Not Home Quite Yet

We are sitting in the Denver airport right now. Yes, Denver; yes, Thursday, the day after we planned to be home. The parts of the trip we were most nervous about (getting from Guangzhou to get to Hong Kong on time; going through Immigration, customs and security in San Francisco all within our narrow time frame) went smoothly. Before we left China, we said we'll be happy once we get to Denver so we'll know we're safely on our way home. Well, the folks at United decided that wasn't to be. The flight was late leaving San Francisco and we only had an hour connection in Denver. The flight had already left for Tampa by the time we arrived even though there were 11 families on our flight going to Tampa.

Part of the fun was dealing with United Customer Service (or lack there of). They didn't want to do anything for us at first, but after 2 hours of Allen and Dad dealing with customer service, we finally got booked on the flight we're waiting for right now. Flight 1472 at 10:51 should get us to Tampa at 4:09 pm - wish us luck!!

Amelie has been a trooper during this whole thing. It's just been us adults that have been difficult to deal with. We're having fun with her at the airport though. She is really practically walking (okay running) on her own. We still use our fingers, but she is barely using them.

Okay, so I'm going to try to sign off with some bonus pictures and hope to back in good ole F-

L-A today!!

Here are the pictures:

Family Picture on the Red Couch

Nana and Amelie

Amelie likes her food

Too cute

Really too cute

Last days in Guangzhou

Today and yesterday were mostly about shopping in Guangzhou. Mama, Baba, Papa, and Nana have all been buying everything in sight, from little pearls, pieces of Jade, countless outfits, other curious items (we even bought a little mogwai, but Maile must have bought another one because now there are two in the room). Being a new father, Baba even found a need for a 100 year old Japanese sword. Papa has a particular affecion for antiques and cheap watches.

Today is a random thoughts kind of day because there really hasn't been an agenda for the past couple of days. We did take the famous "red couch" picture yesterday, which involved all the parents propping their children up on the couch, and then running away just in time for the camera to snap. Soon afterwards, the children began to wobble all over each other. Amelie, thankfully, was propped up in the corner, so her wobbling was kept to a minimum. Little Victoria did wobble on top of her, and Amelie took it as an opportunity to have a taste of her arm.

The baby next to Amelie in the "2 baby" shot is Emma. Emma and Amelie were roommates in the orphanage. Emma is the daughter of Chris and Lisa Abston, who live in Alabama and are extremely nice people. We are definitely going to have to keep these girls in contact with each other as they get older.

Amelie is saying Baba pretty consistently now, but we're still not certain if she means it in the context of "daddy". She was running a little fever this morning, so we gave her some medicine and put her down for a nap. She seems pretty good right now, and has happy and energetic as ever.

We leave for home tomorrow. We have an early morning flight to Hong Kong, and then on to San Francisco, then Denver, and then Tampa. Amelie is a very strong little girl for her size, and she constantly wiggles her body in any direction at random. So last night at dinner, 3 adults accompanied Amelie to the bathroom for a diaper change. Fifteen minutes later, they all returned. Amelie was clean, however every adult was exhausted. We can't wait for the 18 hours worth of flying that lay ahead.

We love China, but it's time to come home.

Here are the pictures:

• Shopping with Amelie and Nana


• Red Couch photo with Victoria wobbling on Amelie


• Amelie in the wobble proof corner


• Roommates - Amelie and Emma


• Superstar!

Day to Visit the Temples

Poop (n): An icky substance that all babies, even cute ones, produce en-mass. The elevator was full of people all going to different floors, however when they noticed the smell of poop from Amelie, they all got off at the fifth floor. Of course, she is smiling and giggling about it the whole time. The more foul the diaper, the happier the child.

(Allen) Today was a great day, though we started a bit rushed. Amelie woke at 4am, and then again at 8:30am which made us a little late for breakfast. Breakfast at the White Swan is not as good as breakfast in Changsha. The eggs are put into a large catering pan and are too runny. Also, the place is packed so for anything you want from the buffet, you can bet there are already 2 people ahead of you. The trade off, of course, is the wonderful view of the Pearl River and the massive waterfall that occupies the two floors of the double-decker lobby.

The White Swan is filled with other families from other agencies as well, so if you can imagine, Caucasian people seem to outnumber Chinese people on the island. As a result, the entire economy of this tiny island is built around China adoption. There are endless stores filled with tiny traditional uniforms and dresses. Do you need a stroller? No problem, you can borrow one from any of the shops. Heck, you can borrow 50. Anything to bring you in to look at their wares. Most of the shops sell the same stuff, and most of it is a pretty good deal by US standards, though you are still expected to bargain with the merchant. It doesn't take much to knock 30% off the price and is almost expected. We have been shopping for Amelie's "gotcha day" gifts, and have been finding some good things for her. Today, I bought her a little wooden comb with Chinese painting on it. In addition to birthday celebrations, adoptive parents sometimes celebrate "gotcha day" with a gift for the child for the first 16 to 18 years. They are typically symbolic gifts to celebrate becoming a family.

After a hurried breakfast, we took a trip to the Chen Family Temple. This temple, which is now a folk art museum, was a private school dedicated to the Chen family - an ancient and prominent family in Guangzhou. The temple was interesting enough, though we missed much of the tour as we are still learning the ropes of efficiently moving around a stroller, a baby (who is not in the stroller), a diaper bag, and ourselves. When looking at the temple, the carvings on the roof are much larger and ornate than those we saw in north China (in places such as the Forbidden City). We later learned that carving is one of the specialties of the Cantonese people.

Guangdong, the province we are in, used to be called Canton. Its people are still called Cantonese, as is their language, which is very different from Mandarin. Mandarin has 4 tones, while Cantonese has 6. Cantonese people represent the majority of Chinese who live abroad. The people in your local Chinese restaurant are likely Cantonese. Our guide joked with us that Cantonese people are the most adventurous people when it comes to food. She said there is a saying in China about the Cantonese - "Cantonese eat everything in the sky except airplane. Cantonese eat everything on the ground except automobile."

Our next stop was the Temple of Six Banyan trees - a Buddhist temple centered in Guangzhou. Now in China, people are free to practice whatever religion they wish, Buddhism is the most common religion. Our guide told us there are two primary and distinct types of Buddhism - Han Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism, with the Lama being one of the distinguishing traits of the two. There are two Roman Catholic churches in Guangzhou (including one on the tiny island we are staying on). There are mosques for Muslims. There are Taoists. And there are agnostics (mostly the communist party members who are forbidden to practice a faith).

The temple was filled with the smell of incense and Len unburdened himself of some money to the beggars outside the temple (which should bring him wonderful luck). Most of the families received a blessing from a Buddhist monk who chanted throughout the blessing – he had such a wonderful voice (Amelie was mesmerized during the whole thing -- can we take that monk on the plane with us?). This was certainly an experience that we will cherish from this trip.

Amelie is progressing so quickly! She is so much more talkative now, and a smile is an easy thing to get from her. She crawls long distances which is a big change from the beginning of the week when she was dragging herself across the floor on her belly. And she is starting to stand flat on her feet instead of on her tippy toes! So may be damage from the walker is finally being undone. She eats quite a bit (she growls when we don’t feed her fast enough for her liking), though we don't give her as much formula as her original schedule stated.

Here are the pictures:

• At the Chen Family Temple


• Altar at the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees Where the Families Receive their Blessing


• This girl likes to eat - she's definitely one of us!


• Daddy does well feeding Amelie eggs with chopsticks


• Amelie gets time in the playroom

Guangzhou Day 1 - (Updated Pics!)

(Allen) I'm sitting in Nana and Papa's plush hotel room at the luxurious White Swan hotel in Guangzhou. The White Swan is known as the baby hotel, as all of the agencies seem to enjoy booking their clients here. It is a 5 star hotel, and the first one I have stayed in since my brief stay in the Ritz in St. Louis (where I stayed in the same room Jay Leno did only a day before, and was in the elevator with several members of the New York Knicks -- but that's another adventure to share). We have an attendant who is literally standing next to our room door. Her job is to push the down elevator button for you and when the door opens, she says politely "this way please." When you get to another floor, there is another attended waiting for you when the elevator doors slide open. Again, she says politely "this way please," pointing us to the proper exit of the elevator. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This way please.

I awoke this morning at around 4:00am and was surprised to see Amelie still snoozing deeply. On this, of all mornings, Amelie elects to sleep the entire night. We have to wake her if we are going to be on time for the bus and the plane. As Maile wrote in the last update, I was appointed "Veronica II" for the morning. My job was to talk with the cashier and ensure that all families had properly settled their bill before departure. Thirty minutes of having housekeeping manually check each room whittled away Baba's brief breakfast window, but Maile kindly brought me some mushed up muffins. All families were on board and the bus was pulling out at exactly 6:30am -- mission accomplished.

The flight was smooth, and all of the babies did really well the entire time. We were all proud parents. Amelie continues to draw oogles from people, western and chinese alike. We sat next to a chinese lady on the plane, and another in the seat in front of us turned around to play with her. Amelie still reaches for chinese women in a social manner, as if to say "hold me." This bothers me a little, but I don't think this bothers Maile because she has so clearly bonded with us, but our guide told us that we should limit Amelie's physical interaction with chinese ("don't want her to always prefer chinese face"), and that is what we are doing. So we try and distract her and play with her. I hope it is not obvious or offending to chinese women if we redirect our daughter during their attempts to connect with her. I know they mean no harm, and we really do love the people and the culture. Sigh, Amelie is most assuredly going through a confusing time in her life, but our bond with her grows every day.

When we landed, we went directly to get Amelie's visa photo (*snap* *flash* seconds before the frightened meltdown), and then next door for her health exam. Amelie is perfectly healthy from what the doctors over here can tell. She currently weighs 16.84lbs. She is a long, thin, noodle of a girl. We had to undress Amelie for the physical, and so we thought it an excellent opportunity to change her diaper. Both Maile and I carried our individual diaper bags on the plane, and there were lots of cool things in there, such as the portable dvd player, old laundry, bibs, and our paper work. Neither one of us thought to actually store a diaper in this bag, however. Thanks to Heather from our travel group for lending us one at just the right time.

The White Swan was 10 minutes away. To continue from the first paragraph, the White Swan is situated on Shamian Island in the city of Guangzhou. Guangzhou is as western friendly as most any city in the US. We ate twice at a close by restaurant called "Lucy's" which is popular both in its western cuisine and its proximity to the hotel. It is very laid back here, and you could almost imagine yourself in a small Florida beach town. It reminds me more of Sanibel than China.

More random Amelie observations -

She can stand by herself when she forgets that she can't do it.

She has the most wonderful smile. When I see it, I can't move. How do I keep her from harm for ever and ever? I now know that being a parent is hard not just because of the late night feedings, diaper changes, meltdowns, etc. It's also hard because you love this child more than you love yourself, and that is a vulnerable feeling that doesn't go away.

Maile is going to update the blog with pictures when she can, including yesterday's entry. The *very slow* upload speed from here makes that a longer task than it should be, so we have to plan a little better for it.

(Maile) Here are some things that we, as first time parents have learned:

- Unless you want a very poopy diaper flung across the room by a squirmy baby, you must keep it out of arms reach of said baby when changing her diaper.

- How to eat with all of the food a foot away from you.

- Even if the food is a foot away from you, if it is on a placemat, it can still end up in your lap.

- When you have an active and restless child (which is an understatement in her growth report by the way), you can pretty much cancel your gym membership.

Here are the pictures:

• Pooped after her first plane ride


• Amelie's first traditional Chinese outfit


• Amelie gets a physical


• I think Nana might be smitten


• New outfit from Nana and Papa
  

Last Night in Changsha (Updated Pics!)

Many of you have been wondering if Nana and Papa actually exist because I have not been very good about adding pictures to the blog entries. I do have some great pictures of Nana and Papa now with their new granddaughter. I will have to update this entry tomorrow with photos since I'm experiencing technical difficulties with adding photos and I'm quite tired. Please stay tuned...

First of all, we want to thank everyone for all of the great messages we have received in response to our blog. We had no idea how much this journey would mean. We avidly read all of the wonderful encouraging emails that come through even if we don't have time to respond. It does mean so much.

We're wrapping up the end of our trip to Changsha in the Hunana province where Amelie is from. Tomorrow (way early) we fly to Guangzhou in the Guangdong province. Guangzhou is the city with the American consulate. This is where we'll take Amelie to her first medical appointment to get her checked out. I know this will be hard for us as first time parents. I imagine Amelie will not be thrilled with this part of the trip. Guangzhou is where we will also get Amelie's visa so we can bring her back home to the States with us. We just got her Chinese passport today. When we get back home, we will re-adopt her so we can get the U.S. version of all of these documents - passport, birth certificate, etc. This will make it much easier in the future when we do any kind of travel or check her into school, among other bureacratic processes.

So today has been another big day for Amelie's development. She has completely warmed up to her Nana and Papa and deliberately reaches out to them. Now we'll just have to work on getting Nana and Papa to share nicely. Amelie has a way of hooking parents and grandparents when she goes to them and puts her head on their shoulder and looks up at them with those deep, expressive eyes. That bright smile will go along way to wrap us all around her tiny little fingers too.

Some other developments she has made, has been to stand up completely unassisted for several seconds. She even took two steps toward me this evening. We've decided we are absolutely not getting her a walker when we get home. It seems as though she has spent most of her time up until now in a walker. Her growth report states that she walks with support. When you support her and she walks she tries to thrust forward with her hips and her legs go rubbery. In four days without a walker, we are so impressed with the progress she has made. My next goal is to get her to say Mama (or Baba) by the end of the trip. It sounds like she is already saying Mama, but I'm not sure if she is saying it in the right context.

Today, we ventured off, just the 5 of us, to Martyr's Park here in Changsha. It is a beautiful park and quite large. There was a very large new car show going on today and it was very interesting to see the makes and models that are sold over here. Hyundais and Volkswagens seem to be much cheaper here, while Toyotas and Mercedes are a lot more expensive. Once we past the car show, we got to see how beautiful the park really was. All throughout, were beautifully designed Asian gardens and landscapes. Part of the park was actually an amusement park with some rides like roller coasters that looked like they had never been through a safety inspection and bumper cars as well as midway games.

Well, it's late and we head off quite early. Our guide, Veronica, heads off to the airport ahead of us to check in our bags. Man are we getting spoiled! Allen was nominated to be the group leader in her place to make sure everyone settles their bill and gets on the bus on time. So far, he is running a tight ship.

Talk to you soon from Guangzhou!

Here are the pictures:

• Nana and her Baby Girl Valentine
• Ah, that face!
• Papa just chillin' with Xiao Xiao
• Amelie is ready for the park
• Chinglish - Does anyone know what this sign says?!?!

Our Little Extrovert

It's Day 4 of us having our little Xiao Xiao and
we're starting to see the evidence of the little extroverted child that was described in her growth report. The past few days have been wonderful. Amelie has been a trooper in all the tours and new experiences we've been exposing her to. She takes it all in stride and quietly observes all of the people around her when we're out and about. When we're in the room as just the immediate family, her fun, extroverted personality shines through. Today, that personality showed when we were out on a tour of a famous university up on the mountain of Yue Lu, also a famous mountain. It is an old school where famous scholars, including Confucius came to lecture. We got to see a performance of Chinese classical music. Amelie just loved this part of the tour and really started dancing and hopping around in my lap and making very appreciative, somewhat loud noises to show she truly does like music.

Early this morning outside of our hotel, we took a little detour on the way to breakfast. There was a large group of people in the courtyard all doing ballroom dancing. Old and young were out either learning or teaching the art. Off to the side was a group of older people doing Tai Chi using large, bright red fans and swords as part of their art. What a thing to get to go out and see. Baba and Xiao Xiao got to dance with the ballroom dancers and even Nana and Papa gave it a shot. The whole group of us were quite a spectacle as being the only non-Chinese people out there dancing. Xiao Xiao is quite popular around here, and you can see part of that by the crowds of people around Baba as he is holding her.


Living out of a hotel room does have it's challenges with a new baby, but I will miss being around Amelie's culture and people who have a true appreciation for what it means for these girls to have a family. When we were at the school, a group of Chinese people came and oogled over Amelie to exclaim how beautiful she was. One woman probably doesn't know how much she made my day when she said in genuine surprise how much Amelie looked like me. Another lady said that Xiao Xiao is "lucky girl". I smiled and told her we were the lucky ones. Someone else said how we have big hearts. It was wonderful to have such a positive reaction to us adding China's children to our families.

Before we went to the school, we went to the Hunan Embroidery Museum. Embroidery is famous in Hunan as it really became known and well organized here. The artwork that is done with the silk embroidery is truly amazing. We saw such large pieces of artwork of people that really looked like photographs and animals that looked like they had real fur on them. Some of the most famous artwork is the embroidery that looks beautiful on both sides of the silk. We saw one that when you looked at it from one side, you saw a beautiful panda. When you rotated it to the other side, it looked like a tiger. Both sides were exquisite.

Baba is quite happy because he has gotten a lot of quality time with Amelie today and she is definitely smitten with her father. Mama had to learn to share and let Baba carry her around. It's amazing how you can walk around for hours with your new baby strapped to you and end the day with every muscle in your body being sore. What a wonderful ache to have! I think we can cancel our gym memberships though!

We are very curious to see how Xiao Xiao's personality evolves over the next few days. She is already so popular here. One man at the concert was even trying to get pictures of Amelie. I can see how much the local people are taken with her. She is really starting to turn on the charm too and flashing her beautiful 4 tooth smile more readily now. Hopefully Baba will be okay when Amelie gets to be a teenager...

Here are the pictures:

• Xiao Xiao and Baba go ballroom dancing
• Xiao Xiao is very popular
• Who can resist this face
• What a beautiful smile
• Xiao Xiao loves her Baba

Kindergarten Cop.. er.. Stop

(Allen) Last night, Amelie made it to 2:30am before waking up. I should mention however, that we have not been calling her Amelie this entire trip. When we address her, we call her "Xiao Xiao". Xiao Xiao was her nickname at the orphanage, and if you call to her using that name, she will turn her head and look at you. When Xiao Xiao wakes up, she is usually wet and she is usually hungry. After a dry diaper and a bottle, she lives up to her reputation as a restless baby. I don't know if it is because she has spent a lot of her time in a walker, but her legs, while very strong, are not used to try and walk, but to plant herself and then launch her body into space. Both Maile and I have taken a headbutt to the face so far on this trip. You have all been warned - our kid will inadvertently give you a fat lip if you aren't careful. After a couple of hours of WWF Smackdown with mama and baba in the bed, we got her back to sleep and she zzzz'd until around 7:15am.

Xiao Xiao has a blue mark on her fanny and lower back that kind of looks like a bruise. Being the concerned parents we are, we asked our guide about them and she informed us that they are "mongolian spots". Mongolian spots can be anywhere on the body, but are common among asians and american indians on the buttocks or back. Over 90% of American Indians are born with a mongolian spot, and 80% of Asians. If you would like to learn more about them, I did a quick google search and found this very good explaination -> http://www.drgreene.com/21_833.html

Needless to say, we are going to confirm this diagnosis when she has her physical in a few days. It does not hurt her at all. It does have daddy a little paranoid about whether American doctors have sufficient experience with this, or will jump to conclusions, so we are going to go into our American appointment fully armed with information.


Today we went to Walmart. I will say this - I do not generally like Walmart. I have always been a Target man. However Walmart in Changsha is the best Walmart I have ever been in (and in a country of 1.1 billion people, it is suprisingly less crowded than a typical American Walmart). We bought some more formula for Xiao Xiao and we picked up a walker to donate to the orphanage and a few other things. It is a two story Walmart, the food selections are wonderful and varied, and they have a lot of nifty inventions that I wish existed back in the states (such as flat ramp like escalators so you can take your cart or baby stroller from floor to floor without a problem -- and get this, the cart will automatically lock down on an incline or decline so you don't even have to hold onto it). As long as we're talking about nifty inventions, the stop lights have a large LED hanging next to them that counts down how much longer the light is red or green or whatever. Outstanding idea and something I've never personally seen in the States.

The best part of the day was a visit to a local Kindergarten. The children there were so friendly and excited to see us. Seldom to they get visitors, especially "big noses." They gave us gifts, put on dance and singing shows, and displayed their art. Some of the children stay (and sleep) at this kindergarten all week long, and see mom and dad only on the weekends, as sometimes mom and dad work far away. The children were beautiful and welcoming and we were amazed and completely impressed with each of them. Yes we have pictures of Walmart and the funny escalator, but these children deserve the bulk of the picture space today. I tell you seeing them has only deepened our love for our own little girl and for China.


To the wonderful children of China, thank you so much for sharing with us. You've certainly touched our hearts.

Here are the pictures:

• Recess #1
• Recess #2
• Art...by a six year old. Yes, a six year old!
• Dance Class #1
• Exchanging gifts and greetings