A little story from China

I am sitting here tonight in the quiet after we have had somewhat a rough night.  We call this "survival mode" at our house right now.  Tai is having a very difficult time.  There is a lot of change at our house and he thrives on routine and structure.  His little world has been turned upside down.  There is no more normal for him right now.  Ali has her moments, but for the most part seems to be a bit better.  She definitely needs minimal stimulation.  When she gets overwhelmed it is very obvious to us.  We are trying hard to establish some sort of normal routine in our house.  This is harder to do than it sounds.  Life happens.  Esp with a 5 yo a 2 yo and one dog.  So I sit here and I can only think of one particular day in China and thought I would share it.  For my friends that have been to China, you know all too well that this does in fact happen.  For my friends that have never been to China, I assure you this did in fact happen to us.

While sitting at the airport terminal in Nanning, on our way to Guangzhou, we were bombarded by Chinese people.  Our guide had just sent us on our way through security.  Up until that point she had always been with us "holding our hands" but she was not allowed past security so we said our goodbye's.  The airport, like everything else in China, was hot, small, and extremely crowded.  After walking for quite some time, we finally found 2 seats together and sat down.  My children had not eaten.  It had been a very long morning already and everyone was hot, tired, and hungry.  I purchased a bucket of instant noodles, added hot water from one of the spickets that are scattered throughout the airport (used for noodles, hot tea, etc.) and began to feed my children.  I had one set of chopsticks and two hungry kids.  They each stood in front of me and I fed them alternating between hungry mouths.  Keep in mind that the Chinese people are always staring at us.  Literally, stop in their tracks and stare.  By this time in the trip, I am used to it.  It doesn't bother me so much anymore as that is just the way it is.  You can choose to let it bother you or just go about your business and ignore it.  However, this day, out of nowhere a flock of Chinese people swarm around us.  There were about 10 people, small children to adults all standing around all trying to talk to us.  The school age children knew some English.  The adults were just speaking Chinese.  One college aged girl would translate for everyone.  They were very curious about us, the foreigners.  They wanted to know who we were, where we came from, where were we going, who were these children, why do we have them, are they related, is there something "wrong with them", and it went on and on.  We tried to be polite.  They gave us gifts of unopened Coke cans.  They kept wanting to touch my children.  In a sweet and kind way, like touching their cheeks, stroking their arms.  They were oohing and awwing over how cute they were.  They were all very sweet and kind.  BUT... it was a bit much!  Enough was enough!  Ali seemed the least freaked out by this.  After all, she was the only one that understood them, that knew what they were saying.  Tai was freaked out and hung onto my leg.  After awhile, when it was obvious they were not going to leave and the noodle bucket was empty, we got up gathered our stuff and just walked away.  Jason and I left that scenario feeling very overwhelmed. Very violated. Very frustrated.  Very over stimulated. The only thing we wanted to do was hide and get away.  I honestly think if our guides were not with us, this thing would happen more often.  I think our guides keep this from happening to us, thankfully!

I now sit here and can't help but think about my children.  This is what is must feel like for them all the time!  Since the minute they hand them to us on Gotcha Day.  They did not ask for this.  They did not ask for these foreigners to come into their lives.  They do not understand what we say to them.  Our daughter lights up and comes to life when we play our Chinese CD's and movies.  That is familiar to her. Imagine how she must feel when people walk up to her and tickle her toes or look her right in the face and try to talk to her?  It must be exactly how we felt in China that day.  It is overwhelming and stressful.  We did a lot of things wrong with Tai when we brought him home.  We also did a lot of things right.  We are parents and we make mistakes.  We can't beat ourselves up about that.  But I have learned a lot since we brought Tai home.  I have read more books, talked to more experts and friends.  I knew no one in the adoption community before Tai.  I now have an amazing support system of other adoptive families to learn from.  I do not know what is always right or best.  But what I do know for sure, is that these next few weeks are crucial to my daughter.  What  happens now, will ultimately effect the rest of her life.  We have missed the first two years of her life.  We have a lot of catching up to do.  We have to let her know, to teach her, that we are her family forever.  Right now, she doesn't even know what that means.  After all, she has been ripped away from 2 families already.

I hope that soon we will be ready for visitors.  I miss my friends terribly.  When we do introduce everyone to Ali,  Jason and I need your help.  We will not pass her around for people to hold.  We need to be the ones to meet her needs.  We need to be the ones to feed her, give her bottles, change her diapers, pick her up when she falls or cries.  We would love for you to kiss her and tickle her.  But please be patient for that.  Blowing kisses and waving are great and appreciated!!!!!  But please let Jason and I do the touching....for now.  If you see her fall or see her cry, please let Jason and I be the one to pick her up.  She needs to learn what the role of a mother and a father are.  She needs to learn that we will always be there for her no matter what.  If you do come to our house, please just "be" in the home.  Ali needs to watch people first.  She needs to check you out.  When she is comfortable and ready, she will come to you.  If you just come in calmly and go about your business in the home then she will warm up to you.  Please just give her space.  She is very different than Tai was at this point.  She will check you out and watch you.  She is very cautious but she will warm when she is ready.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for understanding.

Our first trip to the park

Planes, trains, and automobiles

Yesterday was another long travel day! We had no appointments or excursions planned so we stayed at the hotel and swam and took the kids to the pool. It is a long standing tradition to dress your child in their traditional Chinese silk clothing and take their picture on the red couch. Sadly, the White Swan hotel is closed for renovations and you can not get to the famous "red couch" anymore. So we dressed up the kids and settled for a brown couch photo. It was great! Jack cried and Ali gave us her serious, stink eye face. Tai and Avery were typical stubborn kids. They all did look very cute. Then we all loaded on the bus to get our kids passports and visas and immigration papers. Then it was off to the train station. Our kids both did great on their first train ride! The train had squatty potties with a hole that literally opened to the tracks!!!! Luckily, no one fell through! We finally got to our hotel around 10 pm. We leave today to fly home!!!! We are all ready to be home. Jason is sick. Thereis a typhoon headed to Hong Kong and it is already raining. Please pray that we make it out of here. None of us can stand to get stranded here. See you all very soon!

Thankful

Today we are thankful for many things. Thankful that in 2 more sleeps we get to come home!

Thankful that both our children's birth mothers chose life for them and that they left them in public places so that we could someday find them, bring them home, and love them forever.

Thankful for both our children's orphanages for placing them in foster care.

Thankful to the foster mothers that rocked, held, and loved our children the first two years of their lives. Mostly we are thankful thathey taught them first how to love and to be loved so their hearts were ready to accept us.

Thankful to Ali's orphanage for finding the means to provide her the life saving surgery she needed. Not all the orphans in China are that lucky. If she had not had the surgery, she would not be here today.

Thankful for the Starbucks via that we brought as we drank it daily. We ran out today, so it is time to come home.

Thankful that ESPN at home does not show ice skating, bowling, and darts nearly 24 hrs/day like in China.

Thankful for Ice cold Tsing Tao that is readily available to us here in China and for the "Bruce Lee Tsing Tao special edition" six pack complete with bottle opener that we got in Province. A now treasured souvenir.

Thankful that Heidi only encountered one squatty potty while in China.

Thankful for the super clean hotel room in GZ, with a marble shower and soaker tub, and soft King size bed. Also for the executive suite with yummy food and cocktails every night.

Thankful for Benadryl as my sweet daughter is taking a much needed power nap.

Thankful for the obscene amount of antibiotics and medications that web brought with us. Mostly thankful that we didn't need any of them and we all stayed healthy.

Thankful to our new friends from Florida, Lori and Mike and their kids Avery and Jack. We could have survived this trip without them, bit it would have been terrible!!!

Thankful for the pool at the Marroitt.

Thankful that today we had our last official appt for the trip, the US consulate appt. Tommorrow we get a Visa for our daughter so we can bring her home.

Thankful that Tai loves his little sister and is a great big brother and that Ali adores him!

Thankful that our amazing guide Kelly took Ali and I to buy pearls today! We missed the group outing the other day so she took me by myself.

Thankful that we are Americans and that we get to come home very soon.

Thankful to all of our family and friends for loving us and our children, for accepting them and their differences.

Thankful that we have been blessed with these two wonderful children to love forever!

The Island

Today was a baba day! Jason took Ali to get her TB test read and mama and Tai had a breakfast date. All day Ali wanted Jason to hold her and play! She is really warming up to her baba and gave us lots of laughs and smiles today. She is such a little ham and we just adore her! She loves to imitate us and it is very cute. She is so funny when she laughs she throws here entire head back and since we laugh at her she just keeps doing it. I was holding her today and noticed she was tickling herself under her chin and giggling. So cute since we always tickle her on her neck and then she tickles our necks. But today she was tickling herself and giggling and it was so adorable!!!! Our little Ali also loves music and will dance and bob her head to any type of music. Even if mama sings, which is kinda scary, she dances. We have been wondering about her speech as she doesn't really say much to us. However, when we put on our Mei Mei (Chinese DVD's) she lights up and dances and sings right along. So she can obviously talk which makes us feel much better. She certainly lets us know how she feels as she has the best facial expressions. She also loves the elevators and literally screams in delight when we get on. She also screams and claps when our van or bus pulls up to the hotel. She loves to be in the hotel room with us. I think that is her "safe zone".

After the appt at the medical clinic our group went to Shamian Island. Mama was so excited to shop, but sadly the conditions were not great. Tai was having none of it, Ali was cranky, and Jason hates to shop. I felt very stressed and rushed so we only went to 2 shops. Very sad. I did manage to get a few of the things I wanted and a few gifts. I think I got most of the stuff that people requested. I also didn't bring enough RMB with me and no one took credit card, so actually that shut down my shopping pretty fast. Guess it was a good thing, as I bought 9 pairs of squeaky shoes and probably would have bought more if I had the money. Jason was glad that the well ran dry:) Of course it rained on us. But we did manage to get a quick park play in and Tai was thrilled. Ali is a bit skeptical of the park play but she slowly warmed up and did go down the slide a few times. Of course she loved it once she went down. We tried to find the yummy Italian restaurant that we loved so much last trip but we couldn't find it.... so we ended up at Lucy's. I know most adoptive families love that place but since they serve American food, but Jason and I are not fans. Oh well, the beer was cold:)

We just arrived back at the hotel and Ali is napping. We promised Tai we would take him swimming today. Unfortunately it is raining. So we came up to upload some pic for ya'll in the business center. It is taking FOREVER to upload these pictures so I will just do a few and hope this keeps all my junkie friends going just a bit longer:)

Zoo Day

Well folks, the zoo was a bust. It was hot and extremely crowded. The 8 of us could of just stood inside a cage and just been our own exhibit! One lady was staring at us so long while walking that she actually tripped. Sheesh! All I could do was laugh at her. We are such a spectacle here and everyone is so curious. We did see the Pandas and they were really cool. One was eating his bamboo and the other was sleeping. Apparently the day before they were very playful. We also, for $2, let Tai and Avery ride the camel! We got our souvenir pic and the kids were happy. Where else but China can you sit on a camel for $2?!?! The highlight for the zoo was the fountain. Again we let Tai and Avery run around and get soaked. The parents were jealous and in awe of them. So we high tailed it outta there right after the pandas and we can check that one off the list!

After we got home all we wanted to do was hit the pool. So we quickly shoved some lunch down the kiddos and headed down. I assumed sis would hate it and she and I would be right back up for nap. But oh no! She LOVES the pool!!! We have a pool girl so she is most definitely a Fenton! She was stinking adorable and once again squeals in delight. I got some super cute pics and I am so sorry that I can't share them...:( she still hates the bathtub, even the little one the guide gave us. So not sure about that?

After the pool, I went with my friend Lori for a little shopping trip up the road. I left jas home with the kids. They had a really fun play time and Ali got in some much needed baba time! Mama found Tai some $6 gap Jammie's! Also got 3 pairs of Jammie's for Ali, but they are all unfortunately a bit small. Bummer. Good thing I only spent $25 total! After that little excursion, I took Ali to Wal-Mart. Our entire travel group loaded in the bus for this one. But the boys stayed home. I really did not want to go but there were just a few things we had to get. After dinner, our guide took us all to a Mexican restaurant. Yes, they have Mexican in China too. My food was delicious!!! Jason however ordered beef and he said it was most definitely not beef... Duh..I said to him, do you seriously think that is going to be cow? I can only guess what was disguised inside that beef enchilada!

Yesterday was a very long and busy day. I never made it to the business center to upload pics. It is very hard to find time. When I get a quiet moment to myself it is usually early in the AM before anyone is awake and I don't fell like going up there. It is so sad that our computer is fried. I tried all day to send pics from the iPhone and iPad and can't get it to work. I had other families trying to help me too. Must be something in my settings and no one can figure it out. Sad, we have all this technology and can't figure it out.

Today we go get Ali's TB test read then we are going with our group to Shamain Island for a shopping adventure for the day! This will be another long, hot day with no nap. But I have a long list of things that I must have before we leave China. We plan to come home late afternoon and hit the pool and stick to the hotel for dinner and happy hour.

Thanks for all the messages. We are super homesick and ready to come home. Ali is having problems sleeping and so we are all tired. I get so confused what day it is. We are living in such a little cocoon over here. But I think we are down to 4 more sleeps!

Medical Appointment Day

Yesterday was our first full day in GZ and so far so good! We have the same guide as last time and she is very nice. She has been doing this many years and is really good. She remembers our family from last time which is fun!  We also decided before we traveled to upgrade to have executive suite privileges while here and that is the BEST decision we ever made!  So if you are looking for the Fenton four between the hours of 5-8 pm, just look for us at Happy Hour!  We also have access 24 hrs a day to ice cold beverages...anything we want! You have no idea how luxurious that is as we could not get anything cold in Nanning, everything was always Luke warm.  We plan to check out the Wii today for some family fun and Tai is super excited!

We had Ali's medical appt and it was a bit traumatic for her and mama. The girl rarely cries so it was kinda heartbreaking. She clung to me like "sticky glue" as Tai calls it and would not let go. Two nurses had to pry her out of my arms to put her on the scale. Thankful for our new American friends as they entertained Tai for us so we could both go in for her TB test/shot.  The doctors gave her a good look over which she hated and then they insisted they see her walk. Well by this time she was screaming bloody murder and again had a death grip on me. The only thing we could do is Jason ripped her from my arms and I walked away and he put her down and she came running and screaming to me. It was so sad. Poor girl. Whew....thankful that day is over.

After the appt we came home and went to McDonald's for lunch.  It is directly across the street from the hotel just next to the Starbucks!!!  Oh, the luxuries of home that the entire family can enjoy.  While mom and Ali napped, the boys hit the pool! The pool is very nice and Tai was incredibly happy.  However, it started to rain so the swim fun was cut short. BTW- if any of my KC friends were wondering where all the rain is, it is in China! Apparently they have had 3 typhoons in China while we were in province. We are seeing the effects still. It has rained everyday since we got to China and it has been very humid and overcast.

For dinner our guide took us to a wonderful and super tasty Chinese dinner.  She ordered a large variety of dishes for us and each family only paid $16!  I really enjoyed some yummy Chinese food and a meal that did not include noodles or Mc Donalds!

Today we are venturing off to the zoo with our new friends.  Their very handsome new son is 17 mo. And there daughter Avery is 7. We have really enjoyed meeting them and are so thankful they are here!!! We really wanted to go to the Safari park as I hear it is very good and much better.  The high today at noon is supposed to be 92 with a75% humidity which will make it feel like 107. Given that it is so hot and the Tai guy keeps getting heat sick, we decided to stick close to the hotel and go early.  It is only 20 minutes to the zoo and 50 to the safari park. Hoping we see the Pandas! That is really what I want to see!

Our Ali seems to be doing really good. She is a happy and playful girl. She loves all things girlie like bows and shoes and little dresses.  She lets me sit and fix her hair a zillion times each morning...I am trying to learn this girl stuff too!  Her favorite toys are the stacking cups and books. She also loves to play and feed the baby.  She loves her Cheerios and is a noodle eating machine! For as long as I live I will never forget my two beautiful children sitting in our hotels slurping noodles down when we first got them. She also loves veggies, last night she ate eggplant and Bok Choy and mushrooms! Yay! She also loves pineapple and bananas.  She loves to feed us and share her food. She loves to be tickled and has the most adorable little laugh.  When she laughs she crinkles her nose and makes this funny little face and looks like a bunny rabbit. She loves her stroller and to be carried in the Ergo. She squeals in delight when I pull out the carrier. When we are getting ready to leave, she crabs her things and takes them to the stroller. By her things I mean the pink Cheerios cup and her pink sippy. She is double fisting at all times!!!! The only thing she does not seem to like is the bathtub. Oh boy, does that make her cry.  Our guide gave us a little tub to try.  Hoping that works better.

I think I figured out a way to get you guys some pics.  But we have to use the IPad and since we seem to have incredibly bad luck with electronics we will not take the iPad out of the hotel room, this baby is now our life line! I will also try to take my sim card to the business center today and upload some more pics also.

We miss everyone and love all the emails! Keep em coming, they really keep us going over here!

We made it to Paradise

As you can tell by my title we have made it to Guangzhou safely. It was a very long and exhausting day. We got to the hotel with two very tired kids around 11pm. We were thrilled to see the luxurious bed and fell right into it. The hotel is AMAZING! We had to be up early to go to Ali's medical appt. and it was a bit traumatic for her. Poor girl should nap well. We are beyond excited to be here with more American friends and that was such a welcome sight! Tai has a little friend and a swim date already set up while sis naps.

I need to get our girl down for a nap so I will post more when I get a chance. I took some pics on the IPad but don't know how to attach them to my email (sad, i know). If one of my tech savvy friends would email me and let me know how to do it, then I will post some more cuteness for you!

btw - we are now down one laptop and one iPhone:( someone on China Air is very happy right now. Please pray for that long flight for us as we have now lost 50% of our entertainment.

Our girl is so cute and funny and we can't wait for you to meet her!

Accidents Happen

When you live in a hotel with two small children, something is bound to happen. Last night a coke zero got spilled onto our laptop. Luckily, we have Internet access since we also have the iPad. Unfortunately it does not have the VPN downloaded on it so I can not get on blocked sites such as FB and blogger. Thankful that we put our blog on the story of you so Tina will post for me!!! So my blog junkie friends can still get your fix! The sad thing is I have no way to share photos with you. We have a zillion cords and electronic devices with us but I don't have the cord to download photos to the iPad. Maybe when we get to Guangzhou I can find or borrow one. I will try to figure something out. But for now you will just have to trust us that our girl is darling and yesterday we got tons of laughs and smiles! Everyday we see more and more of her personality and oh my she is so much fun!

Tonight we leave for for paradise, aka the Marriott in GZ! Last night Lily came to our room to deliver all the documents from the notary. We now have official copies of our adoption documents (yippee), if we would like to live in China forever with our girl we would be good to go, but since we would like to make her a US citizen and bring her home then we must now do all the official stuff with the US embassy in Guangzhou. Today we will get Alice's passport and we fly out late tonight. It will be a late night & we have our medical exam early in the morning. Poor Ali has to get poked.... She will need a TB test before we can bring her to the US.

A bit about yesterday. Lily picked us up in the morning and took us to a beautiful scenic area. Nanning is called the "green city" b/c it is so lush and green. It is very tropical and pretty. We love the old architecture here and love walking around these scenic areas. Tai was able to run around and play in the park a bit. It was very beautiful and we are glad we went. After our stroll through the "park" we went to a pagoda. It was 9 stories high and really cool. We de decided to walk up the 9 flights to see the view. Lily said it was cooler inside, apparently her idea of cooler and ours is a bit different! It was HOT and the stairs were narrow and steep. However, the view was really awesome! 

We were outside a total of one hour yesterday morning & it was too much for Tai. It is so hot and humid here, I have honestly never encountered anything like it. When we got out of the Pagoda tai got sick. It was too much for him. When we got in the car, Jason looks at me and started laughing out loud. I said what is so funny, tai was sitting with a barf bag and I was miserable too. He says "you look like you just stepped out of the shower fully clothed". Literally I was saturated with sweat. It was so funny that we were both laughing hysterically. I think our driver and guide must think we are such a spectacle! Man, it was funny and we needed a good laugh that is for sure. The next thing we know, lily turns around and says " now I will take you to a park to feed the fish" we both scream in unison NO take us home please!! Keep in mind we were outside about 1 1/2 hrs! The only Fenton not effected by the heat and humidity is Ali. She is just happy as a clam. I suppose she is used to it. We had noodles in the room for lunch then everyone rested while our girl napped. After lunch it was raining again so we stayed in the room and played all afternoon. Which ended up a good thing. Our girl has not had a BM since we got her despite our best efforts so we had to pull out the big guns, the miralax. The poor girl cries and cries when she poops and insists I hold her. It is very sad so we are anxious to get her home to the doctors and have her checked. We found a restaurant in the hotel that serves a variety of cuisines and it was delicious for dinner. I am delighted to say that Ali eats everything! Finally someone in my house will eat veggies with me!

When we were out yesterday, the locals loved us! Many people wanted pictures of us. Mostly Jason. The young girls would run up giggling and ask to take a picture with Jason. I told tai that they thought his baba was handsome. Or it could be the huge nose!?!? People wanted to speak to us but the funny thing was you would be like 10 feet away before you would here " heeeeellllo, or how are you" it was so funny. We always responded to everyone and our guide says we are very friendly.

Today is always a bitter sweet day for us. We are so excited to be one step closer to home but very sad to be one step further away from our daughters home. She has really grown comfortable here in our little hotel. She squeals in delight when the driver pulls up to the hotel and she runs through the lobby to the elevator. When u get off she darts for our room and knows exactly which one is ours. I fear we will have some regression when we go to a new hotel. But again, that is expected & par for the course. It must be so confusing and so much for a 2 yo to take in.

Sorry about picture situation. I will try to figure out someway for you to see this cuteness over here! She is so much fun and we are falling more and more in love with her everyday. Tai continues to be a good big brother and she loves to mimic him. She now runs around the room shooting spider man webs just like her big bro. She still doesn't talk much but she makes the cutest noises and squeals. I will try to post again when we get settled in paradise.

Alice will take her first plane ride today!

Hot and Sweaty

                                Our guide Lily in front of the large brass drum at the museum

                                                                  Happy, sweaty family!

There is no other way to descibe today better than hot and sweaty.  Boy is the humidity extreme....at the end of the day (well actually within the first hour) we are 4 sweaty monsters.  Literally when I take Ali out of the Ergo she and I are drenched.  Yes, Amy I promise to have it dry cleaned:)  But she doesn't seem to mind, I guess she is used to this heat.  Needless to say there will be no happy family pics past 10 am on this trip, it is not pretty.  There is no point in drying my hair or the flat iron.  Auggie would not be proud of my hair!  Here I was upset that I couldn't get in for a highlight before I left - that makes me laugh now!
Oh Trish we could not find ice cream today, bummer.

Despite the heat we had a great day.  We so love our little girl.  She really opens up in the evenings when we are back at the hotel.  She definetely feels more comfortable here with us.  We played and danced and had a fun night.  She is not a fan of the bath and that is the only time she cried today.  Sorry sis, we are all so gross that in she goes anyway.  Tai continues to be a great big bro and loves her so much.  It is almost smothering.  She loves to follow him and imitate him.  It is very sweet.  We do struggle with Tai as this trip is the hardest on him.

We started our day with breakfast buffet, however they did not give us the Western menu (made to order) today.  Apparantly, they have shut us down as the fat ass american family ordered and wasted way too much food the first day...LOL!  Today we walked in the restaurant to find a small table set aside in a seperate area  filled with a small amt of Western food, such as cereal and yogart and some ham and cheese slices and some unsalted sunflower seeds.  It made us laugh b/c I suppose that was just for us!  As the only other white family we have seen here bolted on day #1 and is now living the life of luxary at the Marriott.  I can only imagine the omelets and pancakes they must be enjoying.   I will just dream about the Marriott in GZ tonight. Luckily, they still have the hot and fresh congee and noodles and pig feet for us to enjoy tommorrow. I am sitting here with my TsingTao laughing at this, b/c otherwise I would cry.
Think we will just walk in with our own Cheerios box in the morning and add some straight cream (aka milk or maybe that was yogart... hmmm) to it.  So thankful for the Starbucks Via and coffee mate we packed!

After our breakfast, Lily picked us up for a little shopping.  We denied the trip to Wal-mart.  We are now experts at playing frogger aka crossing the street, and are comfortable in the little store across the street.  Once again the fat ass Americans walk out with arms full of groceries and beer of course.  I think the workers at the store really get a kick out of us as we are quite the spectacle.

So our shopping included a trip to a very neat museum, or that is what Lily called it.  It was more of an open area with bridges and cool buildings.  There was no "indoor museum" there which meant there was no AC.  Guangxi is known for the brass drum and the embroidery so the shop was a lot of fun for mama. No time to dilly dally and shop as it was too hot.  So in a matter of 30 minutes, I managed to walk out arma loaded with some really cool stuff for Ali and us.  I got a mini brass drum and a beautiful wall hanging with hand made embroidery.  We will give that to her when she is older.  Also bought some very neat gifts and other things for the house.  So happy we went there!!!!!

After our shopping it was lunch and nap time.  We decided to order Pizza Hut delivery.  Lily came to our room to place the order but found out they don't deliver.  No problem, she just hopped on her electric scooter and delivered it to us!!!  Vioala 30 minutes later two piping hot pizzas, one seafood special and one cheese pizza at our door.

After nap, we ventured over to the store to let Tai play in the indoor play area.  Yes, the store across the street is like a Wal-mart type store with groceries etc. but it also has a play area.  It was quite old and i never would have let Tai play in someting like that at home, but we had to let him, as he desperatley needed some play time and he LOVED it.  My germ-a-phobe husband had a bottle of "squeezie" in each hand and literally throwing it on all of us.  Our last trip to China we took Tai to a similar thing and let him play in the ball pit. Jason ripped him out of there so fast after he saw the little boy in split pants walk over to the corner and pee and them jump in the balls.  Needless to say, we did not allow any playing in the ball pit today!

After our adventure to the play area, Lily came and got us and we walked to the park.  It was really nice park with a lake and paddle boats.  We bought some fish food and Tai loved feeding the fish.  Ali enjoyed feeding the fish until she started to eat the food.  The park has an area with carnival type rides and we let Tai ride on some of them.  The roller coaster was a bust as he cried through the entire ride and  Jason now has whiplash.  The bumper cars however were a hit.  There were only about 5 cars going as it was not crowded and all the little chinese kids were ganging up on Jason and Tai.  Must have been the large nose:) Also liked the whale ride where you shoot water guns at the animals... now if only we could have shot each other with those guns it would have been perfect.  Tai was sad to leave but again we were all a sweaty mess and needed to get home for dinner and bed.  We promised to take  him back on Friday morning when it is cooler.

Our trip this time is so different than last time.  We really do have to cater to the Tai guy.  Thankful that we have been here before so I have not taken too many pics of the strange things as I did last time.  And by strange I mean the dried flat frog hanging on the wall, the pigs feet and hearts, interesting foods, etc.   we also really are quite the spectacle when we are out and about.  I do not even notice the stares so much as last time.  Don't get me wrong, everyone still stares, but I don't mind anymore.  I am thankful that Tai is oblivious too.  He has no idea how different we look.  The people here literally stop in their tracks to turn and look at us.  They do not see a lot of Americans here, let alone with 2 chinese children.

Our little Ali is night and day different than Tai.  She is so laid back and goes with the flow.  We also forget that she is 5 months older than Tai was when we brought him home.  For one thing, she is so tiny and infant like.  We love that she still takes a bottle and we both love our snuggle time giving it to her.  She does prefer me over jason when it comes to bed and bottle, but he does get a little of it.  I feel bad admitting this, as Jason and I should be well versed on Peds development....hello we have done that for a living for the past 14 years!  We think she is a little delayed.  However, we are also starting to realize just how advanced Tai was when we got him.  When I tell people that in the adoption community they don't believe me.  She seems to be a bit behind, but we have no doubt she will catch up in no time!  We are not worried at all, this is just par for the course, and different than our son.  She does have the cutest walk and run I have ever seen and she does go up and down stairs, but she is not too steady when she sits up.  She is starting to talk a bit more.  Her first english word was "up".  She loves loves loves the elevator and  screams in delight when we get off an on.  She also said baba and ge ge today.  When she says mama it is when she wakes up and we are most certain she is crying for her foster mom.  That is OK and completely understandable.

 She sure does likey the cheerios and the little cup!  The dress btw is 12-18 mo Gymboree and fits perfect (since some of you have asked)

                                                                  love those dimples

 Big bro loves to smother his baby sister with the kisses!!!!!

                                                    Look who loves the stroller!  Yippee!!!!

Some fun baba time with lots of laughs

                                              Alright guys, I am ready to go, I got all my stuff!

                                                           feeding the fish at the park

                                               Fun day at the park which was more like a carnival

                                 Tai insisted we buy him the Angry Bird balloon from the street vendor

not sure if those are pets or food?!?!?!?!

                                                       I do love the chinese bakeries!

 Take out dinner from the local bakery, it included a chinese hamburger, 2 bacon roll-ups and a chinese taco and a sweet roll for dessert.  It was all actually very tasty!

 Chinese hamburger.  Ali ate the eggs for us!

 I forget the name of this fruit, but it is in a hard shell that you squeeze open and it has a squishy fruit inside with a large seed.  It is very sweet and similar to a grape.  It cost 5 yuan for a Kilo from the street vendor, so I think about 80 cents.  Ali and I both liked them... the boys not so much.

This is what dinner in our room looks like.  This is the first time we saw her use a fork and feed herself!

I want you all to know that I sat here at nap and read all your emails and comments with tears in my eyes.  We are so blessed to have such amazing family and friends.  The journey to our beautiful children has been long and hard but we are so blessed to have each of you take it with us.  People tell us how lucky our children are, but truly we are the lucky ones.  These two sleeping beauties in the room next door are so perfect and precious.

Smiles

Look at that face!!!!  She does in fact smile, it is just hard to catch on camera.  Last night after the bath we put on a Baby Einstein animals video and she LOVED it!!! She and Tai sat there and played and laughed and imitated the animals.  Oh it was so fun to watch to two of them together.  Tai really loves his baby sister.  It is 7:30 am here and she is still asleep.  He can't wait for her to wake up!  She slept great last night!!!!  We gave her a bottle and then we all read a few books as a family.  We laid her down in our bed and fell right asleep.  We moved her to the crib and she slept all night and is still sleeping.  The hotel is so awful and by the end of the day I was still upset about it and had way too much on my mind so I took an Ambian and am happy that I slept good *finally* too.

Thanks eveyone for all the messages and emails.  Trust me we love reading them and really helps us not be so homesick.  A few of you emailed and asked how to leave a comment.  At the bottom of each post there is a small line that says comments.  Just click on that and it should open up the comments section.  I plan to make a book out of our blog for Ali, so if you leave messages on the blog then they will be in her book!  It will be so fun for her to know how much she was loved before she even made it home!!!

Also, I apologize for any typos, etc.  It is hard to find time in the day to blog and sometimes the internet is very slow.  I am lucky to even get anything written sometimes.

Julie - how is the house?  I don't have your email for some reason???   Can you send me an email when you get a chance?
Nei Nei and Ye Ye - how is Lucy?  Tai and I miss her...:(  Jason not so much - although deep down I think he does!

We miss home and this trip is much harder with Tai.  He has been a trooper but the routine is so outta wack here.  We are looking forward to Guangzhou and to the Marriott!!!!  Oh it sounds so luxurious!!!  We just pretend we are camping here in our hotel.  yep, bugs and all folks.....

Pictures

                                          Our first all you can eat breakfast buffet at the hotel

                                          Sealed with her footprint and she is ours FOREVER

                    Two orphanage nannies that brought Alice to us just after all the paperwork was done

                                                              Hey sis!  Have a fry!
The jade budda necklace she is wearing was given to her by her foster dad.  Not sure if/when we will take it off of her.  It is so sweet

Look at that crazy bed head!  I love this pic b/c she had 3 blankets in her bed and SHE chose to cover up with the Lao Lao and Tai blanket.... sniff sniff

                   Her eyes lit up when I pulled out the bag of bows and we had fun playing with them!

                                    So many to choose from mama.  Which one should I wear?

                                                 We had so much fun playing with the baby

               This is Paul from Grace and Hope.  He took pictures of us to take back to Ali's foster family.

Noodles with Chop Sticks for Ali and Mac and Cheese for the Tai guy.  Seems like yesterday that was Tai eating those noodles with chop sticks.  Look at him now!