Danny's Bagels

Throughout this amazingly long ride I have read blog after blog living vicariously though everyone's Chinese adoption adventures.  Besides of course The Wall, Gotcha moments and Hotel stays, "Where to eat" is always widely discussed. So far in Guangzhou we have eaten at Lucy's for American food, the White Swan Deli for inexpensive sandwiches, the Cow and Bridge for Thai food and of course the White Swan has a huge breakfast buffet.  I have to say that after over a week of mainly Chinese food or simple American fare I was ready for something else. Shari (Mrs. U.) from "Making a House a Home" sent me an e-mail telling me that when they adopted Elizabeth they ordered from Danny's Bagel almost every night.  She even sent me their web site:  http://www.dannysbagel.com/ So Sunday afternoon we took a cab into Guangzhou and not only had best meal but had the best company!  This Italian girl felt all the tension fall from my body the minute I inhaled the aroma...  You know that smell, fresh bread, olive oil and tomato ragu that has been simmering all day!  This was China's Little Italy!! Our new friend Danny greeted us at the table. We knew of course he must be Danny since he spoke with a beautiful Jersey accent!  This kind, friendly man spoke to us for hours sharing his story and listening to ours.  We learned all about Guangzhou and what his life has been like living in China for the last 15 years.  The food was amazing!  I had the Stracci Marscapone, Chris had pizza and Jim had Chicken Parmesan.  We all shared an appetizer of Bruschetta and a slice of cheesecake!  I highly recommend it all!! I even had an iced latte and didn't need to worry about the ice!! I know we are here to absorb all we can of this amazing country, but if you are a little homesick?  Danny's Bagel might just be the answer for you!  Just tell 'em Hope's Mama sent ya! Thanks Danny for giving us a little bit of "home" away from home! P.S. Double check the web-site for hours of operation and directions.  They close mid-day like all Chinese restaurants here in China and are located on the 4th floor of the Home Garden Mall!

This is just to say...

This is just to say...

When I was in 8th grade we were given a writing assignment called This is just to say.  We were told to write This is just to say... than any random thoughts.  Here are some things I have been on my mind!  This is just to say... God is good!  I'm thankful for all I have and am glad our timings finally met! This is just to say... I am so happy! This is just to say... Hope is just beautiful! This is just to say... We are very blessed. This is just to say...  China is so very different yet so very much the same as the US.  This is just to say... I miss Katie so badly. This is just to say... I can't wait to get home, yet don't want to leave. This is just to say... I am wondering how I will survive not sleeping for the next year? This is just to say... Hope does NOT like the stroller we borrowed! This is just to say... It is stinkin' hot here! This is just to say... I miss Target-ing! This is just to say... Squatty potty? Twice!  Not to bad actually! This is just to say... Bare baby bottoms and peeing in the street? Everywhere!  We play a different version of "Slug-bug" here, "Baby Bottom"! This is just to say... Hope LOVES TV!  Not happy about that! This is just to say...  I LOVE her smile, and her giggle is infectious! This is just to say... There are smells here like no other... This is just to say... Bed hardness - Beijing: Firm, Changsha: Hard, Guangzhou: Rock Hard!  I never knew I would be comfortable on these beds! This is just to say... I hate the crib at the White Swan, the crib at the Dolton was so very nice, with very beautiful bedding. Not so much here... This is just to say... I am thankful that Lisa loaned me her flat iron! This is just to say... Chris has gone without eating or eating nothing but junk, Jim however is eating any old thing - turtle, snake, duck tongue, octopus, cuttlefish, snail etc... I have not kissed him since we got here! This is just to say...  I have gotten completely used to not cooking, I hope my family will adjust to our new schedule at home, no cooking but no food!! This is just to say... Bladder infection = antibiotics = diarrhea = hemorrhoids=nuff said! This is just to say... Soooo thankful no one got sick so far! Fingers crossed here... This is just to say... Squeaky Shoes!!! Everywhere!!  $4!  Hope's first pair? Hot pink Chinese fabric!  So darn cute.  Jim just kept squeezing her feet everywhere we went! This is just to say... Driving in China??  Makes New York look like a Sunday morning! This is just to say... I miss ice.  I wanted an iced latte soooooo badly.  Starbucks looked so good but too hot for hot coffee here.  Chris was bummed we didn't let him have a Slurpee at 7-11. This is just to say... They have Pringles in Shrimp, Seaweed and Crab flavors... I'm sure Jim will try some.  This is just to say... having trouble finding a Moon cake we like. This is just to say... Chris has been doing homework each day and keeping up very nicely. I still want him to do a blog post on his experiences here. This is just to say...  my mind is going blank now... must be lack of sleep!

Cuteness Alert!

Cuteness Alert!!

So here she is!  She is still doing very well and now showing more of her personality, giggling more, wiggling more, and sharing when she is frustrated too!  She had a rough night last night, cried for almost an hour.  Pray for her little heart and that we do the best for her when she is feeling loss. Today was a tough day all the way around.  We had to be ready by 5:30 and in the lobby to mee tour guide to fly to Guangzhou.  Once we landed in Guangzhou we were taken right to the Medical Center to have the medical exams for the children's US Visa.  The surprising fun there was meeting all the other families with their children!  Hope pretty much screamed her head off anytime anyone touched her.  She did not like her medical.at.all!  But we did finally find that she weighs 22lbs.  So she is a little smaller than Kate was at a year.  Then we checked in at the White Swan and we were exhausted by then and terribly hungry.  We did a quick run to Lucy's for some American food and then came back to the hotel for a good nap!  Hope and I napped while Jim and Chris explored the hotel.  I can't wait to shop tomorrow!  This place.... is a baby shopping heaven!!

Good Bye Changsha Hello Guangzhou!

Tonight is our last night in Changsha, the city we first met our sweet Hope.  We are leaving our hotel at 5:30 am!  Who planned that?  Our flight out of Changsha leaves at 8am and we will be in Guangzhou just after 9.  (Jim said)  Once we get our luggage we will immediately head to take the children for their Visa medical exam. Who planned that? Once that is over we are on our way to the White Swan Hotel where we will have 2.5 full days to ourselves to rest and explore the Shamian Island.  We can hardly wait!  Do you think they have Mexican?  I hate to say I'm getting a little tired of Chinese food!  I am not a fan of McDonald's but we actually hit one today and it hit the spot!  Hope ate her first chicken nuggets, (with the breading removed) and devoured them.  We also went to Kaifu Temple.  One of the oldest temples in Changsha. It was absolutely beautiful and a very peaceful way to spend the afternoon.  Other than that we really have just been hanging out with Hope and resting when she naps.  Our rooms here are absolutely amazing.  We reserved the suite and they upgraded us to a 2 bedroom suite.  So Chris has an entire hotel room to himself that connects to our living room.  Our bedroom is enormous and has plenty of space for our queen size bed, a crib, dresser, table and chairs and a desk with room to move!  We are very spoiled.    She has been getting up around 5am so we are pretty tired the rest of the day.  It is also quite hot here and the city proper is very busy and smoggy.  The people all have been very nice and of course we get a ton of attention.  People have asked to have their pictures taken with us and most people at least smile and talk to Hope.  On another note... the desk with the LAN line (no wireless here) is in our bedroom so when Hope is napping we can't use the PC.  On top of not being able to get to our pictures, PC time is limited.  In Guangzhou, we will have wireless and the desk will not be in our bedroom so hopefully I can update better and somehow find another person to download pictures for me!  Also... family and friends who aren't familiar with blogger, I can not see your comments here in China.  Please continue to leave them but if you want to communicate, feel free to e-mail!  That I can read!  Love from us all!

Gotcha Pictures!

All is going quite well!  Hope is officially ours as of today!  She slept through the night almost 12 hours and woke babbling away.  She is incredibly happy and very sweet.  She loves to stare at our faces and loves to be tickled!  She only seems unhappy when she is getting hungry or tired and so far has been quite easy to read.  She is drinking a little less than I think she should be but she also has a bit of a cold so I'm sure she will make up for lost time once she is over that.  She has also eaten apricot, steamed egg, congee, rice cereal, dumpling meat, dragon fruit, udong noodles and well... a little cake at a bakery we visited this afternoon!  She is eating well in spite of her cold.  She also took a 2.5 hour nap this afternoon after we got back from our Civil Affairs appointment, and thankfully so did I!  I am still recovering from our Beijing tour! She can sit very well on her own but we realized this morning that she can not roll over on her own and she can only scoot backward while on her tummy.  She is not happy very long on her stomach either but we just lay on the floor with her and keep her entertained.  We are working on tummy time and pulling up from a laying down position.  She can keep weight on her legs but does not seem to have any balance or the strenth to pull herself up.  No problem.  We will have her mobile in no time!  Right now it is kind of nice because we know she isn't going anywhere and getting into mischief! So all in all we are completely in love with her and she is not giving us one thing to worry about. Easy baby!  Now that we have some of our pictures downloaded, thanks to our travel mates. I will try and compose a slideshow of our Beijing trip and post my long journal entry tomorrow after we go to the Embroidery Factory!  I can't wait! Blessings to all from Chansha!

We Have Hope!

We left the hotel at around 2:30 and drove about 20 minutes to the Civil Affairs Bureau. After a short wait a nanny brought out the other families daughter and we were able to take pictures while they got to know each other.  Their daughter is 4 so she was reciting each of their names while being coached by the nanny.  It was incredibly sweet.  Then we went into a waiting room where we waited a few more minutes before they brought Hope in. I was enjoying watching the other family with their daughter, I didn't even notice they had brought her in until her nanny walked past me with her.  She was dressed in a pink lightweight sweatsuit fabric outfit. Long pants, long sleeves. Socks and sandals.  She had a pink pacifier in her mouth and her hair has grown some but is now standing on end.  She has a bit on top but barely any on the sides.  Then the nanny sat down with her. I was looking frantically around trying to get the okay to take her, but I guess a couple papers needed to be exchanged before they would hand her to me.  So I went over and sat on the bench next to Hope and her nanny and just talked to her and held her hand.  A few moments later they told me I could take her from the nanny.  As I lifted her, I realized every bit of paperwork was true.  My girl is big.  She just went limp in my arms and settled in.  She took the toy keys I had for her and just looked from face to face as we talked to her.  She felt warm and had a little cough and was incredibly relaxed.  She just melted into me the orphanage director said she was a very peaceful baby.  So far I would have to agree. Our group then was taken to the supermarket to pick up any last minute things we needed for our girls. Since we had gone last night there really wasn't much we needed but it was fun to wander around with Hope.  We got a lot of stares before we had Hope, now people were coming up to us, and playing with her.  One woman kept giving us the thumbs up, it was very sweet!  Hope was also so hot I ended up taking her shirt off!  I noticed other children in the store without shirts (grown ups too!) so I went ahead.  I think she felt much better after that, she was just soaking from sweat!  It was weird to walk into the hotel with a practically naked baby! Once we got back to the hotel, Chris and I played with Hope on the bed, we found that she loves to be tickled and giggled away! Of course music to our ears!  Once I changed her diaper, put a cute little outfit on her I fed her a bottle.  We played a little more on the bed, she started to cry, so I picked her up rocked her, and within a minute she was fast asleep.  And now she's been asleep for about 2 hours!  Not sure if she will sleep the rest of the night or not!  Should be an interesting evening! More later... Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 Follow along as our family tree blooms, blossoms and grows! www.waitingforhope.blogspot.com

Today is the day..

In 2 hours Hope will be in our arms. I couldn't be more calm. I didn't expect to feel this way. It feels strange to be so calm yet when I really think about it, God had worked in my life to prepare me well for this moment. It has been just over 10 years since we began trying to have another child and in that time I have learned to trust in Him above all. Seek what is good and right and have faith that His will, will be done. always. and in His perfect timing. I am so very happy that this part of the journey, waiting, is over. Now the fun begins! (We are having trouble with our SD card reader on the computer. The pc freezes up everytime we try to view our picture files. I am worried we will not be able to post any pictures at all, but we are working to find a solutions. Possibly finding a cable for the camera or an external sd card reader. Hold tight. We want to share our pictures with you as much as you want to see them!) Next post... Gotcha!

Hello From Changsha

I hope that as our trip continues I will be the worst blogger in the world.... I have a huge Beijing blog post typed up in Word I still need to put some finishing touches on and I need to edit pictures to 240k so I can upload them.  Blogging without internet in our room and needing to use e-mail to upload is my excuse... on top of going non-stop. We arrived in Changsha this afternoon and found we will be getting Hope tomorrow at 2:30.  It has been an exhausting couple of days.  I will try and post in the morning after some sleep! Sorry, more tomorrow (or tonight in your neck of the woods!)

Hello From Beijing!

We landed in Beijing at 1:30am US time. Chris never slept, once.  Jim and I dozed on and off but it was hard to sleep.  They had TONs of movies, tv shows and video games in each seat back to keep us occupied.  I couldn't concentrate, and only really watched one movie from beginning to end... it wasn't even that good! We met 2 other families that are adopting and one I had chatted with on RQ.  Emilysmom, in the blog. She remembered me. They were really nice and I have contact info for them when we are in GZ together. When we met our guide Helen, she told us that Forbidden City and Tiennemen Square would be closed on Saturday (today) and if we would like we had time to see it "quickly" if we wanted to go right then.  So we decided to go right from the airport to our first Beijing tour... It was interesting, and we got to say we were there but frankly we were tired and it was the 'quick' tour!  The Forbidden City was beautiful and the history is astounding.  The moment we walked through the gate at Tienemen Square and turned around to see the all so familier giant picture of Mao, I knew I was in China,  it was real... we are here! By the time we got back to the hotel Chris was dead and we were all hungry.  We decided to take a short nap and then find some dinner.  It was really hard to get up once we layed down... I felt really bad for Chris.  We did find a very good restaurant close to the hotel and had a FEAST for $25.  We didn't even finish it all.  Dumplings, steamed buns, sweet and sour chicken, a pork and taro root dish, pumpkin cakes and Jim had his hot and sour soup.  When we got back to the hotel, Chris and I CRASHED  I don't even know what time it was but all we wanted to do was sleep! I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't get back to sleep.. so here I am!  So far everything is going well and we love our guide.  She is very sweet and full of information about China. Our hotel is beautiful and the beds were fine.  Nice and firm but not hard. Today we see the Great Wall, local Jade, Peiking Duck dinner and a Kung Fu show!  THEN we can sleep one more time.... before we go to Changsha and maybe get Hope on Sunday! Love from Beijing, Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. Proverbs 13:12 Follow along as our family tree blooms, blossoms and grows! www.waitingforhope.blogspot.com

On Our Way...

Our personal driver Kevin (thanks Kev) will pick us at 6:00 A.M.... I wanted to leave a post with a picture of our luggage but time has run out and the camera is packed! Love to all of you... next post? Beijing!