Santa

We went to Santa last week. Although Leila surely didn't love him, she didn't exactly hate him either.
We finally have our first appointment scheduled for her mouth. We're supposed to go to Children's Hospital in Columbus on Jan 6. We'll meet with the entire cleft team that day. They will evaluate her and decide a course of action. They will decide and when everything will need to be done.

Visiting With Friends

Last week we had the opportunity to see some of our friends from China. Mark and Kimberly Kovach live in NC, but have family up in OH. They were on their way to OH and stopped by our house on the way. It was SO nice to get to see them! Although there's less than a week between the girls as far as age goes - Anna Kathryn was much bigger than Leila when we were in China. Not anymore. They're just about the same size now. (Anna Kathryn still has WAY more hair though.) They just look so cute together. We had a great time catching up. I just wish they could have stayed longer. Hopefully we'll become a regular stopping place now on their way through.

1st Steps

Leila took her 1st steps! Up until now, she's only taken 1 or maybe 2 at a time, so I didn't think they really counted. Tonight, she was taking 3, 4, and even 5 at a time. So I think it's really official now.
Gosh, she's grown so much in the last 2 months. She's changed so much in such a short time. She's filling out. (She's gained about 4 lbs.) Her hair is getting thicker. Most of the time, she's a very happy baby too. She loves to play rough. She still throws up some, but not nearly as much. She will eat any and everything we give her. And she has her Daddy wrapped completely and totally around her little finger.
On another note, Austin got his first deer with a bow last week. It was a 10 point, so he was pretty happy about it.
Darrell has started basketball practice already, and Austin's wrestling practice starts tomorrow. We're moving into our 'busy' season.

Shots

Today was not a very good day for my baby. She had her 1st doctor's appt here in the States. We got a shot record from China. They recommend however, that we have her blood drawn and tested to make sure that she's really had what they say she's had and that it's up to the US standards. Also, she's had a few that US does not require (encephalitis) and has not had ones that US does require. Basically, she's behind on her shots. But what it meant today - was that she had to have blood drawn, and still get 2 shots too. So she got stuck with a needle 3 times. Poor baby. She was not happy.

Trick-or-Treat and Another Birthday

We went trick-or-treating on Thurs night, and then went to the block party. It was a little bit cold, but Leila seemed to be okay. She loves being out with people, and being on the go. Have you ever seen such a pretty bunny?

Darrell also had his birthday this week. He turned 12 on Friday. He's such a good boy, but he's growing up on me.

Happy 1st Birthday Leila

It's Leila's 1st birthday! Her 1st cake is actually her 1st Barbie doll too. How cool is that?! (And it was really, really good too.) A lady at church made it for her. Her certificate of citizenship came in the mail today. What great timing.

Home Almost a Month

Leila had an ear infection last week, but other than that, she's adjusted really well.

Once she got past that initial reaction to the spoon (where she screamed), she's now decided she likes food. So far, she likes everything we've given her. But the majority of her 'food' is still the bottle with cereal in it. She'll eat what we feed her either with the spoon or our fingers, but she will NOT pick it up and put it in her mouth by herself.

She has a little push toy. Darrell takes it and has her walk back and forth across the living room with it. If he has his way, she'll be walking on her own soon. (Then she'll get into his stuff and he'll be sorry.) And she still isn't quite 16 lbs, so she looks like she's too little to be walking anyway.

Here she is with our 2 dogs. They've adjusted to her quite well. They check the car seat every time we carry it in. I'm just not sure if it's to see if she's okay or if it's to see if we brought that thing back again.

Adjusting

We've had Leila just a little over a month now. The strides she's made have just been amazing.
I started her on baby food after we got back to the states. For a while there, I was ready to give up. I thought about just continuing with only the bottle until after her surgery and then trying again. It seemed like with what came out her nose, there couldn't be anything going down at all. About the time, I was ready to give quit - she started getting better. It's not good, but it's much better than it was. She's getting better at eating, and I've learned that thicker food works better. She still spits up, but not as much as before.
Developmentally, she's growing by leaps and bounds. When we first got her - she couldn't really sit up. Now, not only does she sit up - she's pulling herself up and standing by herself.
She still sleeps great. (That's such a blessing.) She usually sleeps 11-12 hrs at night, and then takes at least one, sometimes 2 naps a day. I know that's from being in the crib so much at the orphanage. (Hey, there's a silver lining to everything.)
I have her 1st doctor's appt scheduled for Nov 6 - not too long after her 1st birthday, which is the 29th. She'll check her out and then send her on to the specialist, who will then determine when and where she'll have her 1st surgery.
These are the 'welcome home' pictures we had taken.

10/1

When we got home on Sat, I found that our friends (Lisa and Renee) had cleaned my house. AND, Lisa made and left me homemade chicken & noodles and brownies (my favorites). That helped so much. I've had so much to do this week, with getting settled - that was something I didn't have to worry about right away.

Every day gets a little easier. Night and day is finally switched back to US time. Jet lag is almost gone.

Up to this point, Leila has only had a bottle with cereal in it - no 'regular' food at all. I didn't want to try to change anything while still in China though. I thought I'd wait until we got home and then start food. I thought I'd start with cereal, since she has it in every bottle anyway. I figured it would be the same thing - just a different method of delivery. She does not agree with this new approach. We started on Mon. She screamed. Every time she'd open her mouth for a breath, I'd stick some in. But she still absolutely refused to swallow it.
On Tues, same thing, but she merely cried instead of screaming. I thought we were making progess. Today - she actually swallowed a bite! WooHoo! At this rate, she'll be eating table food by the time she's 5.

I took her into Darrell's school today so everyone could meet her. (His 6th grade class has been following the blog.) When we got there, they had a basket full of baby gifts for her! How neat was that?! All the teachers passed her around (and a few students too). Thankfully she didn't spit up on any of them.

I tried to appy for her US birth certificate today, but I got nowhere. There was one particular woman at the courthouse that was just really hateful too. If she didn't know what to do, she could have just said so, w/o being such a witch about it.
Even though her adoption is legal and binding in China, it's suggested that we re-adopt her in the US. Another lady at the courthouse said that she thought we needed to do that first. I don't think so - I think they just didn't know what to do, so it's easier to pass it off on someone else and not bother. I guess I need to consult an attorney and go from there.

So now, I've got to get the insurance straightened out, get her re-adopted, get a US birth certificate, and possibly a US passport. I don't know if that's all or not. I keep thinking - I made it thru all the other paperwork, surely I can get thru this too.
Oh, and someday - I'm going to print out the pictures we took while we were there.

Something else that I kept meaning to mention but always forgot - you don't have to tip in China. Tipping waiters and people like that, is considered insulting. The only people we had to tip was the bellboy. $1 USD for 2 medium size bags is about 'right'. And yet, we got absolutely excellent service at all the restaurants - WAY better than you normally get in the US.

Home at Last!

We finally made it home. About 28 hours after leaving our hotel room in GZ, we made it to our house. It was a long journey - 3 flights. The 1st flight went really well. The 2nd flight (the 12 hr one) started okay and ended okay, but had a bad spell there in the middle. The 3rd flight, was not good. Thankfully it only lasted a little over an hour.
We almost missed our connection in Chicago. We had very little time to begin with. We had to go thru customs, go thru immigration, get our luggage, recheck our luggage, and go thru (it seemed like) tons of security spots. We never stopped once. We were almost running thru the airport. We made it to the plane, just in time.
Our luggage however did NOT make it. I can't actually say I was too surprised. We got home about 11:00 Sat night. Our luggage made it about 10:30 Sun night. We ended up leaving our stroller in Chicago, because we simply couldn't wait for them to get it off the plane. I can picture still it going round and round on a baggage thing in the airport.
When we got to Charleston, my parents and my brother and sister-in-law were waiting for us. They were SUCH a welcome sight. Leila was very pleasant at that point. She let everyone hold her.
THEN, we started the hour drive home. See, she had a seat on the plane coming home. I had originally planned to buy an infant carseat while in China to put her in. That way, she'd be better able to rest, and so would we. That didn't happen. They don't use car seats there. (We saw a baby sitting on the dashboard one day, and a small child with his head out of a sunroof another day.) We did have a car seat in the truck at the airport, but you have to remember - this child has never been strapped down before. She did NOT like it at all. She screamed (not cried) herself to sleep. Thankfully, by this point, she was so tired it didn't take long.
At this point, I'm exhausted. Jet lag is catching up fast. I now have luggage to unpack, mail and papers to sort out, laundry to do, etc, etc, etc. I'll post some pictures at home later.

Friday - 9/26

This will probably be my final post from China.

We went to the US consulate today to pick up Leila's visa. We took an oath swearing that all the information we had submitted was accurate and true. That was it! Everything about this trip hinged on when we could get our consulate appt. Maggie and Rosa turned all of our paperwork in yesterday. I know they did all of the behind the scene running part of that for us. But all we had to do, was show up, let them see that all of our passports matched our faces, take the oath and leave.

We ate at the Chinese restaurant here in the hotel for our last meal here with some of our friends. Now they had some strange things on the menu - scorpion soup, eel, lots of feet, shark fin, bean curd, snow frog, sea cucumber, abalone....
I tried some of the snow frog w/ crab. I thought it was pretty good. I couldn't eat a lot of it, but a little was okay. I'm just not sure what the little round crunchy things were in it.

We're leaving the hotel tomorrow morning at 7 AM. We fly to Beijing, then to Chicago, then finally to Charleston. We're due to arrive there at 8:07 PM. I figure we'll have about 26-27 hrs total travel time.
Wish us luck and pray for us on that.

It's been really sad saying goodbye to some of our new friends tonight. We're happy to be coming home, but it's a bittersweet joy to be leaving China too.

Thursday - 9/25

We went to Shamian Island today to finish up our last minute shopping.
This evening, we had our last group dinner. It was at a famous Chinese restaurant called Banana Leaf. Some of the food, I recognized, some I wasn't so sure of. It was all good though. It was one of those places where they play music and dance around while you eat - then they pull people out of the audience to join them. All 4 of the kids from our table, got picked (coerced) into dancing with them. Some of the dancers REALLY liked the 3 boys at our table though.

We got to try blueberry pringles tonight. (The kids and I liked them, David didn't.)

The main money here is the yuan or the RMB. The exchange rate right now is about $1 USD for 6.7 RMB. So if something costs 20 yuan, it's about $3.

Here's some more things we've learned.
The more traditional Chinese do not wear wedding rings. Some of the younger, more westernized ones do now though.
Very older, very traditional Chinese custom was that unmarried women had bangs, married women did not.

Jade can come in a variety of colors, not just green (including white and even purple).
Jade is a very hard stone. Diamond is a 10 - Jade is a 7. something.
In China, Jade is considered as valuable as diamonds.
In fact, white jade was put on the back of the gold medals for the olympics.

Wednesday - 9/24

Not much today. We were supposed to go to Shamian Island to do a little more shopping, but didn't get to go. Hong Kong is only 3 hrs away and they got hit with a typhoon yesterday, so we've had alot of rain yesterday and today both. As a result, Shamian Island had some street flooding that prevented us from going.
Instead, we went to a Chinese folk art museum. It wasn't very big, but it was neat. They had some beautiful embroidery, which China is famous for. The most amazing part though, was the ivory carvings. They were extremely intricate and absolutely unbelievable. Unfortnately, I have no pictures. Since we were supposed to go shopping today, and go there tomorrow, we did not take our camera. Trust me though, the carvings were something else.

Another thing we found out - Coffee shops are not really coffee shops here, they're bars.

Our paperwork goes to the consulate tomorrow, so we have to hang around the hotel room in the morning, in case there are any questions about any of it. We actually go to the consulate ourselves on Friday.
We have our last group dinner tomorrow night. Things are winding down here.

Tuesday - 9/23

The rest of our group arrived at various times yesterday. I can't tell you how good it was to see them all. People that were strangers a week and a half ago, are now allies and friends in this foreign land. They were truly a site for sore eyes. As homesick as we were getting, it all seems so much more bearable now. And to hear some of their stories about the places they've been and the provinces they went to - it seems as though we've been sitting (as one lady put it) in the 'promised land' all this time.

After breakfast, one person from each family (me) went to a 'paperwork party'. We filled out several papers and forms that had to be done for the rest of the appts and such that still need to be completed before we can bring the children home.

This afternoon, all the babies had their medical exams. It wasn't a very detailed exam. There were 3 stations. At the 1st station, they were weighed and measured. Leila weighs 14.8 lbs, and is 25 inches long. At the 2nd station, they checked her eyes, ears, and mouth. She did NOT like that. (That does not bode well considering the medical procedures that await us upon return to the states.) At the final station, they listened to her heart and lungs. That was it.

We then stopped at a grocery store so the families that arrived yesterday could get water and whatever else they needed.

Tonight, we decided to splurge on dinner. We ate at one of the restaurants in our hotel with the Christians family. It was a Japanese restaurant, but it did have chairs. (One of them here doesn't - you have to sit on the floor.) We had a good time, and the food was good, but it was really pricey. We won't be going back there. After the chefs finished cooking, they passed Leila back and forth while we finished eating.

I learned some more interesting facts today.
There is no drinking age in China - beer is sold in vending machines like coke.
Marijuana is legal and grows in public.
It's legal (but not really admirable) for men to beat women.
BUT, it's illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving.
Their is no tooth fairy in China. If you lose a tooth from the top, you throw it on the roof, but if you lose a tooth from the bottom, you throw it in the ditch.

Monday - 9/22

We had another free day today, and we did nothing. We stayed at the hotel all day. It was unbearably hot outside.
The boys got a thing at the corner market. It's sort of like a hackey sack, but instead of being a ball on the end, it has a series of round discs and has feathers coming out the top. They had planned to play it in the hallway, but weren't allowed. They ended up playing it on the tennis court - which is outside on the 9th floor (by the swimming pool).
We're so tired of eating out (especially things that are somewhat unfamiliar), we decided to cook in tonight. That's a little hard when you don't even have a microwave - all we have is a hot pot to boil water. We bought some ramen noodle type things at the market and fixed those. It was a nice change, and a cheap dinner too.
We gave Leila a cookie to suck on tonight. It was probably the first thing other than a bottle she's ever had. She didn't mind it, but she wasn't thrilled either.

Sunday

We had a free day today, so we got ventured out on our own. We took a taxi and went to Shamian Island to do some shopping. (That's where a lot of adoptive families stay.) We only had a little bit of difficulty with the taxi driver getting there. Once we got there, it was a very nice day. Most everyone there could understand us. We saw lots of Americans. We heard lots of English. And we ate in an American restaurant. It was great. We found a nice little shop, where the shopkeeper was willing to bargain on any and everything. Once we were done, he hailed us a cab, and told the cab driver where we needed to come back to.
After we got back to the hotel tonight, Austin and I walked down to the corner market to buy diapers. We found and decided to try honey flavored ice cream. It was okay - WAY better than the pea flavor.

Saturday Evening

We went swimming at the hotel pool this evening (you have to wear a bathing cap). This was Leila's 1st time in a pool.
The other picture is from the park earlier today. It's some local girls that wanted their picture taken with Darrell.

The park was out in the 'country' part of Guangdong. Guangdong is the name of the province. A province is like a state. China has 5. Thing was - it just looked like a dirty part of the city. Here in this area, the farmers lease their land to factories, because they can make more money that way. That explains why the 'country' here looks the way it does.

On a positive note, there's very little crime here. People don't really bother to lock things up. A lot of people ride bikes, so there are bikes parked all over, but none of them have locks on them.

Saturday

We went to another park today. It was about an hour away. It was really pretty though. They had lots of koi all thru it - really big koi. We saw kidney bean flavored ice cream, but decided not to get it.
While we were there they were filming a video for something like Chinese MTV. There was a little girl that had won something like Chinse American Idol. (So cute.) And all these other little girls dressed up in different traditional Chinese dress were the back-up dancers. I think she was lip-syncing though. There are 56 different ethnic groups in China. 92% are made up of the Han group and the other 8% are the other 55.
his has been an amazing experience, but I'm really getting ready to come home. I miss America. I'm getting tired of not being able to drink the water. Of having to rinse my toothbrush with bottled water. Of having to boil water to make bottles. 2 English speaking tv channels. Lots of little things that we normally take for granted.
Laundry is a whole other issue. I thought I'd do laundry here at the hotel. Not so. You can't do laundry. You have to have it done. People don't own washing machines. Most everyone washes their clothes out in the sink. I had even gone to the laundramat and bought little one load boxes of detergent to do laundry. It did me no good. I have to send it out. Rosa can send it somewhere for less than 1/2 what the hotel will charge, but it's still really pricey. I've started washing what I can out in the sink (what will dry rather quickly) and hanging it all over the bathroom each evening. (It rather looks like a Chinese laundry.) What we have sent out, is done really well though. I sent it out in a couple of trash bags. It came back in their bags. BUT, each shirt was in it's own plastic bag, all the socks were in a plastic bag, each persons underwear was in a plastic bag - even my trash bags came back in a plastic bag!
Leila seems to be feeling better today. That REALLY helps. The 6-9 month clothes that I brought fit her lengthwise, but everything is too big thru. All the pants fall off of her. She has no butt. Austin said she needs a belt. I told him that they don't make belts for babies. He's decided that a dog collar would work fine.
We have no plans tomorrow. We've decided to take a taxi and venture out on our own. Pray for us on that one. The roads here are unreal. Not the roads, but the drivers. One of the other families in our group, described crossing the road like playing a game of Frogger.

Friday

Happy Birthday Dad!

Leila is still fussy today, and we had a pretty sleepless night. But Darrell is feeling better.

We went to the zoo today. I think it was about the same size as the Columbus zoo. We got to see a 'real' chinese panda. It would have been nicer if it weren't so darn hot here though. It's just so muggy and sticky.


They don't have pickup trucks here. When we told Rosa that we had a truck, she didn't understand. We had to draw a picture of one for her. That's when we noticed that there weren't any here.
On our walk last night, we found a little guitar shop. I had seen it yesterday when we went to pick up the official adoption decree, so we went looking for it. Asking directions in Chinese is fun. We got to close to where I thought I'd seen it, then we tried to ask. Austin and I ended up playing air guitar - but that was what worked. As we were walking away, there were about 4 bellboys or something still 'playing'.

We were watching a program on tv. We found out that the Beijing airport is the largest one in the world. It is also one of the safest, due to all the technology they've put in. Sort of interesting.

Thursday Night

What a day. Leila has been fussy all day. I don't know if maybe she doesn't feel good for some reason or if all the changes are catching up with her. The only time she's been really happy is when we went out for a walk or in the bathtub.
Also, Darrell has been a little sick today.
One thing with Leila, I knew that with having the cleft palate, food would come out her nose sometimes when she ate. I guess I just wasn't really prepared for stuff to come out it almost all the time - food, snot, saliva, whatever happens to be in her mouth at the time. It's like her nose runs nonstop. And she really, really hates having it wiped. If you even wave a tissue in front of her face, she starts to cry.
She's not big on eating either. At this point, the only thing she eats is a bottle about every 4 hrs with cereal in it. To attempt to try to put anything else into her mouth (whether it's medicine, congee, or anything), is cause for a huge hissy fit. No wonder she's so tiny.
Cleft babies don't really suck either. She just chews the nipple to get the milk out.
I'm really ready to get her home, so we can get started on a 'regular' life.

On another note, we ate at an Italian restaurant tonight. Yeah, Italian in China. We all played it safe with ordering. (We did NOT order the goat liver.) What we did get was excellent though.
I also forgot, that the first night in Beijing - when we ate in the restaurant in the hotel - they were playing Christmas music. If you know David, you'll appreciate that more. He loves the movie, 'A Christmas Story'. There's the scene where the dog eats Christmas dinner and they all go to the Chinese restaurant for dinner. All the Chinese people are singing - fa, ra, ra, ra, ra - ra, ra, ra, rah.

Also, I appreciate the posts. It lets me know that people really are reading this, and I'm not typing it for nothing.

Thursday Morning

This morning we went to a park. It was the largest park in Guangzhou. There was a museum that had all sorts of things about the history of the city. On the 1st floor was a map where you could push a button and it would light up different things on the map. SO, on the second floor there was a picture on the wall. There was a round, red thing with a button in the center. David thought it was the same type of thing. He pushed it. It was the fire alarm. We toured the rest of the museum with the fire alarm blaring and the telephones ringing. It was fun. (It's hard to pretend you're not with someone when you're the only Americans in the place.)
After that, we saw a big statue of goats. It's really symbolic to GZ for some reason.
We stopped at a roadside stand for a drink. David bought an ice cream bar. It was pea flavor. He and Austin have finally found an ice cream they do NOT like.

Prayer

We found out today that one of the other families in our group desperately needs prayers. Their little girl is very, very sick. If you look at the side of our blog, under 'Travel Buddies', you'll find blogs for some of the other families that we've been traveling with. If you click on the 4th one down (roomforatleastonemore), you'll be able to read about our friends' (Leslie and Charlie's) baby. She's very sick. They need our prayers.

Wednesday

I posted a bit prematurely on the medicine. She hates it. There are 2 kinds, but we mix them together. One is more of a western medicine, and the other is more of a Chinese herbal type medicine. It's dark brown, and really stinks.
I don't know if this medicine makes her sleepy or if she's just a sleepy baby, but she sleeps really well. We put her to bed at 10:00 last night, and had to wake her at 7:00 this morning, so we could go to breakfast before we left for our appointment at the Civil Affairs Office.
She wasn't eating at first, but now she is. That makes me feel better. We were making her bottle room temperature (since we don't have a microwave), but Rosa (our guide) called the orphanage and they said to heat it. That was the problem.
Another thing, we've been told over and over about how Chinese people believe that babies need to be covered - long pants and long sleeves. Turns out that's not the case so much here in Guangzhou. It's SO hot here, that we don't have to do that. She can wear shorts and short sleeves both.
David was worried to death that she would be afraid of him. (Often times babies from the orphanages are, since many may never have seen men before - especially caucasian men.) He's so relieved that she's not. She likes him, and even reaches for him. They say that usually the babies will cling to one person for awhile only. Leila seems to be okay with all of us. So far, so good. She's a very content baby.
Another thing, people from northern China tend to be taller than people from southern China. Since Leila is from southern China, Rosa said that she'll probably be short.
We went back to the Civil Affairs Office this morning. I guess we had sort of a 24 hr return policy. They asked us if we were satisfied with her. When we said yes, they then had us sign papers. That made her legally ours as far as China is concerned.
Our hotel has several restaurants. So far we've only eaten in one and that was for breakfast the past couple of days. It's the one at the top - on the 45th floor and it revolves. Beijing is big, but Guangzhou looks huge. Rosa says Beijing is bigger, but from up there, it doesn't look it. Our room is on the 33rd floor. Coming up on the elevator actually makes your ears pop. The night we checked in - there was a guy in a white tux with tails playing piano in the lobby!

Leila

We got Leila about 2:30 today. So far she's been an absolute joy. She hasn't cried. She's been wonderful. She can roll - really good. She can sit up, but she's wobbly. She scutches along on the floor, and rocks on her hands and knees. She makes the funniest, grunty type noises. She has a little bit of a cold. The orphanage gave us some Chinese medicine to give her. It doesn't smell very good, but she takes it really well. And she loves tv - she'll fit right in with the boys. She's wonderful. We go back tomorrow to finalize the adoption. They also moved us into a suite so we'd all be together.

Monday - 9/15

Not much to report from this day. We had a lazy morning, then left for the airport. We flew on China Air from Beijing to Guangzhou. It was a 3 hr flight. (I actually made it under the weight limiit on the luggage!)
We ate at a KFC at the airport. Although it's similar to the ones at home, it's not exactly the same. I've never seen egg tarts or dragon wraps on the menu at home. We played it safe and got the chicken. It was good, but it tasted a little different. To order, we just pointed at pictures. I'm having a hard time getting used to the yuan vs dollar thing. Even though the meal was only about $18 USD, when it rings up $101.50, it still makes my heart skip a few beats.
And believe it or not, there seemed to be a little more leg room on this plane than the one we flew in coming to Beijing. We were picked up by a van at the airport. I would not want to drive in China. People drive VERY close, and the lanes are very narrow. Guangzhou seems loud and brassy - lots of neon lights on the way in.

Day 2

HAPPY MOON FESTIVAL!
FYI - I'm able to get my email, but I don't seem to be able to send email.
I couldn't update last night, I couldn't get online.
A few notes about China. China seems to be a very clean place so far. We were talking to a man yesterday, and he told us that they recycle trash to make electric - maybe that's why.
Another thing, Chinese people are very friendly, polite people. For instance, there was a really nice (Korean?) man helping Darrell with his chopsticks at breakfast.
By the way, I'm getting pretty good at squatty potties.
We started out yesterday by going to church. It was an international church service, but regular Chinese people are not allowed in. We had to show our passport to get in. Our guide had to wait outside. We sat on the 3rd floor balcony. The building is a theatre the other 6 days a week, and a church on Sundays. That must have been the sleeping section, because I counted 14 people asleep. We only sang one time, but it was a like 3 songs at once - it lasted about 15 minutes. It would be in Chinese, then English, then Chinese, then English, then Chinese and on and on and on. The sermon was the same way, it was in English first, and then in Chinese.
There are 5 legal religions in China. If someone is in the military or works for the government though, they are not allowed to proclaim a particular religion. They are also not allowed to marry until age 23 or apply for a certificate to have their child until age 25. Chinese people do not see this as consticting though. They have much more freedom than ever before.
On the way out, part of the kids in our group were offered a small spotlight on some Chinese television show. Alas, we had to turn them down.
Some of the blonds in our group are quite popular here. We get stopped a lot to pose for pictures - sometimes alone and sometimes with other people.
We went to a jade factory, and to a cloisonne factory. I had no idea how tedious the work is making that stuff. It was so amazing. If I make that stuff, I'd charge a fortune for it.
After that we went to the Great Wall. It was a surreal experience. The mountains we saw flying in - that's where the Great Wall is. I can't imagine the people that built it, way back when, because just walking on it is really, really something. We walked together for awhile, and then of course three of the boys took off. I don't even know how far they went, but I know it was a lot farther than we did.
We check out of this hotel this afternoon. We are flying to Guangzhou on China Air later today. We get Leila tomorrow.

Day 1

We had our 1st real day here.
First of all, we had to get 2 rooms. Even though, we got a 'double' room, the beds are more like a large twin, than what we consider a double bed. Now can you imagine David and I both in a twin bed for 2 weeks, or Austin and Darrell having to share a twin bed? The other thing, when you sit down on a bed, you normally expect it to give a little. Not so. It's sort of like sleeping on the floor - carpet though, not hardwood. It didn't really matter too much last night. We were so tired, it probably could have slept anywhere. We have doorbells on our hotel room doors. (We don't even have a doorbell at home.)
We started out today at Tiannamen Square. It was neat and really, really big. But that was it. I guess it just doesn't mean the same things to us that it does to the Chinese people. Sort of like, Arlington makes me all teary. (It probably doesn't do the same thing to them.)
Then we went into the Forbidden City. That was where the Emperor lived. It was unbelievably huge. We went thru gate after gate before we got to where he was ever supposed to have been. The buildings were beautiful, but after awhile they started to all look alike.
We went to a pearl factory and then went to the Summer Palace. That was where the Emperor went to live during the summertime. We rode a boat shaped like a dragon across a lake to get to it. Just like at the Forbidden City, all the buildings have these beautiful paintings all over them in really bright colors with gold trim.
I think we walked for miles today.
The restaurant where we had dinner was one where they kept putting dishes in the center of the table. It spun around and you take what you want off the plates. The duck and the pork and the cabbage was good. The chicken - not so good. They cook the whole chicken. One of the guys at our table ate a chicken foot.
We drove past the Bird's Nest and the Aquatics Center tonight on the way back to the hotel.
Another thing we saw today that I thought was a little different was split pants. I've heard about them, but until today, had not seen them. They put them on babies. It's pants that have the crotch split open from the front waist to the back waist. All these little bare butts are hanging out. I really don't get the concept.

Travel

We made it. About 24 hours after leaving our hotel in Charleston, we checked into our hotel in Beijing.
Our flight from DC to Beijing was a little over 7000 miles. We had an all female crew piloting the plane.
We didn't actually fly over the North Pole, but we did fly over the Artic Ocean. With all the ice and water, I can't imagine the North Pole would look any different though. (I looked for polar bears, but didn't see any.) Flying into Beijing, we saw some wicked looking mountains just outside of the city.
On the actual flight, we had 2 meals and 2 snacks. The 2nd snack was a bowl of noodles (like ramen noodles). We were given both silverware and chopsticks. We all ate it with the chopsticks to get in practice.
We had a basket of flowers waiting in our room - compliments of our guides.
Once we got here, we had about an hour to rest, and then our guide took us to buy water. (You can't drink the water, so we have to buy it.) We walked to a store about 10-15 minutes away. The streets were cleaner than I thought they'd be. I felt quite lost in the store - it was like an IGA. Saw Coke and Pepsi, but no Mountain Dew.
Now the rooms are a little different. There's no power in them, unless you're in them. Once you come in, you have to slide your room key in a slot on the wall - that turns the power on. Since we only get one room key - you can't leave it on if you leave. If you're out of the room for very long, it gets hot and has to cool back down each and every time you come back.
I think there's only one TV channel in English, and it's CNN, so the boys watched part of a movie tonight in Chinese.
We ate dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. We ordered hamburgers. I'm not sure what they were made out of though, because they didn't taste like any hamburger I've ever had. They weren't bad - they were just different. Drinks were warm - can't have ice - ice is made with water. (Unless the ice has holes in it, then it's been made with filtered water.)
We have a full day tomorrow. We're leaving here early in the morning and not coming back until evening. We have tours all day.

More Traveling News

We've decided to go ahead and leave this evening. Once the boys get home, and we finish getting ready, we're going to go to Charleston to spend the night. Our flight leaves so early in the morning, that if we don't - we might as well not even go to bed tonight. (If we did, I probably wouldn't sleep anyway, because I'd worry about getting there in time.)
Just in case anyone is the least bit interested, we're staying at the Best Western Premier in Beijing (www.mwpremierbj.com.cn) and at the Asia International Hotel in Guangzhou (www.aihotel.com).
We're traveling with 10 other families in our 'group'. 3 are relatively close by and live throughout OH. 4 others aren't too terribly far away, since they're from TN and NC. (The last 3 are AZ, CA, and FL.)
Quite by fate this week - we also found out that there's another family from right here in Mason County that's going to China to pick up their little girl this week too. We're going to meet them at the airport tomorrow morning. We're not on the same plane, we're not with the same agency, and we're not at any of the same hotels - but we do get to fly ALL the back with them on the 27th.
Oddly enough, call it faith or just call me crazy - but I have no concerns about our actual trip itself. My worries are all between now and getting on that silly plane. Once we get to that point, I have a feeling of peace about all the rest of it. And there's a lot to the rest of it - but none of that bothers me. I know it's all going to be fine. I just have to get to that plane first.

Packing

In 2 days, we'll be on our way to Beijing. In 1 week, we'll actually have our baby. Wow!
We started packing today. Real packing. Not just throwing things into a pile in the middle of Leila's floor, like we've been doing for the past 2 weeks. I gotta say though - it's a little hard. It's been 11 years since I've packed for a baby. And I always knew the one I packed for then. Packing for one you've never seen or met is a different story. 5 people - 2 1/2 weeks - a foreign country. Never done those things before either.
Here's the other thing. On the international flights, we're each allowed 2 pieces of luggage, and each one can weigh up to 50 lbs. No problem. BUT, we have an in-country flight too (from Beijing to Guangzhou). On that flight - although we can each have 2 pieces of luggage, we're only allowed 44 lbs total per person. Leila doesn't count either, so although we have all of her stuff (diapers, bottles, formula, clothes), she isn't allowed a suitcase or more importantly - 44 lbs. Just the suitcases weigh 5-10 lbs.
I put things in. Then I weigh them. Then I rearrange things. And I weigh them again.
I don't mean to whine. I truly don't. But I'm not really enjoying this part of the trip.

Itinerary

Thursday - 9/11 - Leave for China!
Friday - 9/12 - Arrive in Beijing
Saturday - 9/13 - Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, Great Wall
Sunday - 9/14 - Church, Summer Palace
Monday - 9/15 - Fly to Guangzhou
TUESDAY - 9/16 - GOTCHA DAY!!! (We get Leila!)
Wednesday - 9/17 - Civil Affairs Appointment
Thur/Fri - 9/18,19 - Sight-Seeing
Saturday - 9/20 - Medical Exam
Sunday - 9/21 - Paperwork
Mon/Tues/Wed - 9/22,23,24 - Sight-Seeing
Thursday - 9/25 - Consulate Appointment
Friday - 9/26 - Pick up Visa
Saturday - 9/27 - Come Home!

The Countdown Continues....

The countdown continues. By this time next week, we'll be in China. I can't believe it sometimes. My to-do list is still huge. Granted, my to-do list and David's to-do list is vastly different, and mine seems much longer. I have so many things that I think just HAVE to get done before we leave. David, on the other hand, has the attitude that - it will all still be here when we get back.
I sat down with all these packing lists and suggestions on what to take that other people have made, and prepared to make my own. Once I got done, I looked at the list of medications that we may need and that Leila may need while we're there. I realized that if they should happen to search our luggage - they won't know if we're coming to pick up a baby or to open a small drugstore. On the other hand - I'd rather have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
I also went to get dog and cat food for while we're gone. Renee is coming to stay with our animals, and I don't want her to run out of anything. Now, maybe I miscounted or I miscalculated or maybe I just have other things on my mind - I'm just not sure. BUT, once I got home to put it all away - I realized that I have enough cat food to last until probably Thanksgiving.
I just can't wait to get on that plane though. Once I'm on it - I know that all the getting ready is done, and all the preparations are behind me. From then on, it's just go, go, go. China here we come.

We're going to China!

We finally have travel dates!!! We're leaving Charleston early the morning of Sept. 11, and coming home the evening of Sept. 27.

A Bible verse that has sustained us throughout this journey (and is also on a picture on Leila's wall) is this: I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. I Samuel 1:27

Leila's Orphanage

We found out a little about Leila's orphanage (Shunde Children’s Welfare Institute).
It's 1,728 m, and the outside area is 1,380 m. The main building has four floors with 100 beds. There are many trees, as well as, various facilities. They have administrators, medical staff, nannies and people in charge of logistics.

New Picture!

We got a new picture of Leila today. She's 13 pounds now.

Leila's Room

Leila’s room is almost ready. (Look how pretty!) She’s going to be using the crib that belonged to both of her older brothers. We just need a baby to put in it now.

A Baby Shower

Our family and friends hosted a baby shower on August 16 at our church. We got lots of nice presents. We feel truly blessed to have so many great people waiting to help welcome Leila home.

'Orphans of God'

'When Love Takes You In'