Two Americans in China And Growing!

We finally have our little girl home! She came home a week before Christmas, so we did the obligatory Christmas pictures. People keep asking me how I feel, if I feel different somehow. Other than having issues balancing taking care of a kid and working from home, Seth and I don’t really feel different. I Read More

We Found Her! Finally Getting Our Match

We finally found our daughter! Anyone who knows us or follows this blog knows that our adoption journey has been a long and difficult one. But we are so happy to finally announce that we have found our daughter! Meet little Zofia! As a blogger and now a mommy blogger, I am still wrestling with Read More

How a Cosmetics Company is Subverting the Chinese State

An ad by cosmetics company SK-II recently went viral in China. The ad tackles the topic of “leftover women,” women in China who are not married by age 25. Watch the ad below. The ad has had millions of views and has sparked debate and discussion around the country. Some people believe the ad is Read More

Adoptive Families Need Parental Leave Too

The following was originally published in the Shenzhen Daily.  One day, your parents are gone. Your home is gone. You don’t know where you are. You are in a new, strange place. There are other people around you who seem nice, but they are not your parents. There are other children in this place. You Read More

Interview With Lisa See, Author of The Red Princess Mysteries

Lisa See is best known for her historical novels, especially Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which I reviewed here. But she also wrote a fabulous mystery series back in 1997. I recently read all three of the Red Princess mystery books and really enjoyed them. Lisa was kind enough to answer a few questions Read More

Give the Dog a Bone – Let Guide Dogs in China Help the Visually Impaired!

Last week, when Beijing announced that seeing eye dogs would be allowed on the Beijing metro, my first thought wasn’t “wow, this is a great move on Beijing’s part.” Instead, my first thought was “seeing eye dogs weren’t already allowed on Beijing subways?” followed by “seeing eye dogs aren’t already allowed on all of China’s Read More

Step 1 of probably 100 million

As any reader of this blog or anyone who has ever met us knows, our dream is to adopt a baby here in China. We finally took that first step and submitted our initial application, which was approved last week! Yay! That was probably the easiest step, though. I was immediately given about 50 more Read More

An Open Letter to Victoria Thompson, Author of the Gaslight Mystery Series

Dear Ms. Thompson, Every day, women are told that they can only ever be truly happy if they give birth to a child. It is everywhere – from our own mothers, to politicians, to religious leaders, to books, movies, and TV shows. No matter what else a woman has in her life, no matter how Read More