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