History

Tuesday, October 31, 2006 9:34 PM CST

Well that 10 months went by fast...Life is good and we're grateful. Here are a couple new photos of the kids and the new house. Since we're so close to the annual Christmas letter, I'm going to leave you hanging on the events of 2006. Plus there are too many to get into right now! Here's the nitty gritty:
Grace--well into the terrible twos and on her way to the big "3" in December. She's tiny, extremely loud, sweet, seriously stubborn, funny, smarter than smart, and did I mention loud and stubborn? She's something else...I can't even begin to tell all the funny Grace stories of the last year. Suffice it to say that she's feeling pretty secure about her place in this family, which I have to keep reminding myself is a good thing.
James and Anna are doing well too, now in 3rd grade and kindergarten. James says "Mom, I'm not sure yet, but this year might be the best one yet." He's gotten hooked on the Detroit sports teams, but not to the exclusion of his beloved dinosaurs. Anna is feeling the middle-child-pinch. She's convinced that James' life is WAY better than hers since he ALWAYS gets to do cool things and she NEVER does. That combined with the attention that Grace draws EVERYWHERE we go makes for some teary moments where she's convinced that nothing good happens in her life. We remind her that she's doing very well in school, that she scored a TON of goals in her recent soccer season, that she's blessed with good best friends (every girl needs 'em), and that when boys tease her it means they like her. We also assure her that in our experience it's no big picnic being the first-born, and then we offer to let her commiserate with Aunt Holly or Uncle Paul. We think she's going to be all right!
Well, that turned out to be more than I'd thought. Time to go sort through the kids' Halloween candy and pull out the good stuff!
Heidi

Monday, December 19, 2005 8:48 PM CST

Time flies, doesn't it? It's been more than 3 months this time since we've updated...and we copped out and simply pasted our Christmas letter below. We did add a few new pictures, so be sure to check those out!

Note from the editor: the creative genius behind the annual Sytsema Christmas letter has been a little busy lately. In an effort to meet deadlines, we have decided to re-work an unused draft of last year’s letter.

Merry Christmas 2004!
I was inspired while standing in line at the grocery store, reading a magazine giving predictions for the upcoming year. This seemed easy enough, so here are our family predictions for 2005:

1. James will grow tired of dinosaurs and will focus on 2nd grade at Muskegon Christian School.
Dinosaurs are still a big topic of discussion, though bemoaning the fact that he’s the only 7-year-old on the planet without video games or a pet takes a close second. We’ve moved beyond the simple questions of herbivore vs. carnivore and into the effects of meteorites on ancient habitats and whether tanystropheus was really a dinosaur or a lizard. He affectionately refers to Heidi as mayasaur (“good mother lizard”) and his sisters as “blessings” (more sarcasm than affection there). He loves reading and writing and trying to hide from said blessings.

2. Anna will put away her rebellious ways and realize that her mom and dad do have her best interests at heart.
Wrong on this one too. Anna is now five and loves Kindergarten Explorers and her friends. This fall she started soccer with dad as her coach but was surprised to find that it was “weally hard to get points.” Underneath her tough veneer she’s a really sweet little girl who’s already worried that she has too many freckles and that her hair isn’t long and straight. If this is five, we’re very afraid of thirteen…

3. Once we get Grace in March, we will work very hard to emphasize her heritage while integrating her into our family.
The Americanization of Grace has begun. She refuses to eat anything with rice in it (apparently 15 months of congee was enough), and when looking at a page of Dora the Explorer toys in a Christmas ad, she said she wanted “All deez.” She talks like crazy (no, not in Chinese, but some Spanish when shouting out Dora’s commands), and loves dolls, her blankie, hats, and shoes. Current score: Nurture 1—Nature 0.

4. Heidi will discover the formula for adding time to the day to get everything done.
And she did. Turns out it’s 22 gallons unleaded, 5 used diaper wipes, Ľ” of stain stick, 2 boxes mac & cheese, and a can of Natural Light. Between working 3 days a week , fulfilling school and church commitments, playing soccer, coordinating babysitters (a perk of being the family social director), and trying to form an educated opinion on our current political and socio-economic situation , there are not enough hours in the week to come close to getting on top of life. She’s working toward a masters in crisis management (“you CAN survive without video games, and I LOVE your freckles.”) once her thesis on the best use of nap time is completed.

5. Marty will slow down and not experience any major changes in 2005.
Well, it was a nice idea anyway…and I did slow down for the last week of November while recuperating from hernia repair surgery and a vasectomy. Aaaahhhh, Vicodin. But the rest of the year has been an adventure. After we got home from China with Grace, I quit my job with Physiotherapy Associates to join my good friend Dave Van Andel in starting a new physical therapy clinic in Spring Lake. While this has meant long hours and a little bit of stress, God has blessed Shoreline Sport & Spine with a very successful first year.

Prediction for 2006: life stays hectic. But we’ll continue to count the blessings of salvation and grace as we strive to follow God’s leading.

Monday, December 19, 2005 8:48 PM CST

Wednesday, September 7, 2005 1:52 PM CDT

So it's already been another 8 weeks since I last updated this journal. Can you even believe how fast the summer flew by??? I have to say, this was one of the best summers EVER! We took advantage of the heat and sunshine that graced us all summer and had lots of fun. If you check out the "family album" link below, you'll see I've added some new pictures that prove it!

Grace is now almost 21 months old already. Can't quite believe that either...She's grown taller this summer--she can no longer walk under the dining room table without bumping her head. We'll go back to the pediatrician later this month for a few more shots and a height/weight check. She's still wearing all the 12 month clothes we started in back in April, and I have to admit it's a pleasant change to have a kid who DOESN'T outgrow clothes each season! Her vocabulary continues to grow, and just recently she's started actually using the words she knows instead of pointing and grunting. Also a pleasant change! This weekend she added a toddler favorite "MINE!!!" to her repertoire, along with "Hi Clay," "Anna's bear," and "diaper." Somehow we're lucky that she still just shakes her head to say "NO." She's taken to carrying a baby doll around with her most of the time, and she'll put on any old pair of shoes or sunglasses that's left within reach. Or even out of reach, as she's quite a climber...

James and Anna both started back to school at Muskegon Christian last week. James is now a worldly 2nd grader, and Anna's in the Tuesday/Thursday Kindergarten Explorers program (kind of a young 5's program since she's too young for regular kindergarten yet). We're outfitted with new backpacks and lunchboxes and are praying that the zippers hold out this year. If you see James, be sure to ask him about his newly expanding vocabulary--he has to learn a word-a-day all year and they're not easy ones! They've both just started playing soccer again and have their first game this Saturday. We're hoping Anna scores this season--she was VERY angry that she didn't last spring.

Almost forgot--we have a couple of new blessings in our family! Our niece Abigail Lynn Kanaar was born on August 4th to Marty's sister Sarah and her husband Andy. She's a tiny little cutie! And we have a new nephew as of September 4th--Cameron Michael Shoemaker joined Holly, Mike & Clay's family. James was excited to finally have another boy in the family...

Well, I think that's it for now. Naptime will be over soon and I need to get off the computer before Grace wanders in and starts drooling on it. Love teething...

Thursday, July 14, 2005 8:21 PM CDT

OK, so it's been way more than six weeks this time. Who's got time to write? I've changed the pictures on this site and also added some new ones to the Shutterfly link. And here are a few highlights from the summer so far:

Marty quit his job at Physiotherapy Associates to join our friend Dave VanAndel in getting a new PT clinic off the ground. Dave opened it up in April while we were in China and Marty was finally able to join him there the first of June. They've been busy beyond belief and the insurance checks are finally starting to roll in, so we're feeling blessed beyond belief now too! Someday there might even be a paycheck! If you're ever cruising aimlessly along US 31 between Spring Lake and Muskegon, get off at the VanWagoner exit and head west to the new Shoreline Sport & Spine Physical Therapy located in the Trillium office complex.

Since Marty's working a lot these days, the kids and I have been having a lot of fun on our own. We had a great time at a cottage on West Lake in June, and it was close enough to home that Marty could just commute to the new job from there. Grace is a water-rat just like James and Anna, so they're all asking when we can go back again. During that week we unfortunately discovered a tiny white pimple on Grace's back, so we made a nervous trip to the doctor's office to see if it was MRSA again. Turns out it was, but thankfully we caught it very early and the antibiotics seemed to get rid of it quickly. We also learned that week that some of our China travel companions had been fighting MRSA along with their new daughter for the whole time we'd been back home. Hearing that made us all the more thankful for the excellent care we got for Grace when she was hospitalized!

Grace had her 18 month checkup 3 weeks ago and got a good report from the doctor. She had gained a pound over the previous two months and he was happy with that. At 19 pounds she's still on the bottom of the charts, but she's strong and healthy and might just be a tiny girl. Wonder what effect that will have on the Sytsema gene pool down the road! She has a few new molars (those were fun) and has finally started sleeping through the night most of the time now. She's mastered a bunch of new words lately and according to the daycare lady she'll be bursting out in sentences any day. Gotta love other people who love your kids! We've discovered a bit of a jealous streak in her, which is funny since neither of the other kids ever had that. Here she's been around for 3 months and she gets TICKED if Anna tries to sit on my lap. We've also had to break out the squirt bottle to splash her face when she shrieks at the table. "More please" is the phrase we're looking for, not "EAREAERAEAREK." I'd hate for anyone to think she's TOO perfect...

James & Anna have been busy learning new things too: both kids can now swim in the deep end of Grandma's pool "without anything on" as Anna says. I'd like to clarify that she means "any flotation devices on" as they are indeed required to be wearing proper swimwear. Aunt Katie has been coming to the house to watch the two of them while I'm working, and that's been great for all of us. I'm fully enjoying only having to get ONE kid out the door in the morning, and James and Anna have been getting to do some fun things. She takes them to a couple of different library/store reading programs most weeks, and they even made a trip to the GR Children's Museum along with cousins Ella and Maggie and Aunt Steph. They've also been lucky to get to go back to her house and swim in the afternoon several times. What I wouldn't give to be a kid in summer again!

Well, I think that's about it. Thank you to the few of you who have been bugging me lately to update this. One more thing off the list...

Tuesday, May 24, 2005 8:25 PM CDT

Well, it's been almost 6 weeks since we updated this page. Life must be a little busier now...

But it's good! Grace has been doing so well! She's now 17 months old and walks around the house like she's been here forever. It's been fun to see her do all the normal things toddlers do. I'm getting a huge kick out of watching Marty roam around the house as we speak looking for the remote control that she hid somewhere. Gotta love that! And she figured out in record time how to unroll the toilet paper into the living room and how to empty the drawers in the kitchen. She picks things up VERY quickly, which confirms that she's as smart as her Chinese caregivers told us. We can tell she understands most of what we're saying to her and we've been hearing more and more words from her too. "Anna" was one of her first recognizable words, which someone here was pretty happy about...She's also saying mom, dad, ball, sock, cracker, all gone, and even "Day-tee" (for Gracie) when she sees herself in a mirror or in a picture. And she'll nod vigorously in response to questions such as "Are you hungry?" or "Pew! Do you need a clean diaper?" So cute!

She started daycare last week, and that was a bit stressful for a couple of us. A big concern of mine in this process had been to make sure she knew that I was the mom before I had to go back to work. The good news is that she definitely knows! The bad news is that anyone except mom became a very unacceptable substitute for a little while. We're very grateful to have a wonderful Christian grandma in our neighborhood who runs a daycare in her home. She's been very loving and patient with Gracie as she's been adjusting to the 3 days she spends there each week. Thankfully, each day has been better than the last, and other than the initial tears when I leave she's been having a good time there. God is good!

We're having Grace baptized this Sunday. Our pastor and the woman who plans the services are both adoptive parents, so they're working some really neat things into the service. If anyone happens to see this and is around on Sunday the 29th, we'd love to have you join us at Bethany CRC at 10am. Witnessing parents and the congregation promise to raise a child as a child of God is always a moving experience and this one shouldn't disappoint.

God is good!

Thursday, April 14, 2005 8:32 PM CDT

A message from Heidi--

Well, after 3 fun-filled days and nights at the all-inclusive Hackly Pediatrics Unit, WE'RE HOME!!! We owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of you who have been praying so faithfully for Gracie and our family. God answered prayers and she's doing great, especially considering the nearly constant state of upheaval she's been in since Easter.

Grace's infection turned out to be the resistant staph MRSA, which is what the infectious disease doctor had suspected on Monday. Thankfully, he started her on the antibiotic that's known to fight that Monday evening, so when they got the test results back confirming MRSA on Wednesday morning she'd already had several doses under her belt.

On Tuesday morning they called a surgeon in to take a look at the abscess and hard, red area surrounding it. She determined that it needed to be drained and that she could do it within the hour in a treatment room down the hall. This in itself was good news, since they had warned us that we may have to go to Grand Rapids if none of the Muskegon surgeons would tackle it. They numbed up Grace's tiny little bum, held her down (no small task) and five minutes later she came back with a slice near the abcess that was an inch long and an inch deep. I have to admit I'm glad they wouldn't let us watch that one! She perked up afterward and played for over 2 hours like nothing was wrong. This was very reassuring to see, though I admit I was really looking forward to the nice long nap they'd promised me she'd take after the dose of morphine she'd had...

On Wednesday the good news was that there was an oral version of the antibiotic that fights MRSA. The bad news is that she wore more of it than she swallowed. So we were stuck in the hospital for another day getting the drug intravenously until we could figure out a way to get her to take the medicine. We did, but it's not for the faint of heart! For her mere 17 pounds 10 ounces, it takes 2 able-bodied adults using all their strength to hold her still and squeeze her little cheeks open long enough to get 4 mL in (and swallowed--that's the tricky part). Unreal. The good news is that it works, and on Thursday morning they sent us HOME!

As we pulled into the garage, Gracie let out a huge squeal and I looked into the rearview mirror to see her beautiful little smile. I think she knew we were home.

Monday, April 11, 2005 9:00 PM CDT

Just when I thought I wouldn't have much new to report...

Grace's diaper rash has been gradually getting better. When changing her diaper after church Sunday, we noticed some blood and pus at the back of her diaper. We found a small wound at her upper butt crack that seemed to go fairly deep. There was a red, firm area at her upper right gluteal muscle.

Heidi took Grace to her pediatrician this morning, and after consulting with a pediatric surgeon from Grand Rapids, admitted her to Hackley Hospital in Muskegon for a couple days of IV antiobiotics. It's a staph infection, and the infectious disease doc thinks it probably got into her system through the broken down skin from her diaper rash. They also started her on specific antibiotics in case it is the drug resistent kind of staph.

Grace is tolerating this fairly well (see big smiles on pictures), and Heidi is spending the night with her tonight. I'm taking most of the day off tomorrow too, so hopefully she doesn't feel too drastic of a change.

I'll keep you updated.

Wednesday, April 6, 2005 9:17 PM CDT

Home at last. Home at last! Thank God almighty!! We’re Home at last!!!

Our journey home began with a wake-up call from the White Swan at 3:45am. We boarded the bus with 15 babies and their forever families, made it to the airport with our luggage (for those of you who have bets riding on it, 3 families had more luggage than us), and left Guangzhou before 8:00. In Tokyo, we said goodbye to 7 of the families who we became close with after sharing a lot of memories in the last 2 weeks. The flight to Detroit was 11 hours, and with 8 infants on the plane, someone was pacing the isles most of the time.

We were lucky enough to have an empty seat between Heidi and me, so Grace could spread out to sleep 4 of the 11 hours, and we had a space for diaper changes. My happiest moment of the flight was taking a stinky diaper and rolling under the curtain into World Business Class. I know it sounds petty, but they have video on demand, real silverware, and seats that recline all the way flat. We made it through customs ok in Detroit and then realized our flight to Muskegon was delayed an hour. The three of us all slept the hour to Muskegon where the airport was packed with family and friends. Grace managed to meet the most of the Sytsemas and the Breukers without having a total breakdown.

It’s hard to believe that was 4 days ago. Since then Grace has spent her days exploring her new house and her new family. Sunday morning, Anna started crying in her cereal because Grace was still sleeping, and she wanted to play with her. Anna wants to be near her at all times, and Grace has had great fun chasing her around the family room. James has really enjoyed her too even though he made the comment the other day that “I can’t even handle one sister.” Overall, Grace is adapting well, and she’ll continue to advance once we get her a Fischer Price cattle prod to fend off her siblings.

I saw a report that national workplace productivity took an unexpected nose dive over the last two weeks. This corresponds closely to the increased traffic on our website. It was a real blessing to us to realize how many of you were interested in our trip and praying for the three of us. Early on we thought it would be amazing if our site received over 2000 hits. Last I checked the count was over 3800. We would have loved to take you all along (ok, maybe a couple of you) on our adventure, so we are grateful for the ability to communicate like this. I hate to think that this is over, since I’ve enjoyed sharing our trip with you all. But the reality is that our adventure is just beginning as a family of 5. You are all welcome to check in on us at times; something tells me we’ll have a lot of stories to share.

Thursday, March 31, 2005 7:16 AM CST

Today was the last of our unscheduled days. And when I say unscheduled, I don’t mean Heidi didn’t have an agenda. It was a big shopping day for us. To sum it up, our last purchase of the day was a new 28” suitcase to check, because there is no way we will be able to pack this all anymore. On the bright side, our new Polo suitcase was 100 Yuan or about $12.50. We got “extra special price” from our good friend Millie across from the hotel after blaming her for everything she sold us that necessitates buying from her again. She’s good.

We took Grace down to the Swan Room today. It’s a room in the White Swan provided by Mattel for all the adoptive kids and parents to play together in. A lot of the girls who haven’t been walking or saying much all week really light up and walk all over the place in there. Mattel also supplies each adoptive family a Barbie who’s carrying around an adopted Asian baby girl.

My hi-light for the day was walking with Dan White and the babies to an electronics shopping mall to buy something for James. (James, if you’re reading this, IT IS NOT A GAME BOY, so don’t get your hopes up too high, but I think it’s something even cooler that you and I can do together). I have felt like I stuck out at various points during the trip, but this was the worst. Everybody was staring at us and talking to each other. Must not be very often that two white men walk around with baby Chinese girls. Makes me wish I could understand what they were saying. After getting back to the hotel and another diaper fiasco (don’t ask), we took our daily stroll down to Lucy’s. We put the girls in highchairs next to each other, and they kept handing crackers, Cheerios, and teddy grahams back and forth. It’s hard to imagine what feeding time was like with all of these girls together. We’re thinking Amanda is the one who instigated the food fights.

Grace still hasn’t been feeling that great. Her chest congestion has improved a lot, but the antibiotics have led to a nasty diaper rash. Something is giving her exema on her forehead and behind her ears. Hopefully it’s just from the antibiotics and not some food allergy.

Tomorrow includes pictures on famous White Swan red couches, going to the consulate for our oaths at 11:30, packing, saying goodbye to a bunch of new friends (and life-long friends for the girls), and trying to get some sleep before the trip home. The bus leaves the hotel Saturday morning at 5:00 am, and we get back to Muskegon Saturday afternoon. The next time many of you will hear from us is when we step off the plane. We’ll put some more pictures out there from our return trip after we get home. We can't wait to hug ou 3 kids together and spend the night in our own bed. Think I can train Anna to come in and put chocolates on my pillows each night?

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 8:44 AM CST

Many have said how great it is to be able to keep in touch with the computer while we’re gone. That almost stopped as I am tempted to throw this computer out our 12th floor window. After spending the last hour updating the journal, when I was literally one spelling correction away from hitting enter, the website crashed, and I lost everything I had been working on. So now you get the abbreviated version.

It’s been a couple of lazy days in Guangzhou. We haven’t had that much to do except a bit of paperwork the last 2 days, and tomorrow should be an easy day again before we have to take care of Grace’s visa stuff Friday. These days have been running together. Somehow, the week is almost up, and we’re coming home soon. It will be good to see you all again.

We woke early today to go to a coffee shop a couple blocks away. There was a long narrow park spanning several blocks in front of the coffee shop where a group of about 25 women were doing Tai Chi to an old Madonna song. Further down the block was an area of exercise equipment where people were stretching or doing very basic exercises (looked a bit like McDonald’s play place for adults).

We made a right turn and headed toward the Pearl River (4th longest in China, running along one side of Shamian Island where we’re staying). There was a large park there, and every open area was full of men and women of all ages doing Tai Chi, jogging in place, stretching, or clapping in a variety of ways (popular with the 70 year-old group). I guess yesterday there were people ballroom dancing around a couple 60 year old women playing hackeysack. It’s impressive to see how seriously these people take their exercise. I may have to start TaiChi classes in my parking lot before work each day.

Our exercise while we walked through the park was the “Grandma Dodge.” Even though there are many Caucasians pushing strollers on the island, we seem to get a lot of attention. Women keep coming up to us to pick up Grace (tonight one lady asked Grace something, and Grace held up one finger. The lady said she asked Grace how old she was. Wow! Grace knows tricks!) or they check how many layers of clothes she has on, scolding us if skin shows.

We’ve been having a good time getting to know the others traveling with us. We’ve been thrust into an odd situation the opposite side of the world from the familiar. Dealing with adversity such as managing airline flights when your pants or underwear was put out with the luggage for the bellboys the night before (solution: wear pajamas and “go commando”) has brought us close. The bowel habits of us and our daughters have become common dinner conversation. We look forward to keeping in contact with these families as our girls get older.

Speaking of bowel habits, Grace had a banner day. If you look closely at our pictures for today, you will see 3 separate outfits for her. That would be due to the two blow-outs today. I don’t think James or Anna ever pulled that one off before.

We had a few of our questions about Grace’s first days answered today. Her orphanage provided paperwork today saying, “This is to certify that Mao Huanlei, female, born on December 18, 2003, was found abandoned at the gate of Maoshihua Foreign Guest Hostel of Maoming City on December 19, 2003. She was sent to our welfare institute by Guandu Police Station, Public Security Bureau of Maoming City, Maonan District Branch on December 19, 2003. Her biological parents and other family have not been found up to this day.” We were given a copy of her finding ad (from the paper where descriptions of Grace were given along with a picture to try to get her family to claim her). It’s hard to imagine her parents seeing the baby they abandoned in the paper. We will never know any of the particulars of their situation, but we feel such extreme gratitude towards them for this gift of Grace. We pray that God will give them peace and knowledge that their daughter is very much loved.

Oh yeah…the finding ad. Some aspects of that ad never meshed with the other things we knew about Grace. We asked Shiyan, the Bethany worker here with us, to translate the ad to the right of the one we were told was Grace, and it mentions “Mongolian spots” (birthmarks on her lower back and hips) and even a swirl of hair on her forehead (Heidi and all her hair pretties have not been able to solve this one yet) that match her perfectly. It feels good to have some of the unknowns cleared up.

Somehow this didn’t turn into an abbreviated journal. Hopefully you have as good of a Wednesday as we did.

Tuesday, March 29, 2005 6:34 AM CST

We'll try to keep adding pictures each day to the shutterfly link. We've only taken about 350 pictures and 4 hours of video, so we've got a lot to share.

Today's lesson on Chinese culture is on food.

Grace seems to like boiled egg, congee (mix of rice and milk paste), and Cheerios. Can you tell which we've exposed her to? In the orphanage for lunch each day she had "mashed pig liver and meat soup." Yum! You can tell she has been fed with a line of other babies, because she is all business when it comes to eating. We think that is because some of the larger MaoMing babies in our group have been stealing her food in the past. You can tell when she's full because she will spit out the last four spoonfulls that she has been storing in her cheeks. She hasn't done very well with bottles. She tends to dump them upside down onto daddy's sleeve when he isn't looking.

The White Swan has a really good breakfast buffet each day, and we've been pigging out there and skipping lunch. It has typical breakfast fare like omeletes to order, typical meats (plus lamb, salmon, and chicken nuggets), breads, fruit, juice, and good coffee. They also have the best french toast we've had anywhere. Some of the chinese adults even eat the congee here. Go figure.

Lucy's is where you get "American food." It's just down the road from the White Swan, and the food's not bad. They have happy hour in the afternoons with buy one get one free beer on the outdoor patio watching old ladies do hackeysack with badminton birdies and Tai Chi.

We went out to a Thai place tonight. The couple at the next table had a big pot on their table on a hot plate. We joked that they were probably having fondue. The waitress then brought out pieces of raw chicken, lettuce leaves, prawns on skewers (that were still moving!) and fish that had somehow been fileted, but the gills were also still moving. Now that's fresh seafood! Grace grabbed my chopsticks at the end of the meal and started playing the snare on the table. Heidi made me take them away before someone loses an eye. Grace has already figured out who the fun one is.

All in all the food has been very good, but it will be nice to get back to normal once we get home.

Monday, March 28, 2005 6:55 AM CST

**There are 3 pictures when you click on "view photos" and a whole bunch more when you click on the link we've included below for "share/shutterfly."**

There are two grandmas along on the trip, and one of them summed it up saying Grace is the only one even half as pretty as her new grandaughter. I think that was a compliment.

Grace has been an angel. She didn't cry once through everything on Sunday. We think she was shell-shocked, as she didn't quite know what was going on. We spoke to a couple of the caregivers from Maoming orphanage where Grace was and were able to ask questions about Grace. Of course we completely blanked on all the questions we were going to ask. They said she has always been a very happy and smart baby and that when other babies cry, she brings them a blankie.

Once we returned to the White Swan, we fed her some cereal and gave her a bath. We planned to just give her a bottle in the chair and then have her fall asleep for the night. All of a sudden she came to life playing with her bottle, and she was up for another hour on the bed playing.

Last night we were a little concerned because she was supposedly walking for 3 months, but we couldn't even get her to put any weight on her legs to stand. It was a big relief today when she took off down the hall to go explore. All the babies today started doing more as they're getting more comfortable

Today we went to register Grace and see a Notary. We had to show our passports to prove we are who we say, promise to never abandon or abuse her, and to say that we are very pleased with her and wish to keep her. Just like that, she is now legally ours. Some of the parents were concerned about their kids being sick, so we bumped up the visa pictures and medical exam to this afternoon. (which gives us the next 2 days completely off!)

Generally, all the kids appeared healthy with only a few minor things, but when we went to the doctors today, they were concerned. Most of the kids from our orphanage have a bit of a cough and congestion in the chest. Grace's nose is running like crazy, but she is also teething. The doctor who saw us said she may have bronchitis or pneumonia but signed that Grace is ok on the official forms. That was fine with us, because we would much rather get her to our own pediatrician when we return. We brought along some antibiotics, and she has already started those. Grace weighs 19 pounds and is 74cm long.

Because of all the running around today, Grace was really tired, and hopefully she sleeps well tonight. Tomorrow our plans our to get some laundry done and start shopping/explore Guangzhou. My job is to find an additional suitcase for the trip home.

Apparently I'm tired too. I think my grammar and spelling have deserted me; Heidi is usually sleeping by 9:00, and tonight is no exception. We'll keep you updated as the week goes on. Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers through this trip. It means a ton to us!

Sunday, March 27, 2005 3:40 AM CST

We couldn't wait to introduce you to Gracie, so here are her pics! The picture above is our Gotcha moment. Click on "view photos" to see 3 more.

She hasn't cried once (Grace, not Heidi. Mom is a mess). We got to speak with her caregiver for a while to ask some questions. Their nickname for her is "Alei" as in Christ the Lord is Risen Today...Alei - luia. At this moment, we're in the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou, and Grace is napping.

We'll write more later and try to get some more pictures on the Shutterfly link below.

Saturday, March 26, 2005 7:28 AM CST

Today’s main event was going 90 minutes away to see the great wall. When I first heard that we were going to ride gondolas up to the top of the mountain and then climb the wall from there, I felt that I should really experience the wall fully by climbing all the way up myself. That would have rated as one of my all-time worst notions. That wall is huge!!! The part we saw was amazing enough but then to realize that it goes on > 5000km further is really impressive. Once you got past the mobs of people on the initial stages, it was more enjoyable, as you could spread out a little bit, spending some time to view the scenery (aka catch your breath). Hopefully our video turned out well, because it was truly an amazing place.

On the way back to Beijing, we stopped at a Cloisonne factory where they make traditional Chinese art. It’s a long series of forming copper shapes (bowls, vases, plates, etc), copying a pattern to it, adding copper to outline the pattern, and repeated steps of painting, baking, and polishing. Let’s just say that we were the last ones in the shop, and they almost turned the lights out on us to get us to leave.

The afternoon was free, so we went to Silk Street, a famous shopping area in Beijing where you barter for whatever you want to buy. Picture a flea market with designer? goods and clingy salespeople. Here’s why you should always dicker: I stopped to look at 3 short sleeved shirts (1 Nike, 1 Greg Norman, and 1 Polo), and their initial price was 1140 Yuan (about $130). I said $30 was more like it, and after haggling, trying to do math, and escape these 2 girls’ grips as their price dropped, Heidi finally came to say she didn’t even like the shirts. As I left, one of them said $24, and I left. We came back down their isle as we were leaving, and as we walked by they said $15. Now that’s my kind of discount. Heidi did fairly well too. I heard salesladies use words such as “You’re killing me” and “You’re crazy, sweetie” to respond to Heidi’s bargaining. No wonder I never get my way.

We went out for dinner to a great Chinese restaurant with 13 of the 17 people getting girls from our orphanage. Here’s what I learned: when in China, “medium spicy” is the hottest thing you have ever put in your mouth, so please go with the mild. Be sure to check out the photo of Heidi’s response to the red peppers.

We leave for the airport at 6:00 in the morning to fly to Guangzhou. We hear that we will get her around 3 in the afternoon (2:00 am for you eastern time zoners). Sorry about not updating the Shutterbug link with more pictures, but apparently our internet in the room isn’t free as we thought. Oops. We’ll try to get pictures on this site by the time you wake up.

Happy Easter everyone. It feels weird to not be spending it with family and church, but it will definitely be an Easter we won’t forget.

Friday, March 25, 2005 8:03 AM CST

Sadly, the "high-speed" internet in our hotel isn't that fast, so it's taking a long time to upload the pictures from today. I put 11 new ones on the bottom link on the main page. We took 130 pictues today, so these are only a small sample.

Our day began with breakfast buffet at the hotel. All of the food was just different enough to shrink our appetites a bit. (Who puts honey on pancakes? Man, I hope that sausage was pork.)

After exchanging some US currency for Yuans ($1 US = 8 Yuan, or 100 Yuan = $12.50 US--give or take), we got on the bus for a 15-minute ride to Tiananmen square and Forbidden City. I'm just realizing now how long it will take to explain all of this here, and I'm getting pretty tired, so ask us about it sometime.

We walked around those 2 spots until about noon when we went on a Hutong tour. Hutong means "alley," and essentially it is a maze of alleys connecting together a very old neighborhood. We had tea in an actual family's house and learned a lot about what life is like in China.

We went to a Chinese Acrobat show in the afternoon which was really cool (Heidi fell asleep from jet lag having fully set in). James, there were dancing dragons. Anna, there were girls in pretty costumes dancing and doing gymnastics. We're pretty sure this is all our kids would have enjoyed about today though.

On the way back to the hotel, we hit Friday afternoon traffic. 14 million people live in Beijing, and there are 9 million bikes; imagine THAT traffic.

Heidi and I ate at one of the Chinese restaurants at the hotel. A few of our choices were (I am not making this up) multiple varieties of shark fin soup, fried chicken knuckles, drunk pigeon, and goose neck. I figured the spare ribs would be safer (I probably shouldn't think about what animal's ribs I was served), and Heidi had vegetables wrapped in cabbage and spring rolls. Nobody in the restaurant spoke English (thankfully they understood "Heinekken"), and I didn't realize the problem until I tried to eat spare ribs with chopsticks. How the heck are you supposed to get meat off of ribs with only chopsticks!? After splashing sauce all over the table, I gave up and used my hands. My fingertips are now stained orange. Heidi fared much better, and I think we amused our server.

Tomorrow we go to the great wall in the morning, and we have the afternoon free here in Beijing. Heidi suspects shopping will be on the agenda.

Overall, things are going well. We're with a great group of people and are getting along very well so far. It's hard to imagine that we're on the other side of the world from you all though.

We've been having trouble getting to our Hotmail account, so if you need to get a hold of us, try either sytsemam@gvsu.edu or heidis@hscompanies.com

Thursday, March 24, 2005 9:53 AM CST

We made it to Beijing!

It's just before midnight here on Thursday now. The trip went pretty well, considering we spent 27 hours in airports and on planes recently.

We're meeting tomorrow at 8:00 am to go do touristy things. We'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

Monday, March 14, 2005 7:02 PM CST

If you deduced that the reason we have not updated this site lately is because we are really busy getting ready, then you would be correct. Here are some of our recent activities.

In-China flights are very stringent in what you can carry on for luggage, so we are planning our luggage/packing to meet these restrictions. You each are allowed one checked bag and one carry on for a total of 44# each. My 44# will be this computer, one pair of my size 12 shoes, and a toothbrush. It is also advised not to bring nice luggage because apparently the baggage handlers are Freddy Kreuger and Edward Scissorhands (references for Uncle Paul; for everyone else, the luggage gets trashed).

Leaving China, we are allowed extra bags and weight, and it is commonplace to buy extra cheap luggage in China for all the things we will buy. As James noticed early on in the process, "Everything is made in China," and our hope is that they sell it all really cheap! Apparently some people just buy all their clothes for the trip in China and leave them there, considering them disposable.

Heidi has been in charge of obtaining the cash to bring along the trip. In our house laundering money means ironing and Ziploc-ing $100 bills. China demands new money because of all the conterfitting that goes on. Apparently they scruitinize every bill you give them.

We met the Whites (from Hudsonville going to pick up Amanda) and the Burrills (Kalamazoo - Elizabeth) in Grand Rapids to compare notes. So far we know how to order COLD beer in Chinese. We'll get along great. Heidi has been e-mailing the other couples from our orphanage who will be travelling with us. They are from Rapid City SD, Indianapolis, Memphis, and Washington DC. We are "group leaders," for the 14 of us. Heidi has taken on the responsibility of social director/information sharing. I will be handling tipping, head counting, crisis mediation, and other to-be-named-later duties.

We just added a link on our page for a family that just returned with their child. Their trip sounds very similar to what we will be doing, so check that out below.

Wednesday, March 2, 2005 5:57 PM CST

Hey! We finally have something to report again!

We received our airline tickets and seating the other day. Marty has been researching seat pitch (amount of legroom) for each different plane we will be flying. Anyway he measures, his femurs are longer than the room between the seats. He's looking into selling a kidney in Beijing to pay for an upgrade to World Business Class for the way home. On the bright side, it looks like we get to see 8 different movies on the flights.

We also received our official Invitation to Travel today that states that "you have met the requirements for adoption set by the laws of China and ahve been approved by the China Center for Adoption."

We also discovered what we'll be doing every day while we're there.

March 23 6:30am -- leave Muskegon

March 24 9:25pm -- arrive in Beijing via Detroit and Tokyo (yes, it takes a day and a half to get there!)

March 25 -- Visit Tiananman Square, the Forbidden City, and Hutong Tour (something about tipping our rickshaw driver $3--he'll earn that!)

March 26 -- Visit Great Wall and Cloisonne Factory with acrobatics show in the evening.

March 27 (EASTER! / GOTCHA DAY!) -- Fly to Guangzhou and check into White Swan Hotel. Meet Grace sometime in the afternoon!

March 28 -- Adoption registration and notarization. Go to the Public Security Bureau to apply for Grace's passport.

March 29 -- Free in Guangzhou(we're going shopping, so there won't be anything "free" about this day)

March 30 -- Visa pictures and medical exam

March 31 -- Visa appointment at the embassy

April 1 -- Take oath in the morning ("I...State your name..."), and pick up visa in afternoon.

April 2 8:00am -- Leave Guangzhou

April 2 4:30pm -- Arrive in Muskegon 1 child

Things are coming together. We leave 3 weeks from today!

Monday, February 14, 2005 8:06 PM CST

Hey all--
It's Heidi this time. We finally got travel info today, but Marty's out tonight so I'm going to try to tackle this on my own.

We got a call from Ginny this morning saying that our trip to Grace will start on March 23rd. This was a little later than we'd been hoping for, but we're trying to remind ourselves that it's God's timing. He's using this waiting time to prepare our hearts and our home for her. Feel free to remind me of that when I'm complaining about it!

Anyway, we'll leave for Beijing on Wednesday, March 23, arrive on Thursday (won't that be fun...) and spend a couple of days touring the city. We've heard there are amazing bargains to be found if we're into shopping (and we are) and obviously there are a few historical items of interest like a wall, a square, and a forbidden city. James has been instructing us to take lots of pictures of the Great Wall, the temples, the Giant Pandas, and any bamboo we find.

We'll then travel south to Guangzhou (pronounced gwan-JO)where we'll finally get our arms around Gracie, possibly on Easter morning. What a fabulous way to experience grace through Easter. We're hoping for that, but otherwise they say "Gotcha Day" will be Monday the 28th. Can't come soon enough!

The climate in Guangzhou (hereinafter referred to as GZ) is similar to that of Miami in late March, so we're not opposed to hanging around there for a few more days until our Embassy appointment on Thursday, March 31. We'll be heading home with our new girl after that and should be back on April 2, just in time to allow us to spend a week at home with all the kids during spring break. (My immediate thought as a spring-break-deprived CPA was "we should take the kids to Disney World!" But Marty's cooler head prevailed...)

We've been blessed in so many ways by this experience already, and we're so grateful for the love and support that everyone has shown. The messages many of you have left in the register have been a steady reminder of God's love for us and the incredible plans he has for all of our lives. Gracie's the third kid in this family, but I promise to make sure every one of those messages makes it into her scrapbook someday!
H

Monday, February 7, 2005 8:53 PM CST

It's been 4 weeks today since we received our referral, and sadly we do not have much more to tell you. We've been scouring a variety of message boards on the internet, trying to gather information before we go, but it's mainly just made us more and more eager to go get Grace. Heidi has stumbled onto a great support group of others who have adopted from Maoming orphanage who have been very generous with travel tips. Heidi is a little overwhelmed with the dozens of postings on why it is vital that we take duct tape along.

We had dinner last week with a couple from Spring Lake who is adopting from China a couple weeks after us. This weekend we have dinner in Grand Rapids with a couple from Hudsonville and another from Kalamazoo who will be adopting girls of about the same age as Grace from the same orphanage. We'll be travelling together to China, so it will be good to know them ahead of time.

Heidi came across someone in Utah who has adopted twice from China and started a business where he gets newspapers from around China sent to him with clippings of newborns. Apparently, the chinese government makes orphanages post pictures of "abandoned" daughters in the papers, and this guy has Grace's picture and newspaper clipping from when she was 4-6 weeks old. That should be coming in the mail soon, and we'll get the picture on here as soon as we get it.

Chinese New Year starts this week, and most of the country shuts down for several days. This is causing us extra days of waiting as it bumps our trip back a few days. Our social worker took a guess at our travel dates, saying that it should be taken with the certainty as a baby arriving on its due date, and guessed we would be travelling the second half of March. This would allow Marty to teach his March course in Minneapolis, Heidi to make it through corporate tax return day, and get us home about the time James and Anna start Spring break. Of course, we would leave tomorrow if given the chance.

This waiting has been very trying on our emotions as most of our daily thoughts focus on Grace, wondering what she's doing at that moment. Not to mention how much strain it is on our computer who must surely be getting sick of visiting the same old pages for news that never comes.... We keep hearing how it is God's timing when we travel, and our previous experiences have shown how we just screw things up when we don't put our trust in Him. Peter from Kalamazoo shared a helpful verse: "Do not be anxious in anything; but instead by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." Phil. 4:6. I'm sure God won't mind if others share our requests for speedy travel as well.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005 5:22 PM CST

Ginny, our social worker, called the end of the day today with an update on Grace.

Height 69cm (27", 10th percentile for Southern Chinese girls)
Weight - 8.2kg (18 pounds, 30th percentile)
Head circumference - 43.5cm (30th percentile)
Chest - 44.5cm
Foot - 12cm

She has 8 teeth and is walking on her own!

We're extremely sad that we're not with her as she hits these milestones, but we're grateful that she continues to grow. We'd be more grateful of course if they would hurry up and get us our travel arrangements!!!

Sunday, January 23, 2005 5:51 PM CST

It's been almost two weeks since our referral, and we've all been busy waiting. Here are updates with what we've been up to.

Anna is really excited! Her prayer before each meal consists of "Be with our baby, and let her come home soon." The kids have a blessing given for each of them at the end of Children in Worship each Sunday, and last week Anna made sure that Grace got a blessing too.

James saw our social worker last week and asked her "Hey! When are you bringing us our baby?!" We think he's secretly still hoping for a little brother.

Marty has been getting our visa applications taken care of and monitoring the Bethany discussion board for items of interest.

Heidi recently joined a yahoo.com discussion group for families who have adopted from Maoming orphanage. It has been a great source of information and travel ideas. Another member visited the orphanage in August 2004 after receiving her daughter and was granted amazing access with her digital camera into the orphanage. She posted multiple pictures on the site of infants playing together. We immediately started looking for Grace in the pictures. Heidi contacted the photographer and sent a picture of Grace to see if she has any other pictures that may look like our daughter. She sent back two pictures which we are placing on the photo page of this site. Let us know what you think. Heidi is convinced that it's her, but Marty isn't convinced.

The June group from Bethany just received their travel plans. They will be traveling in two groups to China with the second group getting there the end of February. This is a bit delayed, so we are getting pushed back a bit. Our social worker estimates that we will be travelling the second half of March. At this point, we are really tired of waiting, but we're trying to be patient.

This site has been viewed over 900 times now (and only about 400 of those have been by us!) We are truly blessed to have so many people praying for Grace and supporting the rest of us through this process. We can't thank you enough!

We'll keep you posted as we learn more.

Thursday, January 13, 2005 8:50 PM CST

We've had a few days to digest things and realize that things are moving forward rapidly. In our haste to show our three pictures of Grace to everyone who has even looked at a computer, we neglected to appreciate that there is another large pile of paperwork to go through. Tonight's fun activity was filling out our China visa application. We're unsure which is more valuable: the thousands of dollars cash we have to travel with or all the paperwork we have to bring along and also guard with our lives.

Let's talk about something happy. We're leaning toward the name Grace Huanlei Sytsema. HuanLei (sounds like "HWAN LAY")means beautiful flower that is about to bloom which we thought fitting.

We found height-weight charts for Chinese girls online, and Grace appears to be around the 25th percentile for all her measures. Apparently she eats at 6:30am, 10:00am, 3:00pm, 6:30pm, and 10:30pm. She mainly eats "milk paste" (formula mixed with rice cereal), pork soup, and juice. Wait until Anna introduces her to macaroni and cheese with hot dogs...All of you who have been wanting to squeeze her cheeks should be warned: they may be full of milk paste.

We have heard from families in Hudsonville and Kalamazoo who are also getting girls from the same orphanage and are nearly the same age. Hopefully they are playing together as we're getting ready to come and get them together.

Monday, January 10, 2005 6:31 PM CST

Well, it's been quite a day.

Ginny, our social worker, came by at 5:30 to bring our referral. If you want to skip right to the pictures, go ahead and check them out. I couldn't get our scanner to work right so we had to improvise by taking a picture of the picture. We'll try to scan a better picture soon. Once you want to hear the rest of the nitty-gritty, come on back here to the journal.

She showed up at the Social Welfare Institute of Maoming City, Guangdong Province "in a paper box, wearing a suit of pink cotton baby clothes and being wrapped with a blanket." They estimated her birthdate at 12/18/03. At that time she was 19" long and weighed 6.5 pounds.

We received a medical history from September 18, 2004 that reports great health! At that time she weighed 15 pounds and was 26.5 inches long. Here's their summary: "Currently, she is very active. She can creep and can sit alone. She walks holding on the handrails. She likes to be hugged. She raises arms to the person she knows for hug. She likes the caregiver to feel her with hands and to kiss her. She cries when hungry."

Ginny offered a paper for us to accept or reject this child. We have been picturing Gracie for so long, and we wondered about this decision and this moment. Our decision process went like this: She's healthy; she's more beautiful that we could have imagined; no question she's a gift from God; she's ours! We signed with the first pen we could find.

She'll fit right in:
Her most favoite activity is playing outside (James).
She is active and likes listening to music (Anna).
She falls asleep at 8:00 pm (Heidi).
She "poops and peeps normally" (?).

Monday, January 10, 2005 10:28 AM CST

WE HAVE A REFERRAL!!!!!!!

Huan Lei Mao was born in the Guangdong province on December 18, 2003. Our social worker says she is "darling", but apparently was "having a bad hair day" when the pictures were taken. She's coming over at 5:30 tonight with the pictures and hopefully more information.

The Guangdong province is in the Southeast portion of China, and its largest city is Guangzhou which is where all adoptive parents have to go anyways to finalize the adoptions. This is good because it eliminates a couple days of travel and because it has the same lattitute as Miami and should be fairly nice in March.

She is from the Mao Ming Social Welfare Institute, and that is why part of her name is Mao. Apparently a lot of things in China are named after some Mao guy. We'll be looking into what her other names mean, doing research on the Guangdong province, and will pretty much not be getting any more work done for the rest of the day.

We'll try to put pictures of Grace on this site tonight, so check back!

Friday, January 7, 2005 5:29 PM CST

Our Bethany social worker Ginny called Heidi today at work to say that our referral is in the mail from China and that hopefully it will be here early next week. All referrals go to the Grand Rapids office initially, and Ginny will be there Monday. She hopes to bring us the pictures of Gracie and all the other information Monday night. So don't be upset if we are screening our calls and reuse to talk to anyone besides Ginny for the next several days.

Wednesday, January 5, 2005 5:58 PM CST

As we have been following the discussion groups on Bethany Christian Services' website, we have noticed a pattern in the postings: One group's referrals come in, and then they all post the pictures of their daughters on the website, gushing about their beauty. Things are quiet for a couple weeks until the next month starts getting antsy. Then the rumors start flying.

Passing on rumors is better than gossip, right?

Apparently Spain received their referrals today. For some reason, Spain always is the first country to receive their referrals (insert your own historical conspiracy theory here). This hints that Gracie has been matched with us, and our paperwork is sitting on a desk in China and may be translated to English in the next day or two and then shipped to us.

This means our referral may be coming to us early next week! Send Heidi some Valium.

It won't be much longer until we receive pictures of Gracie and get info on her age, size, activities, health, etc. We'll post the pictures and the other vital statistics here as soon as we hear.

Sunday, January 2, 2005 1:34 PM CST

This page has just been created. Please check back for additional updates. We expect to get pictures and information about Gracie in the next couple weeks, and we'll post that on this page once we get it.

Click here to go back to the main page.

----End of History----