Trenton (not NJ)...

Callisto 2002-2011

Chuck Mongiovi — Wed, 11 May 2011 22:45:33 +0000

As some of you may already know, our beloved puppy Callisto passed away this past Saturday. She was a one in a million dog and we miss her terribly. We were told by our vet that the cause of death was a burst tumour that is common in older and larger dogs and that she would not have been in any pain. Here are a few of our favorite photos of our “first born”.

Family day!

Chuck Mongiovi — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 15:12:55 +0000

Today is the one-year anniversary of the day that we became a family! At 10am China time, 04-06-10, the Wuhan City Social Welfare institute placed Narissa into our arms for the first time. We can’t believe it’s been a whole year!

Click on this link to see our Family Day video! FinalFamilyDay2011

New photos…

Chuck Mongiovi — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:23:04 +0000

So I’ve been less than perfect about updating our blog, but here’s a few new photos of our little bundle of joy …

Narissa swinging at the park a couple of weeks ago …

Playing with Auntie Cindy this past weekend …

On a wooden rocking horse that we got from Auntie Louise …

Firsts

Chuck Mongiovi — Sat, 01 May 2010 03:40:09 +0000

So it’s been about two weeks since we’ve gotten back to the states, and our little girl is settling in nicely. We’ve worked hard to get her on a decent daily schedule, and when we can keep to it, it works pretty well. She’s almost always sleeping through the night now, although Mom and Dad don’t always manage that – I think we’re still fighting jet-lag a little.

Because she’s got so many amazing Aunties and Uncles that just *love* to pamper her, we’ve been getting a nearly steady stream of care packages, with everything from clothes to books to Chinese herbal medicines to help her combat the funk that we all came back from China with. (Thank you Aunties and Uncles!)

This has also been a time for a lot of firsts for her. We’ve been sticking pretty close to home, but have also been trying to take her out and introduce her to our friends and favorite places. If we haven’t talked about this yet, she pretty much eats whatever food we put in front of her, with a few small exceptions. When we first got home, we were sticking to foods we knew were familiar to her – rice, noodles, etc. We’ve broadened her horizons some since then.

When Allison’s mom was in town last week, we took her to a really amazing country BBQ place in Trezevant, TN called Grandpa’s BBQ. It’s open weekdays (I think Saturdays too) from 10am until the barbeque supply runs out – and it runs out quickly!

We had to take her to our favorite local coffee shop in Trenton to show her off to our friends there.

This past Sunday was Allison’s first knitting group since we’ve got back in town, so of course we brought Narissa along to show off to friends. Momma (and all of her knitting Aunties) worked hard to assure Narissa’s love of knitting already.

Finally, we drove to Memphis earlier this week and went to one of our favorite diners there – The Blue Plate Cafe, where all three of us had a huge Country Fried lunch. Narissa got to try country fried steak, fried chicken, corn bread, and fried green tomatoes. She dove head first into all of it.

I have to add a final P.S. to the Mongiovi clan in case they’re worried that my little girl is becoming *too* Southern already. While I don’t have any photos to prove it, we gave her a taste of Italian style sausage, onions and peppers. She couldn’t get enough of it.

That’s all for now. See y’all soon…

Homecoming at last!

Chuck Mongiovi — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:35:46 +0000

We finally made it home on Saturday morning at 2:30am after about a 36 hour day. The short flight from Guangzhou to Beijing left at 10am, and we had a 13 hour connecting flight from there to Chicago, followed by a short hop from Chicago to Memphis. To end all of this, we had a 2 hour drive from Memphis to Trenton. The food on all of the Chinese airlines has been surprisingly good. As expected, the food and service on our US flights (United) – not quite as nice. Allison and I survived pretty well, since we packed plenty of snacks and emergency energy bars. Narissa was another story. She pretty much lived on carbs the whole trip – rice, instant ramen, club rolls, and a small amount of fruit. We were able to pick up a few small bananas (her favorite) in the secure area of the Guangzhaou airport, but once we past that, there was nothing. Top this all off with the fact that United screwed up Allison’s request for a proper meal for Narissa. They did have a special “child’s” meal set aside for her. Unfortunately, since she’s neither infant or toddler, it wasn’t much use to us. Our little girl’s got 8 teeth (and working on a ninth!), and the child’s meal consisted of a tuna sandwich, a small plate of steamed veggies, and a chinese kit-kat bar. Luckily, it had the ubiquitous club roll, so we stashed that in our backpack and made the best of it. After much complaining and gnashing of teeth (mine and Allison’s, not Narissa’s) , we managed to get a hold of a bowl of instant ramen. Our little girl’s a trooper and I’d say she weathered the whole trip better than we did. Luckily, our amazing friend April was there waiting with Allison’s car, baby seat pre-installed, ready to drive our weary party home.

We got home at 2:30am, unsure of what day it was (Saturday morning) to many hugs and kisses from a waiting Grandma.

We hauled in all of the luggage and crashed for the night. When we woke up, it was 5pm (yes PM) on Friday – obviously Stage 1 of jet-lag. Our Neighbor Nancy and Grandma made sure we had a well stocked refrigerator waiting for us, so we woke to a wonderful Southern Fried Chicken dinner and a home-made “Welcome Home Narissa” cake which Narissa plowed into with gusto!

Our time since then has been pretty hectic – unpacking, fighting jet lag, and trying to get Narissa on some kind of a schedule despite the jet lag. When she’s not tired and hungry, she’s an angel – all smiles and playfulness. When she is tired or hungry, she’s like all of the other Mongiovis, cranky and difficult to deal with. She’s coming along well – probably better than we are. All three of us are in varying stages of sickness – probably picked up from one or more of the babies we were traveling with, but enough sleep should fix us – easy enough for Narissa, not so much for Mom and Dad.

It’s been an amazing journey so far, and it’s just the beginning for all of us!

Last Day in China

allison263 — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 16:02:55 +0000

In just a few hours we board the first of several flights back to the states, and we’re actually almost packed. Today was a good last day for everyone. We started with a nutritious breakfast of banana, sweetbread, noodles, and hard boiled egg.

A few families went to the Guangzhou Zoo in the morning. It’s the third largest zoo in China but not a modern one. Our guide said it was built in 1958 and from the looks of it, hasn’t been updated since. We did get to see a panda and some other animals, which Narissa really enjoyed.

After lunch Chuck and Narissa went back to the room to nap and I went shopping. Then I ran into our friends from San Diego, and went shopping again. They recommended a good Chinese restaurant for dinner, so we had a great last Chinese meal, then shopped *again.* Narissa now has enough squeaky shoes to last her a couple of years at least.

Now the baby is asleep and we’re trying to shove all our swag into four suitcases and two backpacks. We all can’t wait to get home! Sharing our trip with everyone has been so much fun for us, and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as we have. We’ll see you all very soon!

The Red Couch and the Oath

allison263 — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:22:10 +0000

Narissa and I spent most of the day today being sick. She threw up all last night, poor thing. Chuck thinks it was the spaghetti, I think it was the leek soup Narissa and I shared at dinner last night. Either way, we were pretty miserable this morning. We managed to get ourselves put together in time for the Red Couch photos and our group photo. It’s a tradition with adoptive families to have all the babies in one travel group photographed together on one of the White Swan’s red velvet couches. I bought Narissa a cute outfit and matching squeaky shoes for the occassion.

Narissa wasn’t that happy about the whole red couch thing, and one of the babies kept tumbling over into her and had to be held up by her mom.

Even though Narissa is the second-oldest baby in the group, she’s one of the smallest physically. This is Jennifer, the daughter of Marty, Jerri and Cassie, a family we’ve become friends with during the trip. Jennifer is not quite one year old and already has Narissa beat on the weight front:

Once the photos were done, Chuck went back to the museum to have a blessing caligraphed for Narissa by a calligraphy artist, and we stayed in the room, drank fluids, and napped. It was a gray, rainy day, perfect for not doing much anyway. This afternoon all the families piled onto a bus and went to the US Consulate for the oath. Narissa got all pretty in a yellow dress with a bow that only lasted about as long as it took to take this photo:

After the officials double checked our passports, we all raised our hands and repeated a brief oath promising that all our paperwork was correct. And with that, we are finally, totally done with the adoption! Unfortunately, the consulate wouldn’t let anyone bring cameras in so we didn’t get photos. All we’re doing now is waiting for the consulate to finish up the paperwork for Narissa’s visa so we can fly out Thursday.

It’s hard to believe that this trip is almost over and we’ll be home in a few days. In some ways it feels like we’ve been here forever, but in other ways it seems to have flashed by in an instant. I still can’t believe we are parents to this little amazing child, and we can’t wait to introduce her to everyone.

Market Day

allison263 — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 05:52:52 +0000

First off, the weather here is like Alabama in July–humid and sticky and not fun to walk around in. But walk we have, and this morning we set out on an adventure to see the sights away from the small island neighborhood where our hotel is. Right across the footbridge we found an enormous market. At first we weren’t sure what they were selling, but when we saw the hospital of Traditional Chinese medicine next door, we realized that it was a market for the ingredients for Chinese medicine. (click on the photos to enlarge)

Once we started looking into the bags and buckets more closely, it got even more interesting. The mushroom seller:

Look, Mama, this fungus is bigger than me!

Not sure what medicines these are used for, and I don’t think I *want* to know:

Dried bugs, including some that looked suspiciously like cockroaches:

Midway through our exploration, we spied a narrow, dark alley. Of course we had to investigate. It turned out to be where everything else was sold, in the open, on the street. The vendors seemed to live in tiny, dank, electricity-free rooms off the alley, but we couldn’t be sure.

Once we got to the fish market I’d had enough—it was hot, we were tired, and Narissa had long since konked out. We went back to the room for lunch and a short nap before heading to the pearl market. The difference couldn’t have been more striking.

The pearl market was in an ultramodern, five story mall that sold only jewelry and gemstones. On each floor there were countless shops that carried everything from pearls and jade to lapis, turquoise, amber, and any other stone you can imagine. At the pearl shop I bought pearls for Narissa’s 18th birthday, some Christmas gifts, and other goodies. We watched the workers string the pearls by hand. (note the bags of pearls in the background)

Narissa was great throughout the trip, she’s not a complainer and seems to be content to watch whatever’s going on in front of her. Except when Daddy takes her picture from above her head:

Finally shopping was over and we headed back to the hotel and dinner. We went to, of all things, an Italian restaurant that our guide recommended. Other than the fact they got Chuck’s order wrong, it was pretty good. Narissa loved her first taste of spaghetti. Good thing, since she’s a Mongiovi now!

To everyone who’s following us on this amazing trip, thanks for your comments on the posts. We read them every day!

Blessings

allison263 — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:50:43 +0000

Today we joined the other families to do some sightseeing and shopping. At breakfast Narissa devoured more hard boiled eggs, noodles, bread, and fruit. She’s a great eater and is willing to try pretty much anything. After breakfast we gathered in the lobby, where Narissa looked somewhat bored with things.

We boarded the bus and went to one of the oldest Buddhist temples in China, called the Six Banyon Tree Temple. It’s about 1500 years old and quite beautiful.

Although it was a wet, humid, cloudy day, we had a great time wandering through the temple complex.Narissa amused herself, and me, by handing me bits of torn brochure.

At around 11 a.m. it was time for the blessing of the babies. The monks of the temple wished to bless our families, to thank us for changing these childrens’ lives and to give us good wishes for their future. We entered the temple, filled with the scent of incense and flowers, and knelt at the altar before three huge statues.

The monk came in and performed the blessing, and although it was in Chinese, the beauty and honor of it was something we could all understand.

After the temple we visited a folk-art museum, where I, of course, headed straight for the embroidery exhibit. To my shock, the pieces were for sale and I was sorely tempted to buy one, the workmanship was so exquisite.

Our next stop was a craft market where we had lots of fun shopping for Christmas gifts and small things to bring home with us. By this time, though, it was past lunchtime and the babies were getting fussy, so we headed back to the hotel for naps. Narissa was a champ through the whole day, never complaining as long as Daddy was holding her. She did let me carry her around a few times, but I didn’t push it. We’ll have plenty of time when we get home.This evening was a group dinner at a local Thai restaurant (squid in garlic sauce, yum!) where Narissa ate like a champ and decided she liked spicy shrimp chips. Tomorrow we’re joining another family to go to a local open-air market near the hotel. In the afternoon we’re going to the pearl market for more shopping, woo-hoo!

Catching up

allison263 — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 14:36:24 +0000

We’re now in Guangzhou (pronounced “gwan-joe”) where we do the US portion of the adoption process. The last two days in Wuhan were very busy and we pretty much collapsed in the hotel room every night. Thursday the 8th was our free day in Wuhan, so we went shopping with a few other families to a high-rise mall near the hotel. We desperately needed clothes for Narissa because only a few of the outfits we brought fit her. (Note to Mom: she’s mostly in 12 month clothes, but some of those are too big so we may be going back down to the 6-9 month sizes). Afterward she and Chuck got a much needed nap.

The last day in Wuhan was long and exhausting. We had to go back to the Registry office one more time, for more paperwork and an interview with provincial adoption officials. Then we took the bus straight to the airport to catch our flight to Guangzhou.We arrived safely, but late, and finally got to the White Swan Hotel, where all US adoptive families stay. Our room is spacious and we’ve got a king sized bed, so we’re set for the next six days. Last night we were so wiped out that we ordered Papa John’s pizza delivered to the room and Narissa LOVED her first taste of pizza.

Each day for the rest of the trip we’ll spend part of the day doing paperwork and such, and the rest we’ll be going on tours and shopping in the markets. Today we were busy, first with getting Narissa’s visa photo taken, then at the clinic for her official medical exam.

Getting weighed and measured:

She’s warming up to me slowly. When Chuck’s not around she does pretty well with me, but when he appears that’s it. Today he left to do paperwork so Narissa and I spent a nice afternoon in the room, playing “let’s grind Cheerios into the carpet.” But he’s still the one to put her to bed, feed her, and carry her around. I did manage to get a couple of smiles when we were together this afternoon.

Tonight we had dinner with another couple in our group and their baby at a local restaurant that served beer. Chuck was very happy to taste a local beer. Narissa ate her first french fry, and was pretty happy, too!

A quick update about the family with the baby who had the problems—turned out the baby is fine, she’s just more delayed than usual. No brain damage, no defects, just a tiny girl who wasn’t taken very good care of in her foster home. We were all overjoyed when we got the news! So we’re all together, everyone’s healthy, and we’re ready for the last leg of this incredible journey.