February 11, 2005  Friday

Last night we received a call from Delta to let us know our 5:50 am flight out of Valdosta was canceled. So this morning we left Valdosta at 10:56 am bound for Atlanta on a twin engine plane. It was very noisy and it felt as if we were yelling at each other. Once we landed in Atlanta we ate some lunch and boarded our flight for San Francisco. Since our flight had been canceled earlier Delta upgraded us to first class seating. This was helpful as we had more leg room for our 5 hour flight. This was just a trial run to say the least for tomorrow. We landed in San Francisco at 5:00 pm PST or 8:00 pm EST. Needless to say once we arrived at our hotel all we wanted to do was grab a bite and turn in. Today there is only one photo & its of Chris in the Atlanta airport. By the time we arrived in San Francisco it was already getting dark & we were unable to get any photos. Tomorrow we fly out to Beijing at 1:30 pm PST & we’ll post news once we arrive in Beijing Sunday evening.

February 12, 2005 Saturday

We began our morning early at 6:00 am. Chris realized he left the charger to our digital camera so we got dressed & took a taxi to Target after we ate breakfast. Fortunately Target had what we needed & we had the taxi driver take us on to the airport. This put us getting to the airport early but when we left the hotel we didn’t know if we would have to make just one stop or several. After we checked in our bags we realized that Jennifer left the cell phone in the taxi. The hotel was able to notify the driver and he brought the phone to us. After this we ate lunch and met up with Daniel & Jennie who will be traveling with us. Their daughter is 1 month older than Aysia. We boarded our plane & it took off at 2:00 pm for Beijing. The flight was long and the leg room was none. There was about an inch between my knees & the seat in front of me. Next time we’ll upgrade.

February 13, 2005 Sunday

We landed in Beijing at 5:30 pm (or 4:30 am EST) and there was a round of applause on the plane that we had finally landed. We met our guide, Sims, along with 2 other families & checked-in the hotel Hua Du. We are definately a minority now. We are now in our room & we have fireworks going off outside. In Beijing this is the only time of the year it is legal to set off fireworks in celebration of Chinese New Year.

February 14, 2005 Monday

Chris started the day at 4:00 am. He woke up & this in turn woke me up. We didn’t have to get up til 6:00 am so needless to say I wasn’t real excited. We went down to eat breakfast & they had a decent assortment of Chinese food & western. Chris ate bread, French toast with honey, & bacon. I had a real mixture like potato salad, boiled egg, bacon, & bread. They had salad stuff & rice but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to eat it for breakfast. We met our guide in the lobby at 8:00 am to start our touring of Beijing. We still can’t believe we are in China. We started at Tianemen Square (& spelling wasn’t my best subject). It was big & during warmer weather lots of people are out flying kites. We did see 2 people out flying kites. We then proceeded to The Forbidden City. It was named this by the common people of China because they were not only not allowed inside but were warned to not get too close. Within the city lived the emperor & his empress & concubines. One emperor had 3000 concubines, sorry I don’t remember which one. After touring there we went to the Jade market. I needless to say bought myself a bracelet & Aysia a pendant. We had a late lunch which was pretty good. I slipped up & ate a tomato, hopefully it was washed. Chris was brave enough to eat the fish. I couldn’t it had the head & tail still attached. After lunch we went on to the Great Wall. I enjoyed the ride to the wall as much as the wall. The mountains were nice to see being from such flatland in Georgia. We did climb the wall to 888 meters & decided not to kill ourselves. It was very steep. It really reminds you how out of shape you are. We stayed there for about 3 hours then went to the Beijing Pearl Market. The pearls were gorgeous. The shop had actually closed when we arrived but they opened back up for us. Needless to say they knew they could make a dime or two off us adoptive parents. We got a string of pink pearls for Aysia when she is older. We finished with dinner but I was almost too tired to eat. They really cram a lot of stuff in one day. I look forward to sleeping. Oh yeah, you can find Coca Cola Light sometimes. Plan on buying it when you find it because most places don’t carry it.

February 15, 2005 Tuesday

Today we started our day at 5:00 am. We are finding it difficult to sleep more than 6-7 hours. We had a decent breakfast but not a lot because of the butterflies in our stomachs. It started snowing sometime during the night. It looks pretty outside the hotel but I’m glad it didn’t snow yesterday or we would not have been able to see the Great Wall & we would have been miserable at the Forbidden City. We flew to Nanchang at about 1:30 pm & are staying at the Jiangxi Hotel. We didn’t get Aysia today. The orphanage director said no that we will get her tomorrow morning around 11:30 am & will complete our adoption tomorrow. We are kind of sad & glad. One more night of sleep hopefully & we had time to unpack before going to get her. Our room has a crib & stroller in it. It feels great walking in & knowing there she’ll be sleeping tomorrow night. It’s also kind of scary. Pray for a good transition. We’ll post photos of our room tomorrow and of Aysia.

February 16, 2005 Wednesday

Well today was Gotcha Day!! We got Aysia around 12:00 noon China time. She did not cry at all. She was the only baby that didn’t cry. We believe her foster mom showed her the pictures of us that we had sent ahead of our arrival. We got the photo book back along with the toy, clothes & camera we had sent ahead. She didn’t cry until we undressed her to change her diaper then she let it rip. Fortunately her foster mom had sent cookies that she likes so we bribed her with them. She also liked the lights & music from the Vtech book we had brought. Thanks Lori & Swilley. We had to go back to the Adoption Affairs Office to finalize our adoption. After paying fees, answering silly questions like “do you like your baby” and signing a few pieces of paper she is officially ours. After a few hours she began to loosen up a bit. She laughed & played when we tickled her. She even grabbed my face & pulled it to hers. This was a big surprise. The day was very busy & very intense so the pictures are not the best. She was a good eater at dinner. She loves rice & watermelon but she hasn’t drank any formula for us yet. We did get a few ounces of grape juice in her though. Everyone was amazed at how well she was eating. We came up to our room to ready for bed but again she hated having her clothes taken off & really got mad when we tried to give her a bath so it was fast & practically a spit bath. She had not had a nap all day so she was exhausted. She fought sleep intensely. She finally fell asleep & slept with mom. Once she fell we weren’t about to try & move her to her crib. Plus the foster mom had said in the paperwork she prefers to sleep with someone. Please continue with your prayers as they are very much needed & appreciated. We do enjoy hearing from you all & sorry we are unable to respond to them all but keep them coming its nice to hear from home.

February 17, 2005 Thursday

Today we spent the morning bonding with Aysia. She took a nap for about 2 hours. I did give her a little dimetapp because she has a little runny nose & sounded a little congested. It may be allergies because so far no fever & the drainage is clear. We ate lunch at KFC & hit the local SuperWalmart for diet coke. Its called Coke Light here. Everything is spicy to eat even things that don’t mention spicy. We ordered popcorn chicken & it was spicy. We feed Aysia the mashed potatoes & gravy and she inhaled them. One thing she does well is eat. All the other parents are having a little difficulty getting their babies to eat & take formula but not us. We are afraid we are going to over feed her. In the afternoon she got a short 1 hour nap before we departed for the Pavilion. It is one of the 3 famous pavilions in China. It was neat to tour it but its cold. Nothing is heated much & it s raining so it goes straight to the bone. Our guide does correct us if we don’t have enough clothes on the babies. So we put 2 shirts, 2 pairs of pants, a pair of socks, a hat with matching mittens, a light weight jacket and a heavy coat on Aysia. They said we did a good job until we got to the restaurant. I took off the hat & the heavy coat to eat & was quickly asked to put the coat back on by our guide Sallie. You can see a picture of her & Aysia in the photo gallery I believe. I did leave her hat off because her hair was wet where she was sweating under the clothes. Its a little annoying but we’ll manage for a few more days. After dinner we did got o the local department store & buy some more of the crackers that Aysia’s foster mom had sent with her. All the babies like them so we bought 3 bags so we’ll have plenty to share. We ended up going to bed about 9:30 pm. We hope to keep you all updated daily but we are having some problems with our internet connection so please be patient with us. We are getting all your emails & do enjoy reading them every morning when we wake up.

February 18, 2005 Friday

We all slept wonderfully, we woke up at 7:00 am. She’s so cute when she’s sleeping. The Chinese people don’t let the babies suck on their fingers or a pacifier so the babies like to suck on the corner of a blanket when they are sleeping. Yesterday on the bus she couldn’t get to her hands or anything to suck on so she used my shirt. It was cute (except for the wet spot on my shirt).             I’m having to sleep with one pillow under my body & one under my head. The beds are like sleeping on the floor. My hip bones on the side are sore to even touch. We got back the documents from the notary at 2:00 pm & had to check them closely to make sure everything was correct on them. We left at 3:00 pm & went to the porcelian shop. We bought the cutest little snoopy bank to go in her room. It has a small chip on hte nose but we only paid like 50 cents for it. They do such beautiful paintings on the porcelian. After shopping we went to get her Chinese passport. It’s red & she’s not smiling in the picture but at least she’s not crying in the pictures. Finally we went to eat dinner. This kid comes alive at the table. She’ll eat almost anything & doesn’t like to wait until you give it to her. She goes to reaching for everything, chopsticks, food, bowls. Everyone laughs at her because she gets so excited & eats so much food. She makes the other babies look like they aren’t eating at all. We found out that she’s been calling me mama in Chinese. She’s been saying “nu” but we didn’t know what it meant until tonight. It means mama in the local dialect of Chinese. Nothing in English yet but I don’t care at least she said mama first. HaHa. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and had a little birthday cake for baby Ellie. Her 1st birthday was Valentines Day. The icing was shipped but not very sweet. Aysia loved it & I couldn’t feed her fast enough. Tonight when we returned to the room we undressed her over like an hour taking off one article of clothing at a time. She did fine & was fascinated at her skin. She’s never seen it or felt it before. We kept her in just a diaper for about 15 minutes to get her a little used to being naked. She finally had a poopy diaper. Praise the Lord we were getting worried. Poor thing was uncomfortable. She went to bed & only fussed maybe 3 minutes & is sleeping in her crib. We are excited to show her off but we’re also enjoying this time just the 3 of us to bond. I think its good we have to stay in country so long for us to bond better.

February 19, 2005 Saturday

Today we traveled to the orphanage in Fengcheng where Aysia was until she was placed in fostercare. It was a hour & a half ride on the bus to Fengcheng City. The babies did pretty good. Most of them took a nap. The city is very poor. The homes don’t have heating or air conditioning. They wouldn’t allow us to take photos in the orphanage but we could in front of the orphanage. The nannies that work in the orphanage seem to really care about the babies but after being there in the cold you can understand why they keep the babies so bundled up. We met one nanny who came up to me & called Aysia by her Chinese name. I asked the guide to translate & she said the nanny had taken care of Aysia for 3 months. All I had time to say was thank you because we were being rushed away to another wing. She seemed happy to see Aysia & I could have cried & wanted to talk to her more but couldn’t. In the next room we were taken I heard someone say her name but the lady was whisked away & I didn’t have a chance to talk to her either. As we were leaving the lady pointed at Aysia & I made sure to turn Aysia towards her and wave back. It doesn’t seem fair that we travel so far & aren’t able to speak to the nannies hardly at all but we are thankful to have met the one because no one else’s babies were approached or recognized. We returned to the hotel all wishing we could take home more of the children & thankful our little ones are in a warm, loving home now. We ate dinner in the hotel & went next door to the department store & bought an outfit for our newest addition. Then the fun of pakcing again to leave tomorrow for Guangzhou.

February 20, 2005 Sunday

We slept pretty good, woke up & had breakfast in the hotel. Boy are we glad to be leaving for Guangzhou today. We are ready for a new scenery. Our plane left exactly on time. The plane was taxiing down the runway before everyone was even seated. Unfortunately Chris & I didn’t have seats together so Aysia went with me & Chris was on his own. The flight only took an hour & she never cried once. I’m telling you we got the best one. Im not partial or anything. HaHa. We finally arrived at hte White Swan & got checked in. Aysia was a little cranky because she missed her afternoon nap & passed out in like 2 minutes when I was just sitting still. We were surprised she fell asleep so fast. We let her sleep for an hour & a half and woke her up. We didn’t want Chinese food so we ordered pizza. Yes for all of those who Chris, he actually said it was good for a change. Next we went shopping quickly because its late & I bought 3 little dresses. This could be a rough week on the pocketbook. We love you all & look forward to introducing you to the light of our life.

February 21, 2005 Monday

Today was Aysia’s exit medical exam for the US immigrations office. This is required in order for her to be able to enter the U.S.. She did fine until they decided to take her temperature & weight. She weighs 18.9 pounds at 14.5 months. She did have on a shirt, diaper, & pants so we’ll see exactly when we get back to the States & they strip her to weigh her. We also spent 3 hours filling out our paperwork for the U.S. Consulate in order to get her into the U.S. & make her a citizen. Chris stayed in the room with Aysia & they took a nap while mom did the paperwork. Real surprising to you all I’m sure. As far as meals go the food here is much better. You can eat exotic if you chose but we are longing for American food now. We did lots of shopping today & I’m going to have to buy a suitcase to carry it all home in. Aysia is really starting to babble & we think she’s trying to say “thank you” because for the past several days we’ve been playing this game where she hands us a toy & we say thank you each time so that’s where she is getting thank you from. Chris is still trying hard for Daddy though. We look forward to Friday night & don’t be surprised if she doesn’t give lots of smiles right away. She’s a thinker & is always checking things out. She gives lots of smiles when its just 2 or 3 people around though. We send hugs & kisses to all the nieces & nephews.

February 22, 2005 Tuesday

Today started out pretty much the same. The breakfast here is really good. You can eat western or Chinese. Guess which we ate? At 8:45 am I went to the American embassy to sign one piece of paper stating that we would get her vaccinated when we get home & Chris had to stay in the room with Aysia in case anyone called from the embassy with questions about our application for her a visa. Aysia & Chris took a nap while they waited. We heard around 11:00 am that everything was okay & we left our room headed for McDonalds. Chris doubted my map skills for a while because it was a long walk according to American standards but not Chinese. We were the only non Chinese people eating there. The food tasted the same as in the U.S. but the seating area was on the second & third floors. Needless to say we got quite a few stares & smiles. Aysia didn’t seem to notice so much as we kept feeding her French fries & cookies. She’ll fit into our family great, she loves watermelon, mashed potatoes, & cookies. We stopped at a shop called Jordans for a little shopping on our way back to the hotel. I’m actually getting sick of shopping. Once back at the hotel we all 3 took a nap. For dinner we ate at a Western Restaurant that had a building in the middle but an old train car on each end. The food was good & nice to eat someplace different. We got back tot he hotel & took a few pictures & returned to our room to settle down for the evening. The crib is larger than Aysia is used to so she is enjoying kicking the side rails & talking for about 30 minutes before falling off to sleep. Wait until we get her home & our crib is big in comparison. We are beginning to get very excited about coming home & look forward to American food. No Chinese food for a little while, I think I’ve had my fill.

February 23, 2005 Wednesday

We started this morning by going to the consulate & swearing that all the paperwork we have filled out is correct to the best of our knowledge then we got Aysia’s passport back with her immigrant visa inside so we can now go home! We are ready. China has been nice but not as nice as my own bed & food. We put Aysia down for her afternoon nap & she woken up scratching all over. I put some cream on her to help with the itching & checked with some other parents who were having similar problems so we wonder if there isn’t some bed bugs in the cribs. We ate dinner & turned in with Aysia sleeping with me instead of the crib.

February 24, 2005 Thursday

I didn’t sleep well because of Aysia tossing & turning and Chris coughing like crazy. He has a cold poor thing. I got in the shower at 3:00 am China time & we checked out of the hotel at 6:00 am heading to the airport. We left Guangzhou for Hong Kong at 8:20 am. Once we go to Hong Kong we had a lay over until 12:50 then we left for San Francisco (11:50 am on Wednesday EST). We had lots of turbulence on the flight. Aysia did well except for the hour she falls asleep for the night China time. She managed to get maybe 6 hours of sleep on the flight. We landed in San Francisco at 8:30 am PST (11:30 am EST). Aysia is now a US citizen. We checked in to our hotel & took a nap. We are going to get dinner & turn in early. See you tomorrow in Valdosta, GA. Yeah!!

February 25, 2005 Friday

Sorry it has taken me so long to post our arrival home story. We had a good flight from San Francisco to Atlanta. On the flight Aysia started running a fever so we gave her some Tylenol & it worked well. We had an hour layover in Atlanta & then boarded for home. We landed in Valdosta at 8:15 pm & were greeted by approximately 46 friends & family members. It was great. Lots of tears, balloons, & signs welcoming us home. Aysia did great. She didn’t cry, she just observed everyone. She was really intrigued by the little cousins running around. We got home & in bed by 10:30 pm EST. It’s nice to be home!