professional pics

Hi everyone, I am doing great! I am having so much fun with this crazy family. Grandmom and mommy took me out today to buy some walking shoes, hopefully this will help me to walk on my own without the help of mommy and daddy. I think there backs are hurting from bending so much. While we were at the mall I got some pictures taken. I had fun, the camera lady really liked me and I was all smiles. Mommy just couldn't decide on what pics to get. I think she almost bought everyone. While we were their we had lunch, guess what they fed me? Chinese food, but I just think they were fooling me this was the Chinese food I remember but I liked it just the same. I am having fun meeting my family, I got to spend some time with my Babchi yesterday and tomorrow I get to meet Aunt Lisa, Kyle and Colin, hopefully they will take me swimming. Well enjoy my pics. I really enjoy looking at them all I do is laugh every time I see them. Also Robin thanks for my Sushi set, it is my favorite toy. Love Emma Lin

our first couple days home

We home and somewhat settled. We are all unpacked and cloths are washed. Emma is adjusting really well. She likes her crib and room except for the panda bears. We had to hide all of them. It funny but she really does not like them at all. She loves to take baths and go in granmom and granpop jacuzzi (with the temp low). She is warming up to the dogs and cats, they really don't seem to even bother with her. Lucy had yet to even come near her and Sadie just walks by her. She still gets a little scared when they bark, but is getting used to them little by little. She loves books, but won't let you read to her. She takes the book right out of your hand and turns the pages. She is eating great and likes everything we give her. She goes poopie on the potty, we had to buy one in China, because she likes to hold on to the handles when she goes. She likes riding in the car,but we have a really hard time getting her into the carseat. We are getting some sleep,but still no real schedule. We are truly blessed with this little one. We love her so much and truly believe she loves us. She loves her cousin Nicky and mom mom and pop pop. She really loves her Aunt Debbie and she really loves her to. She has adjusted so well to her new life and we are grateful to be able to be her family and we are having so much fun with her. Emma has her first American Doctors appointment today and she will get the last of her shots. I don't get a lot of computer time. If she is awake she likes to play with key pad. She does have quit a temper and likes to get her own way. Daddy is working on getting her to realize she will get what she wants but sometimes it can't be done in a second. She is getting better with it. One thing for sure is she is happy almost all of the time. She laughs and laughs, loves looking at herself and even blew kisses to herself in the mirror today.

We are home

We are home safe and sound! All is well Emma did great on the plane. We stayed over night in Washington. We arrived home this afternoon,
Emma loves all her toys,but does not like the dogs. We will slowly have to get her used to them. WEll this is a short post. Will post more later.

Well, well, well... tonight is my last night in China. Like everything made in China I am being exported to America. Today was a rather uneventful day. Breakfast at the buffet which I liked. Check out my usual breakfast in the photo, I'm a little piggie born the year off the cow. My mom went for tea at 10am and learned how to drink tea the proper Chinese way while the old man and myself took a 2 hour nap. He tried to pull a fast one on me by taking me for a stroll outside. That's a good way to get me too fall asleep but that is the oldest trick in the book. I woke up the second we got back to the room. I tried to tell him I needed a diaper change and a bottle. The old man doesn't understand Chinese baby talk and was dumbfounded as to what to do. After about 10 minutes he figured it out. I got a fresh pamper, hot bottle and bam, I was out. Mom showed up around 1pm and woke us both up with some hot tea. She is such a showoff. She was all prim and proper with her tea set and poured all of us some Ginseng tea. It was really good, I didn't know she was so sophisticated and cultured. Just how did my dad land her, he's a mess sometimes. So we woke up, skipped lunch and hit the pool for a swim. I'm working on the freestyle right now, or is it called the 'kick your legs'. We swam and swam some more. I went underwater for the first time (not by my choosing). I wouldn't call it a dunk because they kept saying to me "ready, ready", as they were bobbing me up and down. Next thing I know I'm swimming underwater. Who do they think I am Emma Phelps!!! After swimming I put my big people down for a nap, one on either side of me. They needed a rest. They get cranky if they don't sleep. I was a bit tired myself. It takes alot out of me to entertain them all day long. Remember, there are two of them and one of me. Nighttime came and we had one last dinner where I had tomato soup. It got all over my face. I quickly learned a new trick. It is called 'licking your lips'. I just stuck my tongue out, moved it around and got all that runaway soup back into my mouth. It was fun, my big people laughed at this so I put on a real good show. Now it is bedtime, tomorrow I get shipped out to America. I will miss all my new found friends from this place. I'd like to say bye to Parker, Ling Ling, Leigh, Chloe, Lily, and everybody here. I wish you all the best and hope to see you all again someday. As all the locals say when we leave a place, Zai Jien.

Hi Its Emma again and boy did i have a bad day today. It started out great, I woke up at 6am. I like getting up early because I know my mom and dad like to sleep late, but as soon as I make a peep they are jumping out of bed and picking me up out of my crib and start playing with me on the bed. After our morning routine, Iwent to breakfast with da da, mom had to stay in the room and wait for a phone call from our guide Helene. So as I was enjoying my scrambled eggs and french toast, mom got bad news. The US consulate would not approve my waiver to wait until I got home to get my vaccines. So off to the medical center we went. Little did I know we were going back to this crazy place with a bunch of sick people and crazy doctors grabbing at me. My dad carried me the whole way and mom and Helene followed behind. I don't think mom wanted me to see her crying. I fell asleep because my parents gave me some tylenol to help with the pain. So we waited, and waited while mom and dad fought some more. Made some more phone calls and even lied a little to help me not get 7 needles. So thanks to this cousin Rose I have yet to meet, she suggested I might be allergic to raw egg and therefore I only to had to get 6 needles instead of 7. So one needle in each arm and two needles in each leg. Well dad decided to be the bad guy and held me while these two mean nurses gave me the shots. I think I did pretty good considering I really don't have any meat on my bones and needles hurt. Plus I really didn't want these crazy ladies to be touching me. So I cried while mommy did her share of crying to. I am not sure why she was crying, I was the one getting the needles. Well afterwards my parents took me for a nice walk and I got to enjoy the ride. We decided to stay at the hotel today in case I ran a fever, but I didn't. Well my parents were really upset today and kept kissing me and telling me they loved me. So I thought to myself what could I do to make them happy. So I decided I'd show them that I am big and strong and no needles are going to knock me down so I walked all by self today for the first time. And boy were they happy. Even more happy then yesterday when I said turtle. My first English word beside da da. Now I am having a hard time falling asleep because I am really tired and Ionly got one nap. So hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!

Today was a great day! Ryan's first father's day! We had fun today, we went to a chinese temple with the rest of our group. Emma sleep for most of it. We got some cool gifts for Emma, nicky and tim. After that we went to the government store and got a beautiful jade necklace with a charm that had the blessing symbol which is also Emma chinese name. We then went shopping at Carrefur, yes that right Carrefur! Pretty funny we needed some cheerios. We had fun walking around taking some pics of the unusual food. They had black chicken, pigs feet lots of liver! They had dozen of fish tanks were you just picked your fish and they got a net a scooped it up for you. they had lots of dried fish, mussels and shrimp. We then came home for a nap, after nap time we went swimming and then off the Lucy's again for dinner. We came home and skyped with grandmom and she got to see me get a bath. Tomorrow we are back for the rest of our medical, we will find out if we have to get our shots or not then some shopping at the pearl market for a necklace for Emma.

It is Sunday morning here in hot China, Guangzho to be exact. It is father's day here and I had fun last night making a shirt for my big person who I have been calling daddy. I placed my hands into a plate of paint and pressed them onto a shirt that read " Best Dad, Hands Down!". (I don't know why my big people did this fun activity after bathtime.) The day ended on a high note but started off a bit scary for me. I had a nice breakfast and then we went for a little walk with some other families who had kids that look liked me and big people who looked liked my big people. Well let me tell you where we went. We went to this place where they wanted to stick needles in my arm!!! Can you believe that, I'm 20 lbs, special needs and they wanted to do WHAT!!!. Well my big people said no way put up a bigger fuss than I was making and we left without a single shot. I don't think the other babies were quite as lucky!! Stay away from medical centers, they are bad news for babies!

We have to go back tomorrow with paperwork to justify why I don't need the shots. Daddy was doing paperwork today working with our guide and he got medical proof from the orphange that I don't need them right now. My other big one, the one who I call mommy took me to a play room and gave me a barbie doll. We took a nap and than went out to eat with the other families.

I showed them how a baby eats properly and and have photodocumentation to prove it. I haven't mastered the spoon yet but I know how it is supposed to work. Oh did I tell you that I wore a hat today. I looked so stylish in it, I might get casted in a coke commercial. Well it is 8:15am in the morning and time for me to take my Daddy out for breakfast.

Cya everybody!!!

Love

Emma

Day 6

Hi everyone, we made it to guanzhou and boy is a different world. Much more peaceful and the streets are beautiful. There are some cute stores and a nice area without any cars to walk around. The hotel is beautiful, lots of things to do and great places to take pictures. We are happy to be in a new place. There are alot of othter families here adopting their baby. Most people speak english here too. EmmaLin did great on her first plane ride, no problems at all. She is such a trooper. We are tired tonight so I am going to share some pics and write more tomorrow. Please say a prayer for Emma the dreaeded medical exam and vaccinations are tomorrow. And our poor baby will need 8. We are hopeing to get a waiver but we won't know until we see the doc first. Pray we can get the wavier and she can get her shots when we get home. Enjoy the pics and more tomorrow.

Day 5

Today post is all about China and Emma, we didn't do much today because of the rain. It was pouring pretty much the whole day. We did some shopping at the mall. Which was pretty much like our mall. We got Emma a few outfits for when she is older. Some sweaky shoes which she loves.
Well things we like best about Emma, well everything but a few of our favorites are
her faces, she has a million of them. We laugh so much at these cute faces. Those dimples are to dye for. So many people stop us and tell us how beautiful she is. Our guide told us if a chinese person wants to adopt her that is an honor. I forget if i posted this already but someone from China tried to adopt her, but thank god our paperwork was already being processed and they couldn't. She has quite a personality. She likes to get her own way and of course we let her have it. She loves holding things in her hands. She is very curious to new things. She likes to feel everything and check it out. She loves to watch her surroundings and loves to people watch. So far she is ok if people touch her, but we do our best to keep her away, but the people love to sneak up and touch her. She loves the water is great in the tub and the pool. She gets kick out of splashing herself. She doesn't mind water on her face. She has a belly laugh and smiles and laughs all the time. She sings a lot. She has this song that she sings when we are carring her around the room. She loves pictures looking at pictures of herself she did it for hours today. She likes noodles and loves to slup them up. It pretty funny to watch. She is walking with us holding her hands and she has fun doing it. She likes to be carried most of the time. We got a baby carrier and she is the happiest when she is in there. She likes to feed us. She is just so great, we truly are blessed to have her as our daughter.

As for China, well this is a crazy town. People are everywhere. They invade your space, there really are no manners. they will jump in an elevator before you even can get out. They really don't move out of your way. Our guide is consistently yelling at someone for something. She is this tiny 26 year old, but she doesn't get pushed around. She does the pushing. The waiter and waitress are super nice,but they stand near your table and stare at you while you eat. AS soon as you are done something they are right there to clean it up. People love to stare at us. Everyone say hi, nice to meet you. We had a group of people yell hello to us. Ryan reply Ni Hao(hello) and they went nuts, they were so excited jumping up and down. our guide said we look like celebrates to them. The traffic is crazy cars, bike, mopeds buses and taxies every where. no red lights or lanes it just a free for all. horns beeping all the time. Women in skirts and high heels riding mopeds. Food is pretty much the same. They eat anything. smoked everything. everything has a head on it. They sell live animals on the street corners. They have about 25 stores in row that sell the same thing. i don't know how they make any money. one block is all stores that sell toilets and sinks. one block of all plumbing supplies. it goes on and on like this for blocks. they are open stores. picture the jersey boardwalk shirt stores that what it looks likes hear minus the boardwalk. babies and kids everywhere. the noise never stops. the bed are like sleeping on concrete i can't wait to get into my comfy bed. The showers don't put our alot hot wather and the pressure is low. you can't drink the water and no ice in anything. their favorite american show is prison break and desperate housewives. I am sure each province is different, but that is here in Nanchung.

Well off to guanzhou tomorrow, we are ready for our next adventure. hopefully the change of scenery wont be to scary for Emma. We will be in home in 6 days!

Day 4 Pictures

Day 4

We started the day off by our usual breakfast buffet. We had french toast for a change. The food is getting kind of boring. Nothing really new. Well today there was smoked duck. bones, head and feet!! We met Echo and our driver for the 2 hour drive to the Zhangshu SWI pronounced jungshoe. The ride was really beautiful. Once we were out of Nanchung, which is full of car and motorbikes that beep the horn all day long. it doesn't stop for a second and we hear it all day in our hotel room. The traffic is like nothing i ever seen before. There are no red lights or stop signs or even lanes. you can pretty much drive how ever you like turn when there is traffic coming there are people walking everywhere. And motorbikes or mopeds are everywhere. The most common thing is mom on the back of a motorcycle dad driving and baby sitting on the front. Yes babies, kids 3-4 people on a motor cycle with no helmets. There are no car seats here or seatbelts. You cannot believe the way the traffic goes here unless you see it for yourself. if you have a minute google nanchung driving on youtube, you will get somewhat of an idea. Well once we were out of nanchung in the country it was so peaceful and scenic. Farmlands with all kinds of cattle. Men on donkeys riding around the farms. We saw rice patties, duck farm and Carfur (which is grown here in Emma's province). The drive was about 2 hours. Emma liked being in the car. She fell asleep for about 45 minutes. Once we hit Zhangshu the road were really bad potholes everywhere. This town was very poor. There were alot of people and the apartments looks very dilapidated. This is most likely were emma's birth parents live. I wonder if we saw them today? THe orphanage is across the street from a school, and behind some stores and apartments. it sits in a square with 3 buildings and an office. Most of the rooms are for older people. It is a nursing home and also housing adults with special needs. There is only one room for the babies. It was a very tiny room with pergo like floor with a little tv and couch. Then there is another room with a bed for the nanny and 3 cribs. The orphanage can only house 3 children at once. Me and Ryan took turns going in because we did not want Emma to go back. The conditions were dirty but you can tell the love that the nanny and orphanage directors have for the children. We brought a pic from a little girl who was adopted a couple years ago from Zhangshu and they were so happy to see her. They knew who she was and was so grateful for an update. They hugged the pic and pleased asked us to come back with Emma some day. After I went in to visit, the orphanage director invited me to his office for some food and drinks. We watch some of the basketball game LAkers and Boston. They love Cobe Bryant and really don't like Chinese basketball player because he plays for the US and not china. IT was a nice visit,but a heartbreaking one. There were two new babies in there care that they just found last week. These teeny tiny babies, it was hard to see. I understand now by visiting what kind of life Emma had for the first 14 months of her life. the only real activity she had was with the walker. The only time she could be held was when the nanny wasn't taken care of the other two babies. One thing I am sure of is that she was loved. They had so many questions for me on how we were going to take care of her and that we love her and give her a great life. They kept saying that over and over. They were so happy that we chose Emma, they told me we can see how much love you have for her already. They were happy to see that. We can't post any pics because we only took video. When we get home we will post the video. We really feel blessed to be given the opportunity to be Emma's parents. We love her so much and truly are super lucky she came into our lives. She is so cute and lovable. We are getting along great and can't get enough of her. As for the rest for the rest of the day we went swimming again and had dinner. We just got done bath time and are getting ready for bed. Tomorrow is shopping for sweaky shoes and we are going to go to a bridal shop and check out the bridal shops here. Echo is excited to go to a bridal shop, and I am excited to see there styles here. We are really tired today I think the jet lag is catching up with us.

Day 3 Pictures

Day 3

Things are going well. Emma is coming around more and more. We slept through the night last night. She got up around 6:30 and was a little fussy but after a few minutes she was ok. We hung out in the bed for a while playing, then we went to breakfast. She had her usual congee and steamed eggs. Then we went to the zoo with Echo. Emma fell asleep on the way there and slept for a bit at the zoo but woke up in time to see the panda bear. He was pretty neat to see, but he was really dirty. The zoo was quite an experience. It was small with a couple of rides and about 20 different animals in there. Our first stop was the lion's den. Well let's just say if you were ever in the mood to hang out with two big tigers then come to the China zoo because the gate to the cage was open for anyone to just to walk in and be eaten by them. Then we were checking out the bear den which was a big open pit with a small wall around it. So off to our left was a family of three and I guess the little boy had to really pee because there he was in his split pants peeing while his dad held him over the wall peeing in the bear den. What a sight. I tried to get a pic but missed it, then ry said i am off camera duty because we can't miss shots like that anymore. So off to more exhibits, but wait first we saw turtles, mice, rabbits and goldfish being sold. I guess you go to the zoo for you pet mouse. The highlight of the trip was the .50 cent balloon that we got Emma. Which she loves, loves, loves. We came back to the hotel for a nap. After the nap we went swimming. Oh my Emma loved the pool. She was splashing, kicking and having a really great time. Dinner was really fun tonight, we kind of let her play a little with her food. She really enjoyed getting her hands dirty and we enjoyed watching her play. Not sure that restaurant liked us, but it was good for her to feel the food and get some different feel of things. She looked really cute with rice and noodles all over her. But of course tonight we forgot the camera so no pics. After her bath she feel asleep pretty quick tonight. She called out for her nanny a couple times but then rested in my arms and went out. She really wanted lots of my attention today. For the first time she put her hands out for me to hold her. She didn't even want to go to Ryan this afternoon which was a first. We really bonded today. She is really warming up to me and liked being held most of the day today from me. And of course i couldn't of been more happy.

Day 2 Pictures

Day 2

Today started off pretty good. Emma woke once during the night for a bottle. She has a hard time falling asleep she cries for a bit. I think she is missing her nanny. They must of had some kind of trick to put her to sleep. They told us to give her a blanket but that does not work for us. After a bit she finally fell asleep and slept till 7. She woke up cring but stopped as soon as we picked her up and put her on the bed. We got her laughing in no time. We skyped for a bit with Grandmom, grandpop, Babchi, Sally and Ben. She laughed and talked for them. After a bit she got fussy so we took her down to breakfast. She ate Congee and steamed egg and had some grape juice. She no a big eater but she did like everything we gave her. We then meet our guide Echo and did some sightseeing around Nanchung. We went to a Pavillion. It is suppose to big the biggest one in China. It was pretty neat. Nothing much on the inside but the gardens around it were beautiful. Emma just loved seeing all the flowers and trees. Every time we walked but a tree she would belly laugh like you wanted believe. We had a nice visit there. They had a show with people singing and playing instruments. She watched very intently. We then went shopping for some porcelain. Nanchung is known for their porcelain. We got some really great things and a present for Emma when she is older. I said for her wedding Ryan said she will never be getting married, so it will be for sometime in her adult hood, when daddy let her go, which may be never. We then headed back to the hotel for a meeting with an artist who made a scroll for Emma made of silk. It has her american name and chinese along with her birthday and where she was born. It was really neat to watch the lady make it. Emma then went down for a nap. She woke up and we have been playing. She is really tired today, I think she has a tooth coming in. She feels little warm no temperature and she is drooling a lot today. We were gonna go swimming but might wait until tomorrow. We are headed off to the zoo tomorrow to see the panda bear! We finally saw the sun today for a little bit. The weather is hot but not unbearable. Thanks again for all the comments! We love reading them.

Last night was a little hard to get Emma to fall asleep. We knew she was tired she was rubbing her eyes and started to cry a little. So we help her and walked the room with her. She was really crying. We could tell that she was missing home. They told us that she liked to fall asleep with a blanket in her hand and sucked on it while falling asleep. We did bring a bear blanket security blanket with us that she loved all day,but it did not do the trick for her a night. After about 30 minutes of her crying (what a tiny little cry she has) and us holding her she did finally fall asleep. This by far was the hardest part of the whole experience. It broke my heart to hear her cry and there was nothing I could do for her. She really had a hard time breathing which made me feel worse. I did my best to remain calm as to not excite her any more, but it was hard. Well we get to go visit the orphanage on Wed and we are going to ask if we can have the blanket she slept with. Hopefully they won't mind giving it to us. I already can't wait for her to get up today!! Hopefully she had happy dreams and will wake up in a good mood.

I just wanted to also thank everyone for there comments. We love reading them. Some of you know that blogger and face book is blocked here from China. So i am sending my post or my cousin Lindsay for her to post on the blogger site. So we cannot respond to the comments indivually. We get to see them because I have it sent up to notify me when there is a new comment. So keep the comments coming and thanks for any advice every little bit helps.

We are suppose to go out today around 10 with our guide for some site seeing and be back here around 12:30. We will do some venturing out on our own and maybe take Emma Lin swimming at the pool today. We really want to work on her mussel tone today. She can sit up on her own but doesn't know how to get from lying down to sitting up on her own. So i want to practice that today. Also she does not know how to bend her knees so we will work on that to. She is so tiny and cute. She is wearing 9 months cloths but i think she could fit into 6 months. We went thru 3 outfits yesterday but not because of her being messy, but because of us being messing. So we have to learn how to give her a bottle with our spilling half of it on her and feeding her with out dropping it on her to. It pretty funny! :-) :-) :-)

Day 1 Pictures

Today went great!

After we got Emma and did some paper work we had two hours before we had to go to the civil affairs office. She sat on lap and played with a flower we gave her. She loves flowers. She said a few words and loves to be held. She then fell asleep in ryan's arms till we got to the civil affairs office. She woke up looked around and was fine. We signed our papers. Someone asked us some questions. One was do we like her? We said yes absolutely. Really we love her to death she is so great. Funny, happy and has a million and one facial expressions. We then were off to the notary office for some more questions and then to the area flea market. Emma did great every where. We got this awesome stroller that not only is a stroller but can turn into a rocker. Its pretty cool. It also is the kind that we can look at her when we are walking. It was less then $100. We also got a baby carrier and cup and spoon set and still didn't spend over $100. We then headed off the the super market. Well I don't know where the Super came into the name for a Super Market because we don' t have any super markets like this in the US. I think it had about 4 floors with everything under the sun in it. It puts Walmart to shame. So we got some more diapers wipes and formula. The store was pretty crazy they had security rings around the formula and had to pay for it at a sperate register. They had to have people working in ever isle of the market. They had a area were you could buy live fish there was a man there fishing them out with a net after you picked which one you wanted. After shopping we came home and undressed our little as she was laying there diaper less she peed our bed. I didn't think such a tiny body could hold that much pee but the bed was soaked. So off to the bath we went. She loved it splashing and playing with her toys. We then put her on the bed and dressed her and tried to feed her again. she has eaten a little today mostly puffs and cereal. Then we turned on the IPOD and she went nuts, she loves this thing. We are playing Michael Jackson she is singing and dancing up a storm she can't enough. I don't she has stopped smiling. One things for sure she loves her daddy. She likes feeding him puffs. They are getting along great. She likes me to. She really goes to either one of us. She just is the most precious little baby ever. She has a hard time sitting up on her own and does do well on her feet. We are doing excising with her ever so often. Well I am not sure when the grieving is going to happen,but right now she is a ray of sunshine. We haven't stopped smiling or laughing. This town is pretty hectic and crazy. We saw a women selling snakes and ducks on the corner. That was a sight. Some one selling turtles. and the cars, all they do is beep, beep, beep. It never stops. The traffic is nuts!! You take your life in your hands every time you cross the street.

Here are some pics

We have her and she is just perfect!

We went out this morning for some breakfast and a walk around town. we came back to the hotel around 10:30. we were meeting Echo our guide in the lobby at 11 when the phone rang. Your daughter is here come on down to the 2nd floor and meet her. Well my stomach was doing flip flops and i started shaking. Ryan is running around the room gathering up everything. We ran to the elevator and made it the 2nd floor. Walked right out the door and there she was. Oh my I just couldn't believe it. All that waiting and now it was here. This gorgeous little girl was staring at us. The director looked over our passports and handed her to me. She whimpered for about 5 seconds and then looked at me and was fine. we asked some questions and the head nanny answered all of our questions. Then we were off to our hotel room to do some paper work with our guide. Ryan filled out the paper work while I held her and talked to her and walked her around the room. She was really interested in the room. We sat on the bed with me for a little while and ate some puffs. Then it was my turn for the paper work. Ryan took her and she cried for about 30 seconds and then she was ok. After the paperwork our guide left and we had some bonding time together. we got her to laugh and talk. what a cute little voice. she seems that she likes flower and dolls. we were skyping with aunt deb, grandmom and nick. We are now leaving for the civil affairs office. I will post more tonight when she goes to bed. It great to be a mom. She is awesome. could everyone say a couple prayers for her, we got some news that her breathing isn't as good as we thought. so please keep her in your prayers that nothing happens while we are here. they said to bring her immediately to the hospital if she has a hard time breathing.

We made it to the hotel!

The hotel is very nice. We got off our flight from Beijing to Nanchung, flight was fine but we were the only Americans on it, that was pretty funny everyone was looking at us like we were nuts. We got yelled at 3 times on flight because ofour seats were not in the upright postion. Apparently you have to have it up more than just the take off and landing. We met our guide Echo when we got off the plane, she is super nice and helpful. After we got to the hotel our room was not ready so we had to wait a half hour in the lobby. We made some calls to home. thank God for Skype. Our room is super nice,, we are all upacked and ready for our 11:00 am meeting to get Emma Lin. So on a funny note I'm sure all first time parents will get a kick out of this. What do you pack in the diaper bag. We got so much advice but no one told us what to put in the diaper bag. So as I ask Ryan what goes in the diaper bag he says " I look it up on line". We just started laughing. I guess we will be doing alot of guessing these next few weeks. We post pics as soon as we get Emma. Thanks for all the comments!

We have arrived!!!

Our first flight from Philly to Washington DC was smooth and quick. DC to Beijing wasn’t as bad as I have imagined. I slept most of the time. The half way point was a little rough knowing you still had 7 hours. United does not have a large selection of movies. I watched Dear John, and Some other movie with Mel Gibson. Of course both were real sad movies. Food wasn’t too bad. We had chicken and rice for breakfast. A cup of noodle soup for lunch. Which I thought was pretty funny. Hot soup on a plane. Then a turkey and cheese sandwich for dinner. All in all I can’t really complain about the flight. Well wait yes I can there were a group of people (Americans)on our flight that sat next to us. the way there seats were arranged they were one behind the other. Well from the minute they got on they did not stop talking and I mean talking loud. I know I am known for talking a lot and talking loud but I don’t do it on planes people want to sleep and not listen to bull crap of the people around them. So after about 4 hours of non stop talking and laughing and drinking, Ryan said to the flight attendant could you do something. And sure enough she made the whole group stand In the back of the plane. It was pretty funny. Everyone around us was so relieved. There were a couple babies and kids on the plane who were really good. You would of never even knew they were on the plane. Hopefully Emma Lin will be just as good. When we landed in Beijing well what can I say, but were not in Kansas anymore! It has to be the biggest airport I was ever in. This airport if pretty nuts. Nothing I have ever experienced. We had to go through customs in a line that read foreigners. After that we then had to collect our luggage and go to terminal 2. Mind you we were only in Terminal 3. So we had walk downstairs catch a bus and take about 15-20 minute bus ride to terminal 2. How crazy is that. Then we had to find a check in point which was pretty interesting. Well then I needed to get something to drink and we went into a airport store. Holy craziness batman it was mad ciaos in there. There had to be about 20 people working in this store that is no bigger than a gas stain stop. People buying about 20 bags of some kind of dried fruit, big boxes of tea bags and candy. Not really why they need all of this at an airport. An argument started in front of us from some man that was buying about 50 things, so we then had to go to another register and get rung out, just to find out they didn’t take credit cards or American dollars so off to another register. What an experience for two sodas. But they were only about 80 cents. We are now sitting waiting for our next flight to Nanchung. We will then check into our hotel unpack and get our gifts ready for tomorrow. One more night to we get to hold our little one. I really think reality set in once me and ryan got on the plane to Beijing. It really hit me I going to be a mom. I can’t believe the day if finally here. Well ta ta for now. More later when we get to the hotel!

We are ready!

Well today we ran some errands got some last minute toys and a couple other things. House is all ready and pool is clean. We then went to the phillies game, they lost! And now we are sitting here getting ready to watch a movie, possibly our last grown up movie for a while. So our last grown up movie is you'll never guess------it's Transformers. So I am not really sure if this movie is considered adult but oh well. We are trying to stay awake as long as we can so we will be tired for our 18 hours of plane rides plus about 5 hours of airport time. I am so happy we lose 12 hours so it will be 12 less hours until we meet Emma Lin. So signing off for now. Our next post will be Sat night when we land and get to our hotel room. Which will be Saturday morning for you guys.