That's the Power of Love..

Wednesday, September 29th

So gonna try uploading a video. It's the first time she danced!! and Murphy was dancing with her. So very cute.

So I went back to work this Monday. Ew.. "Work" a four letter word as my father says. It was ok, I mean it is work. Got lots of great welcome backs from everyone. Seems I didn't miss much while I was gone except that two new people joined our team!! While I was working I missed Robyn lots, but I knew she was in excellent hands with David being home. Right now he's gonna work 2 days and week and me 3. Our social worker said we need to give her at least 6 weeks before any daycare. And then we are only going to have her in daycare 2 days a week. I think she'll enjoy being with other kids. That's probably the only thing she's missing from the orphanage.

Otherwise she's just thriving! She's such an awesome child. She amazes us everyday. She can now crawl and her upper body strength is much better. She pulls herself up on her feet all the time. She comes right up to you and grabs your hands and then stands up. Also now she just babbles on and on. She says hi/hello and bye bye.. and waves for both. I think she understands no, because I'll say it and then she'll shake her head no. For example, she tried to pull the plug on her bath tub and I said "no Robyn". And she shakes her head no and pulls at the plug and then shakes her head no and does it again. Kinda funny right now. test test test...

She's really putting on some weight. The #2 diapers are just fitting now instead of gobs of room. And man we are changing her often with all the food this kid eats! One of her favorites is pasta with ricotta cheese and little garlic powder mixed in! This kid is not afraid of flavor! Tonight we had couscous with chicken, tomatoes and spinach with a balsamic vinegar sauce.. and she LOVED it!

We are having lots more luck with getting her to sleep. We just give her a bottle of the pediasure and she generally falls asleep before she finishes it.. Then wakes between 5-6am .. we change her and give her another bottle and then she sleeps to almost 8am. Tho tonight we went for a walk after dinner thinking that would mellow her out, WRONG. Now she's so much more interested in her environment it only got her going. So it took more than a bottle to get her to go to sleep. But I finally did and I think she's finally picked a favorite blanket. Got to get another so we have a spare!

So tomorrow David works and I get to be home and play. We might go to the Studios to visit some friends. Depends on the weather and her mood. She's still not so keen on sitting backwards by herself in the car. Takes lots of snacks and toys, or she just cries. That's one of those things she'll just need to get used to. No riding in my lap like in China!

ZaiJian

~Donna

Temper Temper

Sheesh... we just spent close to 3 hours trying to get her to sleep tonight. We are totally lost on what to do. She is the most agreeable kid until you put her in her crib. It's like we are dropping her into a fire ant nest! Cry and cry. I wish I knew what went on the in orphanage to understand why it's so horrible. We do our best to "pet" her and comfort without picking her up too much. We were rocking her to sleep, but that stopped working a day ago. She'd sense the rocking "stance" or hold and scream. So we finally gave up and gave her a bottle and woosh.. she's out. Maybe we have to do that for a while. I have no idea. I mean her pediatrician is like.. get her off the bottle and it's bad for her eating habits.. and then one adoptive site said .. anything goes at this point. and ya know.. i'm there pretty much. So it might be a bottle before bed.. just to get her into that mind set.

So wish us luck. And if anyone has any better ideas we are up for it.

ZaiJian

~Donna

Tuesday, Sept 21

So how are things going??? Pretty good. She's had some good nights and some bad. Last night was not a good one. So as soon as I am done with this post, I'm taking a nap. She fell asleep in the car as we were running errands this morning. She did really well I'd say. She likes to get out too.

Aunt Beth, our OT, said she has low tone in her core. We need to work on her core strength. So we try and do baby situps with her as we are playing with her and get her to crawl. She keeps trying to stand. She wants us to hold her arms/hands and she gets herself onto her feet. Little bugger. We are also working on sign language as that will be easier for her than the whole English thing at this point. I have some work to do as in calling local cleft Palate organizations and start things rolling for her. We've got lots of challenges ahead. Surgeries, speech therapy. Luckily she's a very determined girl..and quite the thinker.

Right now we have to work out the visiting schedule as all her aunts, uncles and grandparents want to come and visit! She's so popular! And we are also trying to work out when the Baptism will be. More on that later.

Some stuff for us. It's our 15th year anniversary this Thursday! Yey!! So if anyone is interested in babysitting so we can go out for a dinner, let me know!! We don't care when we go, just would like to soon. Also we need someone for November 2nd. That is David's WDW 20th annv dinner. Most likely it'll be more like house sitting as we'll get her to bed and then there's not much to do but hang out just in case she stirs. which lately is not the case, well not till in the early am and we'll be home by then.

So on we go. We have to start looking at David's vac time and how the money stash is doing to see how long we can go before we both need to work and she'll need to go to daycare 2 days a week. Dreading that. Though, she loves being around other children, it'd be interesting to see how that goes.

We developed the pictures the orphanage took for us. Very interesting to get a glimpse of what her life was like before we came along. Glad we came along.

Ok.. I put this tiara on her TOTALLY expecting her to just pull the garsh darn thing right off. Nope. She left it on and kept on playing. Like she knew she was a little princess!









Crusin in the stroller...

ZaiJian
~Donna

Chicken Soup is good...

So almost home a whole week.. well actually that really won't be till Sunday. Seeing that we didn't get home till really late last Saturday. Anyway she's already making some progress.

She is sooo close to crawling and today she pulled herself up and sorta stood. She definitely has the strength to stand.

We went to her pediatrician on Thursday for her initial appt. And we got a pile of referrals. ENT, Plastic surgeon, PT, OT (which Aunt Beth will awesomely do for us). She's got alot ahead of her. Sorta sucks..lots of doctor crap. He was alarmed by her head size, she's in the 5th percentile. So either she has a small head because: her birth mom did drugs, infection during pregnancy or her birth mom had a small head. We are thinking the later just because of what we are seeing her pick up in just over 2 weeks of her being with us. As I speak she is emptying my office paper recycle bin. This kid LOVES paper. She'll be a scrap booker some day for sure! Either way we can't wait for Aunt Beth, who is an OT, to come out and assess her so we know where she stands developmentally and what things we can do to help her advance.

Let's see, she really doesn't like us feeding her all the time now, it's like she says.. I'm no baby Mom and Dad! We handed her a spoon and well she was giving it a try. And did we say this girl can eat!! holy moly. She eats an entire envelope of oatmeal for breakfast and some cherrios. She's now drinking from a cup, well sorta.. very close. She likes to put her hands in the cup. Wierd.

We are still having issues at night. Last night was a particularly rough one. We think she is cutting another tooth. Gave her some Tylenol and that seemed to help. Today we moved her crib into her room, she napped fine in there alone. Tonight we'll draw straws to see who gets to sleep with her in her room and who gets the nights sleep. Then we'll rotate. We are very irritable and I think some uninterrupted sleep would do us wonders.

She met her cousins Nicholas and Christopher who were just sooo excited to see her. They are visiting us and Disney World this weekend. She just sorta sat there and watched as the two of them were all over the place. She'd look at me like, really I'm related to these guys?!!? Very cute! Eventually the excitement lessened and she just kept watching both boys intently. She loved Uncle Lance and all his fun sound effects as he fed her dinner.

So today was a 3 hour nap. Let's see how that translates this evening. The Dr. said we need to get her off formula and on real food. So we are only doing bottle feedings overnight. It's a soothing thing too I think.

Otherwise things are going pretty well as we move along. Here are some great pictures from the last few days. You'll notice it's mostly of her eating. Did I say this girl can eat?!?!?

Donna came up with a great idea. C-Clamp her bowl to the table!

Chicken Soup is YUMMY!!

Off I go... backwards.........

ZaiJian

~Donna


Our front pond, Frog print left after he hopped off!

Mid-Week fun

Howdy Howdy..

Well we are doing pretty well. Though all three of us are suffering a bit from Jet Lag. For us it's the fact she likes to get up in the middle of the night and chat and play and we just want to sleep. She didn't do that in China, she slept through the night for the most part.

Yesterday we took our first walk around with our cool stroller.

Here she is, she was in a bit of a foul mood at first, but the walk jeered her up.

We also ran some errands and she pretty much slept everytime we were in the car! Then we had dinner at our favorite pizza place, Primos in Lakeland. Oh man their pizza and calzones are to die for!.. deeelish. It's a tiny place but now the owner knows us and when he saw us walk in with Robyn it was pretty cool. All the employees loved watching her.

Pizza!!

She LOVES Ricotta cheese- is this kid not mine or what!!!

Bread and Ricotta cheese.. yum yum

Today we went by David's office to show her off and she was great. She truely is a social butterfly and loved all the extra attention. We have found the American equivalent to Chinese Rice Puffs. More baby crackers.. they are like crack for babies. She loves them. We went back home so she could nap then woke her up to have to come along to David's haircut appt.. well that didn't go over well. We needed to wake her also in an attempt to get her on our time zone. I stayed home with her and David left for his appt. She just wanted baby snacks.. and I was like no you must have some real food. She ate the yokes of 2 boiled eggs and some cherrios. Yum Yum.

We have new neighbors across the street. They moved in last week. Seem really nice. The wife, Jeannie, already brought me clothes that her 7mo old doesn't fit in. Seriously.. my kid is petite!. And she brought one of those walker things with wheels for Robyn and a swing rocker thing. How sweet is that! Nice to have a neighbor.. ya know a neighbor neighbor. Anyway, we tried out the swing thing after her bath and after about 2mins she was out. Wow. that's handy. Hopefully it works at 2am as well!

Well I'm pooped, trying to stay awake as I type this. She got up at 1am last night and played thru 4 or so.. ugh.


"Helping" Daddy with stroller tires. They need air.


Most awesome Bathtub tub thing. It ROCKS!!!



Reading the paper.

ZaiJian
~Donna

Sunday Sept 12th...

Sunday...Yesterday

So yea, we were up at 5am. Oh.. I forgot to mention. David and I used this herbal stuff that my Aunt Dot recommended and let me tell you it WORKED! It’s called “No Jet Lag” and they are tablets you chew every 2 hours and ya know. We are pretty much on this time zone! Well being up 27hrs didn’t hurt either. Now Robyn on the other hand.. not so much.

We played with her in our room till 7ish so not to wake Grandma. My mom was kind to stay just one more day to help us with getting settled. Robyn Loves Grandma! No fear of her at all. Well I have said all along this gal is a social butterfly!

We had a good day. She went swimming with Daddy in the pool. Ate ate ate.. man this girl can eat. No fear of the birds. She had a long nap.. and ya know after last night we realized that might have hurt us. She needed it.

So last night we all went to bed around 8:30pm.. still very tired. Robyn woke up at 11:30 wet, so we changed her. Then Hungry.. so we fed her.. then .. phew.. we changed her. Then there was no consoling her or getting her to get back to sleep. So we let her play on the bed as we laid there and watched NFL highlights. Then it was gas. She loves broccoli, but wow it got her bad. We gave her the gripe water and it helped some, I was finally able to get her to sleep around 2:30am. But she would only sleep in my arms.. on me. So I let her. I fell asleep with her head on my right arm and her body arcoss mine. At 4 something she was moving around so I figured.. hey.. I bet I could slide her off.. yea no. She woke up agan.. It took more time again to get to back to sleep and again on me. Then she woke up at 6am.. which was the time she was getting up in China so we decided to feed her and start the day.

Grandma left to go home around 8:30am.. we did our first walk in our nifty stroller around the block and now she is watching TV with Daddy as I get the blog going. We are going to do some errand running today to try and tucker her out and do our best to get her on EDT. We know that last night was because she’s just not on Eastern time yet. We’ll get her there. Just means we’ll nap when she does!

So there ya go!. I probably won’t blog for a few days. Her cousins and Aunt Carol and Uncle Lance are coming in at the end of the week. So I’ll make sure to post some pictures then! Thanks everyone for all your prayers, emails and those of you we were able to Skype with when in China. We loved being able to talk to family and friends back home. It really helped..

ZaiJian
~Donna, David…and Robyn..



Just after first swim in our pool! She loves the water!

Saturday, September 11th…

First I want to recognize the significance of traveling on this date and remember all of those who perished on that dreadful day.

So.. we got up around 6am and were ready and out the door by 8am. We fed her but we would just get something to eat in the airport. It was close but we made the 8:20 hotel shuttle to the airport. It was raining.. actually heard thunder during the night! It was a quick trip and we arrived at the terminal. FREE LUGGAGE CARTS!!! We found the check in desk.. wow this airport is big! And checked in. All our suitcases were under weight!! Wahoo!! They needed to see the brown envelope and off we went. First through Hong Kong immigration departure. Then Security. Was very easy. We found our gate and David got a bowl of delicious noodle soup to eat and we hung out waiting to board our plane.

I didn’t get many pictures on the plane..the camera ended up in another bag and we just never grabbed it. The plane was the same type as the way out. We had 3 seats together right over the wing. So it was hard to see anything below us. I have to say, Robyn did REALLY well. It was a 14hr+ flight. She slept two times for 3 hours. David got a little sleep, me none.. nada.. zip zilch. We played, we fed her she was a real trouper. David walked the plane with her a few times. She didn’t cry nearly as much as the other little adopted Chinese girl that was on our flight. We got to Newark on time and as soon as we landed I just started crying. We’re home.. well home in the sense it was the United States.. and we could see blue sky, clouds.. and the New York City skyline crystal clear.

It was a crazy long walk to Immigration. We were told by the US Consulate we could choose the foreign nationals line or US citizens line, but that was not true. We were directed to the foreign nationals line. No biggie. We had no issues whatsoever. We handed over the brown envelope. The officer looked it all over. We asked what was in the envelope and he said all our documentation and information for the state to process her Certificate of Citizenship which we should received in the mail in 45 days. He didn’t realize that as soon as we passed him she was a US Citizen! We had her carry a little American Flag. It was cool. Then we had to claim our luggage. Luggage cart…$5. Figures it would cost in US.. was free in every Chinese airport. Anyway, everything made it and we went up to the customs officer. He asked what food we had in the bag, I replied nuts bars and rice puffs for the baby. And in his best Newark/New York accent. He said.. “eh, Go on and Go.” We then rechecked our luggage for our flight to Orlando and headed for the VIP Lounge.

She was happy to move around and we played some. Had some crackers, I ate an apple without having to fear of any tummy issues! Just about an hour before our flight she starting getting really fussy and David held her as we walked to our gate. Our flight was at 6:10pm.. at this point we’d been up for close to 24hrs. She fell asleep on his shoulder. We got on the plane and gently placed her in her seat and bam.. she was up.. and there was no consoling her. Screamed and screamed. Great I’m now those people with a baby on a plane! I leaned over her and talked and talked to her to calm her down.. but she was past tired…just done. As soon as the fasten seatbelt sign was off David walked her around and she fell asleep. She sleep for about 40mins.. and so did I. Finally some sleep.. David too. Then she was up and screamed the entire landing until David could stand up with her and she was back out. Once we got out of the plane, we put her in my kangaroo carrier and left to get our luggage. My mom was right there, we got our stuff.. again everything made it. And we tensed up as we put her in the car seat. She’d been riding in cars for almost 2 weeks in our laps. So.. she made no fuss.. and as soon as we got going, she fell asleep!! Hurrah! 9pm.. in the car and heading home……

We got home put her in her crib and that was the end of that. We were up another hour or so.. a bit wound up and crash. She woke up once hungry and then slept till 5am. Not bad.

And that was Saturday…one of the longest days ever.

~Donna



Some Banana bread before heading to the Airport.

Rain rain rain.

Our newest US Citizen!!!

Friday Sept 10th

We’re home!!!
Ok.. Here’s the scoop on Friday Sept 10th and Saturday the 11th. Now pictures will be at the bottom.. because I can actually see Blogger now!!

Friday… after our last breakfast at the White Swan.. snif snif. We finished up packing and made sure Robyn got an early nap. We finished our leftovers from the night before while she was napping. I still had a wicked cough and my voice still wonky. Then David was having pain with yet.. another kidney stone. OH NO!!! We called the Front desk to see if they could get him some apple cider vinegar. Well they were giving him directions to the local grocery store.. so it was being lost in translation.. literally. I figured the French restaurant would have some. So David tried to call but got no answer. So he called Grace to see if she could help. We didn’t hear back.. then the bellman came to get our suitcases around 1:30pm, right on schedule and we went down to the lobby to wait for Grace to head to the Consulate and then the train station.

Grace is a miracle worker…she had gotten a hold of the French restaurant and was able to get some vinegar. David took a couple of gulps… yelch. Grace hopped out at the Consulate to pick the girls’ Visas.. Mandy and the others were with us. We got to the train station in Guangzhou. Now I’m going to go into some serious detail here. And that’s because I wish I had known about the station ahead of time but was not able to find anything online about it.

The Guangzhou-Kowloon through train runs from.. well Guangzhou to Hong Kong-Hung Hom station. We took the 4:12pm train. Here’s the link to the schedule. http://www.it3.mtr.com.hk/B2C/frmScheduleGuangdong.asp?strLang=Eng.. So after Grace hopped out our driver took us over to the station which was almost across the street. (for now, seems the US Consulate is moving to yet another location soon). We got all our stuff together and it didn’t look like a station at all. There was/is lots of construction going on around. Looks like a stadium of some sort is being built right next to it, possibly for the Asian Games which is in November in Guangzhou. So right now it’s a mess. Grace had a gentleman walk us thru the station up to our gate. Which was the only way to do it. Because I don’t think we would have found the platform any other way. Make sure your stuff is easily carried. Because there are some X-Ray security stops and have your tickets out and passport handy. Once upstairs we waited just outside of the ticket “taker”.. she punches it, for Grace. There is a restaurant of some sort and restrooms (Squat potties) and a place to sit. Grace finally arrived with our BROWN envelopes and we said goodbye. She was our best guide the entire time in China. She’s been doing this for 8 years and it shows. She’s amazing. So if you are a CCAI family hope that Grace is your guide in Guangzhou!!
So we went thru the ticket puncher then it was immigration. We were leaving Mainland China for Hong Kong. It’s considered a border crossing.. of sorts. All the time with your luggage.. all of it. No Carts here at the train station.. We sat for maybe 2mins before it was time to board the train. Now, you will have to get all your stuff on the train yourself.. and carry your kid and well you get the idea. Thank God we had Kevin and Mandy and their daughter Emma. It was great to have another family with you to help out. Big Suitcases fit in the bins above and we settled in for the train ride. Which was pleasant.. easy going. It’s neat to see the countryside and how people live in China. Most live in apartments. I’ll try to put a picture.. if any came out. They hand out free water on the train. That was nice.

There is one brief stop, then we were moving onto Hong Kong. Again no luggage carts avail at Hung Hom either.
Then you walk by a bunch of people with surgical masks on.. and they are infared scanning you.. (think Avian Flu folks).. and well they pull me aside and check Robyn’s temp and tell me she’s running a fever.. I’m like .. What?!?! Ok yea I feel her, and she’s a bit warm. I mean she’d been lying on David for almost 2hrs and now she’s strapped to me. They ask me a bunch of questions, well she’s teething.. it could be that. And I sign something. They hand me a flyer on Avian flu and then we are able to leave. We had to pass thru immigration.. again. Make sure your brown envelope is easy to get to. You don’t want to open it, they just want to see if you have one.
**The Brown Envelope is your all your paperwork for her US Citizenship. We are NOT to open it, but to present it to the US Immigration official once we reach the good ‘ol US of A.**

Now once we got downstairs Grace had arranged two vans one for each family to take us to our hotels by the Airport. DO THIS!! It was fantastic, the gentleman had a sign with our names on it and took us some back elevator to their beautiful vans ready to wisk us away. I felt like a rock star of sorts. It was.. as I said awesome, fantastic.. and well .. perfect. Again .. God Bless Grace! It was a 45min ride thru Downtown Hong Kong out to the airport. What can we say about Hong Kong.. except. WOW. It’s a beautiful city.. soo much going on. Especially at night with all the signs lit up and when we were heading out to the airport we were able to look back and see that classic shot of the Hong Kong Skyline.. again.. words cannot describe what it’s like to see it in person.. let alone drive thru the city. How different from Main Land China. Now it was still smoggy, hazy and the clouds were rolling in.

We got to our hotel around 7-7:30pm. The Marriot Sky City is wonderful. Beautiful hotel, comfy bed and nice room. Just a 10 min ride to the airport in their free shuttle (the next morn). Now you are thinking.. How did Robyn handle all this. Pretty well. She got really fidgety on the train and I had to stand some.. and we fed her Rice puffs almost the entire time. Then in the taxi I gave her pieces of vanilla grahams fish. She was dang good. One thing. We left the stroller in the taxi. I didn’t realize until about 2 in the morning. We called the Hong Kong rep in the morning to see if we could get it before we leave.. but if not to give to a family that might need it when they come. OH well.. it was a cool stroller. Of all the things to not make it home, it’s ok it was that.

Anyway once we got to the hotel room, I took her out of the carrier and she just flopped out on the bed! She was being so freaking cute! I’m Free.. look at me.. I’m free!!! We fed her and bathed her. And was about to put her to bed but she was in SUCH a good mood we played a bit and then put her down. She went right out. We ordered in some Room service. Me a caprese salad, go figure, and David had some Thai Noodles. He was feeling better, not great but a bit better. Seems the vinegar was starting to work
it’s magic.

We did not set up the computer, the internet wasn’t free.. so no point for just a few hours. We crashed and he slept well, I had another rough night with my cold.

And that was Friday…

here we are with Grace.. the best!

Guangzhou Station

More Station.

With Daddy on the Train.


View from Train.. with more smog


Happy Gal!

Thursday, Sept 9. Oath Day

Pics

1.  playing on the bed.  2. All done at the Consulate.  3.  Nifty do not disturb.  Each room has one, you press a button to illuminate it.  4 & 5.. yum.. same stuff we had a few nights ago.  Deep fried bacon, and beef and veggie.  yum yum.. tho the longest ever to get as take out!

 

Well Chickie had a rough night.  Woke up coughing and coughing at one point.. After a quick does of cough medicine I just brought her up into the bed with us.  We have a king size bed in here so it was fine.

 

We didn't do much this morning.  After breakfast we dropped off more laundry to be done and did some last minute shopping for a few items.  Got back to the room in time to put her down for a nap.  While she was napping I started on our packing.  We bought a big duffle bag thing the day before last and it's a lifesaver!  I should be able to keep everything within the weight limits and it shouldn't be too hard for us to lug around.  I'm trying to get us to only 3 carry-ons.. (4^th is her).  There is plenty of food on this flight so we really don't need to bring much for us, just for her. 

 

We got her up, fed her some and off to the lobby to take the shuttle to the US Consulate.  Which used to be right next door to our hotel.. but with all the adoptions they had to move to a bigger office downtown.  And while we were there one of the Consulate employees mentioned that they would be moving again.  She said that they process on average 50,000 visas a year.  And the reason the Visa office is here in Guangzhou is because the bulk of the immigrants come from this region.. as well as the bulk of the orphans.

 

So we arrive, it's on the 5^th floor.  No cameras allowed.  There were 30 or so other families there.  After each of us presented our passports to a clerk the Consulate employee I mentioned told us some of those facts.  And what her office does, and that 67% of Chinese adoptions are now special needs compared to less than 50% just 3 years ago.  Then it was time for us to stand and repeat the oath.  And ya know there wasn't anything really special about it.  Just saying we swear we gave the most accurate information as we know, and stuff like that.  But both of us started to cry.. I don't think there was a dry eye in the room.  We all got choked up.  Well it is pretty much the end, or very close to, the end of a very long journey.

 

Speaking of long journey.. we are dreading the flight and thinking of strategies to do our best with her on it.  I think we are going to try to make sure she is tired when we get home.  If we keep her to China time she'll be all smiles and ready to party when we get home 9pm EDT.. when it'll be 9am here.  Ugh.  So we'll see how this works.  We never got to do the Benedryl test.  We tried one day and I don't know if it didn't work or I just gave her so little. Oh well… we'll do what we can.   Laps around the plane?!?!  We got some new toys and things to introduce to her.. and if all else fails.. the fastest way to this gals heart is her stomach.. sheesh.. a bottomless pit!

 

We have really seen a transformation.  She was a quiet unassuming child to this bundle of joy who is enjoying life!  She's singing now and lots and lots of babble.. Just so freakin cute!  We notice how many comment on her cuteness.  Me, I'm doing ok.. for those of you with weak stomachs.. turn way.  I've been coughing up green gak.  Still no voice and just feeling really crappy.  Having a cold in China is no fun. 

 

Not sure if we'll get to blog in Hong Kong.  Depends on how much the internet is at the hotel.  We will be at the Sky City Marriott right next to the airport.  Look it up online.. it's pretty.

 

We have to have our luggage out by 1:30pm (cruise flashbacks) then in the Lobby checked out and ready to leave by 2pm.  First we drive by the Consulate, which is a 30min ride.. when no traffic.  Grace is going to run in to get the girls' passports/visas (the other CCAI family is going too.. they are.. Mandy, Kevin, their older daughter Emma and their little girl is Emma).  So.. Grace runs in.. we go off to the train station, which is around the corner..  to get ourselves checked in and luggage scanned.  The other family heard we were doing the train to Hong Kong and not the plane and decided to go along.  So it'll be nice to have friendly faces with us!  And we can help each other out.  The train leaves Guangzhou at 4:12pm.. for arrival into Hong Kong around 6ish.  The most fabulous Grace helped us out in Hong Kong.. we have a driver with a van to take us to our hotel.  So that's a relief!

 

Then the next morning, Sat the 11^th.. we fly out of Hong Kong at 10:25am.. this time.. so that'll be 10:25pm for ya'll on Friday night.  Wish us luck and safe travels.  I have my cel phone and will turn it on once we get into Newark.  That is around 2pm EDT.  15.5hrs later… ew ew ewe w ew.. oh well.  We gotta do it.  And let me tell you, we are ready to come home.   Tired of living in one room!!! And eating out .. and well all that travel stuff.  

 

So there ya go!!  We'll be home soon…

 

Things to note.  Not sure if I mentioned this when we were in TianJin.. but MTV here.. plays videos!  Honest to goodness music videos.. unlike at home.  Also what the heck.. no freaking clocks in the last two hotels!!!  We have our travel one.. but seriously!  The Holiday Inn had one.. none here and some lousy one back in TIanJin..  argh..   Another thing, we are amazed at the number of Chinese who ask us if she's Chinese!?!?!?  Really?   I mean really.. um yea.  To me it seems like a duh answer.  I could see when we get home, but here?  Most interesting.

 

ZaiJian

~Donna

Second half of Wednesday Sept 8th

Picture Captions:   1. us with Asian Games Mascots.  2. Hey let's go to this class.  3.  Pretty shot of White Swan interior.  4.  Robyn checks out the hotel directory.  5.  Mom and Robyn.  6.  Starting our River Cruise.  7.  Pre-Meal snack. odd you get almond cookies, the swirly ones were yummy, tomatoes and a pork cookie.(neither of us liked that one).  8. nifty shot of Pearl River at night.  9.  Laundry ALL clean!! and neatly packed into plastic bags!

 

2^nd half Wednesday Sept 8^th

 

Well she slept for 3 hours!!!  We wanted to have her have lots of sleep seeing we'd be back late from the boat trip.  I took a nap too and when David got back from his massage he napped.  All this nappin…  I ran out to do a bit more shopping therapy and then we went for a walk because our room had yet to be made up.. oopsy.  Then back to change real quick to meet Grace and Lily's family (they are from VA, they are also with our agency)..we headed for the River Dinner Cruise.  Her first Boat ride!! Which was great!  So cool to see all the pretty buildings at night.  The food was pretty good and it was nifty.  Took some great pictures and Robyn was a trooper!  Banana bread to the rescue.  She pooped just as dinner was being served, go figure.  And they actually had a baby changing table in the restroom.  And she was just great.  I was able to get her cleaned up quick.  What a good kid. 

 

After dinner we went up top and she just loved us walking with her around the top… lookin at the pretty buildings.  I found a ticklish spot on her!!!  She has this great laugh and giggle.. sooo cute!!  Also I lost my voice.  Yup it's gone.  That sinus thing has moved to my ears and I have a nasty sore throat.. teeny cough.. and my ears are all messed up.  Typical cold symptoms for me.  Can't wait to fly with the ears clogged up.. oh joy.  I have those special earplugs for the plane, gosh I hope they help. 

 

We got back to the hotel after our cruise, I fed her, bathed her and during that time David had to get more RMB and our laundry.. see "after" shot… that was only 90RMB for all that ($13US).  WHAT A DEAL!!!  So once he got back.. he did 3 laps and she was out.  A bit late.. but the nap was longer.  Tomorrow we need her to nap at noon… because we need to be downstairs to head to the US Consulate at 2:20pm.  Seems that there is a total of 30 families taking the oath tomorrow.  We are not all from the same agency, various ones.  Grace told us we can't take pictures, but I'll bring my camera in hopes we can get one of the outside of the Consulate. 

Then after that she's ours in the eyes of the  United States.  There's no doubt now she's ours.  It's hard to believe you can love someone so much in so little time.  She's a handful but oh, so wonderful.  You just want to eat her up!

 

Things of note we have to mention.  ALL Chinese TV has captions in Chinese.  Because there are sooo many dialects not everyone can understand what is being said.. but the characters all the mean the same thing!!

 

Music in the restaurants..  Barry White, Dan Fogelberg, Eagles, Phil Collins. We find it very amusing!  Tho the Barry White at the French restaurant was the funniest one!

 

ZaiJian

~Donna

Rest of Tuesday Sept 7

pic Captions:

1-playing in the White Swan playroom  2-blurry but she's just havin fun.  3. You can see her clef palate here.. in a big laugh!  4. Little Imp.  5. Daddy with a yummy blueberry cocktail.  6. View from Room.. smog not too bad.  7.  Hey mom.. got a rice puff?  8.  Dong.  The tea guy.  9.  Splash!  10.. With Mom in Kiddy pool

 

Rest of Tuesday…..Sept 7^th

 

After her.. SHORT nap.  Bummer.  We headed out to Dong's for tea and David picked out a tea set with all the traditional stuff that goes with it.  Very cool.  Not cheap but we figure we can pass it down to Robyn some day.  We didn't get the top quality but a med one.  And a whole bunch of tea.  My blouse came out beautiful!!  And we got more puffs.  Goto Want-Want.com and you'll see these rice puff ball crackers.  They are like Baby Crack.  Right now I just give her some to keep her from complaining.. figure we'll fix that when we get home.. but when in a hotel or restaurant.  Ya do what you can.

 

She LOVED the pool!!! Yey!! No fear whatsoever!  She was splashin and kicking her legs around.  We were very happy she liked it..  seeing she's got one at home! 

 

After a swim we changed and headed out for dinner.  We tried the other Thai place, Cow and Bridge and it was pretty good.  David had some spicy meat of some sort with veggies and I had deep fried pumpkin sticks with this yummy sweet dipping sauce and some ok fried rice noodles.  Kinda blah actually.  It was getting late so we headed back to the hotel.  Ut Oh... It was starting to rain!  I was like.. let's give it a bit.. and David wisely thought we shouldn't.  We made a run for it.  Turns out it was pouring by the time we got to our room.  Some lightning and thunder too.  Just like home!  David did a few laps and she was out.  We watched a dvd on the laptop and crashed early.  I woke up in the middle of the night feeling really crappy.  That sinus stuff I got from the smog has moved to my ears and now I have a sore throat.  Feels like a bit of a cold.  Lovely.  She slept through the night.  We even did a diaper change in the middle of the night and didn't wake her!!!  How about that!!! 

 

So all in all.. a nice relatively easy day.

 

ZaiJian

~Donna

Monday Sept 6th- Labor Day!

Photo captions.

1- Dad makes a great seat.. and his nose a good handle. 2. White Swan red couch shot. 3. Pearls pearls pearls..talk about some inventory! 4. cool escalator ads as we go up to McDonalds. 5. Micky D's. 6.squat potty.. haven't tried it myself yet...David has. 7. our Hotel...street side. 8. Cute kid brushing up on her Mandarin.

Howdy.. sorry I didn't get to update Monday Eve.. David was on the PC and then I just fell asleep.

Not much went on today. After breakfast we met our guide Grace and the other CCAI family (our agency) for the famous White Swan red couch pictures. We were laughing that we had bought the same color outfit for our girls!
After a quick visit to the room we went to the pearl market. Basically an 8 story mall where they sold jewelry, shoes, clothes all sorts of stuff. Grace our guide took us to the reputable place to buy some pearls. They have fresh water and salt water. I got a few pairs and then we got a nice pair for Robyn for her 16th birthday. Very inexpensive. Then we popped in to a McDonalds to see what it is like.. nifty. We got curly fries which is a new item here.. but not in US yet. They were very tasty.. and a coke. Yum.
Back at the hotel we were able to settle her down to a nap, and then we both napped as well. Afterwards we went walking around the island to the French Restaurant.. called the Orient Express.. it's a train theme sort of thing. This is the first restaurant that had a regular high chair with its own tray.. wood very much like the one we have at home. She LOVED it.. she was soo excited to be in her own chair with table! David had the escargot, duck of some sort and a custard dessert (prefix meal). I had the pork schnitzel. Very good. The meal was excellent. Robyn enjoyed eating some of my mashed potatoes and she loves these puff cracker things that the Chinese have for their kids. They melt in their mouth…if you are not careful she inhales them.. so we have to ration them to her one at a time! She was in SUCH a good mood after dinner, we walked around a bit and visited Jordan's shop. Another souvenier type place.. we got all sorts of fun stuff for us and for gifts. The owner is VERY personable and wrote out Robyn's name in Chinese for us for free. It's really pretty.

Back to the room for some play time.. shot of her reading the Mandarin book… then a bottle and a few laps around the hotel floor and out she went. We did so much better today. We are getting better at reading when she has a dirty diaper… or hungry or just frustrated. We can see her brain really starting to put things together. We think.She has the intelligence of a 18mo old.. . but the skills of a 12month old.. she loves to watch other children. We are going to try some sign language. She learns so quick so it can't be too hard. Oh.. she can clap now.. before it was a tummy slap.. which is sooo cute. But now her hands meet!

It's now Tuesday. Today is our free day. After breakfast we went to the playroom here at the hotel and then met another family from Georgia and chatted with them for a long time. They were awesome, they gave us some swim diapers and these nifty mats that stick to the table for easy meal clean up in a restaurant! Their daughter is 21months and is walking. David held Robyn up next to her and she's almost the same height.. but much more petite. Their little girl's name is Ren and as her mom put it.. baby got back!!! Not like my skinny kid!

Afterwards we went out for lunch at Lucy's.. Robyn had some chicken Congee, which is basically watery rice with little bits of chicken.. then she peed like everywhere. Good thing it was a like an enclosed patio area.. I was able to change her up quick. Then we could tell she was getting tired so we headed back and now she is taking her afternoon nap.

After her nap we are going to go get my blouse and some tea. Then back for a swim.. That should be fun!!!

I will finish up Tuesday (today's) post later on today! Go figure.
ZaiJian,
~Donna