A foster mother with double the love

A perceptive friend of ours located some information about our girls' foster mother. She apparently specializes in caring for twins! According to a site sponsored by Love Without Boundaries, this amazing woman "has provided a loving home for 11 orphaned children over the past several years, with ten of her foster children being twins! She is such an incredible, women who always wanted to have more children. She is known as the mother with 'double love' because of her love for her twins. She recalls when the first set of twins left home. 'I cried all night. My heart was so broken,' she said. But with incredible strength she returned to the orphanage only a short time later to ask for another child. There has been a steady stream of twins in her home over the past years. These children are so fortunate to have this wonderfully dedicated foster mother who has such a gift for caring for these children. What a true blessing she is to our program!" To see her photo, please visit http://lwbchinablog.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_archive.html

By the way, the twins in this photo are NOT Scarlett and Sienna. But perhaps they all live together?! We shall see ...

Our schedule

My husband and I start out together. We will be joined by our twins on Aug. 6, and we will be joined by my brother and cousin on Aug. 13.

Aug. 1 -- Take an afternoon flight from Florida for San Francisco; overnight at Airport Hyatt
Aug. 2 -- Depart San Francisco for Beijing
Aug. 3 -- Arrive in Beijing; two nights in Days Chang An Grand Hotel
Aug. 4 -- Tour Beijing (Great Wall and acrobat show)
Aug. 5 -- Tour Beijing (Tian An Men Square and the Forbidden City and Hutong); fly to Nanning in Guangxi Province; two nights in Majestic Hotel
Aug. 6 -- "Gotcha Day" -- tour Nanning in the morning and then meet our twins at the Civil Affairs in the afternoon (and assume responsibility for them)
Aug. 7 -- Civil Affairs office in the morning for adoption registration, notarization and passport application; afternoon train to Guilin; two nights in Sheraton Guilin
Aug. 8 -- Tour Guilin orphanage (even though they were in foster care, they may know some of the children there)
Aug. 9 -- Li River Cruise in the morning; afternoon train from Guilin to Nanning; one night in Majestic Hotel
Aug. 10 -- Civil Affiars office in the morning to pick up passport; evening flight from Nanning to Guangzhou (third largest city in China, formerly known as Canton); five nights in the legendary White Swan hotel where we hope and expect to meet a lot of other families who are completing their adoptions
Aug. 11 -- Morning photo and medical exams for the girls; afternoon tour of the Temple of Chen
Aug. 12 -- Visit the Six Banyan Temple
Aug. 13 -- My brother and cousin arrive into Guangzhou early in the morning and we have our consulate appointment at 9:30 a.m.; they will stay at the Guangzhou Marriott; all six of us will have a Pearl River Cruise in the evening
Aug. 14 -- All six of us travel to White Cloud Mountain in the morning; afternoon visa pick up
Aug. 15 -- Take a train to Shenzhen (a "special economic zone" just outside of Hong Kong); two nights at the Four Points by Sheraton
Aug. 16 -- Visit Hong Kong Disneyland and take lots of photos!!!
Aug. 17 -- Visit Hong Kong and take a night flight to Honolulu (with change of planes in Guam); overnight at Sheraton Honolulu
Aug. 18 -- Tour Honolulu and take a night flight to LA
Aug. 19 -- Layover in LA -- possibly visit Disneyland and the California Adventure; daytime reservation for Westin LAX
Aug. 20 -- Take a night flight to Pittsburgh; interact with my family and friends; overnight at Airport Hyatt; my brother and cousin will return to work
Aug. 21 -- Leisurely breakfast at the Hyatt and then fly from Pittsburgh to Florida

Year of the Monkey - 2004

The two girls apparently get along well. An observer stated that the girls played "like monkeys" in the park.

What do you expect from two girls born July 31 in the Year of the Monkey (2004)?

Happy New Year!

This photo was taken in late February 2007 at a Lunar New Year party held for the foster families in Guilin.

An observer commented that the twins' foster mother seemed to be extremely loving. And the girls certainly seem well dressed and groomed, too!

Sienna is on the left and Scarlett is on the right.

If you look very carefully at this photo and others taken on the same day, you will notice that their matching blue pants have Mickey Mouse and "USA 2004" on them. I cannot say enough good things about their upbringing!!!

Communicating with the twins

Many people ask us if the girls speak English. We would be very surprised if they know any English words. While the twins and their foster mother would have known that these photos were being taken for the purposes of preparing the paperwork for an international adoption, there would be no way for the foster mother to know that their new family would be English speaking. And it would be unlikely that the foster mother would know English anyway.

Meanwhile, I've been learning Mandarin (the "standard" dialect for all of China), while the girls *probably* speak Cantonese. So we will do a lot of improvising!

We will have a guide in China who will help with translating. We also have various books, tapes and other resources.

In addition, I've learned several children's songs in Chinese.

Sienna's "mug shot" (for her visa)

Sienna at the playground

Meet Sienna

Sienna's Chinese name is "Jun Hua." It also means "as beautiful as flowers!" I'm told by my Mandarin instructor that their first names together with their surname of "Yang" connotes strength.

Sienna was a bit taller than her sister at the time these photos were taken (approximately August 2006 at age 25 months). Her paperwork states that she is "fond of cheerful music." Observers have described Sienna as more extroverted than her sister.

Sienna's growth report describes her as "active," "energetic," "restless," "fond of imitating," "fond of singing" and "fond of listening to music."

Scarlett's "mug shot" (for her visa)

Scarlett at the playground

Meet Scarlett

Scarlett's Chinese name is "Jun Rui." It means "as beautiful as flowers." Since I am not genetically related to her, I feel as though I can brag about her beauty all the more!

Scarlett has been described as a bit quieter than her outgoing sister. She is a little bit smaller, too, although more recent photos indicate she has done a lot of growing!

Scarlett's growth report describes her as "active," "energetic," "restless," "fond of playing games," "fond of reading picture books" and "fond of playing games." Also, it said that she can be "impatient sometimes."

The Guilin twins

When my husband and I saw these beautiful twins, we were thrilled! We were even more excited when we were selected to procede with their adoption.

Their aliases were "Scarlett and Sienna." We came to know them by these names and have decided to keep them. We envision a world of red (Scarlett) and brown (Sienna) hair ribbons, nail polish and shoe strings that will help our family and friends quickly and easily distinguish the girls in person and in photographs.

(In case you are wondering, Sienna is in the one in the swing. And although their outfits are identical, only Scarlett has Donald Duck on her shoes.)

The girls are living in foster care in Guilin, China. This beautiful city is featured at the end of the movie in the China pavilion at Epcot. (Guilin is pronounced "gway LIN.")

We do not have any children, so the anticipation is particularly high!