My 100th Post

I have been hesitating to post until some inspiration hit me for my 100th post. I would like to have had some creative writing neuron in my brain spark and produce a genius idea for what should be a banner blog post.

Instead all the neurons in my brain are too busy trying to recover from jet lag, the Christmas rush, and the demands of a new baby. There has been no moment of inspiration, no sparks of genius, and if I wait there may never be a 100th blog entry. So I am left to post about the same old stuff--my girls.

Today Banana (8) was asking Bophie (2 1/2) if she remembered how to speak "baby talk"? And if so would she teach it to her. There are a few things Banana would like to talk to Juliana about, but she doesn't know how to make her understand.

This has been only one of the really great moments we have had since being home. There are a lot of benefits to adopting an older infant I had not considered. The girls love being able to carry this little one around. While she is exceptionally tiny (she weighed 13 lbs today and she is over 10 months old), she is able to sit up and has great head and body control. She also loves to interact with the girls. They bring her toys and she reaches for them and throws them down when she is ready for a new one. She also smiles and laughs at them. I love watching them act like clowns to get her to smile (I wonder where they learned that).

Home For The Holidays

I didn't mean to leave everyone wondering how the trip ended, it's just that between Christmas and jet lag I am running on fumes. Yesterday I put the milk in the cupboard, a Splenda packet (wrapper still on) in my tea, and fell asleep sitting up.

Before leaving China, Juliana had been running a high fever and we had a scare at security in the Guangzhou airport, but managed to run to the gate and make it on the flight. We arrived home Christmas Eve. It was a trip of a lifetime, but I am so glad to be home.

The girls are enjoying loving on their new sister and Juliana is enjoying the attention. She has been sleeping quite a bit, but in good spirits when awake. She enjoys watching all the activity and listening to all the chatter. In this house of girls there is endless chatter. The girls all looked so much bigger. It's amazing how much they grow in two weeks. It felt so good to wrap my arms around them.

We went to Mass together on Christmas morning it was truly the highlight of this whole adoption process. It was wonderful to be back celebrating the sacraments with our whole family reunited -- what amazing Christmas blessings our family has received. There were some older Chinese women on our long flight home who kept telling us how lucky Juliana was to be adopted. Standing in Mass on Christmas I knew it was us who were not lucky -- but blessed to have her. She has already brought untold joy to us. We are fortunate to have been chosen to spend our lives with her. We are blessed to have a God who came to earth so that we might be adopted into His family.

Thank you to all our family, friends, and cyber-friends for all the prayers and words of encouragement as we travelled to pick up Juliana. There were many times your kind sentiments and prayers inspired me and kept my spirits up when I was homesick or worried. We are blessed to have such wonderful friends and family. May you all have a very blessed Christmas season.

Red Couch Pictures

No adoption in China can truly be finalized until the famous Red Couch Pictures have been taken. For those less familiar with China adoptions, The White Swan Hotel (where we are staying in Guangzhou) has housed many adoptive families since foreign adoptions were allowed in China. The U.S. Consulate used to be next door so it was the most convenient hotel. In The White Swan there are red couches in the lobby where families and groups would take pictures. After awhile Red Couch Pictures became a staple of American families adopting in China.

Here are our Red Couch Photos. First up is a shot of the four girls in our travel group. All of these girls were in the same orphanage and are about a month apart in age.

Next is a family shot. David was unprepared to get his picture taken so feel free to give him a hard time about his ratty t-shirt!

Finally, here are all of the adoptive families in our Guangzhou travel group. We were joined here with two families who adopted older boys in other provinces. They are both about 6 years old and just darling little boys.

Juliana's Crazy Mom...

...Will do anything to hear her laugh!

First Day in Guangzhou

We arrived pretty late last night into Guangzhou. It was too late to really get a feel for the area. We have an amazing view of the Pearl River from our hotel room
Guangzhou is the final stop for all Americans adopting from China so there are lots of families here with little ones. It is so inspiring to see all the new families being forged here. It is also nice to have a breakfast that is not spicy.

We spent our first morning here getting an examination for Juliana. All of the children were measured, weighed, and given a quick once over. After the exam we had all the necessary documentation to apply for Juliana's visa. David spent the rest of the morning filling out even more paperwork. Now we wait for the application to be processed and we take an oath on Tuesday which will make her an American citizen once she steps on American soil.

After a morning of paperwork, we were ready to venture off the island we are staying on. We went to the QingPing Market-- it is the local pharmaceutical shop. The Chinese use various herbs, bugs and reptiles for medicinal purposes. They boil them and make a "wine" out of them. The wine is sure to kill whatever ails you. A quick warning, the following video is not for the faint of heart.

The open air market was fascinating to some (David wants to go back and see the areas we missed), I will be better off scrubbing out most of what we saw there. I am content to stay on this little island and do some shopping. There are lots of little baby stores catering to the adoptive families. And there is this...

More Babies

There were four families that travelled together to Chongqing to pick up their babies. All of the girls are about the same age, only a month apart. It has been fun to get to know these other families and to have at least a few other people who speak English. I double checked yesterday and no one is in the witness protection program so I am free to post their pictures.

Here are the babies. It was too hard to get them all to look. I hope we will have an easier time when we try to take the famous red couch pictures.

This is Juliana and Kate. They are only three days apart in age.

This is all of the moms with the babies in the new jackets the orphanage bought for them. From left to right you see Juliana, Kathryn, Taylor, and Zoe.

Last Days in Chongqing

I only have a moment to post about our last days in Juliana's home province. She is napping, but we will have to wake her to catch our plane to Guangzhou.
Remember I said the Christmas decorations here just weren't the same. Here is Juliana's first picture with Santa Clause. She didn't know what to make of the skinny guy with the beard... neither did I.

These girls are selling something in the lobby of our hotel room. David has threatened to buy me one of these outfits just to help me get in the holiday spirit.

We also went to tour Old Town Chongqing. It was a nice place and I enjoyed seeing something other than the mall that surrounds us. Chongqing built up around this little village and it is amazing how it has grown.

Another picture of Old Town. Did you notice how bundled little Juliana is? It was over 60 degrees and she was making me warm. Even like this, we still get harangued by the local grandmas.

While the rest of our group decided to go to Pizza Hut for dinner (they were tired of Chinese food), we decided to be brave and stick with the local fare. I am not sure this was such a good idea. We started with octopus tentacles on a stick. While it looks and sounds awful, they dredge the things in so much spice you can't actually taste anything after the first bite.

Then we went to a little restaurant we had seen a few days ago. It looked like a nice place and there were lots of pictures so we could point to what we wanted. It was decent until David decided to try his chicken soup. This is what he found.

We stopped by McDonalds on the way back to the hotel.

Off to Guangzhou, more to come.