Heading Home

We've taken our oath at the U.S. Consulate. We've posed for our traditional "red sofa" photos. We've eaten our last noodles. We've purchased our last item at the China Doll shop. We're packing our bags.

We're coming home.

God Bless China.

God Bless America.

We haven't taken many photos

over the last couple of days. Miss Lilly has a case of bronchitis and we haven't done much new and exciting. Should be some good pics tomorrow as it is our last full day here. We'll (attempt to) pose the babies all in a row for the traditional White Swan Hotel Red Sofa photos, then it's off to the U.S. Consulate to swear these little girls in as U.S. Citizens! Then, back to the room to think about packing up all the stuff we've bought and getting it home. We are REALLY READY to come back to the States! We miss home!

-Aunt Leslie

Happy Birthday, Heather!

Best. Birthday present. Ever.

It's already July 11th here in China, which is Heather's birthday. Be sure to wish her a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

-Aunt Leslie

We're Still Here!

Lots of stuff happening. Saturday was a trip to the Liurong Temple to have the babies blessed and climb the tall pagoda. Then we went to the Chen Family Temple, which is now a museum of Chinese arts and crafts. It was lovely! Sunday Mom and I went on a trip to Maonan to see the orphanage where Lilly lived before we got her. It was really interesting to see the Chinese countryside. You go from the big city...riding along on a new, nice expressway...and then bam! There are the Chinese farmers working in their rice fields just like you've seen in countless pictures! Peaked straw hats, rolled-up pantlegs, and an ox pulling a plow! Then, after four hours of that, we arrived in Maonan, which was a beautiful modern city. Mom and I were really surprised. We were expecting some sort of small village, not a clean, bright city of 600,000 people! Go figure. The orphanage was interesting. Rows and rows of babies in cribs, all but four of them girls. The staff is very loving and attentive, but they have a LOT of babies there so I think the babies spend most of their time in the cribs. A lot of the moms (and grandmas) got choked up when they saw all of those baby girls who needed parents. I did ok for that part. Then we went and saw all of the sites in the cities where the babies were found. THAT part was hard for me. Still and all, I'm glad we went. It was good to see more of the country and to see where our Darling Lilly came from. Heather and Lilly stayed back in Guangzhou for that day, getting to know each other better and seeing the sites. Here are some pictures from our Saturday adventures. - Aunt Leslie

Hi, Everyone!

Everything's great. Lilly is AMAZING. She's active, inquisitive, beautiful, and (so far) sleeps through the night. Mom and Leslie are wonderful, I'd be lost without them, they've been so helpful. Lilly has become a Mama's girl, which they say is kind of common. I'm not complaining! :-)

I'm reading this site every day, but just a little too tired to write, but I'm doing great.

Love you all,
Heather

Cranky today

Lilly was a little out of sorts today. Nothing overly dramatic, just kind of squirmy and cranky, like she couldn't get comfortable. Well, turns out, the poor little dear is REALLY CONSTIPATED! We try to give her stewed prunes, but she is really not interested in eating them. She's not used to sweet things at all. In fact, she hasn't had fruits and veggies before, as best we can tell. So, we're going to figure out what we can do to help her.

Other than that, she was her usual delightful self. :-) She had her first bath today. We bathed her in the sink. I didn't take pictures...I was chief baby washer! She also had her first ride in a stroller, and I DID take pictures of that.

- Aunt Leslie

Yay! Blogger Photo working again!

Hooray! I was able to post more pictures from the previous days! Be sure to scroll down and check them out. Lilly slept like a log through her first night with us, then got up and was HUNGRY! She eats like a little champ...just rice cereal and formula at first. We think that in the orphanage they fed them cereal mixed in with their bottles, but Lilly seems to have gotten the hang of eating her cereal off a spoon pretty quickly.

Funny thing: We gave her a little towel from the hotel and she grabbed it and made a little pillow out of it and laid her head down on it! Seems they gave the girls towels at the orphanage which they use like "blankies". If you try to take it from her (which I did so I could put her shirt on her) she will fight you for it!

Last night Heather had her laying next to her on the hotel bed....her hand resting on Lilly's belly while Lilly lay on her back and stared up at her. So quiet...so nice...surely she would fall asleep soon.....Lilly rolled over, climbed up Heather, gave her a cuddle, then started bouncing up and down in her lap. HA! Fooled ya, Mom! It's not bedtime...IT'S PLAYTIME!!!!

Blogger Photo being difficult

Sorry for the dearth of pictures thus far. Bloggers "add photo" feature is being highly tempermental. (Unlike our Lilly, who is now LAUGHING and babbling away). Thanks for your patience, and when you do check in, scroll back through the older entries as I will be attempting to add photos from those days as well.

- Auntie Leslie

Doing Great!

We went back to the adoption office for interviews and to the police office to get her passport done. The road to the police office was blocked so we had to walk a few blocks to it through downtown Guangzhou. Boy, did we draw some stares! "March, march, march in the Caucasian parade!" I sang.

Lilly is playing and cuddling and is a pure delight. Some of the other babies are fussy. We got the smartest, prettiest one. :-)



-Auntie Leslie

GOTCHA DAY!!!

We got her! Lilly Han Irish is now with us and we couldn't be happier. She is absolutely beautiful, and so alert! She didn't cry when we got her, she just looked all around and cuddled up real close. The day was so emotion-filled, and there were certainly tears of joy when all the families got their beautiful babies! The babies from Lilly's orphanage all had matching dresses on. Here are some pictures of our magical GOTCHA day.