Home at Last

Starting out with a cute photo I took of Lelia shortly before we left China.

That morning our guide, Grace, met us at the airport to see us off and make sure we didn't have any trouble getting through the airport to our plane.  Grace was so helpful to us both with Leila and with me when I was so sick.  We were very pleased with our agency, CCAI, and the service they provided us in China.

Our plan was to fly from Guangzhou to Shanghai then catch the Delta flight from Shanghai to Atlanta, a direct flight.  We were off on time from Guangzhou and arrived as scheduled to Shanghai.  We had 3 hours there to get our bags and re-check them for our next flight and get our tickets to Atlanta.  What should have taken 30 minutes took most of that three hours of time.  When we got to the Delta counter they told us that we had printed up the tickets already and they weren't going to let us get on the plane unless we produced the tickets.  It took 2 hours for them to figure out that Delta had made a mistake and we never received the tickets.  They finally agreed to call Atlanta and ask and of course things were straightened out after that - whew!!

Being new parents I thought 3 diapers for the trip would be plenty.  I should have shared those thoughts with Mike.  She had a dirty diaper when we got to the gate in Guangzhou, and then 2 hours later in Shanghai Mike changed her again even though her diaper wasn't completely full.  When you start spending money on diapers you learn just how far you can make one diaper last, and they will actually last a long time.  I had saved two extra adsorbent nighttime diapers just for the flight.  Unfortunately when Mike took her to the bathroom in Shanghai, before our 14-hour flight, he went ahead and changed her again.  One diaper and 14 hours on a plane was quite terrifying for me, especially since she insisted on being in my lap the entire trip.  All I can say is I hope Delta threw that pillow away after Leila sat on it, in my lap, for the last 4 hours of the trip.  If not the next person to use it will not be pleased.  

After we arrived in Atlanta we had to spend more time going through customs.  We put Leila in the Ergo carrier for all of this, still without a diaper.  I was really happy to see my Dad, sister Kimberly, niece Nora Beth, brother-in-law Scott, and our friends the Alfonso's at the exit area of the airport.   We gave them all a great big pee smelling hug then raced to the nearest airport store that sold diapers.

Thanks to Andrew, Kimberly, and Mike A. for watching the doggies and kitties for us, and for the Alfonso's for helping get our car to the airport so we could put Leila in her car seat for the ride home.  Thanks also to Dad and Kimberly for ordering a pizza for us when we got home and for having our kitchen stocked with the essentials.  I still need to pay you back for all the milk and bread and stuff.

We were initially worried that Leila wouldn't get along with our pets, but not to worry.  
This photo was taken Leila's first night at home.  She and our little bully Lilian got along famously.  Lilian is our most tame and well behaved dog.  We next introduced her to Vivian, the hound dog, who is a little bigger and more "nosey" and barks a lot.  Again, no problem.  Finally we brought her to meet Buster, the jumpy crazy loud obnoxious (who we really do love BTW), and again success.  Its amazing to watch buster jumping around her and licking her in the face.  Leila just giggles.  They say how amazing China adoption is and that you don't just adopt any child, but rather YOUR child (the one meant for your family).  I could not imagine a more perfect child for us!

 
Here is Leila surrounded by begging dogs as I give her bites of my pudding.  The dogs really love having her around because babies are really messy eaters and they get all the dropped, spilled, and otherwise left behind food.  I was kind of worried that our dogs would be neglected when we brought Leila home, but everyone is really getting plenty of attention.  The dogs now have one more person to get attention from.

BTW, a big huge thanks to my mom for coming over and making a family favorite, spoon-burgers, for us.  She made a huge batch of these neat sandwich thins that are wrapped in foil and frozen for future meals.  Again Leila fits in with us because she loved the spoon-burgers.  In fact here we are a week later and they are already all gone!

We discovered that Stone Mountain is an awesome place to have fun family time.  We hiked up the mountain twice last week.  Mike carried Leila the first time with me carrying the supplies.  Then it was my turn on the 2nd trip.  The Ergo carrier is so comfortable its a lot like carrying a camping back pack, so really not too bad.

Leila got to see her first deer on our first hike up.

On the way down Leila likes to fall asleep in the carrier.  It has a neat flap that you can put up over her head to keep her head from flopping around as Mike hikes.

Isn't she cute sleeping in there!!

Leila loves her room and toys too.  This was a hand-me-down tent from my nieces Nora Beth and Masha.  Leila has to get in here ever day.

Leila is also the banana queen.  We have bought 4 bunches since we've been home and there is only one banana left in the kitchen.  Mike likes to put the banana stickers on her nose saying that "its her job to amuse us."

We have enjoyed lots of family since Leila has been home.  My parents, sisters, brother, and all their families came last saturday to celebrate a belated birthday for Leila, who turned 2 on March 22nd.  It was really fun to have everyone around.  I was so busy working the birthday stuff I never took any photos.  Hopefully I can get some posted soon.  

Leila was thrilled to get all the presents and cards.  You guys are the best!!  Uncle Earl even brought easter baskets for all the nieces (Leila, Nora Beth, and Masha).  Earl is so animated he had Leila giggling harder than I ever saw her giggle before.  She literally was rolling on the floor.

Mike's brother and sister-in-law, Joe (Uncle Joe, aka 'the muffin man' and Shann (aka Auntie Muffin) came for a short visit on Friday.  Great to see them too.  They brought an awesome gift (love the faeries!) and a cute easter present too.  Shann is the official bubble master!

Yesterday Mike and I went for the first time to an awesome area playground.  Leila had the best time playing on the playground equipment.  There were lots of kids that let her use their equipment to play in the huge sand box.

Today I am calling the best day ever.  Leila finally slept for a full 12 hours last night, and she was such a happy girl all day.  We went on an outing to my work to sign up for insurance and add her.  She had fun charming all of my down-town coworkers.  Then this evening I got my first kiss.  I have been asking for one for a long time and she has refused every request.  Tonight out of the blue she just puckered up came over and waited for me to lean down to kiss her.  She continued to give me and Mike several kisses after that.  

Oh and tonight she and Buster connected as never before, sharing a cup of milk.  I guess I'm too new a parent to worry about germs.  Dog cooties aren't all bad, right?

One last funny thing to wrap up with.  Mike and I have been having a terrible time putting Leila to sleep at night.  Jet lag has been terrible!  She has been crying and crying for hours at bed time.  The last couple of days we may have hit upon the secret code to putting her down.  On her insistence, we dress her up in her Tigger outfit.  I forget who gave us that, I think Dan and Holly, but whoever it was a thousand thank you's.  She loves that thing.  Anyway, we dress her up in that, put her in her stroller, and stroll her around the neighborhood for about 10 minutes.  Boom, out like a light.  Then we carefully carry her up to the bedroom.  Turn out all the lights, and wowee - its been working, so lets hope it keeps up.  I'll have to take a photo of Leila in her Tigger outfit for the next post.

Kelly

Back Among the Living

Not sure what happened, but I became terribly sick after arriving in Guangzhou several days ago.  I was feeling somewhat better for about a day, then much worse.  I wound up going to the clinic here at the White Swan Hotel.  The doctor there gave me some prescription antibiotics, and other medication.  I either had a bad case of bronchitis or pneumonia along with a low-grade fever. 

While I was lying in bed, Mike was once again my hero.  He went out and bought Leila her red couch photo outfit.  Everyone who stays at the White Swan Hotel has to have their photo taken at this red couch they have in the lobby of the 2nd floor.  We put all the kids from our group together for a photo.  Getting 1-5 year olds together on a couch for a photo was quite an adventure as you can see from the top photo.  Leila is the big girl in the front row.  It was late afternoon, and she was feeling a bit fussy.  We didn't get a smile, but at least she didn't cry.

 
Here's a nice photo of two daddys, Mike and Jason, holding their new little girls, Leila and Julia.  Aren't they adorable!

Leila's Chinese outfit looked so precious on her.  I wished I had been feeling good enough to enjoy how cute she looked.  Baba was so proud!

The following day I stayed in bed while Mike brought Leila to her mandatory health check-up at the Guangzhou doctor's office.  

Here's a group shot of everyone in front of the hotel waterfall.  I don't know how our CCAI facilitators were able to handle all of us.  We were quite a large group!

The night after the doctor's office Mike took Leila out for dinner.  She loves to play peek-a-boo...

Here's "baby boo dow" taking a snooze on the way in to the US Visa department to take our oath.  This was the last bit we needed to do before we received Leila's passport and visa to be able to bring her home.  We had to swear everything given to the US government was true.  No biggie there.  So, you may be asking now what I mean when I call her "baby boo dow"?  Well, she speaks a lot of Mandarin.  In Mandarin "bu you" (pronounced boo yow) means "don't want", and Leila says this all the time.  Mostly when she is upset, but sometimes when she is happy too.  She just doesn't seem to want very much.  Well, maybe she want's another hunk of sugar right before bed time so she will scream herself to sleep, like she did last night. (shutter...)

A happy family of three after completing our final adoption step.  Leila is not only ours in China, but also in the US now!  She will be a citizen the first moment our air plane lands on US soil - YEAH!!

This morning she was a bit fussy, and wanted to run around without her pants in the hotel room.  Another "boo dow" moment!

This morning after breakfast we walked to a nearby park where she teetered with a little boy.  They had a really good time.

Some women were doing tai chi in the park as well.  It was already getting hot outside at 8:00 am, so the ladies were getting a good work out.

Then at 10:30 we met up with Ann from Red Thread.  Our friends Kim and Michael hired her to take us shopping for a couple of hours.  She is known for getting great deals on lots of China specialty stuff.  We took a taxi to the Pearl Market first and bought a load of pearls.  Then went to the jade market and bought some neat wooden boxes.  Then off to a market where we bought some silk clothes.  All pretty good quality and for very good prices.  Ann is so fast we bought everything we needed and wanted and then some in less than 3 hours.  For our clothes we bought a dress for me, a shirt for Mike, bathrobes for both of us, and 6 outfits for Leila to fit her as she grows up.  All for under $50.  Can't beat that!  Thanks again so much Michael and Kim!!

This is what it looked like following Ann.  We were almost running to keep up with this fabulous woman.  She certainly did not waste any of our time.

After we got back to the hotel, we walked over to Lucy's for lunch, then to a nearby park to let Leila run around a bit.

She thought these stepping stones were separated with a ditch the size of the Grand Canyon which she had to traverse carefully.  It was funny to watch how meticulously she handled each one.
There are a bunch of life size statues around the park, and Leila had fun exploring them.

Well, goodnight and good bye from Guangzhou.  Next time we write will be from home.  We can't wait to rest up from our trip and let all our friends and family meet our newest edition.

Kelly and Mike

Welcome to Guangzhou!

This is my favorite of my baby/daddy photos so far.  I took this one of Mike and Leila looking out our hotel window yesterday shortly after we arrived in Guangzhou.

Leila was so good on the airplane.  She slept for the first hour of the flight, then ate both of our dinners during the 2nd hour.  I was expecting the usual kid airplane stuff like kicking and screaming and pooping, but she was awesome the whole trip.  Her diaper did spring a leak by the time we got on the bus to ride from the airport to the hotel, though.  Mike and I were laundry bound soon for sure.

Late afternoon we headed out with our other Atlanta buddies Gwen, Jason, and Julia for some dinner.  We ate at a nice restaurant which opens up to a neat park with statues of people all over the place.  We will have to take more photos there.  The Shamen (sp?) Island part of Guangzhou is very westernized, and I enjoyed a grilled cheese sandwich with french fries for dinner.  Leila had the noodle soup.  She loved feeding the soup to herself, but by the end of the meal I'm not sure if there weren't more noodles on the outside of Leila than the inside.  Wish I had brought my camera for that one.  Noodles are slippery and seem to have a mind of their own as to where they will end up.

  

Here's a photo I took of Baba watching the beautiful view of the river out our hotel room while Leila sleeps in the background.

The view from our room really was spectacular!

The following are some photos I took the previous day at the hotel of Leila in the baby pool with Baba (Daddy).  She sure loves the water.
Just look at that smile...

Happy as a clam...

Throwing water out of the pool is serious business.

Throwing water on Baba is even more serious.

Is that drool... or snot... oh well, baby is happy, so who cares.

This photo was taken earlier in the week just before I got sick.  We took a trip to see Leila's orphanage.  Of course she didn't live in the orphanage, since she was in foster care, but she did stay here a bit when she was first found.  The mother and baby on the right side of the photo is Gwen and Julia, our friends from Atlanta.

A rare photo of all three of us together.  Leila was still quite fussy this day, but I kind of think this visit also put some of her fears to rest.  She used to come here for check-ups and periodic visits from time to time, and I think going to visit a semi-familiar environment helped her through some of her grief.  She needed a place to say goodbye.  There was a really nice man there, that was there when Leila was brought to us a couple of days before.  He really took to Leila, and Leila to him.  On this day when we saw him at the orphanage she also smiled at him and enjoyed listening to him talk to her in Mandarin.  However, when he offered to hold her, she pulled away and hugged me.  It felt kind of like she made her choice that day to stay with us, and I think it helped her figure things out a bit too.

Love this photo Mike took of us walking around the orphanage together.

Just for fun, here are a couple of shots of "firsts"...
This is Baba on his very first solo poopy diaper change.  He gagged a bit, but I think he even impressed himself that he could do it.  Mike is the kind of guy that can't even clean up dog poop from the living room floor, so this was quite something to behold.

First smile.  This was taken the very first day with Leila.  She finally smiled when I gave her some milk for the first time.  It was before she realized that she would not be going to her old home, so she was actually content for an hour or two before the grieving started.  Gotta love the first smile, though.

Guangzhou is beautiful, and warm.  Everything here is green and blooming.  I will need to take some photos and post them tomorrow.

Kelly

Sleeping with Shrimp Fries

My first image of Leila just before the nanny handed her to me.  I was so flustered I didn't get a clear shot, but this photo pretty well describes what was going on in my brain when I received Leila.

Before the children arrived, we waited for just a few minutes (seeming like an eternity) in the office of the province adoption affairs.  See the guy out in the hall?  He was our look out to make sure we were all ready with the cameras when the babies arrived.  My heart skipped a beat when he said "they're here".  But it was a false alarm.  There were two babies coming, but those were from another orphanage for another group.  Finally, our Kaifeng babies did all arrive.  They were all dressed alike in puffy blue snow pants and puffy orange coat.  The pants were the split pants, so her little bootie was hanging out.  I was worried when we put her in the carrier that she was going to mess it up with out a diaper on, but she didn't.  Turns out she is almost potty trained.

I, Kelly, am feeling much better today.  Mike told me it was time for the blog master to take back the blog and put up some posts.  

This morning I woke up feeling something scratchy under my legs in the bed.  It was one of those darn shrimp fries.  On the evening of Leila Day we received a list of things she liked to eat, and the list said she liked 'shrimp fries' as a snack.  Of course Mike and I had no idea what a shrimp fry was, but we knew we had to learn quick.  Evelyn, one of our agency guides, arranged for Mike to go to a store to buy some milk and some other things she would like.  He found these awesome single-serving milk containers that don't need to be refrigerated until after they are opened, and he also got to ask what a shrimp fry was.  Our guide pointed them out, and Leila has been chowing down on those things ever since.  This morning she even fed some to Uncle Earl on Skype.  They are all over the floor of the hotel room, and apparently even under the covers of the bed.

I had been too busy or too sick to post much about our time since we got Leila, so here's a little bit.  The first 2 to 3 days she was so sad.  She would pull my hand begging me to take her to her nai nai (that's the Chinese word for grandmother, but is also a common word used to call a foster mom, especially if its an older foster mom).  I found myself questioning if we were doing the right thing taking her away.  I talked a bit to Evelyn about this, and she reassured us that she really would have a better life with permanent parents instead a transitional foster home.  I felt a little better then, but it still hurts to see our girl in so much pain.

She is doing much better now.  This morning she was actually having a nice quiet and happy morning playing with her toys in the room.  It was the first time she had been in the room for any length of time when she wasn't crying or asleep.  She still asked for us to take her to nai nai, but it wasn't the desperate request it once was, and she seemed to forget what she asked after while.  She seems to call for nai nai mostly when she needs something and we don't understand what she is asking for - diaper change, to go to the toilet, food, etc.  She is re-teaching us all our Chinese that we learned a year ago at our class.  She is so cute when we hand her something and she says "bu dou".  In Chinese 'bu you' means 'don't want', and her little 'bu dou' is cute baby talk.

A little about her spina bifida.  Its amazed me that she doesn't seem to have any ill effects what so ever.  The other day she was playing with her little music bear (thanks Gwen and Jason for that!) and was pushing the buttons with her toes.  She has great control of her feet.  I was worried that she may have some mental delays from the mild hydrocephalous, but at less than 2 years old she is talking up a storm and she knows exactly what she wants and doesn't want.

Well that's all the time I have for tonight.  We need to go finish packing and will leave for Guangzhou tomorrow.  Our stay in Henan has completed our China adoption, now its on to the US consulate to do our US adoption.  Then she will be ours forever!

Kelly 

The best day ever

Sorry it has been so long since our last post, but I'm sure you'll understand when I tell you that we have been kinda busy to start with I (Mike) am writing this post because our regularly scheduled blogmaster has gone down pretty hard with a cold,I don't even know where to start because so much has happened in the last few days and it's kind of a blur. First of all we went to the orphanage and received the most precious thing ever except for my sweet baby who by the way happens to like me now. I think she might even be a daddies girl,we were given the note left with her from her birth mother I won't post it here because it's very personal and we want to leave that stuff for her to share when she gets older if she wants, but I will say it was unbelievably sweet and she was loved very much by her birth parents.We are so thankful for the blessings they have given us   Today I had my first Daddy date. Kelly wasn't feeling well so I took Leila to dinner at pretty fancy Chinese restaurant we walked to the hotel next door with one of the other couples and their 4 kids, the older kids were a huge help to me. we ate rice,shrimp and dragon fruit from my fingers and she fed herself green tea with a porcelain spoon and only spilled a few drops, we had a great time did a whole lot of laughing and giggling then we walked all over the hotel,first to the pool and splashed our hands in the kiddy pool and then fed the Koi in the pond of the fancy restaurant in the lobby (it has a glass floor and you can see the fish swimming past under the table) it was very cool  

A very long day

Well we got our precious little girl today,and she is not one bit happy about how things are going for her . the grieving process is hitting her really hard .....bless her little heart.  She was pretty cool and collected at the gotcha day festivities and then her new daddy tried to hold her so Kelly could put her coat on to walk back to the hotel (cue China Syndrome music now), and the first meltdown hit. Poor little thing misses her nai nai soooo much, and she felt very strongly that it was her sworn duty to inform us of this for the next 12 hours or so. Sorry to all you guys that we haven't contacted like we said we would but that will come soon, and I feel very strongly that tomorrow will be a lot easier, and a million thanks to Guppa and Nanna for the Ergo Pack it was really a lifesaver.

Mike and Kelly

3.5 hours to go

We have slept very little tonight.  We will sleep for a few minutes, then wake up and check the clock.  At 5:00 am we decided we would just get up.  We found a note stashed under our door from our neighbors, Jay and Gwen, a few doors down the hall saying they are up an come visit if we like.  Too funny!

We arrived on schedule yesterday in Zhengzhou.  Hope I spelled that right.  It is the provincial capital of Henan Province, where Leila is.  She is in Kaifeng, which is only an hour east of us.  

Our new agency guides met us at the airport yesterday and I can tell already that they are just awesome!!  They brought us to the hotel and then we went to the bank to exchange money for Yuan to pay all our fees.  We went to a neat restaurant with couches and pillows as the booth seats at the tables.  I had the dumplings.  Food was great!!

Last night I spent the evening preparing gifts, while Mike worked on the Skype.  He finally managed to get it going, and tried calling our family friends, the Pucketts, just to see if it worked.  It did!... and the Pucketts along with Mike's parents were actually at the computer and saw Mike calling in.  We managed to all talk and see each other on the screens.  It was pretty cool.

More later...

Great Wall and more...

Today was the day I was waiting for for so long it seems - time for a trip to the great wall!!

We started out with a quick trip to the jade factory where we got Leila a jade stamp with her Chinese name carved into it, written both in pin yin and in Chinese writing.  They were kind enough to look up her name for me in their dictionary so we were sure to get the Chinese characters and tones right for the meaning.  

Here is a beautiful piece of colored jade they had on display - amazing!

Then it was off to the wall.  Beijing is a really flat city, so it was nice to drive a little way north and see the topography start to change.  It gradually became hilly, then mountainous.

 
The part of the wall we went to had loads of tourists.  Not exactly my first choice, but hey I was at the Wall!!!  The lower parts of the wall were packed, and they had nice flags lining the walkway.

Here is some of the view out there. Can you see the wall continuing to wind around on that mountain in the back of the photo?

Not all of the wall is a nice walkway.  In fact, much of it looked like this.  We really appreciated the modern hand-rails.

At the top, we had spectacular views of the mountains and the continuing wall.

After the wall, we did a drive-by tour of the olympic aquatic center...

...and the bird nest...

Here are some neat art pieces located in a nearby park constructed for the Olympics.

We ended the day seeing a show of amazing acrobats.  We were in the 2nd row and they were incredible. No photos during the show, so we only got this one of us before the show started.

Well, tomorrow we are FINALLY off to Henan Province to where our daughter lives.  Cannot wait!!

Mike and Kelly