We're Home Sweet Home!

Whew! We made it!! I stopped blogging in Guangzhou as we no longer had free internet access from the room. I quickly sent a few emails from the business center and that was it. Now that we had adoption papers and a Chinese passport in hand, we could go to Guangzhou.
It was warmer there and we did have access to a lot more shopping right around the hotel. Rebecca was a trooper on the plane as always. Her first plane ride! I cried as we took off because as I held her in my arms, I thought, "wow, she really is ours and she is leaving WITH us!" It was a thrilling moment. Please note, that all of our intracountry flights were either on time or early and the planes looked new. Service was fantastic. So many things about China surprised me in that way. Things were better, nicer, more wonderful than imagined.
The days in Guangzhou flew by really. We submitted the paper work to get a travel visa for Rebecca and after a getting her photo taken and a brief physical we basically had free time. We toured a family compound and an active Buddhist temple. We also had a delightful dinner at a local restaurant with someone from the Bible Church. David called the concierge and gave the name/directions of the restaurant for us. The bell hop handed the Chinese note to the cab driver and off we went. We were the only Westerners in the place and certainly the only ones with a baby, so we were quite conspicuous. Nevertheless, in general, the Chinese love babies and the wait staff payed quite alot of attention to Rebecca and the meal was wonderful.
David also told us about the wholesale markets in town, so we saw where the Chinese shop owners buy the goods they sell to us! It again was quite an experience of local culture where we were definitely the minority. We always felt safe though and moved about the city with confidence and had fun.
We shopped at a local outdoor mall and found an inexpensive suitcase, to replace the one that kept malfunctioning on the way over among other things. We even saw a pet market where there were lots and lots of puppies, ducklings, chicks, rabbits, pet food and pet accessories. That was quite fun.
Friday was the big day. We went to the US Consulate where our paper work was checked once again, they verified that we were who we said we were - Rebecca too, then we took an oath. That was it. Our babies were welcomed to the US and we were on our way!
Off to Hong Kong for one night, then the flight home. We had a bulk head seat and a bassinet for Rebecca, so she basically maintained her schedule all the way home. We had an awesome welcome committee greet us at the airport where Miss Rebecca proceeded to charm everyone with her engaging stare and even a few coos and giggles. I thought she might be her quiet, pensive self in the car seat on the way home, but no. She giggled and laughed the entire way home. Something about it was very funny to her!
This is really a very brief overview of our last days in China. There are so many interesting side stories that would take a long time to write and long time for you to read, so I hope we get to share these with all of you in time. We took over 300 pictures and who knows how much video?
We are so glad to be home. We miss our travel group because we really bonded as one big family, but I think everyone is glad to be home. Rebecca continues to be a delight and shows us how to go with the flow and not worry about anything. She's adjusting beautifully and helping us do the same.

More Pictures!

Just Pictures!

Last Days in Nanchang

The rain has finally stopped and we did some sightseeing this weekend. Our group toured a pavilion on the river, a tao temple and an art museum. We thoroughly enjoyed getting out of the hotel. We also went to a local restaurant down the street and the food was fantastic. Our guide, Chris, did all the ordering. Spicy and wonderful, again served family style. We have now discovered Rebecca's favorite is Steamed Eggs. She just loves them! Its like a custard and served warm. Its very good.

There is a local tailor/laundry shop next to our hotel so we had matching outfits made for me and Rebecca and Ray got a gorgeous Chinese jacket made for him. We then took our laundry to them as they do the baby clothes for free. Its a colorful neighborhood and we enjoyed walking around the block after our purchases. Today is actually SUNNY outside so we're going back so Ray can get some good still photos. I want to go to the shoe shop and get Rebecca's shoes - great prices!

Today is our last full day in Nanchang. Tomorrow we check out of the hotel at 1:00 pm and head for the airport. Rebecca's first plane ride! We will then be in Guangzhou until Saturday, fly to Hong Kong for one night and then be home on Sunday. I admit to feeling homesick at times. I feel like we are camping out. We have to boil our water for everything - drinking, washing dishes, making formula, brushing our teeth. Our bathroom is also our kitchen. I miss western food, ice cubes and ice tea. I can't complain though. We are living in tremendous luxury in comparison to the people around us who probably are living in apartments the size of our room, full time!

I am excited about traveling south to Guangzhou which promises to be a whole new experience in weather, food, our mobility to see things and more. We are not worried about the plane ride because Rebecca seems to take new experiences in stride and as long as she's in the carrier she's content and pretty quiet. Just taking it all in. Until then...

The Orphanage

We made the momentus trip to SWI Shanggao yesterday (Thursday). What a wild ride, literally. The yellow and white traffic lines are meerly suggestions and are followed sometimes. We played "chicken" with a very large truck, and a few cyclists here and there. Potholes the size of ditches slowed our way a few times, but the driver was great and the bus was actually a nice touring bus, so we closed our eyes during the scary parts.

We arrived at the orphanage to yet another cold, rainy day, but the reception was warm and welcoming in every way. We were led to a conference room, where mayhem broke out once again as the foster moms saw their little ones. There was rejoicing and crying and just lots of noise. Fresh fruit and candy was provided on the tables which the babies enjoyed. Our nanny was running late, so Ray and I patiently waited for her to arrive and get our turn with Chris who translated questions for us. She clearly loved and enjoyed Rebecca as much as we do and she was very gracious in pointing to me and saying 'mama' and pointing to Ray saying 'baba' which is dada in Chinese. The director made a short, lovely speech about how grateful they are to us, for caring for the children and wished us well.

Then to an abundant, fabulous lunch! They just kept bringing out the dishes. Served family style, on a turntable centered on the table, it was a feast! I can't tell you everything we had, but the purple stuff was really good and we felt adventuresome for trying most of it. The fresh peas were fantastic and I don't even really like peas. They even served red wine. This must of been extravagent for them. We didn't really tour the facilities and we didn't see any children. The director says they are all in foster homes.

Ray and I asked if we could meet the cook, as he was listed as the one who found Rebecca. They all kind of giggled, then called to him to come out. He just beamed. We got our picture taken with him and the staff just seemed so amused by the scene. One other family said he found their baby also, so they did the photo op with him too.

We then got a group photo at the gate of the orphanage where all of our babies were found. I just wonder if Rebecca's birth mom watched from across the street, from behind a crumbling brick wall, to see when her baby was found. I just wonder about her alot. I am grateful to her everyday for doing a brave and wonderful thing for us and pray that she somehow knows how much we love Rebecca. We know she loved her.

We did see a lot of the elderly residents that live on the compound. Precious elderly men watched the busy, chaotic scene of families and their orange bundles and just laughed. I got a great photo of them watching.

Could go on and on about the many scenes we saw along the way, but will end now. China is such a diverse country and we were grateful to get out of the big city and see some of the countryside.

Day 2 and Day 3 Nanchang

Where do I begin? Day 2 we had a series of meetings in the morning. Miss Rebecca was a trooper. It was cold and rainy, alot of waiting around and in and off the bus. She just hangs out in the baby carrier and is along for the ride. So sweet. At 11:30 we boarded the bus for the hotel when Chris announced, "Congratulations, they are officially your daughters!" We all cheered and celebrated the great moment.

We spent the rest of the day just hanging out at the hotel. After lunch, we all went down for a very long nap. Ahhhh. Ray and I snacked in the room for supper, but I went to the lobby restaurant for some broth for Rebecca. I told them 'noodle soup w/out the noodles, its for baby" they rushed around and quickly brought me a bowl and said, "free for baby." I have to say, the hotel staff and the Chinese people in general are so very gracious and accomodating. They dote on the babies and strive to provide excellent service and care for all of us. Its really very touching and definitely appreciated! That pretty much sums up Day 2.

Day 3 was one of pure luxury. Nothing to do but be with our Rebecca all day. She is the best company. Quite a chatterer and game for anything. Ray and I also got some alone tine. He was able to go for a swim and I went to the gym and hit the eliptical for a little while. Then, another wonderful long nap. After walking the floors the first night with Rebecca, someone in our group said to try sleeping w/the lights on. That did it. She slept for 11 hours the first night. And is well on her way to hitting that right now.

Ray gave her lots of tummy time and we already see her growing and developing skills she did not have two days ago. She has attempted to roll over and almost did! She is trying to sit up, is reaching for her rattle and bottle and grabbing them! She continues to enjoy watching her hands. Its a riot to watch. She twists and twirls them and chuckles, just totally amused by them. I call it baby tai chi because of the way she moves them and watches them - its almost like her own choreographed hand dance.

She's a great eater. Meat broth seems to be her favorite. And yesterday she finally had her first bm, so we are so very proud of her and happy that everything seems to be working well. I promise no more bodily function reports unless they are truly extraordinary. I'm praying I won't have any of those stories to tell.

Today, Day 4, is a huge day for us. We actually get to see the orphanage and meet her foster mother in person. Not every group gets this opportunity so we are incredibly grateful to have this chance. Its a 2 hour bus ride from here, so it will be a full days trip. We'll have lunch there and come back this afternoon. And, now that we know that our peanut travels so well, we feel she'll just go along for the ride and be ok. So, I'll close for now, and I am sure I'll have many stories to tell about our trip. Thank you all for your loving thoughts, prayers, emails, and facebook postings. We do 'feel the love' half way round the world and know you are celebrating with us. Thank you, thank you!

Gottcha Day!

We now have our precious daughter in our arms!!! She is a delight and so brave! We went to the Civil Affairs office where there was another group of families ahead of us - the ones who got their girls yesterday and are staying in our hotel. When we got inside the room, there in the alcove was a group of 'nannies' each with a bright orange bundle, dressed identically alike. It was a sight to behold. It didn't take me long to pick out Rebecca at the far end, sitting in her nanny's lap! It took my breath away. We still had to wait, though, to make sure our paper work was in order. Chris said no baby until everything was correct, because he knew we'd be pretty worthless afterward! Ray caught an error on ours, so we had to send it back to be edited. Once it was corrected, THEN, they called our name and a nanny and the director handed Rebecca to me. She never made a sound. Just looked and looked and looked. She wanted to see everything and everyone around her and was as content as she could be. She went to Ray as easily as she came to me and he received the same intent little stare with those shiny, beautiful brown eyes! There was a lot of chaos and crying babies around us but Miss Rebecca just hung out.

She is a great eater and thus far, its the only time she has been fussy is when she is hungry. Otherwise she coos, says dadadadadadada alot and loves to look at her hands. Her hands totally amuse her. She is very patient with us as we fumble with clothes, diapers, baby carriers and baby bottles. She takes it all in stride. Like right now, she is content in her little crib, just cooing away letting mommy blog and daddy totally collapse into the bed because he's been awake since 12:30 AM. Yesterday's nap messed him up for the night.

Tomorrow we go back to Civil affairs, then on to the Notary. Then there will be lots of down time for us to spend with Rebecca. Hopefully, the rain will stop long enough for us to get out and see some sights too.

We are so very blessed with the best little baby girl in the world. God is good.

Nanchang Day 2

Well, here we are. So far our trip has been fantastic. I'll try to catch up on this entry. We get Rebecca later today, and who knows when we'll get to post again after that!
Dave and Deb picked us up at 5:15 AM Friday. Deb served as official family photographer and stayed with us at the airport until we headed for the gate. It was a good thing too. The new suitcase I bought was the one that was a tad over the weight limit. No problem. We just quickly shifted some items to Ray's carry on. Then oops. The zipper on the suitcase broke! Oh no. Deb quickly fixed the zipper and we were able to check it. I'm so glad she was there as the calming presence we needed. From there, I made the decision to not obsess about that suitcase for the entire 18 hours of travel. What would be would be. We spent 4 hours at JFK airport, got lunch, chatted with a fellow passenger and made some last minute calls to friends and family and then we were on our way.
The flight was great! We had our own personal video monitor with DVD, a few select tv shows and music on demand. The meals were tasty and overall it was a pleasant flight. Ray actually slept a good bit and I did some. We arrived in Hong Kong 30 minutes early. And the compromised suitcase made it, albiet barely! The zipper had popped open, but no contents were lost. It stayed together long enough for us to get to the hotel. We taped it up for the next day's trip and it made it to Nanchang ok.
The Hong Kong Marriot Skycity hotel has only been open one month and it was absolutely gorgeous. Ray took a swim and I walked around some. I ran into two American women on the elevator and we chatted some but didn't introduce ourselves. Then, we met up the next day at the airport and low and behold, it was Julia and her mom Sandy who were traveling with us to get Julia's baby.
The efficient shuttle service took us to the airport on Sunday where we met up with all the other families. It was great to meet everyone in person finally. We'd been emailing, talking on the phone and facebook friends for weeks. What a terrific group!
We had an uneventful 1.5 hour flight to Nanchang where our capable guide Chris met us with a van and shuttle bus. The van was for the load of luggage, the bus for the human cargo! Nanchang is cold and rainy but noone seems to care. Nothing can dampen our spirits as we recover from jet lag and anticipate getting our daughters! Most of us are on the 11th floor where there is a giant courtyard type family lounge area furnished with baby walkers and rocking horses for the kids. The hotel is very accustomed to hosting adopting families and had our rooms all well prepared too. We had a crib, baby bath and potty in our room when we arrived. They deliver steaming hot thermoses of water every day to drink, make formula, brush teeth etc.
The dining room has about 16 high chairs lined up ready to go.
The food is served buffet style and although we don't know what most of it is, we can find tasty things to eat and have ventured out some. I had 'black rice bread', fried lettuce which is delicious among other things. Ray is less adventuresome than I but I thought he was very brave last night when he ate the 'hamburger.'
We saw many babies at breakfast this morning. There is another group of families here who arrived and got their girls yesterday. The babies all seemed healthy, beautiful and quite content with their new families. We met a couple and their soon to be 3 year old son from Durham, NC and who live about 5 min. from us! We exchanged info and will be in touch once we get home. We figured we'd see them a lot here too and probably meet up with them again in Guangzhou.
Ray is at the bank exchanging money right now. We will then go to the civil affairs office and complete a portion of the adoption and also meet our babies! So, at 3 pm today, Monday March 2nd, Ray and I will officially become parents of our precious 9 month old baby girl, Rebecca. Signing off for now.