Laurie's Homepage

Adopting my daughter

On February 23, 2000 I received news of the referral of my daughter, Gao Qing Wei! Qing Wei was living in Gaoyou City, Jiangsu Province, PRC.

"Wei Wei" and I became a family in Nanjing on April 17, 2000. The adoption was finalized in Nanjing the following day, and I renamed her Jemma Rose Qingwei Dickson. Jemma is after her great grandparents Jim and Emma Progecene, and Rose is for the meaning of her Chinese name, which I kept for a middle name. Wei Wei does seem to suit her, however, so I've kept the nickname. Visit my adoption page for a bit of information on the China adoption process, and Jemma's photo album to see her story in pictures.

To learn everything you can about adoption from China, visit the Families with Children from China site!

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This was my 1999 Christmas letter for family and friends.

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I've moved from Lewisburg to western Massachusetts. If you came here looking for information on Lewisburg or the Countryside Contradancers, please follow the links to those pages. The Amherst Update Page will keep you up to date with what's happening with me since I've started at Amherst College last November 1998, and my move to Massachusetts!.

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Contra Dance

As one of the "founding mothers" of the Countryside Contra Dancers, sponsors of the Lewisburg Contra Dance series, I'm happy to say that our dances are continuing under the able guidance of Sabrina Kirby. Visit their webpage, as the calendar of "First Saturday" dances appears there along with several of my favorite dance-related links. The dances are a community event, smoke-free, alcohol-free, and coordinated by a group of home-town dancers. Our dances have been well attended by members of the local community across all age groups and we welcome both experienced dancers and newcomers. Go to the dance schedule page to see who will be calling and playing the upcoming dances, or go to the archives to relive the past dances.

The catalyst for starting up the dances was the flood of January 1996, when several of us were unable to leave Lewisburg to attend dances elsewhere due to icy roads, closed bridges, mudslides, and high floodwaters.

And now that I'm living in Western Massachusetts, there are plenty of dances to attend. Here's a page o' links to contra dances near Amherst . If you've never contra danced, try it!

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Garland Dance

I'm also looking forward to dancing with the Hart's Brook Garland Women in the spring.

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Genealogy

Some of my ancestors' family names which I've researched or would like to know more about include:

• Blystone
• Dickson
• Drohn
• Fulton
• Gowen
• Potts
• Progecene (Procaccini?)
• Rettschlag
• Slattery
• Wilson

Any of those hanging in your family tree? A favorite genealogy site of mine is the Rand Genealogy Club's site

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Hammered Dulcimer

Even a novice like me can make mistakes and the hammered dulcimer sounds so lovely that they're tolerable! And it's relaxing, too...for the player even if not the listener!

Check out the Skaryd's page to learn more about hammered dulcimers and also to read about the Evart FunFest, which is held in July each year. More hammered dulcimer and music links coming soon! Meanwhile, visit the Susquehanna Folk Music Society's page.

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Books

The books I've most recently completed reading for fun are:

"She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb

"The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

"Red Azalea" by Anchee Min

"Secrets of an Adoptive Mother by Janna Wolf

"Iron and Silk" by Mark Saltzman.
and currently reading several others!

Since moving to the Amherst area, I've joined a small book group. Our reading list includes:

"Nicholas and Alexandra"

"Pull of the Moon"by Elizabeth Berg

"Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger

"Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt

"Falling Leaves"

A wonderful resource for books is Amazon Books

Friends

Of course I want to mention my boyfriend, Peter. You might like to visit his home page It's nice but not nearly as pretty as mine! (Now I'll know if he really looks at my home page when I've updated it!)

Updated July 19, 2000

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© 1997 ldickson@juno.com

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