:

First family photo - April 7, 2008 with Director Tang of Qingyuan SWi & an Ayi (auntie/nanny)

First night with us - putting her to sleep in the Ergo carrier, April 7, 2008

One year with our family! Today - April 7, 2009

We are so happy to have Eliana in our family! She makes us laugh each and every day. She is so full of personality and has a great sense of humor. Her determination and persistance (stubborness, even?) will serve her well. She can sometimes be a challenge to parent, but she is always a joy and keeps us on our toes for sure!

This is just the beginning of many happy years together!

Love, Laura Beth and the Cohns

Back in time - adding photos at last!

Hi, we are alive and well! My 2 college classes have left me very little time to keep caught up on my blogging and picture posting. I also have a new addiction which is a real time killer - Facebook! I have caught up with many old friends and am keeping in touch with family near and far (including Denmark) on Facebook, so it has been great in many ways. But, it is so easy to get sucked in and spend LOTS of time there. I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook, I guess. My 20th high school reunion is this summer and it has been really interesting to 'see' so many old faces from good old Lincoln High on FB and catch up on what they have been doing for the past two decades! I am hoping that we can attend the reunion and that I can see them in person, but it is so close to our annual beach vacation that we will have to wait and see.

Well, I have so much catching up to do that I don't know where to start. I will just start posting pictures! If you are receiving this via email (Mom, Dad, Norman, Charlotte), you will need to go to the blog site to see the slide shows http://chinastork.blogspot.com. If they stop before you finish seeing them, just Refresh your web browser! Put your cursor over the slide to read the caption, click the + on the slide show to speed it up or the - to slow it down.

Last few pics in December before Eliana's surgery:

Eliana's first Hanukkah! It was very musical - she got her first little piano, a guitar and a microphone. Ben (& Adam) got Guitar Hero World Tour for Wii, so we wanted Eliana to be able to 'play along'. Some pics are at our friends' house, the Levines - they are as nutty (probably nuttier) than we are! Eliana also got a video game thing that is a little stationary bike that plugs into a TV and you have to ride the bike to pick up items along the way. I was looking for an indoor exercise outlet for winter, but her legs are a bit too short for the pedals and her hand/foot-eye coordination isn't quite there yet - maybe next winter (or for yucky days when we can't get outside to play)!

Next, we took our Hanukkah show on the road to my sister's house in Georgia. It is a 10 hour drive from here (in theory). We have never done it in under 13. This time, we left at 1 am, drove south of Richmond, stopped at 4am and took a 4 hour nap in a hotel and were back on the road by 9am. We arrived in Georgia in time for dinner. The funniest pic of Ben - an unretouched photo of what his hair looked like when he woke up in the hotel room. MAJOR BEDHEAD! Edit: I had Eliana on my lap showing her the slideshows. She took one look at Ben's bedhead pic and said "CHICKEN - bock, bock! " :o) Kids say the funniest things!) My sister and my whole side of the family celebrate Christmas, and we brought our menorah, candles and Hanukkah gifts with us. Eliana was probably quite confused about what was going on, but she certainly enjoyed all the presents! Eliana also finally got to meet my Dad, "PapaFar" for the first time. His grandfatherly name is a combination of English and Danish. I think PapaFar was smitten with his newest granddaughter!

Next post - the great road trip of New Year 2009!

Love, Laura Beth

Be my Valentine!

Yes, we are alive and well! Isn't Eliana the sweetest Valentine ever? Her PapaFar (LB's father) sent her this precious outfit last fall and she grew into it just in time! As you can see, she is doing very well and is happy as can be! She recently achieved the milestone of turning "2 and a half"! Time flies when you are having fun! :0)

I am hopelessly behind on this blog! Check back as I try to catch up in posting slide shows of:

• Eliana's first Hanukkah
• Our trip over winter break to my sister's in Georgia and a major road trip home via the east coast and Outer Banks of NC
• A memorial slideshow of our sweet Tigger, who we had to put to sleep last month after nearly 14 years of loyal companionship
• Eliana's first time playing in the snow and tobogganing
• Many Year of the Ox Lunar New Year celebrations
• First real pigtails, some pics from gymnastics, ballet and just general cuteness!

I started taking classes in January, so there has been very little 'recreational' computer time for me. I am taking 6 hours to renew my teaching certificate and I am 'killing two birds with one stone' by taking prerequisite courses for a Masters in Speech Language Pathology. We shall see where this leads. In addition, I have taken on a volunteer position with a non-profit organization who supports a cause near and dear to my heart - caring for orphans in China. In particular, I am doing computer work to help support a healing home for cleft-affected children. More about this later.

We are enjoying a visit from Adam's Dad and family this weekend, including Eliana's 6 year old uncle. :o) They are having a great time together. But I must run to be a better hostess instead of blogging.

If there is anyone who has been persistent enough to keep checking this blog - keep checking! Many more pictures and updates to come!

Much love,

Laura Beth

Happy New Year from the Outer Banks!

Happy 2009 family and friends! We are on a little spontaneous road trip adventure! After spending a wonderful week over the Christmas holiday with my sister in Georgia, we are slowly meandering towards home. So far on our little journey, we have made brief stops in Savannah and Charleston and overnight stops in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and with Adam's brother in North Carolina. In between we did a day trip to Bald Head Island, North Carolina, which is accessible only by pedestrian ferry. After a very windy and chilly ferry ride, we had lunch there and then rented a golf cart for an hour to explore the little resort island before heading towards Adam's brother's area for the night.

After ringing in the New Year with Adam's brother, Martin, we weren't sure exactly where we were headed next. I have always wanted to explore the Outer Banks, of North Carolina, so we drove over to Nag's Head. We got out to take a look at the beach - it was a balmy 32 degrees! We bundled up and took a few pictures of the family with the Atlantic Ocean before getting back in the nice warm car. We decided to head south down the Hatteras National Seashore and we are now on tiny Ocracoke Island for the night. We drove our car onto a ferry in Hatteras for a 40 minute ferry ride to get here. The sun set just before we got on the ferry, so we will awake to the quaint little Silver Lake harbor outside our cute motel room window and start exploring the island. We plan to chase down Blackbeard the pirate at Teach's Hole and then the plan is to head north again, retracing our steps back to Hatteras up to Nag's Head and continue north to spend some time in Kill Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk before heading for home. We don't often get the opportunity to do these types of trips for fun, so we are taking advantage of it while we can.

Eliana is feeling good and is such a trooper in the car. She is now 'no-no' free and her diet is also unrestricted. Hooray! She is eating like a horse and talking like a pro. She is also impressing us with her potty using abilities, even when on the road. Ben is being pretty patient (most of the time) with the unpredictable trip and with trying to keep his sister happy in the back seat. In Savannah he had the chance to speak to an admission's officer at Savannah College of Art & Design and we also took him to the campus bookstore where he loaded up on art supplies. I think he is pretty excited about the possibility of attending SCAD someday. At a minimum, we will try to send him to camp there next summer for a week for a little 'test drive' of the college. They grow up too fast!

I may not get a chance to upload pictures from our trip until we are home. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends and wish you much happiness in 2009!

Love, Laura Beth