China wrapup

Red couch with China buddy "Lizzie"




I know I didn't finish posting on the blog while we were in China. Things got a little crazy & we were busy & then just too darn tired to post.

Tues -- ZOO


We went to the Guangzhou Zoo. We saw chimpanzees, baboons, lynx, a panda, giraffes, lions, boars, even an open squirrel exhibit. It was a good zoo but we were amazed to see the litter that was thrown into some of the open cages. We saw a cat living with the monkeys. We laughed that we were on exhibit there too, as we got many stares from the visitors. After the zoo we walked some & went to a True Mart. We finally found the mosquito bug zappers that we had been looking for, we each got 2. Emily is such a tropper & put up with our long day out.
Wed - Consulate appt & Biyau Mountain
I thought the Consulate appt was really neat. There was a big group of people, I would say at least 50 families in the room together. They called you up 1 by 1 & compared issued you your child's visa. After everyone had the visa, we were updated on the citizenship process for our child. They also recognized any of the kids that had recently had a birthday & the family stood up with the child. I got goosebumps seeing all the new wonderful families. Then we all stood up & said the oath that we would love our children & take care of them, etc, etc. It was a really sweet moment & one I have waited over 4 years for.

Later in the day we went to Biyau Mountain. It would have been a great day if the taxi driver would have dropped us off at the right entrance. After walking 2.5 miles, we found out we were at the wrong entrance & the cable car up was closed. Walking 2.5 miles up a mountain with a 17 lb infant strapped to me is not my idea of fun. We caught the car back down & took a bus to the right entrance & then took the sky lift up the mountain.
The view was amazing!
Thur - Shopping, need I say more.

Last moments in China!
Fri - Train to Hong Kong.
We squeezed in some more shopping on Friday & then caught the train to Hong Kong. All of our travels had been a disaster & this was no different. We were told not to check out baggage b/c we would have to wait an hour to get it, NOT TRUE! We had 5 suitcases at this point & they were a pain in the butt! We finally got to Hong Kong & caught a taxi to the hotel. The taxi driver didn't load any of our bags & then tried to charge us for them. Jaime loaded them all. Bless her heart she built some muscles on this trip! We had had it by this point & were starving, it had been almost 10 hours since we had eaten. We got settled in our room & took off to eat dinner in the bar. Hong Kong is VERY expensive. We got a burger, nachos & 4 adult beverages for $100 US dollars. At that point, neither one of us cared.

The trip home was pretty bad & all the computer were down when we got to the airport so they had to hand write everything. It was a fiasco, we ran to the plane cause we were told it was leaving on time. Well, it wasn't & was delayed b/c of the computer issue. It left about 1.5 hours late. We should have had about a 3 hour layover in Tokoyo but instead we had to run again b/c our plan to San Diego was boarding. Poor Emily probably got shaken baby syndrome from all the joustling she had to endure strapped to me running through the airport. The flight crew on the ride home was by far some of the rudest people I have ever encountered. Customer service it was not!
The best flight was the one from San Diego to ATL. The crew was great & going through immigration was a breeze.

I can't believe that we have been home 2 weeks, my house is a disaster. Christopher has decided that he wants me to rock him for 2 hours at night & has been a total terror after 9pm. Emily is kinda sorta on US time. She still wants to wake at 5 am & play for 2 hours. She had 4 days of fever of 102 & up that I could not keep down. Finally after we started tylenol suppositories the fevers stopped. We had our doctor appt & they took lots of blood, she had a TB skin test & a urine cath. Everything came back fine. They are thinking maybe she had something viral, she currently has the roseola rash all over her face & body. But we are on the road to recovery. She is crawling & exploring her environment, just not too far from me. She thinks her brother & sister are funny but can't quite figure them out. She has gotten 4 teeth since Gotcha day in China!

1st play date over puff pickup in the floor!

Emily has had a rough 2 days since getting her shots; she spiked a fever the night after her shots & was up fussy most of the night. She had another fever the next afternoon. We thought surely the reaction from the shots would be over; but the next night was worse. She was up almost constantly. She would sleep then cry out & wake herself up. She spiked a temp & again slept on & off throughout the night while sleeping on my chest. We all got little sleep. Thankfully, Jaime took her out for a walk when she got up for the day at 5:30 & I got some uninterrupted sleep. We found out the reason for the fussiness was that she cut her top right tooth during the night! She is going to look so cute with her teeth coming in but I am going to miss that gummy smile. She still is a little fussy & we are debating on whether she has an ear infection or not, we will see how the day goes. They looked in her ears at the medical examination with a flashlight. I am pretty sure they were just checking out the structure J.

Yesterday we went to the pearl market & an herbal market. The amount of pearls was unbelievable! We are definitely getting ripped off in the US on the price of pearls.

The herbal market had ALL sorts of things. The best part were the dried fish livers, dried monster flies, sea horses, pig intestines & deer tendons. We also saw live scorpions (small, medium & large) & turtles for sale.

Today we are taking pictures on the famous Red Couch here at the White Swan Hotel. I will try to post some of those later today. We are hoping to go to the zoo, Yuexiu Park & White Cloud Mountain. We need to limit our shopping. We could easily spend everything & more but we got to have some money for the trip home.

We left Changsha & finally arrived in Guangzhou late last night. Our flight was running late, as every flight we have taken has been. We finally got in bed after 1 am. Emily did very good on the flight, she naturally cried at first but then went to sleep. We were shocked to see the plane that we were flying on. There were 54 people on the plane not counting the crew. We boarded on the runway. Surprisingly it was a very smooth flight once we got past the size of the aircraft.




We are staying at the White Swan Hotel & it is a beautiful hotel. There is a waterfall in the lobby of the hotel with a koi fish pond. Guangzhou is very different from where we have been. The architecture of the buildings is somewhat like New Orleans. The hotel is on the Pearl River so there is always a breeze & you don’t feel like you are suffocating. Tomorrow we go to a Temple & then to a jade factory.



Today Emily had her medical exam that the US government requires. She weighed in at 17 lbs & 27 inches long. She is a big girl! Her big sister weighed 18 lbs about 2 months ago, so maybe they will be wearing the same size in clothes for a little while.

Emily had to have 2 shots at her medical exam, she did pretty good with them. She naturally cried but recovered quickly, she is tough. She was flirting with all the nurses & doctors during the exams, giving them her big gummy grin.






She can eat really good, this morning she had a large portion of scrambled eggs, grapes, an orange slice & a Danish. She polished it all off. Tonight she had steamed rice, cucumbers, beef, eggplant & steamed egg. When she sees the food at the table she reaches for it. We found out that at her orphanage, they start them on solid food early. This is generally not the case for many orphanages. She is definitely not a bottle baby; she wants the real stuff!

There are 18 other families with our agency here, most of the families are special needs families. All of the children are so beautiful! We have enjoyed getting to know everyone. Several of the babies will have heart or cleft surgeries scheduled when they arrive home, I hope we can keep in touch with everyone. We all are missing home & counting down the days.

7/8/2010 Changsha Martyrs’ Park

Martyr's Park is Changsha’s largest park it has a large lake & children’s amusement park. Jaime enjoyed several of the rides but I stuck to the ground. It is SOOO hot here, you literally feel like you are sitting in an oven & can’t get out. On the way out of the park we walked down the trail in the woods to avoid the direct sun. There were tables for people to rest & there were also vendors selling hammocks, were you could catch a nap. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v395/djtkas/CHINA177.jpg









Emily is down for a nap right now, I am trying to get her to stay up a little later. She has been going to sleep by 6:30 almost every night. Yesterday she wanted to go to sleep at 4:30 & I kept her up till 5:30. She slept till 6 am. She cries out several times during the night but usually goes back to sleep. I tried putting her in the bed with me but she tosses & turns a lot. Her poor scalp is very dry & she is constantly scratching the back of her head. She has cradle cap bad but not near as bad as Christopher had when he came home. Last night we rubbed petroleum jelly in her scalp & I tried to scrub it pretty good this morning. She seemed to scratch less today & her skin looks better. She woke up with a crazy mohawk.

We fly to Guangzhou tomorrow night & should arrive around 9:30 pm.

7/7/2010 Museum Visit & Walmart

We went to the Hunan Provincial Museum; it was very interesting. There was a 2,100 year old tomb from the Han Dynasty & the body was displayed. It was kind of creepy seeing the mummy, but cool too. We learned many interesting facts about the Hunan Dynasties and viewed several cultural exhibits. The museum was very crowded.

After the museum, we went to Walmart. It is pretty similar to our Walmart except for the grocery dept. At one point, I thought I might lose my breakfast from the overwhelming smell of dried meat. There was hanging whole fish & hanging dried duck. Squid, octopus (?), chicken etc. on beds of ice that you just bagged & took with you. It was interesting. They definitely don’t let any parts go to waste.





When we got back to the hotel, we decided that we didn’t want any more Chinese food & took off to find the Pizza Hut. We got directions from the bell boys but never did find it. We did find a wonderful bakery called, “Lucky’s Cake Shop”, they had little pizzas, bread, cakes, smoothies, hot dogs and much more. We wanted 1 of everything! It was delicious. For anyone coming to the Dolton, go 1.5 blocks & Lucky’s is on your left. It is wonderful, we are going back!
Emily is doing good, the orphanage director said that her nickname was Ning Ning, so I have been calling her that too. She doesn’t like to be alone & will cry if we step out of her line of vision. She had some noodles today & can slurp a 2 foot noodle down her stomach in record time. She is very loving & enjoys getting kisses.

Just random Changsha Sights!

Civil Affairs Day

Emily decided on the way to the Civil Affairs office to take a nap, when this girl decides to sleep there is NO waking her up! She is out cold! I have never seen anything like it. We had to get our picture made together for the adoption today & she would not wake up. They had a hand clapper in her face, pinched her nose & were yelling her name. I was standing her up & still her head was bobbed over & she was out cold. She finally opened her eyes for 2 secs & we got the shot, then she was right back to sleep.


Today her personality started to come out! She is a busy girl, just like her big sister & she can EAT! I predict she will be crawling by the time we leave China. She can’t sit up on her own yet but is getting stronger everyday. She has great head control, but her core needs strengthening. She really has a great little personality & is a cuddly baby. She gave me my first kiss while I was on skype with her daddy. It was a sweet moment.


Her adoption was final in her province today & we sealed it with my thumbprint in red ink over my signature & her right footprint in red ink on the adoption paperwork. She is ours forever. Tomorrow we go to a local museum & Walmart. China’s Walmart is not like US Walmart. It is several stories high & features all kinds of interesting things to eat.




Jaime has been a great help to me on this trip. Not only has she been a great friend but also an invaluable helper to me. On Gotcha Day, I came back to the hotel room to find a beautiful flower arrangement she had delivered to the room for me. What a great friend!



Emily is passed out & has been since 6 pm China time. She plays & sleeps hard. The time is going fast here. I was able to get some beautiful embroidery today that will be passed on to Emily when she is older. I can’t wait to get home, I miss everyone & can’t wait to see my husband & my other babies!


Forever Mommy and Emily