Shopping!

Pizza night in the hall of our hotel - Yes, Papa Johns!!!

The lobby of the White Swan

We received a blessing from the Buddhist Monk.

"Mommy, what is that?" Julianne's first experience with a bubble.

We've been having a good time spending our RMB on our little shopping excursions! Tomorrow we have our "red couch" photo and go to the US consulate to have our swearing in ceremony.

Food faces!

We fed her a lemon and got a pucker!

Broccoli - mmmmmm!

Her first lollipop! She loved it.

Aaaahhhh......Guangzhou!

Julianne's medical check-up (if you call it that). She passed with flying colors or so we think.
Julianne being a trooper on the plane.

Eighty-three year old man we met at Lanzhou Aiport. He spoke English very well and was so interested in our story.

Well, we made it to Guangzhou but not before we felt like we were in an episode of The Amazing Race. We left our hotel yesterday at 1 pm and drove the beautiful rural car ride to the airport then waited and waited at the airport. Our flight was delayed two hours then off to Guangzhou......well, not quite. We didn't know that there was a "stop" in Xia'an, China. We thought "Oh, some people will get off then some more people will get on" Nope.....all of a sudden we realized EVERYONE was getting off and we were getting told politely in Chinese (well, we think - they might have been cussing at us, who knows) to get off. We didn't even have a sweater on Julianne and it was pouring outside so down the steep steps off the plane we went. We were then herded into a bus...wrong again....the lady asked for our boarding pass and we had left it on the plane with our carry-ons. Jon had to run back inside the plane and still couldn't find them. They were kind enough to finally let us onto the bus and we frantically looked for them in our backpack. Alas, we found them while they drove us to the airport. Craziness. Everyone rushed out of the bus and scattered once inside the terminal and we didn't know what we were doing and where to go. After a few minutes, we found an employee who could speak some English and she pointed where we should go. No kidding, within three minutes everyone baorded the bus again and got right back on the plane. Side note: One thing I have learned about China is that people like to rush and not follow any etiquette rules; for example, if you are getting off of an elevator, they do not wait for you to get off first instead they will rush on. We did eventually make our way to Guangzhou's Airport at about 11 PM but we could not find our guide once we got there. In due time, we found her and were off on our one hour ride to the White Swan Hotel. Julianne was a trooper through the whole ordeal and traveled like a pro.

The hotel is very nice but our room has a hint of mildew smell; I guess it is due to the humidity here. The humidity is so high that my hair is truly the frizziest in Debbie history.

Julianne continues to do well and learning new things everyday like today was sucking milk through a straw!

Cute Smiles!

Trying To Walk

First Steps!!

Giving out kisses to the cute girl in the mirror.

The night market after 7 pm - Hey, I found a cheap hair straightener for about $3.

Julianne looking at Lanzhou City, Gansu Province.

Watching her JieJie's on video.


Jon delicately eating his beef noodles!

Julianne took her first steps (x 5) today! She was so proud of herself that I think her giggle could be heard twenty floors down to the main desk. She loves her new found freedom so much that now she is frustrated easily because she wants to get to that upright position and continue to move. Unfortunately, those skills are still unmanned territory for her. She is a fast learner, though. She is starting to sign "more" and "finished" and again she knows that this is something to smile and giggle about.

Today we were totally on our own with no guide and we had quite some more fun exploring the streets. We ventured upon two good restaurants: 1. A "dive" with delicious beef noodles and extremely friendly people. The restaurant stopped - literally- when we walked in and everyone wanted to help us order. We had a croud at our table trying out their limited English. 2. A "Western" style Chinese restaurant. We ordered from a picture menu and received a very nice and large steak dinner for only about 12 US dollars!

Tomorrow we receive Julianne's passport and head to Guangzhou. I am sad to leave Lanzhou since it was like an adventure and it is Julianne's province. Hopefully, sometime in the future we would like to return when Julianne is much older and able to appreciate it.

Julianne

No car seats or seat belts in the back seat.

We had so many pictures taken with these men; now we know how the famous feel. They were so nice and curious.

We feel so blessed to have been the parents chosen to adopt Julianne. There were so many times during our wait that we wanted to turn back since we were so scared of the unknown, but something or someone would point us in her direction again. We really felt and feel God's presence during this journey since we know this is the path He intended us to take. He has sent us many angels along the way to guide us to her. Even in the Beijing airport, Jon and I had discussed how nervous we were to be going to Gansu Province by ourselves not knowing anyone. We have read in countless blogs how difficult it is to communicate since not many people speak English. As we sat discussing this, a young college student sat right next to us and started speaking to us in English. We probably spoke with her for over an hour. She was from Lanzhou and gave us her email and telephone number if we were to ever need anything. She stayed with us at the Lanzhou airport until our guide came around to meet us. She was exactly what we needed at that time.

Julianne is such a joy and easy-going baby. She is quick to smile and only cries if she is tired or hungry. I am thrilled that she can be placed in her crib when it is bed time and she will fall asleep by herself. She loves to be held but is content playing by herself on the floor as well. Waving hello or bye is her new favorite sport since she receives quite a cheer from us. She is starting to turn over and we have found that if we put her on us then she is ok with lying on her belly. Baby steps. She will catch up soon.

Adventures!

Jon and I ventured outside Tuesday evening by ourselves and had a blast. We truly felt like celebrities since every head turned as we walked down the street. Westerners are quite rare in these parts. Everyone is so nice but curious as to why a blond woman is carrying a Chinese baby. To Americans, we easily infer that the couple adopted the baby but that logic does not happen here. Adoption is not as common in Lanzhou as other parts of China.

We went to Lanzhou Provincial Museum today and saw some nice Chinese artifacts as well as some dinosaurs (dead, of course). We then went to a park along side the Yellow River and had our picture take next to a beautiful statue.

After that we ate some awesome pizza - but not your ordinary pizza - oh, so good. With all this good food we are eating, it is giving us the idea that we should open up our own restaurant in the states because we would make a fortune!

We plan on going out late this evening because at seven the street vendors open their markets to sell trinkets, etc. Sounds interesting. Tomorrow we are on our own with NO guide since they are preparing Julianne's passport.


These men (sitting) were selling cell phones illegally so when the police would show up, they would grab their fold-up chairs and sprint away. Quite comical.

Jon and I tried to order from this menu at a dumpling restaurant. Thank goodness a customer came to our rescue and helped us order. She spoke a little English.

Wedding photos on a Tuesday evening on the streets on Lanzhou.

These men were using a blow torch to burn off the hairs of the pig they were about to cook.

Lanzhou

Well, I believe we're finally back to ourselves and starting to feel adventuresome. The first two days here were nothing short of exhausting but now nothing can slow us down.

Yesterday we made it official that Julianne is our daughter! We spent about two hours completing paperwork, being fingerprinted (Julianne's footprint), and of course, dishing out some cash. During all of the officiating, we met a very nice family from Paris, France who are adopting their first child and he was in the same orphanage as Julianne, so of course, I took many photos for Julianne's memory book. After this, we went back to the room for a much needed nap and stayed in the hotel for the rest of the day. We ate in the restaurant in the hotel (pricey but we didn't care at this point) and had a ham and cheese sandwich with fries. I know - I know we should try new food but our stomachs were a bit uneasy and needed some comfort food at this point. Let me tell you, Julianne is a bottomless pit! She will eat whatever you put in front of her - oranges, congee, eggs, watermelon, tofu, noodles, m&m's :0), peaches.....on and on. She is not a lightweight either! The girl has fat rolls on her thighs - who said she could have "failure to thrive"? So far from the truth!!!

We went to bed early and finally finally slept a decent sleep. We are so grateful that Julianne sleeps through the night which is quite a change from her sisters. She is such a joy and so laid back and easy going unless you are changing her diaper or putting her on her belly. She does NOT like that.

Today was awesome! We went to Five Springs Park which is at the foot of Five Springs Mountain. There were probably several hundred older folk doing morning exercises together - tia chi . We drove up and as soon as we got out of the car, heads turned and we had crowds of people around us as if we were Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt (you know, with the adopted baby, and all.) TiaChi was not the only activity. Now I know why Asians are not fat (we have only seen one heavy-set Asian since we have been in China - really!!) They were playing hacky-sac, Chinese yo-yo's, bad-mitten, etc. etc. Very cool to witness. Also, we saw several Buddhist temples within the park.

We then headed to the Lanzhou Zoo which is in the park. Quite a very sad zoo; it is very old and animals are in concrete cages with a chain-link fence around them. We were face to face with puma, wolves, jaguars.....Seriously, you could get bitten if you put your hand through the fence since there is only a fence separating you and the animal.

We ate lunch at a place that served Lanzhou's famous beef noodles....oh my! There is nothing nothing nothing like it in the world. I need that recipe and trust me it would put any Cincinnati restaurant to shame. Oh, so good...even Jon loved them. Actually, the "beef" was Yak!

Ok.. enough about our day. Let's talk about Julianne so here are some things we've learned about her so far:

* She is a great eater and sleeps well.

* She thinks she can walk and will start with absolutely no balance at all. She does not want to learn how to crawl since she hates being on her belly.

*She loves to be sung to and does not mind that I can't sing.

*She has the best smiles and crinkles her nose when she does.

*She is starting to discovering her short hand and often tugs on it. Keep in mind that her hand was usually covered. She has quite a grip with her fingers on her helper hand which is great news! However, we can tell that there are bones inside her thumb but the bones don't seem to be connected to anything.

*She is somewhat serious but is really starting to show her personality more and more each day.

*She has not shown any preference between Jon and me.

*She loves to take a bath - I am not sure if she has ever had one before. Maybe just a sponge bath.

Well, I think we may venture outside tonight and do some touring on our own! Oh, a minor tragedy...my hair straightener died even though we were using a converter. So my hair is quite scary!

Gotcha Day

The day. The day we have been waiting for since August 15 arrived as a whirlwind. We arrived in Lanzhou around 2:30 after we were witness to the beauty of the province Gansu from the air. Terraced mountains and dry would be the best way to sum up the scenery. We were picked up by Megan, our guide, at the airport and took an hour long car ride to the city. The neatest part, I think, was seeing how the farmers make caves in the side of the mountains to store their food since it is relatively cool inside of them. The caves were everywhere.

We arrived at the Sunshine Plaza at about 3:45 and we checked in and placed our bags on the floor when there was a knock at the door. Lo and behold, it was the orphanage director, Ms. Yang, three nannies, an interpreter, our guide, and our Ting Ting. So much happened that my head was spinning and I couldn't even catch my breath. Our guide swept Jon away immediately to complete paperwork and I.....well, I melted.....I was speechless. Absolutely speechless. Since we have seen so many pictures of our beautiful daughter we both felt like we already knew her and now we finally get to put her in our arms. So surreal. She let me hold her with an occasional whimper and glimpse at her nanny to see if it was ok. Eventually, I too had to complete paperwork and I couldn't even write since I was shaking so badly (partly since I hadn't eaten since 7 am).

Ms. Yang gave us a beautiful gift for Julianne (a home-made traditional children's pillow) , a photo album of pictures they have taken of her, and returned the disposable camera I sent (pics all taken : -) As the director and nannies left, I was in a quandary since we are supposed to give the director and nanny a gift, but I was not expecting to have three show. It all worked out. Eventually, everyone left except for our guide who took us to a photography studio to have our family picture taken I believe for official paperwork. I would love to have seen the picture since I am sure we looked like deer in headlights and at the same time Ting Ting was screaming. From there we went to the grocery in a mall and picked up diapers, water, crackers, and boxed milk. At this point, I was spent - physically and emotionally. We said good-bye to Megan and went to our room to finally get to know OUR daughter.

Thank goodness there is a full length mirror in the room because she had a blast looking into it. She realized that the little girl looking back at her was actually herself. While looking at the mirror, she actually pulled herself to a standing position while holding onto the mirror. We saw her first smile - it would make anyone melt. As play winded down we gladly went to bed for it had been a very long day.

Looking back on the day, I can honestly say that this day was quite similar to the birth of my biological children. I had the same emotions - excitement, nervousness, joy, frustration, and most importantly, I experienced love upon eye contact. At days end, I was just as exhausted too.I am so grateful for the loving care that Pingliang nannies gave to our daughter. It is so obvious how much they all love Ting Ting and even while in our hotel room, they catered to her every need. The nannies had a difficult time saying good-bye to her and that speaks volumes. Even Ms. Yang gave me her card, so that I could email her pictures of Julianne and the other Pingliang children. She misses them and wants to see how they are.