Journey to Maggie

blog

2006-09-21T10:51:00.000-07:00

Just to let you know, if you are so inclined, I do have another blog that I usually post on. If you would like the address, please email me at allisonlc@aol.com
Let me know in the subject line that the email is in regards to the blog and let me know a little about yourself if you're not someone I know personally.
Thanks!

So glad to be home

2006-09-18T22:20:00.000-07:00

Well, David told me about an hour ago that we could watch an episode of "Lost" before we went to bed but he's been blathering on about cross country to the coach who helped him out while we were gone. Thank goodness he wore Weddington stuff every day so he could at least show his Warrior pride in his absence.

So, our trip home. That was one long flight. Well, let me start at the beginning. We got up kind of early and took a taxi to the train station. If we hadn't had a stroller plus 2 ten ton, suitcases we could have walked. I love riding the train. It's so relaxing. It was nice to see Hong Kong one more time. We made it to the airport where we were told that one of our suitcases was overweight by 7 kilos! Bwa! So, we really weren't as smooth as we thought we were by jamming all that crap into our original 2 suitcases. Oh well, next time we'll know. The guy told us that we would have to pay $200 in overweight fees. I about freaked but then David told me it was in HK dollars so it was like 20 bucks. We ate breakfast at Burger King and let me tell you, it tasted GOOD. Delicious, even. We wasted a little time looking in some shops and of course, David had to get his chai tea. At the security checkpoint, they looked at my baby Dimetapp and baby Benadryl VERY carefully. I was about to start crying at the prospect of them taking it. They let it by but they did take my baby Motrin. That makes no sense to me but whatever. Then David gave me the rest of our HK dollars and told me to go back and spend it. I love buying junk in the airport when you have to use up your currency! I got us a bunch of magazines and some candy. We got on the flight and we were 1 row from the back of the plane. Like we were sitting where we had to help flap the plane's wings. It actually turned out to not be such a bad thing because I had to go to the bathroom like a thousand times to take care of Miss Maggie. We settled in and I was SO thankful that we had bought a seat for Maggie. She had space to lay down and sleep and when she was awake, we let her stand on the floor and play with her toys on the seat. She started out the trip in her pajamas but at one point when I was trying to be smooth and change her diaper in the plane seat, she peed all over the place and got her pj's wet. That did not make me happy. There are about a million things that I love about Maggie but I HATE changing her diaper. She is the squirmiest worm and she hates it too, I think. Thankfully, we had packed a backup outfit. Maggie got a little dose of the "Flyer's Friend" and zonked out not long after that. Like I have said before, Maggie is much like an oven when she sleeps. She gets so SWEATY. Kind of gross but let me tell you, on that flight, I was thankful for the little oven. It was like a freaking Arctic winter on that plane. The whole trip all I could think of was my winter coat and my pink fleece blanket. I had also forgotten to pack any socks so my feet were FREEZING. I bundled up in 2 airplane blankets. Blech. There was also this woman sitting across the aisle from us who kept coughing like she had tuberculosis. Rather unpleasant. She had on a surgical mask before we took off but then she removed it once we were in the air. I guess she thought they wouldn't kick her off once we were airborne. The flight went on and on and Maggie slept on and off. She was really very good. She got kind of cranky a few times but otherwise, she was not a problem. David and I were even able to watch an episode of Buffy on the laptop.

We landed in Newark and went through immigration. I think the United States is a rather unfriendly place to immigrate to. Not that I've had any experience with any other countries but we were looked up and down and herded into this holding area like we were criminals and then all they did was take our paperwork and dismiss us. We got our bags, rechecked them and met up with my friend Meredith and David's aunt Sue, cousin Heather and her family. It was so nice to see some familiar faces.

Sue and Heather and their crew were heading to the beach so we only visited with them for a little while. Emily had picked out a firefly toy for Maggie. Maggie really liked it. Meredith brought a little stuffed lamb rattle which Maggie shunned at first because stuffed animals=scary. At the gate, she realized that it made noise and decided that she liked it. Meredith also brought Maggie some new pj's--very cute. We found this coffee shop and hung out there for a while and talked. Then we realized we had to head on so we got in the mile long line for the security checkpoint. This time they took my Benadryl. They also looked at my travel Charmin very carefully. Heh. We got down to the gate and crammed onto the teeny plane. David told me that Maggie "smelled" so I took her to the smallest airplane bathroom in the world where I discovered she had had a blowout, for lack of a better word. It was sick. Then there were like 20 planes in front of us and we had to wait in line and it was very stuffy in the plane. The second we took off, Maggie and I both fell asleep. We slept through almost the entire flight which made it go very quickly. When we landed, I had to take Maggie in the bathroom to change her into her coming home outfit, a red and white gingham bubble with smocked American flags. Very cute. When we finally got out to where everybody was waiting, I felt like it was a dream. I couldn't believe that we had made it all the way home. There were so many people there with balloons, a big sign and noisemakers. It was awesome. David and I had decided ahead of time that we felt like Maggie had bonded sufficiently with us and she definitely knows who we are, so we agreed that it would be okay for people to hold her. My dad got first crack at her!

With Grammie Barb
With Auntie Erin
With Grandma ReRe
With Grandma Karen
We talked for a long time and then decided it was time to brave the car and carseat. I strapped Maggie in for her maiden voyage and BOY, did she scream. She screamed louder than I've ever heard her cry. I climbed in the backseat and sat next to her but after about 10 minutes, she stuck her finger in her mouth and just looked out the window. Rege and Barb bought us a mirror to put on the backseat so we can see her in the rearview mirror. We got home and I think it was all just a little bit too overwhelming for Miss Maggie. She is rather scared of the cats so we're introducing them slowly. I picked Louie up after we got home and I think he weighs for than Maggie. I gave Maggie a bath which she screamed her way through and she also tried to stand up and bonked her head on the side of the tub. Bad mommy. My mom and dad had set up the pack n play in our bedroom so we thought we'd try her out in there first. She went to sleep pretty fast (around midnight) but woke up crying at 1:30. I got up and changed her diaper in the dark which was rather difficult as her pajamas had about a million snaps and I snapped them all wrong. I stayed up with her for a while before I started to feel sick I was so tired. We traded off and David got up with her and laid on the couch. I think they slept but at 5:30 he came in and woke me up and told me it was my turn.

I got up and fed her and we went in her bedroom to check out the toys. Then I realized that I could be watching TV while we looked at the toys so moved ourselves out to the den. Maggie was in a good mood but very clingy this morning. At about 8:30, I decided that I HAD to go back to sleep so I rocked Maggie in the glider, where she fell asleep. I put her in her crib and I got in the guest room bed and we all slept until almost noon. I went in and woke her up because I knew we'd be paying for it tonight if I didn't. This afternoon was spent trying to keep her awake. We went to Target--yay, first time! and Walmart. In the 5 minute trip to Target, Maggie fell asleep in the car. She is also so small that the seatbelt in the grocery cart is too small, even pulled as tightly as it would go. She kept trying to turn around in the seat. I finally gave up and carried her in Walmart. We let her take a little nap from about 5:15 to 6 and then I woke her up again. She's been eating really well so that's good. David's mom and grandma came out tonight so Grandma Grace could meet Maggie. ReRe also brought Maggie's birthday present--a jumperoo! It's so cool and she LOVED it.

We tried to put Maggie in the jogging stroller tonight but she was yelling so loud going down our street that we thought we'd better turn around before we riled up every dog in the neighborhood. I took her in the nursery and rocked her and she fell asleep in about 1 second. During this time, David hooked up the baby monitor and came in and out probably 5 times and moved her bookcase and she did not budge. I put her in the crib and she rolled over and went right to sleep. She just woke up screaming so David is in there with her now. He said she fell back asleep as soon as he picked her up. She is SO tired. She looks almost pitiful because she looks so exhausted. I hope we can sleep tonight. We took these No-Jet-Lag pills all the way home yesterday so hopefully they are working. I feel okay right now but I'm ready to go to bed.

Well, this will be my last post on here now that we're home. You know where to find me and if you don't, my email's on this blog somewhere. Thanks SO much for all the comments while we were in China. It was so wonderful to hear from so many people while we were so far away.

There's a Boots in Hong Kong!

2006-09-16T22:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, so after we checked in and got settled, we decided to start walking around. We went over to the IFC mall which is HUGE! I couldn't believe how big it was. And rather upscale as well. We rolled around in there for a while and I decided I was hungry. We went to Pret a Manger for lunch and I had the first sandwich I'd had in two weeks. Oh, a sandwich! It tasted SO good. I reverted to my usual ways and ate it in about 3 minutes. We also shared some potato "crisps" which also tasted great after 2 weeks. Those corn things in China were very good but not the same thing as a good old potato chip. I was extremely sleepy afterwards so we pressed on because I seriously could have laid down on the floor in the mall and gone to sleep. We went out on this observation deck to check out the harbor. Very pretty. Again, Maggie is not so impressed with Hong Kong.

I don't get it. I think it's super cool. We walked all over the place in "Central" which is basically the business district, I guess. Lots and lots of skyscrapers and banking and such. We tried to go in the Bank of China building which has an observation deck but we had missed the cutoff for Saturday. We went to a couple of other malls but didn't buy much. When you walk into a shopping center and see Versace, Ferragamo and Armani and you are a couple of teachers, perhaps you are out of your league. We also subjected Maggie to the indignity of changing her diaper on the floor behind a pillar. The bathrooms were miniscule and about too small for me to even go to the bathroom in them. We did lay down a blanket though, I'll have you know. We also went to Ben and Jerry's because like I said, I was about to keel over from exhaustion. I had this HUGE cup of Chocolate Therapy. Good grief. It was delicious and about black it was so chocolate. Then David discovered that they have chai tea lattes here in Hong Kong. Ahhh. All was right with the world.

We cruised back to the hotel so we could get ready for dinner and also so we could relax a little bit. I played with Maggie for a while where she would be crawling on the floor and I would hide behind the bed and then chase after her. Much laughter ensued. Maybe you had to be there for that but MAN, I remember my mom doing that with me and I thought it was hilarious as a kid. Maggie has the dorkiest laugh. It's so funny.

We went down to dinner at one of the restaurants here in the hotel and Maggie was SO good. I mean, she was great! I was thinking that 2 Saturdays ago, she was probably sleeping or lying in her crib at the orphanage and then this Saturday, she's eating Cheerios at the Ritz in Hong Kong. Crazy. Our dinner was very good but I thought I was going to explode by the end. Maggie had had about enough by then so we got our dessert packed up and we came back upstairs. There was a pianist playing during part of dinner and Maggie was kind of humming to herself and rocking back and forth. Very cute. She also has started sticking her old long tongue out with a Cheerio or whatever still on the tip of it. And she totally squirms around while I'm changing her diaper and I KNOW she does it because she knows it makes me mad! She is so funny.

Then the bath butler came. Oh man. When we remove our toilets and install squatty potties, I think we shall also hire a bath butler for our house. Dudes, it ruled. RULED. I got chocolate chip cookies and a glass of milk. The bath had lots of bubbles and rose petals on it. Chocolate chip crumbs are sort of gross in the bathtub but oh well.

Maggie says, "I don't care about Hong Kong but I can't wait to see y'all tomorrow!!!"

So this is almost the end of our time in China. Wow, it's been amazing. It's been fun. It's been hard. It's been unforgettable. To those of you who have helped us, supported us, prayed for us, laughed and cried with us, thank you thank you thank you. We can never thank you enough. It was a long 2 years but let me tell you, Monday, September 4, made every second worth it and we could not have done it without our families and friends. Thank you to all of you. We are incredibly blessed.

We should arrive in Charlotte at 8:13 pm tomorrow night---Sunday. We cannot wait to see everybody and to introduce you to our sweet, funny, amazing daughter. We know you will love her as much as we do.

See you then!

Blast!

2006-09-16T17:58:00.000-07:00

I just lost my whole BLOOMING post because the computer randomly decided to turn off. UGH. Well, let me see if I can re-create it. First of all, I had forgotten about our trip to the Consulate yesterday so I'll start with that. The trip was uneventful but we had forgotten to bring a bottle for Maggie because we weren't supposed to bring anything and she got kind of cranky. We all swore that we had been truthful on all of our paperwork and we were done. Kind of anti-climactic. Maggie slept through it. But then we got her passport--too cute--and were ready to go. Brooke and I had to go over to Shamian Island to pick up some stuff we had ordered so when we got back to the hotel, I dropped off David and Maggie and she picked up their stroller and after about 15 minutes, we finally got a cab. The traffic in Guangzhou at 5:30 on Friday afternoon SUCKED. It was so heavy and Emma was NOT happy. Also, the driver misunderstood where we wanted to go to he took us to the Chen Clan Temple. Um, no. Finally, we got it across that we wanted to go to Shamian and we finally got there. Brooke had to go to 1 store to pick up some pictures so I sat outside with Emma. Whew, she can holler. Her mouth is BIG. Impressively so. We went to Jordon's quickly and managed to hail a cab from the street instead of going up to the White Swan. We got back to the hotel and apparently, Maggie thought I had abandoned her because she had been crying since I left. Well, until David took her out of the hotel room. I felt cranky when we got back so we just went up to McDonald's for our last dinner in China. Sad, huh? Then we finished packing our stuff because our suitcases had to be outside by 9. Everyone was impressed that we left with the same number of suitcases we came with. Granted, our stuff is JAMMED in there but still. There are some things that I didn't even wear while we were here. Maybe we'll go carry on only next time. Haha, just kidding.

This morning came rather early when David woke me up at 4:30. Maggie had cried out in the night again and I laid awake for a LONG time. Too much to think about, I guess. We didn't have too much to do since we had mostly packed the night before. We had to wake Maggie up but she was remarkably cheerful. We got down to the lobby in plenty of time as we had to be there at 5:45. One family, the Wilsons, got up at 5:30. That's 2 parents, 2 older kids and 1 new baby. The mom, Julie, said it was like "Home Alone" in their room. That cracked me up. The trip to the airport was kind of quiet. Amy went over some last minute stuff with us and had some very nice things to say that choked her and most of the bus up! She is wonderful. I cannot say enough good things about the AWAA guides in China.

There were many lines at the airport in Guangzhou but we managed to get through them with a little time to shop! Gotta spend the last of that yuan! The flight was short, only about 30 minutes and uneventful. Maggie's eyes got big during takeoff but otherwise, she didn't make a peep. By the end of the flight, she was asleep.

We let almost everyone on the plane get off before us since we were not in any rush. There were 4 families taking the flight that we would have been on that had a very tight connection. I hope they all made it. The Hong Kong airport is VAST. I bet we walked a mile in there. As you can see, Maggie is not very impressed with Hong Kong. It took us some time to get through immigration because we forgot to fill out arrival cards. Argh! We breezed through everything else, collected our luggage, changed some money and headed for the hotel desk. David had arranged for us to take a limo from the airport to the hotel. Man, I felt cool. It wasn't really a limo but a very swanky Mercedes with leather interior and burled wood on the dash. I felt really cool when Maggie let out the biggest burp EVER while we were driving along. It was hilarious. The drive over to the hotel was so cool. We went over some very large suspension bridges and through some tunnels. Hong Kong is beautiful! It sort of reminds me of New York, but it sort of doesn't. It's hard to explain. We are staying at the Ritz-Carlton and it is NICE. They were much nicer to us than they were at the Atlanta one when we stayed there on our wedding night. They met us at the door and called us by name, took us right up to our room which overlooks the harbor and the Star Ferry Pier and got us all checked in. We're on the 18th floor. As I sit here typing, I can see huge skyscrapers, barges and a Chinese junk! Way cool. Maggie really took to the hotel room and started crawling around all over the place. She especially likes the marble floor in the bathroom.

Or perhaps she is just intrigued by the trash. I am amazed by the amount of trash that we generate now that we have a baby! It is quite different than when it was just the 2 of us.
Well, I am going to leave you with this for now. I have to go meet David and Maggie for dinner at Shanghai Shanghai here at the hotel. I'll finish updating after dinner. But David has also called the bath butler to arrange for him to draw me a bath so I might be a little pressed for time. Hee! I wish we could have stayed here for 2 weeks! More later.

Oh, we walked

2006-09-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

It was raining and raining when we woke up on Thursday morning. I started to have a little panic attack thinking we would spend yet another day trapped in the hotel room. The malls that are around here are like 5 stories of stores that all sell pearls. That might get a little old after a while. David and Maggie went down to Starbucks while I sat in the room and waited for a call from Amy or Lineker if there were any problems with our paperwork. There were none so we had the rest of the day free. Argh!

It had basically quit raining so we stowed our super sized umbrella in the stroller and set out. Our umbrella was not as large as the one at the teahouse however. We decided to go to the park across the street first--Liuhua Park. Because the streets are very wide here, sometimes there are underground tunnels to get people across the street. We went down about a hundred stairs, found what we thought was the right staircase and went up, only to find that we weren't in the right place! Back down the stairs and then up the right ones. I was sweating by the time we got to the park. Because it rained a good bit, it was very humid but not burning hot outside which was nice. The park was huge and very beautiful. I think it might be kind of fun to be an old person in China. You know, you get to go to the park every day and gossip with your friends and play hacky sack and dance with each other. That might be an alternate plan to Kimberly's and my original plan to move to Miami and wear caftans and lots of gold jewelry and have lots of cats. Oh yeah, and be leathery. We walked around the park for a long time and Maggie fell asleep. China is not very handicapped friendly. There are lots of steps everywhere and not too many ramps.

The park was very beautiful though. (I have to add a side note that I just thought I smelled a dirty diaper but then I realized it was my feet. EW! Antimicrobial shoes, my FOOT.)

We left and decided to walk over the the Six Banyan Temple and yes, I realize that I called it the Seven Banyan Temple the other day but I do not feel like going back and changing it. We walked and walked. Like a hundred miles. We went through all these cool little neighborhoods with little restaurants and shops selling all kinds of interesting stuff. I thought it was kind of cool that all the shops around the temple sold all kinds of incense and Buddha figures and such. We got ALL kinds of stares because there was not another white face to be seen for miles. Especially 2 of them with a Chinese baby. But it wasn't uncomfortable because I was staring as much as they were. I got a thumbs up from several old women and Maggie got many smiles. Maybe it was because she was bundled up to her eyeballs. When we got near the temple, you could smell the incense. This man without a hand showed us where to buy tickets so of course, we had to give him some money. Inside the temple walls was beautiful and very peaceful. The Six Banyan Temple is the tallest pagoda in the area, I believe. You can climb up to the top but since we had a sleeping baby in a stroller, we opted out. We just walked around instead.

If you look carefully at the Buddha statues, you can see that there are food offerings in front of them. Apples and cans of Coke and Sprite. Hee. David said they have to be offerings of sweets. I think if I were Buddha, I'd be requesting some cookies or cake instead of fruit. But that's just me. There were a lot of people lighting incense and praying. Very interesting. We also saw a cat which Maggie was very interested in. That bodes well.

Then we walked over to the Bright Filial Piety Temple which was about the same. Also peaceful and incense-y.

Our Buddha pictures from this temple are very blurry for some reason. They were HUGE though. Amazingly huge. Then I was ready to go back so we started walking back. Then David hailed a cab, thank GOODNESS. It felt like we had been walking forEVER. But then when we got back to the hotel, our fare was 70¥ which is about 90 cents. I guess we had only walked half a mile. Ha! I am officially a wimp.

When we got back, we dined on McDonald's. I tell you what, McDonald's doesn't taste as good at home as it does here. Then we played for a while and Maggie fell asleep on David. I looked over at her at one point and she was sweating bullets. She had beads of sweat all over her head. Kind of disgusting. We put her hankie over her head and watched Buffy. Then I fell asleep too. When Maggie woke up, she and I went out in the hall to play with Brooke and Emma. I think Emma was really feeling good yesterday. She was smiling and laughing and she let me hold her. She likes to be slid down the wall too. Maggie was not happy with me when I was holding Emma.
This picture is for you, Mom and Barb.
This picture was taken upside down.
This is not a great picture of Maggie but I wanted you to see her dimple!!!

We ate a TON of junk food from Danny's for dinner last night--potato skins, garlic bread, breadsticks, and chicken nuggets. Then I felt sick so Maggie and I packed up in the stroller and went for a little walk. There is some kind of Italian delegation here so there were about a million stylin' Italians in the lobby and there I was with no makeup on and my Old Navy shorts and t shirt. And my baby in her pajamas! Then we did the usual bedtime routine with the Chinese lullabies except David kept making me laugh because he thinks the first song sounds like an old timey record player. I put Maggie down and she made one little peep and went to sleep! David flipped me off. BWA! Then we watched some more Buffy, David fell asleep and I watched 1 more episode.

Maggie woke up screaming at 2:30 and about scared me to death. I leaped up out of bed because I thought it was morning. I squinted at the clock and realized what time it was and waited to see what she would do. She went back to sleep. We have GOT to get a baby monitor when we get home. I don't know if I would hear her in her room at night when I'm sleeping.

Today we are going to go to the other park and start packing. We have to be in the lobby at 3 to go to the Consulate. Then we get Maggie's passport and visa and we are DONE! I am going to be sad to say goodbye to everyone tomorrow. They are all going to be rushing to get to their flights when we get to Hong Kong so Brooke and I decided we would say goodbye tomorrow before we leave the hotel.

David gave Maggie a bath this morning. He did a very good job. I've started bathing her with a towel over me because she splashes like a tidal wave now. We are going to eat Chinese one last time for lunch today. Well, I guess that's it for now. I probably won't update until tomorrow when we are in Hong Kong because I won't have time to tomorrow morning. Well, unless I get on the ball and do it tonight. We shall see but don't count on it.

Rain, rain go away

2006-09-13T20:50:00.000-07:00

It rained all day today. David said there is a tropical depression somewhere around here. Kind of made for a blah day which may make for a blah post. Tomorrow we are going to suck it up and go to the Seven Banyan Temple even if there is a hurricane. The non-Guangdong families are all leaving tomorrow, the luckies. I think most of us are ready to come home. This trip has been absolutely amazing but I am ready to be at home.

The photo shoot this morning was pretty funny. The babies all looked so cute! First, I shall show you some pictures of me preparing Maggie. She was not cooperating but then she finally did!

I do not understand why Blogger will not download photos in the order in which I select them. That is why it always takes to freaking long to do these posts. Anyway. It was sort of chaotic down in the lobby. First we had the Guangdong families take a group picture. I love our group. They are great and so much fun!
A couple of the families have brought their other children with them and I need to email their moms because I have been SO impressed with their kids. They are so mature and well-behaved. I saw one of the daughters commandeering the stroller, diaper bag, blanket, bottle and something else to help her mom out today. The two older kids are both in 8th grade. I hope Maggie turns out as nice as these 2 girls.
After that group picture, we stuck all the babies on a couch. My pictures are not very good because I could not get in front of the sofas to get the right angle so I'm not even going to bother posting them. Then we took a picture of all the Lianjiang babies. I will post that one so you can see how cute they all are. As soon as we put them on the couch, Maggie ripped a toy right out of Kylie's hand. Luckily, Kylie seems pretty laid back so no screaming occurred. Maggie seems to possibly have been the orphanage bully. She's the smallest but that does not seem to bother her. She's also the 2nd oldest so I don't know what her deal is!
The babies from left to right are : Jenna, Chloe, Emma, Maggie, Kylie, Karli and Audrey. Poor Audrey is sick. She had to go to the hospital today because she won't eat or drink anything. They gave her an IV to rehydrate her and diagnosed her with bronchitis. Please keep her in your prayers. Her mom, Liz, is here by herself because her husband had to go home on Saturday. Liz's aunt and daughter are here with her but I know she wishes her husband was still here.
Here you see that Maggie stuck the finger in and didn't seem to be too bothered by hollering babies.
After the pictures, we changed the babies into normal clothes, well, except I had made a mistake when I bought Maggie some long pants here in China the other day. They are about a mile too long so I had them jacked up around her ribs like she was Urkel. It was hilarious. I finally rolled them up and we were good to go. To anyone who is coming to China to adopt, even in the dead of summer, bring some long pants and a sweater for your baby. I WISH we had brought less sleeveless stuff and more long sleeved stuff. Then we headed off to a teahouse. It was kind of interesting, of course. It started absolutely pouring while we were there and I kind of got in a bad mood. They showed us these special teapots that were very pretty but we did not purchase one. We didn't feel like tasting tea because we felt crabby so we fed Maggie a bottle and looked around. Then when we were sitting on the bus waiting for everyone, I noticed this absolutely HUGE umbrella they were using to escort people to their cars. I commented to David and he told me it was an umbrella from a table. BWA! I about died laughing. I told David on the way back that I wanted McDonald's for lunch. He said he would go get it while I stayed with Maggie. Maggie loves to sit in the hallway in front of the mirrored closet doors but on my lap so I sat there with her for a long time. I got stern with her once because she was clanging the ironing board around and I didn't want it to fall on her so I said, "NO" and she started crying. I picked her and gave her kisses and all was well.
When David got back, I sat on the bed nearest the hallway and David sat on the loveseat across the room. David had brought me an ice cream cone, so I ate that first. I gave Maggie a little taste and then she stood at the bottom of the bed acting like she was chewing and licking her lips. It was so funny. I gave her a little bit of my hamburger bun too but that was all. No fries for this baby. Yet. She and I took a nap together and then she woke up crying again. I think she was hungry but I don't remember because David took her and I fell back asleep. I was SO tired. I owe David big tomorrow. Later on, Brooke came over to see if Maggie wanted to play so we went out in the hall with some toys and played for a LONG time. It was really fun. Emma can blow raspberries and it is so cute! Maggie hasn't figured that one out yet, possibly because she was too busy trying to steal Emma's toys and eat her food.
This is not a great picture but the girls would not look at me at the same time!
Brooke gave Emma some baby food corn while we were out there and Emma was not a fan. I got a spoon and let Maggie try it. She seemed pretty game to eat the rest of the jar, had I allowed her to.

Then our room service arrived and we decided to test Maggie on the Benadryl tonight to see how she did. She is currently sleeping but putting her to bed was not without a struggle. She hollered BIG TIME the first 2 times we put her in the crib. But then I rocked her and rocked her and peace was restored throughout the land.

Some things that I have noticed about my writing is that I use the word "then" WAY too much and I also have a problem with making my verb tenses agree in sentences. I guess if I would be willing to proofread, that would be remedied. But I usually don't feel like it and Blogger is a pain to edit. Tomorrow Amy and Lineker are taking all of our paperwork over to the US Consulate. We have to be in our rooms from 9:30-10:30 in case they call with any questions. Then we have the rest of the day free. Friday is our appointment at the consulate for our swearing in or oath or something. I've heard it's not that impressive. We shall see. Then Saturday we are off to Hong Kong! David planned our trip while I was in the hallway today. I don't even know what we're going to do while we're there. Shop, I guess. Thank goodness we bought that rinky dink stroller.

We discovered a channel tonight that was playing last season's episodes of "The Amazing Race"! I wish they had played "Big Brother" so I could have seen the end. And, ugh, I know that stupid Mike Boogie won. Anyone who includes Boogie as part of their name should not win anything. Well, on that note, I think I shall close. Pray that this rain goes away because we are getting a little bit of cabin fever in our hotel.

2006-09-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

I have returned.
Yes, it is David blogging today.
It is Wednesday morning in Guangzhou so it is Tuesday evening at home. I always seem to be thinking about that..thinking about whatever everyone is doing at home while we are here. We miss everyone and really want to be at home. It is incredible here, and we have had a great time, but we are ready to start our new life AT HOME!!! We are ready to get into a new routine with Maggie and all the good stuff that goes along with that. But more than anything we (well, I...) want CHAI TEA. Chinese tea is very good but it is not chai. Even Starbucks doesn't have chai. I am sad. I cannot wait to get to the Newark airport to get some chai tea. Ooooo maybe there will be some in Hong Kong! That will be exciting! No, wait, Allison as would say, "interesting."
Maggie just woke up. She is in a good mood...kind of. We have been so lucky and blessed with her so far. She has not been sick or too fussy or demanding or anything like that. We are starting to figure out her "fake" cry and her real cries. We are starting to figure out which cry means she is hungry. She is absolutely and completely "strong minded" as one of the orphanage reports told us. It is awesome. She needs sensory stimulation like it's a drug or something. Sounds and colors and textures seem to fascinate her. She is intrigued by the bathroom floor, the mirror, squeezing her toes in the carpet, the drawer handles, the drapes, my hair, my beard, my shoelaces, just all kinds of stuff.
Anyway, we love her and all the new little bits of her personality that she shows us each day. We know everyone at home is going to fall for her too. All the grandparents are in serious trouble with Maggie. Once she does a fake cry or pouts for you and then follows that up with a sweet smile...oh no. You're all goners!
Okay, so what did we do on Tuesday? It was a "free" day for our travel group. Maggie got up early so we got an early start to things. Breakfast is at a buffet on the 2nd floor and that is always fun. Maggie tried some oatmeal. She ate a good bit of it. She also had part of a bottle so she is eating a lot! We went to a museum about 10. It is the Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King. I thought it was awesome. Allison did not. Maggie only liked it a little. It is a museum with the tomb of a king from the Han dynasty from about 130-120 BC. The site was discovered in 1983 when the China Hotel was being developed. The tomb was completely intact with hundreds of artifacts inside. Do I sound like an art historian yet? Ha! The museum has kept the tomb open to visitors so we went inside. It was a tight space. Lots of stairs and with Maggie's stroller we got a good workout! The museum holds all the burial items. Lots of jade and pottery and bronze vessels and things like that. It was very similar to an Egyptian tomb with all the trappings of the afterlife, including servants, buried along with you. The king's concubines were buried with him and some of their skeletal remains were on display. Yikes! You weren't allowed to take pictures though, so sorry. The only one interested was me anyway. Well, my art history students are going to be subjected to the tomb too, but they don't have a choice! I bought some books of course. Maggie was very good and sems to like the stroller fine now.

Okay, Allison here now. David had to take a shower and all that typing wore him out. The workers in the gift shop were very complimentary of Maggie and how pretty they thought she was. After we were done at the museum, we went back to the hotel because it was spitting rain and kind of cold! We went to Food Street for lunch where Maggie was SO good. The highchair was sort of antiquated but she behaved very well. We ordered some yummy food including sweet and sour pork which was DELICIOUS. Maggie dined on fruit puffs. She still hasn't quite figured out how to get the food from her fingers to her mouth so this is her preferred method of eating.

Here's what happens afterwards.

After lunch, we came back upstairs and David and Maggie took a brief nap. Maggie woke up screaming so after we got her calmed down, we gave her a bottle. We're still figuring out when she eats. Everytime she cries inconsolably, we finally decide she's hungry. Dumb parents. She also had a slight fit yesterday when she was trying to crawl with one finger in her mouth and her ball in the other hand. She kept bumping her face on the carpet. It was so funny. I laid on the bed for the longest time and watcher her playing in the hall. She dragged a lot of the dirty laundry out until she located what she had been looking for, her hankie. The closet has sliding mirrored doors and she looked at herself for a long time and then held her ball behind the door and then brought it out again, like she was figuring out that it's still there even if she can't see it. Object permanence, I guess. It was fascinating to watch.

We went back to Shamian Island for a little bit and finished all of our shopping. Maggie drank a bottle so fast in the cab that she sucked the drop-in bag up inside the nipple. Brooke and I have to go back to Shamian one more time on Friday to pick up some stuff that we ordered.

Brooke and Emma came over and the girls "played" for a bit. Brooke put Emma's jade baby bracelet on her wrist and Maggie about ripped Emma's arm off trying to get to it. Hmm. That doesn't bode well for daycare. Emma looks so much better. Her eyes are bright and she is much more animated. We ate dinner at the hotel buffet last night. It was rather expensive and MAN, did they have some gross looking stuff. There was entirely too much stuff that looked like the animal it came from. There was a whole duck, a whole chicken, gigantic crab legs, whole shrimp, lots of fish, and maybe the sickest of all, OCTOPUS. It was purple and had suckers on it. UGH. It was kind of interesting though and they had an entire buffet table just for dessert. I had 4. Again, Maggie was SO good. The good thing about this trip is that she has learned how to behave in a restaurant and play with a toy or 2 in a highchair while we eat. And those of you who know us, know that we are not fans of eating at home. Well, we like to eat at home but not food that we cook. I cannot wait to have a hamburger from Cookout. And a Reese cup milkshake.

We came back upstairs and finally got Maggie to sleep and in the crib. She was still sort of awake when we put her in the crib and she did stick a defiant foot through the slats. We have a blanket on the side that faces us so the light won't bother her while we are still up. I think she really prefers it to be pretty dark when she's sleeping. We need to put some blinds up in her room at home!

Today we have our group picture and then the babies' pictures in the lobby. That should be a little hilarious. Then we are going to a teahouse. I would like to go to the park today if it gets a little sunnier outside. It's bright but cloudy. Maggie has pooped again for those of you who are curious and she spit up a TON of phlegm this morning. I certainly hope she's not getting sick. Now she's playing on the floor with her new red brocade shoes and her handkerchief. Mean parents don't buy their baby any toys. Speaking of toys, she loves to bang things together and bang things on tables and floors and anything that will make a noise. I bought her this ball at the Friendship store that has a jingly thing in it that she LOVES. She loves to shake it around. Guess she'll love the toy piano I have for her at home! Well, we need to get her ready for her photo shoot. I'll upload more pictures today.

Medical exam and just a little shopping

2006-09-12T10:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning, we had to wake Maggie up she would be ready for us to leave the hotel at 9. We went to breakfast, as usual, and got ourselves together. Maggie and I went and visted with Emma and Audrey in the lobby before it was time to leave. We all got on the bus and headed off. It was another beautiful day in Guangzhou. Sunny, breezy and blue skies. It was probably about 75 degrees or so. The medical clinic is on Shamian Island so we would have the opportunity to shop some more after we were done.

When we got inside the clinic, it was organized chaos. Lots of crying babies. We got to see the other half of our group who are staying at a different hotel and we haven't seen some of them since we got off the plane in Beijing! That includes the woman from Weddington who I met up with before we even left for China. Her little boy, Josiah, is so cute! I was glad I got a chance to see him. There were signs all over the waiting room that said "Keep Quiet." haha. We got some paperwork and formed lines at 3 stations--height and weight, ear, heart and throat and general check up. Maggie was very good through almost the entire visit and didn't really get upset until the "take the clothes off the baby and check her out" part. Because, you know, that involves both lying down AND taking clothes off. She weighed 7.6 kg so about 16.75 pounds. I can't believe how small she is. Her 9 and 12 month bottoms are way too big. 6-9 month tops seem to fit her the best and 3-6 month pants and shorts! I held Kylie, one of the other Lianjiang babies yesterday, and she weighs about 19 or 20 pounds. QUITE a difference! Then we headed to the ear and throat part. They squeaked a toy on either side of Maggie's head to see if she looked in that direction, which she did and stuck a tongue depressor in her mouth to look at her throat. I don't know how they saw anything! They also listened to her heart there.
Then on to the last dreaded station. The doctor undid her clothes, looked over her chest, opened up her diaper and then did her back up. Some yelling ensued here. She also asked if Maggie could stand so I held her up on the table but she was not having any of that. After that, we were all done and we were free to go! Brooke and Jeff found out that Emma had a sore throat and some kind of eye gookies so they got some medicine for her eyes and they started her on Zithromax yesterday. I did not hear one peep out of them last night so I think they all got a good rest! We wandered around the island for a while and watched people playing badminton and hacky sack. One group of people were standing under a bridge and singing a song. The words were printed on a piece of poster board and the teacher, I guess, was leading them. There were also people doing tai chi and dances with fans. One group of people looked like they were shagging. It was really cool and we had to keep reminding ourselves that it was Monday morning! I don't know why they were all out. Maybe they don't have to work or they work later or something. Then we headed over to the shops and poked around a little bit. I wasn't really in the mood to do much shopping so Maggie got a pair of white squeaky shoes that David picked out. Maggie and Emma both pooped out in their strollers so we decided to go ahead and eat lunch. We went to Lucy's again and ate outside because it felt so nice. I have become rather intolerant of the airconditioning since it got so nice and cool. Then we all went back to the bus.

When we got back to the room, Maggie and I were tired so I laid down on the bed with her and we both fell asleep. I don't think there is anything sweeter than your baby sleeping on your chest. She is a bit like a little oven though. We had a GOOD nap. I think we slept for about 1 1/2 hours. David had to wake me because I had to go to the big paperwork meeting at 4. We paid our last fees so now we are done with the payment parts. The paperwork party was actually kind of fun. It was all the Guangdong moms + 1 dad. We all sat on the floor and filled out scads of paperwork. I think I wrote down our address 10 times. Some of it made me kind of sad when there was so much information regarding the babies where we had to write "unknown." I guess it lasted about 2 hours or so. Then when we got done, David looked a little haggard. Maggie had apparently had 1 too many fruit puffs because her system decided to reject them. I took Maggie for a while so he could have a break. Maggie and I decided to walk down to the elevators but we ran into Brooke and Emma so we hung out with them in the hallway for a good long time. Then Danielle and Jessie came up and we all played. Jessie is 18 months old and has a heart defect. She is just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. She likes to be boss with the toys too. We brought out some of Maggie's and Emma's toys and played. It was really fun and Brooke and I agreed that the 2 weeks we will be in China will be the ONLY time the babies will be allowed to play on a hotel floor, much less the hallway! I'll try not to think about that too much.

We ordered Danny's Bagels for dinner and finally got Maggie to sleep. She was SO tired but did not want to go to bed. David got her to sleep and when he put her in the crib, she would cry for a second and then fall asleep and then wake up and cry and then fall asleep again. Very cute. We managed to watch 1/2 an episode of Buffy before we both fell asleep too. Wimps.

Maggie awakened at her usual 4:30 with crying out but then fell asleep again, as usual. We think she must have gotten fed at that time in the orphanage. I got up and read my email and then decided about 6 to go back to sleep. Today our plans are to visit the Sun Yat-Sen museum and to go to a nearby park. We are on our own today because Amy and Lineker have to take the non-Guangdong families' paperwork to the consulate. Their swearing in is tomorrow and then they leave on Thursday. Guangdong just passed some law requiring us to stay longer so that's why we come home 3 days later.

We have finally begun to hear Maggie's laugh. It sounds kind of like a little quack. It's hilarious. She smiles when she sees us now.
She woke up in a good mood AGAIN!
Super flexible.
Watching Monday Night Football but here it's Tuesday Morning Football. Maggie fell asleep. Also, there is apparently not a Chinese word for "holding."
Checking out the cutie in the mirror.

Here are some pics to tide you over

2006-09-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

because I'm too tired to update tonight. We had the medical exam today for Maggie. She passed. We have a free day tomorrow so I will update in the AM.

Chen Clan and chopsticks

2006-09-10T21:59:00.000-07:00

So this morning we were kinda rushing because Little Miss decided to sleep in until almost 8:00. What the heck? We had to be in the lobby at 9 and we still had to eat breakfast. Unfortunately for the rest of our travel group, I was unable to find the time to apply makeup today. Oh well. The weather here in Guangzhou is almost arctic today! I think it was probably about 65-70 degrees this morning. I felt a little chill in my skirt and short sleeves. Maggie, however, was bundled against the elements so she was safe from the lashing winds.
It was actually kind of nice to feel such cool weather. Kind of fall-ish. I hated to come back into the air conditioning in the hotel. I cannot wait until it is cool enough that we can open our windows at night at home. We visted the Chen Clan Temple or Academy today. It was very (wait for it) interesting. The Chen family is the oldest and largest one in Guangdong province. To be honest, I'm not really sure what the purpose of the Chen Clan Temple is. I guess it was to enhance the learning and knowledge of the Chen clan. But it's a folk art museum now so we saw lots of native artisans at work. Amy told us that the artwork we see on Shamian Island are copies but this is the real deal. Some of you may have even scored a prize from the Chen Clan Temple. They had some pretty stuff. Embroidery that looked like a photograph. Ivory carvings. Etched glass. One of the more common carvings here is a ball that has different levels to it so it has many pieces inside each other. We have seen many that were made of jade. They are very beautiful. They represent the generations of your family. They had some ivory balls that really were, for lack of a better word, exquisite. This lady tried to sell us some ivory stuff but I think that might hold us up at customs. Here is how they carve the ivory balls. You can't really tell much from this picture but it will give you an idea of what it is.
We looked around for a while and did a little shopping, as I said. Then we left to go back to the Friendship Store. I thought we were going to a teahouse today but I was apparently mistaken. That is on Wednesday. So, sorry to those of you hoping to read about going to a teahouse today.

Since Brooke and I had braved the taxis of Guangzhou earlier in the week, we didn't need to buy much at the store. Maggie needed a new sweater though as her white one is 1. snagged from my bracelet and 2. crusty. There were about a zillion people shopping today. The Friendship store is for the more well-heeled members of Guangzhou society. They have a lot of designer clothes. We did return to the grocery area to buy baby wipes and I bought these corn things (they're like chips but if I wrote corn chips, you would think Fritos, which they are definitely not. Plus, Fritos? BLECH.) They're called "Grill-a-Corn" but that doesn't really tell you much either. Anyway, they taste GOOD and I might need to buy a suitcase to put a bunch of bags of those in for the ride home. We poked around the other floors because we got done shopping so quickly. You should see the teeny dishwashers they have here. They look like large toaster ovens. Very cute. A TON of women came up to Maggie and made faces at her and pinched her cheeks or smiled. Thankfully, she was still covered so no arrests were made by the clothing police. Then we came back to the hotel for lunch.

David and I got an assortment of Chinese delicacies from Food Street for lunch. I think I might move onto Food Street. But only if they have hamburgers too. Maggie was being a fusspot so I played with her for awhile because David and I have grown to prefer our food cold. The dumplings here RULE. I could eat about a hundred of them. I fed Maggie from my chopsticks today and she has obviously been fed using those before. She is much better at eating off of them than from a spoon. I told David tonight that I prefer to eat with chopsticks while holding her than with a fork. It's just easier. Maybe because the food is cut into smaller pieces.

We tried Maggie's squeaky shoes on her today to see what she thought. After she figured out that she was making the squeaking noise, she started stomping around while holding my hands. It was hilarious. I swear, squeaky shoes are about the cutest things ever. Be forewarned. She is not wearing a fashionable outfit in this picture.
And yes, Dad, you can remove the squeaker. Maggie started to turn into a bit of a crank after the novelty of squeaking wore off, so we rolled down to the 7-11 to get some ice cream. The 7-11 will be called the Curry 11 from now on because SHEW. That place reeked. But they had Haagen Dazs ice cream bars which were yummy. We saw Brooke in the lobby with Emma and talked to her for a while. They got about 1 hour of sleep last night. I can hear Emma fussing now so please keep up the prayers!!!! Emma tapped into Maggie's secret drug stash but I guess it is not working. Then we came upstairs and of course, Maggie and David zonked out.

We went to dinner at the Japanese restaurant here at the hotel with a bunch of other people from our travel group. It was very nice and one of those restaurants where they cook the food in front of you. They are not quite so flashy with the cracking eggs on the spatula and flipping things into their hats here though. Our chef cooked these GIGANTIC prawns. I thought they were lobsters at first. But MAN. They were tasty. OOhhh, they were good. David and I also lived on the edge and ate salad before dinner. It tasted SO good to eat tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce. Anyway, Maggie was not into sitting in the highchair so we took turns holding her and then the waitress came over and held her for a while. I felt good when she held out her arms to come back to me though (Maggie, not the waitress). Then I had just about had it, so I strapped her back in and fed her rice from my chopsticks. Success!
She got a little taste of ice cream at the end which tasted like cake batter. I was a fan of that and was sad that we only got 1 tiny scoop.

After dinner, we went down to the lobby and Brooke, Jeff and Emma were down there so we sat and visited with them for a while. David brought Maggie back up here and when I returned about 30 minutes later, it was obvious that somebody had missed her mommy. Maggie's eyes were all red and she looked super pitiful. She was not happy with me when I wrestled her into her pj's either but she was glad to let me hold her for a while. We cranked up the Chinese lullabies and sent her off to sleep. I have decided that when it feels like my arm is going to break off is when she is really asleep.

I have about a million bug bites on my legs. Maybe I SHOULD have gotten the malaria pills! I'm not going to think about whether it's bedbugs. It has to be skeeters. Tomorrow is the medical exam. It's on Shamian Island so I bet we will do a little shopping also. We were going to get out all of our purchases today and see what we still needed to buy. We did not do that. I forgot to say that we bought a stroller the other day and the Chinese people all made fun of us for having 2 strollers--1 for baby, 1 for purchases. It was rather humorous. And to end, here are some pictures of Maggie on the bus today.

Shopping on Shamian Island

2006-09-10T08:15:00.000-07:00

Wow, Saturday was really fun. Maggie slept kind of late. 7:30 or so, I think. She woke up in a very good mood which lasted almost the entire day. She was really fun. We went down to breakfast where she feasted on some yogurt. Because she prefers not to eat in the room (too quiet, I guess), she and I went down to the lobby to see what was going on and maybe drink a bottle. We set up camp where she did, indeed, drink about half a bottle. Then we rode the escalators for a while and looked around. Some large corporation (I can't remember which one) was having a conference here at the hotel and they had about 15 HUGE flower arrangements outside the conference room. They were beautiful! Large dark red and hot pink lilies and roses. The flowers here are so pretty. There is a big convention center across the street from the hotel and right now the "International Exhibition for China's Ornamental Aquatic Industry" is going on. Who knew that was such a large industry? They have the huge flower arrangements too. They really do it up here. Anyway, while we were cruising around, Maggie dropped her butterfly teether and one of the hotel monitors (we can't decide what to call them but they are everywhere) rushed right over to pick it up. The people here work so hard. I think they really take pride in their jobs and do them the best they can. I wonder sometimes if they get bored, though. There are a lot of fancy shops here in the hotel, like Burberry and such, and I don't ever see anybody in there shopping. How boring would it be to work there? That would be worse than when I worked at Homeplace and about lost my mind because I was so bored. (of course, I just decided to one day never go back because I just could not stomach another day of standing around doing NOTHING).

So after that, we went to Starbucks and walked around for a while. It was raining and we wanted to kind of see how the weather was going to play out before we decided what to do with our day. We went outside under a little covered area and watched the traffic for a long time. It is so busy here all the time, even on the weekends. All the bicyclists had these special large ponchos that covered not only them but their handlebars and their cargo on the backs of their bikes. There are a lot of motorcycles here too but Amy told us they would be outlawed within a year because they cause so many accidents. Also, she told us that there are 9 million citizens in Guangzhou and on any given day, there are 2 million visitors to the city. That is INSANE! The rain started to let up so we came upstairs and got ready and went off with Brooke, Jeff and Emma for a day of shopping.

We took 2 cabs and dumb us did not think to discuss a rendezvous point ahead of time so of course, we were not together when we got to Shamian Island. The cab ride over was not bad. I read how insane the rides were but they don't seem that bad to me. It's kind of out of your hands so you just have to trust that the driver doesn't want to wreck his car. Maggie seems to enjoy riding in the car. However, she rides on my lap here and that will NOT be happening at home. We drove through what we thought were probably working class areas. They really look very poor. All of the apartments had laundry hanging outside their windows. Can you imagine trying to get laundry dry when the humidity is 100%?

We went in the White Swan hotel first which is this big hotel that many many adoptive families stay in. It has a large waterfall inside and is extremely big. From pictures that I've seen, I thought it would be bigger though. Also, I did not see the red couches! Maybe we were in the wrong area of the hotel. I woke up last night and thought, "We didn't see the red couches!" Dumb. There were some little shops in the hotel that we wandered around but they were kind of expensive. Also, Maggie has bent to my will and now sits in, and maybe even enjoys, the stroller! Then we ventured out and started shopping! All of the shops on Shamian really cater to adoptive parents. I'm sure if I was at home and saw these shops, I would think they were mostly full of crap but it was fun to go in and poke around. Also, David is a pretty good haggler! We got Maggie a traditional Chinese silk (polyester, I bet) dress, 3 pairs of squeaky shoes that are SO CUTE, some Chinese pajamas and 2 dresses. One of the dresses is a pink toile pattern and when we got back to our hotel, David asked, "Why are all the pictures on this dress upside down?" Whoops. Heh. They're upside down so Maggie can look at them. I bet it cost about 4 bucks so I'm not too concerned. We also got some prizes for people at home and David got a mah-jongg set. I got a jade bangle bracelet for me.

We met up with Brooke and Jeff and went to Lucy's for lunch. It has American food plus other stuff. It was pretty good and Emma and Maggie slept almost the entire time we were there. There are these statues all over the island so we took some stupid pictures. In this one, I guess it's supposed to be an American couple with their newly adopted Chinese baby. Obviously, they see American women as being overweight.

Then we shopped a little more and walked around the island. The weather was actually kind of nice yesterday. It was cloudy but very breezy and not very humid. It was warm but not boiling hot. We got a cab back to our hotel and lugged our purchases upstairs. We actually got Maggie to stand at the table in the room and play so that was kind of fun. And nice. Maggie started to fall asleep so I wrapped her up in her blanket and laid down on the bed and we both fell asleep! Maggie had to get her picture taken for her visa and I slept through it so David took her. They would not let her wear her tiger hat in the picture.

Then David and I started to talk about dinner so we walked around the block (where Brooke and I had walked the other day). We really are at a disadvantage at not being able to read Chinese. There were a bunch of restaurants that looked very good but we couldn't read one stinking thing outside. We need to take some lessons before we come back. We walked by this seafood restaurant that had this BIG market area where I guess you picked out the fish you wanted. They had this one GIGANTIC fish. I told David I wanted that one pan seared with lemon butter. They also had eels, snakes, frogs, toads and turtles. Kind of gross but fascinating. We went in the Dong Fang hotel where they have more shopping. We didn't really feel like shopping though so we just looked around. Then we came back to the hotel and Emma came over to play for a little while. That was fun too. Oh yeah, and David fell asleep so Maggie and I sat at the desk where the computer is and she opened and closed the desk drawer about 500 times. I kept shutting it and then she would open it. There is also a Marriott book in that drawer that will never be the same. We watched a little Baby Einstein (I know, bad mommy, letting my baby watch TV) and she babbled and talked to herself and slapped the desk. Mom, she loves to be slid down the wall and "smash it, eat it."

We ordered room service so when it came, David took Maggie and I ate as quickly as I could. I gave her a hard dinner roll that she gnawed on for a while until it got dropped and that was the end of that. Then David ate and I fed Maggie a bottle. We turned the lights down and turned on the Beijing Angelic Chorus CD of Chinese Lullabies. That CD rules. Every person who adopts from China should buy one because it knocks Maggie right out. Plus it's really pretty and David and I went to sleep with it playing the other night. You can get it on half.com for not very much money. Also you can get Baby Einsteins there too for 5 bucks. Then I got her to go to sleep and I was able to put her in the crib!!!!!!!!!! I was so excited! Erin and Ronnie called us last night and it was so good to hear from someone at home. Of course, when they called, Maggie was getting a diaper and pajama change because she had had a little problem so she was hollering up a storm.

Before I go, I have 2 prayer requests, if you are so inclined.
1. Please keep Brooke, Jeff and Emma in your prayers. David ran into Brooke in the hallway earlier this morning and Emma apparently did not sleep much at all last night.
2. A member of David's family, Ted Kalman, passed away last night. He was a very dear friend of David's Grandma Grace so keep her in your thoughts, please.

Today we have a day full of sightseeing and a trip to the grocery store. Maybe I should have brought the 4 1/2 pound bag of baby wipes! No, just kidding. We ARE going to have to buy another suitcase to come home though. Yikes.

Eating the sickest baby food ever--Apple, Pumpkin and Date PASTE. Gross. She likes it though.

I look like an idiot in this picture. If you look carefully, I have my hand on Maggie's head to force her to look at the camera.

I had to change Maggie's diaper in the stroller while we were on Shamian Island. They do not have the handy changing stations in bathrooms here. I do not know how that diaper even stayed on because that was about the crappiest job of putting a diaper on EVER.

Maggie in her tiger hat. Little kids wear these on Chinese New Year. I saw one on somebody's blog and thought it was SO cute that I had to have one!

Look at that smile!

2006-09-10T07:03:00.000-07:00

And yes, that is a tiger hat that she has on. That was the one thing I wanted to buy while we were here.

Here, we decided to try out her doo-rag or as David calls it, a babushka. She does okay with it but I think it kind of accentuates how flat the back of her head is. She was not a fan of the sunglasses. They are kind of large for her pinhead. Her little nose can't hold them up and the earpieces extend quite a bit past her ears.

Maggie's thoughts on the traffic in Guangzhou

2006-09-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

A day late, sorry....

2006-09-09T06:55:00.000-07:00

Hello, hello. Yes, I realize that I did not update yesterday. I apologize. I was too tired. And we'll blame it on the heat. So, now I am up at 5:55 am writing on this. It is currently thunderstorming here in Guangzhou. David has gone to the gym. Maggie is sleeping, which she darn well better be, because she most certainly did NOT want to go to sleep last night!

I'll tell you what we did yesterday first and then I'll give you some info on Margaret. We went to breakfast as usual and then because Maggie hates the hotel room with the white hot fire of a thousand suns, I took her down to the lobby which is her most favorite place ever! We played and people stared at the cute Chinese baby and the pasty white lady with no make up on! Then, I smelled something and we had to return to the pit of hell to get a diaper change. Afterwards, it was about time for us to meet everyone in the lobby again so down we went. We went to Yuntai Garden yesterday which is this big park here in Guangzhou. There was an entry gate but I'm not sure if we had to pay to get in or not. It was absolutely one of the most gorgeous places I've ever been. Disney has nothing on the topiaries and manicured gardens we saw there. It had also recently rained so it was rather humid. Just a little bit, you know.

We walked around the park and there was a large greenhouse up at the top of a hill so we headed in that direction. Maggie was not having anything to do with the stroller at that point, so David carried her in the Hip Hammock. Inside the greenhouse were many beautiful plants and flowers including phalaenopsis (I know I spelled that wrong) orchids, little ponds and waterfalls and pathways. Kind of like the Sibley Center at Callaway Gardens but on a smaller scale. There were also fans inside which was maybe the best part!

As you can see, David and I decided to get a little artsy with our picture taking. We also discovered a sundial (I think) with the 12 signs of the Chinese zodiac so there we are with our respective zodiac signs. Maggie is rooster, David is monkey and I am rabbit.

We walked through an extremely large rose garden but not much was blooming. I think they were too hot. There was also a large lake in the center of the park with Roman columns and a fountain. Also very beautiful.

The majority of our group was ready to go before our set time so we went and sat on the bus. The heat really is like nothing I've ever felt in my life. Then we headed for Pizza Hut to eat lunch. On the way, we got in an accident! How exciting! Nothing much happened since we were, you know, on a huge bus. But apparently the bus driver got out and gave the van driver some money and we were underway once again.

Lunch tasted very good but Maggie was having none of the "sit quietly in the highchair while Mommy and Daddy eat" so we took shifts. I ate lunch while David walked her around and then we traded. I do not know how single moms do it. It is difficult enough when you have another pair of hands to help. It had started to rain again when we were done so we waited under a little shelter until the bus driver came back. We got back to the hotel and Maggie took a nap. I took a shower, put on my pajamas and also took a nap. I was SO tired. David and I tried a few things with Maggie yesterday like putting her on the floor between us to see if she would play if we were nearby. No. She cried and crawled between the two of us. Poor baby. I gave Maggie a bath in the sink yesterday to see if she would like that better. No. I will not be doing that again because there is less chance of her hitting herself on the bathtub faucet and I stay a lot drier when she's in the tub. She kept trying to crawl out of the sink and up my body. I think the sunscreen we put on her on Thursday gave her a rash because her head was all broken out. It may have been heat rash though. While Maggie does not like the bath, she does enjoy being scrubbed with a towel (much like Cousy) and she enjoys being lubed up with lotion afterwards too.

Mayhem in the bathroom.

Then she got dressed and we laid on the bed for a while. I wrapped her up in her blanket and she and I looked at each other and she touched my face and held my nose and felt around inside my mouth a little bit. I heard the beginnings of a giggle and saw her smile a few times which about made my heart burst. This is the majority of what happened yesterday afternoon. David and I took turns holding her and loving on her. She ate really well yesterday which was the first time that had happened so I felt a little better about that.

Then I had to go to a brief paperwork meeting where I had to check over all of the translations of our adoption stuff. We also got a copy of Maggie's finding ad which will probably be the youngest picture we'll ever have of her. She is about 3 months old in the picture and she looks exactly the same. Just smaller. We have decided to keep Maggie's finding information private because we feel like it is her business and her story. So when she's old enough to decide what she wants to share, she may do that. I will show you her picture though because it is SO CUTE. I might order the actual newspaper from this internet site because it would be bigger. Also, Maggie and Emma's pictures were right next to each other in the paper.

Since Maggie was such a crank for most of the day yesterday, we decided against going out to eat and ordered Danny's Bagels for dinner. While David waited for that, I decided to break Maggie of her aversion to the stroller. We walked around and around and around the main floor of the hotel and an hour later, she was actually sitting back relaxed and just looking around. Thank GOODNESS. She started fussing when we got back to the room.

Brooke and Jeff took Emma to the doctor yesterday because she has a lot of crud in her throat. I went over and visited with them for a while because David and Maggie were strolling around downstairs. Then we ate dinner (in shifts again) and tried and tried to get her to go to sleep. She was not having any of that!! I actually fell asleep while David was holding her. We were both very frustrated by the time she finally fell asleep (sitting up at the end of her crib, holding on to one of the bars). We laid her down so she would not sleep all night like that! Yesterday I took the opportunity to poke around in Maggie's mouth and I can see her 2 bottom teeth right below the surface of her gums. I'm sure that's why she's been so grouchy. Thank goodness for Hyland's Teething Tablets. Those things are magic. I gave her some baby Motrin yesterday too because I think her mouth is really hurting her. Her fingers are always in her mouth and she's started drooling a lot. She is also a fan of having her teeth (gums) brushed.

Well, today we have a free day so we are going to take a cab over to Shamian Island to go shopping with Brooke, Jeff and Emma! I am excited about that. We will also visit the White Swan and eat lunch. Then tonight, we have to get Maggie's picture made for her visa. Tomorrow we are going to the Chen Clan Temple (a folk art museum) and to a teahouse. Then Monday is the dreaded physical examination for the babies. I imagine that Maggie is going to scream bloody murder at that.

Even though we will be out and about today, we are going to try to stick to a schedule for Maggie. I think part of the problem yesterday was that she got all messed up with her schedule. I must say one of the most fun parts of the day is picking out Maggie's clothes! And of course, she always gets dirty (or we get her dirty) so she requires at least 2 outfits per day! Some of her stuff is WAY too big though. Her cutoffs practically fell off when I put them on her. And sadly, the hated Gymboree pajamas are the ones that fit her the best.

I will do my best to update again this evening so you can hear about our day of shopping!!!

I heart China

2006-09-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

So, today. The zoo. The zoo was pretty fun. It was really pretty and had lots of trees and pathways and lakes and ponds. It had a lot of animals. The monkeys were screeching up a storm when we got there so we went to check them out first. But in addition to the animals was the heat. Good LORD, the heat. It is like nothing I've ever felt in my life. I was pouring sweat in about the first minute we were there. I had to steal Maggie's hankie to mop my brow. The best way I can describe it is if you put a big pot of water in your oven, turned it on to about 200 and then you got inside and shut the door. Somebody said it felt like Texas but I have never been to Texas so I don't know about that. But it was darn hot. We had rented a stroller from the hotel so we wouldn't have to lug Maggie all around the zoo in the 200 degree heat. She, however, had other plans.

Oh well. At least it held the diaper bag which is rather sweat inducing itself. And at least Maggie had on a cute hat. And yes, I put sunscreen on her. So we pushed our little stroller around and carried Maggie who was not too interested in the animals. Here is the most exotic animal we saw.

I'm not really sure what that was doing there. I was afraid it was a snack for a tiger or something but it wasn't in a tiger pen. Somebody said, "Is that the pandas?" I was like, "No, but you will be impressed when you come up here and look at what IS in here." There was a big retaining wall so it wasn't some dummy that didn't know what a panda looks like.
Then we had to take a little break because of the HEAT. I'm sure our guide who is from Guangzhou thinks we are all a bunch of wusses. We went to this little snack shop and got drinks and I had some yummy ice cream. Maggie can sort of drink out of a water bottle so I let her have a few sips.

This of course, resulted in water. EVERYWHERE. Which resulted in an outfit change. Which resulted in much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Or gums, I guess.

Then Amy told us we'd better step on it because we needed to see the panda and it looked like it was going to rain. We passed a bamboo forest so David and Maggie pretended like they were in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." I *think* she might even be smiling a teensy bit in that picture.

And on we pressed. And then the sky started lowering and darkening and Amy said we could sit under umbrellas while it rained. Then it didn't rain and we noticed the gigantic red elephant so a bunch of us went to check it out. Then suddenly, our entire group disappeared except for one other family and we had NO idea where they had gone! So we went back to the entrance to see if they would show up there except they didn't and then it started to rain. I have never heard thunder like that in my LIFE. It was the loudest thunder in the world. Maggie was terrified.

Not. She slept through the entire thing. Then when it finally started to let up, Dan and Eric went to the other entrance to see if the group was there. They were, indeed, but had apparently not found a good place to hide out like we did because they all looked kind of wet. We were supposed to go to Pizza Hut but we ran out of time so we just went back to the hotel. David was starting to not feel very well so we ran to McD's to get me lunch. Instead of fried apple pies, they have green bean pies! BLECH. I did not get one of those. Maggie was hollering by the time we got back to the room, so I packed her up and Brooke and Emma went shopping with us. Oh wait. I forgot. There was still no pooping going on so I went and got a suppository from Amy. Um, EW. That is some nasty stuff. Actually, I must admit that Maggie was on the verge and I was totally cheering her on! How lame.

Then we left to go shopping. I put Maggie in the Hip Hamomock since she would not have anything to do with the stroller and I knew I could not carry her all that way. First we walked down the street to the Dong Fang shops which had lots of cute Chinese outfits and squeaky shoes but I did not feel like getting anything there. The salespeople are extremely nice here but are also very helpful. I don't want to say pushy because they are never rude but they REALLY want to help you find just the right thing. Or maybe they just want to make a sale and I'm dumb. Then we went walking down the street and around the block. The block that our hotel is on is HUGE. We walked through this totally residential area and I wished that I had a camera. It was amazing. There were little shops and teeny 1 room restaurants. There were so many apartments all with laundry hanging on their balconies. There were people everywhere. I wish I could read Chinese. It was so cool. But also extremely hot because remember, the heat. I felt like I got to see a little piece of real China today. Then we went back to the hotel so we could get a cab and go to the Friendship Store again. We needed some more baby food and I needed to get a couple more long pants for Maggie. We got the concierge to write where we wanted to go on a little card and we headed off. Man, we thought we were hot stuff. Everyone says the cab rides are crazy in China but it seemed okay to me. Maybe Brooke and I were talking too much. Maggie drank most of a bottle in the cab because she must be in the middle of 500 things going on to do anything. We went up to the top floor to get some baby stuff and then went to the 5th floor to get water, sodas and baby food. We also needed some more toothpaste because we did not pack wisely. I got some green Colgate because green means mint, right? Apparently here it means leaf flavored or something. Then we packed the stroller full of our purchases and went to get a cab back. No sweat. We are seasoned travelers with our babies and 10 ton bags of water bottles.
When we got back to the hotel, Maggie and I were both drenched in sweat so I decided I would bathe her before I changed her clothes. Well, I laid her on the toilet lid to take her diaper off and as soon as I did, she started peeing! Argh! She aimed right for the bathmat though. Good girl. Then I put Maggie in the tub which she was NOT happy about. AT ALL. She SCREAMED. Then she got some water in her mouth and started choking and about broke my eardrum she was yelling so loud. Then I noticed it. She had pooped in the bathwater. UGH. I about died. Then I got her up and put a diaper on her and David took her. She pooped again! WOO HOO. I am so glad. Then she and David left to go cruise the lobby where she apparently fell asleep for an hour. Well, I suppose we should think about dinner now.

I made Maggie walk today. Which she can do with help but of course, with the wailing and gnashing of gums. Always.

oh my goodness

2006-09-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

So, I opted for the massage yesterday. Holy crap. That was the best money I've ever spent. Here they do it with your clothes still on but a towel over you. The woman pounded, rubbed and cracked my entire body. I had to bite my lip to keep from screaming when she was rubbing the muscles along my spine! It felt SO GOOD. She massaged my head so of course, my hair looked...interesting when she was done. I ran my hands through it and I bet 500 strands of hair came out. I didn't see a trashcan so I had to put all that hair in my pocket! I couldn't put it on the floor because they would know whose it was! Plus, that's gross. Then she asked if I wanted a foot massage. I thought that sounded good so I went for that as well. My feet were soaked in a small barrel while my shoulders, back and neck were rubbed again. Then she went to town on my feet and legs. MAN. I think David is going to go today. She also asked if I wanted my ears cleaned. Hee. I declined although I do enjoy a good ear cleaning. I went back to the room where David had apparently NOT been having such a relaxing afternoon. I think I shall let him type out his version and then I'll return.

Hello. David here. While Allison was enjoying herself Maggie was busy being squirmy. She apparently hates the hotel room. We can't put here down on the bed. That equals a diaper change. We can't sit in a chair. That equals naptime or feeding or some other horrible situation. Anyway...she likes to be held. VERY CLOSELY. Not that I mind. I have been waiting for a baby for, oh, 37 years. So, it's okay. She likes sensory stimulation which is good. I think Allison said on another post that she likes textures and colors and lights and moving stuff. She will watch traffic at the windows for a good 15 minutes without getting bored. I kind of like it too.
So, Maggie and I explored ALL of the hotel during Mommy's mysterious 3 hour absence from our lives. We went to the 4th floor where the health club, pool, tennis courts, and garden are all located. We took a bottle outside in the courtyard-garden and tried to work on it. Nope. We walked around the garden. She touched every tree, bush, rock, whatever. I mean every one. Some things she didn't touch for very long, but it was so interesting to watch her reactions. Then we went back inside to the 2nd floor to explore there. The restuarant where we eat breakfast is there...The Veranda. Wow that's a cool name. We looked inside some meeting of FinnAir and a hostess pinched Maggie's cheeks. Obviously we were not with FinnAir but I guess Maggie is so cute she couldn't resist! Then we went downstairs and walked around. There is a largish shopping mall in the hotel. Well, not a mall like we know it. It is kind of like the NBC building at Rockefeller Center (30 Rock?) in its set-up. No cool frescoes though. Lots of high-name fashiony places. But most important...Starbucks. Sadly, no chai tea lattes. So we walked the halls and looked in windows. All this time, I am carrying little SiQi and she is twisting and turning and looking and cooing and gurgling and generally attracting a lot of attention. Hmmmm...scary bald and bearded white American man with cute as a button brown skinned Chinese angel. Who are they looking at? HER! I found a shop called "Kiosk" that sells American newspapers and magazines. USA Today is about $4 so no. Newsweek International is about $6 so again no.
The main lobby is what Maggie loves the most in the whole world. We sat down there and she immediately started jumping on my belly and seducing all the people that went by with her tongue-in-lips routine. Remember her "mugshot" ??? That's how we know there was no mix-up...her tongue is always out. We stayed there for a good 30 minutes and maybe 4 or 5 people asked about her. I decided to walk a little more and check to see if Mommy was home. She was not. So we left. Maggie started to get a little whiny but magically when we entered the lobby again that stopped. This time we tried the bottle and she sucked it down. It was about 5:30 and I was praying Allison would be back because I was WORNOUT. We tried to watch CNN but no go. Finally Allison came home and proceeded to tell me how wonderful her massage was. Forget MY back and MY patience and MY stress level. SHE was doing GRRRRRRRRREEEEEEAAAATTTTT! So that was my day. I loved it! I will gladly do it again and again and again!

Okay, I'm back. When I returned from the land of pleasure, we ordered Danny's Bagels with Jeff and Brooke. It's a delivery only place with Chinese versions of American food. Jeff and David got pizzas, Brooke had chicken noodle soup and I had a grilled ham and cheese. Mine was tasty but they used what tasted like Mexican white cheese. I don't have a problem with that! Oh yeah, Brooke and I took Emma and Maggie for a walk while we waited for dinner as the men looked somewhat haggard. We walked way down the street that the hotel is on. There were SO many people out. Tons of cars, buses and bicycles. We got hit up by some little kids begging but we didn't have any money with us. Emma and Maggie seemed to be captivated by the hustle and bustle of Guangzhou. It was HOT. I mean, HOT. I had sweat rolling down my back and face when we got back to the hotel. Pleasant. We all sat on the floor with kind of fussing babies and laughed and talked about poop. How far we've come. Maggie is still withholding information on us even though I shoveled some more prunes into her last night. I think she would be much happier if she could go to the bathroom. Some people say that the nannies give the babies something to stop them up so they won't poop on the trip between the orphanage and the city where they are adopted.

We sent some of our clothes out to be washed and that was a very pleasant experience. They came back all in individual little bags, neatly folded and pressed. The laundry here might be worth moving to China for. Well, that is all for now. I'll write again after we return from the zoo.

There's no crying in China

2006-09-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

So last night was a teensy bit challenging. Maggie and I went walking around the hotel for a bit. There was a string quartet playing in the lobby so we listened to them for a while. When we came back, Maggie was having none of the hanging around the room and my whole body was aching from carrying her. David said he would take her for a while and he left. I got in bed and fell asleep. I think it was 6:30. When they came back, David had brought dinner from the Japanese restaurant here in the hotel and Maggie had apparently charmed everyone she came in contact with. There are lipstick stains on her hankie where David had to wipe her face off after she got kisses from the waitresses at the restaurant. David ate dinner, which wasn't so great. It was different little skewers of meat. The chicken tasted good but there were some other types of meat like liver. BLEAH. I had about 5 pieces of chicken and 5 Chips Ahoy for dinner. Plus some Gatorade because that's so nutritious. Maggie was still fussing so we thought maybe a bath would calm her down. It did not. That lavender bath stuff LIES. But it smells good. I got her dressed in her pj's and now let me tell you why Gymboree pajamas, while cute, suck. First of all, they do not have snaps on the legs. How stupid. Second of all the snaps on the body are way too far apart and they gap. Third of all, the armholes are apparently for babies with toothpick arms. I had to cram Maggie's big old hands through those teensy holes. But her feet fit in them so that is one good aspect. Also, they have Louie on them which is definitely in their favor. Then she still had some crud going on in the chest so we gave her some more Dimetapp. Ahh, bliss. Then David and I both took Tylenol PM and tried to watch an episode of Buffy before we both keeled over from exhaustion. There was a big thunderstorm here last night. I enjoy tropical thunderstorms. They are loud and flashy but do not last very long.

This morning David and I both woke up at 6. We felt GOOD because all three of us had slept through the night. I felt so proud of myself when I looked at the clock and realized that I had not woken up once! We showered and waited for Sleeping Beauty to arise. She finally woke up around 7, I guess. I fed her and got her dressed for the day. She did not wear the red outfit afterall because the top was HUGE and I noticed that you could see her baby boobies at breakfast. Not appropriate. Plus it has spaghetti straps which means that she might freeze to death in the subtropical heat here, according to our guide. Chinese people like their babies bundled up, which means that Maggie wears a sweater all the time and we carry a blanket wrapped around her even if we are positively perishing from the heat. I stuck a hat on her this morning to see what she thought. Not a fan, unsurprisingly. It did look cute though. We headed on down to breakfast and Maggie feasted on some yogurt and bananas. I tried to give her some congee, which is this kind of gross looking rice soup. Babies apparently love it but not Miss Hardhead. Brooke cautioned me to be sure to get the plain kind because she accidentally gave Emma oyster congee yesterday which she did not like. That KILLS me. I'm probably going to get in trouble for sharing all of Brooke and Jeff's secrets on here and they will make me change all of Emma's poopy diapers.

WHAT! The Crocodile Hunter was killed???? Maggie and I were both stunned.

Look, more redneck baby wearing only a diaper in the baby carrier.

After breakfast, we went down to the lobby to wait until it was time for us to leave. Maggie really turned it on down there. She was looking around and smacking her butterfly teether on the arm of the chair. A man asked if she was a boy or girl and said that she was cute. Then we went and talked to another family whose daughter is from Maggie's orphanage. Her name is Kylie but I don't know if I'm spelling it right. She is really cute and wears this little hat with the brim flipped up all the time. She and Maggie kind of checked each other out and I was able to put Maggie down and she stood on the floor without crying! Then we got on the bus to go back to the civil affairs office one more time! This time we got our adoption decree or "the red book." Not to be confused with Mao's Little Red Book. It has our family picture it in. Maggie looks so cute! Actually, you can see it right now!

After that, we went to the police office to apply for the babies' passports. When we got there was when I realized that there is NO WAY you could do this without having an agency to guide you through it. I guess unless you speak and read Chinese fluently. Both Mandarin and Cantonese because they speak Cantonese here and US citizens have to go through Guangzhou because the US consulate is here. We waited there and were called up to speak to a police officer. We gave her our passports and our red book and she looked over our paperwork. She said that Maggie was cute! She took a picture of her, I guess to prove that she was with us. I bet that picture looked hilarious because Maggie was totally sticking her tongue out. She hung with David the whole time we were at the police office. She really likes to sit by the window on the bus and look out. She's getting more and more active and curious. I guess she doesn't like the hotel room because it's boring and there's nothing to look out. She does like to look out the window at the traffic though. Then we got on the bus to come back to the hotel. Amy told us that even though we have sweaters or long sleeves on our babies at breakfast and stuff, they either need to be wearing long pants or have a blanket with us because it's too cold for the babies. See why the spaghetti straps were a no go? I'm so glad that we brought exactly ONE pair of long pants and ONE sweater.

Oh, the AGONY!!!!! My life is just an endless series of terrible events!!!!

When we got back to the room, I subjected Maggie to the torture of a diaper change and all 3 of us went down to Food Street for a Chinese lunch. Well, Maggie had already had a bottle on the bus so she was pretty much set. They brought her a highchair which she promptly crawled out of and back into David's lap. Yikes. There was no seat belt in it so maybe that's why. She sits in the highchair in the mornings just fine. The women at the restaurant thought she was VERY cute. The menu was all in Chinese but they took pity on us and brought us an English menu. We were the only white people in the restaurant. We had tea (yummy) and I had shrimp dumplings in soup with noodles. VERY tasty and David had shrimp and rice and noodles in a curry sauce. Ick but he liked it. My lunch was $2.50! While we waited for our food, I gave Maggie some prunes because she is having a little trouble "making laws," as David and I would say. (you know, on the throne, making laws, whatever) She ate those right up! She had prunes EVERYWHERE including on her nose and in her eyebrow. The ladies brought a hot washcloth to clean her off with. Then my food came and I ate while David held Maggie. She was very busy, banging her spoon and trying to rip everything off the table. Then I finished and David's food came and I held her while he ate. She is very interested in different textures. The sides of the table were carved and she spent a lot of time sticking her finger in the holes. She also rubbed the cushion of the chair we were sitting in this morning in the lobby. She finally had had about enough so David told me to go on and he would meet us upstairs. We came up here and I put her on the floor. She, of course, cried but I sat down about 5 feet from her to see if she would crawl to me. WOW, she was pitiful. She kept saying, "Maaaaa" and crying the big tears but when I held one of her hands, she deigned to crawl to me. Then I picked her up and loved on her. She fell asleep about 1 second later. (Mom, remember when you would count my ribs and talk about anything to make me go to sleep? I did the exact same thing today) And it worked! I tried to put her in the crib and she got FURIOUS with me. She opened her big old mouth up but no sound came out and her hands started shaking. I picked her back up and put her to sleep again. I put her back in the crib, rubbed her belly for a minute and she dropped right off. Woo hoo!! Yay for me.
We can talk and do whatever in the room and she sleeps right through it. That's kind of nice. Brooke came by a little later to see if I wanted anything from Starbucks. I went down there with her and we also walked by the playroom and she showed me where you can get a massage. I am totally going to get one because I think she paid $20 for a 90 minute massage. My back is killing me. Oh, we weighed Maggie this morning and she weighs about 16 1/2 pounds. Tonight we are going to order from Danny's Bagels with Brooke and Jeff and see if Maggie and Emma will play. Tomorrow we aren't doing anything paperwork-y but we are going to the Guangzhou Zoo! We have GOT to find a stroller before then because I don't think I can stomach carrying Maggie in a baby carrier with a blanket in 100 degree heat. My hair is enjoying the humidity. Frizz city. Now David and Maggie are both sleeping so I guess I will either go read or go to the massage parlor--HA! I told David that if I wasn't here when he woke up that I had gone to get a massage.
He said, 'What about the baby?"
I told him that he would be here.
"But I'll be asleep!"
I asked him what he thought happened in the night when we were all sleeping.
"Oh."

Another update because..

2006-09-05T16:41:00.000-07:00

I am a loser and cannot stay off the computer. Also, Maggie and David are napping so I needed to find something quiet to do. Today went well. We headed over to the Civil Affairs office, which was the same one that we went to yesterday. I wore Maggie in the hip hammock. It's sort of uncomfortable. Maybe I'm not wearing it right. Who knows. She seems to think it's okay, though. I was jealous of another mom's Ergo carrier. Anyway. On the way to the office, my stomach started to feel kind of icky. We got to the office and we herded into the same room that we met the babies in yesterday. We were going to get a family picture made and have 2 interviews. Amy and Lineker, our two guides, explained everything very carefully. They are GREAT. I cannot say enough good things about the guides we have had here in China. Each family got a big beaded bracelet with a number tag hanging on it to let us know what order we would go in. Mine was sparkly pink and clear beads. Very cool. Maggie liked it a lot which was good because she about ripped my silver Maggie bracelet off along with my hand. We went back to have our picture made, handkerchief in tow. We had to put Maggie up on a high chair with a pillow on it and then get our faces very close to hers. She was not happy that she had been put down but the photographer jingled a little tambourine and she was good to go. After that, we went back to the room and waited some more. Then, my stomach started to hurt some more. I found the bathrooms, which were squatties only. Let's just say that I am now a PRO at using a squatty in ANY situation. No more Western toilets for me! David made me wipe my brow off when I returned to the room. HA! Then we were called back for the first interview. We had to tell our ages, how long we had been married, and if we were satisfied with the baby. Um, YES! We also had to promise to never abandon her or abuse her. We signed some papers, gave our gift and went back to the room. By this time, Maggie was getting kind of fussy so David fixed her up another bottle which she sucked down. She finished it off during our 2nd interview where we also had to tell our ages and when we had gotten married. The notary also wanted to know why we wanted to adopt from China, our occupations, and how much money we made. 2 more signatures and another gift and we were done! Maggie is our legal daughter according to China's laws. After everyone finished, we had a picture made at the entrance to the civil affairs office.

Our next stop was the Guangzhou Friendship Store which is run by the government so prices are fixed. It was HUGE. I think it was 6 stories high. It was very much like a department store but the entire top floor was devoted to baby stuff and it also had a grocery store in it. Maggie fell asleep in the baby carrier on the way over there. We went up to the top floor where we found a plastic ball with a chime inside it that Maggie likes a lot. David also bought her a Chinese New Year Barbie! He got a bright pink Barbie bag for that purchase. The way Friendship Stores work is you find what you want to purchase and give it to a salesperson who writes you up a ticket. Then you take the ticket to the cashier and pay and you go back to the salesperson and they have your merchandise all wrapped up for you. When I read about this before we came to China, I thought it sounded really confusing but it's really easy and not a bad way to go about doing business. There are SO many employees there that are so eager to help you find things or show you other stuff that you might like. We bought some little washcloths and a pack of cloth diapers in the event a hankie is not available! Plus Maggie is not the best at keeping all the formula in her mouth when she's eating.

Then we went downstairs to the grocery store where we bought diapers, formula (our orphanage's formula is not very nutritious at all), water, soda and Gatorade, and some noodle bowls and chips and cookies for David and me. We also bought Maggie a few jars of baby food fruit to see what she thinks. One of the women helped me find the right kind of formula because it's hard enough to find some without it being in Chinese! The cashiers were making faces and waving at Maggie because she decided to wake up about that time. We had about 20 more minutes until the bus was coming back to pick us up so we went outside to wait. I took Maggie out of the baby carrier because I was about to combust it was so hot. David took Maggie back inside to walk around a little and I sat outside and ate a granola bar and drank some water. While we were sitting there, a policeman (I think) came up to Jeff Weiland and told him to move over because Emma's legs were in the sun. He was really nice about it and seemed honestly concerned for the baby. The Chinese people obviously love babies very much. You can hear all the "oohs" and "ahhs" when we walk into the lobby or another public place. This one lady was totally staring at us outside the Friendship Store. She was an older woman and you could tell she was thinking, "What are all those white people doing with Chinese babies?" We have a little card in Chinese that AWAA gave us that explains why we are here but I had forgotten it back at the hotel. Then the bus came and we started getting on. My first "bad mom" moment of the day occurred when we got to our seats. I bonked Maggie's head on the luggage rack above the seats. She didn't even seem to notice but I felt so bad! Then "bad mom" moment #2 occurred shortly after that. I realized it had been a while since I checked her diaper so I laid her down on the seat to take a look. She was, of course, fussing because she does NOT like her diaper to be changed. Her diaper wasn't wet but when I opened it up, she started peeing all over the place! Argh! Pee everywhere! I managed to contain it for the most part and got another diaper on her. Then I realized that she had peed all over the back of her dress and had gotten it on part of her white sweater. UGH. Then I realized that I had sat in something because my butt was all wet. Gross. I was glad to get back to the hotel.
Once we got back here, I changed Maggie's outfit and played with her a little bit. She was getting REALLY cranky and kept crying these gigantic tears and poking her lip out. Y'all are going to DIE when you see it. It's the cutest thing in the world. It's also hilarious and it always makes me laugh. David discovered she likes to be held sideways kind of laying on your arms to go to sleep so I held her and rocked her. David went down to Food Street, a restaurant here in the hotel, and got us some lunch. When he got back, I still had not gotten her to sleep! Well, she kept falling asleep but then she would scream if I put her down. David held her and rocked her and whispered to her and finally finally she went to sleep for good. I ate lunch while he was working on her. Yum--wonton soup and steamed dumplings. I think it cost about 5 bucks. And now I'm sitting here, typing this and David and Maggie are still snoozing away. We requested to have our room next door to Brooke and Jeff and I just heard Emma awaken with a bellow.
Only a few pictures to include this time. That's Brooke and me with Emma and Maggie, Maggie eating, and Brooke and Jeff and Emma. I'm so glad they are here too. We are having a lot of fun together. The nannies said that Maggie and Emma were friends in the orphanage. How cool is that?

Edited to add that I have realized that my profile is HIDEOUS! I hate it! David took this cute picture of Maggie yesterday but y'all will never see it because in it, there's my profile and it looks like I am sneering at Maggie. NOT attractive.
Also, Maggie sucks her pointer finger. So cute!

We all survived night #1

2006-09-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

Last night, Maggie was kind of fussy and cranky (I can't imagine why) and we never did get her to take a bottle. I think it was way too hot. Bad parents. I put the CD of Chinese lullabies in and she started to relax. I rocked her for a long time and then I had to leave to do paperwork. David took her and got her to sleep! Yay, Daddy! I had to come back to get our dossier but she didn't wake up. Grandma and Grandpa C. sent her flowers (They're beautiful, thank you so much!), so when they were delivered and when room service was delivered, she woke up for a bit. She slept the whole night through--about 11 hours. She cried out a couple of times in the night but never woke up. David and I were awake for a LONG time in the night. I was up from 2-5 and then I fell back asleep. Maggie woke up about 6:30 and she didn't seem too alarmed when she saw us looking at her. I changed her diaper--she does not like that and then fed her a bottle expertly made by Daddy! I fed her with her pajamas all hanging open and her feet not in them--redneck baby--and she sucked it down. Or maybe redneck mommy. We decided to give her a quick bath which she did okay with. I got her face wet by accident and she cried but just for a minute. She mostly just looked at me and the water. And of course, David's hankie went with her into the tub. Then she got dressed in a very cute outfit, courtesy of her cousin Elizabeth, and we headed down to breakfast. She was SO good. She even sat in the high chair and she tends to fuss if one of us is not holding her. She looked around and ate a teeny bit of banana and watermelon. She has obviously never had solid food because she pushes it out with her tongue. We had to stick the food back in her mouth a couple of times. She also had some vanilla yogurt which she REALLY liked. I did too. I ate what was left of hers. She has some chest crud going on. She isn't stopped up and she can breathe through her mouth but there's kind of a rattle in her chest. I gave her half a dose of Dimetapp and she is wiped out on David's chest. She kind of looked like she was tripping in the restaurant earlier. She also made her first trip to Starbucks!
Today we go back to the Civil Affairs office to make the adoption final in the eyes of the Chinese government. One of the papers we had to fill out last night was for the "Harmonious Period" which means that we are her foster parents untl the adoption is final today. We had to promise not to let her get lost, among other things. Hee. Then we are going to the grocery store to get supplies. She has been wearing size 2 diapers that I brought and the 9 month size dress that she has on today is a little big. I looked at the dress she had on yesterday (yes, we got to keep it) and it is 3-6 months. I'm really glad we went back and bought some smaller clothes. I don't know what else is on the agenda today. Guangzhou is beautiful. There is a HUGE park across the street from the hotel so perhaps we will go over there and walk around. David discovered a map in the closet of a running route. I think Maggie and I will be skipping the morning jog. There is also a lot of high end shopping in the hotel. The hotel is extremely nice, like I said before, and VERY large.
Well, I guess that's all for now. I really got on here to add some pictures because I know that's what you really want! :)

T minus 9 hours and counting

2006-09-04T06:51:00.000-07:00

All I'm going to say is that I fell asleep instantly last night and woke up at 1:00, wide awake and ready to go! 2 Tylenol Simply Sleeps and 30 minutes of internet surfing later, I was ready to go back to bed. I AM SO EXCITED!!!! My carryon weighs a ton and I'm leaving some stuff behind. The red bean candy will not be traveling to Guangzhou with us. Hopefully, housekeeping will enjoy them.
A lot of people appear to have dressed up to meet their babies. I have elected to wear my shirt that says "Smoochin Time" because that's what what time it's going to be when we get Maggie! Woo hoo!
Time to head for the bus. Next time I write we'll have a daughter!

What we've ALL been waiting for!

2006-09-04T03:13:00.000-07:00

Today was absolutely unreal. I don't even know how to write this. We got up this morning, scarfed down breakfast and braved the Beijing traffic (by bus, of course) and got to the airport in plenty of time. Our flight to Guangzhou was about 2 1/2 hours. David and I sat in the middle row of seats with Cristie and Doug Martine. Cristie and I talked most of the way to Guangzhou and I was so glad because it kept my mind off of things that were coming! The Guangzhou airport is beautiful and very modern. We got the hotel and got into our rooms. The hotel is BEAUTIFUL. Very swanky. Very unlike what we are used to. Be ashamed of us now because guess where we ate lunch? McDonald's! We didn't have much time to eat and that was the quickest and closest place. Only one of our suitcases made it to us--Maggie's--which concerned us slightly. I got the gifts for the orphanage director and nannies together while David went to get lunch. The culprit who took our suitcase brought it to us--one of the other families had taken it by accident--and we were good to go. I did not wear Smoochin Time because it is EXTREMELY hot in Guangzhou. I mean, like an oven. But anyway.
We got down to the lobby at 3 and headed off to the Civil Affairs office. I was getting a little nervous on the ride over there and I about burst into tears when we got on the bus. The Civil Affairs office is not air conditioned and we were in such a rush to get up to the 5th floor, we walked up the stairs. Wow. We had to wait when we got there because another group of families were finishing up with their babies. They came out and we all oohed and ahhed. Then we got to go inside and were ushered into a small room with couches and a few tables. I think that room had air conditioning. They told us that the Lianjiang babies would be brought out first. They brought out the Aarons' baby, Audrey, and the Epps's baby, Chloe. When Holly got Chloe, I started crying. Then they brought out Maggie. She was beautiful! She had on a pink and fuschia velvet/velour dress (fancy for September) and was bare footed. Jeff Weiland videotaped for us and then we returned the favor for them when they received Emma. Maggie didn't cry at all. She just looked at me and I kissed her head. I don't even remember what happened next because baby after baby was brought out and I missed almost all of them. I did have the sense to get up when they placed Emma in Brooke's arms. Emma was sound asleep! The room filled up with crying babies so Maggie decided to join in. She didn't cry very hard but she had gigantic crocodile tears and wow, she can push her bottom lip out. She still pokes her tongue out and it is LONG. Like Gene Simmons of KISS long. She has tasted my arm, all of her toys and her name tag. She doesn't cry very loudly, more like a cross between a moan and a whine. Also, her name is pronounced See Kay in Cantonese. So we've been pronouncing it wrong. Maggie has already appropriated David's handkerchief as her own. We held the babies and took pictures and congratulated everyone on their sweet babies. We got to ask the nannies questions about the babies. The nanny did concur that Maggie is a bit, well, hard headed. I let Maggie's nanny hold her and she put her down on the floor and she can stand up! Then we let them crawl around and play with each other. So fun! Maggie didn't really crawl though, just sat there and looked at the babies stealing her toys. Then Maggie fell asleep on me which is what I've been dreaming about for 2 years! We headed down to the bus and she slept the whole way. I think I was making her sweaty because MAN, was I hot. When we got back, she woke up because of all the noises of cars and horns and stuff. We came up to the room and made her a bottle which she's not very interested in. It is scalding hot so maybe that's why. She's a fan of the Gerber fruit puffs though. Those things do not smell good. I think she has a dimple in her left cheek! I kept seeing flashes of it when I was feeding her the puffs.
I have to go do paperwork tonight. Ugh. Just when you think it's all over. David is currently holding Maggie. They spent a long time looking out the window at the traffic which she seems to find fascinating. She does not really like to look at herself in the mirror and she's not really letting us put her down. Well, I know what you've really been waiting for are the pictures so here you go!

I just took a quick break to put some pj's on her which she did NOT like. Now she's calm again. Man, I'm tired and it's only 6:30. Well, I shall close for today so I can gather my paperwork stuff together. We are a family of 3!

In which we get jelly legs and updates on babies!

2006-09-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

Today started off rather early as David and I were both wide awake at 5 in the morning. David went to the exercise room (good boy!) and I stayed in bed. We went down to breakfast and had some time to kill so we took a walk around the block. It was really interesting. I need to find a new word. Everything can't be interesting. It was really FUN. How's that? Even at 8:00 in the morning on Sunday, people were out sitting and talking, smoking, sweeping the sidewalks and waiting for stores to open. We walked through a big mob of men who were apparently workers at the nearby expo center. The streets here kind of remind me of Paris as they are somewhat narrow and have many trees throughout. We also saw a nice park/playground and what we thought was a school.

We returned to the hotel and headed off to church. The church was called Beijing International Christian Fellowship and was held in a very large auditorium. We had to show our passports to get in because due to governmental rules, Chinese citizens are not allowed. There were a TON of people there. The music was very pretty and the service was bilingual--the minister would preach in English and then a man would translate into Chinese. The seats were SMALL and I felt like my legs were crammed into the space. We also took communion, which was nice.

After church was over, we went to the jade factory. They taught us about lustre and how to tell quality jade from not so great jade. It was EXPENSIVE. I did not get anything. Sorry, Maggie, you can get some not so great jade in Guangzhou. I found some cards with Maggie's full name on them in Chinese so I got those. When we got back on the bus, Amy had some exciting news for us! She had updates on all the babies! Here's the latest dirt on Lian Si Qi, aka Maggie! She is 27.8 inches long and weighs 17.5 pounds. She's still small! (Mom, we might be able to shove her in that bunting this winter after all!) Her head circumference is 16 inches and her chest circumference is 16.7 inches. Her feet are (get ready) 4.5 inches long! HEE! She has ZERO teeth, still! She eats 5 times a day--formula and rice cereal combined. She also likes fruit juice and egg yolk. They said she is a good eater. She wakes at 7 am, goes to bed at 9:30. She takes a nap from 11am-1pm and sleeps with the light off. Yea for that. They say that she is active and likes Legos and rattles with sound. She likes to play with other kids outside. Here's the best part: SHE IS STRONG MINDED. Um. David thinks karma is about to pay me back.

Then we headed to the Friendship Store for lunch, which is owned by the government so everything is certified. To be honest, it looked like a lot of crap to me. But, it was kind of fun to look around. Lunch was very good. We had these potstickers/dumplings that were DELICIOUS. David and I tried to hog the whole plate but our table was having none of that. They also had a kind of wine that was 56% alcohol. You drink it in little shot glasses that look like wine glasses. Jeff, Danielle, Lynn and I toasted our daughters and I slugged mine back. WHEW. It was STRONG. It burned all the way down to about my feet. Then we were off to the Great Wall.

The Great Wall of China is absolutely phenomenal. I don't know if I can even describe it. The area that we went to was beautiful with large mountains and green hills and trees everywhere. It was also rawther chilly and I had on a tank top. Later on, I was glad that I did because I was about to croak climbing up. Jackie warned us to use the restroom at the Friendship Store because the bathrooms aren't so great at the Great Wall. Guess who had to go to the bathroom when we got there. Shew, that was the skankiest bathroom I've ever been in. Let's just say I was glad I had some Kleenex in my purse. Okay, enough of that discussion. David and I planned to climb as high as we could so we set out. The stairs were incredibly steep and all uneven. Some were very short and some were higher than my knee. I was dying by the time we got to the first watchtower. We continued on to the watchtower right below the highest one. I couldn't go any farther and we were running out of time. David wasn't even out of breath. This old Chinese lady laughed at me because I think she was waiting for me to keel over. Going down wasn't that easy either. I felt like my feet were getting out of control and I was about to tumble down all the steps. I know my legs and and shoulders are going to be killing me tomorrow.

If any of you ever have the chance to come to China and visit the Great Wall, I would highly recommend it. It's indescribable, huge and absolutely beautiful.

Then we drove back towards Beijing and Amy started to talk to us about tomorrow and what to expect. We leave the hotel at 7 am and our flight to Guangzhou is about 2 1/2 hours. We will get there about 12. We will go to the hotel and leave for the Civil Affairs office at 3. We will meet the babies at 3:30. I'm starting to get scared. It's like the first day of school and all those kids are staring at you and you know that it's your job to teach them. They're going to hand me Maggie and it's going to be David's and my jobs to raise her. It's a lot to think about. Tonight is our last night as a family of two. (and David is dead asleep on the bed, still in his clothes and running shoes. BWA!) I just listened to Amy talk and looked out the window at Beijing. We headed for dinner which I was NOT hungry for. We had some good conversation and laughter at dinner though so that was fun. There were also these steamed buns that I could have eaten about a hundred of. That's mostly what I ate for dinner. Then we came back to the hotel and our luggage has to be outside our door at 10 for the bellboys to come pick up. David and I need to pack up all of our clothes and stuff and get our suitcases organized. (I just woke David up. He is not happy.) I guess we'd better get on that so I'll close. Keep us in your prayers.

Yeah, yeah, I'm awake.

2006-09-03T05:07:00.000-07:00

I was all smug yesterday because I thought I was over the jet lag. "I flew 7000 miles and it didn't even faze me!" ha. Here I am awake since 4:30 and I am hungry and not sleepy at all!
I thought I would update since yesterday because I forgot some stuff. There are some new pictures over in Flickr. Look at the one of the little boy's hiney. So cute! :) A lot of the little kids here wear something called split pants which are basically that. Split right up the middle. They don't wear diapers so when they have to go to the bathroom, they just squat down and go wherever. David and I thought that might be a rather breezy and comfortable way to go with as warm as it was yesterday.

In addition to the people selling all kinds of stuff everywhere we went, there were also beggars everywhere. Some of them were very persistant and hard to look at. For example, there was a man with no legs pushing himself along on a wheeled platform, people missing hands or arms and 1 guy who was horrifically burned. It was very sad. There were also a lot of women holding little kids who tried to get you to give them money. It's hard to know what to do in situations like that because you feel so badly and want to help them but don't know if they're trying to scam you. David and I didn't give anyone any money.

There were video cameras and soldiers all over the place in Tiananmen Square. While it didn't make me nervous, it made me very aware that we were being watched all the time. I would have liked to have gone into Mao's tomb and seen him laid out in his open glass sarcophagus. Jackie told us that the wait to get inside was over 2 hours already and it was only 9:30 in the morning. Oh well, maybe next trip. I cannot imagine coming to China on our own because it is so difficult to know where we're going when we cannot read any of the signs. A lot of times it seems like we are going nowhere or going down a dirt road and then we get to a store or tourist site.

It has been really fun to meet everyone who we've gotten to know over the internet for so long. I recognized a lot of people right off because I've become so familiar with them through reading their sites. There are 6 families counting us whose daughters are from Lianjiang SWI. Maggie is one of the oldest. A couple of families got pictures of their daughters in walkers rather than in the giant blow up chair!

I guess that's all for now. Tomorrow is coming. Eek. Yahoo!

In which we immerse ourselves in Beijing

2006-09-02T20:32:00.000-07:00

To start, this is what the weather was like all day. It was warm but not too hot, rather humid and so so hazy. We did not see blue sky all day. It was one of those days where the sky looks white.
WOW. Today was crazy busy yet extremely organized. Those of you who know David know that made him very happy. I was awakened at 5 by David turning the computer on. He said he couldn't sleep any longer. I talked to him for a little bit and then decided I COULD sleep a little longer. David had to beat me awake with a sledgehammer at 7:15. We went down to the breakfast buffet (or as the sign said Buttet) and chowed down. It was like a combination of a European breakfast and a lot of Chinese food. It was very good.
We were to meet our group at 9 in the lobby and we got on the bus and were off! Beijing is absolutely enormous from what I can tell. 12 million people live here. Jackie, our guide, said that the traffic is not bad on Saturdays and Sundays but there were a lot of cars out that I could see. There were also lots and lots of people out walking around. We went to Tiananmen Square first which was just VAST. There were SO many people there, walking around, taking pictures, selling fake Rolexes or begging. It was extremely interesting. We saw the tomb where Mao's body is as well as the huge portrait of Chairman Mao.

We had a group picture made as well. Then we went in an under the street tunnel to get over to the Forbidden City. David and I watched "The Last Emperor" while we were waiting and in retrospect, I'm really glad we did. The stories Jackie told us were familiar and a lot of what we saw was also familiar. The only disappointment was that a lot of it was under scaffolding in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games.

After we finished touring, which was long but not difficult nor done at high speed, we went to lunch. It was pretty good--traditional Chinese food, I guess, but they included a plate of French fries along with the other stuff.
David and I used our chopsticks successfully throughout the meal. Then we headed to the pearl market. I think it was probably a set up and our guides received a cut of the sales but we came out with some treasures anyway. My favorite necklace of different colored, large pearls was $31,500. Oh well. We got Maggie a little pearl bracelet for 13 bucks for one of her birthdays. They also told us that the pearl cream could take 20 years off your face. I thought that was kind of funny.

Then we went to the Summer Palace. The gardens around it were absolutely beautiful but it was so hazy it was hard to even see some of the buildings across the lake. It was very peaceful there though. There were large stones and statues and carvings of animals throughout. We were getting tired by then!

We went back to the bus again and this time went to a silk factory. We learned how silkworms are harvested and watched some women making silk quilts. That is some HARD work. It was very interesting. Then we had the opportunity to buy silk quilts, which we didn't buy, and silk clothing. We found a couple of things but didn't buy any baby clothes. We thought we would wait until Guangzhou where 1. we will know what size she is and 2. it's cheaper.
Then we headed off to dinner which was DE. LISH. US. Wow, the food was good and there was a ton of it. We had rice (duh), fish, Peking duck (tasty), chicken, pork, beef, bean sprouts (yum), and various other vegetables. Man, it was good.

I ate a ton of food. I also braved my first squatty potty!!! I didn't know there were regular toilets in the bathroom because I'm either blind or stupid. To be honest, they're not bad. It's easier to use one of those than it is to try to NOT sit down on a toilet. Perhaps we shall take out our toilets when we get home.
Now we are back at the hotel. I am going to shower--sandals are comfortable but my feet are black. Ew! Tomorrow we go to an international church, jade factory and to the Great Wall. I'm pumped. Jackie told us we would leave for the airport on Monday at 6:30. Whoa, that's early. I am finding it hard to make my updates funny! What is wrong with me? Until tomorrow...

We have arrived!

2006-09-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

Whew, that was one heck of a long flight. I had to double dose myself on Tylenol Simply Sleep which then caused me to have weird dreams about being at home and crawling into bed and then I would realize that I was sitting up on an airplane. Currently, y'all are just starting your days, we, however, are ending ours. Crazy! So here's the rundown of our day once we left Newark.

We flew straight up over eastern Canada and right over the North Pole. Unfortunately, we both slept through that part. Then we flew down over Russia and Mongolia into China. It seemed like we ate about 10 meals on the flight. I also attempted to watch "Mission Impossible III" twice but was having a little trouble understanding it.

Lookin nice here. Earplugs and an eye mask are the way to go. This was before I had to climb out over the guy sitting on the aisle and our 2 gigantic backpacks about 800 times during the flight.
Here's how I looked about 10 hours into the flight.
This was how I survived. And yes, I walked back and forth between the bathroom wearing my pajamas.

So, anyway, we finally landed and got off the plane. We had to go through immigration where the guards were sort of scary. The one I went to scrutinized my face and my picture on my passport very intently. We picked up our luggage, had nothing to declare and headed out into utter mayhem to find our guide. You would not believe how many people were waiting at the international arrivals gate to pick up or meet other people.

We had to wait for some other members of our group and then we were off. We met Ruby's mom, dad and sisters, Maura's mom, dad and sister and Chloe's mom and dad. Chloe's mom, Holly, is from Tennessee and I can hear my Southern accent get even thicker when I'm around her! So, anyway. We got on the bus and these old ladies came up and tried to help put our luggage on the bus. Sherry, our guide, said NOT to let them do that because you would suddenly notice that your camera was gone. So we were supposed to say, "Bu yao!" to them which means, NO, leave me alone, do not want. We drove through part of Beijing to get to our hotel. The traffic was a little crazy but since we were on a big bus, I wasn't too worried about cars hitting us. It feels so weird to be here and see all the signs in Chinese and have absolutely no idea what they say. There were a lot of workers on the side of the highway, doing what looked like paving and building walls and bridges. Their materials seemed rather primitive but they were certainly working hard. I didn't see anyone standing around doing nothing.
We got to our hotel, which is nice and came up to our room. ReRe, I'm not sure what design our room is.
It looks like 80's design to me with the geometric print carpet.
I was a total weenie and fell asleep as soon as we got to the room. When we were on the plane, I was like, "We have to walk around and get moving when we get there! We have to stay awake!!!" Um, okay. David finally woke me up so I showered and we headed down to dinner in the hotel. MMMMMMM, it was so good. We had chicken with sweetcorn soup which kind of reminded me of egg drop soup with little pieces of corn in it. Then I had beef stirfried with chilies and OH, it was so good! I cleaned my plate.
Then we exchanged some money (Barb, I changed the 50 pound note and got almost 750 RMB for it) and headed out to the Carrefour which is a Chinese Walmart according to Sherry. It was INSANE! There were SO many peope there and I think we might have been the only white people in the store. We looked at all the food, got 4 bottles of water for less than 10 cents each and got some candy--David picked red bean creamy candy. UGH. Are you surprised that he did not like it? We went back to the meat counter and everything was so so so cheap. We saw chicken feet, whole cooked birds, pig heads and lots of other stuff. There were live fish swimming in tanks and crazy looking fruits and vegetables that we didn't recognize. Outside the store were parked probably 300 bicycles. It is so different here but very cool. We're having a good time so far. We're being a little antisocial but we will talk more to people tomorrow since we will be touring all day. We're going to Tianenmen Square, pearl market (!), Forbidden City, lunch, Summer Palace, silk factory and Beijing duck dinner tomorrow night. We are going to be busy! With that, I will close for the day. David's already asleep and I think it's time for me to head that way as well. Talk to you tomorrow!

Flight #1 done!

2006-08-31T10:26:00.000-07:00

Well, we are here in Newark, killing time until we get on our gigantic plane that's sitting right outside.
This morning was a little interesting. David's alarm went off at TWO thirty. 2:30. Why he felt like we needed to get up that early, I'll never know. He did not, however, get up at that hour. I rolled over, listened to the thunder and smugly thought, "MY alarm goes off in another hour. I'll get up then." I was then rudely awakened at 3:50 by David telling me we needed to get up. I had indeed set my alarm, however, I had failed to actually turn it on. Whoops. We got up, bustled around (ha!) and left the house around 4:30 or so. We then drove through a DELUGE that you would not believe. It was raining SO hard. We got to Rege and Barb's, rearranged our seating plan and headed off to the airport. We checked in with plenty of time to spare, our flight left a little bit late and we got here about 20 minutes early. Nice. We found a Dunkin' Donuts, checked our email and we were good to go.
Our clothes are all shoved into 1 suitcase. I think David brought more clothes than me. I also realized I forgot my BATHING SUIT! Argh! I'm either going to buy one in China or wear a tank top and shorts in the pool. That will certainly cement anyone's opinion of Klassy Americans. My carryon bag weighs a TON. I do not know why it is so heavy but it's killing me already. Maybe it's the magazines and pajama pants.
I have some lovely pictures for you to enjoy now.

Louie says, "I'm SO glad we get to stay here alone! Look at all this food!" Just kidding. People are coming to check on the kitties.

At the airport, early early. I look really cool with my newspaper, other junk and travel guide. That sort of screams TOURIST. Oh well.

Buh-bye!

David took this for the NYC skyline but our plane is in that picture too.
They are calling people up to check in so I guess I should close. Oh yeah! The XC moms gave me a silver beaded bracelet with Maggie's name on it! I love it. David remembered to give it to me at 4:00 this morning. Next time I post, we'll be in Beijing!!!!!!!!!!

Packed...sorta

2006-08-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I have successfully packed my stuff in 2 space bags and one giant ziploc bag. David can have the rest of the suitcase in which to shove all of his clothes. While today was technically the first day of my maternity leave, it was rather hectic. I went to the bank, went to the post office, went to Walgreens, came home and ate lunch, took Cousy to David's dad's, went to Kinko's to make copies of our dossier and a lot more paperwork and then met Luella and Krystil at school (because I couldn't stay away!). We went for ice cream and watched what I guess was Ernesto rolling in over Independence.

I cannot believe we will be flying towards China this time tomorrow. I have conveniently provided a clock for you so you can see what time it is there while we are gone. China is 12 hours ahead of us. We will meet Maggie on Monday afternoon so probably around 4am on Sunday, if you are awake, think of us!

I am going to make myself write on this each day and share what we have experienced and seen. I hated writing in my journal when I went to Europe but I made myself do it and now I'm so glad I did. David's journal from Australia was like, "Cold. Went running. Roommate snores. Can't wait to go home." Therefore, I will be doing the writing on this thing.

Ooh! Ooh! Dinner has arrived! Chick-fil-A! Last fast food in the USA til we return! See y'all soon!

Whoa. We're getting close.

2006-08-27T22:56:00.000-07:00

We received our passports back from AWAA via FedEx on Saturday. We had to send them off to get visas stamped in them so we can enter China. We look like such the world travelers with our stamps from Australia, Paris and the Chunnel in England in our passports. And now visas from China. We got our notice of coming to China with Maggie's little mug shot on it too. So cute!

David and I went shopping today for some last minute stuff at BJ's and Walmart. We still need some cables for our video camera but otherwise, I think we're about set. The carseat is in my car, jammed in as tightly as we could get it. We decided to go ahead and have Maggie sit rearfacing even though she will be a week from her first birthday when we get home. It won't hurt her to sit backwards. I bet she won't weigh 20 pounds when we meet her either. The ride home from the airport will probably be the first time she's ever ridden in a carseat. That ought to be an interesting drive. We're starting to pile stuff up around the house, mostly in Maggie's room, because we keep that door shut. SOME cat thinks the crib is an excellent place to nap.

There's so much still to do and we only have 3 days left until we get up super early and take off halfway around the world. I can't believe we're so close.

Less than a week to go!!!

2006-08-25T18:07:00.000-07:00

We received our itinerary last night through email. Here's the run-down of our days in China.

Next Thursday, August 31, after we get up at the ungodly hour of around 3:30, our flight leaves for Newark at 7:15 or something. I can't find our flight information at the moment. Then we have a layover in Newark and leave for Beijing at 12:30, I think. We land in Beijing on Friday at 1:45 in the afternoon. We will be staying at the Radisson hotel in Beijing.
beijing.radissonsas.com if you want to check it out. I guess we will mess around that afternoon, go out for dinner, settle in and try to STAY AWAKE as long as possible!!!

Saturday, September 2-- Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City and Summer Palace--woo hoo! Lunch and dinner are included that day.
Sunday, September 3--Church service and the Great Wall!! (major woo hoo!!! I cannot wait for this) Lunch and Beijing Duck dinner are included that day. I don't know if I've ever had duck so I'm looking forward to that.
Monday, September 4--Fly to Guangzhou that morning. MEET MAGGIE that afternoon!!!!! (super major woo hoo!!!)
Tuesday, September 5--Civil Affairs Appointment. This is the day we adopt Maggie in China.
Wednesday, September 6-Saturday, September 9--paperwork and sightseeing.
Sunday, September 10--fill out Consulate forms
Monday, September 11--Maggie's medical exam
Tuesday, September 12-Wednesday, September 13--sightseeing and shopping. Guess we're going to be REALLY familiar with Guangzhou at this point!
Thursday, September 14--Consulate Appointment 9am. This is when Maggie will be sworn in as an American citizen and will be one when we touch down on US soil.
Friday, September 15--Pick up Maggie's visa at 4:00 pm
Saturday, September 16--Flight to Hong Kong. We will be spending the night in Hong Kong, partly because I am not a fan of rushing around and we would majorly be rushing to meet the flight to the US. Also, we wanted to do a little more sightseeing because we think we are super-travelers and it will be no big deal with an almost 1 year old. heh.
Sunday, September 17--Flight out of HK at 10:25 am
Arrive in Newark at 2:05 pm
Leave Newark at 6:10 pm
Arrive in Charlotte at 8:13 pm (I found our flight information)
8:14--Collapse

China Trip Journal

2006-08-17T16:08:00.000-07:00

This is where we will post journals, pictures and hopefully, video, if we can figure it out, while we are in China. We will be able to read comments and you can email either of us.
Allison--allisonlc@aol.com
David--dsmalady@excite.com

We are so glad you decided to follow along with us!

Growth report for Maggie (originally posted on 7.13.06)

2006-08-17T16:05:00.000-07:00

When we received Maggie's referral, there was a 2 page bio of her included (all in Chinese, of course). We were given the option to get it translated so we had that done and received it through email last week. It gives us some more background information about her and some idea of her personality. She sounds so sweet! These are the parts that I really liked:

At one month, she weighed 7.94 pounds and was 20.9 inches long. She was a peanut!

Here's what it said about her physical and intellectual developments:

Lian Si Qi's physical and intellectual developments are normal. At 1 month she loved touching objects with soft materials. When her nanny held her up, she liked to snuggle with her nanny. (awwww!) At 2 months she could raise her head lying on her stomach. She would be surprised if she heard unfamiliar voices. If she heard loud voices she would be so scared that she would cry. (that makes me want to go get her RIGHT NOW!) She njoyed listening to gentle music or songs. At 3 months she could support her body with her arms when she was lying on her stomach. When you prepared to feed her, she would start sucking. Her curiosity and reaction to the outside world increased continuously. She started to talk to you with babbling. At 4 months she could change from lying on back to lying on side. She often moved her eyes following people walking back and forth. She could giggle and pronunce "ah" "yi" sounds. At 5 months she could sit steadily with complete support. If you called her name, she would turn her head toward your voice. She smiled to familiar people. Now she is 6 months old. She rolls freely. She can sit straightly with support. When she is lying on stamch she really wants to crawl forward. But since her belly can't be raised high enough (hee!), her crawling is limited. When she is alone she can pronounce simple sounds like "ma," and "da" loudly.

Since her enrollment at the SWI, she hasn't had any serious diseases. She has had fevers and a stuffy or runny nose. Sometimes she had digestive problems. (ahh, just like mommy!) She has had some vaccinations.

Oh, I cannot wait to go to China and get this sweet baby!!!!!!! I have some pictures to put on here but I only have the video camera/digital camera combo and I don't know how to hook it up to the computer. Oh well, maybe next time. I fell asleep from about 5-7:15 tonight. That was unwise. Good thing I have a whole bunch of library books to keep me company tonight.

HERE SHE IS!!!!!!!! (originally posted 6.27.06)

2006-08-17T16:04:00.000-07:00

We are proud to introduce Margaret Christina SiQi.

Here's the info we received with her referral: No teeth, is a deep sleeper (woo hoo!!!), holds her head up while lying on stomach, grasps toy near hand, rolls from supine to prone position by herself. She can locate the direction of a sound or voice, visually follows moving toys and holds blocks in each hand at the same time. She laughs aloud, knows her name and turns when called and responds to the facial expression of adults.
She is active, fond of listening to music and playing games and is quick in reaction. She has a ready smile and is closest to her caretaker.

We think she is beautiful and cannot wait to go get her!!!!!

We have a daughter!!!!!!!!! (originally posted 6.26.06)

2006-08-17T16:01:00.001-07:00

No pictures yet but here's the info that we have! Of course, we got the call when we were on the beach, and where was I? IN THE OCEAN. I missed the referral call!!! Thank goodness David was there!

Lian Si Qi is her name (Lian is her surname) pronounced Leian, Si Chi
She is 9 months old, birthday 9-24-05. She is in the Guangdong province at Lianjiang SWI. In March, she weighed 6 kg (about 13 pounds) and was 62.5 cm tall. She has been in the SWI all of her life and has a headful of hair! Our family coordinator said that we would probably travel at the end of August.

YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!!! Pictures tomorrow!