Here are some more Pics from China ---

We had some battery problems and absolutely NO time to take more pictures since we have been home -- we will attempt to do this this week and try to upload them soon!!!

Thanks to all for following along!

We're Home!!!

OK, So... The last post was from Thursday daytime, China time --

Thurs night we all ate together at the local restaurant. We had an interesting added entry -- Pigeon - complete with head. Surprisingly the kids liked it the best.

OK so we left the hotel around 3pm on Friday, China time (so like 2 am Friday morning PA time) -- went to the airport for our 6pm flight. Our boarding passes said we would begin boarding at 7:50pm! As it turns out we waited in the airport till around 11pm! Delay was due to bad weather -- guessing the plane was coming from somewhere with bad weather, the Beijing and Guangzhou had OK weather. At anyrate, we arived in Beijing at 0200, had to contact the hotel to come pick us up - finally got a room with a king size bed 'cause they do not have cribs and went to sleep around 0330 -- so that we could be up and ready to get the 0800 shuttle.

The rest of our flights were relatively normal -- although it was a 3 hour flight followed by a 12 hour flight. We arived in Dulles around 2pm Sat -- then we had to wait, first for our stroller - which we never received, then for customs (like about an hour), then to leave the baggage area, then for the hotel that we parked our car to come pick us up... only to get to the car and realize that the hotel didn't clear out the car (not that I expected them to clean off the car, but at least allow us to get to the car)- so that there was about 4 feet of snow - you all know, 3 feet deep. Basically, I couldn't even see the license plate. So, thankfully the hotel had a shovel and Alicia and Lilly waited in the lobby with our luggage and Joe cleared out the car. Eventually we made it home, around 8pm Sat night (total travel time ~29 hours)

Lilly was great the whole time -- she slept well on the plane, she didn't fuss or cry or anything. Thankfully the plane was not all that full and we were able to have an extra seat in between us!

Now that we are home, the first few days Lilly stayed on China time -- yup, awake at 0100 till around 0700 the first day and 0030 till around 0800 the next day -- I think that she is currently on the right track, but we will see. Last night she slept from about 7pm till 0500 (alot better!)

We have some more photos, but they are not on this computer yet, so I'll have to post them another day...

Last post in China

This post is a little late (like 4 days!) sorry, blogger wasn't working well while we were in Disney




Yesterday we had to be in our room around 1130 to wait for a call from our facilitator, and luckily she called us and said that all our paperwork looks good (and I believe that Lilly has been issued her visa - which will will recieve on Friday)). We were also told that on Thursday ((actually only a couple of hours from now for us -- we will go to the US Consulate and we will take our oath.

So other than that we just hung out at the hotel, went for a walk around the area - saw a neat park along the water, and tried to dodge falling bamboo scaffolding. They are doing a lot of construction/ repainting around here and they use bamboo as thier scaffolding. So right now everyone is preparing for the Chinese New Year and they are tearing down all the scaffolding -- bassically, break it apart and let it fall to the ground - when done, pick up all the pieces off the ground - kinda scary.

At any rate, today we pretty much did the same thing -- walked around the hotel, took some more pics, went to see the pools, tried to go to the top floor -- apparently it's a special floor as there was someone waiting at the elevator and told us that we couldn't come up here - I think he said to go to the second floor... not sure why, but my guess is he didn't speak much English.

So for now we will be getting ready to go to the Consulate in about an hour, I think we will be getting together with the group again for dinner.

We start our Journey back tomorrow and we are very excited!!! We fly to Beijing Friday night, then leave from Beijing around 1100 on Saturday -- we should arive in DC on Saturday around 2pm, which will be a little weird since we will lose more than 24 hours. Of course that is if the airport is open by then, I here we will be coming back to 2-3 feet of snow! Should be interesting digging our car out -- hopefully the hotel will lend us a shovel.

Enjoy the pics

The only thing on the agenda today was the "red couch photo" -- this is a famous thing with the "White Stork" -- I mean White Swan hotel that we are staying at.

This was interesting with the 5 little ones. The 2 boys in the groupd didn't want to cooperate at all. The girls seemed to be fine, but they didn't always want to smile -- and I don't know that they ever smiled all at the same time.

As you can see by the pictures, everyone purchased the traditional style Chinese dress/outfit. Lilly looks adorable in hers.

Other than this we really didn't do much today, we gave Lilly plenty of time to sleep. We played with her - trying some more "belly time" to help her with her arm strength. She is now sitting up really well, she can (and has been able to) roll over front to back and back to front. Last week she was barely able to hold her head up for a few seconds when we put her on her belly, now she is using one or both arms to hold her head and shoulders up. She is doing really well.

She is still taking her medication and her ear looks great. She actually took a few bites (although she was fighting us) of rice cereal this afternoon. This is a hugh step because when we first tried she wouldn't let us anywhere near her mouth with a spoon.

So tomorrow we wait in our rooms sometime around 1130, our guide will call to let us know that everything is good to go and either we go as planned on the next day to take our oath and finalize everything as per USA or she says there is a chance that we may wind up doing this tomorrow instead.

So - a little explanation -- we have already adopted Lilly as far as China's concern, now we will be adopting Lilly as per the USA. We will go to the Consulate either tomorrow or the next day to take her oath of citizenship. At least this is how I understand it at this point -- things may change or be totally different when we go through it. We've had to roll with the punches so far...

That's all for now, hope everyone back home is doing well!

day 10

Well today was a doozie!

We woke up today, Lilly slept later than usual - we noticed that her one ear was all red and irritated - had to call our facilitator -- who called the clinic we were at over the weekend for her "check up" for the adoption -- yeah, as it turns out she had an ear infection -- well, they actually are saying that she had a boil in her ear. So the clinic felt bad I guess that they didn't follow protocol and address this on Sat, so they saw her today (quickly) and gave us antibiotics -- both orally and for her ear.

So then we headed over with 3 other families to the local markets. This was an interesting visit -- they say that the local people will eat anything that flies in the air, except an airplane, and anything that has 4 legs except a table. We definitely saw evidence of this at the market -- everything from scorpians to snakes to frogs to spiders. First we saw all these things alive as we were walking, then we went to the restaurant street I think she called it, and a couple of people in our group actually ate some scorpians on a stick. They said that they tasted crunchy - kinda like grilled chicken skin. We didn't really even think about trying it.

So we actually ate at an "Italian" restaurant -- we ordered too much pizza (I think the familiarity of it enticed us -- well, as it turns out there is no sauce on this pizza. Also there is tons more cheese than I have ever had on a pizza. And lots of greese. Although it was relatively cheap, it was disapointing.

So we came back to the hotel and Lilly took a nap.

We went out to eat with the 2 other families that we were with in Beijing -- it's crazy, but all 7 adults and 2 children had a very satisfying meal for about $50 US dollars!!

Hope you all enjoy the pictures!!!! (only 5 days left till we are home!!!)

Day 9

So, today was just a day to wander around the city -- we took a tour of the "Folk Art Museum" - I included some pictures of the artwork that is actually part of the building. It was a neat tour -- but it was raining most of the day, so it wasn't all that fun with Lilly, and our bags, then we purchased things and had an umbrella and it was just a mess. Sorry but, there are no pics of Lilly today, not sure why that is, other than the rain.

The picture of the waterfall is actually in the middle of our hotel -- cool huh?

Lilly actually was pretty upset when we put her down for bedtime tonight, I hope it was just a fluke thing and doesn't become a habit.

So I here there was another blizzard back home -- more than 18 inches of snow fell!!! That's crazy -- like I said earlier - it was raining here today -- temps in the upper 60's. It's a pleasant change from the subfreezing temps we've had since we arrived in China.

Well we're off to sleep -- tomorrow we get to do more sightseeing -- hopefully it will not be raining and I can take more pictures - I'll be sure to get some of Lilly so you all can share in the joy we are experiencing. Just about 5 days left till we get to come home!!!! We are at the point of tears with missing Tristan. This is just way too long to be away. (We miss everyone else too!)

Day 8

Sorry about the lack of updates, my last e-mail apparently didn't go through - came back that connection was lost. Sooo...

Yesterday was busy, we flew from Nanjing to Guangzhou -- we arived around 6pm or so, we were told that the facilitator would meet us at the airport, but actually the hotel shuttle was there waiting for us. It turns out that the shuttle picked up one of the other members of our original group up in Beijing, so that was exciting.

We met our facilitator -- Helen (not the person it was supposed to be) back at the hotel and she helped us check in - then (and this is close to 8pm) she took us for a walk locally to let us know where to get some food and water (as you can't drink the water out of the tap -- not even to brush your teeth). There is actually a Subway nearby, so that was a refreshing and quick dinner -- though they use bread and butter pickels instead of dill -- actually kinda gross, but familiar nonetheless.

Today we took Lilly to have her medical exam. At the clinic. Scary place -- we waited for long periods of time, we had to see 3 separate people (someone to weigh her (24 pounds!) someone to look at her ears and throat and a doctor to "examine" her. -- each interaction took less than 3 minutes, they pretty much couldn't really speak English, and so they didn't really tell us much -- then we had to wait for her injections -- she needed 6 vaccines. -- one at a time, they drew some of them up as they were administering -- one in one leg, one in one arm, 2 in the next arm, 2 in the next leg -- seemed like this was hours long -- Lilly was so upset it was not cool. But 5 minutes later she had her lunch (still only drinks from a bottle - won't let us put a spoon anywhere near her mouth) and she was all good. Gave her some tylenol later this evening before bed, but she still seems to be fine and is sleeping away -- she is a trooper!

Nothing much else happened today, did some paperwork, went out to dinner with the whole group of 5 families from the adoption agency...

Tomorrow we do some more shopping and sightseeing (and we will probably be buying a stoller!)
Hopefully I'll have another update tomorrow (although Ashley and the rest of the family will hopefully be heading to Disney sometime Sunday -- so there may be another delay)

Day 7

So today we went to the museum here in Nanjing -- it was
> pretty neat, it's cool to see artifacts from thousands of
> years ago. We did take some pictures there, but
> nothing that looks all that cool. This was about a
> couple of hours, then we came back to the hotel.
>
> We fed Lilly, she took a nap and we ordered take out --
> there is this really neat noodle place in the hotel, the
> waiters there practically know me by name at this
> point. Its really good food and you can't beat the
> price (I think we spent about 4 US dollars for a lunch that
> Alicia and I couldn't finish - and it tastes awesome.)
>
> So then after Lilly woke, we went walking around the hotel
> area, there is this street that is kinda like an outdoor
> mall -- after about 1-2 blocks it leads to this open area
> with more shopping and an entrance to a Confucious temple -
> which was all decked out in celebration of the Chinese new
> year.
>
> Also we took pictures of the hotel lobby -- there is a cool
> fountain in the lobby and they have mandarin orange potted
> trees everywhere. It's a really cool hotel.
>
> Tomorrow we go to the airport to fly to Guangzhou and we'll
> be staying at the White Swan. Most likely I will not be
> posting any thing till the next day. Lilly has been so
> great, hopefully this will continue!!! She has been
> eating well and doesn't really fuss at all. We'll see how
> the 2 hour plane ride goes! (hoepfully well because
> next week we travel a total of about 19 hours between Fri
> night and Sat.

Day 6

So today we drove 2.5 hours each way to Huai'an City to see the orphanage where Lilly spent her first 14 months of her life. As you can see in the photo's Lilly learned to make a new face while driving in the bus today. She is pretty awesome! She slept most of the trip (both ways). When we arived we were given a great welcome. The orphanage directer and assistant director, one of Lilly's nannies and as it turns out, a reporter too. They made a sign which we are told says Welcome Home Li Le. After we took pictures, they took the sign down and gave it to us as a momento.

They then took us out to a very fancy lunch. It was a little intimidating having the reporters ask us questions, even at lunch. So... try answering questions, handling a baby and eating with chop sticks all at the same time. Oh yeah, and not sure if I mentioned this earlier but, when you go out to eat at a Chinese restaurant, typically it is a round table with a large lazy susan type thing in the middle of the table. The waitress puts food on this spinny thing and then they spin it around and everybody takes their turns using their own chopsticks eating off of all the plates on this spinny thing. -- picture going out to eat, eating a little of your steak, then handing your plate to the person sitting next to you, they then eat a peice of your steak and hand it to the next person, eventually it comes back around and you continue eating your steak. It is definitely something that you have to get over -- especially when the Orphanage director invites
you to a fancy dinner! It was very good we spent a few days in Beijing practicing using chopsticks and learning all this etiquite

It was a fun day!

Day 5

So today was another great day! Today we went to the same office as yesterday, just to sign paperwork to say that Lilly is officially a Vogt. This took about an hour -- afterwards we went to a "grocery store" - it was actaully a Carefore -- I think there was one of these back in Philly by the Franklin Mills Mall many years ago. It is a store that is sort of a mall, think of a Super Wallmart, only twice the super. Thank goodness Nancy our guide was with us as it is very different shopping in China, for one thing, even though the Large name on the baby formula says Nestle, or Similac - you can't read anything else except for the numbers. Also, there is an isle with all the baby formula with like 4 employees hanging around making sure you just take a ticket, then you go pay for what you want, then come back with your receipt to pick up the item.

At any rate, we managed to get what we needed.

We spent most of the day in the hotel, Lilly took a long nap this afternoon.

We went to a Mall after she woke, this was on our own - the mall is about a city block away. It was actually very adventurous as the streets are extremely dangerous to navigate - not to mention, this is a local mall -- not set up for "foreigners" - and thus everything is in Chinese. It was interesting to say the least. Then we went to a Hagen Das -- kind a neat -- we can both eat an entire Chinese meal for less than 5 US dollars, but to get one Hagen Das ice cream -- about 11 dollars.

So, Lilly is now sleeping -- she is such a good sleeper. She puts her self to sleep in minutes, we are 5 feet away with the TV on and she is sleeping away. So far, so good. We only pray that it will always been this good.

Thanks for following along -- tomorrow we head about 2.5 hours out to Lilly's orphanage to see where she spent the past 14 months!

Day 4

GOTCHA DAY!!!!

Well we now have a new addition to our family!! And she is precious! We went with Nancy our guide to the Civil Affairs Office today, around 1030 and we met Lilly for the first time. Her nanny, the orphanage director and 2 other people were there. They handed Lilly over to us and she just stared -- she looked both of us straight in the eyes and had a look on her face like "what/who are you?" -- but all was well - no crying (well, except for Alicia). Lilly's nanny really seemed concerned for her, which is a very good thing. I think that would be the hardest job in the world.

We brought her back to our room and she played with us. At this point she still can't stand or walk, but honestly the amount of clothes she was bundled in, there would be no way she could have stood anyway. In Chinese culture they believe in many layers of clothing for infants/todlers. Lilly couldn't really even put her hands together until we got her home and changed her outfit.

So she is just beautiful/wonderful/amazing -- she didn't cry at all the entire time we've had her so far. She hasn't been eating as much as they said she typically eats and she does have a little cold, but other than that she is perfect. She went down for a 2 hour nap this afternoon and went to bed tonight with no problems. Everything has been so smooth sailing so far that we are worried about this evening -- it can't be this good. Hopefully she sleeps thru the night!

Well in the morning we need to meet with Nancy who will take us over to have things finalized here in her Province. This appointment is pretty early, so, look for tomorrow's update, I'm sure there will be more pics!!!!