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    We are a family of three that is constantly learning and growing in so many ways. Becoming a family has been a constant source of joy and blessing for us.

    Troy and Tricia consider “Dad” and “Mom” to be the most amazing roles they have ever had. In addition to those roles, Troy works as a computer applications engineer and Tricia works as a lawyer. Troy also enjoys college football, board games (which he blogs about here), comic books and bad movies (which he also blogs about, here). Tricia enjoys good movies, reading just about any book (but especially mystery novels - a love that began in fourth grade with Nancy Drew novels) and having coffee with friends.

    Troy and Tricia met in high school in 1994 and were married in 2002. They spent the next eight years learning how to work as a team. Troy is a self-described procrastinator and claims he produces his best work a few minutes before a deadline. He also can do just about anything with a computer (including building his own arcade machine) and has programmed their entire house in one way or another - Tricia is still waiting for an instruction manual. Tricia has to admit to having a few perfectionist tendencies (except when it comes to cooking or cleaning the house) and has been making to-do lists since kindergarten. It makes us an interesting team, but we have lots of fun together and love each other tremendously! We especially enjoy spending time with our friends, going out to eat, and traveling together (recap of our 2009 Italy trip here).

    Throughout their first eight years of marriage, Troy and Tricia each felt a growing desire in their hearts to expand their family by adopting from China. They submitted their application to adopt a few weeks after Tricia’s 30th birthday (minimum age requirement for adopting from China) and, on May 9, 2010, the Olsons were officially a family of three when Madelyn Yihong became their daughter.

    Madelyn is a vivacious toddler who finds joy and humor in all things of life. She has an uncanny love of soft rock music, likes to put a smile on other people’s faces, and has a beautiful, active imagination that has added several friends to our family (ask Tricia for the list because, of course she made a list of Madelyn’s imaginary friends). Madelyn is teaching Troy and Tricia how to be parents and they are trying their very best to be good students of the subject.

    About The Blog

    The purpose of this blog is, first and foremost, to document our journey as a family so that we can look back on our favorite experiences and carry them with us going forward. We are perpetually learning new things and forming/refining /redefining our opinions about parenting and adoption. Putting these things in print seems to help our process of learning. It is also something we hope that our children will enjoy rereading when they are older and something we hope our friends and family will enjoy along the way. We realize that the content is specific to our family, but we are more than happy to share the lessons we have learned as parents and especially about adoption.

    We have tried to organize our blog in a way that makes it easy to find information if you are looking for something specific. On the header, you can use the search tool to search for specific terms or the “Categories” tab to find posts on specific topics such as Adoption, China, and Cleft Lip & Palate. Our “Links” tab includes links to our Picasa picture gallery, YouTube video library, and Pinterest board. The "Store" tab points to our Amazon store, which contains items that we personally enjoy using in our house and may mention from time to time on our blog.
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Friday, September 30, 2011

Moon Festival

by Tricia

Fall is officially here - I can hardly believe it!  For the last several years, fall has always begun for me with pumpkin spice lattes and school morning traffic that forces me to get out the door earlier on work days.  Our family now has a wonderful new tradition to kick off the fall season - Mid-Autumn Festival, a celebration of the end of harvest season.

The Chinese holiday officially fell on Monday, September 12, this year.  Seriously, everyone - did you see the gorgeous Harvest Moon that evening?  From our vantage point at home it was golden-hued and absolutely spectacular.

Our celebrations this year included a trip to Portland to participate in the Under the Autumn Moon Festival. We got to watch a dragon dance, practice writing Chinese characters, and try our hand at the Chinese yo-yo.  We also met up with Jaili, Evie, and their parents!  The girls got animals painted on their arms - Jaili chose a bird, Madelyn chose a fish, and Evie chose a butterfly.  And Madelyn had her first ride on the MAX train. It was a fantastic afternoon!

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Another Mid-Autumn Festival tradition we got to try this year was mooncakes.

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We went without mooncakes last year because Madelyn was still on her post-surgery baby-food-only diet. This year, we bought the mung bean flavor from a Chinese bakery at the Portland Festival. I momentarily hesitated at the thought of eating anything called "mung bean" for dessert - but I am happy to report that it was very tasty.  The three of us quickly devoured the entire cake.  Next year, we'll buy more than one!

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1 comments

Hi Olson Family. I've been enjoying seeing the adventures of your little one. We are anxiously awaiting for our trip to China to pick up our little girl, hopefully at the end of November/early December.

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