Sorry I haven't blogged in a few days but we are having so much fun!!! Laila is a dream!! She's learned her name and responds to it except when she chooses to ignore us. She's learning what "no" means and doesn't like it when we tell her no. She is walking alot now, crawling all over, talking all the time and smiles constantly, which just melts our heart. She giggles alot too, it's so stinking cute I can't hardly stand it!! We are in Guangzhou now, staying at the famous White Swan. Our last few days in Zhengzhou were uneventful, we got Laila's passport and immunization records. She did good on the flight but there was way too much to look at for a nap so she played and played and played some more. I think that 12 hour flight back to the states is gonna seem like 24 hours!! We are really enjoying our time here in Guangzhou. We are no longer stared at like we have 3 heads. We feel very safe and comfortable here, there are alot of American's with their adopted Chinese children here, everyone that adopts internationally has to come to Guangzhou, so everyone that has adopted in China in the last week is here. Where we stay in Guangzhou, Shemian Island, is beautiful. It's right on the Pearl River, we eat breakfast every morning over looking the river and all the boats. Tomorrow night, Monday, we're doing a dinner cruise on the river. Today we went to a Buddist Temple, very ornate and pretty. We then went to the Chen House and saw alot of embroidery, bone and jade carving, all very intricate and beautiful. Tomorrow morning we have Laila's medical exam and get her pictures taken for her Visa. We've done some shopping, in fact Laila is walking around the room right now in her squeaky shoes, just laughing with every step. She is the best baby, we are so in love it's incredible. If anyone told me I could love her this much I'd say there's no way, but she's amazing. Her latest game is peek-a-boo, she will put the cloth over her face and ours. She definately knows we are mom and dad. Our guide held her today for about 30 seconds and she lost her mind, reaching out for us and crying so that's a great sign that she's bonded with us. She's seems to respond appropriately when we ask where's mommy or where's daddy. Today Scott went into the bathroom and Laila was playing with some toys, happy as can be. I asked her "where's daddy?" and she crawled over to the bathroom door and started banging on it with her toy. It's so cute. Also, today was my 1st Mother's Day and it was great. I'm so thankful I have this beautiful little girl to call my daughter. It's amazing. Today when I was holding her she leaned into me and touched her lips to mine. She doesn't make the kiss sound but I think that's exactly what she was doing. It brought tears to my eyes. Anyway, I'd better go, just got the little one to bed and now it's my turn. I will try and post tomorrow about our busy day. Enjoy the pictures. There's one of Scott eating a chicken's foot, lots of the buddhist temple and Chen house and some more of this adorable little girl. Love from Guangzhou!!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Latest stuff...
Laila's adoption was made official yesterday afternoon!! She is our little girl forever and ever, it's the most amazing feeling in the world. We all went to the registration officials office to finalize the adoption. We had pictures taken with the official paper and the adoption registration official. It's a big deal, usually it's just someone from the office but the guy in charge of the entire Henan province came and did ours. It was a brand new building and we were the 1st adoptions to be finalized there so it was special. They came early to put out the red carpet for all of us. They had an official photographer who took pictures of each family with the adoption official and then a group photo that will be framed and put on the wall. We then went to the notary, signed a few more papers and viola, she's our daughter!! We also went to the Lotus Center, kinda like a Super Wal-Mart. We bought diapers, formula, some clothes for Laila (everything I brought is too big and it's size 12 month),a few toys and some snacks. She did great, was in the front pack smiling at people. We are really seeing Laila's personality now. She is so happy!! She smiles alot, laughs alot and is babbling all the time. She gets a little cranky when she's tired or hungry but what little one doesn't. She's doing better with us putting her down some, which is good, it shows she trusts us that we won't leave her, but she makes it very known when she wants us to hold her and we are happy to do so. She took a few steps today from daddy to me and then back. We made a big deal out of it and she just had big smiles the entire time. She's just the best thing ever and we are so in love!!! Enjoy the pictures!!
Monday, May 4, 2009
We have Laila!!!
We received Laila around 3:30 this afternoon. We were all in the hall waiting and we see some ladies walking down the hall holding a little baby and it was Laila!! She's beautiful and tiny!! The 2 ladies walked right up me, Scott was standing behind me, and tried to hand her to me. She was having none of that!! After about 1 minute the lady just handed her to me and they went into our guides room so Laila couldn't see them. She cried for a minute and then just starting looking at us, not sure what was going on. We took turns holding her while some friends from the trip video taped it and took pictures for us. She held the rattle we gave her but wouldn't let go of the little piece of paper for hours!!! She came to us pretty clean, wearing 2 pairs of pants, 1 that we sent, 1 shirt and a sweatshirt we sent. She also had 2 bandana like things around her neck, she drools alot with her cleft. Her lip looks OK, she will definately need a revision. We then put her in the front pack and went to get pictures taken for her passport. She's very happy being carried, for the first 3-4 hours if we tried to put her down she would cry, so sad!! She loves cheerios, they are a hit!! She would lift her head up out of the front pack and open her mouth. We would put in a cheerio and she would settle back in. She looked like a little bird. She's sleeping now, went down after a bottle. She is in size 2 diapers, which should fit up to 18 lbs. We were told she's 17.5 lbs., I haven't weighed her but the size 2 diapers can be fastened with the 2 tabs almost touching in the front!! I have her in a size 6-9 month onesie and it fits fine. I put her in size 12 month leggings with elastic waist and the waist band was just sitting out from her waist, probably about 3-4 inches smaller around the waist would fit her. She is little!!! Toward the end of the night, before going to sleep, she finally let Scott put her down and she stood but only for a minute before wanting to be held. She's now in my bed, we are not going to push her sleeping in a crib, she seems a little withdrawn and we want her to feel safe and secure so sleeping with mommy it is!! Here are some pictures, we are exhausted!! Toward the end are 2 pictures of her putting her footprint on the official adoption paperwork, Scott and I have our thumb prints on there as well. The last pictures are of her tonight asleep. She's perfect, we couldn't imagine life without her and it's only been 5 hours!! Enjoy the pictures!!
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Beijing Day 2
Hello from Beijing!!! Today we went to the jade factory, the Great Wall, lunch, saw the birds nest and water cube from the Olympics, a porcelin factory and a chinese acrobat show. It was another great day but tiring!! We are having so much fun learning about the culture, it's all very fascinating. The Great Wall is so impressive, it's huge and STEEP!!! We went up quite a ways until I made the mistake of looking down and then I was done. Those of you who know me know I'm terrified of heights so I was totally freaked out, Scott had to walk me down while I only looked at the ground. Oh well, at least we can say we climbed the wall. The jade and porcelin factories are really cool, they walk you thru and show you the different steps in making the products. Then they let you lose to shop and they hover over you. It's very difficult to get out without buying something. They are all very polite but insistent!! It was great to see the Olympic venues, very nice!! We saw the Olympic village as well. When people heard we are from the US they asked if we know Michael Phelps!! The acrobat show was great. Think of Cirque du Soleil, it was very similar. Lots of fun!! We are now finishing up packing and trying to get our bags under-weight, that's a chore. I forgot to tell you about the other families we're traveling with. I'm not going to use names because I don't have their permission to do so but there's one family from Montana who already has a 7 year old little girl who was adopted from China at 12 months. She's adorable. They are getting her little sister who is 5 and has a repaired heart defect. Another family is from Georgia and they are adopting twin boys!!! It's very difficult to adopt twins since all the kids are abandoned they don't know for sure who's related but with these two there was no denying it so they get both boys who are 15 months old. The two boys have albinoism. There's one more couple from Colorado also. They brought along their 10 year old son and are adopting his little brother who is 7 and deaf. And then there's us, so 4 families in all and we've really enjoyed getting to know all of them!! Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we leave for the airport to head for Henan. Then Monday morning, Sunday night in the US, is baby day!! We will get our Laila so stay tuned!! In the mean time, enjoy the pictures from today.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Beijing Day 1
Hi everyone. We had a great day today. We went to Tienemen Square, The Forbidden City, a silk market and took rickshaw rides and visited a home. It was quite the day and we are exhausted. I will let the pictures speak for themselves, it's all amazing!!! (I'm trying out this montage feature, let me know what you think. Blogger is making it difficult to post pictures and put them where I want them. Just click on the forward arrow in the middle of the picture and enjoy.)
Thursday, April 30, 2009
We made it to Beijing!!!!
Hi everyone. I know that's a strange picture to start out with but blogger isn't letting me move pictures around so this post probably won't make any sense. Sorry about that. If anyone knows how I can fix that or what I'm doing wrong, please let me know!! It's driving me crazy and I want to fix it!! Anyway, we made it to Beijing and the picture above is of our guide, Josh, here in Beijing. He's holding the sign with our name and another family traveling with us. We both arrived about the same time but on different flights. Another family arrived yesterday and the last family gets in tonight.
This picture was right above our baggage carousel. Tomorrow we're going to Tienemen Square and The Great Wall, I hope we also drive by the cube and bird's nest. I'd love to get some pictures of the Olympic venues.
This was after we got off the plane in Beijing, good thing it was also in English. We'd probably still be walking around the airport looking for baggage!! 
Oh yeah!! Beijing here we come. We connected to our Beijing flight in San Francisco. We actually flew up over part of Alaska, the Bering Sea and Siberia. It was a 12 hour flight and never got dark, pretty strange.
Here's the daddy-to-be drinking a micro brew in San Fran waiting for our flight.
In Denver, our flight to San Francisco. Sorry this post started at the end and worked it's way back to the beginning. Hopefully I will get it figured out soon. Anyway, we are safe and sound, it's 7:20pm Thursday night here, we're 14 hours ahead of Denver. Scott is sacked out and I'm not far behind. We have a long day of touring tomorrow but should be alot of fun. Beijing is an amazing city. I will write more about it tomorrow when I have pictures to go along. It's hard to believe we are in the same country as Laila, I can almost feel her in my arms. We just need Monday morning to get here fast!! We want our girl!! Thanks for following our blog and we'll talk to you again soon!!!! Hugs from China!!!
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