TypePad seems to be down right now, so I thought I would send out a quick update.
After
another day of sightseeing yesterday and a quick and uneventful flight
from Nanjing, we have arrived in the mecca of China adoption in
Guangzhou and are very quickly acclimating to the luxury of our
humongous hotel room at the Holiday Inn Shifu. Most adoptive parent
stay at the White Swan Hotel on ShaMian Island which is where the
British and European area is when they used to have colonies here.
ShaMian Island looks and feels like you are in Europe, not China. It
is surrounded by a river, so they call it an island. We are staying
off of the island where we can get a better, bigger hotel room and more
China culture for less money than you can on the island. And let me
tell you, I got my mansion! The room we stayed at in Nanjing compared
to the one here in Guangzhou are as different as night and day. It is
like we went from the one room dirt floor cabin to Daddy Warbuck’s
place! Ha, ha! We are in the middle of a big walking area where there
are many, many shops and restaurants. I couldn’t do much shopping in
Nanjing due to the luggage restrictions, but I am free for all now as
we can all add almost 20 lbs to each suitcase! I guess the rooms at
the WS are only about 1/3 the size of what we were able to get here.
You can actually run from one end of the room to the other and not bump
anything! Plus, the dressers, desk and other furniture are higher
which is safer for Emma and there is lots and lots of storage space for
organizing. We have a comfy couch and a nice stuffed chair.
Josh and Katelyn are enjoying the pool right now on the 14th
floor on top of the building while Emma and I stayed in and took a
nap. Mei-mei is still sleeping and I was able to pull the nice comfy
chair with a foot rest over to type away. I haven’t blogged in this
much comfort in a while! Our guide here is very, very sweet. Her name
is Helen. She met us here in our room after breakfast (which is once
again fabulous) and we were able to complete the paperwork that we
needed for this week. We then went over to the island to have Emma’s
medical examination that she needs to complete the US part of our
adoption. As far as the Chinese gov. is concerned, she is ours free
and clear. She also had a very cute visa picture taken. Now I don’t
think this girl has taken a bad picture yet! She did not like the
doctors checking her out at all, but she is all normal. She has a
little cough/cold still which she has passed to me, but other than that
she is great! She weighs about 23.5 lbs. and is 32 inches tall. That
is right on from what we learned in her last development report.
After
the med. exam, we headed to Carrefours market which was so much
fun!!!! I got tons of English/Mandarin books and flash cards for like
$1 and $0.50 a piece. Some cute little baby bowls with handles for
about $.50 too! We got lots of snacks, diapers, formula, drinkable
yogurt, pop, big noodle soup cups for lunches, water, baby food, paper
plates, some nice Maybelline lip gloss for me, some liquid Dove bath
soap, face wash, kleenexes, bandaids, and a few other little things.
We got all of that for just over $55. I mean our cart was full, and we
had expensive baby items in there too! It was awesome. Josh got in
trouble by the manager for taking some pictures in the store, but he
did he James Bond picture-taking tecnique and got a pic of the manager
who fussed at him! I will share on the blog when Typepad gets back
up!! Too, too funny!
Our Emma has had some wonderful breakthroughs this week. We
did visit the orphanage on Thursday, and it was such an overwhelming
and emotional experience, I will have to write about it a little later
when I can take in and process all that we saw. Mei-mei finally is
getting used to her stroller and rode in it some while we toured a 600
year old private garden in Nanjing. It was really amazing. At the
garden, we saw a short musical show with traditional Chinese
instruments and some Chinese acrobatic tricks. Emma watched it all
very, very intently. They served tea at the tables while we watched
the show. There was an older lady that was blocking Emma’s view from
the stroller. When she realized that, she very kindly moved over. I
thought that was very sweet as people at home would not even look
around or care if they were blocking a baby’s view most of the time!
We then saw the "Old Town" part of Nanjing where there are still the
original buildings with original architecture. It was fabulous. We
ate at a McDonalds there and Emma had her first french fries, which she
loved. Don’t worry, we made sure to take pics! The McDonalds was very
crowded there! Leah and Carolyn Gregg, you would have love that they
had Hello Kitty for the toys!! I took lots of pictures for you as
there was Hello Kitty stuff and signs all over the restaurant! The
people beside us left part of their sandwich on the table. Well there
was an older man who had been eyeing it from outside. He must have
been starving as he came in the door right by us and grabbed the
sandwich and went back outside to sit on the window ledge and eat it.
The quarter pounders have a cucumber vegetable sauce on them which is
spicy. I loved it! It was different for sure, but good. It felt so
good to drink a Coca-cola with ice in it. I can’t even tell you how
good that was!
Our next breakthrough with Emma was that she willingly went
to Baba in the van on the way to the airport. I handed him her snack
cup and she went right over to him and sat on his lap. Well, he just
melted as that is the first time she went to him without crying since
the day we met her. He could not get enough of her sweetness! We
just welled up in tears as she played with him and snuggled into his
lap. Katelyn had a small fit of jealously, not over Baba, but that
Emma won’t let her hold her much yet!! We told Jie-jie to give her
time and when we get home, things will be a lot different. We had fun
watching some girls play London Bridges at the airport. They were all
so happy and running around playing. There was a very sweet family who
set next to us while waiting for their flight, and the girl wanted to
look at Emma’s photo album. It is all labeled in Mandarin, so they
were able to tell who was who. They thought that was the neatest
thing. Their little girl was 8 years old and she was so interested in
us. She came over to watch Katelyn draw pictures, so I told Katelyn
she should draw one for the girl. It was really sweet when she gave it
to her. A lot of people, especially in Nanjing, were very curious
about us and would ask questions about us. It is so interesting to be
the minority here, the only white people wherever we go.
Emma is really starting to show us her personality, which is
super fun and cute. She will go to Baba now, but she really prefers
Mama. If she doesn’t want something, she definitely lets you know.
She is such a Mama’s girl as she absolutely loves to be out and about
and she loves shopping. She is so, so good and a very happy baby. Her
skin is looking 100% better. Aquaphor has been so good for her. I
think just getting all the vitamins and nourishment we’ve been loading
her up with has worked wonders for her as well. Her skin is so
beautiful and soft and smooth now. She has the longest eyelashes which
gets many compliments. Many of the Chinese people will comment how
much she looks like us and on how pretty her eyes are. We think that
is kind of funny when they say she looks like us. She loves to play
and toddle around this big room and explore. She slept from the time
we started landing last night at 8:30 pm until about 8 something this
morning. She is such a wonderful sleeper and takes great naps too.
She mimics everything we do, and she is quickly learning how to clap,
blow kisses, and say Mama and Baba. She will try to say just about
anything. Today she even gave Baba a big kiss all on her own accord.
Her eyes truly do look like little crescent moons when she smiles. She
has such a pixie looking face. I call her my little munchkin. She
loves to play with Jie-jie (pronounced g-eh g-eh), but she doesn’t like
it if she thinks Kate is taking her food when really Katelyn is just
helping me feed her. I love her smell, it is such a wonderful precious
baby smell. I can’t stop sniffing her head! Her legs are a little
bowed which makes her walking a little wobbly, but I think with good
nutrition and vitamins that they will straighten as she grows. She is
already walking much better here.
Katelyn has been a fantastic big sister. The small hotel
room was very hard on her as it was on all of us, so now that we have
space, things are a million times better. She loves her Mei-mei so
much and is very, very sweet to her.
I think we are going to enjoy Guangzhou so very much. We
don’t have much of a schedule to keep, but we will do some touring of a
Folk Art museum tomorrow and visit a jade and pearl market. On July
2nd is our consulate appointment. We just have to stay in our room in
case there are any questions while our guide goes to the consulate for
us. We will have our swearing in at the consulate on July 3rd. Then
home on the 4th!! WooHoo!! Okay, I don’t know if I am going to get
through that airport celebration without some major tears as I start to
cry every time I just think about it. Hopefully there will be someone
taking a lot of pictures as we come down the ramp, cause I don’t know
if I’ll have sense enough to!
I can tell you are all praying and I feel it surround us
throughout so much of this trip. It is such a blessing that none of us
have gotten sick up to this point, except for me having a little bit of
a cold. I don’t know if it is allergies from the pollution or just a
cold. Thank goodness for Mucinex D 12-hour stuff. It is the best
stuff to have for a little cold. If you have a cold, drop everything
and run to the pharmacy for your Mucinex D. It is basically the old
sudafed with an expectorant, but it last for 12 hours. It just rocks.
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