Pictures from April 14th & 15th

Hopefully late is better than never!

Here are a few of my favorites:

Red Couch Cutie

I'm an American Girl!

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Miss Diva at Starbucks

Slideshow of pictures from Monday April 14th. This went the Stir Crazy post and video of Ben beating Adam in Chinese Chess.

It is sort of an adoption tradition to take photos of the children and families in traditional Chinese clothing on one of the red couches in the White Swan hotel. Here is a crazy slideshow of us trying to get a good photo of a a very energetic and somewhat uncooperative Eliana, looking cute as can be in her Chinese silk and tutu. At this point, we had the room packed up and just needed to get the photo so we could change clothes and check out to head to the U.S. Consulate and then the airport!

After check-out, we had our U.S. Consulate appointment and swearing-in ceremony. So, of course Miss Eliana had to be dressed appropriately!

Tuesday afternoon on the 15th we had a ceremony at the US Consulate where we had to stand and raise our right hand, and along with a room full of adoptive parents and some screaming children, promise that we filled out our paperwork truthfully. Then we received Eliana's Chinese passport with US Visa and a brown envelope of papers to hand to the immigration officials at the airport when we arrived in the US, which were instructed not to open under any circumstances. After we were done, we headed to the Guangzhou airport and said goodbye to our guide Bob and our driver and prepared to head to Beijing. We had enough time in the airport for Ben to enjoy a very American meal - McDonald's. We had an uneventful flight and Kathy, the Chinese liaison for our adoption agency, met us at the airport.

We got checked into the Marriott Courtyard Beijing at New World Center some time around midnight or so. The nicest thing I can say about this hotel is that it has a very convenient location. It is located north of the Temple of Heaven and south of Tienanmen Square and is connected to the New World Center mall, which has a food court on the 5th floor and a supermarket in the basement. The hotel's customer service and management is sub-par for Marriott. The room was newly renovated, but the bathroom was still not great and the room was was tiny and hot - they did not run the air. We asked for a fan and were told to open the window (it was already opened). They did start running the A/C on our 2nd or 3rd night. Thankfully, we were so busy in Beijing that we did not spend much time in our room. It was very convenient to be able to walk from the 2nd floor of the hotel directly into the mall or from the 5th floor into the food court - we recommend the Indian curry restaurant there. They went way out of their way to accommodate us about 5 minutes prior to closing and were very sweet to Eliana - bringing her a balloon and filling her bottle with hot water for us.

I will post more about our adventures in Beijing over the next couple of days! Eliana slept from 10pm to 6am on Tuesday night. Hooray! I ventured to the post office with her this morning at 10:15am and she immediately fell fast asleep in the car, which was not her regular nap schedule. She only slept for an hour before I was able to wake her for a shopping stop at Babies R Us (needed a hearth cushion before I had a heart attack from near misses), but her schedule was off for the rest of the day. I tried to get another hour nap in for her from 2-3 but she refused and then tried to sleep through Ben's piano lesson at 5:00, but mean Mama made her walk around outside to keep her awake.

After a wonderful dinner provided by our neighbor and friend Ronni, Adam, Ben & Eliana all crashed hard around 8:30pm! I got a few things done around the house (including installing that hearth cushion) and I FINALLY got these pics posted, and now I must be off to bed myself.

Please keep checking back for more pictures of our trip. I have so much more to share and I will try to squeeze it in when I can. We do seem to be settling into a routine, though I don't think I will venture out in the morning again!

All for now, LB

She's napping! Quick update on home life...

Hi everyone! Oh, how I have missed blogging with you all and reading your comments. Miss Eliana is keeping me on my toes!

Thursday afternoon we arrived at Dulles to the warm welcome of several of our wonderful friends, complete with welcome sign and balloons. It was so great! They also brought a caravan of cars for our luggage and our family. Thank you Laurie, Jill, Zoe, Joanie & Rob for the fantastic welcome. I know people snapped pictures and I am sure they are in my email inbox somewhere, so I will try to post those in the next week. Eliana did great riding in her new friend Hope's carseat on the way home. I was prepared for the worst, but there was not a single tear on the 15 quick trip. Hooray!

What a wonderful surprise was waiting for us when we got home. The neighbors on our street had our yard decorated with red hearts and a sign that said "Welcome Home, Eliana - you are in our hearts!" On our mailbox was a posterboard with pictures of all of the children who live on our street, which they had each signed. Eliana was very impressed with the hearts and especially the balloons on the mailbox and the pictures of her future friends. Thank you, thank you, to our wonderful friends and neighbors for the warm welcome home!

Poor Adam was home literally an hour - just long enough to pack another suitcase and head BACK to the airport to fly to California for an important meeting that couldn't wait. Such is the life of a business man! Although we missed him, we had a pretty good first night home. We felt badly for him to be on yet another plane and in another hotel room. Ben was such a trooper and an amazing helper. Grandma was there to welcome us and lend a hand. Our airport welcoming committee also brought us a yummy Passover dinner of chicken, roasted potatoes and asparagus which made things much easier! Eliana fell fast asleep before dinner (luckily she had a good snack at 4:00) and Ben couldn't keep his eyes open after 7 pm, so off to bed he went. I tried to be good and not stay up too late doing things so that I could be competent when needed in the middle of the night. I did get the dirty laundry unpacked and sorted and started a couple of loads. I don't remember what time Eliana ended up in bed with me. Ben was up at 3am and I think was in the shower by 4:30am or so. I think Eliana and I slept fitfully on and off until around 7:30am or so.

On Friday I somehow managed to finish the laundry, sort 3 weeks worth of mail and pay the bills. Other than the laundry, the suitcases are still laid out all over the dining room waiting for me to come in and sort through the gifts and souvenirs and get organized. We got Eliana outside to greet the neighborhood kids as they came streaming down the street after school. She seemed completely unphased by the crowd of kids and enjoyed the attention. I did let Eliana nap too long while I was doing household tasks and paid for it that night! Adam got home around 1am Saturday morning and somehow still was functional enough to be a great help with Eliana in the middle of the night.

Saturday and Sunday are somewhat of a blur. We tried to get out in the sunshine during the day to help reset our internal clocks and the rest of the weekend was spent getting caught up with phone calls, emails, school work and house work. Springtime has sprung in northern Virginia and our yard is a jungle! My apologies to the neighborhood -we will try to rectify that soon. :o)

All in all Eliana is adapting amazingly well. She has really bonded to both Ben and Adam and will let them play with her and even take her on strolls without mama! She LOVES to eat and loves bathtime. Bedtime is NOT her favorite and she fights it. Mama can not lay her down unless she is SOUNDLY asleep (which often means mama ends up dozing off as well). She really likes her room and enjoys the toys in it. She is interested in the books too, but only for about 30 seconds or so. She likes her new stroller and even her car seat! She was pretty scared of the pets at first but has warmed up to them quite a bit. She especially likes Bailey the cat. She and our dog, Tigger, still are a little weary of each other. Tigger just looked at us like "I have already raised a child (Ben) and I am retired now - do you really expect me to look after ANOTHER one?". However, he does enjoy being under her high chair at mealtime and I have noticed that wherever Eliana is, he is out of her reach, but very close by, keeping a watchful eye on things. I am sure they will become good friends soon.

Well, I am pushing my luck with naptime. I am going to attempt to post a few pictures from our last 2 days in Guangzhou before waking Eliana to pick up Ben from school and take him to the orthodontist. Stay tuned for more China pics throughout the next week or two!

Laura Beth

The end of an era

Mor Mor & Far Far

June 1987 - 50th Anniversary

This morning, the man I called "Far Far", Danish for 'father's father', my last living grandparent, passed away at the age of 97. As our family celebrates Eliana joining our family we also mourn the loss of Far Far, but also celebrate his life and remember his contributions to our family.

My grandfather immigrated to the United States at the age of 17, leaving his parents and younger siblings and his beloved Denmark to start a new life in America. One of 10 children, he followed one of his older brothers who had come to America before him. He worked hard and put himself through college. He had a beautiful voice and studied vocal performance. There at McPherson College he met a young woman from Kansas who was studying organ performance. They shared a love of music and strong family values and they fell in love and got married. They settled in Urbana, Illinois and raised five children together. He and my grandmother, whom all the grandchildren called "Mor Mor" (Danish for mother's mother), were married for 61 years before she died, almost ten years ago now. Far Far seemed a little lost without his partner in life and the man we all knew and loved seemed to slip away slowly, but his body was strong and kept his spirit bound to the Earth for longer than seemed fair to him, really.

Many of my happiest childhood memories took place at 202 West Iowa Street in Urbana, Illinois at the home of Mor Mor and Far Far. Mor Mor was a wonderful cook and superb hostess for our very large family gatherings. There were often family sing-alongs around the Steinway, almost too Norman Rockwell to be true, but they were. My grandmother or my father would play the piano and we would all sing. Sometimes Far Far would treat us to a solo. If I close my eyes I can still hear his voice singing "Jeg Elsker Dig" - Danish for "I love you". The music was written by Edvard Grieg and the lyrics are one of Danish poet's Hans Christian Andersen's works.

Jeg elsker dig, Far Far. I will miss you and will never forget you.

Laura Beth

Jeg Elsker Dig


Min Tankes Tanke ene du er vorden,
Du er mit Hjertes første Kærlighed.
Jeg elsker Dig, som Ingen her på Jorden,
Jeg elsker Dig i Tid og Evighed!

Translation:
You have become the single thought of my thoughts,
you are the first love of my heart.
I love you as no one else here on Earth,
I love you for time and eternity!

We are home!

Yes, we are home safe and sound. Sorry to take so long to let you all know - I have had my hands full! Please do come back and check this weekend and next week for more pictures. I have SO many more to share! Thanks again for all of the support and well wishes throughout our journey - your comments meant so much to us. Please do check back for the pics and feel free to comment even though we are home! Exhausted in Virginia, LB

Signing off from China!

So much for leisure time! I will have to post our pictures when we get home, so stay tuned! We have lots more to share from our last 2 days in Guangzhou, our 3 packed days in Beijing and our time in Hong Kong! I am sure we will be jet lagged and maybe I can do this in the middle of the night when I should be asleep :0). We will spend the night at the Marriott Courtyard by JFK in NYC tonight after we land (and our Eliana is an American citizen)! We will see some of you tomorrow at Dulles when we land around 1:10pm, coming in on Jet Blue. Bye from China! Love, Laura Beth and the Cohn clan!

We're going to Disneyland!

Actually, we are here! We had a great day yesterday at the Peak in Hong Kong. We were going to take the tram up the mountain, but there was a fallen tree across the tracks from the typhoon, so we took a hair raising bus ride up the mountain to the peak instead. Due to the heavy rains and winds the day before, the air was pretty clear and although it wasn't exactly a 'blue sky day' as they say here, it was the most clear that we have seen it in Hong Kong and we got some good pics from the 360 Skyview Terrace at the top. The forecasted rain never came. Hooray!

We had a delicious Chinese & Thai lunch at a restaurant on the outdoor terrace, did some gift/souvenir shopping (and were amazed at some of the good prices), took a nature walk on the paved 'family' trail and went to Starbucks twice for Frappuccinos! Ben has a new fav - green tea frap. They also had a fabulous children's playground at the Peak, so big brother Ben played and played with his baby sister while Mama had some shopping time alone! It was fabulous!

Fortunately, the tree was cleared from the tram tracks and we were able to take the tram back down the mountain. It is about a 45 degree slope and runs on a steel cable and pulley system under the cars. We were on a similar type of tram in Chattanooga about 10 years ago. Very cool!

Last night we took the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbour from Hong Kong Island, where our hotel was, to Kowloon Island just to say we did it and to see the lights around the Harbour at night. Everyone got pretty grumpy at that point from our busy day, so we went back to the hotel for some club lounge hor d'oeuvres and bed time. Eliana did not go down easily and Baba and GeGe were not amused by her screaming. We finally figured out she is cutting a tooth, so some Orajel and Ibuprofen and a nice cold bottle and teething ring finally did the trick.

I had hoped to cram in some more sites this morning, but no one else was in the mood and we needed to pack to move to our final temporary home before leaving China for home. We are now checked into the beautiful Disneyland Hong Kong Hotel. It is the nicest hotel room we have had on our trip, with an amazing Harbour view. This hotel is the equivalent to the Grand Floridian at Walt Disney World in Florida, but with a much more reasonable price tag. We also lucked out in that we are here in the 'value season'. We weren't sure how Eliana would react, if at all, to Disney, but she is already very familiar with Mickey Mouse and gets quite excited when she sees him and the other characters on anything. We think this may be because one of the bedrooms at True Children's Home had a Mickey theme. We are settling in and hope to visit Mickey garden maze and the pool shortly - which will be our first pool visit of our entire trip, and relax a bit. Tomorrow we go to the park and on Wednesday we will see how it goes. Our flight home begins at 6:40pm, I think on Wednesday and we get our lost day back, as we land in New York Wednesday night.

I am WAY behind on posting pictures and will try to get caught up while we are here! The park is small and closes at 7:30pm, so I hope to have some leisure time. Maybe we can get some Skype calls in again while here in the 7-10am/pm range - so be sure to log in if you want us to call you! We are having a great time, but we are also getting eager to get home.

Hugs from Hong Kong Disney, LB

By popular demand - Bagpipes on the Great Wall of China (Baba update)

For those of you who wished you could have been there to see the bagpipes guy on the Great Wall... Ben captured a video of it! It is low quality because it was from our still picture camera and Ben was holding it sideways. We might fix this when we get back to the states. You can still get a good feel for it.

We are off to see Hong Kong.

Adam

Typhoon-Schmyphoon...Happy Passover from Hong Kong!

We were so incredibly busy in Beijing - so much to see, so little time! We are already talking about what we want to do NEXT time we are in Beijing! So, after another long touring day on Friday, a restaurant adventure and packing our bags (and souvenirs), I got a whopping 4 hours of sleep before waking at 4:20am to get us up and ready to leave by 5:30am for our 8am flight to Hong Kong. Our approach and landing were terribly turbulent and we all felt quite ill by the time we landed. Until we got into our van to our hotel we had no idea that there was a typhoon - no wonder our landing was so rough! I am glad I was blissfully ignorant of this little news tidbit. It was very windy and rained quite hard on the way to our hotel - we are in the Renaissance Harbour View this time for 2 nights before heading to Disneyland Hong Kong. It looks like we are in for four very soggy days thanks to Typhoon Neoguri, the earliest typhoon in a year since WWII. Lucky us! I just hope that we will still be able to take the Star Ferry around the harbour and the tram to the Peak and actually see some sites. Many things were closed today due to high winds and rough seas.

So, what does a family do when they get to their hotel in Hong Kong by 2pm and there is a typhoon? You walk around Hong Kong looking for tacos for your teenage son, of course! Ben has not had Mexican food in over 2 weeks, which is some sort of record for him. He was quite upset when he figured out that we would be getting home in the middle of Passover, so there would be no trip to Taco Bell or On the Border for several days after we got home! So, we asked the people at the front desk where we could find Mexican food in Hong Kong, they gave us a map and walking directions and we were off in the Typhoon! Actually, it wasn't too bad. We were concerned when we first heard the typhoon was rated as a 3, until we realized it is a different scale from our US Hurricane categories. It is windy and rainy, but less than tropical storm conditions here in Hong Kong on the US scale. That's a piece of cake for a native Floridian and his semi-native Floridian wife and child! There are also lots of elevated covered pedestrian walkways here, so we were covered most of the way. Of course, the restaurant turned out to be a bar in the middle of the night life area in Hong Kong, complete with several interesting looking adult entertainment establishments, but actually in a nice area (sounds weird, but true) and we felt completely safe. Ben almost freaked when they wouldn't let us in to the restaurant! Because of the bar, it was ages 18 & up only. Luckily they let us order it to go and we had a pre-Passover Mexican fiesta in our hotel room. Eliana loves guacamole and hogged my chimichanga. She fits right in!

Tonight was the first night of Passover and we were lucky enough to join the United Jewish Community of Hong Kong for their community Passover Seder in a hotel ballroom not far from our hotel. We met some very nice people and the acting Rabbi's wife invited us to come visit with her and her kids, including an 18 month old daughter, later this week at the Jewish Community Center. He is actually the former Rabbi of this congregation and although they live in Israel now they are here temporarily while the congregation needs a Rabbi. How do I get so lucky with Rabbi's wives and their adorable daughters (Hi, Joanie)! We sat with a nice couple and their 2 kids, who have lived in Hong Kong for the past 16 years and are moving back to New York in less than 2 weeks. In the elevator leaving the Seder we also met a couple in ther 60's/70's who used to live in Herndon and attended Beth Emeth! I forgot to get their names, but they do have a son still in Herndon (not a member). I will try to get their names in case anyone I know in VA knows them! They live in Singapore now. What a small world we live in!

Well, I must go get some sleep. There is a trio of snoring behind me as I type. I should make it a quartet. We will play our schedule by ear due to the weather, but after I hopefully sleep in a bit tomorrow morning we will get some more pictures up. And...we DO have the video/audio of the bagpipes on the Great Wall! It is just sideways, so you will have to put your left ear on your left shoulder to watch it. Ben took it with our regular camera as he climbed down and didn't know you couldn't hold it vertically for video. At least you can hear it! :0)


Soggy hugs from Hong Kong, LB

Beijing - What an Amazing city (Baba Update)

Hello all. We are about to start our third day in Beijing. We haven't posted much, because there just hasn't been any time. We are having a wonderful time in Beijing. It is an ancient and amazing city. Our tour guide (Li Li) works for the government tourism bureau and is very knowledgeable about the city and its history... and there is a lot of great history.

The kids have been wonderful. Ben is loving all of the sights and Eliana is a real trooper. We were worried that she might be upset when we left the White Swan, because that had been her home for almost a week, but she doesn't seem to mind as long as mama is close. She has real spirit and fits in well with the family. She is 100% girl, 100% go go go, and likes to things her own way... much like someone else in the family. It is fun to watch.

We have done so much, I will give a quick listing with the highlights from each.

The Forbidden City - This is a palace city constructed as the home of the emperor, his family, and some close royal advisers. It is called the forbidden city, because the common people were never allowed to enter. It is extremely well preserved and is undergoing a face lift for the Olympics. The amazing things about it is that the great architecture just goes on and on. It is one beautiful 1000 year old building after another. We learned that there are 9,999 and one half rooms in the emperors' residence. His room and then rooms for all of his concubines and eunuchs (really you must have a place to keep you concubines and eunuchs... its good to be the King... uh Emperor.) This is one half a room less than the Chinese god had in heaven, so the emperor in a gesture of humility did not have as many rooms as his god. It was along walk through the forbidden city and Ben for got to unpack his school books from his backpack before we left for the day. So, he carried an extremely heavy load through the city... I mean um... Ben was so dedicated to his school work that he even brought it to the forbidden city so he wouldn't miss a minute of studying.

Summer Palace - The summer palace was equally as beautiful as the forbidden city. It is on a huge man made lake and the cool breeze from the water makes the perfect summer retreat for the royal family. We learned about the "Dragon lady" She was the wife, mother, and aunt to a series of emperors, and through a series of intrigues ran the Chinese kingdom for over 40 years. She loved power and luxury. The summer palace was a perfect place for her. Ben really loved the artwork here and Eliana just kind of hung out with mama. We took a relaxing boat ride back across the lake back to the car.

Side trip to the Pearl "factory" - Here we took a little side trip to learn about the Chinese pearl industry. We got to shuck and oyster and remove the pearls... it was a lot of fun for the kids. Then we got to shop for pearls... it was a lot of fun for Mom!

At the end of the first day, we made our way to the shopping mall attached to the hotel and ate at a nice restaurant in the food court. No really, it was a nice restaurant in the food court. They insisted on giving us table service. They were extremely friendly and to food was good. Then Mama and Eliana retired to the hotel, while Ben and I braved the supermarket. Good thing, because out supplies of Wa Ha Ha were getting dangerously low. We have become veteran Chinese shoppers... we even have our favorite Chinese brands of food.

The Ming Tomb - The next morning we left the hotel (on time I might add) to go see the tombs of the great Ming Emperors. The architecture was contemporary with the forbidden city and equally as beautiful. It was a great final resting place for the emperors. Much of the site has not been excavated, because the Chinese are afraid they will not be able to properly preserve the artifacts. They technology does not yet exist to do this... so they are saving the job for future generations.

Side trip to a Cloisonne factory - We took a side trip to a Cloisonne factory. Cloisonne is a traditional Chinese art form invented during the Ming Dynasty. It is copper with fired enamel. Most of the very colorful Chinese art is done using this method. It is very labor intensive and very beautiful.

The Great Wall of China - Finally, the highlight of our trip to Beijing. The great wall of China. We insisted that we were going all of the way to the top of the wall segment called Ju yong Guan! This really surprised Li Li. We found out later, that of all the families she had taken to the wall, we were only the second family that had ever gone to the top. Go Cohns! When we got there, we immediately realized why it is called the Great Wall. It really is to big for words or pictures to describe. We climbed and climbed. Laura Beth was quite the hero as she went up the wall with Eliana in the Ergo Carrier. Every one was cheering her on and many people took her picture. Every time we thought we were at the top, we would turn the corner and there would another staircase to another tower. Finally, we made it and took a victory picture.

The climb down was just as treacherous. The stairs are uneven and sometime broken. At one point on the wall, a man had lugged his bagpipes and decided to play some traditional Irish and Scottish music... he was really great and people all of the wall were cheering for him.

The trip up the wall was exhausting and exhilarating... there were many high fives and atta boys all through the evening.

In other news... Eliana is warming up to me and Ben. We both got our first hugs yesterday. Also, Eliana has let me dress her and bathe her. But Laura Beth still gets to change the poopy diapers (oh well, I guess you can't have everything.. ahem)

That's all for now, we will do another update with more pictures soon.

Catch-up from Sunday 13 April

Hi! Trying to get caught up on posting our pics. I think a lot of people gave up on me! Thanks again for all of the great comments - reading them is one of the highlights of our day! There are three slideshows in this post! If they stop, just Refresh your screen and you can use the + button on the slideshows to speed up, - sign to slow down or the pause symbol to stop. When captions are included, just put your cursor over the pic to view the captions.

On Sunday we saw some local sites in Guangzhou. First we visited the Six Banyan Buddhist temple. We opted not to have the monks bless Eliana, we will save that job for our Rabbi :0) It was an interesting experience but we did not stay long. If we had been there at lunch time, I am sure we would have enjoyed eating at the vegetarian restaurant there.

Next we went to Yuntai Gardens. I hope I am spelling that correctly as I don't have the tickets handy. It was really lovely there and is frequented by locals - not many western tourists. We enjoyed the Disney rip-offs included in the Chinese zodiac display (the mouse was very Mickey-ish and the dog was a Dalmatian. No clue why the horse was changed to a zebra!). Eliana enjoyed feeding the koi fish, which went into a frenzy when we started throwing food. You may have noticed she has allowed us to put her into a stroller, which has given my arms a much needed rest. However, she only allows mama to push the stroller when she is actually in it! We borrowed the stroller from Susan's place on the island. She enjoyed chasing bubbles that a local mama was blowing for her daughter and later we found the bubble blower along with a pinwheel, so of course Baba had to buy them for her. :0)

A quick note to my fellow adoption travelers. There are lots of changes on Shamian island. The government is taking back one of the buildings on the main street leading to the White Swan and therefore Jennifer's Place and Sherry's Place are both closed now. Susan's Place relocated to another part of the island - way off to the left when exiting the White Swan and up a block to the park area. I think there is some court action taking place about this, but I don't know what will happen to some of the local shops. We were able to buy what we wanted from Susan's Place and Jordan's place, which is on the road leading away from Lucy's restaurant. Shelli - I got your silk fabric for your dress and the size 8 red dresses for the girls. Melanie, Indigo is covered for size 4 & 6 red dresses. Hope you don't mind that they are all matching to Eliana's - can't wait to see them all together for a Chinese New Year photo! :o)

After the gardens we went to the local jade market and made some purchases there. Then we walked through the local/downtown Guangzhou shopping area. It was VERY crowded and busy and we attracted much attention. For those of you who know the 'chicken man', he was taking a smoke break when we went by. We continued on foot through the local pet market and Chinese medicine market which was really cool. The pets were adorable - such cute puppies and kitties (Eliana REALLY wanted one) and lots of fish, mice and such. These are not food - they are pets, we have been assured. In the medicine market area we saw live scorpions, dried snakes and sea horses, huge fungi, deer tendon, ginseng, and much much more. Hopefully the pictures give an idea of the local flavor in this older section of Guangzhou, which is just across the pedestrian bridge from the peace and quiet of protected Shamian island. What a difference!

We went back to Susan's Place, a shop on the island, Sunday night to make some purchases before packing. Eliana loved the owner, Suzy, who was absolutely great with her and understood her Cantonese. She said Eliana understands her perfectly and is able to respond appropriately in Cantonese for her age, although her pronunciation is not clear due to her open palate. Adam enjoyed having some tea with Suzy's husband, Dong, and Ben made friends with the young man who creates great art prints using ink and just his finger/knuckle to do the designs. They enjoyed a game of Chinese hackey sack outside and Suzy did her best to chase around Eliana and keep her entertained while I made my selections. Eliana even let Ben hold her a little! We really enjoyed talking with all of them and went back to the hotel exhausted after a long day!

I will post Monday & Tuesday, our last days in Guangzhou tomorrow. Good night!

Hugs & love, Laura Beth

We are in Beijing!

We arrived safe and sound late Tuesday night. We didn't get to bed until after 1am (2:30am for Eliana and I) and had a full day of touring Beijing today. Our adapters didn't fit the outlets here for some odd reason, but we are now in business and appear to have full blog access. We are off to find some late dinner, but I will try to post later tonight if I can stay awake! Love to all, LB

12 April (Sat) - Dongguan-TCH

11 April (Fri) - medical & relaxing on ShaMian island

10 April - Finding place in Yingde

10 April Guangdong Province countryside

10April2008 van ride

Stir Crazy at White Swan

I tried to post this twice, so sorry if this is the third time!  Here is the link to watch it just in case it didn't upload directly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tqLn-02T7Y  -LB

Catching up

Wow!  It is really hard to blog with a very demanding 20 month old!  :0)

 

I have only a few minutes before we leave to go do local site seeing and head to the jade market, so I must be a little brief.  Things get better every day and Eliana shows us more and more of her personality.  She is a very bossy little girl!  A few minutes ago when I came in the room for breakfast she yelled at me for not removing my shoes when I came in the room.  She then wanted her shoes removed as well.  She also is quite self-sufficient.  She tells me when she needs a new diaper, she wants to help dress herself and feed herself.  She loves to feed us all and to help bathe me in the tub.  So cute!

 

Tuesday, Wed & Thurs nights she woke up in the night and had hard grieving times where it was difficult to console her and get her to sleep. Friday night she slept from about 10 - 4:30  in her crib and went right back to sleep with some soy milk in a bottle in our bed and slept until about 8.  Saturday night she slept from about 10 - 5:30 in her crib and took some soy milk and went back to sleep in our bed until about 7:30, so we are all feeling a bit more rested now!

 

I am going to try to post a few pics from Wed of our drive to her 'finding place'.  We had the address, which turned out to be the corner of the local Civil Affairs office of that city.  Her biological mother obviously wanted her to be found quickly and cared for.  It was also right around the corner from a traditional Chinese medicine hospital.   Westerners rarely visit this town and I thought some people might fall off their motorbikes trying to get a look at the white people with the Chinese baby!  Some openly stared but turned away quickly if we gave them a big smile and wave.  Others slyly took photos on their cell phones. It was raining and foggy on the drive, but we got some pretty good photos of the countryside.  Others just turned out to be of raindrops on the van windows!

 

On Thursday she had her medical exam which went fine and was very fast, but she was none too pleased about it!  Then we did our paperwork for our US Consulate appt.  After that we walked around the island and had a disastrous attempt to eat at a nicer restaurant, the Rose Garden of Shamian Island, where we had steak dinner.  Eliana was in full toddler mode and they were ill equipped for babies - no high chairs or kids menu.  I spent most of dinner walking around outside with her looking at the statues and red paper lanterns.

 

Friday we had a great visit to Dongguan and True Children's Home.  Jenny Smith was wonderful to us and presented us with a photo album of Eliana's 8 months in their care, a traditional Chinese calligraphy brush made from the hair from her first hair cut, a quilt made by a church group in Phoenix.  We toured their beautiful facilities and met the Director, Katrina, and all the loving care takers.  We were also able to visit the hospital where Eliana had her cleft lip surgery and to meet her surgeon, Dr. Li, and his staff.  I was very impressed by the hospital building and the staff there.

 

Okay, off to try to post a few photos!

Was it something I said????

I have been blocked out of Blogger!  Maybe it was the bathing suit photos? :o)  This is a test message I am emailing to post, so someone please Comment and let me know if this post shows up!  I am receiving comments posted via email.  I should also be able to continue to post slide shows, they will just be in separate posts.  So, "ha, ha" to whoever is blocking me!  American ingenuity  saves the day! -LB

Baba Update - Good night's sleep

Hi all, I only have time to do a super quick post. We all got a great night's sleep last night. Eliana woke at about 4:30, but went right back to sleep after having some soy milk. Soy milk seems to be working better than formula. She even slept in a little, so that LB got to have a shower without little eyes watching her.

Eliana is continuing to eat like a champ. She scans all of our plates at meal times and asks for anything that looks good to her.

She is a very neat girl. Whe likes to wipe her hands and her mouth. She loves the hand sanitizer. (go figure?) When we got back to the hotel the other night, we took off her shoes and she placed them neatly under the crib where her other shoes are. Then she took Laura Beth's shoes and placed them next to hers as well. Speaking of shoes, she is very much like her mother in that she likes them a lot. She keeps getting different shoes and asks me for help to put them on. I love this because it is one of the few things she will let me do for her.

She is gradually warming up to Ben and I. While we still can't hold her, she will come to us now and feed us cheerios or cookies. We also get a lot of smiles. She especially likes it when Ben and I roughhouse. It makes her laugh.

Yesterday was an easy day. We took the photo for Eliana's visa to the US, which was very cute. Eliana checked to make sure that her hair bow properly place before she let us take the picture. Then we had the medical examination, which Eliana did not like one bit. We have some great pictures, which we will post later today.

Today, we are going to visit the True Children's' home, where Eliana had her lip repair surgery. It promises to be another great day.

Laura Beth and I are doing well, the cobwebs are clearing from that part of our brain that knows how to deal with a two year old. We are remembering to pre-prepare bottles for the night, lay out clothes the night before, and we are forgetting fewer things when we leave the hotel room.

She is keeping us on our toes and we love it. Will post again soon.

Adam

"Mama!" - Catching up from Wednesday

I am so sorry to those of you who have been waiting for an update. I remember hanging on to every word of several China blogs and hitting that Refresh key a million times a day waiting for news! I really wanted to post last night but couldn't even squeeze in 5-10 minutes of free time! Here is what you are really waiting for - pictures!

It has been an exhausting but great couple of days. I will catch up on what I should have posted yesterday, which already seems like it is in the distant past. Sorry if I ramble - lack of sleep has taken hold!

Tuesday night sleeping did not got so well. Eliana would only fall asleep in my arms and would wake and cry pitifully anytime she was put down. She ended up in our bed and none of us got much rest. We did get kicked in the head quite a bit, though! She cried on and off during the night and was in a light, restless sleep when she did close her eyes.

We awoke, or I should say got out of bed, and got ready. Eliana LOVES bathtime, so we had a morning bath again and then hit the White Swan breakfast buffet. This girl can EAT! She had all kinds of fruit - Chinese star fruit and dragon fruit and banana & honeydew, french toast, scrambled eggs, congee, some sort of sweet cold porridge (this may have actually been a dessert - sort of like rice pudding but I think it was oats?). She started taking soy milk from a Nuby sippy cup with a bottle nipple. The sippy nipple is more difficult for her. She chews both of them to release the liquid rather than sucking, which is impossible for her. After breakfast we met our guide Bob to head out for our day's events.

We realized tonight we didn't take many pictures on Wednesday other than in the hotel, but they were not allowed where we went. First we went to the wholesale clothing market to buy some children's clothes we were donating. Bob laughed at me and told me I should be Chinese because I drive a hard bargain. I think I may have irritated quite a few shopkeepers! Next, we went to the local police station to take the photo for Eliana's Chinese passport. The Civil Affairs officer met us there and presented us with our Chinese Adoption Certificate. The Chinese portion of the adoption in now complete! Hooray! We just have to pick up her passport when it is ready.

After the police station we came back to the hotel for afternoon nap and some play time. Eliana is opening up more and more to Adam and Ben. Her new game with Adam is to pretend like she is going to give him something, and then grab it back. It is so cute! Ben captured one of these episodes with a hairbrush in our hotel room last night and I am trying to get it to post.



The other big news of the day is that she started calling me "Mama" very clearly! We were also pretty sure we heard "Baba" and "Gege" (Chinese for Daddy and big brother) at least once. She started running all over the room and getting into EVERYTHING exploring her new territory. She followed me into the bathroom when I went to clean bottles and slipped and fell and hit her head on the cabinet and got a Nice little quarter sized goose egg. She didn't even cry. I gave her some ibuprofen and tried to put cold pack on it, which she would not let me do for more than 2 seconds at a time. By Thursday morning the bump was gone and she has a nice green spot over her right eyebrow. We just ordered Papa Johns for dinner Wednesday night because we were so completely tired.

Friday Eliana has her medical exam and we will complete all of our paperwork for the US Consulate appointment, which is Monday morning. On Saturday we visit her former foster home, True Children's Home, in Dongguan City and hopefully meet the surgeon who did her cleft lip surgery. On Sunday we go to some local sites - a temple and park for half a day and will go to the jade and pearl markets. Monday we hope to do most of our shopping on the island for Chinese dresses and other small items. I will try to post Friday morning (Thursday night for you) about our day on Thursday. I can't tell you everything we did because I was asked not to do that here, but I will share the information and pictures from our trip to Eliana's 'finding place' - about 2 hours away from where we are staying in Guangzhou.

Good night for now. I was able to put Eliana down in her crib tonight and I am hoping that she will stay there and sleep peacefully!

Welcome to Toddlerville - Baba Update

Sorry that we don't have time for a more extensive update... but we are officially in what I call Toddlerville. Last night Eliana was demonstrating that she is a real two year old. She was wandering around the room getting into everything. We chased her around all evening and went to bed exhausted, so no update.

It is early morning and we are franticly preparing for a big day... so we will try to update when we get back to the hotel.

Thanks for all of the wonderful comments. It really helps to have supportive voice from home.

Adam

Hi from mama, too

Adam came to bed and of course now I am awake! Please see his post and his slide show below. He did a good job on the post, except that he is in trouble with me for including ALL of the bathtub pics in the slideshow! Before the Chinese police come arrest us for posting indecent pics I will add that I actually did have a bathing suit on specifically for pic purposes.

I finally am getting to read the comments from Gotcha day. Thank you so much for all of your encouraging words and warm responses! It is so wonderful to feel so connected to home when we are so far away. As we settle into a routine I will try to start responding to some of the comments, but I can't promise anything at this point! :o)

I am feeling much better about Eliana's drinking, eating and pooping (YAY - we had a dirty diaper late Tuesday afternoon - I know all my fellow adoptive mom's are wondering about this). We had a less than wonderful and very expensive experience ordering dinner from room service Monday night. We were all too tired and cranky to attempt going out. Adam & I both ordered noodles and I was going to share mine with Eliana, but none of us liked them - they were a really thick type - not what we were expecting and we were all overly tired. I thought Eliana was eating some but she was just storing them in her mouth and then spit them all out. Ben had a burger, which he said tasted kind of weird, but he did eat the whole thing and some fries, too. As Adam says she did have water and Wahaha this morning, but she refuses to use any of the bottles or sippy cups I brought. So, this morning, she drank water and then Wahaha from a 'snack trap' with the lid removed, which means 60% went down her shirt instead of her throat! She had her first bath with me and then when I left her to wash my hair she threw a tantrum and fell asleep hard - so she slept right through the breakfast buffet. We had a quick trip to finalize the Chinese side of the adoption paperwork, where we were interviewed and promised to love Eliana as our daughter and to never abandon her, and then our official family photo was taken.

We then made a trip to the wholesale electronics market with a specific mission for an item we are donating. I think we got a good price with the help of our guide and I hope that it is not a fake! Since Eliana slept through the breakfast buffet this morning, I was afraid she was getting hungry and the only food at the market MickeyD's. So, Eliana and I ventured into McDonald's on our own while the guide took the boys to look at DVDs. I was quite the spectacle at McDonald's and got many open stares - a tall white woman with big feet wearing a Chinese baby in an Ergo carrier and trying to order and get situated and feed her. We actually did quite well. I was a bad mama and gave my child chicken nuggets! Oh, well - at least she got corn & milk. I was hoping the corn might force her digestive tract to get moving! I had to kind of squeeze the milk box to get the liquid into her mouth, as her open palate makes it impossible to create suction. Again, not the neatest way to drink! She showed me that she can pick up food and feed herself, although I have to check to make sure she chews and swallows it. She has great fine motor skills, but we need to get her to walk more and build up the muscle tone in her legs and arms. She is still a bit wobbly on her feet.

After the electronics market we went to Carrefours (sp?) to load up on snacks & supplies - much cheaper than the 7-11 on the island. That was an interesting shopping experience!

Eliana is smart! She LOVES the Ikea stacking cups and has figured out several ways to align and stack them. She likes to put the 2 red ones together. She also is very patient with communicating to her dense parents what it is she wants! Adam told you the Wahaha story - so funny! We were really hungry when we got back to the hotel around 2pm, so we ordered Papa Johns cheese pizza. It was really good and a lot like home, but a bit greasier. I was giving Eliana Wahaha, and she pointed at my slice of pizza, and then pointed to her mouth! So yes, I gave my child both McDonald's and Papa Johns on the same day. She is already an American girl! We made up for it at dinner by visiting the Thai Cow & Bridge restaurant on the island. Eliana had some chicken congee (rice porridge) and I think she ate all the eggs out of my chicken patai and some of the noodles too. She also LOVED the fried pumpkin - thanks for the tip, Shelli! In between Papa Johns and Cow & Bridge, we visited the White Swan playroom and the park. On the way back to the hotel we stopped to get Eliana some new 'squeaky shoes'. We only had the one pair of shoes she was wearing at Gotcha. We got 4 pairs of shoes for under $15USD.

By the way, the cute ladybug swing top she is wearing in the pictures was from Shelli Hutchinson and family and it is a size 9 months! She LOVED the little ladybug pockets on the front and kept putting her hands in them. The leggings are 12 month size - she has longer legs. The outfit from earlier in the day was 12 months, but the pants were too big in the waist. After her evening bath (she got 2 today because she was dirty from the playground), we put PJs on, but she did not go to bed easily. The 12 month sleepers were too short, so I put her in an 18 month size, but I think the attached feet were bothering her. I ended up changing her into a 2 piece cotton top & bottom - 12 month size and she seemed much more comfortable. She is not used to disposable diapers and those seem to be irritating her - she picks at them. She did have a bit of a diaper/heat rash when we got her, but it is already clearing up.

The picture you see of Eliana taking a bottle was of a very short experience. I was told that she takes a bottle and it is 25% formula, 25% rice cereal and 50% hot water. I used an Enfamil cleft nurser and cut the hole in the nipple even larger to accommodate the cereal. She seemed to be taking it and I was so pleased with myself until she spit all the cereal she had been storing in her mouth out all over the both of us. The method we have finally come up with that seems to be working for now is giving her either soy milk or Wahaha (but not at night - too sweet), at room temperature straight from the container using the straw as a dropper. It is quite slow and tedious, but I don't care as long as she is getting liquids. I am going to give the Nuby bottles and sippies another try tomorrow, but with the soy milk or Wahaha instead of the formula. If any BTDT cleft mamas have suggestions, I would be very open to them! Also, Eliana continues to use the baby sign for "more" and has said "more" in English a few times (although it comes out as "ma"). So cute!!!!

I think the only thing on our schedule today is a stop at the police station and getting the picture for her Chinese passport. On Thursday through Sunday we have some local site seeing and also some day trips to neighboring cities. I may not be able to post all of the details about our day trips to my blog. I know a few of you are waiting for news and maybe some pictures from me. I will email you directly and I think you can expect something on Saturday morning your time. Sorry to be cryptic about this.

Well, I better go use the bathroom before Eliana wakes up! I can't believe we have only had her about 40 hours. She already is such a part of us!

Hugs, Laura Beth

Check out my Slide Show!

Sitting in for Laura Beth - proud Baba

Hello all, you will have to settle for a substitute blogger for a little while. Everything finally caught up to Laura Beth and she went to sleep last night instead of staying up to write into the wee hours of the night. Me, I am a little Jet lagged and wide awake, so LB suggested I come to the computer and give you all an update.

We had a really good day and made quite a bit of progress. Eliana started out the morning by drinking a full cup of water, which made her mommy very happy. After that, on the advice of Cathy from Heritage, we tried giving her a local drink called Wa Ha Ha. (Not spelled right, I'm sure) The name translates to Baby (Wa) Laugh (Ha) Laugh (Ha). It is a nutritious sweet milk drink that the children at Eliana's orphanage are given on holidays and special occasions. She loved it and drank quite a bit. That made us feel much better.

Eliana has really bonded to Laura Beth. It is really precious to watch Eliana gaze lovingly up at her. However, she is still not too sure about me or Ben. She looks at me very warily still and will let me feed her or play with her... IF and only if LB is close at hand.

When Laura Beth is getting things ready in the room, Eliana will follow her around like a little duckling... its so cute.

Eliana won't let me hold her or pick her up, which is a problem when Laura Beth needs to do things like go to the bathroom or take a shower. In fact, this morning Eliana had a nice tantrum while she was left with me as LB got herself ready to go. Eliana flopped herself face forward on the ground, kicked her legs, and banged her fits on the ground. She was holding a rattle, so it made a loud and very satisfying noise. Then she fell soundly asleep and didn't wake up until after we left the hotel and she was nestled into the Ergo carrier strapped onto LB. I felt badly for her, but I was happy to see her throw the tantrum. Little by little she is coming out of her shell and revealing her personality to us.

After breakfast, we went back to the Chinese adoption authority to verify that we wanted to complete the adoption after our 24 hour harmonious period. Total no brainer as we are totally in love with this little girl. I continue to be impressed by the Chinese adoption authorities. They are very efficient and good to the children.

After our appointment, we went into the city to do some shopping. China is an amazing country and this province is where most of the manufacturing happens, because of its proximity to Hong Kong. So, there are wholesale markets for goods assembled in the factories. There are streets and street of them. Everything from PVC pipe to copy machines and electronics. While we were out, we couldn't resist going to the McDonald's. Eliana had her first happy meal and she LOVED IT. She had Chicken nuggets, corn and milk. We were both very happy to see her eat. We do have to watch her closely while she eats though. Sometimes, she does not swallow her food. She just holds it in her mouth (saving it for later, I guess?) You would be surprised at how much she can hold in there, because of her cleft palate.

After McD's we went to carrfour (a french version of Wal Mart)to buy some staples. (Cheerios, Wa Ha Ha, rice cereal, etc.) We came back to the hotel and rested for a bit. Laura Beth prepared a bottle for Eliana, but she still refused to take it. Then Eliana got down, walked over to the new groceries, picked up the Wa Ha Ha bottles and handed them to Laura Beth. We laughed and of course gave her some.

Later we went down to the play room at the white swan and let Eliana play with some other children. She did great, even walking more than 10 feet away from LB. Then we all took a walk in the park. We made quite a stir with a big red play therapy ball that we had sent to China. It was returned to us on gotcha day. All the children wanted to play with it and some even did.

The best part of the park was the slide. Eliana really enjoyed sliding down and she let big brother hold her hand while she did. These were the biggest smiles we have seen to date and I may have captured a few with the camera.

At this point, I will take a minute to brag on my son. He has been extremely helpful and has shown great poise under somewhat stressful conditions. He is really being fantastic and we have been doing a lot of things that are not fun for the best of 13 year olds. He genuinely cares about Eliana and wants to make sure she is happy. I can tell that they are going to be great friends.

Well that's all for now. I going to try to find the camera and load up the pictures. I will get those up as soon as I can figure it out.

Adam

Gotcha!

It's been an amazing day. A picture is worth 1,000 words:



Isn't she gorgeous? We are IN LOVE! Sorry to keep you waiting - I have had a baby velcroed to me. I'm working on the Slide show now. Eliana fell asleep in the Ergo carrier around 8:45 and I put her down at 9:15. The boys are both out too, of course! She did not get a bath tonight and she is in the clothes she came in, with the added bonus of lollipop drool, but that's okay! She did great and went to all of us willingly. She definitely knew us from our pictures in the care package. She let all of us feed her snacks and did not cry at all, even when the Director and Auntie left and we got in the van for the hotel. She played with us and let us all feed her, and even gave us a few smiles. She is a SNUGGLEBUG - I LOVE it!

She is also a smart one! After showing her the baby sign for "more" 2-3 times, she started doing it on her own when she figured out big brother would give her another piece of dehydreated fruit bits! She got a little overwhelmed with the playing after a while and only wanted Mama from that point on. She didn't cry until Daddy saw her cute feet and tried to play "This little piggy". Do NOT attempt this! When I had to go to the bathroom and handed her to Adam she showed us that she does have lungs and can indeed make noise! I was beginning to wonder since she had been absolutely silent up until that point. She was very tired and stuffed too full of dehydrated fruit. She was taking bites of bread and her noodles at dinner, but I figured out she was just storing it all in her mouth. I had to pull it all out. My only concern is that she refuses to drink anything at all right now - hot formula from a bottle, room temp water from a cup (both things she reportedly drinks) and not Wahaha either. I did change a wet diaper, so I won't get concerned unless she refuses liquids in the morning or has a dry diaper. She has a raspy chest and is digging at her right ear, so antiobiotics will be in order, though I think I will wait until morning to administer them.

Ben is a natural at being a big brother already!



Here are the 2 slide shows - captions will have to wait and I saw that some are out of order. I am exhausted and need to get some sleep - we have to meet Bob in the lobby at 8:45 to leave for official paperwork, which means we need baths and breakfast BEFORE that! I doubt if I will get to sleep through the night. :o) If the slide shows stop,just click your Refresh button!

Good night from the Cohns (a family of four)!

Hong Kong to Guangzhou pics

Click on the slide show once to activate the control and then put the cursor over the pic to view the caption!

T minus roughly 14 hours to "Gotcha"! Sorry to take so long with the pics. There should be 2 separate slide shows above and I am going back to fix the one from yesterday. I spent about an hour uploading to Slide.com and then when I edited captions it just mysteriously closed and all the pictures vanished! Very frustrating... We are REALLY enjoying all of the comments - please keep them coming! I am so glad to see some of my old friends and fellow teachers from Liza Jackson Prep found us! Hi Allyn & Jamila! Jamila, how is your new baby boy? Also, Mazel Tov to cousins Jeremy & Stacey on the birth of their first child, Ezra Soloman. I can't wait to get Ezra together with his big cousin Eliana at family gatherings! Next year at this time she can 'help' him hunt for the Passover Afikomen! :o)

I forgot to mention that our hotel room directly overlooks the Pearl River. I knew Shamian Island is totally geared towards westerners, but I guess the overall vicinity is geared towards tourists. There was this really big light and laser show going on all up and down the river front around us. It was all timed to this HORRIFIC sounding singing and music. I am sorry if I am being culturally insensitive, but it truly was terrible sounding. I was unpacking and thinking "what in the world is that awful noise"? Then I looked out the window and was astounded by all the lights and commotion. I tried to take pictures, but I am not sure how they turned out. Let me know if Refresh or View all Images work for those of you who couldn't see the pictures yesterday! As you can see, Adam & Ben were having a little too much fun with the Chinese silk robes that were provided in our room. If I had access to it from here, I would cue "Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting"!

Trains, Squat pots & more fun!

We are safely and sound in Guangzhou and checked in to a VERY nice suite at the White Swan Hotel on Shamian Island. Once again the boys are in bed and I am left to blog. Not sure what is up with the slide shows, as some can see it and some can not. Try hitting refresh when you get down to the slide show. If that doesn't work, if there is a button that says "View All Images", click that. I am working on uploading today's photos and will put in a new post later tonight (before lunch for all of you)! Hopefully it will work for all of you this time. You may need to install the latest version of Flash if you can't view it. Let me know if you can see them once I post it. Tomorrow is the BIG day, so I want to make sure you all get to see!

We took it easy this morning and enjoyed helping ourselves to a nice breakfast buffet in the Exec lounge at the JW Marriott in Hong Kong. It had both Chinese and Western style items and we ate plenty. While we were eating the bell hop took down all of our bags and after breakfast we headed down to check out and make our way to Hum Hong train station. The taxi ride was a small adventure. Our luggage was sort of hanging out of the trunk, which the driver bungeed down - yikes! Hong Kong is quite hilly and the driving is a combination of British style (driving on left side of road, driver on right side of car) and Chinese style(apparently no right of way rules except for whoever is the bravest and honks the horn the most wins)!

We got there safely and much more quickly than we thought, so we had an hour. That was a good thing, because the train station is not nearly as easy to navigate as the airport. We finally found the right place to buy our tickets. We asked for 1st class tickets and what we THOUGHT the lady told us was that the particular train we were riding had only STANDING class. We were a little nervous about that! She told us to go take out luggage to 'consignment'. We finally found that, too, and hoped that we were checking in our luggage rather than selling it. :o) Everything sounds so expensive in Hong Kong dollars and we hoped we weren't getting ripped off. Once we figured out how much we actually paid in US dollars, we felt better. So after we 'consigned' our luggage, we went in to a little shop and Ben found several items he wanted. Pocky snacks (these particular ones were like dark chocolate covered pretzels)and some sort of anime related gift for his friend, Tim. Happy REALLY belated birthday Tim! Next, we went up the escalator to the very nice "McDonald's Cafe". Yep, good old McDonald's, but nicer. Adam & I weren't hungry after that big breakfast, but our teenage son apparently has a hollow leg and needed to top it off, so he he ordered a Happy Meal rather than a value meal - just so he could have the Chinese toy. Cute!

Then the REAL adventure came. I had to use the Ladies' room. Yep, my first 'squat pot' experience. It was actually pretty clean and I managed to do what needed to be done without falling into the hole, so that was good. I have been initiated! Later I got my 'advanced squat pot degree' when I used the squat pot ON THE MOVING TRAIN! Not quite as clean and roomy as the one in the station, but manageable. I WAS glad I had mentally prepared myself and read some instructions online, otherwise I might have been a tad confused on the appropriate procedure! :o) We were also relieved (ha,ha - that sounded like a potty joke, but I didn't mean for it to) to learn that our train car was STANDARD class (not 'standing class'). We didn't know we had assigned seats until someone was kicking us out of theirs, but we figured it out pretty quickly and got into the correct row. I took lots of pictures of the scenery and living conditions along the train route and will post soon. At Guangzhou East station we went through incoming Customs security and I got pulled aside. Oops! I forgot I stuck some fruit in my bag from the hotel and it is a no-no to bring fresh fruit into China from Hong Kong (or anywhere else). I was briefly having visions of scenes from "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" when she was thrown into jail in Thailand. They DID confiscate my fruit, but luckily didn't cuff me and throw me into jail. :o)

We got through Customs, our luggage was all waiting right there for us, thank goodness. It was a bit tricky trying to get it all down the very tall escalator, though! Our guide/facilitator/translator for the next 9 days, "Bob" was waiting there near the bottom with a sign that said "Heritage". Hooray! We are in the safety net of our adoption agency's arrangements from now until we depart Beijing for Hong Kong again. I thought Bob's eyes were going to pop out of his head when he saw how much luggage we had! Fortunately we had a van just for us, so it fit with no problems at all and no dangling luggage or bungee cords involved.

We drove to ShaMian Island and checked into the White Swan. This was the very first 5 star hotel in China and it is about to be renovated. The lobby area is quite nice and impressive, with a large water fall and koi pond, a HUGE jade carving of a sailing vessel and many antiquities on display. The standard rooms are pretty small here, so under the advice of many BTDT ('been there, done that') adoptive parents, we opted for the "Junior Suite". We have a living room that has a rollaway bed for Ben and a half bath w/sink & toilet he can use. Then there is a bedroom with a King bed and soon a crib, and a marvelous bathroom with a big huge bathtub and a glass -enclosed shower. Since we will be here for 9 nights, we didn't want to be packed in like sardines! There is even a little floor space left in the living room for Eliana to play. Plus, the White Swan has a children's play room on the lobby level and we are in walking distance of several park areas on the island, including a playground. We should be able to get Eliana outside a lot to stretch her legs and burn off some energy if she is willing!

Bob took us for a very brief tour of the island, pointing out the various shops and restaurants we might want to visit, and then he left us on our own until tomorrow. We will meet him in the lobby at 3:00 and then we are off to the Civil Affairs office to meet Eliana and take her back with us! The Director of her orphanage is personally escorting her here and we will be very glad to meet her and thank her in person for the care that Eliana has received with them.

So, we had dinner at Lucy's at the end of our street. I had pan fried noodles, Adam had a vegetable and egg curry dish with rice and Ben had Burritos (of course). He wasn't too sure about them - they were supposed to be 'spicy chicken', but of course they were Chinese spices, not Mexican. After dinner we walked all over the island and checked out the public park areas. There were older people out doing their 'exercises' - sort of Tai Chi, I guess, and many families out playing badminton, teens/twenty-somethings playing hackey sack and children riding bikes and playing on the playground. It was really nice! Then we came back to the room and I unpacked ALL of that luggage. It is nice to feel settled into our temporary home.

We will play tomorrow morning by ear. The daily breakfast buffet is included in our package, so that will be a daily event. I need to pack up a bag of things to take with us when we meet Eliana - toys, snacks and other little bribes to hopefully make her think we MIGHT be okay people to go with! I brought a duplicate of a little teddy bear and a ball that I had mailed in a care package in January. My poor baby - her little world is about to be completely turned upside down. Although we have loved her from afar and are comfortable with thinking of her as 'ours', she is just not old enough to comprehend what will be taking place tomorrow. Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers for a smooth transition and that Eliana will get through her grieving process for the life and loved ones she is leaving behind as quickly and painlessly as is possible and healthy for her.

I will post pictures very soon!

Giddy in Guangzhou,

Laura Beth