Around Guangzhou - Shamian Island is an island in Guangzhou city. This was our final stop as the US Consulate is located here. We stayed at the White Swan Hotel which is used by many of the adoption agencies. We were no longer a spectacle but part of a majority now. Shamian island covers an area of 24,000 sq meters and is a gazetted historical area that serves as a tranquil reminder of the colonial European period, with quiet pedestrian avenues flanked by trees and lined by historical buildings in various states of upkeep. (Yep... I totally copied that verbiage from the website referenced above!!)

Various bronze statues are scattered around the island which depict life as it was during earlier periods on the island, as well as from more recent times. The one right below references China adoptive parents.




Every side street was picturesque....



Here is a shop we visited twice... they gave Gracie the cutest tambourine/rattle... she loves it! Josh bought a finger painting of the Great Wall from this shop. When I say fingerpainting... it isn't in the sense we are all familiar with. Rather, the fingers are imprinted on to a page to create a beautiful scene. There is an art to it and the work is beautiful!




We met this newlywed couple on the walk back to our hotel after Gracie's physical exam. They gave me permission to photograph them!



This was a common site... dinner hanging in the window...



Many of the shop owners lived behind their stores... this is behind one such storefront...


The parks are not only for children... here is a section built just for adults. All equipment is actually exercise oriented. This woman was working on a machine equivalent to a ski machine. There were stair climbers, rowing machines, step machines.... and they all looked like children's playground equipment!



Shamian Park is right next door to our hotel. We watched many people ballroom dancing (there were lights and speakers up in all the trees)... it was quite a pretty site. This park is also on the waterfront so that really added to the ambiance. We also watched fan dancing and hackey-sack playing.

WE.ARE.HOME!

Phew.... Saturday the 23rd was the longest day EVER! We started the day at 4:30am Saturday morning (4:30pm Friday the 22nd FL time) and landed in Orlando at about 6pm Saturday evening (6am Sunday morning China time!!)

Gracie had a bit of a rough time on the longer of the three flights but I'll get in to that in another post.... too pooped to type all that.

We came home to an awesome sight.... some of our closest friends met us at the airport holding banners and hand made signs welcoming us and specifically Gracie home. Of course I cried! Hellloooo.... that's all I've been doing for the past couple of months but I think I'm good now. Yep... I'm all cried out... I think... lol. Nothing like meeting your friends smelling like baby vomit and only God knows what other scents and stains on my shirt... I'll give you a hint... Gracie went through 4 outfits and only wanted me holding her and had two major blowouts! LOL!!

On the homefront...My car was decorated.... it resembled a "just married" car with pink ribbons and window writing...

there was an "it's a girl" sign in the yard and a bunch of balloon bouquets too.... a huge ladybug bouquet at the front door, another one on the mailbox, several in the house with pink balloons and streamers everywhere!! There were quite a few leftover pink balloons that were blown up and placed in Ed's truck! There was also a big bouquet of flowers in Gracie's room ... another bouquet on the kitchen table, a stocked refrigerator with the essentials. Then there was an awesome handmade banner using scrapbook paper that said welcome home Gracie.... I could go on and on. We have the most awesome friends in the world!!!


Our luggage finally arrived on Sunday... oh yeah... didn't mention that 4 of our bags decided to make the trip to Orlando separately.... and lucky us... we didn't know about the TSA locks so one of our bags was broken in to and a "courtesy card was placed inside the bag with the broken lock.... and after carefully packing hair gel, lotions, soaps etc.... they were left loose in another bag and well... you just can't imagine the mess it made, not sure the bag is salvageable...that would be a small part of the wonderful (insert sarcasm here) flying experience we had... more on that later. One thing for sure...we won't be flying anywhere anytime soon.

Two of our flights were actually affected by a super typhoon (by US standards it was a cat 5) that was headed towards Japan... the pilot had us all buckled up for a good part of the first flight and part of the second flight.. who knew, it was pretty far off but man it was scary! When we landed at Narita Airport (Tokyo) we were fishtailing down the runway.... Gracie slept well her first night and not so much last night... was in bed by 10:30 pm the first night and slept until 4:30 am... not bad considering her body clock was thinking it was the afternoon. She loves her room and has had a blast with the toys. She is constantly smiling and giggling... such a different baby from a week ago!!

That's all for now... still have more pictures to post from China but currently having trouble doing so.... will update soon.

Thanks again to those of you who left comments on our blogs or e-mailed us personally... it was so awesome to hear from everyone!

Day 11 - Guangzhou - AKA Last day in China



Our girls posed for the traditional "Red Couch" photo and as you can see, our little Chongqing princess is pitching a royal fit! She is the one in red on the front row. She looked sooo cute in her traditional silk outfit. The skirt is like a crenlin. Absolutely gorgeous our spicy girl is!! (Chongqing girls are called spicy girls for their feisty attitudes and the fact that it's one of 4 provinces known throughout China for it's spicy food!.... Ask Ed, he numbed his tongue when we did traditional hot pot while in Chongqing!!).

It's been a wonderful trip and Gracie is a joy! We are learning more and more about her every day. Tonight one of the shop clerks took time to translate over 20 pages of information that the orphanage provided to us on the scrapbook pages I mentioned in the post regarding the day we received Gracie. This in itself is a priceless gift!!!

This is our last post from China... we have a 4:30 am wake-up call (that's 4:30pm Friday for you East Coast folks) and we are in the air by 9am! We will be in Orlando late tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon. Gracie will become a US citizen once we land in MN.

I will post more pictures and info about today once we are back home. Right now we need to pack up the laptop!

Thanks to everyone who sent encouraging e-mails and comments. They mean more than you can imagine! See you in the states!!

With love,
Ed, Lisa, Josh and Gracie

Gracie had a great day!!! She was in such a great mood. She laughed, played and moved around alot. When she came to us five days ago she would just sit there and check things out. The orphange had told us that she could walk with help. Well, we could not get her to even stand up with help, crawl or anything, she would just sit there.

Today as you see we had a major break through. She is not only standing with our help but she it also walking with our help. She has also been picking up her toys and throwing them or hitting us with them. Then she laughs so loud. I would say that she is getting use to us.

One more day and then we will be on our way home. Good night from China. Ed, Lisa, Josh and Gracie.

Use Asian accent when reading this...... "Mom, I have a present for you, I give you hint.....it's in my diaper and it is not a toaster!!!!"

Day 11 - Guangzhou

Here we are at the White Swan... how awesome is this lobby?? This was the backdrop to this morning's breakfast buffet!



Josh adores Gracie!


Today was a "free" day (ie; shopping day!) After breakfast we took a walk in the park next door. It's so cool how people really enjoy the parks and local amenities. In every city we have been in, it wasn't unusual to see people, especially the seniors, enjoy the parks and congregate there to socialize with each other in numerous activities. As we strolled through the park, we came upon group after group ballroom dancing! There were speakers in the trees along with lights. For those who didn't have a partner to dance with, they danced alone with their arms outstretched as if they were holding someone. We also watched a lady give instruction to a couple of others learning to fan dance. We also happened upon what we thought was "hackey-sack"! But instead what we found was a disc looking thing with a feather attached. It was tossed to the others in the group with your foot... like hackey sack. Ed was asked to join in and had a pretty good time....



After some morning shopping, we came back to the room so Gracie could nap and look what arrived! It's the "Going Home" Barbie by Mattel. It's a Caucasian Barbie with an Asian baby! It really choked me up... and here I thought the tears were over!



After nap time we went to have lunch at "Lucy's Bar and Grill"... it's very western and such a fun place to eat. Nothing like hearing "Sweet Home Alabama" playing while eating in China! Each room at Lucy's is decorated with movie posters and memorabilia from the States.


Gracie had her very first french fry today although by the look on her face she clearly looked confused.

"Ummmmm.... Yeah..... this isn't a Chinese noodle guys... you want me to do what?"



We ended the day with a group dinner at a local dining establishment... it was very nice and served Cantonese food. It was served family style and we successfully ate it all with Chopsticks. Most unusual thing we ate tonight? Goose! And it was good. We found out after we had eaten it. LOL

Day 9 - Continued

By the way.... Gracie did really well on her first plane ride. Although she had a rough night and we did have to get up at 4:45.... both Ed and I were up with her at different times for about three hours in the night... we gave her a new nickname that suited her to a "t".... and let's just say that the entire group agreed.... "little miss sunshine"... she was a big old grouch and for the first time only wanted mommy. But the day ended well.

After visiting the clinic, we decided to check out a few of the vendors. We walked in to one store where the owner offered to write Gracie's name in Chinese calligraphy for free. It came out so beautiful I want to frame it when we get home. But I digress.... when I started spelling out her name, I just gave him Grace, he stopped me and asked "like the Bible"? I said yes. His eyes lit up and and he said "I know! I'm a Christian!" I said we were too and he was sooo excited to meet us. I wanted to say... "are you allowed to even profess that?" but I figure he knew what he was doing. : ) Anyway... it was really neat.

We found a place that will develop the disposable cameras for us... couldn't do that in Chongqing for some reason..... Anyway, we dropped off the cameras that were returned to us by Gracie's orphanage and ordered a stone etching. They are rushing it for us since we will only be here a few days... so that was pretty cool! I have also found a chop for both Josh and Gracie... most of them have the zodiac animal and other symbolic dealies on them but the one I found for Gracie is for adoption and has a ladybug on one side and a butterfly on the other.... ladybug is an adoption thing here and the butterfly symbolizes new life. Oh... FYI.... a chop is a rubber stamp that is carved out of wood with your name in English and Chinese. :)

Josh found a Calabash Flute that sounded awesome when the guy demonstrated for us. The music he made was amazing and there are two very distinct sounds that come from it. One of the sounds was like bag pipes! It's handmade out of bamboo. He bought that and they even gave him sample music and instructions... funny.... it doesn't sound like it did when the guy played it! LOL.... Josh has actually gotten it to sound okay a few times.... : )

Day 9 - Guangzhou
One of the final stages of our adoption is to have Gracie "officially" examined.



The medical office was about a 10 minute walk form the hotel. It was extremely peaceful as we are on an island right now... not a big one mind you but one none the less. We walked through a beautiful park and by a school... it was very pretty. As you can see, Gracie was all set for her exam....



The "examine" consists of three stations:

1. The medical/surgery station where we are asked general questions about her health since with us. I was a bit hesitant to share her congestion as they are really on the look out for SARS. But with the help of Shiyan, we were able to get through this station and come out with a prescription for her. Also at this station, they took measurements of her head, took her temp, listened to her heart and checked her diaper. Here is what Gracie thought about this station...



2. Here you see me preparing my daughter for the awful task of getting weighed and measured..... by the way... she is now 22.7 lbs..... this explains why she is fitting comfortably in to the 12mos outfits we brought.... 18 mos hangs a tad bit but very nice to be able to wear some of the cute 12 mos ones!



3. Here is the ENT station. I honestly don't remember what took place here other than the doc looking in Gracie's ears and down her throat...



Once we returned to our room.... it was play time and all was right with the world!

Around Chongqing:

Day 8 - Chongqing

This is our last full day in Chongqing. We have a wake up call at 5am tomorrow morning where we will travel to Guangzhou for the third and final leg of this amazing journey! It should be interesting to see how Gracie and the other babies do on the plane. But enough about tomorrow.... here's what we did today!

We started the day out with two blow-out diapers! Yep.... didn't think you'd be reading about poopy diapers now did you? LOL! Looks like we have things under control thanks to banannas, rice congee and pedialite!


We visited the Chongqing Zoo today to see the pandas! Did you know that nearly 80% of the pandas come from the Chongqing Province? It was very cool to see these guys up close. We caught them at feeding time. These guys were tearing up the bamboo! We saw one panda mama that had borne six cubs over her life and is the worlds oldest mama panda bear. The zoo was really quite pretty... the gardens and the swan pond were gorgeous.



Gracie enjoyed riding around in her stroller... but I think she was on sensory overload and was a bit quiet. Funny note... Gracie christened Ed today! So much for Huggies (China brand)... they leaked! I turned around and it was just pouring out her diaper on to Ed's shirt. I'm not upset... Josh christened me while still in the hospital...turnabout is fair play...right? Heee-heee





We ended the afternoon with Chongqing "hot pot". It's kind of like going to the Melting Pot and there in the center of your table is the pot to cook your food. It's in two layers with the center being the "hot" pot. Hot does not even begin to describe the spices! Ed ate a piece of meat that was cooked and it numbed his tongue! We think one of the little peppers may have been hidden in it. But yep... about a half hour his tongue was messed up! They brought us all kinds of food to cook.... chicken, fish, pork, beef, sausage, mini-weiners, water chestnuts, noodles, crab rolls, and other things I just didn't recognize! : )

This is our last post from Chongqing and I am not sure of the connections at the White Swan so if I don't post for a bit you'll know that it was due to a bad connection. We are hoping for blue skies and warm weather.... we haven't seen a blue sky (seriously) since leaving FL. Beijing was very smoggy and Chongqing was no different. It's like fog all day long! : (

'Nuff Said.....

Day 7 - Chongqing

It's raining here in Chongqing. Today is a free day so we used it to get to know our new daughter. We did run across the street to a huge department store to get some items. Seems I can't find things I packed and have already run out of baby wipes and on the last of the diapers... how many Chongqing locals does it take to help an American buy diapers? Answer at bottom of post!

We had a break through with Gracie today... yesterday she would just sit wherever we put her and not move or do much. When she did reach for a toy it was with very small, slow precise movements. She was a huge daddy's girl and preferred Ed to Me and Josh....don't get me wrong...We do great when Ed isn't around! LOL! Today she has turned a corner and enjoys me holding her and has reached her arms up to me quite a bit and has allowed me to console her when not happy. Starting to feel like a normal mom again!! : ) We brought her down for breakfast with us and I fed her congee and steamed egg. She really likes steamed egg... note to self... find out how to steam an egg!

While Ed was at the bank, Josh and I were able to witness her first smile with us!! We even got some giggles out of her! And she no longer sits still, she turns herself around and follows what's going on and moves around to get to toys. As an added bonus, she throws the toys she doesn't want! : ) When Ed returned, he introduced her to the "raspberry"... it was sooo funny! She has been a happy baby all day!

Ed was pretty happy too when he found he could pick up the Sunday night game between the Cowboys and the Redskins on the hotel's ESPN channel. It was all narrated in Chinese, but hey.... it was football!!!

We went to the dept store to buy Miss Gracie some shoes (sooo cute and sooo cheap!!) and we were told (in Chinese) that we needed to put long sleeves on Gracie. I had already planned on buying her a cardigan or lightweight jacket so that was fine. Ended up with an adorable pink hoodie style jacket and an adorable pink cardigan!! (I love that I can buy pink!!) Then the sales clerks told me I needed to cover up her legs and brought over sweat suits....okay... the store was like 185 degrees and we were all sweating....even Gracie was breaking out in a heat rash. I had to say no to the pants. We also found a nice lightweight stroller for the rest of our time here and for the airports. *Note to Shauna - You won't be able to miss us next Saturday... we'll be the ones with the neon orange Mickey Mouse stroller!! We didn't bring a hip hammock and really needed something for the airports and tomorrow's trip to see the pandas. When we put Gracie in the stroller she got really upset. The sales lady came back with a cute little rattle and then gave me the box...I guess that's one way to sell your goods! lol

So how many Chongqing locals does it take to help an American buy diapers? The answer is six! Five to help us figure out the size by checking out Gracie, using an American one from our diaper bag and one to translate what everyone was saying! Everything was in KG instead of pounds...guess I should have paid better attention to the metric system when I was in school..... we ended up with the correct size and then spent the next 5 minutes trying to explain what "baby wipes" were and why I needed them! Good thing I have good Charades skills (thanks to Linda A's games!)... you should have seen me try to ask for a piece of chicken breast at KFC at the Beijing Airport yesterday..... nothing like pointing to your chest and making a sign of a chicken! LOL Apparently they don't sell chicken breast but the 'keel' like we used to have in the states years ago.

I leave you with Daddy's Girl!

More thoughts on Gracie Day

Visiting the orphanage really was an opportunity that will not soon be forgotten. This was a rare opportunity in deed. The children were well cared for. It was obvious that the nannies really enjoyed the children. We were all presented with a "care" package of our own. It contained the powdered milk that Gracie currently drinks, the two cameras we sent over to the orphanage (which we will get developed while we are here) and photos!!! Tons of them! Each photo mounted to a sheet of paper with writing and drawing... kind of like scrapbook pages put together by the nannies. We now have pictures of Gracie from 1 month on!! Again, very rare indeed! We were also given a professional photograph of Gracie that was mounted in a nice frame.

Here is Gracie back at the hotel... she wasn't keen on me removing her outfit so I decided to accessorize instead! Note the yellow socks and wideband.



We all headed over to the Civil Affairs office to officially adopt Gracie. We also had the VISA photo made. They gave us an official plate from the city in a nice wooden box to commemorate the adoption. This will be nice to hand down to Gracie.




While Ed went to scrounge up dinner (Pizza Hut... woohoooo!) I gave Gracie her first bath! She really enjoyed the water and didn't fuss at all. She did fuss when I put her in footie pjs! Conway, Anne and I got some congee and steamed egg custard for the babies and they feasted for a while... Gracie can eat!! She ate a bowl and a half!



Gracie pooped out about 7:20pm.... she was exhausted. By day end she was still a bit unsure of things and very cautious. We haven't had a smile yet but she is a bit more relaxed. We are hoping she will begin to open up soon. Tomorrow is a free day and we plan on getting to know our daughter and doing a bit of shopping. The shoes we brought with us are too big... and would like to find her some outfits too. We love our new baby daughter/sister... Josh held her for the first time and she just stared at him! It was cute really... he gave her the sweetest little kiss and she just kept looking at him... melted my heart! Josh has been an awesome help to us since Gracie arrived and a day doesn't go by that we don't hear him complimented by another family. We are so blessed to have two great kids!

So we are now a family of four. Gracie was a bit upset at first but fell asleep in my arms on the bus ride back to the hotel. Ed and Josh went to the grocery store with our Bethany leader Cheyenne and brought back some baby essentials...like Ramen Noodles. Yep... apparently that's a must! : ) Boy did she love them! It was really fun to watch her slurp them up.

She presented me with her first poopy diaper and I think she is working on number two from the noises that are coming from her. We are about to head over to the civil affairs office to make her officially ours in the eyse of China. They are coming to do this for us today on their day off as a favor. Our trip was shortened based on a holiday that's coming up... so it's really great that they are working with us on this.

All the babies seem to be doing really well and they are all soooo cute. Gracie seems to really just be checking us all out. Not really sure what to make of us all really. We have been able to get her to play with her stacking cups and has been hodling on to the same Cheerio for the past hour! LOL

Have to run will add more info later. What an amazing day and all thanks to our amazing God!!

Day 6 - Gracie Day!

Waiting our turn at the orphanage


Here she is with one of her nannies


The moment we have been waiting a very long time for


We are now a family of four!


She started getting a bit upset


Daddy walked her up and down the hallway whispering "don't cry" in Chinese


Gracie was one of the babies without any illness but she has a bit of a cough. She's just kind of checking us out for now...


Will try to post more later... We have an appointment to have the adoption finalized with the government later this afternoon and we'll see what Miss Gracie thinks we should do... : ) We are thrilled beyond words and we love reading all the e-mails... you make our day!!!