Home Sweet Home!

It's hard to believe at this time exactly one week ago today we were boarding a flight to Tokyo to start our journey home.  Our girl traveled like a real pro.  Several of the individuals seated near us on the plane commented on how well she behaved.  I will admit, once, about 7 hours into the flight from Tokyo to Detroit she did have a "moment" and felt the need to let everyone in our section of the plane know that she was tired and was more than ready to put her feet on the ground.  Luckily after an hour of crying she completely wore herself out fell asleep for the rest of the flight.

When we arrived home we were met at the airport by 24 of our friends and family members.  We were completely exhausted but thrilled to see everyone with their signs and balloons. We feel so fortunate to have so many wonderful people in our lives who, of course, all loved the girl.

This week I have enjoyed taking a break from travel and blogging.  It's been so nice to stay at home and just enjoy our time as a little family. The three of us are still slowly adjusting to the time change and Leah is gradually whipping Dave and I into shape.  It has been such a fun time.  Over the next few weeks I'll try to post periodically and give you a little glimpse into our crazy world, but for now you will simply have to settle for a few "Welome Home" photos.  Take care everyone!

Farewell China

My little blogger is in my lap this evening helping me write my "farewell to China" post.  I have so many thoughts running through my head right now.  I'm excited to be leaving for home in a few hours, however I'm sad that our girl will be leaving her homeland along with all that she knows and loves.  I know that there are people here in China who loved our girl enough to give her a chance for a better life, and a special caretaker that cried when she talked about her little WanYi.  I hope that Dave and I can live up to their expectations.  Several folks have told us how lucky our girl is to be going to America, I happen to think that we are the ones who are lucky and have been truly blessed with our own little angel from China. 

I want to thank everyone for their kind comments to our posts and especially for remembering us in prayer -  not only over the past three weeks, but over the past five years as we have patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) waited on God to prepare the perfect little person for us.  We know that He definitely has a plan for our girl and we are humbled and honored for being selected as Leah's parents. 

We seriously debated on going to the Disney Resort today, but in the end decided Leah was probably too young to enjoy the experience.  Instead we spent the afternoon in Kowloon Park and browsed through a few of the shops downtown.  A leisurely way to end a magical trip.

Dave purchased this stroller over a week ago.  Today is the first day Leah has spent any real time riding along.

The girl loves to play peek-a-boo.  In this photo you can see the two bottom teeth that can have come in this week.

Our last day in China

As our girl takes her mid-morning nap Dave and I are trying to decide what to do with our last afternoon in China.  Yesterday our group flew from Guangzhou back to Hong Kong to start the final trek home.  In order to fly free using Dave's frequent flier miles we stayed over an extra day.  It was either pay $50 for a hotel room or pay a couple thousand to fly home on Sunday.  Hmmm... as much as I would love to be on my way home right now, we decided to save the money and stay the extra day.  By the way, our prayers were answered and Leah did awesome on the flight yesterday.  She travelled like a real pro.  We gave her a bottle at take off and she slept until the plane touched down in Hong Kong. We couldn't ask for a better trip.  We are praying for the same experience again tomorrow on the big flight home.

This evening Dave and I will make our final blog posts for the trip and add a few pictures of the Hong Kong locations we decide to visit today. 

Our last day in Guangzhou

Tonight,  I have a little girl in my lap helping me type.  At 7:00 pm she was out cold, now (shortly after 9:00 pm) she is wide awake.  I'm hoping that a little blogging will put her to sleep. 

Our last day in Guangzhou was one of rest and relaxation.  We slept in this morning, ate a late breakfast, wondered around the hotel and napped.  This afternoon we visited the park across the street then at 4:30 pm we met the group to collect our new US Visas for the girls.

Tomorrow we fly back to Hong Kong.  We are hoping the girl fares much better on this leg of the trip.

We didn't take many photos today.  Dave loved the fact the Lamborghini store and the Toto Toilet Store where in the same building across the street from our hotel.

Leah loves to touch everything including several statues in the park.

Herding Cats

Today our group made our last official visit to a government agency to complete our adoption paperwork.  We all got a little teary at the US Consulate as we took our oath and submitted paperwork which will allow us to bring our babies back into the United States as legal immigrants.  It's hard to believe that we are so close to finally coming home. 

In adoption world the red couch at the White Swan Hotel on Shamian Island in Guangzhou is famous.  Unfortunate for us the hotel is partially closed for renovations so we are staying at the Marriott a few miles away. In keeping with tradition our group decided to make our way this evening to the White Swan to take our group photos.  In my opinion, the whole picture experience was equivalent to herding cats.  The red couch was not accessible due to a private party on the second floor so we had to settle for a brown couch on the third.  Our girls looked great in their traditional Chinese outfits, if only we could have got them to pose.

Our last visit to a government building

Our family photo taken in front of the fountains at the White Swan Hotel.

Our whole adoption family.  I can honestly say that there are twelve little girls going to eleven wonderful homes.  I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting and traveling with each and every person in our group.

We started with 5....

Then attempted to add the rest.  That's when things got a little crazy. 
Even still, don't you think this is a beautiful group of girls?

A new day in Guangzhou

Yesterday our group flew from Nanchang to Guangzhou, China.  All was well on our flight until the pilot announced "we are now starting our decent into Guangzhou".  Shortly thereafter our girl started crying uncontrollaby and didn't stop until Dave got off the plane with her.  We tried everything we knew to do and finally just laugh about the situation.  She was miserable and so was most of the people setting near us.  It was definitely one of those moments when I used to think, "why don't those parents do something with that child...."  Now I can empathize with anyone traveling with an upset child.  It's no fun.

With that said, today was a new day in Guangzhou, all seemed to be right in Leah's world again. Today we had passport photos made, visited the clinic for a physical examination, filled out paperwork, and enjoyed dinner with the group.

Leah getting her passport photo made at a small store on Shamian Island.

I don't know if I have mentioned this or not, but we have a terrific group of big brothers and sisters traveling with us.  I liked this photo of them killing time while the babies got their photos made.

The group waiting for the medical examinations to begin.

As you can probably tell the girl was not happy during parts of the exam. 

I just love this photo of the girl, and thought I would end the blog with a snapshot of her from dinner this evening.

Mid trip packing.

Most writers write because they feel a need to write, I write tonight to avoid helping Cary pack for our trip tomorrow.  Actually my packing methods do not suit Cary and standing to the side seems easier.  But when it comes to changing diapers I'm front and center.  We havn't mastered the solo change for baby bombs yet, so I hold and position Leah for the right angle for Cary to wipe up the green goo that somehow comes from white milk.  I find the whole diaper changing thing as one of my fatherly strengths, no smell can sway my focus on ensuring Leah's little booty is clean as sunshine.   It says alot about me if this is a strength.

We leave tomorrow for our last paper processing at the US consulate.  Leah has to take an oath to be a good US citizen and not drive her parents into early dimentia.  I'm recording it as proof for later when her sweet 16 coinsides with my semi-sweet 60.  Cary and I both feel so blessed and thankful she is ours and look forward our family finding our way.

Cary is very sad about leaving tomorrow since it means our return to normal life is close at hand.  My sadness is eased by thoughts of laying on my TemperPedic bed back home, boy these beds are hard over here.  The Chinese people are tough and I hope we never go to war with them, anybody who could sleep in these beds and fight the next day is not to be messed with.  Everyone in China has been so nice to us and we plan to come back when Leah is older.

Cary is close to finishing so I better stop and help a little, got to save some face even though she knows my shallow intent.