How I got stuff done today.

This morning I strapped her on and got to work. Laundry was much more fun with the little one along for the ride. I felt so earthy-crunchy with a baby on my back and a cloth diaper on her bum.

Or perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I very badly needed a bath. :-)

Our last day in Guangzhou and Zoe's first Birthday

We spent our last day in Guangzhou picking up a few odds and ends, packing, and of course taking our oath at the American Consulate! Our guides were kind enough to make sure Zoe had a birthday cake and chose this beautiful one for her. We took it with us to our final dinner in mainland China. We went to a Thai restaurant in Guangzhou called The Cow and Bridge.

What time is it?

Jet lag is a beast!

We got home last night around 9 or so. We visited with my parents for awhile and then sat around staring at each other. Jeff went to bed around midnight, but Zoe was having none of it. She and I played for while and tried a bottle and bed around 2. She went down pretty well, but thought it was her afternoon nap, so she was back up around 4. I got a few ZZzzz in her big girl bed. (Jeff heard me snoring on the baby monitor) At 4 we got up again and played some more. I watched TV episodes I had missed while gone and Zoe played and played. I tried desperately to stay awake!

Jeff got up around 8 and Zoe and I went back down around 9. We both slept until around 5pm when we woke up for the day.

So far this evening we have had a trip back to the airport to pick up our luggage (it got delayed) and had our first visit as a family to Target. Oooh, that was fun. We're probably going back tomorrow for a kettle like we had in China and a little CD player for her room. Baby likes music and we brought several CD's of Chinese lullabies home for her. (they are still in the suitcases which are still in our car)



I swore up and down that when we got Zoe home, we would have all of our meals at the kitchen table like a real family, but as you can see in the picture, the high chair is in the living room right now, and it serves as a wonderful place to put her when you need to do something. We also play there a lot. I'll work on family dinners again when we all get adjusted!

It's about 1:30am right now, and Zoe just went down. Jeff did a super job of minimizing the screaming normally associated with Zoe-sleep. Jeff is about to head to bed, but I am wide awake. I think I will watch another show and then go lay down to see what happens. I expect Zoe to be up again in a few hours, but maybe I'm wrong.

Here is another picture of our girl taken tonight. I know she looks like a little bag-lady. Not a thing on her matches, but I'm grabbing clothes at random right now. Whatever keeps her warm, but makes dipey changes easy. I like how playing with her links wore her out.


Random tidbits about my girl:
She eats anything that doesn't make her gag. Nothing with chunks.
She just started sitting up on her own this morning.
She weighs a bit under 20lbs, but I'll check that in the morning.
She smiles and laughs all the time.
She has 2 teeth on the bottom and is working on her top 2.
Her favorite toy is a crinkle book.
She LOVES to be read to. Dr. Suess is hypnotizing.

Home

It's a beautiful word.

We made it home a few hours ago. You know how you can still *feel* a roller coaster the night after you go to an amusement park? Or how you can still "feel" the waves after a day at the beach? I still "feel* the plane.

I hope the feeling will rock me to sleep very soon, because Zoe is down already and I need to take advantage her sleepy time!

More soon...

A better day

After a very good night's sleep, we played on the bed for most of the morning. We headed to a late breakfast and didn't feed Zoe as much.  We kept pushing water, but she mostly wanted to play/chew on the nipple.  Not so much water intake.  

We had a perfect morning nap.  An adventure back to the eyeglass store to pick up our glasses.  Jeff's are great.  Mine are thick no matter where you get them.  :-(  We sort of screwed up the afternoon nap, but she did get a small one.  Oh my goodness, we ate at Lucy's again for lunch.  Zoe had chicken congee (Congee is a soupy rice dish that babies love)  On our afternoon wanderings we ran into our guide and asked him about baby tea.  He marched us to the pharmacy and we got a box.  Zoe loves it.

*next day*

I was such a good blogger in the beginning!

The baby tea was a huge hit.  She sucked down a bottle, so I know she's well hydrated.  

Tonight is our last one in Guangzhou.  Tomorrow morning we head to Hong Kong where we will spend a night, but we can check our bags straight thru to Newark.  It adds a challenge to our packing, but at least we don't have to worry about our big bags in Hong Kong. I'm a little sad to be leaving China.  This is an amazing place and we didn't get to see much of it.  

Sorry no pictures again, we have packed most things and Jeff is giving Zoe her night night bottle as I type.  I hope this will be an easier night.  Last night the screaming lasted about an hour.  (much better than 3!) but all typing and packing must stop when she goes down.  The slightest noise wakes her up.  We have this built in music system in the nightstand that we play to put her down.  Its Elevator music.  (Muzak?)  It plays lots of remade Cyndi Lauper and Lionel Richie, but very peaceful. Right now Air Supply is playing. :-)

I hope we get to blog from Hong Kong.  I don't know if our room comes with internet.  If not, I'll blog when we  get home.  

Good night everybody,  See you soon.

No pictures today :-(

Its about 8pm.  The princess is finally asleep after a bit of a rough day.  She was fussy off and on all day.  Its mostly around sleep times.  I don't want to risk waking her by getting out the camera, downloading pictures, etc.  I'm just going to give a quick run down of the day and head to bed myself.  

We stared out with a fussy fit that really scared me.   It was as if she was in pain and I really didn't know what was wrong.  We gave her some baby Ibuprofen and that seemed to help.  We wandered the island some more this morning.  Had lunch at Lucy's (again!), and then had our physical exam for her US visa.  She was fine and I think came in at 8.9 kilos.  I'll have to find a calculator, but I think that is a little under 20lbs. 

After that we went to an eyeglass store and everyone who went got new glasses.  We pick them up tomorrow.  You can really bargain for everything here, and it's very unnerving.  

We had dinner from a little deli at the park until the little miss had another fussy fit.  We finished dinner in our hotel.  Played the bed so sweetly.  Read a book that she loved and then off to be...

*15 minutes later*

Another fussy fit.  Screaming to end all screaming.  It breaks your heart. I was holding her and I could feel her pushing and pushing while I had her in my arms...all the while still screaming.  Baby was having a hard time with a poo.  She won, though and is back to sleep. Tomorrow...more water.  Lots more water. 

Night night. 

*next day*

I didn't send this because baby was even more fussy.  Oh, it was awful.  Went off and on (mostly on) for 3 hours.  We finally went to see our guide who took us to the hotel Dr.  He looked her over.  Even put his pinky up her bum.  I'm not sure what that was for.  He said she was fine, but probably had tummy discomfort.  He gave us benedryl to help her sleep and a Chinese medicine for digestion. She went out like a light and now we have the lovely benedryl for the flight home.  We were advised to feed her less and push water while we keep up with the chinese digestive medicine. We're also going to be on the lookout for Chinese baby tea.  

I'll try more pictures later.  We're off in a moment to pick up our glasses and head to an electronics market.  

Wish us restraint.  

Watch "Zoe at Lucy's in Guangzhou"

Your friend, georgia.edison@gmail.com, has sent you the following video:

Zoe at Lucy's in Guangzhou

1 min 19 sec - Mar 23, 2008
Description: Zoe waiting for her lunch at Lucy's in Guangzhou.

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The Red Couch Photo Shoot

Hello from Guangzhou (if you don't know...that rhymes)

We are here.  Our flight was delayed from Nanchang, so the travel was a little rough.  We sat on the plane waiting to take off for what felt like forever!  Some poor man was trapped between me (and Zoe) and the window.  The flight was full and there were 13 babies aboard.  Zoe's cold is acting up and she wasn't happy for a good bit of the travel. 

We're staying at the White Swan hotel and when I get some rest tomorrow, I'll post some pictures.  We have a fabulous river view.  Once we got setted we went to Lucy's for dinner.  Everyone in the Chinese adoption world knows Lucy's.  They serve western food.  We had hamburgers, fries, onion rings, and Zoe had a bowl of mashed potatoes.  My girl loved them!  We also let her suck on a pickle.  She made funny faces, but came back for more.

The starchy dinner must have done the trick because she went straight to bed with barely a whimper.  Such a good girl.  

So far we are in love with Guangzhou.  I think we are in for a bit of shopping!

georgia.edison@gmail.com shared this with you: Zoe at the Jin Feng

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Zoe at the Jin Feng Making baby Zoe laugh

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Our Hotel Room in Nanchang

The Jin Feng Hotel is really very nice.  Our hotel room is great, and so affordable!  The housekeepers, doormen, and breakfast room staff are very nice and extremely helpful.  I'm attaching a few pictures of our room from when we first arrived.  It looks nothing like these pictures anymore!  We have stuff everywhere.  We need to pack tonight because we head to Guangzhou tomorrow, and I have no idea how all of our stuff will go back into our suitcases.  We have been shopping a good bit here and will have to leave some stuff behind to fit it all in, I think.  We have only purchased one nice piece of porcelain, a tea set for Zoe when she's older.  The rest of our purchases are small things, but they are numerous.   A book of photos of the province, and thinks like that.  Today we went to a book store to purchase books for children in Chinese, pinyin, and English.  We also got children's flash cards with words in both languages and some CDs' of childrens lullabies and traditional Chinese music.  I also snagged a copy of the last Harry Potter book in Chinese.  Jeff thinks I'm crazy, because it's heavy and we're concerned about luggage limits now, but it was less than $10 and it does have a cool factor!    

Some of our travel mates

Pictures of a new family

Let's see...where did I leave off...

Yesterday, the group went to Hengfeng,  but Jeff and I decided to stay behind.  After breakfast, we went  back to the People's Park for a stroll and it was lovely.  I have some beautiful pictures that we may be able to blow up and frame.  I can't remember what we did after that.  The days are starting to run together and truthfully, I'm not 100% sure what day it is right now.  

We are spending a lot of time on the 11th floor of the hotel where they have an open space and some baby things.  There is a walker up there and Zoe loves it.  You can tell she spent a lot of time in a walker because she is so comfortable there.  Self contained entertainment.  It's nice when Jeff and I need a break.  We also walk around the hotel a good bit.  There's a bakery across the street I hope to get to before we leave.  Another family said it was wonderful.  

There's a store around the corner that caters to foreign adopters.  They make the traditional Chinese baby clothes.  We were advised by our guide not to buy anything there because she takes advantage of adopters and overcharges.  We were told we could buy the same things in Guangzhou for half the price.  The store owner definitely put the hard sell on us when we walked by, and we went ahead and bought an outfit.  I figured, what the heck, get it done.  And if things really are half the price in Guangzhou we'll just get a bunch more, because we're not paying all that much here.  

Today so far, we went on tour of a local temple.  I wish i could remember the name.  It's all a blur of babies, and photo ops  After that we went to another Chinese meal.   We were worried about the food, but so far every Chinese meal we've had has been really good.  There are so many dishes, you're bound to find something you like.  

We are now back in the hotel room for Zoe and Jeff's nap.  I'm blogging in a dark room and getting a little sleepy myself.  Last night was rough for Zoe and therefore, for us too!  The little Empress fought as hard as she could not to go to sleep, and it's all Mommy's fault.  I tried to keep her up a little later, so we could sleep a little longer in the morning.  It didn't work!

But today, she has been a complete angel.  She woke up happy.  Ate like a champ at breakfast, and since we were going on a tour around her morning nap time, I held off on the bottle until we were on the bus.  She was sleeping in most of the photos today.  She woke up from that nap happy again and was a dream child for the rest of the morning and afternoon.  Towards the end of lunch she was just beginning to get fussy again, and then back at the hotel she had another bottle and crashed for the afternoon nap.  

Later tonight we are going to a department store around her bed time, so I think we're going to pull the "bottle on the bus" trick again.  Everyone wants to get eyeglasses here since they are so cheap,  We hope it will work again, and she can sleep in the Ergo until we get back to the hotel.  

I'm going to leave Jeff and baby sleeping and run around the corning to pick up her clothes we ordered.  

More pictures later!

Just some pictures

I'm too tired to blog much.  We are really exhausted!  Let me go pick a few pictures to attach, and hopefully, I'll be able to blog better tomorrow!

"Its like an orange on a toothpick"

I took this picture to show how big her head is in relation to her body. She had just had a blow out, and I got poo on me in the clean up process.  We were letting her little diaper rash bottom air out for a moment before strapping on a new diaper.  This picture was taken moments before she peed on the bed.  We had to have housekeeping come at 8pm to give us clean sheets.  Poor little Zoe.  She's like a machine.  Stuff in, stuff out...all day long.

Wrapping up March 18

Zoe is sleeping *again* so I have a bit of bloggy time.

I love how everyone comments on how beautiful she is. The
pediatrician, the notary, the lady at the registrar's office and
people on the street. They probably tell that to everyone, but it
makes me deliriously happy anyway.

The pediatrician visit went well. He told us she has a cold and will
get us medicine. We had heard a sneeze or two, saw one great big
boogie and heard a lilttle congestion this morning, but aside from
that we thought she was fine. She gives no indication of feeling any
discomfort, but the Dr. said her throat was red and I think he heard
more congestion in her chest.

A little later, Jeff was feeling exhausted, so I strapped Zoe in the
ergo and away we went on a little adventure. I haven't left the hotel
without the group since we arrived in Nanchang, so I was feeling very
brave! We wandered around outside the hotel and I think Zoe was
grateful for the change of scenery. We found a little grocery store
around the corner and decided to have a look. Hooray, I found Oreos!
I didn't buy them because I'm already so much bigger than anyone here,
and I didn't want the sales staff thinking, "fat American woman can't
lay off the Oreos"

Actually the staff was really very nice. They went on and on about
Zoe. Everyone comments on her mouth. That it is beautiful by Chinese
traditional standards. Also, we learned that the flat heads the
babies all have is considered very beautiful by the people in this
area. Our guide told us it makes a woman's ponytail more beautiful.
Zoe's head is flat-ish, but nothing like some of the other's we have
seen.

At the store I was looking for wipes and tried to ask the sales woman
by gesturing a wiping motion. She didn't get it. I said thank you
anyway and started to walk away. She found me a few minutes later
with a pack in her hand. So very nice. I also bought some baby food.
Zoe's not really ready for solids. I chose something called "mixed
vegetable paste" It smelled like franco american spaghetti, but you
have never seen a happier Mom then me when Zoe gobbled it down.
(gobbled down for Zoe, I mean...she's not very excited about food,
which is strange because she's a hefty little thing) I was getting
worried because she hasn't eaten or drunk much at all. But after a
full belly of vegetable paste, she went out like a light.

That is where we are now. Zoe is zonked and Jeff is watching HBO.
Our group is taking a walk to the park and I think I will go ahead and
go with them to find out where it is.

They're meeting in the lobby in 4 minutes, so I better scoot. More
pictures later....promise!

*Later same day*
The park is awesome! I can't wait to go back with Jeff and Zoe. Lots
of room to walk around. Gardens, lakes, and even a carnival quality
merry-go-round and dinky roller coaster. There is a big exercise area
with equipment that older people were working out on and kids were
playing on. There were also peddle boats for rent on the lake. Zoe
likes being outside so much, so I think we will rent a stroller from
the hotel and take her there for a lovely walk after breakfast
tomorrow.

The rest of the group is going to Hengfeng tomorrow. I would really
like to go, but it is a 3 hour drive each way. They will spend about
and hour looking around the town and we were advised not to eat lunch
there so to bring snacks. Jeff is not feeling well, so he won't be
going and I don't think I should leave Zoe for 7-8 hours with a sick
Jeff. I would take her with me, but ugh! We're not allowed to go
into the orphanage itself, and besides Zoe wasn't there anyway. I
wouldn't want to run into Zoe's foster mother either. I would like to
meet her alone, but not with Zoe. They really discourage contact
between foster and adoptive parents.

After the park, I picked up Zoe and went to the nearest restaurant for
a Chinese dinner. It was very good but difficult to navigate with a
baby on my lap. Jeff stayed behind to nurse this illness he has going
on. Hopefully, some good rest and relaxation will take care of him

I didn't take any picture today because I either had a dead battery or
left the camera behind. I will put up one more cutie from the other
day, though.

Whoops!

Okay, blogging by e-mail can be tricky!  Let's try those sleepy photos again! 

Someone told us a way to see our blog here (thanks, Deb) and it works like a charm!

Sleeping Beauty

Our angel woke up pretty early this morning and had a bottle.  While Jeff and I were getting ready to head down to breakfast, she drifted back off.  After yesterday's lesson, we are hesitant to wake her up.  She's had a pretty rough few days, so we will let her finish this nap and then get some breakfast.  I'm really hungry, but when I have this to look at, the waiting is not so bad.  

Busy day, Wonderful day

I'll make this quick, because I am still exhausted!  I haven't slept more than 4 hours a day since we left Atlanta.  It's mostly due to my nerves and has nothing to do with Zoe.  She is a wonderful sleeper once she gets down.  

Today started very early with appointments around town.  The registrar's office, the notaries office, and some other place that I truly don't remember.  I think it was the photo for her Chinese passport.  As soon as we left the registrar's office we were handed our red book which contains the document saying Zoe is one us now.  And that was when it was official.  Our guide assured us that no one can take her from us now.  She is ours.  

After our long morning, and an increasingly fussy Zoe, we returned to the hotel where the orphanage director would be having a meeting with us to answer any questions we had.  We were getting into serious nap time by now, so after that we returned to the room and put Zoe down.  We went down too.  

We had to get back up later in the afternoon for the group trip to Wal-mart.  We learned today that Zoe does not like to be woken up from a nap.  We won't make that mistake again any time soon!  

Wal-mart was a true experience.  I thought we were started at a bit in Hong Kong, but how silly of me.  Imagine being in a town in China, that rarely encounters foreigners except for adopters.  There are 13 families...almost 40 people wandering thru the street into Wal-mart with 13 Chinese babies.  We have these little signs around our neck explaining who we are and why we are there, so you would catch people reading your sign as you walked by.   The other side of the sign asks whoever to take me back to my hotel.  

Jeff and I can't pass up a good shopping experience, so we bought way too much and it came to about half of what a quick run to the Wal-mart at home would cost. We got one nightie outfit because ours aren't fitting so well.  Right now Zoe is asleep in the clothes she wore today. We also bought water, soda, diapers, toys, snacks, and more rice formula.  We had to buy the babies milk formula from the director of the orphange because they don't sell that brand here.  

I also bought some cheap Chinese bottles because Zoe didn't seem impressed with the ones we brought.  Our guide showed us the ones she is most likely used to and let me say.....screw Dr. Brown and his overpriced bottles!  Switching bottles made a huge difference.  

We are so very happy, and feel truly blessed with this wonderful baby.  We do have a few concerns about her which I would prefer not to blog about, but even in this very short span of time we are starting to see improvements in those areas.  Part of it probably has to do with Jeff and I finding our feet as parents.  

Overall, Zoe is joy to be around.  She talks, coos, sings, and laughs.  She looks you square in the eye for long periods of time.  I'm amazed and in awe of how happy she is most of the time.  This afternoon she started to get very cranky on the bus back to the hotel.  When we got back to the hotel, we discovered the reason for her fussiness was in her diaper.  The first poo for adopted babies is a milestone, because constipation is so common in these babies going thru such a change.  I'm happy to say we've hit that milestone.

Tomorrow we are having a pediatrician come look at the babies. That is all we have scheduled, so Jeff and I are looking forward to some rest and all the snacks we bought at Walmart

  

Now let me go dig though the pictures and attach some. 

I'm trying to see my blog

I can't see my blog at all by typing in the regular address.  What I can do is go to my bloglines acct, and see it that way.  The only problem with that is that I can only see it once...when it's new.  To see it again, I have to update it by sending a post by e-mail.  Well...now I can't even get to my normal e-mail account.  Comcast is no longer working for me, so now I'm using my g-mail account.  I don't know if that will stop working too, but if it does, I'm out of options.

The only real purpose of this post is to see the pictures I posted last night.  It is now about 3am.  Zoe Lijin is sound asleep and has been since Jeff put her down earlier.  She barely stirs, but it's the cutest thing when she does.  I hope she wakes on her own in the morning, because we need to get going about 6am.

The 9 month clothes I brought aren't too big, but the footie pj's are too short.  We left her in them, and she didn't seem to mind, but she can't fully stretch out her legs.  The weather here is really nice so we were told 2 layers would be appropriate.  

I'm really surprised she is so happy, because it is our understanding she was only taken from her foster family yesterday morning.  I would have expected some serious grieving.  I'm still prepared for it to show up in the next day or two when she realizes they aren't coming back for her.  

Some of the other babies are having a very hard time.  We heard one of them screaming for hours in their hotel room.  We don't even have another family on this floor of the hotel, so that baby must have some powerful lungs.  

Better crawl back in bed.  We have a few more hours before we need to get going and I could use more rest.  

More than we could have hoped for..

We have her. If the pictures don't come across, someone please e-mail me. I'll see if I can figure something else out.

The evening was amazing! Let me just say we have a wonderful, wonderful baby. We were third in line and when they were handing out number 2 I could see her in the hallway waiting for our turn. It was so exciting to see her and recognize her from her pictures. She is so beautiful, and so perfect.

She didn't cry once at the hand off. In fact, she still hasn't cried. Her paperwork described her as outgoing with an easy smile. How true!! We had smiles right off the bat. She coos, talks, laughs, and I swear even said "baba", which means "daddy". I hope we have some sort of grieving to indicate attachment, but right now, we're enjoying this wonderful easy baby.

She's equally happy with me or Jeff. When we got her to the room, we changed a diaper, fumbled thru making a bottle, and then rocked her a bit until she fell asleep. We haven't even had 2 hours with her awake.

While Jeff was putting her down, I went to another meeting to do some paperwork. Very early tomorrow morning we head to the registrars office to complete the adoption and she will officially become our daughter. I can't wait to have her for a full day and really get to know this happy, happy baby. She has pretty bad diaper rash, but isn't even complaining about it.

Right now, she and Jeff are sound asleep, and I should head that way now, too. I'll attach some pictures (hopefully!) and call it a night.

We're here!

We just got to our hotel. We're waiting for our bags to come up. We have a meeting in 45 minutes to go over stuff for and about the babies. The meeting is suppose to be about and hour and a half. After that we'll have a short break to get ready and then we get the babies at 5pm (2hours 45 minutes from now) Excitement is building. Nervousness, too. I have been sort of numb for awhile now, but that is changing quickly.

The hotel is awesome. We love our swanky room! We have a crib set up right next to our king bed, and a baby bath in the very upscale bathroom. I'm glad to be here for 6 days! As soon as the bags arrive, we'll unpack quickly and put together our diaper bag.

Oh my...it's so soon.

I hope this post works. I had trouble getting on my blog. It's either nightmarishly slow or not allowed. I'm not sure. This is my first posting by e-mail. I hope we can get pictures to you this way

Only hours away!!!

We're waiting for our flight at the Hong Kong airport to take us to Nanchang. I think we will see Zoe in about 5 hours!!

This Hong Kong airport rocks with free internet!!! I'm going to check my e-mail now. See you back here later tonight! (tomorrow morning for you!!)

Goodbye Hong Kong... Hello Zoe!

We are leaving Hong Kong this morning and heading for Nanchang. The day has finally arrived when we will see our daughter for the first time. We chatted with other families in our tour group yesterday and there is building anticipation about the day's coming events.

Jeff and the cars...and boats.

Hong Kong is an awesome place for car watching. There are a lot of very rich people here and therefore, a lot of high end cars. The Maybach was definitely a highlight. We even saw a Maybach dealership . And there are a multitude of Rolls, Porshes, and as Jeff puts it, mack-daddy mercedes. He says there are Mercedes S500's running around like there nothing.

The bottom picture is of one of our travel mates posing with the Maybach.