Sunday in Gaungzhou

It is Sunday so I have a lot to catch up. On Friday we got up early
and packed up for our last day in Kunming. We ate and then took a
short nap and checked out. Our local guide Lisa picked us up and
took us to the Minority Village. The Minority Village has many
little villages that show the housing, customs, clothing, music and
dance of each minority in Yunnan. You could not begin to see it all
in a day. We asked the guide to concentrate on the minorities in
the north near Kunming. I was able to buy the girls an outfit from
the minority that Mei Mei is most likely from. It is a beautiful
place and we really enjoyed it. Then we went to the airport. We
ate KFC for dinner then went down to board the flight. The family
we had shared a guide with in Kunming was on the same flight. This
turned out to be a life saver as the uncle, John, helped us with our
carry on baggage some. We had packed our carry ons heavy in order
to not pay over weight fees on our check through bags, as the in
country flights have a much smaller weight allowance. We did find
out Mei Mei is a terrible traveler! This does not bode well for the
long trip home. She did not seem to be in pain she just wanted down
to get in to everything, and screamed when she couldn't get her
way. Boy can this kid scream LOUD! On arriving at Guangzhou we
were met the local guide here, Connie, the same guide we had last
time YEAH! It is nice to be back with a commited guide. We got
checked in and went straight to bed. This hotel room is the
smallest yet! It has two twin beds. Baby Bug asked why the bed was so
small. I told her it was because it was made for one person. She
said "I know, how about me!¨ I asked her where I would sleep and
she pointed to the other bed. I told her that was Papas bed and she
said OK how about there, and pointed to the chair in the corner. :-)

On Saturday we ate breakfast and then met with the other
families from my agency to get the children's visa photos and
medicals done. Mei Mei did not like this! She screamed the whole
time. I did get a chuckle out of the nurse calling the other nurses
over to see how HUGE our baby was LOL. After that we returned to
our room and took a nap then dad stayed with the girls while I went
and filled out the forms for the US visa. This took about two
hours, YUCK! We then walked down to the little tourist area by
these hotels; we ate dinner at Lucy's, American hamburgers and
pizza, and then did a little shopping. Then back to the hotel to
bed.

We had a really rough night. Baby Bug had night terrors; she does
this about once a month, and her screaming set Mei Mei to screaming,
witch made Baby Bug scream louder, then Mei mei.... You get the idea.
After two round of this we were all a little shot this morning. Dad
finally managed to get a hold of the local branch president about
9am this morning. Church was at 10am and was a half hour taxi ride
away. There was no way I could get the girls dressed and fed in
that time so I encouraged dad to go without us. I think he could
really use the break. He went and should be back any time now. The
girls and I went down for breakfast then over to play on the local
playground about a block away. Baby Bug was so excited to see this
playground, but is shy about playing with the other children. We
came back to the room and took a nap and are now waiting for dad.
Dad forgot his key so we need to be here when he gets back. He just
got back, so I will go visit with him.

Love you,

Thursday
Baby Bug is still not feeling great so we have stayed in a lot of the day. Baby Bug does really well when the medicine is in her but for about an hour before she can take more she is one sick little girl. We are trying to keep the rest of us from getting sick, but it is a small room. Lisa, our guide made it clear that this happened because I took Baby Bug for a walk in the morning time Tuesday LOL. It is very Chinese to feel that the cooler air caused this. I got a real lecture about taking either of the girls out in the morning or evening. We took the girls for a walk right after breakfast this morning. I did bundle Mei Mei up quite well, she is used to the warmer weather and I don’t want her to get chilled. Baby Bug I just put a light sweater on, so the older people at the park didn’t stop me and chew me out. Baby Bug draws lots of stares and positive comments; everyone seems pleased she is going to a home LOL. No one realizes it is Mei Mri we are picking up. Mei Mei does look like a white person with her blond hair and blue eyes. She has the rosiest cheeks and a dimple in her left cheek. I think she is the happiest baby I have ever seen. She has especially taken to papa. Today she said two new things. This afternoon while we were getting ready for a second walk Mei Mei was afraid she would be left behind and started calling at dad “papa papa papa.” It was precious. Then a little while ago I was playing with her with Bo bo (said Boe Boe) her soft doll and Mei Mei grabbed Bo bo from me and crowed “got it!” She is picking things up quickly and is a real flirt too. :-) She is smart but delayed. It is obvious she has had little human interaction in her life. She is accepting playing, touching, and cuddling much more each day. She has reached for me to hold her twice now! Something funny we have found out, if you put her in a stroller she falls right to sleep and stays asleep until you take her out of the stroller.
Lisa should bring her birth certificate this afternoon, and then tomorrow we will get her passport. Tomorrow we will be going to the minority village (like epcot for Chinese minorities) then getting on a plane at 8pm, we will not get to Gaungzhou until almost midnight. I am a little worried about Baby Bug with her not feeling well. We do not have the choice of staying in and taking it easy as we will be checked out of the hotel in the morning. Please keep her (and us) in your prayers. Dad is coming down with a travel stomach, and feels rough.
We miss you and love you all.

Wednesday in Kunming

Wednesday in Kunming
Baby Bug is sick. We were supposed to go see the stone forest, but Baby Bug wasn’t up to it. She has lain in bed and slept most of the day. Dad has slept as well. Mei Mei is a happy baby and we have had a chance to play. The hard part has been that when Baby Bug is sick she only wants mama for everything. Baby Bug and Mei mei are both demanding, and it can be very frustrating. We went to Pizza Hut for dinner at Baby Bug’s request. The service was slow and Mei Mei was not well behaved. I think I will be losing weight in the near future LOL.

Tuesday in Kunming

Tuesday in Kunming
Well it has been a long day. At breakfast I couldn’t believe what this kid could eat! She had a hard boiled egg, two bowls of fried rice, and a bowl of rice congee, a serving of fried zucchini, two slices of watermelon, a roll, and a half a slice of French toast. Where does she put it all?! The only problem is between Baby Bug and Mei Mei; I don’t get much time to eat. Mei Mei gets upset if you don’t keep her mouth full. When we went back up to the room Mei Mei fell asleep. Dad stayed to nap with her and I took Baby Bug to Green Lake Park. If you ever come to Kunming a word of warning: NEVER TAKE A CHILD TO THE PARK DESSED IN SHORTS, especially if said child is Chinese. I got chewed out royally by every old lady, and elderly man in the park LOL. I cam back to the room and changed her into long pants. :-) I then went to the gaisi (open market) and searched for hair bands as ours appeared to have been left in Beijing. I was able to find pretty hair bows as well. When I got back I woke Mei Mei up, as she had been asleep for 3 hours. Dad and I put the girls in strollers and took them for a walk in the park. This time we got lots of thumbs up and lucky baby comments.
After that our guide picked us up to go see the orphanage. The orphanage was spotless, but they didn’t allow us to see many children. Mei Mei was in the ergo carrier, and anytime a nanny approached us she kept a death grip on mama. :-) I don’t think she has really atached to us yet, but she thinks we are the best nannies she has had LOL. We went to dinner at a local place the guide had pointed out. The food wasn’t that good. Mei Mei was a rat and I ended up walking her outside the restaurant a good part of the meal. She has a very loud yell when she wants too. She did say her first English word, MAMA. For her it is just a name to call me, she has no concept of what a mama is.

Love you all,

Waiting for Mei mei

It is about 4:30 am here, for some reason I can't seem to sleep. :-)
We will receive Mei Mei 7:30 am. We have been unable to get the
Internet to work here, and will not have time to get the hotel staff
to help until this afternoon, so I don't know when I will be able to
post this. WE MISS R!!! LOL Yesterday we traveled from Beijing to
Kunming. Our guide Rose met us in the hotel lobby to drive us to
and has a teenage daughter. She got us checked in to the hotel. We
have been upgraded to the five star Green Lake Hotel, it is a nicer
location and very nice, we do have a small room, but about what we
expected. Then she took us to Wal-Mart, it is the largest Wal-Mart
I have ever seen LOL! We got food and new shoes for Baby Bug. Baby Bug's
shoes kept falling off her feet as we walked, so they were a
priority. When we got back to a hotel I took Baby Bug swimming. She
was thrilled! I have to add here that I am sure they put ice in
that pool! LOL that is the coldest pool I have ever been in! Baby Bug
didn't seem to mind though, and we weren't swimming for long
anyways. We meet the guide early this morning, so I better go. By
the time I write again Ill be the mother of two! Love you all!

WE HAVE MEI MEI

Well we have another charmer! We headed out for the adoption office
at 7:30 am. We were glad we did as we got processed first. Our
guide told us Kunming does adoption processing once a month and
there were twenty families today. It was chaos!!! But the office
people knew what they were doing. We knew when Mei Mei came in as she
was the only blue eyed blond in the group. :-) They made us fill out
forms before we could get the babies. When I went over to her she
was fine with me, she let me pick her up with no problems and was
thrilled with the rattle mirror I brought her. She went to dad OK
at first then decided she wasn't happy after all; papa brought out
the cheerios and made her day. She likes her food! She is NOT
malnourished LOL she weighs 25.2 lbs. Her cheeks are chubby. She
was fine in papas lap until they had me take her and get her foot
print. After that she cried for two hours straight. She has a good
set of lungs! She was by far the loudest baby there. She wanted to
be walked and my arms and ears my never recover LOL. Once she
settled down and decided we were cool, and then we started getting
giggles and grins. She is far more interested in Baby Bug than dad or
I but flirts like mad with us. She would rather be in her crib than
be held, so we have some work to do that way, also at the moment she
just sees us as another set of caregivers and nothing special. She
will get the hang of this family thing soon I'm sure. She will
throw her toys then say YI YI YI (naughty naughty) and laugh. She
is happy and healthy acting, but her eyes have more issues than I
thought. She does have a definite nystigmas, this means that her
eyes twitch back and forth. Her vision appears to be worse than I
was expecting. We have an appointment with a top eye specialist the
first part of October, so we will know more then. At the moment she
has fallen asleep and Baby Bug carefully put her doll next to her and
put a blanket over her. Baby Bug is lying in the spot next to Mei Mei, I
told her I would sleep there in-between them, Baby Bug said no, she was
sleeping next to Mei Mei in case Mei Mei needed her she could help her.
Baby Bug had a hard time in the chaos of the office, but has done great
otherwise.

Saturday in Beijing

Saturday in Beijing. We went to the Great Wall today. We ended up
at Baoding; witch is not as nice as where we went last time. It was
easier to access but the crowds were unbelievable. It was much more
commercial and not as nice. We were not able to get nearly as good
of pictures, but to be fair it was hazy enough that our pictures
would not have been great anywhere. We tried to go swimming, but
were told no swimming without renting a swim cap for 50 Yuan each
that is $13 um I am so not paying $13 to use the hotel pool. I
only pay $3.50 to swim t home, and it should be free in a hotel.
Baby bug was so disappointed! Swimming was one of the things she had
most looked forward to. Hopefully Kunming will have a swimming
pool. We met up with my friend G for dinner again. We went to
pizza hut, and she treated us. Baby Bug LOVES hanging with her girls.
Dad is working on our bags trying to get them each under the 44lb
weight limit. Baby Bug is watching Berenstein Bears, and I am hoping
to get to bed before midnight. LOL. We will be glad to get to a new
hotel as we have not been overly impressed with this one. We have
wished we were at the same hotel we stayed at last time. We fly out
tomorrow at 11:35 so we will leave here at 9:30 am. Next time you
hear from us it will be from Kunming. We love you all,

It was a rainy day in Beijing yesterday; unfortunately it looks like
it will be today too. We are headed to the great wall today.
Yesterday dad and I woke up about 3 am and Baby Bug slept in until
around 5am. We called home and Baby Bug bounced off the walls until
breakfast. :-) When we went down to breakfast the buffet looked so
good!!!! There were lots of different kinds of food and it all
looked yummy. Unfortunately, none of it tasted very good, although
Baby Bug loved the watermelon LOL. Dad and I had a hard time finding
any thing to eat. Dad left the buffet hungry, and I filled up on
lychee with yogurt over it. It wasn't that anything was bad, the
cook had just never heard of seasonings of any kind. Baby Bug and I
couldn't even eat the fried noodles. :-( By this time it was
pouring outside. Dad called home to do business, and Baby Bug and I
probably annoyed the neighbors. Baby Bug needed a little nap before we
went out, so dad and I joined her LOL.
We went out to Tian ann min square. It was fascinating to see the
people. We were far more of a tourist attraction than the sights we
were viewing LOL. It wasn't because we were white, there were lots
of other white tourists there, and it was Baby Bug. I kept hearing
people try to figure out the white parent/Chinese child thing LOL.
The funniest thing was how many people were trying to either peg her
as white or me as Chinese. Also I her lots of comments on her
stroller mostly along the lines of "hey I want one of those." I
didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked as it was raining,
and my batteries ran out. We also went into the first court yards
of the Forbidden City. R this was where we went last time. It
was much less crowded this time as last time was during national
holiday. We bought beaded head dresses (like the ones we got last
time) for mom and I. I was also able to get a dress for E
(L's daughter) we were approached by an art student (just like
when R and I were there) and she took us to where they had some
art for sale. Dad bought one for mom, and I bought one for my
house. After that we had to hurry back to the hotel. We walked it,
it was MUCH closer then the hotel last time, and we couldn't get a
taxi in the rain. :-( We met up with a friend of mine from the
single LDS adopters group. G is a sweet heart and so much fun!
Dinner with them may be Baby Bug's favorite point of the trip LOL.
G has two daughters L and A. L is 6 and Baby Bug was
instantly in heaven. L is a little mother and was so cute with
Baby Bug. A is a cute little munchkin and reminds me of Baby Bug at
that age (2 ½) They took us to their favorite restaurant and treated
us to dinner. The food was so good!!! Dad especially loved the
fried asparagus; although he was a little concerned he might starve
with only chopsticks available. Baby Bug didn't want the evening to
end, and kept asking if we could go to a playground after dinner. I
told her it was too late for that, so she said lets go to the mall
to play on the playground. :-) I told her there was no playground
in a mall here. So Baby Bug said OK, let's go to the one by our
house. She still has no concept of how far we are from home. We
are doing great and having fun. We love you all and miss you.

No access in China

We did not have access to the blog in China, so I will be posting the updates I wrote in China, now.

Here safely

Hello from Beijing.  We are here and we are (mostly) alive. With dad it is a near thing. He is incredibly stiff and sore. I feel bad at how rough the trip has been on him. Catching the family up on what all has happened.
Monday while preparing to leave I realized Baby Bug had all the symptoms of a UTI, so off to the doctor we went. Yup she has one. As well as putting her on antibiotics, I got the lecture about keeping her hydrated on the trip, not an easy thing. I also scraped my finger while putting up Mei Meis crib. It was so small I barely noticed I had done it, and certainly didn’t stop to do anything about it. Tuesday morning when I woke up my finger was sore I glanced at it to find a blister that was shooting off red fingers. Sigh, I lanced it ant put polysporin on it and a band aid. Then Baby Bug woke up with a cold. On travel day, with over 20 hours in the air, she has a cold. So know I am wondering about ear pain.  S my brother, had come up to help us get ready (THANK YOU S!!!) and called to see if we could bring 4oz bottles of cold medicine on the plane with us, the answer was not without a doctors note. So off to the doctors again to get the note. I have a wonderful doctor’s office, so they just had it waiting for me to pick up. Then it was home to load the car. S and dad had to fit the luggage like a jigsaw puzzle. We had been told to be to the airport 3 hours early because security was heightened for September 11th. We planned on 2 ½ as we couldn’t picture it being too bad at SLC. We could have planed for 30 min. and been fine. We sat and waited in a nearly empty terminal. Baby Bug was good but busy. The gal at the gate was having fun watching her. She told us her son and daughter in law were waiting for a referral from China. She the proceeded to pre board us ahead of every one else.  After we boarded the flight, Baby Bug wanted to know if we were there yet, because she was tiered and wanted to go to bed. She then proceeded to inform us that flying was boring, boring, boring, and she only wanted to fly in helicopters from now on. LOL. For all that she was well enough behaved. In LAX the 3 hour 20 min layover was just enough time to get checked through and use the rest room. We were able to get seats reassigned together. It turns out that the flight was about half empty. All the flight attendants were great and spoiled Baby Bug. One in particular fell in love with her and gave her chocolates and let us use the business class bathroom. You would not believe how good Baby Bug was! She entertained herself most the flight. The only down side was that she only slept about three hours. But she was so good that dad and I had the option of sleeping. I slept less than Baby Bug though. Dad did better, but still didn’t get much rest, and he needs it more than Baby Bug and I. I did fine until the last little while, and then I went in to a doozy of a migraine. I was not fully functioning. We deboarded at HK to find that the stroller clips (to hold two umbrella strollers together) had not all made it through to HK. We had to wait for the check in counter to open, and while watching for the China Air counter to open, didn’t realize it was being checked in at another counter. I finally asked when it would open, and was told to go to the other counter. The line was huge, and VERY slow moving. The lady who checked us in told me what gate then wrote on the ticket the # 70. Dad heard 26, I don’t remember hearing anything. I still am not sure what the seventy was, but if I had looked at the tickets I would have known the gate was 26. Keep in mind I was still fighting a migraine. We went out to gate 70, the furthest gate in the terminal. And then had to RUN the whole way back to 26. And we still just barely made the last boarding call. The China air flight to Beijing was NICE. Larger seats than we had on Cathay with more leg room and they served a nice breakfast. Baby Bug fell asleep on this flight and really didn’t want to wake up. We finally got her awake only then she wanted to be carried. What with the luggage that was difficult to do. She was doing OK until we hit the (long) lines before showing our passport. Then she fell apart and could not get it back together. She screamed and cried. The security guard finally put us through at the front of the line. We got the care packages off to China Care. We were met at the airport by a guide who brought us to the Jiangou Garden Hotel. The Hotel we stayed in last time was the Jiangou Hotel. I had thought they were the same hotel. Mom, the hotel you and dad stopped at to get a cab on the way back from the Forbidden City is the one we are staying in. The room is much larger and there are two double beds rather than two twins. It is worn at the edges, but clean. Mom I am sending you pictures of the room. Baby Bug was trying to fall asleep in the car on the way here but perked up once we got here. We took a cab to pizza hut (Baby Bug’s request) and it took a lot of work to keep her awake then she perked up in pizza hut only to fall asleep on the way back to the hotel. After I broke my back carrying her up to the room, she woke up and is now laying watching Berenstain Bears. Dad is in bed asleep and I will be following soon. We love and miss you.

Feeling the panic!

We leave on Tuesday. I am working today. Um that leaves 3 days to get completely ready, pack, clean house, ect. And that is nothing compared to what my dad has left to do. He owns his own business, so there is a LOT involved in him leaving town. He is so stressed out! My mind has turned to mush, and I find myself spinning my wheels. :-( that is not helping the whole process. Baby Bug on the other hand can hardly wait. :-) Is it bad that she is far more excited about the great wall, and the hotels swimming pool, than her baby sister? LOL. She knows the airlines serve cup-o-noodle as a snack and is in seventh heaven. :-) She cant wait for the breakfast buffets. Fruit, noodles, and rice are her favorite food groups LOL. Some people worry about what their older children will eat while in China. They are afraid the older kids will loose weight. Me I think Baby bug will gain weight. :-) I cook a lot of Chinese at home, and she LOVES Chinese food. I am more worried about dad going hungry than Baby Bug. :-) 4 more days!

Not a morning person

Have you ever found yourself doing the exact same things that drove you nuts when your parents did them? I'm not talking about making your kid eat her vegetables, I talking about teasing them, repeating certain sentences, or singing certain songs. I dislike mornings, so it used to drive me nuts when my dad (very much a morning person) would wake me up singing "rise and shine and sing out your glory glory." I have memories of cringing. :-) So what do I do to wake Baby Bug up in the mornings? Sing the same song LOL! The other morning as I sang this while waking my Baby up, she cracked eye to look at me disgustedly, and said "I not a morning person, could you KNOCK THAT OFF?!" LOL yup shes my Baby!

Packed?!

Wait you mean I have to pack too?!! :-) I am so not ready to leave in 6 days! I am not an organized person. (OK those who know me can stop laughing now) The only way I can pack with out missing at least one vital thing (usualy more than one) is by starting the packing proccess about two weeks in advance. I havent been doing this, and now feel overwelmed. :-) Hmm marathon packing sesion coming up. LOL With any luck whatever I forget will be some thing I can live with out. As long as I have the adoption paperwork, passports, and tickets we will be fine, right? ;-) Maybe I should add Botti (Baby bugs security item) and clean underwear to that. :-)

Leaving on a jet plane!

We (my father daughter and I) will be leaving September 11th for china! My dad has made the sacrifice to come with us. This is a true sacrifice on his part as a)he is paying his own way, this takes from his finances. b)he will be apart from my mom longer than he ever has in their 40 year marriage. and c) at 6'1" he DREDS the flight in cattle class, and if it doesnt mess up his bad back, the rock soft hotel beds in China will. Thank you dad!

We will arive in Beijing September 13th, and move on to Kunming September 16th. September 17th is gotcha day!!! We will head to Guangzhou September 23rd, and head home September 26th.

Hang on Mei Mei, mamas coming!

THANK YOU!!!

THANK YOU!!! to all the wonderful people who have helped so much!!!!! I am incredibly touched by how many people have reached out to me. Your help makes a world of difference.