Catching Up on Some Posts

I finally had a chance to upload some new pics and videos from our trip home and first couple days back. Scroll down to see them, they are in date order. I will continue to post updates to catch up.

Please Support Adoption & Boycott the Movie "Orphan"

I urge you to please read this and then boycott the movie being promoted online at - www.orphan-movie.warnerbros.com.

There is a horror slasher film being released July 24 (Orphan) about a family who adopts an older girl who “is not what she appears to be. Warnings about her go unheeded until it is too late…for everyone." The film is being promoted now (www.orphan-movie.warnerbr

os.com) and the adoption message being sent is extremely negative. There is actually a line in the trailer that says “it must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own."

Without having seen the movie or read the script, it is hard to know if the entire movie is sending a ghastly adoption message, but the trailer certainly leads us to believe it is. This feeds the notion that older adoptee's are very troubled and you should beware.... that's not an image any of us want the general public to have of our kids. It plays into people's deepest fears and is deeply troubling.

There is a growing group pursuing a boycott of the film, sending out emails and posting on online bulletin boards. I urge you to forward this email to others and help disseminate the boycott message as well as write to the producers and distributors expressing your displeasure with the message being sent. Social Networking Sites like this one are a great way to get the message out.

The backers of this movie have deep pockets. It is being released by Dark Castle Entertainment with Warner Bros. set to distribute. Leonardo DiCaprio’s, Appian Way, which developed the material, is also producing it.

As parents to an adopted child and Myke being adopted himself, this really hits home for us. And its a low blow. Not very nice at all that a major film studio is exploiting adoption and especially adoption of an older child and propagating the myth and idea that adopted children are a problem or the horrible notion that they are not loved as much as biological children. Please, help us get the word out to boycott this film and all the producing studios' films.

Here is contact information:

Warner Bros. management:
http://www.timewarner.com/corp/management/executives_by_business/warner_bros/index.html

Suggestion is to send letters to:

Alan Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer
alan.horn@warnerbros.com

Barry Meyer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
barry.meyer@warnerbros.com

Susan Fleishman, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
susan.fleishman@warnerbros.com

Jeff Robonov, President, Warner Bros. Pictures Group
jeff.robonov@warnerbros.com

Dan Fellman, President, Domestic Distribution, Warner Bros. Pictures
dan.fellman@warnerbros.com

Snail mail:
Name, title
Warner Bros
4000 Warner Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91522
(818) 954-5000

The movie will most likely be released despite protests, so I would suggest that they donate their profits to a worthy charity that benefits orphans worldwide.

Dark Castle Entertainment Contact Info:

Joel Silver and Susan Downey (married to Robert Downey, Jr.) are the two co-producers named from Dark Castle Entertainment. Downey left in February 2009 but can still be reached via the Dark Castle offices.

Dark Castle is actually located on the Warner Bros. lot. The address for the company is:

Dark Castle Entertainment
4000 Warner Blvd.
Bldg. 90
Burbank, CA 91522
USA
Phn: 818-954-4490
Fax: 818-954-3237

Appian Way Contact Info:

Producers Jennifer Davisson Killoran and Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as writer Alex Mace can be contacted at Appian Way at the address below:

Appian Way
9255 Sunset Blvd
Ste 615
West Hollywood, CA 90069
USA
Phn: 310-300-1390
Fax: 310-306-1388

Thank you so much for any assistance that you can offer.

Learning So Fast!

Yesterday, sitting with Chianna I showed her "eyes", "nose", "mouth" and "ears". We went over it once or twice while playing in her room, then went on to the next thing.

Today, we were sitting and having lunch and she has a Baby Einstein Table Topper place mat with animals on it. She pointed at the whale, and as usual, said "CA", which means fish in Vietnamese, she is always correcting us, when we call it a fish, which we find very funny. And then she pointed at the whale's eye and said "eyes"!!! I was so excited, I almost fell out of my chair. Then she pointed at her eyes and said it again and proceeded to point out the eyes and repeat it for each of the animals on the place mat. Then we did the same for noses and mouths! At dinner, she repeated the whole routine again!

We definitely have a smart cookie on our hands!

Also at lunch, just wanted to mention, she was having a banana, and she wanted to cut the banana herself rather than have me do it. She took the spoon and with only a little bit of help from me was able to cut the banana. It was such a moment because of how proud she looked and the sense of accomplishment she had for cutting the banana. Its the little things like this that I am so thankful I have my blog to document.

Promise to post more, I am catching up on the posts and pictures from our exciting and busy first week at home - stay tuned!

1st Very Happy Mother's Day

For Mother's Day dinner we went to one of our favorite restaurants: Makino's Japanese Buffet. Chianna ate rice, Terriyaki chicken from the Hibachi Grill, a California roll, noodles, some Udon soup and fruit for dessert. We definitely do NOT have a picky eater here!


Chianna let Papa Jim pick her up for the first time and I am not sure who was happier!

The Room is Now Complete!

The first night she didn't end up sleeping in her room, she had a real bad night and ended up sleeping out on the couch, but the second night, she went right to bed in her own room:



Videos of Chianna with Yogi & Aku and checking out her new room!

1st Dinner at Home

Finally home, exhausted, tired and hungry. Dinner with the family, the easiest thing was just to get some KFC.

Airport Homecoming!

Thank you to all our friends and family that came out to welcome us home! Here are some photos that Tammie and Lisa took at the airport. We were walking for what seemed like forever through the Miami Airport and Myke had put Chianna on his shoulders. We cam around the corner and saw the most awesome site of our friends and family waiting for us with balloons, posters and lots of love and smiles. I wish I had thought to take a pictured from our end, but I was overwhelmed! What a great day!


















Cousins meeting for the first time!




The proud Papa!


Grandparents, finally and officially!






Kathleen taking a photo, Dawn & Jacob




Heidi, Mark, Brenda with Mae Li


Katie, My Dad, Dee Dee


My dad and Dee Dee taking pics of Chianna


Myke with Erin


Mark welcoming me home with a hug!


New Daddy


New Mommy


David, Kathleen & Olivia


Myke holding David


Joey with Madison


Shannon, Pattie & Tammie


Dee Dee with her welcome sign!


Lori holding Mae Li


David - one happy kid!


Madison and Katie

Leaving Vietnam, Heading Home

Leaving the hotel with Thuy. Our trip and our adoption would not have been possible without her, and we are forever thankful!

When we were able to leave Vietnam a day early. Lori suggested that if we could, stay over night in L.A. before the last leg of the trip home to Miami. It was one of the BEST ideas ever!!!! Thank you, Lori!!

We left Hanoi Friday morning, Vietnam time was 12:10pm. We took a 3 hour flight to Taipei, Taiwan. Chianna was very good on the plane ride and didn't seem to mind at all what was going on. Then we had a 2 hour lay over in Taipei. She really loved the moving walkways there and we took advantage of an awesome Hello Kitty Baby Changing room they have there. The Taipei airport is really amazing!






We also grabbed a bite to eat at the restaurant at the airport.





And then we boarded the place for the LLLLOOOONNNGGGGG flight to L.A. The flight was only 11 hours! Ughhh and the only reason I say "only" is because the flight there was 14 hours, but 11 hours with Chianna on the plane was more nerve racking than the 14 hour flight there!

Chianna fell asleep as we were taking off, we had decided to give her some Benedryl because we knew that otherwise she would have never fallen asleep and it would have been an even longer trip. But the problem was, we timed it wrong. She fell asleep just as we were taking off, and we thought we were good, but then about 45 minutes into the flight, they turned on all the lights and started meal service. This woke her up and she started to cry, then scream! Uh Oh! Everyone was looking at us, and I knew they were thinking "Is this going to go on for the next 10 hours?" So were we. I guess we timed the Benedryl wrong, we should have given it to her after we took off, not before. Also just a note about Benedryl, I know it may be a little controversial because it is not supposed to be used to help children sleep, but we were only using it in this case because its an extreme circumstance. Finally, Myke was able to take a walk with her and after about an hour, she calmed down. She decided to eat some of her dinner and then soon after fell asleep. So for over 8 hours of the flight, she was fast asleep. Myke and I were awake the whole time, making sure that she was sleeping and comfortable; dreading her waking up again, for fear that she would start screaming again! When we finally landed in L.A. we woke her up and got going to INS and then to our hotel room. It took quite a while to get through the airport and through customs ans then INS so staying over night in LA was just the best idea ever!

Not only, did we have a chance to rest a little and take a break from all the flying, but Chianna got to meet her Great - Great Aunt and Uncle!



Aunt Ruthie & Uncle Marvin live in Santa Monica and were able to come to our hotel for dinner. I was so happy to see them and so happy that they could meet Chianna and that she could meet them! While we were waiting for Aunt Ruthie and Uncle Marvin to arrive, we walked around the front of the hotel, they had grass and gardens and we are pretty sure that this was the first time she saw grass! Chianna also loved all the flowers. She says "ower" for just about every one she sees. Its one of the English words that she knows really well, she just can't pronounce the first part of the word yet. After dinner we took Chianna to the hot tub, which she loved (of course)!

We set Chianna up to sleep on the couch. When I went to bed, she was not wanting to go to sleep and she was standing up, leaning against her bed staring at me. I woke up to find this:


I guess she eventually just fell over!


Waiting for the airport shuttle in he morning. Chianna wanted to run through the fountain in the front of the hotel!