Bao Bao Hao

Many of the shops near the White Swan Hotel will loan strollers out to all the adopting families. We put Lily in one, and she seemed to enjoy chilling out as we walked around Shamian Island. I asked one of the shopkeepers what "Bao Bao Hao" means (written on the back of the seat above Lily's head). It means "Good Baby."

I'm in the process of posting pictures of our trip to my Flickr account. If you want to view what I have posted so far, click here.

The Welcoming Party

Here's a shot of the welcoming party at SeaTac airport yesterday morning. That's Grandpa Marvin on the left and Grandma Marilyn on the right. Uncle John is taking the picture.

Lily's Home

Lily and I arrived in the US this morning around 8:40 am. I can't speak for Lily, but I know that I am definitely feeling the effects of jet lag. I would bet, however, that she is, too. She has cried more than she did while we had her back in China.

It's so good to be back home. No more hotel rooms. No more brushing your teeth in bottled water. No more long waits in line (at least for the time being). No more rush rush rush around every day without any decent down time.

Now it's all about getting used to her new digs. Now we can drink straight from the tap again. Most importantly, it's all about getting to know mommy. She's doing okay so far, considering what she's just gone through (Lily, that is...not mommy, although mommy's doing okay, too). Lily still is a little cautious with Julie, but she has let her hold her for brief times. And she even let her kiss her (as you can see) without her pulling away. And I think Julie got more initial smiles than I did with Lily back in China. Hopefully that's a good sign.

I will continue to post in the days to come if you wish to keep on following along. I still plan to post more pictures of our trip. Lily's baptism is scheduled for Sunday, so I'm sure we'll have pictures of that, too. Since Lily isn't yet too keen on baths, we thought about trying a dry run (can you have a "dry run" of a baptism?), getting her used to water on her head so we don't have a meltdown at the font.

Inching Closer to Home

I wrote the following last night, but Blogger wasn't working properly. I still wanted you to read it, so I saved the message and decided to post it today. Here it is...

Tonight (Monday at 9:50 pm) is our last night at the White Swan. We check out tomorrow, board a bus, and head to the U.S. Consulate to get visas for our babies. After that, the bus will take us to Hong Kong,where we will spend the night and then head home on Wednesday. God willing, we will arrive in Seattle early Wednesday morning after crossing back over the international dateline.

I am so relaxed right now I can barely type. I just had a massage here at the White Swan Health Centre. It was just what the doctor ordered for my aching back. I'm not used to carrying around a 17 pound blob of squirming flesh. And unlike other new parents, I didn't get the chance to work up to it, starting with an 8 pound newborn. Lily was delivered to us in all of her 17 pound glory.

I don't know what the email and internet situation will be like at the Hong Kong hotel. That means that this might be my last post before we get home. And even if it is available, I still think I'll hold off until I get home since we will pull in to Hong Kong late and have to get up so early on Wednesday. That being the case, I'll see some of you when we get home to Washington. Those of you who are coming for an Onken-Toulouse-Hepola birthday celebration in June, I'll see you then. I'll see some of you when we travel to SoCal in August. And hopefully all of you can meet our lovely daughter sometime in the near future. Thanks for all your wonderful, encouraging comments.

Keep checking the blog, though. When I get home, I plan to post more pictures of our trip (when I'm not paying for internet time!), and I will post some pictures of Lily adapting to her new home in Marysville.

The red thread is getting pretty short.

Another Smile from the Pretty Girl

Better close this blogging session...but I couldn't leave you without one more smile from the Pinger.

View from the White Swan

In contrast to our view in Nanchang, here's a view from our hotel in Guangzhou. The hotel sits on a little island called Shamian Island. Guangzhou (or Canton, as it used to be called) clearly has a European influence, and you can notice it in the architecture. Jan, Lily, and I strolled around the town today after the red couch photo. We have another free day tomorrow to continue shopping. It's fun haggling with the shop owners. They will punch in the price, show it to you on a calculator, then you name your price, they come down a few dollars, and their reasoning is always, "This is my best price" or "I will give you this price for friendship." More than once I've heard Jan mumble, "Why, yes, of course that's your best price. Yeah, right." Even so, there's a part of you that feels bad haggling when you realize that in American dollars you are haggling over $1.25 instead of $1.50. The Chinese Yuan is about 8 to a US dollar.

View from the Gloria Plaza Hotel

A view from our hotel room back in Nanchang where we received Lily. Nanchang is a big city, but much poorer than Beijing. You can see the dirty buildings and the laundry hanging out the balconies. As much as the economy in China is booming, it is still very much a developing country, and this was quite evident in Nanchang. And I cannot wait until I get home and can drink water right out of the tap.

Street Scene in Nanchang

This is a scene right behind our hotel in Nanchang.

Lily's First Passport

Here's another flashback, this time to Nanchang. This is a picture of Lily right after she got her first passport. I didn't get mine until I was 25, and she's not even a year old yet.

Red Couch Photo

Our babies had the famous "Red Couch" photo taken today, Sunday, April 22, at 10;15 am. This is a tradition at the White Swan Hotel. The babies in this picture are all from the Ningdu orphanage, so they probably knew each other and played with each other there. This is only half of the babies in our group. There was another group of Bethany families with girls from another orphanage as well, for a total of 21 babies from our traveling group. Can you spot Lily?

A Smile from the Pinger

Finally, I caught Lily Ping (otherwise known as "the Pinger"...nickname courtesy of the Jan Johnson family...I kinda like it) with a smile on her face. There have been even better ones, but you'll have to wait to see those when you meet her in person.

Dust Storm in Beijing

Sweeping up after the dust storm in Beijing. This is the day we went to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City. Spring time, from what I understand, is the time for dust storms in Beijing, and this was the worst one of the year. We woke to find everything coated with a fine, light brown dust. Many people were wearing surgical masks to help keep from breathing it all in. The weather there was quite a contrast to where we are now (Guangzhou). It's very tropical here. Warm and sticky (but not unbearable...I hate to think what it would have been like had we been here in July or August). Jan was commenting on how all the plants you see growing are strictly houseplants back in the Northwest.

I'll post some more pictures of our trip when I get the chance. Right now, of course, we are focused on the kid.

Forbidden City

At the south entrance to the Forbidden City (again..."B.L."...Before Lily) in Beijing.

Jan at the Great Wall

This was earlier in our trip...B.L. (Before Lily).

Pics After All

I can post pics after all here in the business center. Here's one of Lily standing up (with Baba's help).

Another Busy Day

Today is Saturday, April 22. It's now almost 9:30 pm. Today was another busy day. These parents and kids over here are kept moving. This morning we had to get Visa pictures taken. Then a quick breakfast (and the buffet at the White Swan is out of this world...best French Toast I've ever had) and the infamous medical exam. It takes place in a local clinic in a little room in back for adoption groups. All 21 of us families were crammed in, waiting to have our babies weighed, measured, listened to, poked, and prodded. Needless to say, the babies weren't too happy about it. As much of a trooper Lily has proven herself to be, even this was too much for her. She squirmed and cried and squealed and whimpered and stiffened up and threw her head back. It was good to get back to the hotel (about a 10 minute walk) and borrow a stroller from one of the local shops (a service they provide to adopting families). My arms were absolutely killing me trying to hold Lily the whole time (we were told that for space limitations only one parent should come, so Jan stayed at the hotel), not to mention that it is quite humid here and I was sweating like a race horse.

But I'm not complaining. I am totally digging this father-daughter thing. I never expected to turn into a complete ball of mush just looking at her.

Last Stop...Guangzhou

Finally, we're here at the famous White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. It's almost 10 pm on April 21. I know the date, but I don't even know what day of the week it is. Ever since we left Beijing, we've been swept along by this adoption thing. Our guides have directed us along the way, thank goodness. They have gone above and beyond the call of duty to arrange things for us and to make things go as smooth as possible with the Chinese adoption authorities, provincial officials, and hotel arrangements. It will be nice to be pampered a bit here in Guangzhou. The White Swan is the nicest of all the hotels we have stayed in so far.

Today was Lily's first plane ride, and she was a trooper. She fell asleep the moment the plane lifted off the ground, and didn't wake up until after the plane landed in Guangzhou.

Prior to leaving Nanchang, we got Lily's passport. I'm not sure when the picture was taken. She is wearing the same clothes as the ones when we received her, plus her little ID tag is around her neck, so I'm assuming it was taken the same day. She has this poor little forlorn look on her face, like in the other pictures you've seen. I'll tell you what...she is not the same kid as when we first got her. She smiles often and giggles. She loves to snuggle with her dad, and is fond of Jan, too. She likes it when I hold her and rub her back as she rubs her eyes and plops her head onto my shoulder before I lay her in her crib. Her world has suddenly grown so big, and those big beautiful eyes are wide open when she's awake, taking everything in...her head moves back and forth as if she's afraid she's going to miss something.

I will try to post some more pictures before we leave for home. Here in the business center they charge extra for posting pictures, so I'm going to wait and see if I can borrow the laptop of one of our fellow travelers. I have some really cool pictures that I'd like to share with you all, too...the Great Wall, the Teng Wang Pagoda in Nanchang, and other pictures of Lily, of course.

Also, today is the first day I've been able to see the blog. I've been posting, but I haven't been able to see the finished product. Here in Guangzhou I can access it, so that means I finally have read all of your comments. Thanks so much to all of you who have posted comments. It means so much to me and Julie that you have been following along with us on our journey.

Creating a Fan

It's never too early to start teaching your daughter to enjoy the game of baseball. Here I am teaching Lily the intricacies of the infield fly rule.

Smiles and Laughter

It's 9:15 here in Nanchang. Lily's fast asleep in her crib in the room. We got back after dinner and fed her half a bottle. Laid her down to sleep and she started to cry a bit. Jan suggested I try burping her, which we hadn't done yet. I picked her up, patted her back...no air, but she laid her head down on my shoulder and was out. Guess she just needed a bit more "daddy-time." That's okay with me. She seems to be attaching to me quite well. She will go to Jan, but will whimper at first if I'm not in her line of sight, and is okay after a short time.

We also had a nice surprise at dinner tonight. Lily was in a high chair, and she seemed to be okay with that. That was a first with us. Then came another first in our time with Lily...she gave us smiles and laughter. Her little giggle was totally cute, especially with her two little bottom front teeth showing. I'll try to catch her at the right time and snap a picture and post it. You'll love it.

It's Official!

We went to the Jiangxi provincial notary this morning, and it's official...as far as China is concerned, Lily is officially our daughter. Today was a cakewalk compared to yesterday. Just a few questions, basically that I would promise to take care of Lily and love her and educate her properly.

After that we went to WalMart. Yes, you read that right...WalMart. The bus dropped us off for an hour of shopping. We bought some more drinking water, some pop, and a box of Cheerios for "you-know-who." It was quite an experience in there...the deli cases didn't have their familiar lunch meat, cheeses, salads, etc. Rather, they were full of pig snouts, birds feet of all sizes and varieties, and other assorted unidentifiable items. Outside waiting for the bus we were all quite the attraction. People would come up to us and ask "How old is she?" and "Where are you from?" A young man who spoke a little English outside translated for us...it seems as though fewer people speak English here than in Beijing. Most people give us a smile. Others give some suspicious stares.

We returned to the hotel to rest and bond some more. I'm going to keep trying to get a smile out of that girl!