We're HOME!

Finally.... we had a good trip home! I was just too tired to get on the computer yesterday. I slept most of the day! Our flights went very well. Aleigha slept most of the 13 hr flight! We were lucky enough to switch seats with someone so we could have a 3rd seat for Aleigha to lay down. That helped a ton!

We got home at 8:30 pm on Wed night. We had traveled over 32 hrs by then!! Grayson was just smiling when he saw Aleigha and just stared at her. He was really showing off for us and trying to make Aleigha smile. He finally figured out what made her laugh and was doing that all night and yesterday. He just had to put a stuffed animal on his head and let it fall off. It made her laugh every time. :) Then he wanted to teach her how to count to 15... that was cute!

Here is a picture of our travel group friends during our last meal in China. We had a great travel group and we're lucky to have made such good friends during this 2 week journey. We'll miss seeing Sherry, Dave and Eva every day! (and Emma and Lily) Their company made our trip so much more enjoyable.

Aleigha is doing very well adjusting to the time change. We were up from 2-4:30am last night and then she slept until 10:30am. Hopefully, it will only take a few more days before we're all adjusted!

We're going to have a lot of visitors this weekend and every day Aleigha is adjusting a little better to other people. Until now, she will only let me or Jeff hold her.... but she is very close to letting my mom hold her! She's pulling out all the stops to let her hold her. :)

Last day in China!

It's 10pm on Tuesday night and our bus leaves at 6am tomorrow morning. I won't be able to update anymore until we are back in the beautiful USA!!! We will be traveling for over 24 hrs by the time we get home. It won't be pretty.... and we haven't finished packing yet!
I'm not going to post pics today because we have so much to do before 6am tomorrow but I wanted to let everyone know that we had a great day... and are so excited to be going back home. :) I don't want to see another breakfast buffet for a long, long, long time!

Guangzhou -day 3

Most of us in the hotel lobby getting ready to leave on our excursion for the afternoon...


Jade Market - one of the hundreds of shops!
Aleigha must have looked exceptionally cute today because we had many Chinese people point at her and say how pretty she was! :)

500 Buddha's Temple:

An aisle in a grocery store....

Downtown Guangzhou where the Pearl and Jade markets were.... This is Dave, Eva and Sherry with Emma and Lily..,

This is Mary and her two boys- Cole and Chase...

This is at the Vegetable/fruit/Pet market... it was soooo sad to see all of these little animals in cages for sale. They really were being sold as pets and not food! That was our 1st question!

We ate an an Italian restaurant tonight and it was wonderful!

Only 1 full day left and we are on our way home!! Tomorrow we go to the embassy in the afternoon for an adoption ceremony. No cameras allowed in the building though. But I'm sure we'll take plenty before and after the ceremony!

pictures from my camera

Our cute new dress for the HEAT today. It so so hot and muggy!

Some kids playing outside in Guangzhou...

Emma- She is one month younger than Aleigha and was in the same orphanage...

Dinner last night at Lucy's Bar and Grill...

Breakfast buffet at our hotel in Guangzhou...

Ping Pong with Zhou.... (he beat everyone he played -easily!)

Going out yesterday on our museum trip and Pearl Market...

Aleigha is taking her nap and Jeff fell asleep with her. We're leaving at 2:30 today to go to the Jade Market and then out to eat Pizza as a group in mainland Guangzhou. I guess I'll go to Subway again for lunch. :)

2nd day in Guangzhou..

This morning we left at 9:30 am to visit an outdoor museum in Guangzhou. It had intricate wood carvings and paintings and embroidery. Then we went to a Pearl Market. It was bigger than anything I've ever seen. It was a 6 story "mall" full of pearls and beads! Our guide, Zhou, takes us to a particular shop that he always brings his groups to because it is high quality and good prices. A strand of fresh water pearls started at 10 RMBs! That's less than 2 US dollars!! They also had strands that were 3200 RMBs... but i couldn't tell the difference. We got home an hour ago and Aleigha is taking her nap and we just got done eating Subway again. Thank goodness for them! They are cheap and good. :)
I'm not posting any pictures today because I downloaded pictures from Jeff's camera yesterday and now the disk is "broken" so I'm no longer allowed to touch his camera! I downloaded all of the pics off of Jeff's disk so we didn't lose any pictures but he thinks they print better off of the disk.... whatever. I'll try to remember to take pics with my camera (that i think takes just as good of pictures) and post them later. It was really hot and muggy today and I think tomorrow is supposed to be 83.

Last night most of us ate at a restuarant with outdoor seating and it was perfect weather... then we walked by the river and it was actually a bit chilly. By then it was 8:00 pm. Aleigha slept very well again last night. I think we are back on track. She fell asleep in our bed and then we moved her to the crib. She slept until 6:30am.
Not sure what the plans are for tonight. Jeff is going to play ping pong with Zhou at 4:30. Zhou is VERY good at ping pong so it should be interesting. :)

Tomorrow morning we have free. Zhou is taking all of our paperwork to the Embassy to process the Visas. Then in the afternoon we are walking to a Jade Market which is very close to the Pearl Market we were at today. It is on the inland of Guangzhou but still walkable.

Only 2 more full days left before we get on the plane to go home!!!! Everyone is very excited about that. It feels like we've been here for so long and we're all homesick.
Sorry there are no pictures... I'll do better tomorrow with MY camera!!

1st full day in Guangzhou

We had to open the window on the plane for landing so Aleigha is trying to keep the sun out of her eyes....

We made it! Aleigha did well on the plane. She fell asleep as soon as we were about to take off and then woke up when we landed. Couldn't ask for more than that! THEN... the "fun" began... She didn't get her normal 2-3 hr nap since the plane ride was only an hour long and we didn't have enough food for her at the airport and on the drive to the hotel. She was not a happy camper! She was not happy with a new room and new crib. She HATED the crib... so she "slept" with us. I think she screamed for over an hour and when she did fall asleep in my arms, she would wake back up as soon as I laid her down and start screaming again. Aleigha is definitely Mommy's girl when she's tired so I didn't get much sleep last night. I really don't know how much I slept. She's definitely in a better mood today but I'm not sure how the crib will work out. We'll try again. It is nothing like the last crib- it looks like more of an institution crib than a nice "homey" crib.

This morning we had all the girls' medical exams. Aleigha is 22 lbs, 29 inches long and head circumference of 18 inches. She was the only baby to break the 20 pound mark! But she is the oldest so that makes sense. :) We also had their pictures taken for their American Visa's that we are completing during this leg of the trip.

This hotel is nice but not as fancy as the last hotel. We are actually in Guangdong - which is an island off of Guangzhou. It's an older, more laid back community. The weather is beautiful. 70 and sunny with a light breeze. I wish I would have packed better. I'm having to put the same clothes on Aleigha that she's already worn and they are winter clothes. :(

This is Aleigha in the hotel stroller....

We have government paper work to complete as a group today at 4pm, then some of us are going to a western restaurant so we can have chicken fingers and fries! They also have a Papa John's that delivers to the hotel AND a Subway connected to the hotel! This area caters to adoption families. The only people we have seen here have Chinese babies with them. I'm having Subway right now for lunch in our room while Aleigha takes her nap. YUM!

On our way to Guangzhou...

Aleigha just went down for her morning nap. Jeff and I are packing up and getting ready to check out at noon. I thought I'd add a short blog before I pack up my computer for the day.

How many pictures can I take with white sheets as the background?!

The lady who is doing our laundry while we are in Nanchang is a seamstress and she made these silk outfits for our girls so they can wear them when they are baptized. Aleigha's hat was too small for her head so she's making it bigger and bringing it by this morning before we leave. They are really beautiful but you can't see the detail in the pictures we took.

Day 7 - Nanchang

Aleigha took her 1st bath by herself. She finally gave in and stopped crying and had a good time.

That was a relief. Jeff went on a trip to rural China today with most of our travel group. They visited a small village in the country. Aleigha and I stayed back because it was a 2 hr bus trip there and I didn't think she would enjoy it... nor would I trying to entertain her for 2 hrs in a bus seat each way! Aleigha and I went to Wal-Mart again with Sherry and Lily. It was quite an adventure again. So many stories but most of them are "you had to be there" stories so I'll just suffice it to say that ALWAYS keep your babies legs covered at all times no matter what temperature it is!! That was just one of the fiasco's of our Wal-Mart day....

Then Aleigha, Jeff and I took a 3 hr nap from 3-6pm. Then supper and bed at 9. Aleigha is a great sleeper and eater. She slept last night from 9pm-6:30am. She still really likes food over her bottle. Her diapers are definitely too small so we'll buy larger ones when we get to Guangzhou. Her 12 mo onesies are way too small too but her onesie saved her pretty white outfit today from a diaper blowout so i'm glad i'm stretching them over her! :)

Tomorrow we are flying from Nanchang to Guangzhou. The flight leaves at 3:30 and we're leaving this hotel at 12:30. It's another 2 hr flight and the weather is in the 80's. I did not pack appropriately. I didn't pack any summer clothes for anyone so we may be sweating for a few days.

Jeff has a really bad cold/cough and we ran out of Sudafed. Unfortunately, they don't have the same medications here. I don't think they medicate as much as we do in the US! So he's just going to have to tough it out. I pray that we don't get it from him!

I doubt I'll be blogging tomorrow since it's a travel day and I'm sure we'll be exhausted by the time we get to the hotel and unpack, etc. This will be the 1st time that we'll have Aleigha on the plane with us so it will be a little stressful. I hope the next hotel is as nice as this one.

We can't wait to come home!!!!!!

Day 6- Nanchang

Today we visited a famous temple in Nanchang. It was beautiful and there was a short show featuring music and dance on the top floor. It was a cloudy day so the colors aren't as vibrant as when you were there.

Then this afternoon, a few of us walked to Wal-Mart again... because it is our favorite place here and it has a KFC in it so we brought supper home as well! It was quite an adventure because we went without our guide and no one in the Wal-Mart speaks english and the products do not have english on them so we were just going by common pictures and logos.

China uses RMB's for currency. The easiest way to figure out how much things are is to divide the RMBs by 6 and that will give you approximatley the amount of US dollars. Example: If something costs 36 RMBs, then it is $6 US dollars.

The weather is about 50 and sprinkling through out the day. It's still very nice outside though.

Aleigha seems to be getting more and more comfortable and "talking" a lot more! I've been taking video on my camera but she always wants to grab it when i get it out so she quits talking and laughing!

Here is a video of Aleigha and Lily. Lily was born in April 2008 and she is in our travel group.

Here is a video of Aleigha eating Goldfish for the 1st time. She thought it was hilarious for some reason!

She is still eating so much food! Some of the 12 mo clothes are tight around her belly. We call it her "Buddha Belly" because it's so round and cute! I'm even thinking that the size 3 diapers won't be big enough for long....

It's 10:45 pm on Wednesday here. Everyone is sleeping but me. I took a long nap with Aleigha this afternoon so I'm not tired yet.

Video!

I thought this was cute of Aleigha laughing! (State Farm friends~you can't see the video at work but it works from any home computers.) :)

She has been eating like a horse today! If she's not sleeping, she's definitely eating anything we give her. She is also trying to comb her hair all by herself with her brush. It's so cute!

Day 4 - Nanchang,Jiangxi,China

Today was pretty quiet. We met at 10:30 to walk to Wal-Mart. That was about it. Jeff and I are sick of the food. We even skipped lunch! It's 2:50 pm and Aleigha has been sleeping since 1:30.

About the title of this post- Nanchang is the city we are in and Jiangxi is the name of the province. We are staying at the Galactic Peace International Hotel and it is a wonderful hotel!

Some info I forgot to post yesterday:

Aleigha is wearing 12 mo clothes perfectly.

She's not walking or even crawling yet.

She sits up by herself.

She loves to eat food and doesn't care much about the bottle.... at least not yet.

Last night she slept from 8:00pm until 3:30am. Then had a bottle, changed diapers and went back to sleep at 4:30 until 7:30am. We feel very lucky! She's not much of a crier either. :)

She loves to be held!

She sucks her 1st two fingers when she's tired.

She is just so darn cute! :)

Pictures~

This is the orphanage administrator who brought Aleigha to us. She had 5 layers of clothing on!I keep trying to get a picture of her smile but no luck so far. This is as close as I could get..

This is at one of the goverment offices. We had to get interviewed and take pictures and sign and fingerprint a bunch of documents..

Isn't her coat and hat so cute!?! Her favorite "toy" is the kleenex pack from my purse!

This is a pic of the orphanage administrators bringing the babies to the hotel...


Here is our group at the square yesterday...

Here we are in the hotel lobby waiting for our daughters!

This has been a very busy, crazy day! The orphanage administrators brought our babies to us at 10:30 am this morning. We all went to a conference room and held the girls and signed many documents. We were able to go back to our rooms for two hours to bond with our girls. Aleigha was very scared of me but took right away to Jeff. I think it helped that he had dark hair. They never see any other color! :) So we went to our room and after I gave her a bottle, then she was ok with me too. Then she fell asleep in her crib and we had to wake her up to go to 3 different goverment offices to get her Chinese Visa and make the adoption official on the Chinese side of things. She did very well and really didn't stop moving and looking around the entire time. She seemed to be getting used to us and more relaxed. We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant and she sat in her stroller and watched us eat. She clings on to the kleenex pack like it's gold! I think she likes the noise it makes when you hold the wrapping? OH.. we gave her a very quick bath and she hated it! We'll try again tomorow. She went right to sleep in her crib at 7:30 tonight by rubbing her belly and singing Rock a Bye Baby. She really likes that song!

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a good night's sleep...