New Pics

Everyone

Before I forget, I have to say thank you to everyone who has been a part of our wonderful experience. Also all of the thought and effort that our parents put together in arranging a very nice party for us last Sunday. It was great. Then I have to thank those of you who traveled so far to come and meet Anna, all the way from as far as Lousiana and Missouri. The gifts were all fantastic and Anna has a beautiful wardrobe for the next year. She loves to have her books read to her and her toys are a hit. She is really enjoying "the Door" and I am enjoying the jingle of the letter X on the Phonics radio. I will probably enjoy the other toys as well but I instantly go for the toys that make noises. I went back to work on Wednesday but Anna is in very good hands because Marilyn has been here all week. I attempted to change my first diaper this morning, but Marilyn quickly discovered, in her words "This is one of the worst diapers I have seen in a long time", so she stepped in and handled it. It must have been the Exlax or Immodium that Kim gave her last night, either way, she is definitly not constipated anymore. Anna seems to love her new home and she has certainly warmed up to Nina. Nina is also very happy that she now has someone to follow and protect all day, oh and the fringe benefits of falling food are nice too. Less floor and baby cleaning for us...Thanks Nina! Anna went to the pediatrician(Dr Chin) yesterday to get a basic checkup. Everything checked out well. She is tall for her age, but is in the bottom 3% for weight. She eats like a horse so that won't last long. She loves bagels, pizza, hamburgers, crackers, and chicken. We haven't found any fruits that she likes(she is definitely my daughter). I think she is really settling in to her new house. Seriously, she is a very easy baby, she sleeps all night and eats alot. Piece of cake, as long as we can keep her out of trouble. This morning I set her on the kitchen counter for a brief moment and she was sticking her hand in the toaster. You thought I was joking when I put the "toaster kills" link as one of my favorite links

Its good to be back

I said I would keep my blog going from here until Anna gets married, but since we have been back to Collegeville we have been a little busy trying to get settled into our new routine. I will try to update this with some new pictures and stories this weekend.

One more day

You can't imagine how excited we are to get home. The last few days have been filled with fun and new things every day. Bing Bing is starting to say words, the only two that we are sure about has been "momma" & "dada", although it has only been a few times. She is also starting to walk while holding one of my hands. She used to hate to take baths, but since we went swimming the last two days she now enjoys a nice bath. She loves to take an afternoon siesta, so do I. Yesterday was official White Swan photo day as you can see by the pictures. All of the kids looked adorable in their little Chinese outfits. Bing Bing had a little trouble with the shoes. She has feet that are like flippers, it was hard to find dragon shoes that would fit her. Speaking of shoes, we decided that "squeaky shoes" although very cute, would probably drive us crazy after a few hours. After the pictures, all of the mommy's went for drinks and I took Bing Bing and Gracie to the play room for about an hour. No one cried but I was somewhat thankful that we didnt get twins. Two is a handful. One of her favorite things to do is going to feed the Coy at the indoor pond(which we are not supposed to do, but its fun for both of us). This morning it was off to another Temple that had a few Monks, then to the Pearl Market. There a Pearls everywhere..even found a few laying on the floor. This afternoon we go to the US Consulate to get her visa, then a small party to celebrate our last night here. We need to pack everything up tonight and we should be leaving for the airport at about 5:00 am. We land in Ohio at 6:30 pm on Thursday. We can hardly wait for everyone to meet her. See you soon.

We're back on

Ok Ok..... I know you are all very dissapointed in our blog.. I've allowed Sean to handle the coomunication, and I understand several of you are dissapointed in our entries.. We are very busy with a 15 month old... Lot's of play time required.... Very few naps...

Let me back up a few days, where we left off.

On Saturday we left Nanchang. I'm so ready to go, and so is Sean. Nanchang is a large city, very populated with little regard to any laws. It was sheer chaos... Leaving makes us happy to be just one step closer to getting Bing Bing home and allowing her new life to begin. We left for the airport at 9:00am. When arriving at the airport we were approached by several local people. We are like rock starts here. Bing Bing with Sean's assistance was running everywhere. So many stopped us to tell us how cute she is. One group in particular, were with the government part of the performing arts, took a liking to us. One young girl took a photo with us after playing with Bing Bing, of course giving the peace sign.. The peace sign is very big here.. The plane ride went well. She went drug free, and showed no signs of any problems with her ears. She was just very active. I'm scared to death for our 13 hour trip home... When landing in Gaungzhou, Sean and I felt like new people. It's all down hill from here. Gaungzhou at one time was occupied by the English, so the architecture is very different from what we have seen before. The White Swan Hotel is a very large and cater to travelers primaryly those of us adopting from China. We received a Barbie made special for them. It's a caucsan blond headed barbie holding an Asian baby. It's called "Going Home". We now feel like we are on vacation. (2) swing pools, air conditioned weight room (the last one was not, it was so hot to run, but we did despite the heat), and a fantastic breakfast buffet... We settled in and went to Lucy's for Diner, a western resturant, thank goodness....

Sunday, we went, yes, to another Temple... The name escapes me at this minute, but we will add photo's.. Again, it's very interesting to see this very old and ornate temple in the middle of this contemporary city. Once in the Temple, you feel that you are in the middle of nowhere, and nothing but peaceful sounds around you. I had a local artist write out Cha Bing's name in caligraphy. It turned out beautiful. Off to a Jade market. Both Bing Bing and I got a bracelet. They had several other items I would have loved to purchase, one in particular, a red vase, but unfortunately it was 40,000 usd so Sean said NO!!!! For fun, we went to the pool... Bing Bing hates the bath, but really enjoyed the pool. She held on to Sean's neck while floating around. Cathy has some great photo's, so hold tight.... We went to a Thai Food Resturant for diner. The food was fantastic but the service was lousy. All the babies where going nuts waiting for thier steamed eggs and congee. On the way home to the hotel, I bought a chinese outfit for Bing Bing... It's so cute..... Hot pink silk, with blue and yellow accents...

Today, Monday, we started with Bing Bing taking her Visa photo. The picture turned out really cute. We are trying to get a copy of it. Be patient we will get it on the blog as soon as we can.. Then off to the doctors office. This was a very interesting place. A doctor wearing nothing but a lab coat greated us at the door. Remember it's hot here, so the locals dress accordingly. The office was clean, very sterile, and thank goodness air conditioned. One by one, our group was to go to (3) different stations for the check up. Our first station, the Chest... The minute the doctor placed the stethiscope on Bing Bing she took a deep breath as if she's done this before.. Once she was layed down to check her back, and push on her innards, she went nuts... On to height and weight. She weighs 19.5 lbs and is 77.5cm, and her temperature was normal... Last but not least, the ears... No problems, they looked good, along with her eyes.. We returned to the hotel room for lunch, but we didn't make it. She fell asleep... I'd like to shop around this afternoon, and maybe another dip in the pool. Diner is at 6:30, where having, Chinese....

Good Bye Nanchang

Its Saturday morning and we are getting ready to fly to Guangzhou which is the last stop in China. Thank goodness. I don't have much time to write, but everything is going smoothly. It should be interesting to see how she responds to airplanes and her new surroundings. I loved this picture of her eating even though it came out very bad.

Everything is well

So not more than a few hours after my last post on Tuesday, I had another meltdown and went for a walk. I went to our guide (Grace) and asked her to please contact the orphanage director to see if Bing Bing was crying all of time. I was really starting to think that she hated us and I didnt think I could handle this for months. The orphanage director said that she almost never cried and was very independant. She enjoyed playing games when she ate. Anyway, I went and had dinner with another family and was out of the room for a few hours. When I returned, Bing Bing was smiling from ear to ear. She had eaten and was extremely happy. That was two days ago and she has really warmed up to us. She rarely cry's and mostly smiles. I don't know how long teething lasts but that doesn't seem to be bothering her for the last two days either. Yesterday we went to a really old Pagoda which was pretty cool. Then in the afternoon all of the girls and me went for a foot massage(which was really foot, leg and shoulder massage) 1 hour for $8. Last night Grace ordered Pizza Hut for everyone and we had a group dinner in the hotel and all of the babies got to play together. It is amazing to see their comfort level and little quircks change so quickly. I am sure that once we get back they will catch up quickly. Cha Bing is very smart, she has figured out how to take off lids and put them back on. I may give her a few quadratic equations and see how she does with that. She has 4 teeth on the top and 4 on the bottom. Today we went to a country village and wandered and met the locals. It was kind of depressing to see the hard life that these people live. We were invited into a persons home that had no electricity or running water(300 years old). It was very similar to living in a barn with many rooms, but these people were offering us cigarettes and asked us to stay for lunch. They have so little but are still very hospitable. There were dogs laying around, and one was chewing on a chicken bone. They don't know any better. We passed out candy to some of the people. We also stopped at Porcelan Street and picked up some nice chopsticks and a tea set. When I say it is hot here....you really cannot truely imagine how hot and humid. It is brutal. Also there are no driving laws. It is like the wild west. I have some video that I shot that is some of the most impressive driving ever seen. Were talking Goggles Pisano. Tomorrow is the 4th but I dont expect that there will be anything like we experience in the US.

A few pics...we are leaving for dinner

I think it's Tuesday

We will discuss the name later....from here forward I will refer to Cha Bing as (Cha Bing or "the baby"). So yesterday we had all of the official appointments to take care of. We had our official picture taken at Civil Affairs along with a brief interview about why we wanted to adopt(we passed), then to the police staion for her passport photo then to the notary. Cha Bing cried most of the day. We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant(which by the way is about the only kind of restaurant you can find). Some of the dishes are the same as in the US, but most are not. Its really hard to believe that there are so many different kinds of foods that we have never seen or heard of. After all of the appt's we all went to the Super Walmart to pick up some needed things. If you have been to Mexico or Europe you can generally find American products, that is not the case in China(except Coke) On the flip side, you can't get whole eel or chicken feet at a reasonable price in Pennsylvania. Walmart is an experience. Seemingly thousands of people crammed into 4 floors. We found out that Cha Bing has many teeth and still more coming in, so she is teething. Need I say more. Rule #1 of being a parent-Highly medicated children makes children and parents happier. Last night before bed, we thought we had made a break through to her...she was smiling and laughing for hours. She fell asleep and didnt wake up until 5:30 this morning, soon after she cried histerically for hours. Kim had a meltdown, I had a meltdown. Kim is really good with her and dealing with teething and a new mommy and daddy is probably very difficult for her. We will perservere. This morning we all went to a very large city park similiar to Central Park. There were many interested locals approaching us and reading our sign that we carry that explains we are Americans, and we have adopted one of your little girls. The people were nice and friendly. There were several people weilding swords(practicing sword fighting). I explained to our guide that this person would most likely be shot dead if he were in America. She thought I was joking. We have not yet reached a final decision on the name yet. I do believe that we can wait until we return home, but we did have to give her an American name yesterday.