Zhuzhou City

January 10, 2004

Today we had the privilege of visiting the Zhuzhou SWI where Jaden spent the first 10 months of her life. It was an experience I will never forget. Jaden's room was on the 5th floor and we got to see where she slept and played. There were basically 3 small rooms. One was packed with cribs, literally wall-to-wall, one had walkers and a few other toys and the one in the middle was where they changed and bathed them. There was one little girl that kept staring and waving at me and looking at her just broke my heart. I cried almost the whole time we were there because all I wanted to do was bring those sweet babies home with us. The orphanage was built in 1960 and right now there are 290 babies with 90 caretakers. It was clean, but very cold and we understood why they kept so many layers on the babies. The caretakers smiled and played with Jaden and gave her a cookie. They gave us back the photo album I had sent and she recognized it right away. I was so glad to see it because I asked about it the day we met her and they just shook their heads like they didn't know about it. She really seems to like it and we think she saw it quite a bit at the orphanage because she really did seem to recognize us on Monday. Jaden handled the trip much better than we expected. We were on the bus for an hour and a half both ways and she slept through most of the trips. We got to see where she was found and that was so special to us. We went around to six of the babies' finding sites, but didn't get to see the other 3 because they were too far away. Overall, it was a good day, but a very sad one for me, as well. We didn't take the video camera because we weren't sure if they would allow it, but we did get some pictures. We've just hung out in our room since returning and my cold is really aggravated after all the crying and being out in the wet and cold weather.
Before we left to go to ZZ

The reception room at the SWI

One of her sweet caretakers

With a cookie and her photo album

Some of her little roommates

Driving back, checking out her album

Holding on tight to my sweetie

Xiang Embroidery Museum

January 11, 2004

Finally today we got to visit the famous embroidery museum. We saw some beautiful pieces and saw ladies that were working on several pieces that they said would take years to complete. One lady was working on a portrait of a man that she's been working on for 2 years! We bought a panda embroidered on light green silk for Jaden's room and a book about Hunan embroidery that has some samples of the different styles in it. On the way back from the factory, we stopped at McDonald's and were SO happy! We both got Big Macs, fries and they even had fried apple pies! It was the best meal we'd had in many days. This afternoon we have more paperwork to do and then we'll go to our last group dinner at a local restaurant. We are looking forward to changing locations tomorrow and we feel we've been here long enough and will be one step closer to home!



The one that she'd been working on for 2 years!


The picture in the back is what they're embroidering

Jaden checking it out

"W" liked the place too!

McDonald's!!! Best Big Mac I ever ate!


Last dinner in Changsha, chomping on a chopstick

On to Guangzhou

January 12, 2004

Today we slept in and then packed for Guangzhou. We flew out at 2:30pm, which is just about Jaden's worst time of day. She was pretty grumpy for the first part of the flight and wouldn't really chew on anything, so I think her ears were bothering her. She finally went to sleep on me for a while but woke up when we started to descend and screamed for several minutes. Then after we landed, we made the mistake of loading her into the Baby Bjorn too soon and she threw one of her famous spicy fits while we waited to get off the plane (which took what seemed like hours). Of course, once we started moving, she was Miss Happy Girl again. What a stinker! Luckily, after that performance, she was perfect for the rest of the day. We went exploring in the White Swan Hotel and saw that is was full of American families that are also here adopting. One of our travelmates found a local Chinese restaurant that had an English menu so we decided to go to dinner there. The food was very good and Jaden was great at dinner and ate lots of rice off chopsticks. It was very inexpensive too (only 130 rmb ~ $16 per family). Jaden slept pretty well but is SO active at night. She's driving us crazy scooting around and kicking the mattress all night!
Couple of cuties in red

Our travel peeps, Hunan 1

Medical Exam Day

January 13, 2004

This morning I had to go and check more paperwork, most of which I had already filled out. Then we headed out for our first day of shopping in Guangzhou. We borrowed a stroller from the Holt office at the Swan and Jaden did OK in it, except that she hated it when we stopped moving. She dozed for a while so we explored several shops before heading back to get ready for her medical exam. We were amazed how cheap everything was. We bought Jaden her first pair of squeaky shoes (red with a white butterfly) OH and we actually found some Dr Pepper today in a little grocery store! We bought 4 and had to pay nearly a buck each for them, but we would've paid MUCH more! On to the medical exam, the office was close so we walked there as a group. Then Jaden had to go to 3 different rooms for a very basic medical exam. They weighed and measured her in one room, looked at her ears, nose and throat in another, and then checked her temperature in the 3rd. She handled it all very well and only cried a little. They said she was 25 inches long and weighed 7.5kg or about 16.5 lbs. This was done with her fully clothed, so we figure she's actually a bit less than that. Not too sure about the length either as she was very squirmy. Derek took a cute pic of her today with a Cheerio stuck on her face. :)
Exploring in Guangzhou

Dr. Pepper!! Yee hah!!

Lots of smiles


Cheerio face

At the medical exam

Consulate Day

January 14, 2004

We're almost done! Today we traded off and each did some shopping while Jaden napped. I'm sure we're going to wish we were buying more, but we feel like we're getting a lot right now. The US Consulate is right next door to the White Swan so it was a quick walk to get there. We all went together (Hunan 1 and 2) and then just sat around waiting for the place to fill up with other families. Once everyone arrived, we went through a line to a window, showed the lady the copies of our passports, smiled and kept right on moving. Once everyone had gone through the line, a very funny consulate official came out and we took an oath that the info we had provided was all true and correct. The guy made a joke of it all saying that the babies were actually supposed to take the oath, but he understood that wouldn't happen. It was all over in a matter of about 45 minutes total, including walking there. That was it! We should be officially done with all this stuff which means NO MORE paperwork (at least in China)! Later we headed to Lucy's for our last group dinner with Hunan 1. Only one more full day, then we head HOME!

Last Day in China

January 15, 2004

We had an exit meeting this morning at 9:30am so once again, I rushed through breakfast to get there. They gave us all the info we needed to get to the airport in the morning and told us how to get through all the airports. Our bags have to be outside our door at 5am so I guess that means we'll be up super early. Joy. We spent the rest of the day doing our last minute shopping, packing our stuff and getting rid of everything we could. We donated our extra medicine to the Holt office at the Swan. We then met as a group for the last time to pick up the girls' US Visas. We checked them over and everyone clapped and cheered that we were almost done! Now we're officially ready to go home. We ate dinner with Mike, Alison and Kate in the hotel then took some pictures on the famous red couches in the White Swan. This hotel is really beautiful and has a lot to look at. We're really ready to see our house though and sleep in our own bed, the beds here have been so hard, my back may never be the same! Off to pack and get ready for the very early and LONG day we have ahead.
We got the Visa, yahoo!

In the beautiful White Swan



The Pearl River


Red couch pics


Poor Kate was NOT a fan of our little session

Mommies and babies

Daddies and their girls

Tiny peanut on a big couch

In the elevator

The Journey Home

January 16, 2004

Bags were out the door at 5am and we headed down for a quick breakfast at 6, the bus was to leave at 6:15. Neither of us felt too good this morning, I think the stress of the day was already getting to us. We were preparing ourselves for the worst (remember Jaden's first flight?). Anyway, onto the airport we went...

Flight #1-Guangzhou to Beijing
The Guangzhou airport was absolute bedlam. Apparently the Chinese New Year is the busiest time of year to fly and here we were flying on the Friday before the holiday. After a long wait, we got our bags checked and were ready to go. We were on a 777 which was very full, but we weren't that uncomfortable. Jaden was really good, much to our surprise, and her ears didn't seem to bother her at all. She slept some, played, snacked on some crackers and Cheerios the rest of the time.

Flight #2-Beijing to LA, THE BIG ONE!
Everything went well when we first got to Beijing, we all got our luggage and headed for the next place to check in. We finally get to the counter and the lady tries to tell us that our seats aren't in business class. After several minutes of arguing with her, we finally got it straightened out and then I swear we went through 10 different security checks. I wish I had counted how many times we had to show our passports. Anyway, on to the plane...once again we were reminded how much we LOVE business class and we settled into our big comfy seats and unpacked our stuff so we could find the bottles, formula, etc. Jaden got a little restless early and took a small nap for a while. We had to walk around with her sometimes to keep her quiet, but overall she did very well. She slept about 6 hours total during "the night" and though Derek and I did have a little trouble eating our meals, it went much better than we could have ever imagined. Derek had told Jaden early in the morning that if she was good all day that he would buy her a new car when she turns 16 and so far she's earning her car!


Flight #3-LA to DFW
OK, here's where the fun really begins. We actually got through customs fairly quickly but then it took several minutes to get our luggage. We were cutting it close on catching the DFW flight and were starting to stress out. We finally got our bags and took off-we didn't even really get to say proper goodbyes to everyone and I feel bad about that now. We had no idea where to go next and one guy said the United terminal was "across the street". Well, it looked like a parking garage was the only thing across the street so we ran down to where other terminals were to ask someone else and sure enough, they told us the same thing. So off we go, running across the street in the middle of traffic, with a baby, 2 backpacks, and 4 suitcases. Needless to say, we were stressed to the max by this time and I was on the verge of tears. We finally get to the terminal and there were no signs to tell you where to get in line, so again, we wasted precious time trying to figure out what to do. We ended up screaming across the counter at the ticket agent so some people let us cut in line (I'm sure we were quite scary to others by this point) and we finally got through and made the flight. Jaden was exhausted by then and so were we. She melted down a few times on the flight but the people around us still made a fuss over her, so it must have not been as bad as we thought. We walked off that plane and had never been so happy to see DFW airport in our lives. We had a quite a crowd waiting for us-Mom, Dad, Jakob, Karen, Don, Aunt Jean, Angie, Adair, Penny, Wade, Corrie, John, DiAnn, Sarah, Rick, Michelle and Grant were all there to greet us. I was so happy to see Jakob and was surprised how big he seemed. He wasn't really sure what all the fuss was about but warmed up to Derek and I quickly and gave me lots of hugs and kisses on the way home while Jaden screamed at the top of her lungs on her first ride in a car seat. Mom, Dad, Karen and Don came over later and stayed for a little while to see her. She was pretty clingy to us. Jakob just kind of looked at her and then would run off to his room. He hid behind me once, jumped out and said "BOO!" which made her laugh harder than she ever had before. It was very cute.
Meeting Jakob for the first time

Checking each other out


WE ARE SO HAPPY TO BE HOME!