Happy Birthday Big Daddy!

And what a happy birthday it is. 'Today we checked out the Buddhist temple in Nanning. We got Katherine and Thomas blessed by the Monk. We figure we could all use some extra blessings. We went through the temple and a cool pagoda nearby. We are very impressed with Nanning. We see why it's a vacation destination for locals. We ate at a restaurant with typical local food. YUM. John, Thomas & I have only had one bad meal so far and it was in a very expensive restaurant in Beijing. We have not tired of Chinese food yet. (Well there have been a couple Pizza Hut and McDonalds meals--for Thomas!)

We introduced Katherine to the stroller today. Don't know why we didn't do that sooner. She digs it. Thomas is lead stroller pusher in the family and gets very upset when anyone else touches it. HE will push HIS SISTER! After a hard day yesterday, Kat seems much happier today. She pretty much didn't leave my arms yesterday. But today she's enjoying playing with all of us. I think this funny face she makes is a smile, but I'm not really sure.

Our CCAI (adoption agency) guide Michael is top notch. He stays in the hotel with us. It makes it so much easier to be in a foreign country with a brand new baby.

Day 2 post Gotcha

Our sweet Katherine is trying hard to love us. (We think!) But a smile has yet to cross her face. She just gives us a look like we're aliens. (We get a lot of those looks here.) For the most part she's doing ok. When we got her we were told she had a fever that day. It seems to come and go, but it's hard to tell if it's just the heat here. We're all just sweaty hot boxes here. She's been sleeping a lot which is also pretty normal for the trauma she's been through. She is such a little angel. We hope to see a smile of recognition soon.

The hard part about getting an older baby is that they're already used to a routine, and certain foods, etc. Katherine (Jing Jing was her nickname) seems to want something when we're eating, but we sure can't figure out what it is. And we have yet to figure out her routine and her tired/hungry/gassy/wet diaper signals.

Nanning is yet another beautiful city. Much bigger and more modern than we expected. Our hotel is on a river with a lovely walking area. We're so discombobulated (sp?) that we forgot our cameras on our big outing today. Tomorrow we will tour a little and remember the cameras!

Thomas is struggling a little with being cooped up and being second banana. So, basically all systems are normal here in China.

Yi Jing makes four

One minute she was a picture. The next minute she was in our arms. A surreal experience. She is healthy, wide-eyed, and beautiful. She seems to be trying hard to figure out what the heck is going on....but not the least bit unhappy with her present circumstance. John predicts her to be a mamma's girl, as she has nestled into the crook of Gail's arm and won't let go. She is sleeping like an angel 4 feet from me right now...and she is the most precious, amazing, wonderful thing to come along since Thomas. We are overjoyed, awestruck, humbled, and exhausted. The letter from her foster mom says she sleeps from 10 PM to 7 AM....time will tell.

Big News

We just got word that our schedule has been moved up. We get to meet Katherine today! The original schedule was for tommorow- but for reasons unknown it has been moved to today. We are not complaining!
Presently we are in the Hong Kong airport headed to Nanning. So sometime this afternoon Katherine will be in our arms.

Beijing: Ming, Mao or Mickey?

For me, Beijing was a study in paradox. A vast sprawling urban city; but filled with a good deal of open space, green belts and gardens. Think Washington DC - on steroids.

The ancient is omnipresent in Beijing. At every turn there is a gate, palace, statue, or tomb, reminding you China measures time in hundreds of years and a thousand of those were before the birth of Christ. On Sunday, we had an amazing rickshaw tour through a central neighborhood near Tian’anmen Square and a local family served us lunch in their dining room. (more on that adventure later) and our guide told us that most of these houses were built 400 years ago. In many cases the same family has owned that same house for that entire 400 years! Beijingers show rightful pride in their ancient culture.

At the same time, our guide Thomas, even after 500 years expresses proper angst with the hubris and excesses of the emperors. Upon viewing an enormous stone statue carved in the shape of a boat jutting out into the lake at the Summer Palace, he tells us of the proverb “While the water floats the boat, it can also capsize the boat.” The water representing the people and the boat the emperor class’ belief they were so strong and stable that they did not answer to the people and could not be capsized. While it took them quite a while the people did finally have the last word in the form of Chairman Mao. While the stone boat still stands, Chairman Mao’s portrait now hangs above the Emperor’s Gate. The new world American in me can certainly understand the need for a bit of revolution in the face of that much wage gap and oppression which 3000 years of tradition can bring.

Lastly, Beijing is as modern a city as any in the world. I was very surprised at depth and breadth of prosperity that is highly evident in Beijing. It strikes me as a place where a rising tide has lifted all boats. Lots and lots and lots of brand new cars, streets, busses and restaurants filled with very well dressed, smiling people- all talking on cell phones.
Everyone who wears a uniform in Beijing seems to wear it with great pride. Stewards, Immigration, Bus drivers, Cabbies, Bellman, Front Desk, Waitstaff, Pool Boy are all pressed, immaculate and ready for inspection. And while the language gap makes it hard they are energetic and seem to be very happy with what they do. However our guide Thomas made it clear early on that he was not pleased that his country was adopting American ways. He highly disapproved of Mickey Mouse, McDonalds and was afraid that his country has fallen in love with the automobile. But during the three days we spent with him I think he spent 4 hours on his cell phone and when we asked what he did when not giving tours, he quickly replied “I play computer games.”

JAT

We are so technologically un-proficient!

Sorry friends. It has been a challenge to update this blog. One problem after the other. The whole time in Beijing, I could add to the blog, but not view it. I think it was being blocked? Not sure. So I'm sorry the pictures didn't work. I was trying to update from the site in Chinese. We've also had many other electronics-related issues, related to converters, charging, etc. We melted Thomas' nintendo charger. This was very bad. VERY BAD. We MUST find a new one.

Enough of that rant. We're back in Hong Kong after thoroughly enjoying our time in Beijing. We went on a rickshaw tour of old Beijing and had lunch with a local family there. It was so cool. Thomas is treated like the rock star he will be (with Mom's grooming, of course). He has been asked to be photographed more times than I can count. It is so funny. John is going to do an entry of his thoughts on Beijing, so stay tuned.

We've met up with our group of fellow adopters. We had a nice tour of Hong Kong today and topped it off with an excellent Cantonese dim sum lunch. Hong Kong is very different than Beijing. A huge bustling BIG city. Much more English spoken here. We've had lots of funny language barrier stories already. One elderly woman pointed at my nose today, surely commenting on it's loveliness...but why was she laughing??

We leave for Nanning tomorrow.

Great Wall...VERY cool!

The Great Wall was definately worth the extra trip to Beijing. And what a hike it was. I think living at altitude helped prep us for the Wall. There are no other words to describe it, but awesome. Pictures can't capture it.
Tomorrow we head back to Hong Kong for two days to meet up with our group. We've been here in Beijing with a lovely couple from our adoption group. It's been great to have some other "long nose" people to hang with.