Sweet snuggles in Guangzhou

Today (Sat 5/30) we took it really easy. The flight into Guangzhou from Nanning, while only an hour, didn't arrive until almost 9:30pm on Friday night. By the time we got to our hotel & got checked in it was 10:30 and we all got to bed rather late. So we enjoyed sleeping in and a lazy breakfast. After breakfast Georgea had her medical exam with the American Doctor who is traveling with our group of adoptive families. The exam went very well! Georgea is in the 90th percentile for height & weight on the Chinese chart. She also seems very healthy. We are so happy and feel very blessed. We spent the remainder of the day hanging out at the hotel catching up on rest and just taking it easy. The White Swann in Guangzhou is a pretty wonderful place to hang out. It's so clean, beautiful and comfortable. It has many of the nice amenities that we westerners are so spoiled with at home.

In the afternoon we went to have Georgea's Visa photo taken. She was a wiggle worm, but they did manage to get a good shot. After the photo shoot we headed to a delicious Thai restaurant with our entire group. The food was great & it was nice to hang out with the other families. Georgea loves the other children. She is very interested in them, and it's pretty sweet to watch.

Before we headed out for Georgea's visa photo Daddy took some shots of Georgea in her "Sleepywrap" with Mommy. I love the Sleepywrap! It is the best for snuggling and Georgea really likes it too. I've been using the wrap & James is using the Baby Bjorn. I don't know if this baby will ever sit in a stroller....we can't put her down!

Last day in Nanning, Guangxi Province, 5/29

Today was our last day in Georgea's home province of Guangxi. We got off to a bit of a slow start because I got food poisoning on Thursday night. Yikes! I got a little daring and tried some fish at a local restaurant. We'd been doing so well & enjoying the local fare, but fish just wasn't a great idea. It sure tasted delicious! :-) In any case, I spent all night Thursday up and quite ill. James was an amazing care-giver & our little angel slept through all of the activity, even though her crib was just outside the bathroom door. She truly is a sound sleeper........what a blessing!! That said, our sightseeing plan for Friday was again altered. We did get out, but not as early as we intended. We tried to pack as much as we could into the few hours before departure to the airport.

We went to a beautiful garden park in Nanning. It was so lush, green, and just wonderfully peaceful. We got to see some dancers, local girls in one of the traditional ethnic minority's attire. So colorful and lovely. We also met a girl from YULIN (!) which is Georgea's home city in Guangxi province. She was working in a shop in the garden park, and she was happy to allow us a photograph with her. She was so sweet and interested in Georgea. She asked if we could come back next year to see her. We loved interacting with this young lady. It made us feel a connection with Georgea's home city, the city where she was so wonderfully cared for for her first year of life. This young lady gave us her email address and asked us to send the photo we took of her with Georgea and me. We will do this and will hope to keep in touch with her. What an unexpected blessing.

While in the park we visited the "Ganlan House." This was an old house from the Zhuang Ethnic minority. There are photos of me with our guide Huang, as well as with James & Georgea in front of this house. Our guide took amazing care of us during our visit in Guangxi province.

On our way to the airport we made a stop in downtown Nanning. Downtown has a completely different vibe than the area where we stayed which felt much more suburban and rural. Even though we were staying in the city, we were surrounded by homes, apartments, small local restaurants & businesses, and the locals bustling around on their bicycles and motor bikes. This was how we imagined China to be. We loved soaking in every minute of the experience. Back to downtown....we stopped at a big convention center building and took some photos. This area was beautiful and had awesome views of downtown surrounding the property. Then we headed to dinner, last stop before the Guangxi airport in Nanning. We went to a traditional Chinese restaurant with our guide Huang. I've included some photos. The food here is so good. They do leave the heads on their chicken and fish, which takes a good bit of getting used to! Huang took good care of me and made sure I had some tofu, since meat is not my thing. We also had the most delicious ginger soup, which I'm sure aided in my stomach's recovery from the night before.

Then, it was off to the airport to travel to Guangzhou. Georgea's first plane ride and guess what..........she handled it like an old pro. No problems. Just clung to Daddy, "goo-ed, ga-ed and coo-ed" for the short 1 hour flight. She fits right into our jet-setting family!

Thursday 5/28, hanging with Mommy...

Today we decided to have a low key day. We enjoyed breakfast & then spent most of the rest of the day in the hotel. We had planned on sightseeing, but James was still feeling under the weather, and a restful day sounded really good to me too. Georgea is a good napper. She doesn't like going down for her nap, nor at bedtime, but once she has a good little fuss she falls asleep peacefully and soundly. Here are some shots of our day of rest....napping, napping with Mommy and updating the blog. Georgea loves the computer!

"Day 3 with Georgea, Wed May 27"

Wednesday was another good day. Georgea slept well again Tuesday night & we had to wake her in the morning on Wednesday for breakfast. She was so sleepy when we got downstairs to the restaurant she wasn't really interested in food nor her bottle. She was in a sleepy, "why did you wake me, I could have slept another good hour" daze. Although she fusses when she goes down, once she's out she's a really solid sleeper. She also does not like waking up. not a morning person, which means she matches perfectly with Daddy.

After breakfast Georgea took a little morning nap, had some play time and then it was off for more paperwork. There is a 3 day holiday Thursday-Saturday here in China and due to the holiday there was some concern that we may not be able to get Georgea's Chinese passport on time. We had to get the passport on Wednesday in order to stay on target with the remainder of our travel and government appointments. Thankfully, the passport office was able to rush Georgea's Chinese passport for us and we now have that in hand, ready for travel! After lots of rushing around wrapping up paperwork and running a few errands we grabbed a bite to eat at the restaurant next to our hotel. Georgea took her bottle and fell fast asleep in Daddy's arms at the dinner table. It was an exhausting day for a 1 year old who's had a whirlwind of transition and activity over a 3 day period and yet she hung right in there like a sweet little angel. No complaints, no whining, just "go with the flow." It took about an hour of fussing at bed time for Georgea to relax, and that was followed by an hour of coo-ing, ga-ga's, etc. Finally I put her in her crib where the coo-ing and ga-ga's continued until she fell peacefully asleep about 15 minutes later. Seriously, is this my baby? So beautiful, so sweet. God is good and my heart is overflowing.

"Happy Birthday part 2, 5-26-09"

We had an adventurous back half of our birthday celebration, which involved a diaper change, that led to a very wet dress, a total bed stripping and Mommy and Daddy running around (like two chickens w our heads cut off) looking for towels, more wet wipes and ultimately a trip to the bath tub! I truly wish I could have those few moments on tape bc even the recollection of the event makes me break into an out-loud giggle!!

We had been told repeatedly by multiple trusted sources to avoid bathing Georgea for the first couple of days so that she could settle in and learn to trust us, and that was absolutely our intent. And, the fact that she was placed into our arms so beautifully clean and well cared for made us happy that sticking to our decision would actually be easy. Day one....no problem. Day two....well, we goofed on the aforementioned diaper change and that really left us no choice. Much to our pleasant surprise Georgea loves the bath!! She went in with Mommy and smiled, splashed & giggled. Clearly this was not her first experience sitting in a tub full of water. This baby girl has truly been well cared for. What a blessing! When we realized how happy she was in the tubby we decided to go ahead and shampoo her hair while we had her in there. The shampoo went over like a dream, no problem, no resistance, just more splashing & playing while I shampoo-ed and rinsed. What an angel our little Georgea Luo-Luo is!

After the bath we headed downstairs for a low key dinner & the birthday cake surprise from Daddy. I've included photos from Tuesday of Georgea's first bath and first Birthday celebration.

Happy Birthday to Georgea! Happy day for Mommy & Daddy!

We had an amazing day two with our birthday girl today. What a blessing to spend Georgea's first birthday with her in China, in her home province, Guangxi. This was a dream that we had as soon as we received her referral at the end of February, and today it came true.

Georgea fell asleep beside Mommy & Daddy last night & we moved her to her crib around midnight, after she'd been snoozing for almost an hour. She had a wonderful night's sleep in her crib and we woke her at about 8am for breakfast. We enjoyed a low key day, mostly staying in the hotel to help her settle in and begin the bonding process. She is doing so well. After breakfast we just hung out for a few hours in the hotel. We played and snuggled, and Georgea took a nice nap. We then ventured out for a short walk around the area close to our hotel which includes a beautiful park. We had dinner at our hotel and Daddy secretly ordered a birthday cake to be brought to the table after dinner! Three of the servers brought the cake w a candle & we all sang happy birthday to Georgea! How sweet.

We love China and are so enjoying being in Georgea's province. It is beautiful here. Warm & very tropical (read: humid!). My hair is having a curl-a-thon & I'm just not even going to fight it....too busy doting on my baby to worry about weird hair that brings back memories of my years living in Florida.

Georgea is bonding well with both of us and we are so thankful. Not sure what the days to come will bring, but we are very happy about how she is doing now and hoping and praying things will continue to go well. Georgea is so beautiful and healthy. She weighs just about 20lbs, is eating, drinking, playing, engaging, giggling (she has the sweetest raspy-sounding giggle ever!). She does well even when sitting alone on her blanket, just playing with her toys and books. Her skin is clear, soft, brown & just so beautiful. Her legs are long & perfect. She has some serious thighs! I just want to kiss and kiss those thighs! I am truly amazed at how healthy she seems to be. I believe she received wonderful care at her Social Welfare Institute, and in her foster home. It is obvious. What a blessing.

Her SWI sent 2 very sweet gifts to us. One is a DVD with many photos of Georgea starting at what appears to be when she was approximately 6 mos. of age. The other is a tiny silver bracelet that has Yulin Social Welfare Institute written on it, in Chinese. What wonderful keepsakes. These will be treasures for all of us.

The photos here are a few from the evening of our first day together, yesterday 5/25. Georgea napping on Daddy's lap & heading to dinner in the Baby Bjorn with Mommy. The rest of the photos are from 5/26, of the birthday girl! There are some sights from Nanning, the city we are staying in as well as our time strolling in the park.

Thanks to all for your wonderful comments on the blog. My friend Sue is forwarding them to me via email so I can enjoy. Your encouragement, interest in and support of our experience here in China with Georgea are so very meaningful!