First Post!

And so begins my entry into the world of blogging! First, this site will be used to post updates and information about our darling daughter, Emily Rose JiaYing. And as for the blog address, aroundtheworldfamily, we truly are a global family (unfortunately that address was already taken). I am American, my husband is a Kiwi (from New Zealand) and our daughter is from China.

Ours is not a traditional story of boy meets girl, boy marries girl and they have children. I started the adoption process as single person, having known my husband for a few years at that time as a good friend. Emily was adopted in November 2005 and Jeff and I got married the following month. As two older, educated people we were feeling like fish out of water when it came to parenting a one year old at the time. But alas, we have learned as we've gone along and continue to do so. And we three are all better people for it!

Fast forward to January 2007. We now have a very active 26 month old who is a rather independent thinker when it comes to wanting things her way. Some of her favorite things are music, dancing and singing, being outside riding on the tractor when the weather is nice, feeding our dog and cats and drinking chocolate milk. She is small for her age but she doesn't let that stop her. She has recently learned how to carry her step stool all around the house which is kind of a scary thing for mom and dad! She is talking more and more although there are times when we still cannot understand what she's saying. But for someone who started her first year hearing nothing but Chinese, I'm not worried. Over the last month she has learned to count to 10 and is even going up into the teens, sings along with me to her favorite song "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", is working on her ABC's and often says things that surprise me. The other day we walked out of the house and there was ice on the ground. I was holding her hand and she told me, "Slow down, Mommy!" right before she started to slide. I guess she knew what she was talking about. :)

I hope you enjoy this blog. I envy those who are able to keep theirs up regularly. I'm doing good to even look at the blogs so I don't know how I plan to keep this up. But I'll give it a try. I'm brand new at this and have no idea what I'm doing. But I do know how to type so I'll start out slow. Please feel free to leave comments and thank you for stopping in.