You Asked For It, You Got It!

Lola in Lili's Room!!!!! Oh, not what you expected? OK, look below........

Lili in her room.....finally!

Lili trying to smile even bigger and better than she ever has before!!! (don't think it's possible!)

What a HAM!!

Daddy's first ever tea party (he just can't believe it took him 39 years-----it was so much fun!!) :)

Ummmm.....where's dad? We're supposed to be having a tea party here.

Is This The Same Child?!

Guess who slept ELEVEN AND 1/2 HOURS last night?

Nope, it wasn't me! I woke up at 1:30am for some reason!!
Lili went to bed on her own last night at 9:00. She whimpered for about 5 minutes and that was it. She didn't wake up once all night.

Jeff left for work at 6:45am, Brett got up at 7:00 and left for school at 7:45 and she still slept. She woke up at 8:30 with a big smile saying "Ma Ma".

I made sure to make a big deal out of her sleeping all night and waking up so well.

We played in her room for awhile, then she scarfed down breakfast, watched some DVDs, played, scarfed down lunch and took a nap at 1:00.

It was funny. She really didn't want to lay down and take a nap, but I told her "either lay down here and take a nap, or go to your room". Well, she ran over to her blankets, layed down and within 20 minutes she was zonked. She slept until 3:40. She woke up again all smiles.

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I hope beyond hope that THIS is the new trend. Wow, it sure was a nice day.

(kinda scares me that maybe tomorrow won't be so nice!)

Jet Lag Sucks: The Whiny Post

The last couple of days have been rough.

The jet lag has hit us harder here at home than it did in China.

Lili screams and cries every night when she goes to bed. She has been waking up screaming and crying every morning between 3 and 4am, then she's up for the rest of the day. She spends a good part of the day crying, I'm sure because she's exhausted. She needs a nap, but fights it. She just seems bored all day. And, really, by the end of a 19 hour day with her, I'm pretty unattractive myself.

Tomorrow Brett goes to school and Jeff goes to work. I have to say I'm dreading it. I think she's going to spend the entire day asking where they are. They went to church this morning and she cried when they left. Right now she's watching her Chinese singing (makes my ears bleed) DVD.

Allow me to explain the reason Lili and I aren't in church. Our Pastor came over Friday afternoon. She freaked out, screaming and crying and curled into a ball the entire time he was here. She did the same thing to Jeff's mom yesterday when she came over. Just 2 days before when she came over Lili was charming and sweet and happy to see her.

I'm starting to worry I'll never see the light of day again.

Our neighbor girls knocked on our door yesterday and Lili was saying "No, no, no" and started to curl up into a ball again. I have to say when I see her do that, it just strikes a nerve with me-----I can't stand it. The last few days have been eerily reminiscent of Gotcha Day and it just upsets me greatly.

I know Lili is adjusting to a lot of different things. I know it's going to be rough, but crap, it's rough!

It's hard because we're so happy to be home and back to normal and she doesn't feel the same way.

We'll get there.

(Oh dear God, we WILL get there, won't we??????????)

Anyway, I'm just kind of blah right now, forgive me.

We're Home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hallelujah!!
Praise the Lord!!!
We're HOME!!!!!

We left Guangzhou at 5:30am Wed. morning (China time, which would be 5:30pm Eastern). Got to the Hong Kong airport at 9:25am after a 40 minute flight.
THEN!! we got to spend from 9:25am to 5:20pm at the airport!! WHEE!!! Seriously though, it wasn't that bad. If you have to be trapped at an airport for 8 hours I'd recommend Hong Kong. It was like a gigantic shopping mall that never ended. The prices were WAY more than we were used to in China, but comparable to the US---reasonable for an airport. The most exciting thing was that they had a Krispy Kreme there. I could've died. It was SOOOO good!
Our flight from Hong Kong to Chicago was from 5:20pm (5:20am US) to 8:05pm (US). LONG flight. Lili slept restlessly for most of the flight. She did very well. The pressure change bothered her ears, but she just put her hands to her ears, no screaming, no crying.
Our descent was terrible, lots of screaming kids and gasping adults. It really was horrible. Poor Lili barfed up her orange juice. As we left the plane, we realized she wasn't the only one! She felt better as soon as we landed.
Immigration/customs was a breeze!! It was kind of anti-climactic. One of the officers did congratulate us and Lili clapped and yelled "yay!".
My parents came to the airport and rode the shuttle bus back to our car with us.
Lili was amazing!!!! We were all a little worried about how she'd react to them as well as the change of scenery and the after affects of over 24 hours of travel.
Well, let me just say, she did a somersault right in the middle of the ground transportation waiting area. Yep, she's one heck of a kid.
She was smiling and laughing and flirting and funny and charming and dancing and singing....everything we could've hoped. She even called my parents "Meemaw" and "Peepaw". They sounded like authentic Chinese words when she said them!
We got home around 1:30am. When we got there she ran around our house, stomped after all the cats and dogs, stopped in front of the first full-length mirror she saw (we had to drag her away!!) and ran up to her room and just sighed. She layed down in her bed and laughed.
We gave her a bath at 2:30 in the morning (yes, it was just a ludicrous as it sounds!!) and told her to go to bed. She layed down in bed, I checked on her at 3:00, she was still awake, but laying there. Next thing I know it's 9:30am and she's still asleep in her bed like a good girl.
We all got about 6 or 7 hours of sleep and now it feels like we never left!!
I can't express how it feels to see the actual living, breathing Lili in her room after all this time of imagining her there. It's an amazing sight.
I am so glad we're home and it's all over and we can start our lives.
Wow. Thank the Lord.

There's No Place Like Home

This is probably my last post from China.

We have our 'red couch picture' this morning and our Consulate appointment this afternoon. Then we need to go to bed because we have to be ready to leave tomorrow morning by 5:00am. We then get to spend 8 hours at the Hong Kong airport before our flight for Chicago leaves at 5:20pm. We are scheduled to land in Chicago at 6:55 pm central time Wed, only an hour and 1/2 after we leave Hong Kong (trying to look at the bright side here!)

We are so anxious to get home----well actually to BE home, not really looking forward to GETTING there!

I wonder how Lili will handle everything? The flights, the long wait at the airport, the car seat, our animals, our home, her room, the rest of our family, the new schedule, the new time zone, the jet lag..........the wondering just goes on and on. We'll be happy to be back to normal, but Lili thinks that this here in China is normal. Well, we'll just have to wait and see I guess. She'll just have to adapt. We adapted for her, now it's her turn!!

Thank you all for your comments, emails and support. We'll see you on the flip side!

THREE more days!!

IT'S ALIVE!!!!!!!
Meet Lili's favorite new game. She got a laugh once, so now she does this ALL THE TIME!


Punk Lili

We bought Lili a bubble blower for about .30 cents US. She loves to watch me (attempt to) fix my hair in the morning, so she now uses the blower to "blow dry" her hair. I also bought her a Hello Kitty mirror/comb set today because she LOVES looking at herself!

"Hey kids, take care of yourselves."

"Find a happy place......"

"Blessings To You"

Lili grabbed a CD named "Blessings To You" and got all excited and did this pose. When we prayed tonight at dinner she did it again.

I can't believe I'm THIS cute!!

It seems like I'm always counting down to something-------X more days till we GO to China, X more days till we LEAVE China! We've had a really good time and seen and done a lot of amazing things. The time really has gone quickly and we're so blessed to have had this opportunity.

FOUR more days in China!

Today (8/18) was the day for the adopted childrens' medical checks. The rest of our agency's group was there with us (finally), so there were I think 19 families total in the waiting area. Yikes! Lili absolutely LOVED the whole process. She smiled and behaved and did everything they told her to do without a problem.

We can't get her to take off her shoes to go in the playroom if there are other people around, but she let the nurses do it (more than once) with a big smile on her face!!

You know how every picture she poses for she has her mouth hanging open? Well, she was a real champ at the "ENT" station. She couldn't wait to open up and say "ahhh!" When she was done, she ran out into the waiting room and shouted "Baba, ahhh!". Everyone thought she was so cute.

Yesterday was 'I need to wrestle you down because we've been trapped together for almost 2 weeks' day.

Brett's #1!!! (I put this picture up just to prove that, yes, Brett is still alive! We've been pretty liberal with the Lili pictures!!)

Notice Mommy and Lili's matching outfits!! It's hard to tell where Lili ends and Mom begins!

Yesterday (8/17) we visited the Chen Family Temple. Unbelieveable! I took over 100 pictures of every angle!

wow.

ooh.....

This is me in the garden.

I've almost come to terms with the fact that I look like walking crap everyday. No use fighting it.

aahhhhh.

Just About SICK of China!!!

Lili: The Eating Machine. After she polished off her entire bowl of noodles, I had to wrestle my clam chowder and the rest of Brett's spaghetti away from her. We draw straws to see who has to sit next to her because someone could really lose an arm!

Yesterday we went to White Cloud Mountain Park. It was really nice. There were tons of birds there, like a bird zoo. We took cable cars up and down the mountain.

Look closely, it's a bird on roller skates.

Look even closer, the bird is licking the sweat off Jeff's head. He's like a big salty nut!!

Black swan. Notice the bird feed that Lili threw at it, as she was growling and stomping right in front of the sign that said "Please Don't Scare the Birds"----geesh.

View of Guangzhou from the top of the mountain. It was sunny and clear, just so humid and polluted.

We are starting to count down the days till we come home. This has been a wonderful experience, but we're done with it. It was a great trip for about a week, now it's like a sentence. I know I shouldn't complain because THOUSANDS of waiting families would kill to be in China with their kids right now, but it's really difficult to have to stay here for X number of days.

But, NEXT Thursday we won't be in China anymore!!!! :)

What We Did Today

As soon as she gets up, she's ready to go face the world. She's a slow waker-upper, but when she's up, she's off. We've gotten into the pattern of: breakfast, hotel playroom, bathroom break, then bye-bye shopping time!

We ventured out into Guangzhou city again. We ate lunch at McDonald's and this is Brett and Lili in the play area. (we were supposed to take our shoes off, but no thank you!!---Elsie!!) :)

Hi-ya. Brett finally got a sword and a nifty pair of Chinese jammies!

LILI LIKED THE POOL!!!!!!!!!!

This is such a major deal, I can't even tell you. We've been to the pool 3 times and each time she would shut down and cry. She wouldn't even go near the pool area.

Today Jeff had to go to the bank. I really didn't want to sit in the room alone with 2 kids, so I decided to attempt going swimming, so after she went to the bathroom instead of putting her panties back on I showed her her suit. She ripped off her clothes and squealed like she knew what it was. I blew up her arm floaties and swim ring and we were off. (by the way, when I put on my suit, she said 'beeyuck', thanks, kid, I knew that!)

I was nervous as we approached the first pool area, but she pointed and laughed. We got to the big pool and she ran to the side and sat right in the water. She had SO much fun splashing Brett. She thought that was the bomb!!
Jeff was gone for almost 2 hours and when he came back we were STILL swimming. We only left because it started to rain.

Who are the cutest kids in the world??

8/13: What We Did Today

We bought Lili a DVD of Chinese girls singing songs like "Yankee Doodle" and "I've Been Working on the Railroad" (in Chinese, of course). We got 2 CDs and the DVD for 50 yuan=about $7 total. She LOVES the DVD----yipee for us! :)

It rained in the evening, so I whipped out Lilis's raincoat that I bought about 4 months ago.

This is Lili hamming it up and loving on her daddeeeee....

her mommeeeee......

(daddy again).......

and her go go.

Today was a free day till 2:30 when we went to the local police station to get her passport photo taken. We also went to Carrefour, which is like a WalMart-type place. BUSY BUSY BUSY but we got a lot of snack food and drinks.

We didn't do much else. Brett scored 2 Naruto books for less than $1 apiece at the White Swan bookstore.

For supper we went back to Lucy's again---that makes once a day for the last 3 days. Anyway, she at an entire bowl of egg soup with noodle. There seriously must've been a quart of it, I think it was a good 2 pounds of noodles. She ate every single noodle and scraped the bowl, she even licked around the edges. She slammed down 12 oz of apple juice, then came back to the room and had chips and M&Ms. She's gonna be too heavy for her carseat by the time we get home!! She's an eating freak! Strong like bull!!

Pictures of Lili (no kidding!)

Yay! This kid loves spaghetti.
No wonder, she says "Hey Ma Ma" like a true Italian. We swear that we've heard her speak Italian, Spanish and even some Portugese. (and a little English-----I know she said "shut the door" when I opened the bathroom door during her bath last night!)

She digs into noodles like soup and then just slurps them in. This whole pile was sucked up in one slurp!

I've never seen someone who LOVES the camera as much as her. Ok, maybe Brett.

It's funny how not one picture we got from the orphanage had even one hint of a smile, but show her a camera now and she insists on hanging her mouth open for no apparent reason.

Notice her eye scab is coming off. Jeff thinks maybe it looks like it was a burn.....

Last night when Lili was going to sleep she was singing Chinese songs very quietly. She kept practicing "mama, dada, ge ge, mommmmeeeeeee, dadddddeeeeee, go go". She's so stinkin' cute!

We have some video too. We're going to try to put it on YouTube. I'll let you know!

China: Day.......ummm......whatever!

PlayDoh time. It's so nice to see our son share with his sister! He's such a good brother.

We didn't take a lot of pictures yesterday (8/10). We had a 'free' day so we did some shopping. It rained on and off so we were lazy. Lili REALLY doesn't like people in her face! All the shop owners would come up to her and talk to her in Cantonese. She really shut down. She didn't want any of the dresses I showed her, but I got them anyway and as soon as I showed them to her in the room, she squealed and grabbed them. She is SO shy!

We took a taxi into Guangzhou city. It was like Times Square times 1,000! Unbelieveable sights, noise (and smells!) We went to Papa John's. It's a fine dining restaurant with marble floors. The pizza and breadsticks were just like home. We walked around the city and there was just so much shopping, it was amazing. There was a mall, mostly electronics and Brett scored a Sony MP4/MP5 player/camera/video game thing for 400 yuan (less than 60 bucks!) He's one happy dude! He can't wait to show off to his friends!

Our sleeping angel. She slept in the bed with me last night. (she's been sleeping on the floor between the beds----aren't we nice?) She sucks her thumb when she's laying there soothing herself, but she doesn't do it in her sleep or any other time of day.

We went to the Guangzhou Zoo today with our guide and another family. We were the main attraction. They had a seperate/special admission section: Goldfish World. Kids could climb in the pool and catch and keep all the fish they want for free. They also had a shower area for the kids where we got to see all the Chinese skin we could ever think to want to see!

We had lunch at Lucy's where Lili demanded I take some pictures of her! This is her kissy face. She will kiss at me, but doesn't want to touch. She won't do this with Jeff or Brett yet, but we've made a lot of progress in the last couple days.

This is her 'mwah' face after the pucker.

I taught her how to pop her cheeks when they're full of air. Now we have to do it 20 times a day.

This is Lili just so excited to be Lili. And who can blame her? She's having one exciting life right now. She's going to be soooo disappointed when we go home!

Our guide and hotel staff have commented on her amazing progress and how the best thing was her breaking down on the first day. She acts like she owns the world now. She's so confident and she really trusts us. I'm so glad we've come this far. I can't imagine what the next days will hold.