Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Our very own China doll :)


5/31 was Megan's actual Christening and she was pretty good during the ceremony. She cried a little bit when they put the water on her forehead, but we knew that was going to happen. My aunt was right, she was too aware. Oh well. She looked adorable in a cute little white dress Robyn got her with a white sweater from Grandma. As the unofficial offical videographer, I taped the church porition but I gotta say, it was weird. I felt like I was being a bad Catholic. 

My camera battery was pretty much dead so I have few pictures from the day and currently get them uploaded bc my computer is refusing to recongize my camera. Always awesom
e. I got a few on my phone and she started running towards me and smiling so I think by Christmas she should hopefully be smiling for pictures, instead of us trying to steal them from her. 

Megan learned the excitment of walking on her own about a week before the 
Christening, thanks to daycare. I guess a little tough love from another one of the little kids was all the motivation she needed. She's so well adjusted already, I still can't believe that just months ago she had never met any of us. I don't think Teresa could have gotten any luckier 
with Megan. She is truly a lil China doll!! She seems to have developed a little swagger and knows that it was her house and her room. She was very interested in who was in her room without out. Its cool to see her personality develop and watch her change so much already.

This past weekend they went and saw another lil girl who was supposed to come home on our trip but was delayed to April and she sent a few pictures for me to get printed for her. These are 2 from the bunch she sent that are of Megan. Too adorable. 

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

PIctures

So i finally uploaded the pictures from Megan's Christening party. They are on webshots for now but will be moving homes at somepoint in the (hopefully) soon future. I used up all my picasa space with just he pictures from in China.

Click here to view them. They are a from my camera, Teresa's and my Grandparents.

Megan has changed so much in the short time shes been home. She had four teeth as of the party and was getting ready to start day care full time. She apparently enjoyed it the first week and they all ate her up (who doesn't?).

I'm still on the never ending job hunt, beep your fingers crossed for me! My best friend is planning my life as a teacher so i need to find something fast before she puts me in a trance and i agree to the madness.


Wednesday, April 1, 2009

April and Pictures...

Happy April!!

No April fool jokes here and thankfully that  threat of a virus doesn't seem to have harmed anyones computer. Let's just hope it doesn't happen later on. I can't believe it's April already but I love the fact that it is. It's much more spring like sounding and I'm down with lots of rain. Each day this week it seems to have alternated weather pattern (warm and sunny, cooler and rain) continuously. Easter is just a week away and for some unknown reason I've always liked Easter. Can't think of any real reason why, but I always have. Maybe it's the spring like colors and chocolate bunnies, or the fact that it's the time I usually go to CT and see the family I usually don't get to see (or that its usually within a week of my birthday). Whatever it is, I'm glad it's almost here thought. Looking forward to giving out the last of my China gifts though, since they are in my way!  

Speaking of China, I meant to post this a few weeks ago but of course I forgot. Not intentionally, but not being attached to the internet like I'm used to really throws me off. I have to make a list of online tasks and something always gets forgotten! This link is from my mom who has taken a helping of the photos and cleaned them up a bit. She's just great like that. You can order photos from this site and have them sent to you. The prices are very good and its Kodak so you can't go wrong! They are already sized, so all you need to do is chose which ones you'd like. Click on the link below and it will bring you to smugmug where they are posted. You will have to enter a password and then you can view the pictures. Enjoy them!

Tomorrow I am going to visit a few friends in Bloomsburg for the night. Probably the last time I will be going back to be honest. I've re-dived head first back into the job search big time. Last night I could barely send the email to one job because it made me so nervous (maybe just maybe I really wanted that job?!). Hopefully something will come through sooner than later. Till then, Staples and Dollar General rule my universe!


Thursday, March 26, 2009

New Pictures

are up from this weekend with Megan. She is getting cuter by the day, but still sleeping in her own version of time, although it is MUCH closer to US time than she was. Teresa has found her own way of getting Megan adjusted and I think it's working well. (We heard back from a few other families that are still struggling with getting the kids adjusted and from the sounds of it, Megan is doing the best).

She was all smiles and giggles, and is getting closer to letting us actually take a picture of her smiling that she knows about. Right now it's still hit or miss with the smiling pictures. If she's smiling she has no clue that the camera was on her, but thats good because she has a smile that lights up her face!!

The weather in PA got nice for a few days. I think we have started the April showers a little early, but as long as its not white stuff falling from the sky, I'm O-K with that. Time really seems to have started flying though, because it's almost April and that means Easter is just around the corner! I will be TomTomming my way to CT since the last time I went, it got a little confusing. 2 roads of the same name in neighboring towns is just NOT COOL. C'mon people, lets get some original with the street names. Thankfully since I know just enough about the major roads in CT to get around, the TomTom will be helpful (and this will be it's first offical trip. I attempted it to Staten Island one time, but it wanted me to take roads that just suck if you know them, so i ditched it that time).

Random piece of advice: when you go to a copy center, don't ask if you can get copies made there. its kinda the POINT of a COPY and PRINT center. and when you come back to pick up your copies, please say your name or something better than "I'm here for my copies" and then get MAD at me for not knowing EXACTLY who you are! This happens all the time and I don't get it at all.

Friday, March 20, 2009

Spring has Sprung

So I'm pretty excited because today was the first day of spring and it lived up to my expectations. It was sunny and I was able to roll the car window down during my Target shopping experience. It was an experience because I had to go and fight for my DVD that does not work. Their silly little policy is in my way, and their most recent suggestion is to take it up with Sony. Oh yay. Just what I really wanted to do....call California (or India...not really sure yet). I'd personally rather go visit than call. I'm just saying.

Anywho, I am headed to the Isle of Staten tomorrow to visit with the fam and see the munchkin. After this weekend, I think the countdown to Easter will begin. I haven't seen mom since September and I'm beginning to have serious withdrawal I think...so CT will be the place and just in time for me to give her her birthday gifts before we hit mine. As long as it's before mine I think we are still doing OK on how off we truly are.

I've also decided to attempt to figure out WTF Twitter is so this is my newest project. I think that since I majored in Mass Comm, regardless of my current job, I need to keep up with these things to understand what is happening in the media world. We shall see how this goes...it's something to keep me occupied at the very least.

Here is the link to the most recent pictures from when we got back that never made it up due to jet lag. Sorry it's so late, but I will try to get this weekends pictures up muchhhh faster as a I have broken down and teethered my BB to my laptop for internet access like a normal human....

Thursday, March 12, 2009

How many miles was that?

So I was thinking about all the traveling we did in such a short period of time and decided to add it all up. We took 6 flights in a 14 day period and traveling a whopping 16,118 miles roundtrip for all them. How crazy is that? The flight from JFK to Hong Kong was 8,059 each way! The amount of hours we spent flying is pretty crazy too. The flights in all took about 33 hours total, plus for the 2 long flights to and from JFK we were awake for 26 hours. No wonder I can't get over this time difference. I'm not even functioning on China time...

I have made it back to PA. I drove back yesterday afternoon. It was an expereince to say the least. I haven't felt that uncomfortable in a car since I took drivers ed, and even then I think I might have been more comforatable. My car felt so weird and it's taking some adjusting too. I feel like someone just gave it to me yesterday, instead of having driven it for the past 3 years. So weird. While I was driving, I felt lost though. Thankfully I know the drive from SI to PA by heart, but even still, I would see the sign and have to think, I go that way right? I did have to stop at one point and walk around because I was getting really tired and it was only like 5pm. I guess getting over this jet lag is going to take much longer that first expected. I fell asleep last night at 8:30pm ish and woke up at 5:30am. By 9am I was napping. I'm just a mess. I go back to work tonight...hopefully I don't fall asleep before we close.

Have to go now...and fall asleep most likely

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Joys of Jet Lag

So we have made it home. The jet lag is still getting to us, but I have been trying to stay up till 10pm each night and manage to wake up by no later than 6am. Of course by 6pm, I am fighting to make it till 10pm. Hopefully this viscous cycle will end soon. Teresa got sick on the plane ride home (which was another experience itself), so she has been trying to not get Megan sick, who is working off another time zone also. It seems she has moved on from China time, but its not New York time either. Unfortunately, I have to go back to PA on Wednesday and rejoin civilization on Thursday. Not looking forward to it. Of course with limited internet access, this blog will not be getting updated as often and it will probably begin to change from all about Megan to more about how its Easter and the weatherman is promising this is the last snow storm this season (for the 20th time). Oh well. C’est la vie.

Megan was amazing on the trip home. She cried a little on the long plane ride to JFK a few times, but was so confused, who could blame her? She kept falling asleep on my arm or leg, making it fall asleep, so when I had to move, she would wake up. She and I walked around and visited other people on the plane from time to time to see how the others were doing. Most of them seemed to be out cold for a portion of the ride, much to their parents delight.

The morning that we left, we did the usual routine of the buffet breakfast at the hotel, the last meal for hours most likely and finished packing. We all meet in the lobby to take the bus to Guangzhou airport, which was a 30min ride to Hong Kong. This first plane messed up the rest of the day though. It arrived late, got disembarked late, got our bags late, boarded us late and left the runway late. LATE. It’s a short plane ride scheduled to take off at 2:45pm. Our connecting flight leaves at 5:35. We take off closer to 3:30p,, arrive in Hong Kong at 4pm, don’t get off the plane till almost 4:20pm. Do you see how this is going? The first airline checked our bags straight through to JFK so one less thing to worry about I guess. This trip through the Hong Kong airport was a little bit less confusing than the first one, but on a time crunch, this airport is just too big. By the time we find the ticket counter, there is a line and its quickly approaching 5pm. There are a few other families that were also on our end of the line and its taking forever to get our boarding cards. By the time the tickets are finally issued, it’s like 5:10pm and they are wrong. Way wrong. Each of us had our own seat, but in different rows. The woman who said that our tickets were ready and everyone has a seat managed to screw this up badly. She never flagged the 3rd seat for a child, so the seats were broken up. Why in the world anyone would think hey this woman purchased 3 tickets for the same plane and doesn’t want to sit with her party is nuts, but that’s basically what happened.

It was not just us that it happened to from our group and the guy from the airline had to walk us to the gate to make the plane, while calling the gate to see about getting seats moved. Megan can’t sit on her own. She can’t even make use of her seat unless the seatbelt light is off because she’s too young. So this guy takes us all over the place to get to us to a security line that is not the same one everyone else went through because it was on a different floor in a different building. Megan meanwhile is getting pushed in her stroller very fast and she is loving it. She must realize something is up because we haven’t heard a peep from her the entire time, but she is wide awake. We get to the gate at 5:35pm and they are still working on this seating screw up and not exactly getting results we wanted. They come up with 2 seats together in the middle, plus another seat in the dead center of the plane, 3 rows up for me. That’s nice of them. I decide that we are going to ask each person around them, starting with the guy that is sitting on the 3rd seat in a row. An aisle seat. Next to an 1yr old. It’s risky because who will seriously give up an aisle for a middle, especially on a flight as long as this, regardless of a little kid. I got the flight attendant to do it and he agreed. Thank god, because just a few hours into this trip, Teresa started to get sick. How would this have worked originally? She needs to get up and use the bathroom or just stretch and she then carries Megan over to me, over people’s heads. Gee, people would have been loving it. I didn’t see it really lasting. The point of the 3 seats was so that we had some more room to spread out. That middle seat allowed for Ms. Wiggle Worm to have a few inches of freedom, gave us the chance to have a little bit more stretch room and more surface for everything else we needed.

Of course, the first 2 hours of our flight was non-stop turbulance so we were attached to our seats and there was no food being given out. Unfortanetly for us, we hadn't eaten since about 9am that morning and were dying by the time the flight took off at 6pm. They brought Megan 2 little dinner rolls and she had the insides and we attacked the outsides. The food was not as good as it was on the way over either so we were pretty disappointed, even though it was a shorter flight (2 hours is 2 hours). Immigration and customs were not too bad. The valuable brown envelope that Teresa had been carrying was finally handed over and Megan is now a US Citizen! Yay!

Currently we have spread out in grandma and grandpa’s house for a few days. Teresa got some medicine yesterday and is starting to shake what she came down with. We have been trying to entertain Megan and get her used to the time difference and new people. We seem to be her comfort zone after a little bit of time with someone else till she has warmed up. She is doing well, although the teething is coming fast and strong. Grandma got us the homeopathic teething tablets so she seems to be better now that we have our own supply. Somehow with all the bartering of stuff in China, we came back with enough Cheerios to build a house. Megan is still very messed up with the time difference, but is taking more naps throughout the day to catch up. It seems to be helping and is getting closer to US time. I am still off of the time by a few hours. By 8pm I am fighting to make it to 9pm. I have been trying to get to 10pm but I think I have passed out before then most nights. I am up at 5 or 6am though, so if anyone has an early morning job, I might be on that schedule. Or any job in general would be great. Keep me in mind. I’ll answer phones, or anything you need me to do.

Anyways, I hope you have all enjoyed reading the blog and seeing how the journey was. As I said before, this will not be getting updated as frequently and the contents will change over time. I will probably not be getting to see Miss Megan for a month or so, but when I see her again I will post about it with pictures. I am going to sleep now. I actually started this post on my laptop around 4:30am today, but was unable to post it from there...the internet was being funny and then I was entertaining Megan for a while until visitors came to see her. So this was started when I first woke up and is finally being posted hours and hours later on Grandma's computer. Of course since I'm about to fall asleep, I can't be bothered to reread what I wrote earlier so I really hope it was in English and not a made up language. Thanks for reading and see you all one day soon I hope....

Friday, March 6, 2009

Last Hurrah from China...

Well our trip has come to an end. Almost. We are finishing up packing and getting ready for the super long day. Bus trip to the airport, flight to Hong Kong, navigate that airport and get the flight back to JFK. Going to be a busy day, but most of us are on the same flight home so the adventure has one last chapter to go.

Although the weather was different than expected, it was still a good trip. We went back to Shamian Island yesterday and the pearl shops again. It was nice to get out one last time and try to spend the rest of our yuan on some more souvenirs. Megan is hyper and smiling right now, so hopefully it will continue for a while.

There is one last album of pictures here. Although the trip was long, there is a smiling little girl getting ready to meet the rest of her family very soon who is so lovable and happy, everyone is going to just eat her up.Its just too bad she doesn't stay smiling when the flash goes off on the camera! We have some proof though! See you all soon!!

Our last days in Guanzhou

To avoid cabin fever again, we decided to go to the high-end mall yesterday. Even with an umbrella and rain jacket, we were all soaking wet from the pouring rain just crossing 2 streets as the mall is diagonally across from our hotel. We were able to dry off Megan's clothes under the hand dryer in the ladies' room but Arlie and I were soaked to the skin. We spent several hours there and then rushed back to change our clothes and leave for the American Consulate to take the oath. This was our last official act as part of the adoption. All the parents and babies kissed and celebrated the essential completion of our journey. We received the additional paperwork we will have to provide when we go through the non-US citizen line. After we get through all of that, Megan will become a US citizen with final paperwork to follow within 45 days after we are home.

Last night we enjoyed a scenic evening cruise on the Pearl River. We tried to get some video. We had not taken much on this trip because we did not want to lug it everywhere. Today we did more shopping and enjoyed dinner alone in the dining room. We decided against going out which was fortunate because thunder, lightning, and heavy rain soon followed.

We are essentially packed. We had difficulty trying to get a vacuum to suck the air out of Grace's packing bag but were finally able to accomplish without use of a translator. We took turns with Megan in the playroom so that Arlie and I could each pack without Megan getting into everything. Even so, she was around for the final packing and seemed to think we were having fun. In the morning, we will have our big breakfast. Keep a good thought that Megan will not suffer too much on the long flight and day we will have tomorrow. Arlie and I did not get much sleep on the flight over to China and don't expect much sleep on the return flights. We'll be in touch with the extended family and friends after we get some rest. Thanks for following our stories and for the good wishes!

Note to Megan: When you are older and able to read the pages we will print for you from this blog, just know that any concerns or complaints we mentioned were all worth it to be able to bring you home after such a long wait. We love you very much! Love, Mommy and cousin Arlie.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Whatever happened to the sun and warm weather?

So the entire time we have been in Guangzhou, it has been much cooler than it was supposed to be, while Chongqing was much warmer than usual. I guess they flip-flopped the weather forecasts. Yesterday began the really hazy days and it was kinda misting out so they changed our dinner to last night and our Pearl River cruise to tonight. At like 11am today, it was so black outside it looked like it was 3am. Then the sky opened up and let us have it. Yesterday we were inside all day and pretty much were beginning to lose it, so no amount of rain was keeping us inside....but we almost wished it had.

We decided to go across the street to the mall. In the process, we got soaked. To the point where we were walking around we were looking at clothes for me. Of course it was a ritzy mall and even in yuan I would not buy a thing because the prices were insane. So I stayed in my soaking wet clothes. By the way, Megan is currently screaming her little lungs out right now because she is in what she views as her jail cell aka her crib. She screamed last night and its becoming a normal occurrence, but I'm sure at some point she will get it. Shes stuck there for the night. Regardless of the screaming. I personally can tune it out somehow, but I know its getting to Teresa. I feel bad but she needs to learn. She is truly not afraid of anything so she might try to climb out one of these nights. Thankfully only tonight and then Friday night area left in this crib.

The dinner last night was on the 4th floor of our hotel caled Hong Main, which was a Cantonese restaurant. The food is supposed to be more like what we have an Chinese food in the states, but they love spicy. It was pretty good, but the cakes were the best. Cheesecake and chocolate mousse. One cake was for Jillian and Megan's birthdays and the other was for Greta and Billy's anniversary. It seems we have eaten in almost every restaurant this hotel has. We hit up the 40th floor for Prego, the Italian place a few nights ago and the 2nd floor is a daily routine for breakfast at a place called Taste. We also tried their dinner one night. I'm not sure if there are any eateries left in here but the tea room downstairs. Something I might have to look into.

We finally got to go on the Pearl River cruise tonight. The official oath was taken today at the US Consulate just a 5 min walk from our hotel this afternoon and as we were leaving we pretty much begged them to say the cruise was still on since it had been raining on and off all night. Thankfully they said yes. The cruise was on the Pearl River for about an hour and half and they served a very spicy dinner. I think I ate the noodles and fried rice only in the end. They took pasta and seemed to dump a bucket of pepper on it and probably something else too. The fried rice had ham pieces in it. New one for me. The noodles were once again AMAZING. I think if I were to live here, I'd probably become a noodle because it's what I've liked best. Opps. The view from the boat was so pretty, but my camera really does suck. I was kinda beginning to realize it the other day, but the pictures are night just came out ehh. It actually stopped in the middle of one picture and I almost cried because the screen went black and all I could think of was the windows blue screen of death. Black on a camera is like it's equal I assume. All the pictures are posted anyways though. It gives a good idea of what it was like. The moment the boat took off it began to pour again and when we docked it had stopped. And I never did mention the squatty potties, but they are common in China. On this cruise this was like the 3rd I have used. It is truly an art form to use I must say.

Tomorrow is our last full day in China. We are going back to Shamian Island and to the pearl and jade place one last time. Then is lots and lots of packing. Saturday we leave for the first flight to Hong Kong which leaves at 2:35pm, then our flight to JFK leaves at 5:30om or so. But we arrive in NY at 8:30pm local time. Quite the time makeup there. More pictures are posted so go and check them out!! Some are new ones from the past week and some area totally new. Trying to catch up before we head home. There are none from the oath taking because it is not allowed. Oh and we hit up yet another American eatery today for breadsticks...Papa Johns.

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Cabin Fever in China

We had documents notarized at the US Consulate early in the day and had a late breakfast. After 12 noon we all had cabin fever. We had planned on going on the cruise tonight but it is "raining" (misting) and it is postponed until tomorrow night. Every night is misting practically so we were planning to go anyway. We are going to the 4th floor Cantonese restaurant for our group dinner which was supposed to be tomorrow night. We are bored out of our minds at this point. Even Megan has had it with the hotel. I got out once to Papa John's restaurant and ended up buying summer shoes and made a nail appointment. Help! Bonding in boredom is no fun. Please respond with news from home, work gossip, anything!

the randomness of china and our current lives

So there are some various differences and random things throughout our days that never seem to make it into our regular blogs, so here is a blog that is filled with our random thoughts about this stuff.

a) we are currently watching cinemax, which is one of the 4 english channels we can find. there has been exactly 2 movies on during our entire trip that we actually have heard of. one of which we missed 90% due to having to leave and because Megan woke up from a nap. needless to say, we truly have no clue what was happening or how it ended. hbo, cinemax, pearl (which had exactly one rerun of project runway) and star movies. every movie that comes on, we have never heard of (they are american movies but we have no clue) and they are these crazy plots of seeing death, bleeding from a stomach and lying to people. we cannot follow them at all, yet we keep them on to feel like a part of the world, as opposed to being in a hotel room.

b) milk in this country is bad. i don't mean it tastes bad, i mean every single carton is expired by a various amount of days. the freshest i could find in 3 7/11's around the hotel expired 2 days ago. some were from a week ago, and one even had a 2008 date. do they seriously drink expired milk...especially by a week. no wonder why a carton of milk goes bad in a few days in the hotel. they are all expired already.

c) they have no type of oragel or anything of the sort for babies gums when they are teething. do they just jack them up on liquer or something? i found someone in watsons, which is similar to a cvs of sorts, and she translated to the store clerk what i was looking for and she gave me baby toothpaste. not quite what i was looking for. i really do wonder about this though...

d) showering is a family/friend/room activity. im serious. the first hotel had a glass window seperating the bedroom from the bathroom, but you could look right in. they had blinds, so we closed them. but don't think about showering and using the toilet at the same time, because your in their together. the toilet had no door and the shower was clear glass. but the shower itself was even crazier. they had a hose that could be held by hand and then you turn the middle knob (like for a bath) and it gives you an overhead shower. teresa flooded the bathroom attempting to learn it. i gave the shower at the westin the first go around and i to almost flooded the bathroom. this hose had a head that was more like a lawn sprinkler, but it was in the air. if you pull the round lever you get the overhead shower that remsembles a sprinkler, not a shower. washing hair is an event. the shower and the toliet share a door. im serious. its sliding and goes from side to side, so only one person gets a door. everything is of the frosted glass variety, including the sliding doors to the actual bathroom enterence. but please don't feel you need to walk into the bathroom traditionally. you can just hope in from the bath tub. which is located next to my bed. there is a sliding glass door to seperate it all.

e) we have possibly eaten more american food since being here than we do in american. kfc- check. mc donalds- check. papa johns- check. pizza hut- check. while teresa was waiting for the pizza at papa johns today, she bought nine west shoes and made a nail appointment for tomorrow. how nuts are we really?

i think i have some pictures fron the first hotel posted already and later i will take pictures of this crazy hotel. we are getting ready to go on the pearl river cruise in a little bitand blog about that later.

closing thoughts: megan loves pasta, elbows are best. sauce is a yes. we think some mashed potatoes sound amazing and she loves chicken. not that we are trying to send some hints or anything.

megan has been dying to type something to you all so here goes:
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so long for now....

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The purple moon shines at night...

...yet another line from that fantastic eeyore in the play room. The daisies line is still my favorite though and probably never will change (I wonder if we can find one in the US...my bday is coming up...). The play room is so awesome. Megan and I spent some time playing with the little kitchen set and of course eeyore and the gang tihs morning, till she walked me to the door to leave. She was getting tired and needed a nap. The one nap a day she actually will bother to take.

So today we went to a Buddhist temple and to be honest I pretty much forgot everything that David (our tour guide) said about the place. It was very pretty and had a relaxing feel to it, like a park does at home. Many people go and visit it, regardless of their religion and I do recall him saying that one the first day of their new year, everyone visits.

Megan for the past for nights has been her usual wiggle worm self and last night I think she thought bed was optional as she refused to lay still and silent till 11pm. Oh boy. She definitely has like a permanent caffeine fix going on as she never ever stops going. She is getting very brave with the standing and will pull herself up on anything and everything. Legs, blankets, doors, walls, whatever is nearby seems to work well for her.

Yesterday we went to Shamian Island for their medical exams and visa pictures. They attempted to translate their measurements into inches and pounds but it didn't go so well, as they tried to say 3 of the girls where the same weight and height (and just by looking you can see they are not), but she weighed in at 20.2lbs and 71cm (about 28 inches). After the exam, we got the chance to take a little walk around to our meeting spot, then were given time to go shopping. Megan of course decided this would be a better time to eat, so we were feeding her nuggets as we are making a pile of things to buy. It was entertaining to say the least. We only made it to 2 places and then Teresa hit up another place and got the cutest red shoes for Megan that squeak as she walks (when her heel hits the ground) so now we semi know when shes on the move again. I hear we are going back one more time so maybe we can make it to another block this time.

Also last night we went out for our first real Chinese food. I know this sounds like it's taken forever, but Chongqing is a spicy place and neither of us really like spicy food. Thankfully, Nicola and Scott had eaten at this place the night before so they knew which dishes to order (based on pictures). Everything they ordered was really good, but I loved this one noodle dish. Halfway through, Effie and Jamie joined us and that was very helpful. Jamie learned Chinese in college and married someone who is from China so they speak and read fluently, and were able to get us a good dessert and communicate with the waitress as opposed to us using our own way of attempting to communicate. Unfortunately they came after we ordered sodas, so we did have a bit of a comedy routine going on. Scott said they have sodas like 7up (which is HUGELY popular over here...do they even sell it in the US anymore? I never see it) and pepsi, so we all said 7up. First the guy came out with beer after about a 5 minute absence. Then after another 2min routine at the table trying to explain not that, he said coffee. Not that either. He eventually returns with 4 cans of pepsi after digging them up from a nearby country since he was gone forever. Scott and I took the pepsi ( I personally did not like the tea they served and was dying for something to drink), but Teresa and Nicola wanted the 7up. After another few minutes we came up with a can similar but green. He returned successfully with 2 more cans. God only knows what it was Teresa asked for, but we joked he would return with a chair (I think it was a knife to cut up stuff for Megan) and sure enough he returned a few minutes later with a wicker high chair. Thanksfully Jamie and Effie arrived just a few minutes later to save us from possibly buying the place or something insane. It was interesting, but a fun evening out of the hotel.

There are bunch more pictures here and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!! I have no clue what day it truly is with the time difference and sometimes its just not worth figuring it out. I know I just experienced my March 3 so it's good enough for me :)

US paperwork completed, temple trip, birthday dinner

It took all morning today to complete the US paperwork but it is done. Afterwards, we went to a Chinese temple, hundreds of years old. Striking difference from the high rise buildings everywhere. Gretta and her family, and Robin and her family joined us tonight at the Italian restaurant in the hotel to celebrate Gillian's first birthday today and Megan's belated 1st birthday. Dinners out with the other families help to pass the time. Tomorrow I have to leave early to go to the American Consulate to sign an affidavit and have notarized. We had all taken care of the document and notarization before we left but of course US changed the form. We then stay in the hotel all AM while our US paperwork is reviewed. Tomorrow night we will be on a cruise on the Pearl River. We are going to bring the video camera for that. Megan no longer sleeps on the buses. She is constantly in motion--certainly the most active of all the children. She laughs frequently and loves for us to walk her. She can pull herself up using anything including shoes and bedspreads but has not been able to walk on her own yet. We hope this continues for the rest of the week because we do not want to chase her through the airport! It has not been as warm in Guanzhou as we were advised but should get warmer. So far have not used the shorts, etc we bought in Walmart for Megan. We sent out our laundry once last week and once this week.

Monday, March 2, 2009

Photos and Medical exam in Guanzhou

Today we went to have the girls' visa photos and medical exams taken care of. Megan was fine for the photos, weight, height, temperature, ear, eye, and throat checks. She cried when she got stripped and examined by the doctor who wore a mask. I could not blame her. We then went shopping and finally found shoes that she could not pull off. She had been wearing the same shoes she had from the orphanage but they were too big. The new shoes are red and squeak when she walks which she found out after staring at her shoes for a while. She also likes to eat them as well as everything else in her sight. After we got back we went to the children's play room which Megan likes. Tonight we went to a local Chinese restaurant for the first time. Fortunately, Chinese-speaking Effie and Jamie joined me, Arlie, Nicola, and Scott and babies later into the meal because we were struggling to communicate. Yesterday, we went to Sacred Heart Church, a historic church. We got there after Mass ended but I received ashes for the second time in a week. Megan received her first ashes without objection. Sacred Heart Church provides ashes on Wednesday and Sunday for those who missed Wednesday because of work. We then went and did some shopping. Megan does not like shopping. At first, she rejected jewelry but seems to be coming around! Tomorrow, I have to attend what we hope is the last session to do paperwork (US) and Arlie will have to babysit the wiggle worm. We are then off to do some touring. This hotel is overall less child-friendly and all the kids have struggled to make the adjustment. The parents are tired and can't understand why our tasks can't be accomplished in 10 days so we can all go home. It is a struggle to get Megan to bed now. We had an easier time of it last week. She is a night owl like mommy and grandma.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

I always wanted to try pointe...

So we decided to give the new pool at shot. Not so excited. We loved the other pool because it was 4 ft and we could easily bring Megan in and she could travel freely around with us. This one, well 5ft is the shallowest, so Teresa had to be on tippy toes, and I was on full pointe. When I stood flat footed, maybe the very top of my head was not submerged in water. It was a pretty pool, but aren't most Chinese people short? Why such a deep pool? We also were not sure if we would need our fabulous bathing caps that were required at the last hotel, so we brought them anyway. We decided that we did not want any crazy chinese person coming up to us and yelling about something we can't understand, so we donned them. The whirlpool was not hot at all and was only 2.8 feet, so Megan was in there. After a little while she finally warmed up to it, but she decided that the bathing cap was not necessary and pulled it off. She really is a special little one. She decided that she needs to check out our teeth and attempt to poke at our eyes. In the middle of eating her marconi, she tried to flip out of Teresa's grip, so then she had  both of us, guarding her every move. All this craziness, we are beginning to think we might be her slaves. my new nickname is her supplier.....cheerios of course. 

She was also a tad bit congested this morning, so she got to sleep in to make up her for her lost sleep. Other families said that running a steam shower helped there little ones, so after the pool we gave it a shot. Teresa was getting more tired and my nose was clearing up, but Megan was totally unaffected and probably thought we were nuts. The Westin hotel key cards are super sensitive and get deactivated all the time. We should probably start a count. 2 times already. 1 for each of our keys. Mine of course deactivated sometime between leaving the room and getting back from the pool, so I had to run down to the lobby, wet, in a towel and slippers, while they stood in towels in the hallway. 

We went to a church and got there just in time for communion of a Cantonese mass. The English one was of course at 3:30pm. It was a pretty church, but it was like chaos in a church. So strange. Plus, when we went for communion, he put ashes on our heads. We have no clue if it's in honor of Ash Wednesday, for Lent or just they way they do it. It was all just so strange.

I have uploaded the pictures from the last few days. there are two new albums, so enjoy them! There are probably lots of similar shots out of order. It's because they are coming from my camera and Teresa's camera. I have just enough time to upload and semi caption them, so I don't forget in the future. 

And Grace, you asked if she has any teeth. She has one bottom and her first top one has just fully cut the gum line so now you can see that one also. 

Saturday, February 28, 2009

"Spicy girls" are now in Guanzhou

Chongquing is known for its spicy foods so several Chinese have referred to the girls adopted from that province as "spicy girls." Megan survived the two-hour flight from Chongquing to Guanzhou so we are hopeful for the two flights home. She was a little antsy at the beginning but with a bottle of tomato/strawberry juice from the airline, she was asleep through the landing. Security check was a problem for us all. Arlie had checked the airline rules but it turned out we returned to Guanzhou on a different airline. The group head told us we could take the diaper bags but told us we were not specific enough and should have asked her if we needed to dump the baby bottles and the answer would have been "yes." In the disposal process, we lost part of the curved bottle which was Megan's favorite. Grace, we now really need to get more of those bottles! We took Megan to the playroom at the Westin Hotel where we are now staying and she enjoyed the toys. Tomorrow we will go to church, see part of town, and shop. During the week, we will go to the US Embassy and begin that portion of the trip. I have to go now because I am exhausted.

White Daisies Sorta Make Me Smile...

So the plane ride was a success and honestly I don't think we can complain. It was only about 2 hours, maybe a little less. In the beginning she was kinda fussy, but with cheerios and chicken nuggets we managed to get through lift off without much crying. Maybe half way through the flight she passed out with a half a bottle of strawberry and tomato juice?! I'm not so sure about these crazy combination's but she drank it, kicked off her shoes and put her feet on the chair back and laid out like she was a queen. As long as she was not crying, we were going with the anything goes attitude, but while she was awake, I couldn't even have a sip of water without her turning around and trying to steal my cup.

The airline we flew was different than the first 3 times and they were super strict on liquids, to the point where we had to dump the milk and water. Most airlines actually allow a baby bottle with liquid, but not this one. They were kinda nazi like and even took the bottle one of the other little girls was drinking and made them dump it. I understand the restrictions but sometimes it's just a little much.

Currently we are in Guangzhou, where we will be till Saturday to begin the marathon journey home. It will include a 45 min. plane ride to Hong Kong and then the 16 hour flight to JFK. After arriving here, we were up for about 26 hours so I can assure you, we will need sleep and Megan will be wide awake.

Now we are staying at The Westin, and it is a very nice hotel. Still adjusting to the differences from the InterContinental, especially since Megan befriended every worker there. Originally we were given a room with 2 twin beds and that was not going to fly, so we got switched to a new room with beds a smidge bigger. Megan finally has a crib that resembles a crib, instead of a portable crib and can't jump out. Always a plus.

This hotel also has a room with toys for the little kids to play with. Mattel teamed up with The Westin and donated the toys for the families that are adopting to have a place to play. We decided to check it out after dinner to keep her occupied. She seems to get bored easily and needs things to distract her from the pain of teething. I saw the top tooth has broke through and there are a bunch more you can feel under the gums. So we go in and there are tons of Pooh Bears, Eeyores and Tiggers among other stuffed animals and we decided to play with the Pooh family. Well they got all the taking ones, so you play with the talking eeyore, he has lots of fun stuff to say, including "white daises sorta make me smile" and he says it in such a down voice, I can't help but laugh. So there's the story behind my blog title tonight. He has other stuff to say about red hearts and purple moons, but the daisies are the best.

One last thing..we found out yesterday on the way to the panda zoo that 8 is lucky in Chinese and their unlucky numbers are 4 and 14. Ha, wouldn't you know..just my luck.

(Pictures should be up tomorrow. Still unpacking since we have to keep the wiggle worm in constant motion)

Friday, February 27, 2009

Our last days in Chongquing

Our trip to Wal-Mart was disappointing.  I could not get contact fluid or Origel.  We enjoyed our trip to Flying Tigers Museum yesterday where we watched an artist paint and did some shopping. We like bus trips because it is cooler than our room and Megan takes a morning nap only on a bus.  It has been gray and rainy today and yesterday.  I actually put Megan's winter jacket on but she did not like it because it was so stiff.  We should have brought the coat Jasmine gave her but everybody said it was too nice to take.  She will wear it when we get home.  

We went to the pool again yesterday and Megan fell asleep in my arms while in the pool. Clearly part of the right family as me, Donald, and Ed always enjoyed the pool.  Last night we ate in again and Arlie and I took turns getting massages because we were both so sore from lifting and wrestling with her.  I had the "signature" massage which meant that one woman massaged the back and up and another did the legs and feet.  I was in screaming pain at some points. For such small women, they have really strong hands.  I felt better today so I guess it worked.  

Megan went into the stroller for the first time today.  Unless it kept moving, Megan was not interested.  She is really bored easily.  We went to the Panda zoo where we saw some pandas, the top of a hippopotamus, and some tigers.  Megan had the same attitude I had as a kid (Ok we saw them now let's go).  We came back but I have some meetings to attend and need to be around until 5 pm so we have delayed going to the pool.  I will be getting Megan's passport, etc. The clothes we sent out (hoping and praying that they followed the directions to wash in cold or I will continue to wear the same clothes until we get back to Guanzhou) will be back at 5 pm. I don't know how or when we are going to pack because Megan won't stay in her crib before 9 pm and only if nearly every light is off.  Megan lets us file her nails but not cut them.  We can't cut them when she is sleeping because we can't see what we are doing in the dark.  I haven't figured out how we are going to pack in the dark. Since the corridor is cooler and there is light, we are thinking of dragging everything out into the corridor and packing after she's asleep. Arlie is walking her out in the corridor now (probably visiting some of our pals) so that I can blog now.  

Megan likes meat (like any good granddaughter of a butcher, retired or otherwise).  Today she had a half-pancake with syrup, a half bowl of oatmeal, two bites of bread pudding, and two bites of banana.  We watered down her milk and she is pooping again properly.  We are going to be having a water and formula give away as part of our packing.  We are trading the puffs Grace bought and which Megan has rejected for Donna and Mike's cheerios.  We traded diapers for orajel and received teething beads for a swimmy diaper.  We gave away the Bactroban for Nicola and Scott's daughter.  We got some prune mixture (we brought them here to Chongquing but can't find them among other things we can't find) from Sou and John.  The families have all been great.  Effie and Jamie's daughter, Ruby, needed an intravenous line for fluids and an antibiotic.  They have had the roughest time but both speak Chinese and were able to communicate with the doctors.   Megan seems happy and well-adjusted and I am very thankful.  Today she pulled the place mat out from under at another table before we could stop her.  Everything tumbled to the floor, a baby woke up, and she looked like she was still ready for another adventure. Because she does not usually cry during meals in the dining room, she was the only baby allowed to sit with the conference guests.  She flirted with men and women alike.    

Notes to mom and Grace:  Megan only likes the curved bottle like Grace predicted so we need to get more of those.  We also need homeopathic teething beads and orajel.  She can't stand teether toys.  Arlie is now weighing Megan on the scale.  We are clearly running out of ways to entertain her.  Hope Grandma, Pop, Uncles Don and Ed, Aunt Robyn, and Grace are ready to take over because if we survive 20 plus hours on the return flight home entertaining her without any sleep, we will surely be ready for sleep as soon as we step in the door.  

Next time:  The flight to Guazhou with Megan.  Forget about the babies' teeth--the parents will need the whiskey!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Flying Tigers and Wiggle Worms

Today we ended up going to the Flying Tigers Museum instead of the zoo since it was kinda raining all day. It never got heavy, but it was not exactly the sunnier (haha) weather we had been having. The museum was interesting and it was basically an American history lesson on the side of one of Chongqings many hilly mountain sides in the middle of China. But the best part for all of us was the rice painting. There was an artist who came in and showed us in person how they do them and he had a bunch for us to look at that he had already done. While he was working, he pretty much blocked out the rest of the world and concentrated on his painting. It was amazing to see this white rice paper, come to life in just minutes.

We also got to visit a Chinese Wal Mart today. It was so like a Wal Mart and so unamerican at the same time it was weird. The store took up all the room behind all the front shops, so it was just on the street, plus the basement area, so it was 2 floors altogether. The upstairs seemed to be dedicated to all the grocery supplies, while the downstairs was the rest of the store. So instead of it being a left and right sides, it was upstairs and downstairs. To get downstairs you get on this moving belt. It was a like a cross between the flat belts at airports that you hop on instead of walking and an escalator, but without an stairs and on a slight incline till you reach your destination. The shopping carts are designed to have these little teeth like things that grip onto the belt, so nothing moves while your traveling. And on the sides, there are various items, like tissues, gum, chips, washcloths to pick up along the way. When downstairs, we were thankful to have Michael our tour guide to help with some translation, and still many things got confused. We found some clothes for Megan and a stroller, but failed to find baby orajel or anything of the sort (she said they don't have it) nor could we get contact fluid (try a glasses store she said). I went off on my own trying to see if I could find it, but no such luck. It's interesting to see the differences in a store like Wal Mart, just based on countries.

Once again we hit up the pool with our super fashionable swim caps. In order to use the pool, you need to cover your head, so now we all have these caps that make everyone look silly. Even the kids have to wear them. Megan was falling asleep in the pool, but it seemed to have given her a second wind, because her new name is wiggle worm. She will not sit still. The learning to walk thing is a new hobby and trying to leap, crawl, jump or anything off the bed is the new game. Crawling seems to bore her as she realizes it's pretty useless and will only seem to do it if it's a last resort. She even picked up the telephone on her bed adventure! Tons of laughing and smiling, giggling and cooing little words all day long. Her teeth seem to bother her around 2ish it seems and she gets super fussy, but even then that seems to be it for the day. The top tooth is going to break through any second now.
I went for a massage and Teresa is currently getting one. It took Megan almost 40 minutes after Teresa left to stop jumping around and fall asleep. Hopefully she will sleep all night though.

Tomorrow is our last day in Chongqing, so lots of packing after we hopefully get to the zoo and Saturday will be Megan's first plane ride. She loves the movement of the bus, so for the ear-popping aspect of this hopefully she will enjoy the plane ride. It is only about 2hours to Guangzhou so this will be the test, before we take the really long one home.

There are new pictures up, including the official adoption day, just hanging out and the rice artist. Enjoy them by clicking here!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Picture Links...Maybe?

Traveling to China

Chongqing 1

On a hope and prayer that these links work

Nuggets and Pictures....

Tonight Megan and I decided to eat some chicken nuggets and she was determined to eat them on her own. It was great, but at the same time she would go and grab the biggest piece from my hand and then inspect it. She would not let me put the food in her mouth, but instead she decided it was much better to take the piece from my hands and do it herself. She seemed to have gotten her second wind from our late dinner and afterward walking around holding my hands, crawling all over my bed and jibbering about something. Ba-ba and da-da are the most recognizable words, but I think she also came out with na-na a few times.

The pool was amazing to get into. The room is so warm with the thermostat set at 25degrees c. There are 2 windows that can open, but only 1 will stay propped open. The cooler doesn't do much to help. Honestly, I think these people are a little nuts. They keep the inside temperature so warm, the fridge temperature is also pretty warm, but they love their spicy food....for every single meal. Each day at breakfast I am amazed to see soups, rices, full salad bar and tons of spicy noodles etc. So different than what we are used to. Some days there are even mini cold cut sandwichs with a toothpick holding them together!

I got to go back to Carrefour today with our tour guide and a small group of people. Since I had been there before it was useful finding things everyone needed, and having Michael the tour guide was great because he would translate for us. The way he took us was a little easier than last nights adventure, but now I know two ways. He also took us to a deparment store before Carrefour, so now I know where yet another random store is. The 7th floor was where all the baby stuff was, but all the other floors looked like a US department store in the city.

Tomorrow we are going to Wal-Mart and to see the Pandas so I should get all those pictures up in the next day or so. And of course tons more of Megan coming out of her shell more and more! Good night from Chongqing...I'm still working on how to link all the pictures to the blog for everyone. I currently have them loaded on picasa but every time I link to them, it becomes a page where you need to log in. I am going to do a little test and hopefully have it all fixed by tomorrow.

Megan Kathleen became legally mine

On Tuesday, 2/24, I counted out over 42,000 in yuan and deposited 35,000 of it in a bank in China while Megan and Arlie stayed in the hotel room. We then traveled back to the orphanage center. Megan was very quiet. I promised her I was not giving her back. It was a long 2 or so hours. I tendered the last 7,080 in yuan. Basically, I took care of her orphanage fees for the last year and paid other processing fees. They took a picture of Megan and me together and typed the final adoption document. They then took us into the ceremonial red room. Megan and I approached the podium. I took an oath to love her forever among other things. I had to struggle to say, "I will," because Megan stuck her long fingernailed fingers (after I filed them) into my mouth. I then had to stick my finger on a red ink pad and place my fingerprint on a couple of documents. Megan had to take her index finger, place on the red ink pad, and place her fingerprint on a document. They then took a family photo with us holding our legal paperwork. Arlie will try to upload a photo of the event. Yesterday was a long day and after our Pizza Hut celebration with two other families, we collapsed into bed early.

Today we did some shopping for baby food, etc. which was a long walk. Megan fell asleep in the hip hammock attached to me. Later I went for a walk with a few others to St. Joseph's Catholic Church which was built in the 1800's. It was a long walk up and down stairs and up hills a good portion of the way. Once there, a priest agreed to give us ashes as it was Ash Wednesday. After I got back, Megan became fussy and was crying. She only seems to cry when uncomfortable. We decided it was teething from the drool. One family gave us homeopathic dissolving balls and another gave us Orajel. Megan was still crying. We decided to keep to our original plan and we all went into the hotel pool (we forgot a camera). We each had to buy bathing caps. Megan looked so cute and completely stopped crying. She liked the pool and was splashing with her hands. We will go in again and remember to take the camera. Tonight for the first time, we decided to stay in and order room service. She loved the chicken mcnuggets. She also kept grabbing the elbow macaroni from Arlie so that she could feed herself. She has expressed dislike for formula and favors milk. She is already saying, "da da." She will put anything in her mouth except pacifiers and teething toys so the trip home is going to be tough. She took my hands and we walked today for the first time. Arlie is walking her now as I type. Megan keeps folding her right leg in when she sits and the right leg turns in a bit when she walks. It is not pronounced but we wonder if she will need some baby therapy. It looks like another tooth is about to come in as fussiness is setting in again. Gotta go. Tomorrow hopefully we get a stroller at Wal-Mart and see the panda zoo.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

My Chinese Grocery Experience

So tonight after a nice American dinner at Pizza Hut, I went with Effie, another mother to Carrefour, which is like a French Wal-Mart in China. How confusing. Effie by the way is Chinese so you would expect this could help us to get our mission accomplished. Megan needed some food mainly and Effie needed a bunch of things for her daughter. Well this was no small task. The aisles were set up on random diagonals, and the walls instead of being flat and straight across they were jagged and on an angle.

As we are walking throughout the store, Effie stops and asks the people where the items are that we need and some of them had no clue and others where semi-helpful. The biggest issue we found was that you have to pay for certain items in that section, but not everything, so at one point some girl comes running after me and taps my back which scared me half to death. Then in another aisle after having walked around for a while, this other girl starts to pull Effie's shopping cart back to the section to pay for just certain items. Meanwhile, you still have to go through the regular checkout at the end for the rest of the items. So confusing.

And then getting out of this place was an adventure in itself. We were following the exit signs but that only brought us to something that I can only imagine read emergency exit only since it was taped across the 2 doors and had the circle with the line through it. Then she asked some security guy and he told us through the KFC. Well it turns out what he meant was go to the KFC and turn right. Then keep on walking to the escalator which was broken of course. After making it to the street, we still had to regain our bearings and find our way back to the hotel. It's only like a 5-10 min walk at most, but there are no traffic signals, and crosswalks are there for looks. It's survival of the fittest when crossing a street here. Traffic stops for no one. And there was a cop just yards away. As many people drive in this area, just as many if not more take bus 11, which according to our tour guide is their feet. Probably some Chinese inside joke, but I can go with it. Another random fact we learned today: Chongqing is approximately the size of Austria.

Of course this was my second grocery store attempt. There is a department store across the street from the hotel and it has clothes, makeup (L'Oreal and Olay have counters like Clinque does in the states...so weird) perfume, fast food, and a grocery store. That time I was dragging people to aisles and pointing at pictures and making gestures. It worked, but I'm sure they all thought I was nuts.

On another note, today was the official adoption and Megan has legally become a DeMeo family member. We have some video for when we get home and hopefully tomorrow I can get all the pictures up and organized so there will be an album of what we have taken so far.

Monday, February 23, 2009

The 4 years was worth the wait for "gotcha" day.

In the international adoption arena, adoptive parents refer to "gotcha day." There was no organization or ceremony for our gotcha day today. Babies apparently got off the bus and suddenly 2 sets of parents were handed children outside the room we were in. Then other babies were brought in and other parents ahead of me indicated that they thought it was Megan (we had previously seen pictures of all the babies). I started to move closer and they called my name. The baby's caretaker was in her early 20's. She seemed hesitant to hand her over until she saw my smiling face and then gave her to me when I reached for her. Megan is more petite than the pictures seemed. Size 18 months is large on her. She is used to fending for herself. She is teething and keeps sticking her index finger into her mouth. She did not want the pacifier, teethers, dolly, or Cookie Monster. She was only interested in getting any paper and sticking it into her mouth. I changed 4 diapers. She peed and pooped. She seemed to feel better once we took off the layers of clothes which were too hot for the weather. She did not like the sponge bath or being naked but liked her new clothes. I laid down in the bed next to the portable crib and she kept staring at me through the netting, even pulling herself up to make sure she could see me. She is asleep now and soon I will go to bed myself. Tomorrow, 2/24, is the day she is deemed legally mine and we sign paperwork with the Chinese officials and pay the remaining fees. I have had to hold back some tears tonight because I miss Jim and can't believe he will not be there to see her when we get home. The day before our departure I found the SD cards for the camera which I had forgotten he had purchased for me. He is sorely missed on this trip.

Megan Kathleen is here...

Well here she is finally. This is her at dinner in the hotel, when she finally broke the stone cold face and started smiling, laughing and playing with a few toys.

This afternoon (Monday) we went to an adoption (and marriage) centre in Chongqing about 20 mins away from the hotel to get her. We thought the process was going to be a bit different than it was. When her caretaker walked into the room, we all decided that it had to be Megan just by looking at her.


Unlike most of the other kids, she did not cry that much and when she did is much softer than the other kids and took her longer to do so. The bottle that we made did not go over so well and neither did the bottle they gave us made with the formula and cereal she is used to. We tried some applesauce and got a few bites of that down before that too hit the rejection pile. Once back at the hotel another bottle was tried before she pushed that away after some if it. She has a strong grip and will push away what she doesn't want, but when she wants it she will try to grab it.

Not so sure about the crawling yet, but she is not walking. She seems to just be getting ready to fully try the standing thing. She will push up and while your holding her hands stand, but she is wobbly.
More pictures later

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Teresa in China

While Arlie was typing, I was taking a nap. I am still jetlagged. By the time we arrived at the first hotel last night in Guangzhou, I had been up 26 hours. We got up to our first hotel room on the 19th floor to find out our key cards had not been properly activated. When we went back up, one card did not work and the room had only a king-size bed. When we went back down the next time, I let the desk know that I had been up 26 hours and needed an appropriate room right away (said in stronger way because I was punch drunk on fatigue at that point). Arlie believes they are now afraid of me. I am fine with that. Once we got to a suitable room on 10th floor, I peeled off clothes and fell asleep immediately without unpacking a thing.

When we got up at about 4 am, we had to substantially downsize the luggage to take to Chongquing. There is one very heavy piece of luggage sitting for us in Guangzhou while I have maybe 3 tops for the full week in Chongquing. The temperature in Chongquing is warmer than we were led to believe and Arlie and I have been too hot especially since we have the wrong clothes. Also difficult to breath because everyone here smokes. I have a sore throat but hope it is gone by tomorrow. This is the end of the whining. By 3:30 pm or so tomorrow (2:30 AM on Monday for NY), we will see Megan for the first time and then we'll remember why we are putting up with any discomfort. She has the most clothes (although we did open up her vacuum packed clothes and reduce her clothing) and will probably like the heat.

Spicy times and Aprilie?

Well we have made it to China safely. Still adjusting to the time difference, which by the way is 13 hours thanks to America's daylight savings. When we get home it will be the first day of daylight savings, so only 12 hours to figure out?!

We left for JFK around 5am and got there by 5:40am. Our wonderful packing session the night before with Grace really helped weed out clothing and we managed to get our suitcases down to around the weight limit (2 bags were 2 pounds over so she waived the fees). The plane left the gate on time but, we got held up in a cue of 17 planes ahead so we finally took off almost an hour later. The flight was very smooth and probably one of the smoothest landings. Was Sully our pilot? There was a picture on the plane of a guy who resembled him. Hmmmm, I wonder.

During the plane ride we had a wide variety of movies, tv shows and games to keep us entertained. Neither of us really got any sleep on the plane. I took a catnap in the middle of a movie, but that was all. My tv set needed to be reset 3 times of course because I have that sort of luck. The really cool thing about the tv screen was that it had this option of seeing our flight pattern and where we currently were and it was constantly updating the local time in our origin, destination and wherever in the world we currently were. It also said the temperature and altitude. FYI: over the arctic circle, it is -56degrees F.

When we arrived in Hong Kong, we had to switch planes to Guangzhou where we would be staying for the night. We will also be there from Saturday the 28th till we leave for the US. The plane ride was only 45 minutes long, but by the time we got on that plane we had already been up for 24 hours straight. I stopped counting how many hours total before we hit the sheets but it was more than enough. At the Gunagzhou airport the bell hops from our hotel were waiting for us to take our bags and get us to the hotel. In Guangzhou we are staying the Westin hotel, which is very nice and modern, maybe too modern though. The shower definitely needed instruction on how to work and it was like a sauna in the hotel room. Turns out people in China have a very different idea of cold than we do. They like their rooms around 25degrees C but they also don’t have winters like we do.

We woke up early to get packing for Chongqing on Sunday because only 1 bag per person for this flight and it could only weigh 44lbs. Thankfully we had a scale and I jumped on and off with the bags to ensure we were under the limit. Once we arrived at Chongqing we were transported by a bus once again to the InterContinental hotel, which is home until Saturday morning. This is when we found out that the Chinese really like things warm and requested that the AC be turned up. Turns out that its central AC for all the hotel guests and it’s a bit of a struggle to keep the entire hotel happy with the temperature. They said that they would get us a cooler and I guess because I was the one who started explaining this to the women at the desk, my name was placed on the work order for our “cooler”. My new Chinese name is Aprilie. And we still don’t quite get how this “cooler” works as all the buttons are in Chinese. We also have the windows open so it seems to be cooling down a little.

We have found the food to be generally more spicy and the tour guide for Chongqing said everything is spicy. There is a KFC and a PizzaHut across the street from the hotel and we chose the KFC for tonights dinner. Even that was more spicy than at home and we even asked the only guy that spoke English in the place which is the least spicy. The language barrier hasn’t been too bad, but of course we have only been here for 2 days, although in my mind everything has been just 1 very long day so the fact that it’s approaching 8pm and tomorrow we meet Megan is crazy.

Chongqing is where the adoption centre is that we will be meeting her at and taking her. Tomorrow around 3pm we meet her and take her back to the hotel with us for the night. Tuesday is when the adoption actually takes place, which barring any huge obstacles, I will be taking a video of it. I will have no way to post that, but there will definitely be a new picture of her tomorrow.

As I have been doing all of the blogging up until now, this has all been Arlie-vision, but Teresa will be getting on here now, so she will be writing posts too. As it's approaching 8pm here I think it's time to sit in bed and watch Chinese tv? We shall give it a try. And figure out how much formula to bring tomorrow. Good night or good morning!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

15 bags and breakfast?

Hi everyone. About 14 hours till take off and Teresa just arrived in Staten Island. We must get to repacking and all that fun stuff, but I am just stopping by for a few minutes to update everyone.

I arrived at Grandma's this morning after finally finding an outlet adapter suitable for my computer. I will try to update as we get internet once in China, but no guarantees, so I will keeping a log on my computer to put up when we get the chances. I just did our online check in with our passports and tickets, so hopefully tomorrow morning will be smooth sailing at JFK. Haha, there's a funny one. We are leaving SI around 5am (FYI: neither of us are really morning people..)so there shouldn't be too much traffic. Thankfully Grandpa is usually up super early and will be quietly kicking us out of bed with the smell of eggs?! I think I just heard Teresa put in an egg request. Yay!

I managed to pack my suitcase without too many issues. I even still have some room left over for Megans stuff and souvenirs. Teresa on the other hand has about 15 bags so I have to go help her with that. My carry-on is probably heavier than my suitcase.
I will admit I don't have a fear of flying, but I have a fear of my luggage not making it to my destination with me, so it took almost a week to fully have my carry on ready, while I only packed my clothes last night.

I am going to head upstairs and see what progress is being made on the 15 bags. The next time I post I will be in China, and we hopefully will have some pictures of Megan to share with you!! See you all soon and thanks for the emails and tips. Every little bit has been greatly appreciated!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

I never said I was a history teacher but here is my shot....

These are the 2 most recent pictures that have been received of her. She is almost 20lbs already and just turned a year a few days ago (2/10/09). We were hoping to have been in China for her first birthday but just a few more days before we leave. (Notice the red shoes: red in Chinese means good luck)
The provinces we are going to are Chungking (Chun-ching) and Guangzhou (Guan-gho). The pronunciation and and spelling of the places don't translate as easily so based on the spelling we had and the pronunciation these are the names that I was able to find in my research that matches what we knew about locations et al.

There were a few spelling for Chungking but this one seems to be the most common. It is a very industrialized area and we are expecting alot of smog as it's nickname is "Furnace of Yangtze" because of all the soot. It is considered to be one of the most polluted cities in China. The tempertaure is not going to be as warm as Guangzhou but still not to bad with the average said to be about 47degrees Farenheit in February (one of the 2 coolest months).

The second place we are going to is Guangzhou in Guangdong. Guangdong is the province but Guangzhou is the largest city within the province.* This is supposed to be a less polluated area and one of the richer areas of the country. The weather is said to be more humid and has very short, dry and mild winters, while the summer seem to last forever with the average temperature of 91degrees farenheit in July and an average low of 64 in January. If these temps hold true we should be enjoying some nicer weather than we currently are. Of course the drastic temperature change is going to guareentee us to get sick.


*My disclaimer: It's very confusing how the country, provinces and cities all work together having changed dynasty hands many times over the history so doing this research I was very unsure if I even had the correct places but since these are the only places I can come up with, we are going with this information for the time being. I promise if I have made any mistakes, I will correct them as soon as I can.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Welcome!!

Hi all and welcome to my blog. This will currently be serving as a link to family and friends in the United States while Teresa and I are in China bringing Megan home.

We leave next Friday morning (2/20/09) from JFK nice and early for our 16 hour ride to Hong Kong. I have been looking up the names of the provinces that we are going to be in and we should be experiencing some warmer weather so hopefully that hold up. We will be there for 2 weeks before we come home on March 7, 2009. I will be taking millions of pictures and trying to keep this updated with pictures and details of our trip.

Have to get going for now, but tomorrow I am going to up load the pictures that we have been sent so far.