HOME!!!

We made it home! We made it home! We made it home! We are so happy to have made it home. Late Saturday night we arrived home after literally 24 hours in the air! Mimi and Mikie were waiting for us in baggage claim and it was so nice to see them. We had a some what eventful time getting Annie into the car seat. Yep, her first ride in a car seat was dramatic to say the least. But, we made it home without our eardrums being shattered. Everyone took a bath and boy, was it nice to be in non-stinky water. We are all still trying to adjust our clocks but so far, everything is going well. Little Annie is having a ball. She had a great time at her Mimi's house yesterday and even got brave enough to ride her trike down the sidewalk without Mama. Today, she found the Nerf swords and all three girls had a sword fight. Miss Annie can hold her own!

I will post a little bit about our trip to Hong Kong Disney tomorrow but I wanted to let everyone know that we are home and doing well.

A few more pictures

Hefei Girls on the Red Couch
Sisters
I love hair things!
Our Special Friend Ann from Red Thread China
Ying, QunQun, and Meimei
The Group at Dinner
Ying and QunQun
Sleeping Beauties

The Anhui, Chongqing, Shanghai, and Jiangxi Girls on the Red Couch

Only two more wakeups!

Meimei's look sums it all up!
Getting out of the rain instead of trying to slog through Yun Tai Gardens.
Watching the cooks!
Baba and Annie
Some special Chongqing friends we met at the International Toy Market


We are ready to go home. Actually we have been ready for over a week. We have had a wonderful time making new friends like the Gerbers, Qun Qun and her family, the Maitlands, and our special friend Ann from Red Thread China. Anne helped us send care packages to Annie and we were lucky enough to spend an afternoon with her in Guangzhou. Qun Qun is a beautiful little girl who we met in Hefei who has found her forever family in the US. Ying adores Qun Qun and it was nice to spend some time with her and her special family in Guangzhou. Our travel group has made this trip bearable. We could not have done this without our friends the Gerbers and Maitlands. Having friends to share the joys and some times trials of this trip have really helped us. For some reason, this trip has been our hardest. The past two trips were sort of bitter sweet towards the end. This trip, it has been more like, we are done with this and send us home! In the last shop we were in tonight, I told Patrick that we should just go. We really did not need any of the stuff there and we could do just fine without it. We will be forever grateful to China for our beautiful daughters. We love this country but we are ready to head to our own country and our own home.

Tomorrow, we board a train in the morning for Hong Kong. We hope to spend the day in Hong Kong at Disney, go to sleep in one more hotel, and then head home the next morning. I don't know if we will have internet access tomorrow night so this might be our last post from China.

Easter Chinese Style!

Christ Church Shamian Island
Easter Dresses
Happy Girl!
Ice cream in the park
I love Ice Cream!

Sunday was Easter. We slept late, had a big breakfast, and went to church. We went to the longest Easter service I have ever been to, about 2 hours. It was a combined Chinese and English service at the Christ Church Shamian Island. We probably understood about 1/4 of it but it was nice to be there on such a special day. After church, we went and walked the Island. Overall it was just a nice day to relax. For some reason, this time, getting to Guangzhou has been a relief. I think because there was not much to do in Hefei. And, it is much warmer here, so no big heavy coats to carry and drag with us. I also came to realization. I love Sichuanese food and Cantonese food. I am not so sure about Hefei style cuisine. I have no trouble the last two times in Chongqing finding Chinese food to eat. In Hefei, I struggled. I just did not care for it. Last night we went to a nice Cantonese food. All the dishes were familiar to me from all of the banquets, etc... that we had been to in the States. I ate something more than just rice and soup.

How Annie is adjusting...

Annie loves Mama. Annie loves Jiejie Ying. Annie loves Jiejie Meimei. Annie loves Grandma Judie. Annie likes Grumps. Annie sort of likes Baba. Annie is slowly warming up to Patrick and Grumps. Grumps was able to hold her for about 2 minutes without any screaming. Patrick has been able to hold her a little bit if Mama is right there. Patrick can be with Annie while Mama goes potty right now but if Mama goes somewhere like a store and Annie can't see Mama, she screams. She has got some lungs on her. Hopefully the ice with thaw with Patrick and soon.

A few more pictures

Come on Folks, we have to go upstairs!
Sisters eating Haw together.
Look Mom, here is my bed. I am going to eat some more Haw now...

A little bit more about our visit to the Hefei CWI

We had a great visit. Hefei CWI is an amazing place. Annie was very comfortable with us going and she took my hand and led me around. She walked right into one of the other children's home like she owned the place so clearly all the girls interacted with each other during school hours and then afterwards. We met her foster mother who was just amazing. It was clear this little girl was loved and cared for. Annie took my hand and led me to her bedroom to show me her bed. We spent about 10 minutes at the foster parents' apartment and then we went to the play ground. All the staff including the nannies on the baby floor recognized her and the two other little girls in our travel group as we were walking to the play ground. The preschool classes were coming out to recess. We had a great time meeting all the little kiddos there. So many precious children. Here are some photos of our visit.

Pictures from the Hefei Zoo

I tried to post these in Hefei but the internet connection was too slow to upload them.

We made it to Guangzhou!

We made it to Guangzhou last night. This has been our third trip to Guangzhou and our third stay at the White Swan. And the third time they have messed up our reservations. After about 2 hours which included 45 minutes of check-in time, we finally got our rooms. And our room and Denny and Judie's room is on the same floor. I won't go into the details but if you stay here, don't back down and go to the second floor reservation desk. The first floor group check in people will always tell you that they are booked solid and they can't do anything. We met up with our group from Beijing and all went to dinner at Lucy's. It was nice to see all the families looking happy and well. Today we are going to church on the Island for Easter.

Goodbye Hefei, Hello Guangzhou

We had a wonderful visit yesterday to the Hefei CWI. I will post more about it from Guangzhou. Tonight, we are packing for our trip to Guangzhou in the morning. Finally, a flight that is not at the crack of dawn.

A little more about Annie

We had our third day together as a family. Little Miss Annie is fitting right in. She even let Patrick carry her in the zoo. The first time he had to go up hill with her in his arms, he shot me a look and said, how have you been doing this??? She is one solid little girl. She is very bright and she knew most of the animals by sight at the zoo. We got belly laughs and lots of smiles. She even let Grumps hold her for a few minutes and then played with Grandma Judie. The zebras were amazing to her. Ying and Meimei loved the zoo too. They both rode in the strollers with Grumps and Grandma Judie pushing them. We saw an amazing sea lion show. They have two trainers who direct a sea lion to do all kinds of neat things including standing on one flipper and balancing a ball on its nose. It is choregraphed to very cheesy music. The kids loved it. We happened to arrive at the zoo at the same time two preschool classes arrived. The children were all 3-6 years old. They were darling. We filmed them singing a traditional children's song, Yi Fen Qian. This was the first song Ying ever sang and she joined right in. For those who are about to visit Hefei, the zoo is very nice. The first two sections of it have peacocks and deer who wander freely. The whole setting seems more of a park and the animals are in nice enclosures.

After the zoo, we went to Carrefours and McDonalds. This was the first time for Ying and Meimei to eat at the Golden Arches. They loved their food of course and Meimei was enamored of the banana fried pies. She ate the filling out of three of them. Annie seemed to enjoy her meal. The chicken nuggets were new to her but french fries were not. She also enjoyed shopping at Carrefours.

Then things took a turn for the worse. We came back to the hotel and the girls played like maniacs. Annie joined right in. We went to the 6th floor playground which is a nice playground on a roof top garden. They have a slide, some rocking things, a little table and chairs, a kids tunnel and something else that I can't remember. You can play and see Hefei . The girls had a blast. Annie is dare devil and would laugh hysterically when she went down the slide. When she grins and laughs, she holds her chin down and you can see all of her chins (she has at least 2). The girls decided to have races around the outdoor pathway. Annie, of course, joined right in. After the first turn around the circle, she slipped, fell, and bit her lip. Oh, my goodness, this child has lungs. She screamed and cried for over 45 minutes. She was so pitiful. She would not look at anyone other than me and she cried "Mama, hurt". Someone taught her the word hurt. We know she knows it because after the fall about three hours later, she held her hand out to Patrick and said "shou hurt" which was hand hurt. She cried so hard that she wore herself out and took an hour nap on me. After that, she would not interact with anyone other than me. Patrick tried to feed her at dinner and she threw food at him. She threw her spoons on the floor and demanded that Patrick pick them up. Of course, he did not so she upended her juice on herself and the floor after getting his attention. After this incident, I was the one who said enough and took everything away from her. She was fine with me discipling her but if Patrick tried, she just set her mouth and shot him dirty looks, and kept right at what she was doing. We left and got her back to the room. She took the dreaded bath (she hates them) and she let Patrick help her. Once she was asleep, I went downstairs for a foot massage. If you ever stay at the Holiday Inn Hefei, definitely get a foot massage. For 68 RMB, you get a very nice foot and leg massage that does not involve any sharp implements or hot water like they do in Beijing!

Today we are leaving for the orphanage. We will see how that goes. We will post more photos tonight.

Some thoughts on China the third time around

We have now traveled to China 3 times. The first time in Sept. 2003, then Nov. 2005, and now March 2008. So it is roughly every two years. While things changed between 2003 and 2005, the differences between 2005 and 2008 are amazing. There is definitely an economic boom here. We see it in the number of expensive cars on the street and in the shopping areas. Beijing while getting ready for the Olympics has under gone a huge building boom. It was amazing to see the amount of new apartment buildings going in. To live within the first two ring roads of Beijing, you will pay over 500,00 USD for approximately a 3000 sq meter apartment. And, people are buying apartments without a mortage system like the US. According to the two guides we have had, most young people are saving towards buying an apartment and they try to go within the first 4 ring roads. This is sort of amazing to us since some of the people we have met here have a monthly income of 500 RMB.

There are also the very rural areas that have not been touched by the economic growth. Hefei seems to be in the middle of this. It is definitely not the economic power that Chongqing is and it is not terribly poor either. But it is clearly more agricultural and has not reached the level of other large cities (a little under 5 million people). But, the number of very expensive cars like BMWs are amazing. But things here are not cheap especially compared to things two years ago. We went shopping last night and while some things were an amazing deal like 6 pairs of kids shoes for around 33 USD, other things were not so cheap. Clothes at local stores not department stores were around 100 RMB or 14 USD an outfit for Annie. Two years ago, we would have paid maybe 50 RMB. And the US dollar has definitely gone down. We notice that daily when we go to change money. So with the booming economy, there is definitely an increase in the cost of living. Groceries are still fairly inexpensive but when you only make 500 RMB a month, 100 RMB at the grocery store is pretty costly. It has been interesting to watch the changes here.

Our second day together

A few more pictures from yesterday and then more about our second day together.

The streets of Hefei are interesting to say the least and they have road construction just like home!



It is again 5 am China time and I am up. We go to bed so early that my internal clock has me up early which is good since I get time to update everyone at home without little Miss Annie asking to bang on the computer keyboard.

We had a very good day yesterday. In the morning, we had to go to the Civil Affairs Office to finalize the adoption and to the bank to change our adoption donation into RMB. Ying and Meimei spent most of the day with Grumps and Grandma Judie which was perfect. Meimei is having a little visit from the green eyed monster and Grandma Judie is giving her undivided attention which is what she is craving. Ying is tickled pink by little Miss Annie. And Annie seems to like Ying quite a bit. Meimei and Annie are still sort of circling each other like two dogs who are not sure yet who is the Alpha Dog. It will be a close tie between the two. I'll explain more in a bit about this.

We made it back to the hotel right about lunch time and took Annie to lunch. We have found a very good 24 hr noodle shop in the hotel that is about 4.00 a person versus the 12.00 a person for lunch at the fancy buffet restaurant in the hotel. Annie promptly sat herself down and said "yao" when the lady with the dim sum cart came by. Yao means want and it is Annie's favorite word besides Mama. This girl can eat! Annie ate 5 veggie dumplings and 1 steam bun and probably would have eaten more if we had let her. We went back to the room for nap time (Ying and Meimei wanted to nap with Grandma Judie. We laughed because Grandma Judie has not had the pleasure of nap time with the girls like Mimi. Needless to say, there was no nap!) Patrick and I decided we were still a little hungry so we pulled out some peanuts. Well... Annie eats peanuts. Anything that Mama is eating or for that matter anything that anyone else is eating, Annie has to sample. She stretches out her little hand and says "yao". We looked at each other and said do you think she can eat these? So we broke a peanut into a small piece (no easy feat) and then all we heard was crunch, crunch, crunch. So... she eats peanuts. We also decided to start Annie on the antibiotic because she has fairly nasty upper respiratory infection with a cough that is kind of rattly. I held her and Patrick gave her the medicine. She shot him looks that could melt steel. For those of you that know Meimei, think of her looks. Annie is right up there with Meimei.
We had our first major meltdown after naptime. And, it was because I had to go to the bathroom. Annie did not want to stay with Patrick. In fact, she sobbed "Mama" over and over again while he tried to hold her. After that, she would only give him the cold shoulder. We remarked last night that it is like I have a little duckling. She is always 2 steps right behind me. And it is a funny little duck who who is still a little wobbly like a two year old.

The orphanage visit was postponed until Thursday. Thank goodness, I think we need a few more days for her to be comfortable with us. We also needed to go by her some clothing since she is having to wear her sisters' clothes. (Two of the PJs I brought fit her and a little warm up suit does except that the jacket is a little short and that is it. ) So we went to a local pedestrian shopping area. Yep, we were rock stars again. Ying did great in the crowds and Meimei just shot looks at people. Annie would turn her head into my shoulder. Annie rode in the stroller for the first time. The only way she would ride in it was on Ying's lap and with me walking beside her. And she would only ride for about 5 minutes and then want me to carry her for another 5 min or so and then she would get back in. We found her some clothes to wear and we learned more about her. She is a shoe and hair thingy fiend! We went into a little shop that was like a beauty supply store. She headed straight for the hair things and would grab ones that she liked. We have a little bag of things that she picked out for herself. She also likes shoes. And she has definite opinions on ones that she wants. We went to the department store and she was only drawn to shoes and toys. She had little interest in clothes. After dinner we came back to the room and she played with the girls and Patrick for the first time. Bubbles were a huge hit and the girls all played a game to see who could smack the most bubbles that Patrick was blowing. She finally gave Patrick a kiss last night during the game.

We learned a little bit more about Annie's personality. She has a deep belly laugh that comes out when I tickle her or raise her over my head (no easy feat since she weighs in at 35 lbs). She is very affectionate and will give you kisses without asking for one (this is still only to me). She is very observant and will assess the situation before jumping in. She watched the bubble play time and then jumped in after a minute or two. And she is very opinionated and will let you know her displeasure immediately. She has some of Meimei's iron will and we are waiting to see if she has Meimei's easy going personality.

We have her!

Wow! Words can not express how today went. Annie Viola Fanghua is absolutely amazing. All of our prayers have been answered. We have had a very easy transition.

We met up with our group early this morning in the lobby and drove through the streets of Hefei. People that think morning traffic in Atlanta in bad have never been to Hefei. We finally arrived at the Civil Affairs Office. We go up to our floor and walk into a room that looks like a classroom with long tables with chairs at them. We immediately spot our travel mate's daughter. Then we turn and look to the side and Annie is sitting quietly on her teacher's lap. She is playing with one of the toys we sent her. Unlike our previous two adoptions, we did not rush in and grab this little one. Instead, we let her stay with her teacher and we talked to her and fed her cookies. After about 10 minutes of this, I could not stand it and tried to pick her up. Big mistake! I promptly put her back down, she quieted down, and was happy again. I pulled out a bottle of juice and when I started helping her drink the juice, she decided to stand up and come closer to me. Her teacher used this time to slip away. Annie had no problem with me then. She ate continuously from about 10:00 am until 1 pm! Then she took a two hour nap, woke up in a good mood, ate a snack , went for a walk, and then went to dinner. She seems to be very healthy except for a little cold and smart as a whip! She played a game tonight where she would point to an object and tell me in Chinese what it was.

She is a cutie. And, she will fit right into the family. This girl can eat! At a little over two years of age, we think she is a little over 35 lbs. So much for what her doctors predicted! She will eat almost anything, except for apples. At lunch she ate a bowl of steamed eggs, a bowl of rice with some chicken, some broccoli, some watermelon, two cookies, part of steam bun, and an gelatin dessert. The biggest issue we are facing is that very little that I brought with me will fit her. She is about a 3T.

She is adjusting nicely although this evening, she is definitely a Mama's girl! Mama was finally able to go shower after getting her to sleep in Mama and Baba's bed. She is too long for the baby crib in our room.

Now for what everyone has been waiting for, PICTURES!

On a lighter note... St. Patrick's Day Chinese Style

Today is St. Patrick's Day. It is a huge deal for my husband's family. Gee what more could you expect from some one named Patrick Shannon? We thought that St. Patrick's Day probably had not migrated from the Emerald Isle to the shores of China. Patrick's parents, Denny and Judie joined us on this trip like they did on the last trip. So we packed a couple of things for Grandma Judie to celebrate with today. No corned beef and cabbage, but at least we have some shamrocks! The girls gave Grandma Judie our little surprise last night. Poor Annie, she is going to think her new family is crazy with all the green! The girls even picked out a green hair bow for her today that is covered in shamrocks.

On A Personal Note

Very few people outside of my immediate family and some close friends know about my faith. Part of this is probably being Lutheran and part of this is probably being German and part of this is that it is not something that I am comfortable discussing with people I don't know well. Of the two of us, I am probably the more traditionally religious person. Why am I bringing this up? Well it is a little over 5 am here on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day. It is also the day that Annie joins our family. And our journey to Annie has been complicated to say the least. Few people outside of family and close friends knew about Annie in the beginning. Why would we want not to scream it from the tree tops? The last 9 months have been a trying time for our family. We have faced new a job, the break in employment when moving from one academic institution to another, selling a house that is still being renovated and finishing it up to put it on the market, selling a house in down market, a spouse working 900 miles away, finding a new job in an economy that stinks, you get the picture. So our journey to Annie has been about FAITH. And I capitalize FAITH because that is all it could be. It is not a small faith. This required that we heed the call from God and follow on FAITH. And the conversation I had with our Pastor and Parish Nurse sums up what we have been doing. This has been one of those times when you hear the call and you know you are being led but you kind ask, ok God, now what??? Well in 5 hours, our now what arrives. Please keep our family and Annie in your thoughts and prayers this morning.

Beijing

We had a fabulous time in Beijing. The first day we went to the silk market and several other stores and then on to the acrobats. The acrobats were amazing! The next day we went to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square. Tiananmen Square was closed for the Peoples Congress Meeting but we did get to walk the length of it. This morning we flew off to Hefei bright and early. The airport was interesting. Yesterday was the first day of the no liquids rule in China. It was mass pandemonium trying to go through security. We made it to our plane with no time to spare. But, because of the security delays, they held the flight and we were actually some of the first people to board. Tomorrow is the big day when Miss Annie arrives. We will post tomorrow evening. Here are some photos of our time in Beijing.

We made it!

It is now 7:02 am on Thursday 14th in China. We made it! We got in yesterday afternoon after a long plane ride. The girls were troopers. The girls went to bed at 7:30 and we followed at around 8:30. We made it until 4:40 this morning when we all woke up! We will post more this evening.

We leave tomorrow bright and early!

Tonight, we are going to stay at an airport hotel so that we have an easier time getting to our 6:30 am flight to BEIJING!!!! We get Annie on St. Patrick's Day! WOOHOO! We are on our way!

Packing, packing, packikng...

It is amazing what you think you need to take with you and then you realize it just won't fit! We are slowly wading through our packing list. And, a word to the wise, don't ask a 5 year old on what they want to take with them...

We're leaving on a jet plane...

We bought our tickets last night. We are leaving on 3/12/08!!!
Here is our tentative schedule:
3/12/08 leave for Beijing
3/13/08 Arrive in Beijing
3/14/08 Tour Beijing
3/15/08 Tour Beijing
3/16/08 Leave for Hefei and meet Annie (maybe)!
3/17/08 Meet Annie (maybe) and finalize adoption (maybe)
3/18/08 Finalize adoption (maybe)
3/19-20/08 Hanging out in Hefei
3/21/08 fly to Guangzhou
3/26/08 Consulate appointment
3/27/08 pick up passport
3/28/08 train to Hong Kong
3/29/08 Leave Hong Kong for the USA