Our journey to adopting our daughter from China.
A hundred years from now it will not matter what size my bank account was or the kind of car I drove...but the world may be different, because I was important in the life of a child.
February 25, 2006
Guangzhou!
From Mom:
Yay! We arrived in Guangzhou last night and wow! The hotel is the bomb!! Well ok, in english the hotel is fabulous! It is a 5 star hotel and what a world of difference from Xi'an. I haven't seen much of the city today, but so far it is like a Paris or a very fashionable city. Where Xi'an is very ancient, Guangzhou is very modern. Thank goodness we are out of the smog in Xi'an. My throat is killing me.
Enough of that, what about our baby girl?! She is completely ours, she looks to us to see if we approve before she does things and oh how I cried yesterday when I held onto her hands as she took her first steps for me and Daddy. It was just too precious. She cannot walk unaided yet, but she's working on it.
Everyday in Xi'an just got better and better. Her responses are quick and she has the cutest way of giggling by winking her left eye and her smile on the left side smirks higher than her right. We'll have to snap a picture of that one too. We do have video and tons of pictures, but I'll let Daddy do some downloading tonight.
Today was Natalie's physical exam and she passed with flying colors and nary a cry. She weighs 20.4 lbs and is 17 inches tall
The food here is delicious and we found an excellent bakery that has the cutest cake for Natalie's birthday, which is in a couple of days. I'm sorry but I don't even know what day it is except to say it is Saturday.
We bought Natalie a pair of the infamous Squeaky Shoes and she loves them! She learned very quickly how to stamp her foot to make them squeak. For those of you who don't know Squeaky Shoes, they are baby shoes with a squeaker in between the sole and the insole and it squeaks when you walk on them. They are great!
For any parents to be: This trip is EXAUSTING. Not only the emotional release of finally seeing our daughter, but being thrown into first time parenting and the newness of a different country, but also living out of a hotel and suitcase.
AND then there is Der's Boot Camp! Come here, go there, paper work here, sign here, meet here! All at a VERY punctual time. And while that may not bother me, if you know her Daddy you know he can be temporally challenged when away from work.
Talk about stress! Of course, it is worth it, I'm not complaining just FYI. Forewarned is forearmed.
Natalie is doing just great and is blossoming every day. She is on as much of a good schedule as we can keep her on while traveling, we just rest as much as we can in our room and then she does well on our outings. For some reason, she likes Guangzhou much better than Xi'an.
She did not warm to the people in Xi'an like she is warming to the people here. Must be the Cantonese hospitality :) ! Well, I best go as I'm being charged by 15 min intervals and I'm writing this on the fly.
Let me close by saying big THANK YOU's to all who have helped send us on this journey to our forever family: Katherine & Denny, Tanya, Shawn, BLEE!, Chele, Jordin, The Viz's, Marie G., Deb G., Kus, Woos, Rima, Tara, Jenn, my friends at Verizon, Jawanda (kiss kiss), Adoptions From The Heart, Shannon C, Jackie S, Cordia, Mz KeeWee, Cecil, Dr Barr, Dr Dameron and anyone who has touch our hearts and given advice. It has all helped to make this precious girl our own.
With Generous hugs & kisses to you all, Natalie's Mom and Pop
She is beautiful, fabulous, pretty, precious, charming, funny, smart...did I tell you she is beautiful?
This child is our most precious gift. We are blessed and matched perfectly. How long we have waited for this daughter who is so wonderful she makes our hearts full. We are already a family. Natalie loved Daddy from the get go (first night) and enjoyed me as well, but Daddy was her favorite comfort.
Everyday she makes us laugh and we play and dance with her in our room. She loves going places with us and already looks to us before chatting with a stranger, as if to say "is this person okay? Should I let her hold me?"
All the people who live here in Xi'an make a fuss over her and love the Chinese name we have chosen: Mei Zhu (pretty pearl) and they make sure I know how to pronounce it. I think I can do it now and pass off the Mandarin well enough.
Luckily, she wears the 12 month size clothes we brought for her and of course, she looks like a doll baby! We went to the Terra Cotta Warriors yesterday and she was much improved after we took her off the milk-based formula (no more gas!)
She had a blast riding on the bus and seeing all the people. She has 4-1/2 teeth on the bottom and 4 teeth on the top. Did I tell you she is beautiful?
We are in love!
She has captured our hearts like nothing else on earth.
We are unable to post many pictures from here and will try again in Guangzhou.
You will all soon be smitten with this witty charmer! Did I say how precious she is?
She's just shy of 12 mo. We got her 1st thing upon arriving at the hotel here in Xi'an around 11:30 PM local time Sunday night
She is a beautiful smart curious little chatterbox and has taken quickly to the both of us. Wife and I are smitten!
It was a 2.5 hour plane ride and 40+ minute bus trip to get here from Hong Kong. Getting off the airplane at the Xi'an airport was like the last scene in the movie, "Casablanca".
We deplaned down stairs (not a jetway) under spotlights on a foggy tarmac and took a shuttle to the main terminal. From there we took a bus to the hotel to meet our waiting daughter!
The excitment was overwhelming!
We'll have more to post later including pix.
Keep checking back for our continuing adventure in China.
We arrived last night about 8:30pm. We breezed through customs, a visa stamp and viola we were in HK! Well, I breezed through. Husband got a second glance before he got let through.
Our guide met us for a mini-meeting and offered a tour of HK for the morning, but I begged off deciding I'd rather get a good night's sleep so we could start with a leisurely morning.
We slept in 'til 8:30 am and walked down to the airport shops which are attached to the hotel and had a nice breakfast of dumplings and a delicious cup of coffe as excellent as any european espresso!
Then we watched a man pull malted sugar into tiny thin strands called Dragon's Beard Candy. He filled it with minced peanuts and it was delicious, so we bought a big box! Then we went to the pharmacy and bought some diaper wipes, Q-tips and hand wipes to prepare for the trip ahead of us.
Now we're sitting in the hotel bar at their internet which is free if you buy a drink. So what better time to celebrate than now with a glass of champagne! Yippee. I think I deserve that!
We also stopped at a wonderful juice bar and bought a cup each of mango juice, delicious! Nothing like at home where you only get a teaspoon of unripened mango mixed with a bunch of other juices. This one is pure M A N G O. Yum!
So, now we leave at 4pm HK time for Xi'an, Shaanxi. Destination Hotel Sheraton. We are scheduled to meet our babies tomorrow, but are hoping we just might be surprised with them tonight upon arrival. Just one more reason, I skipped the guided tour of HK today.
Note to future adoptive parents: Hong Kong Airport has everything you could ever need for your trip and your baby, so don't worry if you forget something. I'm glad we packed light. So far we only need what we've brought which is one bag we share and one bag for the baby, mostly stuffed with toys, blankets and clothing.
Hong Kong is very cool and metropolitan. It's the Paris of the east! We'll we'll post tomorrow, hopefully with pictures, woo hoo! Natalie's Mom & Pop
Wow! I am just overwhelmed with excitement. We leave in less than 48 hours to meet our darling angel!
After a year and a half of papers and preparation and waiting and more dreadful waiting we will finallly meet a darling dear who will change our lives forever!
I absolutely could not sleep last night from excitement. Definitely nothing to worry about. Things are packed, house is tight, crib is ready, but for some reason all the waiting has finally come to an end and it is definitely a foe I am ready to be rid of.
Hubby is doing his own type of pacing and worry, but I'll leave him to do the goofy things he thinks are important like shop for a video camera. I say just plop that baby in my arms and let me coochie coo her forevermore!
That will make me happy. I read another couple's blog who went to Shaanxi and now I am so excited to visit this ancient city as well. The Muslim quarter is supposed to have fabulous shopping! Just think, the muslims traveled along the silk road and set up a marketplace that has remained there for centuries. I'm on it!
And, of course, the famous Emporer's Tomb with his lifesize Terra Cotta Warriors. Luckily the weather is calling for mild temperatures not much lower than uppers 40's during the day and maybe even 50 degrees. So I can hang with that.
WoooHoo! We leave the 17th of February! The best Valentines present we could ever have! In two weeks time we'll be on our way to Hong Kong and will meet our darling daughter the next day in Xi'an, Shaanxi. Wow, this is truly amazing and humbling. We are blessed. I can not wait to meet our little girl and fill her up with hugs and kisses!
I don't have an itenerary now, but we will most likely post some pictures within 3 or 4 days of arriving, so have a peek back! Thank you to all our family and friends for you thoughts and support. A very special Thank you to my Sister and Brother-In-Law, who have made this adoption possible! Without them, we may have been sitting here still without a family. Now we'll begin a tradition of family fun everyday!
