Basketball

Bri had her first basketball game last night. She was playing against her friends Ryan, Hogan and AJ. But with some other friends, Kristen, Braxton and Jacob. No one wins, of course, but they all had a blast.

Here is a movie of her playing

Snow, Snow and more Snow.......

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. Bri and I spent the day playing in the snow and enjoying some time with our neighbors. I have created a slide show of some pictures of Bri playing in the snow.

Where has time gone?

Today is the Simpson family's "Gotcha Day!" What does that mean? It means 4 years ago today, we were in China and Brianna ("An Ming Gao") was placed in our arms. It seems like just yesterday. It makes us wonder where did the time go. We are so BLESSED to have her in our lives.

Holiday Season..........

We spent Christmas at home for the first time as a family rather than being visiting our family out of state. It was nice for us to wake up in our house on Christmas morning. Santa was good to us all and we spent most of the day playing Wii Fit. We joined some friends for dinner and good laughs.

After Christmas, we went on our way to visit parents and grandparents. It was a relaxing time but we were ready to get home. We hope everyone had a great holiday season.

Love: Bio Parent's Vs. Adoptive Parent's

Bio parents don't understand something you know as an adoptive parent.

You see, when you receive your child something magical begins to happen. Slowly, over time, it's like heretofore unused tendrils of a love connection reach out from a place hidden within you to your child and become welded in place tighter than any bond anywhere. It produces feelings you never knew you had. It makes you love your child more than your own life. It makes you realize you thought you could not love anyone even more than your spouse, but you can. It makes you see a child not blessed with beauty as the most beautiful thing on earth.

Sometimes, when you ponder what would have happened to your child had he or she not been adopted, it can take your breath away.

For many adoptive parents, the wonder of this new and exhilarating feeling can only be explained by the belief that a higher power or a red thread or whatever brought you together with the one and only child on the planet that you could connect to in that magical way.

For many bio parents, the wonder of this new and exhilarating feeling can only be explained by the belief it comes from carrying the child in your womb, and the DNA passed on to the child, and that an adopted child must be loved . . . differently.

Despite my limited expertise, I strongly believe both are wrong. I think what happens is no matter which child is placed in your arms as your own, that pushes the magic button to start the unbelievable process, and the irrevocable welding begins with no difference whatever between bio and adopted.

So when a bio parent says or implies an adopted child could never be loved quite the same as a bio child, maybe we should give them a break and not take offense since maybe none is intended. They probably don't know the exhilaration they feels about their child would have been the same if they had not carried the child and given birth, and maybe they are just trying to say what a wonderous thing it is to connect to a child as they have done. Maybe this is their version of singing from the rooftops.

And how could you explain to them in a moment or two in a convincing way it is just the same for an adopted child? It can't be done. So you can say you love your adopted child just the same as they love their bio child, they walk away quietly believing you are wrong, you walk away knowing they are wrong, but give them a break, they are blinded by love.

Finding Ad

Mommy worked with a research agency to locate a copy of Bri's Finding ad. After months of research, we have obtained a copy of her ad which contains a picture of her.

Post Adoption

February 2, 2005 (Wednesday) - Today, we returned home to North Carolina. Our families had a wonder time visiting with Bri. Mamaw Sue and Papaw Jerry rode back with us.

February 4, 2005 (Friday) - I had my first Pediatrician visit today. What a day, they took 7 vials of blood.

February 24, 2005 (Thursday) - I took my first walking (more than 2) steps tonight. Mommy and Daddy were so excited.

March 3, 2005 (Thursday) - I said "Bye" today. I have been saying "Hey" on the phone a lot, but never said "Bye."

March 5, 2005 (Saturday) - Today, while Mommy was talking to Mamaw Rosie, I said "Bye" to her. She was so excited; she said "I made her day."

March 6, 2005 (Sunday) - I got my first bloody nose today. I decided to stand up in my lawn chair and fell flat on my face. Our Social Worker came out today for the first post-placement visit. She was here for about an hour, just visiting and asking us about our trip, Bri and how we were all adjusting.

March 13, 2005 (Sunday) - Today, I did the motions of "More" in sign. Mommy and Daddy were so happy.

March 20, 2005 (Sunday) - Daddy slept in today since it was his birthday. Mommy and I made him breakfast in bed. While he slept, mommy was filming me playing in the kitchen. Mommy gave me a pacifier and I said "Thank You." She got it on tape, so we will have to show it to you over Easter.

March 27, 2005 (Sunday) - Today, I was dedicated at First Christian Church. Aunt Deb also taught me some more sign language.

April 8, 2005 (Friday) - I got my first hair cut today. Boy, did I get upset.

April 13, 2005 (Wednesday) - I said "Stop" today. Man my vocabulary is getting big.

May 1, 2005 (Sunday) - We got to visit with Jennifer of Nathanson's again today. She really likes playing with me. We have two more visits with her (Six months and 1 year).

July 2, 2005 (Saturday) - I turned 18 months today. We celebrated with going swimming and eating some cupcakes.

July 20, 2005 (Wednesday) - I had my 18 month check up with Clayton Pediatrics. Things went really we except the shots I received. I am now 30 1/2 inches tall and weigh 23 lbs 9 oz.

August 4, 2005 (Thursday) - We filed the final paper work to readopt Bri in the United States. She will soon have a North Carolina birth certificate.

September 20, 2005 (Tuesday) - I hand delivered the last piece of paperwork to the courthouse today.

September 21, 2005 (Wednesday) - Our adoption decree was officially signed by the Clerk of Court's today. We should receive a birth certificate in the next few months.

January 28, 2006 (Saturday) - We had our last visit with Jennifer (Social Worker). It was a sad but exciting day.

Adoption Poem

You first came to us in an envelope

With letters, forms and such

Just two tiny little pictures

With nothing warm to touch.

You grew in our imagination

In our hearts and in our minds.

You brought us greater joy

Than we ever thought we'd find.

A phone call started labor pains

Which lasted until we met

Strangers brought together

A day we'll never forget.

Our love for you has bloomed

In our hearts, our lives, our home.

Our child of chance, of plan, of will

You're now our very own!

Anonymous

Travel Journal

January 15th (Saturday) - We leave Raleigh headed for Charleston, WV. When we arrived, Sue had made dinner for us. What a pleasant surprise after a long trip from the south. Chris, Mel and Bailey joined us. Bailey was so excited to see "the baby." Mel told her she would have to wait until next time.

January 16th (Sunday) - We install the car seat prior to leaving for the airport. We are off to Newark, NJ. It is snowing in Charleston, so our flight is canceled. We get booked on a later flight through Charlotte, NC. What a way to start our trip. We made it to Newark, NJ at 9 pm rather than 4 pm.

January 17th & 18th (Monday) - We get up, have room service for breakfast and head off to the airport. We meet up with some of our travel group before leaving for Hong Kong. We discover all 22 families are on board the flight to Hong Kong. It was a long flight. It took us 16 hours to get from Newark, NJ to Hong Kong. We arrived about 8 pm Hong Kong time. Our families are 13 hours behind us, so it is 7 am for them.

January 19th (Wednesday) - We leave Hong Kong for Nanjing at 11:55. Before departing we have a travel group photo made (pre-babies). We arrive in Nangjing at 2:30 pm and are headed to the hotel. While on the ride to the hotel, we are told, we are actually headed to get the "Babies." What an exciting time for everyone. At 3:30 pm, we arrive at the Government Affairs Building; we can see the babies through the front door. They are all dressed so nice. We are told to depart the bus and enter the building. Upon entering, we were able to get a couple photos off all the babies before they started handing them out. We are family number 4. Before we know it, we are holding "An Ming Gao" in our arms. She cried for a little while but then settled down into our arms. We had our first family picture made within the hour of receiving her. We stayed in the government affairs office for approximately 1 hour before heading to our hotel. An Ming gave us her first smile on that bus ride. When we tickled her on her belly, she smiled and grind. What an amazing moment for us as parents. She only wanted to be held and hated to be undressed. It took us quite a while to get her undressed. We tried to give her some American formula but she did not want it. Helen and Susan gave Tim some Chinese formula when he went to complete some paperwork. An Ming gulped that bottle down. She slept the night on our chest, we are guessing for security reasons. We called home about 8 pm our time to let our families know we received her. They are wanting some pictures of her, NOW!

January 20th (Thursday) - Brianna/An Ming got up at 3 am. She and I played on the bed while daddy got a shower. Today, we go back to the government affairs building to finish some paperwork and meet the nannies. We met Bri caregiver. She took Brianna into her arms and Brianna lit up and started to smile and laugh. It was tough for all of us to encounter her. We thanked her for taking such good care of our joyous daughter. We stopped off by at market on the way back. We bought a couple 6 packs of soda, 2 bags of Chinese formula and 3 bottles of water (all for 6 American dollars). We ordered lunch in and Brianna wanted a cracker. Instead, we gave her a French Fry. We officially received custody of Brianna today from the China government. "SHE IS OURS."

January 21st (Friday) - Today was a day of bonding. We got up early to give her a bath. Her first bath, which went really well. For breakfast, she ate some eggs and drank some apple juice. At 10 am, we went to the market shopping; what a trip. It was as if we were celebrities out walking around. At one point, there must have been 50 - 60 people crowded around us. We did not buy much other than a coat for her to wear later. Daddy fell in love with the coat. After returning to the room, we ate some lunch and took a nap. We tried to email home but had no luck. The weather was cold and started to snow in the afternoon.

January 22nd (Saturday) - We enjoyed a bus ride to the Revolutionary Monument today. The monument was great. We were able to see some pictures of Chairman Mao as well as take some pictures of his family tree linage. It snowed most of the day. After the monument, we went to the mall. We picked up Brianna some shoes and a toy. We also got some "Starbucks Coffee" for mommy.

Mao is the individual with no descendents in the upper right hand corner.

January 23rd (Sunday) - Another cold day, but that won't stop us. We are off to Xuanwa Lake. At the lake, we saw some rock formations, huge dragons, a 600 year old bridge and an awesome view of Nanjing City. Prior to returning to the hotel, we visited KFC for some lunch. After a nap, we ventured out to shopping one more time. Daddy and I bought Brianna a cute Asian outfit. It will fit perfect for Christmas next year. We got the disposable camera developed which we sent to the orphanage about a month ago. They took several pictures of her playing, eating and crying.

January 25th (Tuesday) - Today, we leave for Guangzhou. We left for the airport at 10:30 am. Our flight leaves at 12:15. Brianna slept for the entire flight. When we arrived, we checked into the "White Swan" and took Brianna to get her Visa photo taken. The group went to Lucy's for dinner. One of the babies 1st birthday is today, guess who "Lucy." We celebrated her birthday.

January 26th (Wednesday) - What an odd day. We got up and gave Brianna a bath for her medical exam. When we meet in the lobby for the 5 minute walk over to the exam building, we found out Zoe had chicken pox. After the medical exam, we were taken to a mall for some shopping. While shopping, we were told Brianna may need to be immunized prior to leaving for Hong Kong. At this point, all our travel plans are up in the air. We could be held back for a few days since all the babies were exposed. We should know more tomorrow.
January 27th (Thursday) - Today was our Consulate Appointment but since our babies were exposed to Chickenpox, the Consulate Office came to us. We met in Der and Helen's room at 1:45pm. The Consulate was running late since they went to check on Zoe's situation. The Consulate was there for no more than 15 minutes. Then they released us to travel to Hong Kong.

January 28th (Friday) - We are packing to head to Hong Kong today. We had to have our luggage in the halls by 10 am. At 10:30, we had a group photo made. We checked out around 2 pm and by 2:30, we were on a 2 1/2 hour bus ride to Hong Kong. Since it was raining, it turned into a 4 hour ride. We had one more opportunity to use a squatter at the customs office to enter Hong Kong. About 40 minutes into the ride, Brianna had a bottle, which she was not able to hold down. Of course it came up and went all over mommy. Mommy got so messy, she had to take off her shirt and throw it away. Good thing mommy did not like that shirt.

January 29th (Saturday) - We are going home! At 9:30, we were headed back to the Hong Kong airport for departure to the US. Our flight was to leave around noon. We got on the flight with no issues. It was a long flight, but at least Brianna slept for about 10 hours of the 16. We arrived in Newark, NJ and made it through customs. I must say, though, when the customs employee opened the brown envelope, mommy was nervous. There was a brown envelope we were given in Guangzhou. If we opened the envelope then Brianna could be sent back to China. We said goodbye to our new friends; some of us had another flight and others were driving home. We had dinner at TGI Friday's prior to leaving for Washington, DC (Dulles). Our flight from Newark, NJ was late leaving so our layover in DC was very short. We had about a 15 minute wait between getting for the shuttle until we got on another plane. It was snowy, so we sat on the plane at the gate for over an hour. We were waiting on our turn the for deicer. We should have been in Charleston before we ever left Dulles. We arrive in Charleston about 1 1/4 late, but to our surprise, all our family was still there. They we so excited to see Brianna. Brianna put on a show for everyone. We left the airport and everyone for the most part was very excited and happy. Uncle Terry and Aunt Emmy brought the truck to pick us up. After nearly 30 hours of travel Brianna was wearing down. She did not like her car seat and screamed the whole way to Jerry and Sue's.


Aunt Debbie holding me at the airport.

China Bound

Our agency works with orphanages in a few provinces in China: Shaanxi, Hubei, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Jiangsu and Guangxi. So, we are expecting our daughter to be from one of these areas. Our agency currently flies out of Newark, NJ to Hong Kong. We will be meeting our travel group at the airport in Newark. Usually 6-12 families travel together. We will then travel by bus or inter-country flight to Nanjing, in the Jiangsu province. We will spend approximately 5 days in that province to complete the adoption and do sightseeing. We should receive the baby the first day that we are there, and she will stay with us from then on. We will then travel to Guangzhou and spend the next 5 to 6 days completing the paperwork to allow our daughter to come home as a US citizen. While in Guangzhou we will do more sightseeing and be allowed sometime for shopping. We will then travel back to Hong Kong and fly back to the US. Friends and family are welcome to meet us at the airport for a brief welcome home event.

Nanjing! Capital Of Jiangsu Province

When leaving Hong Kong, we will be headed to the City of Nanjing. We will be staying at the Mandarin Garden Hotel.

Adoption Timeline

Dec 21, 2003 - We finally decided it was time to pursue adoption. After months of research, we have selected Carolina Adoption Services (CAS) as our Agency with China being our destination.

Jan 14,2004 - Submitted our Application with CAS. Our application was accepted by CAS on Jan 20, 2004.

Feb 17, 2004 - Submitted our I600A to Homeland Security.

Feb 27, 2004 - First meeting with Nathanson's Homestudy Agency. One of four visits. The final visit was completed on March 13, 2004.

Mar 19, 2004 - The Simpson Family was in town for Tim's Birthday, so we told them about our decision. They were excited even though we cautioned them about the attachment issues of children from orphanages.

Mar 29, 2004 - Our Homestudy was completed and mailed to Homeland Security.

Apr 10, 2004 - We received our fingerprint appointments.

Apr 12 and 15th - We got our Fingerprints done in Raleigh (Connie 12th/Tim 15th).

May 1, 2004 - Today, we sent most of our Dossier Packet to DC to be authenticated by the US State Department and the Embassy of China. We are just weeks away from being DTC.

May 24, 2004 - It has been 6 weeks since we were fingerprinted. We still have not heard anything from Homeland Security. Our Social Worker is supposed to call them today and check the status of our application.

May 27, 2004 - Today we received a call from our agency to let us know our approval with INS has been approved. It was completed yesterday and went out in today’s mail.

May 29, 2004 - We received out I171H today, so on Tuesday; I will take it to the Secretary of State's Office for Authentication. Then it goes to DC for authentication by the US State Department and the China Embassy.

June 7, 2004 - Today, I hand delivered our Dossier to Agency (DTA) (Carolina Adoption Services). Susan informed us, she will mail out our packet today and we should hear from her by the middle of July with our Logged In Date (LID) or Dossier to China (DTC).

June 18, 2004 - Grace of NY has mailed our dossier to China.

July 1, 2004 - We are officially logged in! Now we wait for our turn. We will be parents before
we know it!

July 24, 2004 - We attended an Asian Class today in Greensboro. We are 5 months out from receiving our little girl(s).

July 31, 2004 - Today, we found out the January, February and March groups are receiving their referrals this week. It looks like we could be receiving our little girl(s) within the next 2 - 4 months.

September 27, 2004 - We are just 1 or 2 batches away from bringing our little girls home.

October 29, 2004 - Rumor mill says we will get a referral in the next 2 weeks (lets hope it is true). We are not far away from holding our little girl/boy in our arms. Our dreams of becoming parents are about to become a reality!

November 9, 2004 - Looks like we will be waiting another 30 days. We got confirmation today that we did not make this round.

December 11, 2004 - We received our referral today. Just 6 months after submitting our Dossier to China. Our dreams of becoming parents have come true! Her Chinese Name is An Ming Gao, we will know her as Brianna May-Gao Simpson. She was born January 2, 2004 in Gaoyou, China.

January 2 2005 - Today is Bri first Birthday. We returned from our family visiting in WV yesterday. Today, we washed and hang all of the clothes we received from Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. Then we visited with Kevin and Paula. While there, we got some great news in the mail. It was the English translation of Bri Medical Report. What a way to start the 2005 year.

January 10, 2005 - Today, we received our travel approval. This is authorization from the Chinese Government to enter China. Now we are waiting to receive our consulate appointment with the US Embassy. We are within a week of travel.

January 16, 2005 - On January 15th, we will drive into Charleston, WV for departure from Yeager Airport to Newark, NJ. We will be spending Sunday night in Newark. Our last nights sleep for quite sometime. Buddy will be visiting Jerry & Sue while we travel to bring Brianna home.

January 17, 2005 - We will arrive at Newark Airport around noon to make our Journey to China. We are China bound around 3:15pm. We arrive in China the 18th at 8:30 pm (7:30 am in the Charleston). We will be leaving Hong Kong on January 29th and headed to the US. Our flight arrives at 11:24 pm.

January 29, 2005 - We arrived home at 1 AM Saturday night / Sunday morning. Since we were still on China time, we were wired. It was great to see our family at the airport to greet us. We left the airport and for the most part, everyone was excited and happy.

Referral Time

December 11th has changed our life's forever. We are pleased to share with you the information we have received about Brianna (Bri) May-Gao Simpson. It is going to be a joyous year for the Simpson Family.

Taken while in Nanjing, China

Her Chinese Name: An Ming Gao
Providence: Jiangsu Province
Date of Birth: January 2, 2004
Date of Referral: December 11, 2004

Orphanage: Gaoyou Children's Welfare Institute

History and Meaning of "Gao."

The 15th most common last name in China. The name Gao came from the last name Jiang.

They might be related to Jiang Zi Ya of Xi Zhou.

The 6th generation of Qi Tai Gong, Qi Wen has a son who was awarded the land of Gao, known as Gong Zi Gao.

Gong Zi Gao’s grandson, Xi, was a good friend of Qi Xiang Gong’s brother Gong Zi Xiao Bai.

Qi Xiang Gong was assassinated in a rebellion created by Gong Sun Wu Zhi.

Xi united all the officials to suppress the rebellion and killed Gong Sun Wu Zhi.

Gong Zi Xiao Bai became the duke in replacing his brother, and was known as Qi Heng Gong.

As a reward, Xi was given his grandfather’s name Gao, and awarded the Lu city.

The Gao descendents were high-ranking officials in the Qi kingdom.

Yu Zhen and Lou tribes of Korea changed their names to Gao, after migrated to China.

(Gao means high or tall).

Hometown: Cang in HeBei Province.