We Are Home

Sorry I haven't posted for a few days. The last night in Guangzhou was very busy with packing and last minute items (including making a special trip to The White Swan for a "red couch" picture). Then Friday we were traveling for 24+ hours. Today we've been busy dealing with items at home that resulted from hurricane Ike (including lots of grocery shopping to replenish our entirely empty refrigerator -- thank goodness my family already had emptied it out for us). So, this is really the first moment I've had a chance to blog.

The trip home was amazingly smooth. No flight delays and both girls travelled well (Katrina was a perfect little traveler and Grace only had two minor incidents of fussiness and one potty accident, which could have been much worse). Even so, we were so glad to make it home!

The last night in Guangzhou we went to The White Swan to take pictures. In case you don't know, it is a tradition in Chinese adoption to take a picture of your child on the famous "red couch" on the second floor of the White Swan Hotel. We did this with Katrina too. Since we weren't staying at The White Swan, we didn't get to take a group photo (with the other families from our travel group). I didn't want Grace to miss out on this tradition, so we jumped in a cab and had our own little photo session. Here are the results:


After Grace saw the first round of pictures on the couch, she climbed up again and wanted to take more pictures (now that she can see herself in the pictures she loves to take them). You can see from this picture that Grace "owned" that red couch.


Here is a picture of Katrina and Grace at the airport:


Grace was pretty amazed by her new house and her new room. She was very curious, but cautious. She didn't want to leave her new bedroom. She loved all the toys, the bright colors and the soft fabrics. She was very afraid of the dogs. So the dogs are having to live in the laundry room (they are not too happy), until Grace is more comfortable with them. I'm sure she'll warm up to them over time. They are sweet dogs, but they are a little too eager to kiss on Grace for her taste.

We managed to get four hours sleep Friday night (Grace woke us all up), but the girls took a four hour nap (Joe and I had to wake them up). Hopefully they will sleep at least 8 hours tonight and that will go a long way to getting them back on a sleeping schedule more in line with our time zone.

Joe leaves tomorrow for a week of business travel. He is sad to be leaving so soon and we are sad to see him go. I hope Grace can understand that he is not leaving her and that he will be back. She has lost so many people in her short life thus far and I don't want her to be scared that Daddy is not coming back. Pray for us that she will be able to understand and accept very soon that Daddy and Mommy are NEVER going to leave her.

More Swimming . . . not much else

Here are a few pictures of Grace from this morning. In the second picture, you'll see her carrying three drinks. She is so funny because she wants all her drinks at the same time (milk, water and juice) and won't put any of them down. We have to distract her to get some of them out her hands so we can leave the room without having to drag around three drinks.





Today was our first day with no planned activities. We enjoyed the total freedom of the schedule-free day. Looking back over our day we all realize we don't know what we did to pass the whole day. In our defense, we did have to stay in our room for a period of time to make sure the U.S. Consulate had no questions on our visa application for Grace (our CHI coordinator, Elsie, served as our courier and delivered our application to the consulate today). Luckily, we received no phone calls, so I guess our application is okay. Keep your fingers crossed that nothing happens between today and tomorrow afternoon when we do the swearing in (that will ensure Grace receives full citizenship when we land in New York on Friday).

The only other thing we did today was to go back to the swimming pool. Grace was just as excited as the other day. In fact when we got to the pool she started ripping off her clothes to get in the pool. It took a little while to convince her that she needed to keep her suit on to get into the pool. I think she was confusing it with a giant bathtub. She gradually became more and more brave as we spent time in the pool. Much too brave for Mommy and Daddy's taste. She started jumping in from the side, and then started trying to climb into the big pool all by herself. We need to add a gate around our pool at home for sure.

We had a photo session in the hotel room tonight with Katrina and Grace. The pictures came out so cute. They were wearing their Mei Mei (little sister) and Jie Jie (big sister) t-shirts. Clarissa and Tori, we wish you were in the picture with them wearing Jie Jie t-shirts. Enjoy the pictures:

Medical Exam

We would like to begin today's post with a big thank you to everyone who has posted comments on our blog. It is a real treat to read your comments everyday. We really look forward to it.

We took Grace to have her medical exam today. It was clearly her least favorite part of the trip. We have to have a medical exam to show fitness to travel before the U.S. Consulate will issue her a travel visa. She was miserable throughout the exam mostly because they kept taking her from us. We discovered that she still has a small hole in her palate right behind her front teeth. It's unclear whether it was never fully closed during the surgery or whether it has just reopened post surgery (mostly likely the later). This explains why she still has some food coming out of her little nose. It happens mostly when she sucks on her food because she pushes it against her front teeth where the opening is located. Other than that they said she appeared healthy. In fact she weighs 29.9 pounds (only 10 pounds less than Katrina).

We met with Kenix and Susan from Chrisitan Action today. They are the not-for-profit, christian agency that co-manages the Xining Children's Welfare Institute (Grace's orphanage). They travelled all the way from Hong Kong just to meet with us and say goodbye to Grace. They brought along pictures of all the different children at the orphanage, as well as an album showing pictures of every child, with their adoptive families, adopted to U.S. families from Grace's orphanage. It was so nice to see how much effort they put into keeping in touch with the children adopted from Xining. Once again we were reminded of how lucky we are that our daughter was placed in a orphange that worked so hard to provide the best care possible for the children. Thank you Susan and Kenix for your visit and all your hard work (Susan is the one on the far right and Kenix is on the far left).

We ended the day with dinner at the hotel. We had a great time because the food was good and Grace really loved the music. The band came to our table to play and Grace was mesmerized. We requested Hotel California and Margaritaville and it was a fun taste of home. We all sang along and wished we were drinking margaritas and eating Mexican food. I think we've all decided that we want Mexican food as our first meal when we get home.

Grace's taste in food runs to the exotic. She was drinking orange juice and milk at the same time (two straws in her mouth drinking from both at the same time). Donna was pretty grossed out, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt and suggested that it probably tasted like a dreamsicle. I made Joe taste it (he's pretty easy to persuade) to see if it did taste like a dreamsicle. He said it wasn't that good, but it wasn't disgusting either. From the look on her face (see picture to right), it looks like she certainly thinks it tastes pretty good. I guess that's all that matters in the end. Regardless, I'm pretty sure she won't be a picky eater . . . she'll try anything and likes most everything she trys. Hopefully she'll stay that way.

Shopping Day

We went to the Pearl and Jade market today and spent pretty much all our cash (wink, wink). We bought jade belly Buddhas for the girls and one for me. Joe got a jade piece traditionally worn by Chinese men. The Chinese believe that wearing jade around your neck protects you for your whole life. The fascinating thing is that grade A jade, the highest quality, starts out colorless (a luminous white) with only a tiny pin prick of color. This dot of color shows you what color the piece will become over many years. The Chinese believe it is the spirit of the wearer that makes the color come out over time. As the piece ages, it becomes completely saturated with the color of the pin prick.

We chose the belly Buddha (the Buddha we traditionally think of in the West, although the majority of Buddha images are very thin and feminine looking) because he is believed to bring happiness. I figure happiness is really all you need in life. Essentially nothing else matters if you are happy. Conversely it is equally true as well that nothing else matters if you are unhappy. Plus, I call Grace my belly Buddha because just looking at her brings much happiness and joy. She is full of laughter and has the biggest, warmest and most engaging smile. She IS happiness.

Also, we bought very nice pearls to give to both of the girls on their 16th birthdays. We got the "best quality" and I believe we received a fair price. Katrina wanted to wear hers right then and there. She really didn't like the idea of having to wait until she is sixteen.

After nap time, we took the girls to the swimming pool. It was hysterical. I wish I could have gotten a picture of Grace's face when we first got into the pool. She warmed up to the idea almost immediately. When we went to the side of the pool for Katrina to jump into the pool, I put Grace on the side and asked her to jump to Ma Ma. She made the absolutely cutest face. I can't begin to describe it, but I'll try. She arched her eyebrows about 1/2 an inch, had a wild look in her eyes, held her mouth sideways in the funniest crooked, wide-open smile and looked excited, anxious, eager and tentative all at the same time. Too bad we didn't have our camera in the pool for those first looks of amazement, wonder and joy. Let's just say she's a total water baby. Here's our first water baby about to take a dive into the pool. See the look of the joy on her face.

I'll probably have more to say tomorrow, but I'm pretty tired right now. I think I'll get to bed early tonight. Hopefully I'll stay asleep all night. Good night.

Happy Autumn Festival

We've had a great day here in China! Today is the Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival. The Autumn Festival is considered the second most important festival in China, behind Chinese New Year. The day is meant to be spent with family, so we are so excited to be here together as a new family (Tori and Kyle, we wish you were here with us). There are beautiful red lanterns everywhere and the streets are filled with children carrying paper lanterns. Of course it's a full moon as the Moon Festival is always celebrated when the moon is full. Katrina was so happy to be here for the Moon Festival. She had been looking forward to it for many months. We had some moon cakes, but only Grace really liked them. The rest of us liked them okay, but she really liked them.

This morning we went with the group (12 families from our same adoption agency) to Yue Xiu Park. It is a huge park. It is so large many Chinese families come and spend the entire day at the park. There are many monuments, including the ancient wall of the city of Guangzhou, lots of green spaces, rides for the children, lakes and shopping arcades. The park is lovely, but we wimped out rather early. It is bloody hot and humid here. We bought fans in the park, but it was not enough. A few people commented that we should be use to it being from Houston. I tried to explain that while it is indeed hot and humid in Houston, no self-respecting Houstonian goes outside in August or September unless they are at the pool. I'm not sure they understood, but my fellow Houstonians know what I mean (we love our air conditioning). Here we are at the park:

Here's a picture of the girls with a girl who works at one of the restaurants in our hotel. Katrina really liked her outfit.




We spent two hours doing the final pieces of paperwork today. Yippee! I am so glad that is the end of the paperwork. This final paperwork is necessary to get Grace's Visa from the U.S. Consulate. After we receive that (on Friday), we can return to the States.


Once our paperwork was complete, we decided to take a cab to Shamian Island. This is where the White Swan Hotel is located. We stayed at the White Swan when we adopted Katrina. In fact, usually all adoptive families stay at the White Swan (it's the closest 5-star hotel to the U.S. Consulate). Unfortunately, the hotel is undergoing renovations, so its occupancy is limited right now. Having said that, we really like The China Hotel. The only thing the White Swan has on The China Hotel is its famous role in international adoption. There are children's books written about the White Swan and the adopted children of China. We plan to sneak into the hotel to take a picture of Grace on the famous "red couch." This is a couch in the hotel where every group of adoptive children sit and have a photo taken. We're going in there so Grace will have her own "red couch" picture.

Here are two pictures of the girls playing at a playground on Shamian Island:


We had dinner at Lucy's, which is a restaurant near the White Swan were we had several meals last time we were here. The food was so yummy. Although they have decent western food, we decided to have Chinese food because it is so good at Lucy's. After we left the restaurant, we went for a walk to find another Lucy, the lovely Chinese girl we met last time we were here. Lucy worked at a store across from the White Swan. We loved her so much and tried to sneak her into our luggage to bring her home with us. We quickly realized the store where Lucy worked was no longer open. We were pretty sad to see this. Because it was so late, most of the stores were closed (the area is filled with shops aimed at American tourists with small children -- smart given the proximity to the White Swan). We found one store open and we decided to go in to get some traditional Chinese dresses for Katrina and Grace. A young woman came up and asked if she could help me. I turned around and said I was looking for some dresses. She asked me what size and then a light went off in my head. The familiarity of the voice tapped a deep memory and I said, "Is your name Lucy?" She looked surprised and said, "Yes." I got very excited and yelled to Joe, "I found Lucy! I found Lucy!" Joe came running over and when she saw him she put us together in her head and smiled and laughed and said, "I remember you guys!" We were so happy to find her. We bought lots of goodies and exchanged emails and promised to stay in touch. I can't begin to explain how touched we were by Lucy last time we were here. To find her again was such a blessing to us.

Here is a picture of Katrina with Lucy (I love this picture):

Good night and Happy Moon Festival!!

Goodbye Xining

Getting out of Xining was no small feat for us. Getting our luggage to the airport and our carryon baggage through security was a stressful event. Our baggage was 5 kilos overweight, so we had to pay an overage charge. We were relieved it only cost us $20. They pulled out some of our bags and searched through them. They thought Donna had something dangerous in her bag, but it turned out to be shaving cream. While Donna was behind the counter watching them go through her bag, Joe was trying very hard to understand exactly what was wrong with our baggage, whether we were overweight and, if so, what did we have to pay. Donna and Joe were both saying things to me when Katrina said, “Mommy, look at Gracie.” I looked over and she was standing in the little stand where you are suppose to place your overhead luggage to make sure it will fit in the airplane overhead bins. She had this big grin on her face and she was jumping up and down inside of it (don’t ask me how she got herself in there). She was not too happy about me making her get out and get back into her stroller. The good news is that she is small enough to fit the overhead bin (wink, wink).

After getting on the plane with all of our carryon bags, we were pretty stressed. Then Grace was not interested in sitting in her seat, so she had a little melt down. I got her calmed down and she fell asleep in my arms. I think she was just a little cranky because it was nap time. She slept the whole flight (at least we thought it was the whole flight).

We were told it was a four hour flight to Guangzhou. When the captain announced our descent after one and a half hours, we were shocked but happy. I was a little suspicious so I asked Joe to ask the stewardess if we were indeed on the plane going to Guangzhou. When he did she said no we are going to Xi’an. We were about to freak out when she said the plane would be going on to Guangzhou but that we would have to deplane in Xi’an for one hour and then re-board. We were awfully glad we asked because otherwise we would have gotten off the plane like idiots and went wandering around the airport looking for someone holding a sign from CHI (Children’s Hope International – it’s our adoption agency). How goofy would we have felt?

We were so happy to land in Guangzhou. As embarrassing as it may sound, we were desperate to get some Starbucks. I had previously researched our hotel in Guangzhou and knew that it had a Starbucks store in its lobby. We were so happy when we finally arrived at the hotel and saw the Starbucks sign (we really wanted coffee after a week of only tea for caffeine). Even Katrina was all excited to see the Starbucks sign. She was yelling, “I’m so excited there’s a Starbucks.” Okay, in case you’re worried I just want to let you know that we do not give coffee to our four-year-old daughter. She likes the pastries and the experience of us all going and sitting on the couch together.

After we checked in, we got a Starbucks and then headed to the hotel’s Western (aka American style) restaurant. When we walked in they gave both the girls these amazing play dough sculptures on sticks. We were blown away by the detail. Just look at the pictures below. The guy was a real artist. We got a hamburger, a taco salad and a club sandwich. Everything was really good. The restaurant also had a highchair for Grace and it was very much appreciated. She’s so curious she has a hard time staying in her seat ordinarily. The highchair made it a lot easier to keep her at the table. I think she enjoyed it too because I think she felt more safe and secure in it (the previous hotel had no highchairs in any of its restaurants). There was a three-member, roaming band playing music (mostly American songs in English . . . it was cute) and Grace loved it. She was swaying to the music and smiling the whole time.

After dinner we retired to the room for the evening. It was a long day and we are full and caffeinated. Now it’s time for bed.

Last Day in Xining

Today is our last day in Xining. We leave tomorrow for Guangzhou. We will miss the great weather and the friendly locals, but we are looking forward to getting some Starbucks in Guangzhou.



We met with the head director (see pictures) of the Xining City Children's Welfare Institute (the woman in the white lab coat from yesterday was her assistant). She was at a meeting Thursday when we visited the Institute, so she took the time to come to our hotel to meet with us. We went together to the tea house in our hotel. We ordered a pot of jasmine tea and had a very nice conversation about Grace, the Institute, and the city of Xining. She has been working in children's welfare for 21 years and has been with the Xining Children's Welfare Institute since its establishment in 1998. She is clearly a very loving and devoted caregiver.

She told us that we were the 103rd adoptive family from the Institute. We also learned there were 52 families from America who had adopted from the Institute. She said she had been to the U.S. one time before and went to Ohio, Seattle, D.C. and New York. While she was in the States she visited 20 families who had adopted from Xining Children's Welfare Institute. We invited her to visit us in Texas and she said she would love to come and stay with us. We suggested she come in the Winter and she laughed (it is VERY cold in Xining in the winter).





The rest of the day was not very exciting. We went on two walkabouts and we talked to a group of school kids and a group of college boys who were all anxious to practice their English. Other than that, we laughed and played in the room (we bought more toys at the store today).

It was pretty uneventful until bedtime. Grace was wired. We were trying to read a bedtime story and she was jumping all over Joe and the bed. Before we knew it, both girls were jumping all over the bed. Grace is a maniac!! She has absolutely no fear. She will run, jump, dive and fall face first without a moments notice. She taught Katrina how to do a tumble! She has amazing gross motor skills and the strength of 20 babies. I'm totally blown away and totally freaked out because I'm such a worry wart and she's afraid of nothing. How will I ever keep her injury free?


Talk to you tomorrow from Guangzhou . . . after we've had a Starbucks or two.

P.S. Uncle Donald, you are going to love playing with Grace and she is going to love playing with you!!