Laina The Lion

Today I had to take Laina down to the Outpatient Lab at the hospital for her blood tests. The adopted children from China have to be tested for many things, among them are HIV, Tuberculosis, Hepatitus A and B, and Lead poisoning. She was an angel in the waiting room, charming everyone by waving and smiling whenever they looked our way, and then we were called in.....she screamed and GROWLED like you wouldn't believe when they had to take her blood. We all survived but I overheard people talking in the hallways afterward, wondering what was happening to THAT BABY, and thank God they were done doing whatever it was! She can really rock the house! We were fine as soon as she was sitting in my lap, having a lunch-bottle; casually pretending that it couldn't possibly have been US causing all that rucous. I amposting a few family photos, as last weekend we introduced Laina to all kinds of people. One is of her with Aunt Betsy and her dog, Summer. The second is of Grandpa and Laina, the third is of her cousin Jacob and her at the piano, another is of her and her Aunt Trish. There is one of her and her cousin Amy also. She was really great about letting everyone hold her and feed her, we are happy about that because we are both from big families who love babies.

Mirror, Mirror

Wow! May 3rd already, I can't believe we have been home almost 2 weeks. Laina is doing very well, she is a joy to be around. Yesterday she discovered herself in the mirror, and the day before she discovered her tongue so now she sticks it out all the time, including at her reflection in the mirror which makes her crack up! I will post a picture of her, but I couldn't catch the tongue. I am also posting a couple of pictures of the Guangxi Girls, the other 3 cuties from Laina's Province. They are Roma, Jianna, and Isabella. We miss them and hope to have a get-together soon with them and their families. It will be fun and meaningful to keep in touch with all of them. Everyone got along fantastically and we can't wait to see them again!

Settling In

I promised to keep this going, so I apologize for the delay. We have been busily settling in with Laina, and introducing her to all her family, neighbors and friends. She is very willing to be held by strangers and is quite sociable with everyone. I am attaching a few photos tonight. One is of Laina with me, she is in traditional dress and we are at a Buddhist Temple for a blessing of the babies. Another shot is of a beautiful Pagoda roofline in a park that we went to in Beijing. The details in the architecture are so beautiful and intricate. The third shot is a picture of our first hotel room in Beijing, the linens were very soft but the bed was not! Pretty, though, and the amenities were everything you'd expect in a nice hotel in the U.S., we had a blow dryer, 2 bathrobes and slippers, an in-room safe, TV, phone, lots of complimentary toiletries, a mini-bar with snacks and soda as well as liquor, big towels, and regular housekeeping every time we went out. I will put one more photo up tonight, it's of a ribbon-dancer in the park. There were so many activities going on there, lots of musicians and dancers of all sorts. The ribbon dancing is beautiful in the sun and looks like fun. I have been working on photos, downloading them and cropping them, etc. It's a bit of work with almost a thousand pictures! More to come!

Day Four at Home

Laina is settling in pretty well, although Sunday night was the first night we actually slept more than 2 hours since we got back! She is still on 'China Time' and wants to sleep all day and play all night. We are all a little dazed but trying to enjoy the nice weather and take some short walks and get out to visit. I am posting a picture of Laina and our kitty, Nick, to show how they stay close, he really seems to like her. We introduced her to our piano today, Jimmy recently acquired this old player piano from 1920, and just for fun we opened it up for her. She loved it and banged away at the keys. She likes anything that makes noises so maybe she'll be a musician some day...who knows? It is so fun to see her inspect new things. I'll put up a picture of her at the piano too. Just finished downloading all 953 photos from China, so I can easily find something to show you all from our trip! Our group will be sharing pictures also, since we couldn't help but take pix of the other families and all the cuties. Here's one of the mommies and the girls at the entrance to the zoo in Nanning. It was a really nice zoo, but no pandas, and the famous Asian elephants were inside where we couldn't see them. We did go to a dolphin show, and saw monkeys, lion, tigers, exotic birds and lots of other things. While we were there, a young couple came up to me and asked" will you take picture?', I said sure and reached for the camera, but he indicated that they wanted to take a picture of ME! I smiled and stood there, and now I wonder what story they will tell when sharing their photo albun....a white amazon woman? A frizzy-haired freak?(it was very humid, and anyone that knows me, knows that my hair is kind of, well, fuzzy and huge in that weather) We'll never know..

Homecoming

Home at Last! We made it back mid-afternoon yesterday and were welcomed by our Waiting Parents Group with a banner, flowers, toys and hugs. Laina was squeezed by all and didn't mind a bit. A few tears were shed, as we all share our adoption experiences together and understand the long road it can take to bring your baby home. Laina seemed to settle right in. She decided the car seat was a sleeping place, thankfully. She enjoys the kitties and claps when they come to her. Nick, our big male tabby seems to like her and rubs up against her even though she grabs him pretty roughly. We introduced her to a few new toys, including a bouncy seat that she absolutely loves. We are all a bit out of sorts with the time change and all, so today we are doing a lot of napping and slowly starting to unpack. Laina is taking her first nap in her own room. She slept in our room last night, since she was used to being next to us in a crib in the hotels we decided that was the comfy place to start, besides the fact that we feel the need to admire her every few minutes! The sun is shining, as soon as Laina and Jimmy wake up I hope to take a stroll around the neighborhood and visit a couple of people. I just posted a bunch of photos so make sure to look around the blog, there's some new stuff. I am going to try and post a video of her in the bouncy seat, hope it works! You should be able to click on the still photo to get the video to start. We intend to keep posting so our family and friends who are not nearby can enjoy the Laina experience from afar.

Back to America

We slept well at the hotel, but arrived there late so didn't see anything but our eyelids until breakfast. Had to once again, have bags ready and gathered for the buses to the airport. Most, but not all of the families were on the same flight home, so some goodbyes were said for those who went other directions. The airport was frustrating and very hot. We had to go through immigration and customs and check our bags, get our seat assignments, etc., with babies and documents, etc. Jimmy and I were unable to get seats together, and it's a 13 1/2 hour flight back to Newark! Other people were actually assigned seats away from their kids, as young as 2! It was a madhouse and there was a little 'road-rage' but we all finally got on the plane and played musical chairs with people until we were together. Jimmy and I got very lucky and a Chinese woman gave us her window seat next to Jimmy and took my icky center seat between 2 other people. We sat with a nice businessman named Don who said not to worry about him, and to get up whenever we needed to and I could even use his tray table if I needed to when Laina was in my lap. She was an angel, she couldn't have dreamed that she'd be so easy. The flight was gruelling, I was so uncomfortable and hot and tired of sitting. Laina, however, got laid on a makeshift bed of our tray tables and slept like a log! 10 hours out of 13! The rest of the time, she either had a bottle, was walking the aisles and going to get changed, or watching Tom & Jerry cartoons on the little portable DVD player we had bought. The stewardesses all said that she was the best and we proudly agreed. Many families had screaming babies, sick, and frustrated other children along with them, and were still seething from the airport frustrations. It was a tough trip and we were all overjoyed when the long flight ended. Jimmy, Laina and I had one more short flight to T.F.Green airport in Rhode Island, but we were happy to stretch and lounge during our layover. The last flight ended up being delayed and we didn't reach RI until midnight. We were starving and Laina had more formula and the grownups had burgers and fries from an all-night Wendy's before trying to sleep on American-time so the jet lag wouldn't be so bad. China is exactly 12 hours ahead, so day is night and night is day, it is a very difficult adjustment. The king-sized bed was soft and cushy so we managed a few hours and got up early to head for home at last.

Back on the Bus

The next morning we had to have all our bags packed again and left outside our rooms for the bellhops. Jimmy and I had to buy another small suitcase after all the shopping we had done! We had an excellent breakfast(the best buffet of the trip) and put all the babies in traditional chinese finery for a group photo, posed on a large red couch. This was, of course, a zoo. The babes were climbing all over each other, little ones were toppling and mommies were trying to hide behind the couch and hold their kids without being seen, it was pretty funny! Laina sat cooly in the front and only started crying when all the other babies did.By the way, there will definitely be more pictures posted, I am essentially sleep-walking here, and have not downloaded off the camera yet, so keep looking for the next couple of days and scroll down as I can add photos to the appropriate posts that I've written already. After the Photos in the hotel, we all got ourselves and stuff back on the buses to go to the Six Banyan Temple to have the babies and families blessed by the Buddhist monks there. It was beautiful and quite moving for both Jimmy and I. Afterward, we strolled the courtyards and other areas within the temple grounds. We loaded back on the bus and headed for lunch. The trip seemed to have caught up to some of us, as we realized that the journey was soon ending, the adrenaline was waning and our minds were settling on going home to our new lives with our children. We went to a Park called the Five Rams and wandered a bit but some of us just found a nice spot to sit with the kids. We were basically spending time until the appointment at about 4 p.m. at the Consulate. Finally we were on our way and arrived at the Consulate building. We were told to bring only our passports and our babies, no cameras or bags inside. We were ushered through the building to a large room.Family by family, we went up to a glass-enclosed counter so they could make sure that we had the right babies, etc., then we were all told to stand and raies our right hands for the swearing in ceremony. It wasn't long, but it made our adoptions official in China, so we all cheered and congratulated each other afterward. We were given Laina's passport and immigrant visa to have and to use taking her out of China. We have alot of beautiful, official documents from this process. The Chinese love their papers! After the ceremony, we got back on the bus and headed for the airport to fly to anothe hotel near the airport in Beijing for the final leg of our journey to bring Laina home.

April 17 in Guangzhou

The next day we were confined to the island in case problems came up with our paperwork which was being processed via our guides elsewhere. We didn't mind because we had some exploring and shopping to do, we knew it might be our last chance since we were only there for one more night. The hotel is beautiful, there's a huge indoor waterfall, shops inside with extraordinary things; jade sculptures like a miniature horse, incredibly ornate ones like a cornicopia of fruit and foods all done in different colored jade, ivory and other stones. Some sold for hundreds of thousands of US dollars and were museum quality. There was a playroom, game rooms, a massage parlor(Jimmy enjoyed a good massage there, but no one walked on his back as he had been wishing for), hair salons, restaurants and shops all within the hotel building. Outside, we rented a stroller(for free actually, from the place we had our laundry done) and enjoyed checking out the island. The vendors and shopkeepers are very forward and greet you on the street and proclaim the beauty and low prices in their shops; we soon learned that most of the shops carried the same products and we could easily bargain down the prices. Something I had bought for 120 Yuan at the Jade Factory I was able to purchase another here for only 30!(120 Yuan is about $15 US, 30 would be about $3.50). We found there was a Starbucks, which was out of place but we really appreciated a good cup of coffee at last! That day Jimmy and I also found Lucy's Cafe that had an American burger on the menu for lunch. It tasted great after 3 meals a day of Chinese food. We loved the food there, but needed a change sometimes. After getting our laundry and other things in order, we met up with the whole group to walk to a Cantonese Restaurant for dinner. We had babies, 28 of them, in strollers, etc. and suddenly the skies darkened and a squall kicked up, we had to make a mad dash for it in the wind and rain, laughing and screaming all the way. I put Laina inside my windbreaker with just her head poking out and she was giggling the whole time, the hostesses had a good chuckle at our appearance at the Restaurant. Dinner with agroup like that takes some time so after that, it was back to our rooms, baths for the babes and bed for all.

The Story Continues

Hello; Sorry we couldn't post for a few days, we were rushing around from place to place and couldn't get to a computer, so we'll try to catch up. Let's see..on our last night, we all met as usual in a large dining room, where we had the place to ourselves. Glenn had put a beautiful "love ball" as a centerpiece in the table. We had a gift and a tip to give Glenn and we all told him how much he had meant to us, and what a great guide he had been. He said we were one of the most memorable groups he had ever had. Our friend, Peeps, had a hidden talent that she shared with us, she could do ventriloquism! She got Zacchary on her knee first, then Bob, then Jimmy, and then Glenn. She made them "sing" funny songs and there were a lot of laughs as everyone tried to be the "dummy".I videotaped it too. The next morning, April 16th, we had to leave so after dinner we all headed to our rooms to pack, most of us had our doors open and everyone was trying to give each other things to lighten up the suitcases, and were also tyrying to drink the last of the wine they had bought.We were all laughing and deciding what we could ditch out of our stuff. Things like a jar of peanut butter, paperbacks, other American snacks and some miscellaneous toiletries,just didn't make the cut. There was a lot of discussion about the weight limits of the bags and trying to convert from the metric system on the scales in our rooms.
We had to get all our bags packed and locked, meet the group for breakfast, and get to the airport for a 10:20 flight to Guangzhou. We were all a bit sad to leave Nanning. It was a beautiful, clean and friendly city and we were really getting comfortable there with our little group. At the airport we had to say goodbye to Glenn and get ready for taking our babies out of their Province for the first time. They all behaved, Laina slept like a log and we arrived a couple hours later. As we entered the airport, another plane was also unloading with some of the other families from our extended group. We all started laughing and crying and meeting each others' babies and then the babies started up, so soon everyone was crying and hugging, it was unbelievable! We managed to all the luggage and everone on board the 2 buses and headed for the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. The White Swan is located on Shamian Island, a 44-acre area of old mansions built by trading companies from Britain, The U.S., France, Holland, Italy, Germany, Portugal and Japan. It was initially set up as an enclave for foreign merchants. These buildings have since turned into Government buildings, churches, and hotels and loads of little shops, galleries, and eateries.In the center of the island runs a long park with courtyards and playgrounds and landscaped grounds to stroll. The afternoon we arrived, we had to check in all the families and get all the luggage brought to the rooms, etc., the lobby was a complete madhouse! We had about 1/2 hour to get "settled in" and meet back downstairs. We walked a few blocks to the office where we had the visa photos taken for the babys' immigrant visas, and then walked to another building for their medical check-ups. The clinic was quite clean and well organized. There were 3 stations to go through, the first one was getting the height, weight, length and also the baby's temperature. The second was the eyes, ears, and throat place where they basically played a toy keyboard and made sure that the baby responded and followed things with her eyes, etc. We started at that station and Laina absolutely HATED the ear probe gizmo, and she started screaming bloody murder and never stopped until all the checkups were done. The third station was basically a body look-over. Although she was ornery, Laina passed and calmed down as soon as we left. After we got back, Jimmy took Laina and went along woth some other daddies to the pool. Nancy had to go to the "white-out"party, where we have to fill out multiple forms and applications for the baby's visas. That took 2 1/2 hours, and we all definitely used the white-out a few times! For supper we were given a pizza for our room and sleep came pretty early.

Last Day in Nanning

We've had another busy day. This morning we went to a Buddhist temple on the highest point in Nanning. Everyone was lighting incense and bowing, there were other statues of Buddha's students from the stories and legends. Jimmy went up to a monk with Glenn, he requested him to bless and wish the remainder of Burge's ashes a safe journey, wwhich he did; he said a prayer, rang some bells and blessed him with something like holy water. He also patted the picture and gave Jimmy the Thumbs-up sign which was a sign to Jimmy himself because Burge always did that. They had beautiful things for sale, there was a lot of incense burning, we were not allowed to take pictures as it is bad luck to take photos of the Buddha and considered disrespectful. We climbed the tower at the highest point, but it was a cloudy morning so the views were hidden. Then we went down the hill to a beauful park, where strolled around. Jimmy had fun with some old chinese ladies, posing for pictures with them. They seemed thrilled and smiled the whole time. We saw children in a huge plastic bubble, like a gerbil ball, actually out on the water, seemed like fun but must have been hot in there! From the park, we went to lunch. It as one of the first times we were in a restaurant with a lot of other people. There was a lot of staring. At the end of the meal, Sandra, or "Peeps", and Jimmy decided to try some of the local delicacies; scorpions, worms, ants, bees, and Jimmy's favorite, big crunchy black beetles. Yummy! Then we went on to the famous Nanning Market, a large area of vendors selling just about anything ; trinkets, bunnies, birds, dogs, jade, coins, plastic junk, lots and lots of beaded jewelry, everyone picked up some treasures to help us remember our time here. Our suitcases are definitely going to be over the weight limit! I will be adding some photos later on today. Laina seems to love the outdoors and just coos the whole time we are strolling and everyone wants to hold her, which we allow since she doesn't mind. She has started clapping, and is smiling a lot more. Tonight we have to try and pack to head into Guangzhou for the final visas for the babies. We'll stay at the White Swan Hotel for two nights, which is a beautiful place that really caters to the international adoption families. We'll have pictures with the whole extended group, do any last-minute shopping that we can and will have a couple of appointments to complete Laina's documents. For some reason we could see the blog today, not sure why.Thanks for all the great comments! It was the first time since we left that we could read them. I have edited a few things, Laina only weighs 15 pounds by the way, I blame my mistake on the anxiety and sleep deprivation from the first night! There is the Prime Minister staying here so a lot of bigwigs are around the hotel, and there's a red carpet in the main lobby that no one can go on but him. We just met a nice family in the gift shop who will be getting their baby tomorrow, amazing to share these life-changing times. We cannot express how polite and friendly the Chinese people are here, we feel very welcomed and do our best to be as respectful and kind as they are. Tonight is our last dinner with Glenn, it will be sad but also celebratory of all that he has shared with us. Not really looking forward to getting on a small plane with kids and luggage tomorrow, but it's only an hour flight. Our Laina is usually a very content baby but we will give her some drops for ear pain just in case.Getting up early so the next post will be from Guangzhou, hopefully we can figure out a computer set-up. Can't believe we'll be heading home in less than a week, everything seems surreal! Oh, also wanted to mention that not one person in our group has been sick at all, we just don't drink the water. We are now sleeping well as are the babies, and the food is great so we are eating well too. Really didn't need all the snacks we brought and they will probably be left behind to make room in the bags, among other things!