Our last day in China!!!

Well, the time has come for us to pack our bags and leave our daughter's home. We are anxious to get to our home and start our lives as a family. It's bitter-sweet to leave. We are so ready to go home, we miss so many things we always took for granted. No humidity!! Drinking tap water!! A home cooked meal!! Our comfy beds!! Our family and friends!! At the same time we will miss China. China gave us the ultimate gift, one of their little girls for us to raise and love and we are eternally grateful. What a wonderful daughter we have been blessed with, she's beautiful, smart, lively, funny, strong-willed, stubborn and absolutely perfect. We will never be able to let Laila's birth mother know what a wonderful life she will have, how cherished, wanted and loved she is by us and so many others. We are thankful that Laila's birth mother left her somewhere she knew Laila would be found quickly, that this beautiful baby wouldn't be alone for long. My heart aches for this woman, as a mother I can only imagine the heartache and pain she felt, I could never imagine doing what she felt she had too do. So where ever you are, from one mother to another mother, thank you from the bottom of my heart. We will cherish this little girl forever. We love her unconditionally and will give her everything to make her life as fulfilled as possible. I pray you have found peace.

We've had a great past few days. Laila is feeling better. A couple travelling with us had some Amoxicillin they didn't need and that's what Laila would've received had we been home. I had my sister in law call our pediatrician and he said to give her the amoxicillin and stop taking the other meds we got here. She seems to be doing really good. A few nights ago we took a dinner boat cruise on the Pearl River. We could've passed on the dinner, deep fried minnows, fried fish skin, rocky mountain oysters, fish balls (didn't know fish had balls and that they are huge and yellow) and some other crazy things. We ate the rice and noodles, I know, living on the edge!! We had Laila's adoptive physical. Interesting that they told us her ears look great and later that day she had double ear infections. Not very through!! Anyway, our girl is all of 16.6lbs and 27 in. tall at 15 months. Just a little peanut. She loves her baths now, loves to play and splash. We had the consulate appointment yesterday and received Laila's visa so she can come into the US. Since both Scott and I came here for the adoption, once we land in San Francisco, Laila will be a US citizen!! For those of you still getting ready to travel here, make sure you visit the play room at the White Swan. It's great, especially for kids about 3 and under. Very cool!! On the way to dinner the other night we ran into 2 wedding parties having their pictures taken. They do weddings every day of the week here and they are happy to let American's take pictures. I took a picture of each bride and groom. There's also a picture of a tree. They all grow like this, lots of roots on top of the ground, maybe because it's so wet and humid they don't need to be down in the ground. Anyway, they just look really cool so I took a pircute. Tomorrow morning, we get on a plane to Hong Kong, have a 3 hour lay over and then get on our plane for the 12 hour trip to San Francisco, have a 4 hour lay-over there and then a 2 1/2 hour flight home to Denver. We can't wait!! Thank you all for your prayers and wishes sent our way on our journey to Laila, it's been a priceless journey, one we will never forget!! Hope you enjoy our last pictures from China. Love, Scott, Joanna and Laila

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