MADISON, Miss. (Saturday, Nov. 22, 2008) -- Welcome back to Cassreino Online, our family blog and an archive of our April-March 2006 trip to China to adopt our daughter, Camryn Ai Hua.
It’s been two years and eight months since that momentous occasion. You can look back at our trip by visiting this blog’s archives on the left side of this page. From there, go to March 27, 2006, and you can follow our trip day-to-day until we returned to Mississippi after a nearly three-week stay.
Since then, we moved from Hattiesburg, relocated in Madison County just north of Jackson, I took a job as communications director for the Mississippi Democratic Party, Pam works as a teacher in Madison County Schools, and Camryn continues to grow and amaze.
The big news for us, however, is that Pam and I are returning to China on Monday, Dec. 1, 2008, to adopt a little boy. And we will chronicle every step of our trip through this blog, offering readers like you an update probably twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon; sometimes we’ll update more often.
You can expect more of what you experienced during our last trip: Observations about China and what’s different two years since our last visit; a critical review of airline food (and with all the extra fees they are charging, it ought to be better than the garbage we had last time); a critical review of the different Chinese beers based, of course, on observations and reports from our new son (who has had more than a year to try them before we arrive in December); and, more importantly, an intimate look at our adoption.
The world has changed a lot in the past two years. We moved to Central Mississippi after quickly selling our Hattiesburg home in the end of a booming real estate market; the state and national economy has crashed; we have a new president who no doubt will right what had been a sinking ship; “The Sopranos” is no longer on television and I have nothing for anyone to tape on television while I’m gone; and Blu-Ray discs have replaced DVDs (at least for me and my sick addiction to buying films) in home libraries.
But one thing hasn’t: The need for innocent, abandoned children to find a new home. And that’s what we plan to do. After months of stressful waiting, Pam and I are finally ready to head to China on a trip that will end with us adopting an orphan boy. He Wu Di was born on March 16, 2007. And he’ll be 1 year, eight months when we get him.
Check back daily beginning today and follow our journey. Don’t forget to share your thoughts with us, too, by sending an e-mail or commenting on our entries. And something new this time: Look to the left-hand column and you’ll see a link that will allow you to subscribe to our blog by RSS feed.
Look for more on He Wu Di and our complete travel plans in the next couple of days.
Copyright 2008 by Terry R. Cassreino, all rights reserved.
