Home Sweet Home - Part 1

We're here. I can't hardly believe it. After 17 hours of travelling, we made it back to Mpls. on Friday at 4:30pm. Of course, for the three of us, it felt like 5am on Saturday. The past couple days have been a blur of family, home, jet-lag, and sleep....sort of.
We left our hotel on Friday morning at 10am to get to the airport for our 12:30pm flight. We flew first from Hong Kong to San Fransisco which took 11 1/2 hours. Olivia had her own seat since she was over 2 yrs. old and we were thankful for that. We sat her in it and didn't pick her up as long as she didn't reach and ask. We knew that as soon as one of held her once.....we'd be holding her and passing her back and forth the whole time and that just sounded exhausting. So, there we sat on the plane and she was soooo great! She never moved from her seat, once.
She just played with her little backpack of toys....

When she got tired I laid her down with her doll.

We even put a Barney video in and oh my goodness...she was mesmerized.

When we arrived in San Fran. we only had 1 hour and 22 minutes. Seems like enough time to connect to another flight, but we had lots to do. First, because it was our first stop in America, we had to go through not only the line for citizens and show our passports.....we had to then go to a second line for new immigrants for Olivia. We had to show her Chinese passport and give them all the paperwork from the US Consulate. That took some time. This was actually a pretty exciting moment because ya see, as soon as Miss Olivia had stepped off the plane on American soil.....she was officially an American citizen. That was enough to get this overtired mama all choked up....right there in the customs line.
While we were waiting in the customs line, I was hoping the employee who chooses who's luggage they rummage through would show a little mercy on us. After all, we were a sight. We had 4 suitcases, 4 carry ons (our duffel bag, one diaper bag, computer bag, and Jay's sleep machine) AND....a 2 yr. old strapped to Jay's chest. Well, he did and we sailed right by without a hitch. We re-checked our bags and got to our next gate just in time to start boarding. That flight was over 3 hours, but by this time we were so completely exhausted. It was the middle of the night for us and we had barely even slept. We were so excited though to be on our last leg to get home though that I didn't even care. I think I was also to tired to even care that I had forgotten my plan to get my makeup out of my luggage before re-checking it. I hadn't put any on that morning. I figured it would be a mute point with all the travelling we were going to be doing. Well, my plan fell through and so I was headed home looking awful. Ask me if I cared....I just wanted to see my boys.
Back home, they were just as anxious as we were.


I had emailed my family and asked them to make sure to let the boys come to us first before letting everyone else. I wanted to see them first and give them a chance to get the first glimpse of Livi. I'd say my brothers did a good job of holding them back.

I remember getting off the plane and heading to the baggage claim area. Jason saw them first...off in the distance. Then I did. I had already been crying as we headed through the airport, but seeing them I waved real high above the crowd so they could see us. Oh my goodness, did they come running.

It was the best thing I've ever seen. I was bawling by the time they reached us....this, of course, made me even more beautiful than I already was for all the pictures I was going to be in....and they just surrounded us. It was soooo good to see them. I can't tell you how much we missed them and how hard that was to be away all that time.

Jay and I had predicted that our 3 oldest would be crying and we were right. They were very emotional and looked very happy. They looked at their new sister for the first time. She was a bit stunned by all the commotion. She just looked and watched them. It took me a few minutes, but I soon realized that my whole family was now standing behind us and had been watching.....along with everyone else in the airport....
After giving everyone hugs, we had the fun task of getting to finally show her off in person. The grandma's were the first ones in to see her...and everyone else followed.

Olivia didn't cry or seem overwhelmed. She just watched and held on tight. I think she knew she was in for a ride with this big family.
After spending quite a bit of time at the airport, we said goodbye to everyone except our parents. We wanted them to come back to the house with us. We thought it would be too much for her to have the rest there, but they were coming over on Sunday.
My dad helped by grabbing some of our bags and we all left. We were heading out of the parking garage when I realized that dad had taken the diaper bag. That was the bag that had our wallets, our passports, our licenses, our money, our debit card....everything. We had no way to pay for our parking. No way. We didn't even have a cell phone on us to call them back. Besides, they had almost a 30 minute head start on us (mostly because Trae realized he had forgotten his jacket with his DS inside back in the airport and we had to go all they way back in to the baggage claim area only to find that a security guard had taken it away since it was 'unattended' so it posed a security threat. We finally tracked it down and convinced them it wasn't a bomb). We pulled up to the cashier and told her the problem. We said we didn't know what to do and was there a way we could send in our payment....something? She didn't seem to have an answer for us. We all kinda sat there for a minute trying to decide. She said she'd probably have to call her supervisor who would have us call our parents back to the airport to help us out. I said okay, but that it would be a while. She asked if we were at the airport often, we told her no..we just got back from China adopting a child. We hemmed and hawed for another minute or two about the dilemma and then I saw her reach for a purse....her purse...and start to pull out her wallet. I asked her please not to do that. She said "you did something good and adopted a child and I see you have other kids too....now, I'll do something good for you". We offered to pay her back, but she wouldn't let us. So, of course, I start crying and telling her "God bless you". She says "God bless you too, and your family". There really are a lot of good people in the world. The poor thing probably got yelled at by the car behind us who kept honking. Makes you think twice about being impatient, huh. You never know what's going on up ahead.

Our Trip to Hong Kong

If I said we had a busy day would you believe me? I mean, it's not like we've been busy any other day, right? Well, couldn't help it today....we had to go to Hong Kong. We got a better deal on our plane tickets by flying out of Hong Kong rather than Guangzhou. I was up late packing last night and then we were up early to get everything ready and have some breakfast with Mark and Barb before our driver came for us at 10am. Before leaving though we had to do something very important that we hadn't done yet. We had to get the kids' pictures done on the Red Couch. It's the famous red couch in the White Swan hotel that all adopted kids have to get their picture taken on. It's become a real tradition for all people there for adoptions.

I got some of Olivia on her own......

Then we added Logan and Megan too.....

I've seen so many pictures on that couch with other kiddos so it was very cool to finally be there taking pictures of our own.

We had to be at the train station on time for a 12:12 ride. Our driver brought us and Lucy had arranged for someone to go in with us and make sure we got to the correct place. I've been pretty nervous about this trip all week because I just couldn't figure out how we were going to manage with all our luggage and Olivia in tow. We had 4 suitcases (this included the extra one I bought last night for shopping stuff) a computer case, a duffle bag, a diaper bag, and Jay's C-pap machine case.....plus a 2 yr. old. Luckily I had brought the snugli so Jay was able to "wear" Olivia while we each pulled 2 suitcases, each with a carry on on top. It was enough to make us both literally sweaty by the time we finally boarded the train.

There was one strange thing that happened when we boarded the train. I was ahead of Jason a bit and when he got on the main car where the seats were, Olivia totally freaked out! She about jumped out of the thing Jay was carrying her in. She acted terrified....but of what? It took me a while to calm her down, we've never seen her so upset. There was nothing obvious that triggered it....just getting on the train. So....here's what we think. We think she actually took a train for her trip from the orphanage and we wondered if maybe she thought she was going back. Maybe? I know she's only 2, but she's smart and something that significant in her life only 10 days ago is not easily forgotten. It's the only explanation we could think of.....I mean if she could have jumped out of Jay's arms and off that train, she would have. I just rocked her and held her tight and just kept whispering in her ear...."we're not taking you back......we're taking you home.....we're not taking you back....we're taking you home" ...... I realize she doesn't understand my words....but I believe a lot can be said with just a tone of voice, and I think, somehow, she understood.

We arrived at our hotel at about 3:30 and were completely amazed at what we saw. Holy cow....I had read all good reviews about this place and it was listed as a 5 star hotel, but SHEESH!!! I said last week that the White Swan was the nicest place we've ever stayed in.....it's now the 2nd nicest place. Funny thing is....I found it on Expedia for only $90. What?! Is that a typo?!

The room is twice the size of any room we've ever stayed in. We have this amazing view. And....we have an entire balcony overlooking the beach. It could fit 40 people...it's huge...and it's only for our room. Sweet! Off in the distance you can see the mountains and the coast line.

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I'm going to go take a hot bath, so Jason is going to take over and tell you more about our evening in Hong Kong......over and out.

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Unbelievable!!!!! We walk in this place and marble floors everywhere, stone granite tops for the check-in area, beautifully decorated. Outrageous views! As you walk inside there is a huge water fountain area, nice restaurant, gazebo type hut which the bar wrapped around, and also a lounge area where you could play games or socialize this was equipped with nice couches and love seats and then two coffee tables made of stone granite. The floor in this place sparkled just gorgeous!!!!! Did I say the floors looked nice.

Then outside there was another place just off the courtyard where they were serving an outside buffet dinner. NICE!!!!!!!!! This is also right off where the huge outside pool area is as well.

We then checked in at hotel, and then noticed they have both inside elevators as well as outside elevators to your room. Wow, what a view!!!!! We can see the hotels, yachts, boats, ships, and beautiful channels of the ocean. And our room is huge as Jenny already explained!!!!

We sat in our room at just chilled for a hour watching an actual English speaking movie called Premonition. Good flick.

Then we ventured out to the restaurant and seven eleven grocery area. We ate, you won't believe it, we ate at an Italian Restaurant. We ate BBQ chicken pizza with bell peppers and onions and mushrooms. Not bad!! I forgot, we started off with some bruschetta and Olivia ate for the first time, tomatoes and some bread. She loved it. Then Jen decided to try to give Olivia some chicken from the pizza and she ate it. She is really trying some new things lately and surprised both Jen and I tonight. That is good news!

We were done eating and waiting for the check, when two small children from the area I guess, a boy and his big sister (maybe 7 and 9). She stopped as she walking on by and looked and asked Jen, in English, "what's wrong with her lip?" Curious !!! So Jen asked them to come over to the table and proceeded to explain to the girl and the boy Olivia's cleft lip and palate situation. Explained to them that she is okay and some babies are born like this, but it is okay, this can be fixed very easily. And I have to say this little girl was very sincere and cute and she made a final comment and said, " I thought she was bleeding from her nose". We laughed and said , "No she is okay". And then the little girl took another look closer and asked, "can she breathe through there?" And we said absolutely she is okay, she has adapted to this condition all her life. I'm sure when Jen takes Olivia to Epiphany for lunch room duty on Monday some of the kids will have something to say or talk to their parents about that night.

Afterwards, we went and got Jen a Diet Coke!!!! They actually had some coke light at the seven eleven. And then we headed for home. We decided to look around and take a few pictures of the hotel entry level area. We went over to the fountain area where there was 3 fountains creating little bubbles in the water. So Livi and I took to the bubbles and decided to start popping them. We had a good time, and I think she did too.

I have to say, that Livi is getting more and more brave with each passing day. She will wander off sometimes a little bit from us and then look around and notice that she is too far away, and come running back to us with this big grin on her face. It is so cute!! She is pretty daring too, she will go right to the ledge and lean over to see something without hesitation. She is becoming very independent little girl at times. But, this means that she is getting that much more comfortable with us and trusting us to care for her.

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Hi, Jenny again......Thanks dear........Well, this is my last post from abroad. Tomorrow we board a United Airlines plane (that will certainly have REAL diet coke!!!!!!!!!!) and head home. We leave at 12:30 Hong Kong time and arrive home 4:30 Minnesota time. Kinda funny, cuz it will be about 20 hours later but only 4 hours later in the day. I doubt I'll feel like posting tomorrow night so I'll try and catch up this weekend. Thank you sooooo much to all of you for your sweet comments and for caring enough about Jay and I and our family to even follow along all this time. We feel very blessed.

Okay......America or bust!!!!!! We're going to be home soon boys!!!! We miss you!!!! XOXOXOXO

Last day in Guangzhou

Today marks the last full day we spend in Guangzhou. It’s been such a great trip and whole experience that we will never forget, but we are SOOOO ready to come home. We have to take the train tomorrow to Hong Kong where we will spend one night before flying out on Friday.

I’ve been packing and it’s almost midnight and I’m exhausted so I’m going to let my pictures do most of the talking tonight. We went to the Buiyun Mountain about 20 minutes away. They have a cable car that takes you up this huge mountain and then you can spend time up there on paths and with a great view of the landscape and far off city.

There is also a bird sanctuary where you walk through this enormous area outside that is like walking through a jungle only there’s a steel cage surrounding the whole thing. You can’t really see it though unless you look hard because it’s so high up and so large in area. It’s not the most conducive place for a stroller though. There are hundreds of stairs. I’m tellin’ ya….If I have not lost some pounds on this trip, I’m gonna be shocked. The amount of walking and stairs we’ve done in the past 2 weeks is unbelievable.

At one point, before going into the enclosed area, we went to the scenic overlook and there was this teenager climbing up on the railing. I about had a heart attack……though I managed to snap a picture first…..because there was about a thousand foot drop on the one side of him. Oh my gosh, seriously?!!!

Then there was the bird show. The bird show was very……..um, boring. But it was made better by 2 things. First was the fact that Barb and I couldn’t stop laughing at the guy running the show. He had about as much personality as a rock. He would bring out a bird, it would do a trick, he’d bring it back. No smile, no ‘voila’ arms up high, nothing. He just stood there, didn’t say a word, and waited til the bird was done. It was hilarious. I was getting some serious church giggles.

The other thing that spiced it up again was, of course, my hubby. Never a dull moment with this guy, I swear. There was music playing loudly on a speaker throughout the show. It was Chinese music until all of a sudden the song, “Islands In The Stream” with Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton came on. Well, Jay must have thought it was karaoke night at the local bar because he started singing…..loudly. This was a small, small, little outdoor theater area and there was only us, Barb and Mark with the kids, and Mark’s parents, and then about 10 Chinese people…….all of which stopped watching the bird show and started watching Jason. Ya know, I never really realized just how catchy that song is…..or maybe it’s just because we haven’t heard music we know for weeks…….but the rest of us just couldn’t help ourselves and before we knew it, Barb and I were singing along too. I think Mark was probably getting into it as well, but he was mostly getting pictures of Jason…….who was now holding his hand up like it was a microphone. Oh my gosh, I’m laughing as I write this because the poor bird guy just kept bringing out his birds and having them do their tricks. At one point during the song, I looked up and the parrot was adding numbers……good stuff, letmetellya……sorry we missed that one. Between this and the ape incident the other day at the zoo, word just might spread that these American guys are a bit crazy.

Okay, so now I wrote more than I expected…but I couldn’t go to bed without telling that story. So….that was our day. We went to dinner together at Lucy’s for our last night together and then Barb and I went to buy a new suitcase so we could get all our stuff home that we bought here. I just finished packing it and I think I should have gotten a bigger one.