First Love

Jemma quickly made friends with a little boy named Tomo - they got to hang out quite a bit and as a result, a real bond formed. We didn't have the camera handy when they were hugging but we were there for the hand holding. We've just gotten a taste of what it'll be like when she's a teenager!

Splish Splash!

The best part about the hotel we stayed at was the children's pool. It had a huge slide with fountains and steps to climb - Jemma couldn't get enough of it. Plus, it was a great spot to meet new friends.


On the other side of the pool was a sandy beach area where we built gloppy castles and knocked them down over and over again.

Breakfast of Champions

We flew down to Maui for John's triathlon in memory of his dad, Jack Lawler. He raised over $8000 dollars for Leukemia - thank you to all who contributed to the cause! Hawaii was great - although very expensive. So we bought some hardboiled eggs, yogurt and packaged oatmeal from the general store and ate breakfast on our patio every morning. We had a beautiful room overlooking the ocean and Jemma thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. She was a celebrity on the trip, making friends with people everywhere we went. She loved the plane and charmed just about every passenger in economy class. Her favorite activity, though, was playing with the Verizon phone in the seat back. Now we know why so many of those phones are broken!

Welcome Anna!

Our dear friends, Adam and Tina, have finally brought home their daughter, Anna, after a very long wait. She's a real beauty and we can't wait to watch her flourish under their capable, loving hands.

Dear Jemma...

Since we’re treating this blog as a kind of scrapbook, we thought you’d enjoy looking back on it one day and reading about all the things you can do now, at 17 months and 2 weeks old. In China, you hardly slept, at home you average 11-12 hours a night with 1-2 naps totaling 2-3 hours a day. You even get your blanket and you tell us when you want to nap or go “night night” as you are fond of saying.
You are now and have always been, a terrific eater. You’re open to trying new things and most often embrace the new flavor or texture by shouting, “More!” You eat way more than Mommy and Daddy combined. On a typical morning you start with avocado, then a big bowl of steel cut oats with raisins and almonds, then a veggie omelet and after that, some fruit. You also like to eat rocks, and this has been a challenge...

And no more high chair for you. You insisted on a table and chairs and boy, do you love them. You run to pull out your stool and you plop right down at your table. Sometimes you try to climb on your table but we don’t let you. You love to climb everything, the coffee table, the couch, our bed, your parents... You have amazing upper body strength - you even climb into your car seat by yourself and if you could snap in the buckles, you would - you certainly try every time.

You used to hate the car seat and riding in the car but now, you have all sorts of little games you play. You like to unvelcro and revelcro your shoes, you like to sing - you used to sing only “la, la, la” but now you’ve added “bum, bah, bum” to your repertoire. You like to spread your legs out over each side of the car seat and throw them up in the air and whenever we hit a particularly bumpy patch, you’ve figured out that by saying “ahhhhhhh” you can hear the vibrations and the bounce in your voice. You seem to have the concept of family worked out as you often repeat “Mommy, Daddy, Rua, Ollie” over and over again.

You have loved taking baths from the very first day -- you are such a water bug! Now, you scream out “bubbles!” when we fill a bath. You still fit in our very large kitchen sink, which seems to suit you just fine. You are obsessed with water. You seek out puddles to splash in, pools to swim in and everyday we still have to race you to the dogs' water bowl. Half the time you beat us to it and splash Ollie & Rua’s water all over. You started swimming lessons and you can’t get enough of the water.
You LOVE your daycare, or “school” as we call it. You yelp with joy when we pull up and you jump right into playing with all your friends, who shout, "Jemma!" the second we walk through the gate. At school you paint and draw and play in the sand (and eat it, too) and see animals and bugs and all sorts of exciting things. You are running everywhere now at full speed, and you insist on walking up our big stairway and down the street to our car. You hardly fall down anymore but when you do, it’s with incredible bravery – you always pick yourself up and continue on your way. You are talking now – you have a lot of words now but you’re most fond of saying the word “mine.” You love looking in the mirror - it always amuses you to see yourself.
You are so helpful and cooperative with getting dressed and you’ve even started to pick out your outfits when we give you a choice, you say, “this!” You love the laundry machine, probably because you can see the water splashing around inside, and you always help us put the clothes in the washer. Thank you, we hope it leads to full loads of laundry one day because since you've come into our lives we seem to always be doing laundry.
You brush your teeth every day, sometimes twice a day, and what a lot of teeth you have! Sixteen in all and we're just waiting for the last big molars to cut - they should be pretty painful.

Everyday you come up with something new or say a new word, but several things remain constant: you are exceedingly curious and determined to figure things out - you can screw almost any top off of a bottle (we so appreciate the childproof ones), you are sturdy and strong and you are grounded. You know your home, your family, your friends, your routines, your things and you seem very content with the world around you. We so enjoy observing your growth – it is an honor and a privilege, thank you for sharing yourself with us - we think you're the best and we love you so much. Mommy & Daddy

Sixteen Going On Seventeen

Jemma will be 17 months on May 21 which means we've had her for as long as we haven't had her - make sense? It's hard to believe how much has happened in these eight and a half months. Now she's running and playing like crazy and talking up a storm. Here are the some of the words she says all the time: Mama, Dada, Rua (her dog), Lala (for Ollie-her other dog), shoes, ball, rock, bock (for block), banket (for blanket), book, feet, teeth, nose, mine, more, peek-a-boo, sit, hello, bye-bye, no, hair, push, bath, ruff, yay, yes, yeah... yeah is the best! She just started saying Mommy and she says hello to on the phone when one of us calls in. Today she said her first sentence, she pointed to Ellen's nose and said, "Momma's nose" - it's so thrilling. Plus, she imitates so many of the words we say - it's uncanny. Our little bug is becoming quite the chatterbox! She loves music and dances to all of it, and now she's singing, too. She sounds a lot like Marlena Dietrich when she sings - and like Marlena, she could break your heart with that voice - "la, la, la..."

August at the Orphanage

We recently acquired these photos of Jemma at her orphanage from a woman who visited in August 2005 - just three weeks before we held her for the first time. Jemma's in the back sitting up, being attended to by her favorite Nanny. We were so touched to learn that the play area was cheerful and full of activity and that the children were very bonded to their caretakers. We were not able to visit the orphanage due to the measles outbreak - in fact the woman who took these photos told us that she was quarantined in her hotel as a result of her visit!

GLORY PIE! wanna piece?

We are thrilled to announce that our comedy, GLORY PIE, is finally getting a professional production at the Coronet Theatre in Los Angeles after sold-out readings at The Knitting Factory in Hollywood. We open Friday, April 21 and run for five weekends till Sunday, May 21, so tell all your friends in the LA area to come see the play! www.glorypie.com

GLORY PIE is the result of our own journey to adopt our daughter Jemma from China. Originally, we began writing the piece based on our friends' experience adopting a Chinese baby. In a twist of events, life began to imitate art and we started our own journey to adopt our daughter. Eventually, our first-hand experiences with issues raised regarding transracial adoption became the canvas for our play.

The story unfolds during a dinner party to celebrate the adoption by one sister (Laney) of a baby from China just as the other sister (Paula) discovers she is pregnant. To make matters worse, the party is crashed by the brash, new neighbors - a lingerie model and an Australian actor - who proceed to stay, get drunk and eat all the food. What follows is a hilarious romp around political correctness peppered with deep-seeded resentments and finished with Glory Pie.

Jane Lockhart of the Sweet Lady Jane bakery is bringing this euphoric confection to life by creating a real “Glory Pie” exclusively for us and it will be available in her Melrose Avenue store for the run of the show beginning April 7, 2006. Pretty cool, huh?

We have an amazing cast of seasoned actors with varied film, television and stage credits bringing the ensemble to life: Carla Capps, Dan Kinsella, Brendan O’Malley, Darren Schnase, Alyssa Stec, Tom Tate and Bree Turner

GLORY PIE is produced by Kate Langrall Folb of Nightingale Entertainment. The Coronet Theatre is located at 366 North La Cienega Blvd., between Beverly Blvd. and Melrose Avenue. Fridays at 8PM, Saturdays at 8PM and Sundays at 3PM and 7PM. Ticket prices are $20 for Friday and Sunday evenings and $25 for Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons. For ticket information, call the Coronet Theatre box office at 310.657-7377 or go to ticketmaster.com. See you all there!

Always Ready for a Closeup

Anytime we take out the video or the camera, Jemma knows it's time to pose. Things are moving so fast with this girl. Her coordination just gets stronger and her words keep coming out clearer. Now that she has 12 teeth and more on the way she likes to say, "teef" and knows most of her body parts. She likes to help when she gets dressed and undressed lifting her legs for pants, socks and shoes and she can even take her shirts off over her head by herself. She refers to herself as "baby" and loves to say her the name of her favorite dog, "Roooo ahhhh!" Jemma's voice is so beautiful, too, we melt when she says "mama" and "da da." She hasn't started saying "no" yet but she does say, "done!" Life with this child just keeps getting better and better.

Minding the Hacienda

Jemma is fourteen months old and walking full time, even running, so we had to buy her some running shoes. She figured out how to climb down the steps by herself and now when we go hiking we take her out of the sling and she walks the trail. She likes wearing her hat and sunglasses but she likes mommy's hat even more. What a fashion bug.

Funny Girl

Jemma's sense of play is so strong and now a sense of humor is emerging, it's so much fun. She likes to play peek-a-boo, and can say it beautifully. She discovered the clear tupperware top and likes to make smush faces against it. Her language is starting to become more articulate and she understands absolutely everything we say to her. If we say, "Okay, it's time to go now," she says, "bye bye!" And she throws kisses now with a big "mmmm whah!" We better start watching what we say around her...

Fountain of Youth

Jemma started walking the day she turned 13 months old. She refused to give up no matter how many times she fell, and she fell a lot! Walking has opened up a whole new world to her - particularly our front yard. Jemma loves our fountain and the smooth Mexican river rocks lined at the bottom.

Water Baby

Jemma loves water and herbal tea, and she especially likes to drink from our water bottles - seems like no matter how old we get, we'll never stop drinking from a bottle.

Year of the Dog!

According to the Chinese zodiac, John and I are both rabbits and Jemma is a clever little monkey, but 2006 is the year of the dog. So we had to give our pooches a little pomp and circumstance. Ollie refused to leave the photo shoot until we took a portrait of him - he is the alpha dog after all!

Juggling Act

At the Chinese New Year celebration, we ran into old friends from our trip. Here is Barbara with her two daughters, the only set of twins adopted in our group - boy does she have her hands full! Later that night, Barbara keenly watched the acrobat for some juggling tips.

Crowning Achievement

We welcomed in the Chinese New Year (the year of the dog - dogs rule!) in true Chinese style with 500 other people. This is an annual event sponsored by the FCC (Families with Children From China) and this was our third time participating but our first time with a child. Jemma was in true form that night, socializing with the crowds even though she was sick as a dog - though we didn't know it yet. Even after 5 months we are still the worst parents! Actually, she was cutting two molars so we thought that's all it was. No, turns out two days later we took her to the doctor and she had shingles! Oy, don't ask. We never even knew she had chicken pox! Nonetheless, we had a swell time at the Empress Pavillion, downing ten courses of very good Los Angeles Chinese food. And to top it off, we all got to pose with the beautiful Miss LA Chinatown - looks like mommy is vying for a shot at the crown, too!

Gone Hollywood

Jemma actually appreciates the poweful UVA-blocking qualities of her new Julbo sunglasses. She can't believe that she finally got a pair of her own, she only had to pull ours off our faces about a hundred times until we got the hint. Our only regret is that we didn't buy those Doggles when we had the chance at the Three Dog Bakery.

RIE Not?

During the second week of Jemma's arrival, we began a parent-infant program called RIE where I would observe Jemma playing with other children her age once a week under the guidance of a mentor trained in the RIE principles. What are those principles you might ask? To quote, "RIE's goal is to help raise authentic infants who are: competent, focused, peaceful, involved, cheerful, cooperative, resourceful, initiating, confident, aware, secure, attentive, curious, exploring, interested, and inner-directed. Whew! Sign me up! It's been really fun and Jemma loves every bit of it. Sometimes we get together with two other girls in her group outside of class. Meet Mya and Almitra (Jemma's in the middle.) Two wonderful companions for Jemma - they are all of the things RIE proposes to promote. In the second photo, Mya and Jemma sneak up behind the elusive Ollie.