Guangdong Travel Group November 2006

2011 Chicago Reunion - Sunday July 10

2011-07-12T15:13:00.000-07:00

Downtown Chicago - Millenium Park

2011 Chicago Reunion - Saturday July 9

2011-07-12T15:07:00.000-07:00

Breakfast at the hotel.

A morning swim.

The CHI Reunion.

Dailey Plaza

The Willis Tower

Chicago Deep Dish Pizza Dinner.

2011 Chicago Reunion - Friday July 8

2011-07-12T11:30:00.000-07:00

Several familes were able to meet and play in Chicago in connection with the annual Children's Hope International Reunion. Here are some pictures. The girls have certainly grown.

At the Navy Pier

Taking a Water Taxi

At the Hotel

2010 Year End

2010-12-16T18:33:00.001-08:00

It's been quite awhile since the last posting. Hope all your families are well. It's been wonderful to get your Christmas cards and see how much the girls have grown. Please send more photos when you get a chance.

Here are some photos of various events with the girls this year. Lydia and Kate continue to see each other as often as they can. Kate and Maddy Wood saw each other at Disney in October.
Happy Holidays!
The Bowens

Lydia and Kate

2010-03-16T18:55:00.000-07:00

Happy Year of the Tiger - the girls with their Tiger faces at the FCC Chinese New Year party.

Crazy girls having fun.

New Photos Finally

2010-03-16T18:43:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone,

Sorry it's been so long since a post. Here are some photos from the Sattler/Flynns. If you have photos to share, please send them to me as jpeg attachments and I'll get them posted.

Hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to spring.

Love,
Christi, Eddie and Kate

Happy Forever Family Day

2009-11-07T18:17:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

Can you believe it's been 3 years since we met our precious girls. Hope everyone celebrated in style. Kate, Eddie, David and Lydia Byrne and I went out to dinner. We eat at a local Chinese place and had a great time. The girls had fun seeing each other and David kept up the tradition of being our family photographer. He's taken 3 of the 4 photos above...including the first of us as a family!

Hope everyone is doing well. Send photos when you can.

Christi, Eddie and Kate Bowen

Happy 3 year Referral Day

2009-08-25T09:45:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

It's been nice to hear from you. It's hard to believe 3 years have passes since we found out about our sweet girls.

Here are some photos sent in from the Browns and Cookseys. Please send me recent photos so I can update the blog so everyone can see the girls.

Take care,
Christi, Eddie and Kate Bowen

Photos from the Grahams

2009-08-07T12:47:00.000-07:00

Maryann sent some great photos to share with you all.

The first is a great shot (and the Graham's favorite) of Margie and Eddie.

Next is one from Chinese New Year. Here's what Maryann writes:

Here's a photo from Chinese New Year 2009 with the Graham's, Spoehr's and Westermeier's. We all had a great time celebrating the holiday!
From left to right is: Eddie Graham, Margie Graham, Amanda Spoehr, Alisha Spoehr, Emma Westermeier, and Grace Westermeier.

Enjoy and send recent photos of your family too!

The Bowens

2009 Reunion Trip

2009-07-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

We had a great trip the the Smokey Mountains, Tennessee for our annual Travel Group reunion. This year The Grahams, The Bowens, Therese and Lydia Byrne, and Bridget and Fiona Sheahan got together for a great time.

Friday, July 10th:

First we all gathered and met for dinner. McAlister's Deli had no idea what hit them! The girls were so excited to see each other. We took over the place and they had a blast.

Saturday, July 11th:

Cirque de Chine held their First Annual Adopted Chinese Children Association Reuion. It was a full day of events including; games for the children, group photos, a terrific authenic lunch buffet, and of course, the amazing 2 hour show with drummers, acrobats and motorcyclists performing amazing acts.

Lydia and Margie posing with some of the performers.

The girls had such a good time. All of us really enjoyed the performances. The people who run the show were terrific and you can tell they were genuinely happy that the children were adopted and had wonderful families. There were over 400 families registered for the event. It was a really great event.

That evening we all gathered in the hotel's lobby/breakfast area. We got pizza and let the girls go wild. Everyone enjoyed catching up and spending time together. We also got to bed early because the biggest day was to come.

Sunday, July 12th:

DOLLYWOOD!

We got there when it opened at 9am and left as it closed at 8pm. It was a long but wonderful day!

The girls had such a great time riding the kids rides, seeing shows and running around together. We rode the train, saw an animal show and a puppet show, and had a blast watching the girls on the kiddie rides. Eddie Graham was brave and took a zip line tour above the mountains of Dollywood, a 1 and a half hour tour, that took him high above the park on a zip line...loads of fun!

Kate, Lydia and Fiona enjoying "water play" at the kids playground.

Monday, July 13th:

Most of us parted ways. Therese and Lydia, as well as the Bowens headed back to Nashville. Bridget and Fiona stayed until Tuesday. The Grahams made it a full vacation and left Thursday.

A good time was had by all. We hope next year to do it in a more central drivable location. If anyone has any ideas...let me know. We'd love to see more of you next time. In fact, Cirque de Chine is already planning next year's event for Saturday, July 10, 2010. Mark your calendars!

Hope you're all doing well. Please send updated photos of your families. It's nice to keep in touch and see how much everyone has grown.

Love to all!

Christi, Eddie and Kate Bowen

Easter 2009 - Kate and Lydia

2009-04-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

We went to a place called Cheekwood here in Nashville for an Easter egg hunt and spring activities. The girls had a great time. The pond was full of frogs and the girls had a blast just running through the big open fields.

Hope everyone had a great Easter. Share your photos too!

Christi

Updated photos- Estelle Cooksey

2009-04-14T18:21:00.001-07:00

Peggy sent some updated photos of the beautiful Estelle. It's so nice to see how happy and big all the girls are.
Send me photos or your girls and I'll be glad to share them with the group.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Christi, Eddie and Kate

Two Year Anniversary, November 6, 2008

2008-11-07T11:47:00.001-08:00

November 6, 2006

November 6, 2007

November 6, 2008November 6, 2006 - Happy Daddies

November 6, 2008 - Still Happy Daddies

Happy Forever Family/Gotcha Day to our fellow travelers.

We hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating with your families. We got together with David and Lydia Byrne and had dinner at Golden Dragon Chinese restaurant. The girls had lots of fun.

Enjoy and share your photos too!

Christi, Eddie and Kate

Halloween 2008

2008-11-07T11:34:00.001-08:00

Kate Bowen

Lydia Byrne

Estelle Cooksey

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. Here are some photos of a few of the girls dressed up. Send my your photos and I'll add them too.

Christi

Best Buddies

2008-09-27T19:05:00.001-07:00

Hi all,

We ran into Lydia and Therese at the zoo today. The girls had a blast playing and seeing the animals. Wanted to share some cute photos.

Christi

Smith Girls

2008-09-17T18:38:00.000-07:00

Greetings Everyone!

I love looking at the pictures of all of the girls! How happy they all look! Our girls are doing well...very busy and always destroying some part of the house just as I get another part picked up! Hannah, our oldest, just started Kindergarten and is loving it. I had to return to work this fall (two year leave of absence) and we have put Maddie in a church preschool 3 days a week and a private in-home daycare a mile from our house the other two days. My mother serves as the "taxi service" most days, with Paul working from home on Thursdays in order to do the drop-offs and pick-ups. We are slowly falling into a routine and the girls are adjusting beautifully. I always have to think each day where the girls are going the following day and who is responsible for picking up whom where! We feel so blessed to have them and the joy they bring our families is priceless. With the current status of Chinese adoptions we know how fortunate we are to have two little girls to love. We hope this finds all of you well!

Paul, Karen, Hannah and Maddie

MeiLing Hanson

2008-08-11T18:15:00.001-07:00

From the Hansons:

Here are some updated photos of MeiLing Hanson and her big sister McKenzie. Can you believe how fast they grow?!

Brown Family - Summer 2008

2008-07-23T18:05:00.000-07:00

We love seeing all the pictures. Looks like it was a fun reunion. Maybe we can make it another time. The girls are all getting so big. Chloe is so tall. Everyone is starting to think she is already 3 or even 4. We wish we could have seen everyone. It is hard with 4 kids to travel that far. We have had a crazy busy summer, but so much fun. We went to family camp in Arkansas, and had a blast. We went with some people from our church, and we mostly just hung out at the creek, floating and fishing. We also went horseback riding. We have been to all kinds of different camps that the boys go to, but Chloe is not old enough yet. She wants to do everything her brothers do though. She does roll call everytime we go somewhere. She names each of the boys, mommy, daddy and Kwowy (how she says her name), if someone is missing she will shout "oh no, where...". It is usually one of the boys and she is not happy if they are not present at roll call. She is mommy's little helper! So fun!
April Brown

Estelle Cooksey - Summer 2008

2008-07-15T18:41:00.000-07:00

Hey there Christi! It looks like you guys had a wonderful trip, and it was so fun to see how all of our girls are growing and changing. This summer has been just amazing... Estelle is all about princesses (Cinderella being the fav), dancing around, swimming, and eating ice cream! Hope everyone is well, and thanks again, Christi, for giving us the opportunity to share in each other's adventures!

Take care,
Peg, Jason and Estelle

Reunion Beach Trip

2008-06-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

The Group - Spencer, Tina, Maddy, Maryann, Margie, Bridget, Fiona, Christi, Kate, Eddie

Proud Mamas

Hi all,
We wanted to share some photos with you from the reunion beach trip. We all had a great time and the girls loved playing together.
The families that made the trip to Destin, FL on June 18-23 were:
Spencer, Tina and Maddy
Maryann, Margie and Maryann's mom Peggy
Bridget and Fiona
Christi, Eddie and Kate
We all had so much fun and really want to do it again. We hope more of you can join us next time. We can choose a different location/activity and time of year...as long as we all get to reconnect and enjoy each other's company. The girls really seemed to like being together as well.
Enjoy the photos!
Christi, Eddie and Kate
PS Spencer took amazing photos and some of them are on here too.

Fiona

Kate

Margie

Maddy

Reunion version of the Red Couch Photo

Photo Session

2008-05-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

Kate and Lydia had their pictures taken this week by a photographer. Jenny is a friend of Therese's and a waiting China mom. She has a bunch of dress up clothes and props for the girls to wear so we put them in white dresses, bows and bare feet for picutres in Therese's yard. Here is a shot of the two girls. They are growing so quickly.

We hope everyone is doing well. Please send an email and photos when you get a chance.

Christi, Eddie and Kate

New Year's Celebrations - Illinois

2008-02-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

The Illinois members of our travel group got together to celebrate the new year. We ordered chinese food and shared fun and laughter. In the photo you will see (from left to right) Amanda and Alisha Sphoer, Grace and Emma Westermeier, and Margie and Eddie Graham.

Maryann

Happy Chinese New Year!

2008-02-07T08:28:00.000-08:00

Happy Chinese New Year! Welcome the Year of the Rat.

We hope you all have a happy, healthy and prosporous new year.

Christi, Eddie and Kate Bowen

PS Here are some photos of us at our local Families with Children from China New Year's celebration. We attended the party with the Byrnes.

Maddy Wood

2008-02-05T11:46:00.000-08:00

The title of the email with this photo was Best Maddy Picture of All Time! Thanks proud Mom and Dad for sharing it with us. She's a cutie.

Here's a link to more photos provided by Spencer and Tina.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/60119363@N00/sets/72157603831333659/show/

Christi, Eddie and Kate

Fiona Sheahan

2008-02-05T11:41:00.000-08:00

We received a nice card with 3 photos from Bridget, John and Fiona. I've scanned the photos to post here. It's amazing to see how much they've changed and how happy the girls are.

Hope everyone is doing well.

Christi, Eddie and Kate

Holiday Celebration

2008-01-11T18:47:00.000-08:00

The Byrnes and the Bowens got together on Thursday after Christmas and had dinner. The girls played and had a great time. We're very happy that they have each other and are becoming good friends.

Christi, Eddie and Kate

Kate and David relaxing...too cute!

Christmas 2007 The Bowens

2008-01-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

We hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. Here are some photos of Kate enjoying the festivities.

Christi, Eddie and Kate

Christmas 2007

2008-01-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from some of the families from Christmas 2007. The girls all look so great and very happy.

THE GRAHAMS

On Christmas Day, Margie wore one of the outfits we bought in China. It is a princess-like outfit and so she thought she looked like Cinderella (which she pronounces Cinderbella). We ended up calling her Margie-bella all day! Attached is a picture of Margie-bella on Christmas Day.

Maryann

THE BUELS

THE COOKSEYS

Hi Guys! Happy New Year! It was so wonderful to get all of the cards, and to see how our girls are growing and changing so much! Here are some pics of Estelle's Christmas. Her Sit N Spin was a definite fav. What lucky people we are!!!

Take care,
Peg, Jason and Estelle

Happy Holidays

2007-12-17T18:20:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays to everyone. Please send us some photos after Christmas of your cuties during the season. Here are a few photos of Kate with her Santa hat. Hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season.

Christi, Eddie and Kate Bowen

Kate's 2nd Birthday

2007-12-07T19:37:00.000-08:00

Kate had a big weekend November 16-17th. We took her to see Sesame Street Live Elmo makes music on Friday for her birthday. Later that night we went to have pizza and a cupcake for dinner.

On Saturday we had a small party. Kate and Lydia had a great time playing with each other again and of course eating cake!

Please send photos of your daughter's birthday celebrations so we can share them with the group.

Hope everyone is doing well going into the holiday season.

Christi, Eddie and Kate

Happy Birthday December Girls

2007-12-07T19:35:00.001-08:00

Happy 2nd Birthday to the December girls!

12/4 Amanda Sphoer
12/24 Grace Westermeier
12/30 Madison Wood

We hope your day is extra special!

Christi, Eddie and Kate

Happy Halloween from The Cooksey's

2007-11-04T11:28:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe we were in China one year ago, getting ready to meet our girls...
Hope everyone had a fun first Halloween! Here are some pics of our little puppy...

Take care, and enjoy your Gotcha Day,
Peg, Jason and Estelle

November Birthday Girls

2007-11-01T07:21:00.000-07:00

Here's a Happy 2nd Birthday to all the November Maonan girls in the group.

11/12 Estelle Cooksey
11/16 Kate Bowen
11/21 Nikki Buel
11/22 Maddie Smith
11/28 Fiona Sheahan
11/29 Lydia Byrne

Enjoy and please share picutres when you can.

Happy October Birthdays!

2007-11-01T07:17:00.001-07:00

Happy 2nd Birthday to the October girls....a little late sorry.

October 22nd - Chloe Brown and Marjorie Graham
October 29th - Roisin (Rosie) Flynn

Hope you had great birthday celebrations with your new families!

Christi, Eddie and Kate

Rosie Flynn

2007-11-01T07:06:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Roisin (Rosie) Flynn! She turned two on October 29th. Here are some photos Linda and Mike sent. They are in Ireland until next July but have sent pictures to share with the group. It's amazing how much they've all grown.

Christi Bowen

Disney Adventure

2007-10-02T18:06:00.000-07:00

We had another mini Maonan girls reunion last week. The Grahams and Bowens went to Disney the same week and met up with the Smiths (since they live in Orlando). We had a great time catching up...as much as you can do in a restaurant with three very active little girls. We wanted to share photos with you all.

Hope everyone is well and please keep sending photos of your cuties!

Christi, Eddie and Kate Bowen

Kate, Margie, and Maddie

Eddie and Margie Graham

Eddie, Kate, Margie, Maddie, and Hannah

Daddy's Girls

The Three Amigos

2007-09-12T18:30:00.001-07:00

What a special treat...April and Chloe Brown came to Nashville for a conference. Therese, David,and Lydia Byrne as well as Eddie, Kate and myself all met for dinner. We had a great time visiting. Chloe is a treat. It's amazing to watch the girls interact with each other. Here are a few photos of the evening.

It was a great night!!

Christi

Margie Graham

2007-09-08T13:45:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!
I cannot believe that a year has passed. Wasn't it just yesterday that we were all meeting for the first time?

Margie is doing well. She is growing and getting so big. A real toddler now. Her hair grows so incredibly fast, I need to make a standing appointment at kid snips. She still sleeps well and is still liking her vegetables. She loves her books and is very interested in dogs, cats, horses, and rabbits. She has grown to be familiar and comfortable with our extended family (which is good for the babysitting scene). Music and dancing are still a favorite. Does anyone else notice that? I wonder if books, music and dancing we a big part of the day at maonan.

Attached are a few pictures of Princess Margie.

Maryann, Greg, Eddie and Margie

Maddy Wood

2007-09-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Thanks Christi for keeping in touch. It doesn't seem possible that it's been a year but we also can't believe how much Maddy changes daily. She's growing like a weed and running around all over the place. She's pretty much imitating everything these days which is pretty darn cute. Here's a couple of pictures of Maddy. Take care.

Keep in touch.

Tina, Spencer and Maddy

Fiona Sheahan

2007-09-04T07:52:00.000-07:00

It is so great to hear from all of you and wonderful to see how well all of our little daughters are doing. Fiona is great - she is such a happy little girl!! She gets so much attention wherever we go. She gets into everything and I find the tv remote in the kitchen cabinet quite often!! Today she is getting her hair cut for the first time.
I will forward more pictures soon - I promise!!

love to all..........Bridget & John Sheahan

Estelle Cooksey

2007-09-03T11:43:00.001-07:00

Hi Guys! What fun to see all of these pics! The girls are all so precious and growing SOOOO quickly!

Take care,
Jason, Peggy and Estelle

Referral Celebration Photos

2007-09-01T11:22:00.000-07:00

The Bowens and the Byrnes celebrated at PF Changs in Nashville. Afterwords, the girls played like crazy in the building lobby...they were trying to stay awake and were having a blast copying each other's moves. We did manage to get a few photos of them together. At the end of the night, they hugged each other goodbye...while the parents welled up with tears of joy! What a night!

Our little Maonan "Sisters"

Happy Families

After Dinner Playtime

Look How Much We've Grown

2007-09-01T11:13:00.001-07:00

It was great to hear from everyone on our 1 year Referral Anniversary. Here are some great photos of our girls. It's amazing how much they've all grown...and how wonderfully happy they all are. What sweet faces our beautiful girls have. If they're anything like Kate, I'm sure they have the personalities to match!

Thanks everyone for sending in photos. Enjoy!

Nikki Buel

Chloe Brown

Amanda Spoehr

Happy Referral Anniversary

2007-08-25T12:49:00.001-07:00

One year ago today, August 25th, we all got the call about our daughters. What a wonderful day. The Bowens and the Byrnes are going to PF Changs to celebrate. We'll post pictures later.

We hope you're all doing well. Please keep in touch and send photos of those beautiful babies.

Christi Bowen

Kate - after her first haircut and actually smiling in a photo.

Maddie Smith

2007-03-31T20:38:00.000-07:00

Hi All! Greetings from sunny and beautiful Florida! We are doing well and the girls are growing like weeds. Hannah, out oldest, just turned four and is enjoying being a big sister (most days!!). Maddie follows every move she makes and imitates all Hannah does. We had not been home two weeks before she was brushing her hair in Hannah's little vanity and talking on the toy phone...

We hope this finds all of you well and enjoying your new families. If you are ever in the Orlando area visiting The Mouse, please drop us a line. We'd love to hook up and get the girls together!

Blessings - karen, paul, hannah and maddie smith

P.S. Also, if you want to take another look at the girls and some pics from China (in our videos), our website for them is http://web.mac.com/fl_smiths

Chloe Brown

2007-03-19T18:35:00.000-07:00

For pictures and updates go to Ken and April's blog. A note from the family is below. Check it out!
www.chloejoy.typepad.com

*********************************************************
I just do not have that much time to downlaod pictures that is why I have my own blog, but you can put my blog as a link on your blog and then the rest can see my pictures and hear an update at www.chloejoy.typepad.com . I also have lots of pictures for some of the other families on there that you and they can print off. I have meant to send the pictures to everybody, but I have just not had time. I have 4 kids now and it is pretty crazy around here. We are doing great though!!
Great to hear from you!

Sincerely,
April, Ken, Caleb, Nathan, Noah, & Chloe

Maddy Wood

2007-03-17T18:29:00.000-07:00

Maddy is doing great. She just had a growth spurt and is a very giggly, curious kid. She has realized that being outside is awesome and now is starting to climb. She's chattering like crazy but only says a few words that actually are recognizable. We have her 15 month doctor appointment here in a couple of weeks so we'll see how much she has actually grown. We cherish every moment we spend with her. It was really good seeing the pictures of the other girls. They are all even more adorable than I remember.
Take care.
Tina (Spencer & Maddy)

MeiLing Hanson

2007-03-12T18:21:00.000-07:00

Ni hao from the Hanson's ~

We were so excited to see pictures of Kate, Nikki & Estelle - they have grown so much and look so happy (those smiles are priceless)! We are glad to hear that things are going well for you three families and we are anxious to hear from the rest of you and to see pictures. As for our family - we are doing very well. MeiLing is an amazing little girl and has surprised us all by how quickly she has adjusted. She has been speaking all English for quite awhile, prefers a fork over chopsticks, loves playing in the snow and adores her big sister.

Keep in touch and get those pictures posted!

~The Hanson'sRon, Melanie, McKenzie & MeiLing

Estelle Cooksey

2007-02-18T10:38:00.000-08:00

Hi there! Happy Chinese New Year! It was so wonderful to hear from you guys! Kate looks just beautiful, and sooo happy. Estelle is just a ton of fun as well... and we are appreciating every second of having her with us. It is amazing how quickly she is growing and changing! Here are some new pics...

Take care, and keep in touch,
Peg

Nikki Buel

2007-02-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

Thank you so much for taking the time to set up the blog for our travel group. Attached are some pictures of Nikki that we would like to share with everyone. Nikki is also adjusting very well; she is walking everywhere and very vocal, yet not quite saying any distinct words. She appears to be very happy as we can get a good belly laugh out of her pretty easily.

We hope everyone is doing well as we are all truly blessed to have our little girls!

The Buels
Tabb, Kay, Taylor, Carson and Nikki

Kate Liang Bowen

2007-01-23T15:07:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of Kate since we've been home. Her hair is growing and she is a happy girl. She's in daycare a few days a week and doing very well. She had a busy Christmas meeting lots of adoring family. She contiues to suprise us with how quickly she is learning. She's finally got a tooth and is walking like crazy.

Welcome!

2007-01-23T14:53:00.000-08:00

I created this blog for our travel group as a way to stay in touch. We can post photos and information about our girls. I think it will be fun to see how much they have all changed since we were in China.
Send me your photos and captions and I'll cut and paste them into the blog for everyone to see.

Hope all is well with everyone and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Christi Bowen